Ravening Hood

by Kendrai Meeks

  “Not where your life is concerned. But you didn’t just expect that I’d let you walk out of here of your own free will, did you?” Vlad clicked his tongue. “Come now, Miss Kline. And here I had attributed to you such intelligence. Did you or did you not come in response to summons I sent my sister? Did you not surrender yourself to me in her stead?”

  “I...” Did I? “I don’t recall me mentioning the word ‘surrender’ at all.”

  He flicked away the inconvenience of small differences. “All the same.”

  I didn’t remember making the decision to turn and run, I just did, exploding into that extensive corridor through which I’d first come. Almost at once, the soft lights dimmed, leaving all sides inked black. Though, perhaps, not as dark as I thought. After a blink or two, with my pulse pounding in my ears, my eyes adjusted somewhat. Details remained concealed, but structure took on definition. How I managed to get to the stairs without any of them catching up with me, I’d never know. The last several stairs were managed in a single leap, as I pivoted and turned back towards the front of the house. The grounds were enclosed, I knew that much. How I intended to break out of a secured clutch, I couldn’t fathom. One step at a time, first to get outside.

  “Not so fast.”

  Icy fingers lashed around my neck, and the lower half of my body, subject to physics, swung forward, making a pendulum of my legs. Timur held me with such little effort, it surprised me that he didn’t just break my neck in two.

  “We offer you hospitality, and you respond with—”

  Silver streaked the air. Blade renderer flesh. This song I knew like a lullaby.

  The world rose to smack me as the vampire released his grip. Hungry lungs, flattened by the impact, gasped for air. Somehow, I managed my feet, ignoring the gurgling of the creature behind me, and propelled myself forward.

  Just beyond a gate, presiding over the corpse of one of the men who earlier had driven me across the city, was a dominating, broad-shoulder man cloaked in red. His face was obscured, but I knew him on sight. It didn’t mean I understood how he’d come to be here.

  Suddenly, Markus called out in warning. “Geri, behind you!”

  I turned just in time to see fangs and death. Only, moments before the other man who’d been in the car sunk his fangs into me, he burned into dust in a terrific orange glow. Through a curtain of his ashes, a familiar face. The pregnant woman–the slayer—who had excused herself from Vlad’s presence before, her weapon arm still extended.

  She’d thrown the solarium? The one who Vlad had treated with such tenderness? But, why?

  “Hurry, or they’ll be upon us. Flee!”

  I shook my head. “Caleb—”

  “Is safe as long as he continues his ruse,” Alexandra said, cutting me off. “Run, fool. Return only when your victory is assured.”

  With that, Markus took my hand, and we fled into the night.

  TWENTY-FIVE

  Amber fingers, luminescent strains of gold and red, beamed from behind patchy storm clouds, smacking my retinas as Markus drove us over the bridge between Eminönü and Karaköy, absent of cars at this early hour.

  “You know you won’t be safe in that house you’ve been staying in anymore, right?” He kept wincing eyes pointed ahead. “Come night fall, they’re going to descend on that place like harpies.”

  The first words he’d spoken since helping me flee the Raven’s compound were a lecture. My mother would be proud. He’d allowed me silence after he’d told me to get into the car parked just outside the gates of the mansion, though that might have also been self-preservation. We were two hoods wrapped up in a vampire family drama; neither of us should be here. Both had reasons to call the other out.

  “How long have you been following me?”

  “I arrived to Istanbul before you did, by an hour or so, anyways,” Markus reported matter-of-factly. “As soon as I got the reports that you’d boarded the plane in Chicago, I hopped on the next departing flight out of Frankfurt.”

  “Frankfurt?” It didn’t take me but a moment to put together the pieces. “My mother’s at Schloss Wolfsretter?”

  “No, your mom is still in Paradise, but she’s had me there on standby since the beginning of June.”

  “Why would she spend you to spy on me? She’s already disowned me. Relinquished me. She’s never cared about vampires killing other vampires.”

  “I’m not here to spy on you.” His stoic face crumbled under the weight of his own lie. “Okay, yes, that’s one of the reasons she sent me. But believe it or not, my primary mission here is to protect you. You have to stop thinking your mother is some kind of monolith who only casts one long shadow. She might have banished you from the clan, but that doesn’t mean she loves you any less. Come on, you’re still her daughter.”

  “If you think for a single moment I’m going to buy that on any level, you’re crazy.” Then, grabbing at any scrap of humility I could muster, I added, “But I probably would have been locked in yet another vampire dungeon if you hadn’t helped me, so thanks. Speaking of which, what in the hell is it with vampires and dungeons?”

  He pulled up outside the house I’d been sharing with the others. No sooner had I gained my feet getting out of the car than the front door opened and a massive lupine form bounded out, leapt clear over my head, and landed atop the sedan Markus had stolen off the streets.

  My cousin, still decked out in his hood, silver still brocaded over his chest in wait for his command, held out his hands. “Easy, wolf. I’m not here to hurt you, but if needs be...”

  “Tobias!”

  The brindle wolf swung his head my direction.

  “He’s from my clan,” I explained, pointing. “And one of my best—”

  “Freeze!”

  That the werewolf would pounce towards an unfamiliar hood after what had happened the night before didn’t surprise me. What did surprise me was Amy in the doorway, pointing a small handgun (pink, no less) into the street.

  The silver plated over Markus’s chest shimmered. He’d weaponize it quicker than any huey pulling a trigger if he really thought there was a threat.

  I threw my hands into the air. “Oh, my god. We’re separated for a couple hours, and suddenly both of you are crazy.” I turned and pointed at the blonde. “Amy, put that away and Tobias,” my accusing gesture swung to the wolf, “come inside and change back. We have to talk and we don’t have a lot of time.”

  Amy kept the weapon squared. “Who’s the hood?”

  “His name is Markus. He’s my cousin.”

  “Your cousin?” As the barrel of the gun sank toward the ground, Amy’s eyes rose toward Markus. “Is his single?”

  Markus scoffed. “Hardly.”

  That was news. “You have someone now?”

  He nodded, his glee practically misting the air. “Yan. He’s quite a looker. Oh, and I look. Often.”

  Amy’s face fell. “Why do the hottest ones already have boyfriends?”

  Tobias skittled through the door and past Amy. The moment he was safely out of view of the street, the familiar groan of a body reforming itself spilled beyond the doorway.

  The wolf merged into the conversation without even slowing down. “What is one of your mother’s minions doing in Istanbul?”

  “Me?” Markus pointed mockingly at his own chest. “Oh, nothing. Taking in the sights. Saving my cousin from Dracula’s compound. You know, the usual tourist things.”

  That knocked the wolf on his ass. “What?”

  The shock of Markus’s statement created an opening for us to get in off the street. As soon as the door was shut, I set about explaining what happened after I disappear from under the tower. By the time I’d finished, Amy had put away her gun, and Tobias, his apprehension.

  “When he drove away with you, I did everything I could to keep up,” the wolf said. Luckily, he’d managed to shimmy a pair of sweatpants on while I spoke. “I lost you after a few blocks. Speaking of which,” he pivoted to Markus, “how we
re you able to follow them?”

  “By understanding my enemy, and by accepting my own limitations.” My cousin laughed and pulled out his phone, waving it about as exhibit one. “Only a slayer can run down a vampire, and I don’t know this city well enough to outdrive them. Thank goodness for technology.”

  “A tracker?” Tobias asked. “How?”

  “Embedded in silver and moving with the target.” Markus tapped his chest, sending a ripple over the liquid metal clinging to it like armor. “Hoods can make silver do whatever we want. Not really that hard.”

  The wolf took my hands, pulling them to his lap. “I’m so fecking sorry, Geri. I shouldn’t have given up so easily. I ringed the district until I started to get worried about Amy here alone. I was hoping you’d shake them and make your way back.”

  I put my hand on his shoulder. “It’s not important. What we have to focus on now is that the Ravens know where we are, and at nightfall, you can bet they’re coming for us. We have to find somewhere else to go, somewhere where they don’t know about or where they wouldn’t dare come.”

  Tobias crossed his arms. “Agreed, but where?”

  The pivotal question. None of us really knew the city very well, definitely not as well as the Ravens. If only Inga and Igor were back.

  “Have we heard from our vampires yet?”

  Amy jerked her head. “They said they’ll fly back first thing after sunset tomorrow, but that still won’t get them here until about midnight local time. They also agreed with me that you were stupid to go after Caleb on your own. Inga says she can handle things.”

  “I know just how Inga would handle things,” I said. “She’d have gone in there and killed Caleb instead of let Vlad have him alive. Text her back, Amy. Tell them I’m okay.”

  The blonde pulled out her phone and began keying in the message. “Should I ask them where we should go hide?”

  “Not unless you want them to give you directions to your own grave,” Markus piped up. “This isn’t some fifteenth century blood gang. I saw the security system they had in place at that compound. Motion sensors, laser lines, infrared. I have no doubt that they have your phones tapped at this point. Anything you send back and forth with these phones of yours is going to give you away.”

  Amy dropped her device, her face ashen.

  “Don’t worry, Amy. I doubt you’ve told the Ravens anything they don’t already know.”

  I picked up the device. A glare was all it took to get Tobias to present his phone as well. He pulled it out from some of the cushions on the couch and handed it over. I took both devices to the door to the cistern, and walked away satisfied when I heard the plop below.

  “We’re in the same situation if we leave anything written here,” I continued. “We have to worry about ourselves right now. Reconnecting with Inga and Igor comes later. Markus?”

  My cousin stood to attention. “Yes, matron?”

  I didn’t know if he meant it as a dig, or if he was just so well trained to respond to a commanding hood female. “One, don’t call me that. I’m not even a hood anymore, let alone a matron. And two, you’ve been stalking around this city for over a month. Any suggestions?”

  “I’ve been following you around. I only know the places you went. So unless you’re going to spend the rest of your time in Hagia Sophia...”

  I perked up. “Hagia Sophia? Why do you say that?”

  “Just that the vampires who attacked you there seemed unwilling to go in for some reason.”

  My hands went to my temples, squeezing as if that would somehow press the memories up and out. “We were attacked by vamps?”

  Markus’s eyebrows lowered; he examined me for signs of sanity. “Don’t you remember?”

  My hands dropped as I shook my head. “I can’t remember anything between being hit by Caleb’s solarium and coming home the next morning. You were following me?” This time, the tone was optimistic. “What happened? What did you see?”

  But all my hopes fell to the floor with his expression. “You disappeared.”

  “Disappeared?” I asked. “What the hell does that mean?”

  “I don’t mean into thin air,” Markus clarified. “As soon as that Caleb guy came out, he saw the vamps and he did this, like, swishy thing with his arm?” The hood demonstrated a move that looked like someone bowling without a ball. “Then the solarium—side note: how awesome is that? Just like I read about!—followed him out of the museum. I saw you for a second when it hit you instead. Looked like it knocked you out, though why it didn’t burn you to a crisp, I’m not sure. Your boyfriend couldn’t conjure up another one before the vamps took him. As soon as the goons cleared out, I scrambled down from my hiding spot and came to help you, but I couldn’t find you anywhere. I’d assumed you’d run back from wherever it was you got in to start with.”

  I replayed the events leading up to Hagia Sophia in my head. “But Caleb and I came in through old slayer tunnels underground. You didn’t follow us down there. Even if I am relinquished, one of us would have heard you. How did you know we ended up at Hagia Sophia?”

  “That tracking device I mentioned? It is embedded in silver.” The hood at the end of my glare flinched. “In the handle of your dagger, specifically.”

  “What?” My hands went to the weapon’s usual hiding place, buried in the wrapping of braid. I pulled the silver dagger that had been my constant companion since I was thirteen, a gift bequeathed by my paternal grandmother upon her death. “How in the hell?”

  Then the pieces all fell into place. How easily my mother had known when I was in the packlands, how she descended on my attempt to be awakened by my distant cousin, the yellow hood Consuela, how she never seemed to worry about me while I was in Chicago.

  I dropped the dagger to the floor. “All this time... And it’s been...”

  Markus groaned. “We’re wasting time. We can catch up on what I know as soon as we get somewhere safe. Come on, we need to think! Where can we lay low?”

  Amy spoke with peculiar softness. “Lay low?”

  “Yeah, somewhere that’s not friendly to vamps,” Tobias repeated.

  The blonde rolled through a slow nod. “Vampires don’t like werewolves, do they?”

  The only member of the species in attendance quirked an eyebrow. “No traditionally. Why, you want to all line up behind me and hide?”

  Amy grinned, a daring light in her eyes. “As much as I’d like to have any excuse to stand behind you and do anything, that’s not what I’m getting at. I was just thinking, though, you said that the pack of the girl from the Bazaar, that they keep hidden from all the other supes in town. Do you think they’d give us a place to hide?”

  Tobias and I exchanged a weighted look, before the werewolf said, “Serhan specifically told us he didn’t want to get mixed up with anything.”

  “I know, and I want to respect that,” I said. “But Amy’s right. And it’s the only thing we have on such short notice.”

  TWENTY-SIX

  “It’s weird. I didn’t expect the daylight to reach down this far underground. Sure is a lot easier to see my way around this time.”

  Tobias paused the briefest moment to look back at me over his shoulder before resuming our downward trek into the abyss that was the Pera Pack’s crypt.

  “It’s not any lighter,” he said. “Not that I can tell. Markus, what do you think?”

  That made me halt. Like in some cliché TV sitcom, Amy slammed into me. Luckily, unlike some cliché TV sitcom, it didn’t knock me over or send me face down into some awkward-yet-sexy position with Tobias.

  I helped my friend gain her footing on the step next to me and turned to my cousin at the tail end of our procession. “When were you down here?”

  But it was Tobias who responded. “Don’t you remember when we were here the first time?” he said. “The wolves all sensed a hood. They assumed it was one of the black hoods, but there are no black hoods in Istanbul. Are there, Markus?”

  My cousin onl
y held out an attempt at innocence for a moment. Markus had many qualities as a person and as a hood, good and bad. An ability to lie was not one of them.

  “The Pera Pack isn’t in the Wolfsretter registry,” he confirmed, referring to the database the matrons had for tracking packs. “If there ever was a hood patrolling this area, she did so without any guidance from the black matron based near Bayburt.”

  “So this is an illegal pack?” I asked. The term tasted like ash on my tongue; even hating the overlord tendency of my mother and other matrons like her, I still jumped right back into their lexicon on the spur of the moment, didn’t I? I rounded on Tobias, eager to offer up an apology, but the disappointment in his expression convinced me not to try. Instead, I turned back to Markus. “So you followed us down here before? And I suppose you immediately reported it back to my mother?”

  “I’m a righteous hood, Geri, but I’m not an asshole. I don’t report anything back to your mother that she didn’t very specifically tell me to report. At no point did Brünhild say to me, ‘Markus, if you find any evidence of an unrecorded pack living in a decrepit tomb under the city, let me know.’ Besides, you would know what would happen if I did, and I repeat, I’m not an asshole.”

  Amy, who uncharacteristically had kept pretty mum since we’d entered the tunnels under Istiklal Street, finally piped up. “What would happen?”

  The shame I’d felt moments ago tripled in mass. “The matron of the region has the right to order the execution of its alpha and relocate the remaining pack members in any way she sees fit. It’s been decades since something like that was done, though. I can’t imagine any matron today doing something so heinous.”

  “The Wolfsretter database wasn’t even around until the 1980s,” Tobias said. “That means this pack has been in hiding at least since then, but I’m not convinced it was the hoods they were trying to avoid.”

  Weariness leaked into the cracks of my suspicions. “Who, then?”