Romani Armada (26 page)

“Where did you hear this story, anyway?” Deonne demanded.

“A very old homeless man, on the outskirts of Los Angeles, was the first to tell me about vampires that time travel. He said he had met one.”

Deonne laughed. “And you
believed
him?”

Daniel smiled, too. “Not then, I did not. But now, I am on the verge of changing my mind because the evidence surrounding you points in no other direction.”

She sighed again, still smiling. “It’s a neat idea, Daniel. There’s a few things I would go back to do over if I had the choice. But it’s just an idea. Now…” She lifted the document in front of her. “If you don’t mind?”

“What is your real name?” Daniel asked. “You and I both know what each other is. You can share your name with me without danger. I refuse to call you Dianne.”

Deonne stared at him as a fear-filled idea struck her.
Daniel was not his real name
. Why hadn’t she considered this far sooner?

“Where did your mind just wander?” Daniel asked. “Your expression is almost alarming.”

She ignored him while she thought about his name. Daniel. James. With jerky, panic-filled movements, she reached for the keyboard and tapped out “Santiago” and ran a query. The first response was instantaneous and sat glowing on the screen, shouting at her.

Definition: Santiago.

Common Spanish surname, particularly amongst the Romani tribes. Originated as a rendering of Spanish patron saint, Saint James.

Deonne stared at the screen, her breath locked in her chest and her heart slamming against her chest and in her ears. She could hear the sound of her own breath whistling in and out.

Adán.
Adán
iel.

Daniel was Adán Santiago.

“I think I’m going to be sick,” she whispered.

“Dianne!” Daniel’s voice was strident and loud. She looked at him, realizing that he had spoken and she hadn’t heard a word.

Concern filled his eyes. He reached for her wrist and squeezed it. “What is wrong? What has happened? You look—”

“Don’t touch me!” she cried, pulling her arm from his grip. She stood up, stumbled over the chair and shoved it away. It tottered, as the legs caught on the tiling, then toppled over to crash sideways on the floor.

Daniel leapt to his feet. “You look like I have abruptly turned into a murderer.”

“You have,” she whispered. She raced for the door. “Stay away from me!”

She slammed the door on him and ran for her life.

* * * * *

Jerusalem, Israel, 2264 A.D.:
The final sum the wardens had used to pay for Keiren’s silence was generous enough that he didn’t
have
to find a job right away. He didn’t have to do anything he didn’t want to do for quite a while.

So instead of occupying his time with the challenge of finding a new profession, he drifted through days and nights, sometimes climbing onto the nets, or otherwise watching mindless entertainment on the battered and scratched monitor that came with the room.

On the fifth day, toward sunset, a manual knocking on his door announced a visitor.

Kieren lifted his head from the pillow, staring at the door. He had received no visitors and no one had come to the door for five days, except for the delivery company the wardens had used to ship his personal effects, which still sat in the shipping containers in the corner of the room where he had told them to drop them.

When the knock came a second time, harder than before, Kieren sat up and swiveled so his feet were on the floor. He stared at the door.

The only way he was going to resolve who could possibly be on the other side was to open the door. The door had no security monitors at all.

Kieren picked up his sidearm from the table and held it down at his side in the ready position. Then he carefully opened the door, using it to shield his chest and most of his body. He peered around the edge.

Cáel Stelios stood in the hallway, looking out of place in amongst the rubbish and graffiti, in his ten grand suit and coat. He was quite alone. He raised a brow. “You’re a hard man to find.”

“Jesus Christ,” Kieren swore. “Where is your security?”

“I fired them.” Stelios nodded toward the apartment. “Can I come in? I
would
feel safer being in the same room with you and that gun you’re holding.”

Kieren opened the door just wide enough for Stelios to walk through, then bolted it behind him. “You severed your contract with the wardens?” he asked. “I’m surprised they let you. They’re iron-bound, those contracts.”

“We came to agree that I no longer needed their services,” Stelios said, turning slowly to take in details around the room. “It was…mutually beneficial.” He stopped turning, facing Kieren, and removed his gloves.

“That’s how you found me,” Kieren guess. “You used the contract for leverage to pry it out of them.”

“With the best intentions, yes.” Stelios raised his brow again.

“Israel is half-a-globe away from Malacá, or even San Francisco. You’ve gone out of your way to find me. Why?”

“You left the Agency and the wardens very quickly. Right after the incident in Sweden.” Stelios’ expression told Kieren he knew exactly what had happened in Sweden, down to the last detail. That was most likely, given his relationship with Nayara and Ryan.

“You have a good grasp of the facts,” Kieren agreed. “But if you have gone to so much trouble to find me just to ask me to go back, then you don’t understand me or the situation.”

“I would sooner dump you in the fringes of Washington City buck naked than see you go back to that bunch of hypocrites,” Stelios said, with some heat.

Kieren let his surprise circulate through him so it would dissipate. “Then why are you here?”

“I want you to come back.”

“I just said—”

Stelios held up his hand. “Come back to the Agency. As their employee…or you can become a fully-fledged member if you want. We need you.”

“
We
? Don’t you represent the people of Greece?”

“I do,” Stelios agreed. “But you and I both know that I have a higher priority in my life, which remains hidden for now.”

Kieren disarmed and placed the gun on the table, giving himself time to think. “Why do you want me to join the Agency?”

“Because you are one of the best in your profession I have ever seen, and because what has happened to you may not have happened if you had been working a different contract.” Stelios shrugged. “We’ll never know, but that’s not the issue. You
were
working for me when this happened and I therefore have a small amount of responsibility.”

“No, you don’t,” Kieren replied firmly.

“I do not speak of financial or legal responsibility. The contract I had with the Wardens was a high-risk one. The wardens acknowledged the risk and absolved me in advance for injuries any Wardens received. The contract has been concluded with no debts remaining on either side. But I would be a poor human indeed if I didn’t feel any concern over what happened to you on our watch.”

“I don’t think what happened is something anyone could have predicted,” Kieren pointed out. The
effort
it took to say that aloud! He could feel sweat prickling down his spine.

Stelios sighed. “The Agency needs help with personal security. Now I’ve fired the Wardens, there is no one. I want you to fill the gap.” His gaze drilled into Keiren’s. “You need the Agency, too.”

Kieren clamped down on his internal reaction and kept his face neutral. “I don’t need anyone.”

“You do now.” Stelios threw out a hand. “You have psi talents, Kieren. I know you want to deny that, but for the moment, let’s deal with the situation that puts you in.”

Kieren struggled to keep his face and body still. “I am not psi,” he said, as evenly as he could.

“I know that. Everyone at the agency who deals with psi every day…they all know that, too. But your Wardens did not like how it made you different and more powerful than them. At the agency, you would be just one of hundreds of people who are different. Some of them are quite strange. But all of them are accepted there, and their talents and expertise welcomed and used, in whatever way a person wants to help. That’s a set of conditions I don’t think exist anywhere else in the universe right now.
Cristos,
they accepted me and I’m just human.”

Kieren hadn’t considered that before. In the immediate aftermath of the affair in Sweden, no one had looked at him strangely or drawn away from him. Their biggest concern was Deonne’s safety.
What
he was had been a secondary question that they had put aside as unanswerable just then.

Then he recalled the acrimonious reaction of the Wardens and his gut tightened. He took a deep breath to offset it.

Stelios was watching him, reading the shifts of his expression and body language. He was a politician and exceptional at judging character. Kieren had seen him dealing with humans and vampires both, adjusting his responses and even the language he used to smooth his way.

Kieren grimaced. “Of course, you’re going to tell me exactly what I want to hear.”

“I would, if I was interested in political expediency,” Stelios replied. “My only agenda right now is ensuring that you are protected and that you have a future.”

“And again, I have to ask why.”

Stelios sighed. “I know about the others that came to speak to you. The ones that defeated your wardens without touching them.”

Kieren wondered where Stelios got his information. His sources were amazing. Then he realized. “You learned that from the same person who told you about my leaving the Wardens.”

Stelios nodded. “Although he used that same term, ‘leaving’, and I didn’t believe him, either. Not after he told me about these other people holding a whole base at bay.” Stelios’ gaze was steady. “You clearly don’t want to join them.”

“I don’t like their attitude.”

“So join the agency instead. Unless you don’t like our attitude, either?”

Kieren side-stepped the question. “I thought only vampires could be full members of the agency?”

Stelios waved toward the narrow bed. “Do you mind if I sit down? It has been a very long day, so far.”

Kieren nodded and Stelios sank down onto the edge of the mattress with a deep sigh. He placed his hands on his knees, propping himself up. “Your status and your specific duties for the agency I will leave up to Nayara to finalize with you, but I can tell you this – you will need people. You cannot shield the agency from what may happen in the future all on your own.”

“You want me to recruit my own staff?”

“I do. The agency members have all survived a long time. They know how to defend themselves and can do it well or magnificently, but they have not made it their life’s work as you have and they all – each and every one of them – have a blind spot.” Stelios looked at him.

“They think they’re invulnerable. Humans know they are not.”

Stelios nodded. “Correct. It’s not an attitude that can change overnight, despite the inroads Gabriel has made into the agency. They’ve all spent too many centuries being the big kid on the block. Then there are the humans the agency is trying to protect. You could work with Pritti to see what defenses the agency can build against Gabriel and his psi, so the humans can come home.”

“You mean…use my…” Kieren couldn’t say it. There was a huge resistance to speaking the words aloud. He knew that as soon as he said something like that, it would signal his acceptance of what everyone else had already accepted as fact – that he had demonstrated psi talents.

As Stelios had said, he was in denial, despite the Jabbar raid proving he had psi talents.

Stelios studied him now. “You can use whatever expertise you have to get the job done. Or hire the expertise you need. I’m giving you
carte blanche
, Kieren. Protect the agency. Protect them from themselves and from Gabriel and his people.”

Kieren squeezed and flexed his fingers. “I’ll think about it.”

“Do that.” Stelios got to his feet in a slow, deliberate way that spoke volumes about his degree of weariness.

“I should make sure you get home safely,” Kieren said. “You’re one of the biggest targets in the agency and you’re human, too.”

“The degree and manner of my association with the Agency isn’t widely known,” Stelios replied, fastening his coat. “And while I am inside the Assembly complex, I am very well protected.”

“Except you left that protection,” Kieren pointed out. “It only takes a mind reader one quick scan to figure out you’re a key member of the agency.” He tilted his head to one side. “You think about Ryan and Nayara constantly. A scanner wouldn’t have to dig deep into your thoughts to find it.”

Stelios’ eyes narrowed. “You can read minds?”

“I can guess. I have seen you with those two. Your body language is controlled, but it’s the degree of control that told me how deep it goes.”

“I see.” Stelios grimaced. “I’ll have to work on that.” He put his fingertips against his temples and massaged quickly. “What if you drove me back to Malacá? I have a rented limousine downstairs and I’ve seen you pilot a semi-ballistic before, so I know I’m in good hands. I frankly don’t trust myself. I’m too tired. You can use the limousine to hop over to Rome, afterwards.”

“Rome?”

“The new official headquarters for the Agency. I’ll fill you in as we go.”

Kieren reached for his jacket, hanging on the hook on the back of the apartment door. “I’ll get you to Malacá, sir, then I’ll figure out what I will do after that. I’m not agreeing to anything.”

“To Malacá will be good enough for now,” Stelios agreed. “And you’d better call me Cáel.”

Kieren considered him for a moment, then moved to the door. “Only until I agree to join the agency…
if
I decide to do that.”

Chapter Twenty

Liping Village, East Yunnan Province, China, 2054 A.D.:
Deonne didn’t go back to her apartment because she knew Santiago would find her there. She deliberately aimed for the section of the village she knew the least, as that would be an unexpected and unanticipated direction to go. She slowed to a fast walk once she was out of sight of the compound, and began to pick roads and paths at random, switching directions often, but always heading away from the compound.