Prince of Shadows

by Tes Hilaire

  Bennett blinked, turning back to her. “Me what?”

  “Who were you chatting with out there?”

  “Chatting with?”

  Gabby couldn’t tell if he was being deliberately obtuse or not. “I could sense you reaching out across the miles. But once you tapped in I couldn’t make out much of anything.”

  Valin stepped closer, his gaze narrowed on her. “You’re able to pick up shielded projected thoughts, by people who aren’t even near you, and through the base’s shields?”

  “Shields I made,” she reminded him, then sighed when both men continued to stare at her. “Yes, okay?”

  The men exchanged looks, which had her squirming. And how the heck had the tables been turned on her?

  “What?” she snapped.

  “Nothing, cookie. Just impressive for a merker.”

  Her jaw dropped open, her breath momentarily hung up in her lungs. “Merker?” she finally managed to gasp out. “You think I’m a damn merker?”

  She could feel her face heating. Her entire bloodstream was heating. How could Valin believe that? And if he really did believe her to be Ganelon’s child, then why the hell didn’t he use his damn knife on her?

  “Or…uh…maybe just part merker.” He at least had the decency to look a little bit remorseful for saying it, but he still said it, damn him.

  She glared at him, hard, and wondered why he didn’t fall down and bleed out on the pavement. Probably his superhuman Paladin genes made him resistant to the daggers she was sending him out of her eyes. He did get all defensive though.

  “Roland said once that your mother was pure succubus and, well, your daddy couldn’t have been human if you can do what you say you can do.”

  “If I say I can?” And now he thought she was a liar too? And, okay, she could maybe see why he might have come up with the conclusion he had. Succubus were nothing if not liars, using their seductive powers to imprint ideas in the heads of naïve fools across the globe. But they couldn’t actually project or receive exact thoughts. Still, it pissed her off that his only conclusions were either the grand title of Liar or having Ganelon’s blood in her veins. Not that her mommy’s demon blood didn’t make her heritage pretty questionable, but somehow being the daughter of a succubus seemed a lot better when she knew her real daddy had been a Paladin. Ergo she had no relation to Lucifer’s right-hand bastard, the betrayer Ganelon.

  “There are a lot of other possibilities besides human,” she told him in a dangerously quiet voice. “But whatever, you’re going to think what you want.”

  Valin started to open his mouth to speak, but she turned her back on him—she’d deal with him and his holier-than-thou thoughts later—and directed her gaze at Bennett. “Now that your matey here has gotten me even more pissed off, maybe you want to make nice and tell me who you were chatting with.”

  “I told Annie, but if it eases your mind, I’ll tell you also.”

  “Thank you,” she ground from between her clenched teeth. Righteous bastards. Both of them. She’d let Jacob deal with Bennett after she determined the extent of his indiscretion, but Valin? Well, she hoped he had his will in order.

  “We’ve been gone long enough I thought it best to check in with the council, else they might start wondering and searching.”

  “You thought it best,” she sputtered. “Even though both Logan and his daddy could doubtlessly tell exactly where you were contacting them from?”

  “I didn’t contact either Calhoun.”

  “No?”

  “I contacted Karissa.”

  She worked her jaw, not sure if that still pissed her off or not. Yes, Karissa might be able to figure out where Bennett had been—the woman’s shields had certainly gotten better if Gabby hadn’t been able to sense it was she whom Bennett had been speaking with—but Karissa was much less apt to pass that information along to her estranged father. She might tell her brother though, and she said as much to Bennett. “You don’t think she’ll tell Logan where you guys are? No offense to pretty boy, but I don’t think he’d stand up long against his father if Senior really wanted the information.”

  Both men shuffled uncomfortably, exchanging looks.

  “What?”

  “Gabby…” Valin reached out, taking her hand in a gesture that was not so alarming for the contact, but the fact that he felt the need to do so.

  “What?” She stomped her foot.

  Another set of exchanged glances, and then Valin cleared his throat. “Logan isn’t, uh, in any sort of state to be speaking with Karissa right now. Or his father.”

  “Why the hell not? Is he hurt?”

  “Not exactly, well, sorta.”

  “Not exactly, well sorta?” she repeated. Damn, her chest was feeling tight; didn’t stop her from raising her voice though. “What the hell does that mean?”

  “His mate died last week.”

  “Last week,” she repeated him again, as if she were having trouble with the words penetrating her obtuse skull.

  “Ten days ago to be exact.”

  Gabby’s blood went cold. Ten days. That would be right after Annie and the boys had broken into Haven. Gabby had been pissed over the girl going behind everyone’s back to deliver her message, but secretly she was also glad. Logan had always been nice to her. He’d also been the only one to stand beside her father when he’d been expelled from the Paladin order. Logan didn’t deserve to be punished with the loss of his mate. Yeah, life in general sucked. Nothing was fair, but this? Logan had been nothing but faithful in his belief in the Paladin mission of eradicating evil, further proving his honor by his loyalty to his friends.

  And look where it got him.

  Gabby shook her head, swallowing back the lump in her throat. Better to take what you want. Even if, for her, all she wanted was revenge. For her. For her daddy. For all the stupid naïve humans affected by this war. And now for Logan too.

  “Excuse me,” she said, easing her hand from Valin’s grip. “I need to be alone.” And for once, Valin didn’t follow her, though damn it, wouldn’t you know that this one time she wished he would.

  ***

  The doors banged open. Ganelon looked up from his perch on the chaise lounge chair at the back of the covens’ entry hall in time to see Christos stride in, his pretty new face a thundercloud as he shouted orders left and right.

  “I want a meeting in the dining hall now! And I want that worthless excuse for my second laid out on the table before me. And why is it so fucking cold in here? You couldn’t light a goddamn fire?”

  His orders weren’t met with the immediate obedience he probably expected, but rather a collective response of hisses and curses as the daylight speared into the dark, and yes, rather chilly interior. A few moments of chaos ensued as any vampire in the area scrambled to get out of range of the deadly rays. Ganelon sat unmoving, admittedly thankful for the warmth of the sun—even if it did make him have something in common with the idiot fuming his way across the grand entry hall.

  “Stupid weaklings.” Christos shook his head as he stomped his way across the black marble tiles. It wasn’t until he had practically passed by that he caught sight of Ganelon and drew up short. “What the fuck? Who let him in?”

  When no one answered—probably because no one was there to answer—Christos planted his hands on his hips and glared down at Ganelon. “Well?”

  “Tired of being back in charge already?” Ganelon asked Christos, nodding pointedly at the doors that he’d left open during his rampage.

  Christos grunted. A moment later a human lamb rushed in and slammed the door closed, cutting off Ganelon’s sun. Too bad.

  “What are you doing here?” Christos directed the question at Ganelon this time.

  Ganelon inspected his nails in the flickering gaslight, digging out some dried blood from his recent…persuasion…session. Christos huffed and Ganelon had to suppress a grin, secretly enjoying the waves of irritation coming off the vampire king. He drew the pause out as long as
he deemed necessary to reestablish his superiority, but not so long that he’d drastically increase the amount of time he’d have to suffer being here. Though frankly, anything over nothing was too long.

  Ganelon ground his teeth, chafing at the orders that had made his presence here necessary. How was it that Lucifer actually believed this idiot would be instrumental in bringing about the Paladins’ demise? Christos was not suited for the subtleness the task required. Besides, a one-line prophecy made years ago about some child conceived of light and born in darkness being the key to breaching the worlds did not necessarily mean the destruction of His warriors, Lucifer’s sworn enemies.

  “The liege lord sent me,” Ganelon said, flicking the loosened blood from his nails onto the floor. “He wanted me to make sure you didn’t need anything.”

  Christos scowled, not appreciating Lucifer’s lack of confidence. At that moment, the lamb who’d closed the door made to scurry by them but stopped short when Christos turned his gaze on it, making it shiver in its shredded clothes. “Wine for me and my brother. You may tell Stephan that he’s been granted a reprieve.”

  The lamb nodded and bolted by. Doubtlessly glad the request was wine and not blood.

  “Trouble on the home front?” Ganelon asked.

  “My second is an incompetent fool. One task he set out to accomplish in the last four months while I’ve been gone and even that he screws up! How could he have not known about the girl?” He frowned, the skin around his eyes and nose pinching in anger. “At least he better not know about the girl.”

  “Must be some girl. Where did you see her?” Ganelon asked, taking the glass of wine that the lamb had returned with. As soon as he’d clasped the cup, the lamb went rushing out again.

  Christos sneered at the creature’s fleeing back and then grunted, flopping down in a wing chair that flanked the chaise and propping his feet up on the end table. “In Brooklyn. By that Martyr’s Ship Monument or something,” he added, waving his hand.

  Ganelon blinked. “You were in a park? In Brooklyn?”

  “I’ve been visiting the other covens in the surrounding areas. Putting to rest the rumors of my…demise.”

  “But the park?”

  “Antoine has a flair for the gothic. He found it amusing to convert a few key humans in order to build a hidden set of chambers while the crypts beneath the monument were being constructed.”

  “How cliché.”

  “Isn’t it?” Christos shook his head, then sighed pensively. “She was walking with a fucking Paladin.”

  “A Paladin?” Ganelon prompted, realizing they were back on the topic of the girl.

  “At least I’m pretty sure he was. He was older, but he looked an awful lot like the adolescent brat that escaped the Oxford cleansing.”

  Ganelon nodded, well aware of the incident Christos spoke of. It was one of those events that Lucifer had raved on and on about. How Christos, Lilith’s son, had captured, tortured, and killed a half-dozen full-blooded Paladin and their part-blooded children. After Lilith’s death, Christos had taken on her position as the vampire leader. He’d left a few of his mother’s best men with a handful of vampires to hold Europe and Asia, but he’d taken the bulk of his coven here to America. That had been back in the 1800s, so the adolescent Paladin would be full grown by now. Still, Ganelon thought Christos should be able to tell for sure if it was the same man, unless, of course, Lucifer had been wrong in his belief that he’d managed to infuse Christos’s new body with some of the sacrificed souls’ gifts and talents.

  “You could not tell for sure?” he asked, calmly sipping the wine. It would be poisoned, of course—Christos was ever the opportunist. But it didn’t matter. First, his lovely genetics made him resistant to things that would kill a normal man, and second, he’d made a point of increasing his resistance further by building an immunity to such things.

  He shook his head, a growl rumbling in his chest. “The damn girl. She must have been a null. I could sense nothing from her!” He pounded the table. “I couldn’t even sense that half-wit Paladin and I was practically on top of them both before I noticed them.”

  Ganelon tapped the table, his heart racing in concert as he thought about the possibilities…assuming Christos was actually correct, which was a big assumption, given the vampire’s track record. “Being able to nullify the magic in one’s surroundings is a pretty powerful gift. Something more than I thought a mixed-blood human could achieve.”

  Christos shook his head. “If there is one thing my second did right in my absence it was hunting down the part-breeds. There is a whole crowd of them with some pretty impressive gifts. He suspects they’ve even started their own recruitment methods and are creating a little army of gifted soldiers.”

  “And you think you saw one of them today with a Paladin.”

  “I know I saw one. You don’t create that sort of energy vacuum around yourself without being a null.”

  Ganelon rubbed his chin. “So it’s possible they’ve joined with the Paladin, then. If this…man…is who you think he is.”

  “I would bet my second’s head on it.”

  “But not your own?”

  Christos shrugged, a sly smile twisting his lips. “I’m a big believer in delegation.”

  “Hmmm.” Ganelon used to think that way too. He was learning lately that allowing minions to do the important work wasn’t always a good idea. At least not without a heavy hand leading them. He was still pissed over the failure in his last endeavor. He hadn’t gotten the key that would allow him to infiltrate Haven. What’s more, Logan was being stubbornly stoic in his grief and that stubbornness seemed to be his anchor for his sanity. Calhoun Junior hadn’t fallen yet. Ganelon was really kind of pissed at that. He’d expected the Paladin to go on a rampage within hours, if not days, of his mate’s demise. But it had been almost ten now and all the big bastard was doing was sulking.

  Should have killed him. That would have been the best way to stick it to the Calhouns.

  Luckily he had someone to take his frustrations out on. His wayward son Damon was proving to be a willful bastard and Ganelon was enjoying reminding him of what proper deference meant. When Ganelon finished with him he figured his son would either have regained his place as dutiful minion or not. And if not? Well, the liege lord always had souls that he was hoping to resurrect.

  “They headed for the subway, but I got the impression that was a change in plans. It’s likely that their base is there near that park,” Christos said, though he appeared to be mulling things over rather than speaking to Ganelon. Still, Ganelon didn’t want to appear unhelpful, not when Christos would probably go and whine to Lucifer about his lack of assistance.

  “Do you need my services to help you locate it?”

  Christos curled back his lip, flashing fang. “I am perfectly capable of handling a bunch of wannabes.”

  “All right then. You know how to reach me if you change your mind.” Ganelon stood, smiling as he offered his hand to Christos. Christos glanced down at it in disgust but ended up taking it. “Take care, brother. May your hunting meet with great success.”

  “No worries…brother.” Christos’s pupils flashed fire as he met Ganelon’s gaze. “I’m quite sure it will.”

  Ganelon nodded, taking his hand back and rubbing it on his pants before he made his way out of the room. A lamb rushed ahead of him to open the great wooden doors, just enough for him to slip through. The warm sun greeted him with enthusiasm, and damn if it didn’t feel brighter today than normal.

  Turned out his visit with Christos had been the pick-me-up he needed. He would, of course, send his own scouts in, but in the end he’d let Christos call the shots on this. It wasn’t like Lucifer could find fault with what Ganelon was doing either. The liege lord had made it perfectly clear to Ganelon that he was to treat Christos as an equal, and so Ganelon had. He’d reached out and welcomed his brother back, even offered his aid, and Christos had refused, which suited Ganelon just fine. Let Christos
soil his own bed with another screwup. It was just the sort of thing Ganelon needed to shore up the foundations of his status with the liege lord. And then, after, he’d be there to collect the bounty. Oh, yes, that null was going to be very useful indeed.

  Chapter 7

  Should have followed her. The assumption that Gabby wouldn’t try to slip out until the sun went down had been a stupid one on his part. When she’d headed back into the base after claiming she wanted to be alone, Valin had thought to allow her a moment and take care of some other business while she was safe—and most likely sleeping—in her room. That’s what vampires did, after all: sleep during the day. But Gabby wasn’t beholden to such necessities anymore. And though she’d spent most of yesterday doing just that, he shouldn’t have assumed she’d do so again.

  With his options dwindled to trying to hunt her down again or trusting that she’d return, he’d decided to show some faith and spent the day making plans. Plans that started with buttering up the other recruits in the base and making nice with some of the more established soldiers in hopes of learning what sort of strategy might get him in Jacob’s good graces. Not that he really gave a crap what the tight-ass thought of him, but he figured he should make the effort. Gabby might not want his blood—or anything else to do with him, for that matter—but if he were to become a standard fixture in her life she might just start to relax around him, at least long enough for him to infiltrate her defenses.

  And that was working out so well too. Hard to become a standard fixture when she wasn’t there.

  Valin took a deep breath, concentrating on stretching his awareness on another sweep of the area around them. Nothing. Not a hint of an evil presence in a ten-block area. Which meant there wasn’t a hint of Gabby either. Not that he’d expected her to be nearby, but when the day had worn down and he’d agreed to Jacob’s suggestion of a little patrol to get a feel of his and Bennett’s skills, Valin supposed he’d been harboring some sort of hope he might find her.