"Have you told her?" he asked.
I played dumb. "No clue what you mean," I said, keeping my voice steady.
"Shove it up yer ass, Gabe," he snarled. "I don't think that you have the time to dick around with me, do you? You've got a lot to do and no idea how long you'll actually have to try and do it."
I couldn't help but admit, at least mentally, that he was right. I didn't have time to play games and I really needed to cut to the chase.
I sighed. "No I haven't said anything to her and I don't intend to if I can help it. I don't want to make any Children and I won't start with her unless it's absolutely necessary and I have her permission."
He arched one bushy eyebrow at me. "What the hell happened to you in the last few decades? You never gave this much of a damn about a humans wants or feelings."
"I've gotten in touch with my sensitive side recently," I snapped. "Can we get on with this please? Will you help me get to the meeting and can I count on you to do your best to see that a vote is called? We need to move, like, now if we're going to go at all."
"You're not even going to discuss it with her?"
"We'll do things in front of the council if need be. And hope that they don't decide to try to kill me first."
"That's a lot of hope and ifs and shit," Ghost noted.
"Hey I never said it was a solid plan. Just a plan. Half-baked is better than nothing."
"Don't half-baked plans usually end with people getting killed?"
I glared at Ghost. "My half-baked plan to get us into Threntüs' compound didn't get us killed did it?
"No, it got us beat up and almost got your pretty little friend killed instead."
"Seriously, puppy," I growled. "We're gonna mix it up again if you don't cut it out before I find myself forced to tear your arm out of its socket."
Honestly, there wasn't much that Grim could have said if he wanted to cut through the argument Ghost and I had been building up to.
"Threntü is dead."
That did it though.
We fell silent so quickly one could have been forgiven for thinking that a mute button had been pressed on the both of us. Our heads turned in unison to direct our gazes directly at Grim, calmly sitting in his chair and drinking from his flask. I knew he kept a supply of Everclear in that thing, a grain alcohol I could never stomach but he loved.
"Did he just say what I think he said?" I asked Ghost.
"I'm pretty sure he did."
"I thought so. Want to clarify that Grim?"
"The old wind bag was killed, five years ago. Somebody took him out in his bedroom at the Loft. Since then the council has been pretending that he's still alive."
Shock didn't quite begin to cover what I was feeling. I couldn't describe the sensations running through my body as I processed Grims words.
"Five years?" I glanced over at Ghost. "Isn't that about when you said he left the Loft?"
"That's what my information said."
"Aye, the Council created the rumor that he left the Loft to hide the fact that he was dead."
"If he's dead, who the hell has been turning my life upside down? Who else would stand to gain from outing me like this?"
"That's the real mystery, Pup." Grim screwed the cap back on his flask and slipped it into his pocket. "Answer that and you'll probably answer who killed him in the first place."
Ghost blinked. "You mean they still don't even know who did it?"
Grim shook his shaggy head. "Nary a clue. For a long while everyone thought you did it," he added with a pointed look at me.
I couldn't deny the possibility of me being the likeliest suspect in the death of Threntü Vayun. I can say, however, that it honestly wasn't me.
"How could they let five years go by without figuring it out? What the hell have the Shadu been doing?"
"They aint just been resting on their laurels, dumb ass. There was nothing to indicate who or even how he was killed. Well," he paused and corrected himself. "The how was obvious. He was pulled apart pretty brutally. But no sign of a weapon, no fingerprints, fibers or any of the usual forensic signs. As far as the Shadu are concerned Threntü was torn limb from limb by a ghost."
"And no suspects other than me?" I asked. "I find that really hard to believe." I wasn't sure if I should be flattered or insulted that they still considered me a suspect but apparently decided not to bring me in for questioning. With how easily Claus and Vera found me I can't imagine that I had been as far below the Shadus' radar as I'd thought I had been.
"Course not. There were others but the Vasith cleared them. Went through their minds and found them all innocent. So far you're the only one they haven't cleared." He paused and eyed me speculatively.
"Speaking of," he muttered. "Now that it's out in the open I've wanted to know for years. How did you keep your power a secret from the Vasith? They should've been able to pull it right out of your head."
I grinned at him knowingly. "They can't pull out something that you don't think about."
The Ghost and Grim both looked at me as if I'd lost my mind for a moment, before shaking their heads practically in unison, and Ghost changed the subject.
"The lunacy factor of his plan aside, are you willing to give us the benefit of the doubt?" he asked, his tone unusually polite for Ghost. He obviously really wanted to stay on Grims'... um... less bad side?
Yeah, let's go with that.
Less bad side.
I could hear Rachel making her way down the hall back toward us and I gave Grim a pointed look, hoping he would answer quickly.
"Depends," he said.
"On what?" I had a feeling I wasn't going to like his answer.
"On what you're planning to do about her."
Shit.
"What are you doing about who?"
Shitshitshitshitshitshitshitshitshit.
That one word was all I could think over and over; running through my mind like a mantra. This was not how I wanted this to go. Itreally wasn't.
I glanced at Grim, attempting to wither him with my glare but of course the old wolf was about as intimidated as a rock facing down the might and fury of an enraged gnat.
"Somebody better start talking to me. I'm getting sick and tired of being the odd human out around you people."
"You shouldn't be left out of things just because you're human." Ghost cut in before I could say anything. "But the problem is that youarehuman. That means you can’t protect yourself as well as we can. You're more vulnerable to others of our kind that may not be as cuddly as we are." He gave her a wide, tooth filled grin. I reached over and smacked him across the head.
She stood near the table, a plate with a half-eaten sandwich in one hand which she calmly set down. "Is that all?"
Ghost, Grim and I all stared at her as if she'd suddenly sprouted a second head and started singing the Macarena.
"The possibility of getting eaten or torn limb from limb with no real way to protect yourself isn't enough?"
"So? Make it so I can protect myself."
"You've got a line on an Iron-Man-like armored suit that I haven't heard about?"
"Who needs armor when I can have teeth?"
I blinked several times, the gears in my brain grinding to a halt as I hit confusion overload. Didn't matter if they were Human, Vampire or Werewolf, women were impossible for any man to understand.
"Alright, sweetheart," Grim said. "You're going to have to give Chuckles over here another clue, his brain is obviously fried." I spared the old wolf a glare but quickly turned my attention back to Rachel.
"As much as I hate to give any credence to his insults, he's right; you're going to have to specify things up for me if I'm going to understand what you're getting at."
Rachel sighed explosively, obviously at the end of her patience with me and sauntered over. Leaning over me she placed her hands on my shoulders, looked directly into my eyes and spoke as sweetly as I'd ever heard her speak, past a predatory smile that sent shivers of terror scream
ing their way up and down my spine.
"Turn me into a Vampire."
20
March 03, 2005
Ghost hit the floor. I glared at him but in his hysterical mirth he was oblivious to my gaze. This had been going on for three minutes solid. He took one look at the gob smacked expression on my face and rolled out of his chair onto the floor, laughing until tears were streaming down his face and he was red faced and gasping for breath.
"Are you quite done?" I asked, finally when he had started to collect himself. He took one look at me and started howling again so I simply sighed and leaned back in my chair as I rolled myself another cigarette.
Rachel stood expectantly nearby. She was nervous. Weight shifting from foot to foot as she watched me carefully trying to gauge my reaction to what she had said. Aside from the shocked expression I had first worn I hadn't given anything else away and I was feverishly turning the idea over and over in my mind.
"Why would you ask me that?" I asked when Ghost finally got enough control of himself that I felt I could talk to her without having to shout. "I swore that I would never make another like me. I promised myself that I wouldn't do it." She didn't need to know I had beenthinking about it. I didn't even want to know that.
"Wouldn't do what?" she asked, her eyes locked intently onto mine. Her gaze seemed almost physically heavy, as if a great weight or pressure was bearing down on me. Vibrantly green, almost glowing in the torchlight, I felt as if I were falling into them and it took every ounce of my not inconsiderable will to keep my mind on track.
"I swore to never curse someone else with this condition."
"You promised yourself to stay selfish."
I jerked back as if she had struck me. "What?"
"You promised yourself that you would never gift another person with strength, speed, health and longevity." She snapped.
"I swore to never curse anyone with a long, lonely, traveling existence." I snapped back. "Never staying for too long in one place. Watching people you care about grow old and die. Watching the world change around you while you stay the same. If I have to create a Child some day, I have to. But I will have no other choice when that time eventually comes. Right now I have other options so I'm not doing it."
"But we wouldn't stay the same." she argued. "We would grow, change and evolve over time. You wouldn't have to see your loved ones grow old if you would have turned them and did you ever tell any of them what you were? Did you give them the choice? The option?
"I'masking you to turn me. Make me one of your children and create a Fifth Clan. You said it yourself at that dudes hotel, Claus right?" I nodded silently "You said it then, you've got the potential to be the Father of a Fifth Clan. And Ghost just said it a few minutes ago. There are clauses within the Brotherhood for you to have a clan join into the treaty, to bind your clan to the same rules that bind the others.
"But you have to actually have a clan to do that. You, by yourself, are not a clan. You have to have children, followers basically. I'm asking to be the first. You may want to take a war to the Brotherhood right now because of what they've done to you but this is a chance that you could end things before it comes to violence."
"What if I like violence?" I asked. She paused for a moment. My voice had taken on a very dangerous quality. I was calm, speaking quietly, something she was beginning to recognize just before I lashed out at something or someone.
"Violence just for the sake of violence? I don't believe it."
"And what makes you think you know me so well?"
"I don't," she admitted. At least she had the sense to admit that much, I felt a touch better about what she was saying now but that didn't mean much. It was like spitting into a lake. Theoretically you just raised the water level but you'd never be able to measure it. "I don't know you that well. But I'm not stupid and I like you. I get that your... morals or values or whatever aren't exactly normal but that’s because of how you grew up and what you've been taught. You enjoy fighting, fine."
"I revel in death and blood."
"Bull shit," she snapped, anger starting to cloud her voice. I was dimly aware of Grim and Ghost looking back and forth from me to her as if they were sitting at a tennis match but I refused to take my eyes off of her long enough to tell them to leave.
"Bull shit?"
"Yeah. You can honestly sit there and tell me you love to fight and to kill people and that’s why you hid from the Brotherhood for how many decades? Instead of taking the fight to them, instead of killing as many of them as you could you hid, and avoided bloodshed for as long as you could."
I glared at her, trying but finding no way to refute what she said. I could deny it all I wanted but she had me by the short and curlies and it was just as unpleasant a sensation as I had ever imagined it would be.
Not that I've spent much time imagining what it'd be like for someone to metaphorically... yeah.
"Bottom line Gabe you've got this persona of being a suffering hero, living in solitude to not curse anyone else with your existence when really you're just making sure that you're still special. If you create more like you, you won't be unique anymore. You won’t be the only vampire with five powers anymore. You'll just be Gabriel, just another vampire amongst many."
I stood and slammed my glass down on the table so hard that it shattered. I ignored the startled look on her face, the knowing looks on the wolves’ faces and the blood dripping from my lacerated hand and stormed out of the room and up the stairs.
From behind me as I climbed the stairs to the outside I dimly heard Ghost muttering to Rachel. "I think you might have pushed him just a bit too far there."
* * * * * *
When I reached the heavy door leading to the surface above Grims' underground lair I barely slowed, hitting the metal with enough force to send it flying open. I stepped up and out into the cool morning air, the eastern sky already touched with gray as the Sun began to rise. A quick glance at my watch told me that it was just after five in the morning.
The council would be meeting in a matter of days. What was left of it. With Threntü dead I had no idea who was in Charge of the Vayun. How could the council have even managed to keep word of his death from spreading? Even if they put a lid on things in their own clans how could the Wind Clan themselves not know their progenitor no longer walked the Earth? Something was wrong and I had been doing nothing but reacting from the beginning. It was time to stop reacting and start acting instead. I was being herded around by way of someone else's machinations and I was getting extremely sick of it.
So first and foremost, who killed Threntü? How did they manage to do it without leaving any signs behind? How did they find me?
That had been bugging me and I couldn't figure it out. I'd been off the radar for a long time with no one finding me. Then all of a sudden Claus and then Vera show up within twenty four hours of each other? And the biggest question that I had was Grim.
He had been hiding for even longer than Grim or I had. He was good at staying out of the way of things. Yes, he had taken over Leadership of the Packs but he still didn't reveal his location to anyone. So how the hell did Ghost and I find him?
He'd said it himself. No one would think to look for the stoic old wolf in New Orleans of all places so how was it that Ghost and I had made a rather direct drive straight here from Oregon?
Something wasn't right, and I didn't like it at all.
* * * * * *
In retrospect, storming off in a huff probably wasn't my best move. I mean every vampire and werewolf with communication access to the Council was looking for me. I was only lucky that none of them seemed to have the same inexplicable knowledge of Grims' location that Ghost and I had somehow acquired.
By the time the sun had fully risen and the humidity had set in I made my way back downstairs. Grim must have been getting soft himself in his old age for he left the door open for me. I pushed the button to close it behind me as I began that insanely long trek down the stairs to hi
s lair. Maybe I should call it a Den, he was a wolf after all.
Approximately halfway down I could hear the quiet murmur of a television. It sounded like they were watching the news and I started to hurry my way down the rest of the stairs.
"... Miss. Monahan was last seen in the presence of this man," a reporter was saying as I walked into the room. On the screen of the large plasma my image appeared. "She was taken a month ago from her college campus in Long Beach, California and our studio discovered that she was seen at a gas station just outside of New Orleans." My image disappeared and short video clip began playing of myself and Ghost getting out of the van. The security camera showed Rachel sitting in the back seat, bruises and scrapes still visible on her face and arms from her treatment in Oregon.
"The identities of the two men are, as of yet, unknown. If anyone should see these individuals please call the number displayed on our screen to inform the police. Do not attempt to approach them as they are being considered extremely dangerous."
The story continued for a few minutes before moving onto a heartwarming piece about puppies needing new homes and where to go to find information on adoption shelters and pet ownership. I had seen more than enough however.
"Well, shit." I thought that I had summed things up fairly well to be honest, but the glare that Ghost shot in my direction told me that he did not share my sentiment.
"Gabe, let me borrow your phone." I turned to Rachel. She still looked pissed but she had her hand held out expectantly for my cell phone. I did the smart thing and chose to say nothing as I handed it over to her. She took it, dialed a few numbers and walked away from us. Not that it mattered. We would be able to hear her almost anywhere she went within the cavern if we tried, and most places we wouldn't be able to help it.
"Hey, Mom, it's me." she pulled the phone away from her ear and I could dimly hear the sounds of a female voice crying hysterically over the tiny speakers. "Mom, calm down. I'm fine. Jeez. Call off this police search, would you?"
The Fifth Clan Page 14
