Deliverance (12 page)

24 BC

Iliana finally confided to Sadra
about Turney. She was pleasantly surprised to learn that the healing woman believed her.

“You cannot stay here,” Sadra cautioned when Iliana was done with her tale. “And you must not travel by road. He will find you.”

The certainty of her words made Iliana shiver. She clutched her sleeping baby to her chest. “Then what am I to do?”

“There is a place to the south. I learned the art of healing from shamans down there. I doubt he would go to that place because the largest city in that country is next to a big desert with little population. The people live well within the desert and can disappear easily. No one stands a chance of finding them unless they want to be discovered. I’ll tell you who you can trust to help you meet these desert people. If you are accepted into their tribe, they’ll keep you hidden and safe. Hire a ship to take you.” Sadra placed a hand on Iliana’s shoulder. “The journey will be rough, my friend. Especially with such a young babe. But she’s strong and healthy. And since her father is a god, she should fare well. I’m sure of it.” Her forehead wrinkled. “You have done well to evade Turney, but he is surely still hunting you, and you have stayed here too long. He will arrive soon, mark my words.”

Iliana believed Sadra and followed her advice. She still had some money to hire a ship, but it was only a large fisherman’s boat, nothing that was meant to cross the sea. Even then, her meager savings weren’t enough. After much finagling, Sadra stepped in and offered some of her money to finance the voyage. The fisherman finally agreed, and they were to leave with the morning tide in two days’ time.

Packing her few belongings took little time, though Sadra added food to her bundle.

“You will starve if you send all your fare with me,” Iliana protested.

Shaking her head with a rueful smile, Sadra insisted. “You will need it to keep milk in your breasts. Otherwise, the babe will go hungry.” She handed over the pack filled with more food than Iliana could eat in two weeks. “I wish you a safe journey, my friend.”

Tears spilling onto her cheeks, Iliana embraced her. “You have been more kind to me than my own family. I am going to miss you.”

“And I you. It has been pleasant to have you and such a sweet baby in my home. But if you stay, you’ll both lose your lives.”

Nodding, Iliana reluctantly turned and walked carefully down the gangplank to get on the boat. A crew member assisted her in finding her small cabin and then left her so he could tend to his duties.

Within the hour, the vessel was picking up speed and heading into deeper waters. Iliana went on deck to enjoy the breeze across her face. Snuggling her daughter against her neck, she walked to the rear and watched as the village grew fainter until she could barely see it.

She was about to go below deck when large, black clouds gathered in the distance over what she thought was the village. She could not see clearly, but those clouds looked angry, roiling as if they were raging violently against her beloved village. The wind picked up then, propelling the boat faster into the ocean while beating against the land.

Iliana could no longer spot the shoreline, but she did see the wave. It was bigger than the mountain by her home village, and growing ever higher. The men were scrambling around the boat, shouting in chaos. The captain looked completely baffled, but they put all hands to work to rush away from the apocalyptic storm.

Iliana noted all that was happening around her, but couldn’t keep her eyes off the monstrous wave. After what seemed like an eternity, it began to descend. It landed on the shoreline and whooshed further up. Though she couldn’t see the land anymore, Iliana knew that every person in that village had just drowned or been dashed to pieces by the force of the wave.

She also knew that Turney had found her, and she wasn’t certain she would be able to escape him this time.

Chapter 14

L
eisha looked at the small monitors of Rinwa’s security system that crowded one side of the van. Her daughter had hacked into more traffic cameras and then placed some of her own in more strategic spots. They’d been surveying the place for half the day and were able to determine that the vampires most likely were in the hotel to the left of the parking garage. There had been a lot of activity at the theater on the other side of the garage, but nothing happened at the hotel except a human couple walking into the lobby, and then getting turned away by the receptionist. Leisha speculated that the receptionist was likely a human servant.

“The sun is still high in the sky,” Rinwa observed. “Now is the best time to infiltrate.”

“We need to come up with a better plan than just blowing our way through the front door,” Leisha protested. “Just because the vampires can’t go in the sun doesn’t mean they’re all sleeping.”

Tafari placed a hand on each of their shoulders. “You are both correct.” He looked at Rinwa. “Now is the time to get inside and save them.” Glancing at Leisha, he asked, “Are you familiar with this lair?”

She shook her head. “This must be a newer one. They’ve never had a place in Finland before.”

Her husband nodded as if he’d expected that answer. “We will try to sneak through the garage and enter from there.” He held up his hand when Leisha started to protest. “I realize that human servants and vampires will be guarding the entrances, but my hope is to quietly take them out so as not to set off any alarms.”

Twining her fingers together, Leisha strove to remain patient. “They may have cameras in there that we can’t hide from.”

Tafari blew out a breath. “I realize that. However, since I am unable to call the other immortals for backup and a better plan, this is what we get to do.”

It was his tone that made Leisha understand that he was nervous. It made sense, since he and Rinwa usually operated as part of a larger team of immortals. Their resources used to be limitless. Now they didn’t have half the weapons they were used to, with even fewer team members.

Forcing a smile, Leisha stroked his cheek. “You’re right, my love. We’ll do just fine with this plan. We will sneak in there, get Samantha and Nikita, and then run like hell.”

Rinwa was sliding two machetes into a spine sheath as she glanced up at her mother. “That’s right. We’re going to kick some vampire ass and they won’t even know we were there.”

Leisha’s grin was genuine then. She glanced over at Liam, concern melting the corners of her mouth.

Before she could say anything, the boy sat at the screens. “Don’t worry about me, Mother. I can defend myself from here and warn you if there are any surprise attacks coming your way.”

The vampire shook her head. “You’re right of course, Liam. I know how capable you are.”

“But you worry for me anyway.” His emerald green eyes shone with amusement. “I know.”

With everyone all set, the three of them quietly exited the van they had rented for the day. The side of the white vehicle advertised a popular cleaning company in Helsinki. Leisha was impressed at how lithely Tafari and Rinwa moved. They may not have had vampire speed, but they certainly made up for it with honed skills.

A few passersby gave them strange looks, eyeing the weapons strapped to their backs and hips as the trio continued down the sidewalk to the garage. Leisha jovially told them in broken Finnish that they were going to a play rehearsal.

One couple laughed and glanced at each other in relief. “
Onnea matkaan
!”
they called after the trio to wish them luck.

“
Kiitos
,”
Leisha said as she waved at them in gratitude.

Once inside the overfilled garage, they spread out, Leisha taking the middle. She leapt up and clung to the ceiling. Using the support beams, she slid herself closer to the hotel entrance, her triceps and forearms bulging with the effort. It was tedious crawling along as if she were Spiderman, but she figured it would be an advantage if she could avoid detection from the security cameras.

All that sneaking turned out to be superfluous, however, since the doorway was completely unguarded and hung slightly ajar. Dropping and landing on her feet, Leisha glanced around and peered through the door. There was nothing alarming to be seen, so she signaled to the others, and Tafari and Rinwa were at her side in an instant.

Rinwa pointed to the corner of the ceiling. There had been a security camera there, but it looked like someone shot it to pieces.

“Something’s off here,” Leisha said softly, her voice laced with foreboding. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath through her nose. “I smell gunpowder, smoke, and sulfur mixed with lavender and menthol and some other things—maybe a gas of some kind?” She opened her eyes. “They’re residual scents so I can’t make out exactly what weapons were used.”

Tafari cautiously opened the door. When nothing happened, he stepped through and slowly walked down the hallway, his sword raised in front of him. “Do you hear anyone nearby?”

“No,” she answered from directly behind him. “My hearing doesn’t cover the entire place, but I think no one’s here.”

Tafari glanced back at Rinwa who was next to Leisha. She lowered her machete and turned to her mother. “How could they have just disappeared? They have to be here.”

Shrugging, Leisha gestured them onward. “Maybe something happened while we were flying over here. There’s no way you could have known about it while we were on the plane.”

“Maybe the other immortals found them before we did,” Tafari suggested.

“I hope not,” Leisha murmured. She knew how much the immortals hated Samantha for helping the vampires almost four years ago. The girl had aided Ptah and Annette under duress, but they wouldn’t forgive her that easily—and Leisha knew firsthand how her friend would be treated.

There were rooms on either side of them as they moved forward. Rinwa wanted to check out each one, but Leisha knew from her heightened senses that there was nothing to find.

Once they were in the main lobby, the scents of battle assaulted Leisha. She could smell the same things as before, but much stronger. There was also the prominent smell of blood. Most of it was vampire, but some of it wasn’t.

“This wasn’t immortals,” she declared. “Humans were here.”

Rinwa scoffed. “No way could a bunch of humans ambush vampires in their own lair.”

“I agree that it does not seem plausible,” Tafari said. “However, you do remember the organization that Samantha’s father works for.”

“Yes,” the immortal took off her sunglasses. “They did have all of that fine technology when we rescued Leisha from their compound.”

“I haven’t had a run-in with them in more than a year,” Leisha said. “I’d thought maybe they’d given up on finding us.”

No one said anything, but continued to look around. They took the elevator to the top floor, where Leisha knew Victor’s suite would be. The five-star room stood immaculate and empty, hardly anything disturbed.

“I thought they’d hold Samantha and Nikita in here.” Brows drawing together, Leisha pivoted and left. They stopped on each floor so Leisha could scope it out with her hearing and smell, but they found nothing useful.

Making the trek back out the way they’d come, Leisha could see with Tafari’s stiff movements and Rinwa’s tight lips that they were as concerned as she was. Not only had humans taken the vampires, but there was no sign of Samantha and Nikita.

They were passing a closed door when Leisha caught a whiff of Samantha’s amber body wash. She immediately tried the handle, but the door was locked. Gritting her teeth, she grasped the handle with both hands and, straining all of her strength, pulled the door off its hinges. Metal shavings rained to the carpet and Leisha dropped the door, making the floor reverberate. There was a long stairway leading deep into the underground. She didn’t have to signal Tafari and Rinwa as she headed down; they were right behind her.

There was a large steel door at the bottom. It was already broken and hanging to the side. It looked like someone used a bomb to get this door open.

It was dark, but Leisha detected something in the air.
Fear.
It permeated the room with its sour stink. She could also scent both Nikita and Samantha. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, Leisha could see the many torture devices in the shadows. She didn’t have to move any further to know that her friends had already endured terrible abuse. But there was no one left in the room.

“I don’t think Samantha’s father was here,” she told the others. “I can’t get a whiff of any human that’s familiar to me from his unit.”

“You mean this is another band of humans hunting vampires?” Rinwa sighed. “Why don’t those dumb idiots leave the hunting to us? We immortals are much better equipped to handle them.”

Leisha didn’t comment and pressed her lips together as she stared into the room that was used as a dungeon. Coming to a conclusion, she turned and headed up the stairs. “I think we should track down that secret sect of the U.S. government. They’re a known foe and they’re the only lead we have at this point.”

“How do you propose we find them?” Tafari asked.

Leisha pointed to her daughter. “Rinwa can hack into just about any system. She can look at the traffic cameras again.”

When they reached the top, Rinwa took off her glasses and glared at her mother. “You think that was easy? And besides, if it was always that simple, the immortals would have tracked you down years ago. What I found yesterday was plain luck. I don’t know if I can do that again.”

Leisha’s brain sped through various possibilities of what they could do as they walked back to the van and told Liam what they’d found. After she sat in a chair, Liam climbed onto her lap. She hugged him and then stroked his silky hair as she thought. She didn’t listen as Tafari and Rinwa argued over their next move, but tried to think of any alternatives. Finally, she looked up at the others.

“What if you knew what to search for?”

Rinwa paused mid-sentence and looked at her. “Huh?”

“I mean, it’s a secret sect of the government with access to what seems to be unlimited resources, right?”

“Exactly.” Rinwa frowned. “Trying to find them in classified documents is impossible. I’d have to break into the Pentagon and access a top clearance computer there. I’m sure we could do it, but some innocent bystanders would probably get killed in the crossfire.”

“I’m not going to ask you to do that,” Leisha assured. “I’m thinking of something more basic. Like sifting through the government’s budget.”

Tafari raised his eyebrows. “What do you hope to find there?”

Leaning back in her seat, she explained. “Look, it may be a long shot, but I’m thinking that if we can find where large sums of money are going, then we might track down their base of operations.”

Tafari and Rinwa sat quietly as they mulled it over.

Liam stood and stretched his back. “It’s a good place to start. At least we’ll be doing something instead of sitting around here and arguing.” He cast a meaningful glance at Rinwa.

The immortal balked at her brother, then threw her hands in the air in defeat. “Fine. We’ll give it a shot. But this is going to take some time. Do you know how many different projects use billions of dollars? I feel like this may be a waste of my time here.”

Head stooped low, Tafari made his way to the driver’s seat. “Unless you think of something better, we may as well move forward with this. Liam is correct. It is a productive way to spend our time and we may catch a break.”

“Doubtful.” Regardless of her sentiments, Rinwa went to the monitors and began working on her computer to break into the U.S.’s secure system.