"Kendrick!" Anne exclaimed, losing her patience.
"It was Keelan!" Kendrick exploded.
Aiden's face turned red, and he jerked Kendrick up by the collar. "Keelan would never in a thousand years kill anyone for magic."
Kendrick pried Aiden's hands off his collar and patted him on the chest. "You, my large friend, are absolutely right; he would never, ever kill anyone to cast a spell. But, what if...just, what if, he knew the exact moment someone was going to die?"
Anne reached around blindly with her hand until she found the chair. She sat down. "Oh, my god."
"He knew he was going to die! He's known it for centuries! He figured out how to make a perfect perimeter. Did none of you wonder why Keelan wasn't up and walking around?" Kendrick looked at the others.
"Because he lost his soul. Duh!" Meryn replied, pointing to the bed.
Kendrick held up a finger. "Then what about ferals? They have no soul and they're able to run, fight, drool, bite, you know, the normal feral behaviors."
Anne looked at her mate. "I said the same thing the first time I saw him, I said that it was like he wasn't even there."
Gavriel stepped forward. "Then where is he?"
Kendrick went to the window and opened it. He pointed to the sky. "He's out there! The missing component to any perimeter is intelligence. You can never cast a spell to, say, block all vampires. We have vampires in our units. How does this perimeter tell friend from foe?"
"Keelan," Meryn whispered.
Elizabeth pointed to the window. "Keelan is out there, right now?"
Kendrick nodded.
"Well, get him back!" she exclaimed.
Kendrick threw the book across the room. "I don't know how! For all I know, what he did was a one-way trip. He cast the perimeter spell the second his soul left his body and used his own death as the human sacrifice needed to make the perfect barrier. I don't even know where to start to unravel this."
Anne stood and cupped his face with both hands. "You have plenty of time to figure it out. It's not like he's going anywhere, is he?"
Kendrick blinked. She squeezed his cheeks together, squishing his face. "You keep forgetting you're not alone anymore. You even have a very dedicated minion who would eat glass if you asked it of him." She jerked her hands to the left. "Stop trying"--she jerked to the right--"to do everything"--she held him in place and looked him in the eye--"by yourself." She released his face.
Kendrick rubbed his cheeks. "All of these years looking after Keelan, I thought I was my brother's keeper. But you're the one taking such good care of the both of us. You're our keeper."
Anne laughed. "Arrogant jerk." She pointed to the sky. "Keelan is the one taking care of us. He is his brother's keeper, and it sounds like he always has been."
Kendrick smiled, and Anne noticed there was a light in him that hadn't been there before. Now that he knew his brother was safe, she knew there was nothing in this world that would prevent him from bringing Keelan home, no matter how long it took. And she would be right there beside him, supporting him every second.
EPILOGUE
Everyone was practically high on the good news that Keelan's soul had been found, no matter how impossible it seemed at the moment to bring him home. Elizabeth felt like she had aged centuries in the past week. So many things had been revealed, it was as if their world was a darker place now.
"What is wrong my love?" Gavriel asked, taking the seat beside her.
She leaned against him. "We don't know who to trust. I feel like our world will never be safe again. It's as if our family's happiness slips away more and more each day."
Gavriel raised an eyebrow and pointed to Meryn who was leaning precariously out the open window yelling at Keelan to shock Sascha again while a frantic Aiden tried to pull her inside. "You were saying?"
Elizabeth began to laugh despite her morose mood. "Thank the Gods for that tiny human. I don't know what this house would be like without her."
"You chose your sister well." Gavriel nuzzled her neck, causing her to sigh as electricity ran through her body.
She was about to invite him upstairs when her phone rang. She pulled it out and smiled. "Uncle! How are things in the city of the night?" She answered cheerfully. Her uncle always made her feel better.
"Elizabeth Monroe, I am demanding your presence immediately and bring along that runt human friend of yours," her uncle ordered.
"Of course, Uncle, anything you say. I understand completely." She ended the call and looked around.
Everyone had stopped what they were doing when Gavriel began hissing at her phone.
Her mate stood, eyes blazing red. "Who does he think he is to make such demands?"
Elizabeth tapped her fingers to her lips. "What did he call me, my love?"
Gavriel stopped and turned toward her, his eyes now a deep burgundy. "Elizabeth Monroe."
"Oh shit! What's happening in Dracula Town?" Meryn sat down on the sofa while Aiden closed the window.
Gavriel looked over at Beth, and she smiled at him. "My uncle never even calls me Beth, much less Elizabeth, and he loves Meryn. He would never call her 'that human runt'. Something is dreadfully wrong and he's in a position where he doesn't trust anyone around him to speak openly." She looked at Meryn, grinning mischievously. "Well, you always wanted to see Noctem Falls; you up for a road trip?"