by S. J. Wright
“Calm down. Kate, you need to hear his side of the story before you rush to judgment.”
Sarah was watching the three of them in astonishment. The tension was mounting. The need to intervene rose up in Sarah like some instinctual animal. She held up both hands.
“Stop. Katie, Jones is right. There might be more to the stabbing in the cave than we thought.”
She turned to Victoria.
“Alex only showed up at my house because Nelly called him.”
Victoria glanced over at Sarah before turning her gaze back to the tall blond immortal.
“Why would Nelly call him?”
Sarah sighed and began nibbling at her right thumbnail and then stopped herself. “I started drinking. A lot. Michael and the girls left me. I was incredibly depressed. Alex talked to me about the possible solution and I agreed to it.”
Kate lowered her head and sighed. She hated that Sarah had been in such a bad state. The little nugget of guilt that had been sitting in her head blossomed into a boulder.
I should have been there.
She had taken her attention away from Jackson. He moved towards Sarah slowly, not knowing where he stood with her. It had been so long since he’d laid eyes on Sarah Wood. So much had gone wrong since she left the farm. Would she even want to be friends with a recovering junkie?
Alex looked at Jackson with a quizzical raised eyebrow.
“Don’t get any ideas, Jackson. She’s taken.”
He glanced around the tiny cabin.
“What’s the situation here, you guys?”
“We’re not exactly sure. The Turkish rogue has yet to show his face at all since we got here,” Jones explained. “There are a lot of places to hide, as it turns out.”
“The council didn’t anticipate that might be a problem?” Kate asked.
“Why should it have been?” Victoria said. “The detention zone here wasn’t created for peaceful sleeping. It was used as a dumping ground for vampires who couldn’t be reformed.”
“Yes. And look what it got them,” Jones agreed.
“Nobody is arguing the concept was flawed. What about the other ones in there?” Sarah asked, trying to keep her eyes off Jackson.
He didn’t look right to her. He was far too pale. He looked sick.
Victoria sighed.
“No sign of them.”
“You didn’t go into the containment zone to look?” Kate asked, looking pointedly over at Jackson.
“It wasn’t working. Maybe because our Indian friend here is ill,” Jones said lowly. “He invited us in, but the containment field held.”
It was obvious to Alex that Jackson had gotten involved with heroin. Alex’s sense of smell was quite sharp and he’d seen others in the same condition. The detox had started, but the guy had a long way to go before he could really claim to be clean.
“So you needed one of us?” Sarah asked.
Victoria nodded.
“We specifically wanted Katie.”
“Kate. Not Katie,” replied Sarah.
Her sister flashed her a grin of thanks for that.
Jones cracked his knuckles and looked forlornly over at Victoria.
“I’ve got something to say to you, my love.”
“You do?” she asked. “Is this about working with Teddy behind my back?”
His jaw dropped.
“You knew?”
“Of course. Your ability to cloak your thoughts from me doesn’t always work.”
Sarah shook her head.
“Not a good idea. I told you, Alex.”
Alex was unapologetic.
“I thought Michael would say no to Katie coming up here. But I honestly believe she has what it takes to get rid of this super rogue.”
“If he’s even still here. How do you know Jackson’s father didn’t set him free?” Kate asked, annoyed. “And where was Mr. Bennett’s body found?”
Jackson hung his head.
“He was outside the perimeter. There were small boulders laying around him on the ground. Loose ones. “
“One of the rogues must have thrown them,” Victoria said. “He’d been struck on the head several times.”
“His skull was caved in,” said Jackson. “We buried him yesterday.”
Sarah finally approached Jackson and touched his arm gently.
“I’m sorry.”
He didn’t return her touch but she felt his appreciation in the look he gave her afterward. Sarah turned back to the rest of them.
“So what’s the plan?”
“We think Katie should come into the perimeter with Alex to try to find the rogue. Once he’s located, the Captain and I will assist with the execution if we are needed. Sarah should stay in the cabin.”
Victoria’s determined gaze settled on Sarah’s pale face.
“I mean it, Sarah. If Michael knew that you were here and I didn’t do everything I could to protect you, he would never speak to me again.”
It would have been the old Sarah who might have jumped up and demanded to be a part of the action. But, she respected Victoria and understood that she was speaking the truth. They hadn’t been expecting Sarah to be there at all.
“Where do I come in?” asked Jackson warily.
Alex had been taking in their plan with skeptical ears. He moved to the window to keep watch. He didn’t like anything about this situation. He didn’t doubt he could take out the worst rogue, if found. But, he found it disturbing that Teddy had tried to pit Jones against Victoria in order to keep a secret from Michael. What else could Teddy have planned?
“We think the scent of Jackson’s human blood might lure them out of their hiding places,” Jones said, sliding a gaze over to the young Indian. “We’ll need to cut you.”
Katie tapped her fingernails against the surface of the card table set up by the door. Human blood being spilled in order to lure vampires out of hiding? What happened if they themselves turned on Jackson? Victoria and Jones could handle it. Probably Alex too. But she and Sarah would be hard pressed to hold themselves back from attacking Jackson when they smelled his blood.
“I don’t like the idea of using Jackson as bait,” said Sarah.
Victoria nodded.
“I understand how you feel.”
Alex interjected at that point, turning to the group with a grim look on his face. “I’ll do it. I’ll be the bait.”
“No,” Sarah said. “We don’t know how many rogues are still in there, Alex. What if there are more than we thought? What if the others weren’t killed? Those bodies haven’t been found.”
Ignoring her protest, Alex asked Jones, “What do we know about the vampires that were brought here?”
Jones drew a folded photograph from one of the front pockets of his jeans and handed it to Alex.
“Teddy gave me this. The Turk’s name is Mahdi Lone.”
They could all see this was something Jones had successfully kept from Victoria. She turned away from the captain and groaned. Kate rolled her eyes at them both. One by one, each of them studied the photograph. It almost resembled a mug shot. The male vampire in the photo was obviously of Middle Eastern descent. His hair was dark and curly. It was his eyes that caused the most concern among the group in the cabin. They were relatively common in color, but the expression was haunting.
Sarah had seen dead eyes like that in the newspapers after a mass killing. The killer’s eyes always seemed to be lacking the emotion vital to human beings. It was almost as if anything pure or natural had been drawn out of such men. Sarah handed the photo to Kate.
She looked at it critically. Only one member of the group inside the cabin noticed the miniscule change in Kate when she saw the face of the enemy. Alex felt the change in her breath.
She’s seen that face before.
Katie was astounded, but keeping it out of her voice and gestures. She clearly remembered meeting with that man at the clinic in Brazil. He told her he was a doctor and asked many questions about her. How much
blood did she require? What special powers might she have? Who were her five closest family members or friends? She had grown uncomfortable with the interview the moment he first sat down, but that question sealed it for her.
This one is not to be trusted.
He had introduced himself as Fahir Hamdi, a Turkish professor who specialized in unusual forms of life and energy. Marco had told Katie before the interview that Fahir was putting together a detailed paper focusing on how healing occurs in humans and what possibilities there were to speed up the process. But Kate knew Fahir was asking unusual questions, if what Marco told her was true. He would have done some physical exam. When he finally left the clinic after the interview, she told Marco what happened. He told her not to worry about it. But, then he said he had a phone call to make and had to go.
In Bennett’s cabin, Kate recalled the doctor’s questions. She remembered the entire conversation, word for word. Ordinarily, Victoria would have read the change in Kate immediately. But, she sensed nothing amiss.
Perhaps she’s too angry at Jones to pay attention to this.
Kate handed the photo smoothly over to Jackson, giving no outward indication that she had seen the man in person. Alex vowed to get the truth from her before this was all over. He watched her silently for a few minutes. She didn’t exactly make eye contact, but he saw the flash of her dark eyes and the tiny turn of her head in his direction. He felt oddly warm and excited.
Dawn was beginning to come through the little window.
Victoria looked over at Kate.
“This is going to be a very long day.”
“It sure the fuck is,” came the reply.
Chapter 16
Sam and Luna had gone to see a movie. Teddy was nowhere to be found. Not that that surprised him. Her appearances were few and far between. There could be no doubt that she was trying to separate herself slowly from the business of the council.
Her “suggestion” regarding Katie hadn’t gone over well, but Michael believed that was a dead issue. He was willing to work out the Arizona problem, but he was more concerned about the Homeland Security investigation.
Michael was in the parking garage of the Manhattan apartment building. He had been waiting for Charlie. Michael had received a call from him earlier that day. Charlie’s voice sounded strained as he began the conversation.
“I need to meet with you. Something terrible has happened.”
Of course, Michael didn’t want to have to wait.
“Just tell me.”
“Not over the phone. Meet me down in the parking garage at four.”
The King of the American Vampires sat in his big black SUV and listened to an Elvis playlist on the stereo. His least favorite song was probably next. Every time he heard the first musical notes of “Are You Lonesome Tonight”, his mood would plummet. Lately, it took hours for him to wrench himself violently out of these depressed states of mind.
Preferring a proactive approach, Michael changed the playlist to “Power.” He used his smart phone to listen to music quite often. He could sit on the sofa with his laptop before him and answer his email. He began that night by adding to a draft of an e-mail that would go out to all members of the counsel regarding the information he’d been given over the past week in regards to the rumors about Marrok’s children, the ones who were reportedly awake now and poised for vengeance against all vampires on the planet.
The inbox was full again. Eighty percent were inquiries from council members about the Marrok issue. Michael laid his dark head back against the couch with an exasperated sigh.
Something has them spooked. Did they really tell me everything about this particular group of shifters? None of them were willing to provide any further information.
In the SUV, Michael glanced at the digital clock on the dashboard. Charlie was an hour and a half late. That wasn’t like him at all. He’d always been so prompt in the past for meetings. Michael was about to pull his key out of the ignition and head back upstairs when there was a tap on the driver’s side window.
Holy shit. William?
The fugitive standing there was the son of one of the greatest queens who had ever lived. Theodora. After she turned her full-grown mortal son into a vampire, he went on a rampage. His impulse control was almost nonexistent. His mother had to have him locked up for fear of reprisal from her city’s citizens. They had seen him devour a young woman in the plaza before prayers that night. The rumors caught and burned, traveling throughout the empire. Then he escaped.
William’s father’s finances were overseen by a dour old bishop named John. John didn’t approve of the queen at all due to religious differences. He had become so incensed against her faith, he concocted a terrible way to wreak his vengeance. He called on the powers of Girona, queen of the witches to strike down her dark arts in order to harm the queen’s son. William.
John’s plan worked. When Girona answered his call, she cast down a demon spirit that would mean the ultimate destruction of Teddy’s treasured only son. Whether it was the malevolent spirit or his own arrogant narcissism, William soon proved too powerful to be contained.
In that parking garage, Michael was looking at a vampire who had been completely insane for over 600 years. William’s hair was a little shorter and he’d changed the color to orange. Michael eyed the scrolling design of the tattoo that crossed one side of William’s jaw and was etched at an angle up far past the strangely illuminated eye on the other side of his face. That eye frightened Michael.
If you’re a select member of the undead and the head of the Vampire Council, fear isn’t something that you face on a regular basis. It rarely shows up at all once the vampire has lived for several centuries. But there it was, clenching at his insides like the grizzled hands of a half dead saint, twisting and tearing at the confidence he had accumulated over the course of more than three hundred fifty years.
Then he noticed the sweater William was wearing. It caught his attention with its silly Christmas theme and bulky cut. A quick flash of memory lit up in Michael’s head. He remembered where he’d seen the sweater before. At a rare holiday lunch with Charlie in Nashville after Michael had been transformed into a human again. Charlie was gone. Michael knew without a doubt that for some unknown reason this strange vampire/god had snuffed the life out of Michael’s favorite council member. When one of Williams fists flashed forward and shattered the driver’s side window, shock rushed through Michael.
This guy doesn’t even want to talk. He’s desperate. I have to distract him.
“Watch the coat, Wee Willy. It’s Armani,” Michael said as William’s finger began to exert pressure against his windpipe. Before more damage could be done, the secret dagger Michael had been given by Selena was in his hand. He usually kept it locked up in the apartment, but the new seer had told him he would need protection while in his vehicle. Could the seer have sent William?
No fucking way.
With a lightning fast swing of his right hand, he slashed through the flesh on the arm coming through the window. He put enough force behind it to severe the hand, but it hung grimly on for a few moments before dropping into Michael’s lap. William’s roar was earth shattering. There would be no fixing that. Not even a powerful witch could reattach dead flesh to undead flesh and expect good results.
Michael pushed open the driver’s side door, bumping against William who had turned to the side and was studying the stump of his forearm with alarmed confusion.
“If you wanted my attention,” Michael began with a hint of a mischievous grin, “you could have just waved.”
His opponent countered with a violent act so stunning that even Michael was alarmed. William’s eyes were still fixed on his wound and the one eye that had frightened Michael so much seemed to be glowing brighter. Then he opened his mouth. The teeth were in excellent condition, but Williams’s gums were blanketed by something that looked like large open sores covered with a pink fuzz. In half a millennium of brutal fights and bloody ba
ttles, Michael had never seen anything like it.
There was a reason the mouth was open. William bowed his head to the bloody stump that was his arm and bit into the limb. Into the bleeding flesh and broken arteries, even the fractured bones. And he ripped that hunk of flesh from his own arm. He tossed the pound of flesh at Michael’s feet.
“Do it again.”
The voice coming out of that putrid throat reminded Michael of the hellfire that his human mother had always insisted he would have to face if he continued to be a bad little man.
Michael wasn’t just unnerved by the whole scene. He really was afraid. This wasn’t going to turn out well at all unless he could keep the creature’s attention long enough to point him in another direction. William seemed somewhat confused by his own actions. Michael saw the opening and leapt onto William’s back, severely yanking the orange dreadlocks backwards.
“Say goodbye, you freak,” Michael said into the rogue vampire’s ear.
The knife flashed in the darkness of the quiet parking garage and black blood spurted from the red pulp where William’s head had been separated from his decayed body. Michael held the head stiffly as he watched the creature’s body fall onto the concrete. The blood began to stream down into the miniscule crevices of the surface Michael was standing on. Where the blood pooled, smoke rose slowly in lazy circles above the liquid coming forth. It was another first for Michael’s eyes.
The head hanging from Michael’s powerful arm rolled its eyes towards its killer and moaned lowly. Michael released the dreadlocks and the head hit the floor with a slurping sound. Another sound.
“Mother?”
With furious speed, Michael opened the back of his SUV and threw the inert body of his victim into the back. He produced a black garbage bag from the glove box. He put the head into the bag, knotted it twice and slung it into the passenger seat of his vehicle. He couldn’t think of anything to do about the black vicious liquid that was on the concrete.
He drove recklessly to the ramp leading down to street level and fishtailed out onto 91st Street while trying to ignore the moaning coming from the black bag in the seat beside him. His cell phone rang right as he crossed Park Avenue. He had to get to Ward’s Island. Central Park would be too public for his purposes.
