Grave Expectations - Jess Vandermire 4

by Lina Gardiner

  “Up to now,” Regent emphasized.

  “My soldiers have orders to bring Mr. Brittain in. He no longer has a choice. He will help.”

  Regent lifted his head from his hands. “What does that mean?”

  “He’ll be here shortly. He’s being extricated from your sister’s condo as we speak.”

  “Oh Lord,” Sampson said, wringing his hands. “Britt will not be happy about that.”

  Regent’s gut felt like he’d been punched. Worse, he wouldn’t be able to pray for Jess when she so badly needed every word he could spare.

  Regent lowered his head and started to pray for her internally. It was hard to do because he didn’t want to miss what Vasilli was saying. But in order for the prayers to work, he had to get deep into them, into a prayerful zone that helped Jess heal quickly.

  He’d barely broken into that zone and said two quick prayers when Vasilli walked to the door and peered around it to watch the activity happening down the hall.

  Sampson started pacing back and forth. With all the distractions, Regent couldn’t concentrate.

  Meanwhile, a roar from below fairly shook the floorboards. The beast was hungry again. Two crates of blood had been delivered an hour ago. The soldiers would be shoveling it through the feeding door like coal into a steam engine, but to what end? The man was voracious. If he truly was the Pope, he could be replaced—as sad as that sounded. Did the Camerlengo, the Pope’s Chamberlain have to consider calling a conclave? Did they have another Pope in mind right now? Just in case?

  Maybe it was time they just gave up and finished the beast in the basement before he became too powerful to stop.

  BRITT HEARD THE apartment door smash open and grabbed for his stake. His first thought was that Jess’s door was still open. She was at risk right now.

  However, before he could get down the hall to secure her vault door, he was assaulted by two men dressed completely in black. All he could see were their cold, determined eyes staring at him behind those balaclavas. Really? Balaclavas? In New York City?

  He struck out, slammed his open hand into the face of the first one who’d charged him. He managed to make contact with his nose and felt the crunch. The guy groaned and dropped to the side. No doubt, his broken nose had caused his eyes to tear up so badly, he could barely see.

  The second man wasn’t quite as easy to disable. He was huge—all muscle, taut ridges, at least three hundred pounds and at least six feet ten. Britt wouldn’t be able to reach the guy’s nose if he wanted to, unless he jumped onto the coffee table and dove at him from there. He might just have to do that.

  He’d just rammed the mountain against the kitchen island and pounded on his gut six or seven times to no avail, when he noted another man, a third attacker slipping down the hall toward Jess’s room. No! Not while she was unable to protect herself. Not while he couldn’t get to her.

  The moment’s distraction was all the big brute needed. The guard bashed him on the side of the head and Britt saw stars for a second. Those fists were huge, and he had crosses tattooed on several fingers. Crosses? Britt’s gut burned with acid. That didn’t make sense. Why would the church want to kill Jess? She protected people from vampires. Didn’t they know that?

  The fist’s trajectory grazed his chin. Good thing he’d leaned back before he caught the brunt of it. That would’ve damned well hurt.

  Worse, his solar plexus had started to buzz. Surely he couldn’t hurt humans? These men were not vampires, of that, he was sure. Besides, it was well past sunrise.

  So why was his blue light vibrating to life?

  To save Jess?

  “Get the hell out of her room!” he roared, desperately breaking past the giant attacker again and making his way down the hall.

  A man in black stood over her, looking at her, but not touching. He reached down, cut a fringe of her hair and shoved it into a bag, ignoring Britt’s words.

  “What the hell are you doing?” He heard the big guy’s feet pounding down the hall behind him. “Move away from her or I’ll rip you from gut to thorax,” Britt said.

  “Calm yourself, John Brittain. We don’t intend to hurt her.” The man’s nasal, strongly accented voice surprised him. “At least we won’t hurt her if you come with us and promise to do whatever we ask of you.”

  The big guy grabbed him by the scruff of his leather jacket. “I promise,” he said instantly. What other choice did he have?

  Britt hated that he’d been caught so unaware. He’d failed her. He glanced at Jess, lying on the bed covered with a silk sheet. Her beautiful face looked just as gorgeous in stasis as it did in animation. He loved her, heart and soul. And she did have a soul, whether she believed it or not.

  His solar plexus continued to reverberate, but his blue light didn’t erupt and give him away.

  “Where are you taking me?”

  “You’ll see.”

  “Let me lock Jess inside before we go. She’s not safe like this,” he said.

  “That’s the point,” the nasal-sounding man said. “If you want her to be safe, you have to do what we say.”

  Britt didn’t remind the man she’d only be vulnerable until nightfall, then they’d find out what a mistake they’d made waiting around in her room. She’d kick their asses but good. His gut clenched. At least she would … if they didn’t finish her off before she woke.

  His throat nearly closed off and he swallowed hard. That couldn’t happen. Not on his watch. Because if she died, it would be completely his fault. He couldn’t live with that.

  The two men led him back to the living room. They left Jess’s vault door open. “No. Please. Close the door,” he said. He’d never begged before, but he was doing it now.

  “That’s not going to happen, Mr. Brittain. We wouldn’t be able to get back in if we did that.”

  “If you hurt her, I’ll come back for you and everyone you love,” Britt threatened through his teeth.

  The nasal-sounding man laughed. “My, my, your soft spot is definitely showing.”

  They shoved him out of the apartment and shut that door, at least. Before they reached the lobby, the big one punched him hard on the side of the head and everything went black.

  Chapter Nineteen

  BRITT’S FIRST THOUGHT upon regaining consciousness had been that he’d left Jess unprotected and devoid of the proper prayers again tonight. What would that do to her?

  He’d failed her over and over again.

  Meanwhile, the bull behind him rammed his hand against Britt’s back and sent him sprawling onto his hands and knees into Regent’s office. The air whooshed out of him, but he got control of himself quickly and jumped to his feet.

  It surprised him to see both Regent and Sampson in the room with another man in priest’s robes. He had the feeling the guy’s rank trumped Regent’s.

  Being a cop helped Britt assess the situation pretty quickly, but it didn’t help get the answer he needed—like what the hell was going on.

  “Why am I here, Regent? Is Jess safe?” he asked.

  “What do you mean, is Jess safe?” Regent surged forward and took Britt’s shoulders. “Tell me, is she okay?”

  Britt exhaled. “I hope so. They said they wouldn’t hurt her if I agreed to cooperate.”

  “What is going on, Vasilli?” Regent spun toward the robed man and shook a finger in his face. “If you harm one hair on her head, I’ll make sure you regret it. How can you do this? Are you really who you say you are? I’m beginning to wonder.”

  “You have the letter,” he said.

  “Even that can be forged.”

  “Do you really believe that, Father? Do you really believe that poor soul in the basement isn’t here under the church’s blessing? Our methods may seem harsh, but believe me, Father Vandermire, we cannot fail.”

  “They took some of Jess’s hair, Regent,” Britt said. “They clipped a lock, then put it in a bag before they forced me out of her place. But they left the bunker door open, Reg
ent! One of the guards stayed behind, but one man isn’t going to stop someone who wants to kill her. You know that as well as I do.”

  Regent’s blue eyes watered and his jaw clenched as he stared at Vasilli again. “Do not harm her, do you hear me?”

  “We won’t if you cooperate.”

  “I’m thirsty,” Regent said and swayed suddenly. “I need a cold drink.”

  Vasilli eyed him for a second. “Of course. What would you like?”

  “Water.”

  Vasilli snapped his fingers and a full water glass was in Regent’s hand in seconds. He drank every ounce then leaned against his desk.

  Another roar from downstairs fairly shook the foundations of the old house.

  “What the hell is that noise? Have you got a train track running through the basement?” Britt asked.

  Vasilli’s expression didn’t change. “Father Vandermire hinted that you might be able to help us. He thinks you have an ability we might be able to use. What is that ability?”

  Sampson shook his head, warning Britt not to speak.

  “That’s none of your business.”

  “I’m making it my business,” the wily man said in a smooth, literate Italian voice. “You will tell me what you can do to help us. That is, if you treasure your vampire back at the condo.”

  “Bastard!”

  “You have no idea about the scope of the problem we are facing. What we do today will matter. It will matter to the world. We cannot afford to fail.”

  Regent strode to the fireplace and stared at the burning embers. “Vasilli, I think it’s time you tell us exactly who the vampire in the basement is. Is he the Pope?”

  Britt had been wondering the same thing.

  “As I told you earlier, he is definitely not the Pope. I’m sworn to secrecy about his identity. I can’t tell you any more than that,” he said.

  “Well, you’d better get permission to tell us more or we won’t cooperate,” Britt said.

  “Even if the safety of your lover is on the line?” Vasilli asked in a snakelike voice, as if her life meant nothing to him.

  “I’m not helping anyone until I get a chance to speak to Regent and Sampson in private,” he said.

  Vasilli considered his demand. Fine beads of moisture lined his forehead while the monster in the basement roared again. He clenched his hands at his sides and turned pale. “Dear God in Heaven, make these men see the light,” he suddenly prayed out loud.

  “Cardinal,” Regent said. “If you’d simply given me time to ask Britt for help, he would have come willingly. Using this tactic is wrong. And threatening my sister? I don’t understand. We were willing to work with you as soon as we understood the situation.”

  “But you’re taking too long, don’t you see? We will soon be at the point of no return. After that, all is lost.”

  “We might see, if you told us more about what is going on. Threatening Jess is not the way to gain our trust.”

  No, Britt thought. But it might just have sealed Vasilli’s death warrant.

  Chapter Twenty

  JESS WOKE EARLIER than usual. Internally, she could sense it was still light outside but her room remained securely darkened. And she knew there was another person in her room. Fortunately for her, she had more control over her physiology than the idiot knew. Were they holding her hostage? What had happened to Britt?

  She kept her eyes closed while her body reanimated.

  When fully rejuvenated, she cracked her eyelids open just enough to see the man. He was thin, but muscled, and was dressed in black. His face looked intense and he was currently pacing back and forth in her room.

  Good. He wasn’t paying any attention to her. The guy probably thought she’d be no problem until the sun had fully set. She opened her eyes a little wider. He was reading a text on his cell phone and he held a stake in his other hand. He was going to kill her?

  Bastard. She couldn’t even think about what they’d done to Britt right now, because fear for Britt was ripping a hole in her dried-up heart.

  She waited until she was at full strength before she sat up.

  The man swore in Italian and dropped his cell phone when he caught sight of her rising.

  Even with the metallic stake in his other hand, he backed up against the wall, terrified.

  “Who the hell are you? Why are you doing this?” she asked.

  He shook his head back and forth and his eyes searched for an escape route. His only hope was to run past her to the open bedroom door.

  She shook one finger back and forth and lowered her head. “Don’t try. You won’t make it.”

  “How can you wake before the sun goes down?” he asked, looking quickly at his watch, then frantically searching the perimeter of her blacked-out windows. It didn’t take a genius to realize he would open them to the light if he knew how. But there was no button. No switch. The system was built-in. The windows opened after sunset, period. No variations.

  “You can put down that stake. You’ll never get a chance to use it before I rip open your neck,” she lied. She’d never killed a human before and she didn’t intend to start now.

  Frantic, he wrenched his head back and forth and remained pressed against the wall with one shaky hand still gripping the stake above his head. “I have orders and I intend to fulfill them,” he said.

  “What are your orders?

  “To keep you here until further notice,” he said.

  She stared at him and inched closer. “What have you done to Lieutenant Brittain?”

  The man shook his head again, but she’d gotten close enough to make eye contact. Eye contact allowed her to get inside his head.

  Most vampires didn’t have that ability, and even she rarely used it. It was a breach of her personal code of honor, usually. She’d done it to Britt once, but for a very different reason.

  Thinking of Britt just made her angrier. She turned back to her captor. Delving deep into his mind, she willed him to drop the stake, which he did quickly.

  His eyes glazed over and he looked like he’d been drinking for half the night. She had him.

  “What have you done to Britt?”

  “He’s been taken to Saint Eugenia. To see Cardinal Vasilli and your brother.”

  “Why kidnap him? He would have gone if he’d been asked.” She looked around her room and at her open bunker door. “Why do any of this?”

  “The cardinal couldn’t wait any longer. He has to act before the blood moon tomorrow night.”

  “Blood moon?” she said mostly to herself. “What happens on the blood moon?”

  “The vampire gains all of his powers. He’ll be beyond the control of humanity. As a vampire, his needs and goals will be insatiable.”

  “Why? Who is he?”

  The man shrugged his shoulders. “My clearance doesn’t go that high.”

  “Why did they take Britt?”

  “They want him to save the vampire tonight before the blood moon takes hold. He won’t be given a choice. He will do it, or he will also die.”

  She hissed out an irritated breath. “For damnation’s sake! I don’t understand why your boss would take such drastic measures.” But holding two of the people most dear to her in the world was a mistake he’d never make again. Not if she had anything to say about it.

  She looked at the soldier again. “I can’t imagine how tired you must be. How many bottles of wine did you drink?”

  His eyes fluttered and his head sagged. “Too many,” he said.

  “You should go into the living room and sleep it off on the sofa,” she said. “I think you’ll be out for at least ten hours.”

  He rubbed his glassy, red eyes and wandered away like a somnambulist on a mission. By the time she’d followed him to the sofa, he’d already dropped onto it and was snoring soundly.

  She went to the fridge and grabbed four packets of blood, drinking them while she considered her options. She and Britt had had the advantage of seeing the vampire in the
basement on Regent’s video the other day, and she’d interacted with the monster once. She’d also seen what trying to cure an olde one did to Fisk. What would trying to heal a big, bad beast do to Britt if he was alone? She knew instantly what he needed. Fisk!

  By the time she finished her sustenance, the sun had set. She raced across the city and entered the Lumination Building, striding through the main doors where a student greeted her.

  “Fisk. Now.”

  “I’m sorry, the leader isn’t in,” she said.

  “Where is he?” Jess asked. “It’s very important that I speak to him.”

  The girl looked at her agenda. “I don’t have that information, but I do know he’s away and won’t return for two days.”

  Jess clenched her hands and felt her fingernails dig into her palms. What would she do? She couldn’t get information out of the girl if she didn’t have it.

  Should she go upstairs and force Brewster to spill his guts?

  She’d just considered that as a viable option, when she spotted Jane on the opposite side of the lobby.

  Jane secretly motioned for Jess to follow her outside.

  Jess lowered her head in acknowledgement and turned back to the receptionist. “Thank you. I’ll return in a couple of days.”

  She met Jane at the side of the building. It was nice to see that Jane had filled out and was looking much less scrawny than she had been. And if Britt’s life hadn’t been hanging by a thread, she’d tell her. But she had no time.

  “Jane, I’ve been meaning to connect with you to tell you I’ve pretty much learned what Fisk is doing. You don’t have to submit yourself to his quackery any longer.” She hoped Jane hadn’t fallen completely under his spell by now. And, just maybe Sampson’s ministrations were helping.

  “I’m glad to hear you know what’s going on, Jess. I hated the way his brand of healing made me feel. Dirty and used. Worse, they have a brothel set up for vampires to work off their debt if they want to continue treatments. It’s horrific how many vampires are going that route. I’ve only been able to get through it with Sampson’s help. Thanks for sending me to him.”