Chapter 4
Leandro
Once more I found myself having a look through the items found at an archaeology dig. It wasn’t the first I had checked out, but it was the one that was most likely to give me some results. At least, according to the contact I had.
I had been in Greece for over a week trying to work out what might have been taken and what Ludis had been up to.
My uncle had been asking for updates at least twice a day and I was doing my best to satisfy his desire for knowledge and understanding on this, but he wasn’t the most patient and I hadn’t yet discovered a lot.
Several times I had considered getting Anais to come back out here to help me. Not that there would be a lot more she could do. I knew she had skills in fighting vampires and she was brave. But this was a different sort of mystery and currently I was out here on my own.
This wasn’t dangerous work, just arduous.
And I wanted to alleviate some of that boredom and frustration by pinning her down and enjoying every inch of her. Making her mine again and again. For a human, she had a strength and dexterity most didn’t. And she knew how to put it to good use.
Sighing, I tried to push thoughts of the last time I’d been with her out of my head.
It wasn’t easy. Every time I rested I remembered what we had done together right before she left and imagined plenty more that I would do if I had her here.
I couldn’t think about her all the time on the job as well.
I took a deep breath. Not that I needed the air entirely, but it helped to try to focus to think of something simple like breathing just as much for a vampire as it did a human.
“Found anything?” Petros asked.
Although I shook my head, I scanned the table and open crates around me again anyway.
I knew there was almost nothing here that would even make an archaeologist happy.
All of it was the usual bits of pottery, tools and remains of basic cooking equipment that had been found in a dozen archaeological digs in this part of the nation.
They had value in some ways, but they weren’t new. They certainly didn’t have any magic in them.
“This is definitely all of it?” I asked, hoping that Petros wasn’t lying to me. I had thought I could trust him without question only two weeks ago, but everything had changed.
There was now a turned on the Brethren council. One of the mafia don families had been overthrown and eliminated.
On top of that, my uncle, who led the mafia and vampire clan I belonged to, had sent me to look into a plot against him.
Anais had helped me to prevent it and she’d killed the turned vampire who had been the ringleader.
We should have stopped any threat. But we’d discovered Ludis was looking for something.
My uncle wanted it found. And I had already been out here.
“As far as I know, that’s all of it.” Petros shrugged. “Want me to see if there’s any other digs still happening?”
I considered the question, knowing we had probably exhausted them. “No. We should see if any other vampires in the area have been here. Ludis had other vampires he sent to do his dirty work. As soon as I took out the turned who was the face of it, he pulled out another. There could have been more.”
Petros nodded as I stopped myself adding the one more detail I knew might be behind all this.
No matter how hard I had looked, I had also never found the person or vampire who had interfered with Anais killing Ludis during their first encounter in Vegas.
Someone had taken a shot at him, and had a photo of both Ludis and Anais.
Although I’d suspected they hadn’t wanted Anais dead, and possibly also not Ludis, they had some reason to shoot toward them both. Some reason to ruin the operation in Vegas. If they had missed on purpose, it indicated they knew I would help Anais pick up on her mission.
Or they had been defending Ludis in some way and Anais had succeeded despite it, partially thanks to me taking her under my wing and teaching her where our clan operated and how to find us. Not that she could easily do it again.
Despite her appearing to be safe since, I was still uneasy about the whole situation. I wanted to make sure no one was out to kill her, or screw up her missions and her career.
It was bad enough that I had enticed her into working with me, let alone everything that had followed between us. I had put her in a difficult position, but I knew if I got the chance I would do it again.
There had been something about the way she had offered to give herself to me. I knew that it had been to get the mission done, but I wanted to find out what it would be like to have her truly choose to be part of my world. If she wanted to become one of us, I would turn her in an instant.
And then I would have my way with her over and over again. Truly show her what it was to serve a powerful true-blood.
I could make her more powerful than Ludis had been and give her a life she had only dreamed of. But I knew I needed her to choose it. If she was ever to be mine again, I had to know she wanted what I would do with her. I would make her mine. She would belong to me entirely. It was a serious choice.
“What’s got you distracted?” Petros asked, studying me.
“This is a... difficult mission. There are a lot of elements I don’t understand or know how to place.”
Petros tilted his head to one side for a couple of seconds and then he nodded.
“Okay, sounds like you need to not be doing it alone. I don’t know how you’ve managed this far alone.
Ludis had an entourage, and we all know there are enough of them dead that you either went on one hell of a killing spree, or pulled off one very impressive mission in another way. ”
“What are you suggesting?” I asked, wondering if Petros had worked out that I hadn’t done it alone at all.
“That I help you. If you let me. And not just to find this relic, or whatever it is you’re seeking. I could help you with all this sort of thing. Help you piece it all together.”
I blinked a few times, considering his offer without saying anything.
He had proved helpful so far. And I knew that he’d helped me in the past, but this wasn’t like the usual mission.
On top of that, just like everyone else, Petros didn’t know that I wasn’t a turned.
Having him get closer to me and help would make that harder.
“What I need most is to figure out who could have taken this relic if there isn’t one here anymore,” I said eventually. “If I don’t have a relic to stop them taking, or there’s still someone who might have been in the team Ludis put together, I need to know. And quickly.”
Petros frowned. “I’ll do what I can to ask around and see if anyone else has been involved, or anyone else has volunteered to pick the relic up. But there’s nothing here now. Are you sure there ever was? Could this be a hunt for nothing?”
I shook my head. “No. Ludis was still planning to pick up something. He did everything he could to get one of his lackeys here and make sure they picked this up. There was something. It’s already been taken.”
“Let me go digging then. But if that’s true, whatever was here is likely to be long gone.” Petros gathered up his belongings and made his way to the door. I watched him go, hearing his words and trying to decide how I’d respond to this predicament.
He glanced back to see if I’d follow and I knew that it would cause far more problems if I attempted to stay here in an archaeological dig site. The people responsible for it hadn’t let us in and they wouldn’t understand what we were here to do.
The rest of the world didn’t know about vampires, or the true-bloods and how they helped keep a balance with humanity. Without us they would be dead. Wiped out a long time ago. But they would see us as the enemy anyway.
I couldn’t blame them, but I certainly didn’t plan to stick around to be skewered by some vampire hunter wannabe.
Petros hurried over to a small car that helped him stay inconspicuous and I made my way over to it as well. I had grabbed a cab to bring me nearby and then ditched it. If I wanted to avoid a long walk or having to call for a lift, I was going to need to head back to civilization with him.
Thankfully Petros understood the assignment and even opened the passenger door for me on his way around to the driver’s seat.
“Want me to drop you somewhere?” he asked when I got inside and shut the door. “There’s some fancy hotels that cater to your kind on the east side of town. I could—”
“No, it’s okay,” I replied, not wanting him to know where I was staying. It was an old habit that was going to die hard, even if we worked together on this mission. “I need a drink.”
It wasn’t entirely the truth, but it would suffice as a reason that wouldn’t arouse suspicion.
And the night was still young enough that I didn’t plan on retiring yet.
I had plans to make and had to figure out what to do next.
Not only would my uncle be expecting it, I knew there was more going on here.
Someone had a relic that made them more powerful. And if they had been associated with Ludis before now, they were likely to be a threat to my uncle and the Brethren. That made them a threat to me.
I would stop them. I just had to figure out who they were, what they wanted, and then how I was going to find them.
Once I was alone and in a busy part of the city, I mingled with the crowd, walking along as if I had somewhere to go and be and knew where it was.
Being one of the Brethren gave me a certain amount of safety no matter where I was, but I didn’t want the hassle of fending off a pickpocket or someone intending to mug a tourist.
My thoughts went back to Anais almost instantly.
It hadn’t been more than a few days since I had last seen her, maybe a week or so, and already it felt like far too long.
For someone I had only known for a short while, she shouldn’t have as much of my attention as she did, but the chemistry had been instant.
I knew that as soon as I went back to my hotel to get some sleep I would dream of her.
In every single dream I turned her, making her the closest thing she could be to me, a vampire with my blood in her veins.
It would make her more powerful, more like Ludis than a true-blood, but I was older and stronger, which would give her an advantage over any turned that another turned had created.
And then I dreamed of enjoying her over and over again, keeping her locked in my room for days on end while I enjoyed her in various ways. It wasn’t a dream that had me waking feeling rested. Just wanting to make it reality. Even just to taste her or lean in and inhale her scent would be enough.
I wanted Anais, and if I didn’t get this mission solved, the torment of not getting her was going to drive me to madness.
I knew that she was dangerous to be around.
She was a vampire slayer and daughter of one of the best. She barely knew the strength and skill she could possess if the rumors about her were true.
But that only made the prize more enticing. She would be the ultimate female to turn, to make one of us. I’d considered doing it rather than parting ways with her, but I knew how badly it could go to turn someone like her without permission.
She was strong enough she could turn on all the vampire Brethren just to spite me.
It was not a good idea. And I wanted her to want it.
I might dream about having my way with her body, but I wanted her to give herself to me.
Her willingness to be mine and let me show her a world of pleasure was something I wanted as much as anything else.
I let out a growl that made two women nearby jump and eye me sideways before hurrying away. I was getting distracted by thoughts of Anais once again. No matter what happened, I had to keep my uncle and the mafia vampire clan I belonged to safe. We couldn’t let the turned ruin what we had built up.
This was going to be a harder mission than I’d thought it was.
Ludis was supposed to be the only threat, but he’d woven a web deeper and darker than I’d expected.
And I hadn’t been able to bring him down without the help of someone like Anais.
I couldn’t easily kill turned and not start a different issue, especially if it was ever discovered I was Brethren and not turned myself.
Anais could do what she wanted, however. And her killing vampires made sense. Especially ones who were arrogant and thought they didn’t have to hide who they were or what they intended to do. The ones who killed humans for fun, even when they had enthralled to play with.
As I made my way in a loop toward the center of the city, I made my mind up. If I was going after more vampires and there were loose ends in this business with Ludis, then Anais was an asset I could make use of again. And maybe I could scratch another itch at the same time.
Maybe if I had the opportunity to enjoy her body again for a while, I could clear my head and get over the fascination I had with her before it drove me to madness.
There was one more route I could try here first, however. One more place to go where I might get a lead. Then if I found evidence there were more turned involved, I could go get my vampire slayer and put her to work.