by C. C. Wood
After dinner, Asher and I headed upstairs to get ready for the meeting with Rhys.
I’d won the argument with Asher, but only because I told him that I would find a way to follow him, regardless. It also didn’t hurt that Kerry was coming with Finn. That had put an end to his argument that none of the females would be there.
I knew he was seriously unhappy with the situation, but he sucked it up, especially when Conner briefed me as he did the other vampires in his employ. I realized that because I was his mate and his first instinct was to protect me, Asher sometimes forgot that I was trained and fully capable of taking care of myself.
As irritable as it might make me, I couldn’t fault him for it because I felt the same toward him. If something were to happen tonight, my first instinct would be to protect him.
We were silent as we loaded up into the vehicles. Kerry, Finn, Asher and I were in one SUV while Conner and his men, including Duncan and Luca, rode in another.
As Finn drove, he explained, “Conner’s group will check the perimeter and the house before we enter. As soon as he gives the all clear, we’ll go inside.”
“He’s the only one in there,” Kerry interrupted.
Finn glanced at her. “What?”
“I can feel him. He’s the only one in there.” She shook her head. “Damn, those soul eaters are glutted on power. Makes my head hurt.”
“Fine, but Conner and the others will still check it out.”
Kerry shrugged. “Suit yourself. Better to be safe than sorry, anyway.”
I didn’t say it, but I completely agreed with Finn’s statement. Even if we thought we knew what was happening, it was best to confirm it before we revealed ourselves.
I saw the house as we drove past, a small dwelling in a subdivision of older homes. It was the kind of neighborhood that wasn’t bad now, but would be in another ten years.
Finn turned right at the next street and his phone beeped. He pulled over and removed it from his pocket.
“Conner gave the all clear.”
He circled the block and pulled the SUV up in front of the house, parking on the street rather than in the driveway. Conner’s vehicle was nowhere to be seen, but I knew they were inside because Luca and another vampire were standing out front, acting as though they were having a casual chat and a beer.
I smiled at the image. Luca definitely wasn’t the kind of male who would drink a beer and shoot the shit. He was more of the type to drink a bottle of Scotch alone in front of the fire and be perfectly content with that.
I nodded to him as we walked up the sidewalk to the front door. He acknowledged me with a small tilt of his head, but that was it. I wondered if he was upset that Asher had been the one to turn me.
The touch of Asher’s hand on mine brought me back from my thoughts. I looked up at him to find his gaze on Luca.
“Everything okay?” I asked.
He blinked and stared down at me. “Fine.”
I didn’t have a chance to say anything else because Conner opened the front door and gestured for us to hurry inside.
As soon as we entered the little house, I was acutely aware how tiny the living room was, mostly because with Conner, Asher, Finn, Duncan, and another of Conner’s men crammed inside, there was very little room for Kerry and I.
Rhys was seated in a chair facing the front door, looking utterly relaxed and carefree. Of course, with his powers and age, I doubted he had much to fear, even though he was outnumbered. I hesitated momentarily when his eyes met mine, endless onyx pits with no expression.
“Please have a seat,” he offered, a smile curving his lips. Somehow, it didn’t make him look any less dangerous.
There was only a tiny couch and chair shoved close together inside the room, so there was a bit of a shuffle. Kerry and I ended up on the sofa and Conner sat in the chair facing Rhys. Everyone else stood. It was cramped and uncomfortable.
Rhys chuckled once we were all settled, looking at Asher. “I know I said bring whomever you’d like, but I didn’t think you’d have this many friends with you.”
Asher clasped one hand over his wrist, letting his arms hang in front of him. “You’re an unknown entity.”
Rhys nodded. “Very true. I am unknown. And from what you’ve seen of my brother, I don’t blame you for your distrust.” He leaned forward in his chair. “What you need to understand is that I lived under my brother’s thumb for centuries, being forced to follow his orders, only escaping a few hundred years ago when he went to ground and hibernated. Now that I’ve experience true freedom, I want to keep it. The only way that will happen is if you help me kill him.”
“We’re working on a plan to do that ourselves,” Conner answered. “Why do you need to be involved?”
His laugh in response was humorless. “This isn’t some vampire you can shoot or stab. He’s incredibly powerful, stronger than even me. There’s a ritual to killing an animavore.” His eyes moved to Kerry. “Even with your witch, you won’t be able to defeat him without me.”
So that’s what they were called, animavore. The way Rhys pronounced it, the word sounded nearly poetic rather than evil. The title of soul eater was much more fitting for the evil that Cornelius carried inside him.
Conner glanced at me and I immediately understood he was asking for confirmation that Rhys was being honest. I gave a single dip of my head in an affirmative response. Rhys wasn’t lying. Then his eyes jumped to Kerry, who also nodded and I noticed that she was fingering the bracelet on her wrist. I assumed it was a truth amulet.
Then I understood why Conner and Finn wanted Kerry there, and why Conner agreed that I should come as well. We were here to verify whatever Rhys said.
Rhys and Conner stared at each other for a long moment, and I knew that Conner was taking measure.
Finally he stated, “Tomorrow. Come to my home. I’ll send a car for you.”
Rhys shook his head. “No car.”
“Why?”
“Electronic devices malfunction when I get within a foot or so of them. Phones, computers, cars, they stop working,” Rhys answered.
Looking a bit perturbed, Conner pulled a small pad of paper from his pocket and wrote on the first page, ripping it free.
He held it out to Rhys. “Come to this address tomorrow at 1 p.m. I’m afraid I can’t offer the same level of hospitality you’ve extended us. Come alone.”
Rhys nodded, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “I understand.”
Conner got to his feet and gestured for Kerry and I to stand. I guess our visit was over. Before we could leave, Rhys met my eyes.
“Thank you.”
I had no idea why he was thanking me, so I dipped my chin in acknowledgement and followed the others out the front door.
As we walked to the car, Asher asked, “What was that about?”
I shrugged. “I have no clue. He may be honest, but he’s odd.”
The winter air was icy as we climbed into our vehicle. Conner, Duncan, Luca, and the other vampires had vanished into the darkness, probably returning to wherever they’d parked their SUV.
Asher started the car. “Yes, but can he help?”
It was Kerry who answered. “Yes, he can. He’s right when he says it’ll take more than a sword or a gun to kill Cornelius. The soul eater is incredibly powerful, made even more so by devouring the souls of witches and other supernatural beings. I’ve never heard them called animavore before. I’ll need to do some research, but I’m sure my mother’s library has something that can help us too.”
Now we just had to depend on another soul eater, Cornelius’ twin brother, to help us kill him.
And hope that Rhys didn’t turn on us once that was done.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Kerry and Finn arrived just before ten the next day, armed with information about the animavore. They also looked worried.
Whatever they’d learned, it was bad.
We gathered in Conner’s library because the table there was la
rger than the one in his office and we needed the space. Kerry began pulling books out of her bag, most of them old leather bound tomes with symbols carved on the spines.
“Rhys wasn’t lying when he said there was a ritual to killing an animavore.” Kerry began. “And we will need him to complete it. The only way to kill a soul eater is with the help of another. At least that’s what I’ve read in these books so far. I won’t stop looking for an alternative,” she promised.
“Damn,” Donna murmured.
“Yeah, it gets worse,” Kerry continued. “It seems animavore are created by a dark warlock. It requires an incredible amount of power and a blood sacrifice. I won’t go into details because it’s extremely disturbing and I want the rest of you to be able to sleep tonight, even if I can’t. Anyway, not only are they damned difficult to create, they’re even harder to kill. The animavore are the closest I’ve ever seen to being truly immortal.” She began opening the books to marked pages and passing them around the table. “I didn’t get to read all of the information in these books last night, so I need you to go to the marked sections and see what you can find. Seven heads are better than one.”
“Hm, I wonder if Rasputin was one of these soul eaters,” Donna murmured, her eyes fixed on the text in front of her.
“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Kerry replied. “But right now, we need to figure out how to at least contain one, just in case Rhys turns out to be a traitorous bastard.”
I began reading the hand-written book in front of me, struggling with some of the language and the penmanship.
“When was this written?” I asked Kerry, pointing to the pages.
“The late fifteen hundreds,” she answered. “Why?”
“I’m having difficulty reading some of this. The script and the language are so different. It’s like trying to read Shakespeare.” And as much as I loved to read, I struggled with the Bard’s plays.
Donna chuckled under her breath.
“I’ll look at it,” Asher offered. “I lived it, so I might have an easier time understanding.”
I nodded and handed over the book, taking the text that Asher held out in exchange. At a quick glance, I saw that it was in Latin and shot him a dry look that had the corners of his mouth quirking.
“Well, at least this is printed legibly,” I joked, feeling somewhat inadequate.
Asher immediately sensed what I was feeling and looked up at me, his blue eyes serious. “We all have our strengths, Shannon, and yours compensate for my weaknesses.”
He went back to the pages of the book, skimming through them with ease. I glanced up to find Donna and Kerry smiling dreamily at me.
Yeah, so my vampire was a sweet talker.
“Don’t get all girly,” I mouthed at them, which only made their grins widen.
“I think I found something useful,” Asher announced, interrupting my staring contest with Donna and Kerry.
He pushed the book to the center of the table and we all stood, leaning in so that we could see the pages.
The book was larger than a modern hardcover and the pages were yellowed. On one side there was a large drawing of a circle with symbols in equal increments around it. There was text on the other side.
“It’s a trap,” Kerry stated after reading for a few minutes. “And it will dampen his powers.”
Asher nodded. “That’s what I’m understanding from the writing.”
Kerry turned the page and hummed in her chest. “Some of the ingredients I’ll need will be hard to find.” She looked at Conner, then me. “It will take me at least three weeks to get a few of these things. Will that work for your plans?”
I bit back a scoff and let Conner answer. I may have some advance knowledge of the situation we were facing, but he was the brains of the operation.
“That’ll be fine,” he replied.
When everyone began to scoot the chairs back to leave, Kerry asked, “Where are you all going? We need to look through the rest of these books in case there’s more information we need. This isn’t a TV show where we find one big clue and rush off to save the day.”
I held out the Latin text to Asher. “I think you’d better read this one.”
I took another text from the stack next to Kerry and settled back down into my chair. Asher and I sat shoulder to shoulder as we read, our arms occasionally brushing. The library was hushed, the only sound was the occasional murmur and the whisper of turning pages.
Eventually I stopped to stretch my arms above my head, my brain full of more information about magical creatures and evil beings than I ever needed to know.
Glancing at my watch, I winced. “Isn’t Rhys coming at one?” I asked.
Conner and Asher looked up. “Yes.”
“It’s a little after noon. We should probably grab some lunch and get ready for his arrival.”
Last night after we’d arrived back at Conner’s, we’d gathered in the study, all of us, including Kerry, Donna, and myself. Over cups of tea or glasses of wine, we spent a good hour discussing what we should share with Rhys.
Then we spent another hour talking about what we should keep to ourselves.
He would be here soon and then we would see exactly how helpful his involvement was going to be in formulating our course of action. If nothing else, his knowledge of the inner workings of Cornelius’ mind might prove to be useful.
“Leave the books on the table,” Kerry suggested. “We’ll come back up here and continue our research after Rhys leaves.”
I suppressed a groan. I never minded the tedious jobs when I worked for the security firm, but this was different. There was very little I could do according to what I was reading. I didn’t possess magical abilities as Kerry did and most of the texts were based on spells and potions that I would never be able to create.
Once again, I was feeling ineffective, and I loathed it.
As everyone migrated out of the room, Asher grabbed my hand. “Wait just a minute.” Once the library was empty, he looked down at me. “I can feel your frustration, Shannon. What’s wrong?”
Apparently, I’d allowed my mental shields to slip while I focused on deciphering what I was reading. “I just don’t see how reading these books will help me contribute to the plans we’re making. I can’t cast spells or make potions. I’m not a witch like Kerry and what I’ve read so far requires both of those skills.”
Asher arched an eyebrow at me. “This is why it’s important to learn to read other languages,” he murmured. “I’ve found some interesting information in the book you couldn’t translate.”
“Really?”
He nodded. “We’ll discuss it during lunch. I’m sure everyone will want to know.” He leaned down and pressed a kiss to my lips. “One thing though.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Tonight, unless the house is being attacked by the Faction, you need to feed. You’re too young to go more than a couple of days without blood. You could lose control and attack Kerry or Calder.”
Since the day I’d woken, I’d only drunk from Asher a few times. I’d been wondering when I’d need human blood.
“Okay. So how does that work? Will I drink blood from a human or do you have blood on hand? If you bring in a human, it needs to be someone willing, because I refuse to put the whammy on some poor person who has no clue what’s happening.”
Asher looked at me in shock. “What in the hell are you talking about?”
“Feeding,” I answered, wondering why he seemed so surprised.
He took me by the shoulders. “Shannon, we’re mates. When a vampire finds their Chosen, they only need to drink from each other.”
“You mean I’ll feed you and you’ll feed me?” I asked, not quite sure if I understood. “I thought vampires needed human blood to survive.”
Asher shook his head. “Not always. Ours is a symbiotic relationship on a physical and emotional level. We are connected in every way possible.”
That brought up another set of concerns
. “So what happens if one of us is hurt or—” I paused because I hated to say it, much less think about it. “Dies?”
“Either of us would survive, but the loss of a mate is…agony. Most choose to meet the dawn, especially if their Claimed had been with them for a long time.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Is that what you would do?” I asked.
He lifted a hand and touched my cheek. “Most likely.”
“No,” I snapped. “If something happened to me, not that I think it will based on the visions I had when you turned me, you better suck it up and keep on living. Especially if we have children. They’ll need you.”
“Is that what you would do?” he queried quietly.
“Is that what you would want me to do?” I shot back, my voice harsh. “Kill myself?”
Asher shook his head. “I’d much rather we live for an eternity together than have you die to be with me.”
“I’d rather have that too,” I replied. “I do know that neither of us will be dying any time soon.”
“Exactly how much of our lives did you see in your visions?” Asher asked, wrapping an arm around my waist and leading me out of the library.
“I’ll tell you about some of it later tonight,” I promised. “I don’t want to give too much away. It’ll ruin the surprises.”
He squeezed me tightly. “But you know.”
“So?”
Asher chuckled as we walked downstairs to the kitchen and I smiled at the sound.
My vampire didn’t know it yet, but he had many years of happiness in front of him. Centuries, actually.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Conner’s housekeeper had made sandwiches for us, and we sat around the dining room table, talking about information we’d found.