Rothesay, Lft. - Stagsnare Dimension commander in charge of the first wave of assassins who attacked Elora in A Summoner's Tale. (3,5)
Rystrome, Pvt. - Ralengclan soldier, Stagsnare Dimension, assigned to first wave team of assassins. (3,5)
Shade, Richard "Dick" - Loan shark. Privately called "Baph" for Baphomet by Angel Wolfram Storm. (5)
Shakespeare - Author of the dark play, "A Season in Hell". (3)
SilverRuff - Alpha of the werewolf colony established by migration a thousand years earlier. (4)
Stalking Shadow - Stalkson Grey's late father. (4)
Stalkson Grey (wolf) - Named after the king of the Elk Mountain werewolf tribe. The alpha of the Dolmen pack of wolves that live in the New Forest, Northern Ireland. (3)
Stavna - Baka's eldest daughter. (3)
Storm, Angel Wolfram - Storm's counterpart who must learn to impersonate him perfectly. (5)
Storm, Elora Rose "Rosie" - Daughter of Storm and Litha. (4,5,9)
Storm, Engel Beowulf "Storm" - B Team de facto leader. (Series)
Storm, Evangeline "Eva/Birdie" - Storm's mother and Rosie's grandmother "Birdie." (5)
Tarriman - Part of the Stagsnare Dimension assassination project. The seventeenth test subject used in Archer's interdimensional transport experiment. (5)
Theasophie - One of the Council. (6)
Torquil, Duff "Duffy" - Prince of the Scotia Fae. (2,3,4,6)
Torquil, Lorna - Duff's mother. Queen of Scotia Fae. (6)
Torquil, Ritavish - Duff''s father, King of Scotia Fae. (6)
Tvelgar, Simon - Director of The Order's headquarters office at Edinburgh. (2,3,7,9)
Wakenmann, Rolfe "Wakey" - Jefferson Unit Trainee. (5,7) Knight (9)
Widow Brennan - Tutors Ram on plants, cooking, and playing stringed instruments when he was a child in the New Forest. (8)
Yanev, Professor - Bulgarian professor from Sofia University. Supervisor of the vampire dig. (7)
Zajac, Zutsanna - A dinner companion seated next to Elora who is working on a "top secret" project seemingly related to Elora's interdimensional transport. (1)
SECTION 2: Terms, Places, Things
abraxas - Type of elemental fire demon. (2)
Angland - England in Loti Dimension. (3)
Ashanabe - Werewolf Tribe in British Columbia. (9)
B Team - A.K.A. Bad Company. Black Swan's elite unit of knights stationed at Jefferson Unit, Fort Dixon, New Jersey. (Series)
Black on Tarry - The New Forest, Ireland village preserved in pre-technology living. (1,8)
blithemoss - An herb grown on Throenark by the Cult of Vervain for healing purposes. (4)
British Columbia - Western Canadian province where Duff and Song planned to live. (6) Site of Ashanabe werewolf tribe. (9)
Briton East India Company - Baka's shipping concern. (3)
Cairdeas Deo, Order of - Order of monks who raised Litha in Sonoma. (2)
Cape May, New Jersey - Location of Farnsworth's beach house. (7)
Coeur d'Alene - Idaho city near Elk Mountain werewolf tribe. (3,4) Also mentioned in New Scotia Pack Series.
Council - A group of misfit adolescent deities who were, given the planet and it's dimension as a group project; (Culain, Etana, Rager, Heralda the Dark, Ming Xia, Theasophie, and Huber Quizno.) (6)
Derry, Ireland - Seat of the Elfdom. Palace home to Rammel Hawking's family. (1,2,6,8)
Drac Unit - Nickname for Romanian Unit that housed Baka's prison. (1,3)
drayweed - herb that alters fetus gender, Throenark Dimension (4)
Dublin - Irish city. University, banking, and tourist trade. (8)
Dunkilly - Fishing village on Atlantic Coast of Ireland. The site of Mick Finngarick's wake. (5)
Edinburgh, Scotia - Site of Black Swan headquarters. (Series)
elf tales - Fairy tales told by Elora to Touchstone during his hospital recovery. (1) Renamed elf tales at Ram's insistence, retold and adapted by Ram when Elora was comatose. (8)
Elk Mountain, Idaho - Reservation. Location of Stalkson Grey's tribe of werewolves. (2)
Faroe Islands - First stop on Aelsong's and Duff's elopement flight. (6)
Field Training Manual - "#1 The plural of vampire is vampire." The FTM is the vampire hunter's resource guide. It contains information about vampire, their habits and proclivities, and also outlines rules of procedure and conduct expected from Knight of The Order of the Black Swan. (1)
Fort Dixon - Fictitious New Jersey military base that provided cover and the protection of a no-fly zone for Jefferson Unit. (Series)
frenalwort - herb that alters fetus gender, Loti Dimension (4)
gold - The universal currency. The only commodity accepted for trade across all worlds. (3)
Great Paddy - Reference of undetermined origin and uncertain meaning as used by Rammel Hawking (Series)
Great Vampire Inversion - Name given the era when it was believed that the vampire virus would be cured. (2)
Grunwald Unit - Black Swan unit near Berlin, Germany. (8)
Guadalupe River - Hunt, Texas site of two B Team weddings. (2)
Halcyon Bar - Where Storm worked when he was lost in another dimension. (5)
Halcyon Dimension - Home of Angel, Storm's counterpart. (5)
incubus - Male sex demon. (2)
Jeanne d'Arc Unit - Paris installation of The Order of the Black Swan. (9)
Jefferson Unit - Prominent facility of The Order housing active Black Swan knights, a training facility, and the largest scientific labs. (Series)
Sublevel 1- Classrooms, media center, server rooms, administration, all offices except for operations which was off the Hub.
Sublevel 2 - Research labs, Monq's suite, training simulators, firing ranges.
Sublevel 3 - Fitness center, sparring, pool.
K Team - aka Kid Team, as named by Ram. Kris Falcon, Rolfe Wakenmann, Harvest Sinclair, Kellan Chorzak (9)
Laiwynn - Elora's clan. (1)
London, Angland - Shopping. (2,9)
Loti Dimension - The reality called "Earth" by humans. (2)
Lunark Dimension - Where the Elk Mountain tribe's ancestors had migrated. (4)
Manhattan - New York City peninsula. (Series)
Marquise de Rambouilet - The Paris salon established by Catherine de Vivonne for French nobles who were patrons of the arts. (3)
New Elk Mountain - New settlement of werewolves who migrated from Loti Dimension. (4) Also in New Scotia Pack series.
New Forest, The - Northern Irish nature and culture preserve. Home of the Black-on-Tarry village, the royal hunting cottage retreat, and the wolf dolmen. (1,2,3,8)
Notte Fuoco - Manhattan night club where B team sets up an undercover mission to track down vampires. (1,8)
Ovelgoth Alla - Home dimension to Deliverance. (2)
Palio di Sienna - Horse race held in the center of town (Sienna, Italy) twice a year. (2)
Ralengclan - Rival Briton Clan from Elora's home world, Stagsnare Dimension. (1,5)
Rio de Janiero - Brazil city where Sol's corporeal host died. (7)
Shamayim Super Dimension - The afterlife. (7)
Shrifthet Dimension - Where authorities gave Elk Mountain boys a VISA for thirty days to find brides. (4)
Sienna, Italy - Site of Litha's disappearance. Gateway to Deliverance's lair. (2)
Solomon Nemamiah Medal of Honor - Given to Falcon and Wakenmann for courage under fire. (5)
Sozopol, Bulgaria - Site of the vampire dig. (7)
Stagsnare Dimension - Elora Laiken's dimension. Home of the Laiwynn and Ralengclan. (1,3)
The Norns - Kay's three sisters named after The Norns of Norse myth. (2)
Transylvania - Site of the Romanian Unit where Baka was held prisoner. (1,3)
Throenark Dimension - Home of the Cult of the Moon Vergins. Where Stalkson Grey snatched Luna. (4)
Washington Square - Common Manhattan visual. (9)
White Fang - Baka's contact name in Elora's cell phone.
(1)
Z Team - aka Zed Company. Misfits transferred from Marrakesh to test Glen. (4,9)
Solomon’s Sieve
(Black Swan 7)
Victoria Danann
Copyright 2014 Victoria Danann
Published by 7th House, an Imprint of Andromeda LLC
PROLOGUE
The beach Cape May, New Jersey
Sol
Regrets? Well, sure. Nobody dies without regrets.
The only way to avoid that would be to sleep even less than I did and be rearranging your priorities every minute. Of course, if you rearranged your priorities every minute, then there’d be no time for anything else and, at the end of your life, you’d regret that you’d wasted your time working so hard at trying to reach the finish line without regrets that you never got anything done.
What’s my biggest regret? The first thing that comes to mind isn’t exactly a regret, but more a disappointment. I wish I’d had more time to spend with Farnsworth.
I never expected to find love so late in life. Neither did she. I asked her once why she’d never married. She said she was waiting for the right crusty old bastard to come along. I liked that answer. I liked just about everything about Farnsworth.
All those years I would stop off at the Hub and grab one of those rank strong coffees with a cheese and ham and egg thing they nuked while I waited, which was never long because the way I stared at them made them so fidgety they could hardly wait to give me my order and get me the hell out of their space. Makes me smile just thinking about it.
So every morning I was just steps away from where Farnsworth was in Operations, really running the whole show at Jefferson Unit while I was taking credit for it. Fuck me. She’s one of a kind.
It’s funny to think that all those years she was right there and we just never made that connection. I guess it’s not exactly funny.
Now that I have one foot on the other side, the pieces all fit together better and it’s easier to see things clearly. Got to stop and laugh at my own jokes, because who else is going to? That was funny because I only have one foot. Looks like the damn dune buggy cut off my leg. And my life. I’m bleeding out, listening to the weeping of the only woman I ever loved and that’s the hardest part.
The only reason I can joke about this is because it’s temporary. I can’t stay gone. There’s too much going on.
I was planning to wait until I got back from the first vacation I ever took in my life to inform the interested parties, that would be almost everyone I know, that the great bright promise of curing vampirism with a vaccine… well, it’s not working. And, unfortunately, the conclusion is that it’s not going to work. Ever.
It’s starting to look like it would be easier to rid the world of cockroaches and we all know how that’s going. No one doubts that, in the end, cockroaches will be the last life form left on Earth.
So I don’t have any plans for crossing to the other side and dancing in the sunshine or singing “Kum Ba Yah” with people who don’t have anything better to do. I’m going to lie here and wait until this body gives up the ghost, while this magnificent woman beside me cries her heart out. Then I’m going to raise hel until they find a way to bring me back.
CHAPTER 1
New York
The facilitator looked at him like she’d rather have him thrown out than help him get caught up to speed. Yes. He was late. Yes. He was a mess. “Is that blood on your face?” she’d asked, looking down her nose.
That’s only one of the shitty things that’s likely to happen when you pick the wrong fight in a battle with extra-dimensional assassins. Among others, you could end up locked in a freezing basement cage for hours.
His answer was to stare in bald challenge. “Just tell me where I’m supposed to be.”
She hesitated, but decided it would be less disruptive to the event to go along with the maniac than to cause a scene. “Very well, Mr…,” she looked down at the card, “Nightsong. Everyone will be changing stations in…” she looked at her stop watch, “five, four, three – go to station seven now – two, one.” She raised her voice. “Time everyone! Move on to the next table.”
Raif spotted the number seven and headed in that direction, clearing a path as people took one look and gave him a wide berth. When he got a look at the woman who had just sat down to wait for him at table number seven, he felt his dick jerk and that infuriated him. He flopped into the empty chair seething about the past twenty-four hours, about having to comply with a speed date because he’d lost a bet, about how unsatisfying his work for Black Swan had become, and about the fact that the cutie was getting a response from his pants that was not in line with how tired and dejected he was at the moment.
He refused to look at her. Instead, he looked around the room with a smirk. Speed dating. What could be more ludicrous for a guy like him? He had a progression of pleasure-giving penis piercings, commonly known as a ladder, and a reputation with women that was nothing to be ashamed of. Well, depending on who you talked to. But he’d never been on a “date” in his life.
His present discomfort was his teammate’s idea of a joke, the price of a wager that misfired.
“I’m Mercedes.”
The sound of her voice brought him back. He let his eyes roam over what he could see above the table top slowly, way too slowly for speed dating. It was an intimidation tactic intended to make her uncomfortable, deliberate or not. She was buttoned up all the way to the neck and he thought the closed tight look was out of place on a natural redhead with freckles that seemed to say, “Underneath this disguise, I’m as unruly as the pigment in my skin.”
“Rafael Nightsong.”
Her lips parted and stayed open for a minute, like she was thinking about repeating his name, but she recovered quickly and that look vanished. “So. What do you do?”
“Vampire hunter,” he said as nonchalantly as if the answer had been insurance salesman.
She supposed he must have been attempting some sort of theatrical goth look. The style was outrageous, but those eyes were such a pale shade of blue, framed by midnight black hair and lashes, they drew her in, compelling her to look and preventing her from looking away. One could almost believe that he actually was a vampire hunter.
Gathering her composure, she smirked. “I see. You must be too shy to talk about yourself. So, let me just refer to your card then.” She picked up a white four by six index card with the number seven in bold at the top. “I see you like long walks on the beach and pina coladas.” He barked out a laugh in spite of himself. He had to give it up. Torn Finngarick was a funny guy. “Let me guess. I’ll bet you also like getting caught in the rain.”
“Yes. I’m a simple guy, easy to read. Long walks on the beach and pina coladas are my idea of fun.” Her rust-colored eyelashes swept down and to the side as she looked away. “Sooooooo. Let’s see what your card says about you.” He shuffled through cards and held one up pretending to read. “Here we are. Little Miss Sheltered McManners. For fun you like spraying with Lysol and wearing stilts. All the better to look down on other people.”
“Mr… you know, really, the most interesting thing about you is that you chose Nightsong for a fake name. I don’t need stilts to look down on you. I could be lying face down on the floor and wouldn’t have any trouble.”
One of his brows arched. “Well, well, well. Honesty. Wasn’t expecting that.”
The facilitator’s voice rang out, “One minute.”
“Sixty seconds.” His malicious grin was sexy in spite of its intent. “Just long enough for me to say that I’ll bet your cunt is buttoned up tighter than your sweater. I’ll bet it’s so sanitary that it doesn’t even smell like pussy. A shame because I like the smell of pussy. For one thing it’s honest.”
Mercy didn’t think of herself as prudish, but hearing that tirade come from the mouth of a complete stranger sitting on the other side of white linen was shocking. While she was trying to make up her mind between blushing and blanching, he
decided to add one parting comment.
“You know, hives is not a good look for you.”
“Time!”
She wasn’t about to allow that to be the last thing said between them. “You’re an authority of good looks? Have you seen a mirror? When did post-apocalyptic remnant become the new GQ? You look like an extra from a zombie movie set.”
“Time!”
He glanced toward the facilitator at the front of the room, who had repeated herself, more forcefully, for their benefit.
“Good. ‘Cause we’re done here.” He shoved the chair back as he stood, throwing his splayed hands out in front of him to punctuate his exit like a petulant teenager who’d been wronged.
Knights of Black Swan, Books 7-9 (Knights of Black Swan Box Set Book 3) Page 2