by Cindy Mezni
“Can I offer you a drink?”
Always the same perpetual approaches. Satan have mercy on me . . .
“I already have one,” I told him while pointing out my glass to him.
He seemed embarrassed. Anybody would have been for less. From the first minute, he showed me the extent of his stupidity. Really nowhere near getting laid, he had to think. He wasn’t wrong.
“Then something else, perhaps?” he offered, taking the liberty of settling down on the opposite chair.
Would he take it badly if I confided to him that the only thing he could offer me and I would agree to take, would be his blood spurting from his throat when I would have bit it? He would certainly take it badly. And he would draw the attention of everyone around because he would either take me for a mad woman who had escaped from the asylum or for what I really was, that was to say a Predator—the name which humans had given us, Nëphyr, vampires and lycans, regardless of race. It was better I kept my desires for myself if I wanted to continue to fly under the radar.
“Listen, honey, drop it. You have no chance with me,” I said on an extremely bored tone.
His confident smile disappeared. Unfortunately, he was tenacious and he tried a new approach.
“I—”
“You overestimate what you have in your pants,” I told him without emotion, before he could even try again, in order to destabilize him even more. “Believe me, you don’t have what’s needed to satisfy me.”
It looked like he blushed slightly in the dimness of the bar. With embarrassment or anger, I didn’t know. Probably a little bit of both.
“Let’s take a walk and go somewhere else and I’ll show you how wrong you are,” he said with self-confidence, even if I could feel that my barbs had annoyed him.
“And why the Devil would I accept? When the packaging of the gift is repelling, its contents are very certainly cast in the same mold.”
Now he was furious. I had slightly exaggerated because he wasn’t repugnant, even if he was far from equaling Nathanael or Xander. Still, he was a human. No chance for anything to happen between us.
“You’re a—”
“Yes?” I interrupted him curtly, my hand finding his thigh and squeezing it with force.
His face was expressionless, but I could guess his pain seeing the way he slowly but surely went pale.
“Finish your sentence. What am I?”
“Yes, answer the lady. What is she?” intervened a voice I recognized right away.
Drake stood just behind me and I imagined his gaze was on the stupid biped, because he went paler, if it was possible. It was true Drake knew how to make himself extremely intimidating when he wanted to.
“She—She’s—”
“Shut up,” I grumbled while my hand had gone up along his thigh to his crotch, which I was slowly crushing, “and listen to me. In the future, avoid insisting and becoming rude when the person in front of you isn’t interested in your insignificant small equipment. Because you could come upon somebody worse than me. Now get the Hell out of here!”
I released him and, to the surprise of all the people populating this place, he ran away without further ado, stumbling on his way to the exit. He wouldn’t try to pick up a lonely girl in a public place for a while. Anyway, considering the pressure which I had exercised on his reproductive organ, he wouldn’t want to use it today . . . or anytime soon. Drake came to sit down in front of me.
“You haven’t changed,” I said, staring at him.
Having sent Nathanael to contact him a few months before, I hadn’t been able to see him again before today. But no doubt, he was still similar to the being I’d met a few years ago. The same stature, jet-black hair, inscrutable turquoise eyes and intimidating aura surrounding him.
“You, on the other hand, you’re even more beautiful than the last time we ran into each other. You’re absolutely divine,” he confided to me and his look lingered on my cleavage more than what was appropriate.
I couldn’t stop myself from rolling my eyes. Drake was an incorrigible flirt. In spite of the fact that we’d met each other only a few times in the past, I’d quickly figured him out. If most males of our race were the seductive type—to not say anything else—Drake surpassed them all on that front.
“Spare me your pick-up lines, Drake. I didn’t come for that.”
“Fine,” he said.
I caught sight of the rather worried look of the waitress who’d taken my order earlier. I noticed the glint in her eyes changed completely when she saw Drake at my table. Ah, humans, all the same . . . Considering her suddenly enraptured expression, the young woman imagined Drake turning her boring waitress routine in a pitiful cafe-bar upside down by granting her a night, or even more, in his company. If she knew the charming man she was making up in her mind was several centuries old, that he had thousands of murders to his credit, and that in a wink of eye he could break her nice, little neck, the girl would look at him in a different way.
“So? What’s the news?” I questioned Drake, forgetting about the woman and her insistent gaze set on him.
“I located some Mexican penitentiaries near the border which could fit the bill. There’s—”
“Hi,” the waitress said with a voice that she surely wanted to be seductive but sounded more irritating than anything else to my ears. “What would you like?”
This woman whose hormones ran rampant was starting to get on my nerves. I had urgent things to talk about with Drake, damn it!
“Take that,” Drake snapped while keeping his eyes on me and putting a fifty-dollar bill on the table, “and don’t come here again.”
The waitress went away with her money, hurt by Drake’s more than rude behavior. Lucky me, he knew how to be serious when it was needed. Otherwise, no doubt I would have sent away this idiot with even less manners than him.
“So I was saying, before we were interrupted, I’d found several possible prisons in Reynosa, Piedras Negras, Nuevo Laredo and Matamoros. As a last resort, there’s still one in Ciudad Juárez.”
I smiled with satisfaction. The limitations for my clan were finally going to be lifted? That seemed too good to be true.
“And that’s all?” I asked, suspicious.
Things couldn’t be as simple as that. They never were.
“You know Mexico. It’s more than easy for us to negotiate with them.”
I nodded. I knew all this. What I wanted to know, was where the catch was.
“So, there will be no problem to find an agreement?”
“Certainly not, but while I was there, I discovered some things.”
What had I said? There were always complications.
“What do you mean?”
He ran his hand through his ebony hair. I frowned. Given his attitude, what he’d found out hadn’t pleased him.
“Apparently you aren’t the only one to have recently had the idea to look for your food somewhere else than in the United States.”
Was I being delirious or did he really try to tell me that other creatures were on the case? Seeing his expression, I wasn’t imagining things.
“Vampires? Lycanthropes?”
He shook his head.
“Another clan of Nëphyr?” I asked, annoyed at the thought another clan came to encroach upon my ground.
Rather surprising thing, by the way, because the only other clan being on the American continents was the Bräzian clan in Brazil. And to my knowledge, it had no problem of provisioning.
“Not exactly . . .”
“What do you mean by ‘not exactly?’”
“Strictly speaking, it isn’t a clan. We could say that this clan isn’t official and that, apparently, it tries to be as discreet as possible,” he answered me on a neutral tone.
“Traitors?” I exclaimed, stupefied.
I must have spoken a little too loudly because some heads around us turned in our direction. I gritted my teeth. Fucking humans who are too curious!
“Kema,*”
he agreed while sending a murdering look to all the spectators occupying the tables next to ours who looked away very quickly. [* Yes]
I made a face. Nëphrä was my language, but I’d never gotten used to it because it was too closely linked to Ezekiel, so the less I spoke it, the better I felt.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes,” he repeated. “In every prison where I stopped, the persons in charge didn’t seem to be surprised to see me and hear my request. However, I was able to notice that some of them were afraid of something. I immediately suspected that fellows had already come there. And I had the proof of it when I bribed the local government officer of one of the prisons to tell me more.”
“Damn,” I said through clenched teeth.
I gripped the corner of the table until a crackle could be heard. How could another clan have had the same idea as me and go to the same places when there were many prisons in Mexico? Something was wrong in all this.
“That’s not all,” he admitted to me.
My curiosity was cut to the quick, even if I was rather reticent to know more because it didn’t look good.
“This traitors clan leader isn’t just anyone. You know him.”
I saw red. Rage bubbled up in me. I perfectly knew what that meant. It could only mean one thing, anyway.
“Ezekiel?”
I asked the question, even if I already knew the answer.
“Himself.”
Another crackle, more noisy, was heard. At this pace, the table would soon be a heap of fragments, and it was better not to get to this point if we wanted to avoid really standing out. I had no idea if I should consider that as a terrible piece of news or as a Devilsend. After all, I wanted to give this Mëvia what he deserved for a long time. But wanting it wasn’t being able to do it. Ezekiel was a serious opponent and my chances to win against him were practically non-existent.
“Even if he impinged on my turf, I absolutely need new means of supply,” I insisted, containing my anger with great difficulty.
“And you’ll have it,” Drake assured me, confident in his abilities. “But you’ll have to rectify some things and modify your plans.”
“What will I have to do?”
“You’ll have to beat Ezekiel to it and you’ll have to find the informer in your clan.”
I stared at him, bewildered.
“What?”
“You understood me very well, Nemesis.”
I shook my head fervently. He was wrong. There was no spy in my clan. Absolutely none.
“There’s no traitor under my roof,” I objected, convinced of my words.
“There’s one and you know it. Otherwise how would Ezekiel have had the idea to go to Mexico to stock up on food? I grant you it’s your Creätoria and you lived for a long time together, but I doubt you think the same way and come to the same conclusion, at the same moment.”
He was right, still I refused to believe I had a damn traitor in my camp and I was next to him every day without suspecting anything.
“How is it possible?” I exclaimed more for myself than for him.
Heads turned in our direction again but I took my sunglasses off to glare at them. It had an immediate effect.
“Think about it. The one who informs Ezekiel was already close to him when he was in the Ameïan clan. His attitude must have changed when he left. I think it’s someone who has access to the most secret information, consequently, a member of the Council. He also had to have a suspect attitude lately and not appreciate you a lot.”
I chuckled bitterly.
“Nobody likes me, my dear, so with your hypothesis, I can suspect everyone in my Council.”
He laughed.
“I believe you can at least exclude Nathanael.”
In spite of myself, I sighed. Of course, Nathanael wasn’t on the list of suspects.
“Thanks but it was evident. He can’t be the traitor. Still, there are all the other members of the Council.”
Of the former Council, to be more precise because Edenaï had just arrived so she couldn’t be Ezekiel’s spy.
The first suspect who came to my mind was Xander. Even though I trusted him, he hadn’t stop trying to get closer to me since Nathanael had put an end to our relationship. Did he believe he would be better informed if he was closer to me? It was possible, even if I had big doubts about it.
There was also Logan, Caine and Venom. The first one didn’t make waves and always obeyed me. Caine hated me viscerally and Venom was jealous of me. It was practically impossible that it was Logan. First because of his character, he wasn’t at all the kind of henchmen with which Ezekiel would surround himself but also because he had always remained far from him when the Mëvia was in New Hell. So it was improbable it was him. Then there was Caine. His grudge against me was nothing new and it was true he got on well with Ezekiel. It could be him, even if he wasn’t the kind to do the dirty work for somebody else. More likely than Logan, consequently, but I also had doubts about his possible guilt. On the other hand, Venom was a more plausible suspect. Even if she’d never really appreciated Ezekiel, I was aware she’d been his lover for a time. Plus she’d brought the Släva, additionally blood slave, who’d given information to the vampires with which they’d been able to attack the Reserve. Everything began to take a new meaning in my mind: the blood slave, the Reserve . . . If Venom was in Ezekiel’s pay, it meant he was responsible for the intrusion of the vampires in New Hell. If it was really them. He could have become allied with blood suckers just like he could have sent banished or solitary Nëphyr of his ‘clan’ to commit the massacre and put the blame on vampires. He was maybe responsible for most of my problems, if not all.
“What a fucking mess,” I groaned, holding my head in my hands.
“No idea of the one who works for Ezekiel?”
“None,” I mumbled, sour.
I abstained from telling him my theory about Venom. I didn’t want to speak about it with anyone as long as I wasn’t sure she played a role in my current predicaments or not.
“I think I know how we can discover who it is,” Drake said to me on a conspiratorial tone.
I looked up and watched him. Really? And what was his brilliant idea?
“Because it’s obvious Ezekiel is trying to bypass you, you’re going to give the same date but a different place to each of your Councilors. I’ll put spies near each one of them and we’ll see in which prison our dear friend Ezekiel will be,” he said, a smile on his lips, very proud of himself.
I had to admit his plan was an excellent idea. Of a childish simplicity, for sure, but a fearsome efficiency. And it was certain, Ezekiel could only fall into the trap. If Venom wasn’t his informer, of course, as she wasn’t member of the Council anymore but I was going to make sure to know the truth as soon as I went back to New Hell. One way or another, the spy of Ezekiel would be found soon.
12
When the Mask Falls
“You sure you want to put Drake’s plan into practice?” Nathanael asked when we weren’t at more than one or two miles from the residence.
I’d told him the idea that Drake had had when we’d met up at Macon to go back to New Hell together. We could say he was more than skeptical about the success of this ruse.
“I’m sure,” I answered him, having no shadow of a doubt about it.
“Still, this subterfuge has weaknesses. If your Councilors talk to each other and they realize you gave them different indications, the spy will inform Ezekiel, and he’ll understand you know about his plans. Satan knows what he’ll do after that.”
The trap wasn’t perfect, I admitted it, but nothing was entirely flawless. But which other option did we have? To leave things as they were and stay with a traitor among us? It was out of question.
“We have no better option, Nathanael. It’s necessary to try everything to find Ezekiel’s spy,” I retorted firmly.
“So be it, but if the plan falls through, you could find yourself with much worse than an informe
r in your clan. You could find yourself with Ezekiel targeting you. He already blames you because you took the place that he thinks he rightly deserves. So imagine his reaction if you stand in his way again. This time, he won’t leave without doing anything. He’ll come to avenge himself. And it will be a real massacre.”
“I already know all of this, Nathanael. I know him. I know how he works. And even if I find the identity of his spy, his plans won’t change. Sooner or later, he’ll find me to make me pay. It’s evident. So I may as well unmask the little bastard who’s informing him.”
Nathanael stopped walking and caught me gently by the arm to force me to stop, too. I turned to face him.
“What?” I asked him, surprised by his gesture.
“Whatever happens, I’ll be there to help you,” he assured me softly.
For once, I didn’t answer with my usual ‘I can defend myself.’ I was out of my league when it came to Ezekiel, so any help was and would be welcome. As an answer, I offered him a weak smile. Silently, we continued our road up to the house. A few minutes later, we finally got in the hall of the building. I headed right away for the staircases to go up several floors, where the Council room was, Nathanael on my heels. Nathanael had called Xander, a few hours before, to give him the approximate hour of our arrival. He had to be waiting for us with the other Councilors. Even if Caine and Xander had told me—our conversation was coded, as we were surely listened to by the government—that nothing had happened during my mission, I was afraid something did during the last hours. They hadn’t contacted me so I doubted it, but maybe they hadn’t had time for that. I hoped it wasn’t the case because I already had my fair share of problems in Birmingham during my meeting with Drake.