Chapter 19
Leandro
I couldn’t sleep. I knew I should be trying to. Alan and Tess were. At least I hoped they were. They had chosen to sleep in the same bedroom in the suite and I had heard them lock the door.
It didn’t offend me that they were being so careful. I understood them not trusting their lives without some precautions while in the same place as a vampire. Just as I had shown Anais she could trust me, I would prove the same to them. I didn’t plan on harming them.
That didn’t mean this mission was safe. I could very easily have signed a death warrant for all of them. And that was why I was pacing the main area of the suite, a glass of whiskey in one hand and the ring and weapons Anais had left in my room in the other.
Twice now I had considered going the back way down to the room where she was to give the possessions she had left behind back to her. If I did, I left Alan and Tess vulnerable, however.
We didn’t know what the lead vampire here knew or what he planned to do about it. I’d potentially just painted a target on my back, and Tess had been in the lounge with Petros.
While we were trying to keep connections to a minimum, it had been impossible to avoid it entirely.
That meant someone very observant could have put two and two together and noticed that we all knew each other.
I had to be careful not to make that worse.
If I looked like I was unconnected I could protect them better.
It was also very important that no one else on the ship knew I was not turned. I couldn’t draw attention to the Brethren like that. I’d been distancing myself from the beginning. I wasn’t about to blow my best-kept secret.
I was disturbed from my indecisive pacing by a small knock on the balcony doorway. My heart sank. There would be only one reason someone wanted to get in. Petros had come back and that meant Anais was in more trouble than he could have helped prevent.
Rushing over to the door, I called for Alan and Tess. Even if this was a false alarm, they deserved to be in on this.
By the time I pulled the door open, Alan was already out of the room, still fully dressed. Petros came hurrying in.
“They’ve been taken. Or being taken. They want to take them to the vamp in charge.” Petros spoke quickly and then pointed to the exit of the suite. “We should follow as quickly as we can.”
I wasn’t about to argue with him, and Alan went back for Tess, almost dragging her out of bed.
Both of them grabbed weapons, and I did the same.
Then I made sure I had everything that Anais should.
She was being pulled into a meeting of sorts with the head vampire and she didn’t have her best weapons or the ring I’d given her.
Somehow I was going to have to get it to her and hope that it was enough to keep her alive. But first, we had to find where they were going.
“Everyone ready?” I said as Tess and Alan came back out of the bedroom.
“I’ll go back to the cabin and follow the scent that way, just in case you can’t pick it up your way,” Petros offered.
It made me suspicious that he was going to go do something else, but I knew him coming here to warn me was a good sign.
He’d made it clear he couldn’t fight, but he’d done his part.
If I was going to trust anyone other than Anais and her team, it was this guy.
“We’ll see if we can find them as well. Contact me if you find them, but keep out of sight if you can.” I nodded to him, making sure he stayed safe too.
“You got it, boss.” He grinned, no doubt using that reference for a reason. I found myself smiling, grateful for the humor when I was so worried.
I didn’t wait any longer, Alan and Tess hurrying after me as I went out into the hallway.
Alan pulled the door shut behind us, allowing me to carry on.
Not waiting for either of them to keep up, I strode through the corridors toward the nearest stairs and elevators.
I concentrated on sounds ahead of us, grateful that it was still the early hours of the morning and most of the ship’s residents were fast asleep.
Except for the vampires and those embroiled with us, of course.
It didn’t take long to get down to the floor Anais’s room was on and I almost bumped right into Petros as I went to the hallway on that side of the ship.
“They went this way,” he said as he pointed down the ship, the opposite way to her room. I only had to inhale to know that he was right. I could have picked out her scent no matter how many others had gone with her, and it was fresh. There were a fair few others with her, however.
My only consolation was that Naomi was one of them.
“They’re both together,” I said, more for Alan and Tess, who were doing well to keep up.
I didn’t give them a chance to respond before I followed down the hallway.
I had to go a little slower down here, but only so I could be sure I was still on the trail.
Anais had walked in the middle of many vampires, Naomi close to her the whole way.
They were taken to the elevators, but no one had appeared to be worried about being followed.
Instead of using the elevators to be sure no one followed, they took the stairs. While escorting people who could be violent and unsafe, it made sense. The vampires certainly weren’t getting too close. It made me wonder if they’d killed any of the vampires that had come for them.
If Anais had, I was proud of her. She wasn’t going to let this be easy for any enemy she was taken in front of.
I followed her all the way back to just over my own floor and another suite on the other side of the ship.
To think she wasn’t very far from me and I could have gotten to her easily frustrated me, but there was nothing I could do about it now.
I swept past the room, taking my entourage with me and making note of the room number. We weren’t going to knock on the door and announce our presence. We had to be more subtle than that.
“I’m going to go back up to my balcony and make my way across to theirs,” I told the two humans with me when we had gone around the corner again.
“Petros, can you keep an eye out for any more trouble? Any more arriving vampires, anyone leaving and where they go. Use the ship message system if you need to tell us anything.”
“Got it.” Petros stayed where he was, but made sure that he could see the door.
“We’re going in there, I take it?” Alan asked.
“If you think you can handle that level of danger,” I replied. At the same time I reached into my pocket and pulled out the ring Anais had left behind. I held it out to Alan. “This belongs to Anais. She is going to need it. Get that to her and she’ll make sure you all get out safely.”
“Should I ask what this is and why it’s so important?” Alan said, inspecting it.
“Not if you want an honest answer,” I replied, grinning as he also seemed to smile. “Just get it to Anais and don’t let anyone else see it or put it on.”
Alan raised an eyebrow, but Tess held out her hand. “I’ll get it to her. You take her weapons. I can put this right on her finger if I need to.”
Although I wasn’t sure what Tess thought she could do that Alan couldn’t, I appreciated the confidence and Alan didn’t argue either.
The moment they had all the gear they needed, they hurried away and I rushed back to my room. As soon as I was away from everyone, I ran. I didn’t care if it was undignified, nor if anyone saw me. I put the Brethren strength and speed I possessed into my movements, not holding back.
While it was a risk, it was also entirely necessary to make sure I got there in time. Within a few seconds I was in my own suite and heading to the balcony. I slowed just long enough to make sure that I could open the balcony door quietly and shut it behind.
It took me even less time to get up one level and across to the other side of the ship via the verandas. I moved just slow enough I would be almost silent and could check there was no one out on their veranda to see me.
Dawn wasn’t far away now but we still had a little night left. It wouldn’t be long before the normal humans were awake, especially the morning crew. But we still had some time to get all this solved before then. If we could solve this swiftly.
Finally I was on the veranda outside the vampire room and able to get right up to the door. The curtains were closed, but even if they hadn’t been, I was confident I could tuck off to one side and avoid being seen.
Over the next few seconds I crouched by the door and, as quietly as I could, began to open it. I could hear the sounds of movement inside and I had to hope that no one was saying or doing anything important while I wasn’t in there.
It was far more important that I was as quiet as possible opening the door and I didn’t create too much of a gap.
I needed there not to be too much of a difference that anyone noticed an increase in draft or noise.
It took me almost a minute to make just enough space that I could put my ear near the fraction of an inch-large gap and listen.
“Now, all you extras had better get settled. And shall we put away all the weapons?” a male voice asked. He had an accent, but it was a generalized eastern European one as if this vampire moved around a lot. I didn’t know if they were part of the clan and I didn’t recognize it.
“We’ll put the weapons away when we’re sure this is a meeting and not a fight,” Anais replied. It was good to hear her voice.
“So far, I understand that you’re the only aggressors. One of our kind is dead.”
“He woke me up. I make no apologies for a vampire that doesn’t have the manners to let a girl have her beauty sleep. Not to mention that your goons didn’t even knock. If you only wanted to talk you could have knocked on the door like normal people.”
I grinned as the vampire in charge chuckled. Anais was ever fearless, for sure.
“Not every vampire I sent to do my bidding is as good at doing so as others.”
“Then maybe you shouldn’t have sent the idiots and the muscle, but sent the ones with brains. Unless you’re lacking in that department as well.”
Again I had to fight not to laugh. Anais was going to keep giving this vampire a hard time and she didn’t care what happened. There was a commotion that drew everyone’s attention and stopped her from continuing with her sharp-tongued verbal assaults and him with whatever he intended.
I listened as carefully as I could, but made use of the noise to very carefully slide the door open another tiny amount. Now I could hear a lot better and the gap was still small enough that it couldn’t suck the curtain in my direction or make too much of a draft.
Tess and Alan must have either waited until a vampire came out and caught them or held back to give me time to get around to the veranda before they found a way inside the suite themselves, because it sounded as if they were being brought in.
“We found another pair of them loitering,” the voice from the lounge said, no doubt the burly bouncer who had forced me to leave with Anais. If I got the chance, I would end his existence myself.
“Are you both okay?” Anais asked, not even bothering to hide that she knew them.
“Yeah, we’re good,” Tess replied. “Just missed you and figured you shouldn’t have to put up with this lot alone.”
There were sounds that seemed like some of them hugging and I was sure that was Tess making sure Anais had her ring and possibly some of her weapons back.
“I really am going to have to insist that you put down or hand over all of those weapons,” the in-charge vampire said. I focused on his voice, wanting to commit it to memory so I could pick him out based on his speech alone.
“And I’m really going to have to insist that you get to the point of this little meeting,” Anais replied. “Because I’m hoping you have the sense not to try and take them off us by force. So let’s have our little conversation and then we can figure out what happens after that.”
“You killed Ludis, correct?” the vampire asked.
“I did. You’re welcome, by the way. I understand you have something of his. And I opened the way for you to take it.”
There was a shuffle as someone moved, although I couldn’t quite figure out who or what moved from the sound alone.
I could only hope he wasn’t growing impatient and wasn’t trying to get the upper hand with her.
She was walking an interesting line and one I wouldn’t have expected a vampire to put up with.
“You did. And now I have the power he would have. So you see, I’m not as easy to defeat as Ludis.
” That was the threat and reminder I’d have expected from a vampire.
That he had given her so much respect indicated that he wasn’t sure what she was capable of and was nervous she still might have the strength to defeat him.
I didn’t know if she did, given he had just admitted to having the relic. It was possible he didn’t have it on him in that moment, however.
“Why is it never a female?” Anais asked a few seconds later. “Why aren’t women ever allowed to have all the power?”
The vampire let out another hearty laugh at this. “Someone like you, perhaps? Do you think you should have this relic?”
“Makes as much sense as you. I killed the vamp after all. You just beat me to the prize. I kill you and I could take it.”
“And there comes the big question. Do you intend to kill me? ‘Cause I think you should be careful, little lady. You are in more danger than you think.”
Anais yawned and I had to fight to hold back my laughter again. She really did need to be careful though.