Dominik
“What the fuck is going on?” I bellow at Attila as he comes down the side of the café and the Rolls pulls up at the curbside. “Where is Lucy?”
Attila looks confused.
“She didn’t come this way, boss. I thought she was with you.”
I release a significant number of curses from under my breath, wrenching the car door open and glaring at my thrall driver.
“Did you see her?” I growl.
“The traffic, my lord,” he responds.
The clouds are disappearing, and the sun is getting stronger. I can see Attila starting to smoke slightly from under the hood he has up to protect him. For all my second in command is resistant to the sun, unlike me, he cannot withstand its full rays.
“Get in the car,” I snarl at him, pulling out my phone and dialing Lucy’s number.
It rings. I half expect her to answer and tell me she’s in a nearby store charging obscene amounts to my credit cards.
I love her spending my money.
There’s a click as the phone is answered. “My dove, where are you?” I croon.
“She doesn’t belong to you, vampire,” a male voice snarls down the line. “She’s back where she belongs, in the bosom of her family.”
“Van Helsing.” Reality hits me like a sledgehammer.
“If you want her back, you’re going to have to come and get her,” he says and terminates the call.
I shove my phone at Attila. “Trace the call and trace Lucy’s mobile. And I need access to any CCTV in the surrounding buildings.”
“Yes, boss.” Attila gets to work on my phone.
“Take us back to the nest,” I growl at the thrall. “Don’t stop for anything. The Van Helsings have my consort.”
“It’s a trap,” Attila growls.
A number of my guards nod in agreement.
“Of course it’s a trap.” I sigh. “That’s the MO of the Van Helsings. It has been for decades, centuries. They like to deal with vampires on ground they’ve prepared.”
We’re watching the pings from Lucy’s phone as it travels through Hungary towards the border with Austria. They’re taking her by road, rather than air, which means, as Attila has pointed out, it’s at trap. Van Helsing senior, or Commander Max Raynes of Monster Force, as he now prefers.
I’m guessing continuing to be a Van Helsing would have attracted too much attention, and the one thing these vampire hunters dislike is attention.
They believe they are sent to rid the world of vampires by a higher power, and they are to do their work in private.
That we have revealed ourselves to the world is meaningless to their evangelical cult-like cause. As much as I curse the Van Helsings, I curse myself for not taking their threat seriously enough. Not to me, but to my mate.
They’ll do anything in order to get to a vampire of my stature, even use Lucy against me. And as for caring for their own, Lucy doesn’t stand a chance.
“They’ve stopped, my lord.”
I stare down at the place the last three pings have appeared. Koszeg, a medieval border town with a heavily fortified castle.
Of course they would take her there.
Outside, the sun is descending below the horizon. I know this is a trap. I know they want us to come, no matter we’ll be at our strongest, no matter we should be invincible.
The Van Helsings have been our foes for a very long time, and the chances are there is something unpleasant waiting for us. But they seem to have overlooked one important point.
Vampires are predators too.
“Full armor,” I rasp. “Face shields as well. The last encounter I heard of with the Van Helsings, they’d perfected some sort of incapacitant spray for vampires.”
“How are we getting there, boss?”
“I’m going to need every single one of you to trust me entirely,” I growl. “Get ready. We’ll be leaving in two heart beats.”
There’s no noise as each of my guards slip away to gather what they need and return in almost the same instant, ready for action.
I dig deep down in my dark soul. I am doing this for my mate, for my consort, for my everything. I will not let anyone take her from me, not even the reaper himself.
“Now,” I snarl at my guards, becoming the mist, the air, the very atoms of the universe and taking them with me.
They use their own ability to merge with me, and within minutes we are materializing on the outskirts of the town.
My entire body struggles to pull back together, leaving me with a residual pain which I’d almost forgotten existed.
I’m slower than before because of the exertion of bringing my guards here, but once the sun goes down completely, I’ll be back to full strength.
In the meantime I need to use those around me to put us in the best position to take on the enemy.
“I want a perimeter,” I growl at the first five. “Make sure we know who comes into the town and who leaves.” I turn to Attila as they leave. “We need to get as close to the fortress as we can without attracting attention. I need a route and eyes on it.”
Attila directs five more to leave our group as I sit down heavily on a bench.
“Boss?” he queries.
“I’m not getting any younger, Attila,” I say. “All I want is my mate, and yet fate conspires against me.”
His eyes search mine. He’s seen plenty as a younger vamp, but not everything. I turned him myself when I found him dying of an overdose in a filthy alleyway because his soul shone to me.
The humans think we’re evil because we have particular feeding habits. It’s amazing how easy it is to get an entire species wrong.
“But don’t worry. I don’t intend letting the Van Helsings get away with any of this slight against the Király.
” I flash him a fang and my second relaxes somewhat.
“In fact, exactly the opposite. It’s about time we exposed them for what they are, to a world far more ready for monsters than their kind expected. ”
“What’s the plan, boss?” Attila asks, his face lighting up in a way which will not bode well for those who get in our way later.
Those who think they can take what belongs to me and there will be no repercussions.
They’re about to find out exactly what a vampire king can do.