“Keep working on him.”
The slight accent was familiar. Yangzei was here, in front of him. He did his best to keep quiet despite the voices of the multitude in his mind. Him. He’s there, they whispered. His hands itched to feel the demon’s neck snap and he pressed them hard against the ground. Not now, not with Madden and the guards so close.
“If we push too hard, we risk losing him,” said Madden. “We’re working out the kinks and he’s the strongest we’ve found. A valuable resource.”
“True. We have some time. What of the others?” Yangzei’s voice was closer now and Stephan monitored his breath, keeping it steady and silent.
“As planned. We have a few holdouts but some very good successes.”
“Are we on the timeline?”
“We are, lord.”
That confirmed that Yangzei was in charge. The two men walked by and out toward the beach. Stephan waited for a full minute until the flutter in his head was gone.
“Never do that again,” he hissed. His heart was pounding and little sparks flew across his vision.
She nodded. “Sorry, no choice. Madden might have been able to feel us here. I couldn’t take the chance.”
He’d give her the benefit of the doubt this time and this time only. “So you say. I might have agreed. I repeat, do not do that without my permission again.”
“I was only covering us. Can we talk about what we heard?”
Stephan tried to pull himself together. “Yangzei.” He passed his hand over his face. “He’s here.”
“It’s going to make things harder.” She said it clinically, as though it was merely another point to be entered into a project plan.
“Do you think they’re talking about Tom?”
“Maybe. Impossible to know.” She led him back out of the lobby, past the guard—whose mind she released when they were safely away—and into the shadows of the trees.
“I’m coming back tomorrow,” he said.
“Me too.”
“Not a good idea. We have more plausible deniability if we’re separate.”
“How will you deal with the guard?”
He ran his hand over her pale hair. “I think I can manage. This isn’t my first rodeo.” That made her laugh, and a warm shiver went through him. He loved that big smile.
“Fair enough. We need a way to check on each other if we see each other while the Dawning’s around.”
“Got that covered. Look.” He held his hand low and made a quick gesture that she copied flawlessly. In a few minutes, he’d taught her the basic signals he used with his teams when they couldn’t speak. I found Tom. I found Felix. We need to meet.
I’m in trouble.
He prayed she wouldn’t have to use the last one.
* * * *
Estelle spent the rest of the night in a sort of lucid dream, not quite sleeping but also not fully awake. She was exhausted. There was too much to understand and she had to devote a huge amount of attention to keeping herself shielded and her story straight. Then there was tonight. Stephan had been angry when she’d shielded them both, but had recovered quickly. Perhaps she shouldn’t have done it at all. But she’d needed to protect them and Stephan had seemed to understand when she explained to him.
By the time Pearl knocked on her door, Estelle was dressed and sitting on the balcony looking at the ocean. She’d considered going out by herself to forage for coffee but decided it would be better to wait for her associate. Although she hadn’t been explicitly told that she was forbidden to walk around unescorted, the message had been clear enough. Also, she didn’t want to draw attention to herself. Being eager but a little shy was the way she’d play it.
As usual, Pearl wore a bright sundress and sandals that showed off her perfectly manicured toes. She caught Estelle looking down and said, “You know we have a spa here. Mani, pedi. Whenever you need them.”
“I’d love that,” said Estelle, waving her naked fingertips in the air. “Do we have plans today?”
“Breakfast first and then I thought we’d dive right in.” Pearl led her down the hall. “We usually do training in the morning when we’re fresh.”
“Training?”
“For the final battle, of course!” That awful trilling laugh.
Estelle managed a weak smile. It was an expression she saw on other faces the moment she stepped into the dining hall. It was cafeteria style and as she passed other recruits—she recognized some and smiled and nodded—it was clear that more than a few were having second thoughts about what they’d done. They weren’t necessarily true believers, she realized. They were lost ones, looking for community. Even Minh had said that all he’d wanted was to belong. There was hope here. Most of these arcana were adrift in the world and looking for purpose. Was it Wavena’s fault? Eric’s for not providing it? For letting these people fall through the cracks unnoticed?
Her own?
Pearl sat down at a table near the windows and Estelle sat across from her, glancing around casually. No Felix but thank God, no Tom or Madden either. A few humans were out mowing the lawns, and as she ate the melon out of her fruit salad she said, “What’s the rule on requesting live blood?”
“Oh, it’s easy. You tell me when you’re hungry and I’ll book you in. We have a clinic to make sure the humans stay viable.” Pearl wrinkled her nose at her scrambled eggs. She had casually mentioned that the vampires ate because of the human staff and of course the masquerada normally ate. “We had a few accidents from over-zealous recruits at the beginning.”
“So no…” Estelle waved her fork.
Pearl got her meaning immediately. “Not to the death, no. Too expensive. Should I book you in?”
“Please.” She tried to keep her voice upbeat. In her disguise as a younger vampire, she needed to act as though she needed to feed much more than she did but after feeding from Stephan, his was the only blood she craved. Drinking from another would be doable, but unpleasant, as though she were cheating.
“Done. Now. What would you like to try today?”
Estelle licked yogurt off her spoon. “Well, I really like numbers, you know. Like finding patterns?”
The idea that Felix would join any sort of aptitude group and do work was preposterous—her brother was the laziest man she’d ever seen—but he did have a knack for statistics. There was a good chance that if he’d have to choose one, it would be an analytical group.
“I know just the place. We’ll start with data analytics.”
The data analytics room was filled with computers and serious people.
No Felix.
The gym had Dawning arcana sweating and straining.
No Felix.
They went to lunch.
No Felix.
Desperate, she made a giggly comment to Pearl about the lovely eye candy but how she wished there were more dark-haired vampires. “They’re my catnip,” she said, dreamy-eyed but inwardly nauseous at even the thought of finding her own brother attractive.
Pearl preferred blonds. The conversation had gone nowhere.
Growing increasingly desperate, she asked Pearl outright if there were other locations in the city. Pearl shook her head. “We have a few other places but not here,” she said. “Why?”
“I thought there would be more people,” said Estelle, eyes wide. “There have to be more in the Dawning than us. Aren’t there?” She made her voice go uncertain.
“There are,” Pearl assured her. “Many more. You’ll meet them soon enough, but we all start here for at least a week.”
Felix wouldn’t have finished his training yet. He had to be here.
She would check the west pavilion again tonight.
* * * *
Lucas didn’t show up for work in the morning.
Stephan went about his business and this time he was care
ful to keep his mouth shut. Had his questions scared Lucas off? Had it been more sinister than that? He unclogged drains and fixed showers for most of the morning and observed the rhythms of the hotel. The entire east pavilion was occupied with arcana and they rotated around the beach and the conference rooms often enough to maintain the façade that the Sol de Playa provided holistic healing for stressed-out Type-As.
In the afternoon, things changed.
He was alone in the break room pouring himself a coffee when Juana arrived with a guard. She glanced around. “Figures. Only the new guy. You. Get your tools. Need to do some repairs.” She went back to her office before he could reply. Stephan put down his coffee—they did great coffee here, he had to admit—and followed heavyset vampire guard out and up through the lobby.
Then over to the off-limits western pavilion.
He tried to be casual, but his mind snapshotted every step. There were the same number of guards in the day as the night. The lobby was empty. Even the area of the beach visible through the pillars was unoccupied.
The guard turned to him as they stood in front of the elevators. “You don’t see nothing. Got it?”
Stephan nodded.
They went up to the tenth floor and were met by a burly man, a masquerada who was luckily too young or weak to recognize Stephan as a compatriot.
“This way.” The guard motioned to the end of the hall. He unlocked the door and hesitated before he stepped into the room. In seconds, Stephan knew why. A woman lay chained to the bed, the hate on her face visible despite the gag. A vampire? Water spilled across the floor from the bathroom. The guard motioned for Stephan to get working and, with the guard’s eyes on him, Stephan complied. Would he be able to get the guard if he struck out with the plunger? He’d have to release the woman to help her escape. Hopefully she wasn’t injured.
He couldn’t leave her.
He was busy plunging the bowl and considering options when he heard the guard grunt. Stephan turned, lifting the plunger like a baseball bat.
The guard lay on the ground, blood pouring from the gaping wound in his throat.
The emaciated vampire stood over the body, twitching at the smell and baring her fangs at Stephan. “You’ve got a choice,” she started, her voice rough.
He didn’t hesitate. “When did they take you? What are they doing?” Stephan asked. “You need to get out of here. Where are your clothes?”
She was shocked. “I don’t have any. Why are you asking? You should be terrified. Who the hell are you?”
“I’ve seen worse than this. Also, I want to live.”
“Get me out of here and you will.”
“Deal. Is he dead?”
She poked the guard. “Almost.”
“Then drain him, now. You need the strength. Take his clothes.” Stephan had no pity for the guard.
The vampire did as he asked and it took less than two minutes. “You’re not one of them,” she said as she yanked on the pants. “Masquerada?”
The less she knew, the better. There was no guarantee she’d make it out. “Tell me what they’re doing to you,” he said.
“Why?”
“I know you’re a vamp. I want to help.”
She nodded, apparently willing to take it at face value. “They took me at a party. I’d been interested in the Dawning, but only a bit. Like a couple meetings. I woke up here. Chained to a bed.” She grimaced and Stephan’s chest constricted.
She saw his expression. “No. Nothing like that. They left me here. This asshole,” she kicked the guard, “told me it would be my turn soon, but I don’t know for what.”
“Where you from?”
“Chicago.”
“You’re in Cancun.”
“Mexico.” She took this surprisingly well. “At least it’s not an island.”
“Can you tell me anything else?”
“No. I never left the room.” She paused. “Each floor is guarded, I think, because I heard this asshole talking to his buddies. There’s a basement too. I don’t know what they do there.”
“Any ideas?”
She hesitated. “They took blood from me but I don’t know what for. A man came in occasionally and he held his hand on my head.” She shuddered. “Gave me brutal dreams, like I was in a huge crowd and I couldn’t get away.”
“What did the man look like?”
“Short but like he could rip your head off. Serious. Dark hair.”
Tom. It was Tom.
The woman shoved up her sleeves. She was tiny in the huge guard’s clothes.
“Did they try to get you to join the Dawning?”
She shook her head slowly. “I don’t know what they wanted from me,” she said. Her voice broke. “I want out of here. I want to go home.”
Stephan calculated how much time had passed. “I need you to knock me unconscious,” he said. “Then run. Get out of here, get to the main town and call someone. Hide. Get a code word with your family and don’t trust anyone. It could be a Dawning masquerada. Go to Orlando, get to Agata, the deputy seneschal, and tell her what’s going on. Take this.” He handed over all the money he had in his pocket. Not much, but enough to get her a cheap hotel room.
She didn’t hesitate. The last thing he felt was her fist against his temple and then the hard rim of the toilet smashing against his head.
Chapter 27
It took two nights for Estelle to make it successfully into the west pavilion. She hadn’t been able to connect with Stephan at all. The first night, the place was ablaze with light and the recruits had been confined to their rooms after dinner due to a so-called safety issue. It was impossible for Estelle to get information and the one time she opened her door into the hall, three associates were lingering. “Problem?” asked Pearl. She hadn’t been smiling, which concerned Estelle more than the rest of it.
“Just wanted to get some ice,” Estelle lied, waving the bucket she’d grabbed as an excuse.
“I’ll get it.” Pearl came over and took the bucket, then shut the door gently in Estelle’s face. Two minutes later, Estelle was staring at a full bucket of ice and listening to the footsteps pace outside her room. Apparently she hadn’t been as believable as she’d wanted.
An associate monitored the hall alone the next night, and it was an easy enough matter to touch her mind so she could pass by unnoticed. Estelle hadn’t been able to collect any information about what had happened the previous day at the west pavilion. It might be harder to get in, but she had no time to waste. Pearl was assiduous about escorting her around, but had been giving Estelle more time on her own with the other recruits.
She didn’t want to be here for the final initiation.
In the west pavilion, the same guard was on, and he slept the moment she touched his mind. The lobby was empty. She took the stairs and kept her head down so any cameras wouldn’t catch her face. Around her head was tied a dark scarf and she wore plain, dark clothes.
She went to the first floor. The door was locked.
Fuck.
It took three more floors until she found one with a guard near the stairwell. Another mind touch. Unlike the vampire guard at the main lobby, this was one of the masquerada who had been created from Yangzei’s blood. Estelle felt the potential strength in the woman, but luckily, it hadn’t been trained. They had focused on her physical power.
That worked for Estelle.
Once she was on the floor, she paused. There was a murmur of disturbed minds all around her. All of the doors were closed. She tried the first one and tried not to flinch when it opened.
Empty. Estelle stepped in slowly, letting her eyes adjust to the dark. The only furniture in the room was a chair and a bed.
A bed with chains.
She checked the door. The locks had been strengthened and another, which could only be locked from the outside, was in
place. She put her hand on the wall for balance. It made so much sense. All the recruits she had met had arrived voluntarily. None had been kidnapped or coerced. The abducted arcana had to be put somewhere.
The west pavilion at the Sol de Playa was as good a place as any.
It didn’t solve the puzzle of what the Dawning had planned for them, but it gave Estelle hope that her brother was there. All she had to do was break into a few hundred rooms to find him.
No better time to start. If she concentrated, she should be at least able to separate out the vampires from the others, and maybe even pinpoint the males. Perhaps they were grouped by floors. She sat down on the far side of the unoccupied bed and emptied her mind. Slowly, she reopened herself to the atmosphere of the place.
Immediately, she shut it back down. The rooms were filled with confused and terrified arcana, but more than that, their minds were very subtly wrong. They had been changed, adjusted, but in a way she couldn’t recognize, at least not in the way she was interacting with them now. She needed to get closer.
There was a male vampire on this floor. Her stomach tightened even though her rational self knew there was no chance it could be Felix. She wasn’t that lucky.
However, this nameless vampire might be able to give her answers. After a quick check to confirm the door was locked—it was—she went back to the sleeping stairwell guard and got her keys. There were no security cameras that she could see, but she felt watched. Fast. Go faster.
The vampire was on the bed when she went in. There was enough light coming though the thin curtain for her to see that he was too thin. One arm and one leg were chained, and he slept curled on his side.
No, he wasn’t sleeping. The rush of his blood told her that he was awake and frightened.
“I’m here to help,” she said softly. “I’m not with the Dawning. I know you were taken.”
No answer. She crept closer to see that he’d been fit with a mask to cover his mouth. She loosened it and listened to his ragged breathing.
“What’s your name, boy?”
“Gustav.”
He was young, she saw, both in physical body, where he appeared as a human teenager, and in his vampire age. Perhaps only twenty years or so, and weak.
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