“How did you…you weren’t even there. Never mind, I probably don’t want to know.” I stopped myself.
“There was a time when we weren’t bound by the rules that we have now. My queen and I did as we pleased. This is a finger painting compared to the masterpieces we created.” His hand flew to his heart as he wistfully reminisced the days when vampires weren’t romanticized and were still at the top of the food chain.
Blocking out the images of Agrona and Kedehern slaughtering town after town, driven by their insatiable thirst for blood was almost impossible. But it did give me pause. Could a vampire have done this? It was unlikely. No vampire would risk the wrath of Agrona and Kedehern. And it’s not like the vampires were short on blood donors. There’s no logical reason for a vampire to do this. Not that anything about this situation was logical.
Oberon came back in with a turkey sandwich and a look that said, “You will eat this and not give me any shit about it.”
He handed me the plate and I begrudgingly plopped down on the couch. After the first bite, I realized how hungry I had been, polishing off the first half of the sandwich in four bites. Just as I was about to devour the second half, the rest of the Council tiptoed in around the photos on the floor. I set the plate on the couch cushion next to me and waited for the fireworks to begin.
“You’ve gotten sloppy, Mahalia. Letting the humans find your prey before you? Roul and I would not have allowed our enemies to hide from us, and we certainly wouldn’t have been outwitted by a bunch of mortals.” Agrona was obviously disgusted.
“We have been working within the confines of our agreement with the mortals, Agrona, something that you seldom do.” Mahalia dismissed the vampires comment with a wave. “And it was dumb luck that SPTF found the Inquisitors.”
“None of that even matters now. There’s a new player in this sick game, and we’ve got to find out who it is before Masarelli starts detaining coven members. He is becoming a liability.” Roul paused, waited until he had everyone’s attention. “Before the Shift, the government agreed the existence of the Council system should be kept secret to ease human acceptance. It would be chaos if the humans knew just how little control they actually have. Masarelli is perilously close to breaking that agreement.”
“I have an idea.” I tried to interject but they were all too busy talking over one another.
“Hey! I’ve got an idea,” I tried again.
That didn’t stop them either. They just kept right on going. Agrona was berating Mahalia for not ridding Salem of the Inquisitors herself. Oberon was about to jump in to defend Mahalia’s honor. From my previous experiences with Agrona, that was a bad idea. Kedehern wanted to know who was moving in on their territory, and it sounded like Roul wanted to dig a hole for Masarelli’s grave.
I stuck my fingers in my mouth and gave an ear-piercing whistle, perfected over many rock concerts. As I expected, the room became quiet, and I had everyone’s attention. “I said that I have an idea. If you’re done with the juvenile bitch-fest, then I’d be happy to share it.”
Nobody said anything, so I took that as an invitation to proceed. “I need to get back into the warehouse. Masarelli’s only looking for evidence to prove the coven’s guilt. He won’t be looking for anything else. Given the time to really look around, I think I can find out who really did this.”
“What makes you so certain that you’ll be able to find something this time?” Roul shoved his hands into his pockets, eyeing me warily.
“I couldn’t get a read on anything with Maserelli breathing down my neck the whole time. I can do this, but I’m going to need a little help.” I turned to Agrona and Kedehern.
“I’m listening.” Retracting her fangs, Agrona calmed enough to really listen.
“SPTF will be monitoring the feed from the security cameras outside the warehouse. I’m going to need some cover.” I didn’t bother phrasing it as a request. I was too tired for political pandering.
“We’ll send Aidan. He has cloaked others before.” Kedehern shook his head, agreeing with his wife’s decision.
“Well, that was easier than I thought. There’s plenty of darkness left. The sooner he gets here, the sooner we can go.”
“Take Cash with you.” Roul looked serious, which is what bothered me about his suggestion.
“Come on, Roul. Not tonight. I’ve got a small window to get in, find what we need, and get out.” I did not need or have time to babysit for the pack.
“Hence my suggestion. Cash was already on their scent on Winter Island. He won’t waste time sorting them all out.”
It wasn’t incompetence that made me not want to bring Cash. In fact, he had proven very useful so far. He had saved my ass from a long and miserable swim on Winter Island. Truthfully, he had been downright easy to work as of late, which was a complete three-sixty from the last time he had been in Salem. I guess that’s what bothered me. It wouldn’t last. He was trying to prove himself to Roul’s pack, but after the challenge he’d go right back to being the dick he had been before. And when he did, I didn’t want him thinking I owed him a favor in return for his help. Still, Roul was right. I needed Cash at the warehouse.
“Fine. I’m assuming he’s already here.” I sighed, rubbing my temples to stop the headache trying to form.
Mahalia and Oberon got to work translating whatever was on those old pages I had taken pictures of. She pulled book after book off of her shelves, handing them to Oberon. The stack was up to his eyes. Quickly running out of space in the cramped study, she scooped up the papers and told Oberon to follow her to the dining room where they could spread everything out.
.
Cash came in and plopped down on the couch next to me just as I’d grabbed my plate and started eating again. Scooting closer to the arm on my side of the couch, I made room between us. I could see him staring at me from the corner of my eye. Uncomfortable with people watching me eat, I dropped what was left of my sandwich on the plate and set it on the empty middle cushion.
“You done with that?” Cash picked up what was left of my sandwich.
“I am now.”
He polished it off in one bite, licking some stray mayo off of his fingers. Even the way he ate was irritating.
I got up, grabbed the plate off of the cushion, and was about to take it into the kitchen when I bumped into a vampire.
“Sorry, I didn’t see you there.”
“No need to apologize. Entirely my fault. I’m Aidan. You must be Maurin?” He extended his hand.
Aidan was close to six feet tall and had an athletic build. I had no idea how old he really was, but he must have been around my age when he had been turned. He was handsome, reminded me of an actor. Jason…something. Whatever. I just hoped he was as easy to work with as he was on the eyes.
I took his hand, not expecting much to happen, since he was a vampire. Vampires were mostly dead, after all, and I don’t read the dead. The experiment back at the morgue had proven that. I’ve talked to ghosts before, well, once, and that was under rather unique circumstances. The undead are usually a nice escape. Unlike every other species, I didn’t have to watch myself in the company of vampires.
A pulse of magic coursed between us. Shocked, literally, I saw flashes of Aidan inside my head. He was older than I had originally thought. Ireland, during the Victorian era, if I had to guess by the clothes he wore. The vampire tightened his grip as I tried to pull away; intrigued I could slip inside his mind. Instinctively, I threw up my walls, reinforcing my mental shields and pried my hand from his grasp to break the connection. I had enough problems with Lachadiel. The last thing I needed was a freak vampire playing around inside my head.
“Sorry. I didn’t know that would happen. It never has with a vampire.” I dropped the plate as I backed away from Aidan.
He caught it before it hit the floor and set it on an antique end table by the couch.
“There you go apologizing again when no harm has been done. I must admit that I am curious
about your ability to form a connection with me, but I can understand why you would recoil from my mind,” Aidan reached for my amulet.
I tucked the amulet back under my shirt and put a little more distance between us.
He laughed, giving me goose bumps, but in a good way. Damned vamps and their powers of persuasion.
“It’s natural for people to recoil from the dead.”
I’d almost forgotten Cash was in the room. Aidan must have been pumping out more pheromones than I’d realized.
“I thought that I smelled a dog.” Aidan practically dismissed Cash entirely, his attention fixed on me.
A low growl rumbled up from Cash. Aidan didn’t rise to the bait, choosing to ignore Cash.
“Not tonight, Cash. We all need to work together if we expect to pull this off. I’m going to get Oberon and then we’re out of here. You two play nice.”
I left the vampire and the werewolf alone in Mahalia’s study; hoping everything, and everyone, would still be in one piece when I came back.
Oberon scribbled away at the dining room table while Mahalia dictated at an auctioneer’s pace. Graive sat between him and Mahalia, scouring through old books. I cleared my throat, obviously announcing my presence as I walked into the room. “Aidan and Cash are here, Oberon. We’re ready to go. The sooner the better actually, since I don’t think they like each other very much.”
He didn’t say anything, just looked at Mahalia and waited for her approval.
Graive looked at me like she was willing me to burst into flames.
“Yes, yes. Go ahead.” Mahalia shooed Oberon away. “Graive, you can take over for Oberon.”
Oberon got up and walked over to me. He slipped his hand in mine, and I followed him out of the dining room, all the while Graive’s eyes burned a hole in the back of my head.
Mahalia snapped at Graive as we walked away. “Pay attention! Every word must be correct. You of all people should know this.”
I stifled my laughter.
“You’re smiling. What’s got you in such a good mood?” Oberon gave my hand a little squeeze.
“What? Am I? It must be the company.” I didn’t want him to know I was being a petty, little bitch.
I stuck my head in the study door. “Let’s go!”
Chapter 13
The four of us climbed into Oberon’s truck and headed out to the warehouse. The ride was quiet and a bit awkward. There was more testosterone in the truck than a locker room at a football game, and it was getting a little hard to breathe. I cracked my window to air out the cab of the truck.
We parked a couple of blocks down and walked, stopping beside a warehouse next to the one we needed to break into. There was plenty of cover in between the two buildings from the patrol car that remained parked out front.
Oberon moved forward, stepping just to the edge of the shadows. Static charged the air. My hair was sticking out in every direction, like I was touching one of Tesla’s plasma globes.
“The alarm system is off. Cash, you want to get the door?” Oberon whispered, stepping back into the alley.
“Are you sure? If I walk through this door and bells start ringing, I’m gone, and you’re on your own explaining it to the half-dozen cops strolling around.” Cash hesitated before moving in.
“It’s fried wolf. This isn’t my first go around with a spell like this.”
Cash shrugged his shoulders, the only signal he’d accepted Oberon completed his task and took up his position at the side door of the warehouse. He was hardly visible, crouched down behind the trashcans and fifty-five-gallon drums that lined the side of the building.
“What did you do?” I asked Oberon, while Cash worked on the lock.
“That spell’s like a very accurate EMP. I would have preferred to cast one with a wider range, but I think your friends from SPTF would notice if the streetlights went out.”
“Cool.”
Oberon leaned in for a quick kiss. Little static charges leaped from his lips to mine. It felt like I was kissing a battery. He smiled as I tried to rub the pins and needles sensation from my lips.
“Let’s go,” Cash crept inside the warehouse.
With his military training, he could avoid being seen or heard without magic. He was lethal in situations like this; they were his specialty. If the coven was going to send in “the dogs”, like Masarelli had said, then Cash was the right wolf for the job.
“Someone should stay by the door to keep watch,” Aidan directed his statement at Oberon.
Oberon’s expression darkened.
I tried to turn around to see what had just happened between the two of them, but Aidan was right behind me, slipping his arm around my waist.
“Keep wrapping your arms around her like that and it’ll go from night to day in this alley. Hope you brought some sun block.” Small flames lept from Oberon’s fingertips.
“And risk giving us away? I think not witch. Besides, the contact makes it easier to shadow her.”Aidan casually thrummed his fingers along the hip of my jeans.
“Well, you’ll have to figure something else out, because I won’t be able to do anything with you glued to my hip like this. And I don’t think we should split up.” Foresight wasn’t my gift, but even I knew working alone with the vampire would lead to problems.
“I’m going to cloak you in shadow, not make you invisible. If someone’s coming, we’ll still need time to make our escape.” Aidan sounded rational, even if the pheromones he pumped out said otherwise.
“Go on. I’ll stay here and serve as a lookout.” Oberon gave me that easy smile, the one capable of melting my ice covered heart.
Pulling on the shadows of the buildings around him, Oberon made himself almost impossible to see. If a vampire were better at shadowing than that, we’d be undetectable.
Stepping away from Aidan, I went over to the door; with a final look back to be sure I couldn’t see Oberon under his shadows. Aidan was right behind me again, blocking my view.
“Do you mind?”
“If I cannot touch you, then I will have to be close, very close,” Aidan’s accent was thick, a deep Irish brogue, his mouth close to my ear. His breath felt like a cool breeze on my neck and instantly gave me goosebumps.
“Knock it off, Aidan. You’re not the first vampire I’ve worked with.”
He laughed, nudging me through the side door and into the warehouse, leaving Oberon alone in the alley to keep watch.
Cash moved silently and methodically through the warehouse, stopped when he caught our scent to shake his head. He hadn’t found anything yet.
I walked around, feeling as if Aidan was my shadow instead of me being cloaked by his, and stopped at the table with the computers on it.
“You should have told the witch outside that you planned to use the computer. If I had to guess, he fried everything in here when he knocked out the alarm.” Aidan stepped up beside me, picking up a cable to see where it led.
“Don’t touch anything. I don’t need electricity to use the computer.” Pushing the chair out of the way so I could stand in front of the keyboard, my fingers moved across the keys, searching for a pattern in keystrokes. Letters, words, and sentences formed in my mind. It was a detailed report chronicling the movements of the Inquisitors in Salem. They were creating a new manifesto, one that would rival the Malleus Maleficarum. There were pages and pages of notes on new and successful torture techniques. Detailed instructions on dismantling a witch’s magical ability by removing the eyes, tongue, and hands momentarily tripped up my concentration as the crime scenes and bodies flashed through my mind. With a shudder and a shake of my head, I tried to clear the images of dead bodies from my mind and continued my reading. The Inquisitor author’s sense of purpose and satisfaction as he typed the directions for the others to follow saturated my brain. Fingers trembling with rage as they glided across the keys, I tried not to be distracted by my anger. The Inquisitors were already dead. We might not have been the ones to hand out their punishmen
t, but at least they died the violent and horrible deaths they deserved.
Everything I saw was something we already knew. There had to be something else. Moving to another laptop a little farther down the table, Aidan didn’t say a word as he hovered behind me. My hands hovering above the keys again, I was immediately drawn to a new pattern of letters. Fingerprints on the keys led me down a new path of keystrokes. The last person to use this computer was doing a lot of research. Was this the one that held the information I needed?
I followed a few references about Lachadiel, but they were all dead ends. Everything I found on this laptop was common knowledge too. Damn it! Why wasn’t there anything useful in here about him? If the Inquisitors weren’t keeping any information about him, and Mahalia didn’t have anything, then what the hell was I supposed to do? It’s not like I could just stroll into the nearest bookstore to grab a latte and a book on zealot cults and their heavenly defenders.
Aidan cleared his throat. I had forgotten he was behind me for a second.
“Do you believe that Lachadiel has something to do with the murder of his conjurers?”
“How did you—”
“It was simple. I just watched your fingers move across the keys. I’ve always been an excellent speller.” He smirked.
“Um, I don’t know. I mean, anything’s possible.” I didn’t want to admit my real reasons for focusing on any path that led to Lachadiel.
“Hmm,” was all he said in response.
Shrugging it off I went back to focusing on the keyboard. My fingers slid across the keys as I opened myself up to all patterns and letter formations. A word I didn’t know came up over and over again. Afrit. What the hell was an Afrit, and why did the Inquisitors want to know so much about it?
“We don’t have much time, Maurin. You haven’t found anything that we can use to clear the coven. We need to move on.” Aidan gently rested a hand on my shoulder, giving it a light squeeze.
Dark Secrets: A Paranormal Romance Anthology Page 163
