A Cat's Chance in Hell (42 page)

“
I wish I could erase them for you,” he said, sitting up behind her and kissing the imperfection.

“
Each one has a story,” she said thoughtfully, “Many of them are lessons I had to learn the hard way. I’m not sure I’d be willing to give them up.”

“
Lea, my warrior,” he said, and she could hear the smile in his voice.

“
And you?” she asked him. “How many battle scars do you have?”

“
No visible ones,’ he said enigmatically, but continued before she could interrupt. “Vampires don’t scar unless the injury is inflicted by silver, or the wound comes into contact with salt water.”

“
Oh,” she said, surprised. “So Fergus’ face?” she left the question hanging. Julius took a breath and she could feel a sense of sadness surrounding him now. She wondered briefly at her ability to feel his emotions, she didn’t doubt for a moment that she was imagining it, it was simply too strong to ignore.

“
He poured salt into the wound before it healed,” he answered slowly, “like you, he wanted to remember the lesson.”

She could feel that was all he was going to say on the matter and that whatever the sadness was about, it was old and deep-seated. She wouldn’t push him now; she would pry it out of him some other time. She peeked at him over her shoulder.

“
Shower?” she asked with a raised eyebrow, then dragged herself off the bed and sauntered naked into her en-suite bathroom. As she turned on the water, she heard a phone ring. Her pulse leapt, even as she realised that it wasn’t her phone ringing. She moved back to the doorway and watched as Julius scooped up his pants from a pile on the floor and found his phone. He was glorious naked, she thought. He checked the caller’s number.

“
It’s just the Estate,” he told her, “go and shower, I’ll join you as soon as I’m finished.”

She nodded and retreated to the steamy warmth of the shower cubicle. When she heard the shower door open, she scooted over to make room for him but instead of joining her he was already dressed.

“
I’m sorry,” he said, “I have to go. There’s been some kind of accident at the Estate. I need to get there to sort it out.”

“
Do you need some help?” she asked, all business now. “I can be dressed in a few minutes.”

He reached into the shower, putting his hand behind her head and drawing her close enough for a kiss, heedless of the water soaking his shirt sleeve.

“
Thank you, Lea,” he breathed, “but no. It is probably better that I deal with this one without any distractions. Get some sleep, I’ll call and give you an update before I crash for the day.”

And in the next instant he was gone, just the memory of the feel of his lips remained in the shower with her. She unhurriedly finished her shower, pulled on some loose cotton pyjamas and then went to make a cup of hot chocolate and soothe Razor’s ruffled ego. The thought of her bed without him in it was strangely unappealing, but eventually with nothing else to do and at Razor’s insistence she went back to bed and crawled under the covers making sure her phone was in reach.

The atmosphere was grim when Julius strode into the huge house. Alexander was waiting for him, and the rest of the guard, except for Charles, Quentin and Tabari, who were still on patrol with Kyle, were milling uneasily around on the ground floor. They came to attention when Julius entered, and the house went silent.

“
Come,” Alexander said shortly and started up the stairs.

Julius followed him wordlessly. At the top of the stairs, Alexander turned and headed towards Julius’s newly refurbished office. The door had been re-hung and most of the display cases and shelving had been fixed and refitted. The mess of glass and metal and wood had been cleared away, and a new desk stood in exactly the same position as the old one. Julius had left instructions for Sebastian to set up his new computer in the office tonight and to make sure his internet was running and the firewalls were in place. The new computer and its accompanying monitor, keyboard and mouse were sitting ready on his desk in front of his diary. Everything looked in place, exactly as it should be, except for the blood. And the smashed glass. And the decapitated body. And the head. Julius felt an almost physical punch in the chest as he took in the sight. If he’d had air in his lungs, it would’ve left him in a whoosh.

“
It’s Sebastian,” Alexander said quietly, when Julius didn’t speak. “I came up to check if he’d made any progress on tracking our traitors. I said he could work in here once he finished setting up your computer.”

Julius could feel a cold, dark rage building inside him. He moved to the head, crouching down to turn it so he could see the features. Sebastian’s frightened eyes stared back at him unseeingly. The head hadn’t deteriorated yet, Sebastian was such a young Vampire that his body would decompose like that of a human. At least it made identification easier. The scene in the office showed that Sebastian had tried to fight his attacker or attackers off, but he hadn’t been able to put up much resistance.

“
Who could have done this?” Julius asked in a tight voice.

Alexander sighed and slumped against the wall near the doorway. “I don’t know. I’ve kept everyone away from here. No one else has been in the room since I found him except me and you. I haven’t told them it was murder, I gave them the story I gave you on the phone.” He paused, tension tightening the muscles along his jaw. “I think it was someone on the inside, Julius. There are no unknown scents in here or anywhere else in the house. Not that I can detect anyway.”

“
It can only be one of a handful of people then,” Julius said. “Most of the guard was with us tonight. That leaves us with the household staff and the Werewolves.” Julius moved across the room to inspect his weapons collection.

“
The Jambiya Dagger is missing,” he said shortly. “That means the murderer didn’t come prepared, so it’s unlikely it was an outsider.”

“
There are two more things,” Alexander told him. Julius braced himself as Alexander continued. “Gregory is missing. No one has seen him since midnight, when Claudia heard him take a phone call on his personal phone.”

“
And the second?” Julius asked flatly.

“
Sebastian’s computer is gone.”

Julius sank into his new office chair, only vaguely aware of the splatters of blood which were now rubbing off on his pants and shirt. The reality of the news about Sebastian’s computer sank in. There was only one reason someone would murder Sebastian and steal his computer. Sebastian had found another traitor in the Clan. The traitor had killed him before he got a chance to tell Julius, and everything Sebastian had found would’ve been on his computer, meaning that Julius now had no way of knowing what Sebastian had uncovered.

“
I think maybe we should get Kyle in here,” Alexander said cautiously. “He’ll be able to scent things you and I can’t. His nose is so good he can tell how many hours it’s been since the scent was left. It would help to know who’s been in here in the last few hours. The scent is particularly muddied in here with all the workers who have been in and out fixing the room up over the past few days.”

“
Call him,” Julius said shortly, “It would be best to have the rest of the guard back here anyway after these developments. If he only finds Vampire scent in here, I will personally be questioning everyone who has been in the Estate in the past twenty-four hours.”

Alexander pulled his phone from his pocket. Kyle answered almost immediately. Once Alexander had explained the situation, Kyle agreed to pack up and head to the Estate as quickly as he could. They had encountered nothing of excitement since the others had left.

“
Eerily quiet,” Julius had heard Kyle described it to Alexander, “as though something big is being planned which has called in all their resources. I’m just hoping it’s too late in the night to start something.” Alexander muttered his agreement and disconnected the call.

“
Call down to the guard station and ensure that Kyle and the guard are let in. Tell them that no one is to leave the Estate without my express permission. Then send the household staff and any off duty Wolves to the gymnasium and make sure they are kept there under guard. Tell them nothing.”

Alexander nodded and left the office.

Julius swivelled his new, now blood-stained, office chair and bent to open a cupboard, taking out a wine glass and a bottle of red wine. He put both on his desk, avoiding the pooled, drying blood and de-corked the bottle with a quick twist of a corkscrew from his top desk drawer. As he poured the burgundy liquid into the crystal glass, his thoughts turned back to Gabi. He wondered if she was asleep. He resisted the urge to call her, it wouldn’t be fair to wake her if she was getting some rest, but the urge to hear her voice was almost overwhelming. He’d thought that his draw to Simone was the strongest thing he’d ever felt for a woman, that he’d never feel such an insane urge again. In fact, he’d schooled himself to never let another woman have that kind of hold over him again. Look what the affair with Simone had gotten him. But his willpower just wasn’t enough to rescue him from Gabi’s lure. She was like his siren call. His resistance was a pile of breadcrumbs.

He still didn’t know how she would react to the thought of a relationship with him. The physical chemistry between them was as obvious as the lean on the tower of Pisa, but he had yet to introduce her to the reality of his life. She had seen the girl, his feeder, being escorted home a few nights ago and had apparently realised what she was, but Gabi hadn’t actually seen him feed, except for his feeding on her.

His groin tightened at the thought of the taste of her. The taste of her blood was almost addictive, far more deliciously potent than the blood of a normal human. He hadn’t told her that he had woken at midday after taking her blood, which was unheard of for a Vampire who had crashed for the day. Julius was able to keep himself awake through the daylight hours if he needed to, but once he let himself sleep he had no control over when he woke, and he rarely woke more than an hour before sunset and had never woken at midday. It was actually the anti-thesis of what he had expected from her blood.

As she had a certain amount of Vampire in her DNA, he had expected her blood to be less potent, less nourishing for him. Vampires couldn’t feed each other. They could take blood from each other, it gave an amazing edge to sex, or it could be used as a way of showing dominance, but it didn’t actually provide nourishment. Something contained in human blood was needed. But her blood had been his version of Red Bull, it was incredible. It would probably scare her to know how good her blood was for him. But the reality of the situation was that even if she was willing to let him feed from her he would still need to take blood from other feeders, he couldn’t only take from her. Even though he didn’t need to feed every day, at times he could stretch to every third or fourth day, over time it would weaken her, and there would be times when she couldn’t come running when he needed blood. She had her own life, and he wasn’t going to interfere in that. He also knew how he would feel if he would have to watch her have that kind of close interaction with another male, the jealousy would be hard to contain.

At that thought, he wondered if any feeders had been brought to the Estate tonight, he would have to get Alexander to check. They had two or three resident feeders; people who lived on the Estate and worked there or studied during the day and were available to Julius and his staff for feeding when necessary. Julius encouraged his staff to go off the Estate and find willing donors in the clubs and bars of the City. He enforced a strict code of conduct when it came to feeding; donors had to be willing, there was to be no violence in the act and the donor’s memories had to be cleared of anything to do with being bitten and fed on. But occasionally someone needed blood urgently or didn’t have time to go ‘hunting’, and this was what the feeders were for. He only allowed the feeders to stay for a few months at the most; they usually left with some memory about undertaking a medical experiment and a decent bank account, so it worked for all parties concerned. Julius wasn’t sure what Gabi would make of that, but they did have to feed somehow, he was trying to do it in the most humane way he could.

Kyle’s voice downstairs pulled him from his contemplation, and he drained the last few drops from his glass as Kyle walked into the office and stopped to stare at the head and body on the floor.

“
Time to change office I think,” he said to Julius with an eyebrow raised in surprise. “This one seems to attract violence.”

Julius refilled his glass and looked enquiringly at Kyle.

“
No, thanks Julius. I’d rather not dull my senses tonight. I have a funny feeling there is more going on than we realise.” He paused, closing his eyes and drawing in a deep breath through his nose. “Alex said you want me to see what scents I can trace in here?”

“
Please,” replied Julius, “there are so many in here at the moment. Though our sense of smell is enough to identify most of them, it is hard to tell how long it’s been since they were actually in the room. It would help us immensely if you could tell how many were in here in the last few hours.”

Kyle nodded. “I can probably do that, though if I haven’t been close to the person I may not be able to tell you who it was, but I can tell if it was human, Were or Vamp. Do you have any idea when Sebastian was killed?” Kyle had started moving around the room, his eyes half closed in concentration, carefully avoiding stepping in the pools of drying blood.