Then he used his powers to summon one of the Court staff. When she arrived, he directed her to arrange immediate transport to the airport for all of them and entrusted the letter to her to deliver to Oleksandra. He also ordered food to be packed ready in the car. Kimberley was pale and exhausted; she needed food and rest, and to not shape-shift for at least several days.
He was about to call Kimberley to be ready to go when there was a knock at the door. He almost ignored it until he recognised the scent. He opened the door to find Sally on the other side with a cooler bag over one shoulder. She had a cheery smile on her face.
“I ’eard Lady Gabrielle was ’ungry, so I thought I’d bring ’er some food for the travels,” she said, holding out the bag. “There’s a selection of tasties in ’ere, somefing should be to ’er fancy; there’s even a little special somefing for that blasted cat when she gets ’ome. Just tell ’er goodbye from Sally and not to come rushin’ back.” There was a glint of seriousness in her eye, as though she was trying to tell him something.
“Thank you, Sally,” Julius told her sincerely. “I’ll pass your message along. We’ll be out of your hair very soon.”
She gave him a nod and glanced behind him.
“He can come back any time, though. I’ll feed ’im up and take good care o’ ’im.” She cackled as Julius glanced over his shoulder to find Derek standing in the outer room, ready to go; he was surprised to see the Werewolf looking embarrassed. The old woman beetled off with a wave, her chuckle still audible as Julius once again closed the door.
With an appetite reminiscent of Gabi’s, Kimberley tucked into a bowl of chicken soup and two bread rolls along with a large glass of milk. Lord only knew how Sally knew the right thing to send for a tired Shape-shifter, but as the woman wiped her mouth with a napkin, the effects were notable. Everything was packed, the pilots were preparing for the flight, and the car was waiting.
Julius was already reaching for the door when the next knock came. Expecting a staff member informing him that his car was waiting, he opened the door without thinking. Benedict was lounging against the door frame, sunglasses in place, his jaw muscles working on his chewing gum.
“Figured you’d be outta here as soon as you could, so thought I’d stop by and bid you and Lady Gabrielle adieu,” he said with a smirk.
“Get inside,” Julius growled, stepping back to allow the Princep entry. Kimberley had already re-donned Gabi’s face and was repacking the leftover food into the cooler bag.
Benedict slouched in and slammed the door shut, leaning back against it as he raised his glasses to his forehead and raked Kimberley up and down with dark, penetrating eyes. “Absolutely uncanny,” he said finally, with a shake of his head. He dropped the sunglasses back into place. “I didn’t even pick it up. How are you doing it?” he directed the question at Julius, who just smiled; it wasn’t a warm smile. If Benedict thought that Julius was somehow disguising whoever was acting as Gabi, it was safer to leave him under the misassumption.
“Doing what?” he asked instead, feigning innocence.
“Sly, tricky old fox.” Benedict laughed. “We’ll talk about it another time perhaps. The actual reason I’m here is to press home how seriously I think you should consider the Princeps’ proposal.”
“Ah,” Julius said, “really?”
“I feel quite strongly that it would be in your, and your lovely lady’s,” he smirked at Kimberley, “best interests. The Princeps would, in fact, be in your debt if you were to accept the role, and the Princep Court’s debt is an invaluable thing. Something that can get you out of a lot of trouble in the future.” One eyebrow quirked above his sunglasses. “But, of course, you must do what is best for you, so don’t feel like I’m pressuring you. I have been told to be at your disposal should you require any further information, so please don’t hesitate to call.” He was suddenly back at the outer door, but he looked back over his shoulder. “Oh yes, and you best get the hell out of here now.” And with that enigmatic statement he vanished from the room.
“Is it just me, or is that Vampire particularly freaky?” Derek asked under his breath.
“It’s not just you, Werewolf,” Rat muttered, uncharacteristically talkative. “It’s not just you.”
Filing the exchange away, Julius took the last piece of advice at face value and hurried them all out of the castle and into the waiting limousine.
********************
Athena pulled the Toyota Hybrid into the underground parking space and cut the engine. Then she took a minute to calm and centre herself. Her daily visit to check on Mariska never failed to throw her mind into turmoil. She’d been raised to be a strong, resourceful and resilient woman. She was proud of that. She was the youngest Magus to ever have a seat on the Magi High Council. Until a couple of months ago she’d thought that nothing could ever undermine her confidence in her own abilities.
But now? She’d lost her mentor, the woman who was closer to her than her own mother. She’d been thrust centre stage of the worst upheaval Magi-kind had seen in centuries, and she was being relied on to oversee an overhaul of Magi security measures worldwide. But still none of that affected her as badly as having to turn her back on the people she’d begun to see as friends and comrades-in-arms. Gabi and the others didn’t understand, and she could never explain, the pressure that was being heaped on her by the older High Councillors. Their expectations of change all the while not wanting to change themselves. Their staunch refusal to take her advice on including the other races in their strategic safety measures around the Source. The utter frustration that built inside her every time she faced them and tried to bring them around to her way of thinking.
And, as if that wasn’t enough on her shoulders, there was Mariska.
Athena had replayed that fateful night in her head over and over and over again. Gabi—bloodied, dishevelled and furious—aiming the crossbow at the Dark Magus as the woman desperately called the very power of the elements down against her. The flash of realisation deep within Athena that the Dark Magus carried two extra souls inside her. Her reaction to prevent the deaths of two innocent lives. Athena knew she’d done it as much for those tiny souls as for Gabi herself. Gabi might like to portray the rude, insensitive bitch, but Athena knew that the death of two babies at her hands would’ve eaten her alive. Athena had been looking right at her when Gabi had seen the young girl the Princep Santiago was flaunting at the Princep Ball.
And now? Now she wondered if she should have simply allowed Gabi to kill the Maleficus; she could probably have hidden the truth of the pregnancy from Gabi. It wouldn’t have been easy, but it might have been possible. If only one of her gifts was that of hindsight. Looking in at the pathetic creature Mariska had become was enough to knot her stomach every time she was forced to open the cell door. Robbed of her power by the pregnancy, the woman had lost all will to live. She’d tried repeatedly to kill herself and begged Athena in a dead, monotonous voice to ‘do it, kill me’ over and over again. The only thing that kept Athena returning day after day was the two bright sparks of life inside the woman’s burgeoning belly. Staff had resorted to tube feeding Mariska in order to keep the babies nourished, and Melinda, their most experienced Healer, had taken up residence at the respite in order to be on hand whenever Mariska’s life force flickered.
Melinda had assessed the babies’ progress at around twenty weeks. That meant that in order to give them a fighting chance at survival, they had to keep Mariska alive for at least another eight weeks. Once the babies were born, she’d be handed over to the Vindex, who would oversee her execution. There would be no further trial or recourse, her offences were far too serious.
And what of the babies? Would they indeed be like Gabi? Alexander had told her their concerns and demanded her oath of silence, though he knew that she too understood the potential consequences. So few knew Gabi’s secret and the fewer the better. Athena, unlike the rest of the High Council, fully understood how a war amongst Vampires would
affect them all.
She was torn, so tempted to wash her hands of her own kind and throw in with the rest of the City’s defenders, but she knew the Magi needed her. More than they could conceive. And the babies—someone needed to take care of the babies, someone who understood their possible heritage. One whose soul radiated bright, eye-piercing white, and the other equally bright ruby red. One pure Castius and the other Dark Magus, both possibly Dhampir.
She blew out a hard breath, throwing her head back; she wasn’t finding her calm tonight, no matter how hard she tried. There was one other option, though. One she’d recently discovered obliterated all her worries, even if only for a few minutes. She checked the time; it was less than an hour to sunset. She bit her lip, wondering if he’d be awake yet. Then, before she could think herself out of it, she pulled her phone out of her handbag and scrolled for Alexander’s number. He answered on the first ring.
********************
Gabi, Alexander, Patrick and Fergus met Henry in the private room at the back of Flamingos.
Gabi had hardly been able to sit still the entire day, both waiting impatiently for Julius’s return and wondering if Henry was all right.
As soon as the sun had risen this morning, she’d called Henry and invited him to the estate for breakfast. She’d filled him in on what they knew about the Kresniks’ sinister aims, and asked him to consider going undercover for them. Even though she’d made it crystal clear that he wasn’t under any obligation to do this for them, he’d agreed at once. Against Gabi’s better judgement, he’d insisted on getting started that same day, after just one short training session with Patrick.
By lunchtime Gabi once again resorted to Ian’s sleeping tablets just to get a few hours of much-needed rest and to save Julius’s carpets from her pacing. Receiving an encrypted text message from Henry late that afternoon had eased her conscience a little. At least he was still alive. He needed to be debriefed; they needed to know exactly what he’d discovered, sooner rather than later. Patrick decided it was too dangerous to let him come back to the Estate after establishing contact with the Kresniks, as none of them knew what kind of surveillance techniques the Kresniks might employ. Whatever they were and whoever was in charge, they were professional and well funded, there was no telling exactly what resources they could lay their hands on.
And so she found herself being snuck in the back door of the kitchens and escorted to Julius’s secure, private, soundproof room at Flamingos as the meat in a large, male Vampire and Werewolf sandwich.
They didn’t have to wait long for the sharp tap at the door that heralded Henry’s arrival. Patrick shushed the man when he slipped into the room, and ran an electronic scanner over his body. It pinged where they’d embedded the GPS locator chip in the back of his knee, but didn’t detect anything else.
Gabi had set her tablet on a small table and opened the VoIP programme so that they could patch in to Kyle and Trish. The Werewolves were still knee-deep in setting up the Werewolf Alliance control room, but they were also desperate to hear what Henry had to report. The online connection had been Trish’s idea, of course. Gabi truly admired her multitasking abilities.
Once their faces came into view and the audio connected, the rest of them took seats in a semicircle around the table. Gabi trained the camera on Henry’s face. He looked practically ready to explode with the information he wanted to share. The effort it had taken for him to keep his mouth shut these last few minutes had to have been immense for a man who habitually prattled on about everything, even the most inconsequential stuff.
Gabi noted that he’d somehow filled out a little in the past few months. When she first laid eyes on him in an underground cave system after miraculously not being killed by the Dark Elders who’d wanted to use him as a human sacrifice, he’d been thin to the point of scrawny. Overly large glasses and second-hand clothing had done nothing to improve his appearance. Since being officially under the protection of the SMV, he’d had full-time employment with a good salary and perks, and it showed in his healthier, happier appearance. With a good haircut, contacts and well-fitted jeans with a dark button-down shirt, he was barely recognisable.
“Right, Johnny Utah,” she teased him; Point Break was his all-time favourite movie. “Your debrief starts now.” He was an absolute sucker for the cloak-and-dagger stuff.
He leaned forward in his chair, excitement lighting his features. “The cover story worked brilliantly,” he enthused. “It only took me a couple of hours to be approached after I said the right things around a couple of the market stalls selling silver. It was a woman who sounded me out, just like you figured.” He grinned at Gabi. “She even bought me coffee. We tiptoed around for a while, I dropped the hints we discussed, and bang! I had her.”
Gabi bit back a smile, he was as adorable as a Saint Bernard puppy.
“She invited me to a meeting of ‘concerned citizens’.” He made the little air quotes with his fingers. “So I played it cool, not coming on too strong, told her I didn’t want to be ridiculed again, that I was tired of not being believed and I’d been burned before. I wasn’t going where I wouldn’t be appreciated.”
Gabi longed to hurry him up, but this was Henry’s way, and he’d put himself right in the firing line for them, so she hung onto the last shreds of her patience for all she was worth.
“Anyhow, cut a long story short, I finally agreed to join her for a meeting, and there happened to be one this afternoon.”
“Did she tell you where it was over coffee?” Patrick asked.
“No, she said she didn’t know, that they only got the address for the meeting an hour or so before it happened. She texted me the address about mid-afternoon. I wanted to let you know, but you guys said I mustn’t do anything to alert them, that they might be watching me, so I just went with it.”
“That’s excellent, Henry,” Patrick told him. “That’s exactly what you needed to do. You’re there to gather as much intel as possible. We’re not going to go rushing in until we know we can get to the guys giving the orders.”
Henry nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, so I went to the meeting, and there were seventeen of us. I made mental notes of everyone, but I think most people were using nicknames. Three of the Kresniks were there, including the girl who invited me. She called herself Angel. There was another woman, who never gave anyone her name, and a guy who did the talking; he called himself Big Dog.”
“Where did this meeting take place?” Kyle asked from the computer screen.
“It was a mechanics yard way out in the industrial area. There was a ‘for lease’ sign on the fence and it looked like it hadn’t been used in a while, so I think they must just go around looking for disused places. I think they use a different place for every meeting.”
“Hmm, that would make sense if you’re not wanting to get noticed or be traceable by anyone,” Gabi mused. “They’re acting unusually edgy; it’s like they’re expecting trouble.”
“Well, running around abducting Werewolves certainly is the equivalent of kicking a hornets’ nest. There’s going to be consequences,” Kyle muttered.
“Yeah, but unless you understand Werewolf social structure, how would you know that?” Gabi protested. “It’s more like they’re kicking the hornets’ nest but are already wearing safety clothing because they know what’s going to come rushing at them. Something just doesn’t feel right.”
“What was your impression, Henry?” Patrick asked him. “How much do they really know about Werewolves? Or any other supernatural, for that matter?”
“Well, that’s where it gets interesting.” Henry’s voice dropped an octave. “The meeting was all smoke and mirrors, lots of beating around the bush, talking about the what-ifs, the dangers that lurk in the shadows. Kind of like the introduction of a religious cult; stirring up prejudice and fear of the unknown, but without really going into what the unknown is. Then came the recruitment drive. You know, the whole ‘join with us and help us expose the truth’ k
ind of thing. A few of the people there really got behind it, but some others were looking more sceptical. When the main part of the meeting was done, everyone was asked to write down contact details, and as people were starting to drift away, certain individuals were approached by the Kresniks; it was always the fanatics, the ones who’d been excited by the talk. The others were just allowed to leave without another glance. I think the talk was purely to isolate a certain kind of person, obviously the kind of person they think they can work with.”
“And were you one of the chosen?” Gabi asked, but she could see by the pride on his face that he’d pulled it off.
“Of course,” he told her. “In fact, I was singled out by Big Dog and invited to meet some more of the group. I still played a little hard to get, but hinted at the physical proof I was in possession of, like you told me to. It was like throwing chum in the sea.”
“Excellent.” Gabi cracked her knuckles, once again missing the feel of her ring on her left hand. Patrick and Kyle had begun putting down a trail of crumbs that the Kresniks could be led down if there was no other obvious route to the leaders. By feeding the group certain information through Henry, they should be able to orchestrate a showdown on their terms instead of the Kresniks’. But first prize was a direct shot at the leaders and the suspected puppet master behind them.
“So you met the top dogs?” Kyle asked.
Henry was very nearly jumping out of his seat. “They offered to take me directly to meet upper management, as they called it. I told them my proof was in a very secure location, and I would only consider showing it to them after I met someone from the top and once I believed they were on the level and genuinely wanted to do something about eradicating the abominations from our society. Sorry.” He looked a little sheepishly at Patrick, who waved his concerns away.
“You’re doing a job, Henry, one that will protect us. We’re not quite that sensitive, don’t worry.”
Come Hell or High Water (Hellcat Series Book 5) Page 18
