BloodWish Page 24

  ‘You’re wonderful, Sabine. Thank you.’

  She chuckled. ‘I did nothing. All I said was the truth ... except for one little bit, and that I don’t regret. It was for your safety.’

  She was a gem.

  ‘But I must tell you; there is something that is strange to me. He didn’t sound surprised when I said you were not here. He said, “Uh huh!” And that was it. As your housekeeper, I should be expected to know your whereabouts. But he wasn’t interested. He asked me nothing, as if he already knew the answer. Then he went away without another word. Isn’t that most odd? I thought it was best to tell you.’

  Odd, all right, but nothing surprised me about Matt. ‘I’m glad you did. Thank you, Sabine.’

  ‘Then I’ll be off, my lady. Keep well.’

  She hung up, and I stowed the phone back into my jeans pocket.

  ‘What in glory’s name is he pursuing this for?’ Alec’s expression was dark. ‘Doesn’t he have anything better to do.’

  ‘Obviously not.’

  His expression softened as he brushed the hair from off my shoulder. ‘Forget him. He won’t find us here.’

  ‘What about afterwards? How long does a warrant last?’

  ‘Doesn’t matter. Leave him to me.’ The dangerous smile that curled his lips had me wishing Matt could just leave things alone ... for his own safety.

  * * *

  It was a few days later that the dreadful news came. We were in the high hall, again. I’d just finished dinner. Kari and Dougal were playing a game of draughts. Alec was on his laptop ordering more pieces of medical equipment while Jake was setting up those that had already arrived, in our suite.

  Alec’s phone rang. Absently, he fetched it from his shirt pocket. Whoever it was from, had him drawing his brows together. He put it on loudspeaker. ‘Richard, what’s up?’

  ‘Richard?’ I mouthed.

  ‘Amanda’s donsang, Richard Weston,’ Alec mouthed back. Amanda was head of the Bondi safe house and the newest Elder responsible for Australia and Oceania, the position my father, Luc, had created and then held after he’d relinquished the princiship to Alec.

  ‘Terrible news. I’m so sorry.’ Alec tensed—so did I. ‘The Residence ... has been burned down. It’s gone. Everything ... everyone.’ His voice choked. ‘I left a message on Amanda’s phone, but you know she won’t hear it till tonight.’

  It was night here, but early morning in Sydney.

  The blood drained from my cheeks.

  Luc and Judy’s Vaucluse home, had been burned to the ground.

  No one spoke, shock and disbelief etched on every face.

  A dry lump stuck in my throat as I tried to keep my emotions under control. But I knew I’d lose, especially when a sudden choking sob filled the great hall. Kari, arms folded over her stomach, doubled over and wailed. Drops of blood spilled from her eyes and splashed down onto the game board.

  I jolted as the door crashed open, and Jake rushed to Kari’s side. ‘Kari? What’s wrong?’

  ‘They’re dead! The Residence ... in Sydney.’ She ended on a strangled cry.

  My vision swam, so I could barely make out Jake’s unbelieving gaze pan to Alec and me.

  Seated next to him at the table, I felt Alec tremble. ‘Richard, do you know how it happened? An electrical fault, lightening strike...?’

  ‘It was no accident ... Humans ... Daybreak attack, about an hour ago, and they used petrol. Even I can smell it.’ Anger punctuated his voice.

  Arson! My breath hitched. Alec uttered an oath.

  ‘It can’t be the Rebels. It can’t!’ My voice sounded hoarse. ‘The rebellion is over.’ It had been defeated, it’s leaders executed. I’d personally removed their heads. The memory of it still made my stomach queasy.

  Alec’s brow furrowed, and the way he chewed his bottom lip told me otherwise. He looked up at Jake. ‘Rebel donsangs? On a revenge attack? I know there’s no known precedent, but it’s not improbable, is it?’

  Jake shook his head. ‘I find it hard to believe.’ He turned back to Richard. ‘What about the security guys? Where were they?’

  ‘Knocked out and dragged out of the house before it was set alight. Got a call from one of them when he regained consciousness. I drove straight over.’

  ‘Are they harmed?’ Alec asked. For a split second, he and Jake exchanged glances and I didn’t need the ring’s mind-reading abilities to guess what that was about, because at that moment, the same idea had occurred to me.

  Were the security guards in any way involved in this? And if they were, then why? I had no doubt they were paid exceptionally well, so it made no sense to be disloyal. Besides, it would also have been too obvious. When I saw Jake subtly shake his head, I dismissed the thought too.

  Richard spoke again. ‘No, they’re okay. Paramedics are checking them out now. Firemen are still here putting out the last embers. I’ve alerted all available donsangs to boost security around the other safe houses ... just in case.’

  ‘Good man. But whoever did this has already made their point. Couldn’t make a bigger statement than hitting the Residence,’ Alec said.

  ‘Yeah, true. Just as long as they don’t decide to make another one.’ Besides Richard’s voice coming down the line, men shouted instructions in the background—presumably the firemen. A police siren and the explosive crash of collapsing timbers and splintering glass had me shaking my head in denial. There was an intake of breath. Then Richard swore. ‘Top floors just gave way. I’m switching to Facetime so you can see.’

  Jake and Kari sprang to our side to view the screen. Dougal followed.

  Something I thought I’d never see came to life on the screen, and I couldn’t stifle the cry that came out of me. It couldn’t be happening, yet it was. My eyes weren’t lying to me.

  Behind me, Kari quietly sniffed.

  I could only imagine how Alec felt. His memories ran far deeper than mine in that house. When the phone cracked in his grip, I knew for sure. He quickly lay it down on the table. I ran my arms around his neck and rested my head on his shoulder as the horrid images continued on the screen.

  My heart broke for the helpless and innocent sleeping Brethren staff who were trapped inside, who maintained the house while we were away, since the human staff had been given paid leave. And I grieved for my parents’ once beautiful, historic home, now reduced to a blackened, and crumbling burned out shell. My mother’s favourite sitting room, with its flower-shaped, vintage wrought-iron chandelier and walls lined with framed photos of her as a young woman, where we had bonded as mother and daughter, was irretrievably gone. My father’s library, filled to the ceiling with priceless books and manuscripts, and where my life had been turned around after learning that Luc and Judy were my real parents, gone. And Alec’s room, where we’d made love for the very first time, and the stunning ballroom where dear Kari and I had met and become fast friends, all now reduced to ash.

  I swallowed the rock lodged in my throat and watched helplessly as smoke rose from the remaining pockets of flames the firemen were attempting to extinguish. I could almost smell the putrid air, its toxic fumes fanning my darker recollections of the ballroom where, as the new Ingenii, I’d been introduced to the Brethren Perfects and Elders, and where Jean-Philippe, my half-brother, had kept his secret studio.

  I shuddered, not just at that last memory but at the sad certainty that all traces of Luc and Judy were being erased, almost as if the past were being wiped clean.

  A grief so encompassing descended on me that I had to turn my gaze away from the screen. Somewhere deep within me came a stirring that frightened me: the desire to hunt down and destroy those who caused this, to suck the very last drop of blood from their veins and take pleasure in watching the life slowly recede from their eyes. The blackness threatened to engulf the last spark of light in my mind.

  I was no vampire, but at that moment, I wanted to be.

  I reached out to embrace the darkness.

  ‘No, you don’t. Do
n’t give in to it, darling,’ Alec’s calm voice whispered through my mind. ‘That beast only brings destruction. It uses vengeance as an excuse. It feeds on it.’

  Alec’s arm tightened around my waist, his lips brushing my brow as I rested my head on his shoulder. ‘It’s so easy to give in.’ I sent back to him.

  ‘Very easy. But the moment you let go of the struggle, you lose everything that’s good in you. I know, I’ve been there. If I’d let it control me I’d be no better than the rogues I’ve hunted and executed.’

  He sensed my pain. He understood it, and he eased it, and I loved him even more for it.

  ‘At least they felt no pain,’ Jake’s voice broke into our mind talk.

  Thanks to the death-like sleep of the Brethren that prevented waking, those poor people were cremated rather than immolated. Still, it was a terrible way to die, and it didn’t change the fact that they were murdered.

  ‘Aye, a small mercy, that.’ Dougal leaned forward to see the screen, one hand on the table to steady himself.

  ‘Attacking the Residence is a declaration of war, and we can’t let it go any further,’ Jake said.

  Alec nodded. ‘Agreed. We need to get the jet refueled and ready.’

  I knew what that meant. He was leaving. A deep chasm opened in the pit of my stomach. Our eyes met.

  ‘I’m princeps. It’s my responsibility to protect the Brethren, and to do that, I’ve got to personally investigate this crime and find and punish those who did this. I can’t do it from here.’

  I took a deep breath and assembled my thoughts, my mouth drying at what I knew I had to do: let him go.

  ‘I know.’ I cupped his face and whispered, ‘Go and find who did this.’

  Alec kissed the inside of my palm and pressed it to his cheek, his Adam’s apple working hard as he swallowed. He found this as hard as I did.

  With his gaze still on me, Alec said, ‘Richard, I’m on my way.’

  ‘Was hoping you’d say that, coz there’s something here you need to see. They left a calling card. Security guy found it on the ground next to him when he came round. Took a pic. Sending it through now. I—ah—didn’t hand it over to the police. Thought it best not to.’

  ‘You’re withholding evidence. Is it worth the risk?’

  ‘You tell me.’

  Alec swiped to messages. A small card with the image of a four winged, claw-footed creature appeared.

  Jake leaned in for a closer look, as if not trusting what his eyes saw. He inhaled sharply. ‘Blasted Pazu! Can’t be. We dealt with them more than a century ago.’

  Richard’s voice came through. ‘That’s why the image rang a bell. Amanda mentioned them once ... ages ago. Can’t recall everything but something about them being extinct.’

  ‘That’s what we thought.’ Jake ran his hand along his face and scratched his short beard, a concerned frown puckering his brow.

  I glanced at Jake. ‘What’s a Pazu?’

  ‘I need a refresher, too,’ Richard added.

  Jake blew out a breath. ‘They call themselves Pazuzim, sons of Pazuzu, families of vampire hunters. Been around for aeons. First hunted the lamiae, then the rest of us. That’s their symbol.’ Jake wagged a finger at the computer screen. ‘Their god, Pazuzu.’

  ‘Now, I remember,’ Richard said.

  ‘Eeewww ... he’s as ugly as Old Stinky.’

  ‘Old Stinky?’

  Kari came round Jake’s other side and knelt on the floor, chin resting on her arms on the edge of the table. ‘Long story, Richie. I’ll tell you another time.’

  ‘Sure, I can wait.’

  She wrinkled her nose and angled her face up to Jake. ‘How come you didn’t show me this before?’

  ‘I did, and their skin markings, how to identify them.’

  ‘Yep to the last bit but nope to the first bit.’

  ‘Uh! Never mind, you’re seeing it now. Anyway, as I was saying, we’d kept tabs on the two families who’d followed us here from Europe—The Davidoffs and the Sommersets. When they came after us, Luc grabbed the Davidoff’s elder son and held him for ransom in exchange for the sword. Davidoff refused to bargain. Said he still had the hammer and anvil on which to make a better one than him.’

  Alec huffed and shook his head in disbelief. ‘I couldn’t believe it when Luc first told me. Some father! The boy was only six years old. That damn sword meant more to him than his own son.’

  ‘Davidoff was a bastard, all right. It was his wife who got him to give in ... eventually. She betrayed her husband to get the boy back. After that the family were essentially neutralised.’ Jake smiled absently. ‘He was a nice kid. I let him beat me at Chinese Checkers. Pity he was a Pazu.’

  ‘What’s so special about their sword?’ Over the last few months, I’d seen a lot of magic, so it wouldn’t have surprised me if there were some magical qualities about the Pazu sword as well. My father, Luc, wouldn’t have demanded such a ransom price if it wasn’t something extraordinary ... or deadly to Brethren kind.

  ‘It’s the only weapon that can kill the lamiae and us. We can’t go near the thing. It’s like ... the ward ring, creating a force field that weakens us the closer we get to it.’

  ‘Nasty.’

  ‘And very effective,’ Jake replied. ‘I’ve seen Brethren so weakened by it, they laid helpless while a Pazu relieved them of their heads.’

  No wonder Luc wanted those things destroyed. ‘Would it have the same effect on me? After all, I’m half vampire.’

  Jake frowned and studied me awhile. ‘I really don’t know. It’d be interesting to find out.’

  ‘It certainly wouldn’t,’ Alec said drawing me closer, as if there was a Pazu sword nearby I needed protecting from.

  ‘Still, I need to know these things,’ I told him before turning back to Jake. There was something else I was curious about. ‘What happened to the boy, the one you let beat you at checkers?’

  ‘Grew up and got killed in the Great War.’ Jake shrugged. ‘Anyway, we destroyed the Pazu sword. The other family went into hiding. Changed their name, address ... the whole thing. We hunted them till the war came and disrupted everything. After that, we heard nothing more from them. We assumed their males signed up and never came back from the war. Eventually Luc called off the watch. How they’ve remained underground all this time is beyond me.’

  ‘Only their guys hunted you?’ Why not the women, or was it some strange male-gene thing?

  ‘Usually, although ... I do remember some females being among them,’ Jake replied.

  ‘It’s going to be hard tracking those families down after all this time,’ Alec said.

  ‘If they found us, we can find them. Marcus needs to know.’ Jake pulled out his phone and strode to the other end of the hall.

  Meanwhile, Alec picked the phone up and switched back to Facetime. ‘Richard, have the medics finished with the guards? If they’re able to talk, put them on. Preferably Elliott, if possible.’ He then whispered to me, ‘Head of security.’

  ‘Hold on, let me check.’ Richard’s long, lean face appeared again.

  I sensed something was bugging Alec. ‘What is it?’

  ‘Not sure. My scalp’s prickling. There’s something here I’m not seeing.’

  ‘You will. You’re a genius, didn’t you know that?’ I ran my fingers through his silky raven-black hair and massaged his scalp. ‘Still prickling?’

  He grinned and kissed the tip of my nose. ‘Yes, but thanks for the vote of confidence.’

  Richard approached one of the medics. There was a brief conversation. The paramedics insisted on taking them to the hospital to test for concussion since they had been knocked out.

  ‘Give me a minute,’ the team leader said to them, as Richard handed him the phone.

  ‘Princeps, Lady Laura.’ The man removed his cap and dipped his head in reverence. Dust and ash smeared his face, leaving a clear line on his brow above the cap line. ‘I accept full responsibility and tend my immediate resignation.�
�

  ‘We’ll discuss that later. Just tell me what happened. I don’t want to keep you too long. You need to get to the hospital.’

  ‘Yes, Sir.’ His voice took on a professional tone. ‘Just after 0600 hours, the CT cameras went down. I sent out one of our guys to investigate. A minute later the lights went out. Then everything shut down. We thought it may have been a power surge and our backup system would’ve automatically kicked in. It didn’t. Following protocol, I stayed in the surveillance room and sent the other two guys to check the backup generator and look over the grounds while I tried to get everything running again.’ He grimaced and rubbed the back of his head. ‘Communication went dead. I was about to ring the primary donsang when I got a bang to the head and woke up down by the pier, next to the others.’

  It sounded like a professional hit to me, but something about the Pazu leaving a calling card was odd. ‘Why on earth would they leave such evidence behind unless they want to be caught, which I hope they are.’

  ‘Or maybe one of them was careless and accidentally dropped it,’ the security guard added.

  ‘It’s possible.’ Alec shrugged. ‘Professionals don’t make such a mistake, especially as almost everything can be digitally traced nowadays. It doesn’t make sense.’

  ‘That was my thought too. Took us completely unawares,’ the security guard continued. ‘We had a top-notch system set up here with a state-of-the-art firewall and warning system. How they got past it is beyond me.’

  ‘No security system’s completely immune from professional hackers. They always find a way.’

  ‘Isn’t that a fact!’ I dug Alec in the side. He knew what I was referring to. His teenage protégé, Dominik, had recently hacked into the International Baccalaureate website to add gaming to the syllabus. I thought it had been underhandedly brilliant, but Alec hadn’t been impressed. When I’d laughed, he threatened to hand the boy’s education over to me.

  I took him up on the “offer”. Well, I did have a Bachelor’s degree in History and English before training as a primary school teacher. That’s how I ended up as Dominik’s tutor. It worked out to be the best way to keep me occupied over the coming months.