“A murder? I thought that was crows?”
“A group of fairies is called an unkindness. Much like ravens,” he said. “You have much to learn. Westwood will help you. She probably has some kind of enchantment to help you learn everything, knowing her.”
“No, I’d rather do it the old-fashioned way. Although, the idea of that does intrigue me.”
“Look—” His face suddenly became somber and drawn “—you’re going to see things. Terrible things you cannot change. To even comment on them could get us both killed. I’m strong, but not enough to take out a murder of Vampyr.”
She took a deep breath. “I understand.”
“We’re actually going to a small island in the Gulf of Finland. It’s not technically part of any country. It’s called Upyrion.”
“Let me guess. All bloodsucker, all the time?”
“Yes. They are a law unto themselves, or rather Evgeni Kumarin is.”
“And that’s who we’re going to see.” She nodded as she digested the information.
“It’s daylight outside. The sun doesn’t bother them. There are other, weaker bloodlines that have such thin, papyrus like skin they can’t tolerate light without burning or bruising, but Evgeni is a pureblood. The only thing that can kill them is Blessed Ash.”
“What if they’re atheists?”
Blake raised a brow. “Like most things, the wielder has to believe it will work. It doesn’t matter what the Vampyr believes.”
“Do we happen to have any Ash lying around?” she asked.
He laughed. “No. That would be like someone showing up at Aphelion with silver. I’d tear their head off.”
“What about our venom?” She wanted to know how she could protect herself, if to the need arose.
“Decapitation can work. Our venom keeps them from healing as fast, but theirs does the same to us.”
“And Grigori, the wolf you were talking about—he does business with these creatures?”
“Warner believes he’s been supplying them with blood stock.”
Her stomach turned. “You don’t mean from a blood bank, either, do you?” She bit her lip, as if the pain would somehow keep the bile down.
“No, Randi. I don’t.”
Human beings. That’s what he meant she’d see. People being used only for their blood. She’d bet they were treated worse than cattle, too.
“I don’t think I can do this.”
“Yes, you can. For your father. For the pack.” He tilted her face to his. “For me.” He kissed her softly. “For yourself.”
She was glad he had so much faith in her because she had none in herself. Not when it came to this. This wasn’t vaporizing Hector. This wasn’t standing up to Warner. This was watching an atrocity and letting slide like it didn’t matter. This was staying quiet because they were too weak to stand up and speak.
It wasn’t brave to do nothing.
Her father would not be proud of her.
“I know what you’re thinking. Your father would simply want you to stay alive. In this case, brokering with Evgeni is the lesser evil. Until we can find a way to subdue Breslin, don’t forget he’s infected. They can help us catch him and, most importantly, contain him.”
She exhaled. “Human trafficking, that’s the lesser evil?”
“They may be the key to Grigori’s downfall as well.”
“Part of me wishes you sent me back to Aphelion, so I couldn’t fuck this up for you.”
“You’re not going to fuck it up, Randi. You’re going to go in there, and you’re going to do just fine.”
She wrinkled her nose as the ferry neared the island. “What the hell is that stench?”
“Death. It’s how they smell to us. We smell like burned dog hair to them, so it’s fair.”
“I think I’m going to vomit.”
“Here.” He handed her a cough drop. “These help make the scent less offensive.”
“Can I have two?” She swallowed hard.
He raised a brow. “Sure, you can have two in your mouth.”
“You have a dirty mind, Mr. Woolven.”
He leaned over and pressed her back into the seat. “Mr. Woolven? I think I like that. How about we revisit this line of conversation when we’re stateside? You can storm into my office again, take me to task and, in turn, I shall take you to task. Over my desk.”
A low heat began to simmer in her belly. “You mean the same desk where you were fucking another wolf?”
“No. I’ll get rid of that desk. Burn it. Blow it up. Whatever you want.” He nipped at her neck. “I’ll burn down the whole building and start over if it would make you happy.”
It was exactly what she wanted to hear. “No, but I love that you offered.”
“Red, I’d do anything for you. Don’t you know that by now?”
“Yeah, but I still like hearing it.”
The ferry docked and the driver pulled onto the island. A large, cathedral-like building loomed in the distance. Practically a castle, with onion domes aplenty, it seemed to be a bigger, statelier version of St. Basil’s Cathedral.
“It’s so beautiful.”
“Ah, now Aphelion will pale in comparison.” Blake gave a faux sigh.
She knew what he was doing, trying to lull her into a sense of comfort and safety so she’d relax and focus on him, on them, instead of the task ahead.
“Do all murders exist so lavishly?”
“No. Certainly not. The Spectrals live in sewers and catacombs. Elementals live in trees and running water.”
“I have much to learn.”
“But they don’t need to know that,” he said as the car rolled to a stop.
She pulled her courage around her like a mantle, pinning logic and reason to her shoulders like epaulettes, ready to face the monsters in the dark.
Err… sunlight.
Whatever.
A male dressed in a smart uniform opened the door to their car with a gloved hand. “So good to see you again, Mr. Woolven. Master expects you in the main hall. The wraiths will escort you.”
Wraiths? Just how big was the unseen? How did they stay hidden?
When they stepped inside the beautiful building, Randi did her best not to wander with her mouth agape. The very essence of opulence, the inside looked rather the way she’d imagine the inside of a genie’s bottle might appear. Thick tapestries hung on every wall, finely woven rugs lay underfoot, and plush areas invited reclining, all of it in the brightest jewel tones.
Something a bit like a sentient breeze tangled itself in her hair and moved along her scalp in the most pleasing manner. It propelled her forward gently, turning her down a long, gilded hallway which opened into a great room filled with Vampyr in various tangles of feeding, sleeping, or fucking— a veritable feast of hedonism. She didn’t know where to look first.
Until a man on a golden throne captured her gaze—no, not a man. Vampyr.
He wore his hair long, to his shoulders, all snowy white, just like his skin. The irises of his eyes were blood red. He was terrible, but had a fey, almost delicate beauty about him.
Dressed in a red brocade jacket, black silk lounge pants and nothing else, he was obviously a showman.
When he smiled, he revealed strange, sharp teeth like ice… or maybe diamonds.
“Welcome, Blake Woolven. It has been a long time.” He spread his hands wide in a gesture of welcome.
Randi didn’t know how Blake could stand to be so close to him.
She noticed, when he turned to her, his red brocade coat gaped open and revealed a tattoo of a church on his chest with what seemed like a hundred spires. She wondered what it meant.
“Is this for me? You know how I love red,” their host said smiling at her.
“No. This is my Randi.” Blake introduced her.
Evgeni smiled at her, flashing those eerie teeth. “Ah, lovely.” He took her hand and kissed it with a flourish. “I am Evgeni Kumarin.”
His old school manners would’
ve made her blush if not for the fact he was Creepy McHellNo. She withdrew her hand.
God, she needed another cough drop.
All of the eyes in the room turned to them and a prickling awareness slithered down her spine. Rage pooled hot and volcanic, blood boiling and melting her bones into the Change. But the cool geis of her submission to her Alpha, his edict, helped keep the beast at bay.
“Pardon my lack of refreshment to offer you, but as this visit was quite last minute, I’m sure you understand.”
“Yes, the reason we’ve come with only a phone call. We have a problem.”
“Oh?” Evgeni turned away from them and wandered casually toward a large door. “We, as in you and yours, or we, as in you and I?”
“Have you heard of Peter Breslin?”
“The hunter?” Evgeni snorted. “He’s a gnat.”
“He’s a nigh indestructible gnat with a propensity for blood and an immunity to silver.”
Evgeni paused and turned back to face Blake. “And who made this creature? Was it you?”
“No. But you should know he has berserker status. If you were to catch him, we’d allow you to keep him. A gift, if you will.” Blake shrugged as if the giving and taking of this life was nothing more than a bolt of cloth or an unwanted castoff.
“That’s just what we need. Infected berserkers in the cages that we can’t control.”
“Imagine the spectacle if you put him in the arena. One match, and you’d make millions.”
“What else is it you’ve come to get from me?” Evgeni led them through the door and into private apartments.
“Your business with Grigori Remus.”
“So has Woolven finally decided to lock jaws with Remus and take all his toys?”
“I believe he tried to steal mine. Specifically, a scientist who worked for me. David Rutger.” Blake answered him in the same unaffected tone.
“Hmm. And what are you offering that I should give you this information?” Evgeni demurred.
The wolf in Randi wanted to erupt for her and tell him he’d get to keep his life and that was trade enough, but again, she pushed it down. This part of her that had been missing for so long, this strength that rose up in her to fill the cracks the death of her father had left behind. Yet she had to smother it, choke it, and chain it down.
She was tired of chains, tired of cages…
“I would love to see this one fight. The fire sparks in her eyes constantly. Is she blooded?”
Randi drew herself straight and fixed him with a hard stare. “That’s not a question you ask a lady.”
Evgeni laughed. “Indeed, it isn’t. My apologies, fire hair.”
“Would you really like to see me fight?” Randi asked, tone sweet as pie.
“Randi—” Blake’s voice was a warning.
“David Rutger was my father.”
“That does put a different shade on it.”
The implication of his words rang hollow in her ears.
“So you know who killed him?” Blake prompted.
“You have to understand, Blake, when Remus told us about the Blessed Ash weaponry, well… we couldn’t let that happen and your Dr. Rutger was determined to be loyal to you until the very end.”
The beast in front of her killed her father.
“By the old laws, you owe my mate compensation.” Blake sounded stony.
Evgeni flashed those teeth again. “I can do better than that.” He turned his attention to Randi. “Do you want your father back?”
She didn’t speak; she couldn’t.
“Well, don’t you?” Evgeni cocked his head to the side.
“What have you done?” Blake demanded.
“It was a shame to destroy a mind such as his. He’s in the conversion chamber, down with the stock.”
Randi wasn’t sure what she was supposed to feel. Elation, rage, fear, hope… it all swelled together as the tide of emotions washed over her.
She’d buried him. She’d seen the body… she’d begun to grieve.
Isn’t this what everyone wanted who’d lost someone they loved? The chance to have them back?
Or would it be like some horror movie, and he was wrong somehow?
Randi thought about the beast that now lived under skin. She wondered if maybe her father would think she was wrong, unnatural?
His safe comforting scent would no longer be that of her childhood. He’d smell like death—he was dead. How could he still be David Rutger? Looking at the creature—predator—in front of her; if he was like him, was he still her father?
“Do you accept my restitution, Woolvens?”
“What happens if I do?”
“You take your father and leave.” Evgeni shrugged. “If you do not, you simply leave.”
She remembered what Blake said about taking on a murder of Vampyr. Her wolf believed she and Blake could do it and could walk out alive, but logically, she knew that was bullshit and a good reminder never to listen to only her wolf.
“Ah, Evgeni, we would not simply leave. You owe me a blood debt and now, so too, my mate.”
“Did you forget where you are?” Evgeni’s tone stayed jovial, but he’d added an underpinning of steel.
“No, but I think you must’ve. Do you recall your time at Aphelion? You wouldn’t be here in Upyrion if not for our friendship. Now, you’d deny my mate her father? You’d make a joke of her pain, to what end?”
“Fuck me, but you’re boring. I thought dogs liked to play?” Evgeni smiled, but this time, the expression cut as vicious and sharp as any knife. “Fine. If you don’t, I do. How about we make a game out of it? I owe you one life in exchange for mine. Who will you choose?”
He made a dramatic motion with his arm and a sections of the floor began to recede revealing a transparent surface beneath.
“Tick tock, Lady Woolven. Tick tock.” He smiled again.
In one chamber below them, she saw her father. He was pale, gaunt, thin and haggard. They’d chained him to a bed, and an IV of what she believed to be blood hung next to him.
In another chamber, she recognized her former roommate and only other friend, Jessa Rain. At first glance, it didn’t seem Jessa was in any immediate danger.
Closer inspection delivered a hard truth. Several other entrances to the stone-walled room that held Jessa were filled with snarling beasts, what could only be the beserker wolves. At any moment, those doors could open, and Jessa would be ripped to shreds.
“You have to understand, I didn’t realize Randi was your mate when Grigori brought this to us,” Evgeni said quietly.
“But now you do. Now you know. So all you have to do is say the word, and they’re both free.”
“That’s not how it works here, Randi. This other woman? She’s now murder property. Evgeni must give them something in return for taking her,” Blake explained.
“I don’t care what he gives them,” she snarled. “That’s his problem.” Her wolf and a growing darkness struggled inside of her. It clawed forward, tearing at her vision behind her eyes until all she could see was red. Literally. Everything around her looked like meat. The Vampyr were rotten meat, but meat nonetheless.
She kept waiting for Blake to demand she stand down, to force her wolf down, but he didn’t. He said nothing. Why wasn’t he doing something?
Almost as if in response to her unasked question, he whispered, “This is your choice. I can’t do it for you, but I believe in you. I give you permission to do what you must.”
A lone howl tore from her throat, and she barely managed to speak. “My father. I choose my father.”
Her blood began to boil in her veins, her bones again melting to reshape, reform, and her wolf in control. The pain was excruciating, but the rush of power and strength was worth it because pain became an unfathomable pleasure as she punched through the glass and dropped into the room with Jessa just as the cages opened. Shards of glass crunched under her feet, but her skin was too thick and hard to be penetrated.
She felt invincible.
Somewhere, through the fog, she heard Blake say, “Is this payment enough for your murder? A spectacle?”
“Oh, indeed.”
She briefly wondered why he wasn’t snarling, biting, acting every bit the knuckle-dragging Alpha. She was in danger. Evgeni threatened them, mocked them and made fools of them.
Randi vaguely remembered the way he spoke before they arrived. He’d known this would be awful, but he’d done it to get to the truth.
And she had gotten the truth.
Her father…
She let the anger take her. The darkness inside her swelled, unchecked, a violent storm.
Jesse smelled like fear and vodka. Randi knew that she partly caused her fear, but she couldn’t think about it. All she could think about was the beasts coming for her.
Then she wasn’t thinking about anything at all.
Lost in a haze of blood and the primal urge to protect, Randi fought for what was hers.
Chapter Eighteen
Fuck, but she was magnificent.
As he knew she would be, but the first full emergence of her wolf was a thing of beauty, much like Randi herself. She was the embodiment of the Goddess—strong, powerful, and elegant. Her pelt wasn’t just a pretty rust, but pure crimson fire.
The darkness inside of her which he’d feared would take her away from him still writhed inside of her, but he could see how she used it, channeled it to become her strength.
Everything in him demanded he jump into the fray, that he defend her. Protect her.
But Warner was right.
Blake needed to let her stand on her own. If for no other reason than she’d know she could. She needed this. All along, it wasn’t about him saving her, or making this right for her. It was about her saving herself. He wished he’d seen it sooner so he didn’t have to watch her earn her first blood in a pit with monsters.
He faced Evgeni, trying very hard to keep his expression neutral. “Kindly return David Rutger to me, as he was her choice.”
“Certainly.” He waved a hand and his Chosen rushed to do his bidding. “I do hope this hasn’t caused any—” He paused, seeming to search for the right words. “—strife between us.”
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