Key to Justice

by Talia Gryphon

  “Can we discuss this later? She knows what she’s doing, so the damn thing will work.” Gill was getting impatient.

  “Here, I brought these just in case.” Daed tossed them both high-grade military flashlights. “It has a UV feature on it. Flip the blue switch and instant sunlight. Just be careful where you point it. We don’t want to take out one of our own.”

  “Also, let’s be very clear on this,” Gillian began. “We are here to get Jenna. Nothing else. I don’t intend to tangle with Daily right now. This is his turf and we can take up issues with him later on a more level playing field. I just want her out of there. If she is with him voluntarily and isn’t bespelled, then fine. She’s entitled to her own opinion and choices. If she’s not, then we’re getting all of us out of there, pronto.” Gillian said it more for Vlad’s benefit than the rest.

  “Gillian . . .” Aleksei’s senses tingled. He reached out, yanking her behind him at the exact moment that Garm and Helgi sensed an intruder and shifted.

  The gigantic Wolf leaped ahead of Evzen, followed by the great white Bear. Pavel was a heartbeat behind them. Together they formed a furry, living wall between their party and the female Vampire who materialized a few yards from where the Fey warrior was standing.

  “Hello, Gillian.” Erzsébet Báthory stood there in all her jaw-dropping glory.

  “Do not move.” Trocar melted out of the shadow behind her. He had a crossbow shoved up against her back. It was loaded with a silver-tipped ash-wood bolt.

  “Yes, do not move.” Kelda also seemed to solidify out of the gloom. She only came up to Erzsébet’s waist. The two wicked-looking knives she held were pressed against the Vampire’s abdomen and kidney, front and back respectively.

  Gillian didn’t respond to the greeting. Instead she queried Osiris and Aleksei, her own weapon trained on Erzsébet’s head. “Well? Do we kill her or listen to her? I can’t feel anything resembling a threat, which is weird because back in Egypt she and her sidekick Sweeney were thinking of cutting my throat.”

  Before they could answer, a new but familiar voice butted into the conversation. She’d heard it only once before, but still . . .

  “No! Do not harm my Lady!”

  “Sir Georg?” Gillian turned to see if she was right.

  The ancient Vampire knight was hurrying toward them with Hreidmar in front of him at sword point. How he kept his armor from clanking was anyone’s guess.

  Kelda’s lovely little face became suffused with pure fury. “If my husband is harmed in any way, she dies, Knight.”

  “Wait a minute. No one is killing anyone yet. Everyone just stop.” Gillian took command of the situation before someone really got killed. Great Ganesh, they hadn’t even begun to look for Jenna yet and all hell was already breaking loose.

  “Georg, stop where you are. Let Hreidmar go. Kelda isn’t going to ventilate Erzsébet . . . Wait . . . Did you say your lady? Erzsébet is your . . . girlfriend now?” Gillian was getting supremely confused.

  “At last count, you two were on opposite sides of the Vlad fence. What’s going on?”

  Gill hastily moved in front of Georg as he released Hreidmar and beaded in on Vlad. “No, you’re not killing him either. He’s helping us for the moment. You need to calm down and someone needs to explain really fast what the fuck is going on.”

  Aleksei grabbed Georg’s shoulder in case he didn’t listen to Gillian. “Do not move, Sir Georg. If you harm her in trying to get to Vlad, I will destroy you.”

  Georg’s surprised look was all the reassurance he needed that the newcomer Vampire wasn’t going to try anything. Aleksei shot a look at Gillian that wasn’t friendly. Stepping out in front of a Reborn armored fanatic with a sword wasn’t his idea of bravery.

  She ignored his reaction and turned back to Trocar and Kelda. “Put the pointy things away so she can talk.”

  They reluctantly stepped back from Erzsébet and gave her some space. Hreidmar went to Kelda’s side, his axe in his hands. Trocar backed up but he didn’t lower his crossbow.

  Erzsébet laughed. “I do not blame you for being suspicious, Gillian. Georg and I found each other not long after the incident at Akabat. After an incredibly protracted discussion during several enduring meetings, we discovered that we are not so very different, he and I.”

  “I would disagree with that statement. If I remember my limited knowledge of Vampire history correctly, Sir Georg never murdered more than six hundred women. He was a victim of Vlad’s psychotic behavior, same as Aleksei.” Gillian hadn’t lowered her gun or moved since Erzsébet had appeared.

  Unexpectedly, Erzsébet’s eyes sparkled with tears in the moonlight. She lowered them immediately, but crystalline flashes of color reflected from her dark lashes.

  “I believe I was subjected to the same madness that affected Vlad. I am First Blood, just as he is. I do not know how or when I was Turned. I have no memory of the event except awakening in my family crypt. The memories I have of my life before, prior to that moment, are very disjointed and muddled. I was riding my horse through a high mountain pass; it was beginning to snow. My horse spooked . . . That is all I remember until waking among the dead.”

  “Is she lying?” Gillian asked. She couldn’t feel any deception from Erzsébet, but right now her normal Spidey senses were a bit skewed.

  Osiris frowned. “No, she is not. Her description is very like my own experience, and that of Dionysus.”

  “And of mine, with the exception that the rest of us did not suffer from madness as you and Vlad have,” Odin chimed in.

  “I remember my full life before and after I was Reborn,” Aleksei commented. “Perhaps the madness within the two of you springs from the same Source.”

  “You are the only Lord in our history not to be a direct progeny of the First Blood,” Erzsébet reminded him. “Neither you nor your brother suffered insanity from Vlad’s Bloodline. In fact, the two of you went to great lengths to reestablish your own Line after your Ascension to Lord.”

  “Then Vampires are evolving,” Gillian stated.

  “Daily may then be one who has also evolved. That would make this even more concerning than it already is.” Aleksei raked his hand through his long, thick hair.

  Daed interjected. “No, what she means is that every species that can breed true will evolve. Humans have changed dramatically from their first creation. Even in the space of recorded history, people have shown increases in natural adaptations, abilities and powers. Gillian, for instance, would have been considered a sorceress in bygone days for her empathic abilities alone. Now she is still an anomaly, but those gifts are accepted as being special instead of something dark and frightening.”

  “Hell, in the old days, she would have been burned at the stake or sacrificed to the old Gods.” Kimber snickered.

  “Have to be a virgin for that,” Gill quipped back.

  “Aleksei? You get anything from her?” Gillian asked him. Her eyes never left Erzsébet.

  “She is telling the truth. That is all I can confirm,” Aleksei said.

  “I find nothing duplicitous in her, Gillian. However, if Aleksei has evolved, then it is entirely plausible other Masters have come into a Lord’s power. Daily may in fact be one,” Odin offered.

  “I understand that, but even among you, your power levels differ, don’t they?” she asked him.

  “Correct. Osiris is truly the most powerful Vampire I have ever seen or felt.”

  “Then even if Daily has a Lord’s power . . . he could be at either end of the power scale. Sorry, Erzsébet. I do recognize you are at a Lord’s level as well . . . I am not certain what to call the female version without sounding sexist. I can feel how strong you are compared to the others. There is definitely a difference.”

  Gillian felt a bit kinder toward the woman, knowing that her former madness may have come from the same source as Vlad’s. Which brought her down another path of thought. If Erzsébet and Vlad came from the same line, then Erzsébet’s progeny, like
Vlad’s, wouldn’t necessarily be psychotic.

  Aleksei was a perfect example, as was Tanis. They were both of Vlad’s direct Bloodline, but neither of them was nuts. On Erzsébet’s side, however . . .

  “Erzsébet . . . where is Sweeney?” Gillian felt icy cold sweep down her spine with her revelation that the woman’s Akabat companion was noticeably missing.

  This time, the woman’s eyes swept upward to meet Gillian’s hard stare squarely. “He is in league with the priest who hides here. After Akabat, we had an opportunity to witness one of Father Daily’s broadcasts. With all his ranting, I knew he was a madman. Sweeney was always a zealot of sorts, easily led by powerful figures. I think that is why he stayed with me and Vlad all those years. He changed from a broken shell of a man into a pathologically faithful companion during our time together.”

  “Did either of you coerce him to Turn?” Gillian’s gun and eye never wavered.

  “On the contrary, he begged Vlad for Rebirth. At first he was in love with power, with the infatuation that all Humans first feel in a relationship with a Vampire. When Vlad saw his fascination had become worship, he Turned him.”

  She turned to Vlad. “So your being dead to the world, so to speak, allowed Sweeney to run free?”

  “That is correct, Gillian. Without me as a direct threat to keep him harnessed, and with his separation from Erzsébet, Sweeney would gravitate to the next Vampire he perceived as being all-powerful. Father Daily is very charismatic, from what I have observed.”

  “Fair enough. Why are you here, Erzsébet? This is the second coincidence in the span of one day. I don’t like coincidences.” Gillian’s stance didn’t change, but she lowered the gun just a little.

  “Since Vlad has been gone, since Akabat, there has been more and more acceptance of us in the real world. You all are isolated in your little corner of Romania. The rest of us have to exist within the Humans’ parameters at all times. What was accomplished in Egypt, Father Daily is trying to destroy.

  “I will not go back to that existence again. Daily needs to be silenced. If he will not see reason, then we will have a problem. I have discovered I need others in my life very much . . . and Georg wants a life with me.” The beautiful Vampire smiled tenderly at the knight who had frozen at Aleksei’s threat.

  “We are not here to kill Daily,” Gillian enlightened her.

  Georg managed a scowl on his handsome face. He had frozen at Aleksei’s command, and had been observing the situation. “Then why are you here?”

  “I have a friend who is with him. I just want to make certain she’s all right and isn’t being kept against her will,” Gill said.

  “If Daily has her, and she is your friend, it is not due to her free will,” Erzsébet informed them.

  “Then Jenna is going to be minus one fangy captor,” Gillian said flatly.

  CHAPTER 19

  LOCATING a back entrance to the basilica would have been difficult if not for Evzen. The Fey warrior had been in the area when the structure had been built in the year 920, and when the entire basilica was rebuilt following a fire in 1142. He knew the foundation layout and where unscrupulous workers had left secret passageways into the crypts to allow for more lucrative grave robbing.

  Using one of his fancy knives, Evzen pried loose mortar away, allowing him to ease a brick out of its niche. Behind it was a lever, which he triggered. Rusty pulleys moved with a deep grinding sound as a panel of bricks moved back and to the inside of a darkened corridor.

  “Wait a minute.” Daed raised a hand to stop anyone from entering.

  “Pavel, can you scent anything? Gill? Any feelings we should know about?”

  She shook her head. “I got nothing. It’s just another building. I can feel Humans and Paramortals everywhere around us, but there is no threat.”

  Pavel gingerly stepped into the passage, went in about twenty feet, then returned to them on the outside. He shook his lupine head, indicating that no, he hadn’t smelled anything of consequence.

  Gillian glowered at the opening. The wheels in her mind were spinning so fast, her mental hamster was reaching for oxygen. She and Daed exchanged a look. Something was wrong. She knew it intuitively; she could almost taste it. This wasn’t her empathy firing; this was instinct forged through combat and a few too many covert missions. Out of the corner of her eye she could see the ancient knight approaching the entrance.

  “Something is fucked-up about this. No, Pavel. Georg, get back over here. Everyone stay out of the passage for a minute.” Gillian shooed everyone away from the door. She crouched down and stared into the recently hidden entrance.

  “I do not understand.” Evzen’s angelic face didn’t do anything remotely resembling a frown, but he did look puzzled.

  “It’s not you, Evzen. I know you’re on our side. I know that you believe this passage is safe or you wouldn’t have brought us here. It’s not the passage. We should not have made it this far through Prague, up here to the castle area, without some kind of altercation from Daily’s followers or entourage. There should have been some kind of alarm raised, or at least notice taken of our presence. We are a large group consisting mostly of powerful Beings, excluding Kimber and myself—”

  “Hey! I am not some weak-assed bitch and neither are you!” Kimber interjected.

  “No offense, Kimber, but you and I are the weak links in this chain. We’ve got Vampire Lords, ancient Viking Shifters, Grael, Sidhe, a closeted Minotaur, a knight and a female Dwarf, for hell’s sake . . . Sorry, Hreidmar, but she’s the novelty. Why is no one paying attention to us? Shit, if I wasn’t with us, I would gawk.”

  Now it was Aleksei’s turn to frown. Gillian’s empathy was a powerful benefit to her survival and was usually right on target. She was not picking up any threat in the very place where there should be danger. He and the other Vampires were not registering any hazard either on their own radar grids. The Shifters seemed to be unable to scent any risk. Without a doubt, something was not right.

  He asked everyone, to be certain. “Do any of you sense or smell anything wrong?”

  Gillian locked eyes with every Being standing there. Negative responses from all around. Shit.

  “Either Daily has an incredible dampening shield that none of us can penetrate, an army inside that is so bad-assed he doesn’t need to post guards . . . or . . .”

  “Or what?” That was from Kimber.

  “I don’t know. But just thinking of all the possibilities makes my trigger finger twitch.”

  Gillian stood up. “Okay . . . we are not going to solve this one out here. Let’s go find Jenna. Pavel, come up here and take point. I’ll be right behind you.”

  The Wolf obeyed her, trotting past her into the passageway, then continuing on at a brisk pace. Gillian was next, followed by Aleksei, Garm, Helgi, Hreidmar, Kelda, Dagr, Georg, Erzsébet, Evzen, Osiris and Daed. Trocar and Kimber brought up the rear of the group in case anyone sneaked up on them from behind.

  Traveling through the corridor was rather uneventful. Dipping down and under the basilica, it wove through the crypts, storerooms and subbasements of the building. The farther they went inside, the more the tension of the group spiraled. Everyone was waiting for the proverbial big bad “something” to leap out of the dusty recesses at them.

  “He has to have moved his base.” Gillian spoke more to herself than the rest.

  “We knew that we might be wrong about his location,” Daed reminded her.

  “Yeah, but he did use this place. I can’t explain how I know; I just know that he’s been here very recently. He can’t be far. The Fey intelligence network would have alerted Dagr or Evzen if they knew Daily had shifted locations, so it has been literally within the hour that he moved.”

  “I do not understand either. We were told specifically that Daily’s lair was here.” Dagr was frustrated and perplexed.

  “At the castle or the basilica?” The annoyance was plain in Gillian’s tone.

  “The basilica, Gillian. Ne
ither Evzen, myself or any of our Kin would make such a glaring mistake with our facts,” Dagr retorted, his vocal pitch matching her own.

  “I understand that, Dagr. I’m not blaming you or your friends. If Daily is here, he’s moved to another part of the complex, or he was only here in this section temporarily and leaked misinformation of his whereabouts to your people. Crafty bastard. We need to start checking the other buildings.”

  Evzen pushed through to the front of the line. “I will lead you up, then.”

  “Pavel will go first. Just tell him which way is out.” Gillian backed up to follow the Sidhe.

  “That way.” Evzen pointed.

  Pavel complied and headed for a door on the opposite side of the room they were in. Gillian opened it for him, then pushed Evzen back as she followed the Wolf. They traipsed up a set of stairs, down a long, carpeted hallway, into the main chapel, then out the front doors. Tourists who were visiting and taking pictures of the interior whispered and pointed at the group, mostly at Kelda, who smiled and waved at them.

  Outside, Evzen pointed to a bigger building near the basilica. The sign read ST. VITUS CATHEDRAL. It was much larger than the church they’d left. The baroque exterior of the buildings had obviously been added long after they were originally built.

  They filed across the courtyard, everyone’s senses on full alert for any undue attention or aggressive behavior from the state-employed, uniformed sentries patrolling the grounds or the groups of tourists enjoying the sights. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Several of the sentries even waved to their bunch.

  Gillian paused at the entrance to the cathedral. “Wait a second. Daily is a real priest, right?”

  “Was a real priest. After he went crazy he was defrocked, excommunicated and defamed,” Daed confirmed.

  “You mean after he was Turned,” Gillian corrected him.

  “Nope. I mean after he went crazy. The Church doesn’t excommunicate Paramortals. There are a number of non-Human priests. They’re not particularly famous, but they are definitely ordained priests. When Daily got political and started talking insanity, the Church took the position that hatemongering against the newfound peace wasn’t an ideal they wanted promoted by one of their own, so they told him to knock it off. When he refused to comply and even escalated, they booted him.”