The Golden Lily (25 page)

“Your earring,” I said. “It’s the sun symbol—the symbol for gold.” And, I realized, it was exactly the same symbol that had been on the hilt of the sword we’d retrieved from the aley.

He touched his earring and nodded. “We haven’t forgotten the mission—or our original purpose. We serve the light. Not the darkness that hides vampires.” I still refused to acknowledge anything they said about vampires. “You’re the ones who attacked my friend and me in the aley last week.” Neither one denied it.

“Your ‘friend’ is a creature of darkness,” said Blond Hair. “I don’t know how she’s managed this current enchantment—

making herself look like one of the other vampires—but you can’t be fooled. She’s evil. She’ll kill you and countless others.”

“You guys are crazy,” I said. “None of this makes any sense.”

“You guys are crazy,” I said. “None of this makes any sense.”

“Just tell us where her main lair is,” said Jeff. “We know it’s not that apartment on the other side of downtown. We’ve been watching it and she hasn’t returned since our last attempt to destroy her. If you won’t actively help us, that information will be all we need to rid the world of her evil.” We’ve been watching it. Adrian’s apartment. Chils ran through me. How long had they been spying on his place? And to what extent? Had they simply sat outside in a car, stakeout style? Did they have high tech surveilance equipment? Wolfe had warned against being stalked in parking lots, not in homes.

The small comfort I had here was that they obviously didn’t know about Clarence’s. Their surveilance couldn’t have been that thorough if no one had folowed her yet. But had they folowed me? Did they know where I went to school?

And with their own words, they were confirming the terrible reality I’d hardly dared speculate about. It was a reality that meant there were forces moving unseen beneath the Alchemists’

seemingly al-knowing vision, forces working against our goals.

Vampire hunters were real.

With that realization came a hundred more terrifying questions.

What did this mean for the Moroi? Was Jill in danger?

Was Adrian?

“The only thing I’m going to do is call the police,” I said. “I don’t know who you guys are or why you’re obsessed with my friend, but neither of us have done anything to you. You’re even crazier than I first thought if you think I’m going to tell you where she is so that you can stalk her.” she is so that you can stalk her.”

Then, by the sheerest luck, I saw a patroling police officer walking down the street. The two guys at my table folowed my gaze and undoubtedly could guess my thoughts. It would be very easy to call her over. We’d filed no report about the aley attack, but accusing these guys of a recent assault would certainly detain them.

In sync, they both rose.

“You’re making a terrible mistake,” Jeff said. “We could have had this problem eradicated ages ago if our groups worked together. First the Strigoi, then the Moroi.

Your misguided descent into their corruption has nearly ruined everything.

Fortunately, we still walk the true path.” The fact that he’d just named the two groups was particularly alarming. These guys were scary, certainly, but less so if they were just talking about vampires in shadowy, vague terms. Using “Moroi” and “Strigoi” indicated extensive knowledge.

Blond Hair tossed down a small, homemade pamphlet. “Read this, and maybe you’ll see the light. We’ll be in touch.”

“I wouldn’t if I were you,” I said. “Mess with me again, and I’ll do a lot more than just have a pleasant chat.” My words came out more fiercely than I’d expected.

Maybe Dimitri and Wolfe were rubbing off on me.

Jeff laughed as the two of them began walking away. “Too bad you got so bogged down in books,” he said. “You’ve got the spirit of a hunter.” Chapter 16

I WASTED NO TIME in getting the group together. This was big. I still didn’t know the level of danger we were facing, but I refused to take any chances. I chose Clarence’s house as a meeting spot, seeing as the hunters didn’t know about it yet. It still made me nervous. I would’ve been nervous even if we’d been meeting in an Alchemist bunker.

And apparently, “hunters” wasn’t even the right term.

According to their low-quality pamphlet, they caled themselves

“The Warriors of Light.” I wasn’t sure they deserved that fancy title, especialy since in their mission statement, they speled

“abyss” as “abiss.” The pamphlet was realy very sparse, simply stating that there was an evil walking among humanity and that the Warriors were the force there to destroy it. They urged their felow humans to be ready and stay pure. None of the vampires were mentioned by name, for which I was glad. The pamphlet also didn’t mention much about any of the shared history they claimed to have with the Alchemists.

Before we went to Clarence’s, Eddie scoured Latte for any sort of tracking device. The very idea creeped me out, the same way being watched at Adrian’s did.

There was a feeling of way being watched at Adrian’s did. There was a feeling of violation to it al. It was only my lack of faith in their technology that made me feel somewhat better.

“It seems unlikely they’d be that advanced,” I told Eddie, as he wiggled under the car. “I mean, that pamphlet looked like it had been made on a 1980s copy machine. I don’t know if that’s because they’ve had the pamphlets sitting around that long or if that’s the actual machine they still use … but regardless, they don’t scream high tech to me.”

“Maybe,” he agreed, voice slightly muffled. “But we can’t take any chances. We don’t know what they’re capable of. And for all we know, they’re trying to hook up with the Alchemists to score technology.”

Chils ran through me. It was an outrageous thought: that the Alchemists and this violent fringe group could be related. It had been crazy when Adrian and I had speculated about it and was hard to accept even in the face of mounting evidence. At least now I had enough information to take to my superiors without being ridiculed. Even though I’d never heard of hunters like this, it seemed plausible that somewhere, at some point, they’d tried to connect with my organization.

Hopefuly someone in the Alchemists could help.

Eddie scooted out from under Latte. “You’re clean. Let’s head out.”

Jill and Angeline were waiting nearby, both tense and anxious.

Jill gave Eddie an admiring smile. “I didn’t know you knew how to do any of this. I never would have even thought about it.” He wiped sweat off his forehead.

“You thought guardian He wiped sweat off his forehead. “You thought guardian training was all about hitting and kicking?” She flushed. “Pretty much, yeah.”

“Can you tell me about some of this stuff sometime?” asked Angeline. “Seems like I should know it.”

“Sure,” said Eddie, sounding like he meant it. She beamed.

He’d been much easier around her ever since her attitude had become more serious and restrained. I think some of that good behavior had played a role in me getting permission for her to join us tonight. She was still technicaly on suspension, but I’d managed to get a special exemption on the grounds of our family’s so-caled religion. I’d used a similar excuse when Jill had been suspended last month, in order to take her to feedings.

Even still, we were on very strict orders with Angeline tonight.

She couldn’t be out for more than two hours, and the price was adding an extra day of suspension to her sentence.

We took an abnormal route to Clarence’s, and Eddie watched behind us carefuly, looking for any signs of pursuit. He tried to explain some of the things I needed to watch for when I was on my own. I was so nervous, I hardly heard. After a tense ride, we made it safely to Clarence’s. There, we found Adrian already waiting for us. Dimitri had apparently been downtown earlier and picked Adrian up—no doubt taking all the same precautions Eddie had for travel.

I’d given Eddie and Dimitri some of the info on the hunters, but everyone else required a more thorough explanation. We gathered in our usual spot, the formal living room, and Dimitri paced around the room, bracing for an attack at any moment.

paced around the room, bracing for an attack at any moment.

Clarence looked on from his chair with that typical distracted gaze. When I held up the pamphlet, however, he came to life.

“That’s them!” he cried. I thought he might actualy spring up from the chair and rip the pamphlet from my hands. “Those are their symbols!” Most of the same alchemical symbols that had been on the sword were strewn across the pamphlet’s front.

“That circle. I remember that circle.”

“The gold symbol,” I confirmed. “Or, I guess in their case, the sun symbol since they’re so obsessed with light and dark.” Clarence looked around franticaly.

“They’re back! We have to get out of here. I came to this city to escape them, but they’ve found me. We have no time. Where’s Dorothy? Where’s Lee? I must pack!”

“Mr. Donahue,” I said, in as a gentle a tone as I could manage, “they don’t know you’re here. You’re safe.” I didn’t know if I believed that and hoped I was convincing.

“She’s right,” said Dimitri. “And even if they did, you know I wouldn’t let them hurt you.” There was such confidence and strength in the way Dimitri spoke that I had a feeling that we’d believe him even if a group of Strigoi were invading, and he said,

“It’s fine, you’re safe.”

“If what you’re saying is true,” said Sonya, “I’m the one that’s in danger.” She seemed much calmer than I would be in that situation.

“They’re not going to hurt you either,” said Dimitri sharply.

“Especialy if you don’t leave this house.”

“Especialy if you don’t leave this house.”

“The research—” she began.

“—is nothing compared to your safety,” he finished. There was a look in his eyes that said he would tolerate no arguments.

“You need to get back to Court. You were planning on it anyway. Just make the trip early.” Sonya didn’t look happy about that. “So I leave the rest of you in danger?”

“Maybe we aren’t,” said Eddie, though the tension in his body said otherwise. “From what Sydney said—and their mini-manifesto—their focus seems to be Strigoi, not Moroi.” He glanced over at Jil. “Not that we can let our guard down. If they’ve mistaken Sonya for a Strigoi, who knows what other craziness they might do?

Don’t worry. I won’t let them near you.” Jill looked ready to swoon.

“That’s a good idea,” I said. “They still think the Moroi are a threat but not as much as the Strigoi.”

“Kind of like the Alchemists,” said Adrian. He was sitting in a corner armchair and had been quiet this whole time. I hadn’t seen him since the night of the dance or had any communication with him, which was odd. Even when he wasn’t sending me pathetic e-mails about the experiments, he almost always had some witty quip to pass along.

“True,” I admitted, with a smile. “But we’re not trying to kill any of you. Not even Strigoi.”

“And there’s the problem,” said Dimitri. “These warriors are convinced Sonya used to be a Strigoi and is using some trick to disguise herself.” disguise herself.”

“Maybe they have some tracking or inventory system,” Sonya mused. “They keep tabs on various Strigoi in the country and then try to hunt them down.”

“And yet they didn’t know about you,” I pointed out to Dimitri. His face stayed neutral, but I knew it was hard for him to be reminded of his Strigoi days. “And from what I know … you were much more of a, um, notable figure than Sonya.” He’d essentialy been a Strigoi mobster. “So, if you’re off their radar, they probably don’t have an international presence—or at least not a Russian one.”

Angeline leaned forward, hands clasped, and regarded Clarence with a smile sweet enough to justify her name. “How do you know about them? How did you first run into them?” At first, he looked too terrified to answer, but I think her kindly attitude soothed him. “Wel, they kiled my niece, of course.” We all knew Lee had kiled Clarence’s niece, but the old man didn’t believe this any more than he believed Lee was dead.

“Did you see them when they did it?” asked Angeline. “Did you ever see them at al?”

“Not when Tamara died, no,” he admitted. His eyes got a faraway look, as though he were staring straight into the past.

“But I knew what signs to look for. I’d run into them before that, you see. Back when I was living in Santa Cruz. They like California, you know. And the Southwest. Goes back to their sun fixation.”

“What happened in Santa Cruz?” asked Dimitri.

“What happened in Santa Cruz?” asked Dimitri.

“A group of their young ones began stalking me. Trying to kill me.”

The rest of us exchanged glances. “So they do go after Moroi,” said Eddie. He actualy moved closer to Jil.

Clarence shook his head. “Not usualy. From what Marcus told me, they prefer Strigoi. These were young, undisciplined members of their order going off on their own, without the knowledge of their superiors. I assume it was the same type who kiled Tamara.”

“Who’s Marcus?” I asked.

“Marcus Finch. He saved me from them a few years ago.

Fended them off during an attack and later got in touch with their order to keep those ruffians away from me.” Clarence shivered at the memory. “Not that I stayed Fended them off during an attack and later got in touch with their order to keep those ruffians away from me.” Clarence shivered at the memory. “Not that I stayed around after that. I took Lee and left. That was when we moved to Los Angeles for a while.”

“This Marcus,” I said. “Was he a guardian?”

“A human. He was about your age then. He knew all about the hunters.”

“I suppose he would if he got in touch with them,” Dimitri speculated. “But he must be friendly to Moroi if he helped you?”

“Oh, yes,” said Clarence. “Very much so.” Dimitri looked over at me. “Do you think—”

“Yes,” I said, guessing his question. “I’ll see if we can find this Marcus guy. It’d be nice to get a source of info that’s not one of these crazy warriors. I’m also going to report on all of this, actualy.”

actualy.”

“Me too,” said Dimitri.

Although Clarence wasn’t the expert on the hunters that this mysterious Marcus was, the old Moroi still had a surprising amount of info to share—info none of us had wanted to hear before. He verified what we’d already deduced, about the hunters’ “devotion to the light.” The group’s focus was Strigoi (for now), and all of their hunts were carefuly planned and organized. They had a ritualized set of behaviors, particularly in regard to their younger members—which was why the rogue group harassing Clarence had been stopped. From what Clarence had gathered, the group was quite tough on their new recruits, emphasizing discipline and excelence.