Free Bloodfire (Empire of Fangs) by Andrew Domonkos

first-born resided as dust.  
     

14.
     

     

     
    Mark fiddled with the radio in the cushy interior of his brother’s Benz.   He wanted to hear the news.   He wanted to hear what they were saying about him.   About Zara.  
     
    Leo hit a button on his steering wheel and the radio went silent.   “I see you still fidget like that.   Can’t sit still.”
     
    Mark gave his brother a steely look.   “My daughter, your niece, is out there being hunted by cops and god knows who else.   Sorry if that makes me fidget.”
     
    “Zara will be fine.   Push comes to shove we play the whole thing off as a bad case of Stockholm syndrome and she does a year in a ward, holding hands and having a good cry.   We’ll make it perfectly clear to the court that she is a victim in all this.   That boy, the Sollero kid, he’s clearly out of his mind.   Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”
     
    “That’s not what is going on here Leo.   Twig is a good kid, I’m sure he is just trying to help Zara out of some trouble.”
     
    “Oh.   Well that clears it all up. The kid who had an apartment under a false name, Robocop’s by the way, an apartment the cops found four different people’s blood in, but he’s a good kid.   Real Beaver Cleaver, minus the Beaver part. For God sakes, he was seen by several witnesses at the Caspari place freaking out!   Kid thinks they’re vampires or something.   God help us all if he gets a hold of a machine gun.”  
     
    Mark looked out the window.   His interrogators had told him that the party his daughter and her friend Nicolas had attended several days ago was held at Damon Casparis ’ home.   They told him about the scene—the shouting between Twig and Zara.   But they hadn’t mentioned the blood.   He always thought he was a good judge of character, but maybe he had missed something with Twig.  
     
    “What about the calls?   From Twig’s father, James.”
     
    Leo took a deep breath.   “Yeah, about that.   I didn’t really want to dump this on you right out of the pokey, but it looks like your pal had some trouble down in Utah.”
     
    “Trouble?”   Mark said.
     
    “Yeah, trouble like having your head-cut-off-kind-of-trouble.  
     
    “Christ,” Mark said with a mortified look on his face, “he was decapitated?
     
    “Looks that way.   He was found by a road near the residence of one Li Lee, or Shoe Lee, I have it written somewhere.   Anyway, this Lee character evidently had some outstanding debts.   Maybe they thought Sollero was in cahoots with Lee or something.   They are keeping it all pretty quiet down there.”
     
    Mark felt sick.   James had sounded so worried when he called.   But he was worried about the kids, and even Mark.   He didn’t mention bookies.   None of it added up.
     
    “That’s all you know about it?   They find anything else odd?”
     
    “No.   Well, yeah, I guess.”
     
    Leo turned the car north, heading out of the city towards the highway.  
     
    “Well?” Mark said impatiently.
     
    “Oh, a piece of fabric.   Cops said it was part of a wedding dress.”
     
    “A wedding dress?” Mark tried to make sense of it.
     
    “Yeah.   Maybe your pal pissed off more than just bookies out there in Vegas.”
     

15.
     

     

     

     
    Zara couldn’t sleep, partly because she was still mad at Twig, who was off gallivanting around town while they should be figuring out how to destroy Damon and Drake.   She didn’t feel right in the room either.   It was elegant and immaculately prepared, with creaseless sheets and blankets on the beds, yet in all its elegance something grotesque seemed to fill the air in the place.   Something Zara couldn’t place, but could feel, like how her grandmother could feel a big rain coming by a tingle in her brittle bones.  
     
    She looked out the third-story window.   The murky night and the jagged tips of pines blanketed the hills like mangy fur.   Swaying and