Winkler was on his phone immediately, passing a message to seven vans behind us. Trajan took advantage of the invisibility and hit the gas, bumping the speedometer at eighty-seven.
Like a train, we passed unmolested through Fort Worth, which was a minor miracle. Traffic, no matter if you took I-35E or I-35W through Dallas or Fort Worth, was heavy and challenging.
Ten minutes past Fort Worth, Zaria announced that we were visible again. Our speed slowed, vehicles somewhere behind us looked normal again and four vampires were likely wondering what the hell happened.
"That's a tidy trick," Ilya spoke for the first time, glancing behind us to see the other vans, all with identical sets of headlights, following us.
I didn't tell him that Zaria had employed Larentii power to do it. Most of the people in the car had no idea what a Larentii was, and were still skeptical about witches.
Whatever it takes to get us through this, Zaria's mindspeech sounded grim.
Dalroy and Rhett may be in danger, I replied.
They were—from the other two. What I did kept them from being shot at on the road. They've already pulled over to discuss our disappearance. They know where we're headed, so they'll probably decide to make their way to Austin anyway. The same goes for the other two. I'll let you decide what to do with them when they show up.
"Winkler," I said. "When we reach Austin, send the other vans to a separate location. Zaria will make them invisible when they leave the convoy. We'll proceed to the crime scene. We may have guests before our investigation is over."
"I would welcome them," Ilya patted the shoulder holster under his jacket. I had no doubt that there were rifles in the back of the van, too.
"Ilya," I leaned around Zaria to look at him. I could see him clearly in the darkness, while he squinted to bring me into focus.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Our guests won't be human. If you shoot, make it fast, all right?"
"I'll make it fast, then get out of your way."
"Good." Zaria leaned her head back and shut her eyes for a moment. "Just don't get shot or clawed to death," she added.
Kent, England
Charles
"Honored One?" Wlodek sat behind his desk, frowning at the latest expenses incurred by Enforcers who were hunting Xenides.
"Charles?" Wlodek lifted his dark eyes to mine, a question glinting in their depths.
"I just heard from Dalroy. He and Rhett say that they were following Winkler's convoy out of Dallas, when two other vampires you have listed as deceased pulled out of a side road ahead of them. They were also following Winkler. Dalroy says they managed to place their vehicle in between the convoy and the rogues, but somehow thinks he and Rhett were recognized."
"What about the convoy? Has anything happened?"
It was a good question, and one I'd asked myself. "Dalroy is somewhat confused on this part; he and Rhett swear that the convoy disappeared after they left Fort Worth city limits, and no trace of them can be found anywhere. He is confident that they are returning what's left of the Austin Pack to Austin after they were attacked during the full moon by snipers. Seven were killed in that attack, and there's been no word how the others escaped and ended up in Dallas."
"Snipers?"
"Dalroy suspects other rogues, Honored One. He is concerned that he and Rhett may not be enough to handle this."
"I have no others to send, Enforcers or Assassins," Wlodek said after going silent for several moments.
"I can go. You know I can be quite discreet."
"How will I get all this done?" Wlodek indicated the papers strewn across his desk.
"Honored One, I suggest that if these troubles aren't dealt with, paperwork will be the least of our worries. Besides, Rolfe is adept at filing and computers; he merely doesn't talk about it."
"He can fill in if necessary?"
"Of course."
"Then you have my permission to go to Texas. See that you return, young Charles."
"I will return, I promise."
"Good. Order the jet to take you tomorrow. If you leave now, you can spend the day with your sire, Flavio, and then board the jet shortly after night falls tomorrow."
"It will be done as you say."
"I will let Flavio know you are coming," Wlodek lifted his cell to make the call.
"That won't be necessary." My voice had deepened, and none, including Wlodek, could refuse my compulsion when I employed it against them like this. "Flavio will not be involved; I will make my own way there."
"Yes." Wlodek's eyes unfocused for a moment, before clearing as I strode out of his study.
Austin, Texas
Lissa
"How much time do you think we have before they get here?" I asked Zaria.
"They're forty and fifty miles away, respectively, with the rogues in the lead."
"That's not good."
She and I were examining the ground where two vampire snipers had set up, their rifles no doubt fixed with night scopes for shooting running werewolves. They'd likely set up downwind, too, so they wouldn't be scented before getting their first shots off.
"Are you seeing anything?" Ilya walked up, then. Yes, the moon shone brightly overhead, but we were beneath trees, which had hidden vampire snipers.
"I'm smelling plenty," I told him. "This was a sniper's nest for two vampires. I figure there's at least one more, maybe two, from the reports we've gotten."
"Any evidence left behind?"
"No bodies, and that bothers me," Zaria said. "If there was a spark of life, or anything else left of those werewolves at all, then that can be used against us."
"Blackmail," Ilya nodded.
"Among other things," Zaria said, her words chilling.
I thought you got rid of all that stuff before, I sent to her, meaning the drug.
I did—all that I could find or knew about. That doesn't mean that more wasn't hidden behind Sirenali bones, somewhere—you know Liron is still active in the here and now.
"Fucking hell." I tossed out a hand and started walking toward the other side of the wooded area, where Winkler and Trajan were sniffing around. Did Bree know all this when she sent me right into the middle of it?
She probably did. I was grateful Zaria decided to help; if she hadn't come, I'd be hard-pressed to handle everything myself. That didn't include finding a hidden cache of the Lyristolyi drug surrounded by Sirenali bones—an impossible thing unless we could force the information out of someone who knew about it.
Maybe Ivan Baikov knew. I made a mental note to track him down ASAP.
"Find anything?" I asked when I reached Winkler's side.
"Two nests—one straight ahead, the other opposite to the one you found," Winkler rumbled, anger in his voice. "I'm surprised they didn't kill more than seven."
"Two snipers in each nest?"
"Three in the one straight ahead," Trajan said. "Although I can't say for sure whether all of them handled guns."
"True. Let me go sniff around to see whether any of them were Baikov. He's kinda on my last nerve right now."
Sure enough, vampire Baikov was one of the three straight ahead—likely calling the shots, no pun intended. Why they'd chosen rifles rather than claws was still up for debate, but we had more werewolf survivors as a result of that decision.
Perhaps that was the point. They'd hoped to gather the wounded, perhaps—for the reasons Zaria worried about. I'd foiled part of that plan, by picking them up and hauling them out of there. I wondered how Baikov explained that to his boss.
They'd also discovered that we'd had the survivors of the Austin Pack in Dallas; that's why they were tailing us when we left Winkler's mansion. That meant somebody in the Kremlin knew it, too.
When would they begin their blackmail campaign, and what form would it take? Winkler stood to take more hits before that happened, and I didn't like that in the least.
I heard Winkler's cell phone buzz on silent from where I stood, twenty yards away. His answe
r was a tersely barked, "What is it?"
I'd misted to his side, only to hear Ace tell him his father's grave had been dug open and vandalized, along with the bones beneath it.
Zaria
"What just happened?" Ilya asked when Winkler lifted his face toward the moon and howled, even in human form.
"Nothing good," I told him. "And we're about to have company. Get your gun out, shooter-boy. We need all hands on deck."
"You're mixing ground troops with naval ships?"
"Semantics," I snapped before flinging an invisibility shield around all of us. The rogue vamps had arrived, and they were barreling down on us while Winkler shared his grief with the sky.
Lissa
Baikov isn't here, I informed Zaria while misting outside the shield she'd placed. The four rogue vamps were confused—for a second time in four hours, unless I missed my guess. Yes, our van was still parked half a mile away—they'd probably stopped there first.
Now, with claws and fangs out, their eyes red and glinting in the moonlight, they searched for their quarry—who'd disappeared from sight, sound and scent.
They'd followed our scent up to this point—Zaria left that intact—to further their disorientation, no doubt. The night before, the Austin Pack had disappeared. Tonight, their intended quarry disappeared, too.
We waited, watching as they spread farther out, hoping to regain our scent. Ilya says he recognizes two of them as former KGB agents, Zaria sent to me. He says they were listed as deceased.
I suppose that's true—up to a point, I agreed. Dead during the day, at least. Do we need any of them for anything?
Save the last one for me, Zaria said. Do whatever you want with the rest.
Heads coming off now, I sent and went to work.
Ilya
I dropped to my knees in amazement as three vampire heads were lifted off their shoulders in less than two eye blinks.
The fourth vampire began to run, only to be frozen in place when Zaria lifted her hands to stop him.
There he was, caught in mid-stride, one foot barely touching the ground when Zaria approached him, dropping the shield around us.
Lissa reappeared, too, shaking ash from three vampires off her claws before retracting them. If the Kremlin learned of her and Zaria, they would demand that they be killed or turned to their purposes.
Zaria had left one of the former KGB operatives alive—probably by design. His eyes were the only thing he could move when I stood before him—he recognized me just as I recognized him.
"So, not dead after all," I spoke in Russian. "That will be remedied shortly."
"What are you going to do?" Lissa asked Zaria.
"I'm going to freeze him in a block of ice," she shrugged, as if it were something she might do every day. "Then you're going to cut through the ice surrounding his neck, and I'll send both pieces where they'll do the most good."
"Where might that be?" I turned to Zaria.
"I think General Baikov needs to cool down," she said.
Lissa stifled a snicker, while Trajan didn't hold back a laugh. Winkler, still upset over the news he'd gotten, stood by, waiting for the two women to get on with their plan. I had an idea we would be visiting a gravesite somewhere before the night was over.
Winkler
I should have been astonished when the vampire was encased in a solid block of ice, frozen while still in a running pose. Instead, I was mired in anger and depression. Why would they think I'd cooperate if they tore into my parents' graves? They'd been buried together, since they'd died within a few days of one another.
With disinterest, I watched as Lissa sliced through the top of the ice, leaving the block containing the head barely disturbed and still atop the portion containing the body.
Zaria raised her hands again, and the ice and the vampire it contained disappeared. I hoped Baikov was sleeping when it dropped onto his bed beside him. He deserved if after stooping to grave desecration.
"Dalroy and Rhett are coming," Lissa hissed at Zaria. "What do you want to do?"
"Leave the ash—take the van," Zaria said, before transporting us, van included, to the gate of the Wilburn Ranch, where my parents were buried.
"Call and tell them you're here; we'll drive in like we're civilized and all," Lissa patted my back.
"What the hell just happened?" I demanded.
"Zaria transported you. It's one of her tricks," Lissa said.
"Fuck me," I growled and hauled out my cell phone.
Austin, Texas
Charles
"I have no idea what happened here," I heard Dalroy tell Rhett. Both had claws and fangs out when I walked from between two trees in the wooded area.
"It's me—Charles," I held up a hand. "The Honored One thought you needed help."
"We do. Three vampires died here tonight, and there's no evidence of who's responsible," Rhett shook his head. "Did you do this?"
"I could have," I replied. "Only Wlodek and I will ever know," I added.
"I—see," Dalroy sighed. They'd ask no more questions about it, assuming I'd either accomplished this feat or witnessed it. "What now?" He lifted an eyebrow as his eyes met mine.
"We'll be tracking the other vampires and werewolves the Russians have sent against Winkler," I told him. "And providing assistance to those who are already here to help."
"Would that explain some of the ah, unusual things?" Rhett asked.
"Perhaps. Tomorrow evening, we'll arrive at Winkler's home and discuss plans. This—all of this, mind you, is known only to Wlodek and me, so it is as secret a mission as we can keep it."
"I understand. This information will go no further."
"Good. Take me to the nearest safe house, and we'll consider swapping rental vehicles before the night's out. The enemy likely knows what you are currently driving and will target it."
Wilburn Ranch, outside Denton, Texas
Lissa
"This is a mess," I closed my eyes in disgust. Bones, bits of fur and a few other grisly things were strewn across the site. They couldn't have done anything more upsetting if they'd tried.
The scent of vampire was all over this, and Ivan Baikov's was one of them. I should have stomped his feet when I danced with him at the Annual Meeting, asshole that he was.
"How many?" Winkler demanded. He smelled vampire, just as I did, but more than three or four and the scents were more difficult for him to sort. He wasn't in the mood to sort them, either; not when I could give him the facts much faster.
"Seven. Who knows how many participated or how many watched?" I said. "Although I imagine Baikov wouldn't want to dirty his claws, so he probably supervised, just as he did in Austin."
"This all comes back to him, doesn't it?" Winkler turned to Ilya.
"More than likely." He spread his hands, letting Winkler know that he didn't like what they'd done any more than the rest of us.
"I want to know what was taken, if anything," Winkler snapped.
"You can wait for tomorrow and your werewolf forensics team, or you can let me scry it," Zaria suggested softly.
"Do it." Winkler flung out a hand and turned his back on the scene before striding away.
"What do you need?" Trajan asked Zaria.
"I need to put all of this back together, then see what we're missing," she replied.
"She can do that?" He turned to me.
"Yeah. I've seen it done before, actually." I had, only I'd seen Erland do it, instead of Zaria. Zaria's method would probably be more elegant than Erland's, even, but either way, it would get done.
Ilya
She looked to be a few years older than I, with hair going gray. Her movement belied her age, however, as she moved her hands gracefully, commanding each bit of fur, bone and sinew together, exactly as it should be.
Trajan, the tall werewolf, watched with just as much fascination as I, while a werewolf and a human body formed beneath the moon that night. By the time Zaria was done, we understood what was missing—ribs, fr
om the male werewolf. Winkler's father didn't have the proper number of ribs. They'd shredded the rest of him and his lady wife, who'd died in human form, to hide their deed as long as they could.
Except we knew, and much faster than they could imagine we would.
"Does he want to see them before I lay them to rest again?" Zaria pointed her question at Trajan.
"I'll ask," he said and loped away.
Winkler was back in less than five minutes. At least everything looked better than it did when he left. "Should we say something, boss?" Trajan asked softly.
Winkler couldn't answer—he was choking on emotion. I understood why; his father forced him to challenge because he'd grown too old to hold the pack, and knew a challenger would come soon. He gave the pack to his son, by throwing the fight and forfeiting his life.
"The blessings of light and love follow you into your next life," Zaria lifted her hand while golden sparks of light fell upon the bodies. "May you find those you've left behind again, and hold joy in your hearts upon that meeting."
With that, the bodies were lowered into their graves once more, while grass, flowers and the sweet scent of roses washed across the earth-filled spaces.
Winkler lifted his head and howled for the second time that night.
Chapter 5
Dallas, Texas
Ivan Baikov
"What do you mean, he woke next to a dead vampire? Vampires turn to ash when they die."
"The ah, report is that the vampire was frozen in a block of ice—actually, two blocks of ice—the head was in a separate block."
"That is not possible. They become ash quickly. Too quickly to be frozen after death. If he were frozen before death, he could break out of the ice easily. Cold means little to us. This tale is absurd."
"I will have him speak to you himself regarding this matter, then."
"Tell my nephew to call me himself, next time. I dislike speaking to his subordinates."
"You have made that statement before, and I apologize for following his orders this time."
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