Royal Blood: Templar Series, Book 5

by Debra Dunbar

  “Six vampires and a mage for one man?” Dario’s smile was grim. “He wasn’t just a meal. They brought him here to interrogate him, or torture him to send a message to someone. I’m guessing the heroin was to cover up the method of death.”

  “Then it wouldn’t exactly be a message, would it?” I asked.

  “It would to the right people. They’d know it wasn’t an overdose. I think this was supposed to look like those overdose victims you were telling me about, but something happened, maybe a brief struggle, and the vial of heroin was broken. The vampires lost their tempers or said ‘screw it’, and instead of feeding discreetly through the inner arm to make it look like he was a junkie, they just went for the neck.”

  “And dumped the body a block away,” I mused. “That’s a bold, risky move on their part.”

  Dario’s eyebrows rose. “Six vampires and a mage? They have every right to be cocky and bold. There are twenty-five of us trying to hold this entire city, and they’ve got a mage that they’re either working for or have working for them. Either way, it’s protection, and I’d also be willing to bet that there are more than the six of them in this gang.”

  I sucked in a breath. “That group of fifteen or twenty organized rogues that you’ve had rumors of?”

  He nodded.

  I looked around the room. “Well, they might have a mage, but you’ve got a Templar. Do you think you can track any of this six? Or the mage? Or even the human whose blood is here?”

  “I’m going to try.”

  I picked up my butter knife and stuck it in a pants pocket, tying the null bag to my belt. We locked the garage back up. I followed, sword out, as Dario did a crisscross search pattern down the road, reminding me of a two-legged bloodhound, and I jogged behind him.

  Admittedly he was moving slowly, no doubt so I could keep up, but we still wandered up and down streets for nearly an hour until I had no stinking idea where the heck I was. I was thinking it would be perfectly acceptable for me to skip my morning run when I felt the static buzz of vampires on my skin.

  My grip tightened on the sword and I tensed, nearly running into Dario’s back as he halted abruptly.

  “They’re ours.” He put a hand on my shoulder, then waited. A few seconds later, three vampires came around the corner, slowing as they approached. It was Richelle, Madeline, and Fidel.

  “Hi boss,” Madeline stepped forward. “Fidel caught a scent and tracked it until it joined up with the one Richelle and I were following. A few others joined in and we traced it north to Franklin Square before it split off.”

  Dario told them what we’d found and about the scent he’d been tracking.

  “Should we move on to where it split off?” Madeline asked. “We can call in a few more and track further.”

  Dario shook his head. “No. If this is what I think it is, then I want us to have more information before we potentially wind up facing them down. Text me your routes and exactly where everything split off, and I’ll forward it to some trusted allies to look into it during daylight hours. Depending on what they find, we’ll discuss and possibly proceed tomorrow night.”

  “Can I get that information as well?” I asked. I wasn’t asleep during daylight hours, and I was off work tomorrow. Outside of my séance with Russell, and research on the broken wand, I should have a bit of free time to head to Franklin Square and see what I could see.

  Madeline hesitated for a fraction of a second before replying. “Yes. Of course.”

  “Fidel, I’d prefer if you continue hunting in the Pigtown area over the next day or two. Keep your eyes open, but do not put yourself at risk. If you see or hear anything, let me or Madeline know and do not follow-up without specific instructions.” Dario turned to Richelle. “If you can, please move your hunting grounds to the Franklin Square area. Stealth mode. If you need more donors upon waking, I’ll authorize that. I want you to concentrate more on intel gathering than on finding food for the night. You too, Fidel.”

  They both nodded and left. Dario turned to Madeline.

  “Are we shifting focus from the north to this area?” she asked.

  “Don’t pull completely out of the north,” he told her. “I don’t want to hear any more of those ‘animal attacks’ up there, and I’m afraid if we’re suddenly nowhere to be seen, other rogues might see that as a sign that we’re spread too thin. Leave five up there and tell them to be openly visible in as many places as possible. I want everyone tripled up on donors upon waking so they can focus on this. We’ve got the resources; might as well use them. Pull enough from the outskirts so that I’ve got at least ten focused on this area—but I want them discreet.”

  Madeline nodded. “No sense in warning these people we’re coming and finding ourselves with a magic wand up our noses.”

  “Agreed.” He reached out and put a hand on her shoulder. “You’ve been running all over the city tonight. Go home. Relax.”

  I loved seeing this side of Dario. His leadership style as the second in command had been fair but firm. He’d commanded loyalty and respect as well as fear. But watching him now I realized how much of his previous demeanor had been not necessarily him, but a reflection of who Leonora needed him to be.

  Don’t get me wrong, I was positive he could still be fair and firm and absolutely terrifying if needed, but now that he was the one setting the rules as well as the tone of the Balaj, he’d become more collaborative. He delivered his instructions with clear authority, but also with a warm kindness that made it clear he valued every member of his family and that everything he did was for their collective well-being and survival.

  It made me love him even more.

  “Thanks, boss.” She turned and gave him a quick hug. “We’ve got this. There might only be twenty-five of us left, but we’re strong and we’re determined, and with you leading us, we’re going to keep our hold on Baltimore.”

  It was the first time I’d been able to witness that closeness between Dario and his second. She’d been a young vampire when he was still a human in Haiti, and I knew the two of them had been friends for centuries.

  Madeline left and Dario and I walked back to his SUV. In spite of what we’d seen tonight, everything seemed…right somehow. I took his hand in mine and stepped closer, my shoulder brushing against his as we walked.

  “This was a good idea.” His voice was light and teasing. “I like working with you. And when you’re next to me, I’m not twisting myself into knots wondering whether you’re getting yourself shot at, or chewed up by a vampire, or knocked unconscious and almost skinned.”

  Yes, those things had all happened.

  “See? And I’m here to make sure you’re not blown to bits, or that you don’t die from a magic wand up the nose,” I teased back. “The two of us can easily take six vampires and a mage.”

  He shuddered. “You take the mage and I’ll take the six vampires.”

  I laughed. “Deal.”

  He pulled his keychain out of his pocket, still holding onto me with his other hand, and beeped the door lock. Walking around to the passenger side, he pushed me up against the door, and kissed me so thoroughly that I thought I might melt through the asphalt.

  This was what our relationship had been missing the last few weeks. Not the sex—we’d had plenty of that. No, it was the camaraderie of working together toward a common goal. It was partnership. It was this.

  “Spend the night at my house,” he whispered into my ear. “In my bed. With me.”

  I hesitated, not sure how that would work. “Do you…at dawn, are you…”

  “I shelter elsewhere. I’ll wake you before I go, though.”

  I felt a surge of relief at his words. Yes, I needed to accept that Dario was a vampire, but that didn’t mean I wanted to get used to waking up next to a cold, non-responsive body.

  “But Fulk. I can’t leave him alone all night long. I know it’s only four more hours, but he’s used to me coming home eventually at night.” I didn’t want my dog to worry.
And I really didn’t want my dog to eat my house because he was anxious.

  He kissed me again. “We’ll swing by your place and pick him up. And you can grab whatever you need—clothes, a toothbrush, whatever. Just leave them, so you’ll have stuff at my place.”

  It didn’t take me long to make up my mind. “Yes. I’d like that.”

  He drove to my house. I gathered together supplies for an overnight while he fed Gaia and Fulk. Then we bundled the dog into the backseat of the SUV and drove to his house.

  I had no idea where Dario’s new Renfield or Erica were but his house seemed to be empty except for the two of us—and Fulk. Dario made the two of us omelets, and we headed up to Dario’s room. Thankfully Fulk seemed happy to remain downstairs on the couch, while the pair of us made love. I fell asleep on Dario’s gloriously cushy bed, him in my arms, a fluffy down comforter over me. Best of all? I woke up at six in the morning to him kissing his way down my body. We made love again, then went downstairs where his Renfield, David, made us breakfast. Just before sunrise, Dario kissed me and headed off to sleep for the day, while I fed Fulk scraps of bacon.

  Erica was nowhere to be seen, and I wondered if that was on purpose. But it didn’t matter, because it had been an amazing evening and morning, and I found myself daydreaming about what my life would be if I lived here with Dario.

  But we had a long way to go before I’d consider that any more than a fantasy. Right now I’d be happy with what we had—with my spare toothbrush in his bathroom, a handful of clothing in a dresser drawer, and the hope that what we had might beat all the odds and actually have a happily ever after.

  Chapter 14

  “Mom!” Of all the people I expected to find on my porch at eight o’clock on a Saturday morning, it didn’t include my mother.

  Fulk bounded out of my car and up the steps, his tail wagging furiously as he greeted her. I headed up at a more leisurely pace, a little embarrassed. How long had she been here? Even though I was wearing jeans and a sweater, I still felt as if I were doing a walk of shame the night after a pickup.

  “Good morning, Solaria.” Mom patted Fulk, then kissed me on the cheek before shifting to the side so I could unlock the door. Nothing in her voice indicated she was peeved at waiting all night for me, or judging me for my sleepover, and my mother was the queen of saying a million unsaid things in a simple tone of voice.

  I opened the door and ushered her in, realizing that this couldn’t be a social visit. The last time my mother had shown up unannounced she had discovered my demon mark and was pledging her and the family’s help in ridding me of it. My demon mark was gone, and I doubted she’d driven this whole way to take me to task about my choice of a boyfriend, so I immediately thought the worst.

  “Is Gram okay? Dad?”

  “They’re fine,” she hastened to assure me. “I’m in town on business.”

  The relief I felt was short lived. Business for Mom meant Templar business. She was an enforcer, and while most times enforcers were tasked with what amounted to a deployment to guard the Temple, Mom was usually limited to special assignments. She took down the baddies that the Order decided needed to go. It didn’t happen very often, but when Mom got the call, she flew out and returned with a bloodied sword and some additional scars. She was good, very good. And was only called in when the threat was significant or the case was high-profile for the Order.

  “Just passing through?” I asked hopefully. If Mom was in town because her assignment was in Baltimore, I knew it wouldn’t be good.

  “No, my business is here. In your city.”

  My stomach felt like a lead weight in my midsection. This wasn’t just a visit to see her daughter while she was in town. No, Mom was here for what I’d call professional courtesy. She was giving me a head’s up, and I was sure I wouldn’t like what she was about to tell me.

  I headed into the kitchen to feed Gaia and Fulk, both animals as well as my mother following me. “Is this about the homeless people found dead?”

  It wasn’t. The Order wouldn’t care about homeless victims. They wouldn’t care about any victims unless someone paid them to care, or unless the Order were being implicated in some fashion, or the Temple was threatened, or there was a mass casualty event. None of that seemed to apply here.

  Mom set her purse on my kitchen table and waited for me to feed my dog and cat before pulling a picture out of her purse and handing it to me. It was eerily reminiscent of Janice’s morgue photos. This guy I didn’t recognize, but what I did see is that in addition to the obvious marks on his arms and inner thigh, this guy had a big ole bite mark on his neck. I winced, assuming this was the man Tremelay had told me about yesterday, the one whose crime scene Dario, Richelle, Fidel, and I had been to last night.

  But why would the Elders be concerned about a vampire killing? It happened, but it didn’t happen with enough overall frequency for the Order to get involved. Unless this guy was the Pope’s brother and His Excellency had made a phone call, then the Order wouldn’t bother even noticing this dead man in Baltimore.

  Mom slid me another picture and I sucked in a breath. There was a tattoo on the dead man’s right inner wrist—a cross.

  A Templar cross.

  “Shit.”

  It was all I could say at the moment. A Templar, besides me, in Baltimore. Found dead of a vampire attack in my city. Well, now I knew why the Order was suddenly interested in Baltimore, but I still didn’t know why this man had been in town, nor why the Elders had sent my mother to investigate. Mom didn’t investigate, she killed. She took out the trash. She got the job done. Usually on her assignments there was no investigation required, just hunt down the target and send it to an eternal rest.

  Which meant things were about to get really uncomfortable between my mother and me.

  “Bernard D’Angelo,” she said, her voice soft.

  I shook my head, vaguely recognizing the name but not knowing the man personally. He looked to be in his forties, although it was hard to tell from a morgue photo. I was assuming he’d been an enforcer judging by the muscular nature of the naked body, but all Templars were required to keep up a minimal level of fitness and fighting skill. But whatever his specialty was, I was perplexed about why he was in Baltimore.

  Clearly my mother was paying a professional courtesy call to let me know she was here in my city on business, but no other Knight would do the same. I hadn’t taken my vows. I was off the radar as far as the Elders were concerned. They wouldn’t consider Baltimore to be my town at all, or even that they should give me a heads-up about the presence of a Knight. In their eyes, I was still a child assigned to my family home in Middleburg. My non-Knight status wouldn’t have qualified me for any sort of notification of the arrival of another Templar, and I certainly wouldn’t have been made privy to any sort of investigation as a non-Knight.

  “I think we both need a drink,” Mom said, her voice still soft.

  I turned, not even arguing that it was eight in the morning, and went over to my fridge. That’s when my brain engaged enough to remember I didn’t have much in the way of quality alcoholic beverages to offer my mother. No wine. No decanters of port, or brandy, or high-end whisky. I doubted my mom would be interested in sharing the Emergency Beer in my fridge, so that left the one thing I did have. Anna had given it to me as a housewarming gift and it was in my cabinet, unopened.

  “Fireball?” I held the bottle in the air.

  “What…what is that?” Mom’s tone didn’t give me much hope that this qualified as something under her definition of “drink”.

  “It says whisky, but in my experience it’s more of a cinnamon liquor.”

  Mom scrunched her eyebrows. “Maybe a coffee?”

  I hid a smirk and set the bottle on the table, just in case. Then I fired up the coffee maker while my mother searched my cabinets for mugs, milk, and sugar.

  “So, Bernard D’Angelo was investigating something, and now you’ve been sent to take his place since he’s dead?�
�� I asked, knowing the answer was “no”.

  Mom sat the mugs on the counter and turned. “He was investigating something, but the Elders have not made me privy as to what he was investigating. I’ve been sent to avenge his death.” My mother’s voice was gentle—unnervingly gentle. “Aria, you know that no one murders a Templar Knight and lives. No one.”

  We might lose a lot of Knights in the process, but eventually we’d kill whatever. Generally our vengeance was by sword, but there had been times in history where we’d needed to employ far more subtle methods—ones that might look “natural”. But any way it occurred, no matter how long it took, we always avenged our fallen.

  At least that was the story we were told.

  “So we’ll be working together? Dario and his Balaj have been trying to keep rogues out of the city, but they’re a bit short on manpower—or vampire power—right now. We actually spent a good bit of last night trying to track down the vampires who killed this guy, although I had no idea he was a Templar.” I told her about everything we’d found as the coffee brewed, letting her know that Dario had some of his human associates digging for information and that we were to regroup tonight.

  “A mage?” Mom frowned. “Are you sure? Perhaps they purchased some magical devices and the other human there besides Knight D’Angelo served another purpose—a lure to get him into the garage, perhaps.”

  “It’s possible, but rogues generally don’t have the sort of cash to be buying magical artifacts, or hiring a mage. I’m thinking that the mage hired them.”

  Mom pursed her lips. “Which would mean that Knight D’Angelo most likely had something to do with this mage.”

  “It’s probably best if we both sit down with Dario tonight and get up to speed. Then the three of us can head out and work this together.”

  “I’m not sure we can work together, Aria, but I will need any information you have gathered to date.” Mom took the cream and sugar over to the table and I pulled out two shot glasses, thinking that the Fireball was sounding better and better right now.