Birth of a Vixen (Shadow Faith Book 1)

by Colleen Tews

  I turned to Grump. “If that’s okay?”

  “Why not?” He said as careless as he said everything else. I wondered if he worried about anything. “We can play telephone. When you tell me what’s up I can fill her in.”

  Raphe nodded. He pulled me beside him then whispered close enough that his lips brushed against mine. “Smart and beautiful, no wonder he wants you so badly.”

  “I try not to think about Lucian that much. Of course, it’s not that hard to do when all I can think about is you.” I believed I just coughed up the cheesiest line in the history of espionage.

  A small bubble of laughter tickled up my throat. To stop myself from giggling I kissed Raphe. I kissed him with everything I had in me, as if he was a soldier going off to war. Which was what he had become, a soldier. Little did he know he was not the hero he believed himself to be but a loveable, huggable pawn.

  Chapter 24

  I was left to wander from one room to the next alone. I figured I would mingle with people, find out what I could, and at the same time try to find a secluded place to warn Sasha.

  In the hallway I ran into Elizabeth Jorgen. Her green, floor length, silk gown highlighted her flaming red hair that was pulled high on the sides with curling tendrils draped down her back, in time with the season. She looked like she should be on a Christmas tree for all to admire.

  “Hi. You’re Veronica right?” Her green eyes sparkled behind a hood of mascara put on to perfection. Her ruby lip-gloss shimmered as she smiled.

  “Yes, and you are? I’m sorry. I am horrible with names.”

  “That’s okay. We haven’t been properly introduced yet. I’m Elizabeth Jorgen, Vinchenzo’s fiancée. Are you enjoying yourself?”

  “I was. I mean I am but my date had to leave so I seem to be all on my own.” She seemed sweet enough. Finally, I met a woman that didn’t hate me right off the bat. Yippee!

  “What kind of hostess would I be if I left you all by your lonesome? Come with me I can share all the gossip with you, then you’ll know everybody and maybe you’ll feel more at home.”

  “That sounds great. Thank you.” Girl-talk time. Why didn’t I think of this before? Oh yeah, I was new at this and I was trained for the most part by a guy.

  We rounded the hall into the living room full of vampires listening to music I hadn’t heard before. It wasn’t Christmas music, which was kind of surprising given that this was a Christmas Eve party, but it was good. It had a deep thrum to it that vibrated all the happy places low in my body.

  Elizabeth pointed out everyone in the room. “You met Romeo and I’m sure you figured him out right away. He is Vinchenzo’s eldest son, biologically too, not just through siring. Then there is Olivia, his eldest daughter. Like Romeo she is blood related in more ways than one. Sitting next to her is Michael, Vinchenzo’s adopted son. I’m not exactly sure why though. Vinchenzo and the rest of the Caravellies are like me, one hundred percent Italian. He likes to keep it that way. But he made the exception with Mike; he’s from Scotland.” She really did like boasting about Vinchenzo. I lost track of how many times she said his name. She scanned the room. “I don’t know where the rest of the family went off to but you get the idea.”

  Elizabeth pointed out a small group of people that sat quiet with Meisha. “Those are the Viveks, the rest of Meisha’s House. Stay away from them. They are a nasty group of people. All they do is bash other people for not being Viveks. It’s sad really. They have no idea how to unwind and enjoy themselves.”

  I needed to start pounding some real information out of her quick or I wouldn’t have enough time to help Sasha. “Are they all in on what is going on with Lucian?”

  “Oh heavens no, well, some of them but not all. I think the Viveks have been working on some spells in case the new guy that is supposed to take him out fails but other than that, no.”

  “A spell? Like a witch’s spell?”

  “Kind of. I don’t know exactly how it works. It’s supposed to let us know where he will attack next.” It was clear that she had no concept about vampire magic.

  “They must not have had it up and running earlier if the deputies got ambushed.”

  “I think they need some of his blood for it to work properly, or some hair. So maybe it is like a witch’s spell. I don’t know.” Her ignorant ramblings made me curious about her natural hair color. That red was too vibrant to be real. I needed to get away before I started dropping I.Q. points.

  “Would you excuse me? I’m going to see if there has been any word from Raphe.”

  “Sure, I’ll either be in here or in the poker room if you want to chat some more.”

  “Looking forward to it. And where is your bathroom? I need to freshen up a bit.”

  “Upstairs. Turn right and it’s at the end of the hall.”

  “Thank you.” I tried to walk away casually but my legs wanted me to move faster than would be respectable.

  Before I went to the stairs I found my coat and got my cell phone. Like an idiot I left it in the pocket. Then I crossed into the other room and saw a set of stairs that led up. I slipped past everyone undetected and ascended. When I reached the darken bathroom I locked the door. With the lights off I first concentrated on heightening my sense of hearing and listened for anyone. All I heard were the sounds of those downstairs.

  I flipped open my phone and used speed dial to call Sasha.

  “What?” She snapped. I paid it no mind.

  “You’ve been bugged.” I whispered accentuating every individual syllable. I tried not to fidget as I heard loud voices at the bottom of the steps. They grew louder as they got closer.

  She repeated her question with a tone of doubtful superiority.

  “When you fought the Maartens at KSU the woman planted a tracking device on you somewhere. Raphe and a few others are following you as we speak. You need to lose it and take a different route back to the warehouse.”

  “Fuck!”

  I yanked the phone from my ear.

  She pulled the phone away from her mouth only after she damn near shattered my eardrum. I heard her speaking to the vampires that were with her. She gave orders and cursed like a sailor. She came back to the receiver. “How much time do we have?”

  “I don’t know. They left about five minutes ago. How far out of town are you?”

  “We aren’t. We took refuge under the Main Street Bridge.”

  “Then you need to hurry the fuck up because they could be there any second.” My voice raised a notch. I caught myself and quieted down. Hopefully I hushed my voice before anyone heard me.

  “Thanks V, I won’t forget this.”

  “You can thank me later. Now go.” I hissed that last order then snapped shut the phone.

  I hesitated before opening the door. The voices I heard earlier drifted from down the hall. Once they were further muted I cracked the door. A light was on under the door of the room at the end of the hall.

  I crept down the corridor. Behind the door Grump and Vinchenzo were going at each other’s throats. They barked and snipped with malicious tones as they each voiced their opinion on the current state of deployment. I bent in closer to the door to overhear what they said.

  “You are going to stand there and tell me you had no idea about this attack tonight?” Grump let into Vinchenzo.

  “None. I don’t even think this was an attack. For all we know this could have been a reconnaissance mission.” Vinchenzo hammered back. He stomped closer to the door. He wasn’t near as impressive as Grump was in this little showdown. Why would Vinchenzo know anything about Lucian’s plans? Did they have a spy, too? Or did the Vivek’s spell work?

  I stammered back into an empty bedroom across the hall but not before I heard Grump’s last word. “It doesn’t matter what we think they were doing. We need to take everything as if it were an assault. We are at war. Every battle is important. Do I need to explain to you again the ramifications if Lucian gains Kent?”

  “Of course not. But you can
not blame me for this situation. Thankfully it is under control.”

  “We lucked out, this time.”

  “Luck has nothing to do with it. You need to start trusting your constituents.”

  “Trust. Trust? I trust those who’ve proven to be trustworthy.”

  “And I haven’t. Who paid for your last ditch effort? Hmm? Who was responsible for making sure everything out there was safe? Raphe, that’s who. Instead he’s here fucking around.”

  “After what Raphe just did he is the last person who deserves a finger pointed at him. None of us were willing to head west to meet with the” His voice trickled off.

  “You can’t even say it.”

  “Can you? Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Grump paused. “We better get back downstairs.” He paused again. “I can hardly believe we stooped this low to take out one of our own. This is insane.”

  I watched them exit what I assumed was the study, through a crack in the door. Vinchenzo followed Grump out of the room. “For once I agree with you.”

  I listened as they went down the steps before I slipped from the room. All was quiet. Instead of heading downstairs I decided to explore the rooms on this floor in hopes of discovering whom the Primus of Kent contracted to kill Lucian.

  Slinking my way across the hall I checked the doorknob to the room they left. It was unlocked. I skulked into the tan and brown sponge painted room. Inside there was a large, cluttered oak desk with papers stacked in a corner opposite a black conference phone. A high back executive’s chair was behind the desk and two smaller leather cushioned seats faced it. Tall bookshelves lined the far wall covered in books of all types. A squat, Kentia Palm took up the corner space between the shelf and a painting of Tuscan Riviera was on the far wall.

  I scanned the contents of the desk. There were random bills, city ordinances, and information for a strip club in Ravenna. Two drawers had financial information about the club and the university, but nothing about Lucian.

  I slumped into the sturdy chair and tried to think like Vinchenzo. If I were an old fashioned Italian vampire who not only loved power but my family as well, where would I leave the really important secret information? I swiveled the chair, then smacked myself in the forehead.

  I tiptoed over to the painting. Sure enough it swung aside. Behind the painting was a black, steel wall safe with a turnstile combination lock and a steel handle. The numbers on the lock ran up to sixty.

  In high school I had a combination padlock on my locker. For fun I would put it to my ear and listened for the cams to unlock as I turned the dial. I opened it once and back then I didn’t have super vampire hearing. It seemed I learned something useful back then after all. That was unless someone caught me in here while I focused on the safe.

  I rested my ear next to the metal door. I turned the dial round till the first disc shifted on seven, then turned the dial the opposite direction. The second cam slid away on the number six. Gripping the handle with certainty I took a second to listen for anyone in the hall. Silence. I slowly turned the knob back around. The final cam clicked, the door unlatched, and number forty-two paved the way.

  Inside the safe was a small stack of cash, two navy blue safe deposit bags, and a matching ledger. I skimmed over repetitive information in the ledger. There were small money transactions between the family here and the rest of the Caravellies in Italy. At least the mob was efficient. But what caught my attention was a large transfer of funds totaling five point five million dollars to an H. Heidelberg. I ran my fingers across the ledger and confirmed I read it right when the vision burst in my mind’s eye.

  Lucian sat on my couch. He glared at someone I could not see with an alarming expression I was not accustomed to. He blinked and the camera angle shifted sideways and revealed a gentleman in his late thirties early forties. His face was cloaked in shadow. Dangling from his hand was a gold chain with a vial of blood. The masked man whipped the vial across Lucian’s face, slicing his cheek. Then the vision shifted to a soda machine in my old high school cafeteria.

  All was normal with the world again. That was not right.

  Chapter 25

  After I put everything back the way it was I went downstairs. No one looked at me as I headed towards the dining room. No one noticed I was gone at all. Elizabeth waved me over. I smiled through the feeling of dread I felt. I wasn’t looking forward to more girl talk.

  As a child I had more boys as friends than girls. Maybe she wasn’t as dimwitted as I imagined. Maybe it was the fact that I had no way to connect with her. Whichever the case may be I missed the excitement of hiding in the bathroom and knew that sitting with Elizabeth was the universe’s way of punishing me. For a punishment, it could’ve been worse.

  “The Gancheru aren’t here because, well, aside from them being damn awful hideous they are working with Grump behind the scenes.” Elizabeth prattled on. I nodded my head and paid her little attention.

  My gaze wandered to the grandfather clock in the corner behind her. It occurred to me that she had been talking non-stop for forty-five minutes. I had been sitting in a hard high backed chair trying to appear like I was paying attention while she lounged in a plush white recliner. It took her till now to broach a topic I was interested in hearing.

  “Are you listening to me?” Her emerald eyes squinted.

  “Of course I am listening.” I lobbed in a question to prove that I heard her. “When you say, ‘working behind the scenes’ what do you mean by that?”

  “Oh, well,” She adjusted her dress as she leaned over the arm of the chair. “They are talking to all their House buddies throughout the country trying to dig up any dirt on Lucian. You know, trying to find out any weaknesses, guilty pleasures, anything they can get their hands on that we could use against him.”

  “Have they found anything?” Theoretically there shouldn’t be any news about my connection to Lucian. But lately I never knew what to expect from one second to the next. I kept my cool though.

  “There’s this Asian chick he takes with him everywhere he goes. But you probably figured that out with when the boys were talking before. And, oh, this is a biggie.” She stretched over the arm of the chair and clenched my arm, eyes wide as saucers, she gestured me to move in closer. I ducked down low and she whispered, “The Cabal Ministry is working with the Order to take back the cities Lucian snagged on his way here. They have already reclaimed most of Missouri.”

  “What! Since when?” The surprising news of the fall of Lucian’s territory propelled me into an unstable world of confusion. Why had Lucian kept something like this a secret from me? He must have known what they were doing in those cities.

  “They have been plotting this for months. The Cabal High Court had tried to hire a few mercenary groups a while back but they failed.” She shrugged. “You know what they say about wanting something. You want something done right you gotta do it yourself. Right? So Monday they ganged up together and started the raids. They snagged back Chicago last night.” She was so excited that she blew wind against my arm from her hands in wild gestures.

  “That’s crazy!” The bitter shock rolled out in an unbelievable bitter snap. I sat back and pulled out of her grasp. It was just one thing after another tonight. When one problem was cleaned up another swooped in to take its place.

  “Excuse me?” She reeled back. Her chin tucked. Her eyes narrowed under a furrowed brow. She looked like an angry angel glaring at me.

  My cover was slipping from the stress of bumbling into one disaster after another. “I mean it’s crazy because it has taken the big guys this long to take back the towns. Lucian’s been in Ohio for the past couple of months. They could have regained control of those cities at any point in time between then and now and haven’t. Sorry for snapping. It’s just a little upsetting that you seem so thrilled about them finally moving into action when they could have been useful months ago. Too many lives have been lost. It doesn’t seem fair.”

  “I couldn’t agree with you more.”
Grump hovered over our conversation. His lackadaisical expression from before was tarnished by a sharp intelligent contortion in his brown eyes. Seeing Grump in a grumpy mood was unprecedented. It was a sure bet that something was amiss.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Raphe called.” Short and to the point, never a good sign. People didn’t like to share bad news. Someone had to poke and prod the information from him or her. Maybe it made the delivery easier.

  “Is he okay?” I squeezed his large hand with an almost frantic vigor. “What happened?”

  He nodded his head in a reassuring manner. “He’s okay, a little pissed, but he’s okay. They found the tracking device under a bridge but there was nothing there but her skin. She must have discovered the device and when she couldn’t get it off she shed her entire skin like a snake.”

  “That is disgusting.” Elizabeth scrunched her nose and turned away.

  “How is that possible?” I’ve been down playing my intelligence for so long it was second nature. Although after what he heard me say to Elizabeth I might be nearing the end of getting away with the cute dumb chick act with Grump.

  He checked over his shoulders. When he believed no one was listening he said, “I think we have an insider.”

  “Any ideas as to who?” Since he took the time to see if anyone was paying attention I doubted he thought it was I. His only reassurances that contradicted any such thoughts were if Raphe mentioned that he bound me to him. Then perhaps Grump trusted me a bit more than he should.

  “Not yet but I have my suspicions.” He whispered to me. His voice was so soft I had to read his lips.

  I made a quick suggestive glance to Elizabeth implementing her as the infiltrator. She was well connected through Vinchenzo. Then again with as open as Vinchenzo was with her perhaps Grump assumed it was Vinchenzo. With a random spark of genius I mouthed, ‘Vinchenzo?’

  The only acknowledgement Grump gave me was a slight shrug of his shoulders. I should have known better. There was little he could reveal with Elizabeth right beside me.