Blue-Blooded Vamp (13 page)

“Damn straight, I do.”

“I’m just saying maybe instead of trying to force the world to be as you want it to be, maybe you should stop and accept reality. Fighting isn’t always the answer.”

I snorted. That was rich coming from a Domina. “I fight because surrender is never an option. Not to you, not to Cain, and certainly not to fate.”

Persephone’s expression was unreadable, but I sensed her sadness and disappointment. “So be it. I just pray that while you’re off fighting dragons, everyone else doesn’t get burned.” She pulled something from the pocket of her gown. A golden circlet of some sort. She held it out to me. “Take this.”

I frowned and moved forward to take it. “What is it?” The metal was warm to the touch. It looked like a crown of sorts made of thick filigree work with a large lotus on the center.

“It belonged to Tanith. She had it made as a symbol of her new role as Despina. When she died, it came to me. You should make sure whoever takes over the race gets it.”

I tried to hand it back to her. “But I don’t—”

With that, Persephone, former Domina of the Lilim, shook her head and walked away, leaving me holding the crown.

B
y the time Giguhl and I got into a cab to go back to our hotel, I was exhausted and frustrated. Our simple mission to find Abel had gotten complicated very quickly. First the Asclepius bullshit and now Persephone was being a pain in my ass. I just prayed Adam and Erron had some good news from their trek to visit Pasquino.

In the cab, Giguhl was quiet. Too quiet. After about ten minutes with no sarcasm, I started to get worried. “What’s going on in that head of yours?”

He shook his head. “Nothing.”

“Oh, come on,” I said. “Surely you have something to say about what just happened.”

The cat sighed. “Are you really going to take over the vampire race?”

I stilled. The driver couldn’t hear us through the closed partition, but occasionally he’d eye me in the rearview. I kept my reaction to Giguhl’s question subdued despite the fact that my cat just shocked the hell out of me. Luckily, the driver spent most of the drive talking at breakneck pace into a cell phone while simultaneously almost
clipping several pedestrians and narrowly avoiding multicar pileups.

I looked down at the cat with a dead-serious expression. “Of course I’m not going to lead the vamps. How can you even ask that?”

The cat shrugged. “It’s not completely crazy.”

“Yes, it is,” I whisper-yelled. “It’s one hundred percent batshit insane.”

“I’m just saying. There’s a certain poetic justice to it all.”

“Giguhl, listen to me,” I said, lowering my voice so he’d pay attention. “My only goal right now is to find Cain. Rhea, the Queen, and the Undercouncil will have to find someone else to lead the vamps.”

“And if they don’t? Find anyone else, I mean.”

“Not my problem.” I set my lips into a tight line and leaned back against the seat. Giguhl figured out this meant the subject was closed. I simply refused to even consider the idea anymore. It was too preposterous for words.

Erron was staring at the laptop when we walked in.

“Hey, guys.” His gaze stayed on the screen. I scanned the room for signs of Adam but found none.

“Where’s the mancy?”

Erron shrugged. “He’s up on the terrace. Said he was calling his aunt.”

I nodded and told Giguhl to go fetch Adam. Then I plopped into a club chair with a sigh. I wanted blood and a stiff drink, but first we needed to figure out what the hell to do about Persephone.

A couple seconds later, the cat and the mage ran down the spiral staircase to join us. Judging from the deep frown
on Adam’s face, he’d been impatient for my return and wasn’t happy it took so long.

“Oh thank the gods you’re back.” He pulled me into a hard hug.

I waved a hand to dismiss his concerns for my safety. “I’m fine.”

He eyed me for a moment as if he was looking for signs I was fudging the truth. “Please tell me you have good news.”

I grimaced. “Afraid not. Persephone’s officially refusing to return as leader of the Lilim.”

“Shit,” Adam said. “I just called Rhea with a preliminary report. She said once you got back, she’d want to conference in the Queen for a postmortem.”

I sighed, but he was right. A meeting was long overdue. It had been a few nights since we’d spoken to the leaders, and they were no doubt anxious for a report. I just wished we had some positive news to give along with all the problems. But before we called them, I wanted to hear how the Pasquino mission went. “Please tell me the statue turned up something useful.”

Adam raised a brow at Erron. “I hope so. We took pictures of every message on the statue, but I left to call Rhea before we had a chance to look them over on the computer.” He glanced at Erron.

The Recreant waved us over to the laptop. “Most of the messages were in Italian, so I’ve been busy using translation software to translate them all while I waited for you to return.”

“And?” I prodded.

The Recreant smiled. “And I think I’ve found something.” He pulled up an image and zoomed in. The message was written in thick black marker in bold masculine script.

“It’s laminated,” I said. “Someone didn’t want the elements ruining their message.”

Erron nodded. “It stuck out for me because of this.” He pointed to a word on the first line: “Hekate.”

My pulse picked up pace as my eyes scanned the rest of the message for clues. “Shit, it’s all in Italian.”

Erron smirked. “Not anymore.” He clicked the mouse a couple of times and an English translation popped up on the screen. “Anyone recognize this?”

Adam gasped softly. “It’s the Hekatian Oracle prayer.”

I frowned at him. “What?”

“Back in the day, when the Hekate Council didn’t exist and the race was ruled by the Oracles, they began each reading of the prophecy with this prayer to the goddess.”

I squinted at the screen and read the prayer quickly:

Hekate, Queen of the Night, Goddess of the Crossroad, Goddess of Magic and Protector of Spirits, we your humble servants implore you to guide your faithful Oracle to the true light of knowledge. Light Bringer, guide your servant’s hands to do good deeds, guide her eyes to see the path, guide her tongue to speak the truth. Blessed is your name on our lips, blessed is your favor on our people, blessed is your power in our hearts. In your name, we give thee thanks.

“Huh,” I said. “I’ve never heard that.”

Adam shrugged. “These days it’s used only by priestesses and Oracles. It was a particular favorite of—” He stopped short.

I realized he’d been about to say Maisie’s name. She had been the only Oracle for the Hekate Council. And now there was none.

Giguhl, noticing the tension, cleared his throat. “So I guess it’s a good bet that Tristan left this assuming you’d be familiar with it.”

“I guess so. But it doesn’t really tell us much, does it?”

“Not so fast. I just showed you the translation of the prayer. There’s more.” He pointed to a series of numbers under the prayer.

My eyes widened. “What is that?”

Erron smiled. “A phone number. Local, judging by the code.”

“I assume it’s a different one than Abel gave you last time you talked.”

Erron nodded. My stomach dipped. “Did you call it?”

He shook his head. “I just figured it out before you arrived. Plus, I thought you’d want to do the honors.”

My palms were suddenly sweaty. I quickly wiped them on my jeans. It was one thing to talk about finding my father. It was something else to face the prospect of chatting with him on the phone.

“Hold on,” Adam said. “Dicky told us Tristan left that clue a couple weeks ago, right?”

“And?”

“And I just don’t want you getting your hopes up in case the number doesn’t work or no one answers.”

“I think I can manage to not be destroyed if I get voice mail.” I shook my head at him and dialed. I knew he didn’t want me to be disappointed, but his patronizing tone put me on edge. Or maybe I was taking my nerves out on the mage. Either way, I hit the
SEND
button.

The phone rang once, twice, three times. My pulse hammered.

Click
. Silence.

I frowned. “Hello?”

“
Prego
?” A male voice. Deep, unfamiliar.

“Tristan?” My voice shook a little.

A pause. “Depends. How did you get this number?”

“Pasquino gave it to me.”

The creak of a chair and the rustle of fabric reached me through the receiver. I had his attention now. “Spanish Steps tomorrow, eight p.m.”

“Oka—”

“Come alone.”
Click.

I pulled the phone away from my face and grimaced at it for a few moments. Finally, I hit the
END
button and turned to face the eager gazes of my three cohorts.

“Well?” Giguhl prompted.

“I’m meeting him tomorrow night.”

“Where?” Adam asked.

“The Spanish Steps.”

“Did he say anything else?” Erron asked.

I nodded, knowing this wouldn’t go over well. “He said to come alone.”

An explosion of raised, masculine voices.

“I’ll be damned if I’m allowing you to go alone!” Adam yelled.

“Bullshit!” Giguhl shouted.

They then continued to rant, stomping around like Alpha males, ready to shout until I conceded.

I stood by with my arms crossed, waiting for them to settle down. Arguing at that point was a waste of breath. Meanwhile, Erron sat calmly by with his hands behind his head, watching the display with his lips curled into a smile.

Finally, Adam threw up his hands. “I can’t believe you’d even consider going without us!”

He paused to take a deep breath; his face was red and a
vein throbbed on his neck. Next to him, Giguhl was all puffed up like an adder looking for a fight.

“Are you finished?” I said in a very calm, rational tone.

Two sets of narrowed eyes glared at me, but they both nodded.

“I never said I planned on going alone.”

“But—” Giguhl started.

I shot him a look that shut him right up. “I simply said he wanted me to go alone. Jesus, guys, I’m not an idiot.”

Adam’s lips formed a shocked O and his cheeks got all hot and red. “Sorry, I just thought you’d—”

I waved away his apology. “With Cain out there”—I pointed toward the window to indicate the city beyond—“I’d have to be a fool to go anywhere without backup. So of course you’re all going. We’ll simply have to make sure he doesn’t see any of you.”

Erron sat forward. “I’ve been to the Spanish Steps. They’re huge and always crawling with tourists. It should be no problem to blend.”

“Okay,” Adam said. “We definitely need to check in with Rhea and the Queen.”

I nodded. “Get them on the horn.”

I would have preferred talking to Rhea and Queen Maeve in person, but even magical beings are slaves to the vagaries of time and space. Namely, Rhea was in New York and Queen Maeve was in North Carolina. And sometimes despite our access to spells and different dimensions, the Internet was just more convenient than magic.

The four of us gathered around the large desk in the alcove. The laptop sat open on the surface and two windows were open on the screen. On the left Queen Maeve
frowned at us from the conference room in her treetop palace in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Because her quadruple nature was nearing the end of its Crone cycle, she looked older than Methuselah. Her hair was so thin the pink of her scalp shined through the white strands. Her parchment skin was nearly translucent and was wrinkled like a sharpei’s ass.

Rhea glared at the screen from the Hekate Council meeting room at the Crossroads estate near Sleepy Hollow. Her metallic-silver hair shone like tinsel and her green eyes flashed with annoyance. In deference to her newly elevated position as the head of the Hekate Council, she wore a white chiton. But her expression was pure schoolmarm—the same one she often wore when I screwed up during my magic lessons. “What part of ‘we expect daily reports’ did you not understand?”

I cringed. “Yeah, about that. Sorry—things have been a little crazy.”

Rhea raised a brow. “Crazy good or crazy bad?”

I glanced at Adam for help. “Crazy… it could be worse?” he offered.

The Queen pointed at us. “Who is the mage lingering in the background there?”

“This is Erron Zorn, Your Benevolence,” Adam said. “He volunteered to put us in touch with Abel’s contact here.”

The Queen nodded regally in Erron’s direction. “Well it’s good to hear some part of your mission was successful.”

Rhea’s expression was friendlier. “Thank you for your aid, Mr. Zorn. The Hekate Council is in your debt.”

Behind me, Erron shifted uncomfortably and cleared his throat. “You’re welcome.”

As a Recreant, it had to be odd for him to be having a
discussion with the head of the Council that stripped him of his healing power when he dared challenge their authority. Of course, Rhea hadn’t been in charge when that happened, but still.

“And the meeting with the contact?” the Queen prompted.

“It went well,” I said. Not quite a lie, but not the whole truth either. I wanted to ease into dropping the bombshell. “We’ve managed to make contact with Abel and have a meeting set up for tomorrow night.”