Ivormantis (13 page)

The vampire was not chained up this time, not like the others had been. Instead, he had his hands bound before him in reinforced steal cuffs. He shot a glare up at Dominic as he entered the room, daring to even hiss at him. He was attempting to intimidate Dominic with vampire tactics. Dominic casually strolled around the room, allowing time to be on his side, acting as if he wasn’t ready to throttle this vampire. Finally, he stopped and stood in the middle of the room, stance wide, hands behind his back, shoulders squared, and head held high as he narrowed his eyes on the vampire.

“I’m going to ask you a few questions, but make no mistake, vampire, I will get my answers,” Dominic growled deeply. His voice would have even had the fiercest warrior shaking.

The vampire scuffed up at him. “Yeah, right, keep on dreaming, big guy.”

Dominic shook his head. “It’ll be you who will wish you were dreaming by the time I’m through with you.” He grabbed the front of the vampire’s shirt, and threw him up against the wall. Pinning him down, Dominic got right in his face, close enough to be able to see everything the pathetic creature felt flash in his eyes. “Bullock sent you, yes?”

“What of it?”

“He sent you for the Omega Elf. I want to know why.”

The vampire laughed in his face. “You want to know why he wants her? Really? Are you that blind or that stupid?”

Dominic threw him against the wall again, making sure to knock his head hard against the stone wall. “What does he want her for? What are his plans?” he snarled.

The vampire shrugged. “To fuck her and drink her blood, allowing him to become the strongest immortal in the universe.” He gave himself away by chuckling at the end.

“There’s a much larger movement here, what is the situation?” he questioned again, moving the vampire’s head closer to a torch mounted on the wall.

The vampire looked up at the flames, fear clearly visible in his eyes. He could try to play it tough with Dominic, but he was too afraid of death and he knew he wasn’t going to win this battle.

“Answer my question correctly and I’ll spare you for a few minutes longer.”

“So you want me to spill everything to you only to have you kill me?!”

Dominic shrugged. “Or I could wrap you up with a big pretty bow and have your ass postal delivered back to you master and let him deal with you. I’m sure he will be pleased with you once he finds out you failed and spilled your guts with all his dirty secrets. I thought it would be more pleasant if I just killed you. I was trying to be nice. Which is something I rarely do, so you might want to take the offer while it still stands.”

The vampire silently stared at him for a moment, as if he was accessing the situation. He actually was having a hard time believing what he was hearing. He was a fairly new vampire and had only heard a little bit about dragon shifters, but what he had heard was that they were easy going and laid back most of the time. Obviously, that was not always the case. Clearly, if you messed with or threatened their mates, you were no better than a piece of dead meat.

Dominic shook him. “Am I coming through loud and clear, bloodsucker?”

He gulped. “Okay, I don’t know everything by any means, but what I do know is that Bullock isn’t working alone on this one. There’s been a witch and a warlock coming around a lot lately, having private meetings with him in the late hours of the night. There’s something bigger planned than just us vampire spawns coming and attacking. That’s really all we’re doing. Bullock isn’t expecting us to be able to bring the elf back on our own. He is just using us as a distraction and a way for him to be able to see how you dragons work and how heavily she is protected here.” He paused and looked around himself for a moment before continuing. “Bullock is the least of your worries. He may be the biggest and badest vamp in Russia, but he’s not the one you need to fear. Worry about the other two, because not knowing their role in all of this is scary.”

Dominic nodded, loosening his hold on the vampire and allowing him to stand back on his own feet. “Though I’m glad you listened and gave me the answers that I wanted, I can’t help but question why you fessed up with little arguing.”

The vampire shrugged. “You were right. It is better that I tell you what I know and have you kill me than to go back to Bullock. However, I have nothing else to add. I’ve told you everything I know, so I’m now ready to take my due. Kill me as you see fit,” he said with a deep sigh, bowing his head and lowering his gaze down to the ground.

Dominic took a step back. Something was different about this vampire than the others he had seen. He had never known a vampire, even a young vampire, to be so willing to accept their fate. Almost as if it would be a relief to him not to worry about all the problems he was facing. Perhaps, he’d had a hard time with things since Bullock became his master. Whatever it was, it intrigued him. “You don’t seem quite the cold son-of-a-bitch as so many of your kind are.”

“I never really got being the whole scary nightmare vampire thing,” he answered quietly.

“So what would you do if you had a second chance? To keep your life and have a better lifestyle?”

The vampire looked up at him in shock. He was giving him a second chance? Really? “I would take it! No matter what it was.”

Dominic nodded. “I think I’ve got just the vamp to set you up with.”

Dominic sat in Blain’s office directly across from him. On his left in the other seat was Edmond. He watched as Blain hesitated to make the call.

“This could very well be the beginning of some major trouble on this planet. If word gets out the council is corrupt, nobody will listen to them.” He stopped and sat back in his seat as he sighed deeply. “I’ve long suspected Hazellette wasn’t on the right side of things. There is still the matter of her forcing Natasha into abusive situations before she came here. I know for a fact the witch had a hard-on hatred for Natasha. But now this goes much deeper.” He got up from his chair and headed over to the small built-in bar. Pouring three drinks, he handed his two guests theirs and then took his and sat back down in his office chair.

“What concerns me is we don’t know who to trust. We are taking a chance in calling Elijah, although he has never done anything to lead me to believe he isn’t on the good side of things. I just don’t know how he is going to act when he finds out we’ve killed numerous vampires and that a co-worker of his has gone rogue.”

Blain tipped his glass up and drank down the contents in one swallow. “Well, I guess we are about to find out who we can trust and who we can’t.”

Blain hit the speaker button as he dialed the phone. A moment later, a deep male voice came across the line.

“Blain Barrymire, I fully expected you to be on your honeymoon for another month. Don’t tell me your pretty little mate has kicked you out of bed already?”

Blain chuckled before replying, “No, my friend, I wish I was able to stay in bed, however, life seems to be getting in the way of that. I have a problem that I’m hoping you can help me with. I’m going to have to ask that you keep this strictly between you and me. We have some problems brewing and they involve your kind.”

There was silence across the line for a few seconds before they heard, “How many are we talking about?”

Blain hesitated for only a second before replying, “An entire clan. And we have reason to believe that someone from the council is involved in this mess also.”

“Hold tight on everything until tomorrow. I’ll be there by late afternoon.” The line went dead as soon as the last word was spoken.

Did he already know the treachery going on within its ranks? Were they making their problems worse by confiding in him, not knowing where he stood?

The men had talked about this in detail after Blain made the phone call. Finally, Blain had reminded Dominic that they could always go back to Dragonose to live. The council knew about their homeland, but had no jurisdiction there, nor did they have a way of getting there. That just left Edmond and his wolves.

“If things go south, you might not want to be here,” Blain informed him after his phone call with Elijah. Judging a vampire’s emotions was almost impossible. And while Blain was confident that he could get his mate, Dominic, and Meldamiriel to the safe land of Dragonose if things went bad, he knew he couldn’t take an entire pack of wolves.

Edmond was shaking his head almost before Blain stopped speaking. “No, my pack feels a responsibility to protect the Omega. My pack can take care of themselves. Just keep the Omega protected.”

The following afternoon the doorbell rang right on time. Now was the time that they would find out if this vampire was friend or foe.

Blain went to the door and opened it. He offered his hand in friendship to the vampire. “Elijah, come in. Thanks for coming on such short notice.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll admit that you have me intrigued.” Blain led him to his office, where Dominic was already seated.

“Elijah, this is a good friend of mine from Dragonose, Dominic Mantasillion. Dominic, Elijah, head representative for vampires in the Council.”

Dominic and Elijah shook hands and both men sat down. It never ceased to amaze Blain how graceful vampires could be, especially the older ones. Elijah was definitely old. Blain had no idea how old, but knew he had to be at least a couple hundred years old. Blain walked around to his desk and sat down, taking a moment to gather his thoughts. The next few minutes could go either way. They would know shortly if Elijah was truly holding up the laws of the supernatural or if he was in with the ones that were corrupt.

Looking at him, Blain started. “Elijah, my friend, do you happen to know anything about an Omega Elf, one with substantial power? It seems she has been running from your kind for a while now.”

“So, it is true?” the vampire inquired while sitting up, suddenly taking interest in this situation.

“Is what true?” Blain inquired carefully. He was well aware of Dominic hanging onto his dragon by a mere thread.

“I have heard whispered rumors for years there is an Omega Elf with untold powers.” He stopped and shook his head as he chuckled to himself. He had blown those rumors away as rubbish only to find out now that it was true.

Blain looked over at Dominic to make certain that his friend had his beast firmly in control. “Yes, it is true. She is Dominic’s mate, my friend, so for your own safety, please tread carefully on this subject.”

Elijah turned to Dominic. “Your mate? I don’t know whether to congratulate you or pity you.”

Dominic chuckled, “Yeah, I know what you mean.”

“Okay, so let me see how close to the mark I get. Everywhere she goes she is in danger. There are vampires, and I dare say, other supernatural creatures that would do almost anything just for a taste of her blood.” He stopped and looked over to Dominic. “Well, how close did I come?”

“Pretty damn close,” Dominic growled. “But there is much more to this story. Bullock’s clan is the one out for blood and we’ve had no choice but to defend our lives and those of our mates. We had to exterminate them. I’m sorry, I know as a vampire, it probably saddens you that your own kind have been taken down, but believe me, we simply didn’t have a choice.”

“Oh, I believe you. I don’t know you well enough yet, but I do know Blain. I know he would never allow bloodshed on his property unless it was to protect what was his.” Elijah sat back in the chair. “Okay, I’ll bite, what piece of the puzzle do I not know about.”

Blain looked at the vampire and frowned. This was going to be the difficult part. “Old friend, I really don’t know how to tell you this, but some of the members of the council are involved in this.”

The vampire sat stone still, not moving a muscle, not even breathing for a few minutes. Blain began to worry. Would Elijah take the council’s side? Elijah finally came out of an almost trance-like state and wiped his hand down over his face. “Somehow, this doesn’t surprise me. By any chance is that old hag Hazellette involved?”

“Afraid so,” Blain answered quietly.

“Who else?”

“We aren’t too sure at this point. We do know she is working with a warlock, one that we believe to be very old and powerful. The wizard and Hazellette are working together to get Bullock’s clan to capture Meldamiriel.”