Seizing Darkness (Fur, Fangs, and Fairies) (9 page)

“The People Against the Devils?” I asked. That was the current group causing the most problems right now.

He nodded before continuing. “They are the real reason that we came out. When we came out and the government created the PIB, it was a given that Father would head it. By the way, Father picked the name. It’s his little twisted joke.”

I couldn’t help but laugh a little at that. I knew Val’s favorite drink. Why the old tiger liked that nasty soda was beyond me. I couldn’t stand carbonated drinks.

“The Council figured that it would be best to have the head of the Council as the head of the PIB. Ever since then, Louis has been trying to get Father to either step down, or get rid of him in some other way. Dante and I’ve always stood in Louis’s way. He knows that we’re brothers, and that messing with us would be detrimental to his health.

“The vampires are major supporters of Father. It goes back to Dante’s history. You’ll have to get that part of the story from him. Most of the shifting and changeling community backs Father as well, thanks to us tigers being near the top of that particular food chain. The fae, witches, and all the other creatures respect our family since Father made it a point to reach out to them. If he was somehow taken out of the picture, Dante or I would be asked to take his place. Neither one of us want that, so we make sure nothing happens to him. Louis knows the best way to bring disgrace to my father is to go through one of us. With you in the picture now, I’m sure you have a large target on your back, being female.”

“Why is Louis still around and why would he kill other agents?” I asked.

“We can’t ever link him to anything. He’s very careful about what he does. He stays just on this side of the laws. For the last year I have been assigned to the special unit that goes after and watches our most notorious nonhuman troublemakers. We think he is involved in human and nonhuman trafficking. He’s always thought that the humans and any creature he deems lesser is
nothing more than a toy for him to do with as he wishes. Survival of the strongest is his creed. If Father gets into it with him without hard evidence, my Father’s enemies will see he’s killed. See, Louis’s few supporters have been stirring up rumors of Father having a vendetta against him. But our hands are tied until we can get proof of Louis’s wrongdoing and bring it before the Council. I have barely found anything this past year. We were so close – then all this started happening. When Father was called to Washington, he asked me to come here and check things out.”

“I see. So who are his biggest supporters?” I asked. This was a lot to take in. Most of it was vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t place where I’d heard it all before. Something was nagging me and I couldn’t pin it down. It was frustrating.

“Some groups of the minor fae that he’s made big promises to – mostly the ones that eat human flesh. A few of the witch covens, the ones that want to use dark magic. A few packs of werewolves, one or two vampire seethes and a few others. Most of them don’t like the regulations against feeding on humans, harming humans and things like that. He promises them that he’ll change the laws if he’s put into power. I believe him. He has that whole ‘take over the world’ complex.”

“That figures. Since he hasn’t done anything out in the open, the laws state he can’t be prosecuted for having an opinion. That just sucks.”

“Yes, the Council feels it’s a way to keep my father in hand. Personally, I think most of them are just idiots. They just can’t see how dangerous Louis could be.”

“I have the same opinion,” I said, and we shared a smile. “So which of his supporters are in the area?”

He scrolled through the lists, categorized by region. “These ones,” he said. It was a group of fifteen. One familiar name popped up.

“Joshua is on there, I see.”

“Not a surprise. But this one is. Why didn’t I think of him before?” Radek said, tapping the screen.

“Who is Richard Crauss?” I asked. Next to the name was his race: vampire.

“He’s the vampire master of the Portland, Oregon area.”

“He supports Louis?” I asked.

“He owes Louis a favor of some sort, I believe. Louis has some kind of blackmail on him. We’ve never been able to find out what. Neither Gregory or Dante know.” He took a drink of his coffee and sat back, staring at the wall.

I left him to his thoughts. We both sat there mulling it over for a while.

Chapter Nine

There was a knock on the door. I looked at him and he motioned for me to stay put. I stood next to the couch. We couldn’t be too careful. I only relaxed a little when Gregory sauntered in behind Radek.

“Come on in. You got here fast,” Radek said.

“I want to find my master.”

Gregory was visibly upset. I sized him up. He was tall with a lean build, blonde hair and blue eyes. He had a different air about him than every other time I’d met him. He wasn’t as arrogant. The little hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. Something was definitely not right. His usually impeccable dress and mannerisms weren’t present. His clothes were rumpled and his hair looked like he’d been running his hands through it all night. The fact that he also called Dante master was telling. His obvious concern relaxed me a little, and I decided that maybe I could trust him. After all, Radek trusted him and Dante had made him. He couldn’t be too bad. I trusted both of them with my life. I would go with Radek on this.

 “I see you know my little secret now, Natalya,” Gregory said, keeping his cold blue eyes on me. He was studying me as well.

“It’ll not go past me,” I assured him, then added, “it’s an interesting development.”

“I’m glad to see you’re doing better,” he said.

I
guess I passed his assessment. I decided that I could be civil, especially if he could help us get Dante back. “I didn’t know you cared. But thank you.”

“I wouldn’t, except those that I have allegiance to care, so that makes you my concern as well.”

“What do you need?” Radek interrupted our little exchange.

“We should probably do this wherever you want me to sleep for the day. I’ve never tried this before and it will most likely exhaust me if not be my demise. I’m willing to try it though.”

Now that was very encouraging – and a bit overly dramatic. Not that I expected less drama. Vampires were predisposed to being melodramatic, and that’s putting it mildly.

“There are quarters set up in the basement that can house you for the day safely. We can do this down there. Follow me,” Radek said.

He went down the stairs and Gregory followed. I was surprised that Gregory let me walk behind him. I looked around – there was a workout area set up and in the darkest corner, there was a door. That’s where Radek was heading.

He clicked on the light. It was a small room with no light coming in. It was perfect for a vampire during the day. It had a cot set up. No blankets, of course; vampires are dead – they don’t get cold. I stayed in the doorway while the other two entered the room.

“Tell me how this is going to work,” Radek said, his voice steady. He had nerves of steel, I thought in admiration. 

“I’ll drink from you. The combination of your blood tie with him and mine should be powerful enough to let me bond to Dante’s mind. Once that happens, if he decides to let me in and not kill me outright for trying, I’ll be able to communicate with him. I should also be able to tell where he is. My best guess is that they knocked him unconscious to capture him. That requires damaging the spinal cord near the base of the head, but not severing it. A vampire his age should’ve recovered by now. I can feel that he’s still alive, so to speak, and quite infuriated. It might take all the energy I have, so I don’t think I’ll wake up until the evening.”

“If you can do this then that’s the best lead we have. It might take days or weeks to find him any other way,” Radek said.

“Give me your arm.” Gregory didn’t waste any time asking.

Radek complied.

I watched as Gregory sunk his fangs into Radek’s wrist. I clenched my fists to keep from ripping him away from Radek. He took a few swallows and then released his wrist. I didn’t know whether to be fascinated or disgusted. The wounds closed almost instantly, which must have been the vampire venom mixed with Radek’s own ability to heal fast.

“I’m afraid the rest of this will be boring for you two,” Gregory said as he laid his head down and closed his eyes.

“We’ll leave you to it then, and be here when you rise,” Radek said as he followed me out the door. He shut it and we went back upstairs.

“Now what?” I asked.

“We wait. If this works, it’ll be better than going and chasing our tails all day.”

I could tell he didn’t like the idea of waiting, but he was right. We really didn’t have any better options.

“I don’t want to wait,” I said under my breath. I knew he heard me. It’s hard to get away with anything around supernatural creatures like us.

“Me neither.”

We stood there for a moment looking at each other. I was wondering if he was thinking about the kiss we’d shared before Gregory called. What would’ve happened if he hadn’t called right then? I asked myself. I knew that answer and was a little glad that we had been interrupted. That wasn’t something that I was ready for.

There was a challenge in his stare, and I couldn’t take it anymore. “I’m going to go get cleaned up and change my clothes.”

I scampered up the stairs. I’d really wanted to kiss him. That was so not going to happen. At least that’s what I kept telling myself. When he had said that we would have to wait, the things going through my mind were totally inappropriate. I had some very good ideas of what we could do to kill time. I barely knew him, though. On one hand, he was Val’s son, so I felt like I knew him. On the other hand, he was
Val’s son
. That was only part of my problem, but a big part. I was very confused as I walked into the room.

I could hear Radek on the phone again, but couldn’t tell what he was saying or to whom he was speaking – he was talking too softly. I grabbed my things and went into the bathroom. I unwrapped my arm and noticed that it had basically healed. I could take out the stitches. Rather than asking Radek for help, I dug around the cabinets until I found what I needed. I quickly removed the stitches, then jumped in the shower. I tried to take as long as possible. We had the whole day to wait. But when the warm water ran out, I was forced to go down and join Radek.

“Dek,” I said as I came into the living room.

He was staring out the window. He’d changed and it looked like he had taken a shower as well. His dark hair was still wet. He was wearing dark grey sweats and a black snug t-shirt. He looked damn good.

“Yes, Princess?” he said with a smile and a wink.

“Are we really back to that now?”

“Yep. Would you like something to eat? I think there are some movies around here somewhere. We can go through the lists and watch something while we wait since we can’t leave now until Gregory wakes up.”

 
“I could eat something.”

 
“Well then right this way, Princess.” He headed into the kitchen.

 
“Does this mean you’re going to cook for me?” I asked, sitting in one of the bar stools across the counter from him. I figured it was safer to have something in between us. I rested my chin in my palm and challenged Radek with a look.

“Of course,” he said with a bow, then went to the refrigerator and started pulling things out.

 “You and I should shift soon,” I said. The urge to do just that was hard to fight. With all the injuries that I had sustained recently, my body craved the shift. The harder I tried not to think about it, the more I thought about it.

“You’re right, but I can’t for a few more hours. We can hold out until Father gets here. I want to concentrate on finding Dante,” he said.

I left him to the cooking while I went and hunted down a movie. The DVDs were stashed beneath the TV. I smiled when I saw the selection and I picked one of my favorites. It was a comedy zombie movie done by a group of British actors. To my knowledge, I hadn’t met a zombie in person. I’d heard that this movie hit it pretty close. 

He brought in the plates just as the movie started.

“You have got to be kidding me,” he said when he noticed the movie that was starting.

“Nope. It’s hilarious.”

He shook his head at me and said, “You’re crazy, you know that.”

“No more crazy than the next weretiger. We’re going to be looking through all the lists and stuff so we might as well have something entertaining on in the background. Besides, it’s way too tense and serious around here right now. We can’t keep thinking clearly if we don’t relax a little.”

“Fine, it doesn’t really matter anyway.” He handed me a plate with a huge steak and potato on it. It smelled wonderful and tasted even better. I smiled over at him as he sat next to me. We ate in silence and watched the movie.

Sometime during the middle of the movie, I got up to go get the ice cream. When I turned from the freezer, Radek was standing right behind me. How had he snuck up on me? Before I could even think to ask what he was doing, he grabbed the ice cream and put it on the counter. Then he grabbed the back of my neck and brought me closer to him. His mouth was on mine before I could even blink. His scent filled my senses. I was lost in the kiss.

I felt his hand slide along my cheek and rest on my shoulder. He pulled away without a word, grabbed one of the ice creams and a spoon, then turned around and went back to the movie.

I stood there for a moment in shock, then grabbed the other carton and spoon. I marched back into the room and sat down on the couch as far from him as possible. I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye. He was staring at the screen, or so I thought. The corner of his mouth went up in a small smile.

I turned back to the movie, but I couldn’t concentrate on it. I kept thinking how nice it would be just to lean into him. I was beginning to get sleepy as I finished my ice cream. He put in the next movie – it was the same actors, but no zombies this time. I fell asleep sometime during the first part. We never did get to the computer files.

* * *

The television was still on, showing the main menu screen. I heard Gregory walk into the room. I was comfortable and didn’t want to move. Radek was warm against my back, one arm beneath my head and the other over my waist. His scent surrounded me. I felt safe and comfortable. His breath tickled the back of my neck. I felt him wake and reluctantly sat up. I shivered as I pulled away from him, missing his warmth already.

“Oh good, you’re finally up,” Radek said to Gregory as he ran a hand over his face and through his hair. He hadn’t moved other than lying on his back instead of his side.

“Finally? What have you been doing?” Gregory replied.

“Waiting for you,” I countered. “What were we supposed to do?”

“I need to feed, then we can go get Dante,” Gregory said, ignoring my question.

“How do we know you’re not leading us into a trap?” I asked.

I knew that Radek trusted him, but I wasn’t quite ready for that yet. I just didn’t like vampires. I know that sounds prejudiced, but it was true. I didn’t know why, but I could feel that something had happened in my past. However, Dante was okay in my book. Why had I almost immediately trusted Dante, but I wanted to rip the head off of any other vampire? Something about Dante had been familiar, and I’d been comfortable with him. It might have been that my subconscious knew that he’d had a hand in saving me. Whatever it was, I needed to get over it. Radek had said that Gregory could be trusted, and that should be enough for me.

“He’s not,” Radek said with a heavy sigh.

I guess he was getting tired of my little untrusting tendencies.

He sat up maneuvered himself so he was sitting next to me. “Go feed, but come right back. Then we’ll discuss our plans.”

“Of course,” Gregory said and was gone.

“What is it with you and him?” Radek turned on me, pinning me to the couch with his eyes.

“I don’t know; I just don’t trust vampires. I can’t explain it. It’s like my subconscious is telling me something, but I don’t comprehend it. Every time I try to think about it, my head just hurts.”

Radek looked at me with narrowed eyes. “That’s right, you have no memory of your life before we found you.”

“No. All I remembered when I woke up was my name. I mean I know my likes, dislikes, how to drive and all that, and I know several languages, but the other stuff – no.”

“That’s strange.”

“I know, that’s what Val said. He said he had some theories, but wasn’t sure what could have caused it. We never really got into it too much. It hadn’t seemed important at the time.” I shrugged.

“It’s interesting.” I could see him switch gears. “Anyway, why don’t you go ta
ke a shower and get ready to go? I’ll do the same after you’re done. It looks like we’re hunting tonight.” He gave me a feral smile that made me want him again.

I really wished he would stop doing that.
“Okay.” I went upstairs, leaving Radek alone so I wasn’t tempted to ask him to join me. I quickly cleaned up and dressed.

We were both back downstairs and cleaning up the mess we’d made when Gregory returned. He started talking as soon as he opened the door. I was surprised to see Madon enter right behind him. Radek must’ve called him in to help.

“While I was out, I looked around where they’re keeping Dante,” Gregory said smugly.