by Carly Hansen
Even if his serum proved effective in the long term, he would still have a hell of a job winning over the humans with whom he seemed to want to join forces.
“For your sake, I hope things work out as you envision,” Fenix said.
“It will.” He smiled. “I’ll make it work. Just you wait and see.”
********
Micha’s office was nothing like Fenix expected the seat of such rich and powerful man would be. The very fact that it was in the basement rather than one of the highest floors was a surprise. It meant there were no floor-to-ceiling windows with expansive views of Tresmort as every run-of-the-mill executive in the city had.
The room was sparsely furnished with a seating area in one corner and banks of gray metal cabinets at every turn. The floor and walls were of bare concrete. They were finely polished and gleamed like marble, but the unrelenting grayness gave the place an air of sternness, even foreboding. Fenix’s overactive imagination pictured it as the setting for brutal interrogations and torture involving sharp fangs. Another part of her quickly rejected the thought.
A war raged inside her. Part of her heeded Alda’s voice, which kept reminding her that Micha Angelo had been made into what he was precisely to brutalize and subjugate other supernaturals, and to kill those he couldn’t conquer. But another part of her just couldn’t bear to associate such cruelty with the idealistic, even boyish, Micha she’d had the chance to see the night before.
That was stupid, she knew. But it was so hard to wrestle with the feelings that his presence stirred up in her.
Handsome features be damned. She decided that moment to keep her own safety uppermost in her mind and to keep a wary eye on this ally, who could very well turn out to be her deadliest enemy.
Micha walked behind a long, white desk and sat in an executive leather chair, which he pushed back so he could access the drawers. He punched in a code, and a drawer in the desk slid open. After pulling out a tablet, he searched through the files until he found what he was looking for.
“These are photos from the last Council meeting where I presented an update on our work with the serum.”
Fenix took the tablet. “When was this?”
“Two years ago, but all twenty-five members are still serving.”
Fenix scrolled through the photos, each of which showed a beaming Micha standing with groups of two or three smartly dressed men. She could just imagine the passion and excitement with which he would have presented his report on the serum.
But the photos were no good for her purpose. She simply didn’t have the time, and she very much doubted she’d have the strength, to get into five or six different photos to run checks on every Council member.
She looked at Gaius, and his drawn features hinted that he was thinking the same thing.
“Got a group shot?” she asked.
“Can’t remember.” Micha stretched out his hand, and Fenix returned the tablet.
“By the way,” he said with his head bent as he scrolled through the photos. “Shelly raised something with me. Now that I think about it, it makes a lot of sense.”
“Oh?” Fenix said.
Remembering the unfriendly way the femme fatale had eyed her, she didn’t expect what was coming to be good.
“This kidnapping,” Micha said, “if it was perpetrated by vampires—and, despite what your friend in purple here says, I still reserve a bit of doubt about that—but if it is true, then this is vampire business.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means we handle matters like this internally. With no outside interference from cops or any other humans.”
“If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t have even known about this.”
“And so you’ve done your part. From now on, it’s—”
Fenix couldn’t believe her ears. Micha Angelo was taking the blonde’s side and trying to sideline her from the mission to rescue her own sister. Her blood raced, but she couldn’t let her anger cause her to slip up and reveal more than she should.
“Listen,” she said. “That helpless girl was kidnapped right before my eyes. It rips me up inside just thinking how scared out of her mind she must be right now. You want to stop me from going after the creeps who snatched her? Just try!”
“This is a very dangerous situation, Fenix.”
“I handle danger every day. The work I do with Alda is no walk in the park.”
Micha raised his head and locked eyes with her.
“Shelly brought this up, you know,” he said. “She asked why a young boy would want to risk his life to rescue a stranger from vampires. I told her it was because you felt concerned about the girl, and she said that might make you a liability. And I’m beginning to think she’s right.”
“How so?”
“This isn’t just business for you. It seems that because you witnessed the kidnapping, you’re emotionally involved.”
“That simply makes me more determined to get this job done.”
“But it can cloud your judgement. Make you take unnecessary risks that could jeopardize everything and everybody else on the crew.”
“If you’re so worried about my judgement, then you can go with your SZR Force on your own. But I’ll say this, Micha Angelo, you are not going to stop me from going all out to rescue this girl from those vampires. I’ll do it either with or without you.”
Fenix’s body was rigid. Her nostrils flared.
She hadn’t realized what a domineering position she’d taken, with Micha still sitting and her standing over him. It was only as he raised an eyebrow that she realized that she’d raised her voice at him.
“Besides…” Fenix said after taking in a deep breath to calm herself. “The girl is being held by vampires and you’ve arranged for a vampire commando team to go in to rescue her. No offense, but with all those fangs showing, how would that girl know who to trust to get her out of there? I’m sure she’ll respond to a normal person if she sees one. With me along, she’s not going to slow the rescue down by putting up a resistance.”
Micha nodded slowly. “Point taken.”
He looked down at the tablet again, and Fenix let out a breath of relief. She made a mental note that she hated the blonde in combat gear.
“This is the best I can find,” Micha said after a while, handing the tablet back to Fenix.
The photo was of a dark boardroom. Micha’s neatly cropped hair was in the foreground. Over his shoulder was a long table with twenty-five men in suits on either side.
Disappointment tightened a knot in Fenix’s stomach. “Can’t make out anything from this,” she said as she tossed the tablet back at Micha.
He didn’t flinch as he caught the device. He rapped his nails on the desk and seemed a bit lost in his own thoughts.
“You asked for photos, but come here,” he said.
Chapter 33
Micha walked around his desk to a cabinet-lined wall. He opened a door, reached in, and turned on a switch.
A shelf slid out of the wall. On it sat a glass box that looked like one of the large, old-fashioned aquariums Fenix had come across among Alda’s hoard.
The box was dimly lit. In the middle of it stood a miniature table around which sat two dozen six-inch figures. Everyone faced a solitary figure, who was on his feet. The whole scene was three-dimensional, but stationary.
“This is a hologravid of my presentation to the Council,” Micha said.
“A holographic video?” Fenix said. “I’ve heard of such things, but never seen one before.”
“That’s not surprising. It’s one of the technologies that suffered a major setback with the devastation brought by The Events. These devices are only now being developed again.”
Fenix bent forward and peered at the tableaux. “Does it project any larger?”
“’Fraid not,” Micha said. “That’s why I didn’t think of it at first. It’s probably too small to be of any use for identifying faces.” He shrugged and reached up as
if about to hit the switch that would send the device back into its compartment.
With his back to the vampire, Gaius widened his eyes and mouthed to Fenix, “It’s perfect!”
He immediately spun around and pushed aside Micha’s hand. “Turn it on so Fenix can get a good look at it.”
“Hey!” Micha grabbed Gaius’ hand and pressed into him. His face was practically touching Gaius’ as he snarled, “Don’t ever make the mistake of touching me again.”
Gaius reeled back.
Fenix stepped to the side and watched the two glare at each other. Rage pulsed in the veins near Micha’s temple, and his fiery eyes signaled a violence that could wreak havoc and destruction once unleashed.
Gaius’ chest heaved and fell in short spurts. Defiance burned in his eyes. But beneath his cockiness was an undercurrent of fear, which Fenix could detect from the way the corners of his lips twitched.
“Enough of the testosterone,” she said. “I have no time for this crap.”
She shouldered her way between the two. Micha and Gaius rocked back and stepped away, creating some tension-reducing space between them.
It was a gutsy move. Fenix didn’t know either of them well enough to be sure that it would work to end their standoff, or to be certain that neither of them would retaliate against her for interfering.
Her heart racing, she ran her hands along the sides of the light box, pretending to be calm. “So how do I get this hologravid to roll anyway?”
Breathing heavily, Micha reached to the back of the box, brushing her hand as he did.
The touch made her skin feel as if it had been set ablaze. What felt like an electric current zipped through her body. Her pulse went into overdrive, and she had to acknowledge something she’d felt a moment before but had tried to ignore.
When she’d parted the two, it was not just the risk of interfering in a crazy score-settling ritual of two males that had sent her heart racing. In squeezing between the two, she had brushed against Gaius and Micha. She’d felt virtually nothing to her front, which faced Gaius. But the slight touch of her back on Micha’s chest had sent a tingling sensation shooting up and down her spine, into her scalp and down to her toes.
What was this crazy effect he had on her? It made her head spin. She had to breathe in a sharp breath and clench her teeth to stop herself from grinning. This stupid, crazy happiness was totally inappropriate at this moment.
She had to find a way to snuff it out.
More than anything, this latest inability to control that stupid sense of elation around him made her resolve to rid her life of this creature called Micha Angelo after she’d got Catelyn back.
She resisted the temptation to look into his eyes. “Thanks,” she said as the lights in the box danced and the figures in the tableaux came alive.
Micha’s phone rang. He looked at the number of the incoming call, excused himself, and answered.
“Yes, Dr. Prentice, what is it?” His face grew concerned as he listened. “Let them go to the conference room,” he said after a while. “I’ll be right up. You’ll have to speak to them while I listen in.”
Micha pocketed his phone and sighed. “I need to leave you two here for a moment. A couple of cops are upstairs insisting on speaking to me. This is the kind of thing Baldwin would usually take care of. He’s the public face of Angelo Labs, but he hasn’t arrived yet.”
“What?” Fenix said. “You don’t get your face plastered all over the company reports as CEO?”
“It’s a private company,” Micha said. “We’re not required to have annual reports, and we don’t have to reveal any ownership information if we don’t want to. I generally prefer to run things from behind the scenes. Most of the employees here don’t even know who I am. I’ve learned over the years that some people can’t handle having a boss who looks my age. Baldwin has gray hair, so it works for him to play the part.”
After Micha left, Gaius sidled up to Fenix.
“If I had just one ounce of magic power, I’d fry that guy,” he whispered.
“Count your blessings that you don’t have any powers then,” Fenix said. “What you’re talking about is where all the trouble and heartache in your life would start. Believe me, I know.”
Gaius closed his eyes and shook his head. “You’re right,” he said. “And I know better, but that guy just annoys the hell out of me. I guess I lost my head.”
Fenix pointed to the hologravid. “Recognize anybody in this?” she said.
“No, but then again, it’s too small for my eyes. It’s perfect, though, for chasing down the essence of these Council members.”
Fenix took a deep breath and stared at the tiny figures in the light box.
Gaius shook his head. “As I said, I really don’t think it’s a good idea. It’ll drain you.”
“I have to do this, Gaius. It’s my only hope right now.”
“Okay, if you feel you must do this, then you have to trust that you can do it.”
Fenix pursed her lips and exhaled sharply. After positioning her hands as Gaius had advised—the left touching the box and the right touching her solar plexus—she stared intently at the tiny figures.
Nothing happened.
Maybe she hadn’t stared at it hard enough. Fenix gritted her teeth, narrowed her eyes, and focused on the miniature figures again.
Still nothing.
“It’s not working,” Fenix snarled through clenched teeth.
“Stop trying with your eyes. Use your essence.”
“Use my essence? My essence? Before you came along, the concept was foreign to me, and now you’re telling me I should somehow just know how to shoot this thing out of me to go hang out with a bunch of vampires, who, by the way, are not only the undead, but in this case, also the unreal, because they’re just the recorded representation of these guys taken from a meeting that happened ages ago?”
“Calm down, Fenix. You can do this. You were born to do this, and much more. It’s your destiny.”
Fenix had had just about enough of Gaius, his purple robe, and his irritating spiel.
“Will you cut it with the destiny crap? All I want is to find my sister, and I’m willing to do whatever it takes. I’m trying the best I can, but this is turning out to be beyond me.”
She bit her lower lip to hold back the tears that were welling up behind her eyes.
Gaius made her even more self-conscious as he stared at her, letting his gaze wander her face.
“Okay,” he whispered.
He reached deep into the folds of his robe, probed for a bit, and pulled out a tiny box.
“I was supposed to give you this later, and with a certain amount of ceremony, but I think we can skip the elaborate rituals.” He opened the box to reveal a bed of white silk, atop of which sat a silver ring with sparkling blue gems. “Put this on your right index finger,” he said.
Fenix’s trembling fingers reached for the ring. She’d never seen anything so beautiful. She’d never touched anything that looked so precious before. It was a wonder to her that she would have the privilege of wearing it.
“What is this?” she said.
“It’s an induction ring. Peacesmiths would be given one after they’d completed their training and just before they took up duties. This one used to be worn by the last head of the peacesmiths.”
Fenix slipped it onto her finger. When it touched her skin, she immediately blinked and straightened up. Her breaths quickened. “What’s this for?”
“It’s meant to stabilize your energies and magnify your powers. Normally it would be given only after years of training when a peacesmith would have learned the normal range and depth of her powers. But this is an emergency, so I’ve got to put the cart before the horse, so to speak.”
“I can use all the help I can get, Gaius.” Fenix fixed the ring at the base of her right index. It looked delicate and gorgeous against her skin.
Her eyes wandered across to Micha’s empty desk, and she frowned. “B
ut if this ring identifies me as a peacesmith…”
Gaius held up his hand to stop her. “It’s invisible to all but other peacesmiths, of which there are presently none, and to members of the Order.”
“Okay,” Fenix said, relieved. She took up her position again before the hologravid. “How do I use this ring? Do I turn something, rub the gems, or what?”
Gaius tilted his head slightly as he looked at her.
“Well?” Fenix snapped.
“No, it doesn’t come with an ‘on-off’ switch,” Gaius said. “It was invested with magic-boosting powers by the first Great Mage of the Order. Just remember that as you set about using any of your powers.”
Fenix raised her eyebrows. “That’s it?”
“It’s so latter-day of you to want mechanical operations.” Gaius’ lips curled up in a smile. “This ring was fashioned in ancient times and worked perfectly as is for every chief peacesmith for generations.”
Fenix shrugged. “Okay, here goes nothing.” She turned to face the box, her eyes locking on the figures at the table.
Gaius whispered in her ear. “You can do this. The power is within you.”
Truly, she wasn’t so sure. She was scared she wouldn’t be able to get into the hologravid, or to get back out if she did.
“Remember why you’re doing this,” Gaius’ voice sounded in her head.
The image of Catelyn struggling to break free from her kidnappers as she was snatched at the transit station replayed in Fenix’s head.
Her blood boiled. She had to get Catelyn back.
She was going into that light box to find out which of those vampires was behind this, and she was coming back to go after the bastard.
********
The harder she stared, the more her eyeballs felt as if they were about to burst out of their sockets. Her head spun. Pain shot through her. It was as if millions of fish hooks had been dug into every inch of her body and were being tugged by a giant winch.
