Byron rose and Amelia met her at the end of the bed. “Is everything all right?”

“I’m trying to hand off all my day-to-day business duties to my American cousin, Angelo. She’s in charge of the North American side of Debrek International, but she’ll need to take my place until we can sort out our current problems.”

Byron lifted her phone, and Amelia saw there was no signal. “Looks like I’m going to have to do this the old-fashioned way, and find out if we still have a landline in this place.”

Amelia pulled Byron to her and they kissed. “Don’t be too long.”

“I won’t. I’ll come back and take you to meet someone very special,” Byron said.

Once Byron left Amelia gathered a few pieces of clothing and went over to the wardrobe, where Katie was. Katie had been really quiet, not her bubbly self. “Katie, are you okay? You haven’t said much since we left London.”

Katie placed a jumper into the wardrobe and covered her face with her hands, and started crying.

“Hey, hey, don’t cry. Come here.” Amelia hugged her and rubbed her back trying to soothe her. “What’s wrong? You can tell me,” Amelia said.

“I can’t stop thinking about what happened in London. If I hadn’t gone with you, I would have—”

“Don’t think that way. Maybe it was meant to be that you came with us.”

“I lost so many friends.” Katie wept even more.

Amelia squeezed her tighter. “I think Alexis feels guilty, and scared that we could have lost you if you had listened to her.”

Katie pulled back and went to get a tissue. “Alexis feel guilty or scared? She doesn’t feel emotions like that. She’s icy cold.”

“I don’t think so, Katie. I saw her with her eyes glued to you at The Sanctuary while you were dancing with that other vampire,” Amelia said.

“Really?” Katie said with surprise. She wiped her tears away and then shook her head. “There’s no way. She hates me.”

“Hate and love are very closely linked. I should know,” Amelia told her.

Katie, now calmed down, went back to Amelia’s suitcase, and continued to unpack. “Alexis wouldn’t know the meaning of the word love,” Katie said angrily.

Amelia sensed Alexis and Katie both had feelings they had never explored, which was manifesting in frustration and anger. She decided to change the subject.

“So, do you know anything about these Baa—ugh, I can’t say it. These bird women vampires?”

“The BaoBhan Sith? It’s Gaelic. Yes, my mum told me about them. She said that they were vampires who became crossed genetically with fae, through their history. They are very old.”

“Wow, why the bird thing?” Amelia asked.