It was also disconcerting because Reykon had nearly dropped the ball in a big way, and Magnus cared more about Robin than any other assignment before (for whatever reason).
But all that was in the past now that they’d made it to a Demonte house. This was safe ground.
Once the connection was tested, Cain took his liberty to start the negotiations.
“Head Magnus,” Cain began. “Thank you for accepting our request to discuss this important matter with you, and update you on-”
“What is the situation?” Magnus asked, with a voice like an axe.
Cain’s expression hardened. “My strongbloods intervened on a clandestine effort of yours, involving Reykon Thraxos. If it weren’t for them, the mission could have been lost, or jeopardized.”
Magnus glanced to Reykon, who was on the side of the table, sitting calmly in his chair.
“Reykon, did you run into any unforeseen difficulties?” he asked.
“Yes, Master Magnus.”
“And?”
“Our mission was directly attacked by the strongblood Lucidia Draxos.”
Magnus was not surprised by this information, which was not lost to Cain. He narrowed his eyes, giving a side-glance to Reykon.
“Is the ultimate goal of the mission still intact?” Magnus asked in a deep voice.
Reykon nodded. “We will be able to succeed in our effort, thanks to Master Cain’s generous resources.”
“I couldn’t imagine standing by while an endeavor was at risk. We all belong to the same House,” Cain said with a simpering smile.
“Thank you, Cain,” Magnus offered. He contemplated this for a moment, drumming his fingers on the table. “I cannot allow House Xander’s interference on this issue to go unaddressed.”
“We have the girl in chains,” Cain said proudly. “If it would please you to give the word, my forces can start punishing the offender immediately.”
Magnus raised an eyebrow. “She belongs to Darian. He is a reasonable Head, and I doubt that he’d take kindly to such insubordination.”
Magnus’s head of finance (Robert) leaned forward. “That’s to say that Darian didn’t launch this attack directly.”
A murmur spread through the room and Reykon leaned forward. “If I may…”
Magnus gave a wave of his hand, a signal to proceed.
“I believe that Lucidia Draxos was operating outside of Master Darian’s orders. She appeared to be alone, working with freelancing wolves to sabotage our mission.”
Magnus narrowed his eyes. “Wolves?”
“Yes,” Reykon explained. “I would have been able to fight off a single strongblood, but my own abilities were overwhelmed when I was faced with the wolves. They appeared to be working with Lucidia.”
“Whatever pack they belonged to is effectively in war with our House,” Cain said with anger.
Reykon shook his head. “If they did belong to a pack, they didn’t mention which one. I was under the impression that, like Lucidia, they were operating with free will.”
Magnus narrowed his eyes. Reykon knew that the Head vampire was aware that it was a lie; Magnus, for all his flaws, valued loyalty above all else. While lying to a master resulted in prison, death, or anything in between, he had enough of a working relationship with Magnus to know what was within his scope of trust. Effectively, Reykon had just told him the pack had no clue about it, which meant they didn’t, in fact, have to launch a war against the wolves.
Reykon often thanked the stars that Magnus wasn’t a warmonger. He had no interest in petty squabbles, but at the same time, ruled with an iron fist. They didn’t frequently engage in fights. He appreciated that because whenever a battle between supernatural entities was initiated, strongbloods were always on the front lines, regardless of house affiliation.
“Very well, then. I thank you for your diligence, Reykon Thraxos. Your arrival is imminent, is it not?”
Reykon nodded. “We will depart tomorrow, at first light.”
He could tell Magnus would have preferred if they left immediately, but he let the matter go. Magnus gave a tight nod and thanked Cain once more before signing off.
Reykon gave Cain a polite smile. The vampire didn’t return the diplomatic gesture, instead pushing up from his large chair and walking swiftly out of the room, the rest of his vampire court falling in behind him. Reykon’s thoughts moved back to Robin. Now that the formalities were out of the way, he could prepare for their departure, and put this mistake behind him. He let out a long breath and left the room.
Robin
It was cold.
Like, very cold. She wrapped her arms around herself and curled up against the hard metal surface. Her head was cold, too, and wet. She frowned and touched her fingertips to a half-melted ice pack. As soon as she moved her head, the cold subsided and the throbbing, inflamed heat flooded across the back of her neck.
There was a bump the size of mount Everest where her skull had cracked into the log.
She winced and swung herself up, her feet touching the grimy floor. She frowned but disregarded the filthy circumstances, instead trying to figure out where she was. Her head felt foggy and bruised.
Robin rubbed the back of her neck and braced herself against her knees, the room swimming from dizziness. She focused on breathing and tried to ignore the ache suffusing across her head and down her neck.
It didn’t help that someone was clanging against metal, with the ferocity of a hyper two-year old.
She brought her head up to see what was making the noise, and then screamed, snapping into attention.
A shriveled, monstrous creature hung in chains across a narrow hallway. It was in a prison cell, she realized, a moment before she realized that’s where she was, too: behind thick, rusted, hundreds-of-years-old bars.
Two cell doors separated them. For this brief moment, she wasn’t upset about the captivity.
She clung to the bench. The creature had burning red eyes, and they were trained on her as he hissed and cried, shaking the chains. He was snapping his jaws at her, revealing a set of grimy, disgusting zombie teeth.
Robin shivered and stared at the creature. Is that a vampire? she thought
