Vampire Elite (45 page)

“What it
is
is unprecedented,” Tor added after a moment. “I’ve never seen that before; even her mother’s eyes never did that.”

“For the record, I
strongly
objected to moving her to a cell. She was already ours.” Theores had kept her mouth shut about this for long enough, not wanting to make Tor any more miserable than he already was. “The girl was yours, heart and soul. Sure, you hadn’t blood-bonded with her, but our plan was working. Of
course
the Order wanted to contact her; she’s their Queen, and they need her on their side. But the contact was irrelevant.”

“No, it wasn’t,” interjected Anock. “We have a reliable source reporting that the Amiti have five Keepers now. That means that some time in the past year or so—even though she spent most of it imprisoned—Arianna found a way to name a new Keeper of Death to replace Marcus. And I don’t need to remind you that they have Simone and that she’s the Keeper of Life. The Keepers are determined to follow through with their plan. Etain consulted an oracle who confirmed that the Key will be turned. Do you understand what that means?”

When they all just stared at him instead of answering, Anock continued. “What it
means
is that as far as we know, there is
nothing
standing between them and that fucking Key being turned—except the fact that they don’t have Arianna. And so there’s nothing more important than keeping Arianna locked in that cell, so the Keepers will never be able to use her.”
 

Theores could practically see the gears spinning in Tor’s brain as he tried to process it all. She felt bad for the guy. It was hard enough for Theores to deal with her conflicting feelings about Arianna—wanting the blood-bond, fear for what Arianna could do, and her affection for the girl—and Tor had the added complications of his duties as King, not to mention his love and his broken heart.

Thinking about that, she was caught off guard when he spoke again. “So tell us more about what you saw.”

“When I went in there, it felt like a furnace room. She didn’t say much, but when she spoke, her voice sounded like it wasn’t just her in there, if that makes sense. And she seemed ... determined. As though she’s gotten tired of being miserable and now she’s angry. But it’s a cold anger, not a hot one. Distant, frigid.”

“Well, that’s not good news. Anger is one of the strongest emotions; it’ll facilitate the development of her powers.” Leon leaned back, his eyes narrowing. “And I’m going to go out on a limb and say that once she gets them, odds are she’ll use them against us.”

“It doesn’t matter
what
the odds are; it simply cannot happen. We can’t let it happen.” Tor drew in a breath, his eyes scanning the room as though looking for options, and then heaved a sigh. “Tell the handlers to begin draining her regularly, starting tonight.”

Theores choked. “You can’t be serious.”

“I’m deadly serious.”

“But—”

“Theores, let me remind you that I am the King here. Until you decide that you want to challenge me for that position and then managed to defeat me in a duel, my word is law.” Tor’s voice was arctic.

“I’m not going to challenge you,
Sire
. I’ve never doubted your authority, and I follow your orders without question. But you’ve always encouraged us to voice our opinions. I just felt that I was free to express myself, following your instructions.” Theores lowered her head, demonstrating her subordination.

“Good. Arianna is your responsibility from now on. Now go make sure that my order is executed. You, too, Anock and Leon. Theores’ll need backup this time. And no hesitation. She’s powerful; treat her as a potential enemy. Shoot first, ask questions later, got it?”
 

Theores rose and left the room, churning with rage and frustration. She’d come up with the perfect plan—and, maybe more to the point, the
only
plan—and it had almost worked, and now everything was going haywire. Why couldn’t they understand that they were actually making the situation worse? Arianna had been their ally; even when they’d locked her up, some part of her had understood their need to do so. But given what they were about to do? They were turning her into an enemy who wouldn’t hesitate to turn the key.
 

And, of course, that meant that Theores would die along with everyone else. She had to swallow her personal feelings—her desire for the blood-bond, her sympathy for Arianna—and focus on the interests of the pride and her race.

Arriving in the bloodstock wing of the basement, Theores stuck her head in the door of the handler’s office. Good: two of George’s assistants were in there with him. “George, prepare a catheter and follow me,” she commanded. “All of you.” She didn’t wait for them to respond, just paced the hallway while they gathered their supplies.
 

Theores let the humans go first. She told herself it was because they knew the routine, but it was a lie. She just wanted to delay facing Arianna—in both of her aspects, the Sekhmet-possessed one and the betrayed-friend one—even if it was only for the split second it took the humans to get through the door.
 

It turned out to be a lot more than a split second: George froze in the doorway so abruptly that the other humans actually collided with him. The predator in Theores thrilled at the smell of his fear, then balked at the memory of the more powerful predator inside the cell.
 

Theores gave him a moment to wrap his mind around the transformed creature in the cell; when he didn’t keep going after that, she shoved all three humans through the door. “Move along; do your business.”

She followed them in. Arianna was standing right where she’d been when Theores had last left the cell.
 

“I’m sorry, Arianna. They have to draw your blood,” she said firmly, deliberately avoiding meeting her eyes.

A harsh noise like a snarl filled the room, and then Arianna leapt at them. Theores saw the handlers’ bodies flying through the air like rag dolls, felt Arianna throw her into the wall, too, before Theores could even think to react. Arianna was at the threshold about to rush out of the cell when she suddenly lost balance and collapsed, a silver-steel arrow—the weapon used to paralyze Amiti and their powers—sticking out of her shoulder. Beyond her, Theores saw Anock, a crossbow in his hands. He threw the crossbow to the floor, lifted Arianna and carried her to the cot.

“Do your job,” he commanded coldly as the handlers struggled to their feet.

Arianna’s eyes were open. It was obvious that she was totally aware of what was happening but she could neither move nor speak. She just stared at Theores in silent rage. Theores’s heart was breaking as she pulled a chair up next to the bed and sat down.

“I’m sorry, Arianna. Forgive us; we have to do this ... ”

Anock and Leon leaned against the wall, arms folded across their chests. All three watched silently as the handlers followed the protocol, restraining Arianna—even though there was no need to do so—and then inserted the catheter into her vein.
 

Theores watched the blood flow into the container, her mind in chaos. She hadn’t realized it would be so hard to witness a blood draw. As the blood drained from Arianna’s body, so did her powers. Although she couldn’t stand to look at Arianna’s eyes before, Theores couldn’t help but stare at the evidence of Arianna’s powers receding: her pupils changing shape, one iris turning green again.
 

When the handlers were done, Theores stood, picked up the jar containing Arianna’s blood, and left the room without looking back.
 

She sensed Anock and Leon behind her, but she couldn’t deal with them right now, so she hurried to the elevator, got in and closed the door before they could get on, almost in their faces. She just needed to be alone for a minute. She leaned against the wall and broke into wracking sobs. When the elevator stopped on Tor’s floor, she wiped away her tears with the back of her hand and stared at her reflection in the mirror on the landing, arranging her face into a mask of indifference.

She entered Tor’s quarters without knocking. Tor was sitting next to the fireplace browsing through papers. She walked quietly to his desk, set the container down and left the room.

But instead of walking away, she turned and watched Tor through the half-opened door. He sat quietly for a few minutes just staring at the jar. Then he picked it up and hurled it against the wall. The container exploded, and the blood ran down the wall, forming a puddle on the floor. Tor dropped to his knees next to the puddle and covered his face with his hands.
 

Theores quietly closed the door and headed down the hall, torn between sympathy for Tor and a strange sense of satisfaction that the whole thing was ripping him apart as much as it was her.

Chapter 60

Santorini, Greece

The meeting of the Order took place, as usual, in their headquarters in the villa in Santorini. Eight of them were present, the members of the Inner Circle of the Order: two elder Keepers, Oberon and Deimos; two representative Amiti elders who were always invited to the Inner Circle in order to demonstrate that other Amiti were also involved in decision making; and four Avengers: Erec, Kassi, Lexis and Serena.
 

Cynical, for more than a year, Serena had been observing Oberon’s fruitless efforts to bring Simone to their side. The idea had been abhorrent to her from the very beginning. There was no way that a vampire, even a half-Amiti one, could ever be loyal to the Order. The only viable course of action was to get rid of Simone and let the Queen appoint a new Keeper of Life. But Serena’s views had not been heard; Oberon, as the Keeper, had more power than she did. But not any more. Serena had now completed her quest and acquired her powers as the Keeper of Death; now she and Oberon were equals. Now, when she spoke, both Oberon and Deimos would have to take her opinion into consideration.
 

As soon as the preliminaries had been dealt with and the meeting was underway, she stated her case. “For the first time, we face the prospect of having five viable Keepers. Obviously the three of us”—she gestured around the table at herself, Oberon, and Deimos—“are on board to turn the Key. And Arianna’s totally committed to the Amiti. She’s suffered a great deal of abuse in the hands of Sekhmi; she won’t shy away from her duty. That means that Simone is the only obstacle blocking us from executing our plan. The fifth Keeper should not hold us back. We weren’t moralistic when we killed our own Queen; why should we let a
vampire
princess stop us from achieving our goal?”

Serena paused, making eye contact with everyone in the room to make sure she had their full attention. She did.
 

Good. She was running the show. It was time for a checkmate. She turned to Oberon.

“Oberon, I totally understand your attraction to the girl. But you should know, even better than most, that we cannot let our personal feelings get in the way of our mission. I’ve told you before and I’ll tell you again, Simone is of no use to us. As far as she’s concerned, she’s a vampire; all she feels about her Amiti blood is shame. I demand that she be eliminated. That will allow Arianna to name a true Amiti to be the Keeper of Life, and we’ll have the five we need.
 

“I suggest that it be one of my Avengers. They all have proven their dedication to our goal. They’ve been with us for centuries, have gone above and beyond any one else in exterminating vampires and protecting our race.”

Deimos looked thoughtful for a moment, and then said, “I think Serena’s right. I support her proposal one hundred percent.”

“We can vote,” added Serena, but she knew it would be just a formality. They’d abide by her suggestions. Except for Oberon, none of them knew Simone personally, but they loathed her for the sins of her mother and for being the vampire King’s daughter.

Her gaze rested on Oberon. She wondered if he knew that his sister was blood-bonded with the head of the bloodstock Hunter pride. If he did, he was totally untrustworthy. If he didn’t, he was a complete idiot. Serena had been tempted to tell Oberon about Desiree many times, but each time had decided not to interfere in family business. Let Oberon figure out for himself what to do with his traitor of a sister. Meanwhile, Desiree was a good trump card if Serena ever needed one. It was always a good idea to keep track of the Amiti who were loyal to vampires; they were priceless leverage.

* * *

Oberon was trapped. He knew how the Order would vote. They’d always been extremists. They had to be, especially now: they’d lost the war and their people had almost been eliminated. Ordinarily, Oberon considered himself as extreme as any of them, and was proud of it.

“Yes, let’s vote,” Erec said. Erec was one of the most skillful assassins and a longtime friend of Serena’s. His back, right shoulder, and right upper arm were covered in tattoos of ancient Egyptian letters and symbols. Five hundred and fifty eight of them marched in neat columns across his flesh, each one representing a dead vampire. Like Serena, Erec had been killing vampires for centuries. His kill count currently trailed Serena’s by six. It was an unspoken competition between them, his tattoos versus the beads strung on a cord around Serena’s neck. Two other Avengers, Kassi and Lex, had less than three hundred vampire kills. And killing traitorous Amiti blood-bonds didn’t count; that was considered a pro-bono obligation.
 

Oberon knew Erec would just love to take Simone’s assassination upon himself, to earn yet another tattoo.

Deimos called the vote, and seven hands raised without hesitation, everyone but Oberon voting in favor of assassinating Simone. He couldn’t do it. Those Amiti who had never had a blood-bond—except, of course, the Avengers, who blood-bonded only for the purpose of killing—didn’t know how heartbreaking it was even to think about killing one’s blood-bond.
 

The blood-bond connection was incomprehensible to those who hadn’t experienced the depth of spiritual connection and love it made possible. It allowed Amiti to access their blood-bonds’ innermost dreams and desires, struggles, and, most importantly, their insecurities and vulnerabilities. This knowledge altered Amiti’s perception of reality.