57 Nothing But A Bug To Be Crushed

He hadn't liked that at all. Sharing a witch coven with them at all had been frustrating but knowing they likely favored the Mayhews over the Cromwells was too much to bear.

When one of his agents happened to run into a Mayhew out on an errand he hadn't been able to resist the opportunity to get rid of those annoyances for good. Vampire lairs were extremely hard to locate because of the power of blood barriers, which hadn't been developed until the 1800s.

Once the blood pills replaced hunting, vampires had a lot more free time on their hands. Blood magic boomed after that because the efforts that had gone into hunting before went into research.

It wasn't like anyone was going to stop the Cromwells from destroying the Mayhews either. Fae races tended to stay out of each other's business as long as they weren't personally affected. Witches were the exception to that rule.

The only fae that were physically capable of going up against vampires were other vampires or werewolves. Those stupid mutts were their polar opposites so they had always steered clear of each other.

Destroying the Mayhews had been simple…until Dorian heard that wretched earth fairy mention the name Ash.

According to his sources, there were thirty-six vampires in the Mayhew coven. His agents counted thirty-six bodies but they hadn't accounted for the fact that a baby had been born less than twenty years earlier who somehow slipped through the cracks.

He never would have put the pieces together about his missing foe without Flint. He said he found a vampire in a forest not far from here.

There was an abandoned Averill castle in this area. As soon as the blood pills were developed, they hadn't wanted to share a supply with two other covens and moved far north where rumors of another fae community were making waves.

Aside from the Averills, only the Cromwells and Mayhews knew about that castle because of its proximity to the Redwood Coven they had to visit periodically. There was no reason for an Averill to be this far south.

Even if there was, there were only twenty-one Averills and none of them were named Ash. Somehow that insipid coven leader had survived.

This posed a problem. One weaker-than-average vampire going against an elite coven of sixty-four strong ones was nothing but if he discovered Ruby Gardner's power and claimed it for his own he might be able to retaliate.

Taking her by force and killing off the last of those pests wasn't out of the question…if he could find them. Even knowing where the castle was wouldn't be helpful if there was a blood barrier up.

Using this baby fairy against Ruby was the better option. Eventually she would need to leave the castle and go to the witch coven for something or other. If he left a message with them about Flora's fate she would likely ditch Ash and come running.

Dorian didn't even care about killing that weakling right now if it meant he could get his hands on Ruby. Without her, he would be nothing but a bug to be crushed so Ash was low on his list of priorities.

He met up with Lael, the agent holding the little fairy hostage. Ankle weights had been strapped on to prevent her from flying away and she was still gagged to keep her quiet. Tears were running down her face and she sounded like she was about to choke on the gag from sobbing too hard.

A dead hostage wouldn't do him again good so he ordered Lael to remove it. The baby's words were barely intelligible.

"I want Mommy and Daddy! Give them back to me! I don't want them to go away like Ruby…" she wailed.

Dorian scowled. How annoying. She was better off with the gag in. "Silence yourself and you will see Ruby soon enough."

Flora's mossy eyes looked up at him hopefully and she hiccupped. "Really?"

"Yes but only if you are very good."

Determination shone on her tiny face and she nodded, clutching her bear and blanket. "I will, I promise!"

She was much more cooperative after that; following the vampires back to the bed-and-breakfast they were staying at without a single complaint.

Once they arrived, Dorian instructed another of his underlings to shoot a video message that would be left at the witch coven for Ruby to find. He told the little fairy to look at the camera and say hi to her cousin. Her eyes lit up immediately at the mention of someone she knew.

"Is Ruby in there? I want to see her! Show me Ruby! You said I could see her if I was good!" Flora stuck her face right up in the camera lens. "Ruby, where are you? Mommy and Daddy went away too so you have to come back, okay? I don't want to be all alone."

She was crying again by the end of her little speech and Dorian began to speak off-camera. "If you want to see your little cousin alive again you will come to the bed-and-breakfast on Rochelle Road alone. Speak of this to no one or she will die. We will be waiting."

He gestured for the camera to be turned off and Broderick, the one operating it, frowned at him. "Lord Dorian, is there a reason you did not reveal yourself on camera?"

"Obviously I do not wish for her to know who I am before she sees me," Dorian said coolly.

He was more concerned that idiot Ash may have said something about the Cromwells to her and didn't want to give Ruby any reason not to show up. Or to bring him along with her. It was better to keep an air of mystery about him until he had her in chains that made it impossible for her to fly away.