the boys sort that out, he thought as he walked back to the car in the rain. He had more pressing business to take care of.
Chapter Sixty-Seven
The Ridings, near Guildford, Surrey
Two hours earlier
Jeremy Lonsdale had been nursing a crystal tumbler brimming with malt whisky in the top-floor study of his country home and fretting over his predicament when he’d heard the two Great Danes start up a chorus of frenzied barking and baying down below. He cursed loudly, smacked his tumbler down on the table and threw open the window.
‘Castor! Pollux! Shut your fucking holes!’ he roared out into the cold night air.
The dogs fell silent, as if shocked by their master’s uncharacteristic outburst. Lonsdale slammed the window shut and went back to his brooding contemplation.
A minute later, as he was refilling his glass from the near-empty bottle of Highland Park, the dogs started again. Lonsdale ripped through the door of the study and went thundering down the stairs, ready to kick the hell out of the two animals for interrupting his thoughts. It was a large house, and he was puffing and red by the time he neared the bottom of the last flight of steps.
Then he halted mid-stride and almost stopped breathing when he saw the five people standing in his hallway.
No, not people. It was Gabriel Stone and his entourage. Behind Stone stood the hulking black giant and Anton, the sardonic-looking weaselly one. To his left was the blonde called Anastasia. And to his right, the raven- haired beauty Lillith. Lonsdale hadn’t seen the four since the night of the initiation ceremony. He felt the colour drain from his face all the way down to his shoes. The tumbler slipped out of his fingers, bounced on the stair carpet and shattered on the hallway tiles with an amber spatter of whisky.
‘Surprised to see us, Jeremy?’
Lonsdale opened and closed his mouth soundlessly as he searched for something to say.
‘Are you not going to invite us into your fine home?’ Stone asked.
‘O-of course,’ Lonsdale stammered. ‘Please, forgive my rudeness.’ He ushered them into a drawing room.
‘Hello, Jeremy,’ Lillith said with a seductive smile, gently raking his arm with a fingernail as she walked by.
Lonsdale cleared his throat and tried to smile. The congenial host. ‘Would you, um, like a drink?’
‘That depends on what you’re offering,’ Anastasia said, eyeing his throat.
Stone gestured at an armchair as if he were in his own place. ‘Please, take a seat, Jeremy. As you may have gathered, this is not a mere social call. We’re here to discuss business.’
Lonsdale sat nervously, glancing from one vampire to another. They stood around him in a semicircle. Big Zachary folded his muscular arms across his chest.
Anton wore a deep frown. Anastasia had one eyebrow raised in amusement and Lillith toyed distractedly with the hilt of her sabre. Stone stood in the middle, his eyes narrowed. Lonsdale couldn’t read his expression, and that worried him more than anything.
‘What business would that be, Gabriel?’ he asked, trying to sound nonchalant.
‘Don’t play the innocent with me, Jeremy. You know what this is about.’
Lonsdale swallowed. ‘Venice?’ It came out as a squeak.
‘Venice. Precisely. Did you not receive my package, containing the equipment and full instructions?’
Lonsdale tried to swallow again, but his throat was dry. He wished he had another drink. ‘Yes,’ he managed.
‘And you instructed the men you hired to follow those instructions to the absolute letter?’
‘Use the special bullets to kill the woman, take the man alive, bring back the item and hand it over to me. Exactly as you said. I was very clear.’
‘Then where’s my cross?’
Lonsdale frowned. ‘I can only assume it hasn’t been found yet. I’d have heard something—’
‘Lamentably underinformed, Jeremy. As usual, several steps behind the rest of us. Must I do everything myself?’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘You have your little contacts, I have mine. And imagine my surprise to hear about a recent minor incident in Venice. It involves four highly incompetent and thoroughly dead thugs, a great deal of spilled blood, and one missing cross that is now in the hands of a human whom I hadn’t ideally wished to possess it.’ Stone sighed, shook his head in disgust. ‘Your continuing failure makes me angry, Jeremy.’
Lonsdale flushed. ‘Hold on. I saw to it that the special ammunition — Norbenol or whatever you call it — was passed on to the men. What more was I supposed to do, load the guns for them myself?’
‘Nosferol,’ Stone replied in a silky voice. ‘And I strongly advise you not to lose your temper with us.’
But Lonsdale was on a roll. ‘How could I have known they wouldn’t use the stuff?
I couldn’t exactly tell them what it was for, could I? “Oh, by the way, you’re going to Venice to shoot a bloody vampire.” These men are common thugs, not Abraham Van fucking Helsing.’
‘Were common thugs, Jeremy. And you, my friend,’ Stone added, pointing, ‘are an imbecile.’
Lonsdale shut up. There was silence in the room as Stone paced up and down the floor.
‘I’ve been lenient with you so far, Jeremy. This time, I’m afraid I must punish you.’
Lonsdale’s jaw dropped. ‘No. Not Toby. Please. I’ll do anything.’
Lillith chuckled. Zachary and Anton exchanged grins. Anastasia was staring at the politician with undisguised contempt. ‘Let me have him, Gabriel. I’ll make him sorry, believe me.’
‘No. I have other plans for him,’ Stone told her. Turning back to Lonsdale, he said, ‘With Solomon in possession of the cross thanks to your cretinous mistake, we are forced to abandon the country temporarily until our agents are able to catch him. And, just as you helped us get in, you’re now going to get us out. I want to be in the air within the hour.’
‘But—’
‘A freight vehicle will be arriving at the airfield containing all our personal effects.
You will ensure these are stowed safely on board.’
‘That isn’t possible,’ Lonsdale protested. ‘I can’t get the crew together that fast.
You can’t just take off in a jet whenever you feel like it.’
‘You will make it possible, Jeremy. Or must I involve young Toby in this?’
Lonsdale cracked. He slipped off the chair, collapsed to his knees and started crying and wringing his hands forlornly.
Lillith looked at her brother. ‘So this is his punishment, Gabriel? Making him lend us his flying machine? Have you gone soft?’
‘They call them aeroplanes,’ Zachary reminded her, and she growled at him.
‘I haven’t finished,’ Stone said, not taking his eyes off the cowering, weeping politician. ‘Lillith, your sword, please.’
Lillith drew out the long, glittering blade and handed the weapon over to him.
Stone held out his left palm. With a deft motion he slashed the sharp edge across his hand, cutting deep into the flesh without a flicker of expression. A trickle of dark blood oozed out of the gash, flowed down his wrist. He tossed the sword back to Lillith, then nodded to Zachary. The big vampire stepped forward, grabbed Lonsdale off the floor and stopped him from struggling as Stone raised his bleeding hand to the politician’s mouth and forced him to drink. Blood dripped down his chin and spattered across his shirt. He swallowed, gasped for air, swallowed some more.
