“Um.” He shook his head. “You’re not going to believe this, but we’ve triple-checked it. She’s in Romania.”
“Did you just say Romania?” Gabi asked; her brain had frozen on the name.
“Yes,” Murphy confirmed. “To be more specific, she’s in Transylvania, actually.”
Gabi didn’t know how to respond to that. It was too ridiculous to be true.
“You have a precise location?” Julius asked.
“Yes.” Murphy nodded again. “That’s why it’s taken so long to get back to you. We employed the services of a PI there to go and scout the area and confirm that the location exists. It turns out it’s a small hotel. We obtained photos of the interior of the rooms from a tourist website and compared it to the background of the video feed. It’s definitely the right place; we even know which room she’s being held in. It’s well secured though, and a note on the gate out front says it’s closed for renovations. It will take a decent-sized team to safely raid the place.”
“What is the travel time?” Gabi asked.
“About twelve hours in the air and another two and half or so of road travel. The area she’s in is a military no-fly zone, so no private planes or helicopters allowed.”
“Fifteen hours in total,” Julius mused. “Just long enough that we will be concluding our meeting at around the same time we can get people to her.”
“Exactly,” Murphy agreed. “It explains why he isn’t going out of his way to keep her hidden anymore. Alexander told me that you have no contacts there that we could rely on to make the raid for us either. He’s crossed all his T’s, hasn’t he?”
“Yes, a supreme strategist.” Julius’s eyes were narrowed and his top lip twitched. “We’re being led around by the nose.” Gabi knew this was his thinking face.
“Call Patrick to the war room. We have a rescue to orchestrate.”
CHAPTER 10
The ruins hardly deserved the name. So little remained of whatever original structure stood here that Gabi couldn’t picture the place in better times. Mother nature had reclaimed what was hers, thick jungle inexorably swallowing the feeble attempts of humankind to beat it back. Vines and shrubbery interwove through the sparse remains of hand-carved rock walls, trees exploded from beneath the chipped mosaic floor, and anything less durable than rock was long gone. Beetles, mice and shrews scuttled in the heavy leaf litter while bats swooped overhead and restless monkeys patrolled the highest branches of the forest around them.
The abundance of wildlife lent Gabi a sense of reassurance. There was an army at her disposal if they needed it.
As they travelled further into the ruins, a bonfire crackled in the very centre of a large open area, perhaps once a hall or place of worship. It was an oval less than twenty metres long and half that wide, though the encroaching jungle made it feel smaller.
On the far side of the fire waited six human shapes.
Gabi and Julius led their small group forward, coming to a halt several feet back from the fire. Gabi had scanned and re-scanned the area with her ESP since reaching the summit; four Vampires and two Werewolves registered to her senses, aside from their group, and Butch, of course. There was one other presence that prickled the back of her mind, making her slightly uneasy and hinting at a long-forgotten memory that she couldn’t bring to mind. It didn’t shout imminent threat, but it set her teeth on edge.
On the other side of the bonfire someone stepped forward, a tall, slender man, with pale skin and pale hair; in the light of the fire it was hard to discern if his hair was white blonde or white grey. His features were lean and angular, like the rest of the man, cheekbones prominent and chin narrow, but lips full, hinting at sensuality and somehow softening the rest of his face. Scandinavian sprang to mind. While not classically handsome, Gabi doubted this man ever struggled to find willing partners, female or male. There was a hint of the androgynous about him. She ran a critical eye over his attire: a dark, perfectly fitted pinstriped suit, complete with matching waistcoat, crisp white shirt, probably silk, and pale grey tie. Another in the group held a dark overcoat over one arm, which Gabi suspected belonged to the pale man too. His black leather dress shoes reflected the light of the bonfire like a mirror.
Show-off, Gabi thought darkly. She, by comparison, felt exactly like she’d just pushed through twenty miles of untraversed jungle. She tucked a stray, knotted curl back behind her left ear and surreptitiously tugged out the small twig she found there.
“Good evening.” The man in the suit spoke at last. “I hope you didn’t find the trip too taxing.” His English was perfect, smooth and resonant, the timbre lending further to the illusion of androgyny, and his crisp pronunciation even put Julius to shame. Still, Gabi doubted it was his original accent. He was too old for that; her ability to sense the exact age of a Vampire became blurry after about two centuries, but, having met several older Vampires now, she at least had a working comparison. They had suspected that the Decuria Number One would try to fool them by sending forward someone as his proxy, but it seemed they’d been wrong. This Vampire was at least as old as Benedict and hundreds of years older than any of the other Vampires in the ruins. But he didn’t emanate raw power like Julius or a mixture of age and potency like Benedict. He felt somehow different.
“You are the one known as Eka?” Gabi asked for the benefit of the others.
“I am indeed.” The man smiled warmly, but the warmth didn’t touch his eyes; he was keeping his expression carefully controlled. His hands were clasped loosely together in front of him, his feet slightly parted and his body at ease. “You would be Gabrielle Bradford, the Dhampir and esteemed Consort of Master Vampire Julius.”
He turned his attention to Julius, who stood on Gabi’s left. Unlike her, he’d come through the jungle looking fresh and unscathed; one hand through his hair had seen it back to tousled perfection. The dark combat trousers and black, long-sleeve crew neck accentuated his wide shoulders and lean waist. He would look like a bodyguard lined up alongside the suave Decurian. He stood motionless beside her, arms folded, weight evenly balanced.
“I am so pleased to meet the two of you,” Eka continued. “The stories of your exploits are nothing short of legendary, and I’m sure will be told to countless generations of newly Turned Vampires.”
“You wished to meet with us?” Julius interrupted his meandering discourse.
“I do not see my Sicarius with you?” the man mused. “I trust he is still alive?”
“Yes, of course,” Gabi answered, “we had to leave him to follow at his own pace, or we may not have made your deadline.”
“You left him without protection or a guard?” Eka sounded surprised.
“He has both,” Julius said shortly. “A member of the Clan is with him.” No need to tell him that the Clan member was a forty-pound cat. Gabi hid a smile, and Eka’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“Why exactly have you gone to so much trouble to bring us here?” Julius asked, crossing his arms across his chest. “Alone, on the top of a mountain without any other Decuria to back you up?”
The man mirrored him, folding his arms too, but his smile didn’t falter. “In such a rush, my friend,” he chided, British royalty dripping from each word. “Forgive me my old-fashioned manners and let us observe a few pleasantries before getting to business. We shall start with a little show-and-tell.” Without any outward sign from him, the rest of his group moved forward, spreading out to flank him, three on each side. “As a show of good faith, I’ll show you mine first.” He opened his arms to encompass his people and his smile widened so brilliantly that he seemed the tiniest bit unhinged. Gabi tensed automatically, her right palm itching for Nex. Steady. The word was breathed softly into her mind.
“This is Annmarie.” Eka indicated a tall female Vampire at his right shoulder. She dipped her head slightly in polite greeting, but her eyes spoke of dark, dangerous things. “She is my personal guard,” he extrapolated.
“This is Felipe.” He turned
to the man on his right, shorter, with a wiry build and dark hair, he reminded Gabi painfully of Marcello, one of Julius’s guards who had died the true death, someone Gabi had come to love as a friend. “He is my right-hand man.” Eka laughed a little at his own joke as he waved his right hand in front of the man.
Gabi steadfastly resisted the urge to look at the watch on her wrist. It would show the countdown to the ETA of Kyle’s group, who were on their way to Transylvania to rescue her mother. She was desperate to know if things were going according to plan. The sooner they had her mother in safe hands, the easier the negotiations here would go.
“The rest are of no significance,” the man continued, “except for this one.” He reached out a hand and pulled one of the figures to stand beside him. The figure was shrouded in a thick, black cloak—hood up, no part of the person exposed—but stood at least a foot shorter than the Decurian. Eka tugged the hood back, baring the head of a girl. The girl was of African descent, her hair cut short, her eyes large in her small face, her skin a rich, dark umber. Gabi judged her to be no more than mid-teens. The air behind Gabi swirled and Tabari was suddenly beside her, a low growl rising from his chest. Gabi clamped a hand on his arm as Eka looked up and the others around him tensed. Tabari didn’t back down an inch but didn’t move any further forward either. His gaze was fixed on the girl.
“What is the meaning of this?” Tabari demanded, anger deepening his accent. “What are you doing with her?”
“This is Flora,” Eka introduced the girl, his eyes not straying from Tabari. “She is my ward. I tried calling her my foster daughter, but she didn’t like that, so we settled on ward, like Batman, she tells me. She was orphaned seven years ago and banished by her tribe. She was found by an elderly priestess who envisioned her plight. She was taken to the nearest city and word came to me of her predicament. I had need of her potential gifts; she had need of someone to care for and protect her. Now she has come into her powers and she has need of a mentor. To fully come into her own, to become as skilled as she wants to be, she has need of one taught in the old ways.”
In the space of a lightning strike Gabi understood why the Decurian needed Tabari, and so much more.
“It was her,” Gabi said, her tone only just above a whisper. “She was shielding my mother from the Magi who tried to track her. She is a Vodun priestess.”
Eka’s gaze drifted to her, and he smiled. “She is an acolyte, a priestess in training. She will one day be capable of great things, but now she needs a teacher.”
“What do you plan to do with her?” Tabari growled. “A fully trained priestess is capable of not only great things, but of terrible things, things that defy the natural laws, things that should rather be left untouched.” The desolation in his voice cut at Gabi; she’d never heard such emotion from him before. What he spoke of was deeply personal to him; it made her wonder what he’d been through, how he’d come by such painful knowledge.
“Flora’s future is her own,” Eka said, putting one hand on the girl’s shoulder. She didn’t flinch or change expression as Gabi might have expected from someone being coerced or forced into a situation. “She is sixteen now, she is no longer officially my ward, and she is free to choose her own path. I personally am very attached to her, as any foster father would be. I only want the best for her. And if she chooses to stay with me, she is eternally welcome in my family and Clan.”
“Father, you have no need to fear.” The girl spoke for the first time, putting a hand onto Eka’s and turning her face towards him. Her voice was clear and strong, her accent a curious combination of West African and British. Her expression erased any doubt that she was under duress. The affection in her expression would be impossible to force, even for someone like Fergus, whose control over humans was impeccable. “Even if I do stray over the years, home will always be wherever you are.” She turned back to Gabi’s group, but her gaze was all for Tabari. “I owe my father everything. He took me in when no one else cared; he makes allowances for my differences and protects me more than he should. But I also want to honour my birth mother; she was a powerful and respected priestess, who shielded our village from enemy eyes for many years. A neighbouring tribe had her assassinated when news of her ability to protect our village reached them. When she was dead, the other tribe attacked, killing the men, stealing our cattle and our crops. Afterwards what was left of my people shunned me. They feared the ancestors were angry with my mother and had allowed her to be killed; they worried that I would bring them more bad fortune. I was sent away.”
Under Gabi’s hand, the muscles on Tabari’s forearms bunched and rippled, as though the girl’s words caused him physical pain. She glanced at him, alarmed. In the warm glow of the bonfire a single tear trailed unheeded down Tabari’s cheek.
“Your story, little one, has been the harsh reality of Africa for centuries,” he said, his voice raw with emotion.
“Please.” The girl took a step forward away from the protective hand of her foster father. “Please help me. I will not dishonour the ancestors, I swear. I don’t think they were punishing my mother, and I want to make them proud. I only want to be able to protect my new family, to keep those I love from harm.”
“This is what you require of my son?” Julius spoke now. Gabi had never heard him refer to one of the Clan members as a son, but the emphasis was clear. He loved each of them as family, and he was making the point to Eka that Tabari meant as much to him as Flora did to the Decurian. “You want him to be her mentor, to train her in Vodun ways? This is in exchange for the safe return of my Consort’s mother?” His words were simple, but Gabi could detect the menace behind them. Eka must have sensed it too, as he stepped forward, coming up behind Flora to place both hands on her shoulders.
“I know you must feel slighted. You have come to this meeting under duress, and now I request a favour,” he said. “But I ask that you open your minds, to try to understand my predicament.”
“And what predicament would that be?” There was no hint of sympathy in Julius’s voice.
“I need your assistance, but I am the Number One, the leader of the Ten. Does the leader of the Pack ask for help from a lesser wolf? Or does he demand it? You both have made it abundantly clear that you do not suit the criteria for the Decuria or even the Centuria; if you did, I could simply make you do as I wanted. So now, I must force your hand, at least in the eyes of those who would be pleased to find any chink in my armour.”
“And this is the crux of the matter,” Gabi guessed, having already connected the dots. “The young wolves are colluding to challenge you. When your friends become your enemies, and all that.”
“A leader in my position can never afford to show weakness. Only power, strength and ruthlessness.” He didn’t confirm their suspicions, but neither did he deny them.
“And you will gain much power and strength from having a Vodun priestess at your side,” Gabi noted. His taking Flora in had been nothing altruistic; he had cared for her to further his own ambitions.
“Only if it is her choice,” he replied.
“And you know it will be,” Tabari cut in.
“I can offer more than just the release of your mother.” Eka chose to ignore Tabari’s comment and address Gabi. “Now that you are here, I can speak of things I cannot at other times. Things I dare not put in writing or speak of where I may be overheard.”
“What things?” Gabi demanded. What information could he have?
“I can help with two of the things you most desperately search for,” he hedged. He was enjoying the repartee, revelling in keeping them on edge and anxious.
“I’m sure you’re aware that I’m not known for my patience,” Gabi said, allowing her growing anger to tinge her voice. The urge to draw Nex was eating her from the inside out.
Eka inclined his head and smiled. “I have, in fact, heard exactly that. Do you know that I can feel the bond between you and that sword? It’s like a living thing. You call to each other; it wants to
protect you.” His eyes had gone a little distant. He shook his head, focusing on her again. “Forgive me, I don’t often get to speak to those like you. I am so accustomed to the endless manoeuvrings of our order.” He dropped his hands from Flora’s shoulders and stepped in front of her. “One of the things I can help you with is the location of a Vampire who has been trying to obtain a position in the ranks of the Centuria. I believe he has sworn an oath of fealty to you, Julius. And I hear he has stolen something of value, something I, in fact, could make use of, but will no longer need if your son agrees to train my daughter.”
“Caspian and the Maleficus?” Gabi demanded, her jaw clenching together at thoughts of the pair. “You know where they are?”
The man inclined his head, with an enigmatic smile.
“And the second?” Julius asked.
“The other I am only prepared to discuss between the three of us.” He made a little circle with his finger encompassing himself, Gabi and Julius. “It is a very sensitive issue, and one that I do not want others to know about, not even my own.”
Gabi might have expected to see some form of dissent or annoyance amongst his personal guard, but none of them altered stance or expression in even the tiniest way. There was only one other thing Gabi and Julius had been searching for, one thing that was so sensitive it couldn’t be discussed except when Julius had magically sealed the room from prying ears. What did this Vampire know about her heritage?
“How do you suggest we do that?” Julius asked. He seemed to have come to the same conclusion she had. Her brain was already running possible bad outcomes here. What was this man’s game? They had come here expecting aggression and unreasonable demands; this facade of camaraderie and rationale wasn’t something they’d prepared for.
“I know that you are able to form a magic circle,” he told Julius. “I have somewhere prepared not far from here, with some basic home comforts. We can retire there and you can perform whatever magic is required to keep anyone from overhearing us, and then we can talk.” Eka held an arm out in a northerly direction. “It is a large cave that I suspect once housed livestock for the citadel. It only has one entry point. Our seconds can take up guard duty at the entrance, and perhaps Flora and Tabari may exchange a few words while we are otherwise occupied. It may ease some of your concerns if Tabari truly understands my beautiful Flora’s mission in life. It doesn’t take much to see the truth of her heart, I assure you, but you must experience it for yourself.”
There'll be Hell to Pay (Hellcat Series Book 6) Page 14