"I might have someone," Weldon replied, after appearing to give the matter a bit of thought. "I'll make some inquiries and let you know. We have a bedroom prepared for you, and I'm a little tired myself," Weldon yawned to get his message across. Kipp and two other wolves would keep watch on the cabin through the night. Weldon had gotten wind of the trouble that might be coming and was taking no chances as a result. Lucas Alford rose and Weldon led him out of his study and down the hall to the guest room.
* * *
"You're sure about this?" Rear Admiral Dennis Hafer shut the folder his spy handed over. If the gathered information was correct, Anthony Hancock could be blackmailed or exposed unless the female agent was offered to him. The Admiral had plenty of uses for her; he didn't care who or what she was. Hancock had allowed his pet research biologist to experiment on six special ops agents. Now, all six were dying of a rare disease. Hafer merely had to leak this information to the press and things would blow up immediately surrounding the Director, the President and a few other top officials. The Admiral smiled grimly. He intended to get what he wanted, one way or another, and he wasn't above using any means necessary to achieve his goal.
"Where is Hancock now?" The Admiral asked.
"Out of the country. In the U.K., I believe," the spy replied.
"Can we have him followed?"
"Easily," the spy agreed.
* * *
"There is no need to worry that anyone will attack or compromise the building while we're here or at the manor," Merrill informed Gavin as they dropped their bags in the vestibule. Merrill ordered their driver to deliver them to the flat they'd used before in London. Gavin watched as Merrill relaxed his guard once they were inside. It was a four-story brick but only the first floor was used as living quarters; the rest was used for storage and parking. The underground portion held several vehicles, some of them vintage and worth quite a lot. Merrill pulled out his cell phone and made a call to Franklin. It was still early—not yet nine.
"We're fine," Merrill assured his human child. "How are Greg's treatments progressing?" Gavin listened in on both sides of the conversation—he knew Merrill wouldn't make the call in his presence if he desired otherwise.
"As well as can be expected; Greg's taking medication to keep the nausea down, but that only goes so far. He's doing all right at the moment," Franklin's voice was muted through the cell.
Gavin tuned out the rest of the conversation—Lissa was the one he wanted to speak with, but she'd been sent on a secret mission. Wlodek refused to give details and that frustrated him. He couldn't imagine where she might be that she couldn't risk taking a call now and then. A low growl escaped his throat just thinking about it. Gavin located the refrigerator in the kitchen and helped himself to a bag of blood, grumbling mentally as he drank.
* * *
Franklin placed the cordless phone in its cradle and turned to Greg. "You don't think Lissa will mind if I borrow this?" Greg held up her Louis Vuitton carryall. It was one of the bags Charles had given her shortly after the Council found her not guilty.
"Lissa would give it to you if you wanted it," Franklin smiled. Lissa wasn't much on possessions; he knew that. He and Greg were taking their trip to Las Vegas; that's what he'd told Merrill while they were on the phone. Merrill offered the jet and Brock to fly it, but Franklin had already booked first class tickets. The doctors had given a cautious go-ahead for Greg to make the ten-day trip.
"Lissa would give us anything," Greg nodded. "It's just the way she is. But I'm still only borrowing the bag." Franklin walked over and kissed his mate.
* * *
Dragon and I sat in the small office inside Dragon's dojo. The local constabulary had come calling to check our IDs. Our wrists were scanned, the computer records checked and I was doing my best to emulate the vampire mask of indifference. My cleaning had been interrupted for this and now the cop was asking Dragon questions. He couldn't find a thing wrong with our IDs or computer records; Dragon sent mindspeech, telling me that Pheligar the Larentii was very efficient at this sort of thing.
"So, you purchased this business three months ago? Where did you live before then?"
"My records indicate that I was off-planet. My birth planet is Falchan, as I'm sure you've been made aware. I'm obviously not local," Dragon pointed out. There wasn't any doubt about that; his Asian good looks weren't Refizani by any stretch of the imagination.
"And your reasons for relocating here?" The local cop wasn't giving up. I wondered if he were on Solar Red's payroll, mentioning that to Dragon in mindspeech. He didn't even bat an eyelash when I sent him my question.
He is, good catch, Dragon returned. I don't know how he gets his information so quickly, but at least we knew what the local cop was digging for. He was about to get a little taste of compulsion.
"Mr. Tatsuya here has answered all your questions," I put my own mojo on, looking the cop in the eye. "He saw a business opportunity and took it. He doesn't do much besides providing eye candy for the women he teaches. I'm his cleaning lady. That's it. Goodbye, Mr. Streetbrick." What a name, but it was on his badge.
"Thank you for your time," the man nodded, his eyes still clouded by my compulsion. He gathered his data recorder, placed it inside a pouch he slung over a shoulder and left us.
"That was outstanding." Dragon gave me a hug as he and I stood. I went back to my cleaning and promised Dragon I'd lock up so he could go home and eat something. Changing later after a quick shower in the locker rooms, I headed toward Gabron and Blue Desire.
"Little Queen." Gabron smiled and tucked my hand in his arm. He led me through the same door that Briden had taken me through before, only we took a different route this time. The vampires held the entire underground beneath the Refizani capital city. Karzac informed me it was called Ordinandis and was quite surprised when I told him I didn't know where I was. Well, Pheligar hadn't handed me a road map or an atlas to the place when he dumped me in Dragon and Karzac's apartment.
"There are more than thirty ticks of solid ground beneath the streets and nothing under the buildings has been tunneled through," Gabron informed me as we traveled a path through warrens and passageways. Every few feet we passed a massive column of natural rock or concrete, supporting the ground above us and holding everything in place. Seems the Refizani vampires had some talented engineers among their numbers.
"So the vampires have created most of this?" I watched Gabron's face. We were currently on level ground so he turned and smiled at me a little.
"Yes. Over centuries we have done this; being careful, always, to make sure there is enough support for the upper ground. If something new is placed and we determine that it isn't solid enough beneath, we either fill that in or convince the authorities to build elsewhere."
"Where are we going now?" I asked.
"There are other meeting places besides the Council theatre," Gabron replied. We walked for nearly an hour before coming to a narrowing and then to a wide, formal-looking doorway. There had to be at least six hundred vampires inside the hollowed-out chamber beyond, all there waiting for us.
Is every vampire here? I sent to Gabron, who turned and absolutely beamed at me when he received my mindspeech.
Little Queen, it has been thousands of years since I was able to mindspeak someone, he returned. No, not every vampire is here. These are the eldest and our elite. They all wanted to meet you.
This brought to mind the annual meeting that I'd gone to last year in London, emerging from it engaged to Gavin. I hoped this wouldn't turn out to be something similar. I was given so many names as we made our way into that huge, hollowed-out chamber that I stopped trying to associate names with scents after a while. "This is one of our hosts," Gabron introduced me to the next one and I held my hand out automatically before getting his scent. Thankfully, the automatic gesture probably saved us—for the moment, anyway—the vampire was radiating nastiness and it was all I could do to smile and say it was a pleasure to meet him. His name was M
irazal and I was sending mindspeech as quickly as I could to Gabron as I took Mirazal's hand. He kissed my palm, making my skin crawl and then itch furiously.
Gabron, something's wrong and Mirazal knows what it is! I was desperate for him to believe me. The vampires at home would have brushed it off with an are you sure, Lissa? Or just given me a stare while ignoring what I'd said. Gabron did neither. Instead, he smoothly intervened.
"Mirazal, you will tell me now just what evil you and Farimak have planned." Mirazal could no more ignore that compulsion than he could walk in sunlight without being fried.
"Solar Red is coming. Farimak is leading them in," Mirazal parroted. I could tell the words came against his will and Gabron was about to gather the other vampires and get them away when the lights went out.
The lights going out wouldn't hamper vampires, but it was what the sputtering of the lights heralded that created the panic. The caves surrounding us were being imploded; we could all hear the booming sounds of detonations, along with the crashing of rocks and earth as they collapsed around us. Then the floor beneath our feet began to shake and dust and dirt sifted down over our heads. Chaos was now prevalent inside the chamber and we were in danger of being trampled. Grabbing onto Gabron as quickly as I could, I went to mist and lifted both of us over the heads of six hundred frightened vampires. The shaking around us became worse; rock, dust and the occasional brick or small boulder fell among those still standing on the floor, so I sent mindspeech to Gabron.
Are they going to blow this one, too, do you think?
It is possible. He was doing his best to remain calm, even though he was mist and unable to do anything for himself. Many vampires were being trampled underfoot trying to get out the one wide doorway, which had nearly disappeared beneath rubble from the outside cavern. Once the door was completely blocked, the floor beneath the vampires began to buckle. Time to take action.
I'll give the vampires props for not screaming much. There were a few shrieks while the explosions were going off but mostly there was a panicked exodus toward the door, resulting in some being knocked down and injured. I, on the other hand, was just about to see how many vampires I could carry as mist. It turned out to be most of them.
My nose became my best ally that night in gathering up vampires. If they smelled tainted in any way, I left them behind, gathering up the others instead. In all, I picked up five hundred forty-seven vampires (I didn't learn this until later when Gabron told me) and carried them, first through the ceiling of the cave and then out and over the streets. We all watched as a huge bowl caved in beneath us, blowing a tremendous cloud of dust and debris skyward. Any vampire left inside that cavern died. I now had the name of a new enemy—Farimak. He was on my list of the next to die if I had anything to say about it.
Gabron, where do you want me to take you and the others? I'd thought about the Council Chamber but didn't know where it was from above.
My library, he returned. I knew where that was; I'd come out of there and would recognized the building from overhead. I flew in that direction and in less than ten minutes, I was above the building, listening to more than five hundred vampires scream mentally as we descended right through the roof. We then streamed downward more than two hundred feet until I was surrounded by the bookshelves in Gabron's library. Hoping that five hundred vampires could sort themselves out, I dumped them in the widest space inside Gabron's huge collection. Some of them ended up stacked a few deep, but they were alive.
Gabron took charge, thank goodness, and ordered some to separate the injured from the others so they could be treated for their wounds. I helped as much as I could and Briden, who appeared out of nowhere, heaved a huge sigh of relief when he saw that Gabron and the others were all right. He found water and medical supplies; what was needed for vampires, at least. A few present had some sort of medical experience—they were helping set broken bones. Vampires are a hardy bunch and aside from being a bit grumpy over the whole thing, they came out all right. The broken bones and other injuries would heal during their next rejuvenating sleep. Gabron pulled me away after a while and all the Council members followed silently behind.
A hidden room behind a heavy shelf was where I was taken; Gabron's palm was what it took to get us inside and away from the others. It looked like a war room to me, with electronic maps of the city shining across a lengthy, glass-surfaced table. Chairs surrounded the table and we all took seats.
"Farimak will believe we are all dead, unless we lead him to think otherwise," Gabron began. That was exactly what I'd been thinking, so I didn't interrupt. "Therefore," Gabron continued, "we will remain dead for the time being."
"How will we feed ourselves? There are more than five hundred, out there." One Council member gestured angrily toward the library itself.
"I have stores set aside," Gabron sighed. "I was afraid that Solar Red would take the city and we would have to provide for ourselves while we fled. I have enough in the chamber behind this one to feed us for nearly a month. It is frozen at the moment, but that can be remedied."
"Then my most persistent worry is averted," the Council member relaxed a little.
"Your assignment is to go out and inform the others that we will remain in hiding until the evening of the ritual, allowing Solar Red to think they have crippled the vampires," Gabron continued. "With these five hundred or more gone—our most powerful vampires seemingly killed through treachery—the others that are left will be leaderless and abandoned. We must allow them to think this and give no indication otherwise. It is only for a short while, before we will be free again and rid our city of the taint that grows within it. Are there any objections or alternative suggestions?" Gabron surveyed his Council. I think they all saw the wisdom in his words—nobody said anything.
"Good. Go perform your duties. Place compulsion if you must. Lissa and I have an errand to run." All the council members were still covered in dust from the explosions and cave-ins and looked as if they were mighty grumpy on top of all that, but they rose silently and walked out the door to inform the others.
"Lissa, we must go to the Solar Red temple," Gabron turned to me once the others were gone. I'd sat quietly beside him while he talked to the others.
"As mist," I nodded. I think he and I were on the same wavelength. This was such a welcome change from dealing with Wlodek and the others. I think he and I both knew that Farimak posed the greatest threat to us, and more than likely Solar Red had imprisoned him after the cave implosion. Who knows what plans they had for him—after all, they'd not shown any sympathy toward his co-conspirator, Mirazal, leaving him to die inside the chamber with all the others. I also wanted to check out the damage around the cave-in; a street ran overhead but there were buildings nearby. I wanted to see what was being done and if the warrens and caves surrounding the cave-in were in danger of being discovered. Farimak came first, however.
"Are you ready?" I asked Gabron.
"Yes," he jerked his head in a curt nod. I didn't want to be Farimak, right then. Gabron was angry and had held that anger back until now. I turned to mist, pulled him into my mist and we went through the ceiling like a rocket.
* * *
"She's fine," Dragon patted Karzac on the shoulder. Karzac could Look for himself, but was afraid to do so. News crews were already covering the scene and while the general population had no idea that vampires existed, Solar Red was now consenting to do interviews, alerting the population that there was an evil among them and offering to give evidence at the ritual. Dragon snorted at the announcement; Solar Red was threatening to expose the vampires to give the citizens a common enemy; one that Solar Red would be more than happy to help eliminate in an effort to gain a better hold on the planet.
"They won't even realize the vampires have been living among them peacefully all this time," Karzac grumbled. "Solar Red will describe them as terrible monsters, when they themselves are the ones." He walked into the kitchen to make a cup of tea.
"The population is unset
tled and Solar Red will take advantage," Dragon agreed.
* * *
It was too bad that Farimak hadn't known I could mist through walls and ceilings. Only the Council had witnessed that little trick and I had the notion that Gabron might have ordered them to keep quiet about it. Now, not only five hundred vampires or more had survived what should have killed them all, but at the moment, we were dropping through the roof of the temple in order to find Farimak—the treasonous little bastard.
It wasn't easy. I even hauled Gabron into the small torture chamber where the Vice-Governor had been held, but Farimak wasn't there. There also wasn't anyone inside the cells where I'd rescued prisoners. There were guards posted in both places, however. They must have been expecting someone more solid—Gabron and I misted right past them.
It wasn't until we started making our way through the offices, (of which there were many) that we found our culprit. And he had cuffs on; the same kind that had been on Gabron's prisoner when I'd attended the Council meeting. No doubt, that's where they'd gotten them to begin with. It made me wonder just how much Hartolz had spilled before he'd been caught.
We found five priests and two guards inside the office where our duplicitous vampire was being held. Farimak sat in a chair against the inside wall, with all the guards' eyes glued to him and watching avidly, waiting for someone to come. Someone had come, all right, but with this many witnesses, perhaps we needed to be a bit more subtle. I have an idea, I sent to Gabron, and misted outside the room again.
There was an empty office directly behind the one that held Farimak and the others. I dropped Gabron inside it. I'll be right back, I promised mentally and he nodded at me. I had done this twice before, but both times, I had been extremely angry. Now it was time to see if it could be done when I wasn't so angry I couldn't see straight. I'd blown my mist outward the first time and knocked the front out of Galloway Recycling in New Mexico. Then I'd blown the door to my room shut in the same way when Dragon and Karzac were less than receptive to vampire help.
Blood Domination (Blood Destiny #4) Page 11