“Paranorms have a desire to feed on their kind,” Volod continued. “To a one they believe this is a better life for them … they believe their friends who have not been converted will have far richer lives as Vampires.
“Perhaps you have wondered if they would they go up against their own friends and do what it takes to turn them … or destroy them.” Volod smiled at Monique and gave a slight inclination of his head.
Monique vanished.
Several conclave members gasped.
From beneath her glamour, Monique’s voice rang clear in the room. “The answer is yes, we shall do whatever it takes. We believe the Vampire way of life is the only way of life.”
“We are not capturing the unskillful or foolish,” Volod said. “We have strong, committed paranorms.”
“You have given us an effective demonstration.” Nicholas made a confident gesture that meant the paranorms were to take their places behind Volod again.
If the conclave prolocutor was affected by the display, he did not show it. However, other members wore expressions ranging from furious to impressed.
“Please return,” Volod said to his dream team. The paranorms acknowledged him and went to stand behind him, changing back to their human forms.
When the paranorm Vamps had gathered around him again, Volod took a casual relaxed stance. He was in fact anything but relaxed. He wasn’t sure his gamble would pay off.
“You see how fast my team works.” Volod projected his words so that he could be heard clearly throughout the chamber. “All of these Vampire paranorms can do amazing things that include battling humans and other paranorms. Of course humans would be child’s play and hardly worth their time or talents.”
Marcus was nearly trembling with fury, so much so that he was obviously finding it difficult to speak.
“I want to do this in a manner that meets the conclave’s approval.” As he spoke, Volod let his gaze meet that of each Vampire seated at the long table. “I do not wish to go against you.”
Nicholas folded his hands in front of him. “What are you proposing?”
“First, I need your approval and commitment to this mission. Second, I need resources and would like them quickly,” Volod said. “I wish to have a sizable group of your best Vampires from around the country.” He paused and put the menace he felt into his voice. “We need bodies to back up our Vampire paranorm army. The meaner and more ruthless, the better. However, I do need those who respect authority.”
Nicholas looked to either side of him at the members of the conclave. “Does anyone have questions for Volod before we take a vote?”
No one spoke. Nicholas called in an aide, who then handed a piece of paper to each member. Each Vampire wrote a single word on his or her piece of paper before handing it to the aide.
When the aide had collected them all, he handed the sixteen pieces of paper to Nicholas, who put in his own. Volod did his best to keep his expression calm as the papers were split into two piles, one larger than the other.
Nicholas counted the papers in each stack then folded his hands again on the tabletop.
“The conclave has spoken.” Nicholas met Volod’s gaze. Nicholas’s eyes were dark, intense. “You may have whatever you need to allow Vampire-kind to once again rule the paranorm world.”
SEVEN
I STOPPED FIGHTING MY INNER DEMONS
WE ARE ON THE SAME SIDE NOW
“Do those inner demons like being spanked, too?” I said with a grin when I got a look at Olivia’s T-shirt as she walked in the door of our PI office.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Olivia smirked and tossed her Mets sweat jacket onto her desktop, causing a dozen sticky notes to flutter on the surface of the desk. A towering stack of thick folders teetered.
“Heh.” I closed the file folder on a Metamorph case I’d been dealing with and set it beside my large-screen computer monitor. “Truth is, I’m not sure I want to know.”
I should have known better. Olivia took that statement as a challenge.
“You can’t tell me you haven’t thought about a little tie-up play.” She flopped into the chair behind her desk. “Considering where you’re from and all.”
“All the more reason to avoid it.” I grimaced. “In my world it’s not a choice. It’s an expected way of life in the Drow culture. I only escaped it because of my human mother’s influence over my father. I guess it might be different to give up control out of choice. In my world, it’s taken. That is not alluring to me.”
“That doesn’t mean you haven’t thought about it. Besides, you can be the one to take control, which might be what you need.” Olivia put her elbows on her desk as she leaned forward. “Be honest. You’ve thought about it with Colin.”
Unexpected warmth crept into my cheeks. “I take it you got over being mad at Scott after Colin and I left.”
A sly grin crept over Olivia’s face. “Let’s just say he made it up to me. Although I told him he has more making up to do. I’m not letting him off that easy. We started again where we left off and then—”
“Okay, okay, that’s enough details,” I said.
“Hey, the rest was even more creative.” Olivia had a mischievous gleam in her eyes. “If you don’t want any new ideas for you and Colin, that’s fine. Change your mind, just ask.” She loaded an eraser, aimed, and missed badly.
“Colin and I … we’re not that far into a relationship.”
“Well,” she said, “my ideas will help jump-start it.”
I thumbed through one stack of files on my desk, looking for a case on a pair of Pixies gone bad, and changed the subject from me and Colin back to Olivia. “Colin thought it was funny that you weren’t even a bit embarrassed.”
Olivia snorted. “Hasn’t he ever seen a nearly naked woman before?”
“Apparently not one tied to a bed, ball-gagged, and blindfolded. Either that or it had been a while.” I shook my head at the memory of a very indignant, very pissed-off Olivia DeSantos. “I told him he didn’t know you very well if he thought a little thing like that would embarrass you.”
Olivia gave a rather wicked smile.
“Haven’t seen you in a relationship in a while.” I braced my elbow on my desk, my chin in my hand. “And definitely not one where you’ve moved as fast as this.”
Olivia shrugged. “Scott gets me.”
“He gets you?” I grinned. “The guy takes off to get Chinese food and leaves you practically naked, tied up, and gagged, and you’re saying he gets you?”
“Not everyone’s perfect. Just needs a few rough edges shaved off here and there,” Olivia said. “Besides, after I got through with him I don’t think that’s going to happen again. New rules for the fun-and-game times.”
“I have to agree with Colin,” I said. “That was one of the most entertaining scenes I have ever witnessed.”
She patted the side holster she was wearing. “Tell Colin he’d better not breathe a word of that story or I’ll find a way to douse his flames.”
I grinned. “I have no control over a Dragon.”
Olivia loaded a rubber band with an eraser and aimed it at me. I caught the eraser along with the one that followed. “Find a way,” she said before she shot at me with another.
My XPhone played “Runnin’ with the Devil” by Van Halen, one of my favorite 1980s hair bands.
RODÁN came up on the caller ID screen.
I caught the last eraser lobbed at me at the same time I brought the phone to my ear.
“Hello,” I said as I flung an eraser back at Olivia, who ducked behind her monitor. Chicken I mouthed to her as she reappeared.
Fighting words.
“Nyx.” Rodán’s tone was not normally so grim sounding.
I lost my focus on the eraser war and one pinged off my temple as I frowned and spoke to Rodán. “What’s wrong?” My instincts told me something was wrong and my instincts were usually pretty good.
“The situation with the missing Trackers has got
ten worse.” Rodán’s words sent a chill through me. “There is of course the one missing Proctor, Monique,” he said. “An additional ten Trackers are now unaccounted for.”
My lungs burned as I sucked in my breath. “Eleven total are missing?” I looked at Olivia who now wore an intent expression as she listened to my end of the conversation.
“Dopplers, Shifters, Werewolves, and a Witch are among those who cannot be located. They are not just any paranorm Trackers. They are some of the best at what they do,” he told me.
“And one of the Light Elves,” I said, more to myself than Rodán as I mulled over his statement. “The San Francisco Proctor.”
“Yes.”
“Is there any evidence?” I tapped my fingers on the desktop. “Anything at all?”
“No evidence,” Rodán said. “However, in most cases, humans have disappeared in the general vicinity of where each Tracker went missing.”
“How do trained, skilled beings like Trackers and a Proctor disappear like that?” I glanced at Olivia as I spoke. Her forehead was wrinkled, and she looked deep in thought. “I would have thought it impossible a couple of months ago, before this all started.”
“We can’t sit idly by. I want to assemble two special teams,” Rodán said. “And I want you to lead one of them.”
“Okay.” I said the word slowly. “What is our purpose? To solve the mystery or to make sure this doesn’t happen to any of our own Trackers?”
“Both,” Rodán said. “You will lead the team investigating what you can of the disappearances from here, while setting up measures to safeguard our own New York team. We must be proactive in ensuring none of our own join the ranks of the missing.”
I nodded to myself. “Got it.”
“We will keep each of the fifteen territories guarded,” he said. “I will set up a meeting with other Proctors, but before that, I need someone I trust to begin looking into this.”
We’d only had twenty-four Trackers until Tristan joined us, replacing Meryl. She was dead thanks to Zombies and the same Sorcerer who had imprisoned Tristan in a stone for twenty-two years.
“Even though he’s not a Tracker—yet—I think Desmond would be a tremendous asset,” I said. “I’d also like Olivia, Joshua, and Colin.” My reasons for wanting Colin and Olivia were purely professional. You couldn’t beat having a Dragon and a former NYPD officer on your team. Olivia’s skills in tracking down people and information were exceptional, which made her an incredible PI, too.
“Excellent,” Rodán said. “I would only have expected you to choose those who will most benefit your team.”
“Is drawing the team together after tonight’s Tracker meeting soon enough?” I asked. “That’s still a good eight hours off.” The Trackers met almost every night at nine at the Pit, and right now it was only one in the afternoon.
“Yes.” He added, “I would like to meet with you alone tomorrow around four o’clock to see what you and Olivia have come up with between now and then. I’d also like to talk with you about the duties of your new position, should you decide to take it.”
I appreciated the fact that he hadn’t assumed. “Sounds good.”
“I need to speak with Desmond,” Rodán said, “so I’ll invite him to tonight’s Tracker meeting.”
“Great.” It would save me time trying to locate the Sorcerer. Rodán had much better methods of getting ahold of anyone than most of us.
“In the meantime,” he went on, “I’ll send you a list of the Trackers, the locations they are missing from, and the name of their Proctor, whom you need to contact to begin your investigation. Gather all the facts you can. Since Monique is a Proctor, I would like you to talk with her special team’s leader, Rodriguez.”
“Got it,” I said. “Olivia and I will be all over this.”
“Check your e-mail,” Rodán said. “And Nyx … watch for anything unusual. Be on guard. You’re good, but so were the Trackers who are missing,” he added before he signed off.
I gave Olivia the details of my conversation as I took a look at the e-mail Rodán had sent. I brought up the document on the huge wall of monitors. It had recently replaced my collection of Otherworld weapons, which included Drow-forged arrows with diamond arrowheads.
With my go-ahead, Olivia had removed the collection and brought us up to date with current technology. I had to admit that the monitors were pretty cool.
Olivia hadn’t stopped there with her technological revolution. Wireless headsets and direct access to major government and law enforcement databases were also among our upgrades into the modern and out of the Middle Ages, as Olivia liked to say. I’d told her many times that I came from a world forever locked in that age; compared with what I’d grown up with, we’d been cutting edge in our PI office.
We reviewed the document that I’d brought up using two of the monitors to make one supersize copy for us both to read. In the document, the missing Proctor and all ten Trackers were listed, as well as what race of paranorm they each were.
The information for each Tracker included his or her last known address, contact phone number, Proctor’s name and phone number, the territory the Tracker had covered, and the date that each of them had disappeared.
Olivia’s gaze swept over the document as she read it. “This gives us some basic information but doesn’t tell us a whole hell of a lot.”
I studied it and instinct kicked in. “It tells us that no Fae are missing, which could be significant. Of course that could mean nothing, too.”
Olivia used an electronic pointer to highlight the timetable. “In every single case, the disappearances happened ten days apart, from the beginning of January to mid-April.”
“With the exception of the two Los Angeles Trackers who vanished the same night.” I nodded as I spoke. “The territories of those two were close to each other. One was a Shifter, the other a Witch.”
“Two disappearing the same night,” Olivia said. “That doesn’t really fit the MO of the other seven.”
“What’s the significance of a ten-day lapse between disappearances?”
“You’ve got me.” Olivia slipped on her phone headset. “Ready when you are.”
I picked up my own headset. “I’ll take the Proctor and the first five Trackers on the list.”
She nodded. “I’ll get started on the others.”
I came to a complete stop and Olivia did, too. “It’s been exactly ten days since the last disappearance,” she said, saying what I was thinking.
“We need to have Rodán send a warning to all Proctors.” I reached for my phone. “If that is significant, someone could be in danger tonight.”
EIGHT
The Pit was rocking.
Rodán’s nightclub was easily the best club in New York City for paranorms. Thanks to Rodán’s magic, the Pit’s location was shielded. New Yorkers and tourists never even noticed the entrance, which was beside the Dakota building at Seventy-second Street and Central Park West.
The place was packed. As a Tracker, I didn’t have to wait in the long line at the entrance.
After checking his ID, the bouncer, Fred, let the Shifter in front of me through the door. All paranorms had to get an ID showing that they were of age according to their race. Elves came of age at twenty-five, while most of the Fae were only fifteen by Earth Otherworld standards. Beings aged differently.
“Hey, Nyx.” Fred gave me one of his adorable puppy-dog smiles as he greeted me. He was a Doppler whose animal form was a beautiful golden retriever.
“I’ve got something for you.” I dug in my purse then handed him a giant Milk-Bone, his favorite.
With a grin he pocketed the treat, thanked me, then let the next patron through the door.
Tonight Festival had the stage. The paranorm band included two Shifters on guitar, a Werewolf on keyboard and drums, and a female Shadow Shifter who was the lead vocal.
Also on stage were Nymphs One and Two, who had extended such “gracious” invitations to Rodán w
hen he and I were out to dinner. I had to admit that Trixie and Bubbles had great voices as they sang backup for the Shadow Shifter, Leslie.
I waved at Fred before the crowd sucked me in.
I didn’t think I’d ever seen the Pit so crowded. Bodies were slick with sweat from dancing. The higher body temperature of the mass of paranorms made even me feel warm.
Thanks to my keen Drow sense of smell, I was almost overwhelmed by the odors of the many races of paranorms crowded together, mixed with the smells of bar food and alcohol. I made my way toward the back corner where Trackers hung out every night before we hit the streets.
One of my closest friends, Nadia, perched on the arm of an overstuffed couch as she looked over Lawan’s shoulder. Nadia had long, thick, gorgeous red hair and was a Siren from the Bermuda Triangle.
Lawan was a petite Doppler from Thailand whose animal form was a Siamese cat. She was just as beautiful as Nadia but with long black hair, dark brown eyes, and dark lashes. We’d almost lost Lawan to Zombies in December. Just the thought of Zombies made me shudder.
Ice, a cocky Shifter with white-blond hair and ice-blue eyes, slouched in a chair in the corner while Joshua, an Australian Shadow Shifter, sat in the chair next to him. With my sensitive hearing, I overheard them making rather lewd comments about some of the females in the club.
Knowing the pair, I wasn’t surprised. Despite the fact that Ice could be a real ass, and Joshua on the sexist side, I considered both of them to be good guys overall and outstanding Trackers.
Kelly, a Doppler bunny, was flopped down on the other couch. Nancy, a Pixie, sat next to her, both of them engaged in an animated conversation with Hades, a Shifter.
“How’s my beautiful girl doing tonight?” Colin’s deep voice sent a shiver down my spine as he came up behind me.
I started to face him but he put his hands on my shoulders and massaged me.
“Amazing.” I sighed and leaned into him. “Considering everything, I’m doing just fine.”
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