Chapter 37

TOBIAS

I emergefrom the catacombs into the night, where the first streaks of a fiery orange dawn run through the grey clouds.

I"ve the two Dominion vamps with me.

Alive and confused—and I"m questioning why. We"re standing in the part of the day where the humans who live and work in the daytime intersect with those whose lives happen mostly at night, and the busier streets help keep the speed of the mind-wiped vamps unnoticed.

Would Tobias Whitlock have grown closer in nature to Dorian Blackwood if the Confederacy hadn"t got hold of him? Because I sure as hell can channel his personality when I need to. The girl was scared shitless of me.

Natalie sat beside the dead vamp holding his hand and staring forward, unable to speak as we sat in the small storeroom she took us to. Not that she needed to speak. I rested against the uneven wall in silence most of the night, carefully peeling away layers of magic in her mind until I unveiled the information I wanted.

I never touched Natalie, but as I"m a companion of murderous Dorian, she grew more and more convinced I"d finish her once I discovered everything she knew. She thought I was worse than Dorian and killed women? I have in the past; I guess I am.

Each time I found a useful fact, I forced Natalie to explain in detail, warning her against lying.

Everything she said backed up what I"d gleaned from her thoughts.

As I searched her mind, I came across Natalie"s past too and veered away, not wanting to know more about the girl"s life. Natalie. Twenty years old. Parents were Confederacy. A friend went to Ravenhold for a minor incident. She never returned and Natalie has hated the Confederacy since.

Some clever bastard brainwashed her into joining the so-called glorious Dominion.

Is Gabriella creating these pawns because she thinks our group is too "good" to kill innocents? But they"re not innocent; their initiation involves killing a shifter, hunter, witch or—for bonus points—Confederacy. Natalie murdered a witch who said no to the recruitment because he"s loyal to the Confederacy. Is that what would"ve happened to the two spies tonight?

I couldn"t let Natalie go until her partner returned to the living, because I couldn"t leave without wiping both their minds, so I stayed in the catacombs longer than I"d planned. Occasionally, other voices echoed, but at a distance, as the space Natalie took us to was tucked away from the larger tunnel.

Now that I"ve heard everything from Natalie, I"m glad I made the decision not to go alone into the bowels of the place.

But, fuck, we"re onto something. Finally.

Now I"ve everything I need; I"ve erased the last year of the Natalie and Karl"s lives—back to a time long before they joined the Dominion—and I"m returning them to the club.

* * *

I don"t approachthe club, remaining across the street in the shadows, eyes flicking to where I had the awful conversation with Maeve as I watch them loiter outside in confusion. Maybe I should"ve dumped them elsewhere? Other Dominion might recognise the pair.

If the two kids are picked up and questioned, they won"t survive. However hard the pair tries, neither they nor their interrogators will find one glimmer of a memory, and they"d die at a frustrated Dominion member"s hands. I turn away. Is that why I returned them here? Because I didn"t want their blood directly on my hands, even though I"ll indirectly cause their death?

My phone sounds and I drag it from my jacket. Andrei.

you"re not back

on my way.

I pause.

is everybody there?

yeah how long til you"re here?

I glance at the sky. How much has Maeve told the others?

soon

Before Andrei can ask any questions, I click the phone off and shove it into my back pocket.

The vamps wander away instead of entering the club, then pause at a nearby bus stop. I check the time. Five thirty.

I walk in the opposite direction from the house. I"ll return by nine.