by Rayne Reilly
The scene that met Xander made him want to rip his father's throat out. Julie was unconscious and helplessly strapped to a chair toward the back of the room. Her head lolled to one side as Dimitri stood behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders, using her as a shield.
"Julie!" Xander exclaimed when he saw her. He lunged forward and stopped himself when he realized he would not get to her in time if his father decided to snap her neck. The anger simmered in him, making his vampire side want to rise to the surface.
Dimitri ignored Xander and looked at Oroc.
"So nice of you to make it, old friend. The meeting is over, however," he jeered.
He motioned with his arm and it was then that Xander took in the rest of the room. Against the wall on one side of the room, the chairs where the Council members sat in a semi circle were covered in smears of blood.
Only two Pure Ones remained alive and were standing a few feet away from Dimitri, huddled together staring at Oroc and Xander. They sneered at Xander as he took in the blood bath before him. Dimitri and his minions had torn apart the Council members who disagreed with him. It was an ambush and if Oroc had attended, he might also be dead right now. The sight sickened Xander.
"You bastard! How can you kill your own people? The very people you claim to be protecting?" Xander asked in shock his hands balled into tight fists at his sides.
Dimitri looked at Xander for the first time. There was only hatred in his eyes.
"There is only one way for my kind to survive and that is through the elimination of anyone who stands in my way." As Xander looked at the unconscious and helpless Julie, pain seared his soul. He hated seeing her powerless. Guilt flooded through him at having left her alone. He worried that she would never wake again and it would be his fault.
Xander watched as Oroc walked slowly toward Dimitri. Xander couldn't help but feel that Dimitri had lost his mind, blinded by his hatred for shifters. This was not the man that Oroc described to Xander as being like a brother. Xander knew that the deaths of their brethren were at the hands of Dimitri and for that he would have to pay with his life.
"Brother, why have you done this?" Oroc asked, his anguish obvious. The betrayal of Dimitri had not only hurt Xander, it had also wounded Oroc. The two Pure Ones had known one another for thousands of years but could not be more different as beings.
Dimitri curled his lips revealing his gleaming white fangs. "What's wrong, old friend? Have you lost the stomach for taking a life? Has living among humans made you soft?"
Oroc's expression turned to one of disgust. "This was unnecessary and wrong. I have changed...just as I thought you had. I do not kill because I enjoy it. I do what I must and I don't kill humans. You killed our own kind, innocent Pure Ones who did nothing to you."
Dimitri continued to glare at Oroc. "I did what had to be done. It's time for a new Vampire Council. One that realizes the threat that shifters bring to our kind."
Oroc's voice was smooth and almost soothing as he spoke. "We have spent thousands of years at one another's side. Our kind are so few in numbers already. There is another way to ensure our survival. You do not need to kill shifters to have peace."
"You know as well as I do that it is just a matter of time before they begin killing us again. It is kill or be killed. I have heard that they are hunting us as we speak. They seek war with us again. This time they may not stop until every last Pure One is dead. This is the only way." Dimitri spat.
Oroc took a few steps toward Dimitri his hands remaining at his side. "Please let this shifter go. If you care at all for your son, you will allow her to survive." Oroc motioned toward Julie as he spoke.
Xander also stepped closer to Julie and Dimitri. He waited for an opportunity to reach her without causing her harm.
Dimitri's head turned swiftly to gaze at Xander. He gave a menacing grin and sneered at his son.
"If you come any closer, I will snap her neck."
He continued to move his hands around Julie's shoulders, squeezing and pressing into them.
Xander felt himself about to explode with fury.
"Get away from her!" he finally yelled through clenched teeth, his fangs pressing against his lips.
Dimitri didn't move. Instead he wrapped his large hand around Julie's long slender throat.
"Why should I let her live? She's just an animal." He removed his hand and took a step back, putting one finger to his lips. He spoke sardonically, "Oh that's right. She isn't anything anymore. Just a plain old human now that I gave her the shifter serum." Dimitri's eyes flashed with his sinister smile.
Xander let out a roar. He raced at Dimitri with his fists clenched and ready. Dimitri quickly grabbed Xander by the shoulders with both hands and threw him across the room. Xander hit the wall with a sickening crash and slid to the floor.
The clanging of his sword against the floor reminded him of what he was there to do. He stood and stalked back over to his father. Oroc and Dimitri were now locked in a heated battle. Xander watched silently as Dimitri was quickly getting the upper hand. Dimitri had his back to Xander.
The enraged son unsheathed the samurai sword that Oroc had given him. Without pausing for even a moment, he ran at his father with the sword poised and ready to strike. Oroc saw him coming and pushed himself away from Dimitri as Xander thrust the sword through his father's back and out his chest, letting out a great roar as he did so.
Xander pulled out his sword as Dimitri slid to the floor in a heap. Instinctively and without taking a moment to ponder it, Xander swiftly removed his father's head. The sword clanged as Xander dropped it to the floor and ran to Julie to untie her.
Oroc moved quickly to the remaining two vampires that had watched things unfold without moving a muscle. With Dimitri dead, the two remaining Pure Ones had backed away from the scene. In their attempt to slip out the door they were met by Jake-cougar, a couple of grizzly bear shifters and a lion shifter. Taken by surprise, one of the Pure Ones began to beg for his life. He fell to his knees, his hands held up in surrender.
"Please don't kill me! He threatened me into following him! I never wanted to hurt shifters! Please!"
Jake-cougar padded over to the sniveling man and sat on his haunches a foot or two in front of him. He tilted his head to one side, looking at the Pure One.
The grovelling man continued his pleading. "I'll tell you everything Dimitri told me!"
***
Xander paid no attention to anything else in the room as he untied Julie and pulled her to him. Smoothing her hair as he cradled her head on his shoulder he called for Oroc. His mentor was quickly at his side. Oroc helped Xander to ease her to the floor where Oroc checked her pulse and lifted her eye lids.
"She is unconscious but her pulse is strong," Oroc said.
Xander turned his attention to the begging council member.
"What did Dimitri give her?" he asked the man. The vampire looked at Julie and thought for a moment.
"He told us that she was tranquilized. He wanted to use her to get you here," the Pure One said with a tilt of his head.
"He said he gave her serum?" Xander said, not leaving Julie's side as he glared at the grovelling vampire.
"There is none. It hasn't been perfected yet. It's too unstable. The doctor at the facility refused to give it to Dimitri until it was ready. It angered him greatly but he was waiting to get it in his hands before killing the human doctor," the vampire whined.
The other remaining Pure One suddenly spoke up. "She'll live. She is just unconscious," he said.
Oroc glared at the vampire. He went to the traitor and placed a hand around his throat. "You are sure of this? How?"
The second Pure One seemed unfazed by the choke-hold. "Because I was with the turned-vampires that went to get her. I waited outside her building in the van. They said they shot her with an animal tranquilizer before bringing her downstairs to the van."
Quickly, Oroc placed his hands on each side of the vampire's head clutching it firmly. Xander watched, his h
eart beating loudly in his chest. He hoped Oroc would get the information they needed so desperately. He noticed that Jake and the shifters were watching silently.
"Where is the laboratory that's holding the shifters? Tell me and I might let you live." Oroc said in a deep calm voice.
The vampire spouted out an address and waited for the fate he knew was coming. Oroc twisted his head and let his body fall to the floor.
Xander lifted Julie into his arms and stood. He turned to face Jake-cougar, who had tilted his head as he watched the scene unfold. Approaching Jake he heard Oroc kill the final Council vampire. He didn't turn to look at what Oroc had done.
Instead Xander spoke directly to Jake. "I'm going to take her to Oroc's. I will call you when she is settled and I am sure she is okay."
The cougar stood on all fours and looked at Xander in what he perceived was acknowledgment. Oroc silently walked with Xander out of the building and back toward the car, leaving the shifters behind to change back to human form and get dressed.
"I hope your friends realize that the Pure Ones' bodies will dissolve after several hours?" Oroc mentioned casually.
"I forgot to mention it," Xander said matter-of-factly as he placed Julie gently across the back seat.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
At the home of Oroc, Xander took Julie inside to one of his guest rooms and laid her on a bed. He pulled a chair over to the bed and sat watching her. Oroc stood in the doorway of the bedroom. Xander felt his mentor's gaze on him as he fussed over his mate. He felt as though he had barely taken a breath since he saw her at the V.H.C. headquarters.
Without taking his eyes off her he spoke quietly.
"She's been asleep for a long time, do you really think she will be okay?" Xander questioned.
"If it was an animal tranquilizer, then she will take a little longer to wake. Do not worry."
Xander turned to Oroc and frowned. "I can't believe my father had her kidnapped again. It's a miracle that he let her live."
Oroc nodded as he stood taking up almost the entire door frame. Though his face did not show the emotion that Xander's did, it was obvious that Oroc cared.
"I wish things hadn't had to end the way they did." Xander shook his head and turned to look down at the bed.
Oroc walked over to him and frowned. "It is unfortunate that your father made the choices he did. Do not blame yourself for what happened today. I'm afraid that the deaths of the Council members are as much on my hands as your father's."
Xander's head shot up quickly. He narrowed his eyes slightly. "Why do you say that?"
"Because I thought I knew what your father was up to and that I had things contained. The past week has shown me that I did not know just how lost he had become." There was a hint of sadness in Oroc's voice...something Xander was not accustomed to hearing in his mentor.
"I'm sorry, Oroc. I know you knew him a long time but you should not feel responsible. The death of your friend on the Council was not your fault. They knew what my father was doing and they told no one."
"I am afraid that it may be worse than that. Recently, I had been told that your father has a loyal following of local Pure Ones. They are still out there and so is the potential of causing greater problems."
"But with the lab shut down, surely that will stop them from harming shifters now?"
Oroc shook his head. "The drug is not the only thing that has been going on. It would seem that your father's followers were also part of a crew that kidnapped shifters, forcing them to fight one another for money. From what I understand, they managed to put the blame on humans."
Xander sat up straight in the chair. He blinked once or twice. "We broke that case. Julie had mentioned smelling turned-vampires at the scenes of the fight clubs, but I refused to see it or acknowledge it. I didn't think they would stoop to that. So Pure Ones are behind that?"
"Yes. Turned-vampires may have attended the fight clubs but the Pure Ones organized it. So you see, your father and his experimentation is only the tip of the iceberg."
Xander rubbed his cheek and let out a sigh. "Now I am wondering how the file for that case arrived on my desk in the first place?"
Oroc replied, "My thought is that some humans within the FBI must have known that vampires were involved and they were afraid to go through normal channels to shut down the Pure Ones' operating of the fight clubs."
Xander remembered how Julie had been sent to the Shifter Task Force after describing an unfamiliar scent at the scene of the first fight club. He wondered if her old supervisor had known the truth all along about who was behind the fight clubs. Perhaps the agents in charge had hoped to put her on a team that could stop the fight clubs from continuing.
Xander stood and began to pace back and forth. His mind was turning over everything that had happened since the day Julie entered his life. She seemed to be a key to some of what was happening between shifters and vampires.
Oroc interrupted his thoughts. "Your meeting was no accident. Fate seems to have brought you both together for a reason."
"You mean being fated mates is not enough? There has to be something more? What do you mean?" Xander felt a mix of curiosity and frustration. He just wanted the problems between the two races to end. He already knew that their union would never be allowed among shifters or Pure Ones.
He continued to pace as he glanced over at Julie's peaceful face. He turned back to Oroc, worried about what else he might have to say.
"What I mean to say is that Julie appears to have a role to play in the prophecy. It is clear that she may have been sent to the task force to help the shifters that were being taken. Don't you find it odd that she worked on both cases? If anyone can unite the two races, it will be you two.
"It's only a matter of time before the European Vampire High Council start asking about what has happened here tonight," he continued. "The guards that I knocked out will wake up and see that Dimitri and the others are dead and they will report back to the European Council. I must go to Europe before news reaches them. I must explain what is going on here and how the North American Council that I set up just over one-hundred years ago are all dead. I fear for everyone who might get in the middle of another war if something is not done."
"I must go with you," Xander insisted. "You can't face them on your own. I am as much to blame for what happened tonight. Perhaps I can explain what I know of working at the FBI?"
"I don't think that is wise," said Oroc. "You must remain here and watch over Julie. Besides, I have no doubt that there are some on the Council in Europe who will be deeply troubled by the death of your father."
"So there are others like my father? Those who want to get rid of shifters? How could I have lived this long not knowing that there are those who want to disrupt the peace between us?" Xander shook his head.
"You have been wise to remove yourself from the affairs of Pure Ones. The life you have built in the human world has kept you safe so far. Nonetheless, I think you are right. It is time for you to familiarize yourself better with our rules and laws. They may seek you out now that Dimitri is dead. There are, indeed, those who think like your father and believe that shifters will one day rise up against us once more. Knowledge of who your enemy truly is may be what saves you."
"There's so much I haven't been told. Why would they seek me out? I'm not a Pure One. My father told me that I was not one of your kind and therefore not entitled to the rights and privileges of being a Pure One."
"I am sure he did," agreed Oroc. "Your father was a very unstable being with only hatred in him. You may not be one-hundred percent Pure One but make no mistake, you are one of us. The rules, laws and the privileges of being a Pure One apply to you as much as to your father." Oroc pressed his lips together and nodded once.
"You must tell me everything about the European Council and the secrets of my father. I have to know what else has been kept from me." Xander's voice sounded strained.
"Of course I will. But first I must tend to some
business of my own. I will leave you to sit with your mate."
Oroc turned and left abruptly. Xander watched him leave and he turned back to Julie. Her eyelids fluttered slightly. He hurried to the bedside and leaned over her. Holding one palm to her cheek, he placed his other hand on her forehead. She opened her eyes, taking a moment to focus and was obviously pleased to see him.
"Hi," she whispered hoarsely, pushing herself to a seating position.
Xander sat on the edge of the bed and cupped a hand against her cheek.
Julie put a hand to her head and rubbed it. "Oh, my head hurts! Ow!"
"Are you okay?" he asked.
Julie looked down at her body and moved her arms in front of her face examining them.
"I think so. Just feel liked I was hit by a truck. What the hell happened?"
"Dimitri's men shot you with animal tranquilizer. So I was told. Do you remember anything?"
"Just that not ten minutes after you left, there was a knock at the door and I thought you had come back. I opened the door and saw a couple of men standing there. One had a gun. It didn't look right and I remember thinking, 'What kind of gun is that?' and then everything went black."
"I'm glad you're okay!" Xander said with great relief.
"Where are we?" she asked, finally looking around the room. Its modern decor and expensive furnishings gave Oroc's guest room a comfortable, normal atmosphere that other areas of the house didn't necessarily have.
"We're at Oroc's. We found you with Dimitri and the remaining V.H.C. members. Things didn't go very well."
"Where is Dimitri now?"
"Dead. Along with the entire Vampire High Council," he offered.
Julie winced and bit her lip. Xander could see the look of concern on her face.
"Sounds like I missed quite a bit! How long have I been asleep?" she asked.
"I left your house mid-afternoon, it's near midnight now, so almost twelve hours?"
"Holy crap, really? Tell me everything I missed!" she insisted.
***
At six a.m. Sharp, Xander's phone rang. It was Jake. Xander suddenly remembered that he had told Jake he would call him but instead he had spent the last several hours speaking with Julie.