Wlodek turned to look at Merrill as he had the first prisoner brought forward, and I saw Merrill incline his head in the barest of nods. Wlodek turned back to the prisoner and began his questioning. One of the questions involved Xenides.
"Are you familiar with Xenides?" Wlodek asked. This vampire wasn't as old as Wlodek and was compelled to answer his questions without Merrill's assistance.
"Yes. He was my contact when I dealt with Saxom Meletius."
"Has he ever asked you to engage in acts of terrorism?"
"I have placed compulsion at his request. Twice in Pakistan. Once in Afghanistan."
"What compulsions did you place?"
"To carry out attacks or assassinations at Xenides' request," the prisoner replied. This was beginning to frighten me horribly. Wlodek asked a few more questions but there was nothing as consequential as that answer. The vote was taken; Charles was doing his job efficiently, tapping away on his laptop. The guilty verdict was unanimous—how could it be otherwise? Trevor, the Assassin I hadn't seen before, performed the duty of removing the prisoner's head. Sebastian was brought forward then. He looked insane to me, his heavy brow lower than I remembered and a wild look clouding his eyes. Wlodek placed compulsion but Sebastian's answers were rambling. I got the idea that he'd rewritten and forged Wlodek's signature on the final documents delivered to Vilmos, leading him to believe that he had more time. Vilmos turned over documents to Sebastian at that time, requesting a lengthy extension for his human companion until the baby was older. Vilmos planned an attempt to turn his companion after that. Sebastian never delivered those documents to Wlodek. When the Council ordered Vilmos' death, along with that of his female companion, Sebastian had come on them unaware, murdering them and taking the baby. It was too horrible to think about. The judge I'd worked for in Oklahoma had been in juvenile court and we seldom saw acts this violent or heinous. Mostly it was thefts, robberies, drugs and fights. I shivered a little.
When the guilty vote was again unanimous, Wlodek sat for a few seconds. "I am going to depart from tradition here and offer this execution to Lissa," he said, turning his gaze to me as I leaned against the cave wall. Normally I hated executions but this one—I was going to take it. I nodded at Wlodek and stepped away from the wall. I walked behind Sebastian who stood there, facing the Council. He knew, somewhere in his mind, that he was going to die. I wasn't going to drag it out. There might have been a gasp or two in the room when I went to mist in a heartbeat and perhaps a few more gasps when my claws appeared behind Sebastian, slicing through his neck so swiftly they weren't even a blur. I rematerialized behind Sebastian while he was still standing. Slowly he toppled before me, his head remaining on his shoulders until he pitched forward. It rolled away then and the body turned to ash. Wlodek never blinked while this occurred. I returned to my spot between Gavin and Merrill.
* * *
"Lissa, will you turn me to mist sometime?" Charles hurried to catch up with me as we walked out of the cave later.
"You want to be mist?" I asked. "You can do me a favor at the same time. You can tell me if you see or hear anything while I take you flying. Merrill, do you mind if I do this?" I asked.
"No, Lissa. Go ahead and take Charles." I took Charles's hand and turned us both to mist before lifting into the air and flying over the trees in the park-like area around the cave. The moon was nearly full, which gave us a magnificent view of all of it. Someday, perhaps, I would fly free over the English countryside during a full moon, just to see if I could catch up with any werewolves. That might be something to see. I turned around after only a few minutes, landing Charles next to Wlodek, Merrill, Gavin and Brock, who were nearly to the waiting cars.
"Did you see or hear anything?" I asked Charles, who was wide-eyed with wonder.
"Honored One, you should ask her to take you, sometime," Charles was as happy as I'd ever seen him. "That was amazing. We flew over the trees so fast they were almost a blur."
"I'm glad you could see it, I was afraid you wouldn't be able to," I said. "Most of my passengers are frightened out of their wits."
We rode in silence afterward to Wlodek's mansion. Wlodek was going to place the call to Tony upon our arrival. It would be five hours earlier where Tony was; it was nearly three in the morning in London.
Rolfe got a hug when I came through the door. The tall vampire was waiting and held the door open for all of us. Merrill cleared his throat a little so I let Rolfe go and walked along behind Wlodek and Charles. Gavin came up beside me and placed a hand on my neck, rubbing my nape with his thumb. Extra chairs were placed inside Wlodek's study; even so, Gavin pulled me into his lap. Wlodek didn't raise an eyebrow. Charles had his laptop plugged in quickly while Wlodek settled himself behind the desk. Charles came forward, lifted Wlodek's cordless phone from its cradle and dialed the number. Tony answered on the second ring. Charles had the whole thing set up on speaker, although we could hear both sides of the conversation anyway. I assumed it was in case Merrill or anyone else wanted to comment so that Tony could hear.
"Director, this is Wlodek, Head of the Council," Wlodek identified himself.
"Hello, Honored One," Tony replied. At least he knew how to address Wlodek properly.
"It is my understanding that you not only used ash from rogue vampires but blood from our Lissa as well to perform experiments," Wlodek got right to business.
"That is true," Tony admitted. "But the results were highly successful. I can send you any of the records and the digital images, if you wish. I know you will be impressed." Tony was trying to make this come out in his favor by courting Wlodek.
"Young man, we are aware of what vampire blood will do to humans if it is introduced into their bodies in small amounts. Please tell me that these experiments were not performed on humans."
Tony hesitated for a few moments. "Well, we did go forward with a few human subjects," he admitted.
"How many?" Wlodek demanded.
"Six," Tony replied.
"Director, I hope that you are not one of those six. Regardless, you have condemned each of them to death. While the initial results may appear wondrous and promising, the truth is that such a small amount of vampire blood causes a reaction in the human body. The human antibodies see the introduced blood or tissue as a virus or other disease, and marshals the body's defenses. The vampire DNA then fights back. The entire process is extremely harmful to the human, resulting in a very rare blood disease. Are you familiar with Blackfan Diamond Anemia?"
Tony was tapping on his computer; I could hear his fingers hitting the keys. "Holy shit," he said after a bit.
"Normally the human is born with this condition," Wlodek went on, "and sometimes the disease can be dealt with by performing bone marrow transplants or administering treatments of steroids. This will be a particularly virulent strain, however, and there will be no cure. Your humans will be dead within three months. I suggest that you prepare them for this."
"And you know this how?" Tony asked.
"Do you think that we are stupid or without resources of our own?" Wlodek's voice held contempt. "These experiments have already been performed by scientists within our own race. When we saw the results of these experiments, we shut them down swiftly. If you had asked, the information would have been provided to you. Go ahead—test your subjects. The disease will already be present."
This information was whirling in my brain. This was awful. Tony and that other man had used my blood to kill innocent people. If he'd been in front of me right then, I might have slammed him through a wall. And then another thought hit me, which caused me to gasp aloud.
"Oh God, oh God," I moaned, sliding out of Gavin's lap. "Tony, I still think you're scum but you have to listen to me! Are you listening?"
"I'm listening, Lissa."
"This is what Xenides and Rahim are doing, Tony. They've compromised the flu vaccines. They've introduced vampire DNA into the vaccine and since nobody will know right away, they can kill half the world's populat
ion with tainted vaccine. That's what they were doing in France, Germany, Belgium, Great Britain and Atlanta. I'll bet there are pharmaceutical companies that manufacture the vaccine in all those places. This is terrible!" I was gasping for breath.
Tony was shouting and cursing, suddenly. "I have to go!" he yelled and the line went dead.
The End
* * *
The Blood Destiny series continues with Blood Domination, coming soon to an e-reader near you.
About the Author:
Connie Suttle lives in Oklahoma with her patient, long-suffering husband and three cats (the cats are not long-suffering and are certainly not patient). Connie adores fantasy of all kinds and loves vampires, werewolves and most other things one might bump into in the night. When she isn't reading, she's writing (except when the cats are hungry). For information on forthcoming titles, please visit her website at www.subtledemon.com, her blog at subtledemon.blogspot.com or subtledemon on twitter or Subtle Demon on Facebook.
Blood Sense (Blood Destiny #3) Page 25
