“Don’t worry, I’m a strong swimmer and quite sensible.” She smiled and carried on twisting a long strand of hair.
She seemed nervous, Javier thought as the silence stretched between them.
“Cass, thank you for being there for the ritual. What made you change your mind?” he asked.
Cassia lifted her chin belligerently;
“Well I had to make sure you did it right Javier of Seville.”
Javier grinned, this was more like the Cassia he knew. Suddenly she shook her head and reached out for him;
“No, ignore that, please ignore that. Why can’t I stop the wise-arse comments? I wanted to be there to support you; I didn’t want you to be alone…” she faltered;
“I mean, I know you weren’t alone…I just didn’t want to leave you. After all, I’m your friend…as you said…” Cassia tailed off and stepped back nervously as he took her hand.
“I looked for you and when I saw you I suddenly knew that everything was going to be alright.” Javier said quietly. She wouldn’t meet his eyes.
“Good. You did it well, just like I said you would. There’s a lot of activity downstairs Javier. You’re about to attack aren’t you?”
It seemed she wanted to change the subject. Javier nodded, there was no reason she shouldn’t know.
“We are hitting the bikers and Dion’s gang simultaneously tomorrow night. Today we firm up the plan of attack and make sure everyone knows his role. Rafe and I will leave for London at dawn with our teams, taking the Empaths with us.”
“Who is leading the attack on Dion and his Empaths?” Cassia asked;
“I am, with Chronus, why?”
“It’s the more dangerous operation. Please be careful won’t you? He shot you last time remember? I think he hates you; you cost him a fortune, tens of millions of Euros and he must have had to work very hard to build his operation up again. They’re killers Javier.”
“I know that. Don’t worry, he’ll soon be neutralized then you’ll be safe and can return to your old life and all this inconvenience will be behind you.” Javier could have bitten his own tongue off. How had he managed to make the words come out the way they had? Cassia snatched her hand out of his and went completely white; her eyes spitting fire;
“Is that what you think of me? Do you really believe I’m only worried about myself, about my own life? Don’t you think young Rose haunts me…or the boy Spike? Inconvenience?”
Javier lifted both hands as if to ward off her fury;
“I swear to you I did not mean my words to sound the way they did Cass.” What had he meant? Had he wanted her to say she wanted to stay? That she didn’t want to leave him?
“Oh, I’m so glad.” Cassia yelled sarcastically. She turned away from him, hugging herself then spun round again. Javier was horrified to see her eyes filling up with tears;
“For once, for once I found myself doing something good; something to help someone else. Something honourable Javier, something my father would have been proud of…God, even my mother would be proud. I’m a thief Javier. Oh, I know I dress it up as something glamorous; a clever little intellectual game I’m very good at but I steal things for money. It’s a habit. I do it because I don’t know what else to do. I can’t even pretend I need to do it to pay the bills anymore; you’ve seen my house, I’m very wealthy. It’s all a big game, a big empty meaningless game and I’m so sick of it…so sick and tired…”
Javier took her hands, pulling her towards him;
“Then stay. Stay Cassia, here on the Island. Work for Gabriel, your set of skills is right up his street. Thieving is what you do Cass, it does not define what you are.”
“And what am I?”
“Dauntless, clever, brave, loyal, generous and loving. Honourable. That’s what you are Cassia of the bloodline of Hugo Mathrafal. I read his file in our archives, found out what he did and how brave he was. You are just like him.”
Now the tears spilled over as she whispered;
“You really think that? You really think I’m like my father?”
Javier wiped her tears away with his thumbs then held her shoulders;
“I do. Stay Cass, work here with us.”
Cassia stared at him for a long time then shook her head sadly;
“I can’t Javier. I can’t stay here and work with you.”
“Why not? Why …” Javier cursed as his phone trilled shrilly and fishing it out, yelled into it impatiently;
“What?...Alright, calm down. I’ll be there in a minute.”
“Cass, I have to go. This conversation isn’t over, do you understand? It isn’t over.”
“It is Javier. Please, please be careful. I don’t trust those Empaths even if you do and as for Chronus…well, he’d better have his mind on the job in hand. He’d better not have some other private little plan up his sleeve.”
Cassia stared at the door after Javier left mulling over his words again and again. Yes, she could see herself working here; doing a job with real purpose. It was sad that she couldn’t take him up on it. How could she work with Javier night after night, see him night after night feeling the way she did about him? It was impossible.
Wrenching open the door she set off for the beach and as she walked through the woods she found herself praying to a god she didn’t believe in. Let him be alright. Don’t let him get hurt. Bring him back to me. How could Ysabeau, Katie and Hera bear it?
CHAPTER 16
“I thought you said there’d be no more than a dozen of them. There’s nearly twice that and where the hell is Dion? Chronus, get down!”
Javier rolled and fired again as Chronus threw himself behind an adjacent packing crate; another of Dion’s men fell. Javier took cover behind a steel pillar and reloaded.
“Yes, we appear to be slightly outnumbered though not for long; we’re…” Chronus stopped and returned fire then ducked as a white hot energy wave narrowly missed his head.
“Another one down. This is beginning to really piss me off! Javier, you’re bleeding…left cheekbone.”
Javier wiped his cheek on his sleeve and winced; he hadn’t even noticed anything hitting him. It was probably a splinter of wood. The firefight had been going on for about thirty minutes; it had been obvious from the first second they engaged Dion’s men that surrender wasn’t on their agenda. So be it.
This vast hangar on an isolated disused airfield was the ideal place for an operation like Dion’s. There was space for small courier planes as well as a smart laboratory and packaging facility for his drug business. When they had arrived on the perimeter, he and his five experienced warriors had been momentarily confused, unable to see the huge building.
“It is shielded.” Chronus had said quietly, noticing the Vampires’ puzzled expressions;
“Similar to the confusion fields you Vamps use. Your eyes are seeing it but your brains are not registering what you see…you wish to leave don’t you? It is impenetrable to Humans but you lot…just clear your mind and focus. Believe me, it is there.”
Javier had shaken his head to clear it then concentrated his mind as though ready to shift; the building had slowly materialized as though a mist had lifted. There had been momentary panic as his and Chronus’s men had entered the building then they had been hit by a massive barrage of bullets and white energy. Not a problem; these were criminals and hired thugs; his men and Chronus’s were experienced and elite warriors. Still, it hadn’t turned out to be quite as easy as Chronus had predicted and once again Javier wondered if that ruthless Empath was off his game.
For a second he watched in awe as Chronus and two of his men advanced behind a lethal wall of white energy thrown from their upraised hands. The three waves met and combined into an impenetrable field; God, he was so glad they were on the same side. Hearing a shout from one of his men Javier glanced up then shifted straight into the air, landing on a narrow steel gantry high above the floor of the cavernous building. Andreas was in hot pursuit of two of Dion’s men with anot
her two of them right on his tail.
As Javier fired twice the pursuers plummeted to the ground then the situation turned really sticky. Andreas was hit; grunting and crashing over the edge of the steel gantry; holding on by one hand as he was suspended above the void.
Javier rushed forward to grab his warrior. The energy wave would have hit him full on if he hadn’t jumped; spinning himself airborne into a backward dive. Instead it deflected off his side and shunted him backwards along the gantry. It was like being hit by a giant hammer; the pain was excruciating. Gasping for breath Javier fired again. Damned sneaky Empath; he’d played dead, well he wasn’t playing any more. Leaning down he grabbed Andreas at the very moment the warrior’s hand lost its grip then gritted his teeth and closed his mind against the pain as he lifted him bodily onto the narrow gantry. The injury must be severe; Andreas would have just shifted if he’d been able to.
“Let me see.” Javier gasped; God he felt as if every rib was cracked.
Andreas was white, a fine sheen of sweat covering his face. His mouth twisted into a grim smile;
“Touch painful…there’s a letter…” His voice was thin; Javier shook him;
“Stop that. Stay with me and cut the drama…it is nasty but not fatal. We’ll patch you up and then it is straight to Sutton Place.”
“The food’s crap.” Andreas murmured as Javier scanned the hangar. The shooting had stopped.
“Chronus! What’s our status?” Javier shouted.
“Clear! All clear Javier.” Chronus’s voice drifted up then Javier acknowledged him as he appeared far below and gave him the thumbs up.
Javier focused back on Andreas, the warrior’s head was tipping back slowly and blood covered his torso. He hoped he could shift; the pain in his ribs was a steady pulsing beat in his body. Taking a deep breath he pulled Andreas against him and shut his eyes then shifted them both down to ground level calling out as they materialized;
“Medic…quickly!”
As Andreas was tended to by one of his warriors and by Chronus’s man Hector, Javier surveyed the carnage. Bodies were strewn across the floor. Moving slowly, he examined each face, turning the odd body over with his boot.
“Dion is not here and neither is his car.” Chronus said, “But I have caught a little fish and I am about to question him.”
“Your men alright?” Javier asked as he squatted down to check Andreas’s wounds. Yes, Sutton Place and quickly. He gave the nod and the now unconscious Andreas was shifted out in the arms of a fellow warrior. This would upset his team, thought Javier, Andreas was a fine lieutenant and respected by the foot soldiers. It could have been worse; at least their joint team had suffered no casualties. Biting off a groan of pain he hugged himself tightly round the ribs then heaved himself to his feet and followed Chronus.
“Their chemist.” said Chronus, his gaze fixed on the Empath handcuffed to a chair.
“He seems to have trouble remembering his name or anything about this set-up.” Chronus grabbed another chair and centred it in front of the prisoner. He looked completely relaxed as he leaned forward, elbows on knees and spoke casually as though discussing the weather;
“I am Alexis of the House of Chronus. I am sure my name is familiar to you. You are lying. One last chance to tell me what I want to know.”
Javier tensed involuntarily. Chronus was known throughout the Empath world. He was powerful and ruthless and always got what he wanted. As Javier watched he saw his sky blue eyes narrow and the prisoner lean far back in his chair as though trying to escape. Chronus smiled icily;
“You have put up your shields. They are useless against me. You chose this path. Are you going to answer my questions?”
The prisoner pressed his lips together and Chronus sighed then bent forward and touched the man’s forehead. Javier felt a shiver of apprehension trickle down his spine. The prisoner gasped then went rigid as Chronus searched inside him; he was trying to resist, his body shaking with the effort. At long last Chronus released him and the prisoner slumped in his chair panting. Chronus looked thoughtful;
“You have been coerced. I can find and rescue your family but only if you are honest with me. There is much light in you, do not deny your children the knowledge of it. Will you help us?”
The prisoner buried his face in his hands and even Javier could tell that his sobs were the result of sheer relief and weariness. He exchanged a glance with Chronus;
“I’ll leave you to it. The clean-up teams will be here shortly. I’m off to check on Andreas, please call me the moment you have anything. I’ll update LaSalle.”
Handing over control to Andreas’s deputy Javier shifted into the tranquil moonlit forecourt of a typical old English country house. Running lightly up the shallow staircase to the portico he nodded to the two security guards. They knew him; they should do. He had been to this house a number of times and had been treated here himself. Sutton Place, just outside London had been a medical facility for their kind for more than a century and a half.
He was informed by the uniformed receptionist that the warrior Andreas was in surgery. She directed him to the waiting room and brought him a mug of quite decent coffee. Javier sipped the scalding liquid gratefully as he updated LaSalle then Gabriel on his mobile phone; the hunt for Dion was still on. Calls over he finished his coffee and flipped through a newspaper before jumping to his feet as the door opened; gasping as pain shot through his side.
“Commander, come through, you need a bit of checking over yourself. Andreas is out of surgery and quite comfortable. Please follow me.”
It was the quiet and authoritative voice of the chief surgeon, a Half-blood who had worked at Sutton Place for a century, cleverly updating his skills to keep up with modern advances. Javier was just about to argue when he caught a glimpse of himself in a mirror. That gash on his cheekbone was nasty and blood covered the whole of his jaw down into his neck. Meekly he followed the surgeon to a treatment room.
Half an hour later he had been patched up and fed painkillers and waited by Andreas’s bedside as the warrior stirred and then slowly surfaced. He wanted to ensure his lieutenant was alright before he left. He replied to Andreas’s murmured greeting;
“Welcome back Sleeping Beauty, I told you you’d live. Day after tomorrow you will be almost healed so only a couple of meals to endure. They are sending in the Donor, you need to take blood.”
Javier reached out in alarm as Andreas struggled to sit up, obviously distressed;
“No! Please…not the Donor. My phone…where is it? I need to call…”
“Calm yourself Andreas, here is your phone. What is the problem…?” Javier stopped as realization hit him. That was the elusive thing about Andreas that he had registered almost subconsciously back on the Island; his scent was different.
“You are bonded. Of course. Here, ring her. God Andreas, why did you not tell us? When…look, just call her.”
He waited by the window trying not to listen in as Andreas broke the news then spent ten minutes calming down and reassuring his lover. At last he finished the call;
“She’s on her way. Oh hell sir, this is going to scare her stupid; it’s the last thing I wanted.”
“Are you going to complete the joining ceremony? Big party, red dress, competitive mothers…” Javier asked, trying to lighten the warrior’s mood; wondering who the girl was. Andreas had been very secretive. Andreas shook his head and sighed wearily;
“When we do, it will be very quiet. Her father would not approve, he would never give his consent. I am not good enough for her.”
Javier’s eyes widened;
“You are a warrior on the Council. A lieutenant. Most fathers would bite your hand off if you asked for their daughter.”
Andreas gave a hollow laugh and shut his eyes;
“Not hers. I am not from a noble bloodline you see and therefore not worthy. She is mine though, I knew it from the moment we met…” his voice tailed off and soon Javier heard his slow steady breathi
ng. He rose silently, sleep was healing and Andreas’s body would recover twice as quickly once he had taken blood from his beloved. That was the way with bonded couples. Humans sometimes described extreme attraction as chemistry but for Vampire pairings that description was biological fact.
As he signed the paperwork then returned downstairs Javier tried not to think about blood. He needed it, he should visit the Donor while he was here; that would be the efficient thing to do. The surgeon had advised just that. He couldn’t bear to, he didn’t want to. There was only one person’s blood he wanted and needed with a desperation that caused him actual physical pain if he allowed himself to think about it. She was hundreds of miles away. Cassia; his Cass. He would have cut off his own arm to see her walk through the door right now.
Heading for the front door he jumped aside as it was flung open and a tall, distressed woman hurried in then raced upstairs after talking to the receptionist. Javier stared after her thoughtfully. God, no wonder Andreas had been so secretive. That girl’s father was famous, powerful and feared by many. He had only met her twice but he would swear that she was Artemisia of the ancient bloodline of Amund Deverill. Rafe’s little sister. Well it was none of his business but he hoped Deverill senior did not find out; perhaps he should talk to Rafe though he couldn’t imagine his interest would be welcome. Rafe was notoriously reticent about his family.
Back on the Island Cassia stood quietly at the top of the staircase eavesdropping shamelessly on LaSalle and Gabriel’s conversation down in the hallway.
“Only one prisoner according to Javier; Chronus is interrogating him. No sign of Dion and no sign of that dagger much to Javier’s irritation. He was hoping to round up the whole gang including Dion and wrap this up. I hate loose ends, so does he.” Gabriel was saying.
That meant Javier was alright thought Cassia, leaning over for a better look as Rafe swaggered in through the front doors carrying a large box, his semi-automatic tucked under his arm;
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