Shadow Born: Book 1 of the Shadow-Borne Chronicles (37 page)

“Victor wanted to know what was going on.
 
Once he saw the vampire with Chris, it created this vacuum in his head from where his memories had been erased.”
 
Alec glared at VonBell.
 
“So he hacked into Senator Taylor’s computer.”

Senator Taylor was livid and started shouting insults and threats.
 
Before Silas could say anything Alec spoke again.

“Yes, Senator Taylor, I’d be scared too if I were you.
 
We found a lot of interesting documents and information.
 
Some you attempted to
encrypt
but we managed to open those as well.”

Senator Taylor was instantly quiet.
 
He turned as white as a sheet and looked unsteady on his feet as it hit him what Alec had said.

“Go on,” Silas said quietly.
 

“When all this happened Victor couldn’t hack into some of the files, so he abducted Steven here as well and forced him at gun point to hack the files.
 
He’s an excellent hacker and opened up the encrypted files easily.
 
Seems the Senator over there has been stealing federal money from the funds that were supposed to go to the blood pathogens labs that were set up, you know the cover for the blood banks.”
 
Silas’s head turned slowly to glare at Taylor.
 
The man was trembling now.
 

“You have proof of this?” Silas said without looking at Alec.

“Show them,” Alec motioned to Steven.
 
To Steven’s credit, he didn’t hesitate.
 
He opened his computer and showed Silas what he’d shown Alec.
 

“That’s not all,” Alec said glaring at VonBell.
 
“He’s been giving money to VonBell as well.”

“Oh, this is ridiculous,” VonBell burst out.
 
“You are going to take the word of a wanted fugitive and an abomination? I want you all out.
 
Now!”
 
He reached his hand forward to press the button for the guards.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Silas said dangerously.
 
VonBell’s finger froze and he licked his lips nervously.
 

“Show me,” he said quietly to Steven.
 
Steven pulled up the documents and Silas read over them.

Silas turned to look at Alec.
 
“Anything else?”

“Yes.
 
It seems that Senator Taylor has been keeping detailed notes of everything you guys say or do.
 
He’s even collected the documents to show that the pathogen labs are really blood collection facilities and details how they’re distributing to the vampires.
 
He has names, locations, everything about where the blood is taken and to whom.
 
He’s set it all up in a huge email file.”

“That’s right,” Taylor finally said, coming back to his old self.
 
“If anything happens to me, that email will be released to everyone, and your kind will be hunted down and killed.”
 
His smugness was starting to return.
 
“If I don’t input a password in at a certain time, then it automatically sends the email.”

“Uh, actually,” Steven said interrupting “no it won’t.
 
I’ve deactivated it.”

The Senator almost fainted when he realized what that meant.

Steven pulled up the email for Silas who read it quietly.
 

“How can you sit there Silas and let this abomination lie to you like this? This information is obviously forged.”
 
He glared at Alec.
 

Alec stepped forward then and put one hand on the desk and leaned in towards VonBell.
 
“Call me an abomination, one more time,” he said quietly.
 
“I dare you.”

VonBell looked like he was going to say it, the look in his eyes was defiant.
 

Silas didn’t even look up from reading.
 
“I wouldn’t do it Vincent.
 
He’s stronger than you think.
 
And I won’t stop him from ripping you apart.”

VonBell thought about it and then shut his mouth.
 
Alec stepped away.

“I want my lawyer,” Senator Taylor said into the silence.

“That’s not how this works,” Marcus told him.
 
“We are vampires, not the government.
 
You don’t get a lawyer.”
 
He smiled darkly.
 

“I also found where he’s been siphoning off money from other projects as well,” Steven said and pulled them up on the computer to show Silas.
 
Alec was surprised.
 

“I just found these right before we got here,” Steven said in way of explanation.

“These are all lies.
 
This information is obviously forged,” VonBell smirked.

“There’s a simple way to verify what Steven and Alec have shown us.
 
We can search the Senator’s computer and his records.
 
Should be simple enough,” Silas said looking up.

VonBell glared at Senator Taylor.
 

“Vincent, please call in security,” Silas said standing.

VonBell narrowed his eyes and then pushed a button under his desk.
 
The door to the office opened and about twenty security guards poured through, guns drawn.

“Kill them,” VonBell said.
 
Alec was ready to move but before anything happened he heard a familiar voice.

“I don’t think so.”
 
Dorn, Silas’s head of security walked through the door.

“Seems you guys have had a busy couple of days.”
 
He winked at Alec who looked relieved.
 

“Dorn, would you please have former Senator and Mister Taylor cuffed?” Silas asked politely.

Dorn nodded and then called two of the security guards over.

“Where are your powerful friends now?” Alec stage whispered to Chris.

“I’m afraid Vincent that I’m going to have to relieve you of duty.
 
As of now you are no longer Protectorate of Illinois until the council can hold a hearing.
 
I will have to have you put in restraints and detained until questioning, and you will be moved to a cell in
my
mansion.”
 
VonBell looked ready to kill someone.

Silas called another officer over who looked nervous at the prospect of cuffing the pissed off vampire.
 

“Please give Alec your silver handcuffs.”
 
The man looked relieved that he wasn’t going to have to be the one to cuff VonBell.
 
He handed the cuffs to Alec.

“If you don’t mind,” Silas said motioning to VonBell.

Alec approached him, ready for anything.
 
VonBell stood there defiantly with is arms crossed.

“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Alec said shrugging.
 

Without warning the hilt of a leather wrapped silver dagger dropped from VonBell’s sleeve into his hand.
 
With a snarl he lunged at Alec who easily side stepped the thrust.
 
VonBell looked surprised that Alec had moved so quickly.
 
He drew back and stabbed at Alec three more times, each time missing as Alec easily dodged.
 
As VonBell was pulling his arm back for another strike, Alec grabbed his wrist and easily twisted the dagger out of his grip.
 
VonBell looked completely stunned.

“Now, about those cuffs…” Alec said nonchalantly.

“I will not be cuffed like a common criminal,” he growled and spat in Alec’s face.

Before anyone knew what happened, Alec backhanded the man in the face.
 
His head snapped around hard and he hit the ground where he lay groaning.
 
The room was completely quiet.
 
Alec wiped his face, walked over, turned the man onto his stomach and put the handcuffs around his wrists.
 
Alec leaned down and whispered, “Be thankful I pulled that punch or you’d be healing some broken bones and teeth.”
 
VonBell’s eyes widened in surprise at the admission.
 
Two security guards came over and picked VonBell up off the ground and sat him in a seat.

Chris, the Senator and VonBell were off to one side of the room all in cuffs with guards watching them, their guns drawn.
 
Silas went around to the other side of the desk and sat in VonBell’s chair.

“Now that that’s taken care of, care to tell me what happened last night?” Silas asked looking at Alec and Steven.
 
Alec started at the beginning and told them the events of the previous night with Steven commenting on the details he left out.
 
Silas looked troubled when Alec told him about the five vampires attacking them and killing Victor.
 
He looked doubly so when Alec told him about the vampires attacking in daylight.
 

“So that’s what happened to the police officers,” Marcus said.
 
“They were cut up bad.”

“Yeah, I was trying to get them to radio to you guys to come get us but they wouldn’t do it.
 
Then, suddenly they were being hacked to pieces.
 
There was nothing I could do,” Alec said quietly.

“When we heard the explosion in the hotel the FBI entered the building.
 
They said they encountered moving shadows that were attacking the men.”
 
Silas sat back in his chair.
 
“We knew it was vampires but not who had sent them.”
 
He shook his head.

“We don’t know either.
 
Only one of them ever said anything and all he said was ‘The Devil sends his regards’,” Alec said remembering.

“Who is this Devil and how does he fit into all this?
 
How did he know you were even inside the hotel?”
 
Silas sounded frustrated.
 

Alec shrugged.
 

“Well, there’s an unknown player and we aren’t getting any closer to any answers,” Marcus said frowning.

“We know one of his goals,” Alec said uneasily.
 
“To kill me.
 
This is the third time he’s tried.
 
The first group that attacked Jake and me didn’t say they were from the Devil, but there are similarities there.
 
They won’t give you any information and they can’t be linked to any known vampire or group.”

Silas nodded his head, thinking.
 
“It would seem.”

“I have a question,” Alec said when everyone had gotten quiet and lost in their own thoughts.
 
“What did you tell the FBI and why wasn’t Victor’s or Steven’s names all over the news?”

Silas nodded at Alec’s question.

“When Marcus told me about Victor’s interaction with Senator Taylor and I questioned him about it, I could tell he was hiding something.
 
Once Marcus got VonBell’s records and reviewed Victor’s file, I began to wonder if there wasn’t something more going on.
 
Marcus, the Senator and VonBell were the only ones that knew Victor’s or Steven’s identity and I told them to keep the information to themselves until we sorted it all out.
 
Senator Taylor had a fit.
 
I thought maybe our unknown assailant had orchestrated the fiasco at the hotel.”

All eyes turned to Steven.
 

“Don’t look at me.
 
I don’t know anything,” Steven said quickly.
 
He sounded like he was starting to get scared again with so many eyes focused on him.
 
“This was all Victor’s doing, and he’s dead.”

“You might not even know it if you had been compelled Mister Reynolds,” Silas said looking at him.

Steven didn’t look comfortable with the idea that vampires might have been messing with his head.
 

“Mister Reynolds, please pull your chair over here and sit in front of me,” Silas said and turned his chair so he could look directly into Steven’s eyes once he sat down.

Steven looked at Alec nervously.
 
He licked his dry lips and looked like he was on the verge of bolting from the room.
 

“It’s okay, Steven.
 
You can trust Silas completely,” Alec told him encouragingly.
 
Steven nodded once, sighed and pulled his chair over and sat down.

“What…what are you going to do to me?” Steven asked nervously.

“I’m just going to ask some questions about what happened and what you know about last night.”

Steven nodded and swallowed hard.

Silas looked Steven in the eye and Steven’s face took on the slack look of someone being compelled.
 
Alec realized he really needed to learn to compel people, though honestly the thought of it made him very nervous.
 
If he could do the same thing, he could have gotten the police to call Silas and Marcus over the radio and they might still be alive.
 
Alec shook the thought off.
 

Silas asked Steven a series of questions about his actions at the Hillman-Hines and Steven detailed what had happened.
 
Silas looked up at Alec to confirm that’s the story Steven had told him the first time and Alec nodded yes.
 
Silas told Steven that he was forbidden to speak of any of what he knew to anyone other than those present.
 
Silas released Steven who sat back in his chair.

“Well, you weren’t compelled,” Silas said and smiled at the young man.
 
Steven looked relieved.

“So, now that you know Steven wasn’t sent to stir up trouble at the hotel, what’s going to happen?” Alec asked nervously.

“Well,” Silas said thinking, “it was obviously VonBell’s attempts to erase huge pieces of Victor’s memories that caused him to become unstable.”
 
Steven sighed and nodded at this.