by Rain Oxford
“Was she the one who hurt you?”
She looked so sad that I wanted to drop it, but Langril’s words repeated in my head. He suggested that Krechea’s familiar could have killed Joseph and hurt my mother. Although it wasn’t likely, Astrid deserved the benefit of the doubt. She didn’t remember what happened, and I thought my mother hadn’t, either.
“It was John who hurt me.”
John had controlled her mind to make her leave Vincent and tortured her relentlessly for years before she had me and he lost interest. Vincent and Hunt took us to Joseph Sanders and altered her memories to make her forget John. I know their intention was to give us a happy life, but a stranger off the street would have been a better husband and father than Joseph. Plus, whoever thought it was a good idea to alter her memories after she suffered years of mind control needed to be slapped.
I took her hands and leaned closer. “I know he hurt you, but I’m talking about the night Joseph was killed. Did Astrid hurt you? Did she do this to you?”
“John did this. Joseph wasn’t your father. I know I should have told you, but I… I forgot.”
“I know. It’s okay, I just want to know what happened that night. And I’m sorry.” I felt horrible as I did it, but I released my magic to invade her mind. I didn’t want to control her, but I needed to see her memories. Having done this many times, I wasn’t expecting her to jump back. Her chair clattered to the floor, I retracted my magic, and she backed up into the corner of the room.
“No, no! Not again!”
“I’m sorry. That was stupid and I should have known better. Please calm down.”
She shook her head violently. “No! I won’t go through this again!” She grabbed a knife off the counter and aimed it at her own heart.
I reacted instinctively to take control of her mind. “Stop!” I demanded.
She did, but the fear on her face was heartbreaking. “I don’t want to go through it again.”
“I’m sorry.” I took the knife from her hand, set it aside, and released my power. “He’s gone. John is dead. I have the same power, but I don’t use it like him. I also know about Vincent.” Surprise overcame the fear and she met my eyes. “I need to see that night, and to do that, I need to see in your mind. If you say no, though, I won’t.”
“I can’t see it again.”
“Okay.”
* * *
Henry and I left and drove to Stephen’s coven. There was a nasty looking storm off to the south, but Henry said it wasn’t heading for my mother’s house. Even still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something very dangerous was close. “Maybe we should take Scott and my mother to the university,” I said.
“Is your mother prepared to learn about the paranormal?”
“No.” Actually, she apparently already knew, because she was starting to remember what John did to her. Seeing Vincent was the last thing she needed. “I guess not knowing what Krechea is after is making me paranoid.”
Then, as soon as we were out of the city, the sensation vanished.
* * *
It was a comfortable silence throughout most of the drive. When we reached the estate, Henry parked right in front of the door and we saw a wolf shifter guarding the mansion. The doorman glared at Henry, but he didn’t say anything as we passed him. Inside was the same as usual; it had modern amenities, high ceilings, blank white walls, and sophisticated, uncomfortable furniture.
I was leading us to the library I knew Stephen was usually in when we ran right into Marcus. He was dressed in a blue t-shirt and jeans and his hair was a little too long, but he looked happy and healthy. Not living in constant fear of being assassinated was a nice change for him.
“Hey! I’m glad you two could make it! What are you doing here?” he asked.
“You realize those two statements are---” Henry began.
“Don’t get him started,” I interrupted. “Marcus is about as easy to follow as Darwin.” I turned to the newly converted vampire. “Stephen said he needed to see us.”
His smile fell. “Oh, okay. Yeah, I’m not supposed to know about that, so I’ll let Stephen tell you. I’m surprised he called you, but I’m glad. It’s not good.”
“Where’s Darwin?” I asked.
“You asked him to check out a hacking case,” Marcus said.
“Yes, but I expected you would help him. With the two of you working together, it should have taken you an hour at the most.”
“Twenty minutes, thank you. He’s dealing with something else at the moment and will be along in a few days.”
He led us to a different office than Stephen was usually in. I wouldn’t have thought it was odd if I didn’t hear the sound of construction as we passed that hallway. “What did you do?” I asked.
“Why do you think I did something?” When I gave him a deadpan stare, he shrugged. “I might have used the room right underneath Stephen’s favorite study to test out a new electromagnetic pulse bomb.”
“E-pulse bombs only damage electronics.”
“Yeah, that’s what went wrong; it was a little heavy on the ‘bomb’ part.”
“Wouldn’t it be easier to hack or use a computer virus?” Henry asked.
“It depends on the company you’re trying to bring down. Say for example that Darwin got some dirt on me and threatened to release that information. The only proof he has is on his network. Hacking is impractical because he can control his system from anywhere. He’s got a really cool program called a funnel web that---”
“Skip,” I said.
“Okay. Anyway, the only reasonable way to stop him from getting information out is to destroy his means. Of course, as a wizard, you can do just as much damage to his system naturally. You can fry all the electronics you could want without the risk of the building coming down on top of you. Darwin and I are each working on our own way to bring down… let’s say a company. If humans ever found out about the paranormals, it could be a shit storm.”
“I don’t see this going well. You do remember that you were human a few months ago, right?”
He scoffed. “Semantics. The point is, we’re working on a way to stop someone from getting information out. We’re each building and testing our own method, and then we’re going to test it out on each other.”
“You’re going to try to crash each other’s servers?”
“Well, he’s going to try. I’m going to annihilate.”
“What is stopping them from becoming super villains?” Henry asked me quietly.
“Laziness.”
We arrived at a door, Marcus knocked, and we were invited to enter. Inside was a plain room with one small wooden desk and a very irritated vampire king. He scowled at Marcus but spoke to me. “Good evening, Devon. Please tell me you came to take Marcus back with you.”
“Actually, I’m here because you said you had a case for us.”
He nodded. “Marcus, leave us.”
With false sorrow, the young vampire left and shut the door. “He doesn’t mean any trouble,” I said. “He needs a lab or something to play in.”
“And an assistant,” Stephen said, dropping his scowl instantly. “He forgets to eat and sleep. I don’t mind the energy, and he’s not fighting with the others, but he does act like he runs the house and that can’t continue. When I have to relocate my main office because of his accidents, we have a problem. On his second day here, he walked into a vampire’s bedroom, said he got better reception in it, and kicked the older vampire out.”
“Yeah, he did that to me when I took him in.”
“It sounds like living with Darwin,” Henry said.
“Put him in charge of something,” I advised. “Let him design a security system or something.”
“Actually, that was what I asked you here about. My coven has been attacked.”
“Well, I expected there would be some problems with your treaty after the council fell. You should take it up with Hunt and Vincent, since they’re in charge of redesigning the council
.”
“It’s not wizards attacking us, it’s humans. A small group of humans banded together and somehow discovered my coven. They’ve been attacking during the day. Fortunately, Maseré’s pack has been able to keep them at bay so far, but they get more reckless each time.”
“Why would humans be attacking you?”
“Because they’re human and we are vampires. Most humans are not as violent towards us as wizards, but there are several clusters of humans who think all paranormals should die. That’s why our secrecy is so vital to our survival. If we retaliated, we could slaughter them easily, but more and more would follow.”
So they were like Gale. “Are any of your vampires that don’t live in the mansion getting attacked?”
“Not that we know of.”
“I’ll take care of it, but I still suggest putting Marcus in charge of your defense. There is no one I know who’s better at computers and it’ll keep him out of your hair because he’s damn sure not going to consult you.”
* * *
Henry and I decided to stick around until the humans attacked in the morning. Marcus wanted to join us until sunrise, but I convinced him that he had better things to do. He was ecstatic when Stephen told him he could set up a security system. Of course, Marcus wanted to modernize the entire house. When we last saw him, he was talking about installing cable TV for the vampires who stayed at the coven.
Although they had food for visitors and spare bedrooms, Henry and I denied the offer and headed outside to wait. We sat in the truck parked in a visitor lot, where we could see the front and left side of the mansion. I was in the driver seat and Henry was in the passenger seat.
“What are we going to do when we confront these humans?” Henry asked. “Humans who hate vampires will probably hate wizards and I know you still feel a kinship with them.”
“Just because they’re human doesn’t mean they can attack like this. If we can’t scare them away, we can convince them to leave.”
“How?”
“I will use my mind control.” Henry frowned, since he knew I preferred not to do that kind of thing, but he didn’t argue. If I used my power for personal gain, I would be no better than John, but this was different.
“We have seven hours before sunrise. Should we take turns sleeping?”
Normally, I didn’t get that option because I didn’t have a partner on my stakeouts. “Sure. You can sleep first.”
“I’m not tired.”
Neither was I, so we just sat in silence for a while. Then my phone rang, and I instantly jumped to all the worst conclusions when I saw the number. “What’s wrong? Is she okay?” I asked.
“It’s not your mother,” Kyle said quickly. “She’s fine. A big storm came on suddenly and Scott is freaking out. He needs to hear his father’s voice, and Henry’s phone is off.”
“Okay, I’m putting him on,” I said, holding back a sigh of relief. “Turn your phone on,” I told him as I passed my phone to him. “I thought you said the storm wasn’t heading towards them.”
“It wasn’t, but storms can change direction.”
* * *
After a few hours, I tried to get a little sleep, but every time I was just about there, I would sense something close by. Because it wasn’t something watching me and Henry didn’t seem to notice, I wasn’t terribly worried. It was, however, a very uncomfortable feeling.
When sunrise came and there was still no sign of humans, I managed to fall asleep, only to start dreaming of zombies. Soon, the same presence that had prevented me from napping became so strong and sinister that it woke me. I finally just gave up trying to sleep.
* * *
At eight in the morning, Henry sat up straighter. “I heard something,” he said.
“Alright. Let’s do this.”
Henry opened the door, got out, crouched between the truck and another car, and began stripping. Unfortunately, he couldn’t use his camouflage abilities in his person form, so he had to change into a jaguar before he could become invisible, and he couldn’t do that dressed.
Once he was invisible, I opened a link between us. I could see through his eyes due to my mind control magic. It was still odd, though; until I did finally call my familiar, I had a very strong suspicion that Henry was my familiar. Several times, when I needed help, he sensed it. Also, I saw through his mind once while he was imprisoned by the wizard council and again when he was imprisoned by Gale, where I saw into his mind without conscious effort. Darwin’s theory was that it was because I communicated with them so much using my mind magic.
I watched through his eyes, trying to be as unobtrusive as possible. His jaguar seemed to appreciate that I convinced Henry that he hadn’t killed his wife, yet the cat was still very reticent. I could feel the cats mind pushing aside both mine and Henry’s. While I spent so much time trying to control my magic, I never really considered that Henry was trying just as hard to keep the jaguar under control. I knew it was always a struggle for him, I just didn’t know how much. Fortunately for both my friend and me, the cat was perfectly happy hunting down prey. Of course, he usually hunted at night, but he was pleased enough to be out that he was willing anyway.
He tracked the slight sounds to three camo Jeeps. I knew they must have gotten in through a break in the fencing around the coven somewhere, but the jaguar didn’t care; he wanted to kill them. He didn’t care who they were or why they were here, and he wasn’t hungry. He just wanted to do it because he could.
Henry’s mind tried to take some of the control back, but the jaguar had too much pent-up energy. Each Jeep had two people in them and the people were conversing using small communication devices on their ears.
The jaguar wasn’t concerned with what they were saying; he was more interested in finding the best angle for attack. He had enough of a connection to Henry’s mind that he knew he didn’t want to go through the glass and that the people would eventually open the door and get out of the car.
“Find the one in charge,” I said to the jaguar. He growled, not liking that he could feel and hear me like he could Henry.
I was about to try to reach out for one of the people’s minds when my awareness returned forcefully to myself. At first, I thought it was because the jaguar had forced me out of his head, but then I saw movement. A young woman was sneaking around the corner of the mansion. She was athletically built, wearing black shorts and a matching tank-top, with her chocolate-brown hair in a ponytail. She pulled a cell phone from her pocket, ducked down behind a hedge, and checked it before cramming it back into her pocket and standing.
Because she was out in daylight, she couldn’t be a vampire. That phone was high-end; not the disposable kind that a wizard or fae might have. She’s probably a wolf shifter. Fortunately, she didn’t change, or she would have smelled Henry. I could have fried her phone, but her determined expression told me she had already gotten the order she needed. The connection between Henry and me was still open, so anything I told him would be overheard by the jaguar. “There’s a wolf shifter headed your way.”
The jaguar sent back an acknowledging thought.
I changed my focus from Henry’s mind to Maseré’s. His mind was welcoming, but his wolf’s was not. “Is she one of yours?” I asked, sending him a mental picture of the woman. I didn’t receive an answer, but I should have expected that. Instead, my phone vibrated. I answered it.
“You realize you have a phone, right?” the alpha asked immediately.
“Yeah, I know.” Actually, I had forgotten all about it.
“Her name is Veronica Biegen. She’s the daughter of a wolf alpha in Canada.”
“There’s a rival pack here?”
“They had a treaty with Stephan before I even got here. My pack usually just calls them Canada, because their alpha is a little… wishy-washy. I believe they changed their alpha a dozen times in the last decade.”
The woman was now out of sight, so I focused on Henry’s mind again. The jaguar was watching her. She
was no longer creeping around like she was afraid to be caught.
“What’s going on?” Maseré asked.
“I’m not sure yet. Do you trust Canada?”
“I can’t trust a pack who admittedly eats its betrayers.”
“Gross.” Veronica paused for a moment and glanced around as if she smelled Henry, but then got into the back seat of one of the Jeeps. After a couple of minutes, she got out and walked back to the castle.
“What’s going on?” Maseré asked again.
“I’m going to check it out. I’ll call you when I know something.”
I hung up, which was not the best way to ensure a long and healthy life. I knew I should have been more respectful to the alpha, but I seemed to always cut the conversation short. The jaguar didn’t know whether to follow the shifter or stay and continue watching the humans.
“Stay with the humans,” I told him. I knew Veronica’s name and could find her later. The humans got out of their Jeeps at that moment, giving me the perfect opportunity to do what I did best.
There were five men and a woman, all dressed in black clothes and scowling at their surroundings like they were trying to be the characters in an old spy movie. I wasn’t impressed so far. I locked onto the closest man and pushed my power out of the jaguar and into the human.
He was an emotional train wreck; he was twenty-five years old, a high school dropout, and father of two. His ex-wife wouldn’t let him see his kids until he got his drug habit under control. He didn’t have the ambition necessary to pull anything off on his own; he was just a pawn in this.
The next man had ambition— too much of it. He was here for the thrill of hunting vampires. He also wasn’t in charge, so I moved to the woman. She was here because she was the girlfriend of the man in charge. From her thoughts, I could see that they had a base somewhere with lots of other vampire hunters. Their leader was there.
I watched the hunters make their way through the woods. The jaguar had apparently gotten over some of his bloodlust and was mostly just curious now, because he didn’t immediately attack.