RBC05 - Bloodline (10 page)

“Does that mean you will let me dispose of them myself?” Rafael said displaying a child-like delight, which I found vulgar.

“In good time, Raf, have patience. Our brother is making great progress. And thanks to the acquisition of treasure, we will have all the funding necessary to complete our campaign. How is recruiting going?”

“Very well actually, once the humans are addicted to the bloodlust, it seems they will do anything we ask.”

“I can see you are enjoying your work. Now tell me about the visit you had with the King of Althar. What did he want with you?”

“He wanted me to divulge all our secrets to the leader of the Five. I have to admit, she’s a very intriguing woman,” Rafael said seemingly picturing her in his mind.

“And did you?”

“Of course not. I merely told her basic things that Cathos could have told her himself. I told them that I had had a falling out with you and I didn’t know anything, that’s about it.”

“And she hasn’t followed you?”

“Why would she do that? We are keeping the Five very busy in America.”

“Don’t underestimate them. I know Auguste won’t. It would have been easier if we had the demon army we were promised.”

“That’s true, but we needn’t dwell on losses, Nevidius while things are going so smoothly.”

“
I’ve heard enough, mark them and let’s get out of here, we need to follow them wherever they go, and that means we are going to need help.”

CHAPTER FOUR

K
atrina:

We arrived in Boston just after dawn. As we approached we found that the witches and warlocks had new protections in place as well, which succeeded in alerting Julius, the leader of the coven here, of our arrival.

He was waiting in front of his cottage when we arrived.

“Wonderful to see you again. The Five are always welcome. Corbin has of course, been keeping us up to date and I assume the settlements are nearly finished by now.”

“Yes, but one of the peaceful clans was attacked. All but six of them were killed; there are demon vampires in America.”

The color drained from Julius’ face, “This is devastating news. What can we do to help?”

“I hoped you would say that. We have already killed dozens of them in settlements near our new clans. We’ve discovered that they are growing their numbers by infecting humans. Although we’ve tried the treatments that we used before to successfully control their numbers, this time they are unaffected by it. Our fear is that unless we soon find some method to kill them, they will begin to infect humans in the cities and increase their numbers past the point that we can ever again control them.”

“Please come in and sit down. We’ll discuss this further.”

We followed Julius, into his cottage and sat down at the table together.

“The last time we were here, things didn’t go very well,” Rosa said remembering the accusations directed toward us by a member of the coven.

“Yes, that’s true. Alicia admitted to it, the poisoning I mean. She was under the control of the Dark Prince. We did a cleansing and she’s been fine ever since. The new protections we put into place then worked, we never had any other visits from him.”

“That’s because we killed him,” Rosa said, “Along with his parents.”

Julius again looked shocked for a moment, and then he smiled. “Good, now how can I help?”

“I don’t really know, you could speak with the others, maybe together you can come up with a plan. We thought you should at least be warned.”

“I would like to see Alicia before we leave,” El said.

“Of course, I could go and get her right now if you like.”

“Thank you, Julius,” I said. “Don’t tell her it’s us you’re bringing her to see.”

He nodded, rose and went out the door, leaving us alone.

“Are any of you feeling strange?” Kate asked.

“I thought it was just me, but I have been a little light headed since we entered the compound. Could it be the protections in place here?” El asked.

I was just about to comment when Julius returned with Alicia.

When she saw us she leapt onto the ceiling of the cottage and hissed as she crawled along until she reached the corner where she assumed a defensive position.

Julius immediately began to recite what I assumed was some kind of
exorcism
spell. When nothing happened, he began again, this time screaming the incantation as he pointed up at her.

Alicia’s face became distorted revealing the horrific demon form she held. “You will not win, he will stop you!” she said before hissing again and disappearing from sight.

“Julius, we are going to stop coming here. Every time we do, something bad happens,” El said.

“I…I don’t know what to say, with everything we did she was still demonic!”

“Evil finds a way; we’ve all dealt with that. She was welcomed, that’s why your protections didn’t work. The demon hid itself deep within her, the Alicia you knew is no more,” I said trying to comfort him.

“I am so glad you asked to see her, how did you know?”

“I had a feeling, I think we all did, of an evil here, we just didn’t know where or in what form,” El said.

“Julius, I think I know how you can help. Avery, one of our Watchers is going to try to recruit more people including humans, to help us in the cities. If the witches could find a way to do the same thing…”

“I’m sorry, I can’t think about anything like that right now. I can’t believe how calm and indifferent you are. There was just a demon among us! She’s been living with us for months. That doesn’t shock you at least a little bit? I think you had better rethink your lives if you are so desensitized by what you’ve seen as protectors that you find things like this “normal”. Alicia was my friend!” he clenched his jaw and shook his head in disgust. “I’m sorry, but I want you to leave.”

“Julius, we don’t…

“Please, just leave.”

“I am sorry Julius,” I said as I followed the girls out the door. He made no other comment before slamming the door behind us.

“Hmm, I think that went well don’t you?” Rosa said.

I sighed, “He’s right. All this death and drama has affected us more than I ever realized.”

“Time for a few days off,” Kate said. “Let’s go to New York. We can see Mother and relax for just a few days before we…what are we doing next?”

“I don’t even want to talk about anything else right now. Let’s just go, are we all in agreement?”

With everyone agreed, we raced off to New York. We slowed once we entered the city, taking note of the surroundings. It seemed strange to pass the beautiful house that we had stayed in before. But that was Damien’s house, not mine. Our fathers had purchased houses nearby, but as usual we wanted to stay together so we headed to our own house.

Just as we reached the door it opened.

“Quinn!”

“You look upset, what’s happened?”

“Things didn’t exactly go well with Julius,” Kate said as we walked into the front parlor.

The house was just as beautiful as the one Damien had purchased, but with a definite feminine touch of Mother’s style.

“Oh, your Mother is out for a ride in the park, she should be back soon.”

“I need a room, a bath and something to eat,” Kate said.

“Your rooms are all ready, and there is a full table of food in the dining room,” Quinn said.

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Rosa said and went in that direction followed by El, Kate and Letta. We were exhausted now, as much mentally as physically.

Quinn came closer and pulled me into his arms in a close embrace and kissed my forehead. I melted into him. It felt so good, so right. I looked up into his eyes; they were soft and full of love. I kissed him, first short and then long and needy until the front door opened and we heard Mother’s voice.

“Girls are you here?”

“Yes Mother,” Kate and I said in unison.

“It’s so good to see all of you. Oh my,” she said as she wrinkled her nose and fanned the air trying to disperse our obvious noxious odor. “I better see to your baths. It’s a good thing I planned ahead and had clothes made for each of you when I first arrived. I knew they would come in handy. Finish eating, I’ll call you when the baths are ready.”

“You do look pretty rough. Want to tell me what happened now?” Quinn asked as we joined the others at the table.

“Not really. And I’m not sure we will be getting
any
help from the witches,” I said.

“At least not the ones in Boston,” El added.

“That bad?”

“I’m afraid so.”

“I treated the water here. I haven’t seen anything unusual, but then I don’t have your senses. Nathaniel and Kellen are on their way to Europe and Kale and Eric are already there. They portaled to their homes in Europe and then joined Gerhardt in Paris.”

“Good, we’ll be joining them soon. I’ll want Liridon and Gruen to portal to Paris ahead of us.”

“All right I’ll contact them this afternoon, anything else you need me to do?”

I smiled, “I’ll let you know.”

“Your baths will be ready in a few minutes. This is Lissel everyone, she’ll take care of you while you’re here. Lissel, these are my daughters Katrina and Katherine and their closest friends, Eleanor, Rosalinda and Arletta.”

“Good to meet you, if you would follow me.”

I for one couldn’t wait and I think everyone else felt the same way. I spent a good hour in the bath and enjoyed having Lissel wash my hair. She wasn’t Sarah of course, but still, it always helped me relax. I found that with my new powers I was able to keep my own bath water hot. It was my favorite power right now.

I still didn’t know most of what I could do with my newly acquired powers. I’d never had time to ask questions or get any kind of training. I just tried things and sometimes they worked and other times they didn’t. Maybe soon I would have time to go to Niranjana or Cathos for some answers, but right now that just wasn’t possible.

When I got back to my room, a simple pale blue dress was laying on the bed. A dress made me smile, had it been that long?

A light knock came on the door, “It’s me; can I come in?”

“Yes, Quinn, I’m decent.”

“To bad,” he said as he opened the door and came in. “If you want to rest…”

I walked over to him and let my hands roam over his muscular chest before clasping them around his neck. His hands explored my back.

“I do want to rest, but I want to do it in your arms. Stay here with me, Quinn.”

“I’ll be with you now, and wherever you are, for as long as you want me.”

I moved the clean clothing to the side chair while Quinn took off his boots. We slept peacefully in each other’s arms until we heard loud voices in the hallway.

“Girls, get dressed, Lissel just informed me that we have a guest.” I heard Mother say.