BloodWish Read online

  And that prompted another thought. Most hackers were like Dominik: young and super computer savvy. Could this have been done by teenaged humans who’d stumbled across the Pazu symbol or ... Pazu descendants, perhaps? And, the only thing I could think off that would have brought our world—yep, it was my world now—to their attention would have been the murders at the time of the Ritual by Maris and her nasty gang.

  It was a light-bulb moment because it made so much sense. Excitement shot through my veins like liquid fire, and I practically bounced in my seat.

  ‘I think I’ve got it!’ I shared my thoughts aloud. ‘It so fits.’

  ‘You clever cookie!’ Kari grinned up at me and clapped her hand over mine giving it a gentle squeeze.

  Alec smiled broadly, eyes glinting. ‘It does fit.’ Then his smile faded. ‘So we have the rebels to thank for inadvertently resurrecting a dormant company of young and inexperienced Pazu. Wonderful!’ He rubbed his brow.

  ‘No matter which way I look at it, that’s got to be it,’ I said.

  ‘It still doesn’t answer the question how they had found out about The Residence.’ Alec drummed his fingers against the side of the phone, his gaze fixed on Elliott, the security guard. ‘Did you notice anything different on the street? Any suspicious cars or vans, the same people, possibly young ones ... teens, early twenties, walking by more than once taking photos ... anything?’

  ‘Impossible to tell. People in cars stop all the time and take pics. The place is heritage. It’s listed in books. We get busloads of tourists driving past the place all the time, getting out and taking snaps.’

  My parents’ home was well known. Judy once complained at the number of film companies pestering Luc to allow them to include the house in some movie or television series.

  ‘True.’ Alec let out a frustrated breath. ‘Still, if they’re undamaged, send me the recordings from the street-facing cameras over last forty-eight hours, street, lane and harbour views. You never know; we might spot something.’

  Especially as vampire vision was far keener than any human’s.

  ‘Uh, might be a problem. The police will probably want to examine those.’ Elliott glanced briefly back at Richard, whose voice could be heard in the background. ‘Yep, the police are asking for the CCTV footage.’

  ‘Forget it, then. Nothing we can do about it.’

  ‘Yes, Sir.’ He dropped his head for a moment. When he looked at us again, his face had hardened. ‘Lives were lost on my watch.’

  ‘Which is why you’ll be making sure nothing like this ever happens again.’

  ‘No, Sir.’

  ‘Resignation declined. Review your protocols and see to the security of the safe houses—after you’ve been to the hospital.’

  ‘Yes, Sir, and ... thank you.’ His face disappeared from the screen as he handed the phone back to Richard.

  ‘Police are here, looking for the owner. What should I tell them?’

  ‘The truth: that the owners are overseas and will get there as soon as we can. In the meantime, you and Amanda are our spokespeople. You know what to say.’

  ‘Sure. Leave it to me.’

  Alec rung off.

  ‘Richard sounds like a good man,’ Dougal said.

  ‘He is. Got my full confidence. He’s discreet and more than capable of dealing with the authorities, and he’s one of the best lawyers in the city. Nice to have him on our side.’

  ‘Marcus is on his way,’ Jake said as he pocketed his phone and walked back over to us.

  ‘Good. That gives us a few hours to get the plane ready.’

  I was going to hate every minute that he was away from me, but no way would I hold him back. At least I’d have Dominik to keep me occupied. I’d already worked out an entire term’s teaching program for him.

  ‘Sam needs to know all this.’ Just as Alec picked up the phone, Sam strode through the door. He’d been out hunting.

  The grin on his face vanished and he stopped mid stride, gaze sliding from face to face. ‘Okay, what did I miss?’

  Chapter 24 - Delaney’s Dilemma

  ALEC

  Half a world away from her. My mouth dried as the thought kept bouncing around in my head. Laura’s in safe hands, I kept telling myself. In the safest place possible. Jake, Terens, Cal and Dougal were with her, and our baby wasn’t due for another five months. And Kari was devoted to Laura. Never left her side. Which was good, especially since I’d left Dominik’s education in Laura’s more than capable hands. The boy was okay but too early in his juvenile stage to be left alone with her.

  Still, my gaze automatically went to the serpent ring. Its eyes glowed a safe scarlet, which only marginally lessened my anxiety. And just as I thought of using the ring’s magical telepathic gift, her voice whispered through my mind.

  ‘Miss you so much.’

  We’d only been apart for twenty-two hours, and already, it seemed too long. Our parting kiss still lingered on my lips, her taste, her scent, like nectar to my senses. My arms are empty without you in them.

  Aww ... that’s so sweet.

  My mouth twisted into a wry smile. I can show you just how sweet I can be when I return.

  She laughed. I’ll hold you to that.

  The cabin vibrated with the lowering of the landing gear. From the window, the lights from Sydney’s Kingsford Smith Airport winked up at us as we made our descent.

  We’re just about to land.

  Take care, my love, and come back to me.

  I will, darling. I promise. Reluctantly, I broke our connection when Marcus leaned across the aisle toward me.

  ‘Don’t linger with the customs officials.’ In Marcus speak that meant mesmerise the officials to get through quickly. He’d terminated the lamia hunt right after Jake’s call, and he, Cal and Terens had arrived at Drunvela within three hours. ‘We were running out of blood vials anyway, chasing after that thing,’ he’d said. ‘There’ll be time to catch it later.’

  Compared to the situation we were facing now, the lamia was a lesser problem.

  We taxied to a private terminal. Customs officials boarded and checked our papers, and we stepped off the plane in less than twenty minutes. Amanda and Richard were there to greet us. They bowed low. For a relatively young man, Richard already showed signs of early balding, his thin, dark brown hair barely covered a small bare patch near the crown of his head.

  He strode forward, and we shook hands, his grey eyes deep with concern. ‘Sorry you had to return under such tragic circumstances.’

  I thanked him.

  Amanda’s lip quivered, her usual composure slipping. But it was more anger brought on by grief than from any sense of fear. Her strong protective nature toward those in her care fueled a Valkyrie spirit that few could match. With a sword in her hand, Amanda was a true nemesis.

  ‘Condolences, my lords. Such a tragedy, and unbelievable that The Residence was attacked. It’s unheard of. We’re all in shock. It’s Pazu, all right.’ She and Richard exchanged a brief glance. ‘We didn’t want to cause a panic, so ... apart from Wayne’ —she indicated a young man who stood by one of the cars, to come forward— ‘we’ve shown it to no one else.’ He looked familiar. ‘Wayne’s my juvy, so he can be trusted. He’s been doing some digging, hoping to come up with something concrete before you landed.’

  ‘Wise move.’ I studied Wayne, and then it clicked. ‘Didn’t I see you at the Ritual?’

  ‘Yes, Princeps.’ He bowed low. ‘We weren’t actually introduced. It was my girl, Lora, who spoke with Lady Laura.’

  ‘Ah, yes. She spells it L-O-R-A, as I recall.’ His young donsang with the same name but different spelling. Laura had liked her.

  ‘That’s the one.’ He smiled broadly. ‘She’ll be over the moon when I tell her you remembered her.’

  How could I forget? She had revealed to Laura some of the more intimate methods of feeding. I’d enjoyed seeing her shocked reaction at the time and unsure whether she’d even choose me as Guardian. Yet, her
e we were, expecting our first child. Luc, the old fox, had been right. We had been meant for each other. Now he was gone, and so was The Residence. Which brought my thoughts full circle.

  ‘Let’s get going, and you can show me what you’ve got.’

  Richard and Amanda led the way to our waiting limos. Marcus climbed in and took the seat near the window, facing the front. I took the one opposite, behind the driver. Sam joined Marcus and pulled out his iPad, while Richard and Amanda sat next to me. She indicated for Wayne to sit next to Sam.

  Richard turned and tapped the driver on the shoulder. We sped off through the brightly lit city streets and into downtown evening traffic.

  ‘No one’s heard of any Pazu activity for ages. We thought they were finished ... gone ... dead.’ Amanda turned to Richard. ‘I’m now worried about Rich and all the other donsangs.’

  ‘Don’t be.’ He clasped her hand and drew it onto his lap, his thumb drawing lazy circles over their linked fingers.

  ‘We thought that too, lady’ Marcus said. ‘Our mistake.’

  Wayne opened his own iPad and shared what information he had. ‘I checked out every so-called vampire website there is. Look at this.’ He turned the device around and pointed to the top of the screen. ‘Same calling card they left on the guards. Is that dumb or what? Too easy.’ He smiled broadly, eyes alight with excitement.

  We too had scoured the net and found that same website in the brief time before flying out. It was the only site that carried that particular symbol. I was sure the police had the same results.

  ‘Yep, found that one too. It’s got to be them.’ Sam showed Wayne his iPad screen. ‘No other website uses that particular pic. I didn’t have time to get the IP address. Did you?’

  ‘Tried, but they’ve covered their tracks using a VPN.’

  ‘IP? VPN? Deus! I don’t think I’ll ever get used to this new abbreviated language.’ Arms crossed over his knees, Marcus focused his gaze on both screens.

  ‘You and me both, my lord. I leave it all to Rich.’ Amanda gazed lovingly up at him.

  Richard smiled and kissed her temple, and for one miniscule moment, I longed to have Laura just as near. But, I reminded myself for the umpteenth time, she was safer where she was, no matter how much I hated the separation.

  ‘Virtual Private Network,’ Wayne answered. ‘It’s like an alias that masks your actual IP—International protocol—address. A lot of hackers use it.’

  ‘It’s of limited use,’ Sam chimed in. ‘Even if we do manage to find the real IP, it won’t tell us anything we don’t already know: that they’re based somewhere here in Sydney.’

  Marcus pointed to Sam’s screen. ‘You can’t locate a physical address?’

  ‘Nope. We’d need permission from the server. Only the police can get that, and I doubt they’ll be sharing that info with us.’ Sam blew out a breath and slumped back against the seat. ‘Unless Wayne here’s better at hacking than I am, we’re stuck.’

  ‘Can you?’ Marcus’s gaze whipped to Wayne.

  The young man’s mouth slackened. ‘Um ... no, sir. It’s too well encrypted.’

  Marcus’s eyes paled, his mouth tightening into a thin, pink slash. ‘Are you telling me we can do nothing, and these men will go unpunished?’

  Wayne swallowed, his panicked gaze flying to Amanda. She tapped his knee. ‘It’s all right. You did your best.’

  Marcus grunted and turned his head to the window.

  Damned if I was going to admit defeat. If we could only get a scent, even a tiny trace, we could track it back to them.

  ‘Richard, what about the guards’ uniforms?’ The guards had been dragged out of the house, meaning the killers had gotten up close and personal, leaving behind unmistakable scent markers.

  Both Marcus and Sam saw where I was going with this. Marcus turned from the window, his eyes bright, mouth creased in a faint smile. Sam sprang upright, and the two exchanged a knowing glance. ‘All we need is a whiff.’

  Being over eighteen hundred years old, he and Sam—and the other men—had the best-developed senses of all Brethren. No bloodhound could compete. They could detect and track even a tiny trace of scent to its source.

  His gaze darting between them and me, Richard grinned. ‘Aaaaahhh ... I get it.’ He pulled out his phone and pressed speed dial. ‘Hey, Richard here. You haven’t washed your uniform yet, have you?’

  I recognised the voice that answered: Elliott, the head of security I’d spoken to the previous day. ‘No. Why?’

  ‘We might be able to get a scent off it and find the ones who did this.’

  ‘You at the Bondi safehouse?’

  ‘No. We’re on our way to The Residence with the princeps, Lord Sam and Sieur Marcus.’

  ‘Right. I’ll get onto it. It’ll give me time to collect the others’ uniforms as well and drop it off to you.’

  Richard hung up and pocketed his phone. I noted his concerned expression when he glanced my way: a slight crease between his brows, his keen eyes searching mine. ‘What’ll you do with the killers when you find them?’

  Good question. I’d had a chance to think that through on the flight from Scotland. I knew what Luc’s policy had been on the Pazu: total extermination, although they were humans. Luc had always had a gift for making exceptions to the rules.

  But Luc was no longer here.

  As far as I was concerned, the Pazu were human, and we didn’t kill humans. Period. If I could, I’d hand them over to the police to face justice. And therein lay the problem: the Brethren would demand vengeance. Nothing less than their execution.

  ‘I’m working on it.’

  ‘If you hand them over to the police and the evidence isn’t strong enough to convict them, they could get off lightly. No one’s going to be happy with that.’

  By “everyone” he meant my kind—Brethren. ‘Don’t I know it.’

  Richard trod a fine line between justice for humans as well as Brethren. As a donsang, he saw both sides. But if push came to shove, as they say, which side would he choose? This situation could be the test. ‘Something else you ought to know.’ He cleared his throat. His usually laughing grey eyes were tight with tension—understandable, considering the tragedy that had occurred. Yet, I sensed something more. ‘Something’s off. The detective in charge, Delaney, is asking way too many questions about you, Alec. It’s got my radar up.’

  Mine just went up too. ‘Dave Delaney?’ There couldn’t possibly be two officers with the same name in the local police.

  ‘Yeah, that’s the one. You know him?’

  ‘We’ve met.’ My scalp prickled. He was the interviewing officer when Laura had been abducted and injured by Maris’s rebel group. It had been tricky going then. The man was sharp, and worse still, he was a close friend of Sommers. This was not a good sign.

  All eyes turned to me. I explained the events.

  ‘Oh, man!’ Richard’s eyes closed, and he dropped his head back against the seat. ‘If Sommers told any of that to Delaney...’ His eyes snapped open. ‘I bet you he did. No wonder the man grilled me about you.’

  If Richard was right, then I’d made a terrible mistake keeping Sommers alive. Once again, Luc had been right; I should’ve killed him that night in Laura’s flat. The man had been carrying white-oak bullets. It was the only exception to the no-killing-humans rule, which meant he’d been fair game. I would’ve been justified if I’d ended him. Laura would never have known. But then, I wouldn’t have been able to keep up the lie, and our relationship would’ve suffered. Maybe the way it played out was better.

  Sam huffed. ‘Nothing like a little complication to make life interesting.’

  ‘I can do without that, thanks.’

  ‘This detective’s a human.’ Marcus’s eyes paled even further. ‘Needs must.’

  ‘I used that on him a few months ago.’ I’d mesmerised Dave before, when he’d come too close to the truth. Doing it too often could cause brain damage, and the man didn’t deserve that.

/>   ‘One more time should be fine. If he has a strong will his mind will recover.’

  I didn’t want to prove Marcus wrong.

  The drive to The Residence in Vaucluse took around forty minutes. I knew what to expect since the firemen had found the charred remains of several bodies in the burnt out rubble. And twenty-four hours later, they were still hauling out more bodies. But the scene that met us still took me by surprise.

  A wave of nausea washed over me.

  It was a full on police investigation, a crime scene and all that came with it: the police flashing lights, ambulances, and groups of reporters milling near the entrance. A black and yellow Crime Scene tape blocked our way.

  This was a disaster. Never had we faced such danger of exposure. How we handled this situation would determine our future existence in this country.

  Sam swore and cursed under his breath, threatening to hunt down and destroy all Pazu. Marcus’s eyes dangerously narrowed, a pale gleam in the dark. What memories of this place would he be reliving?

  Police approached our car. I wound down the window. One leant in. ‘Sorry, sir, but this street is closed. Unless you’re a resident, you’ll have to turn back.’

  I pulled out my ID. ‘I’m Dr Munro, and that’s’ —I was about to say Luc Lebrettan’s residence— ‘my house.’ I pointed to the remains of Luc’s old home, which now belonged to Laura and me, and I still wasn’t used to it.

  He scrutinised my ID. ‘You’ll find Detective Delaney at the end of your driveway.’

  He lifted the tape and waved us on.

  Our vehicle drove on to the end of the street toward the house. An ambulance passed us. Within it, I sensed the remains of two of our Brethren. Their essence was gone, yet still something touched my consciousness. An icy lump formed in my gut. They’d never had a chance, killed by the humans they were sworn to protect. My fists clenched.

  Sam growled.

  Richard and Amanda, hands tightly clasped in each other’s, her head on his shoulder, quietly took in the scene. A single bloody tear slid down her cheek. Only young Wayne seemed animated, head down clicking away at his iPad keyboard. If I had to take a guess, I’d say he was trying to redeem himself in Marcus’s eyes by locating the Pazu. I wished him the best of luck.