“More is better. Many of the best fighters are out of Fairview at the moment, but I understand there is a pack of hellhounds doing guard duty. I’ve run into them before. Nasty brutes.”
Darak grunted. He remembered the hound in the Empire. Young, serious. Carried himself like he’d seen more than a few battles. “When do I need to have the men readied?”
“When the airport is opened again.”
“What’s the signal?”
“I’ll find you.” Belenos’s eye flicked to the quartz ball on the table. So he’s using it for remote surveillance. “You’ll have your instructions then. In the meantime, bring your hostage to the pier midnight tomorrow and collect the first half of your payment. And don’t think you can take my gold and run. I’ll be watching your every move. Go about your usual business. Muster your men, but do it quietly.”
“I’ve done this before,” Darak said dryly, a little offended.
Beneath that was a well of anger. He was looking at the necromancer who had hacked off the head of a human woman, and the atrocity was clearly the farthest thing from Belenos’s mind. Men like him had sent the gladiators into the arena for an afternoon’s sport. Men who thought lives came cheaper by the case lot.
Darak masked his disgust behind the blank obedience of a hired thug. “Is the mark coming in by plane?”
Belenos fixed him with a wary stare, perhaps realizing that he’d been far too obvious. Maybe torture had damaged his wits as well as his body.
Darak guessed he wanted someone killed. Someone high level. Who better than a band of known rogues to bear the blame? Using them gave Belenos deniability.
The king’s fingers twitched, the one sign that he realized Darak had cornered him. “Yes. I provided an incentive so that individual would arrive ASAP.”
Ah. “The fire.”
They crossed glances. Darak kept his face brutish and stupid, exactly what Belenos would believe of a former slave. He wants us to kill the queen.
Darak’s body went cold with the knowledge. Jupiter’s balls, he’s going to have revenge for what she did to him. Belenos would claim it was politics, but this was purely personal spite. Looking at the ruin of the king’s body, it wasn’t hard to understand.
“Dismissed.” Belenos stood and snapped his fingers. A dozen of the other figures stood and gathered around him. It was a warning to Darak not to overstep the role of hireling.
It sure as hell wasn’t a dance number.
With a nod, Darak backed away, calculating the odds of shooting Belenos without getting shot himself. The math was ugly.
He’d found out far more information than he’d hoped for. More than he’d bargained for. Now he just had to get the hell out of there and figure out what he was going to do about it. Belenos had to go, but he was a big fish with lots of protection.
Darak had Nia and Iskander, but the rest of Clan Thanatos wasn’t even in town. If he took on Belenos tonight, he’d end up like Daisy, bleeding his last in a back alley.
“Good night, rogue,” Belenos said absently. “I’m glad you came along. It’s been a busy night.” He turned to one of his men, the human Darak had seen walk through the wall. “So how is your sister, Talia? Did she mention me?”
Talia. Wasn’t that the dead Michelle’s vampire cousin? The one he’d promised to protect? What does she have to do with any of this?
“Good night, sire.” Darak made it to the door.
The guards parted, letting him through.
Darak stormed down the hall, back the way he had come. He had no idea how to get out of there, but would rot in hell before he asked for directions from Belenos’s drones.
He pulled out his cell phone and hit a speed dial. “Nia. How fast do you think the rest of the clan can get here?”
Chapter 22
Thursday, December 30, 11:30 p.m.
101.5 FM
“Good evening, this is CSUP coming to you from the U of Fairview campus. I’m your hostess, Errata Jones. There’s a community alert going out tonight about a confirmed sighting of a Hunter believed to be the assailant who shot a popular Comp Sci teacher here at Fairview U, Professor Perry Baker. The details will be on the upcoming news, but for now let me shed a ray of light on exactly how dangerous these people are.
“I mentioned that I’d found some of their manuals. Well, one of them makes pretty interesting reading. It’s a Hunter child-rearing manual, or basically how to raise a good little psychopath. Even their nursery rhymes are all about killing. Imagine your little ones singing this while they play in the backyard: Vampires with the slice of steel
Fairies cannot iron heal
Silver kills the man-faced beast
And demon hound has soul released
The day mercuric metal drives
Into his veins; Then death arrives.
“Sweet, isn’t it? They know from the time they can toddle just what kills each and every one of us.”
Thursday, December 30, midnight
Empire Hotel
The bar was the only part of the Empire open to the public. The hotel side, currently closed for restoration, was a tribute to Old Town’s bygone glory. High ceilings held the remnants of gold-leafed plasterwork and Italianate frescoes. Beneath the drop sheets covering the lobby floor was a marble mosaic. Joe had found the original chandeliers in the attic. What he hadn’t found was an electrician willing to bring the place up to code at a price Joe could afford. Part of the problem was that he wanted to convert the old gas fixtures to electric so he could keep the look of the original decor.
“Why keep everything the same? Wouldn’t it be cheaper to update?” Talia asked.
Joe gave her a guarded look as he led her up the winding grand staircase. “I have a sentimental attachment to the place.”
His tone said no more information was coming, so she didn’t press.
Derelict didn’t begin to describe the condition of the upstairs. A few bare bulbs hung from the high ceiling, giving just enough light to wind their way through a litter of construction debris. Wallpaper hung in shreds. It looked like a pipe had burst at some point, because water stains marred the plaster ceiling. Talia caught a faint smell of mildew.
“I know, it looks like wolverines slept here,” Joe commented, stepping over a pile of paint cans. “I’ve cleaned out a couple of the rooms for personal use.”
He took a key ring out of his pocket and unlocked the double doors to a suite. He hit the light switch, which
