After finding out from Albert that Beth had left in his Porsche some hours earlier, he assumed she had gone to visit her family. During the staff meeting with the Elite his thoughts kept flicking to Claire. He wanted to make sure she was safe, he also wanted to know more about who else may have wanted to hurt her like that.
"I will meet you in the training centre in an hour." With that he teleported out, arriving in a cold, sterile square room, he found Claire huddled in a corner of the bed. She was crying and sweating profusely. "Claire." Her head flicked up at her name.
"Vlad oh thank god. I was wrong I hate it here, please take me home." Looking at her face and the pain in her eyes, he wanted nothing more than to take her home. Yet her words from the previous evening came back to him; she did need to do this. "I can't do that Claire, but may I sit awhile?" She nodded; he sat on the bed not knowing what to say.
"The pain, it hurts. Oh god, talk to me."
“What do you want me to talk about?"
"Anything, distract me. Tell me about why you are so confused."
He did but not before he asked her about any enemies she might have had, as he expected she knew nothing. So for the next hour she listened as he poured everything out. She had gone quiet; he turned to check on her to find that she had gone to sleep. Standing he kissed her cheek and left. It was so sad to see such a vibrant girl reduced to such a mess. Vlad entered the training barracks, surveying the men as they stood to attention. With nearly two hundred men in his employ he did indeed have an army. However, unlike dictators he treated his men well, offering excellent pay, affordable homes and a generous shift rotation.
He had tried to build an army based on respect, and hoped that loyalty came from this. So far, it had worked and his men listened to him. They also came to him with any problems they had. Every week, he spent an evening with his men and women at the twenty acre training facility. Housed several miles away from his home even Vlad's army were not aware of his home. Tonight one of the men stepped forward to be listened to. With a nod the man commenced.
"Sir how true is it that you have bonded?" He had hoped to tell them himself; unfortunately with his sickness he was too late. "It is true I had aimed to inform you of this myself; however circumstances did not allow it. I have bonded to Beth of the Silver Wolf Pack; she is the stepdaughter of the Pack Alpha and highly regarded. I believe Beth will become an asset to both me and the vampires."
One of the new recruits stepped forward. "Um I apologise if I am speaking out of turn Sir, but will she be supporting the wives and children of newly turned vampires. Um it's just that some of them struggle when the transition occurs and others struggle to live openly with the humans. It is an area where support is needed."
Ah this was an intriguing idea, one Beth, he was sure would be marvellous at. "Firstly thank you for such an interesting notion, one I will consider. However no one should be converted without my agreement."
There were clear laws governing the vampires, ones that had been made as part of the alliance. "As I am sure you can imagine there is a lot for Beth to learn and understand, but as soon as things settle I would like for her to meet you and your families. Now is there anything else that needs to be addressed?"
Over the next few hours, Vlad stayed with the men and went through training techniques, always asking after their families. Towards the end of the session a young male approached him.
"Sir, can I take a moment of your time?" Vlad was dressed in only a pair of loose pants and was now sweating from the intense work out. His motto being, that if it was expected of the men it would also be expected of him.
"Of course"
"Well it didn’t make sense until you mentioned the name Beth…..But well, it's just."
Ice had been hovering in the background quickly lost his patience. "Spit it out boy."
"Well this woman, a new vampire in the City, has asked a couple of people to make moves on this woman Beth. She asked a friend of my brothers who knew that she was one of the Silver Pack, so he turned her down flat, but I thought you might like to know."
Initially lost for words, it took a minute for the implications of this to work through his brain. He was such a fool; he had let Talia come between them. Well no more, it was time he kicked Talia into touch, no more playing. But first he needed to sort things out with Beth.
Damn, he still couldn’t teleport to Beth. This time he pictured Beth's family home and arrived in the middle of supper. He was greeted much more warmly than his previous visit, the boys running to jump on him. Lucky and Ben looked strained and tired, with their worry evident. Ellie was watching him intently.
"Good evening Ellie, I didn’t have a chance to say how well you look when I visited last night. How long are you home for?"
"Well now's is a good a time as any, to say that I am back for good." Ben and Lucky cheered up at the news, wrapping her in a big hug. "That’s excellent. Um is Beth here?" No-one had seen Beth.
"Is she meant to be?" Ben asked, he didn’t want to place any more worry on them so with a shake of his head, he went to leave.
"Hold up Vlad, let's sit out front for a minute." He knew what they were sitting out front for; it was away from the children. He followed Ben and Lucky outside.
"Tell me who to look for." He was unsurprised to hear the venom in Lucky's voice. She was without a doubt the scariest woman he had ever met.
"The manager at the club supplied the drugs, but he was paid by a dealer to feed her, with the aim of getting her addicted. Ice is with the dealer although I can't work out why Claire was targeted."
"Who is the dealer?"
He was saved by the ringing of his cell. "It's Ice."
After listening to Ice, he relayed everything back to Ben and Lucky.
"It appears that the dealer has been communicating with some unknown person, via letters and wads of cash left in his mailbox. He doesn’t know why Claire was targeted; only that it was about weakening the wolves and vampires. It seems the man has a dislike for other species and was happy to help. I don’t think Ice has made his dislike any better considering he is about to drop the man at the hospital."
"What the hell is going on? First Conner and now Claire, is it the pack they are targeting?"
"It appears so; I must leave but call me if you need me."
"Vlad, I know you are busy but can you spare some time to visit Claire? They won't let us see her yet, I think we might take her out of there. I can't wait around for someone to say when I can see my child."
"I already have and she is…"
He didn’t want to lie but he didn’t think Claire would want them to know, just how awful things were for her.
"She is fine; she knows it will be a long recovery."
"Thank god, we are not allowed any contact with her in the initial period. I feel sick at the thought of her alone. No child should be alone during something like this."
"I will drop in on her again before the night ends."
As soon as he arrived back he called Beth's cell relieved when she picked up. "Hello."
"Beth it is me, are you okay? Where are you? We need to talk. I was wrong."
"That’s a few questions, I agree we need to talk, but I also need some space. I have gone to visit some friends for a few days but when I get back, we will sort things out once and for all."
"Where are you?" She could hear the disappointment in his voice and for some awful reason, this pleased her.
"It doesn’t matter where I am Vlad, I will be home in a few days."
She didn’t like being dishonest but right now she knew Vlad would go ballistic if she told him.
"I am going to go now Vlad but….thank you for calling me." Vlad couldn’t work out how he felt about Beth not being here, he was confused which is how he felt most of the time when he was with Beth.
This time he had an outlet for his anger, Talia. "TALIA." He need not have bothered shouting; she was coming into his study anyway.
"You have two weeks to sort out your pr
oblems with Edwardo, and then you leave."
"But...What?"
"You have gone too far, I have never wanted you in my home yet I put up with you, as long as you didn’t cause problems in my city. Well no more, two weeks and you are gone. After that if you so much as stub your toe on any human and that results in any distress, I will have to pass sentence on you."
"Don’t be ridiculous Vlad; if you kill me, you die. If you try to kill me Edwardo will come here seeking vengeance."
"That no longer concerns me Talia, I will deal with Edwardo."
With those his parting words he left his study and teleported back to the clinic. And for the second time that night he wished he hadn’t gone. Claire was writhing in agony, her clothing now wet and uncomfortable; she had vomited and looked like death wasn’t far away. "You are back."
"I am, can I help?"
"I was thinking about you and Beth, you have gotten things wrong with Beth, she would never betray you. She loves you and she has loved you since she first saw you at mom and Ben's wedding."
"I know now that she wouldn’t have deliberately hurt me. I want to apologise, but she has gone to stay with a friend."
"The knowledge that she has gone has pained you, hasn’t it?"
"It has, I didn’t expect to feel like this. I never wanted to…."
"I can feel the love you have for her inside."
In the dark empty room, she looked tiny on the bed, the starkness making the room more oppressive than it already was. Taking stock of his life he thought of Beth made him smile and laugh. She continued to infuriate him, but she also made him want to make her happy, the thought of losing her almost crippled him. He had never felt like this before, and sat here in this room he knew what Beth meant to him. "I do love her, more than life itself. But what if I have lost her?"
"You haven’t, love doesn’t work like that."
"Claire, you are an empath like your mother aren’t you?" Claire nodded. "But you mentioned dreams. What did you mean?"
"I see things in my dream, things that I don’t want to see. I even saw Connor before it happened. At the time it was a faceless person, and I didn’t understand what it meant. But when he died and I saw Connor in the woods, I knew that was what I had seen." The tears had started her grief and guilt immense. "If I had known I could have saved him."
"Claire, the fates work in a different way. If you were meant to save him, you would have. Although this gift is scary, you need to accept it and allow it to guide you."
"I can't it is too scary. I don’t ever want to have one of those dreams again."
Then she doubled over in pain, grabbing the sick bowl she threw up and started crying.
"I just want to sleep if only for a few hours."
He wanted to ease her pain; unfortunately he didn’t have that kind of power. But he knew a man who did.
"I will be back with someone to ease your pain." He did return only a few minutes later, bringing Ice with him. Claire was so consumed by her pain and nausea that she didn’t see them return. Ice didn’t say anything just watched her pain before sitting on the bed and singing a lullaby. His voice was mesmerising and healing. Within ten minutes she was asleep, and peacefully.
"What the fuck happened to her?"
"You know what happened, you can smell it. I wouldn’t have asked but she was in so much pain. Thank you for easing that, I need you to keep this…."
"Already done and if you want me to come back again just collect me. Poor girl, I take it that was why we were at the Underground."
Chapter 40
Arriving in Paris on the night flight had left them exhausted. Beth had booked a hotel which even had black out blinds. They needed to sleep and then work out how to contact Edwardo. Having never been to Paris, Beth was in awe of all of the food, the people and the clothes. Wow, the clothes were amazing, and she would definitely be returning to shop. The hotel was plain but acceptable, no room service but a lovely concierge. She had booked twin beds and both of them flaked as soon as their heads hit the pillows. Imogen had kept her company throughout the flight ignoring Beth's incessant chattering, brought on by her nerves. The vampires wouldn’t rise again until the evening, so they both caught up on some sleep.
It was the knocking that roused them, Imogen waking before Beth. The bellboy brought in hot drinks and a snack, looking a little scared when Imogen asked for a glass of blood. With the necessities done they went out onto the streets. The streets around the city were crowded, but nowhere near as crowded as New York. Different species interacting, yet no-one was able to point them to Edwardo. Just after midnight they were approached on the street by an old vampire, his blue hair stood out, and the tattoos drew attention to him. By the way people moved out of his way, Beth was pretty sure this man was connected.
"Follow me please ladies." His accent was disappointingly English, Beth loved the French accent.
This was the closest they had come to any lead so they followed. They were taken into a club that screamed decadence. Inside it was pure debauchery; some sort of sex club. Beth couldn’t help but look around at the scene: loud, pumping music, people in various states of undress, and in the midst of sex acts. Even the dancers in cages were wearing hardly any clothes. They were led through the club and arrived in a room which looked into the club through two way mirrors.
She could see Imogen scanning the room, as well as several vampires scanning Imogen. The woman had that effect on people, when she was turned illegally; the transformation had an unusual impact on Imogen. All bar one streak of her hair turned completely white and she was as strong as an eight or nine hundred year old vampire. Imogen also had hidden talents, one that she only used, if she needed to. There was a man in a booth in front of the glass, power radiating from him. He wasn’t as tall as Vlad, but he was broad and muscled. With wavy dark brown hair, and strong almost Greek features he was a very good looking man. Debating on whether to wait to be addressed, or to take the initiative and hope for the best, Beth went for initiative.
"You must be Edwardo, I am Beth and this is my friend Imogen."
"I wish that it was good to meet you, but I don’t know if that is the case. I do know that two females have been asking for me."
The room was dark, but lit by small candles, the black booth contrasting against the red carpeting. Edwardo obviously believed in being protected, there must be at least six guards all looking slightly mean and intimidating.
"That would be us; you know you speak marvellous English."
"I do, I also speak Greek and Chinese, but that’s not why you came here is it?" He was focused on Beth yet he didn’t let Imogen out of his sight.
"No it isn’t, I want you to fetch Talia and bring her back here."
He wasn’t expecting that, his mouth almost dropped open. "What exactly do you know about Talia?"
Smiling her most charming smile, Beth started. "Do you want a bullshit answer, or the truth?"
He looked amused which Beth thought might be good. "Try the bullshit version first."
"Well she loves you and misses you so much, she spends all of her time moping around depressing everyone."
"And the truth?"
"The woman's a menace and she is getting on my nerves." He actually laughed at the truth.
"From your accents would I be right in guessing that she is at Vlads?"
"She is, but she should be here."
"Tell me how you know her."
She looked to Imogen for guidance, but Imogen was watching the vampires closing in on them. Um maybe Beth had been wrong; this man might not care for Talia. "Well I know her through Vlad."
"Answer me a question; is he in love with her?"
Beth started laughing. "God NO, the man detests her."
"Then why are you here and not him?"
"Because the idiot thinks that if he keeps her there, and restricts her activities she will grow bored and return here."
Beth waited with bated breath, hoping they would make it hom
e. One of the vampires became a little bold and slid his hand down Imogen's long white hair, mistake, a big mistake. Imogen turned to face him, she grabbed him by the throat and slammed him against the far wall, the impact was so hard that the man damaged the wall. Another moved forward and Imogen stopped him in his tracks, she could literally freeze people at will. Edwardo was watching her with interest.
"I have to say, you ladies interest me. What are you to Vlad?"
With a sigh Beth disclosed that she and Vlad were bonded, and that Talia kept interfering in that.
"The woman really does need a chain, oh and a gag because her voice just grates at me."
"When she left I thought Talia had burnt her bridges here, and to be honest I don’t really want her back. Not in the way you think." Beth felt her hope disappearing before something occurred to her.
"Does that mean I can kill her?" Her voice had taken on a light and excited tone.
Edwardo laughed. "Has she really been that bad?"
"Yes, she has and I want her gone."
"I need to think about this, I may have a use for Talia but I need some time. How about we meet for dinner tomorrow? Let me give you my address."
He started pulling a card from his pocket until Imogen stepped in "No we meet in public."
Rather than be insulted he was impressed.
"A very wise decision. What I don’t understand is why a vampire less than a decade old, can hurt one of my more senior men. Why are your talents so well developed?"
"You should have seen me as a human I was a freak of nature even then. We will see you for dinner tomorrow evening, but if any of your men approach us with malice in mind between now and then, don’t expect them to return."
"Do you know what amazes me? You two ladies walk in her bold as brass, insult Talia, assault my staff and then threaten my staff, do you expect no consequences?"
With a smile Beth stood. "We came here in good faith, and both of us would see your men accosting us as a threat. We don’t want any problems, but we will defend ourselves. Besides I want to come back to Paris when I have more time to shop, it doesn’t make sense to make any enemies."
Two Halves of a A Vampires Soul (The Silver Series) Page 23
