by J. L. McCoy
My eyes flicked over to Hagan’s, and we both knew Corvus meant business.
“Silver,” Corvus demanded of the maid, his gun still trained on the guards. “Where do they keep the silver chains?”
“In das basement,” she answered, her accented voice quivering with the fear she no doubt felt. “I can get them for you.”
“What are you planning, Frost?” I asked, curious.
“We need to search the compound for anything that can give us a clue to where Stanus might be hiding,” Hagan answered for him.
“Keep your guns on the guards,” I said. “I’ll escort the maid to the basement.”
“Is there anyone else in this house?” Hagan asked, addressing the maid.
“Nein.” Her voice trembled, and I heard the truth.
“There’s no one else,” I provided, as I lowered my guns, flipped the safety back up with my thumbs and holstered them.
Corvus gave the maid a not so gentle push in my direction, and I gave him a scowl. She may have been consorting with the enemy, but she was a human for goodness sake, and a house maid at that. I highly doubted she fully knew the goings on of her employer. There was no just cause for his treatment of her, at least in my eyes.
“Which way?” I asked the housekeeper, taking her elbow. With a nod of her head to the left, we set about finding the basement.
Her body quaked under my touch, and I instantly felt bad for her. I could only imagine the scare we were giving her.
“What’s your name?” I asked in a gentle tone.
“H-helena.”
“Nice to meet you Helena. I’m Skye.” I tried my best to give her a reassuring smile. “We will be out of here before you know it, okay? I promise.”
“I-I have grandchildren and a sick husband who depends on me,” she stuttered quickly, her hands wringing with worry.
“We are not here to harm you, ma’am. That I promise you. We just need to find your boss and have a little talk with him.”
“I swear I don’t know where he is. He is almost never home these days. It’s been almost a month since he was last here.”
“That’s okay,” I acknowledged reassuringly. “Do you know where he keeps his personal items? Maybe anything that can give us a clue to where he is hiding?”
“He has an office. If there is anything to find, it is there perhaps.”
“Thank you for your honesty and cooperation, Helena. I want us to get what we need as quickly as we can so we can leave you in peace. I know you are very scared right now, and I’m deeply sorry for that.”
“Has Herr Octavius done something untoward?”
“That’s one way of putting it,” I answered as I felt my lips purse in distaste. I was pissed at that little weasel and couldn’t wait to meet him face to face again. I planned on rearranging his with my fist.
Reaching the basement, she quickly showed me the chest where Stanus kept an assortment of silver. There were things in there I had no idea existed and couldn’t imagine what they could possibly be used for. I had her remove the lengthy chains, and we set about returning to the kitchen. I kept an extra close eye on her during this time just in case she was entertaining the idea of using them on me.
“Your chains,” I offered as we walked back into the kitchen.
Helena instantly shrank back from Corvus when he flashed over to her.
“Secure the guards,” he demanded. “Tightly.”
The guards made noises of protest, but one look at the gun Corvus had trained to one of their hearts silenced them.
Helena did as she was asked and was very thorough, I noted as I watched her. The guards writhed in pain, and I was a bit sympathetic. I knew how badly silver burned.
After she was done, Hagan instructed her to take a seat at one of the barstools a few feet away.
“Stanus has an office somewhere. The housekeeper said that’s probably our best bet for clues to his whereabouts.”
“Who’s going to watch the human while we search?” Hagan asked.
“I will,” I offered, not fully trusting Corvus alone with the guards.
Without another word, Hagan and Corvus flashed out of the kitchen and set about searching the entire house.
A silent fifteen minutes or so had passed when Hagan finally rejoined us in the kitchen. “We need to utilize your gifts. Third floor, second door on the left.”
With a curious wrinkle to my brow, I flashed out of the kitchen and to the third floor.
“In here,” I heard Corvus call out from the second door on the left, and I zipped in to join him.
Stanus’s office was huge. It was filled with antique furniture and paintings, some of which I was positive were supposed to be hanging in the Louvre and not in his house. I wanted to take my time and absorb the rare beauties, but Corvus’s voice drew me back to the present.
“We’ve got a slight problem,” he said, and I turned to find him standing in front of a tall steel door. It looked exactly like a bank vault, and I instantly knew they hadn’t been able to get in.
“So I see.” I stepping up to it and examining the turnstile lock and retina scanner closely. I reached a hand up to touch the door and immediately recoiled as it burned me.
“It’s silver.”
“Yes, I just found that out.” I frowned, turning my head over my shoulder to scowl at him. “Thanks for the warning.”
“Can you get in?” he asked, ignoring my anger.
I sighed as I watched the last of the burned flesh heal itself. “I can try teleporting in, but there’s no telling what’s in there.”
“It’s a risk I’m willing to take,” Corvus answered with a playful smirk.
“So kind of you,” I shot sarcastically before turning and facing the door once more.
I silently took in every nuance of the door and inhaled a few deep, cleansing breaths. I hadn’t tried to teleport since the airfield the night I last saw Stanus, and I was a bit nervous; not about being able to, but about what I would encounter behind the door. What if there were a trap of some kind?
I decided to err on the side of caution and pulled my dagger from my left thigh holster. Centering myself, I drew in energy around me, and within a few seconds, my vision began to vibrate, a blinding light flashed, and I teleported.
Dagger at the ready, I opened my eyes and quickly glanced around. There were no immediate visible threats, and I exhaled the breath I’d been holding and holstered the dagger. Truth be told, I was a little disappointed in Stanus. If I’d cared enough about these items to store them behind such extreme measures, I sure as hell would have had a final security measure in here.
Taking my first real detailed look, I scanned the small room and noted more paintings, large stacks of currency from around the world, ancient weapons and statues, as well as filing cabinets and book shelves. I immediately headed for the filing cabinet and began rummaging through it.
I pulled out land titles and anything else that looked important or had an address on it. We would need to go through all of these papers with a fine-toothed comb, but now was not the time. Right now we had to finish this mission and get the hell out of here. I didn’t think poor Ms. Helena could handle us being here too much longer. Corvus scared the hell out of her, I could tell, and we didn’t need her having a heart attack on top of everything else.
After a final check of the bookshelf and room, I hugged the mound of files to my chest and teleported out again.
“That was fast,” Corvus commented as he came up to me and took the files from me. “What did you find?”
“I found some addresses and land titles. I didn’t have time to examine the whole shebang, but I took everything that looked important or interesting.”
“Good job, kitten,” Corvus praised as he quickly perused the bounty. “Good job. This looks promising.”
“Let’s get out of here. I don’t know want to run into any unexpected guests, if you catch my drift.”
We made our way back down to the kitchen an
d handed off the files to Hagan. I briefly filled him in on what I’d found in the safe in broken Gaelic, as not to alert the guards to our findings, and he started chuckling.
“Fork tires?” he asked, amused by my shoddy translation. “I’m pretty sure you meant something else.”
“Oh, you know I did.” I smirked, shaking my head. “I’m still working on it, okay? Doesn’t matter. We have enough to go on for now.”
“Right. This looks promising. We should head out,” Hagan ordered.
“What about the guards?” I questioned as I glanced over at their grimacing faces. The silver was actively burning into their flesh, and I felt bad for them.
Corvus walked over to Helena and looked her dead in the eyes. “You may unchain them in thirty minutes and not a second more. Do you understand me?”
Helena whimpered and nodded her head.
“Say it out loud.”
“Y-yes. I-I understand you.”
With that Corvus flashed out the back door and left Hagan and me looking at each other. I quickly reassured Helena that we would not be back again before Hagan and I followed his lead.
Chapter Thirteen
Back aboard the plane, we settled in for the one-and-a-half-hour flight to Paris to check out the only lead we had so far—the Hôtel Saint-Merry. Corvus and Hagan were pouring over every page I managed to pilfer from Stanus’s vault, and they were working surprisingly very well together. You could have knocked me over with a feather.
I was looking up a promising address on the GPS when the headache first set in. The closer we got to Paris, the more intense it became. I said nothing to my companions, of course, because I had a small inkling as to what was causing it. The closer I got to Paris, the closer I got to Ireland and wherever the hell Amun was being imprisoned. I was terrified of slipping up or falling asleep and letting him in. I was bound and determined to keep him out of my head, and I said nothing of the headache to my companions as I knew what their thoughts on the subject would be—nothing good of course. Plus I was terrified of confirming their suspicions that Amun’s connection to me still existed.
“We’ve got sixteen possible locations so far and still a mound of papers to go through,” I stated as I rubbed my aching forehead. “How in the hell are we going to check all of these places in the next thirteen days?”
“We start with what we know,” Hagan explained. “Stanus will most likely not be hiding out in the middle of a large metropolitan area due to the chances of being spotted by an unsympathetic vampire, so we can put those properties at the bottom of the list. Sparsely populated locations with large land ownership get put at the top of our list. It’s our belief that he will most likely be residing there.”
“What happens if he’s not hiding at one of his own properties and we end up wasting all of our time searching these?”
“We have to believe we have the answers right in front of us, Morrison,” Hagan explained gently, understanding my fears. “We’ll find him. I promise you that. I’ve got my money on him running scared and running out of vampires willing to facilitate his dream of becoming the Dark leader.”
“You do understand that if we find Stanus with consorts, we are killing them all on sight,” Corvus stated, and Hagan and both stopped cold and glanced over at him.
“I’m not killing anyone I don’t have to, Frost.”
“Not unless it’s kill or be killed,” Hagan chimed in, agreeing with me.
“I guarantee you, if anyone is with Stanus, they will be fighting to the death to protect him from capture. He still has a loyal faction of vampires out there, don’t forget that.”
“How can I?” I answered, my brow furrowing at the memory of all those I killed on the airstrip the night we rescued Nikki. Even though it was kill or be killed, it still felt horrible knowing I’d taken all those lives.
*****
After landing in Paris, Corvus secured us a vehicle, and we wasted no time heading for the hotel. It was still dark out, but the sun would be rising soon so he called ahead and got us three vampire-friendly rooms for the night. We all could have used a little disco nap before we got down and dirty into finding out who knew Stanus at the hotel.
Due to our guns and ammo luggage, we couldn’t take the front entrance, so we entered through the back service area as to not bring attention to ourselves. The dock attendant took us in with wide eyes, but a little reassuring talk from Hagan and five crisp one hundred dollar bills bought his silence.
Corvus and I waited for Hagan to get our room keys, as he was the least recognizable out of the three of us. Corvus was the heir apparent to the Dark throne, and I was the freak who was part Dark and Day. Every vampire in the world probably knew of my reputation by now, if not my face and glowing red hair.
“Interesting timing we have,” Hagan stated as he came back with our room keys. “There’s a Dark gathering tonight in the main ballroom. The desk clerk asked if I was attending. Of course I said I was and secured us three tickets.”
Corvus seemed confused at first, but then his eyes lit up. “Soiree Sanguine. That’s tonight? I had forgotten. Father and I weren’t attending this year for obvious reasons.”
“Well, it’s tonight.”
“Every Dark One who’s anyone will be attending.”
“You don’t think Stanus is stupid enough to come, do you?” I inquired, shocked at the idea. If he did show up, it would be the easiest capture in the world. It can’t be that easy, can it?
“The idiot tried to take the Dark throne and failed miserably,” Corvus scoffed. “What do you think?”
“I think we are going to need disguises if we’re to go to this shindig tonight. I doubt leather holsters and Desert Eagles are appropriate attire.”
“I’ll place a few calls and get everything we need delivered,” Corvus answered. Then his brow furrowed a bit. “Though I don’t think Hagan is going to be able to attend.”
“And why the hell not?” I asked.
“There is a test one must pass in order to get in the door.”
“Like?” Hagan inquired with a scoff. “I’m An Dílis. I can pass anything.”
“Can you feed from a Dark Vampire and not allow your venom to give you away?” Corvus asked rhetorically.
“Fuck.” I glanced over at Hagan. “You can’t go.”
“The hell I can’t. I’m not letting you out of my sight, Morrison. Not here, not now.”
“And how are you supposed to get in?” I asked, exasperatedly. “One, are you prepared to feed from another vampire? And two, how in the heck are you supposed to hold back your venom output? I can do both, but you know you can’t, sir.”
“I’ll find a way,” he answered, putting his proverbial foot down. “You’re not going in there without me.”
“Let me work on a few things,” Corvus provided thoughtfully. “I may have a work around... but it won’t be cheap. I’ll have to call in a few favors.”
“And what about you, Frost? If Stanus or any of his sympathizers are guests tonight, your presence is going to scare them away. We’ll surely be fucked then.”
“Disguises, kitten.” He smirked, giving me a playful wink. “Trust me. I’ll have us covered.”
Suddenly realizing something, my eyes grew large as I addressed Corvus. “Please tell me you didn’t put the rooms in your name.”
Gazing over at Hagan, he scoffed. “Is she serious?” Looking back at me, he shook his head. “Darling, I know you’re new to this but please try to keep up. Of course I didn’t use our real names.”
“He has us registered under the name Benoit, Morrison. Did you not hear when he was making reservations?”
“Sorry but I had my nose buried in fifty million pages of Stanus’s crap,” I shot back tiredly. “I wasn’t paying attention to his every word.” Truth was my pounding headache kept me from paying attention to a lot of things.
“Let us handle the heavy lifting for now, kitten,” Corvus offered chauvinistically. “You just hang tight un
til we have something for you to do.”
“Ass,” I growled under my breath as I took my key from Hagan and turned on my heel, heading off to find my room.
“Don’t piss off the talent, Frost,” I heard Hagan sigh before he followed behind me.
Once in my room, I speedily removed my newly acquired gear and laid down on the plush queen mattress. I was determined not to fall asleep, but I needed to rest my eyes. They were unusually light sensitive today, and that had me worried. The closer I was to Amun’s physical location, wherever in Ireland that was, the worse I felt... and the more my Dark traits surfaced. I hated the fact that Amun split his soul and put it inside of me, but I couldn’t deny the same fact made me incredibly powerful. I wouldn’t have been able to take this journey to find Stanus if I was just a plain Day Walker. The fact I couldn’t die was going to come in handy, I had a feeling.
A few hours had passed when a knock sounded at my door. The “clock” on the nightstand simply read “DAY,” and I reluctantly dragged my ass out of bed. I supposed the Dark did things a little differently than us Day Walkers, but the lack of actual time was not helpful to me at all.
Opening the door, I immediately squeaked and slammed it shut again. Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!
“Oh shit is right, páiste,” Archer growled furiously in my head. “Now open the fucking door or I will break it down.”
Jerking the door open, my hand flew out, fisted his shirt, and dragged him inside. “What the hell are you doing here, Archer?” I exclaimed in a panic as I closed the door. “Did anyone see you? Did Corvus see you?”
With an angry growl, he wrapped his hand around my throat and slammed my back up against the door. My eyes grew as wide as saucers, and for the first time, I truly knew I’d pushed him too far with our phone call the day before.
“Shut. Up,” he commanded staccato a second before his mouth came crashing down on mine in an angry, heated kiss. His tongue seemed to punish me as he roughly explored my mouth, but my body was loving every second of it; forgotten for a moment was the fact I was in some seriously deep shit with my Sliocht leader.
