Blood and Fire

Page 36

The redheaded leader of the local pack grinned at her. “What’s it look like? We’re here to party.” He nodded his head at the two dozen wolves carrying bazookas and assault rifles. Steffan’s face sobered. “We heard about the enforcer, and we’re here to help.”
Andreas joined them, but he was shaking his head. “I cannot allow you to get involved, my friend. Not this time. We are not facing an average vampire.”
“So I’ve heard. Hence the extra firepower. Are you telling me you can’t use us?”
“What he’s trying to tell you is this is like fighting a killing machine,” Ari said. “She’s been slaughtering entire nests of vampires.”
“All the more reason for us to be here so she doesn’t tear Riverdale apart.” He eyed them, a determined set to his jaw. “We talked it over and know the risks. Every wolf here is a volunteer.” He looked at the gates that led into Andreas’s property. “I figured we could guard the perimeter—the gate, the borders. If we stay inside the wrought-iron fences, your neighbors won’t know we’re here, but we can function as an early-warning system. We’re not leaving, unless you order us to go.”
Andreas clapped a hand on Steffan’s back. “I would like to do that, but I am too damned glad to have you. Come, I will walk you inside the gates. I have duties I must tend to inside the residence, but Samuel will be out to show you around. Ask him for anything you need.” He glanced up the street. “We are too exposed out here.”
Andreas sent Ari back to bring the Lexus, and he walked through the gates, talking earnestly with Steffan. After the brief conference, Steffan’s people spread out along the fence line, and Andreas rejoined Ari in the car.
At the end of the long driveway to the mansion, the caravan pulled into the basement garage. Six guards met them; Samuel opened Ari’s door.
“I’m glad you’re home and not on some out-of-state trip courtesy of the witch coven.” Samuel smiled at her in welcome before looking over the car roof at his boss. “Prince Daron is waiting for you to call him back. He suggested you use the house link.”
“More bad news?” his employer said, outwardly calm.
“No, I don’t think so. Mike would have called me if there had been another incident.”
Ari let out the breath she’d been holding during this exchange. Yes, Mike would have called. As Daron’s chief of security, Mike had been in close contact with both Samuel and Russell since Ursula first appeared. The three lycanthropes, although from different races—werewolf, weretiger, and werelion—were friends and more than employees to Daron and Andreas. They could be trusted to stay on top of things.
Andreas nodded. “Very well. Thank you, Samuel. I will call him back. I assume you saw our volunteer recruits?”
“They’ve been on the street almost forty minutes waiting for you. I recognized Steffan, so I wasn’t worried. Would you like for me to coordinate with them?”
Andreas spared him a brief look. “Thank you. That would help.”
Samuel returned the look, employer and employee in perfect understanding of the work to be done; he opened a side door and stepped outside.
Instead of climbing the stairs to the first floor, Andreas punched in a security code on a heavy metal door at the back of the garage. It opened into an area that had served multiple purposes, from securing prisoners in the not-too-distant past to housing members of the vampire court during the recent lockdowns. When they entered a long hallway opening to sleeping quarters on both sides and a general living space at the end with sofas, armchairs, and dining area, Ari looked around in surprise. Big changes since she’d seen the space last. When was all this done?
She shot Andreas a questioning look.
“We have been busy. Welcome to our temporary quarters.” He opened the middle of three doors on the right. Dona came bounding to greet her; Bella blinked from the back of a large loveseat in a side entertainment area. An oversize bed decorated in ivory and gold dominated the room.
“I don’t get it. Are we on lockdown again?” She put a hand on her hip. “I’m not staying here while you go to the compound.”
“The compound is virtually empty. If Ursula goes there, she will find little to take revenge upon. Glorius and the nest leaders are scattered around the city and the caverns. Since we can defend the house as well as anywhere, Gabriel, Oliver, and those of my bloodline are across the hall. You and I will be staying here.”
That got her attention. Together? In the same room? All night? They had a long-standing agreement that she would never wake to find him dead next to her. They’d never actually slept in the same bed.
Andreas gave her an enigmatic look. “Make yourself at home. I will return as soon as I dispense with a few details. Your clothes and other belongings have already been moved.” He motioned for the others to follow him.
When she was alone, Ari crossed to the first of three interior doors. Her clothes hung on one side, his Armani collection on the other, in a huge walk-in closet. The next door led to a bathroom with a large shower. The third door was locked with a keypad. She thought about what numbers Andreas might pick that she would know and keyed in his birth year: 1786. She heard the release click, and the door slid open. The small room held nothing except a king-size cherrywood bed fitted in bedding of black silk.
Ari smiled. The master sleeping quarters. She kind of liked knowing he would be that close. She shut the door and heard the lock reengage.
She hurried into the shower and had finished rinsing the shampoo from her hair when the shower door slid open. “Are you coming in or just looking?” she asked.
“Unfortunately, I can only admire the scenery. I thought you might want to join me on the phone call to Canada.”
“You bet.” When he continued to stand there, she glanced at him. “Well? The sooner you leave, the sooner I’ll be there. Can you hand me a towel?”
“Ah, cara mia, I would rather not, but in the interest of time…” He threw her the towel and left.
Ari glanced thoughtfully at the closed door before winding her hair in the towel. When had she gotten so comfortable in his presence?
When she exited the bathroom five minutes later, she was dressed in her cotton jammies with her hair pulled back in a ponytail. Andreas sat on her bed with a house phone beside him. He looked up, his eyes widening in surprise.
“Hey, what did you expect? It’s 1:30 in the morning. I’m planning to sleep soon.” She hopped on the bed and sat cross-legged.
His lips twitched as he punched in Daron’s number and put the phone on speaker. “It’s fortunate this isn’t on Skype.”
Before she could respond, she heard the Toronto prince’s deep voice.
“Andreas?” Daron’s tone was more clipped than usual.
“Yes, and Arianna is with me.”
“Good evening, Arianna. I will bring you both up to date.” Daron wasn’t wasting any time. “Ursula went after a weak target this time, an emergency staff of eleven. She killed everyone. Too many casualties, but it would have been worse if the princes weren’t staying together in the more heavily fortified courts. The remains we found—a few bones and ash—were scattered.”
“She tore them apart?” Ari interjected.
“Yes, an unnecessary show of violence.” Daron paused. “What made you ask? Did you anticipate her reaction?”
“I’d already heard, but I didn’t mean to interrupt. Please go on.”
Daron hesitated a moment, then continued. “We have watched Ursula’s plane, but she has not been near it recently. She must have found a secure place to hide during the day.”
“Canada is a big country to search,” Andreas said dryly. “Any idea where to start?”
“None. No one has spotted her in the last five days. I am mystified why she waited so long for this second attack.”
“I have a possible answer,” Ari offered.
“Which is?” Andreas gave her an odd look. “Did you learn something in Cincinnati?”
She nodded, then realized Daron couldn’t see her. “Yes, from the rogue witches,” she said, talking to the speakerphone. “Are you aware of the problem we have with a black witches’ coven?”
“Yes, Andreas told me. You went to Cincinnati to confront them.”
“Sort of. I haven’t had a chance to tell Andreas any of this,” she gave him an apologetic look, “but I found out the coven had a fight with Ursula the night of the first massacre.” She filled in the few details she knew. “Ursula may have been injured in some way, her powers depleted.”
“You think she has been recuperating,” Daron mused. “That could explain her inactivity, except she is a vampire. Most of us regain full power in one sleep cycle.”
“No matter how badly she was hurt? A couple of our vampires were so severely injured last year they took days, even weeks to recover.”
“But they were younger, weaker vampires, and Marcus was nearly mummified,” Andreas protested. “Ursula is thousands of years old.”
“Yeah, I know that, but these witches are powerful too. There were thirteen of them, and they can attack psychically from a distance, staying out of reach. More important, they are from Europe and have fought the O-Seven for centuries. If anyone knows how to hurt an enforcer, it would be this coven.”
“She has a point,” Andreas conceded.
“Yes. How does that help us?” When no one answered, Daron said, “Too bad the witches will not join forces with us.”
“Actually, they would,” Ari admitted quietly. “But the price is too high. They want me to join their cause, lend my magic to their dark witchcraft, and return with them to Europe.”
“A high price indeed,” Daron said. “Black magic taints the soul.”
“I assume you said no.” Andreas’s gaze was direct.