by R. E. Carr
“I have a house,” Gail said, a little too quickly.
“I understand that there may be some complications with your parentage. Javier cannot offer you quite the same protections that I can. No one would question my taking a lost lamb, especially with a new house, and furthermore any observers would think that I was trying to use you as bait to lure Javier into my sphere of influence. The more logical something seems, the fewer questions people will ask,” Mina said. She gently took Gail’s hand.
“What, what are you saying?” Gail said, looking as much to Javier as she did to Mina.
Javier pushed his hair away so he could look Gail squarely in the eyes. She yanked free of Mina’s grasp and snatched up Javier’s in a death grip.
“What are you saying?” Gail asked, more insistently.
“Mi amor, these are dangerous times,” he said softly.
“Javier!” Gail snapped.
“My oldest and dearest friend is in grave danger, and my other allies are either dead or in hiding. I have to do something now, before it is too late. I have to take a stand, but there are a great many risks.”
“Javier, please,” Gail pleaded.
“Mina will accept you into House Harker, no conditions, no more questions. You will be an adoptive sister to Edwin, and she has promised that whatever happens to me—”
“Whatever happens to you, is going to happen to me too, Javier. You promised to stay with me.”
“I promised to take care of you, mi amor. That is what I am doing now. Take the offer. Stay here in the free city and help these good people. They will treat you as family should, not the way people like us have experienced. She can hide you and protect you.”
“While you do what? Get yourself killed? I might not be thousands of years old, but I wasn’t born yesterday!” Gail said.
“Please don’t make me order you to stay here,” Javier said, wincing even as the words came out of his mouth.
“Javier, please,” Mina interjected. Gail, watched, wide-eyed, as those simple words made Javier stop cold. Mina turned to Gail. “He cares about you, more than he probably likes to admit, but if there is one thing I understand, is that well-meaning older men often act like controlling arseholes despite their best intentions.”
Javier moved his mouth as if he wanted to speak, but no words came out. Mina pressed her finger to his lips. “Give me a chance, old friend,” she said sweetly. Javier leaned back and crossed his arms as he waited, a flicker of some unreadable emotion burning deep within his dark eyes. Mina turned her full attention to Gail. “Take my offer and my protection,” she insisted. “You’re going to need it if you plan on following this crazy fool.”
“Mina,” Javier said, finally able to speak. “You can’t possibly—”
She ignored him. “If you help me, I will do everything in my newfound power to help Javier restore his side of the family. I promise,” Mina continued, staring pointedly at Javier. “However, if you truly want my help, old friend, you have to play by my rules. You know what I hate above all.”
“Killing,” Javier offered.
“That - and being a controlling arsehole. I have dealt with far too many centuries of that, and I don’t have to take it anymore, so take my advice, and listen to Gail. You can’t do everything by yourself, and I don’t have any manpower to spare.”
Gail gave Javier a triumphant look. He sighed deeply.
“I suppose she is the best help any man could hope for,” Javier acquiesced. “But I am telling you, mi amor, you aren’t going to like everything we have to do.”
“Exactly what do we have to do?” Gail asked with a raised brow.
“Javier made me aware of a so-called Project Zero, a plan to save Lord Pendragon’s life. It’s quite possible that the information in that plan was stolen from my father, and could very well be used to save my ex-husband, Lorcan’s, life. I am also told that this plan would require the deaths of innocent humans to complete. I cannot condone this action, even if it would save Lorcan’s life. I’m sure that you understand. Thus, I am asking Javier to do what must be done and stop this insanity, no matter the personal pain it may cause me. Please help him, Gail. I know it may seem odd, but you seem . . . like family already.”
“You realize what you are asking me to do, yes?” Javier asked. “Lorcan—”
“You already agreed. I’m sorry. I know that Lorcan was your friend, and you care deeply for him, but sometimes principles matter,” Mina said softly. She looked away as tears welled in the Azarola’s eyes. “Go, please.”
Javier took Gail’s hand and led her quickly out of the lounge. Once they were safely out on the streets, Javier let out a frustrated sigh.
“Javier, what is going on?” Gail asked.
“Mina is afraid that her father’s ritual, the same one that brought Arthur back to life, will be used to save Lorcan. No matter how much she cares for him, she will not condone the death of humans, even to save one of our kind.”
“So, we have to stop this Project Zero?” Gail asked, confused.
“Not . . . exactly,” Javier said, with an awkward smile. “More like she wants us to find a way to have the proverbial cake and eat it too. Get what I mean?”
“Not a clue,” Gail sighed.
“Well, I will fill you in on the way,” Javier said with a wink.
“The way where?” Gail asked.
“Nashville . . . of course!” Javier said, running off into the night.
7
“That is impossible,” Steve snapped as he paced around both Klaus and the Jaeger. Paige tried her best not to throw up, while Bam-Yin watched the whole scene with a bemused smirk on his face.
“Steve,” Paige tried to interject. “After everything we’ve been through, are you really drawing the line here?”
“Shapeshifting vampires?” Steve asked, shaking his head.
Bam-Yin changed the snake tattoos on his arm from black and white to blue and gold. Paige couldn’t help but be distracted as each scale changed before her very eyes.
“Doesn’t seem that odd to me,” the Bam-Yin sighed. “Maybe one day I’ll be able to pull off a full transformation, like Mom. Aww, poor Lil’ Bro, you didn’t get any of the awesomeness.”
“No, he inherited the osculum oblivio,” Klaus sighed. “Su Min can make others forget as well, which is why it was so easy for her to fake her own death.”
“But my mother is Claudia von Jaeger,” Steve said, still shaking his head. “It was part of your goddamned treaty, the very reason I was made. Are you saying that was all a lie?”
“Of course, it was a lie,” The Jaeger sighed. “Claudia would never agree to such a mating and Asrun would have ripped the Beast’s head off. However, my sister agreed to resolve the matter, and here you are . . . Steve.”
“But, why would Claudia even play along? She hates me,” Steve asked, still stunned.
“This is going to be a long night,” Bam-Yin said, rolling his eyes.
“She displeased me, so I had her memories altered. There is nothing quite like a bit of humiliation for a few centuries to teach a lesson. She thinks that the Beast overpowered her in a fit of rage and she was stuck with you, boy. I’m sure that’s why she is currently plotting with Arthur now. Oh well, she was always more trouble than she was worth,” the Jaeger said calmly. “Can we get back to the matter at hand?”
“No,” Steve said loudly. “You can’t just expect me to be OK with all this?”
“Shut up, Steve, please,” Paige barked. “What the hell does any of this have to do with Lorcan? He is still dying and all you four have done so far is argue over your twisted family tree. Some of us are hungry and sick of this shit!”
“I needed them both to know why it is in their best interest to help save Mordred,” Klaus said. “There have been too many secrets already. If we don’t move past them now, the sins of the past will simply repeat themselves.”
Paige looked to both Bam-Yin and Steve. “Do you get it now? Lorcan is Mord
red and he’s your half-brother, so we all need to work together to save him.” She then looked to Klaus and added, “You’re clearly still in love with Su Min Lung who is a shapeshifter and in hiding, so you want to help. I sort of get all this, but why are you here again, Lord Jaeger?”
“Because there was a time where even I knelt before Arthur as one of his knights, she-wolf. I do not want to see that happen again,” the Jaeger said.
Klaus motioned for Steve to sit. “There is only one vampire who has ever been immune to Arthur’s power of command,” Klaus said softly. “He was the one that led the rebellion when Arthur went out of control and tried to abandon the second law.”
“Mordred,” the Jaeger explained. “Even Merlin knew of his importance. That is why he saved him, because he knew he was compelled to save Arthur. Lorcan was Merlin’s insurance policy, so to speak. If Lorcan were to die now, there would be no one to rise up, should Arthur go mad again. This and this alone is my interest in these affairs.”
“Merlin is walking a tightrope. I do not know if he was trying to kill Lorcan back in London, or make him stronger. It honestly could be a bit of both,” Klaus said. “He lives to watch the struggle between his son and his grandson. He thinks it will only empower our kind. Whoever wins will be the . . . chosen-one and Merlin’s dream will be fulfilled regardless.”
The group sat silently around the little table in the alcove. Finally, Paige pushed away and looked at the lot of them.
“Well this is good. We all have a reason to save my husband. Anyone have any damn idea how we are going to do it?”
“Theoretically?” Klaus asked. “I sent for the best doctor I could, and Su Min has managed to acquire Merlin’s notes on the transfer procedure, should the body of Lorcan be beyond repair.”
“Transfer? As in put him in someone else?” Paige asked. “Wouldn’t that condemn someone to die, or turn Lorcan into someone else?”
“It worked once before, if we are to honestly believe that Lorcan is Mordred. He was different enough to fool others, but I sometimes saw the old Mordred lurking within. The real question is, does he still have the ability to defy Arthur?” the Jaeger mused.
“Hey, Merlin managed to pull this off in the middle of battlefield, at a time when people believed that the plague was caused by demons. I am pretty sure that we can pull this off with twenty-first century technology,” Bam-Yin said with a sigh. “Right?”
“If it were that simple, every vampire would do it when their bodies began to break down,” Klaus replied. “I know you hate the Pendragon philosophy, old friend, but there is a distinct connection between the host and the vampire. It cannot be simply replaced by anyone, and we do not fully understand either the science or the spiritual nature of such a transfer.”
“Spiritual, hah! You aren’t going to start with more nonsense about our souls, are you, Beast?” Bam-Yin scoffed. In the meantime, Steve remained eerily quiet, lost in thought.
“The reason I believe the transfer worked was because the old host and the new were aligned both physically and spiritually,” Klaus continued. “Laugh if you must, but I do not believe it was pure luck that Mordred survived while all other vampires have failed to transfer bodies. His new host, Lancelot—”
“Seriously? Does Geoffrey know his dad is actually both Mordred and Lancelot? Because he’s got daddy issues already,” Steve finally interjected.
“Please,” Paige growled. “Yes, Mordred . . . went into Lancelot. Lancelot was like a son to him and they fought together to stop Arthur. He’s felt guilty about it ever since.”
“Really?” the Jaeger asked.
“We . . . talked about it,” Paige muttered, barely loud enough to hear.
Klaus gave Paige a strange look, but continued. “Yes, it was a perfect match. Both men had lost someone they loved to Arthur and were filled with rage. They were close in appearance, and shared remarkably similar physiologies. It was because of this that Merlin began research into what we now call genetics. He learned over time that certain traits lent themselves to successful turning. That is why he searched the globe, conscripting humans with the right genetic makeup. Not only would they make fine servants, but he hoped they would make ideal hosts. He also made a point to track down any human descendants of his own family, and his precious children’s hosts—”
“So that one day if he needed a new body . . .” Paige growled, her claws now extended. She looked at all of them in turn. “Isn’t it enough that you eat people?”
“Arthur was the youngest of eight brothers and sisters. Merlin managed to follow two whole houses to the present. One he kept close, the other he kept safe in the far east,” Klaus said. He then finally turned to Paige. “One of the families is the House of Lambley, which is why your friend looks unnervingly like our king’s old body. The other was the Lyashev line in Siberia.”
“So, Ren was a relative of King Arthur?” Steve asked incredulously. “I never would have called that one. I guess Excalibur should be a katana now.”
“Well, that’s all well and good, but Mordred’s family was killed, and Lancelot didn’t have a family either, so I don’t think that’s going to work for Lorcan,” Paige said, pushing to her feet. “Now, I’m hungry, I’m tired, and I want to check on him. Let’s reconvene when we have some sort of plan.”
Paige barreled past the vampires. She saw movement in the corner of her eyes, but no one stopped her as she hurried to the library gate. It was only once she was there that she realized the portcullis was locked. Before she could test her werewolf strength on the lock, Klaus put his hand on her shoulder. The others were nowhere to be seen.
“Paige, please, a moment more,” he pleaded. “I sometimes forget that time flows differently for creatures such as myself, and I tend to get lost in the explanations.”
“Why do I feel such dread when I look at you?” Paige asked.
“How much did Lorcan tell you about me?”
“Nothing really. It’s more like a feeling, like there is something not quite right about you, and the longer I stay around you, the more I want to get away,” Paige admitted.
“You knew about Mordred, and that he had a family,” Klaus said softly. “I was the one tasked by Arthur to capture them, and slaughter the entire village that sheltered them. They were used to coerce Mordred into surrender, and then I killed his wife while he was lying in a pool of his own blood.”
Paige’s claws snapped out from under her nails but she managed to hold herself back. She glared at him. “You,” she snarled, her voice barely human.
“I did not kill Mordred’s daughter, however. Lancelot was like a son to Mordred because . . . because he was his own flesh and blood. His great-grandson to be exact. Merlin wanted to keep Mordred’s family line because he was unique. Mordred was an Undying—”
“I know this,” Paige snarled. “But Lancelot died at Camlann—”
“And Guinevere, Arthur’s queen, did not. There is truth buried in all the Arthurian legends, Paige,” Klaus hissed. “I’m also the one that helped her escape into Jaeger lands where my old friend protected her and her children for generations. After all, we may not have understood the science quite as well back then, but we knew there was something different about that family line.”
“You have some great-great-grandson of Lorcan’s lying around?” Paige asked.
“There are a few distant relatives left. I am sure we will find one,” Klaus said. “Unfortunately, the main line was lost in the American Insurrection, but I feel there may be hope right under our very noses. After all, Merlin was able to resurrect Arthur successfully in a far distant descendant.”
Paige grabbed her head. “I need some time and some air, please,” she said, turning green.
“You seem . . . unwell,” Klaus said. “Perhaps—”
“I’m fine,” she barked. Klaus unlocked the door for her and then led her all the way back to the basement. She growled another, “I’m fine,” before hurrying to the bathroom.
&n
bsp; “Goddamn it!” she cried between dry heaves. “Oh, God.”
“God doesn’t seem to have much interest in the day to day lives of man, A rún,” she heard softly as there was a flicker of shadows in the mirror. “The devil was always more sympathetic to our plight.”
“Why can’t I see you anymore?” she whispered to the shadows by her own reflection. “Lorcan, what’s happening?”
“Life is happening. We are born and we die. You’ve always been stronger than I am, A rún,” the remnants of Lorcan said softly in her ears. “Let me go, and save yourself.”
“But they can save you,” Paige whispered. She pressed her forehead against the glass.
“Another shouldn’t have to die . . . not to save me.”
“Lorcan—”
“I won’t let my family be used like this. Paige, you won’t like the answer they will find to save me. If I could figure it out, they will too.”
“I don’t understand,” Paige said, pounding her fist against the counter.
“You do, but you don’t want to admit it. All the signs are there,” she heard, echoing around her. “I tried to hide them, to keep them away, but it’s fate.”
“And fate is your most faithful dog,” Paige whispered. “It always comes back to find you.”
She lurched over the toilet again, this time finally managing to throw up. She turned back to the mirror, but the shadows were gone. A familiar scent wafted near the door.
Paige splashed water on her face and cleaned up as best she could. She saw her mom just through the kitchen door, a worried look on her face.
“Mom!” Paige cried, limping as quickly as she could to give Maria a huge hug. “Mom, we have to talk, but I need to find Morgan first. Have you seen him?”
Maria let out a large “Oof,” as she slipped free of Paige’s embrace. She gave her daughter a quick once-over. “Where have you been?”
“It’s not important,” Paige said, a little too quickly. “Um, have you seen Morgan?”
“I don’t think he wants to see you, baby,” Maria said with a frown. “He was pretty upset.”
