The Fallen One (Sons of the Dark Mother, Book One) (35 page)

She felt as though she were trying
to catch the elusive thread of a fleeting thought. She was
beginning to think she was going nuts—but she was onto something—if
she could just catch up to that thread and unravel it to see what
it would reveal.

She had been mulling this over ever
since she had talked to Jared. Last night, she had wanted to voice
these feelings to Justice at the meeting, but she didn’t have any
idea what more she could say. Hadn’t what the journal revealed been
enough?

All she had was this feeling that
there was
still more
she needed to find out. And that whatever this
more
was, it could, in
fact, be of great value—if they could only figure it out—and figure
out what to do about it.

She should tell Justice about it,
she thought. But tell him what? She didn’t know, yet, what was
bothering her.
She wrestled with her
thoughts for several moments.

Now what?

The vaccine situation was in the
hands of Justice and the rest of the men, and she’d have to wait to
hear back on what they did with that.

Waiting, again.

Something she should be used to by
now.

But she wouldn’t be just waiting
this time.

Something more existed that she
needed know, and she wasn’t going to figure out what that
more
was while lying
here. She threw back the covers and got up. Since she didn’t know
where to look, she couldn’t just go searching for answers, so she
may as well be practicing what she
could
do.

She showered and was soon standing
before the round table in the room they had been using for their
rituals since they had arrived. She had a circle of candles around
her, and cast a circle of protection. She did so because she didn’t
want Constantine peeking in on anything she was doing now—not even
when she was studying.

She worked tirelessly for several
hours, going over the different herbs and stones and their
strengths and uses. It was late in the afternoon when her idea
began to form into a full-fledged plan. With the light coming on
strong, illuminating her idea and showing her the way, she felt the
strong need to see Jared one more time—and she called
him.

Jes was waiting near dusk with her
sisters. At the last minute, she had also brought Micah, some
guards and Justice’s sisters. She had brought them so that there
could be no misunderstanding if Justice should find out that she
was out here meeting Jared again, and this time so near to dark.
But that couldn’t be helped this time—which is why she had brought
Micah, the guards and Justice’s sisters.

She knew that a group this large
would not escape Justice’s attention—but that couldn’t be helped
either. She had to make sure she was on the right track. She had
been thinking about what Jared had told her—over and over
again—rolling it around like a litany in her head, and she had
slowly begun to figure out exactly how they could use the
information.

That was why she had called Jared
again. She needed to see him—to find out if he thought it would
work. After all, it would involve him—and the army of human vampire
hunters he had amassed. The plan in her head was quickly starting
to take form, and becoming a rolling snowball, gathering size and
speed.

When they reached the edge of the
meadow, she asked Micah to keep the guards out of earshot of her
conversation. He was happy to do as she asked, and did so without
question.

When Jared appeared, she rushed
toward him in her excitement. For a moment he looked alarmed, as
though he was afraid she was bringing him bad news.

It didn’t take him long to get the
gist of her plan.

“
Jared, you were irritated because
Justice and Dracon were not going to use your armies,” she said,
rushing headlong into the plan.

He nodded. They had been partners
too long for him not to quickly deduce she was about to fix both of
their problems.

“
We need to make the vamps think
that humans are walking the streets. We need them to think they can
swarm down on the same helpless humans they have been….”

His eyes lit with
understanding.

“
Only these humans won’t be quite
so helpless…,” he finished for her. For the first time since he had
spilled his frustrations out to her that day, his face split into a
grin.

He was getting in on the
war.

Justice waited in the night. He had
followed Jes. He had spotted her and her sisters leaving the manor,
and he couldn’t imagine what they were up to. Then he had seen his
own sisters and Micah and the small army they had taken with them.
He hadn’t been too happy to see her meet the human. But it was
obvious she had taken great care that her meeting would not be
misunderstood or place any of them in danger.

So he came out of the darkness to
the group.

Jes swung around and, seeing him,
her face lit up and she waved him over.

He could see how happy she was to
see him, and that alleviated the rest of his stress. She quickly
said the same thing she had thrown at Jared, and it didn’t take
Justice long to see where she was going with her plan,
either.

He was just as elated to hear it as
Jared had been. They knew that Dracon felt the virus would be the
way to defeat Constantine—provided Constantine never got his hands
on the other one. But that was going to take time: time they didn’t
have.

Constantine wasn’t going to
conveniently wait around until they located Justice’s
father.

The vamps were coming their way
now.

And Jes had a plan that just might
work. At least it might give them an edge. They all knew they
weren’t going to win this war with a single battle.

But this might help to win the
first one—and give them the time they needed to locate Justice’s
father.

However, now the bigger question
came into play. How would they replace the humans with human
vampire hunters—and do it without Constantine knowing they had done
so?

The group quickly made their way
back to the manor. Once there, Justice had Jes pour the plan out to
Dracon and the others. Only Caesar wasn’t there to hear it, as he
was still managing the tavern so that Conrad could be with them at
the manor.

As soon as Dracon and Micah had
heard the gist of the plan, they all went to work on ideas of how
to make it work, tossing around ideas of how to replace that many
humans on the streets. They quickly realized they couldn’t make all
the humans on the streets safe. They couldn’t warn them—or replace
them—without warning Constantine.

They would just have to integrate
their own men around them.

They knew that Constantine was now
on the north side of Chicago. A lot of the same people walked those
streets every day—but a lot of new faces did too. They could easily
insert people all throughout that area without calling attention to
themselves.

After all, they smelled like
humans—and that’s all the bait the vamps needed.

Chapter Forty

Killer

Justice walked the wall,
searching the night. He was mulling over Jes’s
plan—thinking about how to make it work. It was the best one they’d
had so far—at least in facing down Constantine now, without the
shot—since they didn’t have it yet. So without anything that would
seriously incapacitate his army, this was the best plan they
had.

Jes’s plan, or actually Jared’s
plan, was brilliant—provided they could find a way to put it into
action. He slowed his pace, thinking about Jes. He couldn’t be more
proud of her. She was so good to all the people around her—no
matter who they were—or what their station in life. She was going
to make a great queen to their people one day.

Dracon, as usual, watched him pace
like a cat.

Imagine that
, he heard in his head.

He glared at Dracon, knowing where
that thought had come from. Dracon actually smiled.

Justice didn’t find it so
amusing.

Justice was never allowed in
Dracon’s mind. He only received thoughts from Dracon if he
deliberately put them there—so he knew that Dracon had wanted him
to hear this teasing remark.

He turned the other way, knowing
that this was significant, if only he could figure out how they
could best use it.

He turned suddenly and left Dracon
sitting on the wall alone with the guards. He knew that Dracon’s
brow had shot up in question, but he didn’t turn around—and he
didn’t answer him.

This war left no time for anything
but war—survival. That was all they ever thought about. And what if
they lost?

He wasn’t going to waste every
precious minute in life—planning for war.

His stride was determined. He
marched into her room without hesitation. He had a good idea she
wouldn’t be there yet, so he called for the maids.

When Jes arrived, she found a
candlelit, late-night repast sitting by the bed. There were flower
petals on the bed and floor. They weren’t roses, like one would
usually find in these situations, but this wasn’t the usual
situation.

They were at the manor—a compound
surrounded by guards.

She had never thought Justice could
be so romantic. It touched her heart, and her eyes shimmered with
tears.

He came to her, slowly undressing
her, and they stole a couple of hours from Maslow’s hierarchy of
needs as they greedily devoured the few minutes they could
capture—from an endlessly pervasive and determined war.

Later on, after midnight, Justice
was back up and sitting at the bar in Second Chances. He was
waiting for
them
to enter. He had been waiting for some time. The humans were
in for a bit of a show, but at this point, it couldn’t be helped.
Constantine’s men were pressing in on them—and they still needed to
put Jes’s plan into motion.

They did not have time to
delay.

Constantine could sit and keep them
dangling for some period of time—or strike like a coiled snake when
they least expected it.

They needed to have their men in
place when he attacked.

Lucius, Micah, Caesar, and Roman
accompanied Dracon into the tavern through the back door. As
expected, every eye in the room was upon them. Justice almost got
some amusement at the open stares they received.

He could hear the thoughts churning
in the humans’ heads when he chose to—and he chose to do so
now.

They on a never-ending repeat of
the debate about whether they were really in the universe alone—and
thinking that the rumors about this place were true.

Lucius and his men came to the
booth where Justice was waiting for them and sat. Lucius looked
around. Out of all of them, it was he who stood out the most. He
refused to use glamour, preferring to use some stage makeup to
darken his translucent skin and to wear contacts to change the
startling, pale, white-blue of his eyes to a more—normal
color.

But he never completely blended
in.

How could he
? Justice thought, when he wore his ancient, silver-white
hair with the front pulled back in coiled ropes and tied at the
back of his head, with the rest falling to nearly to his waist. He
also wore three progressively larger silver hoops in each of his
ears. And, on top of it all, he wore the violet tunic of their
ancestors, which made him appear more ready for war than for a mere
talk, since it was etched in silver threads and adorned with silver
bangles.

Justice knew that Lucius, and the
three that worked with him, Micah, Roman, Caesar and Roman, were
part of an elite group that worked with the human government—within
their military.

Justice knew this—because he was
part of the Alliance. But this was not something that the humans
knew about.

Sure—it was something some humans
suspected. There were those, after all, who were suspicious that
the government was keeping secrets about Alien interactions. But
the fact that the human government actually worked with other
races—well that was considered part of the human government’s idea
of what was supposed to be top secret.

Justice looked around the tavern.
No, Lucius didn’t use glamour. And he was giving the customers the
show they were looking for—and from the looks of things, they
weren’t missing a single moment of it.

Justice knew that Lucius was one of
Mira’s lovers, since she shared her body with four of her past
lives. Mira must have some kind of courage to have such a warrior
for a mate. He knew she hadn’t remembered her past lives when she
had first met Lucius again in this lifetime. And Justice knew that
most people were intimidated by Lucius.

So that made her a pretty spunky
woman.

But then again, she had two pretty
spunky sisters, too. Jes was a woman that Justice had always been
proud to know—the fact that she was his mate only made him more
proud to call her his own.