by Leah Silver
“Why? My point stands. I can’t have men who are afraid of me on the team. I’m not the scariest thing we’re about to go up against.”
Ike looked over at me. “While you have a point, there are some in the group who feel you are a bit on edge, and none of us want to do something to upset you during this time.”
“Noted. Thank you. What’s your argument for going to the hive, tracker?” I demanded, cutting to the chase.
“It’s a known starting point. Levi’s right. We’ll get some kind of answer.”
“But at what cost?” I said, getting tired of this circular conversation. Levi started to protest, but I held up a hand. “Listen, when I go on a hunt, I always do a risk assessment. There has to be a good reward before I agree to it. And going into this hive doesn’t have enough reward. You’re right—we will get answers. But the likelihood is the answer will be no, there’s nothing useful here. Even you have to admit that.” They didn’t say anything as they eyed each other. “I think we should pursue Devlin.” There. I’d said it. Out loud.
Ike and Oscar frowned, but didn’t look away. What did that mean? Ed and Levi stared at each other with frowns on their faces.
“Going after someone on the council is—” Ed began.
“Risky at best,” Levi finished.
“Frankly, it’s less risky than going into a hive that’s likely some kind of trap. What’s the worst they can do to us? Exile? The hive could kill us. Or imprison us, making it so we can’t finish the mission,” I argued.
“There’s nothing that says the council wouldn’t imprison us as well,” Ed pointed out.
“Fair point,” I admitted. “But I believe we’d have a fair amount of protection since we’d be doing it in the name of the job they charged us with.”
Ed shook his head. “You’ll get yourself in trouble with those kinds of assumptions. No one is above the punishments of the council.”
“Oh, really? Because Tempest told me Charles doesn’t like Devlin. And that he hasn’t been successful in getting him removed from the council. Doesn’t seem to fit the bill of ‘no one is immune,’” I argued.
“She said what?” Ike asked as he stood up.
“You heard me. Something’s rotten in the state of Denmark. And it’s Devlin. He’s the one who wants us to go into this hive. He’s the puppet master here. Why? Don’t any of you want to know? What’s his stake in this?”
“You don’t think he’s behind this, do you?” Oscar asked.
“No. I don’t. I don’t think he’s smart enough to be honest. I think he has family in high places that he’s hiding behind. Or maybe they’re hiding behind him. I’m not sure. I do think he’s perpetuating this. Controlling it. Keeping anyone from stopping it. And I want to know why. If he really is a seer, he should be able to see who’s behind it,” I countered.
“Not necessarily,” Oscar said. “Seers can’t control their visions. Unskilled ones can’t even tell the difference between the truth and what their mind has made up.”
“All the more reason to question the council’s absolute trust of him. There’s more going on here than an innocent seer trying to save the world,” I said.
“It does seem odd, what Tempest said,” Ed admitted. “Maybe we should look into it.”
Yes. One down. Three to go.
Levi must’ve seen the victory in my eyes because he held up his hands. “Hold on there before you get too excited. What exactly do you intend to do with Devlin? You’re armed to the gills. You can’t go to his house swinging. He’s given us no reason to attack him.”
“No. We need information. Proof. So we go to his place and snoop around.” I shrugged.
“Snoop. You look one hundred percent ready for snooping.”
I ignored the skepticism in Levi’s voice.
“Maybe we won’t have to,” Ike said, looking at Oscar. But Oscar was already shaking his head.
“No. I can’t get a read on the council members. They have protections in place. Tempest’s the only one I can hear, but that’s only if she wants me to.”
“A read?” I thought for a moment while I looked at him. All the snorts and knowing looks he’d thrown my way. “I knew it. You are a mind reader. Son of a motherless gravedigger. What have you heard? Oh, I don’t even want to know.” I turned around, unable to face him, and put my hands on my temples. No, I couldn’t panic about it. I had to think about this pragmatically.
“Is there some way we could … lift that protection off Devlin?” I looked at Ed.
“Oh, now we’re getting somewhere,” Levi said, seeming to get excited right along with me.
“Like I said, risk assessment. If we can accomplish this without him even knowing what we’re doing, no one would be in danger at all,” I said, feeling rather optimistic.
“Okay, let’s not go into this with too much sunshine and roses,” Ike said. “No matter how you slice it, he’ll need to be attacked in some way. He’s going to know what we’re doing, even if it’s just lifting the council’s protection—if that’s even possible. We’d be fools to go into this thinking we’d come out of it unscathed. We need to be prepared for a worst-case scenario. If he lashes out at us, what can we do to protect ourselves?”
“He’s just a vampire, right? And there are five of us. I’m not thinking we’d be in any severe danger,” Levi said.
“If he’s alone,” I said in spite of myself. My hunter brain was taking over.
“Something tells me someone like him keeps powerful creatures around,” Oscar theorized.
“We won’t know anything until we go in,” I said. “And I don’t like going in blind.”
“What do you propose?” Levi asked.
“I think we should do some recon. Find out his routine. Learn about his day-to-day life. Maybe I can ask him out for a drink or something. Pull him out of his element. Then you guys can work your magic, we’ll finish our drink, and then go our separate ways. Maybe one on one, I can get him to talk to me with a little less hostility.”
“I doubt that. If anything, he’ll feel more powerful if you reach out to him. He’ll be convinced you’re drawn to him,” Levi said with more than a little disgust on his face.
“Hate Devlin as much as I do, huh?” I asked, smirking.
“He’s hard to like,” Ike admitted.
“That he is,” Ed added. “All this depends on my ability to lift the protection off a council member. I know how to do it. In fact, I’ve placed a few protections myself. But, like Ike said, he’ll know I’m doing it as soon as I begin. Perhaps putting something in his drink would help. Dull his senses.” A smile spread across his face, and I knew I had another one on my side.
“What about you two?” I pushed Ike and Oscar.
They frowned, but not nearly as deeply as they had in the beginning. “If we cross this line, there’s no turning back. Our disrespect toward the council will not be ignored,” Oscar warned.
“I know. But if we save them from a darker fate, won’t they be grateful?” I countered.
“Maybe. Maybe not. There aren’t that many vampires on the council. You’re lucky to be so buddy buddy with Tempest. Not all creatures can see past their racial lines like that. They won’t care that you saved the vampires. They’ll worry their status has been threatened by our move.”
“They should worry,” I argued. “If they intend to harm an entire race, they should always worry.”
“Okay, but remember who you are. We’re not vigilantes here,” Oscar warned.
“No. Maybe not. But you can’t argue that if one of the council members has ill intentions, and the council itself isn’t capable of regulating that, an outside party should step in.”
“Before we all become team Avengers here, let’s focus. I think our plan is good,” Ike said, bringing us all back to the task at hand. “Ed, how much time do you need to prepare to lift the protection?”
“A few days at most.”
“Fine,” Ike said. “We’ll do recon work
while you’re getting ready. Is everyone in agreement?”
“Aye,” they said, as if this were some kind of official meeting.
Suddenly, I was filled with a tremendous sense of gratitude for these men. All my life, I’d been on my own to care for Sara. And suddenly, I had four others on my side. “Thank you.”
“You can wait to thank us when this is over. If one of us dies chasing after your so-called mole, I’m not sure we’ll be so interested in your gratitude,” Levi teased.
“All the more reason to hand it out now,” I said as I approached him, putting more roll in my hips than necessary. He straightened and looked down at me when I got right up in his space. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy it, too, but he didn’t have to know that. “But maybe you’ll get your thanks last,” I said, keeping my voice as low and seductive as I could. I watched his Adam’s apple bob as he struggled to maintain his composure. “So, the charmer can be silenced.” I smiled as I put a hand on his chest. “Good to know,” I purred as I patted him and turned my back on him.
Ed whistled. “Woo, boy. She’s got your number.”
“Don’t you dare think I don’t have yours, too, Edthar.”
He straightened. “Yes, ma’am.”
Suddenly, I felt filled with purpose instead of dread. And it felt damned good. “Well, we have our marching orders. Let’s sniff out that mole.”
That mole’s got sharp teeth
All vampires hunted demons. But it was a common misconception that vampires drank human blood. We didn’t, not necessarily. I’d heard it compared to heroin for us. As the legend went, we were created to balance the demons. Hunters and hunted.
I was exceptionally good at it. More so than anyone before me or since, which was fortunate, because I was able to use my skills to make a life for Sara and me.
Interestingly enough, even though I’d been dear friends with Agatha for almost two centuries, I’d never questioned her methods. She did what she did, and that was it. But she’d given me the first weapons I ever had. Taught me how to use them. Put me on the path to becoming who I was today—commissioned to supply blood to pubs and take vampires on hunting treks.
Somehow, I’d gone from that to some kind of super hero commissioned by the council to save the vampires. It felt like I needed some sad commercial with Sarah McLachlan singing in the background. Won’t you help us save them? Those four hotties who were scrambling to get ready were going to lead me to my death. I knew it. But at least it would be a nice view on the way down.
It was the middle of the night by the time we organized. Ed and Levi stayed behind to prepare. Which meant I was out of there, along with Ike and Oscar.
Somehow, Ike managed to get a hold of Devlin’s last-known address. “You know, Sara searched for information on him relentlessly, and she came up empty. How did you manage to find something?”
“I called Charles and asked him for it.” Ike shrugged.
“You what?” I asked. “Now they’ll suspect we’re up to something.”
“No. I told him we had some questions about the hive and its exact location, and we needed to get a hold of Devlin for a firsthand accounting.”
I started to dispute him again, but stopped, my mouth hanging open. “Oh. Well, I guess that’s good.”
Oscar laughed. “High praise from the demon hunter.”
“Apparently,” Ike said, sounding less than impressed.
I didn’t add anything further. No need to stroke their already-enlarged egos, so we rode in silence to our designated spot about two blocks from Devlin’s home. Or at least where he’d been staying during all of this. I wasn’t convinced he was actually a Connecticut resident. He seemed transient, like he didn’t have much loyalty to the place. I wasn’t sure why that rubbed me the wrong way. Most vampires were transient. If supernaturals hung around for too many generations, people noticed.
But something about the way Devlin was acting felt slimy. Made him seem like he was hiding something.
Oscar sidled up to me as we walked. “You are too focused on the evil you believe courses through Devlin.”
“What?” I asked. I climbed over a rock and settled in behind a bush as we made our way closer to Devlin’s house.
“You’re too focused on your assumptions about Devlin. Your mind will be closed to the facts we learn about him.”
“You’re in my head again, aren’t you?” I completely ignored his observation, opting for safer territory where he was in the wrong.
“You’re a loud thinker.”
“If I asked you to stay out of my head, would you?”
“Yes. I would,” Oscar said.
I looked over at him, his grey eyes reminiscent of the beast the humans portrayed him as. “I believe you. Don’t make me regret it.”
“Is that a formal request?”
“Yes.”
“Guys, stop bickering. We’re here,” Ike whispered before crouching behind a bush ahead of us. I followed suit, choosing a spot with good visibility off to Ike’s left. Oscar found a place on my left, so I was in between them.
And there we sat, for the entire night. Of course, we took breaks, ate, tried to make sense of what we’d seen—which was a big, fat nothing. Ike sniffed around the perimeter some. But basically, we accomplished nada in almost twelve freaking hours. By the end, I was fit to be tied, and ready to storm the house.
“So, Ike. Where’s your pack?” Part of me was passing the time. But another part of me really wanted to know how I’d collected such a singular group of men.
“Pack life didn’t suit me.” His answer was simple and truthful, but I could tell there was more to it than that. A lot more. I waited for him to add to it, and just when I was about to give up and set in on Oscar, he broke the silence.
“I’m no alpha. Yet, I found myself fighting mine over a woman. I loved her. At least, I thought I did.” He shrugged. “We were young. She loved us both, and ended up hating me for killing her alpha.” His eyes weren’t full of ghosts from his past like I thought they would be. Instead, they were determined as he watched me listening to his story, bits and pieces that made the man sitting by me. “I won’t make that mistake again.”
Even though it was another simple truth, it was obviously aimed at me. We were forming a pack of our own, with me at the head. I leaned in close to him, and brushed a clump of wild hair away from his eyes. “When I’m your alpha, you won’t have to fight anyone to get to me.” I had no idea what possessed me to say it, but it felt right. And if the hunger in his eyes was any indication, I’d hit the nail on the head.
I sat back, and the distance between us left me feeling cold. Oscar sat on my other side, so I turned to him. “What’s your story, Oscar?”
An owl hooted in the distance, but we’d seen nothing at all from Devlin’s house. “Not much to say really. Gargoyles aren’t very social creatures.”
“What of your family? You didn’t just appear out of nowhere.” I hadn’t really thought the statement through, though. Plenty of supernaturals just existed. No origin story whatsoever. Just the Mother—the ultimate creator some supernaturals believed—willing them into life. “Unless you did,” I sheepishly corrected.
He chuckled, a low rumbling sound that warmed my chest. “No. I had a family. I was actually born in France. Some of the gargoyle statues that adorn the Notre Dame Cathedral are modeled after my family.” He waved his hand, dismissing the significance of that statement.
“You’re a celebrity,” I said, ignoring him.
Ike barked out a laugh. “For Bael’s sake. Don’t inflate his ego.”
I chuckled. “Levi’s the one we need to worry about in the ego department.”
“No argument there,” Ike said with a laugh of his own.
“I’m not a celebrity, Merry.” I didn’t miss the hint of sadness in Oscar’s voice. “The humans feared my family. One by one, they hunted us down. They aligned themselves with wizards and other creatures equipped to handle the fight. My fa
mily never saw the attack coming. By the time I returned home, they’d been slaughtered. If I had been there…” The weight of his words suffocated the end of the sentence.
I put my hand on his shoulder. “Maybe you’d be dead, too.”
“Until recently, I thought that would’ve been the best thing.” He looked at me with those grey eyes, and I wanted to shiver, but it had nothing to do with the cold. “Now, well. It’s good to feel like I might be part of a family again.”
I smiled. Before I could change my mind, I crawled over and kissed him on the cheek. He grabbed my hand when I did it, and I froze. I was so close to his face that our noses would’ve bonked if he moved. He smelled wonderfully earthy.
Trying to lighten the mood, I winked. He released me, cutting the moment short. We should’ve been concentrating on the stakeout, not making eyes at each other like teenagers in lust. Focus. That was what we needed.
Devlin’s house wasn’t a row home like mine. Instead, it was surrounded by woods. The closest neighbor was half a block away. No one came and went, unless they lived in the neighborhood, which made for a very boring night.
We were all frustrated by the time we gave up. “We never even saw Devlin. We have no idea if he even was there. He could be onto his next target, planting the plague,” I said, stomping through the woods as we headed back to the car.
“Or he could just be a homebody like it seems Sara was,” Ike offered.
“Maybe. But how am I going to ask him to dinner if we can’t find him in the first place?”
“You’ll have to call him,” Ike said.
“I hadn’t really expected you to go knocking on his door anyway,” Oscar said as we got back into the car.
“No. I suppose not. It just would’ve been nice to actually see him. To feel like we were on the right track.” I slammed my seat belt home. Ike chuckled, watching me in the rearview mirror.
“A seat belt? It’s not like it’ll save your life.”
“What? I don’t want a ticket, do you?”
“That’s fair,” he said, clicking his own belt.
“What’s his number?” I asked as Ike pulled onto the road.