Patrick, the Werewolf in charge of Julius’s daytime security, waved a hand and strode over. The man, as always, held himself in the stiff-backed stance of a soldier, his neat goatee and buzz cut also emphasising his military background.
“Alpha,” the man greeted him.
“Patrick,” Kyle returned. They didn’t shake hands. They respected each other, had fought alongside each other in the past, even liked each other, but their wolves prohibited any true friendship between them. Patrick was a long-standing Solitary, a contented, controlled lone wolf, happier without Pack ties, much like Kyle had been just three short years ago. Kyle’s wolf, however, wouldn’t be happy until the man submitted to his authority; he had a rather vast ego, did his wolf.
“I’m sure I don’t need to say it,” Patrick continued, “but I’m sorry to hear that your ward was taken, and your wolf injured. Please don’t hesitate to call on me personally if there is any way I can help.” The man was technically under Gabi’s orders, but in reality she rarely interfered in any of the day-to-day operations of the Clan. In an emergency, however, she wouldn’t hesitate to redirect Patrick, or indeed any other member of the Clan, where she needed him. While she and Patrick weren’t as close as some of Julius’s other staff, they certainly trusted each other, and Kyle knew the man would follow her into a fight without hesitation.
“Thank you,” he told the Solitary. “We may need extra backup once we locate the kidnappers, but we also don’t want to leave the Estate or any of the Havens vulnerable. Whomever we’re dealing with here, they’ve been one step ahead of us for weeks, and they don’t have a problem killing those who get in their way. I wouldn’t put it past them to create another diversion in the form of an attack on our vulnerabilities.”
“I understand,” Patrick said. With those simple words he conveyed that he fully appreciated that they were, in essence, under siege. “I’ll call in all non-essential staff. We’ll ensure there is an extra contingent on call at all times. We’ll be prepared for anything, anytime. Until this is resolved.” He gave Kyle a nod of reassurance, and then a ghost of a smile twitched his salt-and-pepper moustache. “I heard the McLaren arrive and took the liberty of arranging some food to go; it’s on its way. Keep an eye on our Consort, would you?”
“Always.” Kyle knew his answering smile was slightly grim.
The man marched briskly away just as Gabi jogged back around the bend, an overnight bag in one hand and a large paper bag in the other. The scent of fresh bread, pastrami and strong cheddar cheese wafted from it enticingly. His stomach gurgled in response.
“Gods bless that man,” he muttered, opening the McLaren’s door for Gabi and relieving her of the bag of food. “If we have another crisis like this in the future, I’m employing someone solely to run around and keep everyone fed.”
“Why wait for the next crisis?” Gabi asked, shoving her bag into the tiny excuse for a rear seat and disturbing Razor’s sleep in the process. “I’m sure we could find a willing gofer now already.”
Razor grumbled sleepily but perked up at the scent of food. As the car roared to life, he very unsubtly put a paw on Kyle’s shoulder and lightly dug his claws in.
“Yes, yes, hold on,” Kyle muttered, ignoring Gabi’s smirk as he dug through the bag and was immensely pleased to find that Patrick had indeed thought of everyone. “Your car is going to smell positively wonderful after this,” he shot back at his grinning friend as he fished a large can of tuna out of the bottom of the bag. The unadulterated horror on Gabi’s face was the first bright spot of his day.
CHAPTER 15
Food, a hot shower and fresh clothes had done wonders for Kyle’s mood. And apparently Gabi’s as well. She and Razor joined him as he left the main house, leaving both his wife and his daughter curled up asleep on their huge bed and watched protectively by a steadily less aggressive wolf pup.
“Jade’s Changed back now?” Gabi asked him. The girl had still been in wolf form when they’d arrived back at Haven an hour ago. They’d decided to give her another hour to come to herself naturally, or Gabi would go and try to bring Jade back from wolf form. Sometimes after a serious injury or a particularly traumatic event, the human side didn’t want to come back. Staying hidden in the recesses of the wolf’s mind seemed like a perfectly good idea. In those times only a true Alpha could help, and sometimes even they would be unsuccessful.
“Yes, Ben sent me a text five minutes ago,” he told her. “She’s disorientated and hungry but lucid.” As they walked, Kyle’s eyes roved across his Haven. A wolf patrolled both the east and the northern boundary in human form; the other boundaries were farther out, longer and more vulnerable to attack. Those would be patrolled by either Ross or Rory, two of his most senior wolves, both experienced enough to call their wolf form whenever needed. CCTV cameras swept the place restlessly from tall vantage points. Ben would be monitoring everything they recorded from the control room.
Med bay was dark and quiet, just the hum of the fridge that stored the medication and the quiet tap of a drip that fed fluids into Jade’s arm. The woman herself sat on a narrow gurney in one of the small ward spaces. She was dressed in a loose-fitting tracksuit and looked pale and tired, her eyes bloodshot and her shoulders hunched. At their entrance she hastily tried to smooth down the tangled mess of her silver-blonde hair and brushed a few crumbs from her lap onto the food tray lying beside her. Then she tried to move her tracksuit top to hide the dark grey stains from where the last remnants of the silver had seeped from her pores.
“You’ve eaten something?” Kyle checked.
She nodded, swallowing.
“Is it staying down?” Gabi asked, coming up beside him. Her expression was a mix of concern and understanding. The after-effects of silver-sickness were slightly different for all Werewolves, anything from general fatigue to hair loss and light sensitivity, but nausea was one of the more common, longer-lasting side effects.
Jade swallowed again. “For now,” she answered with a forced smile. Her eyes briefly left theirs to glance around the bay. She relaxed once she spotted a small plastic bin on the ground next to the gurney.
“How are you feeling?” Kyle asked. “And don’t say fine.”
Her smile flashed again, but it carried more pain than mirth. “I’m…I’m so sorry,” she began, dropping her eyes to her hands tightly clasped in her lap.
“Don’t,” Kyle said, walking closer to her, allowing his wolf to come forward, to see her for himself. “You know there was nothing more you could have done. You went above and beyond. We’re lucky you’re still with us.” His wolf reached out to touch hers, offering his own assurances, as well as reassuring himself that she was recovering, that the silver had been worked out of her system.
“You haven’t found her yet, have you?” Jade asked in a tiny voice.
“No,” Kyle admitted, “not yet. But we will.” He reached out one hand, laying the back of it against her cheek. At the contact she closed her eyes and released a long, slow breath as silent tears began to trickle down her face. It was easy to forget how powerful the Pack bond was for the less dominant wolves, until moments like this brought it into stark focus. Kyle kept the contact until her tears dried and she opened her eyes. Adoration shone in them, making him uncomfortable, but his wolf immensely happy.
“Sicarius?” she asked at last with a tiny hiccup, as he drew back and she used her sleeve to dry her eyes. “Did he…?” She couldn’t finish.
“He’s undergoing Turning.” Gabi spoke up. “It looks like he’ll pull through fine.”
“If there hadn’t been so many of them…” The girl drifted off, shaking her head. “I think some of them were the Ghoul things you’ve been chasing down in the City. Sicarius…he got some shots off before they swarmed him and began…” Her voice cracked. It was also easy to forget that not all wolves enjoyed violence. Some, like Trish, found it abhorrent, despite what their wolves felt. “He shot them, some of them in the face or the head, and they didn’t eve
n slow down.” A shudder ran down her body. “They didn’t speak or make any sounds of pain…”
“It’s alright, Jade. You’re okay now. You’re safe. Those things were zombies. The three of you didn’t stand a chance against them,” Kyle told her.
“The one that was shouting orders…” she continued, “knew what I was, knew I was a Werewolf. I heard him tell someone to use the silver bullets on me. Flora…Flora tried to stand in front of me, to protect me. When the first bullet hit me and the…the burning started, I lost control. My wolf took over, and I don’t remember anything after that.”
“Your wolf was incredible,” Gabi said as Kyle stepped to one side, allowing her space next to him. “She was standing guard over Sicarius when we arrived, despite the terrific pain of silver-sickness. It’s entirely possible that he survived because she stopped them from killing him outright.” Gabi wiped away one of Jade’s tears with her thumb.
“What can you remember from before they hit you with silver?” Kyle hated pressing her to recall the attack, but they had little choice. “Faces, names, vehicles, smells, anything that can help us narrow down the search.”
Jade’s hands clenched a little tighter in her lap, but a determined expression hardened her delicate features. Her eyes flicked up unseeingly as she concentrated on pulling up her memories.
“They were in three vehicles,” she began. “Sicarius called on Flora’s phone to tell us he thought a vehicle was tailing us. As we were debating what to do, we heard the loud pops, and the car veered off the road.” She stopped for a moment, realisation dawning in her expression. “They knew where we were heading; they weren’t tailing us, they were waiting for us to spring their trap.”
“Did you recognise any of them?” Gabi asked, folding her arms across her chest.
“It all went down so fast.” Jade sighed. “They were shooting as soon as we made it out of the car.” Her hands unconsciously moved to protect her chest where the silver-tipped bullets must have hit her. “Someone was yelling, shouting orders, don’t hit the girl, don’t hit the girl.” She looked at Kyle. “They didn’t want Flora harmed; he was adamant. That’s a good thing, right?”
“Yes, of course it is,” Kyle told her. But deep in his chest he knew that nothing about this was good.
“What about that voice? Can you describe it? Deep? High-pitched? Did they have an accent?” Gabi refused to let them drift off topic.
“An accent, he had an accent.” Her mouth dropped open; her eyes widening with shock. “Deshane,” she whispered, disbelief colouring her voice. “It sounded like Deshane, but not exactly. I’ve never heard Deshane sound like that—angry, demanding, harsh.”
“We believe that Deshane is involved,” Kyle told her. “He was using his friendship with you and Flora to get closer and gather intel.”
“But why? What does he want with Flora? Why would he resort to such violence?” Jade sounded horrified.
“If we figure that out, we’ll have a better chance of finding her,” Gabi growled.
They spent another ten minutes writing down anything Jade could remember, vehicle types and colours, number of attackers, and a few names that were used as they bundled Flora into a dark people-mover. It wouldn’t be enough to break the case, but there was a good chance they could track the convoy now that they knew what to look for. Then they escorted Jade to one of the guest suites at the rear of the Hive and made sure Ben kept an eye on her, before heading back to the main house. They’d just stepped into the kitchen and Kyle was reaching for his phone to call CenOps with the information when Gabi’s phone rang.
She pulled it from her pocket, looking like someone bracing themselves for more bad news. Once she saw who the caller was, she relaxed.
“Hey,” she purred into the phone as she pointed imperiously at the coffee maker.
Kyle took the hint as Razor leapt onto the kitchen counter and watched him with a baleful gaze. Kyle knew it could only be Julius. It would be good to have the Vampire back to help, but SID rarely got involved in anything except the most serious cases of Vampire wrongdoing. It usually meant saving human lives, so Kyle doubted he would be able to rush back to the City on short notice.
As he placed a coffee capsule into the espresso maker, footsteps sounded on the staircase. He turned to see Trish, sleep rumpled and bleary-eyed, coming around the corner. She brought an instant smile to his face, and he opened his arms. She snuggled into him, breathing in his scent as he kissed the top of her head.
“Hold on.” Gabi’s voice interrupted their quiet moment. “Kyle and Trish are here. I’m putting you on speaker.” She threw them an apologetic look as she set the phone on the counter and pressed an icon. “Julius has some information for us,” she told them by way of explanation.
“Eka has sent me a communique.” Julius’s voice emanated from the phone. “It seems he still has someone loyal to him on the inside. The Decuria have finished licking their wounds; they are moving to reset their original plans in motion. And their plans were linked to an ancient prophesy about two people known as the Architect of Chaos and the Architect of Order. This prophesy states that in this millennium the Architect of Chaos will overcome the Architect of Order, bringing about an era of disorder. They are determined to see this prophesy fulfilled, as they see it as the disruption to the natural order that will enable them to take command, to bring humans to their knees and rule over all the races. Flora, or someone like her, was always integral to these plans. They need someone very powerful, with control of Dark Magic, able to utilise the dark energy that will prevail across the world once the prophesy comes to fruition.” He paused to draw breath; even Vampires had to breathe occasionally.
“This prophesy sounds suspiciously similar to the one the Magi insist is linked to Breanna and Mariska’s other child,” Kyle muttered.
“I agree,” Julius said. “I think this is the same prophesy told by a different author, one with a bias towards the dark side.”
“This fits in with what Athena has told us about the Patrium Nocte,” Trish added, looking distractedly at the nail she had been chewing. “If the dark twin were to…were to…win…then the Patrium would overwhelm the Source. It would become the predominant form of power and drain the Castius energy into almost non-existence.”
“Eka’s communication noted that they had discounted trying to recruit the Architect of Chaos, as they were deemed too intractable,” Julius continued. “It seems they want their own puppet, someone able to utilise the power of the Patrium, but on their side.”
“And they want this puppet trained and committed to their cause before it all happens,” Gabi mused.
“Perhaps they think their own Dark powerhouse would be able to swing the success of the prophesy in their favour?” Kyle added. “The information Athena found said that both the Source and the Patrium would be at similar strength right now. If they had access to the Patrium, they have a potentially huge source of dark energy to utilise.”
“That’s it,” Gabi said, her mouth dropping open. “That’s it. That’s why Flora. She is one of probably very few who will have the ability and the raw talent needed to use the energy of the Patrium. All they have to do is find a way to convince her, or force her, to use it.”
“And if we find the Patrium, we’ll find Flora,” Trish whispered.
“I’m coming home,” Julius stated flatly. “This is bigger than just us, just the City. We have to stop them before they tap into the Patrium, before Flora ascends and is caught up in something way beyond her control. Justin is filing a new flight plan as we speak. Stay safe until I get there.”
Gabi flicked off the speakerphone and picked up the phone to say her goodbyes. Kyle and Trish stood staring at each other. An hour ago Kyle wouldn’t have thought it possible for the situation to become any more serious.
How wrong he would’ve been.
The air throughout the Hive was heavy with tension as Pack Werewolves milled around, gearing up, checking rosters, loading up on
food and trying to rest. The lack of anything to do or a target to aim for was fraying everyone’s nerves. In the war room Kyle was trying to keep his impatience and frustration under control, but those same emotions radiating from Gabi, Butch and Derek was making it difficult. He knew Trish would call soon with an update from CenOps. She had driven back there a little over half an hour ago, and the staff would be debriefing her on their progress right now.
Unexpectedly the door to the conference room opened and, like the trailer of a Hollywood Vampire hero movie, three male Vampires in identical dark clothing, expensive boots and floor-length dusters swept inside, Alexander in the forefront, Tabari and Mac close behind him.
“You should have come and woken me,” Alexander growled to Gabi as they joined the group around the table.
“There was nothing you could have done,” Gabi retorted, folding her arms across her chest and lifting her chin. “We’re all just standing around waiting for something to happen.”
“You know investigation is my forte, Hellcat,” he replied acerbically. “And old myths and legends are a personal favourite. I have a collection of books and scrolls that not even the esteemed Magus High Council have access to.” He had a point; it had been Alexander and Julius who had figured out that Gabi was a Dhampir, something that had only existed in the form of reverently whispered tales for over three centuries.
“Sorry,” Gabi bit off, relaxing her arms and sighing. “You’re right, I should have woken you, but we only found out that the prophesy was linked to all this a couple of hours ago anyway.”
“Never mind.” The Vampire’s mouth curved into a smirk. “Athena woke me when your text came through.”
Kyle caught his eyebrow lifting in surprise. It wasn’t common knowledge that the High Magus and the Clan second were in a relationship. It was extremely unusual for either of them to speak openly of it, but more surprising was the fact that Athena was able to wake Alexander from daysleep. As far as he had been aware, only Vampire blood, or Gabi’s blood, could rouse them. A quick glance at Gabi’s face told him that she was as surprised as he was. Before anyone could speak again, Kyle’s phone rang.
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