House of Ravens (11 page)

The kiss is not gentle. It’s possessive and
demanding. Tongue to tongue. Teeth biting and aggressive. It’s a
promise and a curse. Ian and Alivia will never be able to exist
without the other ever again. For if one goes, the other will
extinguish forever.

On it carries, heedless of time. Existing
only for one another.

After all the hurt. After all of the lies
and the secrets. After all the blood and all the physical
transformations. We’ve made it to here. To this space where we have
finally arrived at our destiny.

“
I love you,” I breathe
into his mouth, my hands knotted into his hair. “Forever and ever,
Ian.”

He pulls away, studying my lips, rubbing his
thumbs over my cheeks. “I told you once, it’s never going to be
easy. It’s always going to be hard and there’s always going to be
some problems. But for me? This, us, it’s all worth it.”

I nod. “Yeah. It’s worth it.”

Ian bites his lip, looking suddenly
sheepish. “I don’t even have a ring,” he chuckles. “I mean, I’ve
been thinking about asking that question for months and months, but
it kind of just came out.”

I laugh with him, resting my forehead
against his, holding his face between my hands. “There is plenty of
time. For tonight, this is enough.” I press my lips, very gently to
his.

Ian nods in agreement, backing away, once
more taking my hands in his. “And I promise, if we find Henry, I
will ask for permission.”

I chuckle. “How old fashioned of you.”

“
Hey,” he says with a
shrug. “I am a Southern gentleman.”

I laugh with him, leaning forward once again
for another kiss.

“
If we’re going to have to
deal with newlyweds, I think I might move back to the Institute.” I
suddenly hear Lexington’s voice, coming from the direction of the
library. It isn’t spoken loudly, but I hear it with no problem
whatsoever.

“
Congratulations,” Markov’s
voice comes from his bedroom.

“
Party time!” Cameron says
in excitement.

I just laugh, watching the mixed emotions
roll over Ian’s face. Embarrassment, horror, annoyance,
entertainment.

“
About time,” Christian
says.

“
Thanks, I guess,
everyone,” I chuckle. “And yeah, it is about time.”

“
ALIVIA, I THINK YOU
SHOULD see this,” Rath comes to get me from the library where I’m
talking to Christian, three days later. The look on his face is
angry, and ready to kill.

My heart immediately jumps into my throat
and the both of us follow Rath up the stairs into my father’s
office. He has a laptop open on the desk and when I round into view
to see what is going on, I see so many numbers on the screen.

“
Someone hacked into the
House bank account this morning,” Rath says as he sits at the desk.
“They’ve been trying to transfer money out all day. So far, the
bank has been able to block it, but they’re trying very hard to
take everything.”

“
They’re finally striking,”
I say, watching as another notification flashes on the screen,
asking Rath to authorize the transfer of four million dollars to
another account. He hits decline.

“
If you’re trying to
dismantle a House, taking their finances is a damn good way to
start,” Christian says, his eyes scrolling over
everything.

Rath nods his head. “I’ve already called a
new bank and they’re working on setting up a new, more secure
account for us. This won’t happen, but they said it’s going to take
another hour.”

“
And you’ve been able to
block all the transfers so far?” I ask, standing up straight and
crossing my arms over my chest.

Rath nods in confirmation as he declines
another transfer request. “Everything is still there, for now.”

“
Where the hell is Henry?”
I yell in frustration as I turn away from the computer. “I need to
know why this is so personal against the Conrath family. Why they
have such a huge grudge against this House, and why they’re trying
to take us apart.”

“
Patrols still haven’t
found anything,” Christian echoes what I already know.

Damn sneaky vampires. Born or Bitten.

But I whip around. “Can we figure out where
they’re trying to hack us from? Trace IP addresses or
something?”

“
Yes, you can,” a voice
suddenly says from the doorway. We all look up to see Lexington
walking in with a laptop in hand. “Give me some access, and I’ll
get this little annoyance flushed out for you.”

“
You can do this?” I ask in
shock as he sets his computer down on the desk, waiting for Rath to
move out of the way. Rath looks up at me for confirmation that I’m
okay with this.

“
Every House needs their IT
guy,” Lexington says with a shrug. “The Allaways had just acquired
someone new a few weeks before the whole swap-a-roo happened. Guess
that’s why Charles let me go.” He says this with quite the grudge.
“But yeah, I can do this.”

I look down at Rath and give him a nod. He
moves aside to let Lexington take his spot, rolling his head side
to side dramatically, stretching his arms as if he’s getting ready
to lift weights or arm wrestle.

“
Just give me some space,
this could take a few hours,” he says as his fingers begin flying
over the keyboard.

“
This is great,” I say,
giving him some room. “This might be the first real clue we’ve
gotten in where to find any part of the army.”

“
Hopefully, they’re stupid
and didn’t think to re-route their signal,” Lexington says as he
continues working. “Smart hackers know how to hide their location.
Stupid hackers don’t.”

“
So, we hope this army,
who’s eluded us for ten months, is stupid,” Christian pipes up
doubtfully. “Good luck.”

“
Positive attitude is
everything, my friend!” Lexington responds dramatically as his
fingers tap keys on both laptops.

“
Anna!” I yell because I
know she’s outside on property patrol. I hear a door fly open and
just a moment later, she suddenly appears in the office. Her eyes
glow red and she stands protectively in front of me, sweeping the
area for threats.

“
No, I’m okay,” I say with
a shake of my head. Between the four of us, we explain what’s going
on. “So I want the patrols doubled. We finally have a lead. They
obviously know I’m back, and they’re ready to kick this war into
gear. I’d rather we make the first physical move than
them.”

“
You got it,” she says. She
pulls out her cell phone as she turns to leave. “Trinity, I need
you on duty, now. Smith will be meeting up with you in a few
minutes.” Her voice trails off as she heads back
outside.

Let the war begin.

THE SOUNDS OUTSIDE, WHEN IT’S this dark,
when we’re this far into the backcountry, are intense. Insects,
creaking trees, an owl hooting; it’s overwhelming. We’re doing our
best to remain silent, but they’re making such a racket.

For the first time, I crossed the river into
Louisiana. Not far, through the main town, down a dirt road about
three miles, and here we are, in swampland. Standing water crops up
everywhere, and these creepy trees grow out of it, Spanish moss
hanging from the limbs, long and swaying in the breeze.

It’s nearly pitch black, but our vampire
eyes don’t have any problem seeing through the dark.

Ian, Danny, Samuel, Trinity, Smith, Anna,
and I all soundlessly stalk through the back roads, closing in on
the small trailer house where Lexington traced the location of the
computer. Each of us is armed, heavily, with stakes, guns,
crossbows. We’re an army unto ourselves.

The rest of the House waits in town, poised
to leap to our aid with the tap of a phone call.

But considering the size of the trailer and
what we scouted of the location beforehand, none of us think there
is more than a small hive waiting for us.

Ian creeps up to the side of the trailer, a
blur of motion and Danny darts around the back side. The rest of us
silently wait from behind trees, guns and crossbows at the
ready.

Slowly, Ian rises to standing, stretching to
his toes in order to see through the windows. He peers inside for a
moment, before ducking down out of sight again. He creeps along to
look into another room, doing this for every window in the entire
trailer.

Just as he’s finishing, Danny creeps back
around the edge of the trailer, and the both of them dart back to
our position in a blur. Together, as a group, we retreat one
hundred yards, to keep ears from overhearing our conversations.

“
There’s two of them in the
livin’ area,” Danny says, rearranging weapons, getting ready for
action.

“
One in the bedroom,
sleeping,” Ian continues. “He’s got an automatic assault rifle next
to him on the bed, so we’re probably going to have to take him out
as quickly as possible, grab the other two at the same
time.”

“
Anna, you and Trinity and
Smith come with me, we’ll take out the two working their magic on
the computer,” Danny says, eying them, and they nod in
response.

“
Samuel, you’re with me,”
Ian says as he checks Samuel’s gun. “I’m going to tie him up; your
job is just to get that gun as far away from his reach as you can.
You take possession of it, and guard it like it’s your dick on a
foosball table, you got it?”

Samuel nods, looking scared. This isn’t his
element. He’s been the son of a Broken House leader for so long,
and then not utilized for fifteen years under Jasmine’s leadership.
But the time to rise up is now, and he’s here.

“
Remember,” Anna pipes up.
“Do not kill them unless you absolutely have to. We need
information out of these guys. We can’t screw this up. It’s the
first lead we’ve had this entire time.”

I want to fight them, to argue that I should
be going inside, helping take them down. But every single one of
them has made it abundantly clear that I am only to wait outside
and not get involved until they’re disabled and ready for
questioning.

“
Liv, you wait twenty yards
away until this is all over,” Ian says. And the pleading look in
his eyes tells me he knows there’s a risk that I won’t do as told.
He’s learned me well over the last ten months.

“
I’ll do my best,” I say in
annoyance.

“
No best,” Danny says,
giving me a sharp look. “Somethin’ happens to you, everythin’ falls
apart. You stay out of the way until it’s time.”

He’s never once been sharp with me, but his
tone tells me how firmly he believes what he’s just said.

“
Okay,” I say with a little
more humility.

“
Everybody ready?” Ian
asks. They each nod, and then they’re gone, darting through the
dark.

My enhanced eyes watch them as they slip
between trees silently. Ian and Samuel position themselves toward
the back of the trailer, each of them picking up a huge rock, which
I assume they’ll use to smash the window. The other four gather
around the front door.

Anna holds up five fingers, and one by one,
starts curling them into her fist, counting down.

Three…two…one.

The glass shatters and Danny kicks down the
door with one swift motion, and every one of them floods into the
trailer. Shouts and yells shoot out into the night and the trailer
actually rocks back and forth on its cinderblock foundation. Ian is
bellowing for someone to stay down; Anna is barking orders for
someone to stay on their knees.