Chapter SixteenSalvator
Chapter Sixteen
Salvator
I thought the organisation I had built here in Peru was impressive, but it was nothing in comparison to what Luna had created. Her empire stretched across the globe, with different species all working together to maintain a safety network to protect the secrecy of the night creatures.
Jethro currently sat with his head in his hands, groaning. “What the fuck happened, and why do I feel as if I’ve been walked on by an ogre?”
“Don’t be absurd, all the ogres are in the Magical Realm,” the vampire Dominic said from where he stood beside the bookcase, lifting books out and replacing them again. He had arrived with Jethro tied up in chains yesterday, and he was living proof of why vampires and dire wolves were sworn enemies. Only Luna seemed to hold him in affection. I would have ripped his throat out by now.
“You were spellbound,” I replied, throwing the vampire a filthy look. He merely raised his eyebrows at me and returned to searching through the books.
Jethro shook his head, and blew out a slow breath before bringing his gaze up to mine. “Who spellbound me?” he demanded. “Because I fully intend to skin them alive and strangle them with their intestines.”
“We do not approve of needless violence in our organisation,” Luna said, glancing up from typing on the laptop Dominic had brought her.
“We do approve of violence,” Dominic corrected her. “I’m a vampire and they are wolves, so aggression is always part of the solution.”
Luna rolled her eyes at him, and I bit the inside of my mouth to stop myself from growling. I had seen her memories and knew he had saved her after that group of assholes had captured her and tortured her to try and access her magic. The vampire didn’t have to show Luna compassion, but he did, getting her to a witch who healed her.
That calmed my wolf enough to bear his presence.
“Spellbinding is forbidden,” Jethro snapped. “That means the life of the witch is forfeit to me.” He pushed himself to his feet and stomped across the library to lift a bottle of whiskey and poured himself a large glass before downing it in one gulp.
Luna shot me a troubled look.
“He’s right,” I said. “I’d like to get my hands on who bound my wolf. There are rules that govern over this land, and those who break them are subject to the full repercussions of our laws.”
Luna may prefer to strike from a distance, but I had no problem looking our enemy in the eye and blowing their brains out. My wolf delighted at the thought, howling in my head.
Jethro poured himself another glass and held the bottle out to me in silent invitation. I shook my head as I needed to be able to concentrate.
“I’ll take a glass,” Dominic said, moving across the room, and taking the bottle from Jethro. “You are both looking at this problem with anger. Instead, you need to be searching for the culprit with stealth and determination. You strike me as someone who doesn’t trust easily, so the witch who cast the spell had to be known to both of you as I doubt they would risk using more than one witch for this task. My understanding is that you need to physically touch the person to activate the binding spell. Again, that would indicate a level of trust, as wolves are notorious with their claws and canines.”
I glared at him, my muscles bunching because he was right on every single point. I hated anyone touching me, so this person had to be someone who I felt comfortable around, and treachery didn’t sit well with me.
Dominic held the glass up to study the amber liquid. “If this had happened in my coven, I would pretend to still be under their spell. I would discover the full extent of how far this rot infected my people, and then, when they least expected it, I would set a trap that would catch them.” He glanced at Luna, and a dark smile crossed his lips. “Then I would dissect them piece at a time so they could consider every decision they made, and suffer for every last second of their existence.”
My smile echoed his. “I think I’m beginning to like you.”
Dominic raised one eyebrow. “I tend to grow on people. I have no problem getting my hands dirty to ensure evil is removed from this world. Our races dwell in the darkness because humans would either want to kill us or fuck us, and the more these people play games, the more danger there is to our existence.”
“Are you genuinely crazy or deliberately antagonising?” I asked.
Dominic shrugged one shoulder. “Maybe a bit of both.”
“Could we please concentrate?” Luna asked, sitting back and staring at us with her eyebrows lowered and an adorable pout on her lips. She was trying to express her annoyance, but it just made me want to kiss her.
“We are planning a war,” I pointed out. “That requires concentration.”
She rolled her eyes and turned her laptop around, tapping the front of the screen. “I think we need to return to Misti volcano,” she said. “Everything started there, and for a long time I have felt mother priestess calling me back.”
Jethro swallowed another mouthful of whiskey, shaking himself and setting the glass down. “We need to set up an exclusion zone so that no one will find us. If you are drawn back there, then others will be too. There are caves close to the volcano that we can stay in to avoid anyone following us, and that means we will be close by to examine the area at night.”
“Tarrack would be able to cover our tracks, but getting him out of the base to remove the spell controlling him is going to be difficult,” I added. “We need something big enough that would require his expertise in the field.”
“He is our best bomb disposal person. I haven’t seen a device he couldn’t deactivate,” Jethro continued.
“It would have to be a target important enough that whoever is controlling him allows him out of the base. He is their gateway into every security system we own,” I concluded.
Jethro and I looked at each other, both speaking at the same time. “The cathedral,” we said in unison.
“Do people still hold religious structures in such high regard?” Dominic queried.
I shook my head and pursed my lips together. “We have several buildings that are fronts for our businesses. A cathedral in Lima is one of our most important, and is heavily guarded at all times by our pack who took holy orders to ensure their cover. It is the jewel in our crown, and where most of our business is conducted.”
“Your wolves took holy orders?” Luna asked, her eyes wide. “Are they religious?”
Dominic waved off her comment. “Most of the religious leaders around the world don’t even believe in God anymore. Religion is a multi-billion-dollar business.”
He was right. We no longer worshipped the old gods, but the same premise existed in that people gave what they had in order to access the divine.
Jethro started typing on his phone. “I’m bringing Paulo in. They think I’m still searching for you, and he’s my partner. It would be strange if I didn’t report in soon. When we’re off grid, Luna can work her mojo and remove his hex or whatever the fuck it is we were whammied with.”
“So we have a plan?” Luna asked, closing her laptop.
“Looks like we’re going on a road trip,” I said with a wink, and her cheeks flushed.
“Why is it that everywhere I go I have to endure witches and wolves having affairs?” Dominic groaned. “First Tasha and Levi, and now you two. Honestly, what happened to the bad old days when we all chopped heads off and had orgies to celebrate?”
Jethro laughed, and for the first time since he arrived, I saw the man who had been my friend most of my life. “Those were good times.”
Dominic raised his glass in a salute, and finished his drink. “Some of my coven are making their way here. I’ll mobilise them toward this volcano everyone is so interested in. What is the significance of that place?”
“We used to sacrifice young souls there,” Luna replied solemnly, her expression dark. “We took the lives of innocent children so that Balor could energise his spells. The land is steeped in blood and horror.”
“Which creates its own unique energy,” Dominic concluded. “Dark souls tend to be drawn to places like that to utilise the remnants of evil.” His creepy-ass grin was enough to make my back molars grind.
“Evil is subjective,” Jethro replied. “What we witnessed back in those days was so normal that no one queried it. That is the true face of evil, when no one questions innocent children being slaughtered to give rich men what they want.”
Silence so loud it screamed in terror stretched between everyone in the room, our minds on the deeds that had been committed while we stood there and watched without lifting a finger to help those youths. Shame was an emotion that burrowed deep inside your soul to remind you how to be a better man.
“We avenged every single soul that we could,” I said in a low voice, my hands forming fists at my side. “We punished the priests who collected them and helped in the rituals. The main person who has escaped our wrath is Balor, and that is because he hides in a hole like the rat he is.”
“I always felt there were others he was working with,” Luna said, her gaze meeting mine. “As if he was part of something else, something more.”
“It would make sense,” Dominic said. “In the witch trials, those in power sat back and revelled in the actions of their minions. Hitler was a figurehead, but it was his Schutzstaffel officers who committed the acts of genocide. Evil does not exist alone, it is supported by those who enjoy persecution and hatred.”
“We’ve been fed shit for too long,” I replied. “We need to get into the heart of their organisation and cut it out both physically and metaphorically.”
Dominic steepled his fingers under his chin, his gaze moving until it landed on Luna. “You have everything you need to achieve that in this room. He has searched for Luna for four centuries. If anything would lure him from his hiding hole, then her reappearance would be the temptation.”
“No!” My wolf surged through me, my voice deepening and my claws digging into my hands. “There is no fucking way that that lunatic will even get within sniffing distance of my mate.”
Dominic’s eyebrows shot up, but a slow smile curved his mouth. “No need to wolf out on me. What is it with lycans and their rampant hormones?” He held his hands up in front of him. “You need to stop examining this situation from the point of view of a mate. This is war. To win, you need to take risks, and move your strongest players across the chessboard.” He slammed his fist down on the table, the whiskey bottle shaking.
“He’s right,” Luna said. “We believed Balor needed all the priestesses to gain our collective power. Maybe there is something more since he can consume magical gifts, and would have amassed more than our power in the intervening years.”
“We could snatch one of his people and interrogate them,” I suggested. “Every time I suggested it in the past, something happened to divert our attention.”
“I encountered one of his bases a few years back,” Jethro replied. “But for some reason we never did anything with the information.”
“We would have stormed that place in a heartbeat if we hadn’t been spellbound,” I said. “It sickens me that we were manipulated.”
“I doubt they even changed the location since they had you on a leash,” Dominic remarked, and I knew the fucker was playing with me.
I ignored him, and gave Jethro my full attention. “Bring Pedro in, and we’ll form a strike team with Tarrack keeping watch over us. Make a list of anyone else you think we need.”
“Are we counting the vamp in?” Jethro nodded at Dominic.
“The vamp has no problem helping while I’m here, but as soon as I’m needed back home, then I’ll be on my private jet out of here. We seem to have a hellspawn infestation in my part of the world, and my help is required.”
Jethro shot Dominic a concerned look. “Should I even ask what a hellspawn is?”
Dominic shrugged. “A spawn that has crawled or clawed its way out of Hell. The name is self-explanatory. They have been troublesome in the past, but have decided to be a royal pain in the ass.”
“We’ll get back to this later,” I replied. “Right now, we have a problem on our own doorstep and I have every intention of creating all the trouble that Balor has spent a lot of time and effort preventing me from carrying out.”
“Excellent! I’m going to check in with my people while you plot the demise of your enemies. Let me know when you need me to bite someone or rip their head off.” Dominic strode from the room as if this was his own personal castle, and not one of the properties owned by Luna’s organisation.
“I don’t think I’ve met a vampire before,” Jethro said, staring at the empty doorway. “They tend to avoid the sunshine of Peru. Are they all like that?”
“No.” Luna shook her head, her laughter lightening the mood of the room. “Dominic is a relic from a bygone era. He was the first vampire I met who had a conscience, and has the most devious mind of anyone I know. My advice would be to use him. Your people know how you think, but none of them have ever encountered Dominic before.”
She was right. He was an enigma, and right now we needed every advantage we could get to end this war once and for all. Death was currently sharpening his scythe because there were a lot of souls that needed to be harvested.