Narrative P.O.V.

"Daniel, you didn't do that..."

Jai was in total disbelief.

"What?" Daniel asked. "You wanted her to meet Cain's parents, right? I knew Ella would be in his office this morning so when Evelyn asked me where Cain was, I told her he was in his office."

Jai shook his head.

"You should've let Cain introduce them," Jai said. "He's going to be so mad at you."

Daniel shrugged.

"He'll get over it."

"Evelyn doesn't know they're mates, though," Jai said. "Don't you think she's confused as to why there is a human girl in Cain's office?"

"Evelyn's not an idiot," Daniel said. "She won't say anything to Ella that she doesn't need to know."

The door to the kitchen opened and Cain strolled in.

"Have you seen Mom?" He asked. "Someone told me they got here about an hour ago and I've been looking for her everywhere."

When Daniel laughed nervously, Jai groaned.

"What?" Cain asked.

"She's upstairs..."

Cain's jaw clenched.

"...with Ella," Daniel said slowly.

Cain turned around and stormed out of the kitchen.

Jai turned to Daniel and glared at him.

"He'll thank me later," Daniel said, shrugging again.

"If you're still alive later."

- - -

Ella's P.O.V.

The downstairs door opened and slammed, causing me to jump.

Cain bounded up the stairs into his office and I stared at him as he looked around.

"If you're looking for your mom, she left a few minutes ago to go find you," I told him.

"So you met her?" he asked.

I nodded.

"She's a very nice woman. I can't believe she's your mother."

He raised an eyebrow.

"I didn't mean it like that," I said quickly. "She just looks really young to have a son your age."

"Yeah, I guess she's aged well," he said, looking visibly uncomfortable.

"How old are you?" I asked him.

"Twenty-eight."

He looked at me as if waiting for me to tell him how old I was.

"I turned twenty-three a few weeks ago."

Cain nodded before turning to leave.

"Before you go," I said, standing up, "can you take a look at this for me? I just need a second opinion."

He walked over to where I stood and I handed him the paper in my hands.

"Do you see this guy right here?" I asked him, pointing to the name on the sheet.

He nodded.

"What about him?"

"This man lived in Mumbai," I said to him. "He traveled to and from Germany nearly twice a month for about five months to receive blood transfusions at the hospital with the dead doctor."

Cain nodded. "Go on."

"The thing is," I said, "I haven't seen anything yet that would lead me to believe there is anything special about this hospital. They don't perform experimental treatments and they don't contribute to research."

"So there's no reason he should have been flying nine hours away and paying nearly twelve hundred dollars a month in plane tickets just to go to a normal hospital," he said, catching my point.

I nodded.

"But that isn't the weirdest part," I told him. "There is another man who did nearly the exact same thing. He came from almost the same part of Mumbai as the first guy did, but the difference is that he moved to Germany within the first month of treatments."

Cain took the paper in my hands and studied it.

"This can't be a coincidence that two men from the same place each had the same disease and ended up receiving treatment from the same hospital that was nearly four thousand miles away from their home, unless..."

"Unless they were referred," Cain finished.

I nodded. "Exactly."

"I have a few connections in Mumbai," he said. "I'll pull a few strings and have them send over each of these men's medical records from India and see if anything matches up. If they were being referred I want to know who was referring them."

Cain continued to study the papers in his hands.

"How many times did they each receive transfusions while they were here?" He asked.

"The second guy only had three before he went missing. But, the other guy had eleven."

"Eleven blood transfusions in five months?" He asked incredulously. "There's no way his body could handle that."

"That's what I thought too," I told him. "But, according to his medical records, he had sickle cell anemia like all of the other men. It requires regular transfusion therapy, so it makes sense that he would need that many in such a short amount of time."

"So all of these men were attending this hospital regularly for the transfusion therapy?" He asked.

I nodded.

"Except your grandfather?" He asked. "I thought he only went once."

"That's another weird thing," I said to him, shaking my head. "All of these men went to this hospital every other week, except my grandfather. He went in August and that was the first and last time he went."

"Did he not have the same disease?" He asked.

I looked through the stack of papers on the desk and found my grandfather's file before handing it to him.

"Before he went for the transfusion in August, he hadn't been to the doctor in nearly seven years. It's a bit odd considering I thought he had a heart condition."

"You've told me this," he said. "But I thought we established that the heart condition was the reason he needed the blood transfusion."

I shook my head.

"The cause for the transfusion, as listed on the nurse's notes, was to treat sickle cell anemia, which is what the nurse wrote for all the other men as well. But I can't find anywhere in his medical records where he was ever diagnosed with that."

"And if he had it, he would have needed more than one treatment," Cain concluded.

I nodded.

"If he even had a heart condition, it had to be a very minor one. He never filled prescriptions and never went to the doctor. In fact, all of his records indicate he was in good health before he stopped going to the doctor."

Cain nodded thoughtfully.

"I'm sending Jai and Daniel out tomorrow to get the records on the death of the doctor," He said. "Maybe something will line up."

"They're going back to Frankfurt tomorrow?" I asked.

He nodded and looked at me.

"Could I go with them?" I asked.

Cain's eyebrows furrowed.

"It would probably be best if you didn't," he said.

Damn.

My parents were still there.

Although they thought I was in Minnesota visiting friends, I wanted desperately to drop in and see if they had found anything else on my grandfather.

However, that probably wasn't a smart idea considering I would have to have had a very good explanation as to why I was still in Germany.

"Is there anyway you could have them stop by the police station?" I asked him.

"Why?"

"My parents pressed charges against the mortuary for losing my grandfather's body and I'm sure the police have started an investigation into the matter. They might know something we don't."

Cain thought about the idea for a moment.

"I'll have them look into it," he said. "But for now, I need to go find my mother."

He handed me the papers before walking out of the office and down the stairs.

I looked down at the files in my arms and sighed.

What were you up to, Grandpa?

- - -

Narrative P.O.V.

Cain walked around for a few minutes before finally finding his mother.

She was in the office he had been using since Ella had been in his.

As he walked in, she turned her attention from the map on the wall to look at him.

Evelyn smiled brightly as she walked over and threw her arms around his neck. She hated how she had to be up on her tiptoes to hug her own son, but she was excited to finally see him after so long.

"I missed you," she said.

"Missed you too, Mom," Cain said, hugging her briefly. "How was Australia?"

She nodded as she backed away.

"It was a lot of fun. Lui and Jace really miss Jai. I told him when I saw him this morning that he needed to go home more often."

Evelyn stared at Cain for a moment before sighing.

"So, what's your excuse for not coming to see us more often?" She asked.

"Well, since you moved back to Canada, you're not exactly close enough to visit often," he said.

Evelyn rolled her eyes.

"Don't give me that sass," she said. "I know you don't come because you don't like us."

Cain sighed.

"For the last time, Mom, I don't dislike you," he said.

"No," she said, "you dislike your father."

Cain made no effort to contest this.

"Cain, he means well," she said.

"No, he has control issues and wants to relive the glory days by telling me how to run the world," he said.

"He's just proud of you."

"He's jealous of me."

Evelyn's eyebrows furrowed.

"After his whole plot against Asia went south, he never regained control. When I stepped in, I did what he couldn't and I took over Asia and Africa," he argued.

Evelyn sighed.

"Taking Africa was a bad move," she said.

Cain scoffed.

"You act like he wouldn't have done it if he were my position."

"Look where it's gotten you," she said. "You've got so much land to control that you've managed to be able to lose the control you gained. It would have been much easier to let Africa and Asia run themselves. That's what I always told your father and what I've tried to tell you."

When Cain made no effort to continue arguing with her, Evelyn sighed.

"Even as bad as it all is out there, I'm much more concerned with the control you've managed to lose over yourself," she said.

Cain raised an eyebrow hearing this.

"That girl up in your office..."

"That girl in my office is none of your concern," Cain said angrily.

"When were you going to tell me you had a mate?" Evelyn asked, ignoring him.

"I hadn't planned on it," he answered honestly.

Before she could say anything else, Cain shook his head.

"I don't want to discuss this with you. It was a mistake asking you to come here."

"Cain... She doesn't know about you, does she?"

Cain said nothing.

"Sweetheart, I know you well enough to know that you have your doubts about telling her about all of this, but I think you need to."

He shook his head.

"So she can run from me the way you and Dad did?" He asked.

Evelyn shook her head as her eyes filled with tears.

"You think you're so unlovable," she said. "You think that people could never love you because of what you are. But have you ever stopped and thought that maybe the reason you can't be loved is because you don't want to be?"

Cain said nothing.

Evelyn turned and left the office, wiping her tears with the sleeve of her shirt.

- - -

Ella's P.O.V.

Later that day, I met Daniel and Jai for dinner.

Daniel cooked a delicious pot of mac and cheese, per my request, and Jai and myself made sandwiches to go along with it.

"You know something," I said eating a spoonful of the mac and cheese, "as big as this place is, I'm surprised there aren't more people in the kitchen around dinner time."

It was prime eating time for most people, yet we were the only ones in the kitchen that evening.

"There are six kitchens in this castle," Daniel said. "I'm sure we're not the only ones eating right now."

"Six?!" I asked. "Why the hell does Cain need six kitchens?"

Jai chimed in.

"The castle is really old. Back in the day, there had to be a lot of kitchens throughout the castle for a few of reasons. One of them was because of the volume of people that lived here. But, the other reason was because there wasn't any electricity to reheat things, so the cooks had to make the food and then take it to whoever it was for in as little time as possible so the food wouldn't get cold."

"I mean, think about it," Daniel said. "It takes fifteen minutes to walk from one end of this castle to another. I'm just glad I wasn't a butler or a maid during those times."

"Well, they used the tunnels," Jai said.

Immediately after he said it, his eyes widened and a look crossed his face that told me he hadn't meant to.

"Tunnels?" I asked.

"Yeah," Daniel said enthusiastically. "There's tunnels that run throughout the castle. They were meant for the maids and butlers to be able to get somewhere quickly. But the catch was that they could hear through the walls because they're so thin. They'd be walking past someone's room and hear them doing the dirty or walk past an office and hear business deals going on. That's why Cain's office is in the tower, there aren't any tunnels that run up there. Also, did you know that that's actually where the expression 'maids know everything' came from?"

I shook my head.

"No, I didn't know that. That's pretty cool though. Where do the tunnels lead?"

"Oh, all over the place," Daniel said gesturing around him. "There's an entrance to one in Cain's room."

Jai kicked Daniel under the table.

"I meant your room," Daniel said sheepishly.

Jai kicked him again.

"Stop doing that, man!" Daniel shouted, scooting his chair away from Jai.

"Wait, there's an entrance to a tunnel in my room?" I asked. "Where is it?"

"We're not telling you that," Jai said.

"It's in the paneling on the wall beside the fireplace," Daniel answered.

Jai turned and glared at Daniel who suddenly caught on to what it was he had done.

"Oops."

I smiled as I got up to put my empty bowl in the sink.

This is going to be fun.

Later that night, I turned on all the lamps in the room so I could have ample light to see.

I went over the whole wall on each sides of the fireplace looking for the entrance to the tunnel and I couldn't find anything.

I began to knock gently against each panel, placing my ear on the wall to hear how hollow each knock was.

When I came about four feet from the fireplace, I heard the echo of my knock behind the paneling and I knew I had found it.

I ran my hands up and down the paneling, looking for the crease in the door. I pressed against a portion of the paneling that was cut off from the rest and I heard a click before the well-hidden door came open slightly.

"Nice," I said pulling the door back.

It was a short entrance, probably only five feet tall. I had to bend down as I entered it.

I turned and pulled the door together slightly, leaving a small crack open.

The last thing I wanted was to lock myself in.

When I turned to face down the tunnel, I was met by inky blackness.

I pulled my phone from my back pocket and turned on the flashlight.

The tunnel was brick along one wall and a thin piece of drywall on the other.

It wasn't a very high ceiling. My head nearly skimmed the top so I knew someone like Cain would have to duck when walking down the tunnel.

I wondered for a moment if Cain knew about the tunnels.

I assumed he did, seeing as he'd lived in the castle his whole life.

I began to walk down the tunnel.

After I had walked for a few minutes without seeing anything interesting, I was ready to turn back.

But then I saw something.

A few feet in front of me was a disconnected air conditioning unit. It was clearly a recent addition to the tunnel, but it looked to be broken.

There was a small bit of light that came from the vent that was in the drywall beside me. Clearly the air conditioning unit had been attached to it at some point, but had been removed.

I turned off my flashlight as I got closer and heard voices that came from the other side of the wall.

The vent was conveniently placed right at my eye level and I wondered briefly if that was why it had been disconnected, so people could spy on those who were in the other room easier.

I peered inside and saw Cain standing with his mother and another man.

This man looked to be about Cain's mother's age. He had black, wavy hair and was built like Cain.

I wondered if that was his father.

They were arguing which made me want to walk away.

I felt nosey prying into their conversation.

Just as I was about to leave, I heard Cain say angrily:

"If you didn't want a Vampire son, maybe you shouldn't have fucked someone who had a vampiric disease."

I immediately peered back into the room.

What the hell is he talking about?

Cain's mother scolded him.

"We had no way of knowing you were going to be a hybrid," she said.

"For all we knew, you were going to be a Lycan just like we are," his father added.

Just before I could gasp, a hand covered my mouth.

I looked behind me frantically to see Jai standing there.

He lifted a finger to his lips, signaling me to be quiet, before he dropped his other hand from my mouth.

I turned back around and listened to what Cain and his parents were saying.

"Cain, we don't love you any differently because of it," his mother said earnestly. "I just wish you would let us help you. Dr. Zosak said that you were trying to fast."

"Fasting is a stupid idea for someone in your shoes," Cain's father said sternly, crossing his arms. "If you go too long without blood, with as much strength as you have, you'll kill everyone in this castle when you finally snap."

Cain froze just as he was about to say something.

He turned around and looked around the room, looking for something.

When his eyes landed on the vent, Jai and I both ducked.

"Go, go!" Jai whispered quickly, ushering me down the tunnel quickly.

I didn't question it.

I didn't even turn on my flashlight as the two of us dashed down the dark tunnel.

"How did he know we were there?" I asked frantically.

"He can smell you," Jai answered quickly.

We made it to the secret door which led back into Cain's bedroom. It was opened, I assumed because Jai had followed me into the tunnel.

I emerged from the tunnel quickly with Jai close behind me.

He closed the door quickly as I struggled to catch my breath.

Suddenly, the door to the bedroom opened and Cain pushed his way inside.

I looked at him in shock and began to back away.

"What the hell are you?"

- - -