“Why would we trust a parasite?” Ben asked.
The vampire chuckled and a hint of Russian accent seeped into his words. “I’m not here to make friends. I came to notify you of the possibility to get close to the weapon. If, for some reason, you do not wish to partake in the retrieval of it, please, be so kind and get lost. I see no reason for you to remain here otherwise.”
Ben’s hand twitched, and Maya glared at Alexander, yet it did not faze the vampire. If it did, Alexander didn’t show it.
The tension in the room was almost palpable. Helena stood abruptly, silently cursing her screaming muscles. “Alexander has a point. We need that weapon.”
Maya glanced at her, and her stern gaze returned to Alexander. “I don’t trust him. Give us the details of where the meeting will happen. We can go by ourselves.”
With a smirk, Alexander faced her. “You wish to meet with a warlock by yourself?”
“Reaver isn’t human?” Ben asked.
“Not in the slightest. The man stays away from Wiccan Circles which keeps him hidden from your kind.”
“What’s a warlock?” Helena asked, frowning.
“Same thing as a siren or a witch only they are more powerful and are not part of any Circle. Or am I mistaken?” Alexander replied, glancing at Ben.
“If he is a warlock,” Ben said, “we need to contact the local clan…”
“If any hunters surface near him, he will disappear along with his collection of relics,” Alexander added.
Ben seemed torn between duty and the task at hand. His shoulders shook, and she noticed his fingers were curled into fists at his sides.
“Ben, we can’t tell the others. We will lose this chance,” Maya said.
“I know. But I’ve been a hunter since I was born, Maya. Breaking one rule is a punishment we can take, breaking more is death.”
Helena was taken aback by his words. “Why death?”
“I don’t have time to explain,” he snapped and focused his attention on Alexander. “When and where is the meet-up?”
Alexander smiled and reached into the inner pocket of his suit jacket.
Ben tensed, and Maya’s expression hardened.
Alexander withdrew a small envelope and tossed it on the coffee table. “That’s the details about the meeting. I expect to see you in Vienna at the time and place instructed.”
Ben took the envelope and handed it to Helena. “Open it.”
She did as she was told and passed him the papers inside without a word.
Alexander’s steady gaze settled on her. “It seems you’ve become accustomed to them ordering you around.”
In return, her anger spiked, and she glowered at him. He was mocking her. She had no idea why he was so against her every action. It seemed the more she tried to be civil around him, the more he pushed her buttons. Her shoulders shook, and she pressed her mouth shut. If she spoke, she knew she would say things that could drive them further apart, and she couldn’t let that happen. Not until she knew if Lucious was alright.
“It seems your job here is done. Now you can get out before we shoot you full of holes,” Maya hissed. She was already holding her pistol in her hand, and Helena tried to remember when she had the time to draw it.
Alexander rose from his seat. “As always, a pleasure to converse with your kind.”
“Likewise,” Ben said with enough venom in that one word to kill a man.
Alexander chuckled and fleeted out of the room faster than Helena could comprehend.
Ben scanned the documents, and Helena asked, “What’s in there?”
He glanced at her. “It would be best if you go to bed early. There is a lot for you to do tomorrow.”
“I want to see them.”
“Helena, if Ben says it’s best to rest, he is doing so because it will help your body heal faster,” Maya said.
“I am not here to listen to Ben’s orders. This is my home, and I want to know what’s in those papers.”
Ben shoved the documents into his back pocket and crossed his arms. “Rest.”
“Ben, maybe we shouldn’t—” When he glared at Maya, she shut her mouth and didn’t say another word.
“You should rest as well, Maya.”
Helena didn’t like the way he was behaving. What was in those papers that made him want to hide it from her? She could call Alexander and ask, but she knew he would ignore her and say she was wasting his time. She sighed in defeat. There was no way she could fight against Ben or Maya in her current state. For the time being, she had no choice but to comply with their demands.
She stormed past the hunters and, with heavy footsteps, marched upstairs. Entering her room, she locked the door behind her. Her chest felt restricted and her head hurt. They were supposed to work together. Why wouldn’t they let her in? Was it because she wasn’t human anymore?
The apartment was becoming suffocating—a cage just for her. She made her way to the window and opened it, letting the cool evening breeze brush against her skin.
From one trouble to the next. She rested her elbows on the windowsill and buried her face in her hands. Helena fought the tears that marched to the surface. As much as she wanted to release her repressed emotions, she wouldn’t cry. She lowered her hands and gazed at the bracelets on her wrist. The amber stones were almost as black as night. She had to get them cleansed soon. They only lasted up to three days before becoming useless. It unnerved her how persistent the demon had become in his pursuit of their souls.
She made her way to her bed and lifted her grandmother’s grimoire from under the pillow. She settled it on her lap and read the entries as she had done before in this room six months ago, searching for more answers and hidden meanings.
Helena must have fallen asleep reading because she woke up the next day and rubbed her eyes. Was Ben right? The moment she was lying in a horizontal position, she only managed to get through the first few paragraphs before sleep claimed her.
She sat up. Her body didn’t ache as much as it had the previous day. Once more, she thought back to Ben. He was harsh and did not sugar-coat things. Did he tell her to rest because he was hiding something or was it because he knew how exhausted she was?
With a few quick stretches done, she ran into the bathroom and mentally prepared for another day of Maya’s training regime. There were a few aches in different places, but she was nimbler on her feet and her mind seemed clearer. Strange, she was beginning to enjoy the training a little.
When she was ready, she unlocked her door and found Maya sleeping on the floor, her back resting against the wall.
Helena clasped her hand over her mouth to contain her gasp. She nudged Maya’s shoulder. “Are you alright?”
The hunter stirred in her sleep and mumbled something Helena didn’t catch. She sat up and scanned the hallway. “I wanted to see if you were okay, but your door was locked.”
“I’m doing much better.” Helena offered Maya a hand and, when she took it, helped the hunter to her feet.
Maya squared her shoulders. “Ben is not a bad guy. He cares a lot for those he teaches, and he knows everyone’s limits. He wouldn’t send you away if he didn’t think it was the best choice for you.”
“I—” Helena paused, her mind attempted to formulate a proper response. Her gut told her Maya spoke the truth. She cast her eyes downwards. She wanted to trust her instincts, yet their actions were too suspicious.
“Ben doesn’t trust vampires. He didn’t want us to worry about the details until he had the chance to double check everything,” Maya added.
Helena nibbled on her lower lip. “Is that all there is to it? Can I trust you?”
“Unlike the undead, we don’t go around giving out empty promises. It is in our code. So, if you get a hunter to promise you something, we’re bound by honour to do it unless it’s something against our clan.”
“You sound like some kind of samurai.”
Maya grinned. “Yeah, the kind that’s dying out.” Her smile fa
ded. “Today, I’ll teach you some self-defence. It might not be vampire proof, but if any human tries anything, you’ll be able to take care of yourself.”
Helena bobbed her head, and they headed downstairs. Maya handed her another suspicious green drink, and she ingested it without further complaint. It tasted awful. Yet, whatever it was, it took away the burden on her muscles. She may as well trust these people. They hadn’t harmed her, and Maya didn’t seem like the kind of person who would lie.
Having finished a brief warm-up, Maya led her to the centre of the living area. The weights and workout equipment was pushed against the wall, and Ben was nowhere to be found, as per usual.
Maya faced Helena, her feet apart. “Let’s kick off with something simple. When someone is in your personal space, you slam your palm into their face like this.” She used her palm to bump Helena’s nose but not hard enough to deal any damage. “And, when they lift their head to gather their bearings, you raise your elbow above their face and hit them straight down. Let’s try that, okay?”
Helena nodded. She never understood why people liked martial arts or violent sports. The concept of hurting others gave her indigestion. With everything that was going on, she had no choice but to become stronger. If she didn’t want Lucious to suffer anymore because of her, she had to be able to defend herself against humans and other supernatural beings.
She followed Maya’s tutoring, earning a multitude of bruises throughout her body. The hunter relentlessly repeated moves like a machine until Helena responded to the attacks on automation.
Lying on the floor four hours later, Helena gasped for more oxygen.
“You are doing better than I expected,” Maya complimented her with a soft smile.
Helena swallowed with her dry mouth and smiled back. “Thanks.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to become a hunter when this is over?”
“Pretty sure,” she replied with a laugh. “I don’t like getting beaten up by people on a daily basis.”
Maya sat next to her. “It’s not so bad. I find the job kind of thrilling.”
“You mean the time you chased a class-whatever vampire through the Rain Forest?”
Maya snorted. “Point taken. I still get the heebie-jeebies every time I see snakes.”
“Who doesn’t?”
“Ben. He is a stone-cold wall at times. Nothing bothers him.”
Helena eyed her. “You make it sound like you have a crush on him.”
Pink stained Maya’s cheeks, and she lifted her hands in the air, moving them around frantically. “No. No. I simply admire him. He’s like eight years older, and he’s my mentor.”
Helena shot her a knowing look. “Right. A mentor you admire.”
Maya tucked her knees closer to her chest and hugged them. She picked at the tiny gap between the floorboards with her nail as she said, “He is the man who saved me when I tried to take on a Class 1 vampire by myself. Once my family died, I was sent to an orphanage. Even though the people seemed alright, I couldn’t stay there. I ran away until my feet hurt and my lungs were ready to burst. Then, I spotted it—a monster sucking the life out of his prey in an alley. To this day, I remember the way his eyes glowed when I ran towards him with the jagged edge of a broken bottle I found nearby.”
Helena’s hand rested on Maya’s shoulder. “Is that when Ben saved you?”
“He saved me after the vampire broke my arm in three places and was in the midst of feeding on me.”
Her hand fell away. Maya didn’t have any good experiences with vampires. No wonder she wanted to rid the world of them. At the same time, such a way of thinking wasn’t right. Not all vampires were bad. Lucious did his best to protect her. Alexander, too, tried to keep her in the apartment and helped her with her college issues. Although they didn’t get along half the time, they were good people at heart.
“What’s going on in that head of yours?” Maya asked.
“Not every undead person is bad. The same can be said about any one species.”
“There you go again, defending the beasts. I get that your circumstances are strange, and you don’t know what’s right and wrong, but you shouldn’t trust them so blindly. Vampires are scheming creatures. They have centuries of knowledge and the only way to survive in this world is if you have outwitted many others. Think about that.” Maya stood and went to the fridge.
Helena hated the idea of being unable to put her faith in someone. If she couldn’t trust the vampires or the hunters, who was left? Her friends vanished one by one. Perri hadn’t contacted her since the hunters showed up, so Helena assumed she and Hans had returned to Scotland. Helena couldn’t risk contacting Nadine, not when there were hunters and vampires eager to find her. And Laura was gone. She hadn’t called or sent a message. Every time Helena tried to contact her, it went straight to voicemail. Did she not want to be found or did something happen to her?
What she needed now was a shower and some distance from everyone. She went upstairs and entered the bathroom where she climbed under the hot spray of water and let her doubts fight for her attention.
Helena cleansed her bracelets with the blessed salts and relaxed on the sofa, stretching her bruised legs on the cushions. She finally got a hold of her laptop and didn’t know what to do now that she had the time to use it. With a shake of her head, she closed the lid. There was no point in using it if she didn’t have anyone to contact on the other side.
At least, her mother hadn’t stopped caring. She called earlier, asking if Helena wanted to attend the work party with Richard in her stead since her mother was planning on going on a city break for a few days with her friends. Helena declined.
The doorbell echoed throughout the apartment.
“I’ll answer,” Helena called out before Maya could rise from her seat. She seemed to be reading one of Laura’s romance novels and hadn’t put it down since she discovered the book.
Helena rushed for the door and swung it open. Once she set her sights on their visitor, her mouth stopped working. She had seen this woman before—the stranger who saved her from Lazarus.
“Are you going to let me in or what?” the woman asked in a clipped tone.
She stepped aside, and the dark-haired beauty waltzed in.
The woman flicked her loose curls over her shoulder, glancing at Maya sprawled on the sofa and back to Helena. “I have a message from Alexander.”
Helena closed the door. “Come in and…er…take a seat. Do you want tea or coffee?”
“I don’t want anything from you,” the stranger snapped. Nonetheless, she made her way to the sofa but didn’t take a seat.
Maya’s book was already on the floor and her other hand was on the gun behind her back.
“I didn’t get a chance to thank you,” Helena said.
“I didn’t save you because I wanted to,” the brunette said. She ran her hand through her thick, dark mane. “I don’t have time for pleasantries. Alexander wanted to know if you were going with his plan or not.”
Maya studied the uncertainty on Helena’s face and turned her attention to their guest. “How do you fit into Helena’s life? Are you Alexander’s childe?”
The woman scoffed, and her dark eyes narrowed on Maya. “If I was you, I would stop talking. Your hunter stench is giving me a headache.”
“I can give you a few silver bullets to the chest instead if you like?” Maya offered in an overly sweet voice.
“Don’t be foolish. I am entertaining you as is every vampire who walks in here. You are alone, your partner is elsewhere. A hunter without a partner is no threat.”
Maya’s smile faded. “Do you want to test that theory?”
“Stop it, Maya and you—what’s your name?” Helena asked.
The stranger glared at Helena. “I am Zafira, and you are not someone who can order me around.”
“I didn’t mean it to seem that way.”
“You’ve hurt my man, sending him into a descent, and now you pretend nothing has h
appened while you’re cooped up with two hunters. This is almost poetic.”
“Yo-your man?”
Zafira’s dark eyes bore into her. “Yes, my Lucious. If you ever do so much as touch him again, I will snap every one of your fingers and then some. Since I can’t kill you, I will have to wait until we find a way to break that bond between you. He is as eager as I am to get it over and done with.”
Helena’s words failed her. She took a shaky step back. Her heart ached more than the muscles in her body after a day’s training. The words Zafira said tore at her soul. How could she have been so naïve? He was with someone all along. It made sense that he had a vampire as his partner. What did that make her? Was he toying with her? Or was he desperate to keep her tied to him and decided to omit having a girlfriend? As rage and sorrow battled for dominance, she didn’t know whether she wanted to cry or scream.
Ignoring her heart, Helena didn’t let her voice waver. “We are going to Vienna to get the weapon. We will meet Alexander there.”
Zafira smirked and left with a couple of unpleasant parting words.
The evening training with Maya exhausted her to the point where she could no longer move. She tried to stop thinking about Lucious and couldn’t. The more she thought about him, the more her heart felt as if it was being pulled apart by demons. She had to let him go.
Not like he was mine to begin with.
Helena stood in the noisy airport terminal. The hunters got through customs with their guns and, as it turned out, they had military clearance for weapon transportation which they showed off at the security checkpoint. They were granted entry without any questions. In the meantime, she was stuck in the lengthy queue of people and their screaming children.
This opportunity gave her time to think. She had to create some distance between her and Lucious. It was for the best if they didn’t see each other. The ache in her chest plagued her, and her worry for him wouldn’t subside. Her mind forced her to run in endless loops which kept her awake last night.
Demon Gates (Helena Hawthorn Series Book 2) Page 15