Immortality Stolen (The Mortal One Series Book 2) (19 page)

Chapter 18

“OLIVIER IS HERE,” Nico said, buttoning his shirt the rest of the way.

“What?” I asked, turning towards the door. “How do you know?”

Nico opened the door. “Because he announced himself when getting off of the elevator.”

“Oh.” Why did the vampires keep surprising me with these things? “That was nice of him,” I said, hoping to smooth things over with him and Olivier. I knew Nico hated being near him or rather having me near him.

Olivier greeted Nico and then me.

“I have something for you,” Olivier said, handing me a long box.

My brows rose. “What’s this?”

“Open it.”

Nico came to stand behind me.

I opened the box, which revealed a silver blade with an ornate handle. “Thanks?” I didn’t know what I was supposed to do with it, but it looked pretty.

“We don’t know what tonight’s going to be like. You should be protected,” Olivier said.

“She has us,” Nico said. I was surprised he included the two of them in that statement instead of just himself.

Olivier nodded. “She does. But we don’t know what’s going to happen. I personally would feel better if she had this on her.”

“Thank you,” Nico said.

“I don’t know how to use it,” I said, stating the obvious as I stared at the blade. Running I could handle, but now I needed to know how to use a blade? Come on.

Olivier reached over and held the knife. He demonstrated how I was supposed to hold it in my right hand with the blade on its side. His thumb was on the top of the handle and he made a violent thrusting movement forward. “If someone comes at you, this is the movement you take.” He demonstrated more fully. “Understand?”

I nodded and took the knife from the palm of his hand.

“Show me, Dylan,” Nico said. He seemed interested in the knife and providing me with some additional protection.

I held the knife, testing the weight and flipping it over in my palm a few times. My thumb wrapped around the bottom of the blade and Olivier grabbed my hand.

“You’ll break your thumb or another finger that way. Like this,” he said. He opened up my fingers and wrapped my fingers around the blade the correct way.

I looked up at Nico to see what he had to say about the demonstration.

“Listen to him. I do not know about knives. My body is the only weapon I have ever used or needed.”

The truth shocked me, particularly that he said it in Olivier’s company. Though maybe it was a threat that his body was enough. It was hard to tell.

“Will I need this?” I asked, turning to both of them.

“The blade is silver, so it can hurt a vampire. It won’t kill us, but the blade can burn our skin,” Olivier said.

He touched the blade to his forefinger and the skin began to sizzle, melting into the blade. He pulled the blade back, pressed his finger into his mouth and was as if nothing had happened.

“Oh my God,” I said. Hearing that the blade could hurt was one thing, but seeing it was horrifying.

“You needed to see,” Nico said and Olivier nodded.

“Okay, so what do I need a silver blade for?”

Olivier stiffened. “The vampires in Paris are not the friendliest. They have not been friendly towards me and I doubt they will be towards you. You are human.”

Thanks for the reminder
.

“Dylan, be serious,” Nico said. “If Olivier says the vampires are not friendly, they may not take too kindly to you being at a supernatural event such as what will go down tonight.”

I looked at him. “They’re not going to attack me with the two of you right there. And you’re the sovereign.”

“I am not. They took a blood oath to Costin, not to me. I am simply standing in and they are to be courteous of that, but it does not hold up all the time,” Nico said.

Well, fuck. Now they’re telling me all of this?

I held the blade in my hand. “Okay, so what do I do with it?”

Olivier reached into his pocket. “Put your leg up here.”

“What?”

Olivier patted the table.

Nico took the straps out of Olivier’s hand when he realized what it was. “It’s a leg strap for the knife. We’re going to strap it to your calf.”

I pulled the right leg of my jeans up.

“You can’t wear those tonight,” Olivier said, pointing at my boots. It would block my ability to reach the blade.

“What am I supposed to wear?”

Nico nodded to my sneakers. “You run well in those.”

“I’m going to be running tonight?” I asked. Now this whole thing was really starting to freak me out. I had my nerves calmed by talking to Gregorio about the ceremony, but he had no way of telling me about the Parisian vampires. Though his comment about vampires being assholes was starting to come back to me again.

“There’s always the possibility,” Olivier said. He looked over at Nico, who squared his shoulders and nodded.

I unzipped my boots and reached for the sneakers. Nico ran the straps around my calf at the bottom of the sheath and again at the top. I looked down at the black leather. It was badass, but didn’t know if I was badass enough to go through with it. Some of what I was thinking made it into the forefront of my thoughts.

“You’re going to have to be a badass if it comes down to it,” Nico said.

I made a face at him. He was reading my thoughts without permission.

He knew that face. “I’m sorry. But I need to make sure you can handle this.”

“He’s right,” Olivier said. “If the vampires turn on you in the middle of the ceremony, are you going to be able to run, grab the blade, and use it if you have to?”

I thought about that for a moment. Jen and I had taken a self-defense class years ago, so I had an idea of how to take an attacker down, but these were vampires. If it meant life or death, I could do it. Slowly, I nodded.

“Good,” Olivier said and gave the strap a little tug to make sure it wasn’t going anywhere. The leather was biting into my leg a little, but I supposed it was best to remind me that it was there and so it stayed in place.

“I hope it doesn’t come to that,” Nico said.

“Yeah, me too.” I pulled my jeans back down and tied my sneakers. So much for looking cool with my boots. Sneakers would be more comfortable, though, especially if I had to run from a bunch of fucking vampires.

Chapter 19

WE WERE STANDING around in the dark. Dark was the understatement of the year. It was pitch black and I could barely make out my own hand when held in front of me. The vampires weren’t bothered by it with all of their night vision, but I wished for some goggles right about now – or at least a damn flashlight. The team of vampires that were originally assigned to slaughter the zombies by Costin were in attendance. I didn’t know their names, their preference of blood type, or anything else and that made me nervous. The only thing that comforted me was the leather strap pressing into my calf.

Nico must have sensed my uneasiness and gripped my shoulder. I placed my hand on top of his and gave it a squeeze for security. We simply stood in front of the catacombs, waiting for Gregorio to show. I wondered how his scouting had gone to find out where all the zombies were.

Nico’s fingers tapped my shoulders and I saw what he saw. A figure was walking across the park towards us. He was carrying a bright flashlight and for that, I was thankful. Gotta love when the necromancer is mortal just like you. Maybe not just like me, but he needed something to see in the dark of the night.

“Dylan, Good Evening,” Gregorio said as he approached.

“How are you?” I asked.

I heard Nico take a sharp inhale. He didn’t like that Gregorio had kept me company while everyone was sleeping. Personally, I thought it was the friendly thing to do.

“Where is your master?” Gregorio asked. He used the appropriate term to be PC in front of all the vampires.

Olivier snickered. If I could have, I would have flipped him off and he knew it.

Nico stepped forward. “I am. Thank you for coming out this evening.”

“I never miss a business opportunity. You have the funds Olivier promised me?” Gregorio looked at me as we exchanged amused looks regarding the funds.

“I do. We will settle that when I have seen the zombies go back into the ground for myself,” Nico said.

Gregorio shook his head. “No offense, but I have been fucked around by vampires one too many times. I take my money up front or I turn around and leave on the next plane to Berlin.”

“Nico,” Olivier said, his voice holding a warning tone.

I knew that Gregorio wasn’t going anywhere. It was his way of flexing muscle with the vampires over the one thing he could.

Nico turned to Olivier and while words were not exchanged, I’m sure the look that was given said it all. Nico didn’t hide his dislike for Olivier in any way. Even though the two of them shared a common interest in keeping me safe, it wasn’t enough. My guess is the look was something along the line of “
Stay the hell out of this
.”

“The money is in the back of the SUV. Would you like someone to put it into your car for you?” Nico was condescending and Gregorio responded by standing taller.

“I’ll take it myself,” Gregorio said. He followed Nico to the SUV, unzipped a few of the bags, made a quick inventory of the contents, and then nodded.

Nico grabbed three of the bags and followed Gregorio over to his car and loaded them into the trunk. “Now, what do you need for us to do?”

I knew that Gregorio didn’t like vampires and didn’t like to be rushed. Olivier’s warning tone was justified. If Nico didn’t settle down, Olivier assumed this would be blown. While I didn’t know Gregorio well, my guess was that he would have done this job for free because having zombies discovered in Paris would be bad for business.

“I brought the candles you asked for,” I stepped up, hoping to break some of the tension in the air.

Gregorio nodded. “Thank you, Dylan. Can you arrange them in a circle over here and then light them?”

“She is not your personal assistant,” Nico said quickly, stopping me with his arm.

“It’s fine, I don’t mind,” I said.
Nico, what the fuck?

Olivier let out an uncomfortable cough, reminding me that Nico wasn’t the only one that could read minds. Great. I’m sure Nico would be talking to me about that one later tonight.

“Human sacrifice?” Gregorio asked

Every hair on my body stood up the way that Gregorio said it as though humans had no real value, even though he was one.

“Yes,” Olivier stepped up.

He brought a female with long blonde hair forward. She was blindfolded, gagged, and had rope digging into her wrists. He hadn’t told me the human sacrifice was going to be a female. She was only a few years younger than me.

I shook my head and started to walk away from the circle that I had just lit. Nico grabbed me by the wrist.

“Where are you going?” He asked.

“I’m not watching the sacrifice,” I said. It wasn’t a plea. This may be the only way to lay the zombies down, but I didn’t have to watch her burn or bleed out or whatever else would happen to her.

I took a walk down the path where it was dimly lit, but better than the pitch dark that surrounded the entrance of the catacombs. I kept humming to myself because I didn’t want to hear the girl struggle. The only thing that she did wrong was not have sex before a vampire came upon her. She died a virgin and that sucked.

Caught up in my own thoughts, I let out a shriek when someone grabbed me by the shoulder.

“Keep it down.” It was Olivier. “The sacrifice is done so you can come back.”

I nodded and followed him back, the whole time wondering why Nico didn’t come get me. He was probably
supervising
Gregorio to make sure the money was being well spent.

The candles were blazing higher and puddles of blood were in the center along with smears in various patterns and designs leading to each of the candles. There was one candle for every zombie that needed to be put down, but other than that, I had no idea how any of this was supposed to work. Even when Gregorio had explained it to me, I just nodded, pretending to know what he was talking about.

Gregorio stepped over some of the candles and stood in the middle of the circle. The candlelight illuminated his face while he read an incantation. There was just enough light for me to see his eyes roll back when he raised his arms over his head. He hit a higher note in the incantation and my stomach lurched.

I leaned forward, grabbed my knees, and vomited on the ground in front of me. Uncontrollably. I couldn’t have stopped if someone paid me. Nico leapt to my side, holding the hair out of my face as I let out a few final dry heaves before coughing and standing upright.

“She’s sensitive,” Olivier said.

“Leave her alone. This is a lot for her to deal with,” Nico said.

Olivier shook his head. “She’s a sensitive.”

“Can you stop talking as though I’m not standing right here?” I asked, wiping my mouth and wishing I had a breath mint.

“They’re coming,” Gregorio said.

As good as his word, several zombies rounded the corner of
Boulevard Saint-Jacques
. I watched in horror and amazement as these dead men walked into the cemetery. They all had blank stares across their faces and looked as though they were being controlled by a puppet master in the sky. Many of them walked with a wobble and it seemed that it would only be a matter of time before people started to notice that they weren’t the homeless drunkards that crowded certain areas of Paris. They were fucking zombies.

People saw what they wanted to see. Zombies weren’t real. Even if a zombie walked down the street and looked like a zombie, people would rationalize it and explain it away so they didn’t have to deal with the fact that there are many things that go bump in the night. Most people would never stop screaming if they found out about half the shit that was happening in their city. It made me wonder what the hell was wrong with me that I wasn’t one of them.

“
Mia mortale
, are you okay?”

I nodded. “Yeah. I’m just watching this.”

As one of the zombies came rounding the corner, so did a police officer.

“Umm,” I said, trying to make sure everyone was seeing what I was.

“Shit,” Nico mumbled.

Olivier jogged up to where the officer was.

There were a few words exchanged and the officer kept looking over his shoulder to see what was going on in the circle. Olivier kept moving in front of the officer to block as much as he could. He was at least two inches taller than the officer, but the guy still had a pretty good view.

I looked back at the circle and the girl that was killed for the sacrifice was nowhere in sight, so that was one good thing in our favor.

Another one of the vampires took off to go find out what was taking so long with Olivier. He said something in French that I translated as best as I could. If I was correct, the vampire just threatened to kill the officer if he didn’t leave. I looked to Nico to ask and he shook his head. “Don’t ask,” he said.

The vampire approached Olivier and the officer. The officer reached for his hip holster and the vampire moved in a blur to snap his neck.

I let out a gasp and the snicker of a few vampires behind me caught me by surprise. They just killed a fucking cop.

Olivier yelled something at the other vampire and both grabbed the body of the officer and brought him back to the blazing fire.

“I had everything under control,” Olivier said. “Until Colin here decided to come over.”

“What made you go over there?” Nico asked.

“He was a member of the
Gendarmerie
. Military police,” Colin answered, kicking the body. “He has a fucking machine gun on him.”

“We need to be quick about this. It doesn’t look as though he had a partner or called anyone,” Nico said.

Gregorio glanced at me as if to tell me that I had to be careful. He continued with the chanting and Colin and another vampire who came out of the crowd disposed of the officer. How they were going to do that was not something that was shared and I didn’t want to know.

Within ten minutes’ time, eleven zombies stood at the circle, each one in front of a candle. Gregorio reached into his pocket and pulled out what looked like sand. He said a few things in a language that I did not recognize and sprinkled it on the lit candles as he went around in a circle. As each candle was extinguished, the zombies collapsed onto the ground with a thunk.

Nico appeared more startled than I did.

Gregorio walked out of the circle. “It is done.”

“Done?” Nico asked. “I thought they were going into the ground.”

“That was not the deal. I said I would lay them down. Here they are.”

“Now what?” Nico asked.

Olivier spoke up. “We will slaughter them, burn them, and spread the ashes.”

“Wise,” Gregorio said.

“Why don’t you take Dylan back to the hotel,” Olivier suggested. “She doesn’t need to see this.”

“I want to be sure they are destroyed,” Nico said.

While I knew that it was Nico’s job, I was a little disappointed that he didn’t take me back per Olivier’s suggestion. I didn’t want to see any of this. And my stomach couldn’t handle it.

“Olivier,” Nico said it as though Olivier was supposed to know what needed to be done.

“Would you like me to take her back to the hotel?” Olivier asked.

There was no way that Nico would allow that.

“Yes.”

Holy shit. You could tell that Nico wasn’t happy about it, but he was acting sovereign and he had a responsibility to make sure this was handled properly. He was also trying to look out for me.

“No problem.”

“The hotel room. Leave her on the inside and then go home.”

“No problem,” Olivier repeated.

“I will see you back in the room soon,” Nico said. “I love you,” he whispered, though we both knew all of the vampires could hear and were watching. He kissed me with an intensity that took me by surprise. It wasn’t a kiss of passion but a kiss of ownership and it bothered me. He was putting on a show and using me to make it look good.

Now I was supposed to run along and be a good little pet while he took over the situation here.