The Blood She Betrayed. Cheryse Durrant

stronger.'

      `We will find him.'

      `But in the meantime, we risk being exposed!'

      `The police investigation is no threat. We have Taloner pathologists on the inside. The humans still think the source is a normal serial killer.'

      `Only because we have spent centuries keeping our kind concealed! We are discreet with our victims. One slip up now and—'

      `We are conducting investigations.'

      `The renegade Taloner flaunts his work openly. How long until he exposes all of us — and obliterates our young?

      `Gentlemen!' The Supreme One rose from his chair and strode alongside them. `This renegade is nothing.'

      `He is a cannibal, eating our children's hearts to quadruple his own strength and power.'

      `You dare interrupt me?' The Supreme One's hand curled like a druid's spell. `I am your ruler! This menace will be found and killed. In the meantime, the breeding program has reached its final stage. Soon, we will have numbers enough to control the world as Balor envisioned. We will no longer need our half-kin.'

      `Your words are empty to those who have already lost children.'

      `Gentlemen, we have centuries ahead of us. Sons can be replaced. The coven cannot. Join with me in celebrating our victory. It is close.' He raised his blood-filled chalice and drank.