by Cas Martin
'Garth is going to be so jealous.'
'Well, Garth didn't save my life last night. If he had then maybe I'd consider it.'
'I'm not sure how Garth would feel about being your little midnight snack.'
'I thought we weren't talking about it again, Miss Hastings?'
'Oh yeah, I keep forgetting that. Blame it on the martini.'
'Fancy another?'
'Yes please, just the one.'
'Me too.' Monica raised her hand and the man instantly appeared at her side again.
Elizabeth realised that there were some good things about this alliance that she hadn't considered before. And for one night, and one night only, she was just going to sit back and enjoy them.
But then again, that was what she had said last night as well.
49
Ivan slowly exhaled the smoke from his cigarette and weighed up his options. Things were not going anywhere near as smoothly as he had hoped. The fact that Monica was still alive and well was something of a concern. Especially the 'well' part. She should at least have been in bed fighting back from the brink of near death. It should have been a painful and tortuous experience just to take every breath, and yet he had just received word that she was enjoying a quick drink at the Cobra Club.
She knew he would not be able to touch her there. Too many people, too many members of the family, and probably plenty of press if that little bitch Lucy Landrey was playing tonight. It was yet another reprieve for Monica, and an annoying one at that.
Doubly irritating was the additional titbit of information that she was sharing the happy occasion with Elizabeth Hastings. The two of them were working together alarmingly well. Female solidarity was not something he'd ever considered. Certainly not that it could defeat him and all his best laid plans.
It was mortifying to be sitting this meeting now, admitting to the fact she was still alive. Getting rid of her had been his end of the bargain, and he was currently far from keeping it. The transfer of the journals had been deemed too dangerous while she was alive and determined to get in the way, but things could not be delayed forever. He was getting impatient, and he was not the only one. These people were not really known for their laid back approach to life. Or death.
And face to face it was much harder to lie.
'I have to say Ivan,' Marcus drawled, reaching forward and stubbing out the cigarette of his own, 'this is not how I foresaw things happening.'
'What do you want me to say? This was not how I thought things were going to happen either. I thought you said that your men were able to kill anyone, so I think that the responsibility lies at both our doors.'
'You swore she wouldn't have backup.'
'By all accounts she had already rendered two of your so-called best men unconscious by then.'
'An embarrassment, I admit.'
'So what now?'
'Well, I continue to hold you at least partially responsible. Perhaps the protective device that belongs to your family is superior to those held by the other families?'
'No more so, I believe.'
'Maybe it allows the wearer or the bearer to become completely invincible?'
'I assure you that ours does not, and I'd ask you to keep that opinion to yourself. The last thing I need now is for the other families to question if we have a greater power than them. That is asking for a war of a completely different kind. And despite what you may be thinking, I really don't believe a war would be in your best interests either.'
'Actually Ivan, a reduction in the monopoly your family holds over the city has a lot of appeal to me.'
'I appreciate the fact you're being honest about that. But the reality is my family has a great deal of power for a reason. It's a shame that we have currently seen fit to weaken it with our choice of leader.'
'For now.' Marcus picked up his wine glass and tipped it in a mock toast.
'For now,' Ivan bowed his head slightly in acknowledgment. 'But I can assure you once I gain my rightful place and some sense of normality resumes, the events of the past few weeks will not be forgotten. The strength of your chosen family will be able to grow in proportion to my own, and we will both benefit. Send the other families after us on a wild goose chase and it will only lead to more pain and suffering for us all.'
'In that case, please can you tell me how Miss Carletto is doing so well under the current circumstances?'
'I only wish I knew. I give you my word it will not be an issue for much longer.'
'You'd better be right Ivan. Otherwise we may have to reconsider our bargain after all.'
'Don't threaten me. You know that will never work.'
'I don't mean it as an empty threat. You should know me better than that. Even so, this can't go on for much longer. I don't trust the professor's daughter as much as you do.'
'You have completely misjudged me, Marcus, if you think I trust her at all.'
'Oh, I know that you don't, not on a personal level anyway. But her father certainly favoured your family over ours, something I am very sure you benefited from when it suited you to do so.'
'We're both men to use any situation to our advantage, so you can't possibly think that would be some kind of insult,' Ivan grinned and took another cigarette from the packet that lay between them.
'Either way, I don't like the current state of affairs. Need I remind you that if we are exposed then we both fall at the mercy of our respective families? If Elizabeth and her little band of followers manage to retrieve the journals from us then the whole of the past year will have been for nothing.'
'I agree. So what do you propose?'
'We transfer the journals to your possession tomorrow night.'
'Tomorrow night?' Ivan raised his eyebrow in mock-disbelief and lit his cigarette to hide his discomfort. He was less prepared than he had led Marcus to believe, and he had a funny feeling that all of his bravado was about to come tumbling down. Mistrust told him that Marcus was handing him what he wanted far too easily.
'Come on Ivan, don't tell me you're not ready for my suggestion? We've been talking about this for months now. You told me awhile ago that you had somewhere safe and secure for the journals when we handed them over to you.'
'True, and I have. You simply surprised me with the short notice, that's all. It's not like you to be hasty about anything. Apart from women, I mean.'
'I'm not being hasty. All our current agreements still stand. You and I will do the transfer as planned, at the location as planned, and one of my representatives will stay with the journals at all points after. If any harm comes to him then all deals are off. We may need you for the final part of all of this Ivan, but don't think we don't know anything. We have enough information to get you killed. More than enough to contact Monica and the rest of the elders of your family and have you executed. And you should know me well enough by now to know that I won't hesitate for a second before doing so.'
'I don't doubt it in the slightest. In that case, I will bid you my leave. I now have a much bigger evening planned than I had intended, and I haven't had a bite to eat today.'
'Enjoy.'
'Oh, I certainly intend to. I will speak to you in the morning to confirm that all the preparations are in place.'
'I look forward to hearing from you Ivan. And please remember that I mean every word that I said.'
Ivan nodded, his face betraying nothing until he was through the door. Then the cold trickle of fear ran down his spine.
50
'Thank you for tonight,' smiled Elizabeth, as they made their way down the corridor to her hotel room. Despite the friendly tone, both were on high alert for any signs of trouble.
'It was my pleasure. It was quite a bonus that Lucy was on good form tonight. After everything I'd told you, I half expected a meltdown.'
'She was exactly what I hoped for.' As they got to the hotel room door Elizabeth stopped and glanced around before lowering her voice. 'Am I safe to go in?'
'I think so. I can't sense tha
t anyone else has been here.'
'Okay.' Despite the reassurances, Elizabeth was hesitant as she inserted the key card into its slot. It bugged her that she was so jumpy. This was no way to live your life. 'Do you want to come in?'
'Um…'
'I know it's not as safe as your place, but hopefully it will do. We've had a nice evening, but I think it's time we get back down to business.'
'So do I, unfortunately,' Monica reluctantly agreed as she followed her into the room.
'Would you like another drink?'
'Just water, please.'
'Well I'm having a Scotch on the rocks. If we're going to get down to serious business, then I may as well have a serious drink to go with it,' said Elizabeth as she looked for two glasses. 'Please, take a seat.'
Monica moved to sit on the edge of the bed before realising there was a couch on the other side of the room, near the desk. She moved over quickly, her face flushing slightly. Elizabeth guessed she was thinking about what had happened the previous evening. Her own flashbacks were getting concerning. 'Thanks,' she said as Elizabeth handed her the drink. 'It's a shame that the fun part of tonight had to end though. It's been a tough few months for me.'
'Good to blow off steam?'
'If I didn't have Dennis, then I would have gone completely out of my mind by now. Even though he's always there for me, it's still something of a professional relationship. We would never go out and do something for fun, like you and I did tonight.'
'I know what you mean. Ever since I found out about my father and his whole double life, most of my friendships have just fallen away.'
'It's hard.'
'I always feel like I'm holding something back because there is this huge part of my life that I can't share with anyone. I'm always worried I'll slip up and say something that will cause them to think I'm very, very strange. When you are working so hard to hide one part of yourself, you end up holding back on all of the other pieces of yourself too.'
'It's a position I know far too well.'
'Don't we make a fun pair? Always feeling sorry for ourselves just because we've got no friends and people keep trying to kill us,' smiled Elizabeth, swirling her glass.
'So what are we going to do to stop it?'
'I've been thinking about that a lot tonight.'
'And there I was thinking that you were just enjoying the music and martinis.'
'I was, really, but something that Elverez said to us earlier just kept playing over and over in my brain.'
'What was that?'
'That we would have to take the initiative. That we would actively have to draw Ivan out.'
'How we do it without getting caught and therefore killed by my family is the difficult part. We have to do it on the sly.'
'What if we don't?'
'What?'
'Well, we know that Ivan is behind the attempts to kill us both. Elverez confirmed that to us tonight.'
'Yes, but he's hardly going to admit it is he?'
'It's no secret that there have been attempts made on your life. That news will have made its way to everyone now, not just the elders.'
'Gossip among the family is just as bad as you would find in any human circles,' Monica acknowledged. 'It's almost impossible to keep things a secret.'
'Well, you publicly declare that these attempts have been made on your life. Then you tell them you know which other family is involved. That they have challenged you.'
'But Ivan will know that I'm bluffing.'
'Of course he will know. But he can't admit that without incriminating himself. So you can say whatever you like, and there is no way that he can speak up against you without dropping himself in it. That was what I was thinking about earlier. We play the first move and go straight to him.'
'It's a nice idea, but I'm not sure what it will achieve?'
'I was thinking about something that I read once. It's a pretty antiquated idea, but he won't see it coming. You can say that you've been challenged to defend the family's honour. A duel so to speak. That is what they would have called it back in the day.'
'I've heard of it. I've never known of anyone actually requesting it.' Monica sat forward in her seat.
'It's one of those things that's fallen out of fashion. It's only because of people like my father that we have any record of it at all now. Like any traditional duel, there is always a second. There is no one else. Just the people involved, their seconds, and the person who adjudicates. I want to call him the referee but I really don't think that's right. That sounds too sporty.'
'I know who you mean.'
'So you tell the elders that you have chosen to accept the challenge. You can say that given all the recent attempts on your life, you have decided to end this once and for all. Ivan will be confused, but in a completely different way to everyone else. And most people will think you're going to pick Dennis as your second. But you don't.'
'I pick Ivan.'
'Exactly.'
'Wow.' Monica let out a low whistle. Elizabeth could see she was impressed, but not entirely won over yet.
'He's a more obvious choice. Older, higher ranking, stronger. Even though he knows it's a trap, there is nothing he can do. Because what is being asked of him is actually a huge honour.'
'He's broken all the rules and customs in the background, and now we can use them in the open against him.'
'Exactly.'
'But what next?'
'This is the bit where it gets nasty. Tricky.'
'I had a feeling that part was going to have to happen eventually.'
'I'm sure if we scouted around, we would be able to find some low life vampire who would love to gain the kudos in his own family for killing someone as high up as Ivan.'
'I agree. That would probably be the easy part to do. The plausibility of it all though sounds a bit thin to me. He's supposed to be my second. He should only step in if I get fatally wounded.'
'I thought about that too. You can tell everyone when you got there it turned out to be a trap. Ivan died to save you.'
'The lying bastard wouldn't do that.'
'We both know that. But his followers and friends wouldn't be able to attack you for portraying him as dying a very noble death.'
'True, but they would want us all to go after this other family that is allegedly declaring war on us all. That could be something of a problem, and one that I can't really see a way out of.'
'Point taken. But I've come up with most of the plan.' Elizabeth raised her glass in mock toast. 'It's up to you to work out the finer details.'
51
Jack LeTraub had the same routine, every day of the week, Monday through Friday. It was always performed with clocklike precision, come hell or high water. But not today. 2.45 came and went, but all he did was stare out of the window. He allowed his mind to briefly wonder if the doorman had noticed that today was different. Other than that, he remained focused. He could feel it in his veins and right down deep into his bones.
The afternoon was a long one, the longest he could ever remember living through. Well, there was one other that would forever be burned into his memory. The last time he saw anyone he had ever loved.
Jack LeTraub was a man who knew how to plan and today would be no exception, even if it was a deviation from his normal routine. Fifteen minutes before the sun set, he put on his running gear. He had even created a different playlist for today. There would be no intervals. It would be high intensity all the way. The sun dipped below the skyline as he pulled up the zip on his tracksuit, feeling it snug on his body. He jammed his headphones into his ears, turned the volume to medium and set out of his apartment door.
It was a different security guard on duty at this time of the evening, but Jack still nodded politely as he made his way out of the door.
The two blocks from his apartment were in shadow. By the time they gave way to the park it was almost completely dark. He automatically took the path, noting that approximately a third of the lights were
out, which meant the visibility came and went. It didn't bother Jack in the slightest. His feet followed the route by muscle memory, and his eyes were sharp from the hours he had spent looking out into the darkness. There were no students out here now. Only drug addicts and the homeless made this park their place of choice at night. Even the gangs didn't really hang around here after dark.
True to form, by the time Jack reached the high school he slowed down and checked his watch, the first time his nerves had begun to show. He was pleased to see that the darkness hadn't altered his speed too much. It felt strange listening for a bell that never came, and the lack of voices. Like the park, the high school was deserted at this time of night.
Just as he had always known it would be.
52
Monica thought she was going to throw up.
The plan had sounded almost convincing last night, but now it seemed more than a little dicey. Not to mention the fact she wasn't sure she had the acting skills to pull the whole thing off.
She hated that she was keeping Dennis in the dark. She knew he would try to talk her out of it. If the roles were reversed, she would do exactly the same thing. It wasn't that she didn't trust him. Exactly the opposite was true. He would be willing to put his life on the line for her yet again, and she couldn't allow that to happen. Besides, if he knew what she was planning then he would be equally culpable, and if the whole thing went to hell then she wasn't prepared to take him with her. He deserved better than that.
She had to get out of her car and go into the club sooner or later. The meeting of the elders would already be around halfway through. She didn't dare leave it any longer in case they wound things up earlier than usual. She looked at her phone in the darkness, and quickly scrolled through the names until she found Elizabeth's. She hesitated for a moment and then dialled. It was answered in one ring.
'Hello?'
'It's only me,' said Monica quietly.
'I know. Is everything okay?'