A Shade of Vampire 31: A Twist of Fates (6 page)

All eyes shot to the warlock.

“I know of that witch,” he said. “She was allowed to live in The Sanctuary because of her noble heritage, but she has always been a loose cannon, helping out other species in exchange for various items to stock her spell room with.”

“That sounds like her,” Dr. Finnegan replied. “She was assisting the Canadian base on a fairly regular basis at the time. Anyway, Atticus put her in charge of the investigation but it soon stopped short. It was pretty pathetic. None of them had the first clue where to look. And Atticus, in truth, wasn’t all that bothered about their disappearance. They already had blood samples and I suppose Atticus thought that if they ever needed that halfblood-Hawk combination in the future, they could always breed some more. And then of course, shortly after the specimens’ disappearance, Frans came out with a cure. Heh. After that, I suspect Atticus was glad they were taken after all.”

“So what you’re saying is we need to speak to Loira Sulvece,” I said, my mind still fixed on the witch.

“I’m not saying anything,” Dr. Finnegan said. “In fact, The Sanctuary is impenetrable. I don’t know how you’d gain access to her even if you tried… Assuming she is still living there and hasn’t finally been kicked out for unorthodox habits.”

“Apparently you are not aware that we actually have good relations with The Sanctuary,” my father said dryly.

I thought fondly of my twin. That was all thanks to Rose saving one of the Ageless’ sisters from the black witches.

“Oh.” The scientist looked taken aback. “I had no idea.”

“Yes,” my father said bitterly. “There are a lot of things your organization has no idea about.”

“So that’s everything you have to tell us about the disappearance?” I verified.

“Yup.” She nodded.

“Okay.” I blew out a breath. We had something of a lead now, at least. We could go to speak to that witch and see if she had any more light to shed on the matter. Anything at all she had to add would be helpful at this point. It wouldn’t take us long to travel to The Sanctuary—where Ibrahim still seemed to think she’d be residing—so even if this proved to be a hopeless dead end, we wouldn’t be losing much.

We were running out of things to lose, anyway. Or at least, I was.

“Thank you,” I said to Dr. Finnegan. “We’re going to need to speak to the witch. In the meantime, as promised, you are free to stay here on the island.” I backed away and poked my head out of the door, looking left and right for someone who could escort the scientist and her child to spare accommodations. I spotted Safi at the other end of the hallway and beckoned her over.

I pointed out Dr. Finnegan to her as she arrived in the room. Dr. Finnegan’s jaw dropped as she eyed Safi. Yup, the IBSI still knew little about the jinn, just as they did fae.

Dr. Finnegan recovered from her stupor and carried her boy over to Safi. She thanked me before the jinni vanished them.

Now, the rest of us had to get down to business.

I locked eyes with my father. I didn’t need him to say anything for me to know that he was thinking exactly what I was thinking.

Looks like it’s time for another trip.

W
e didn’t know exactly
where this route would lead us now. We could hit a complete dead end in The Sanctuary, or we could find ourselves sinking deeper into an entangling web of twists and turns… which the Novaks seemed to have a pretty good track record of doing.

So our next objective was to decide who was going to come with us to The Sanctuary.

After the scientist left with Safi, we headed up to Grace’s room, where River and many of my family members were gathered.

My gut couldn’t help but flip when I eyed my daughter spread out on the floor within her cage, even though her appearance was of no surprise to me anymore.

River was the first to approach us. Her turquoise eyes trained on me, even as she addressed us all.

“Lawrence is dead,” she said.

It took a few seconds for her words to sink in.
“What?”

“Lawrence is dead,” she repeated. “T-There was a news broadcast on the TV. They showed… They showed a picture of his corpse.”

What on earth…

“They said that his death was a result of the drug procedure they’d performed on him going wrong, even though he had shown initial signs of improvement.”

Bull! Utter bull.

My eyes moved back to my daughter. I wondered if she could hear our conversation—or rather, if she could understand it. She wasn’t showing any signs of sadness or distress, though Bloodless didn’t seem to display emotions other than irritation and anger.

There was only one thing that could have happened to Lawrence. His father must’ve killed him, just as he had killed his wife. Coincidences like this didn’t happen in real life.

The young man had become another notch on Atticus’s belt.

A deep sense of sorrow swelled within me as I recalled how hard he’d tried to help us find the cure. He had put his life on the line by going against his father. He had known the risks before going into it; we had all known that. But, despite the odds, I had assured myself that he would pull through. Hearing that he was gone—the young man I’d seen less than a day ago—came as a shock.

As I absorbed the news, a determination burned within me more fiercely than ever before.

His death had become more fuel to the fire.

We had to bring down the IBSI. We had to drag them down from their position and crush them. And we had to ensure that no force like them could ever rise to rule this planet again.

But the key to all that was procuring the antidote. Without being able to prove beyond all doubt that it existed, we would have no sway in persuading either the governments or the public that the IBSI was trying to suppress information.

We had to bring the IBSI down, but first we had to solve this damn mystery.

Gripping my wife’s hand, I turned to address everyone else in the room.

“We need to travel to the supernatural dimension— to The Sanctuary—and find a woman named Loira Sulvece.”

Everyone in the room volunteered to come. Although technically we might not even need an eighth of these people—initially witches were the only people vital to our trip—since we didn’t know exactly where this journey might lead us, we ended up accepting everybody who volunteered. I didn’t see a lot of harm in that anyway.

We also put out word to the rest of the members of the League. The dragons, unfortunately, were out of the equation because of their refusal to travel by magic—we couldn’t have them slowing us down.

We were reluctant to have any jinn come with us, even though Aisha and Horatio volunteered. Being accompanied by jinn when we approached The Sanctuary simply wasn’t a good idea. Although the jinn and the witches of The Shade had found a way to co-exist fairly harmoniously, the jinn and witches of the outside world were still very much biased against one another.

As for Mona and Brock, Kiev informed us that they had gone to The Woodlands with Victoria to find a solution to her and Bastien’s ongoing struggle to stay together.

Mona was one of our strongest witches now that she’d recovered her powers, but we had no idea when they’d return, so we’d have to leave without her. She wasn’t exactly a favorite among the white witches of The Sanctuary though, so it was probably all for the best.

Our lineup ended up being: my parents, Ibrahim, Corrine and Arwen, Rose and Caleb, Vivienne and Xavier, Lucas and (tentatively) Jeramiah, Kiev, Claudia and Yuri, Gavin, Zinnia and Griffin, Micah and his wife Kira, and finally Aiden and Kailyn. River, Orlando and the rest of our family opted to stay with Grace.

I felt that this was an excessive number of people simply to visit The Sanctuary…but looking at our previous track record, it was rare that anything went “simply” for us when undertaking a mission in the supernatural dimension. There was no harm in bringing more people than we needed, just in case.

We gave everybody half an hour to prepare, and then we were all to gather at the Port.

S
ince Ben had returned
me to The Shade to be treated for my injury, even in spite of all the madness going on with Grace turning into a Bloodless, Marion and I found ourselves gravitating toward each other, wherever we happened to be in the hospital.

Now, before our departure for The Sanctuary, I had something to do. I’d told Ben and Derek that I would ask Jeramiah if he wanted to accompany us. This time, I would give him the option. He was an adult and it was shameful of me to keep trying to protect him like he was a boy by keeping him out of the loop.

As I headed out, I mysteriously found myself passing Marion again. She was sitting on a bench in the hallway, rocking her baby’s cradle back and forth as she slept. With all the focus being on Grace, Marion had been pretty much sidelined. She looked lost, as though she didn’t know what she ought to be doing or where she ought to go. She probably wanted to be of help in some way but didn’t know how to go about it. As a human, she was only an encumbrance right now here in this hospital—she shouldn’t be anywhere near Grace.

I had lost track of how many days she had been in the hospital. It must’ve been quite a few. As pleasant as Meadow Hospital was, it wasn’t a home. She had a child. She ought to be given her own residence somewhere else on the island now that she and her baby were recovered.

Since I couldn’t spot anybody immediately available who could take her to find some temporary accommodation, I had my own idea. An idea I hoped she wouldn’t take the wrong way…

She looked up, wide-eyed, as I approached. I bent down to her level. “Marion,” I said, above the bustle of the corridor. “You need to go somewhere else than here.” I found myself assuming a rather stupid French accent, hoping that it would make my English words more understandable to her. “You need your own room. Your own apartment. Understand?”

She nodded, shrugging. “
Un appartement, oui
.”

“
Appartement
—right. Exactly,” I said. I hesitated for a moment, clearing my throat before mustering the courage to say, “You can stay in my
appartement
if you like, with your baby. It has many rooms,” I added quickly. “And temporarily, just until I return. You understand?”

Marion frowned. Something I’d said hadn’t translated. Or perhaps I’d spoken too fast. Before I could try rephrasing and speaking more slowly, a slew of French erupted over my head. I stood up and whirled around to find Claudia standing behind me, blonde hair hanging over one shoulder, hands planted on her hips.

Whatever Claudia had just said, it made Marion’s face light up. Not just with appreciation, but a whole lot more.

I shot a glare at Claudia, narrowing my eyes. “Wh-What did you just say to her?” I breathed.

Before Claudia could answer, Marion had risen to her feet. I had no choice but to face her as she gazed up at me, a beautiful smile parting her lips.

“I simply told her,” Claudia said quietly behind me, “what the two of you already know.”

With that, she turned on her heel and sped away.

W
hat the two
of us already know.

I didn’t like the sound of that. What
do we already know?
It didn’t feel like I knew anything.
And how does Claudia know what we are supposed to know?
I was confused. And now here I found myself, flying with Marion on my back, her baby in my arms, toward my treehouse… still not knowing what Marion was smiling about. What brought that shine to her hazel eyes.

I felt awkward as heck as I touched down on my veranda. I returned her baby to her arms and led them to the front door. I slanted a glance at Marion as she gazed around in awe at the outside of my home.

“Beautiful,” she whispered, as we stepped in through the doorway.

Trying to cast aside Claudia’s mind games, I led Marion to the largest spare bedroom I had, which was also the one with the best view of the island. I thought this would be the most appropriate for her and her child since there was a double bed. I pushed it up against the wall, so that the baby could lie on the far side without risk of falling.

She climbed onto the bed and settled her baby down. Planting a kiss on her forehead, she tucked her beneath the sheets before letting her continue to sleep in peace.

I backed out of the room, Marion following me. She obviously had no intention of resting. I wasn’t sure what exactly she was going to do in my apartment while I was gone. I suddenly felt self-conscious about what personal items I might have left lying around.

I didn’t really have time to clean up now though. The half an hour we had been given to prepare to leave was drawing to a close.

I had tidied the place up recently, so at least it was clean… Well, as clean as a bachelor’s apartment ever got.

My chest was tense as we stopped in the center of the sitting room and met each other’s eyes. There was still a gleam to her irises.

“Well, I’m not sure what you like to eat but there’s plenty of food in the fridge. More than enough until I return.” I gestured toward the kitchen. She nodded. She’d figure it out.

“Uh, and I should be going now, I guess,” I said, though my feet still didn’t move. I remained transfixed on her. I watched every flicker of emotion that crossed her face as her eyes wandered around my living room in appreciation.

“Thank you,” she said softly, returning her focus on me.

“Welcome,” I murmured.

She looked as awkward as me now, as we stood there, a few feet apart. Her hands clamped together, and she began wringing her fingers. Her lips parted slightly, like she wanted to say something more, but then she sealed them again.

I bowed, deciding to put the two of us out of our misery and sweep toward the exit. But as I left through the door, she uttered in a low whisper,
“Je t’aime bien aussi, Lucas.”

I made a mental note to get a translation from Claudia for that.