"You're a very lucky girl, he only grazed you, I don't believe you should be addicted," Isidro said as he examined the wound on Ocie's neck. Reign and Shade were sat either side of Ocie, glowering at Isidro.
"Thank you, Mr Montessori," Ocie smiled as the vampire stepped back.
"Please, call me Isidro. Mr Montessori is so very formal," Isidro turned his attention to Kastor, "did you consume any of her blood, Cicero?"
"I don't know, grandfather," Kastor murmured pitifully, feeling like a scorned toddler all over again.
"Well you deserve the withdrawal symptoms, Cicero, you could have caused war. How do you think Amaris would have felt then?" Kastor kept his gaze on the floor, afraid to look his grandfather in the eye.
"Excuse me, Isidro, why do you keep calling Kastor Cicero? And who is Amaris?" Ocie queried softly, obviously still shaken from Kastor's attack.
"Cicero is the name I was given by my father when I turned," Kastor spoke instead of Isidro, despite his break down he was a better medium for the vampires and wolves to communicate through, "Amaris is the name my grandfather gave my father when he turned."
"I understand my son created peace between his coven and your pack but I didn't realise it was so strong that you would care about his disappearance," Kastor knew his grandfather wasn't one to dance around important points, he was as blunt as Dante.
"Their alpha is missing too, grandfather," Kastor explained.
"Fionn was here last, Kastor thought we might have been able to track them from their blood," Isidro's brows drew together in a frown, Kastor knew exactly what he was pondering.
"Father was addicted to a vampire's bite, Fionn was helping him through it. Nya and Sev were the last to see them five days ago," Kastor added quickly, hoping to coax Isidro away from what he was thinking about.
"Which vampire?" there was a definite anger swirling behind Isidro's red eyes, Kastor knew how protective his grandfather was over his youngest.
"Cristobal, I don't know the last name," Kastor admitted, wishing he had controlled himself enough to at least ask his father that before he had stormed out.
"How did you even know Dante was missing?" Ocie chimed in, clearly still in awe of Isidro, "did Kastor call you?"
"I can sense my children at all times. I haven't been able to sense Amaris for almost a week, I knew something was wrong so I came down here to check on him."
"Children? I always imagined Dante as an only child," as if upon cue the front door opened and two more vampires strode into the house. Kastor's eyes widened and he grinned up at his grandfather.
"You brought them too?"
"Of course, Cicero, I thought it best," Isidro actually formed a smile as Kastor wrapped his arms around his neck.
"Where's my little nephew?" a light-hearted female voice called out as the two entered the room, "surely you can't be Cicero, you're much too big to be my baby nephew," Kastor flung his arms around the ebony haired woman.
"Yareli," he murmured into her shoulder, remembering how often she used to have him sit on them when he was a child.
"Clearly I'm invisible," the man grumbled humorously and Kastor took his turn hugging him.
"Not quite, I'm just his favourite, Niki," Yareli teased with a dazzling smile Kastor had missed dearly.
"Nikhil," Kastor was as tall as the vampire and remembered he had only come up to his knee when they had last visited.
"These are my other children, Yareli and Nikhil. They kept their names, unlike Amaris. What is it he goes by now? Dante?" Isidro sounded irritated but Kastor knew his grandfather was joking.
"Wolves in my little brother's house? Amaris really is changing," Yareli lifted Reign and Shade's heads, smiling down at them, noting their apprehension, "though if all of you mutts looked like this I would change too. No wonder Amaris allows you all here, he probably wants to fuck you. Knowing my little brother he probably just ran off with that alpha, they'll be in Rome or somewhere screwing each other to death," Yareli tipped Shade's head to the side lightly, "are you scared of me?"
"He's scared you have a mate like Nya," Ocie chimed in, catching Yareli's attention.
"My, my, aren't you a pretty little thing?" Yareli reached out to touch Ocie but Reign and Shade began to growl softly.
"Yareli, don't, Ocie is Fionn's beta," Yareli drew her hand back, mouthing an apology before moving to stand with her brother and Kastor, "they're sworn to protect her whilst the alpha is gone. And after what I did..." Kastor trailed off, biting his lip lightly.
"Could we possibly get back to the matter at hand please?" Ocie smiled, which came across as a little nervous.
"Of course," Isidro answered with a small smile of his own, "I will have Yareli and Nikhil track down this Cristobal. He is still addicted to Amaris' blood so he should be able to sense precisely where he is. You should attempt to track your alpha with the blood, hopefully, one of us should have some success."
Locating Cristobal proved more difficult than the vampires had assumed. Three more days had passed and there was no sign of him. Reign and Shade also had no luck tracking Fionn through his blood, it was too old and the weather had washed away the majority of his scent.
"This is my fault," Kastor muttered, fidgeting lightly with a deep-set frown, "if I hadn't acted like such a fucking child I could have been there, maybe I could have helped them."
"It is not your fault, Kastor, blaming yourself will not help," Ocie clasped her hands over Kastor's, "you probably would have been taken too and then we would never have found out what happened. Your coven and our pack wouldn't communicate properly and we would probably have started a war. You're helping far more by being here," Kastor couldn't manage a smile to match Ocie's, she seemed to be staying much more positive in the situation. The two were sat either side of the border, after agreeing the wolves on the Isamar land may not have been the best idea.
"What if he's dead? Maybe that's why my grandfather can't sense him. He could have been killed by now," Kastor bit back his tears at the thought of his father's death. He couldn't live without him, he wouldn't.
"I think you would know if he passed. You would feel it, like... like an emptiness in your heart. When my parents died, I felt it. I just knew. It was like a sense of impending doom, like my soul knew the pain and grief I was going to experience and was trying to warn me."
"How did they die?" though the topic was still bleak and rather depressive, Kastor was thankful to take his mind of his father for a few moments.
"Hunters. How else would our kind die?" Ocie's smile faded slightly, "God, I hope Fi is OK."
"He's a white wolf, he's strong. My father wouldn't let anything happen to him," Ocie lifted her gaze to catch Kastor's.
"Why does Dante care so much? Why is he so nice to Fi?" Kastor bit his bottom lip lightly, knowing that he was forbidden to speak of that aspect of his father's past.
"He wants peace," Kastor said with a shrug, "being nice to Fionn gets him what he wants."
"But it's more than that, isn't it? He flirts with Fi, acts like he had some sort of old friendship with him. There's something more between them, Fi can't see it, he's a bit of a moron sometimes. But I can. And I can sense how Fi's thoughts light up when he sees Dante, or when someone mentions him, even if he doesn't notice himself. What's going on between them?"
"I'm not allowed to-"
"My little brother has that effect on everyone," Yareli interrupted Kastor, thankfully, "have you seen him? He's not exactly difficult to look at," the elder vampire sat next to Kastor with a broad smile on her lips, "people trust him, despite what he is. He has more heart than we do, he cares a lot, he's just a different kind of vampire to us," Yareli rubbed Kastor's arm gently.
"How old are you all? Dante never tells people his age, he just says he's old. But if he's old and he's your little brother you must be ancient," shock flickered over Ocie's face as she realised what she implied, "I mean no offence, sorry."
"It's fine," Yareli's smile never faltered, "we are ancient. Father is one of the first vampires, maybe even the eldest. He is 15302, I am 9024, Nikhil is 7685 and Amaris is 5399," Ocie's jaw dropped open, "and, of course, little Cicero is 2597."
"Wow, that's, um, that's pretty insane," Ocie opened her mouth to speak again but was interrupted by Isidro before she had the chance.
"Nikhil is still unable to locate Cristobal," Kastor actually flinched at his grandfather's voice behind him, he had not heard a single step from the vampire, "this has gone on too long. I believe it's time we inform our people. We can't waste any more time with these failings," Ocie didn't speak for a few moments, then rose to her feet with a weary expression.
"I agree, I can't lie to Fi's parents anymore. I think we all have to put aside our differences and work together. I would like to invite your entire coven onto our land tomorrow night so we can discuss this together in a peaceful manner," Kastor couldn't help feeling a slight stunned by Ocie's offer. He observed as Isidro extended his hand over the border to the beta.
"Until tomorrow evening."