Sleeping With The Vampire (Immortal Vampire #2)

Chapter 18

Lucca

A door was broken down and then we heard the sound of boots running into the house. There was gunfire, automatic weapons and the voices of men shouting out commands. The door to our room was opened and a swarm of men poured in, they trained their weapons on us and were about to fire. Sunil raised his hands and stared at them, intently, using his powers of mind control. They dropped their guns and stood staring at him, their eyes glassy.

He picked up one of their machine guns and was about to fire at them but I said, “No.”

“What?”

I pointed at their uniforms.

“These are Council forces, they are acting on Council orders. We need to find out who sent them.”

We bound the men and locked them in the room, then went looking for the rest of the men. We found them scattered throughout the house. They had killed everyone they could find, Hugo and his wife were lying on the ground in their living room. Another man and some servants were found in the kitchen.

We subdued the soldiers and locked them up in the room at the top.

“Who is your leader?” I commanded them and all the men looked at an older man.

“What is your name?” I asked.

“Captain Wilkes,” he said in the monotone that reveals the mind has been subdued.

We took the captain to the study and I quizzed him there.

“What are you doing here?”

“We received orders from the Council to neutralize the house.”

“Does that mean kill everyone inside?”

He nodded.

“You were looking for men, not vampires?”

“Humans,” he confirmed.

Sunil was standing behind me, arms crossed, a big frown on his face.

“They didn’t know you were here,” I said.

“Or they didn’t care,” Sunil said.

“Who signed the order?” I asked.

The captain said, “It was given to me by General Ost.”

“General Ost heads up the military, under MoZa,” said Sunil. “Perhaps there was an emergency motion to remove enemies. Something like that. Usually, the full Council has to vote, but at times of crisis, the Chairman can sign off on procedures.”

To me, Sunil said, “He must have become suspicious of Hugo.”

To me, this was a sign that Tempesto was consolidating his position.

I went outside and called Ragnar.

He was in the Citadel now and I was finally able to talk him as the mobile signal here was strong. I told him of the attack.

“It is eerie here,” Ragnar said. “No-one is outside, everyone is indoors waiting for something. There is a sense that something big is coming, but nobody knows when or why. The Capital is being guarded by the military, tanks and soldiers are patrolling the streets and keeping order. But there is fear everywhere.”

Ragnar told me he was staying with Lord Wilmer Ashworth, a vampire who had been an adviser to Tempesto in the early years before losing favor. He was sympathetic to our family and I counted him as a friend.

“Ash says Tempesto is insane. Basically. He has been drugging himself and is obsessed with taking over control of the Council. He has gotten rid of everyone who is against him.”

“We must stop him,” I said.

“Agreed,” said Ragnar. “But how? He never leaves the compound, and it is under heavy guard.”

“What about MoZa?”

“Ash says MoZa’s mind has gone. He is like a child. He can’t dress himself, doesn’t know which day it is. His daughter is helping him, acting like a go-between. He is not fit to rule, but who will remove him? The Council must vote on it and for all practical purposes, there is no Council.”

“What about the Servant?”

“The talk in the Citadel is that he is out West, taking control of Ginnerlong and the Grey Mountains. We will come under proper attack soon. You must warn Lord Farney and find reinforcements.”

“Will they use demons?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

Ragnar said, “There is something else. Ash says Tempesto wants to close the blood banks, return the world to the way it was.”

“What?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

“Apparently this way of living is unnatural for vampires. He says we are growing weak, we are meant to rule the world, not be controlled by humans.”

“Sounds a bit like your philosophy, doesn’t it?” I said.

“Yeah, but…” Ragnar paused. “Ash says there is talk of people developing stronger weapons, in the Capital they may be exploring ways of bringing down vampires, wiping them out.

“What kind of weapons?” I asked with a feeling of foreboding.

“I am not sure,” said Ragnar. “Possibly small tactical nuclear weapons.”

“This may be the end, for all of us.”

“I know,” Ragnar said, sounding grave.

“You need to get out of there,” I told Ragnar.

I had the feeling our time was running out.

There was no time to talk to Ragnar about Sunil or the accusations made about Layrr. This was bigger than the murder of Tanata.

I was trying to think of my next course of action when a sharp pain shot through my chest.

Izzy.

She was in danger, under threat somehow. I could feel my body pulling me towards her, compelling me to help her. Where was she? What was going on?

I thought of our last meeting and the way she had told me to leave. There could be no mistaking her intentions.

I couldn’t rule out that she might not even want my help. My sense of Izzy was that she was proud and stubborn, she would stick to her guns no matter what. But the tightness in my chest was telling me a different story. She was in physical danger, great physical danger.

I closed my eyes and tried to hone in on the feeling, get a sense of how serious it was.

“Father! We need to leave,” Sunil came towards me. Clouds had filled the sky, blocking out the sun, allowing us to wander freely outside. It would soon be dark.

“I need to go,” I told him. “There is somewhere I need to be.”

Sunil looked at me strangely.

“The Taergon family is not far from here,” I told him. “Tim and Nareen. They were friends of your mother’s. Meet me there.”

He nodded.

“Good idea,” he said.

I went over to one of the helicopters on the lawn. One of my royal guards was sitting inside.

“You know how to fly one of these?” I asked him.

“How difficult can it be?” he grinned at me.

Then I flew out to help Izzy. She was in the West and I had no idea what she was doing there, so close to my home and where so much conflict was happening.

Then, suddenly, I knew.

She’d gone to confront Chakrat.

I should’ve known. For her, this entire mission was about avenging her father. Once she knew who was responsible for his death, she would set about finishing him off.

I gritted my teeth as the helicopter stalled, my guard figuring out his controls. We were flying into enemy territory and I wasn’t quite strong enough to deal with hordes of drugged up vampires.

But I had to help Izzy. We were bonded now, through blood.

As we headed through thick clouds and turbulent weather, the pilot gripping the controls and looking stressed, I tried to focus on other things.

Izzy.

The way she had changed my life. When the Seer had grabbed her and I pulled her off, in those few moments before I ended her, the witch had whispered, “She will be the end of your family.”

Her words had shaken me and I had immediately pushed them away.

But now, they came back to me, along with the other warnings of how I’d mellowed with age, had become less bloodthirsty and ruthless. I knew it was seen as a sign of weakness, that I was losing my edge. The Seer was of the old creatures, who believed in the superiority of the supernatural. She had not liked the terms of the peace accord reached after the Great War and she was not the only one.

I had seen the look in Sunil’s eyes this morning when I told him not to kill the soldiers.

He had been surprised by my call to save their lives. The truth was that I didn’t want to kill them. He had felt nothing, merely wanting to dispose of them even though they weren’t a threat. They mattered less to him than insects. But I saw people, with families, with daughters, like Izzy.

Being with her had brought back the memory of feelings, of emotions. I liked it. But I would never admit it to anyone of course.

This was the worst possible time to have feelings for anyone, let alone a mortal. The people I was responsible for expected me to be fearless and strong, they wanted action. Especially if there was a suggestion of madness in the Council. I remembered Mrs. Harris’s words of having me on the Council. It made me uncomfortable, that level of power and I didn’t want to be pulled into the affairs of governance. But I couldn’t stand by and let Tempesto continue down this crazy road he had chosen. Either he would succeed or the mortals would stop him. I couldn’t imagine which was worse.

My conversation with Ragnar had confirmed something I had been suspecting for a long time, however, that we had underestimated the mortals. I needed to find Dominic to find out how we could open a channel of communication in the Capital, to show them that another way was possible.

A nuclear war would be a disaster.

For everyone.

The pilot leaned over towards me and shouted, “Which direction?”

In front of us, I could see the western lands. To the right, the Grey Mountains rose and ahead of us, was the city of Ginnerlong, covered by heavy clouds and smoke.

“That way,” I pointed south-west of the city, to a small village, where I could feel the strongest pull. As we dipped and decreased altitude, some older houses came into view, some of which seemed familiar.

“More towards the woods,” I yelled and the helicopter rose again to clear some trees.

A big manor house came into view and my heart started being faster, this was it.

Izzy was here.

But I needed to be careful.

I didn’t want to go too close, there was a chance they’d already have heard our approach.

“Land over there,” I said, pointing to a clearing some distance away.

“Be careful,” I said, before getting out of the helicopter and running for cover in some trees nearby.

The afternoon light was failing and I felt stronger, more vital.

I would have to feed soon, but for now, I was all right.

I ran up to the house and heard the sounds of fighting inside.

I pushed open the door and saw vampires swarming in the air, without a second thought, I pulled my whip from my belt and unfurled it through the air, watching it curl round the bodies and bring them down, screeching. I took out my sword and quickly decapitated them.

Izzy was lying on the ground, motionless. I checked on her and felt her pulse. It was weak but she was alive.

Next to her, was her father’s friend. I could see he was dead.

I picked Izzy up, carefully, and carried her outside, marveling at how light she felt in my arms. She needed medical attention as soon as possible.

I carried her to the helicopter and instructed the pilot to take her home, immediately.