Woman King (26 page)

It seemed they were destined to be my
permanent entourage.

“Hello,” I said feebly. “I see you got my
message.”

Elsa exhaled the breath she’d been holding.
“I was inside the house. I heard you loud and clear, so did Gabriel
and William. By the time I pulled you inside, they were practically
at our doorstep. How did you manage to do that?”

“I pushed the words out,” I said. “I was
afraid to make a sound. I couldn’t see and didn’t want any
strangers calling the police and connecting me with the
robbery.”

“Robbery?” Aidan asked.

To tell my story properly, I needed to sit
up. As soon as I tried to use my hands to prop myself up however,
the sharp pain in my injured shoulder caused me to wince.

“Careful,” William said soothingly.

With William’s assistance, I pushed myself
upright on the bed before I began to speak. “I went downtown early
to work on a poll with R.J. When I was finished, I intended to
drive to Palo Alto. I stopped for a quick lunch before getting in
my car. As I was walking to the parking garage, I noticed
something, a sort of buzzing in my ears. I felt like I was walking
toward an energy field. I was curious, so I followed the sensation
until I got to the corner of Post and Grant, in Union Square. As
soon as I made it to the corner, a black Audi sedan came careening
toward me. It jumped the curb and crashed into Peabody
Jewelers.”

“Was it an accident?” William asked.

I shook my head. “No, they meant to crash
into the store.” I said. “When the car stopped, four men with guns
got out and smashed every display case inside to bits and took the
jewelry.”

The three men exchanged grim glances at each
other.

“Did the men see you, Olivia?” Aidan
asked.

I shrugged. “I don’t know. I was knocked down
by the force of the car crash, that’s how I cut my hands and hurt
my shoulder. I managed to crawl up to a side window to peek in. I
wanted to see who was inside. It all happened quickly…the whole
robbery was probably completed in less than three minutes. I don’t
know if they noticed me. I pushed out toward the energy, and that’s
when my head began to ache and it got hard to see.”

“Can you see now?” Gabriel asked, stepping
into my line of sight.

I nodded. “Yes, but my eyes feel sore and
scratchy.” At that moment Elsa, who must have slipped out of the
room earlier, returned carrying a tray with a mug of something warm
and a small mirror. She handed the mirror to William who turned to
face me.

“Don’t be alarmed, but you look a bit like a
zombie,” he said holding the mirror up to my face. I gasped at my
reflection, startled to see two red dots staring back at me;
whatever had been tracking me used enough force to burst the tiny
blood vessels in my eyes so that the pupils were barely visible
through pools of crimson.

“They were trying to blind me,” I said, “Will
this heal?”

“I think so, to both things,” Aidan said.
“Someone in the robbery party was an Other and knew there was a
empath nearby. My guess is they never actually saw you, they only
felt your presence, the same way you could feel theirs. That would
explain the nature of their attack.”

“Are you saying that if they had seen her,
they would have attacked her physically?” William asked.

Aidan raised his hands in frustration. “I am
merely speculating,” he said. “I cannot say for certain what would
have happened if they’d actually seen her, but I think we can all
guess it wouldn’t have been pleasant.”

“Who were they, the guys who drove into the
jewelry store?” I asked.

“From what you have described, it sounds like
the Serbian mafia,” Gabriel said.

“The Serbian mafia? Here?” William asked.
“Isn’t this a bit far afield, even for them?”

Aidan shook his head. “I’m afraid not. Since
the war, they have branched out far beyond Europe. This kind of
robbery has become a signature of their work.”

William’s face was grim as he faced Aidan and
Gabriel. He regarded them both, a deep look of frustration upon his
face. “We need to make sure she doesn’t show up on any video.
Someone needs to begin searching now. I know a person that can help
us delete any footage without leaving a mark.” His response caught
my attention, if only because it sounded so tactical, as if he had
done something similar before. I wanted to ask him, but I knew
better than to bring it up in front of everyone.

“Can I have some eyes drops?” I asked
interjecting myself into the conversation. “My eyes feel like
someone ran a rake over them. And maybe some ice for my
shoulder.”

My remark caused Lily to wince, and she
quickly came over to my bed and handed me a small bottle of eye
drops. “These will help take the sting out,” she said. “I’ll go get
an ice pack from the kitchen.”

I examined the green glass bottle closely
before she left the room. It had no label or markings of any kind.
“What is this?”

“Nadia made it,” she said. “She said it would
help speed the healing. She also said to remember your fortune and
not to be afraid.”

“Who is Nadia?” William asked, his curiosity
peaked.

“An old witch who lives in the park,” said
Elsa said, as Lily left the room. “She is a healer.”

“What did she tell you, Olivia?” he asked.
“Does it have anything to do with this?”

It was a good question.
Ni oui, ni
non
. Yes and no, she never mentioned a robbery or being
blinded, but she did mention adventure and a great love; I didn’t
think this was the time to explain.

“It was nothing,” I said. “She read my palm
and told me I would have a long life. Listen, if you don’t mind, I
would like to get back to the robbery. I think we should check the
videos, maybe there will be something there…a clue,” I said.

“Good God, darlin, what do you mean, a clue?
Do you see the damage these men are capable of, even from afar? Why
would you go looking for trouble?” William asked, clearly
agitated.

“They are criminals, supernatural ones at
that,” I said. “Don’t you think we should find out who they
are?”

I’d crossed a line somehow. William looked at
the two other men in the room with a pleading look that spoke of
exasperation at my remarks.

“No, I don’t think you need to go looking for
anything,” he said.

Before I could reply, Gabriel intervened.
“Olivia, it’s late. We should be going. You need some time to
recover from this attack. We have a lot of work to do with the
upcoming poll and our first major house party in Carmel,” he said.
“Elsa and Aidan will search for images of the robbery and if there
is any footage, I will arrange for a screening at our offices
after
the party. They will also make sure you don’t show up
in any video that is floating around out there on the Internet. The
last thing we want is for the mafia to track you down. In the
meantime, you must rest. I think we can leave you in William’s
capable hands.”

I was being shut down, at least for the time
being. “OK, I see where this is going,” I said, sounding mildly
petulant. I managed to say goodnight in a civil tone to the group
before William walked them to the door. I heard the door shut and
the deadbolt lock in place. William returned a short time later
with more tea, placing the warm mug in my hands.

“I’m going to get a cool cloth for you,” he
said wandering off to the bathroom. He brought a wet cloth and
insisted I lay back with it over my eyes. “The cold will soothe
your eyes and help them heal faster.”

“You seem to know a lot about what is going
on,” I said, ignoring his first aid. “Are you going to fill me
in?”

Silence followed as I lay there, my eyes
pressed shut under the weight of the cloth. Finally, he spoke.

“I’ve told you about my time as an ambulance
driver and how I came to know the Council,” he said. “I didn’t
linger in Europe after World War I ended. In 1920, I took a ship to
New York and from there spent considerable time traveling across
the United States. My father was living in Wyoming, of all places.
He had purchased a small plot of land in a remote area near the
Snake River. It was very beautiful and full of good game to hunt.
We lived there for a time, but missed Europe and decided to return
to France. There was an apartment for sale in Paris, near Place de
la République at a decent price, so we purchased it and settled
in.”

I felt William rise from my bed, gently lift
the cloth from my face, and leave the room. As I blinked to test
how my eyes were recovering, he returned and once again placed the
cloth, freshly rinsed with cool water, over my eyelids.

“So, as I said, we went to Paris and we
enjoyed ourselves for several years. But then, as you know, things
in France turned very dark by 1940. We found ourselves with a
choice: leave France or live in occupied territory. Of course,
slipping out of the country wasn’t a problem for us, but I decided
to stay behind in Paris. My father traveled to England to offer his
services. Then, after the Germans invaded, it became clear I would
need to join the Resistance. In France they were called
Les
Maquis
, do you know that name?”

Indeed I did. All over the country there are
memorials in tribute to the men and women who fought courageously
against the Nazis and lost their lives. I had once visited the War
Memorial Museum in Caen, with exhibits that went on in great detail
about the brutal deaths resistance fighters faced. “Yes, of
course,” I said. “They were heroes. You were a part of the
Resistance?”

“Yes, and so was the Council,” he said,
pausing. “The Nazis were the most evil people on earth, Olivia.
They despised everything that failed to meet their vision of racial
purity, including vampires, witches, and werewolves. They were
happy to torture and kill anything they could not control or use to
advance Hitler’s cause.”

Somewhere in the last few minutes, this had
become a conversation that required eye contact. But when I tried
to remove the cloth so I could see William, he stopped me. “No,
leave it on,” he said. “It will help you heal and I prefer to tell
my story without you watching me.”

I nodded, the heavy, wet cloth sliding
slightly off my eyes. “What did you do during that time?”

“Everything and sometimes, it seemed,
nothing. The goal was to hobble the Nazis and make it impossible to
move men and supplies. I blew up train tracks, killed German
soldiers, and helped free captured Allied men,” he said. “I
infiltrated the highest levels of Parisian society,
bien
sûr
, and fed the intelligence back to my father in
England.”

“I was a perfect operative,” he continued.
“No need to eat or sleep. I could travel great distances in the
dark of night, and with my reflexes, I was able to sneak up on
German troops without them hearing a sound.”

“Did anyone suspect you weren’t human?”

“Perhaps,” he said, “But it was war. It was
better not to look too long at anything or ask too many questions.
To be ignorant was safer. Those who were betrayed faced
unimaginable torture.”

I realized that this was the second story I
had heard about William’s father in the past, but I had never heard
him mentioned as part of his life currently.

“William, where is your father now?”

“He’s dead, murdered in a village in
Normandy,” he said. “There was an informant; the Nazis knew we were
set to receive radio operators and their guides by parachute. It
was a moonless night, perfect for Others to make a jump. They were
watching and waiting. Before I could even get to the field, the
Germans ran in and beheaded him, along with his colleagues. It was
a well-planned ambush, right down to the silver bullets in their
guns.”

“How did they know?” I asked.

“I never found out, but I have always
suspected it was one of our own,” he said. “Who else would have
known? It was 1943, no human had set foot inside the Council.”

This time I did remove the cloth from my face
and sat up. I reached for William’s hand and brought his palm to my
lips.

“I am sorry about your father,” I said.

He pulled me close and kissed my forehead.
“Thank you. The worst part was watching and not being able to do
anything,” he said. “To do so would have put the whole operation at
risk.”

“And after?”

“I waited until the bastards had left and
then I collected my father. His head had been severed from his
body, and he had been shot clean through the heart with a silver
bullet. I couldn’t risk a fire or a lantern, so I dug a grave in
the darkness and buried him. I’ve returned to the area many times,
but I’ve never located his grave. Finally, I gave up. After the
war, I purchased a plot in a cemetery outside Caen and bought a
proper tombstone for him.”

“Is that why you left the Council?”

“No. If anything, his death inspired me to
work harder to create as much mayhem as possible,” he said. “My
reasons for quitting were more complicated. It was the cumulative
effects of the Nazis and their concentration camps, the Americans
and the atomic bomb…and then there was Stalin,” he said. “When I
think of all the blood that ran through the fields of Europe, not
once, but twice, and in the end, it changed nothing. The result was
more bad human behavior.”

“I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but you’re
being unfair,” I said. “The United States’ use of the bomb, however
cruel, doesn’t compare to the horrors unleashed by the Nazis and
Stalin. The argument could be made that some humans
did try
to make a difference. The U.S. helped end the war, however brutal
the means. The Resistance was also full of humans trying to stop
fascism.”

“You weren’t there to see the lapses in
judgment, the betrayal, the bottom feeders living off the misery of
others,” he said bitterly.