I shrugged nonchalantly.
“Well, at least she’s on board. That’s the main thing. What else?”
“Kalin has a lead on finding the so-called Vampire Saint.”
“And we’re sat here discussing it why?” I asked. “Get me booked on an Osprey bound for the Oxford base, I need to find out what he knows soon as.”
“I’m coming with you,” she said bluntly, and I glared at her.
“No Lori, you can’t - who the hell would run this place?”
“Firstly, tell me what I can and can’t do again and I’ll break your face. Secondly, you are my boyfriend now, my first in several years, and as such I have a vested interest in your well-being. Thirdly,” she paused for a moment, as if weighing up her words. “Thirdly...I hate to undermine this whole icy persona I’ve been cultivating, but I’d miss you. A lot.”
It seemed like that admission was quite big for her, but she continued before I could say anything more.
“Besides, Markus could do it again. I’m sure he won’t mind.”
I sighed heavily. She really wasn’t content with me going on my own.
“Alright, make the arrangements,” I told her, and she made the relevant notes. “But get Markus up here first, and make sure we get a room with a double bed at Oxford.”
“It isn’t a hotel, Deimos,” she told me, and I shrugged again.
“I don’t care, I’m the boss - I want a double room for us, and if Kalin wants to keep his job he’ll get me one,” I told her with a chuckle.
I was damned if Lori and I were going to be crammed onto a single bed again.
An hour later, Markus stood before me with his hands behind his back, still trying to act like the perfect neutral party.
I almost hated him. When I had gone to challenge Sharriana, Markus had told me that he knew she was not right, but chose not to challenge her himself because it “wasn’t his place.” As far as I was concerned, his inaction got my wife killed.
It was only his insistence that killing her at that time would have created an internal power struggle that stopped me demanding his head, but I still wasn’t sure of him.
“You summoned me, My Lord?” His tone was unfailingly polite, coloured only by his German accent.
“Yes, Markus, I did,” I replied, putting the last few signatures in place on some paperwork. “Lori and I are going to the Oxford base soon, to chase down a lead in an investigation of mine. I’ll need you to look after the base again while we’re gone.”
“As you will it,” was his infuriating reply. He rarely seemed to show any emotion, except an idle amusement at various things.
“Markus.” I used the name more as a weapon than a title, and even then he seemed unmoved.
“My Lord?”
“Don’t think this means I have forgiven you, or that I trust you any further than necessary. Just make sure my organisation doesn’t fall apart in the next couple of days.”
He just smiled at me and bowed, and I dismissed him with a wave.
One day I would work out what he thought he was playing at. That much I promised myself.
Lorelei and I continued our work for a little while - the only flight with available space hadn’t been until later in the evening, when Lori and I would normally be in my room. So, we carried on with the reports.
An interesting thing came across my desk at that time - the Prime Minister of Australia was actually asking for a greater Order presence in his country. Apparently there had been some unpleasantness with local ferals and non-Order vampires, until several of our people over there had managed to get involved.
I had Lori write up a thoroughly polite “of course, it’s about fucking time” letter, signed it and had that mailed off as soon as possible. I just had to hope they wouldn’t be the only country to see sense.
Eventually it came time to close the office again, and Lori kissed me before she left for her own quarters to pack.
I didn’t think I’d ever get used to that.
We met again a short while later, walking to the airfield beside each other and sharing a few jokes. We stopped suddenly when we saw, once again, a group from Corvus Team milling around, and once again they were led by Kelly.
I hate to admit it, but I hadn’t even realised they got back Toronto.
Kelly spotted us and walked over to us, and I looked at Lorelei suspiciously.
“Was this you again?”
She shook her head, but it was Kelly who answered.
“No, My Lord. Captain Gaijaram sent us to be your personal escort and honour guard again,” she told us, her hands resting on the shotgun slung in front of her.
“Huh. Your commanders must have pretty good contacts then,” I told her. After all, it had only been a few hours previously when we’d made the arrangements.
“Aye, true enough.” There was a moment of awkward silence as Kelly stood there, blocking our path, almost expectant.
“Is...there a problem Kelly?” I asked her, and she looked pointedly at her weapon.
“I heard a rather scurrilous rumour this morning, My Lord,” she said in a calm, measured voice. “I heard that you and Lady Selano had become quite close during the party, and were now dating. Can you imagine?”
I wasn’t sure what to say. Lorelei just shrugged.
“Contessa?” Kelly said, and Lorelei looked to her, a single eyebrow raised in question.
“Deimos may be our lord, but he is still my friend. I hope you’re goin’ to take care of him.”
“While it’s none of your business,” Lorelei replied politely, “yes, I am. I may seem like I don’t care about anyone, but I’m merely picky about those I trust. I trust Deimos, and I care for him deeply, and for those reasons I will look after him in all respects.”
Kelly nodded, seemingly placated.
“Right ye are,” she said, her tone laced with threat, “’cos if you don’t you’ll be gettin’ a twelve-gauge facelift.”
She turned around and started bellowing orders at her team, who rapidly began moving onto the aircraft in an orderly fashion.
Lorelei simply looked at me, a wry smile playing on her lips.
“Such charming company you keep, dear,” she told me, before leading the way onto the Osprey.
As usual, the flight passed without incident. Well, granted there was that time with the two fighters that attacked us, but I’d just pissed off Sharriana at the time. That was to be expected. This time it was a standard flight to my old base, and I was looking forward to it.
Kelly and I talked a bit - she seemed to ignore Lorelei for the time being, possibly due to a lack of trust. That was annoying, but I didn’t need anyone else to trust Lorelei - I trusted her, and that was all that mattered.
Apparently, Kelly had actually had a shockingly mature conversation with Sabine, and they had agreed to try a relationship, despite the distance.
Lorelei contented herself by listening to some music, her fingers entwined with mine, with her head resting against my shoulder.
We were greeted in Oxford by a small honour guard of Omega Company troops, who all snapped to attention as I exited the aircraft. Kalin stood with them, as broad and muscular as ever but with a much thicker head of hair than I remembered. He bowed to me once, before embracing me as a friend, chuckling as he did.
“It is grand to see you again, my friend,” he told me, gesturing for me to walk with him. “It took some doing, but we have the information you were after - although we have a problem here which seems connected to your investigation.”
As we walked, Lorelei fell into step at my right, walking close to me and putting an arm around my waist. She seemed to be a bit defensive, although I couldn’t imagine why. Kalin gave the pair of us only a cursory glance, his expression blank and unreadable.
“So what’s this other problem of yours?” I asked him, casually reciprocating Lorelei’s gesture, and Kalin’s blank expression dissolved into one of concern.
“You will see shortly,�
� he said ominously, and led the way inside.
I recognised where were going fairly quickly - partly due to my own repeated trips there when I had served at the Oxford base. We were walking to the infirmary, and I wondered if Doctor McEwart was still working there.
As it happened, he was.
“Ah, Mister Black!” he called cheerfully. “So nice to see you again, when you aren’t bleeding everywhere.”
Before I replied Lorelei stepped forwards a pace, fixing the bespectacled, grey-haired man with a deadly glare.
“It’s Lord Black now, in case you missed the memo,” she growled, and Doctor McEwart swallowed nervously.
“Hon, it’s fine,” I told her, placing a hand gently on her arm. “You don’t need to terrify everyone into using my title, okay?”
“I just don’t want people thinking they can ignore your authority because of your history with them,” she said to me, ignoring the doctor completely.
“Sorry doc, I’ll speak to you later perhaps,” I said apologetically, beginning to lead Lorelei away.
“As you say, My Lord,” he replied flatly, returning to his work, which seemed to please Lorelei. I shook my head at her, hoping she would stop acting like an over-zealous guard dog soon.
We caught up with Kalin, who led us into the Quarantine unit, stopping at the first room. He gestured for us to look through the observation window, and what I saw disturbed me.
It wasn’t that the view was particularly horrifying - although the the fact that the room’s occupant seemed to have been scribbling on the walls in her own blood was at least disconcerting - it was that the young woman seemed to be so broken by whatever had happened to her. Her once-light blonde hair was now darkened and matted with dirt, blood and who knew what else, her hands and face covered in scratch marks where she’d been bleeding herself for more ‘ink’. The scrawls that she had daubed across the walls and floor were of nothing I could make out, bizarre symbols and markings that might have resembled a language, if only we’d known the alphabet for it.
Then I saw her eyes...or at least, whatever she had in place of them. Her medical file told me she had bright blue eyes, but now all she had were twin pools of liquid jet, orbs of pure black that defied any explanation.
“Her boyfriend is Omega Company,” Kalin explained. “He found her like that, raving unintelligibly, sometime early this morning.”
I was stunned. The darkness of the blood on the walls - and the sheer amount of it - suggested she’d been in the room for several days.
I said as much to Kalin, and he shook his head.
“I know what you mean, but whatever has happened to her, it has changed her in ways we have never seen before.”
He keyed an intercom on the wall, and asked for a sample of the patient’s blood to be brought out, and as we waited Lorelei raised a question.
“Exactly what has she been ‘raving’ about?”
Kalin flicked a switch next to a small speaker, set by the observation window, and immediately the hall was filled with her hurried whispering. The language was bizarre, as if it had its roots in Vampiric and then evolved from there into something even more harsh-sounding and vicious.
“Whatever she is speaking, it’s nothing any of us here have heard before,” Kalin told us, and Lorelei looked thoughtful.
“Are you recording that?” she asked, and Kalin nodded. “Good. Send a copy of the sound file to me, I’ve got some software I can run it through to see if we get something more coherent.”
Kalin flicked the switch again and the hall fell silent once more, and a lab technician approached with a single vial of the girl’s blood.
“This is what we extracted from her,” he told me, passing me the vial. “So far it has resisted all attempts to test it, type it or even find out the most basic information on it.”
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I never thought anything could glow black, but the fluid in the vial did just that - it was a liquid dark as night, that gave off an unsettling black aura.
“One more thing,” Kalin said as I passed the vial back. “Her boyfriend assured us she was mortal...and yet now she bares the fangs of our kind, heals quickly when wounded, and has the strength and speed of one of us. In fact, it took four other vampires just to hold her down.”
“So whatever put this in her,” I said, pointing at the vial, “was a vampire as well?”
“A deeply unpleasant one.” He sighed and shook his head, and I could tell he was as unsettled by the whole situation as I was. “I don’t know what we’re facing here, My Lord, but it worries me.”
A few minutes later we were back in the Ops room, refurbished and renewed after the attack on the base last year.
The attack which led to the death of my wife.
In all honesty, it seemed I could hardly move in that base without seeing something that reminded me of her. The mess hall, where she arranged our first date. The sparring room that had been the impromptu courtroom, when her sister was tried.
The corridor where I had found her, bleeding from a dozen wounds and surrounded by the bodies of her enemies.
That hallway still bore the stains from the blood she’d shed, and seeing it brought back fresh, painful memories.
Lorelei must have noticed my pain, because she moved closer to me as we passed through that area on the way to Ops, gripping my hand in a display of support that was immensely appreciated at the time.
Kalin spoke briefly to some of the staff in the room, and the war table’s built-in screen lit with a satellite image of an area of England. It looked to me like it was the Midlands, but it was hard to tell - it was focussed on the countryside, and all those areas looked the same to me.
I was raised a city boy. Don’t judge me.
“So, this is where we’ve heard the ‘Vampire Saint’ is living,” he told us, pointing to a small group of buildings roughly in the middle of the image. “It’s a small farm outside of Birmingham - probably the only farm in the area that doesn’t actually produce anything, which is how our scouts found him.”
“Nice work,” I told him, and I made to leave and prepare.
“I wouldn’t advise seeing him this late, My Lord,” Kalin said, his suggestion stopping me in my tracks. “He is far more ancient than Corvi was, and will be far less pleased to receive unannounced visitors.”
I sighed in irritation. I really didn’t want to be waiting, but Kalin was right.
“Guess we’ll see him in the morning then, Lori.”
Lorelei nodded casually, turning back to helping some of the staff with technical issues.
“Also, while you’re here...may I talk to you privately, My Lord?”
Lorelei looked up again, and we exchanged a knowing look. We could both guess what it would be about.
“Lorelei is a trusted friend and aide,” I told him, “whatever you want to say, Kalin, you can say it in front of her.”
He looked between myself and Lorelei for a moment, and my girlfriend walked slowly over to my side again.
“As you wish. It has not escaped my attention that you and Lorelei have become...close, since the last time we spoke - and don’t worry, I am not going to judge. In fact I am glad for you. Few know as well as I how much Corvi’s death affected you, and with Lorelei you seem to have found some measure of peace and renewed happiness.”
“But?” I prompted, and Kalin sighed.
“But I just want to be sure she is going to treat you properly-”
“Oh for fuck’s sake!” Lorelei snapped, her exotic features twisted in anger. “Why does everyone keep assuming I’m going to screw him over in some fashion?! I am not Levaertes, for fuck’s sake, I am not going to fuck someone then leave as soon as I’m bored!”
I placed a hand gently on her shoulder, and she turned away from Kalin and I with a snarl of disgust.
“I appreciate the vote of support, Kalin,” I told my friend, “but while most other people don’t know Lori, we’ve spent a lot of time together.
We’ve been offering each other comfort and support, and that’s forged a close bond of friendship between us. Friendship, Kalin - something all the best relationships are founded on. I trust Lori with my life and my emotional well-being, and I want others to stop giving her a hard time about our relationship.”
Kalin nodded dutifully.
“Of course, My Lord. And Lorelei, I’m sorry for any offence I caused, but his relationship with Corvi was almost legendary around here. We care about him, and we want him to be protected.”
Lorelei turned around again and approached Kalin, staring him straight in the eyes.
“Corvina was my closest friend,” she told him, her voice carrying a quiet tone of threat. “She told me every day of how happy she was, how much Deimos changed her life. Before I even made my feelings known to Deimos, I swore I would make sure he was protected in all regards - because I care about him, and because Corvi would want it that way.” She held his gaze in silence for a moment, letting her words sink in.
“Don’t ever think I am anything less than sincere, Kalin. Just because I don’t trust people, it doesn’t mean I am incapable of lasting relationships.
“Now show us to our room, please.”
Looking thoroughly ashamed of the situation, Kalin once again invited us to follow him, and I felt a flurry of different emotions - pride for Lori’s speech and defence of me, annoyance at how she was getting treated because of our relationship, a growing affection for her in general.
I just hoped that others around me would understand so readily. It was painful seeing her victimised just because of who she cared for.
As soon as we were in the room Kalin had set aside for us, Lori once more held her arms out in her silent request for a hug, and I obliged gladly. I pulled her close, stroking her back reassuringly.
“I’m sorry for that, Eyathehn,” she muttered into my neck, “I’m just sick of people thinking I’m out to hurt you. First Kelly, then him...”
“Shh,” I told her, stroking her hair. “I’m sorry about that hon, but sadly I doubt they’ll be the last.” Foremost in my mind at that moment was Levaertes, someone who could be very unpleasant when her ire was raised. The last thing I wanted was for her to challenge Lori to a duel - I’d seen Lev duelling, and I didn’t fancy the chances of anyone who faced her.
Of Angel's Blood (Chronicles of The Order Book 2) Page 9
