Seeker (31 page)

Leave it!

Frederick jumped as if he'd been slapped, such was the force of the thought she'd shoved into his mind. He shook his head. Why would she want him to leave it? He turned to Erwyn again, who was watching the interaction between Celeste and Frederick. He tried to portray the look of an innocent man, but his translucent eyes told a different story. Theodor seemed oblivious to it all, waiting to hear what Celeste would say next.

“Much about Willem's Rebirth is troubling, and goes beyond anything I have experienced. Ai Ling and the Council are looking into it, hopefully there is some record of something similar, otherwise…”

A thought interrupted her. All eyes looked to Theodor, and he raised an enquiring eyebrow.

Frederick pursed his lips. “It's true the Book is a little vague on how Onuris will be awoken, but I saw no evidence to suggest Willem carried the ka of Onuris.” He shook his head sadly. “If Willem was Onuris then things would be so much easier, but he's just a man.”

“
Was
,” Erwyn pointed out.

“Yes, was.”

Theodor sent out another question, and in response Frederick could only shrug. “I don't know. I was convinced it was Willem, but…” He paused, wanting to choke on the words, but continued. “…It would appear Erwyn was right, I was,
am
, strongly attracted to Willem and that's what I felt.”

“A meeting of souls?” Celeste said softly, looking at Frederick and then Theodor meaningfully. Both nodded silently. “Willem's unusual Rebirth certainly means something. The Book promises that the arrival of the Seeker will be accompanied by many upheavals in the upyr world. This must be one such herald.”

Something stirred in Frederick, a lingering memory of something he'd heard about the arrival of the Seeker. An opposing force…he shook it away, and decided to look into that later.

“Which means the Seeker must be near,” Erwyn was saying, his voice unusually low. Frederick watched him, wondering why he was so subdued all of a sudden. It had to have something to do with his,
apparent
, connection to the Brotherhood.

“That would follow,” Celeste said. She reached for her wine and sipped it. “Very well. We've got people looking into the meaning behind all this, but we still want you to do some legwork, Frederick. You've obviously set about searching already, and no doubt have some leads of your own. Follow those.” Frederick nodded at Celeste, glad that they were not going to try and shut him out. But what she said next did not please him so much. “Erwyn is going to work with you on this.” Frederick didn't know what to say. Erwyn folded his arms, the smug look back on his face. “This is no reflection on you, Frederick. But we've decided that the, ah, antagonism between the two of you will give you an edge. Your natural chemistry will keep you pushing each other to get the best result,” Celeste said, unable to hide an amused smile from her face.

Frederick wasn't too sure about that. He was all for a bit of healthy competition, but he didn't like the idea of Erwyn meeting his contacts. He was about to protest strongly, but a thought message from Celeste silenced him.

I want you to keep an eye on him
.

“Okay, fine,” Frederick said, putting as much contempt as he could into his voice. Celeste didn't trust Erwyn, and must have suspected him, too. She wanted him out of the way while she undertook her own investigation. Frederick could do that for her. Besides, he wanted to keep a check on Erwyn himself. For reasons he couldn't work out, Erwyn had clearly got the Sekhites involved and was, therefore, responsible for this whole mess with Willem.

“As for the Maia issue. Erwyn?”

Erwyn sat forward, rubbing his hands together. “We're having trouble pinpointing her actual location, but it's quite clear she's nowhere near Essex at this time. So, no immediate danger, like.”

“That is something,” Celeste said. “But she is still out there, and would appear to be planning something for you, Frederick. We all need to be on our guard.”

Frederick nodded at this, but he said nothing. He knew his daughter had many issues, and blamed him for a lot of what went wrong in her life, but to use her brother in such a way. It went beyond hate. He would bide his time, and when she did make her move he would make sure he dealt with her himself.

With that Celeste called an end to the meeting. They all began to pile out, to go about their business. Just as Frederick was about to follow Erwyn out, Celeste called him back. Erwyn looked at them.

“It won't take a minute. Frederick will be with you shortly.”

Although clearly put out, Erwyn nonetheless left the room and closed the door. Once they were alone Celeste asked; “What of this Barratt Kemp?”

“A close friend and sometime confidant of Julius, spends a lot of time in Rome. No linguistic skills at all, never studied etymology, indeed wasn't even heard of until about five years ago.”

“So, a recent convert to the Sekhite way?”

“Yep, one who's completely bought into it. Would appear he's quoting Julius verbatim in the book, based entirely on Julius's own version of the Book of Sekhmet.”

Celeste nodded. “Yes, their Sekhmet Codex. What's being done about him?”

“He's being hunted down. I've been assured he'll be waiting for us when we return to France next week, then we'll do what needs to be done.”

Celeste smiled at the mention of returning home. In her long life she had never strayed too far from her home country, and Frederick knew she missed it greatly when she was away. “Then go. Keep Erwyn close.”

Frederick turned to the door, but looked back before opening it. “He's the inside man, isn't he?”

Celeste didn't answer; instead she merely took a drink of her wine. Frederick nodded and left the room. He got the message. Celeste wasn't going to commit herself to an answer until she knew for certain. If it proved to be true then the repercussions for the Three would be immense, not least for Celeste who had been the one to assemble the Three in the first place.

15.

The glass door of Starbuck's swung open and Frederick rushed out into the gloomy weather. The sky was still cloudy, although behind those patches of grey was much blue, as if the heavens were trying to shake off the storm that had hit them late last night. He skidded to a halt and looked around frantically.

He was sure…but, no, there were so many people out in the town centre it was impossible to tell. He looked up towards the Victoria; too many people heading that way to focus in. For a second he spotted the redhead he vaguely knew from Chalkwell glancing back, but his attention was soon returned to Starbuck's when the door opened and Reisha emerged, looking flustered. He threw an apologetic look her way. She shrugged it off with a laugh.

“Thought you were bailing on me, then.”

“No, sorry. I thought I sensed…” Frederick shook his head. “Remember I told you that a fledgling upyr shares a psychic bond with their maker? Well, I could have sworn I sensed Willem then.”

Reisha looked around, as if she'd be able to spot him from Frederick's description. “But no?”

“Quite.” Frederick let out a sigh of frustration. He looked back at Starbuck's. “So much for our coffee rendezvous. And besides, here comes Erwyn.” He reached out and kissed the back of her hand. “You go now; I don't want anyone meeting you just yet.”

Reisha looked disappointed, but she accepted it. “Right, I'll call you as soon as my contact gets in touch.” She offered an encouraging smile. “Looks promising, though. For both of us,” she added with a wink.

Frederick nodded then shooed her away. Taking the hint, she turned and lost herself in the crowd, only a second before Erwyn saw Frederick standing there. Not without a little amusement Frederick noticed that Erwyn looked mightily pissed off.

“What, thought you could lose me that easy did you, fella?” Erwyn asked, his anger making his Welsh accent more pronounced.

Frederick made a show of disappointment. “Worth a shot.” In truth he had no intention of losing Erwyn, as much as he was loathe to spend a copious amount of time with him, Frederick was sure as hell going to keep tabs on him. Still, meeting with Reisha was one thing he didn't wish to share with Erwyn. Not until there was something concrete to go on.

* * *

They were just nearing the blood bank to talk again to Anthony when the mobile in Frederick's jeans went off. For a second he thought it was Willem's phone, then he remembered he'd left that at his apartment when he'd gone to see the Three that morning. He'd pretty much given up on working out the password. Erwyn arched an eyebrow at him, but Frederick ignored it and removed his phone anyway.

“We don't have time for social calls, like. More important things to do.”

Frederick looked at the caller ID. “This might be important.” Before Erwyn could ask why Frederick flipped the phone open and placed it to his ear. “Stephen,” he said, adding false pleasure to his voice. He had totally forgot about Stephen in all the chaos surrounding Will's Rebirth. The obvious person to call. “Sorry I've not been in touch but things have been hectic here. What news is there?”

“News? Mate, I was hoping you'd have some for me. Like good news from the Three.” Frederick looked at Erwyn who was showing no sign that he was paying attention, which of course meant he was listening closely. Ah well, if Stephen continued to push he could always let Erwyn speak to him. That would be a conversation worth missing. Frederick's wandering thoughts were dragged back by Stephen's voice. “I've just had the police questioning me, ain't I? About Will. They're poking about, and I reckon they fancy I had something to do with him missing. Yeah, you heard that right, he's been reported missing. Maybe you want to tell him to phone home?”

So, Will had not returned to London. This news left Frederick deflated and no longer interested in talking to Stephen. Another avenue of enquiry had been shut off abruptly. “Yeah, I'll have a word with him,” Frederick said and closed the phone.

For a moment Erwyn said nothing, just focussed on the road they were crossing. Frederick appreciated the gesture, but he knew the silence wouldn't last long.

“Been planning Willem's arrival for a long while then, haven't you? Secret contacts in London, like.”

“Well, we've all got our secrets, Erwyn. Don't you think?” As soon as he asked Frederick wished he hadn't. Revealing that he was suspicious about Erwyn would immediately put Erwyn on his guard, and would make Celeste's job a lot harder. Erwyn merely looked up at the thinning clouds, chewing his lip. Frederick shrugged, realising he didn't actually care. All that mattered to him was finding Willem.

Together, still in silence, they entered the blood bank.

* * *

“So, where is it stashed to?” Erwyn's voice floated in from the living room. Frederick looked up from his laptop, which was opened on the kitchen side while he made coffee for both of them. He didn't like the idea of having Erwyn at his apartment, but then there was a lot going on he didn't like.

“Where's what?”

“The Book.”

Frederick poked his head through the doorway. Erwyn was spread out on the lounger, leafing through
Seeking the Seeker
. “That book not interesting enough for you?”

“Not really. Nothing new here.” Erwyn threw the book on the little coffee table in the middle of the room. “Usual crap spouted by Julius. I'm talking about the real deal, 'en I?”

“It's in a secret place,” Frederick said and went back into the kitchen. He wasn't convinced by the “usual crap” line. Ever since he'd made that comment about secrets Erwyn had said much about the Brotherhood that painted them in a bad light. True, Erwyn rarely had nice things to say about anything, but he was making too much of a point of badmouthing the Brotherhood. And with the likelihood of his betrayal of the Three there was no way Frederick was going to let Erwyn near the Book. Only he and Celeste knew where it was, an arrangement that had been agreed on hundreds of years ago. Curious that Erwyn should be interested now.

“So, what you up to, then?”

Frederick let out a sigh, annoyed by Erwyn's presence. He stood up straight and allowed Erwyn to see the laptop screen. Erwyn whistled.

“Don't think Celeste is going to be happy about this, do you?”

Frederick leaned over and opened the window. The place was getting stuffy. Although there was still a nice breeze coming in from the North Sea, it was incredibly humid outside, and worse inside. “She probably won't be, but if Maia's planning something she'll let slip on her ChatBook. She usually does.”

Erwyn scrolled down the page on the screen, browsing through the comments and poems. “Emotional, 'en she? This how you've been able to keep one step ahead of her, then?”

“Yes. Didn't take too long to find her on ChatBook. She has no idea I'm one of her hundreds of friends.” Frederick gave a bitter laugh. “Doubt she knows most of them, they've just been added to make her seem more popular than she is. If she isn't hunting upyr, then she's sitting at home alone emoting.”

Erwyn looked up. “Or teaching little brother how not to be a good hunter.”

Frederick didn't respond, instead he turned to look out the window and across the Thames Estuary to Kent beyond. “There've been no updates on her page for a day, which is unusual. Even on a hunt she tends to update from her phone, even if she's just Tweeting.”

“Tweeting?” Erwyn looked genuinely puzzled.

“You really haven't moved into the twenty-first century, have? You're becoming a relic, Erwyn.”

In response Erwyn narrowed his eyes. “Guess she wants to surprise daddy,” he said, getting back to his point.

Frederick looked back at Erwyn, and found himself smiling. “Would have been more of a surprise if she hadn't…”

He blinked, looking up at Erwyn who was now standing above him. Frederick looked around. He was on the floor, slumped against the wall beneath the window, his head banging. “What happened?”

“You passed out.” Erwyn reached out a hand and helped Frederick to his feet. “I'd say it was the humidity, but since when did humidity make upyr pass out?”

Frederick wasn't paying attention. For a moment he had been somewhere else. He closed his eyes, trying to remember where. He could see a woman's face, distorted as if under water. No, not under water. Reflected in a mirror. And not a woman, just a painting of one. Red flowing hair, white dress…and there was another face. Just for a second but…yes! It was Willem.

“We need to get back to Celeste.”

“What?” Frederick didn't stop to answer Erwyn, instead he rushed passed him. Erwyn followed. “Why?”

* * *

“Who else could I turn to? No one else has the mind trawling skill you have, so I…”

Celeste placed a finger on Frederick's lips to quiet him. They were alone in her private chambers, to achieve what she set out to do she needed some silence and tranquillity. A mood her chambers were designed to enhance, which didn't come as a surprise to Frederick. He wasn't helping matters none, since he couldn't seem to stop nattering. He felt like a schoolboy about to meet his crush, babbling away to hide his nervousness. Celeste merely smiled at him, as if she understood.

It had been a long time since the palace in Prussia, and that night when he had emerged from the pontus, but he couldn't remember Celeste being so nervous about him. But then, he supposed, Celeste was over five hundred years old at that point already, and he was almost two hundred years less than that now. Barely a kid compared to Celeste.

She sat opposite him. “Close your eyes and try to remember that moment you felt Willem.”

“Felt him? I saw through his eyes.”

Celeste's brow furrowed, creasing her dark skin. “Another strange aspect of all this. Your connection, although blocked, is much deeper than is usual for a maker and the fledgling. Interesting.”

Frederick didn't say anything, but he wondered if it had something to do with the Ancient's blood. He had always felt different from other upyr once he had drank the blood of Wamukota; could it be that it enhanced his psychic connection with Willem? Frederick supposed it was possible. He had never made a fledgling before so he had not put the theory to the test. Witnessed many Rebirths, but never instigated one until Friday.

“Close your eyes,
mon toujours
.” Frederick did as he was told and immediately he felt Celeste's mind in his. From therein words were no longer needed.

She guided his mind back. He was standing in his kitchen talking to Erwyn, discussing Maia's ChatBook. He felt Celeste's disappointment, but with it came a sense of resignation, as if she had half expected him to look for his daughter himself. Then, as if a flash of lightning had struck his brain, he was standing somewhere else.

The room was reflected in the mirror, which showed him Willem's face in reverse. Willem was staring hard, concentrating through the sunglasses he wore, at his own reflection. While Willem was focussed, Frederick/Celeste took the chance to look around. The room was decorated in a light green, with pale red coving running along the perimeter of the ceiling. The furniture was plush, comfortable looking sofa and chair, a coffee table set before the sofa. There was little in the room to identify the house from a thousand others in the Essex area, even the magazines on the table said little more than the owner of the house had an interest in history.

The Celeste part of the fused mind recognised the painting that took pride of place on the rear wall; Dante Gabriel Rossetti's
Lady Lilith
. And with the image came a memory, one that belonged to Celeste. She had known Rossetti, one of many famous artists from her centuries of life, and discussed at length his techniques while on a visit to England in 1877, convincing him to paint his own sister and mother. It was an interesting memory from Frederick's point of view, since at that time he had been in France, trying to get his head around the Book still, with the help of the recently recruited Melinda, and knew very little of Celeste's solo activities. But it did not help him in learning where Willem was.

They focussed on sounds. The background buzz of music could be heard, but it did not come from the room in which Willem stood, rather from the house next door. Muffled by brick, drywall and insulation. The house was silent, although the gentle sound of small padded feet could be heard from the hallway beyond the room; a cat going about its business.

Outside they could hear the gentle breeze, the sound of water being lapped up against the beach. Frederick/Celeste wasn't sure that helped much, after all there were plenty of homes along the seafront of the Southend area, including Frederick's. But it…

All around Wamukota were flames, but he stepped nimbly past them, holding the book close to his chest lest it get burned with the monastery. It was essential that he get this book into the hands of Frederick Holtzrichter, who was waiting in the vestibule as instructed. It was a great pity that his incomplete notes had already joined the flames in the crypt, and as a result the importance of getting the book away from Moldavia was greater still. Plans had been set in motion so long ago, and just like he, Frederick had his own part to play. But first of all he needed the book. The blood Frederick had supped on, Wamukota's very own blood, would help him in his forthcoming task, but without the book Frederick would not know what to do
.

Wamukota had not lived over four thousand years, became the Ancient of the upyr (as they now called themselves), to see his mission fail along with his body. Frederick was to be the custodian of prophecy and…
.

Neither Celeste nor Frederick had the opportunity to ponder why they had been dragged back to 1790, to the burning monastery of Cãpriana, or just why it was that Willem was reliving the events in his own mind, for the shock of being pulled back to that point in time so forcefully had knocked them both out cold.