Sylvie flew into a trash bin a few feet away from the percussive force, and Nic and Evangeline hit the pavement, Nic twisting his body at the last minute to land on his back, Evangeline cradled on top of him.
Dieter screamed as the flames engulfed his torso and, rolling around on the ground, he tried to put out the fire.
Sylvie raced back over to him, but after whipping off her jacket and trying to beat at the white-hot flames, which only reignited a second after dying, she stifled a sob. The gunshot echoed through the night as she sent a silver bullet into Dieter’s skull, ending his suffering.
Evangeline pushed up on her hands, her lips moving. He couldn’t hear her words but felt the vibrations through his chest. His ears rang, and as he pushed up on an elbow and shook his head, his ribs protested, but the dull roar in his ears quieted.
“Nic?”
“I am all right. Are you hurt?” Groaning as he got to his feet with Evangeline still held in his arms, he forced a deep breath. Gritting his teeth against the pain, Nic pressed his fist to his side, setting the rib back into place. “We need to go. Now.”
“Back to the cars,” Sylvie confirmed, emotion choking her voice. “Thom, meet at the rendezvous point in two hours. You see anyone following you, call it in. And for fuck’s sake, don’t be a bloody hero and try to take on any of these assholes on your own. They knew we were coming. Dieter and Sven are…gone.”
With one last, lingering look at the smoldering remains behind them, Nic took Evangeline’s hand. “We will find her. I promise.”
Evangeline didn’t meet his gaze as they started to jog back towards the cars. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”
42
Sylvie drove like a madwoman, and Evangeline gripped the door handle hard enough to make her fingers ache. In the front seat, Nic talked in low tones to Carlo, but if she strained, she could hear the entire conversation.
“How can we trust him?” Nic asked.
Carlo’s tinny voice bore the strain of the late hour—or perhaps his guilt. “He’s done nothing but talk, Nicola. Every decision Luigi made these past few years that seemed suspect. I had to cut him off a few hours ago so we could all rest.”
“Have you been able to verify his claims?” Glancing back at Evangeline, Nic frowned and jabbed a button on the phone. “You are on speaker, Carlo.”
“Some. Many of the Conclave’s proceedings are secret, and Antonio’s access was disabled at 3:00 p.m. I called a friend and asked him to drive by Antonio’s home—I did not tell him why—and he reported polizia vehicles parked outside. A warrant has been issued for his arrest.”
“He could be lying so he can stay hidden,” Evangeline said as Sylvie took a corner on two wheels before slowing down to weave in and out of traffic heading for the northern edges of the city. At close to nine at night, plenty of cars clogged the streets, and they’d all taken turns keeping an eye out for cars tailing them.
“Si,” Nic said. “But he is a man of means. And connections. Certainly he could find a way to disappear.”
“If Carlo let him go. Otherwise…he’s cuffed in silver, right?”
Carlo cleared his throat. “Not currently.”
“Are you bloody insane?” Sylvie asked. “I’m going to rip you a new arsehole if we make it back there, Carlo.”
Dropping his voice after a sigh, Carlo replied, “We had to know.”
Evangeline scrubbed her hands over her face. Every new thing they learned worried her even more. How long until they all had arrest warrants out for them? If Nic didn’t already. “And?”
“He is still here.”
“Nicola?” Antonio said from a short distance away. “If I wanted you dead, I would have fought harder when you took me from my home. When you interrogated me in the warehouse. You were in no condition to overpower me. And while your bodyguards are quite well-trained, they are no match for me.”
Sylvie cursed under her breath, but Nic nodded. “He is right. What would you have us do, Antonio?”
“You know of the tunnels under the Conclave? The old underground waterways to the south?”
“Si. We rejected the first two sets of prison plans because they made use of those tunnels. The structural integrity was poor. During the rainy season, there were floods.”
“I believe Luigi uses them,” Antonio said, and Nic’s eyes widened.
“What makes you think that?”
Antonio’s frustrated grumble carried over the line. “I could not figure out how Luigi used my car to transport your human. Evangeline. After you were brought in and I oversaw the bloodletting, I went to Luigi’s office. He was not there. Yet, only fifteen minutes later, he called for me.”
“He couldn’t have slipped by you?” Sylvie asked as she checked the mirrors.
“No. He must pass by my office to enter his. I was waiting for him. When you accused me of kidnapping your life mate, I started to suspect all was not as it seemed.”
Nic glanced back at Evangeline. Pain swam in his dark purple eyes. “Give us a moment, capo,” he said as he jabbed the mute button.
At Nic’s use of capo, Evangeline knew what he intended. “You want to go back to the Conclave. Where they locked you up and stole your blood, tried to break our bond… No, Nic. Please.”
“It may be the only way.”
“Sylvie?” Evangeline leaned forward. She trusted Nic—had since she’d escaped with him into the forest outside of the catacombs. But now, without their bond muddling her emotions—or clarifying them—uncertainty twisted her stomach into a knot.
Her bodyguard flicked her gaze to the rearview mirror, her lips pressed into a thin line. “I don’t like it. But we’re out of ideas. Bayard hasn’t been able to find any sign of Luigi. If we go anywhere he expects us to go, we’re risking another trap. So the real question is…would he expect us to go to the Conclave?”
“I do not know,” Nic said quietly. Pressing a button on the screen again, Nic cleared his throat. “There is no guarantee Luigi will not be waiting for us in those tunnels.”
“Nicola?” Carlo said. “We need a diversion. One Luigi will be unable to resist.”
“And what do you have in mind?”
Antonio broke in. “Not over the phone. Meet us. You can pick the location and the time. But we need to end this tonight.”
Nic paced the darkened shell of the abandoned building just outside of the city, while Evangeline sat on the floor in the corner of the room, hugging herself tightly. If only he could comfort her. But she’d shut him out once he’d agreed to meet Antonio and Carlo.
“Car approaching,” Sylvie said over comms.
“Evangeline.” Nic offered her his hand to help her up, but she pushed to her feet and swayed for a moment before she found her balance. “Please talk to me.”
“Later.” Withdrawing her pistol from the holster at her hip, she checked the safety, then took her position next to the door with a clear view into the parking lot. “I don’t trust Antonio. Or Carlo.”
“Do you trust me?” Nic pressed his back to the wall on the other side of the door, waiting for Sylvie’s signal.
Evangeline met his gaze in the darkness. Her eyes luminesced, the amethyst glow stealing his breath. “Yes. With my life.”
“I love you.” Though he hadn’t heard her thoughts since their bond had shattered, he had to try. When she cocked her head and the corners of her lips twitched into a half-smile, relief washed over him. Her nod, both confirmation and response, gave him hope.
The black sedan eased to a stop at the south corner of the building—as Sylvie had instructed. Antonio emerged first, his hands held aloft. “We are alone, Nicola. And unarmed.”
Sylvie rushed over to the car, patted down the Conclave’s former second-in-command, and then eyed Carlo. “You too, mate.”
Once Sylvie was satisfied that the two men weren’t armed, she jerked her thumb towards the building. “They’re waiting. I hear one wrong word and Thom will cut you down from a thous
and meters away.” Fixing Antonio with a hard stare, she arched a blond brow. “I don’t care how old you are. You’re not going to escape the best German sniper in the world.”
Nic said a silent prayer that Antonio and Carlo wouldn’t see through her exaggeration. Thom might be highly trained, but Antonio had the benefit of over a millennium of life.
“One day, perhaps, you will trust me,” Antonio said as he strode towards the abandoned building. “Nicola, we are coming in.”
“No sudden moves.” Nic met Evangeline’s gaze, and she adjusted her grip on her pistol. As the two males passed between them, she stepped to Nic’s side, and he settled with her sweet scent so close.
Antonio glanced around the darkened, empty space. The windows had long been broken, and a fire had blackened one half of the former storefront. He wrinkled his nose. “You could not have picked a more hospitable location?”
“Easy to secure,” Nic said. “But I do not wish to stay here any longer than necessary. What is your plan?”
Antonio shoved his hands into his pockets and leaned against the wall opposite the door. “Luigi wants to destroy the tenuous peace humans and vampires have enjoyed the past two centuries. But he is afraid.”
“Of what?” Nic asked.
“Dying.” All three men turned towards the sound of Evangeline’s voice. “He took me because he thinks making me his blood slave will keep him alive forever.”
“Si.” Antonio ran a hand through his salt and pepper hair. “I did not put the pieces together until I spoke with Carlo and Vittoria.” With a sigh, he shook his head. “Before we ended Nicola’s interrogation, we took a brief recess. You remember?”
Nic frowned. “Si. And you tried to force me to take bottled blood.”
“I was concerned for your health.” Holding up his hands, Antonio rushed to explain. “You and I have rarely seen eye-to-eye, Nicola. I do not share your love for humanity. They are a necessity and we were all once human, but they are prone to wars, to terrible unfounded prejudices, to pettiness and strife that I find ridiculo. But despite our differences, I have never wished to see you come to harm.”
Grabbing Antonio by the lapels of his wrinkled black shirt, Nic slammed him up against the wall. “You shattered the bond Evangeline and I shared. How can I believe you did not wish to see me ‘come to harm’?”
“Que cosa?”
“Forcing me to take human blood—blood that was not Evangeline’s—fractured the life bond we made to one another.” He swore under his breath and swallowed hard over the lump in his throat. “And when Luigi tortured Evangeline, fed from her, poured his blood down her throat, he did the same to her.”
“Merda.” Antonio sagged in Nic’s grip. “I am sorry. I did not know. Please believe me, Nicola. I did not know.”
“Nic.” Warm fingers curled around his wrist, skimming one of his faded bonding marks. “I believe him. Or…at least…I trust him enough to hear the rest of what he has to say.”
When he met Evangeline’s gaze, something warmed inside him, and Nic loosened his grip and took a step back. “Continue. The recess during my interrogation.”
Smoothing his hands down his shirt, Antonio began to pace. “Over the past few years, Luigi has started to show his age. We shortened our meeting sessions to six hours. He needed more blood. More often. You noticed his weight loss?”
“Si. A dozen kilos at least. His appearance shocked me when I was first brought in.”
“He left the interrogation room and closed himself in his office for fifteen minutes,” Antonio said. “When he emerged, he looked ten years younger.”
“I noticed this as well.” Nic’s confusion hadn’t abated, and he was quickly losing patience with his former elder. “Is there a point to all of this?”
Carlo cleared his throat. “The guards who raided Vittoria’s lab delivered Evangeline’s blood to the Conclave ten minutes prior to the recess.”
“He…that’s when he first had my blood?” Evangeline’s voice trembled, and she pressed against Nic’s side. “That’s how he knew I could…heal him. Make him immortal.”
Carlo stared down at his feet. “I am afraid so, my dear.”
His life mate’s anger and pain slammed into him like a physical blow, and she turned, strode over to Carlo, and slapped him across the face. Tensing, his fangs descending and his fists clenched at his sides, Nic prepared to defend her, but Carlo merely took a step back. “I am sorry, Evangeline. I thought giving Luigi what he wanted would protect you and Nicola. I never thought…”
“I don’t care,” she said. “You…you took my choices away. He…” She turned away, and Nic caught a glisten to her eyes. “Luigi…what he did to me…I’ve never felt so…violated. Terrified. Helpless.”
Carlo reached out his hand, and Nic growled an oath, about to spring for the man he’d once considered a son, but Evangeline whirled around and caught Carlo’s wrist, twisting until the man fell to his knees. “I’m not helpless anymore.” Her fangs perched on her lower lip, and Carlo’s eyes widened. “When this is over, whatever you and Nic decide about your friendship is between the two of you. But I don’t ever want to see you again.”
“Nicola?” Carlo asked, looking to Nic for…something. Reassurance? Explanation?
Nic found he didn’t care.
“Mia sposa speaks for both of us, Carlo. We must finish this now so that she and I can move on. Find somewhere in this world we can be safe. Where no one will come after her again. I am sorry. But assaulting her, violating her, and directly leading to her abduction…those sins are unforgivable.”
43
“You want to do what?” Evangeline snapped. Her anger sent a burst of strength through her tired and sore muscles, and she was starting to understand why Nic kept telling her that vampires were not kind creatures.
Since the appearance of her small, sharp fangs, her emotions had started to hit her with a ferocity that shocked her. Every emotion. Fear, anger, frustration, arousal, and love all took her breath away.
“Carlo is not taking more of my blood for that monster.” Glancing over at Nic, she expected to find him angry, protective, and above all, on her side. But his frown and the uncertainty in his dark purple eyes scared her. “Nic? You can’t be okay with this.”
“No. I am definitely not ‘okay’ with this, cara.” He took her hand in both of hers, his thumb stroking over the bonding mark at her wrist that had yet to be renewed. “But as much as I hate the idea, Luigi will be too tempted to resist.”
“We would not need much, Evangeline,” Carlo offered. “A single vial. Only enough for him to verify that it is your blood and not a trick.”
“You’re not touching me,” she said. “You and Vittoria drugged me. I had to watch you take my blood knowing I couldn’t do a damn thing about it. And then whatever the hell you gave me made me forget the whole thing. Do you have any fucking idea how horrible that was? I remember all of it now. Every single second trapped in my own body, unable to move, to speak. Terrified without Nic. Knowing the only two people I trusted in this world besides him, the two people Nic swore to me would protect me, were hurting me.”
“Evangeline.” Nic’s gentle tone stopped her from descending into the awful, dark depths of her memories, and she turned to him with tears in her eyes. “I will take your blood. After what you have been through—both at their hands and with Luigi—I will never let anyone else touch you again.” He drew her aside, cupping her cheeks and brushing a light kiss to her lips. “You said you trusted me, tesoro. Do you still?”
Of course she did. She loved him. “You’re the only one I trust.”
Relief spread across his handsome features, the stress lines that had deepened around his eyes the past day fading. “I feared we would lose this,” he whispered. “I did not know how much I needed to hear your thoughts once more. How much I needed our bond.”
Levering up on her toes, Evangeline kissed him. She sank her fingers into his hair, and when her tongue danced across
his lips, he yielded, but in the next moment, took control and hauled her against him. Pure, raw need flooded over their bond.
Antonio cleared his throat behind them, but Evangeline didn’t care. She needed their bond like she needed oxygen. Hunted, their future uncertain, her love for Nic—and his for her—grounded her. Gave her hope that perhaps one day, they’d be free.
Her tongue scraped against her own fangs, and the shock and hint of pain had her breaking off the kiss. “Take my blood,” she whispered. “But this is the last time I let anyone come near me with a needle.”
An hour later, Nic pressed her against the wall. “I do not like this,” he said, caressing her cheek.
“Don’t watch. Please.” Framing his face, she brushed a gentle kiss to his lips. “It has to look real.”
He nodded, then jerked his head towards the door. “The rest of you, with me. No one witnesses her pain.”
Antonio, Carlo, and Thom followed him out into the parking lot, and when she and Sylvie were alone, Evangeline blew out a breath. “I’m ready.”
Sylvie’s fist flew, and Evangeline’s vision dimmed as pain bloomed across her cheek. Nic’s curse carried from outside, along with Carlo’s sharp order for him to stay put.
“Again.”
“E. No.”
With a groan, Evangeline blinked hard and focused on her bodyguard. “Again. If I’m not damaged, he’s never going to believe Carlo.” The second strike caught her in the mouth, and she tasted blood.
“You’re good,” Sylvie said, taking Evangeline’s arm and helping her down to the ground. “Carlo, get your arse in here before she heals.”
Nic hovered in the doorway, but Evangeline held up her hand as she met his gaze. “We don’t have a lot of time. Don’t worry about me.”
“I will always worry about you.” Nic pulled out his phone and stalked to the far end of the parking lot. They’d debated the details of this plan for half an hour, trying to think of every eventuality.
Revelations in Blood Page 24