Vicent, on the other hand, bowed and scraped whenever the second man spoke. This one was a stranger to Patrick. He sat between the other two, was half a head higher than both and had pale blue eyes that commanded attention. It wasn’t just the eyes. This man was a leader and despite his youthful appearance he had as much wisdom and experience packed away as Nial did.
Although they had given no ranks, Patrick knew the man in the middle was either the leader of the Curandero, or very near to the top. He had that sort of presence.
Winter stood at a very neutral position at the end of the table, putting her on neither side. She had introduced the leader to Nial, giving his name, Gustav.
“We have been watching your war with growing concern,” Gustav said. “Once, you told us that if we were to reveal ourselves to humans, then our lives would see more peace than at any other time in our history. You have revealed yourselves. Yet we do not see peace.”
He spoke with the plummy British accent that reminded Patrick of Cyneric, except that Cyneric’s voice was always filled with a barely hidden cynicism or amusement. This man, this Gustav, was just blank. He was speaking the words and that was all.
“You’re mistaking peace of mind and heart with peace among others. There will always be wars and conflicts. That is how things get resolved.” Nial didn’t seem to be moved emotionally, either, although Patrick was beginning to learn just how much Nial hid beneath the surface.
“That is not reassuring,” Gustav said. “You are not winning this war.”
Vicent stirred. “You are leading us to a place where we will be exposed to humans. We do not want to suffer your fate.”
“We haven’t lost yet,” Sebastian said furiously. He subsided when Nial put his hand on his shoulder, but still looked angry.
Patrick didn’t blame him. To be measured so coldly and negatively, completely bereft of emotion, made it worse. And besides, they were wrong. They had to be.
“We have not exposed you,” Nial pointed out. “We have abided by the agreement between us. You will not be exposed until you say you are ready. You are not to erase the memory of yourselves from humans anymore.”
Gustav shook his head. “If we do not wipe the memory of us, then exposure is guaranteed. Sooner or later, humans will discover us. It will be the end of us.”
“Aren’t you being just a tad melodramatic?” Garrett asked from the far corner of the room. He had his arms crossed, and there was a vein throbbing at his temple, showing that his calm composure was being barely maintained, too.
“The world is not as black-and-white as you have tried to make it be,” Nial said. “If you are exposed, then things will change, yes. That is all that will happen. Change. However, that is not why we invited you here today.”
Gustav looked wise. “You wish to have our assistance in your dealings with the humans.”
They really were channeled in their thinking. Winter had tried to explain the single perspective that the Curandero had been living with throughout most of history. It shaped their every reaction. That made it incredibly difficult to deal with them, especially as all they had to do was touch someone with their finger to completely control them and make them do whatever they wanted. That included vampires, who were just as vulnerable as humans to a Curandero’s touch.
For people with such a single-minded point of view, persuasion was a useless tool. Physical force would not move them either. Nial was trying to convince them, anyway. Patrick admired his determination.
“No, it is not the humans for whom we need your help,” Nial said calmly. “Just like vampires, you begin your lives as humans, before you discover that you are Curandero. That means the Summanus see you as food just as they do humans and vampires. That makes us allies.”
Gustav considered that and from the slight wrinkling of his nose and a downturn of his lips, Patrick could see he did not like that idea much at all.
“Statistics say that you and your kind must have had some interaction with the Summanus. There are too many of them for you not to have had to fight them at least once. You know so much about a person through your touch. I want you to tell us what you know about the Summanus. You must have studied them by now.”
“They are insects, with a rudimentary ability to think,” Gustav said with disdain.
“Their biology,” Nial said. “What can you tell us about their vulnerabilities? Their weaknesses? Humans are food, but what is poison to them? If there is a way to defeat them other than single-handedly taking down every single one of them, then you will be among the first of us to figure that out. You must have learned something with your interactions with them.”
Gustav got to his feet and Iona and Vincent followed. Gustav looked at Nial with a withering expression. “Why should we help you? You are bringing us to the brink of annihilation.”
“Vampires are doing everything we can to hold back disaster,” Nial said and for the first time, Patrick heard something other than calm in his voice. “If we had not revealed ourselves and warned the humans, the Summanus would have defeated us already.”
Gustav shook his head. “You bought this upon us. We would be better to retreat and stay hidden and let the Summanus have their way with you.”
“Do you not understand that if we lose, you lose?” Nial’s voice was thick with a repressed emotion. Patrick could not figure out if it was anger, or something else.
Gustav turned and headed for the door and after hesitating, the other two followed him.
“When you are ready,” Nial called after them, “we will be ready to listen to you.”
None of them reacted. They threaded their way through the vampires, who moved aside for them, and left the room.
Nial propped himself up on the back of one of the dining chairs, his fingers tight over the back rail. He hung his head.
Patrick caught Dominic’s glance. He made his thoughts very clear, so that Dominic could hear it properly.
He already looks defeated.
Dominic sighed.
* * * * *
When everyone except Sebastian had left the dining room, Winter moved over to Nial and picked up his hand. “I’m sorry. They’re completely blind and pigheaded.”
“They’re afraid,” Sebastian said. “For the first time in their history they’re facing an enemy they cannot defeat.”
Nial sighed and lifted his head. “It was always going to be a long shot,” he said softly. “And they’re right. I did strong-arm them into this.”
“It doesn’t mean you’re wrong,” Sebastian said, moving even closer to him. “The only way we are going to win this is if we all work together.”
Winter wrapped her arms around Nial’s waist, seeking a physical comfort she hadn’t been aware she wanted until this moment. Nial’s arms had always been safe. She sighed against his chest as his arms came around her. Nial pressed his lips against her hair.
“I am the one who should apologize,” he said, his voice rough. “A leader must make decisions and sometimes those decisions are based on incomplete information. Leaders make mistakes and I’ve made more than most. Those mistakes might be the foundation of our fate.”
Winter squeezed him harder, as her own fear leapt in her chest.
“It’s not over until it’s over,” Sebastian said. His voice was rough.
After that, there was nothing else to say.
They stood there for a very long time, almost as if they were afraid to move. Or afraid to face the future.
That was where Dominic found them and told them that the Unspoken Ones were demanding Nial’s presence in a video conference, to explain himself.
* * * * *
Dominic and Patrick arrived at the house just after noon, far earlier than Blythe had expected them.
She studied their faces as they stepped in the door and her heart sank.
“You look….” She wasn’t sure what it was that they looked like, except that it was not good.
Dominic’s eyes was sober and B
lythe thought she could see fear there. “The Unspoken Ones are angry with Nial. I don’t think anyone has ever seen them gather in one place, but they’re doing it now and they’re kicking his butt.”
Patrick pulled her into his arms. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
Dominic wrapped his arms around both of them and rested his head against Patrick’s shoulder for a brief moment. “Tell me about your day,” he asked Blythe. “The boring stuff. The routine. Which one of the twins is smoking in her room. Jake getting cut from the team. Anything, except the war and the Summanus.”
The war and the Summanus were her entire world, these days. There was just a chink left where she squeezed in time for her family, then a tiny sliver to spare for these two men.
So instead, she kissed Dominic. With her kiss, she expressed everything she would not say aloud. All the good happy things, the new emotions she was feeling, her hopes and dreams and wishes, that she never let out to stroll through her mind anymore because the odds were so great that none of them would ever happen. She breathed all of it into Dominic.
Patrick lifted her chin for his own kiss and it was so intense that she had the sensation that he was doing exactly the same with her. Unspoken hope. It hung between them.
Until their bodies roused and the kisses grew more heated. Until finally Patrick lifted her up and carried her upstairs, while Dominic held the bedroom door open and shut it behind them behind the three of them.
Here, they could all forget. While they were here, the rest of the world went away.
* * * * *
Garrett didn’t insist that they return home. Roman sensed he was just as interested to hear what the Unspoken Ones had to say. They sat in the lounge room with Winter and Sebastian, Efraim and Kimball and waited.
Winter and Sebastian held hands for most of the time and even Garrett was sitting closer to him on the sofa than he normally allowed himself to be in public.
Conversation started several times, then spluttered to an inconclusive end every time. Everyone had far too much on their minds to participate in desultory conversation.
Nial emerged from the office nearly three hours later. He looked haggard and tired, which was shocking for a vampire.
He waved at them, telling them to stay seated, then sat on the chair that Kimball brought over for him. He sank onto it as if his bones were just as weary as the rest of him.
For a long moment he sat with his fingers threaded together loosely, his gaze on them. Then he lifted his head. “The Unspoken Ones want me to order Marcus and Sasha to assassinate Dai Chi.”
“You can’t,” Roman said quickly. “He’s trying to work with us. He might even become an ally. Don’t they understand that?”
“They only remember that the Others, all of them, were once the enemy and that humans were very nearly destroyed because of them. The Unspoken Ones have always worked from instinct and that is what their instincts are telling them now.”
“Even though the Elah have been seen among humans, trying to be like humans?” Winter asked.
“They see that as infiltration,” Nial said.
Garrett spoke up. “The single most important strategy we have available to us now,” he said, “is the formation of allies. As many as we can bring to our side. That’s the only way this is going to work. We can’t afford to kill off a potential ally.”
“What about the Libertatus?” Sebastian said. “Do they have any ideas?”
“Every world government is in crisis,” Nial pointed out. “Most of the Libertatus are embedded in those governments. They are too busy to think clearly.”
“Then it is up to us,” Roman concluded.
Winter squeezed Nial’s hand. “What are you going to do?”
Nial’s answer was a long time coming. When he did respond, it was chilling. He let out a breath, that was almost a sigh. “I don’t know.”
* * * * *
When their sweaty bodies were still and their hearts had slowed, Dominic claimed the shower first, while Blythe got dressed quickly, with one eye on the clock.
Patrick’s phone had been buzzing on and off for the last hour and a half, so now he fished it out of his pocket and scrolled through the notifications.
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard your phone go off quite so often before,” Blythe said.
“There was a time when I had to keep it on silent all the time, or the buzzing would have pissed me off so much I would have smashed the thing against the wall. And this is my private phone. The call sheet at the agency wasn’t really a sheet. It was a binder.”
He was thumbing through screens quickly as he spoke. He was frowning.
“Bad news?” Blythe asked. These days there was wasn’t any other sort of news.
“I don’t know,” Patrick said slowly. “There are some interesting messages here. Well, not messages, because I haven’t opened them yet. It’s more the people who sent them that is interesting.”
Blythe straightened, tugging her tee shirt down. “Hollywood?” Even just asking that made her middle sink and her heart thud uneasily.
Perhaps Patrick sensed her reaction. There were times when she really thought he was reading her mind just as Dominic did. He had explained, though, that it was his stepped-up perceptions that made it seem that way. She tried not to remember too often that he could smell her moods, but that’s what it really came down to.
He looked at her sharply, his eyes narrowing. Then he put down the phone and patted the bed next to him.
Reluctantly, she sat next to him. Her heart was really racing now.
“That threatens you doesn’t it?” he asked softly.
She swallowed. “Yes, it does. I know it’s stupid—”
Patrick touched his fingers to her lips, silencing her. “Shhh….” He picked up her hand and pressed it against his thigh, spreading the fingers and stroking them. Then his gaze met hers again. “You must know by now that this relationship is completely different.”
“That’s what you told the tabloids every time you started dating a new supermodel.” She couldn’t even smile.
He nodded. He didn’t try to deny it. “Does it help if I say I don’t give a shit about Hollywood anymore?”
Blythe considered that. “You’re really a vampire now, aren’t you?”
“My loyalties have shifted, yes.” Then he frowned. “I’m not even sure I had loyalties before. I had ambitions. Only, ambitions are not a good foundation upon which to build a life. Look at where I was before you came along.”
“You were with Dominic,” she reminded him. “I’m the interloper.”
“You know that’s not true.” He twined his fingers between hers and closed their hands together. “Dominic and I would never have lasted. It took you to change the dynamic and that is what is going to keep us together. All of us.”
They both looked up as the bathroom door opened and Dominic emerged, naked and still gleaming with moisture. “Must you two always have heart-to-hearts when I’m somewhere I can’t extricate myself in a hurry?”
He sat on the bed, in the middle so that he was between the two of them and facing their linked hands. His eyes were grave, despite his grumbles. “I got almost all of that. Patrick is right. I don’t think even you and I would have lasted, Blythe, if Patrick was not here, too. None of us work together, unless all three of us are together.”
Then he looked at Patrick. “If Hollywood is going to come calling again, that is going to put some interesting stresses on things. Blythe’s right to feel afraid. I think I do, too.”
“We don’t even know what Hollywood wants yet,” Patrick said. “Maybe they’re all telling me to piss off again.”
“Not after you’ve been plastered across television with the sword strapped to your back, out there fighting the bad guys every night like a real hero,” Blythe said.
“I can’t think of a single other A-list actor who has been seen doing something like that. It’s recasting you as a hero for real,” Dominic ad
ded.
Patrick looked at them both, his gaze moving from one to the other. His expression was sober. “I won’t make promises,” he said gently. “I’ve been breaking promises my entire life, so I won’t promise now. I won’t even ask you to trust me. Just give me time. Give me the time I need to prove to you that things have changed.”
“Things changed because Hollywood didn’t want you anymore,” Dominic said. “Now they want you back.”
“No one gets to go back, remember?” Patrick said.
Blythe tried to smile and managed a weak one. Dominic brushed her hair out of her eyes and kissed her temple, then pressed his lips against Patrick’s cheek. “I look forward to your proof,” he said. “For now, we better move our asses. Jake and the girls will be back soon and I’m really in the mood to kick some Summanus’ ass tonight.”
* * * * *
The news about Nashville broke the next morning. Blythe had tried to ban the news at the breakfast table, because all the bad tidings made the day start under a cloud. As she was so rarely at the breakfast table, everyone had gotten into the habit of listening to updates while they ate.
The morning was an occasion when she did not feel so drained that she couldn’t get out of bed for a short hour or two to share breakfast with her children. Patrick and Dominic and Jake and the girls had the breakfast routine down to a science, so she sat at the table to stay out of their way and watched with growing amazement as everyone worked together to get breakfast on the table in record time.
There was a lot of chitchat and snarky comments thrown around the room, to be batted back with zingers. Jake and Simone and Eloise gave as good as they got, which was even more amazing. Her girls were generally shy around adult men, as they had not had a father figure in their lives, yet some of the more smart alec one-liners were tossed at Patrick and Dominic by both of them.
Blood Revealed Page 27