King Takes Rook

by A. L. Kessler

She glanced at Levi who waved her on to answer. "That there's something else going on, but I know to keep my nose out of vampire business."

  Levi chuckled, and they all turned when Clarissa walked in. Her newly colored red hair was pulled back in a braid with a few curly strands escaping around her face. Her huge smile faded when her eyes landed on the scene in the kitchen. Her hands awkwardly gripped the cake she held as she tried to figure out what she needed to do.

  "I feel like I missed a memo." Her happy-go-lucky voice broke some of the tension.

  Abby nodded and motioned for Clarissa to put the cake on the island in the middle of the kitchen. "So did I, so don't feel bad."

  "Mario is visiting for a few weeks to make sure that everything is sorted out with that case." Levi looked at Abby hoping that she picked up on the subtle stay away vibe.

  She nodded. "I have a big case with PIB right now, and Nick is back in town so I won't be much help." She glanced at Clarissa. "Chinese food for tonight? I think the little place down the road is still open."

  "It's your night, hun." She grinned at Abby. "I was thinking of feasting on cake. Anyone else coming?"

  Mario raised a brow, and Levi silently prayed that Mario wouldn't push. Abby didn't have many people that she called friend, and since she and Simon had broken up, and Levi didn't really trust Nick, there wasn't anyone else that he invited for her.

  "Yeah, I think so." Abby ignored the questioning look from Mario as she went to the fridge and grabbed the menu from under a magnet.

  "I'd like to speak further with you on this matter." Mario stepped up to Abby. "Without the influence of Levi."

  Levi locked his jaw. What the hell was the vampire trying to do? She didn't need to be let further into this than she already was.

  Abby shook her head. "I don't have much to say about it. There were blood-starved vampires attacking people in the area. It was linked to a necromancer PIB agent who was using them as a distraction to keep the focus off of the zombies."

  That was putting it pretty straightforward. Levi smiled at the response because it didn't give anything else away. Mario knew how it all turned out, so there was no need for more details.

  "You were targeted. Do you really think that's all there was to it?" Mario asked, his accent becoming just a bit thicker. "Think deep down, Abigail."

  Something crossed Abby's eyes, and if Levi had to guess, it was a bit of fear. Not something he often saw in her gaze. "I have a dangerous job." She locked her jaw. "Now if you would excuse me, I'd like to enjoy the rest of my birthday."

  "That's enough, Mario." Levi stepped up, there was no need to push more, and if Mario did, all he was going to do was piss Abby off more.

  Mario took a few steps back, giving her room to move. Abby waved the menu in the air. "We're going to order food and watch some TV. Then binge on cake. In case you needed to know how my night was going to go in detail." The sarcasm was thick in her words.

  "She's a spitfire," Mario grumbled.

  Abby turned and smiled. "Oh, you have no idea."

  Levi nodded in agreement, and his hand moved over his mouth to cover his smile. "Mario and I have business to attend to. I'm sorry about dinner and your birthday."

  She shrugged a shoulder. "Chinese food and television sound better than spending the night with my cat."

  The two witches left the room without another word, and Levi sighed. "Why would you provoke her like that?"

  "I wanted to see how determined she was to stay out of vampire business. The more determined she is, the less likely she is to see any kind of connection in upcoming cases." Mario crossed his arms. "You've trained her well."

  Levi nodded. "Yeah, let's hope it stays that way and she doesn't start digging."

  "What do you think she'll dig for?"

  Levi shook his head. "I really don't know, but it worries me. Now, back to the blood-starved. Where were they now?"

  "North of here, rambling about in a small town. Local vampire called me. He took care of them before anyone could call PIB."

  Levi rubbed his eyes. "Okay, let's go talk to him about it and see if they really were blood-starved or something else."

  "Do you think there's another possibility?"

  "I'm hoping a vampire overreacting because of recent events."

  "Why don't I go ahead, and you stay and enjoy the night with Abigail?" Mario offered.

  Levi shook his head. "It's far too late for that. You being here will put her on guard, it already seems like something is bothering her. I'll stay until food gets here and then I'll join you, deal?"

  Mario nodded. "It's for the best that she knows I'm here."

  Levi wasn't exactly sure that he believed that, but he'd let it go for now. Eventually, they were going to have to face that Abigail knew Mario was Levi's second and that there was a new vampire in the territory. "Go on. I'll be there in a little bit to help you out."

  Mario bowed and disappeared.

  It wasn't long before the doorbell rang, and Levi went to answer it. A man was standing on the step with a brown paper bag filled with food. The smell of fried rice wafted through the air. Levi pulled out some cash and paid the man who left without as much as a thank you.

  Levi shook his head and took the bags to the media room where he saw Clarissa and Abby lounging in front of the blank television. Guilt hit him again as he wondered how disappointed she was that he had to work on her birthday. Thinking back, it was the first time since she was little that he missed her birthday.

  He walked in and held the bags out. "Chinese food is here. I am sorry again that I didn't cook for the night and that I have to deal with business."

  She shrugged. "It happens. Besides, I'm pretty sure that at twenty-five, I can handle a low-key birthday. How long is Mario in town?" There was that suspicion in her voice that he was used to hearing when new things happened.

  "Until Agent Tomes is sentenced." It was a lie, but it was the best he could think of. It would give them time to ease Abigail into Mario 'suddenly' being there.

  She visibly cringed. "That could be a while. Agent Grace is still building the complete case. They won't let him out on bond though, because he technically killed people with magic."

  Levi frowned. Why would Agent Grace be building a case against him? Abigail had brought in all the evidence they needed on the zombie case. "Then why haven't they sentenced him to death? That's the normal automatic sentence." Levi crossed his arms. "I want to make sure they punish him for going after you." Maybe he should have just killed the bastard when Levi went to visit him.

  "I don't have the answer, Levi. My guess is because necromancy is still a gray area when it comes to magic." There was a small amount of annoyance in her voice.

  He bowed his head. "I advise that you keep low and stay out of Mario's way while he is here."

  "If Tomes is being sentenced and it's a PIB case, why is there another vampire involved?"

  He opened his mouth, and she held a hand up. "If you say vampire business, I'm going to scream. This has to do with not one but two of my PIB cases."

  Levi glanced at Clarissa who turned away and started pulling the food out of the bags. "Levi?" Abby prompted.

  "Because when I worked the original case with Tomes, there was more to it than him just using blood-starved vampires. Mario believes it may go deeper into vampire politics than we originally thought. He's worried that Tomes might have been working with someone who will continue the attacks." It was the best way he could explain it without a lot of details, and it was only a partial lie. Tomes had flat out said that others were working for Ira on this, and eventually Ira was going to make it on to Abigail's radar.

  "Thank you. He might want to talk to Melody Grace then because she seemed to know more about it than anyone else." Abby plopped back down on the couch and pulled a box of food towards her. Levi left without another word. She w
as in a mood, and he knew to let her be. Whatever was going on in her head, Clarissa would help her sort it out. So he hoped. In the meantime, he needed to meet up with Mario. Levi might as well get some work done since the night with Abigail was already shot.

  He sighed and took himself to the location Mario had given him. What he walked into wasn't exactly what he was expecting. Mario had a younger vampire pinned to the wall by the throat, snarling in his face.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Levi snarled. "Mario."

  Mario looked at him and loosened his grip just a bit. "He was trying to run when I asked him about the vampires."

  "Wasn't he the one who reported them?" Levi looked at the younger vampire who shook his head.

  "I was just told to turn away. Not to talk to anyone that would come and ask about them." The vampire looked at Mario and then Levi. "I'm just following orders."

  Levi locked his jaws. "Orders from who?"

  "This vampire. He's scary. He puts off this feeling like if I don't obey him, he'll kill me." He shook his head. "Then this guy comes in and asks me about Clint, and Clint is dead. So I just turned to run."

  Levi looked at Mario who nodded. "The kid is telling the truth, all I did was ask about Clint, and he tried to run."

  "Look, man, I've only been a vampire for five years. I don't want to meet my true death yet. Let me go? Okay?"

  Levi crossed his arms. "You can go if you tell me the vampire's name."

  "I don't know it." He shook his head. "If I did, I'd give it to you. He was dark haired, about your height. I don't know what else to tell you."

  It was too vague of a description to tell who it could have been. Levi motioned to Mario. "Let him go. He's no use to us."

  Mario did as told, and the vampire disappeared. "That wasn't a smart move. He could have given us information."

  "No, clearly he wasn't going to give in. Whoever told him to run made sure he didn't have enough information to give. No name, just a threat."

  Mario looked around. "Do you think it was Ira?"

  "No, if it were, Ira would know we were coming and make it more of a challenge. He'd want us to know he was here. He'd leave us more than the blood-starved." Levi took a moment to consider what was going on. "Clint was the vampire who called you, I take it?"

  "Yes, and apparently, he is dead now." Mario motioned to the empty street. "I don't see anyone else out here to ask though, so they all must have been scared off."

  Levi sighed. "There aren't that many people or vampires in this town anyways. The humans are probably hiding, and the rest of the vampires are hopefully meeting to discuss what was going on. And are waiting for us to get here."

  "I hope that's the case. Do you think they would come out if we yelled Oxen Free?"

  Levi snorted. "I think they might run if we did. No, we'll do something a little less dramatic." He started to walk to the nearest business. The little bar had a crooked neon sign hanging above the door. The red door squeaked as it opened, and they walked in.

  The small crowd turned their heads towards Levi and Mario, staring for a moment. All the chatter died down, and the two vampires found themselves standing there with only the music to keep them company.

  Levi cleared his throat. "I need to speak to someone about the recent vampire attacks."

  Everyone seemed to exchange glances except for the barkeep. She met Levi's gaze and nodded. "Come on over, and I'll let you know what happened."

  Mario and Levi walked over to the end of the bar, sitting in two empty seats. Levi folded his hands on the bar. "We received a call from a gentleman named Clint who told us that there was an attack by blood-starved vampires, and he'd taken care of it, but we wanted to follow up on it."

  She nodded. "Clint was one of my bouncers. He was killed by another vampire tonight." She shook her head. "We aren't supposed to be speaking of the attacks, but I'm not going to let some vampire on a power trip take over this little town."

  A no-man's land town would allow Ira to be close to Levi's territory without actually being in it. There'd be no way to hold him accountable, by vampire standards, for his actions. He'd force them to get PIB involved so they could cross territory lines. "Who's trying to take over your town?"

  "A vampire by the name of Ira. He's clearing out the powerful vampires, has been for a couple weeks now. The humans have stopped coming out of their houses, hell the werewolves and shifters don't want to come out of their houses either. It's bad for business and bad for my town."

  Levi nodded. "We know about Ira, and we'll do the best we can to get him out of the town. Can you describe the blood-starved for us?"

  "Red eyes, snarling creatures, they didn't respond to commands or anything. Hell most of them didn't even act like they responded to pain." She sighed. "Our world is going to shit if these creatures are walking about and PIB isn't doing their job. Aren't they supposed to be keeping us safe? And the king? Allowing that monster to walk around."

  Levi pressed his lips together at the sudden guilt that hit him. If only they knew what it would cost to put Ira down. Samuel would release a hell much worse than the blood-starved. "Thank you for the information. We'll be in touch."

  "What? That's it?" She put her hands on her hips. "I'm risking my life to tell you this, and all I get is a 'thank you?'"

  Levi smirked. "I'd offer you protection, but I have a feeling you won't leave your bar."

  "Damn straight."

  "Then there's not much else that I could offer, is there?" Levi raised his brow. "If you want true protection than contact the King and the council." He slid off the stool and turned to leave.

  She growled. "He's useless. We all know that the council controls him, and the human government controls them. The arrangement is just to give us the illusion that we have more control than any other supernatural creature when it comes to our people."

  A lot of what he did remained in the shadows, this wasn't something uncommon that he dealt with. Levi resisted sighing and walked out of the bar, Mario at his back.

  "Let's return home. There's not much we can do here right now." Mario put a hand on his shoulder. "We at least know where Ira is."

  Levi nodded. "That's what we needed to know." The attack in the town had confirmed what Oliver had been saying about Ira being in a no-man's land. Levi took himself back to the mansion.

  Mario appeared beside him when they got back. "Do you think he's trying to set up shop there?"

  "I don't know, but the fact that there seems to be such hatred towards the king there worries me. He may be using that to his advantage to gain volunteers for his little experiments." Levi ran a hand through his hair. "But we may want to start searching the outskirt towns for labs. Not everyone is going to report suspicious activities like that. At least not to me or PIB. They might go to the local vampire who's the strongest. Take care of it on the down-low."

  Mario nodded. "Towns like that tend to have their own law and have things to hide from the mainstream."

  "What do you think that little bar is hiding then?" Levi raised a brow.

  Mario shrugged. "Supernatural whore house, maybe a feeding ring." He shrugged.

  "Like the one in Lady R's territory?"

  "Less official and clean." Mario laughed. "I trust Lady R to provide clean and willing women. I wouldn't trust that bar to do it."

  Mario, the expert on escorts and prostitutes. Levi must have had a look on his face because Mario shook his head. "Being Hannah's fledgling, sex and feeding go hand in hand, you know that."

  Levi nodded. "I know. I was just thinking."

  "I saw that look, you were judging."

  Levi sighed. "I didn't mean to. I know that it runs with your abilities. We each have our own demons with our abilities we have to fight."

  "Exactly." Mario smirked. "Speaking of, I'm off to find a meal. I'll be back later." He bowed and disappeared.
/>   Levi looked at his watch. It wasn't near dawn, and he had plenty of time to file the reports that he needed on the small town and find his own meal.

  The next night, Levi was showered and dressed before he even thought to turn on the news. He had his phone set to alert him if anything strange showed up, but it had been silent so far. He walked into the library to find Mario sitting in a chair, one leg crossed over the other, and a look that said he was expecting Levi.

  "You look like a principal expecting a bad student." Levi raised a brow. "What did I do?"

  "Nothing, but I heard from that barkeep again last night. Her name is Amelia, and she had a special little message for us from Ira."

  "And you didn't think to wake me to give it to me?" Levi growled.

  Mario waved his hand. "Nope, it was simply, see you soon."

  Levi raised a brow. "Really? No threat? Nothing else?"

  "I'm pretty sure that is threat enough, don't you?" Mario shook his head.

  "We know he's around. We know that he's been in and out of the territory. He's already tried for Abigail, and thanks to Oliver she survived and then sacked Tomes for the crimes." Levi shrugged. "Right now, I'm at peace with the situation."

  Abigail's ring tone blared from his phone, and he had a feeling that his peace wasn't going to last very long.

  "Did you blow up another car?" It was the first question that came to his mind.

  "No, why? Is the news saying I did?"

  This was why he almost always checked the news when he got up. "No, I haven't had a chance to check the news tonight, but you don't normally call me unless something just blew up." If it wasn't that, what else could it be? "Or if someone died. Did you kill someone?"

  "I haven't killed anyone since Mina at the pack thing. So, no. I needed to talk to you about something that came up in my and Nick's current case. It deals with a young vampire victim being kept in the basement. Early 1900s. Ring any bells?"

  He was silent for a moment and glanced at Mario who shrugged. "Do you have any more information than that?"