Woman King (34 page)

“Yes, of course,” Aidan said, “But always in
private, never in open rooms, hallways or elevators.
Understood?”

His question was posed to all of us, but I
got the feeling his directive was mostly aimed at me. “Understood,”
I said, nodding my head.

The meeting ended on a somewhat subdued tone,
with Aidan clearly distressed about this new wrinkle. I knew from
our previous conversations that he was no fan of the Eastern bloc
delegation. Now he would have to seek them out to discuss something
uncomfortable, possibly illegal.

William and I remained silent as we stepped
into the elevator to leave. As the doors opened on the main floor,
we ran straight into Nikola. I couldn’t have imagined worse luck,
considering Aidan’s last words to us.

“Olivia,” Nikola said. “How are you? We heard
that you were injured recently.”

William squeezed my hand, a subtle warning
not to pick a fight. I nodded, smiling warmly. “Yes, but I am
feeling better. How did you find out?”

“Gabriel, of course,” he said. “It’s standard
for the Council to issue a report when a staff member is injured
under unusual circumstances. In our line of work, that kind of
information can be important.”

“Well, I’m fine now,” I said. “I’m not sure
what happened. One minute I was walking down the street, the next I
was knocked down by a piercing pain in my head.”

“What a shame,” he said, although I knew he
was not even remotely sorry. “Do you know anything about the
robbers?”

“I heard they might be Serbian,” I said.

Nikola smiled, his perfect vampire teeth
gleaming back at me. “Yes, of course I have seen the news reports,
but who knows what the truth is? Western media love to blame
everything on Serbs. We are the perfect villains for the
twenty-first century.”

“You would know better than I about these
sorts of things,” I said innocently. “I’ve been so busy with my
campaign work that I haven’t given the robbery a thought.”

Nikola doubted me; I could feel it. But I
knew I had gone as far as I could with this conversation, so I
changed the subject. “Nikola, I apologize for my poor manners. Let
me introduce my close friend, William.”

They eyed one another coolly, vampire to
vampire. I suspected this was not the first time they had met.

“You are full of surprises, Olivia,” Nikola
purred. “You become the first human to work for the Council, and
then you take a vampire for a lover. You certainly like to live
dangerously.”

“Indeed, Nikola, I’ve surprised myself
sometimes with my choices,” I said. “I hardly know what I will do
next.” At that William dug his finger into my palm.

Nikola tossed back his head and laughed,
clearly amused at my insolence. “How exciting,” he said. “I must
remember to keep a closer eye on you in the future.”

With that, Nikola nodded curtly at the two of
us, and walked into an open elevator. After the elevator doors had
closed and we were alone, William regarded me with a look that was
one part amusement, two parts fury.

“You can’t do that, darlin. You’re not
prepared physically or mentally to pick a fight with a
thousand-year-old vampire.” he said. “He is more cunning and far
more ruthless than you.”

“Maybe I will surprise you,” I said, feeling
prickly, but William stopped me from speaking further.

“If you want to pick a fight, then you need
to be prepared to see it through. Now let’s get out of here before
we get ourselves into trouble.”

We walked through the park toward my house in
silence. I was feeling sullen, like a small child told to mind her
manners. I wasn’t allowed to ask questions, I mustn’t speak in the
hallways, and I couldn’t pick fights with vampires who were older
than me. It was petty, but I felt chided and hemmed in, so I walked
in silence, feeling a bit sorry for myself. William strolled beside
me, listening, I knew, to my thoughts as they whizzed by. Wisely,
he stayed out of the conversation.

Despite my grey mood, I turned to William to
ask if he would come in. It was Friday night and the next two days
were clear, the campaign staff on duty more than able to manage the
few volunteer events we had scheduled during the weekend.

“You’re not going to kick me out in the
middle of the night again, are you?”

I thought back to the night of the robbery
and about how different things were now. Our lives were linked, and
by more than the copper bands he’d placed on my finger.

“Are you kidding me?” I said. “I may never
let you leave.”

****

Aidan watched Olivia and William walk into
the elevator. He waited until the doors closed before turning to
speak with Elsa.

“Why do you think she doesn’t show up in any
of the videos of the robbery?” Elsa asked, simultaneously sending a
text to summon Gabriel to join them. “We watched footage of every
angle of the building, at the exact time she is supposed to be
there, but she doesn’t register in any of the images.”

Aidan put his fingers to his lips to signal
someone was coming. The door opened and Gabriel stepped into the
room, followed by Madeline Kline. Their faces were grim; it
couldn’t be good news if their presence was required.

Everyone took as seat as Aidan began to
speak.

“We have two pieces of information to
report,” Aidan said. “First, Olivia appears to have the ability to
disappear, or at least
appear
to be invisible when she’s
hurt or when she experiences acute distress. We’ve reviewed several
short videos of the robbery filmed by bystanders and there isn’t a
single image of Olivia outside the building at the time the car
jumped the curb and smashed through the storefront.”

Madeline grimaced. “That’s absurd,” she said.
“She’s human. It’s impossible for a human to have such a gift.
Maybe she’d already left the area when the video was taken.” Her
remark sent an almost imperceptible shudder through Aidan and Elsa.
If someone in the room had been looking carefully for a response,
it would have been seen as a telltale sign of a body reacting to a
lie. But no one was watching, so it went unnoticed.

“Not exactly,” said Elsa.

“What do you mean not exactly? ” Madeline
asked. “Either she’s human, or she isn’t. Can she be tracked with
the homing device when she’s invisible?”

“Yes, we did track her,” Aidan said. “That’s
how, in addition to her own pleas for help, we knew she was in
trouble after the robbery. We don’t know if she actually was
invisible to those around her—we have to assume she was—but it
would explain why the thieves locked on to her mentally and tried
to blind her instead of shooting her dead in the street.”

And with that, a hush came over the room.
Gabriel had remained silent all this time, his lips pinched shut.
Aidan looked over at him, his eyebrows raised.

“Later,” he said curtly. “What’s your other
piece of news?”

Aidan looked down at his hands for a moment
before speaking. “Olivia recognized someone from the footage we
cataloged of the robbery. She saw him pacing outside Nikola’s
office a few weeks ago, while she was waiting for you.”

“
Merde
,” Gabriel said. “She was
certain?”

Elsa nodded. “Yes, quite. In fact she was
prepared to go off herself and ask Nikola directly. Aidan stopped
her.”

“Those damned Serbs,” Gabriel said. “The
whole country is crawling with the undead, and they all love to
fight in wars and steal jewels.”

“Calm yourself, Gabriel, it’s not only the
Serbs,” Aidan answered. “Much of eastern and central Europe is full
of Others with criminal records that stretch back to the Balkan
wars and beyond.”

Gabriel wagged his finger at Aidan. “I have
asked Nikola and Zoran to remember their responsibilities to this
organization,” he said. “They smile at me and then go and do
whatever the hell they want. They couldn’t care less if the human
race perished tomorrow.

“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Madeline said.
“Both Serbia and Croatia have applied to become members of the
European Union. As head of the Croatian National Bank, Zoran must
maintain some semblance of respectability and ensure stability in
his country. Croatia’s acceptance into the EU depends on it.”

“I’m not sure Zoran even knows what’s
happening,” Aidan said. “He’s been in Brussels for weeks now in his
capacity as head of the bank. It’s possible Nikola is doing this
all on his own.”

“Alone, together or with one thousand of his
comrades, it doesn’t matter,” Gabriel said. “There can be no
connection between the Council and a band of jewel thieves.”

“My friend,” Aidan said, coming to place his
arm on Gabriel’s shoulder. “These thieves no doubt are all members
of the Serbian Mafia. And half, if not all, of the mafia are
Others, mostly werewolves and vampires that have survived for
centuries, outliving the Nazis, Stalin, even Tito. Why would they
care if their presence disturbs the Council?”

Gabriel stood up, a thin, brittle smile on
his face. “I’m not a fool,” he said. “I know they don’t care. And I
know that many of them have little regard for humans. But we must
find out whether Nikola has compromised the Council and its
operations to help a crime ring. Our organization has existed for
centuries to help in subtle and not so subtle ways to ensure the
survival of our kind. Acting as a home base to a ring of
international jewelry thieves falls outside the parameters of our
mission.”

Elsa and the rest of the group wore pained
expressions.

“Nikola is shrewd and ruthless. He will not
like us looking into his affairs,” she said.

“Then I shall have to do it with the utmost
care,” Aidan said. “The utmost care.”

****

“Wake up, sleepy head,” William said, as he
opened the shutters on the windows in my bedroom. It took me a few
moments to remember where I was, thanks to my recent vagabond
status. When I finally opened my eyes and focused, I found William
standing over me, a steaming mug in his hands.

“You brought me espresso? Now I really am
serious; you can never leave,” I said, gratefully.

He was smiling, but said nothing as he handed
me the cup. I sipped the coffee, savoring its warmth as I slowly
awakened. Not long after, my stomach growled, reminding me that I
was overdue to eat. It had been a late night and dinner had been an
early affair—mainly snacks inside the Council as we watched the
videos.

“I’m going downstairs for a bowl of cereal,”
I said. “Care to join me in the kitchen?”

William nodded and we descended to the
kitchen. Once there, I quickly got the impression that there was
something he wanted to talk about.

“What’s on our agenda today?” I asked,
pouring some shredded wheat into my bowl. “I can tell you have
something in mind.”

“As a matter of fact, I do,” William said.
“I’d like to take you to meet someone. He owns a school that
teaches fencing and other forms of self-defense. Interested?”

The prospect of meeting a new person from
William’s world was intriguing. He was my lover and my confidant.
But other than seeing his band mates, I knew very little about
where he went, what he did or with whom, when we were separated. I
was eager to change that and here was a chance to do so.

“I’m game,” I said. “What should I wear?”

“Workout clothes would be a good idea,” he
said with a smile.

“What are we waiting for?” I said. “Let’s
go.”

An hour after our conversation, we pulled up
in front of a nondescript brick warehouse in a part of San
Francisco known as Dogpatch, an eastern neighborhood near the
waterfront. There was a small sign painted on the door of the
building that read San Francisco School of Fencing, in large black
cursive letters. William walked up to the door and knocked three
times. A man opened the door, looked me over and then embraced
William. They began to converse in a language I didn’t recognize. I
stood there awkwardly, wondering when I would be introduced.
Finally, the two of them turned to face me.

“Olivia, this is my brother, Josef,” he said.
“Josef, this is Olivia.”

A petite, wiry man with short black hair and
intriguing dark eyes peered back at me. He looked nothing like
William and then it dawned on me that he wasn’t his brother by
blood—at least not in the human sense.

“Your father,” I said, knowing I didn’t have
to finish my sentence.

“Josef is Czech,” William explained. “My
father saved him from dying alone in a field after the Nazis had
wounded him.”

“I was a member of the Resistance,” Josef
said. “I was caught outside after curfew and chased into a field,
where they shot me in the back, and left me for dead. William and
his father had been waiting on the other side of the field to
receive my message. That night, I left the human world, but I
gained a brother.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” I said.
“William, why didn’t you tell me you had a brother?”

Josef threw an arm around William
protectively. “Vampires are like onions, Olivia. It takes many
peels of the layers before you know all of our secrets.”

“I see,” I said. “Are there any other
brothers I should know about?”

William shook his head. “No, there were only
the three of us, now just the two of us.”

“William convinced me to move to San
Francisco some years ago,” Josef said. “The weather here is very
agreeable. And I enjoy teaching people how to defend
themselves.”

Josef led us inside and shut the door.
Following him, we walked down a short hallway that led to a large
workout room. A few smaller offices lined the perimeter of the
larger space. A set of lockers occupied one corner of the larger
room, and in another corner, a dozen or more hooks were attached to
the wall. Several fencing uniforms hung from the hooks, as well as
a brown leather jacket and wool cap. A portable punching bag made
of red and blue leather had been placed in the center of the room,
but was designed to be rolled away when not in use.