Chapter 18
The summons from DART came at five a.m. Brussels time, and Scotty was at HQ five minutes later. Mace and Blade showed up separately, which was odd. And as they waited outside Kynan’s office for permission to enter, they stood silently, their expressions dark.
“What’s going on?” she asked in a low voice.
“Nothing,” they both mumbled, but the freaky, demonic guard bush in the corner rustled.
“Jealousy. Greed. Bitterness.” Its whispered words were barely audible in the room, but they were clear.
Shit. Scotty jammed her hands on her hips. “I thought everything between us was fine.”
“It is.” Blade shot Mace a look. “Right?”
“Yeah. Sure.” Mace kicked at the plant’s stone pot. “Fucking bush.”
“Anger. Frustration.”
The door to Kynan’s office opened, but instead of inviting them inside, he strode out and gestured for them to follow. “Come on. We’re meeting Decker and a consultant.”
They exchanged curious looks as they followed their boss to the smallest of the meeting rooms, where Decker, a human and one of DART’s OG crew, and another dark-haired male sat at the table.
Decker stood, shaking their hands in greeting. He ran the Dublin chapter, but as one of DART’s founders and the company’s military liaison, he was often involved in operations at the main Brussels office. He gestured to the new guy, who didn’t offer any greeting beyond a curt nod and an icy stare.
“This is Dare.” Decker gestured to the newcomer, who Scotty suspected would be even taller than Mace and Blade when he stood. “He’s going to be helping out on this case.”
As Scotty looked to Kynan for an explanation, Tayla walked inside.
“Hey, sorry I’m late.” She gave Decker a hug.
They’d been buds for decades, but although they were the same age, Tay hadn’t aged a day in over thirty years, thanks to her bond with Eidolon.
Decker was probably in his sixties and still a good-looking guy.
Even the silver in his dark-blond hair only added a distinguished air to his already commanding presence.
“I’ll get right to it.” Tayla tapped the comms unit in the center of the table, and a 3D projection map display popped up.
A moment later, a realistic image of a stone building rotated next to the schematic.
“This is Leap Castle. Its new owner, Patrick O’Hare, was brutally slaughtered in his bedroom one year ago.
His murder was never solved, and since then, his estate has been contested by his three grown children.
Also, since then, he’s reportedly been haunting the place. ”
Mace sprawled in his chair like a lazy cat. “A.) Leap Castle has reportedly always been haunted. And B.) this sounds like a job for the Psychic Department.”
“It is,” Tayla said. “We’d like to send in one of our Mediums, but it’s too dangerous. The vampire nest needs to be cleared out first.”
A slow, malevolent smile touched the corners of Dare’s lips. “I love smoking vamps,” he said in a voice as dark and merciless as the char pits in Hell.
Whoa. That guy definitely did well with the females, and Scotty had to wonder if he was a lust demon of some sort. They were all stupidly attractive, had killer bodies, and voices that triggered female pleasure centers. That said, they didn’t usually look so…cruel.
Mace bared his teeth at him, his fangs slicing downward. “Say what?”
“Sorry,” Dare said, not sounding very contrite as he flashed his own, much bigger fangs. “I’m cool with bloodsuckers.”
“Lemme guess.” Mace’s voice dripped with derision. “One of your best friends is a vampire?”
Dare matched Mace’s sarcasm. “How’d you know?”
“You guys done?” Tayla popped her fists on her hips and gave them all a mom-look. Everyone shut up. “That’s what I thought.” She gestured to the castle blueprints. “This isn’t a typical nest. It’s Nosferatu clan.”
Tension sapped the residual humor hanging in the air.
The Nosferatu clan was slippery, the mobsters and terrorists of the vampire world, skirting the edges of human law.
Sadistic, brutal, and powerful, the vampires who ran with the clan were the worst of the worst, forced to pass tests of strength, endurance, and savagery before being allowed into their tight-knit group.
“How many?” Blade asked.
Tayla shook her head. “Unknown. Intelligence from The Aegis and our own sources caps the number at around a dozen, depending on the day.”
Mace snorted. “A dozen for just the three of us? Easy.”
Easy? Mace was too confident. Nosferatu were vicious and not easy to kill. A team of four gave them good odds for victory, but not an easy one.
Mace gestured to Dare. “We don’t need him.”
“You do need him,” Tayla said. “He’s an expert on the Nosferatu clan.”
Interesting. Scotty gave Dare a second, lingering look. Big dude. Thick, muscular arms, and she was pretty sure there was at least an eight-pack under that tight black tee.
Those eyes, though. Piercing and dark, they looked right through you.
“An expert?” Scotty asked. “How?”
“I used to hang with them.” Dare’s blunt answer stunned them all into silence. Except Mace, who was rarely silent about anything.
“You used to hang with them? Why?”
Dare shrugged. “Misspent youth.”
“That’s quite the misspent youth,” Blade chimed in, watching Dare with hooded eyes, a predator assessing another predator.
Something niggled at the edges of Scotty’s memory. This was all sounding vaguely familiar. Dare. Dare… Dare?
She gasped. Gaped at him like an idiot. “Are you—?”
“Cat and Hades’ son,” Tayla finished.
Mace and Blade both whipped around to stare too. Because holy shit. Yes, Scotty was the daughter of a Horseman of the Apocalypse. Yes, she was friends with the Grim Reaper’s daughter. Yes, her grandfather was one of the most powerful angels to ever exist.
But come on. Hades? He and his fallen angel mate had lived in Sydney for a few years while he worked to rebuild Sheoul-gra, and they’d visited her father’s island a couple of times. But once Hades had constructed enough of his realm for them to live in, they’d all but disappeared.
“So, is that why Hades hasn’t finished Sheoul-gra?” Mace asked. “Because you’ve been fucking around with Nosferatu instead of helping him?”
“Mace!” Scotty hissed under her breath, giving him a jab in the ribs with her elbow. He’d never been in control of his mouth, but antagonizing a complete stranger for no reason went too far, even for him.
“No, it’s okay,” Dare said, his voice as smooth and deadly as asp venom. “Sheoul-gra is close to completion. And I’d be honored to welcome Mace as our first…guest.”
Ooh, nice one. Guests of Sheoul-gra were dead, spending their time in misery and torture until they were reincarnated—if they were lucky.
“Let’s save the death threats for after the mission is successful,” Decker said. “Back to the situation. There’s a complication. The vampires have prisoners. Human prisoners. The Irish government wants them returned safely.”
Mace held up his hand. “Wait a minute. Leap Castle isn’t that big. I took a tour when I was a kid. It’s too small and dilapidated to hold a nest of vampires and prisoners.”
Decker shook his head. “The castle has been partially restored since then. And the vampires have tunneled through the hillside. They have multiple entrances and exits now, plus a lot of places to hide.”
“Do the Nosferatu know they’ve been discovered?” Scotty asked.
“We don’t think so,” Tayla said. “But The Aegis has been tracking two different cells for about eight months, and one fell off the radar a month ago, so they may have an idea that The Aegis is after them. That said, The Aegis isn’t exactly subtle.
The Nosferatu won’t see DART coming in.” She glanced over at Dare. “And there’s another complication.”
Nodding, Dare turned to Scotty and the others.
“Sheoul-gra’s construction requires the use of dimensional crystals—” He broke off when they gave him blank stares.
“They’re rare elements leftover from the creation of the universe.
When Azagoth destroyed Sheoul-gra, the crystals were scattered.
It’s why it’s taking so long to rebuild.
Not all the crystals have been located, and it’s not like they’re easy to replace.
But,” he said, “it seems that the Nosferatu are in possession of at least one.”
“And what do these things do in the wrong hands?” Scotty asked.
“They can open rifts to other dimensions. Parallel and alternate realities. In the wrong hands, the damage could be catastrophic. Our one consolation is that the Nosferatu are unlikely to know what the crystals are or how to use them.”
Grinning, Mace cracked his knuckles in anticipation. “Sounds like another opportunity to save the world.”
“Or end it,” Tayla warned. “So don’t fuck this up.”
“We never do,” Mace said.
Yikes.
While Scotty wanted to agree, she casually reached under the table and knocked on wood.