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face
     was priceless. At five foot eight and one hundred forty pounds of mostly muscle, she
     was one of the hardest members of the Chorý blood hunters. She was also in charge
     of new recruit combat training and survival methods.
    I was not going to Rome with her, so she didn’t have to worry about me trying to take
     over her lead as Hunt Leader. If Aleixandre were still giving immortality to Hunt
     Leaders, she and Santiago would have been neck to neck at the front of the line for
     the Change.
    I turned around and motioned for her to come in. Marieth sauntered over to the steel
     desk that I had purchased in Germany and crossed her arms, but she didn’t speak. She
     just eyed me like a piece of meat she was going to throw on the grill and later eat.
    “Yeah?” I smirked and leaned back in my chair. Was she sizing me up? When she still
     didn’t speak, I started, “Look—”
    “No, you look! Aleixandre only put you on my team because he is testing me,” she said with in anger.
    “Is he?” I asked, amused that my punishment had also become hers.
    “Don’t get cocky with me, Vesco!” She sneered. “I haven’t seen Santi in a few days,
     so I can only assume that he has nothing to worry about, even though it was you and
     his team that lost the Arc. Yet, I am the one expected to give up the lead in my hunt!”
    What did she mean about Santi being missing in action? His group had been sent to
     help me with Ella’s arrival. I had spoken to him on the sat phone plenty of times
     before the night Ella went missing. Though Santi was a lower member of the Council
     and wasn’t privy to all of the details of Ella’s departure from Cedar, he had known
     enough that night and shouldn’t have been missing.
    “Wait.” I straightened in my chair. “When did Santi come back from Cedar?”
    Marieth looked at me and blinked. “That’s all you got from what I said? That Santi
     isn’t here now?”
    I didn’t have time for her anger. Something wasn’t right. I didn’t remember seeing
     Santi that night when Ella had gone missing, but his entire team was there.
    Maybe I had seen him. I’d been caught up in Kale returning without Ella, and us only
     having minutes to get her out of the cold safely. I stood up and went out the door,
     and Marieth quickly followed suit.
    “Hey!” she called after me as I headed past the other rooms and toward the west hall.
     “Vesco, we suit up and leave in an hour. I expect you to be dressed and ready to go
     by then,” she demanded.
    I came to a complete halt and felt her tensing up behind me. Did she really think
     that I would fight over leading a Blood Hunt? I had been made immortal after only
     four successful missions, whereas the average member had to complete ten or more.
    I faced her just as she crouched into a defensive position.
    “Marieth,” I said calmly, though her attitude was starting to tick me off. “Suit up
     and head out, but get this straight: I will not be going with you.”
    I turned on my heels and headed straight to Aleixandre’s office in the complex, leaving
     Marieth there to stew in her anger and confusion.

Chapter 3
    Alex
    The next morning was hell. The police had all but destroyed any chance of my mother
     making breakfast—not that I was hungry after all that had happened, but if she could’ve
     gotten in the kitchen and cooked, it would have taken her mind off of Ella for a while.
     She sat in the living room with Leah, whom she still hadn’t let out of her sight.
     They watched some overly bright and happy cartoon on the Disney Channel while I plotted
     my escape.
    The detectives that had arrived from Elmwood City started a search party for Ella.
     One of them knew my dad from college and was adamant at first about my father staying
     behind during the search for Ella, but after my father pulled him aside for a private
     conversation, I knew that a favor had been called in. His partner was very vocal about
     how bad an idea it was to