Eve’s eyes flared brighter for a moment and Adam licked his lips subconsciously. “We…would never—” he cut off with a sharp flicker of his eyes to Eve. “Duty first,” he said stiffly, focusing on me to hide his discomfort from Eve.
She frowned, looking slightly hurt by his comment. These two were going to be work. But pleasant, honest work—teaching them that love and affection were not crimes.
I nodded. “For which I am grateful. I am just saying that even if you had, it would have been totally acceptable. And understandable. Not only did you refrain, but you jumped to attention to guard my door against four vampires who desperately wanted to get in.” I held up a finger, meeting each of their eyes for a long moment. “And you did not kill them.”
Renfield nodded thoughtfully. “I can attest to how truly unusual that is. I have worked with thousands of new vampires in my years and I have never seen half their restraint. Even from many full-fledged vampires,” he added meaningfully.
“Then it is settled. Welcome to the family, Adam and Eve. There will be growing pains, but we will get through them together. Tonight will be the hardest part.”
I helped them to their feet, gripping their forearms firmly and meeting their fiery eyes. They nodded with grim anticipation, eager to trap Dracula in his castle.
I turned to Renfield. “Tell them I will be leaving soon, and that they should already be finalizing tonight’s activities. You can finally tell Hugo the real reason he and Gabriel have been working so hard to clear out Central Park. Hugo will be the point of contact for whomever Stevie chooses to lead his wolves. Have him load up Adam and Eve in the back of one of our transport trucks and park it near the southern entrance to the park. Somewhere near Columbus Circle. Leave the back unlocked. I’ll pick them up soon.” Renfield nodded eagerly, eyeing the Nephilim. Until now, I’d just told Hugo to get it done. No one had known exactly what I intended with the Nephilim, thinking I just needed their permission to use Central Park. But the Nephilim were no longer a secret.
“They began to work much faster after I introduced them to Adam and Eve, one at a time, alluding to the fact that many more Nephilim roam the world, and that I wasn’t at liberty to divulge how many you were currently working with, or how many you had already turned.”
I chuckled, shaking my head at his tactics. The Nephilim folded their arms proudly.
“Have Aristos finalize the naval fleet plan,” I told Renfield, “and verify that the distraction at Williamsburg Bridge is ready. And tell him to keep us informed about the authorities.” Renfield nodded easily. “Valentine is in charge of communications on Liberty Island. Whoever is running things on the ground at each location will check in with one of them so that they can pass along information to the other battle fronts.”
“They are already prepared, Master Ambrogio. All will be well.” Then Renfield was guiding the Nephilim out the door. He paused to glance back. “Dr. Stein has called repeatedly. It sounded urgent.” He exited the room without waiting for my response, and I heard him asking the Nephilim if they had ever tasted an avocado before. I chuckled, shaking my head.
Soon enough, I was alone with my devils—Natalie and Victoria.
I decided that I liked the name for Natalie and Victoria. “My devils,” I murmured out loud. As I turned to face them, I felt a sharp pang of discomfort in my groin and hissed instinctively. Then I grew still, quickly concealing my reaction and forcing my face to relax as I realized what the pain was.
The pain of being brought to the brink of sexual tension—repeatedly—and not attaining release. But suddenly learning that I’d had an audience had doused my lust like a bucket of water over a fire.
My body chose not to accept this excuse, giving me another sharp pain.
My devils were grinning at my obvious ache, smiling sweetly.
“A wolf’s gotta mark her territory,” she said, not bothering to hide her focus on my pants.
Victoria chuckled, lifting the sheet over her lap. “Sorry, not sorry.”
I sighed, shaking my head. “I’m going to go shower. You remember where you need to be tonight?”
“I don’t,” Natalie said. “We should probably have a meeting. In the shower. Now. Because I’m feeling dirty…” her eyes slowly shifted to Victoria and then me, “and I like to multi-task.”
Victoria seemed to consider her suggestion, her skin suddenly pebbling as her lips parted. Then she sighed, shaking her head. “Soon enough, Natalie. Soon enough. We really do have a lot of work to do tonight. Everything is riding on this. We can…multi-task later,” she said with a coy smile.
Natalie pouted theatrically, folding her arms beneath her breasts. “Adulting sucks.”
I sighed regretfully, painfully making my way towards the bathroom as I wondered if I’d really tried hard enough with those glass manacles.
“The only one who has reason to complain is going to go take an ice-cold shower,” I called out, making sure they could hear me.
“That’s just because Renfield mentioned Dr. Stein,” Natalie fired back. “She has that effect on men.” I heard the pair of them hooting with laughter as I turned on the shower with a growl.
Calling them devils, I decided, was remarkably appropriate.
After showering up—individually—I changed into sturdy boots, a pair of comfortable jeans, and a thin sweater. Then I headed out to make last-minute arrangements with Hugo, Aristos, and Valentine while the girls took turns showering. Victoria had started leaving spare clothes in my closet last week, and we also had a dozen or so blood slaves of all shapes and sizes living in the catacombs if Victoria didn’t have anything to fit Natalie’s slightly smaller frame.
Knowing the dangers of involving myself in a woman’s dressing room—even as an innocent bystander—I would have left my chambers even if there had been nothing to check on.
I was sitting in the chair, sipping a warm bloodee when they came out of my chambers. Natalie had found jeans and a black jacket to wear over a white t-shirt with the words, ‘Save a heart, bang a fang,’ on the front.
Victoria had also chosen jeans and a jacket. She wore the same shirt as Natalie, but in black. I arched an eyebrow at them.
Natalie shrugged. “Hugo had a whole box of them.”
Victoria nodded her agreement. “He’s making merchandise for the supernatural tourists. This one seemed…appropriate,” she added in a suggestive tone and flashing me a wink.
I downed the rest of my bloodee and climbed to my feet. “I called Dr. Stein back. She’s waiting for us at the Statue of Liberty. The storm won’t be here for another hour or so, and I want to take one last look at her setup.”
I didn’t bring up that I was going to be leaving them behind at Liberty Island. They knew it already, and hadn’t been very pleased, even though they understood my reasoning.
But I still chose not to mention it again.
31
I entered the lobby of the Statue of Liberty, grimacing with frustration. On the way here, the skies had been full of dark, ominous clouds, but no rain. The skies grumbled and groaned with deep rolling thunder, but no lightning. The very air seemed to hum with electricity and each breath felt like I was swallowing cool steam.
But no actual lightning.
Natalie was skipping beside Gabriel—who had driven our boat to the island—chatting excitedly, looking like a talkative granddaughter telling her infinitely patient grandfather a story.
Gabriel was a startlingly handsome old man with medium-length, wavy white hair, bright green eyes, and a clean-shaven face. But he had the body of a twenty-something athlete, like he should be on the billboards I had seen advertising underwear in Times Square.
He had been a soldier when he was younger, fit from training. That hadn’t been the case a few weeks ago, back when I had initially met him underground. He’d been the first man to accept my offer of becoming a vampire.
Victoria was speaking with Renfield—who had left the museum with us—to go over their own
plans and tasks to make sure nothing had been forgotten or overlooked. We would all be busy tonight, and not all of us working in the same place. That was key. To keep our enemies guessing on what we were up to.
My main task here was to speak with Dr. Stein before heading back to Central Park.
I slowed my stride as the elevator door opened and Stevie exited. He froze, his face slowly morphing into an annoyed scowl as he saw me. I sighed, realizing I would finally have to talk with him. I needed him focused tonight, and this petty dominance issue was beginning to get under my skin. Fucking werewolves and their asinine power struggles.
The Alpha of the Crescent—in charge of the five sub-alphas of the boroughs of New York City—shifted his attention away from me, catching the sound of Natalie’s voice as she spoke with Gabriel.
Stevie froze, his hand idly drifting to his chest to touch his beard. I realized that his hand had begun to shake and that he looked noticeably pale. I frowned, shooting my attention back to Natalie, only to find that her back was to Stevie and that she was casting a puzzled look at Gabriel.
Because Gabriel had a similar look on his face. Natalie finally glanced back, saw Stevie and grimaced.
“You…” Stevie said from across the lobby, his voice quivering with emotion, but I couldn’t tell if it was anger or sadness or joy—or all three. I simply recognized that the potential for lethal violence had just dramatically increased.
Natalie sighed in resignation, opening her mouth to answer her old alpha. “Listen, Stevie—”
Gabriel, my lead underground vampire, cut her off, gently shoving her to the side as he slowly approached Stevie, pointing a finger and letting out a sharp gasp. “Frederick?” he whispered, his voice catching on the name. “You haven’t aged a day!”
I watched anxiously, wondering what this was about. Hadn’t they met before? Everyone had been working closely together to get everything ready for tonight. Gabriel had been tasked with delivering all the vampire corpses from their graves to the Museum of Natural History for inspection and labeling—giving each viable body a chain necklace with their names stamped into metal tags—before transporting them to the Statue of Liberty for the approval of Dr. Stein and Nero.
Stevie had been working at both the museum and Liberty Island, so it was somewhat baffling that the two had never actually seen each other. I knew they had at least spoken over the phone and were aware of each other’s first names.
Stevie slowly shook his head at Gabriel. “Frederick was my father,” he rasped. Then he blushed furiously. “I’m sorry. We’ve never met, but…my father chose my middle name to be Gabriel…in honor of you.” He whispered, tears actually falling down his cheeks. My eyes widened at the raw emotion between the two dangerous men. “He spoke about you every day. I had no idea that the Gabriel I’ve been working with was you,” he said, shaking his head.
Gabriel’s smile had faltered, and he was blinking rapidly at the sudden onslaught. “Oh, my god. You’re Frederick’s boy?” he rasped, shaking his head. Then his smile slowly returned, and he began to laugh—the sound echoing off the walls. “That rat bastard finally did it!” he hooted, pumping a fist in the air. “He finally proposed to Angela, didn’t he? She’s your mother!”
Stevie gasped, his face contorting in joyous pain as he nodded vehemently. “She is.”
Gabriel laughed, closing the distance to grab Stevie by the shoulders, inspecting him up and down with firm slaps of approval over his shoulders, jostling the much broader werewolf. “I can’t tell you how many times I told him to stop being a coward and propose to the only woman in the world who would put up with him!” he chuckled, shaking his head. “You look just like him, my boy.” Then his features changed to mock disapproval. “Although it seems he never taught you that self-respect starts with a clean shave,” he growled teasingly.
Stevie let out a cracked, emotional laugh, nodding jerkily. “He said the same thing,” he stammered.
Gabriel grinned, squeezing and jostling Stevie some more. “How is the old dog?”
Stevie blinked, looking abruptly crestfallen. “He…died.”
Gabriel’s head sunk down to his chest, his shoulders slumping. “I’m…so sorry, my boy.” Then he deftly wrapped his arms around Stevie, enveloping the alpha of New York City into a bear hug. Stevie stared over Gabriel’s shoulders, wide-eyed, and frozen. His face slowly contorted into a rictus of pain, and like a melting glacier, his shoulders relaxed, and he hung his head over Gabriel’s shoulder.
And then he began to cry.
Grown men crying—really crying—was both a beautiful and terrible thing to behold. I began to turn away as Stevie let out a strange whine, like a frightened little boy who’d just been reunited with his father after getting lost in a busy crowd.
Renfield stared at the men intensely, his face a portrait of pain. His blood-shot eyes stared unblinkingly, even as tears fell down his cheeks. His jaw trembled and I saw his hands clenched into fists, shaking violently as he squeezed even tighter. Victoria finally seemed to notice Renfield’s reaction and she immediately blanched, overcome by his severe heartache. I peeled my eyes away, knowing exactly what Renfield was thinking of.
His own daughter, Kassandra. How he would have given anything to embrace his daughter one last time rather than watching her grow old from afar. But Dracula had taken that from him.
And tonight, we were taking the first steps to avenge that crime. My own pain at seeing Renfield in agony only served to fuel my resolve, and I felt Victoria and Natalie’s blood sloshing and bubbling up within me, begging for release. I took a shuddering breath, calming myself.
Then I looked back at Stevie. He was now staring at me from over Gabriel’s shoulder, and I couldn’t tell if he wanted to murder me or not. It was a very thin line. He shakily dislodged himself, gripping Gabriel by the shoulders. “I need to make an introduction,” he told the older vampire as he guided Gabriel towards me.
Gabriel frowned, wiping at his face. He shot me an apologetic frown. “I…uh, already know Master Ambrogio. He gave me a new life through our bond. Without it, I would be a broken shell of a man.”
Stevie flinched as if struck, the word bond striking close to his own personal disagreement with me over Natalie. “But Sorin does not know you,” Stevie said, almost aggressively to make up for his flinch.
I waited, uncertain what this was about. Stevie stared me in the eyes, stopping two paces before me as he enveloped the older, smaller vampire with one beefy arm around the shoulder. “This is Captain Gabriel Shelby,” he said. “He saved my father’s life at the end of the Vietnam War. I was born ten months after my father returned home. I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for Captain Shelby.”
Gabriel lowered his head, obviously uncomfortable. “You are too kind, son. I’m sure Frederick had some small part to play in your birth,” he added wryly, attempting to shift the attention away from himself. I chuckled in an effort to help.
Gabriel had told me about the war in general terms; I’d wanted to learn about the war from firsthand knowledge rather than reading about it in a book—like I was forced to do with most other historical events in order to catch up on my five-hundred-year slumber. The war had cost Gabriel his vision and a broken back, leaving him crippled and blinded for life.
Until vampirism had healed him of both, of course.
Gabriel sighed. “I went underground to avoid people. I couldn’t see them, but I could feel them staring at me, pitying me. I hated it. Like now,” he added in a softer voice.
“Gabriel,” I said sternly, knowing he needed me to save him. He looked up, wincing at my tone. “No one is pitying you. I’m actually wondering why you haven’t finished the tasks I gave you. Perhaps you lost your work ethic along with your eyes in the war. Leaving your messes in the trunk of my car for me to deal with, and now you’re standing around as worthless as a lump on a log, blubbering like a snot-nosed runt.” I folded my arms, scowling in disapproval.
Stevie’s eyes
widened in outrage. Natalie and Victoria let out indignant squawks behind me.
But Gabriel…
Gabriel burst out laughing. Stevie stared at him, dumbfounded.
Gabriel finally managed to somewhat regain his composure, his eyes crinkling at the corners as he beamed up at me. “Right you are, sir. Totally worthless.”
“Get out of here and do something useful, soldier.” I extended my hand and he grinned, grasping mine firmly.
“Yes sir,” he said, still chuckling. He cast one last look at Stevie and a sad but happy smile split his cheeks. “When this is all finished, I’d like to visit him. If you don’t mind.”
Stevie nodded, still looking confused but pleased at the idea. “We’ll go together.”
Gabriel smiled, slapping the werewolf’s shoulder again. Then he turned away, shaking his head and laughing. “snot-nosed runt,” he chuckled, slapping his thigh.
We silently watched him leave before Stevie slowly turned to look at me with a puzzled frown. “I don’t understand.”
I smiled. “He’s a soldier. The good ones hate attention—at least in public. That’s why he chose to live underground in the first place. To avoid the looks and the people. Men like him just want to work hard and watch the effects from afar. They do it because they must, not because they want the praise. I’ve found that one of the best things you can do for them is give them another task. The harder, the better. Gabriel struck me as that kind of man. It’s why I put him in charge of the fledglings. He’s a wolf. He’ll never be a domesticated dog to sit at the fire.”
Stevie nodded thoughtfully, brushing his beard idly with his fingers and thumb. “I…didn’t mean to embarrass him. I just wanted him to know he was my father’s hero. Mine, too.”
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