The only thing I could think of that would engender that sort of emotion from a fickle Fey was intimacy.
But Georgia had enough intimate complications with her triumvirate to contend with. Throw a liaison with the King of Dökkálfa into the mix and it boggled the mind. Was it any wonder I admired the woman?
“Tricky,” Georgia finally replied. I could just bet. The Light Fey free of their imprisonment would make Faerie a very charged environment indeed. “Why do you ask?”
“I’m thinking of a holiday,” I said breezily. “I hear the Dark Fey Court is beautiful at this time of year.”
“Aliath will be pleased to see his godchild,” Georgia drawled. Aliath wasn’t my godparent, not officially. But the Faerie King had unofficially decided he was anyway.
“It’s settled then,” I said chirpily.
Georgia snarled. “You need to stay away from Álfheimr, Ellie. The Dökkálfa Court is not pleasant at this time of year.”
Calling my bluff so soon, Gigi? “I’ll avoid the castle, then. Maybe seek out Odin’s Landing. I hear someone thought they found it not so long ago. It’s meant to be stunning.
“No one found Odin’s Landing,” Georgia snapped. “It was a Dökkálfa ploy to lure the innocent. You know how they can be.”
Yes, I did. That’s why going to Álfheimr was considered dangerous. Even for the daughter of the Champion. Not that I was afraid of a fairy.
“Jeez, where’s your sense of adventure, Georgia?” I exclaimed. “It’ll be fine. I’ll be safe. I’m even taking Ediz with me.”
A shifter hiss and a Nothus growl later and I was winding up the call.
“Anyway,” I said into the phone. “I know if there really were anything to worry about, you would tell me.” Or stop me. “Tootle-pip!” I swiped the call closed.
“Tootle-pip?” Alain queried. I smirked, receiving a mischievous grin in reply. Sometimes Alain could steal your breath with a smile. It wasn't so much the look of it, although his smiles were definitely tempting, but because sometimes, if you were lucky, he looked like a happy little boy. So different from the steadfast spymaster he usually was.
“She will follow you,” Ediz said on a low growl drawing my attention and thankfully snapping me out of the swooning trap I’d fallen into with Alain.
“Most probably,” I replied cheerily. “But that’s Georgia. She’s a good friend and cares about my well-being.”
“You told her you wanted to visit the Dark Court,” he pointed out. “Your brother entered Ljósálfar land.”
Confirmation I’d been right; Ediz did know where Hakan had gone. And why; following my brother. It felt good to know I was on the right track, but also heart wrenching.
What the hell was Luc thinking?
That’s the problem. He wasn’t. Damn the Dark.
My Light thrummed in agreement, but that only made me realise how exhausted I was. I swayed on my feet, Alain shifting as if to catch me should I fall. But Ediz was there before Papa’s spymaster could even take a step toward me.
“The vampire will hunt you in Dökkálfa,” Ediz said, his breath too close to my face to feel comfortable. I pushed out of his arms, locking my knees, and stepped onto the stairs up to the jet’s cabin, noting Alain’s eyes watching Ediz with an intensity that should have alarmed.
“Georgia is a Hundr,” I said. “She’ll start in Dökkálfa and then progress to Ljósálfar giving us a head start.”
“Why did you call her?” Ediz demanded.
I stopped on the step below where Alain was standing, my head tipped back, my eyes meeting his. He held my gaze, a look of admiration in his eyes surprising me for a moment, and then his attention was on the shifter at my back.
Ediz could be an asset or a hindrance. It had already been established that Hakan’s goal in making him remain behind in Istanbul was to protect me. Ediz would take that instruction to heart. He may think remaining here in Turkey was safest, and no doubt what Hakan had intended for us to do, but he also wouldn’t let me leave without him.
I was leaving. There was no argument to that. I would hurt Ediz to save my brother. To reach Hakan.
But now Ediz had an excuse to bend the rules, stretch the meaning of Hakan’s instructions.
Suddenly simply protecting me instead of imprisoning me for my protection appealed.
Because of Georgia. His unfinished hunt.
I’d apologise to my friend later, but I also knew Georgia in Faerie was a whole new ball game. Ediz was going to get his arse kicked. I smiled grimly to myself and glanced over my shoulder at the Erbörü.
“Why do you think I called her, Ediz?” I said.
A growl emerged from the back of his throat, the hiss that followed sending chills scattering down my spine and making goosebumps rise up all over my skin.
“You are a worthy, Hanımefendi,” he said following me up the stairs.
Now, what the hell did that mean?
6
Words Could Cut But Not Kill
London had suffered greatly during the human uprising against the vampires. Landing at Heathrow was considered the safest entry point into the Nosferatu run city. But even then we required an armed escort from the jet to the terminal.
Being the daughter of the Champion - or maybe it was being the daughter of the Prophesied - did allow for some dispensation. Our entourage was whisked through customs without so much as a look at a passport.
Just as well; I didn’t have one on me.
Waiting outside the terminal was a long black limousine; tinted windows, bulletproof glass, a plethora of external hardware that would kill a human, damage a dragon, and incapacitate a ghoul.
The Master of the City did not trust other supernaturals.
I dreaded to think what he’d make of Ediz.
We climbed into our vehicle and settled into plush leather seats; a drinks tray appeared complete with your libation of choice; blood or whisky. Amun Nadeem, otherwise known as Nero Al-Suyuti, had simple but refined tastes.
The streets en route to Amun’s place of business were deserted. A strange thing to witness in a city the size of London. At each crossroad, the flashing lights of police vehicles could be seen. The limousine whipped past without so much as a decrease in speed. Amun had cleared the roads for my arrival.
“Did you tell him?’ I asked Alain.
“It is a condition of Nadeem’s accord with the Prophesied; we must announce our presence in his city prior to arrival. Some leeway is given should our arrival be unforeseen. But courtesies are still necessary.”
My mother had a complicated relationship with the Master of London City. Complicated and irrevocably deep. Amun in a former life used to be her Nosferatin trainer. A friend, confidant, and ally. In this life, he was two of the three.
“If Amun knows we’re here, then the Dökkálfa will too,” I said.
“It does seem like an added bonus,” Alain said with a small upturn of his lips.
“I sense shifters nearby,” Ediz growled.
“You’re not the only mutant in this city,” Alessandra drawled from her recline across the vehicle.
A hiss followed; Alessandra flashed fang.
I sighed. We hadn’t even made it to Álfheimr yet and already we were showing signs of discord. I needed this hodgepodge group of supernaturals to cooperate; Faerie was not for the contrary.
“Where’s the portal?” I asked Alain.
“Within The Vibe itself.” Amun’s nightclub and place of vampire business. “Contained and guarded.”
“That complicates matters,” I muttered. Even though Amun Nadeem was considered an ally to the Prophesied, my mother, he was a vampyre first and foremost. His former life notwithstanding, his number one motto would be survive at all costs. Allowing anyone access to that which he considered integral to his survival would not come naturally.
I’d have to convince the vampire it was a beneficial concession to make.
I stretched my neck, rolled my shoulders, felt the
heavy weight of the Kilij pressing into my thigh. There was a lot of Dark on London’s streets this evening and I knew the night would not end without the inconvenience of a Nosferatin Pull. Of course, there was a number of Nosferatin in London as well; it was a big centre for vampires both Light and Dark. But even knowing I needn’t respond to the Pull didn’t make experiencing it and ignoring it any easier.
The vibrant and multihued lights of The Vibe came into view as we drove past Trafalgar Square. I glanced at the bronze lions and Nelson’s Column, but my attention was really all for the club ahead. In my mother’s day, The Vibe had been a favourite human night spot. Now, what with anti-vampire sentiment rife throughout the world, it was a target for protestors.
Several lined the streets, proving their lack of fear and idiocy. The area was seething with vampires. I was sure even a Norm could sense the danger. But they blithely held up their placards and called out snide comments to those supernaturals who ventured into the bar. Vampires were recognised immediately, and given most of their attention. But the fairies weren’t forgotten either. The odd Fīfrildi heckled for attending a vampire establishment.
Fīfrildi are the most placid of the Dökkálfa, yellow of skin and with Monarch Butterfly-type wings of fine gossamer. They glamoured themselves while on Earth’s plain, but their ethereal beauty and quiet nature could not be hidden so easily from Norm sights. Most worshipped them, but those protesting vampire rule in London weren’t as forgiving.
I silently applauded the Fīfrildi’s courage for entering such a controversial location.
Then a thought struck. “Amun has more than one portal to Álfheimr here doesn’t he?”
“He controls the only known portals to both Dökkálfa and Ljósálfar in the country.” Therefore, Alain didn’t say but I could decipher his meaning, Amun controlled the Fairies in England.
Clever, and not to be unexpected from such a powerful and experienced vampire. In vampire years, Amun Nadeem was only twenty-five, but add in the five hundred odd years he’d survived as a Nosferatin before returning as a vampire - his Twin Soul - and you had a very long time to draw from.
London may have been suffering the after effects of human vigilantism, but it was suffering it in a controlled manner.
No other city in the world, bar Auckland - the Iunctio centre of power - controlled its environment as tightly. But once knowledge of the Iunctio’s seat of power being in Auckland City was revealed, my hometown could - and possibly would - become a blood bath. My father was preparing. I wondered if he took a lesson or two from Amun Nadeem.
The limousine rolled to a stop in front of the protestors and the surprisingly still long line of potential guests outside The Vibe. Vampires with swords drawn approached the vehicle. However, their weaponry was not for us but the crowd. Their backs turned to the car, their bodies making a line toward the front door, their eyes on the crowd, their swords raised, eyes glowing a threatening red.
So much for diplomacy. Clearly, the Master of London City controlled through fear and power.
My father would attempt subtler means to contain any outbreak of rebellion in his city, but I knew he had it in him to fight with all the Iunctio’s might should it be required. I prayed it would never be required, even as I stepped out of the limousine and felt the hatred from the heckling crowd wash over me.
London was a powder keg waiting to explode. Maybe Amun’s control was slipping.
Alain stepped out of the car behind me, his hand resting on the small of my back. Ordinarily, I would have allowed the contact; Alain had been desensitising me to contact for months; our kindred joining should it have happened required constant tactile reinforcement. But I was no longer his betrothed.
I stepped away, turning to watch Alessandra’s long leg emerge from the rear of the limousine, red silk, still splattered with her own blood, slipped smoothly over toned thighs. She stood to full height and glared at the protestors, and then in a move designed to scare, she flashed to their side, breathing seductively down the leader’s neck.
“So tasty,” she purred. Amun’s vampire guards bristled at the confrontational move when they’d provided a danger free path to the front door of Vibe.
“Alessandra,” I chastised, not raising my voice.
I let my Light sweep out and touch each and every protester. Our world may no longer be a democracy, but I still believed Norms had rights. The protesters might be loud and obnoxious, but they were unarmed as far as I could tell. Words could cut but not kill. I’d allow them that semblance of power.
Alessandra hissed as the Light bubble I’d placed around the leader singed her skin. Her eyes flared red and then she was back at my side. The leader of the protestors stared at me, jaw slack, eyes wide, sweat beading his brow and trickling down the line of his neck. I inclined my head slowly in greeting and then started toward the front door.
Alain flanked me on one side, Ediz on the other, Alessandra sweeping up in sullen silence at my back. My shoulders itched, but there was too much Light on the street outside Vibe to actually be concerned for my safety; even Alessandra was not reckless enough to attack while bathed in Nosferatin power.
The door to the nightclub swung open, the vibrant, pulsing interior beckoned us in. A shadow swept the street, bathing us momentarily in darkness. I glanced up, caught the edge of a dragon’s wing, then ducked my head and walked inside.
7
I Gave Him Nothing
We were divested of our weapons; the vampire who took my Kilij stared at it for a suspended moment and then added it to the pile. He reached for my stakes; I hissed. I may be Nosferatin on the outside, but I am half Nosferatu within.
“No weapons when in the presence of the Master of London City,” he growled.
“Touch my stakes, and you will feel my wrath,” I growled back just as threateningly.
“Do you wish an audience with the Master of London City?” he enquired, red rimming his feral looking eyes.
“Does the Master of London City wish an audience with the daughter of the Champion?” I shot back.
Of all the things my mother had taught me, the most important was that aggression in the face of a powerful vampire won you more favour than mere acquiescence. I couldn’t get out of this meeting with Amun Nadeem; he was the Master of the City after all. Accords and alliances aside, he deserved the respect of a visiting Nosferatin.
But that didn’t mean I’d bow and scrape before him; god complex or not.
A delicate laugh rang out in the antechamber we were in; light and free and so very French. How I could tell a laugh was French, I didn’t know. Maybe it was the similarity between my father’s chuckles and this. A small woman emerged, stunning blue eyes, pale flawless skin, lustrous long brown locks. Nosferatin.
“Stand down, Auguste,” she said. “Are we not hospitable?” she enquired with a slight French accent.
The vampire stepped aside with a sweeping bow, allowing the woman to walk closer. She was armed, Light wreathed her; mine reached out and shook her hand.
“Ah,” she said, a soft smile gracing her lips. “I recognise your mother in you. Such power. Such beauty. It is an honour to welcome the daughter of the Prophesied.”
She bowed in turn to me, hand fisted over her chest; a vampire greeting that said more about the diminutive woman before me than her words did. Sophie Delacroix was kindred Nosferatin to Amun Nadeem.
That meant Amun Nadeem was super powerful; doubly powerful. A joining with a Nosferatin magnified a vampire’s Sanguis Vitam two-fold. That’s how he held London City.
“Amun was so excited to hear you were visiting. How are your mother and father?” the woman asked, grasping my hands and then leading me down the hallway. My entourage followed as I digested her words, searching for the trap within them.
Just because I couldn’t see one did not mean it wasn’t there. Once upon a time, accords could be trusted, relationships based on alliances meant something. Amun - Nero - was a supposed friend of my mother's
. A supposed trusted ally to my father. In the world we now lived in nothing should be accepted without caution.
“They are well,” I said in reply. “I’m sure Mama wishes she were here with me.”
“Amun would have liked that,” Sophie said softly. “But he is equally as pleased to visit with her daughter.”
Niceties out of the way, she asked what had to have been the most pertinent question since our arrival.
“What manner of shifter is your acquaintance?”
I glanced over my shoulder and met Ediz’s eyes. His look didn’t tell me anything. Whether I should divulge his alter ego or not was entirely up to me, then. I could have hedged, maybe I should have; I knew so little about the origins and recent history of the Erbörü. Had they too been in hiding?
But starting out this negotiation on a falsehood would do me no good. Amun should never be underestimated, and right now, even though it was a Nosferatin asking the questions, I was certain Amun was watching.
“He is Erbörü,” I said simply. As if the name alone said enough. I damn well hoped it did, anyway.
“Erbörü,” Sophie said. “I am not familiar with this word.”
“Neither was I until recently,” I said with a smile. A small bone to shut her up, I hoped.
“Does he fly?” the Nosferatin asked. “Our local shifters are restless. The dragons seethe in the sky.”
She was sharing. How nice.
“I noticed,” I said, eyes forward.
Sophie laughed. “You have been well trained,” she murmured, her words for me and not listening ears. “I wonder if this diplomacy is your father’s doing and not your mother’s.”
I laughed too, caught by surprise. “It does seem like a Durand trait, doesn’t it?”
“Indeed,” she said, coming to rest in front of intricately carved double doors. They reached the high ceiling. And were guarded by two austere looking vampires. I let out a little Light and touched on only a smattering of Darkness.
Blood Entwined (Blood Enchanted, Book 2): A Vampire Hunter Paranormal Romance Series Page 4