“He joined me just a couple of months ago. He’s part of what I want to talk about.”
“I assume by your choice of venue that the others are coming?”
“They’ll be here in a while. I wanted to talk to you first.”
Gavin raised an eyebrow at that. “Oh?”
“We two are the oldest in LA. What do you know of the Arcadian?”
Gavin stiffened. “The Arcadian?”
Stephen nodded watching him intently.
“I know that he’s dead.”
“You know it, or you heard it? It’s important, Gavin.”
He frowned at the urgency he heard in Stephen’s voice. The Arcadian had been a revenant he’d met not long after his exile began. They had despised one another the instant they met. He had been newly dead and still possessed of the qualities he had carried in life, and struggling to reconcile his new existence with the dictates of honourable conduct. The Arcadian stepped boldly into his life one day and shattered what little he had built. The Arcadian was old. Not just old in years, but truly old. Where Gavin’s life was measured in centuries now, the Arcadian’s existence had been measured in millennia even back then. He had been ancient in more than just his years. He was ancient in his thinking and evil to the very core of his being. There was no doubt in his mind that the man had been mad and probably the oldest living creature in the world.
“I saw him die,” he said reluctantly and Danyelle gasped. The Arcadian was like a bogeyman to their kind. To hear that he had truly existed was a shock for her. Meeting him in person certainly had been. “I helped William and Francis destroy him.”
Stephen sagged in relief. “Thank the goddess. I had hoped, but I wasn’t sure. You have never been one to share your past, but I knew that William was involved. He let slip some of it to me many years ago and you two knew each other back then. No matter. If you say you destroyed him that’s enough for me.”
Gavin shifted uneasily as he remembered those times. He had helped William and Francis capture the Arcadian to destroy him, but he hadn’t witnessed the deed. William was hurt during the capture and he had wanted to care for him. Francis had wielded the axe, he remembered, but he had seen the body burned afterwards. The Arcadian was dead. Irrevocably dead.
“Why ask about this now?”
“I had wanted to wait for the others to explain, but no matter. People have been dying and in a way that points to one of us.”
“I haven’t killed anyone recently,” he said then frowned only just then remembering the two boys in Ellen’s apartment. “Who has died?”
“I do not accuse you. I merely state a fact. Eight dead women have been found in such a way that I think one of us is responsible. That’s bad enough. I don’t need police sniffing around. I can influence them one at a time of course, but this case is big news. There are dozens of reporters hanging around my club looking for a story and not just mine.”
“And Lee has a part in this?”
“In a way,” Stephen agreed with a nod. “Things are… unsettled in the world. Forces are moving. We have managed to keep our internal struggles hidden for so long without discovery that some of us have become careless.”
“You speak of what happened in Chicago last fall?”
“That and what is happening the world over right now.”
“I don’t understand—”
“Of course you don’t!” someone called from out of the darkness.
Gavin and Stephen pivoted on the instant both caught unawares by the arrival of Rachelle and her bodyguard.
Angelina and Spencer moved along with Danyelle and Lee to bracket the newcomers. Rachelle smiled mockingly at them but continued her advance forcing them to retreat or else lose good position. The result left Gavin, Stephen, and Rachelle in close proximity and the six bodyguards warily eyeing each other in a ragged ring around their combined charges. Angelina went to one knee looking outward at a tangent to the ring so that she might sweep the newcomers with fire while at the same time lower the risk of hitting Gavin.
He was aware of Angelina’s preparations, and that Spencer was growling low in his throat at one of Rachelle’s bodyguards. The woman was sneering at Spencer. He obviously knew her and didn’t like her. She was a human but there was something about her aura that said she was more. It took a moment of concentration, but he felt the darkness hovering about her. She was a practitioner, not in the same league as true magi, but she was vastly more powerful than Angelina was. Her magic had been enough to hide Rachelle’s approach and it was a dark power she wielded.
“Spencer,” Gavin said warningly.
Spencer didn’t take his eyes from the witch. “She reeks. Her foul magic soils us all.”
The woman scowled.
“I’m sure you’re right,” he said, though all he felt was darkness in her aura, not evil. Shifters were more sensitive to magic. “We are not here to fight. Do nothing.”
Spencer quit growling but continued to glare at the witch. He wouldn’t take his eyes off her now.
Gavin took Spencer’s silence as assent and turned his attention to Rachelle. They had known each other off and on for more than a century. He had lived in dozens of cities over the years and their paths had crossed many times. He had rarely stayed in one place for longer than a decade or two before moving on. If he stayed longer than that, people began to notice his lack of ageing and he preferred not to be labelled as vampire. It was something of an experiment that he had chosen to live in LA for so long. By purchasing the building he currently occupied, he had created a buffer around himself. His neighbours were not only his tenants, they were his people—his to protect as much as those of Lochlain had been. They protected him in their turn from the outside world. Wagging tongues had been silenced at last. LA was the closest thing to a home he’d had in a long time.
“Welcome to LA, Rachelle,” he said with a small polite bow.
Stephen cleared his throat. “Ah, she has lived in LA for almost five years now.”
“Five years? But our last meeting—”
“Was almost eight years ago my friend.”
He blinked in surprise. Eight years? Had so much time flown by so soon? He had long ago stopped counting the years of his exile, but when had he stopped living those years?
“You see?” Rachelle was saying to Stephen. “I told you he wouldn’t help. He doesn’t even know what’s going on!”
He shook off his confusion. “Stephen was just telling me about the murders.”
“Bah! What care I if eight sluts get themselves killed? Eight or eight hundred, there are always more. This goes way beyond a few dead whores.”
“She’s right,” Stephen said quietly. “I simply mentioned their deaths to make my point.”
“What point?”
“That things are happening here that we need to look into, that what happened in Chicago is happening here, that forces are moving.”
“What kind of forces and what evidence that the Chicago business has come here?”
“I said Lee came to me a couple of months ago. That’s true. What I didn’t say is that there are others. Not all have sought me out. Some went to Rachelle, some went to Michael. He should be here by now. I don’t know what’s keeping him.”
Gavin frowned as he remembered the revenant he had felt upon awakening a few days ago. He hadn’t recognised his aura and now Stephen spoke of the dire happenings in Chicago last fall. Could such be happening here and him all unaware of it? He didn’t like to think that was possible, but it very well might be. He had been drifting, he realised. With no purpose to his existence, he had simply drifted hardly aware as the years rolled by.
“I would have felt it,” he said uncertainly.
“I felt it,” Stephen said.
“As did I,” Rachelle said. “You’ve grown old, Gavin. Old and careless in your ways. You’ve retreated from the world just as Alexander did in Chicago before he fell.”
He stiffened, stung by the accusation. “You accuse me?”
Stephen stepped figuratively between them as threat built in the air. “No! No Gavin. We do not live like Alexander and his brood and we certainly don’t call you our master. You or anyone else either. We have no masters. We live free here.”
“Then what are you saying?”
“I’m saying that one of us… no that’s wrong. One of our kind is trying to re-create what Alexander built in Chicago.”
“Foolishness,” Gavin hissed between his teeth. “The human authorities—”
“Are already suspicious!” Rachelle cried. “I’m not talking about the police or the dead whores. I’m talking about the feds! Their so-called Office of Special Investigations is taking an interest in these serial killings. OSI was involved in Chicago. That bullshit on the news about a gas explosion was a cover for an operation they conducted against Alexander’s get—an operation that went badly for them and us. It should never have come to that!”
Gavin could only agree. Alexander had been a fool to turn so many. He had built himself an empire based on crime and controlled by other revenants he had made. When he lost control, they fought and died over his empire in a war lasting months. The FBI was called in as the body count rose and then the OSI was brought in when it became obvious something beyond the pale was involved. Very few of Alexander’s brood survived the operations mounted by OSI. Those that did had scattered across the country where they were hunted down by local vampires trying to live in the traditional manner—quietly.
“I told you that forces are moving,” Stephen continued. “OSI learned far too much about us in Chicago. The government has been keeping the truth about our territories and disputes quiet, but they know.”
“What do you think they’ll do about it?”
“Maybe a purge. It would be an inquisition the like of which the world has not seen since the War of Races so long ago. A war between OSI and us could never be kept quiet. I don’t know where it would end. We must police ourselves if we want to remain free. If we don’t, OSI or some other government group will do it for us and they won’t care who they kill as long as it has fangs. Do nothing and we play directly into their hands and into the hands of those AML fanatics.”
A purge. Gavin looked from Stephen to Rachelle and back again and saw the fear there. They were right to be afraid. Dozens of revenants were destroyed in Chicago and the same could happen here. Alexander had been a fool to believe the human authorities would allow him to build his empire unopposed. He was even more a fool to build it by creating more vampires. It was not in their nature to live peacefully together, yet he had made it work long enough that when the disaster finally befell him it was cataclysmic.
He had always lived apart, yet Stephen and Danyelle lived together and seemed content with their situation. He had to wonder how long that would last now that Lee had joined them. He also wondered about those joining Rachelle and Michael. How many did each of them have and did they not see how it looked from the outside? They were following Alexander’s example without even realising it.
“We should disperse,” he said.
Stephen scowled. “I knew you would say that. I don’t want to leave my club.”
“I won’t be chased out,” Rachelle added. “I might leave in a year or ten years, but I won’t be forced. I make my own choices.”
He felt the same way, but scattering was the sensible thing to do in this situation. “And is it your choice to surround yourselves with revenants like Alexander did?”
“I only took in three,” Rachelle said defensively. “They’re not strong, but they do offer me some protection from the OSI thugs. At least they will slow them down a little.”
“Just two for me,” Stephen said.
“And Michael?”
“I don’t know,” Stephen said with a worried frown. “I hope he’s all right. He said he would come to the meeting.”
“But he hasn’t. We three, and Michael if he comes, are the oldest. The others come and go by our leave. We should close the city to them. That first of all.”
“That will make waves,” Rachelle warned.
“So it will, but I don’t care. The trouble it causes won’t be here in my city now will it? If they make enough fuss about not being allowed in, they might draw the Fed’s attention away from us.”
Rachelle’s eyes glowed in approval. “That’s good. That’s good that is.”
Gavin looked away and into the darkness. Good? No, it wasn’t good. It was all there was. They had to calm the situation down. Give OSI nothing to investigate and they would go away. There were too many drifters constantly passing through for him to control them all. He dared not take them in and that was the only way to exert control over them. Gathering into large groups would draw too much attention. He frowned at Lee who looked nervously away. Rachelle and Stephen had already started along a road that could lead them all to disaster.
“Take in no more strangers,” Gavin ordered. “Put the word out that the city is closed to them until this all blows over.”
“If it blows over,” Stephen muttered.
“If it doesn’t we will most likely be beyond caring. I will hunt down this killer of women and put an end to him. That should remove any reason for OSI to be here. While I do that, you two must look into this matter of empire building. Find out who or what is behind it.”
“We’ll take care of it.”
Rachelle nodded her agreement.
“I will send someone to Michael with word of our decision to close the city,” Gavin said. He gestured for Spencer and Angelina to join him. “We go.”
* * *
17 ~ Undercover
“Get lost whip dick before I haul your arse in,” Chris snarled into the loser’s face and flashed her badge between them where none but he could see.
Said loser blanched and stumbled back from her ferocity. “Yes ma’am,” he mumbled and made tracks.
“Nice,” John said, his voice sounding odd through her earpiece.
“Shove it, John. He’s not the one,” she sub-vocalised to her partner who was watching the action with the others in the van. “He doesn’t fit the profile.”
“Tell her to wiggle her fanny for the camera, John.”
“She can hear you, Raz!”
Yeah, she could, and her scowl had just scared off another mark. Raznik could be an arsehole sometimes, but she was glad he was here. She would never tell him that of course. They didn’t have to be besties to back each other up. He was a good cop, and cops backed other cops. It was as simple as that.
“She looks so hot in those pants. I wouldn’t mind taking a shot at her myself.”
“Fucking hell, Raz! Shut the hell up!” John snarled.
“Do I?”
“Mind on the Job, Chris.”
She laughed throatily. “Come on, John. You can tell me. I won’t blab.”
“How the hell did I ever end up with you for a partner?”
“Do I?”
There was silence for the longest time that Chris began to worry that she had lost comms, but then, “Yeah, you do. Those shorts look like you painted them on, and what is that in your bellybutton? Please don’t tell me you got pierced for this.”
“Nope.”
“Wahoo!” Raz howled. “Chris has got a tummy ring, Chris has got a tummy ring! Hubba hubba… heh he heh…”
“Raz! Get off the air!” John was getting truly angry now. “This isn’t a party. Shit, we’re after a killer here!”
Chris wiped the grin off her face and composed herself. She sauntered across the sidewalk giving Raz a thrill incidentally, and regarded her reflection in the shop window. Raz was right; she did look good in her hooker’s getup. The calf length boots, the tight shorts that hugged her arse like a second skin, the blond wig that concealed her earpiece, even the top looked good. She had never worn a boob tube before for fear of it slipping—she wasn’t exactly well endowed in the chest department. She had borrowed this one from Kim who was taking the next few weeks off.
She turned and strolled back to the curb.
“Hey baby, you new?”
Chris turned slowly and smiled her come on smile, but she knew this guy wasn’t the one. He had the right build—tall and muscular, but he wasn’t white and pasty faced like O’Neal. This guy was a warm chocolate brown and had real nice eyes. She felt her smile tug up into a genuine one.
“Nah,” she said. “I’ve been around the block.”
“Yeah? Where’s Kim, she okay?”
“Far as I know,” she said looking the guy up and down and liking what she saw. “She went on vacation, visiting her dad I think.”
“Get him down the alley, Chris. Raz and Matt are ready for him.”
“You a friend of hers?”
“What’s it to you?” she said trying to think of a way to accomplish what John wanted.
The mark’s smile slipped and he stepped forward crowding her. She wanted to step back and pull her gun, but she held her ground.
“Maybe you ain’t heard,” he growled. “I look out for her.”
“Shit,” John said over the comm. “I’ve got a make on him. He’s Kim’s ex. We busted him a couple of times—nothing heavy. I thought he was in the slam.”
“Brian isn’t it?”
“Yeah. Get him into the alley before he recognises you.”
“Yeah, that’s me,” Brian said.
“Kim told me about you,” she said smiling slyly. “She said you were going away for a while. She didn’t know when you were coming back.” Kim hadn’t known if he was coming back either.
“Change of plans.”
“They paroled him! The bastards paroled him a week early even after we told them what was going down!”
Chris ignored John’s tirade and concentrated on the situation with Brian. If she didn’t get rid of him quickly, the operation could be a bust. She didn’t want to go through this again tomorrow night. She made herself move closer. She smiled and pushed her hipbone into his crotch. His eyes widened and his breath quickened.
“Kim’s my friend. She says you’re an okay guy.”
“Yeah?” Brian said warily.
“It’s slow tonight. Want to go somewhere with me?”
Shifter Legacies Special Edition: Books 1-2 Page 22
