by E. S. Moore
“In time, Kat, in time.” The cloaked man shook his oddly shaped head. “Is your first name short for something?”
“Why does it matter?”
“It doesn’t.” He sighed and moved around his desk, then took a seat. The leather chair creaked as he settled his weight. “I just want to know.”
“It’s not.”
He turned his face up to me ever so slightly. I still couldn’t see a damn thing in the hood, and it was starting to piss me off. By now, I should have caught a glimpse of something in there. I mean, even a sliver of light finds its way into the darkest corners now and again, but this guy’s face seemed to be made of darkness.
Now that was an unsettling thought.
“Not what?” he asked. I heard the smile in his voice.
“Not short for anything.”
“So Kat is your given name? Interesting. I would have thought it might have been short for Katherine or Kathy, maybe even Katelyn.”
“Why the fuck does this matter?”
There was a stretch of silence. Buzz Cut was still staring at me, refusing to show even a hint of amusement at the inane conversation. The short guy was rocking back and forth as if he couldn’t stand still and would bolt from the room at the word go. His hands beat a staccato on his hips.
I waited the men out. I don’t know if he was trying to soothe me or irritate me. If the plan was to do the latter, then he was doing a damn fine job of it.
“I am Jonathan Alucard, in case you are wondering,” the cloaked man said. “Frankly, I am surprised you haven’t already asked a hundred questions. I know I would have if I had been in your situation.”
I rolled the name through my memory banks. It didn’t ring any bells. “I figured you would get to the point soon enough.”
“Fair enough.” Jonathan bowed his head. “These are my associates.” He motioned to the short, jittery man. “Gregory Hillis.”
“Pleasure,” Gregory said. He bowed and beamed at me as if the brief introduction was the greatest thing to happen to him in his entire life.
“And Nathan LaFoe.”
Buzz Cut grunted and his frown deepened. He didn’t seem to be as excited to make my acquaintance as his companion.
Jonathan leaned back in his chair. I still couldn’t see under the damn hood even though he was looking directly at me. Or at least, I thought he was. As far as I knew, he could have his eyes closed.
“I suppose you are wondering why I asked you here, why I would send someone to deliver my message for me?”
“It crossed my mind.”
“I have a favor to ask of you.” Jonathan leaned forward, crossing his hands in front of him on the desk. Aside from the hood and cloak, he looked like any other businessman ready to talk. It was pretty disconcerting considering this was the Den of a wolf-worshipping cult.
“Many have questioned my decision to come to you, though I did keep it quiet as to who you really are. Only a select few know your true nature.” His gaze flickered to Nathan and then back to me. “But I believe this course of action is best. No,” he corrected. “It’s the only course of action left open to us.”
He paused and spun his chair around so he could look out the window. Nothing moved out there but the faint blinking light of a plane in the distance.
“So what’s with this place?” I asked. “That was a pretty interesting show with the lights back there. You do that for everyone or just for me so I would feel special?”
Jonathan laughed. “You are special, no doubt; but no, anyone who comes through those doors gets the same show.”
“How’d you do it?”
“Pardon?”
“How’d you make the lights come on like that? I couldn’t see a thing through the doors.”
“Ah,” he said. “It’s a glamour. We like our privacy here. To let others see the lights would be like a beacon to our location. We really don’t want people knocking on our doors uninvited.”
“A sorcerer,” I said, my voice hitching on the word. “Someone here is a sorcerer.”
Jonathan cocked his head to the side and I was pretty sure he was staring at me. It made me feel all kinds of uncomfortable not knowing what he was thinking. I could usually discern someone’s thoughts by their eyes, but with Jonathan, I had nothing to go on.
“I can do only minor glamours,” he said at last. “It isn’t much, but it helps keep us hidden from unwanted notice. Anyone looking through the front door or one of the windows will only see a dark, abandoned building.” He paused. “It isn’t perfect, but it serves its purpose.” He took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. “Of course, not many people reach the doors uninvited. We just like to take the extra precautions in case someone gets through our security.”
A sorcerer leading the Luna Cult? Great. As if having to deal with a bunch of werewolf lovers wasn’t bad enough.
Jonathan stood and walked around his desk. He stopped all of five feet away from me and I still couldn’t see his face. “I should probably explain something to you first,” he said. “The more you know going in, the more likely you are to understand why I came to you. There are certain things you should know, things best shown to you rather than told.”
“Sounds like a plan,” I said. Something about Jonathan’s tone had me on edge, but I managed to keep my cool. So far, aside from Pablo’s attitude and Nathan’s angry demeanor, no one had really shown me much in the way of hostility.
Jonathan glanced over to his two associates and nodded ever so slightly. Both Nathan and Gregory sat down, though Nathan did so much slower, as if he wasn’t sure it was the right thing to do. The tension level in the room rose tenfold, and I desperately wanted to know what was going on before I accidently shot someone.
“Would you care to take a seat?” Jonathan asked, motioning toward one of the recliners. It was black leather and looked really comfortable.
“No thanks,” I said. “I’m fine just where I am.”
Jonathan bowed his head in acquiescence before speaking. “I thought you might say that. I take it some of the rumors about you are true. It’s probably why I haven’t seen Joshua since he was sent to deliver my message.” His tone hardened. “I assume he is dead.”
My hand slowly fell to my waist. I didn’t draw, but I wanted to be ready. I didn’t like where the conversation was heading.
Nathan started to rise, but Jonathan waved him back down. The big man hesitated, his frown deepening, before settling back down on the couch.
“He broke in to my house.”
Jonathan leaned back against his desk and sighed. “I should have expected it, really. Joshua is an impulsive man. He was to deliver the note and leave before anyone knew he was there. I should have realized he would want to see you himself.”
I glanced at Nathan before answering. The big man was glowering, but he didn’t seem like he was getting ready to fight. Yet.
“I didn’t want to do it,” I said. “But I don’t like people knowing where I live, which brings me back to my question. How did you know where to find me?”
“It wasn’t easy, honestly. Even though I knew who you were, you had moved to a new location before I could act on my knowledge. It made tracking you down that much more difficult.”
I clenched my fist. How long had this guy known about me? “How?” It was all I could think to say.
“You made a mistake,” Jonathan said. “It happened a long time ago, back before you were as well equipped as you are now. Back before you had made a name for yourself.”
I stared at him, unsure what to make of the statement. What kind of mistake had I made, other than getting myself captured once? I was always careful, even back when I was young and stupid.
Jonathan stood silent for a long moment before speaking again. “I was your mistake,” he said. His hands slowly rose to the hood concealing his face and slid it slowly back from his head. There was a shimmer, as if the air around his head was disturbed by some unfelt wave of heat; then his features ca
me into focus.
One side of his head was normal. His eye was blue, his hair a curly brown. Laugh marks creased the corner of his mouth, and wrinkles, probably caused by natural good humor, webbed outward from his eyes.
The other side of his face, however, was a nightmare.
His right eye was bloodshot. The blue iris was speckled with so much red it was almost blackish purple. His cheek was all scar tissue, and his mouth curved ever downward as if the nerves had been damaged so badly they were useless. There was no hair on that side of his head. In fact, there was no head there at all.
Instead of a rounded skull, the right side of Jonathan’s head was flattened at a downward sloping angle. It looked as though someone had neatly sliced that part of his head off, missing his brain by scant millimeters. Skin that looked to have come from elsewhere on his body was stretched over the horrific wound. It was pink and wrinkled, as if it had been badly burned.
I wanted him to raise his hood, to hide the disaster of his face, but Jonathan let the hood fall back, leaving me no choice but to stare at him.
“Do you remember House Valentino?” he asked. His words were now slightly slurred. The glamour that had disguised his features within the hood must have also adjusted his voice to hide the speech impediment caused by his damaged face.
I nodded, slowly, too stunned to even think. Valentino’s wolves killed my family. There was no way I could forget him. “Count Valentino,” I said, my voice surprisingly strong. “He’s dead.”
“I know. In fact, his real name was David Smith.” He laughed, though it had a bitter edge to it. “It’s a little-known fact that most vampires change their names when they begin to rise through the ranks. House Smith doesn’t quite have the same ring to it as House Valentino, no?” Jonathan took a deep breath and let it out slowly, as if preparing for his next words. “I belonged to that House at one time.”
I stiffened and drew my sword. I had killed everyone connected to House Valentino. Or so I thought. If Jonathan had somehow survived, then there was only one thing he could want from me. Revenge was a pretty big motivator.
I started to move forward, intent on finishing the job I started. Valentino and his wolves ruined my life. His House may have been destroyed, but the damage he caused was so massive, I had yet to recover.
I probably never would.
“I didn’t ask you here to harm you,” Jonathan said without moving. Nathan had moved to the edge of his seat, ready to spring the moment I made another move toward his master, no doubt.
“Then why am I here?” I stopped, though I kept hold of my sword. I knew the anger was showing on my face. I was so upset I could hardly think. That wasn’t good for anyone.
Jonathan stood and turned his back to me. He walked slowly to the other side of his desk as if I wasn’t holding a weapon that could cleave the rest of his head from his shoulders. There was a lot more trust in that simple act than I would have expected.
“Don’t get the wrong impression,” Jonathan said, easing into his chair. “While I was bitter at first, I came to realize that you, unwittingly, had set me free from my bonds. No longer was I bound to the rules of a vampire House. I was free to act on my own.”
I studied Jonathan, trying to figure out what he was getting at. It took a few moments, but finally something clicked. A regular Pureblood never could have survived his wounds. And if he were a vampire, he wouldn’t have been set free, as he put it, at the death of Count Valentino. That meant ...
“A werewolf.”
Jonathan nodded. “Very astute of you.”
“I killed everyone,” I said. “I’m sure of it. I counted the bodies.”
“Almost everyone,” Jonathan said, nodding. “When you broke free, you inadvertently set my new life into motion. You almost killed me, should have even. I was bleeding from the wound you inflicted on me.” He smiled. At least, half his face did. “But I didn’t die. I learned the error of my ways in that sword strike, learned I didn’t need to be subservient to the vampires. I could find my own path, forge my own life.”
“But how?”
Jonathan shrugged. “I don’t know. Call it fate, if you will. The bleeding eventually stopped and I was able to crawl out of the wreckage of the House. Some Luna Cult members found me and brought me in. They took care of me, nursed me back to health when I surely would have died otherwise.”
I closed my eyes for a second to compose myself. This was definitely not what I had expected when I came here. Having old memories brought back to the fore was a torment that went far beyond pain.
I opened my eyes and stared at him hard. “Did you kill my family?”
“No,” Jonathan said, his voice firm. “I know what happened, and I am sorry. When Count Valentino ordered your family’s death, I stayed behind. I had nothing to do with the slaughter.”
He seemed so genuine I couldn’t help but believe him. I’m not sure what I would have done if he would have admitted to killing my parents, my friends. Would I have risked being overwhelmed just to kill him?
“You changed my life,” Jonathan went on. “I survived and realized that living my life a slave to the vampires was not a life at all. I could have found another House and risen in the ranks there, but chose instead to stay with the Cult, to work with the Denmaster to form our own vampire-free House.”
“Wait,” I said, shaking my head. “You aren’t leader here? Then who is?”
“Simon is our Denmaster, not that you would know him. He doesn’t know who you are.”
I frowned. “I don’t understand.”
“Simon is the reason I have asked you to come.”
I was about to ask him about Simon, but it was then that something else he had said hit me. “A vampire-free House?” I said. “Are you serious?”
“Just because we aren’t vampires doesn’t mean we can’t have our own House. We stand against the vampire Houses, refuse to bow down to them. The Luna Cult has given us more power than we ever dreamed possible, and we do not wish to relinquish that power and return to our subservient ways.”
I tried to come up with something to say, but words failed me. This was insane. Werewolves didn’t have their own Houses. They were the pawns of the vampires, supposedly the weaker of the two shifters. They protected the vamps, were their daytime guardians. They didn’t form their own organizations. There was no werewolf union. It just didn’t happen.
“Come,” Jonathan said, rising. “I want to show you something.”
I looked from Jonathan to the two men sitting on the couch. This whole thing made no sense. If they were indeed werewolves who had rebelled against the vampires who enslaved them, then why would they have come to me, a vampire? If he had been a part of House Valentino like he claimed, Jonathan would know what I was. He would have seen my fangs, seen my rage. Hell, he might have been responsible for what I had become.
Nathan and Gregory both rose. They had no weapons on them. At least none that I could see. They moved to stand beside Jonathan as he reached a hand beneath his desk. I tensed, expecting him to pull a gun; but instead, I heard a click and the wall to my left slid open. He gestured me toward the yawning darkness.
“Please,” he said. “We need your help.”
The sincerity in his voice left me speechless. I could easily kill all three of them, I was sure. I probably should have.
Then again, they could have had me killed already if that was what they had planned. There had been more than enough opportunities for that. I couldn’t bring myself to kill them, not until I knew what they wanted. After that, we’d see what happened.
I bowed my head slightly and sheathed my sword. I took a step back, clearing the way to the new opening. “After you,” I said.
Jonathan gave me his half smile and then a quick nod. He ushered Nathan and Gregory ahead of them. They passed by me and headed down into the darkness.
“Thank you,” Jonathan said as he came up next to me.
“Don’t thank me yet,” I said. “I
haven’t agreed to anything. I’m still trying to decide if I should kill you or not.”
He nodded as if he wouldn’t have expected anything less, then followed his two associates into the gloom.
I stared after him a moment, wondering if I was doing the right thing. This wolf might have been responsible for my change, for the loss of my family. He had been there when I killed Count Valentino and his followers. He had to be guilty of something.
I took a deep breath, swallowed my anger, my fear, and followed the werewolves down into the darkness below.
11
“This part of the Den was here before we took over,” Jonathan said as we made our way down the stone stairs. Moisture seeped in through the walls, staining the stone a muddy brown. It smelled of mold and dampness that could only mean we had traveled well belowground.
“I don’t think the people who owned the place back when it was a library used it for much of anything,” he continued. “When we found it, there were hardly any signs that anyone had ever been down here at all. I think it might have originally been planned to be used as a bomb shelter of some sort.” Jonathan shrugged. “We made some changes so we could use it for something else.”
We reached the bottom of the stairs and entered a large room that looked to be twice the size of the Den above us. The whole place was made of stone. Pillars dotted the room and held the roof above our heads. A stainless-steel table sat at the room’s center, and a variety of surgical instruments lay on a tray next to it.
Cells were built into the walls. They surrounded the entire room. There had to be at least twenty of them, if not more. Their bars were made of what looked to be heavy iron, and they were mounted into the stone from ceiling to floor. There were no windows anywhere down there, which further solidified the idea that we were well underground.
The place reminded me forcibly of a vampire dungeon. When he had said it might have been an old bomb shelter, my mind had immediately gone to Ethan and his private second basement. Even though I had never seen his workspace for myself, I knew it looked nothing like this.
Now I could think of nothing else but the cages in which the vampires usually kept Purebloods. It made me sick to even think about it.