Tempered (Et Lapis Sanguis Book 1)

by Dawn Ibanez

  “There is no reason for you to be rude, Augustina. This is Gabriel, my driver for the day.” He gestured to her. “Gabriel, this is Miss Augustina Vega. She will be accompanying me to the warehouse district.”

  Gabriel nodded before bowing slightly to Augustina. “I can get you there, no problem. If you don’t want to sit in the back, that’s fine as well. I just didn’t think you would be comfortable with Lord Elijah behind you.”

  A dark eyebrow arched before she turned her gaze to him. Elijah was careful to hide the smile that wanted to cross his face. Gabriel had a way of getting people to do what they were supposed to, even if they didn’t want to. It would be a gift Lady Victoria would treasure.

  Augustina bowed her head slightly. “It’s nice meeting you,” she said. Before she said anything else, she climbed into the back seat.

  Elijah looked at Gabriel and nodded. “Miss Vega will instruct you where to go when we get there. But I need for you to be on alert. The person we’re looking for is dangerous.”

  “As you wish, Lord Elijah.” He bowed at the waist and waited until he was in the car before he straightened. As much as he didn’t want to admit it, the boy would do better as a bodyguard than anything else.

  Gabriel climbed in behind the driver’s seat and looked in the rearview mirror. “Is there a specific location we’re going? Or am I to just drive around the district”

  “The old meat market between Charm and Saratoga.” Augustina looked out of the window and rubbed at the back of her neck. “Everything you want to see is there, Lord Elijah.”

  Elijah inhaled as he looked out of the other window. He didn’t need for her to see the affect she had on him. The sound of his name on her lips was a siren’s call. And he knew he couldn’t take another lover.

  Especially not a human.

  Chapter 4

  She was going to die. It was only a matter of time. Elijah saw through the front she tried to put up. He knew she was the one that put that vampire in the hospital. There was no way Warren wouldn’t have told the ruling Chevalier that he was put in traction by the woman walking around like she owned the hospital.

  Gus kept her eyes focused on the passing landscape. The back seat was large enough that she didn’t feel crowded. But Elijah’s presence filled the car. She wanted to get away from him. The dangerous air around him set her on edge. He had been nothing but a proper gentleman, but she had the feeling that if needed, he could become the worse kind of beast.

  He was a Chevalier for a reason.

  It seemed like they drove forever. The meat market was empty. And it would stay that way until funds were pumped back into the neighborhood. But she lived here for two years, and the area was broken down before that. “Why don’t you build down here?” she asked. She turned to the vampire. “This district was an important part of your sector. All kinds of trade used to come through it. One day, it all stopped. Why didn’t you ever rebuild?”

  He looked around and inhaled. “My predecessor allowed famine and disease spread among the humans that lived here. Once they started to die off, no one wanted to touch the area. There hasn’t been any interest.”

  That was a thin excuse. He had been in control of the area for a century.

  She turned back to looking at the landscape. “You’re looking at it wrong.” He made an inquisitive noise and she continued. “How many of those people you mentioned were humans, with no connections to either your Guard or Glaive? I’m willing to bet not many.”

  He went silent as the car slowed at a light. “Would you want to build something down there?” the driver asked.

  A muse left her. “Not me. My sister. She wanted to open a ceramics studio. But neither of us can afford it, and the buildings down here are priced obnoxiously high. There is no chance for a human to put down roots for themselves. Their great grandchildren, maybe, but not for them.”

  “I will take that under advisement,” the Chevalier said.

  Gus looked at him and saw that his arms were crossed over his chest and his eyes were focused on her. She said a silent thank you when the car pulled over. Gus looked out of the front windshield and saw two men in Glaive uniforms examining the market. “Do you really need me?” she asked.

  Lord Elijah looked as if he wanted to say something. He pressed his lips together and cleared his throat. “Wait here for us,” he told Gabriel. Before the boy could get out of the car, Elijah had the door open.

  Gus frowned as he held his hand out for her to take. She wasn’t a damsel that needed his help to stand. She didn’t want to depend on him for anything. She looked behind the car and opened her own door. She climbed out of the car and inhaled. The night air calmed her, but there was a different scent to it. “Do you smell that?” she asked.

  Elijah frowned. “What do you smell?”

  She shook her head and rounded the car. As she stepped on the sidewalk, the breeze continued to carry the scent. Gus stopped and turned to the direction of the meat market. “You sure you don’t smell that?” She started to walk toward the Glaive members, only to stop when Elijah grabbed her arm.

  His eyes were dark as he looked at her. “What do you smell?” he asked again. His tone made it sound more like an order.

  Gus ripped her arm away from him and hissed as the cuts on her back protested. She blinked rapidly as the scent remained in the air. “It sounds weird, but it smells like sunshine and grass.” She looked around the street and growled in frustration. There was no way she would be able to find the person who attacked Mel. The person she fought could be dead somewhere. They could be off licking their wounds. Gus wouldn’t entertain the idea that the killer would be at the hospital. There were too many witnesses there.

  Elijah stayed by her side as she walked toward the meat market. She didn’t want to think of it as the scene of the crime. Not when Mel was the victim. Her sister did nothing to deserve being chased down and attacked.

  “Lord Elijah,” one of the Glaive members said. They saluted him, but gave her a curious eye. “We didn’t know you were coming here. We would have prepared a report for you.”

  “Think of one on the fly,” he said. The tone he used was dripping with sarcasm. He looked into the window and frowned as he saw some of the glass that didn’t break away to the street. “You were thrown through this?” he asked.

  Gus nodded. She didn’t want to notice the blood on the floor. She didn’t want to see the proof that her sister had been attacked. “I’ll show you how we got in,” she mumbled as she moved around the building.

  Elijah mumbled something to the two Glaive. He soon caught up with her. “And you discovered all of this while out on a run?” he asked.

  Gus felt her temper flare. “Stop playing with me. You know what I’m capable of. I saw you realize it when you paraded me in front of that creep in the hospital.”

  The look he gave her challenged her to continue. “We need to be able to run at a moment’s notice, okay? This was one of our escape routes.” She opened the back door and gestured for him to walk ahead of her. When he didn’t move, she snarled and walked in. “Fine. Have it your way.”

  He was silent as she walked through the back room. “You fought in the dark?”

  She was sick of pretending. If he killed her, she didn’t care anymore. As long as Mel was looked after, she would gladly place her own neck on the chopping block. “In the dark, in the main room. If I hadn’t been thrown through that window, I could have killed him. But he got the jump on me. I was worried about Mel and didn’t check to make sure he was completely down.”

  “A Chevalier’s night vision is only rivaled by a gargoyle’s. A human can’t see in this.”

  Gus shrugged her shoulder. “My history isn’t a pretty one. And before you ask, no, I can’t see you. I can only make out a few shapes. But I was trained to fight in the dark.” A muse escaped her as she turned to go to the main room. “I was trained to fight in a lot of places.”

  “Why Warren?” he asked.

  Gus
stopped with her hand against the door. He wanted to hear her admit her crime against the vampire. She shook her head. “Because my sister said no, and he busted her lip for it. I broke his jaw.”

  “You put him in traction.”

  “He didn’t want to let me break his jaw.”

  He put his hand over hers on the door and made her stop. “I could have you killed for admitting that.”

  His voice was in her ear. She could feel the timber of it against her back. She was surrounded in his scent. Gus pushed the door open and inhaled as she looked at the blood on the floor. Mel’s blood. “As long as you take care of my sister, I don’t care what you do to me.”

  *****

  In all his years, Elijah had only come across a rare few people that put their family ahead of themselves. And even then, when confronted by someone more powerful, they would quiver in fear. Their fight or flight impulse would switch on and they would all run. Augustina’s impulse seemed to be stuck on fight. That shouldn’t have made him hunger for her the way he currently did. “We will finish discussing Warren later. For now, I need for you to tell me what you saw.”

  She slowly turned around the room. Her eyes narrowed as she looked in a dark corner. “Can I get a flashlight?” she asked. In moments, one was tossed to her from outside. She turned it on and examined the corner again. “Good girl,” she whispered. She started searching the area again and smiled when she saw a small throwing knife.

  “What?”

  “Mel did this.” She waved the knife and handed it to him hilt first. Her eyes darted to the men outside. “Our father trained us. He never wanted either of us to be on someone’s menu. Mel wasn’t the fighter I was, but she has really good aim.”

  “So, she stabbed her attacker with this.”

  “That would have a better blood sample than my dirks would.” She moved to a counter under the window and sighed when she pulled out another set of weapons. A pair of knives and a pistol. “She couldn’t get to this stash.”

  Elijah looked at her as she wiped her hands on her jeans. “Who are you running from?” he asked curiously.

  She looked at him, her eyes filled with the resignation of someone who knew they were caught. “You’re a Chevalier. You should know, I’m running from everyone.”

  “Lord Elijah, you should see this,” one of the Glaive said from outside.

  He turned to the vampires who swore their lives into his service. He went to the front door and walked through. “What is it?” he asked.

  They pointed another flashlight to the alley across the street. “We heard something strange over there. Tony here he was about to go, when we saw this.” He showed off a strip of dark cloth.

  Elijah frowned as the scent of human sweat and sweet grass reached his nose. “Sunshine and grass,” he said lowly. He turned to the meat market and saw Augustina walking through the door. She frowned as she turned and went down the other adjacent alley. “Augustina,” he called.

  She waved off his concern as she went further into the alley. He pushed the cloth back into the Glaive-member’s hand. He also gave them the knife she had given him. “Take this to the lab. I will have someone called down to relieve you shortly.” He moved down the alley and saw Augustina standing with her light on another figure.

  A young man was tossed on top of a garbage heap. His glassy eyes stared up at the sky. He would have made a peaceful picture if it weren’t for the violent gash that nearly severed his head from his neck, and his internal organs spilling out on to the street. Elijah cursed as he turned and called for his men to come down the alley.

  Augustina hadn’t moved. She stood with her flashlight focused on the man that could have easily been her sister.

  Elijah went to her side and gently lowered her light. “Why did you come back here?” he asked in a whisper. When she shook her head, he took her hand into his. “This isn’t someplace you would frequent.”

  “I kept a crossbow for Mel back here. I also kept a hunting knife for myself. I came here to check on them. If they were still here, they would be behind him.” She shook her head. “In the morning, I have to check all of my stashes. I can’t be giving weapons to this psycho.”

  He turned and walked with her out of the alley. He looked at his two Glaive. “Stay here. I’ll send out another team. And make sure there are no other bodies in this neighborhood. We need to find whoever is doing this sooner rather than later.”

  She placed her hand on his chest and stopped walking. When he looked at her, Elijah didn’t see the woman that wanted to protect her sister. He didn’t see a scared young woman that would finally gain the sense to run. He didn’t even see the woman that resigned herself to being a prisoner for the rest of her life. Elijah saw a woman thirsty for revenge.

  “Can I have two requests?” she asked. When he tilted his head to the side, she went on. “I want you to take care of my sister, and I want to be the one to rip this fucker to shreds,” she said, turning her gaze back to the alley.

  He placed two fingers under her chin and made her look into his eyes. “I cannot promise you that last part. But if you are there, then yes, you can have whoever did this.”

  She nodded and moved away from him. She wrapped her arms around her midsection and walked back towards the car. Before he could reach for the door, his cellphone rang. Elijah pulled out the device and looked at the woman with him. “It’s the hospital.”

  Augustina nodded as she leaned against the hood of the car. “Is Mel okay?”

  He answered the call and kept his eyes locked with hers. “Monica, do you have any news on Miss Vega?” he asked.

  “It’s not good,” Monica told him. He could hear pages turning in the background. “She’s lost too much blood, and she isn’t responding the way she should be. At the moment, we don’t know if she’ll wake up, never mind when.”

  Elijah sighed as he disconnected the phone. “We’ll go back to the hospital for a while,” he said to Augustina. “But before the sun rises, you need to come with me to my home.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

  “Your sister seems to have fallen into a coma. There is nothing you can do for her while you wait at her bedside.” He regretted the words as soon as he said them. Her eyes went wide as her mind processed the information. Her shoulders fell as the light in her eyes dimmed. “Come. We’ll check on your sister before we head to the city outskirts.”

  Her body moved on its own. She walked to the car where Gabriel waited. She said nothing as he opened the door for her. When Gabriel looked at him, Elijah shook his head. He climbed into the back seat with her and noted her catatonic expression. As much as he wanted to take care of the fragile looking woman next to him, his sector had to come first.

  Elijah looked at Gabriel. “Take us back to the hospital. Then we’ll be heading home before dawn.”

  Gabriel was silent as he put the car in gear and started to drive off. Elijah continued to watch Augustina from the side of his eye. Her fingers started to fidget the further they drove from the abandoned district. He would do his best to find a way to bring life back to the area. Even he could see the potential of building it up instead of just letting it collect dust until some vampire decided to do something about it.

  “I want to be the one to execute this monster,” Augustina’s voice said. “For that kid and for my sister. I want to be the one.”

  Her eyes were focused on the skyline, but he saw her reflection in the glass. With each passing moment, he could see the rage building. So far, she was compliant to his wishes. She didn’t fight his decisions and had allowed him to lead. That would change with one word.

  If he didn’t allow her vengeance, she would escape and find the perpetrators herself. Then, she would be signing her own death warrant. There was no telling if there was only one or a group. If she walked into a trap, there would be no one to help her.

  He frowned and looked out of his own window. The urge to take care of her was strong. It wasn’t l
ike when he met Christine. She had been a mother just wanting to take care of her son. Augustina was a woman fighting to protect her sister. There was no doubt in his mind that in this situation, Christine would be the wilting flower at her son’s bedside. Not the revenge seeking warrior Augustina was.

  Gabriel cleared his throat and looked at the rearview mirror. “You know that’s what the Glaive is for, right?” he asked. “Humans can’t always handle vampires or other… things. They can and will bring whoever you’re after to justice.”

  She barely kept the snarl out of her voice. Her eyes cut to him before turning back to the skyline. “I can handle myself.”

  Elijah had little doubt she could. But he couldn’t just give her what she wanted. Especially if news came out that she was the one who beat Warren so savagely. He stilled her fidgeting fingers. “You’ll have to go through a trial before you can be allowed to go after anyone. I can have everything prepared for dusk. Can you wait that long?”

  She was silent until they pulled up to the hospital. Like before, she opened her car door and climbed out with no assistance from either him or Gabriel. When she walked around the car to the curb, her eyes were chips of anger. “Fine. And after that, you’ll let me hunt this piece of shit down.”

  “We will hunt this monster down. Yes.”

  Augustina’s face was stoic as she held out her hand. “Then, we have a deal, Lord Elijah.”

  He looked at her blood covered appendage and wondered if she realized it was still there. If she did, would she even care. Elijah clasped her hand in his and shook it. “Let’s go check on your sister, shall we?”

  Chapter 5

  She hated him.

  The way he stayed so calm and collected as her world crumbled around her. Gus would have given anything to have her dirks in her hands and Mel’s attackers in sight. They walked through the hospital and made their way back to waiting area they left Shawn and Henry. When she walked through the doors, she saw her two friends. She bit her bottom lip and lowered her gaze. They didn’t deserve her anger. Elijah didn’t deserve it either. She turned away from them all and walked down another corridor.