20. Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty
Damyr
B enjamin had a bit of a look similar to a deer in headlights. I could have kept him out of this, but I wanted him to be a part of it. He needed to know what he was getting involved in with me, and the best way to do that was involve him in everything.
Well, maybe not quite everything. I wouldn’t be able to focus if I had to bring him on a hunt.
It had been a long time since I’d really hunted as a vampire. Usually, I brought my dirty work home with me and tortured people in my basement and if any hunting needed to be done, I sent Vlad and Aleksey. I’d done my fair share; I was the Boss now and I didn’t need to do the running around after targets.
This was different though.
This was fucking personal.
I grabbed the USB that the mysterious guy had sent and put it in my pocket. I was going to ask Dara to perform a tracking spell so I could see whether I’d be able to find some hint of this asshole who was determined to turn my life upside down.
“Benjamin, I’m going to see if I can find this man. Vlad will keep you safe here.”
Tension tightened his brow. “What about you? Will you be safe?”
I cupped his face in my hands. “Benjamin, I will do everything in my power to come home to you.”
And I meant that. There was no way I would allow anyone to keep me from him. Benjamin was mine and I was determined to see what an eternity with him would be like.
I pressed a kiss against his lips. “Have some dinner and I’ll be back before you know it.”
“You’d better,” he said with a scowl but there wasn’t any heat in it. “Can I ask something, before you go?”
“Of course. Anything.”
“Could I have my phone back? I just want to speak to Maya, to let her know that I’m okay. I also want to talk to someone for ten minutes who isn’t a Morozov.”
I didn’t like it. Not because he was wanting to talk to someone on the outside, but because it might put him at risk.
“I’ll only call Maya, I promise. And I won’t tell her anything about vampires or witches, not that I’m sure she’d believe me anyway. I’m not sure I believe what I’m seeing most of the time. I just want to chat to my friend and—“
I clamped my hand over his mouth. “You talk too much.”
He huffed a laugh, no doubt remembering our first encounter. How things had changed in such a short space of time. If someone had told me when I’d met Benjamin in that shitty alley I’d have found my mate I’d have laughed. But here I was, basking in the warmth pouring from his green eyes and feeling my heart thud loudly in my chest.
“I trust you, Benjamin,” I said as I lowered my hand. “Just be careful. That’s all I ask.”
He nodded and I walked over to the top drawer of my desk, pulling his phone out of the lock box. I didn’t think he would do anything stupid, he didn’t seem the type. I understood his need for speaking to his friend. As much as Vlad and the others have tried to make him feel at home, I could tell he was pining for something familiar. For someone who knew him on a level we didn’t yet.
I passed him his phone and placed a kiss against his temple. “Have fun. I’ll see you soon.”
“Stay safe, Damyr. I mean it.”
I chuckled as I left the room and headed towards the entrance. Aleksey and a handful of men were waiting for me, all dressed in black with weapons attached at various locations on their bodies.
I walked over to the side table and grabbed my gun and a couple of knives, strapping one to my ankle, and one to the loop at the back of my trousers. My gun I kept in my hand. I wanted to be ready for this motherfucker if we were lucky enough to find him. I doubted the USB would lead us directly to him. The guy was too smart for that, but I’m sure he’d left me another clue at whatever location we ended up at. I just hoped there wasn’t another explosion. I really didn’t feel like getting blown up again.
***
Dara Rowan lived in a penthouse down town in the centre of Misthaven. It was the highest point in the city and she always said it put her closer to the moon. The Rowan’s drew their power from Mother Nature and the moon was a strong source for them. They had a summoning circle on the roof of the building for when they needed a major power boost but a tracking spell only needed a tiny bit of magic.
Dara’s apartment was, for want of a better word, shiny. Everything was sleek and modern from the marble floors to the large windows that spanned the entire south wall.
“Damyr, welcome,” she said as I stepped off the elevator. “To what do I owe this pleasure?”
“I wondered if you might help me with a tracking spell.”
Her eyes took in Aleksey and the several guns about his person. A sly grin curled her mouth. “Going hunting, Damyr?”
“Hopefully. We just need some help with a location.” I held out the USB to her. “Can you use this?”
“Of course. Follow me.” She turned on her heel and headed towards the back of the penthouse. Aleksey and I followed she led us deeper into the house. Her spell room was surrounded by windows on three sides and full of all sorts of plants. The singular wall was covered in shelves full of jars and urns, all containing ingredients that would help with all manner of spells and potions.
Dara moved gracefully around the space, collecting bones and powders and a map of the city. She placed them all on the central table, on old oak piece littered with the scars of her ancestors, and started chanting under her breath.
Aleksey stood by my side as we watched her work. “Do you think we’ll find anything useful?”
“Hopefully,” I muttered, but I didn’t know what we’d find. I just had to hope there was something worth finding. Or killing. Preferably killing. I really wanted to sink my claws into some flesh and rip some throats out. This Ronin had got me worked up until all I could see was red.
“The location is Mist Abbey,” Dara said, interrupting my spiralling anger.
“The Abbey? But there’s nothing there,” Aleksey said as he stepped towards the map. “Are you sure?”
“Are you questioning me, boy?” Dara hissed, the veins beneath her eyes darkening.
“He’s not,” I said quickly, before Aleksey could piss her off even more. Dara wasn’t the sort of witch to get a basic tracking spell wrong. She was also older than she looked.
Much older.
Like dawn of time old.
“Thank you for your help, Dara. It’s much appreciated,” I said.
“I apologise, Mistress Rowan,” Aleksey said with a bow. “I meant no disrespect.”
“You are forgiven,” she replied, all traces of magic leaving her face.
At least I could trust Aleksey to rectify a mistake. He was rarely at fault, but he was always the first to apologise if he’d crossed a line.
“Perhaps as a penance you could do a little task for me? Once you’ve helped solve Damyr’s little problem of course.” Dara smiled as she spoke, her eyes sharp as she backed one of my fiercest vampires into a corner. For fucks sake, I didn’t have time for this. Goddamn politics.
“Of course,” Aleksey said through gritted teeth.
“Good,” she said. “I’ll be in touch. You may go.”
We said our goodbyes and headed back to the elevator. I fixed Aleksey with a hard stare. “What have I told you about thinking before speaking?”
“I know,” he snapped as we stepped into the lift. “I was just surprised.”
“And now you’ve gotten us embroiled in witch business.”
“I know.” His eyes flashed silver as he fought to contain his emotions. Seemed I wasn’t the only one on edge tonight.
“We’ll figure it out later,” I said as we got off at the ground floor. “For now, let’s go and see what’s at the Abbey.”
***
Mist Abbey was a ruin that sat on top of a hill overlooking the city. It had been a pile of stones for as long as I could remember, there was no roof and no real place of cover up there so I had no idea what I would find. To be honest, I don’t think anyone ever came up here anymore anyway.
Using my speed, I flew up the side of the hill, Aleksey and the others following behind. As soon as I reached the top, I paused and listened for a moment. There was nothing beside the noise of animals hunting in the undergrowth. I couldn’t smell anything beyond what I was expecting, no humans, no other supernatural creatures.
Nothing but us.
“Fan out,” Aleksey said to the others. “Goal is capture, not kill.”
There was a grumble of assents and the men split off in pairs around the perimeter of the abbey. It loomed over us, a dark structure backlit by the light of the moon, watching over the city below like a ghost.
I headed straight up towards the abbey, Aleksey at my six. The thrill of the chase had adrenaline starting to pump through my veins. I had my gun ready, silver bullets loaded, and my finger on the trigger. As I got closer to the abbey, a sense of foreboding has the hairs on the back of my neck standing to attention. Something was wrong.
The crack of a gunshot ripped through the quiet night.
I immediately turned in the direction of the sound. “I didn’t think there was anyone else here.”
“Come on. Stay behind me.”
I crouched low to the ground and followed behind Aleksey. As we got closer, there were another couple of gunshots. One after the other in quick succession. Whoever was shooting was killing executioner style. One to the head followed by one to the heart. Pop, pop. Swift and efficient. There wasn’t much that would kill a vampire but a silver bullet to the head and heart was a pretty effective way to do it.
We took cover behind a low wall and risked a glance at the action unfolding. I couldn’t quite make sense of what I was seeing.
One of my men was stood in a field of dead bodies, gun in hand. He pulled the trigger on the last body and then looked right at me.
I launched over the wall and sped over to him. I grabbed him by the throat and slammed him into the ground. “What the fuck, Donovan?”
Blood splattered his face and fear had his eyes blown wide. “I’m sorry. He didn’t give me a choice.”
“What do you mean?” I growled.
“He has my family. I had to kill them or he’d kill my family.”
Aleksey knelt next to me. “Who, Donovan?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. But he has a message for you.”
“What?”
Tears brimmed over Donovan’s eyes leaving pink lines over his cheeks as they trickled through the blood. “I’m everywhere, Damyr. Tell me, are you looking over your shoulder yet?”
And then, before I had time to blink, Donovan brought the gun to his temple and pulled the trigger.
“Fuck!” I yelled as I fell back on my ass. I roared at the sky as anger and rage coursed through my body. My hands shook with it as I looked at the decimation Ronin had caused. He’d picked one of my men to turn on the others, just because he could. Was this all a game to him? If it was, I didn’t want to play anymore.
“We will get him, Damyr,” Aleksey said, his voice cold as ice.
I hoped so. I really fucking hoped so.
I dragged my phone out my pocket and called Roxie.
“What’s up, boss? Need help with another body?”
I sighed. “Sort of.”
The clicking of computer keys stopped. “Seriously?”
“Donovan just took out the five members of his team before turning the gun on himself.”
“Holy shit,” she gasped. “Why?”
“My mysterious benefactor threatened his family. It must have been serious for him to turn on us. Can you check on them and let me know that they’re okay? Then do a deep dive on him to figure out how he was targeted.”
“Sure thing. And I’ll send a clean-up crew to your location.”
“Good.”
She snorted. “You could say ‘thank you’, you know.”
“I know,” I said before hanging up.
Aleksey huffed a laugh and held his hand out to help me up from the ground. “This is starting to become one hell of a mess. How are we supposed to trust our own men now?”
It was a valid question and one I didn’t have a satisfactory answer for. I couldn’t just get rid of everyone, that would be ridiculous. And if my understanding of Ronin was right, the guy probably didn’t do the same thing twice. He was right, though. I was going to be looking over my shoulder until I’d ripped his fucking throat out.