Honoria Ravena (16 page)

Darius leaned forward. “I’ve got a message for you. From the king. It’s why we’re here.”

Zarek crossed his arms over his chest. “Really now? What could little Macon possibly have to say to me?”

“Do you have to be an ass? He needs help, believe it or not.”

Zarek’s face went blank. “Macon doesn’t ask for help.”

Darius sighed. “Yeah, but this is bad. Do you remember Dorian?”

Zarek and I exchanged a glance. “Yes. Regan met him a few days ago. I thought he was dead before that.”

“Nope and he passes on The Scourge. He wants Macon’s kingdom, just like old times.”

Zarek rubbed his forehead. “Do the scientists know how it’s passed yet?”

“Fortunately, yes. An exchange of blood, just like vampirism.”

“Anyway, the king may need your help. Are you with him?”

Zarek crossed his arms over his chest. “Of course. I wouldn’t turn my back on the punk.”

“He also said to tell you that he believes Navarro has the Scourge. He believes Navarro has created an army of his own. An army of children.”

“Son of a bitch.”

“Oh yeah.”

“Scourge-infested child vampires.” Zarek turned to me. “We’re in deep shit. Child vampires are already ruthless. What they lack in strength, they make up for in having no conscience and virtually no fear.”

Zarek rubbed his forehead. “The last time he changed children was during the influenza outbreak of 1918. Approximately one fourth of the fatalities were actually vampire victims. It was common practice to feed openly during outbreaks of disease because no one suspected vampires when a person died.”

“The king is still grateful that you called attention to Navarro. The influenza was killing too many people to let vampires continue murdering.”

Zarek braced his hands on the bar. “Well, Darius, thanks for the shitty news.”

“We’re willing to help you fight. We’ll bring in more Watchers. No one wants the Scourge to spread farther, and they don’t want Macon’s kingdom to fall apart either.”

“I should have enough rooms upstairs to board at least a few Watchers. Vahe, what about your woman? She shouldn’t be near the fighting, especially with the baby.”

“Don’t worry. She’s going to go visit her friend, Denver.”

Natalya ground her teeth. “I don’t like the idea of leaving your ass here.”

Vahe smiled sweetly. “Well, you’re going to.”

“Yep, but only because of Nicholas.”

I turned to Zarek. “You think Alaric and his brothers will help?”

“I’m sure they will. No vampire wants the Scourge spreading.”

Darius raked his fingers through his hair. “Good. The king is trying to get some help from Dara. But as you can imagine, she’s obstinate.”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “And almost as crazy as vampires with the Scourge. Do you know what she’s doing?”

Darius grunted. “Yes. I don’t like it, but the king said it was a damned good idea.”

“Yeah, that’s what Gabriel said.”

Darius laughed. “Gabriel? I figured he’d send Jeremy.”

Zarek snorted. “That would be a big mistake on his part. She’d probably kill him and—”

I interrupted. “I don’t know. I think there was some worry for him when Gabriel mentioned him. I think she loves him.”

“Yeah, well, you weren’t there to witness their breakup. That fight was massive.”

I shrugged. “Maybe. Anyway, do you know where Dorian lives? It might help with any assault we plan.”

“Yep. Here’s the address.” He handed me a small slip of paper. “Apparently, Navarro is living there at the moment.”

That got my attention. “Really?”

“Yeah. Those sick fucks get along real well.”

I spotted Jason sliding around the corner to the bathrooms. Usually, I wouldn’t have looked twice, but I knew there was more than one bathroom upstairs, and Jason seemed to be trying incredibly hard not to be spotted. He was up to something, and I wanted to go find out what. None of the men seemed to notice him. I sat there and listened to them talk for a minute before I stood.

“Excuse me, boys. I need to go freshen up.” I stalked away. I could sense Zarek’s eyes on me. He didn’t quite believe I was going to the bathroom. I couldn’t blame him. But hopefully I would figure out what my brother was doing before Zarek caught us in what appeared to be a quick getaway.

I came to the bathroom entrance and glanced back. Zarek had returned to the conversation. I turned the corner and opened the door to the men’s room.

Jason was sliding open the little bathroom window. I grabbed his arm before he could jump. He bared his fangs but quickly retracted them with a relieved sigh. “What the fuck are you doing, grabbing me like that? Are you nuts?”

“What are you up to?”

He rolled his eyes. “I’m going to go kill Navarro. What did you think I was doing?”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “This is a bad idea, Jason. Navarro’s fortress is probably covered in goons. I know he needs to die, but I think we might actually need help on this one.”

He shrugged. “So, we’ll slide in and slide out. It’s not like we haven’t done our fair share of slipping around vamps before.”

“This is different.”

“Scared?”

I snorted. He knew that wasn’t the issue. He was baiting me. “No. This is different because they’ll be expecting us.”

He lifted his lip in a snarl. “I don’t give a shit. I think I can take them.”

I stared at him. He turned to climb out of the window. It wasn’t like him to be so reckless or stupid. The hair stood up on my arms. He realized there was a good chance of getting killed. It was what he was hoping for. Damn it. I had to go and keep him safe. No way would he try to be safe on his own. I just had to convince him that I wasn’t going to just to keep him out of trouble.

“I want to be involved in whatever you’re doing, bro. I want some action. I’m jumping out of my skin just sitting here.”

He paused halfway out the tiny window. “No, I think you should stay here. If Zarek finds you missing, he’ll go bat shit.”

I frowned. Jason wouldn’t even look at me as he started to wiggle free of the window again. Not good.

“I’m going. That’s that. Try and stop me. Besides”—I held up the little slip of paper Darius had given me—”don’t you need the address?”

My brother stood on the other side of the window. He glared at me. “Yes. I need the address.”

I grinned. “Well, then. I guess I’m going.”

He grunted. “Hurry up and get your ass out here before Zarek catches us. He’s probably pretty suspicious by now.”

I slipped out the window easily and dropped gracefully to the ground. We took off down the alley. I’d make sure Jason didn’t engage the enemy, and we’d do a little reconnaissance in the process. Hopefully, we’d be back before Zarek decided he was going to kill us both.

I glanced around the street. “Should we hot-wire a car?”

Jason rolled his eyes at me. “We can run faster than a car, but if you really need one, I guess.”

I frowned. “Right.”

“This really bugs you, doesn’t it? Being what we are?”

“Doesn’t it bother you?”

“At first, but not anymore. I feel like I could take on the world.”

I shook my head. “Well, I hate it, and I’m not too fond of Zarek either.”

He snorted. “Whatever. You’re meant for each other.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Come on. You’re both pains in the ass. He’s dominant enough not to be trampled by you and man enough to not care that you don’t need him to be your hero.”

“He’s an arrogant, pushy bastard who wants to keep me captive for the rest of my life.”

“He’ll ease up if we don’t keep doing this kinda shit. But let’s get moving before he finds us.”

“I want to keep arguing about this.”

“I don’t.” He grabbed my arm and started running, and I had no choice but to follow or be dragged. The scenery passed by in a blur. We ran far outside the city limits.

I pulled my brother to a stop when we hit Dorian’s house. It was the biggest house I’d ever seen. A sprawling mansion in the middle of nowhere. I yanked him into the bushes when he stood there gaping for several seconds.

“Holy shit, that house is huge. And creepy.”

The grounds were overgrown. Stone gargoyles and creepy statues loomed over the place.

“It’s haunted.”

I glared at him. “It’s not haunted, you freak. Stop watching reruns of
A Haunting
.”

“Hey, it’s a fantastic TV show. And seriously, I think we need to hurry and go kill this bastard before we die some freaky death.”

I rolled my eyes. “Now I remember why I stopped hunting with you. Could you be less focused?”

“Yes. If some hot girl walks by, I could be much more distracted.” He cleared his throat. “Okay. I’m done now. You’re giving me that scary stare Mom used to give me.” He then let out a breath, and his eyes fell closed.

“What are you doing?” I whispered.

“Shut up.”

“One of these days I’m going to kick you.”

He was still and silent for several minutes. Just as I was about to hit him, his eyes flew open. I covered my mouth to keep from screaming.

“God, that was creepy.”

“You need to get out of here.”

I gaped at him. “Uh, what do you mean? We haven’t even checked out the whole property. And if I need to go, you’re coming with me.”

“I still want to try and kill him, but I don’t want you involved. It could get hairy, and one vampire who has a better grasp on his powers could more easily sneak around. If Zarek had taught you to use your fancy vampire powers, maybe you could come with me.”

“He probably figures that if he doesn’t teach me I won’t be able to run away from him.”

Jason shook his head. “He wouldn’t do that to any of his fledglings. He wants us to be able to defend ourselves. Besides, even if you learn to use your powers, you won’t be able to escape him. We share his blood, so he’s got his own LoJack on us for the most part. And he’s ancient. We never had a chance.”

“Spectacular.”

I didn’t care what my brother said. I was going to try to get away from Zarek when this was over. I couldn’t belong to a vampire forever. Even if he was good in bed, made me laugh, and seemed to genuinely care about me. Half of me screamed, “Why not?”

The other half wasn’t as stupid. He’d made me a vampire against my will, and he planned to keep me with him the same way. I was starting to realize that he wasn’t evil, but this relationship would never work. He was your typical, domineering I-am-the-man-and-you-will-obey type. I could never tolerate crap like that. We weren’t made for each other.

I shook my head to clear it. I needed to focus on Jason, not my deteriorating personal life.

“Can you sense where the vampires are on the grounds? Maybe we can work around them and just do some recon. We could just poke around and come back with a fighting force later. We need to get entry points and where the guards are anyway.”

“I’m not a fucking tracking device. And I’m going in to kill Navarro, not doing any ‘recon.’ That’s not what this is about.” Jason turned away from me to observe the house.

“Yeah. This is about suicide.”

His back tensed but he didn’t face me. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Bullshit. You might say you love being a vampire, but you’re more fucked in the head about it than I am, and I didn’t think that was freaking possible! Also, Alaric told me about Liora.”

Silence greeted my admission.

“Jason, please look at me. Talk to me!”

“I loved her more than anything, and I can never see her again. More than that. One day soon she’ll find out I’m a vampire, and she’ll be truly devastated. She might even make it her mission to kill me. And then what? I can’t hide from her forever. I’ll have to kill her or let her kill me. Prepare yourself, Regan. I can’t even scratch her. I’d let her win. I should just go to her now.”

I grabbed him and spun him around. There were tears in his eyes. “Hell no. You stay far away from her. I still love you, Jason. I still need you around.”

“You don’t know what I’ve done! I’m a monster. Liora is only half the problem.”

I shook my head. “I know about the woman you killed. It was an accident.”

He rolled his eyes and turned away.

I took a deep breath and tugged at the sleeve of his T-shirt. “Let’s just go home. We’ll drink heavily and watch some action movie where lots of shit blows up.”

He snorted. “An action movie?”

“Well, if you were a woman I’d suggest a chick flick, but I really don’t think you want to sit through
Pride and Prejudice
.”

He glanced at me and then back at the giant house. “Ugh. Fine. Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

“Too late,” a voice said behind us. “Several of us sensed your mind when you scanned the house. In time, you would learn how to hide yourself better. Unfortunately for you, you won’t get the chance.”

We rose slowly and turned. Five vampires stood behind us, including Navarro.

My gaze slid to my brother’s. “Think we can take on five vampires?”

“Who are older than us and have a disease that makes them stronger? Not a chance, but it doesn’t look like we’ve got a choice.”

More vampires appeared in the trees, and Jason’s eyes went wide. He grinned at me. “Don’t you love it when I get you into these things?”

I shrugged. “Hey, this is new for us. Usually I drag you into the deep shit.”

“Oh, yeah. Too bad killing you isn’t an option.”

“Love you too.”

Navarro snapped his fingers. “Siblings, do pay attention to the people who are about to kill you. Now are you going to come along quietly or are you going to fight?”

I drew my knife. “What do you think, asshole?”

An annoyed eyebrow shot up. “Such language. When you’re mine, I’ll fix that.” He turned to his soldiers. “Try not to kill them. Gifts are a rare commodity.”

Steel glinted in the moonlight to my left, and one of the men in the forest sunk to the ground, headless.

I grinned and dived for the nearest vampire. The knife sunk into the startled man’s heart. I spun and cut the throat of the vamp coming at my back.

There was a battle cry, and then chaos erupted as more vampires appeared, except they started killing the enemy. It seemed that the king’s guard had made an appearance. I’d already lost track of Jason, but the other vampires that had arrived with Navarro were dead.

Navarro cursed as I started toward him. He pulled his knife and stood his ground. I swung my knife hand out, aiming for his throat. He dodged and slammed his arm into mine, sending my knife flying.

He sliced at my throat, and I leaped back, barely avoiding the blow. I spun and smashed my foot into his solar plexus. He went flying backward into a tree. His knife flew off into the darkness. Damn it.

I spun and rushed to the spot where mine had fallen. Something slammed into the side of my head. Pain exploded in my skull, and I hit the ground. I swiped at my eyes as blood poured into them. I couldn’t see shit.

I scrambled to my knees and sliced my hand on a blade in the grass. I grasped the hilt. A booted foot slammed down on my back and I collapsed, gasping, on the ground.

“You’re dead, bitch.” My attacker circled me. He was probably lifting a sword to chop off my head. I rolled toward him, then jammed the knife down on his foot. He howled and his sword bit into the ground above my head.

I crawled away from him as quickly as I could.

“I’m gonna kill you, you little whore!”

Someone seized my upper arms and hauled me to my feet. I screamed and reared away.

A cloth was pressed to my forehead. “Regan, if you kick me I’m going to beat your ass. Well, I plan on beating your ass anyway, but if you hurt me, it will be that much worse.”

“Zarek?”

“Yes. The idiot who let you out of his sight is here to save your stupid ass.”

He started pulling me away.

“Where are we going?”

“We’re falling back to the bar. We don’t have the manpower to kill all these vampires. There will be more people in the bar soon.”

I tugged at his hold. “But Navarro is here. I almost had him.”