Infinitely Human

by Candace Blevins

  “I can’t call him.”

  “I can. We need to take our time swimming back. At least for now.”

  “Are you over Apollonius, or is he over you?”

  “The Slayers were put in place by the natural order. The Concilio put themselves in place. If it came down to it, we’d wipe them out, but there’s no need to. We work together, when necessary.”

  “So, the Slayers are over the Concilio?”

  “Not exactly. Not on a day-to-day basis.” He slowed and pulled me to him again. “When push comes to shove and we have to intercede, yes, but we try not to do it often.” He kissed my cheek. “Someone’s watching from one of the boulders near the shore. I don’t know why.”

  “Human?”

  “Lion. Not terribly powerful.”

  “You can tell all that from this far away? How?”

  “I just know. Power doesn’t always tell how well they’ll fight. He’s fully dressed, which could mean guns. Don’t discount someone because of a low power signature.”

  “What does my power signature look like?”

  “Sometimes, it’s off the charts, other times it’s just like you’re a normal human.”

  “Do we have accommodations for the night?”

  “The boat.”

  I’d put all of our things in my closet, with a note on top to let Cora know not to touch them because we’d be back to get them in a few hours. Ryan had one gun on him, but I was unarmed.

  Well, technically, I’m never unarmed because of my light weapons, but no way could I pull those out on a public beach.

  “Will he fight us in public?”

  “Nothing says he’s here to fight us. Could be the Amakhosi has him watching you.”

  “Nathan doesn’t know where…” I sighed. “Lorenzo.”

  “Yes.”

  “I had this idea you were asexual.”

  He chuckled. “Not quite. Race you to the shore?”

  I kicked off him and gave myself a head start, but he still beat me. I’m a strong swimmer, but he was stronger.

  He waited for me in shallow water. The lion waited for us on the sand, and we approached him together.

  “State your business.” Ryan sounded casual, but I wasn’t fooled.

  The lion held a cellphone in his hand, and he touched a button and held it to me. I accepted it, and waited for someone to answer.

  “You were not given leave to arrive before us.” Rinaldo sounded pissed.

  “Permission wasn’t required.”

  “I’m on the boat, just offshore, but I can’t come on the island until sunset. We need to talk.”

  I looked to Ryan. “You know where the boat will be when they land?”

  “I do.”

  “We’ll try to return to you before nightfall.” No promises. I didn’t trust Rinaldo. At all.

  “You need to return now, before you put half the damned island on alert!”

  “It’s a little late for that, but we didn’t.” His words sank in, and I asked, “Are you saying half the island is supernatural?”

  “Get your ass back to the boat, Miss O’Shea.”

  “I’m glad you checked in with us, but we have some more sightseeing to do. Thanks so much for the call.” I disconnected and handed the phone back to the lion.

  “You keep.” He had trouble forming the words. English wasn’t his first language. How did Nathan communicate with members of his Pride who spoke a different language?

  I shook my head and offered it a little more forcefully. Ryan said a few sentences in what I assumed was Greek, and the lion finally accepted the phone back.

  “What did you tell him?”

  “That either he took it back or I’d throw it in the water.”

  We walked around some rocks where no one could see us, I stepped into the nothingness and back home, grabbed the two backpacks, and stepped back. We put them on, walked about a mile to a restaurant, changed in the bathroom, and then sat and ordered a light snack. The lion was watching us from afar.

  “Should we lose him?” I asked.

  “No reason to at the present time. The truth is that we need Rinaldo. He can read minds from miles away. He may already know who’s in Katerina’s little compound.”

  “Will he tell us if he does?”

  He sighed. “Depends on his agenda, which I’ve yet to figure out.”

  “Your people put us with him, right?”

  “Yes, but not because they trust him.” We sat beside each other, looking out at the view. He wrapped an arm around me, pulled me into him, and spoke into my ear. “It was an excuse to let me get close to him so I can kill him, but I’m not convinced he’s done anything in the past five years that would put him on our radar for execution.”

  “Past five years?”

  “Old vampires have all done something they should be killed for. Unless they did something exceptionally bad twenty years or less ago, I usually look at the last five years.”

  “It still feels wrong to let the same person be judge, jury, and executioner.”

  “We were once just executioners. Some of us still are, but most now work to only kill the ones who are a danger to humans.” He shrugged. “Killing Nathan would mean more humans die. Same with Abbott and Aaron.”

  “And Gavin is part of Abbott’s support staff?”

  “Gavin has followed our rules since he became one of Abbott’s.”

  “Rinaldo has human slaves, right? His flock isn’t a volunteer group, like Abbott’s.”

  “Correct, but he pulls from the layer of society we don’t worry with.”

  I shook my head again. “That’s wrong on so many levels. You can’t make a class of humanity expendable.”

  “The value of a human life lies in how many people love that human, and how many depend on them. They can be hated, but be the support system for others, and be valuable. Or they can be loved by many even though they can’t support anyone, and be valuable. Most fall somewhere in the middle.”

  “Loners should have value.”

  “Many do. Family members who love them and value them. Work associates who would feel grief if they disappeared.” He sat back in his chair. “It isn’t about money or education. It’s solely about the value other humans place on the person.”

  “The Celrau pull from the dregs of society, right? Runaways. Drug addicts.”

  “It’s more about the ease of capture for them, and of making sure they don’t take someone who’ll be reported missing.” He shook his head. “Doesn’t matter that they’re taking from the dregs — they take too many, and they kill them outright.”

  “So, enslaving them for a few decades is better?”

  “Rinaldo’s are happily enslaved. They don’t have to work. He makes them exercise and stay in shape, but otherwise, he feeds them good food and allows whatever leisure activities they want, within reason. They sleep when they want, and they crave his bite because it becomes their new drug of choice.” He took a drink. “When he tires of them, some go back to a meager existence on the streets, but others pick up their lives and become productive members of society. He’s isn’t as responsible with his flock as Abbott, but he isn’t a cruel owner, either.”

  “Katerina?”

  He sighed. “She has mostly boy toys. She tends to keep them a few years and then sell them while they’re still young and virile. She’s…” A shrug. “Harsh and demanding, but she only captures the ones capable of being beautiful, and she molds them into men who look like supermodels or bodybuilders. She likes both looks.”

  There was something he wasn’t telling me. I considered what I knew, and it hit me. “Caligula. She sells them to him, and he uses them for his porn business.”

  “Yeah, but the men are treated well, from what we can see. Some are tortured on camera, but not all. He releases them once they’re no longer a viable actor.” He caressed my arm, still playing the part of the couple on vacation. “I’ve answered your questions — will you explain your connection to Cora
for me? How it feels?”

  “She’s my best friend. I can feel her when something isn’t right. She feels me even when everything’s good. I can send her energy, or take it from her. She can pull it from me, and I always make sure to send as much as I can when she needs it. We can join our energy, which is why she can hold a light weapon once I’ve made it.”

  He waited for me to say more, but I was done. “That’s it. I don’t understand the connection, or how I made it, or even if I made it.”

  “Did you pull Randall’s energy through her, or did Randall give it?”

  Ryan didn’t need to know everything. “She asked for it and he provided it. She’s his second, and I’m important to her, but beyond that, I’m a Friend of the Pack. I couldn’t have done anything without all that energy.”

  “Once she has her own Pack, you’ll be able to pull on that energy?”

  “Theoretically. We don’t know.”

  “Rumor has it you can control fire?”

  I crossed my arms. Only Mordecai and Cora knew that. And Nathan. “You’re just asking random questions. What other human has been like me? Could they control fire? Should I be trying to do it?”

  “You were terribly comfortable with Xaephan.”

  “Yeah. We’ve had wild monkey sex plenty of times — not my choice. Circumstances required it, if I wanted to live. I don’t trust him even a tiny bit, but I still have to remind myself he isn’t my friend.”

  “I can’t imagine having sex with the Lord of Lust was a hardship.”

  “Not entirely. If you have a question, please ask it.”

  “Xaephan, Aaron, Abbott, Nathan, Mordecai, Adonis, Dawg. Anyone else?”

  My necklace buzzed at me. This was an important question. No human can resist Adonis, so it had been important for everyone to think we had a short affair. My gut told me Ryan needed to know the truth, so I gave it to him.

  “Not Adonis. We just made people think we did. Adonis and I stayed friends.”

  He crossed his arms. “Not possible.”

  I shrugged. “Okay.”

  “You’re serious?”

  “Believe what you wish.”

  He eyed me a few moments, as if making up his mind. “If I need to kill Rinaldo, will you help?”

  “Explain to me why it’s necessary — convincingly — and yes, probably.”

  “We’ll ride to within a mile of Katerina’s land, so we can find a spot for you to flash into, should we need the capability later. If you don’t have anywhere else you’d like to go, we’ll head to the boat from there.”

  “Works for me. Were you going to call Apollonius?”

  “Not yet. I wonder what Rinaldo might know.”

  23

  Lorenzo met us on the dock and walked us to the boat, but no one spoke. I went before Ryan, and accepted Lorenzo’s hand to help me onto the boat. We all went down below, and I noted the windows had metal pieces over them to block the light. The two rooms we went into before his also had daylight blocked, so there was no way we could accidentally fry him.

  “What did you learn?”

  Rinaldo was dressed in lightweight dress pants and a short-sleeved dress shirt. No jacket, no tie, but he still managed to look formal.

  “Too much security for Lepori,” said Ryan. “Who else might she have recently acquired?”

  “Has to be Lepori. Perhaps someone rented him.”

  “I don’t believe so. If you don’t know, I’ll bring Apollonius in.”

  “Absolutely not.” Rinaldo bit the words out, and his eyes flared a brief moment.

  “What makes you think Katerina has gone to the dark side?” I asked.

  “All evidence points to the logical conclusion.”

  Ryan touched my arm, so I stopped talking.

  “Have you scanned for brains in that area yet?”

  “I couldn’t find any sleeping brains, which probably means she has them in a shielded room for their downtime. None of the awake brains had weak shields.”

  “I can get you within a mile if you’ll trust me to flash you there.” I’d been calling it stepping, but I kind of liked Rinaldo’s terminology. It wasn’t entirely accurate, but that might be a good thing.

  “My recommendation,” said Ryan, “is for us to fly to all three places, and then plan our incursion for the most likely.” He glanced at me. “We’ll find places a mile or two away at each place, somewhere Kirsten can flash us. With her help, we can move between islands quickly once we’ve flown to the areas in question.”

  When the sun went down, everyone went aboveboard. Rinaldo disappeared onto the island for an hour, and returned looking as if he’d fed. I didn’t ask.

  I went downstairs to use the restroom, which Lorenzo insisted I call a head since it’s on a boat, and Rinaldo was just outside the door when I came out. Waiting for me.

  His hand grasped my arm, and it felt as if electricity flowed between us. It hurt, and it was pleasant, and it scared the fuck out of me.

  Vampires have more control over you if they have physical contact, and my first instincts were to keep him out of my head by any means necessary. Without even thinking, I formed a light staff and had it arcing towards his neck. He’d scared me and it was reflex, and it all happened so fucking fast.

  I knew I was about to decapitate him, but I also saw long, razor-sharp claws headed towards me. I levitated up and stepped into the nothingness at the same time, and stepped back into reality on our new property on Signal Mountain.

  My breath came in gasps, and I tried to manage the adrenaline dump while paying attention to my surroundings. I’d landed in the woods so I wouldn’t have to answer questions, and it was early, early morning here. Dark. Eerie.

  But I was too far from Rinaldo for him to be in my head. Or, I was pretty sure he couldn’t do it from the other side of the freaking planet.

  I jumped and gasped when Mordecai appeared beside me, but at least I didn’t try to kill him. His eyes landed on my chest, and he ripped my shirt off. I looked down and saw I was bleeding. Rinaldo had been aiming to rip my throat out, and his claws had landed a few inches lower because I’d levitated or jumped or whatever just before I stepped away.

  I shook my head and tried to calm Mordecai down. He very much looked like a war god.

  “Probably a reflex thing. I’m willing to give him a pass. I was millimeters from taking his head off.” I leaned over and sucked air in, trying to catch my breath. I trusted Mordecai to keep me safe, so I concentrated on breathing and nothing else.

  “What did he do to make you want to take his head off?”

  His voice was way too calm.

  “Touched me. I felt electricity or… something. It scared me, and I lashed out, which made him lash out, and I stepped out of reality and ended up here.”

  He grasped my arm and took both of us back to the boat. Ryan held his fifty-cal aimed at Rinaldo from fifteen feet away, and I shook my head at him. “It’s possible my reflexes overreacted. Let’s give him a chance to explain.”

  “Thank. You.” He glared at Ryan, then Mordecai, and then softened his look slightly for me. “I have to be careful when over water. I apologize. I wasn’t grounded, and neither were you.”

  “Some Strigorii and Celrau can’t be over water at all,” Mordecai told me. “Nor can they handle air travel. Some can’t even handle riding in a car, because the tires don’t allow a proper grounding.”

  “There are ways around the car problem,” said Ryan, “but many are constrained to staying on their continent. Rinaldo, however, is not.”

  “No, I am not. I sometimes have trouble when I can’t properly ground myself, however.”

  “She’d have killed you if she hadn’t flashed away.” Ryan said it so matter-of-factly, but I cringed at the thought.

  “I apologize,” I told Rinaldo. “My reflexes took over. It is not my wish to kill you at this time.”

  He lifted a single brow. “At this time?”

  “I’d be an idiot to trust you
, but I’m trying to work with you. I’m obviously more than a little guarded around you, though.”

  “Shall I point out the elephant in the room?” asked Ryan. “Kirsten’s reflexes were faster than Rinaldo’s.”

  I shook my head and sat on the bench lining the wall, hoping to ramp tensions down a little. Mordecai was between Rinaldo and me — I could afford to look as if I didn’t need to defend myself.

  “When I was researching Manandán, I learned that the Isle of Man is named after him. I’d assumed the opposite. We also know Katerina was once a queen of Britain.” I took a breath. “And both Ryan and Rinaldo are convinced Lepori is being held on an island in this general part of the world.” I looked up. “With both Manandán and Katerina involved, why are we not checking out the Isle of Man?”

  Mordecai uncrossed his arms, and the next thing I knew, we were in a small home. I’ve never been to Newfoundland, but both the room we were in and the scenery outside made me think of it.

  Ryan was with us as well, even though we hadn’t both been within touching distance of the old god. I didn’t ask how he’d done it, though.

  A few seconds later, our bags were at our feet. Mordecai looked down at Ryan. “This cottage belongs to the Slayers, I assume it’s okay for the two of you to stay here?”

  “You know things you can’t tell us, but since she worked it through, it’s okay to bring us?” Ryan asked.

  “Do you need cash in the local currency?” Mordecai asked.

  Ryan walked towards the little kitchen area. “I’ll check.”

  He fiddled with the oven knob, and a section of counter lifted. “No. We’re good.”

  “Rinaldo will have warned them. Your arrival will be expected.”

  Mordecai vanished, and I sighed. “I assume we’re on the Isle of Man. Do you know where to look? Does Katerina have property here?”

  “Griffin owns an old manor house, on one of the few forested portions of the island. It’s not officially a castle because it’s only about three hundred years old and never housed royalty, but it looks like one. To my knowledge, Katerina doesn’t own land here, and neither does Rinaldo. Let me look through a few databases and see if there’s somewhere else.”

  “The Isle of Man and Manchester are both named after Manandán, right?”