Blood Sacrifice: Vampires of Blood and Bones

by B. A. Stretke

  “Are we playing games here, Bastian?”

  …

  Bastian was feeling in over his head with this beloved next to him smelling like heaven and looking wickedly captivating with the way he kept throwing him furtive glances. The temptation was brutal as his arousal rose to match Bastian’s. He kept a cool exterior, but his body was betraying him at every turn.

  The questions pertained to last night, but Bastian was unable to give Theo the answers he was seeking. He longed to tell him everything and lay out the reality of his world, but this was not the time, and his understanding would not be won. That time will come, their time will come.

  Thankfully before he could formulate another question about last night, they made the first turn into the outer property of the DuCane Coven. They passed through the large first gate and continued down the manicured road that slowly opened up to the first of the gardens.

  Theo’s astonishment was palatable as he looked around and took in the grandeur of the landscape. There wasn’t a property in the state that could come close to the magnificence and majesty of the Palace of Coven DuCane or rather for Theo it was the Palace of DuCane Industries.

  “It’s amazing that you are able to keep something the size and splendor of this a secret.” He said the words slowly as they passed the second gate, and the Palace itself came into view.

  “Mr. DuCane values his privacy and the privacy of his people. We aren’t hidden, just discreet.” Bastian told him, but Theo gave him the side-eye that told him he wasn’t buying it. “If we were hidden, you won’t have been allowed an audience. Mr. DuCane would have met with you in town.” Bastian added as he pulled to a stop at the far end of the Palace.

  “I know why he calls it a Palace now.” Theo smiled, and Bastian loved the relaxed look. His beloved was a man of many layers. Unfortunately, it was the Federal Agent layer that seemed to be the thickest. “It’s quite spectacular considering it’s a home nestled in the woods in Isabella County so far from real society, yet a society in and of itself, I suspect.”

  “We make do.” Bastian flashed a small smile as they both stepped out of the car, and Bastian quickly came up beside him and directed him to a door to their right. He could have brought him through the back, a more direct route to the office where the Master was waiting, but he wanted Theo to experience a little more of what the Palace offered. He took him through the Main ceremonial doors that opened into the great hall a beautiful space of gold and marble with paintings and textiles that could take your breath away.

  Theo was looking everywhere but stuck close to Bastian’s side. He didn’t comment, but Bastian could feel Theo was both intrigued and impressed. They walked by the grand staircase and over to the elevator, which took them to the fourth floor. They were meeting in one of the offices in the IT department not ready to bare too much to the eyes of the Federal Authorities.

  As they approached the large doors at the end of the hallway, he felt his beloved begin to tense. Bastian stopped and turned to regard him, not sure what was causing the nervous response. “Mr. DuCane, his second in command Ismael Patronne, and his head of security Silas Patronne will be present for this meeting. The guard at the door is Mr. DuCane’s personal driver Ira Shaw.” He figured if he gave Theo names, it would make the meeting less unknown.

  “I’d like to speak with Ira Shaw before I leave if that’s possible.” Theo finally spoke after apparently getting his bearings.

  “We can do that.” He said and held his hand out, indicating they should proceed. Theo once again fell into step next to him. He probably didn’t realize it, but he was finding comfort and security near Bastian. Their growing bond was doing its job, and Bastian was well pleased.

  They reached the door, and Bastian introduced Theo to Ira before Ira knocked on the door and then opened it, stepping aside for them to enter. When they were inside, he stepped out and closed the door. He felt Theo take a half step to the side, placing himself closer to Bastian’s right. He ached to reach out and take his hand, but it probably wouldn’t be welcome.

  He was staring at Master DuCane, who stood on the other side of the room near the floor to ceiling window. Between the Master’s own natural dominance and power and then having the sun behind him making him look rather otherworldly made a rather frightening visage. It was no accident for both Ismael and Silas to look similarly threatening.

  Bastian understood the point they had of establishing dominance over this man who himself wielded a measure of power. But damn it was hard standing there and not establishing a defense of his beloved. This was going to be awkward and difficult.

  …

  Theo stood next to Bastian and felt the power radiate off the man by the window. It was a physical sensation of authority that had him questioning his decision the come here. He moved closer to Bastian and didn’t even realize he made the move until he felt Bastian’s jacket brush the back of his hand. He felt threatened by the three men in the room, but he felt security from Bastian. It was the weirdest fucking sensation.

  Louis DuCane was overpowering in his presence and reminded Theo of an ancient warrior king of some long lost and forgotten land. He didn’t doubt the man could destroy any enemy with his bare hands. The other two, Ismael and his son Silas, were just as intimidating but lacked the terror vibe that was coming from DuCane.

  He took a deep breath and steeled his spine, realizing that he was being put at a dangerous disadvantage. To look weak now would be disastrous to his investigation and his self-esteem. He stepped away from Bastian, needing to stand on his own and lifted his head to look at DuCane directly and held his gaze. The moment lasted until Bastian spoke, taking his arm and directing him to a chair in front of a large ornate desk.

  He sat in a chair next to him, and DuCane took a seat behind the desk with Ismael and Silas sitting on a long sofa against the wall to their left. Theo held his strength and drew energy from his position and power. He was a Federal Agent, and he was not going to be cowed by a few businessmen.

  Introductions were brief and cold, and he began his questioning. All the time, he felt a sense of being on the outside. The answers were all reasonable and expected to a degree until he asked about Deputy Aaron Clark, that seemed to have struck a nerve.

  “He was killed not far from your boundary. None of your people heard anything. None of your cameras picked up the attack.” Theo asked pointedly.

  “The attack wasn’t close enough for the cameras to record it, and as for my security force, they patrol the grounds, not adjoining properties,” DuCane stated cold and succinct but then added with a glimmer of sadness. “It grieves me that Deputy Clark was killed. He was a young man new to the area, and he deserved better.”

  “Was the bear found and disposed of?”

  “Yes, the DNR took care of it.” DuCane watched him with eyes that seemed to tear him apart, but Theo held his ground although he didn’t look at him directly again. “The area is protected by the DNR, and they are doing patrols through the area periodically from what I have been told. You will have to speak with them for more specifics.”

  He asked him about Deputy Lawrence, and the situation with Korbin and DuCane waltzed through each question with an explanation or denial of knowledge, and everything fell into place perfectly. Theo was left feeling that DuCane was absolutely innocent of the crimes alleged in the letter, and maybe he was.

  The incident of last night still weighed heavily on him, and he was certain it was not a hallucination or dream. His memory was as good as ever, and although he may have been knocked out or drugged, he believed something significant to this case took place.

  He was about to end the questioning when he looked over at Ismael and then Silas and back to Louis DuCane and asked the question, they no doubt had been waiting for. “Is this a vampire coven? Are you Master Louis DuCane, son of Hugh the Duke of Burgundy? The supposed conqueror of nations?”

  The room became very silent, and he felt all eyes were on him. He glanced to his left
and saw Bastian with a half-smile, and it eased his discomfort a little. There was something about the man that just made him feel grounded. Even though Bastian worked for DuCane, Theo felt as if he were on his side, and he wasn’t on his own here.

  “Yes,” DuCane answered without humor or sarcasm, but he was clearly baiting him. But then what did he expect him to say. “Son of Hugh III, the sixth Duke of Burgundy.” He continued. “That would make me roughly around nine hundred years old.”

  “Are you?” Theo felt compelled to persist.

  Louis DuCane stood and walked around the desk as everyone else also got to their feet. He stood in front of Theo, and Bastian moved closer to his side, and Theo felt Bastian’s hand on the small of his back, a support he oddly appreciated.

  “I believe your superiors should be satisfied with what you have gathered from your visit here to DuCane Industries. If you wish to speak to anyone else, they will be made available to you.” He said, and Bastian took Theo by the arm, and they turned towards the door, obviously having been dismissed.

  “Agent Hawke,” DuCane called to him as they were leaving, and they stopped, and Theo turned to regard him. “Your question.” He said. “The answer is most certainly.” With that, he was whisked out the door and down the hallway towards the elevator.

  “I’d like to speak with Ira.” He reminded.

  “I’ll arrange that for later,” Bastian said, and before he could form another response, they were back in the Lexus and on their way away from the Palace of DuCane.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Bastian needed to get his beloved away from the threats presenting themselves in that office meeting. He could feel the anxiety of not being able to just clear the man’s mind coming off Silas. While Ismael was incensed by Theo’s perceived disrespect in holding the Master’s gaze. If he hadn’t been a beloved, he would have felt the wrath of an ancient.

  He wasn’t sure which he preferred, the nervous Theo or the Theo that liked to play with fire. Fortunately, the Master did not take offense. He understood they were pressing in upon him, and the Agent was trying to re-establish his footing in the presence of such power.

  It was the man’s job, and apart from the initial flash of alarm at Theo’s insolence, Bastian was proud of his beloved’s strength and resilience in the face of so much supremacy. Not many humans could tolerate the gaze of an ancient vampire for long. Theo held on longer than expected, but his tense demeanor belied his attempt at calm.

  “Did you get the answers you sought?” Bastian broke the silence once they were in the car and on their way back to town.

  Theo turned to him before answering. “I’ll admit to you, in full honesty, that I have never encountered a man like that. I am utterly exhausted, and all I did was sit and talk. Louis DuCane pulled every ounce of who I am straight out of me. His magnetism is off the charts.” He swung his gaze to the side window as they passed through the gates.

  “I’m glad the meeting ended; if it had gone on any longer, I would have had to have been carried from the room, I suspect.” He finished, and Bastian laughed hard, and that hadn’t happened to him in decades. Shortly Theo joined in, and the atmosphere in the car was light, and enjoyable gone was the tension and the anxiety.

  “Yes, the man does have a presence.” Bastian agreed.

  “Everyone at DuCane Industries does, but DuCane takes it to an all-new level of fear and discomfort.” Theo turned back to Bastian. “Thanks for sticking by me. Your silent support was appreciated.

  “You’re welcome.”

  “So, do you think DuCane is nine hundred years old?”

  “He said he was.”

  “When did you first meet him?”

  “I met Louis DuCane during the Siege of Compiegne in France in the year 1430. He went with the truth, knowing that Theo would believe it a joke. “I was fighting alongside a Lord and Sorcerer they called the Black Knight. There was no honor in it, but it provided me food and a purpose, and that’s all I was looking for at that time.

  “I’d been blocked into a small grotto with no escape. My fellow soldiers had laid me out as bait to the army of Louis DuCane.” Bastian remembered that day like it was yesterday. He saw them coming with Louis in the lead and waited for death. “Louis himself dismounted and walked over to where I stood silent, alone, and waiting to die. I knew it was the end, and I was as prepared as I could make myself considering I was young, hopeful, and dreaming of a better day until that hour of profound betrayal. Then it happened.”

  “What happened?”

  “He didn’t kill me. He looked at me with those eyes that can bore right down into your soul and offered me a commission with his army. I fell to one knee before him, kissed his ring, and pledged my loyalty, my honor, and my very blood to him. I have been with him ever since.” Bastian fell silent, and Theo just continued to watch him and take it in for a few seconds.

  “That was an amazing story, and if it’s ever made into a movie, I would pay money to see it.” Theo shook his head slightly. “What’s strange is I get the feeling that at least parts of that story are true.” Bastian didn’t answer but was pleased that Theo could recognize the accuracy and was beginning to connect the dots.

  “I realize that you’re busy with your investigation, but would you have dinner with me tonight.” Bastian wanted more alone time with Theo. He was showing signs that he could feel the connection between them, and Bastian wanted to stoke those feelings.

  “What time?”

  “I’ll pick you up at seven.”

  “Drop me at the Sheriff’s office. I have a few things I want to look into, and you can pick me up there at seven.” Theo was more than agreeable, and it brought a slight smile to Bastian’s lips. He was careful not to look too smug, but damn he was feeling it.

  “See you here at seven,” Bastian stated as he pulled to the curb and let Theo out.

  Theo gave a half-wave and turned and walked very determinedly towards the Sheriff’s office. He had a way of being easy and laid back then could pull on the cold Agent personal in a heartbeat. Bastian looked forward to experiencing that skill in bed.

  Rawl was keeping watch on Theo at the station, and Bastian returned to the motel to meet with Terence, who’d sent him a text stating he had more information. Bastian parked the Lexus in an alley behind the motel and entered through the back.

  “Come here and take a seat,” Terence told him as soon as he entered the room. He walked over and took a seat next to Terence, who was monitoring the area both visually and through audio and doing research at the same time. He was one of the best.

  “I found a connection between Arlo Korbin and the cougar from last night, Ronald Bore.” He pulled up a CCTV footage of Main Street just adjacent to the Sheriff’s office. “That’s Bore on the right talking to Korbin.”

  “It looks heated. Can you get a read on what they were saying?”

  “Just a word here and there. They aren’t looking in the camera’s direction for the bulk of their discussion.” Terence explained and then continued. “Bore asked about the time frame, and Korbin tells him to shut up, and then I don’t know what came after, but they end with Bore nodding to Korbin telling him to go back and wait.” Terence ran the piece of video several times.

  “Go back and wait,” Bastian repeated Korbin’s words. “How did Bore go from having an association with the Sheriff to ending up insane and stuck in a half shift out behind the Skyline Motel?”

  “Deputy Lawrence was also insane and stuck in a half shift when he was taken down on Main Street,” Terence interjected.

  “What is Korbin playing at?” Bastian had thoughts and possibilities circling his mind, and all spoke to dark and dangerous outcomes. “He’s still in the area watching somehow staying a step ahead and playing with us all.”

  “He was a failure as a police officer, I mean abject failure, I can’t see such a man being a mastermind of anything deeper than basic fraud and mismanagement,” Terence spoke his thoughts. “And to what end
would he influence his officers in this way and bring the Federal authorities here? How could any of this benefit him?”

  “Chaos,” Bastian stated.

  …

  Theo settled into the office Sheriff Keller had given him, turned on the computer, and opened the file on Deputy Robert Lawrence. The Deputy supposedly died by his own hand after it was discovered he’d killed David McNab, who was the man found shot to death behind the Zen Bar.

  Others in the department were alleged to have been aware that he’d committed the murder and assisted in the cover-up that put the blame on Lawrence’s ex, Sawyer Dawson. No one was arrested, no one went to trial for any of this. Everyone had an excuse, an alibi, a disclaimer; only Lawrence paid.

  The longer he stared at the pages of the investigation, including the papers filed by Dawson’s lawyer John Bruni, the clearer it became. Everyone involved and possibly at fault was eliminated in some fashion, either fired, killed, or married off to a DuCane insider.

  Sheriff Arlo Korbin, he needed to speak with Korbin. It would probably be a lengthy exercise in probing sour grapes and ridiculousness. The man had to know something that would explain what took place last night and how that fit with his crazy accusations outlined in his complaint against DuCane and the town.

  It was six-thirty when Theo heard Sheriff Keller return from a call, so he packed up his things and went to speak with him. “Hello, Sheriff.” He stood in the doorway of Keller’s office.

  “Agent Hawke,” Keller responded in kind and indicated a chair in front of his desk for him to sit. Theo sat and regarded the Sheriff for a few seconds before speaking.

  This man was what you would expect a Sheriff would be tall, muscular, focused, and slightly intimidating, but there was more there. He felt a vibe of something wild and unchained, but Sheriff Keller gave no indication of acting on those impulses. He was serious, controlled, and in-charge.

  “Were you or any of your deputies called out last night?” He asked and held the Sheriff’s gaze studying every nuance of expression.