Byzantine Heartbreak (19 page)

Kieren stepped up with the gun held up toward the ceiling. “This way, gentlemen.”

And that was how they found themselves strapped into the limousine, doing a semi-ballistic dive toward Greece at supersonic speeds, while Cáel dug his fingers into the pilot’s chair and worried not about Keiren’s piloting abilities, but Ryan’s wordless glance after Cáel had kissed Nia before a room full of people.

If Cáel really did nothing without a plan, what part of the plan had that been?

He recalled the way Nia had turned her lips up toward him, one more time.

He’d do it all over again, too.

“Spetsopoula, in two minutes,” Kieren called. “How long is your landing field, sir?”

“Seven hundred metres,” Cáel told him.

Kieren shook his head. “Too short by ten metres. Oh well, I’m in re-entry now. We’ll just have to cope.”

Cáel tapped Ryan’s shoulder. “Next time you suggest just jumping, let’s do that.”

Ryan grinned. “You’ve been spoiled, Stelios.”

* * * * *

Spetsopoula, Greece. 2263 A.D.

Brenden met them outside the housing complex. “We found him,” he said shortly.

“Who?” Cáel asked, with a sinking feeling.

“Dionne asked one of your assistants to arrange the limousines. A man called Philos. She added the after-party to the itinerary.”

“Philos has been on my staff for years,” Cáel said. He felt both tired and angry. “Did Gabriel read his mind, invade it like he did with Nia?”

Brenden shifted on his feet, glancing at Ryan. “You’d better come and hear it from his mouth, first hand,” he said. “We’ve got him in the basement of the staff quarters.”

The island was ablaze with lights, every window gleaming. And there were people everywhere. Staff and security. Thankfully, all of his extended family were in Athens at the big family home there at the moment. The island had become mostly Cáel’s private quarters and headquarters for company business over the last few decades.

Brenden led the way, with his big strides. He took them through the half-buried bunker entrance into the cool corridor that led directly to the plas-form stairs that gave access to the basement under the staff quarters. The basement was used for storage, but one end had been cleared and was used as a gym, with various pieces of equipment lined up around the walls and training mats in the middle of the floor.

There were half a dozen Wardens standing in a neat, intimidating square around a chair that had been placed in the precise centre of the dojo mat. All the glaring overhead lights had been turned on.

Philos was hunched on the chair, holding his hands together. He was sweating, despite the cool air down here.

When he spotted Cáel through the bodies of the ranged Wardens, he lost his healthy olive complexion. He sat up in the chair.

The wardens didn’t shift their gaze away from Philos, but they moved aside at just the right moment to make room for the four of them—Ryan, Cáel, Kieren and Brenden—to step into the square. Cáel didn’t look, but he suspected the square closed ranks behind them just as silently.

Brenden took up a stance next to Philos, facing the three of them. “Tell them what you told me,” he snarled.

Philos swallowed. “I didn’t tell you anything,” he said. His voice was bodiless compared to Brenden’s booming one.

Brenden grabbed the back of Philos’ neck. “We don’t have to have another little chat, do we?”

Philos licked his lips. “About what?” He was shaking.

Cáel’s anger boiled over. He had been holding onto it since Nia had wrapped her arms around his neck at the party and clung to him like a frightened two year old. Now, in the face of Philos’ deliberately obtuseness, he could maintain his control no longer. He stepped forward and backhanded the man across the face. The blow hit squarely and Philos rocked back on his chair and would have tipped backwards altogether if not for Brenden’s grip on the back of his neck.

Brenden sat him back up again and patted his shoulder. “Oops,” he said. “Nearly fell over.”

Philos brought his hand up to his nose, to dab at the nostrils. His fingers came away bloody. He stared at Cáel. “I don’t understand,” he said, his voice thick.

“You don’t
understand?”
Cáel repeated. “You sell me out to a fear monger like Gabriel, who runs around scaring women and invading peoples’ minds and god knows what else he has planned now, thanks to you, and you have the gall to sit there and tell me you don’t understand?” He swung his arm the other way. Hard. His hand smacked Philos high across the cheekbone. Brenden was ready for it this time and although Philos cried out and would have fallen off the chair, Brenden kept him sitting upright.

Philos’ eye immediately swelled up and closed.

“I don’t!” Philos cried, panting around the blood pooling in his nose and the back of his throat. “I don’t know who this Gabriel is and I don’t know why you’re hitting me!”

From the corner of his eye, Cáel saw a warden moving. The man stepped forward to speak in Keiren’s ear. Then he stepped back and took up his perfectly still stance once more.

Kieren sighed.

“What?” Cáel demanded.

“We hacked into Philos’ financial records,” Kieren said. “It’s nothing that will stand up in any court, you understand.”

Cáel nodded. “Understood. Go on.”

“There’s a deposit for half a million credits. For yesterday.”

Ryan caught at Cáel’s arm. “Easy, Cáel,” he said.

Cáel yanked his arm out of Ryan’s grip and turned to Philos. “You did it for
money
?” he demanded. “For filthy lucre?” Pain flared in his temples. “You didn’t even have to be coaxed or mind-warped into it?”

Philos had been snivelling, rolling his one good eye and trying to staunch the blood running freely from his nose. But now he paused and lifted his head. Any sign of the bewildered, frightened, pale assistant had disappeared.

Hatred filled Philos’ face. “I hope the she-vampire bitch died of adrenaline overload. I hope Gabriel catches up with you personally, you vampire-fucking pervert, and turns your brain into oatmeal.”

Cáel hit him. Again and again. Eventually the chair gave out and Cáel got him onto the floor and pinned him down there. He would have kept hitting him, except that too many hands hauled Cáel off Philos and dragged him away.

Ryan pushed against Cáel’s shoulder, using a lot of strength to hold him against the wall he had him pinned against. “
Enough
, Cáel. You beat him unconscious. Enough.”

Cáel looked at the bloody mess of Philos’ face, where he lay on the dojo mat and his anger drained abruptly, like water spilling from a tipped glass.

Brenden and Kieren stepped away. “Okay, then?” Brenden asked.

“Yes,” Cáel said. His hands were starting to hurt now. He’d likely busted the knuckles open. And he was breathing like a runaway horse.

Brenden jerked his head toward the door. Kieren followed him and the wardens all trailed out after him. Two of them picked up the unconscious Philos and took him away.

Cáel closed his eyes so he didn’t have to watch the sagging body leave the room.

“That’s a tiny taste of coming attractions, Cáel,” Ryan said.

Cáel looked at him, puzzled.

“You stay with me, you’re going to get all that and more and it will happen more frequently, as humans learn about us.”

 
“You think I lost it over being called a few names?” Cáel shook out his throbbing hand. “You think I haven’t heard that shit and worse before? Well, ‘vampire-fucker’ is new for me, but the rest stands.”

It was Ryan’s turn to look puzzled.

Cáel rolled his eyes. “It was what he called Nia. She trusted me. You trusted me. And I led you both into this, insisting it was the best thing you could do for vampires and for yourselves and look at where it got you. She was terrified tonight.” And he could still feel her trembling against him. He kept flashing on it and reliving the moment and each time, his anger would start to rise again.

Ryan considered him for a moment. “You didn’t break any arms making us do this, Cáel. We made our own decisions. Besides, Nayara isn’t all
that
fragile. She has survived wars and enemies aplenty.”

“Can she withstand an enemy that steals from inside her own mind?” Cáel asked dryly. “I doubt she has any defences built for Gabriel.”

Chapter Nineteen

The Agency satellite station. 2263 A.D.

It bothered the hell out of Cáel that Nayara was sitting in the big old-fashioned wing chair in the corner of her office, her feet curled up under her, withdrawn from the discussion at hand. But there was nothing he could do about it right now.

There was thirteen of them standing, sitting or sprawled on the floor of the office. An emergency session of the senior members of the Agency—and friends, for Dionne was there and he had been included even though he had tried to leave. Ryan had roughly shoved him back into the room with an annoyed sound. Surprisingly, so was Mariana. Cáel had checked with Ryan and asked Kieren to sit in, as well. From the Agency, Ryan had assembled Brenden, Demyan, Rob, Christian, Natalia, Justin and Ophelia, who was still wearing French Empire court clothing from a recent trip to that time, although she took off the enormous wig with a sigh of relief and scratched at her real hair beneath.

Ryan slapped his hand on the table top to get silence. “Everyone here is either vampire, or has been thoroughly vetted and cleared by two agencies. Us and the Wardens. Nia’s office has anti-bugging, anti-recording and other security measures I won’t go into here, so we’re meeting here instead of anywhere else on the station. Sorry about the cramped meeting space and thank you for jumping when I called. You can consider the Agency on security alert until further notice, Brenden. Full security clearances for everyone. No one comes in without them. At any moment, we could go into full lock-down. Although, under the circumstance, that may not do us any good.” He looked around the room and his gaze paused when it reached Cáel.

“There was an incident tonight,” he said. “A psi-filer named Gabriel has been organizing the psi for some time now and tonight he made his first move against vampires. He’s courageous. He made Nayara his first target. He invaded her mind.”

He paused, but utter silence was his only answer. There was shock on some of the faces around the room. Puzzlement on the others. But he had everyone’s attention.

“Now, there’s a few dangerous precedences and implications behind that,” Ryan continued. “The danger lies in what he stole from Nayara.” He flattened his hand out on the table top. “What many of you in this room don’t know, because we have kept it the most closely guarded secret this agency has ever held, is that just over six months ago, Natalia gave birth to a son, Jack. Genetically, Rob is the father, although Rob and Christian both share the title.”

Cáel leaned forward, shock slithering through him. “
Natural
childbirth?” he asked.

“Yes. Conceived and birthed the human way,” Ryan replied. “I’m sorry we withheld this from you, Cáel. It wasn’t personal. We didn’t dare tell anyone, not just you.”

Cáel held up his hand. “Wait,” he said, trying to think it through. The bits and pieces were there, he just had to put them together. Rob in the buggy in Constantinople, angry and worried, telling Nayara ‘
You’re fucking with my future and my son’s. I won’t have it
.’ Cáel had assumed, because Rob was vampire, that he had been talking about a son lost in the past somewhere, that Nia’s tampering with history would eliminate. But he had been talking about a real live son, right here in his personal, current timeline. Right now. Then tonight, when Nayara had told Ryan what Gabriel had done to her, the clue had been there again. ‘
He knows about the child.
’
Cáel had again assumed his ignorance meant simply they were being obscure once more. But who would have dreamed that vampires speaking of children would ever be talking about their own offspring?

Cáel’s head began to hurt. “Gabriel organized his people because of the health bill passing through the Worlds Assembly.” He looked around the room and remembered how high the security was within the room. Then he mentally shrugged. He had sold his soul to these people weeks ago. Spilling Worlds Assembly secrets was a drop in the bucket in comparison. “The bill has a sub clause that enforces psi sterilization.”

This time, the shock passing around the room was audible. Tally, sitting on the floor next to Rob’s chair, drew up against Rob’s legs. He took her hand in his. Christian sank down onto the arm of Rob’s chair, his face troubled. “They can’t pass a bill like that,” he said.

“They can. They have already,” Cáel told him. “Very few people were aware of the clause. It passed before I made it into office.”

“But why would that make Gabriel want to come after vampires?” Justin asked. “It’s humans passing the bill.”

“Malice,” Cáel replied. “Pure and simple malice.”

“We got from humans everything psi did not,” Ryan explained. “Rights, a place in society, a legitimate means to earn a living.”

“But...you had to fight tooth and nail for all of that,” Brenden said. “For two hundred bloody years. And you’re still fighting for it.”

“Gabriel won’t see that,” Dionne said, from her perch on the back of Nayara’s desk, in the shadows. “Petty people only focus on what they don’t have, that other people do. They don’t see the effort and hard work successful people have put into their success. They just see the rewards and envy them.”

“He sounds like a flippin’ five year old,” Justin said.

“Isn’t that just about what your average psi is like, though?” Ophelia pointed out, tugging at her tightly corseted waist. “A mercurial five year old—happy one moment, having a tantrum the next?”

“Gabriel
is
a pure psi-filer,” Cáel told them. “I’ll get you all copies of his bio and background. It’s not bed-time reading. And here’s another thought. If he was pissed before because vampires got all the candy, how much worse is his temper tantrum going to be when he finds out that on top of all the other insults, vampires can now breed like humans, too? Just when psi are having that ability forcibly removed from them?”

Everyone began to speak at once. Everyone but Nia.

Cáel knew it was late because the humans in the group were getting sleepy. Including him. But he wasn’t going to leave this meeting for any reason. For the first time vampires were working hand in hand with humans and he was watching it happen. He suspected that the vampires in the group were not aware of just how many humans were in the room, or that their numbers were nearly even with the vampires there. For the moment, the vampires hadn’t processed that they were comfortable with the humans mingling among them.

It was an historical moment.

But Cáel’s body was trying to shut down on him.

“Again,” Brenden growled. “We could move Jack, Tally, Christian and Rob to a secret location, but the station is the safest place, because we’re all around and we’re pretty sure Gabriel can’t read vampire minds unless he’s very close. Close enough to touch. And we’re warned now. Braced. We could try hiding Jack and his folks somewhere in history, but we don’t know how vulnerable Jack is to stasis poisoning and Fahmido isn’t a fan of that solution, so for now, that’s out. Keeping Jack here is our best bet.”

“We don’t even know he’ll come after Jack,” Mariana said. “Why would he want the baby?”

“So we can’t have him,” Ryan told her.

Mariana frowned. “I know he can behave like a five year old. I understand that. But he seems to be rather clever. Wouldn’t he want to hurt you in more sophisticated ways than just taking away your toys?”

Everyone stared at her.

“How might he do that?” Demyan asked politely.

“Well, he’s building an army, you said. What is he going to do with it?” Mariana said.

Another small silence greeted her words. Reality was biting them in the nose again. Cáel sighed. The war he had predicted nearly a year ago was coming whether they like it or not. Now everyone was aware of it.

Ryan rapped the top of the table. “We’ll adjourn for tonight,” he told them. “Some of us need sleep and sustenance. Others have things to do, directly related to this matter, or not.”

There was a general shifting of bodies. Stretching. Yawning.

“Under the circumstances,” Ryan continued. “I can’t let anyone off the station until we figure a few basic security matters out for the humans among us. Cáel, that includes you, too, I’m sorry.”

“Just show me a bed,” Cáel replied. “Or a soft spot on the floor.”

“Thank you,” Ryan said. “We’ll find quarters for everyone. And food or whatever else you need. Just ask an agency member for whatever you want. We’ll rustle it up. Brenden, see it’s taken care of, will you?”

“Done,” Brenden said. “Security is aware.”

“Thank you.” Ryan stood up. “I don’t have to remind anyone, I’m sure, that this meeting is one hundred percent
sub-rosa
.”

Cáel looked up at the ceiling. It was an ordinary suspended tile ceiling, that had been popular for centuries. A pity, he thought. It would have been nice to have had a rose there, just to hammer the point home for the more impressionable among them.

* * * * *

Finally, her office began to empty of people. Nayara heaved a mental sigh of relief. Soon, she would be alone and able to think.

But her optimism was premature, for Cáel made his way over to where Nia sat still curled up in the wing chair. He pulled up one of the abandoned chairs close to hers and sat on the edge of it.

He looked tired, but he sat with a straight back, still alert. The knuckles on his hands were bruised and bloody, scabs forming on them and she wondered what he and Ryan had been doing before they arrived back at the station. But it was not a deep concern. Like all the issues that had seemed to scare everyone in the meeting, this, too, seemed shallow and distant to her.

She just wanted to be alone.

Ryan sat on the edge of Nia’s desk, his hands in his pockets. It was far enough away to show that he was removing himself from the conversation, but because he was staying in the room, he was declaring his concern.

Subtle. But that was Ryan’s forte.

Nia looked back to Cáel, waiting.

 
“I have to apologize,” Cáel told her and paused, as if he expected her to be shocked or surprised.

But she knew why he was apologizing. “You didn’t force me to that party, Cáel. None of what we have done, including this beloved book of yours, did we do because you forced us.” She gave a small smile. “We would be weak indeed if we were so influenced by a human.”

“But you
were
influenced by a human,” Cáel told her.

This time, she
did
feel surprise.

“I’m not talking about me,” Cáel told her. “I’m talking about Salathiel.”

Shock slithered through her. In all this long time, she had never looked at Salathiel in this way. But Cáel was right. “Yes,” she said softly. “We were, weren’t we? Even after he was turned, Salathiel remained essentially human. That was why he couldn’t cope with his vampirism. He was
too
human.”

“And there is another human who had influenced you, lately,” Cáel added.

She frowned, because she knew who he was referring to. “Gabriel,” she concluded. “He’s still technically human, at the core.”

“We all are, at the core,” Ryan said, from his seat on her desk. “We all have DNA. We can all interbreed, in the right circumstances. We all began as human. For what Cáel means, Gabriel is human.”

Nia pursed her lips together. “I’ve been giving him too much power over me. I
let
him inside, didn’t I? If we’re supposed to be so above influence, I’m making a poor showing of it. I’m sitting here like a pouting school girl, letting him camp inside my head.”

Cáel smiled. “I wasn’t going to put it quite like that.” His eyes were warm with laughter.

Nia’s desk chimed and Ryan twisted around and tapped the key. “What is it, Brenden?”

“Sorry boss, I’m going to need you or Nayara in person.”

Ryan stood up. “Coming.” He glanced at Cáel. “You know where your pillow is.”

Cáel nodded.

The little exchange bothered Nayara in ways she didn’t want to examine too closely.

Ryan left.

Cáel turned to her. “Lock the door, Nia,” he said. “Stop it from opening to anyone except those you personally unlock the door for.”

There was an urgency and earnestness in his voice that appealed to her better sense. Nayara locked the door remotely. “All right, I’ve locked the door. Why do I feel like you were waiting for Ryan to leave?”

“I was,” Cáel told her. “Well, not exactly, but now that he has, it’s an opportunity I’m going to use. There’s a third human who has been influencing you, Nia.”

She raised an eyebrow. The locking of the door was a major clue. “You,” she said flatly.

Cáel nodded. His black eyes were pinning her to the chair. “You’re a hard person to influence. You’re not wrong there. But I’ve been playing politics and persuading global leaders and businessmen for over fifty years now and I’m no slouch at it. You and Ryan were in another class altogether, though.”

“
Were
?” she repeated, pouncing on the word.

Cáel gave a tiny shrug. “I’m not playing this game anymore. Not after tonight. Not after I saw what Gabriel did to you. You can deny it all you want, but my people were directly responsible for giving Gabriel access to you. I have to live with that and I don’t like it one little bit.” His square jaw flexed and rippled. Was he angry? What emotion was running through him now?