Knights of Black Swan, Books 7-9 (Knights of Black Swan Box Set Book 3)

by Victoria Danann

  Risin’ slowly so as no’ to disturb Elora, I pulled the covers over her and could no’ help but smile at the sound of her soft snorin’.

  Our clothes, both mine and hers, were left in a messy trail. I got dressed and left Elora’s clothes folded neatly on the chair next to her fireplace. I did no’ think ‘twould be very gentlemanly to pick up my clothes and leave hers on the floor.

  Since Blackie was whinin’ like the situation was urgent, I did no’ think it prudent to take the time to go to my place next door and replace the torn shirt with a whole one. So I zipped up my leather jacket and headed for the Courtpark where he could relieve himself and be fawned over by fans.

  She was still sleepin’ when we got back. So I filled the dog bowl with what was in the bag and went to leave a note on the bar. After some thought and several false starts, I finally wrote, “Do not be embarrassed. - R.” As an afterthought when my hand was on the door, I came back to the bar and added under what was already written, “Or mad either.” She’d promised to forgive me and Elora was the sort to keep her promises, so I was no’ worried. But just in case.

  I closed the door quietly, again makin’ sure no one saw me in the hallway, and headed next door for a shower.

  An hour later, feelin’ that all was right with the world, I got off the elevator on our floor with a large hot chocolate for Elora. I let myself in to her place and heard the hair dryer blowin’ away.

  I heard the sound stop and saw her head poke out of the bathroom beyond that adjoined her bedroom. I smiled and held up my gift of cocoa.

  When she started toward me, I said, “Brought you a hot chocolate,” and held out the cup, but she did no’ take it. I was beginnin’ to get the feelin’ that she was mad.

  She grabbed my note from the bar, waved it in the air, and said, “Don’t be embarrassed? Don’t be mad? How could you?”

  I dropped my arm and set the cup down on the dinin’ desk.

  “I, em…”

  “How did I end up drunk, Ram?”

  “Drunk?” I repeated strugglin’ to get my bearin’s. It felt like I had come in on the middle of a movie with no clue what was goin’ on.

  “I don’t even remember having more than one drink.” I stared at her, wonderin’ where this was goin’ and no’ knowin’ how to respond without hearin’ more first. “You brought me back here, undressed me, and left me in bed naked.”

  “Now, wait a minute.” It was just beginnin’ to dawn on me. She did no’ remember a thing about last night. She was accusin’ me of bein’ a pervert who would take advantage of a woman who was too drunk to know what she was doin’. “I did no’ undress you.”

  “No? And you didn’t leave my clothes on the chair either.”

  I really did no’ want to answer that question because, given that she remembered nothin’, it would beg too many other questions. So I said, “I did bring you back here last night. I did take Blackie out for his walk this mornin’ because you were no’ up to it. And you’re welcome, by the way. I did pick your clothes up where you left them on the floor and I did put them on the chair. You’re welcome for that as well.”

  Her features softened as she studied my face and heard the truth in my words, even if it was no’ the whole truth. Great Paddy. What a mess!

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “I know there’s nothin’ worse than being accused of something you didn’t do. I just… I’ve never been drunk before. Waking up and not remembering what happened is a new thing.” She glanced toward the bedroom door. “And I don’t like it.”

  Normally I would have pointed out that she had none of the symptoms associated with hangovers, but thought it better to keep my thoughts to myself, in that case.

  “Happens to the best of us.”

  “Well, now I am embarrassed.”

  I smiled. “I’ll do my best to make sure it does no’ happen again.”

  Criminently. I’d been so caught up in the dramatic events that I’d had no time to ask the most important question, which was, how did she ingest the drug? Who gave it to her? Most importantly, why was she a target?

  Normally I would have gone straight to Kay and Storm and asked them for help sortin’ things out, but there was nothin’ normal about the situation. I could no’ go to them without compromisin’ Elora by revealin’ what had happened. And that I would no’ do.

  I had to try and figure it out by myself. And fast.

  CHAPTER 23

  Ram

  By the end of the second week workin’ Notte Fuoco, we were startin’ to feel like drinks and bouncin’ were our real jobs. The inevitable had happened, my constant vigilance had lapsed, but as luck would have it, I was facin’ the bar, wipin’ out a glass, when I saw Elora’s head pop up above the crowd. I locked on her location and swung myself up over the bar.

  Patrons scrambled to get out of my way, but they were no’ my priority.

  When she passed under one of the spots, I saw her unmistakable hair on the way to the restrooms. With a horror I’ll never forget, I saw that she’d placed herself between three vampire and the tunnel entrance Baka told us about. I charged forward reachin’ for my splat gun and findin’ nothin’ there. O’ course I had a splat gun. ‘Twas just that ‘twas stowed under the bar. I did the one thing Black Swan knights can never do. I panicked when I thought my partner might be in trouble

  Gods love her. She’d staked one vamp and engaged a second before I reached her. The third pulled a knife, but in the blink of an eye he found me in front of him instead of his target. Elora.

  As the Fates would have it, and it seemed they were targetin’ me for their amusement of late, two women chose that moment to come out of the Ladies’ room. ‘Twas the worst timin’ possible.

  The vampire did no’ consider his actions. Nor did he have a motive for what he did next. He was simply an evil shadow of whoever he’d been as a human, a lost soul without reason or empathy.

  He slashed at the woman closest to him. The knife cut through her jugular, which began to spurt like a macabre fountain, just as her friend started to scream.

  There are reasons why Black Swan takes so long to train its knights. One of those is so that a knight will revert to his trainin’ in combat situations without havin’ to rely on instinct. My trainin’ had left me with an automatic response to innocents in danger from vampire. The priority was protection. ‘Twas always the overridin’ mission and, really, the entire point of what we did.

  I put myself in front of the woman still standin’, even though I had no weapon with which to protect either the bystander, myself, or Elora. I was hopin’ against hope that my teammates would hear the commotion and arrive in time to intervene. Hope. ‘Tis no’ much compared to weaponry.

  When I saw the knife comin’ toward my neck, ‘twas almost as if in slow motion. I shifted my position and turned so that it missed my jugular, but I felt the burn deep in my face travelin’ down my chest to my stomach. I’m no’ sure, but I think my head banged against the wall behind me.

  CHAPTER 24

  Kay

  We were working the lounge section of the Underground. When I say ‘we’, I mean Storm and me. He was on one side. I was on the other, but we were always in eye contact of each other.

  The first hint of trouble was when people started leaving the dance floor and moving in the direction of the restrooms. Seeing that, the musicians stopped playing. When they did, we could hear a woman screaming. By that time the crowd was thick and elbow to elbow, drawn by curiosity, morbid or otherwise.

  It probably took us three minutes to push, press, and toss folks out of the way so that we could get to the scene of the disturbance. And, well, shit. It was bad.

  Ram was down. Elora was on the ground holding his head and saying something to him, but it was clear he wasn’t hearing her or anything else. Looked like a dead vamp behind her and a civilian who, likewise, met death in an ugly way. The kind of ugly that leaves most of a person’s fluids behind.

  Storm pointed up. Tha
t was all he had to do. We’d been together so long we could almost communicate telepathically and I knew that meant that he was going up to street level to get a signal so he could call in an emergency. No matter what, the cover up was going to be a nightmare for Black Swan.

  I jerked my tee shirt off and went to my knees by Ram, stuffing the cotton along the gash. It was long, deep and ugly, but gods knew that Ram was a fighter even before he had a future to fight for. If there was any chance of survival, he’d pull through. I knew that.

  Elora was on his other side. She looked up at me and said, “Stay with him. Promise me.”

  “What are you doing?” I growled it at her.

  “You know what I’m doing, Kay.”

  “You are not going after vampire alone. Geez, you are a dumb ass! What’s the first rule?”

  “I’m not going alone. Baka is going with me.”

  I watched her look over her right shoulder and saw that Baka was standing there, looking grim as the Reaper himself. He nodded.

  What. The. Hel.

  I looked from her to him. I couldn’t stop her. There was no point trying. She knew it. I knew it. “Storm is going to seizure when he finds out.”

  She glanced down at Ram and said, “Keep him alive.”

  She obviously didn’t know how I felt about Rammel or she would not have said such a thing to me. I’d kick in the gates of hel to bring him back if that’s what it took. I didn’t answer her, but she must have recognized something in my face because I saw both understanding and satisfaction register on her face. Just before she left. With Istvan Baka right behind her.

  What a night.

  When I’d said Storm would seizure about Elora running down vampire, with Baka no less, it turned out to be an understatement. If it had been anybody else besides Rammel, he would have left them on the ground and gone after her sooner.

  It took the med van twenty-three minutes to arrive. According to Storm’s instructions, D Team, who was technically off duty, arrived to manage the scene. They also brought everything Storm asked for: vests with cargo pockets and a black bag full of arms already loaded with wood core bullets. I guessed we were dispensing with splats.

  Ten minutes in we came across Baka, pulled the dart out of him and he sat up like the undead waking in a bad vampire movie. First thing he said was, “Gautier Nibelung.” I exchanged a look with Storm. In a way it was shocking to the bone to find out that a knight might be capable of turning on Black Swan. On the other hand, I’d always felt there was something off with Ghost. “We won’t find her by ourselves. Too many possibilities.”

  Well. He should know, I thought.

  CHAPTER 25

  Ram

  The first time I woke up, the lummoxes were tryin’ to force a needle into a vein and botchin’ the job. At first I did no’ know what was happenin’ and then I remembered that the last thing I saw was Elora tryin’ to stake a leech without bein’ touched by fangs. ‘Tis trickier than it may sound to the uninitiated.

  O’ course the only appropriate reaction on my part was hysteria. I tried to get up, but something was wrong with my body. There was a medic bendin’ over me with blood all over his blue scrubs. He was yellin’ at somebody. Sayin’, “Hold him down until the sedative kicks in.”

  Then Fortnight and Cheng from D Team were on either side of me pressin’ me into the ground so that I could no’ move. I looked in Cheng’s eyes and said, “Elora.”

  “Just rest, Ram,” was all he said. I made a mental note to punch the fucker out the first chance I got.

  The next time I touched consciousness, my first thought was knowin’ where I was because of the smell of the place. The infirmary had an antiseptic smell like no other. The next sensation that followed the smell was pain. Great Paddy.

  I was tryin’ to open my eyes and managed to pry them open a slit. I heard loud voices out in the hall and thought I heard one of them shout something about Lady Laiken. If you’ve ever wondered what’s worse, horrible pain or horrible fear, let me settle the question. Horrible fear is worse. I was tryin’ to get my mouth to form words so I could ask what was goin’ on, when I saw a blurry shape by the bed.

  “His heart rate is escalating and we can’t have that in his condition. I’m going to sedate him so he’ll go back to sleep.”

  In my mind I was shoutin’, “NO!” But no one knew it and within seconds I was asleep again.

  The third time I woke it was as if no time had passed since I was insistin’ that I no’ be rendered helpless by drugs. There’s no worse feelin’ in the world than helplessness. I’ll take pain any day.

  I had come to enough for my heart to go straight into overdrive.

  When I tried to sit up, I felt a nurse pressin’ my shoulders back to the bed. “Sir Hawking, you’ve been hurt. You need to try to remain calm so as not to tear your stitches.”

  To someone else in the room she said, “Baxter. Get the doctor.”

  I fought to get my eyes all the way open, but everything was a blur. “Elora,” I said, but it sounded more like a croak than a name.

  I tried again and managed something more intelligible. “Elora.”

  I saw two nurses look at each other and knew something was wrong. That was when I decided I was gettin’ up. If they were no’ goin’ to answer my questions, I would be gettin’ my own answers.

  Two nurses are no’ much of a match for a Black Swan knight, no’ even when he has a concussion and one hundred forty-three stitches. They were attemptin’ to restrain me physically while beggin’ me to stay in the bed, when one of the doctors burst through the door.

  I stopped to give the woman a chance to tell me what I needed to know. I repeated, “Elora,” to the newcomer.

  “Sir Hawking,” she began, “your partner has been injured. She is alive and nearby. You can be sure that we’re taking very good care of her. And, just like you, she needs to rest. You’ve got a concussion and a hundred forty-three stitches to take care of. So I need to insist on your cooperation.”

  “See her.” I pulled the I.V. out of my hand and swung my legs over the side of the bed even though it almost made me scream.

  “Stop!” said Doc Lately. I ignored her. “If you don’t stop, we will sedate you,” she said.

  The pain was pullin’ me further out of my woozy state, which was good and bad. The good part was that I was able to think, sort of. The bad part was that my body hurt like a motherfucker.

  I gave the woman a look that stopped her in her tracks and simply said, “Try.” ‘Twould take more than an inordinately long education and crisp white clothes to stop me from gettin’ a status report on my partner. Especially since my partner also happened to be my mate.

  “Hold on. We’re both reasonable people…”

  “Speak for yourself,” I said.

  “I’m sure we can come to an agreement that will satisfy you.”

  “I’m no’ negotiatin’ whether or no’ I see Lady Laiken with my own two eyes.”

  “Okay. If you will agree to let us reattach your IV, and you will sit in a wheelchair, I will personally take you to her room and let you see her for yourself.”

  I thought about it. Like she said, ‘twas a reasonable plan and I was startin’ to relax since my fears that Elora might be dead had been put to rest.

  “Get this catheter off me and I’ll agree.”

  “Very well,” she nodded.

  Five minutes later the doc was pushin’ me down the hall to the last room on the right. She stepped on a lever and the door quietly swished open. The lights were dimmed and the covers were pulled up to her clavical, but the heart machine was beepin’ a steady reassurin’ sound and she was breathing on her own.

  The doc said, “I’ll leave you here for five minutes. Then I’ll be back.”

  After a few minutes I heard the door swish open behind me.

  “What happened?” I asked the nurse or doctor standin’ behind me without tryin’ to turn ‘round. “Do you know?”

  But �
��twas no’ a nurse or doctor who answered. ‘Twas Storm’s voice quietly tellin’ someone, “We’ll take it from here.”

  He came behind me and started to turn me ‘round. “No,” I said. I want to stay here.

  Storm and Kay stood in front of me.

  Kay said, “You want to know what happened? We’re going to tell you, but not in front of her. She had a bad time of it and we don’t want to take a chance on having her overhear the replay.”

  I understood what he was sayin’, but did no’ like the choice.

  “Rammel,” Storm said. “She’s alive. You’re alive and you’re both going to be okay. Let them do their job.”

  I looked back at Elora, even though twistin’ my body was mightily uncomfortable, and said, “Aye. I want to hear what took place.”

  When we got back to my room, they refused to say more until I climbed back into bed. Fuckers.

  I remained quiet and let the two of them tell the story in their own way, in their own time. It was painful to hear, but necessary.

  My mind was grapplin’ to take it all in, but my body was failin’ me and I was losin’ the fight with the sleepy medicine still in my system. Well, for all I knew, they were still pumpin’ me performance reduction drugs through the IV. Medics can be sneaky little liars. But I processed the big picture and it was this.

  The incident had stopped just a pubic hair short of my worst fear about Elora huntin’ vampire. And it happened within just two weeks of her induction. The only thing keepin’ it from bein’ my terrifyin’ scenario full blown was the fact that she was breathing, still hangin’ onto life a couple doors down the hall. But from the sound of it, she’d had a pretty rough go and might need some psych recovery.

  It had never occurred to me that something could happen to make me think about quittin’ The Order, but right then, I was thinkin’ that, if I could convince Elora, I’d take her, walk away, and no’ look back.