Chapter 23
Leandro
Anger rushed through me as I came out into the corridor outside the suite to find that the morning staff were already up and cleaning rooms. There were also people standing out in the hallway talking to one of the cleaners.
In particular a balding man wore a robe and slippers, gesticulating at the cleaner as if all the commotion was her fault.
Not that I’d wanted to make any kind of commotion. But I wasn’t letting anyone I cared about die just so some old white guy could get his beauty sleep and demand the whole world revolved around him.
As Anais joined us and pulled the suite door shut behind her with enough noise to draw attention, the people outside finally noticed us.
We were all blood-splattered, several of us had torn clothes and more than just me were bleeding and injured ourselves.
The man took a couple of steps toward us before he noticed our state and paused, his mouth falling open.
“This way,” Anais said, encouraging everyone to follow her the other way down the hallway. It wasn’t the direction we wanted to go to get to the stairs fastest, but I was in full agreement with her. Anything that got us out of view of people who were only going to draw even more attention.
We needed to get somewhere safer so we could figure out how to handle the rest of this situation.
And the only place we could go for that was our own suite.
Assuming the vampire with the relic hadn’t sent goons there as well.
He knew my name and clan, which probably meant that he knew which room I was in too.
If that was what we found, we would have to face the situation head-on, but I suspected we’d find it empty.
Everyone appeared to be of the same mind, Anais hurrying toward the suite and choosing our route.
Thankfully it was short, only one floor different, and she knew to head right for the stairs and not wait for an elevator.
I could see her almost wobbling slightly and knew she must be drained. She would have been wearing her ring and no doubt it had drained her. We were going to need food, and as much as I hated to admit it, that included me if I was going to be able to carry on as if nothing had happened.
The room was quiet, Anais opening the door and holding it open for everyone else. I noticed her checking everyone over as well, no doubt taking in all the injuries and who needed fresh clothing and cleaning up the most.
Not one of us was free from blood splatters of some kind, not even Petros, and he had mostly fought near the end and alongside the hunter team. I was the last to pass her by and I took her hand as I went inside to bring her with me and get a better idea of how she was doing.
Only once the door was shut behind us did I relax, but even then, I knew we couldn’t relax much at all. Anais didn’t let me hold her hand for long, but made her way toward her team, concerned for Alan. He was still bleeding from one of the cuts he’d taken.
“You were a bit late to the party,” Naomi said to me as she went to her pack and pulled out a first aid kit. I was amused by her immediate desire for an explanation, but not at the expense of her helping patch up her friends.
Anais went to the sofa and sat herself down, wincing. “He was caught out on the veranda by that vampire who could walk through walls.”
I raised an eyebrow, surprised that she was answering for me. “I was. He was actually the vampire in charge.”
“And he was waiting for you to come rescue us?” Anais asked as Tess and Naomi began treating Alan and her. Petros came to me to see to the wound on my side as Tess tried to get Anais to let her see the bruising she must have taken when she flew into the cabinet.
All of us needed a change of clothes as well, but I wasn’t sure we were going to get time for it.
We couldn’t stay here and let that relic get away.
But there was some big news to tell the others.
“He wasn’t waiting, but he did find me there.
I was about to come in to help all of you fight when he stopped me. ”
Although it was mostly the truth, I knew I was leaving details out. Anais nodded anyway, Tess rubbing something onto the bruise on her back before she pushed at it.
“I think you’ve broken a rib,” she declared before I could carry on.
I frowned and went over to her to check as well.
Although I’d not seen how badly she’d been hurt, she had definitely been taken down a time or two and I’d had to help her get back up or pull vampires off her more than once.
It hadn’t only been her either. We’d all been working as a team, helping each other when needed and making sure no turned bested any of us.
“I’ll be okay, especially if we’re not done yet,” Anais replied, glancing over at me and taking in my restless state. I couldn’t sit or slow down while we were in the predicament we were in.
“We’ve been set up,” I blurted out before I could stop myself. “Might even have been right from the beginning.”
“What do you mean?” Anais asked, her eyes narrowing as she shifted away from Tess and got back to her feet. She wasn’t the only one who reacted, everyone else staring at me as well.
“Do you remember when someone tried to shoot Ludis in Vegas but screwed it up?”
She nodded. “You said you found his photo up there and mine. I assumed it was someone on your side of things. The academy has been treating us like royalty since we got on the leaderboard for the highest earners.”
“Yeah, well, whoever set that up may have set this up. You’ve certainly been lured in here again, but so was I.
The vamp with the relic said that they’re taking some actual footage, doctoring it and sending it to the Brethren and the academy to make it look like we’ve teamed up to take down all of them. ”
Naomi dropped something and it clattered on the floor.
Anais looked over at her friends, wincing as she turned and irritated the wound she’d taken. “I’m so sorry. I should never have dragged you all into this.”
“It’s not your fault,” Alan replied, helping Naomi put on the final bandage.
“It’s easy enough for us to have pissed someone off as well.
Think about it. If anyone framed you, it’s the academy.
They’ve never liked your parents, not after they left the academy, and the only people who would have known you were hunting Ludis right at the beginning of the mission was the academy. ”
Petros frowned. “But what’s that got to do with you, Drew? How do you connect to all this?”
I hesitated to answer, but I got the impression I was going to have to tell them all everything and be very honest.
“I’m sorry, Petros. I am Brethren. Leandro is my real name.”
“Amadori?” Petros asked as he stepped a little closer, studying me. I knew he was looking for the telltale facial features of my father and uncle. I had the advantage of looking more like my mother, my hair not jet black, but a very dark brown, and more of a Romanian color to my skin.
“You don’t look like your father. You know most of us thought you were dead, right?”
I nodded, wishing I could give more of an explanation.
Petros shook his head and exhaled. “If you only knew how many in the clan would follow your lead instead of your uncle’s... No wonder you’re also part of this.”
“How does it benefit the academy to take Leandro out as well as me?” Anais asked. “You clearly know some of the general mood.”
He nodded. “Not much more, but I’ve been a turned long enough that people talk around me and make comments to me.
Leandro is someone powerful enough, and with enough turned and clan members behind him he could take the council seat and the dagger off his uncle if he wanted and the vampire world would be business as usual. ”
“You think my own uncle is behind this?”
Petros shrugged. “He might be. There are a lot who are unhappy with how many turned the academy kill. Your uncle didn’t want to let them decide who dies and who doesn’t.
But the Brethren won’t police themselves either until that turned killed one of the other clan leaders.
Whenever a clan leader is killed and it isn’t because they were stupid, it causes the other clan leaders to feel insecure.
Now is a good time to take you out and make it look like you were in charge of all these turned. ”
“If all this is true, we need to try to stop them,” Anais said. “I don’t care much if the academy thinks I’m too much like my parents and a danger to the structure and organization it holds dear, but I can’t let this blow back on my team.”
Naomi laughed and all three of the vampire hunters came up to their leader.
“We’re right here in this with you,” Naomi said, the others nodding. “Whatever caused this doesn’t matter. If this is a setup, then we’re framed right along with you. I’m not bailing on you now. That’s what weak members of a team do.”
“Did they say what they want it to look like we’ve done?” Alan asked. “If I’m going to be accused of a crime, I’d like to know which one I’m supposed to have done. I might want to do it to make it official, too.”
Tess chuckled at Alan’s words and even Naomi grinned.
“They want it to look like we’re trying to end the academy and team up to take it on and the Brethren at the same time.
” I frowned, still not sure how they planned to make it look like that, but I knew we had to do something about it.
Stop them. Kill them all. Whatever it took.
I wasn’t against the Brethren, but I was against whoever had set us up.
“Can we find out who is behind all this and stop them?” Anais asked. “Is that possible?”
I shrugged. “If we can get the relic off that vamp in charge we might be able to see what he knows.”
“It’s possible that this is also a bluff,” Petros added. “There are vampires telling vampires what to do in so many layers, it could be what we’ve been told by this layer.”
Naomi finished putting her first aid kit back and pulled out the rest of her weapons. “In that case, I think it’s time to go kill some more vampires and ask some others some questions at the end of a stake.”
“We need to sort another injury or two, eat something and figure out where they will have gone before we go rushing back out,” Anais said, her eyes showing her tiredness, even if she was trying to hide it. She went to her bag and pulled out some trail mix and a bottle of water.
Although I wasn’t about to ask it of any of them, I also knew I would benefit from eating. I’d lost a lot of blood.
Petros picked up on it as well and came over to me. He lifted my shirt to reveal the one stab wound I’d taken. It was already healing up and I wasn’t bleeding much anymore, but I was weaker for it.
“Do you need first aid too?” Naomi asked, already reaching for her pack again.
“Not exactly,” I replied. “I’m healing, but nothing helps us heal quickly like...” I couldn’t bring myself to say it as I looked down. While I had no trouble taking what I needed from a willing person usually, this was different. If I took blood from any of them I ran the risk of weakening them.
“Feeding,” Anais said when I didn’t. “You need to feed to heal.”
I swallowed as she came closer, suspecting that she was going to offer to let me feed on her.
“Feeding gives the person being fed on a boost as well, doesn’t it?” she asked.
“Sort of. We give back an enzyme that gives a temporary sort of high and it can help the body cope with the shock of being fed on. After all, we don’t want our victims to die too soon.”
She took my hand and looked at the wound beside Petros. He backed off, giving us some space and I got the impression that everyone else also began to avert their eyes. This was a moment between Anais and me.
“I’ve worn the ring a lot,” she said, her voice more quiet than before. “I might need you to help me. Can you take just a little so we’re both stronger?”
Although I wanted to shake my head and tell her that I wasn’t going to weaken her just to benefit me, I knew she had a point and if she had been using the ring, her body was drained of a lot of the resources it needed.
“And promise me that if this does take too much out of me, you’ll keep making sure the team are okay?” She studied me, no doubt hoping to see the answer she needed.
“You have my word that I will make sure that you and your team survive this. And we’ll figure out how to stop this.”
She nodded, deciding to trust me, and then tilted her head to the side to let me bite her.
I could see the faint scars from the last few times I had bitten her.
Thinking about the times I’d fed on her in the past and how often I’d been enjoying her body was enough to take away what control I had left. I couldn’t deny how much I wanted her.
I pulled her into my arms to hold her still while I drank from her and sank my teeth in.
She didn’t even flinch or make a sound, leaning into me.
She was almost as aroused and it only encouraged me further as I drank deeply.
Mentally reminding myself that she needed to have some strength left as well, I stopped myself from drinking more than I needed to grow stronger.
Although she had encouraged me to take her blood, I looked up and away from her to see her team all watching, weapons at the ready and bodies tensed. If I had gone too far, I was certain I would have become a pin cushion.
Leaning into me even more, Anais turned to reassure her friends. “It’s okay, I feel a lot better, and this will give us the edge we need. Leo will be fresh for the next fight and I will keep this buzz for a while. We should make use of it though.”
“I think I know where the vampires will go next,” Petros replied. “The lounge. We’ve riled the humans on board. Only some of them know we exist. The one safe place on this ship other than our rooms is there. Everyone who works the lounge knows that vampires exist and we own this cruise company.”
It made sense, and Anais was right. We couldn’t waste this boost. We needed to find this vampire and take that relic away from him.