Omega (34 page)

William was one of the vampires, plus a woman and two humans. When Will had shown up, the dog had found a bloody patch of ground and what was probably the missing Billy Joe Mickler’s bloodhound.

He finished the scotch, pulled his pistol out of the desk drawer, and headed out of the clinic. It looked as if the only way things would get done around this fucking place was if he did everything himself. If he saw Shelton, he’d shoot him.

What a godforsaken shithole this whole town had turned out to be. A fine, cold mist wet his face as he walked to his car, and he pulled his jacket around him more tightly. Buying this little mill town had been a genius move on Murphy’s part. No vampire in his right mind would want to live here. Yet they had, hadn’t they? And some of them were still loyal enough to Murphy to follow him into some underground pit.

Including William.

Matthias tried to figure out where he’d misjudged his son, at what point he’d miscalculated what it would take to break him without driving him away. Maybe it was the summer he’d sent the boy to live with Shelton. After he’d let William return to New York, he’d been docile, even skittish. He’d followed orders, kept his smart mouth shut, and seemed to be becoming exactly the follower Matthias had needed him to be. A month
later, with no warning, he’d disappeared and had proven very adept at eluding his father.

Will had dropped off the map for more than two decades before showing up as one of Murphy’s acolytes.

Yes, Matthias was almost sure the summer with Shelton had been the thing that pushed William over the edge, again proving what a shortsighted, weak man his own son had become. Well, he’d find him again, and he’d break him once and for all. And if he couldn’t break William, he’d kill him. This game between them had gone on long enough.

He pulled two more projectile grenades and slipped them into his pocket. First, he had to find the hole and figure out a way to extract William. Then he’d blast the whole thing shut and cut off their water supply altogether. Murphy and his friends could live under there until they drained their humans and the humans died of dehydration. Then Murphy and all his pals would starve into dried husks, neither alive nor dead—all together forever in their little hole with their dead fams.

Long live Penton.

Matthias cranked his car and drove out of town, heading east. He watched the odometer until he’d reached eight miles out, then parked and exited the car. This spot was near the Alabama-Georgia state line, and there was an automotive plant not far from here. So he began walking a pattern of circles, back and forth, using the full moon—dim due to the heavy mist—as a guidepost.

He stilled at the sound of footsteps in the leaves a few hundred yards ahead of him. He scented the air. Humans? Two of them, if he was reading the situation right. Why the hell would humans be traipsing around in the woods at midnight in this weather?

He had the sensory advantage on them. To himself—and only himself—he’d admit he wasn’t the strongest master vampire. He’d never honed the skills to scent the way some masters could, nor was he strong at mental communication. But he was a master, nonetheless. He could roll human minds and wipe memories easily enough.

Which might or might not be necessary. Matthias slipped behind the trunk of a massive oak and watched the humans approach. Two men—one middle-aged, the other younger. Both had that erect, purposeful walk that hinted at a military background. Maybe some military unit was on maneuvers nearby, or one of those crazy survivalist groups Matthias had heard about. The last thing he wanted to deal with on this cold, wet, miserable night was a horde of walking human testosterone.

He stayed in his spot and was relieved to see the men continue eastward in the direction of the automotive factory. He waited to see if any more arrived. When they didn’t, he moved on toward the clearing they’d passed through.

The smell of blood was strong here, but it was vampire blood, not human. Matthias knelt and scanned the carpet of wet leaves.

A sound to his south caught his attention, and he rose to follow it. Deeper into the woods, under a tree canopy so dense the mist didn’t reach him, he saw a flash of color through the trees and scented vampire.

And it wasn’t one bonded to him. Had his luck finally changed?

Moving with stealth, Matthias edged from pine to oak to pine, keeping a tree trunk between him and his prey.

The sense of movement stopped, and he knew the vampire had scented him as well. He stepped into the open and cocked his pistol.

“Whoever’s there, show yourself.”

A flash of light clothing moved among the dense brush. Matthias’s heart stopped at the sight of his only son stepping into the clearing.

A
idan tossed his cell phone on the dining room table of the small safe house he maintained in an unassuming subdivision an hour north of Atlanta. He’d finally gotten a call from Rob, with a mixed bag of news.

The good: After a few hours of disbelief and posturing, the human members of their team had finally accepted that not only did vampires exist, but they had a lot of advantages over humans and might help them do their jobs better. “It was Hannah who convinced them,” Rob had said. “She sat there playing with that freaking bloodhound, looked up at Max Jeffries—the biggest guy I ever saw until I met Mirren Kincaid—and asked if she could feed from him. He’d never had the vaccine and still didn’t believe, so he told her to knock herself out. So she did, and he was convinced.”

The bad: No one had heard from Will. Forty-eight hours had passed since he walked into the woods with the plan of turning himself over to Matthias. On the positive side, there had been no
other sign of Matthias around the Omega entrance. Whatever was happening with Will, he’d been able to keep Matthias occupied.

The ugly, and Rob was not happy about it: Randa had followed Will, and nobody had heard from her, either.

“What happened?” Krys settled next to Aidan on the sofa and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. As guilty as it made him feel, sitting here in a normal house with his mate felt nice. Omega was as comfortable as they could make it, but it was still a steel-lined hole in the ground. It was a bloody miracle no one had gone stir-crazy yet.

“Everything’s going well with the new team, but there’s been no word from Will. And Randa went after him.”

“Aw, fuck.” Mirren walked in from the kitchen with a glass of whiskey. Glory was lying down on a second sofa next to Melissa, still half-sick from the water contamination and tired from having to feed four vampires, even though they’d fed sparingly. They hadn’t wanted to risk bringing anyone else out of Omega in case the Tribunal meeting about to take place turned ugly and the new Omega Force had to fight Matthias, after all. That was the whole point of training them before the Tribunal had agreed to it.

After talking to Meg Lindstrom and Edward Simmons, they’d insisted on coming to Atlanta to meet with the Penton foursome in person and were bringing with them the Tribunal members from Canada, Australia, and Mexico, as well as Tribunal director Frank Greisser.

It was risky. Mirren had argued against it, but Aidan was out of options. They had to make a stand now and try to reach an agreement, or they had to fight Matthias, break up the scathe, and scatter—if it wasn’t already too late.

“They’re here, in a fucking limousine. That’s a great way not to draw attention to yourself.” Mirren stood at the window, looking out on the street.

Aidan kissed Krys, nodded at Glory and Melissa, and went to the door. “Mirren, I swear to God if you do anything to piss them off, I will use that bloody sword of yours on some body part Glory would really miss.”

Mirren grumbled something Aidan couldn’t make out, but he figured it could be shortened into two one-syllable words. His point had been made, however. Mirren walked to the far wall and propped against it in his favorite stance, arms crossed over his chest. Glory moved to sit beside Krys and Melissa.

Aidan opened the door and stepped aside as the six vampires—half of the Tribunal and the most powerful members—filed in. They took all the available seats and fidgeted in the awkward silence.

Edward Simmons stood up, a tall, thin man with straw-colored hair cropped short, an accent straight out of London’s toniest suburbs, and an air of restless energy. “I insisted on this meeting, so I’ll get it underway, shall I?” He didn’t wait for an answer.

“We have two issues at play here. First is the future of the Penton scathe that is pledged to Aidan Murphy, the charges against him and Mirren Kincaid, and the allegations they’re bringing against Matthias Ludlam.”

Frank Greisser shoved a shock of blond curls off his forehead. “Edward, I think—”

“Please, may I finish?”

Frank pressed his lips together and gave a nod. Every vampire in the room felt his flare of disapproving energy, and Aidan wondered, not for the first time, exactly how old he was.

Edward ignored it. “The second issue is a proposal Aidan Murphy has brought forth on behalf of his scathe and an American private security firm that does highly classified military missions for the government. It has the potential to help the Tribunal solidify its position among our vampires and provide a means of weathering the postpandemic crisis.”

Meg Lindstrom had been a middle-aged college professor when she was turned vampire by a colleague. Her hair was the color of iron, and her backbone was just as strong. “I believe we need to settle the first matter before moving to the second.”

She turned to Frank. “As this is our first chance to hear Aidan Murphy’s side of the story, I propose we do that.”

The Austrian had long been an ally of Matthias’s, and Aidan could see him trying to figure out a way around this while still looking objective.

“We have processes in place to try criminals, and I believe we should use them.” His German accent clipped off the words, but his English was perfect. “I see no reason to have this farce of a meeting and now regret that Edward talked me into it.”

Aidan looked at Edward—should he go ahead and speak? But the Englishman shook his head slightly.

“Frank, here are some hard truths for you to ponder as you think of ways to defend your old friend Matthias,” Edward said. “First, the Tribunal is divided. I did not ask Russia, China, or Japan because their political organizations are different. Their votes, however, are with us. If the Tribunal falls, there is no leadership and our world will slide further into chaos.

“Second, our people are losing faith in us as their leaders. If we don’t reach some forward-thinking solution to this post-pandemic crisis, the Tribunal will fall.

“Finally, I have heard the charges against Matthias Ludlam, and I have heard the explanations of why our so-called Penton criminals committed their crimes. Let me assure you that you do not want to side with Matthias going forward.”

The implied threat took root. Frank blinked twice. Then his shoulders sagged inside their navy sweater. “Aidan, tell us your side.”

Showtime. Aidan looked at Krys, walked to the center of the circle, and began to talk.

Matthias had commuted Owen Murphy’s death sentence in exchange for killing Aidan, and Aidan was forced to kill his brother in self-defense. During the struggle, Owen had injured his mate, Krys, and he could only save her by turning her vampire.

“It was against vampire law, I now realize, as was keeping her with us in the first place,” he said. “But I swear the only thing I thought at the time was that this amazing woman who’d never hurt anyone had gotten caught in our shit. She didn’t deserve to die for it.”

Krys told her account of being taken by Owen, who’d implied he was brought there to kill Aidan in order to save his own life.

Glory swayed a little when she stood, and Mirren supported her while she told of Matthias kidnapping her from her job at a convenience store in North Atlanta. Of his addicting her to drugs, then giving her to Mirren to feed from. How Mirren saved her, how Will had saved both of them.

She told of how she’d been kidnapped again by Tribunal member Lorenzo Caias, to use her against Matthias. How Mirren had killed Renz in her defense.

Melissa talked about how Matthias had come into Penton with bombs and killed human and vampire alike without discrimination.
How he’d ordered her neck broken, then secreted her away and turned her vampire, torturing her for information.

“And he did these things in the name of the Vampire Tribunal,” Aidan said into the room that had become still and alien. None of the vampires were playing human. No fidgeting. No rustle of clothing or coughs or head scratching. Just stillness and, now that he’d finished, silence.

All eyes were on Frank Greisser. He locked his dark-blue eyes onto Aidan’s pale-blue ones, and Aidan thought he was weighing him, measuring the truth of his words, probing at his mind. Aidan opened his will to the older vampire. He had nothing more to hide. He’d made mistakes; he’d made bad choices. But he’d never betrayed the Tribunal or worked against them except in self-defense.

Finally, Frank broke eye contact. “He tells the truth.”

“Then might I suggest that we vote to remove Matthias Ludlam from the Tribunal and bring charges against him for kidnapping, murder for hire, and abuse of office?” Meg rose from her seat. “I’m sure we can add to those charges later. I’d also like to vote that all charges against Aidan Murphy and Mirren Kincaid be dropped. We have the proxy votes of three members who are not here, which gives us the majority, Frank.”