Chapter 5 #4
I thumbed through the rest of the file, taking careful note of her choice of weapons.
She liked guns and with the connection of her father, she could have access to resources that I couldn’t anticipate.
She knew vampires existed and it wouldn’t be a reach for her to figure out what I was either.
I’d never told her that I was a wolf shifter specifically, but she was highly intelligent, and I had all the faith in the world that she could figure it out all on her own.
I was deep in thought when a knock on my door startled me. With a sigh, I closed the folder and called out for whoever it was to come in. Enzo opened it and strode in, plopping down in the seat in front of my desk.
“So, I’ve got some intel for you, boss,” he began, and I placed the folder on my desk. I lifted my chin expectantly and he continued on without pause.
“From what we’ve been able to gather, everything points to this special gathering happening tomorrow night.
It’s Friday and the heightened commotion of the typical party on the strip with the start of the weekend will likely cover up whatever noise or problems come of it.
As far as location, it appears to be scheduled to take place in the nightclub at the Wynn.
It goes by the name XS. It’s expensive, incredibly exclusive, and the only way in would be to procure a special invitation,” he explained.
“An invitation,” I repeated.
“Yup. One that looks like this,” he grinned as he slid a piece of folded parchment in front of me. I turned it over to find a bright red wax seal. There was an insignia of a hooded man with a scythe. I felt the texture of it.
“Where did you get this?”
“We borrowed one from our friends in the Lasombre clan. Their queen had received the invitation and the king did not. They fought so much amongst themselves about it that they didn’t notice when our inside girl stole it from their bedroom and let us borrow it for a few hours so we could make one that looked identical to it for ourselves,” he offered.
“Nice work, Enzo,” I grinned.
“There’s more, boss,” he said quietly.
“What is it?”
“I may be off base here because the information isn’t all there yet, but from what I can gather, it appears that the Asamire are inviting a lot of powerful vampires at the head of a number of clans throughout the world, as well as all of the reigning ones here in Vegas.
They’re inviting them all to this shindig, and that feels like a dangerous combination,” he ventured.
“The Asamire are collecting virgins, Enzo,” I added.
“Collecting?” he asked.
I nodded. “They’ve been buying them off Vinny. He’s got more than two dozen already. Probably a whole lot more if he’s been sourcing from places other than the Genovese too.”
“That’s a lot of virgins. And a whole lot of virgin blood,” he echoed. He was very quickly beginning to reach a similar conclusion to mine.
“The Asamire don’t make a move unless they are gaining something. They can’t be planning a gathering of this magnitude for just a hot late night Vegas orgy,” I continued.
“What if it’s a coup?” he asked worriedly.
My gaze flicked to his as I weighed the possibility of his words.
Fuck. What if it was?
“It would be a pretty big one if they wiped out all of their invited guests in a single night. They’d gain an incredible amount of power, money, and territory here in the city and around the world,” I said thoughtfully.
“What would that mean for us though?” Enzo asked.
“If this turns out the way I’m thinking it might, there wouldn’t be many vampire clans here in Vegas other than the Asamire.
They would be the ones controlling the city.
Thus far, they’ve shown no ill will toward us.
They haven’t seemed to want to drive us out either, maybe because they underestimate our pack since we only came here more recently,” I offered.
“We wouldn’t be able to stand up against them in the future though, most likely. Their power would be far from our reach,” Enzo echoed.
I sighed. “Once they deal with the other vampire clans, it is likely that they’d turn their sights on us and the rest of the human families left. We wouldn’t stand a chance against them without any of the other clans as our allies.”
“It’s not like we have many friends within the vampires anyway,” he murmured, and I had to agree. They weren’t especially friendly with others and especially our kind.
I had no especially close ties with any of the vampires, expect for Josephina, the head of the Ravnos clan. She was only loosely based here because she and her vampires were mainly nomadic, but they did use Vegas as a home base for the most part.
I sighed. I really didn’t want to get involved in a vampiric tug of war for power, but I didn’t really see much other choice. I didn’t want the Asamire to gain that much control, but there was another thing that left me feeling uneasy.
I didn’t think they’d let the virgin women they’d procured survive. They would use their bodies to their own amusement and then feast on them. I was sure that it would be a feeding frenzy. None of them would walk away alive and one of those women was my mate’s sister.
She wouldn’t rest until she was safe, and neither would I.
“There’s one last thing, boss,” he said softly, and I lifted my chin expectantly. I wasn’t sure how much more I wanted to know at this point, but it was necessary. I indicated for him to continue.
“We haven’t been able to find Natalia. Nor anything more of her sister. It’s like the both of them disappeared without a trace.”
I sighed. I’d expected that, but that didn’t make it any easier. I sat silently for several moments before I came to a conclusion that I hoped that my pack would be ready for too.
“We’re going to have to intervene, both for the future of the pack and for my mate. In all likelihood, she will be able to come to the same conclusions as us. At the very least, I will save her sister from the Asamire’s clutches and then use her as bait to bring Natalia out,” I finally decided.
“I thought you might say that. I have our men looking into the blueprints for the XS nightclub. There is an indoor and outdoor area of the party space, so we’re gathering everything just in case,” Enzo replied.
“Good. I want all of my wolves on deck that night. I want them in the area, stationed in the hotel, everywhere. I want to call in our human allies and place them too; the vampires won’t react to them in the same way that they might to us.
We’re going to need special clothing to cover our wolf scent as much as possible if we want to remain undercover,” I thought out loud.
“I’ve got everything in motion,” Enzo said.
“I can always count on you,” I grinned, and he bowed his head respectfully.
“I’m always happy to serve, boss,” he smirked. “Plus, I want the chance to meet Irina in person.”
“Do you now…” I murmured, unable to keep myself from chuckling quietly.
“Got to go, boss. Much work to do,” he returned, smiling as he pushed out of his seat and rushed toward the door. I noticed the corner of Irina’s picture sticking out of his back pocket and laughed a bit harder.
Maybe as destiny would have it, the both of us had found our fated mates right here in Sin City.
What were the odds?