Vampire Elite (25 page)

Riona just watched her, smiling, clearly relishing her power. She picked up a sharp silver-steel dagger from the altar, holding it with both hands, and raised it high above the female. Then she looked up at the face of the Sekhmet idol and pronounced: “To the Great Sekhmet for preserving the Vampire Elite. To the Great Lioness for granting us successful hunts. Please accept our sacrifice, Great Goddess.”
 

The chanting in the room started again, louder this time. Riona plunged the dagger through the Amiti’s heart until it hit the stone beneath her.
 

The sobbing stopped.
 

Simone’s eyes lost focus and her whole body suddenly became weightless. For a moment she was completely disoriented. Where was she?
 

This was not happening. She was trapped in a horror movie.
 

Transfixed, she watched Riona cut the Amiti’s chest open and thrust her hand into the bloody flesh. With a swift movement, Riona ripped out the Amiti’s heart and raised it above her head. The chanting in the room reached a crescendo, the walls vibrating with the resonance.
 

Simone’s vial slipped from her hand and shattered into a fountain of sharp, bloody shards as it hit the stone floor. Her mind was playing tricks on her. She saw Arianna lying brutalized on the altar, her red hair cascading like blood to the floor.
 

Without making eye contact with anyone, holding her head high, Simone carefully made her way to the exit.
No hysterics. I am the Elite. The Elite have nerves of steel. Nerves of steel ...
 

She had no idea how she managed to leave the room without completely losing it.
 

Once outside, she took a deep breath of fresh air and then, hands shaking, she pulled her cell phone from her purse and dialed Antar’s number.

It seemed as though an eternity passed before she heard his voice. “Hi, Sim.”

“Antar, I know where Arianna is and I can lead the Legacy to her. But you must promise me that you’ll give her Sanctuary and not let her leave until she is powerful enough to protect herself, and that you’ll never surrender her to the King.”
 

“Yes, of course, I promise. How do you know where she is?”
 

“I found her through the blood-bond.”
 

“When?”

Simone’s first impulse was to lie and say that it had just happened, but she was sick and tired of lying. “At the Amphitheatre. She helped me control my blood lust.”

“It’s been two months, Simone! And all this time you’ve known?”
 

It took all Simone’s courage to continue. “Yes.”

“Why?” Antar’s voice was cold.

“Because you liked her and I wanted you for myself. And now—you can kill me if you want, but first, I’ll help you find Arianna.”

Simone felt a heavy weight lift from her heart. She was holding her breath waiting for Antar’s reaction, but to her surprise, it didn’t mean much to her any more.

“Where is she?”

“I can’t tell you right now. I’m stressed and I can’t find her unless I can focus. We’re at Hunter headquarters. After we leave, I’ll concentrate on locating her and I’ll call you as soon as I have it figured out. But you must promise me you won’t tell the King that I led you to her. We’re here in Venezuela because of Arianna. Somehow they traced her here and lost her again. I don’t want them to find her. You have no idea what they will do to her.” Simone had no idea either, but she knew that nothing good could be in store for an antelope cornered by a pride of lions.

“Fine. I’ll be waiting for your call.” Antar hung up.

Well, Princess, say goodbye to the hero of your dreams.
Antar was forever lost to her. But for some reason, Simone felt okay about it. Antar could go to hell. If he didn’t want her, she could live her life just fine without him. At last she’d have some peace within herself.
 

She ran to the helipad and climbed into the helicopter, not wanting to stay on the soil of this evil place for even another minute. Taking a light blanket out of the storage cabinet, she pulled it up to her neck, trying to warm herself after the dank chill of the cavern, and waited for Theores and Odji to join her.

Chapter 34

Hunter headquarters, Venezuela
 

Something bizarre was happening to Odji. When Simone headed to the exit, he should have followed her; it was his responsibility to keep her safe. But he hadn’t even noticed her leaving; his eyes had been locked on the golden Amiti girl. He felt as though his heart was being ripped from his chest. Illuminated by the torchlight, she was breathtakingly beautiful, a finely sculptured porcelain goddess.
 

This
was his mate, the one he’d been searching for his entire life. Odji had no doubt about it. He was equally certain that the rest of his existence now depended on what happened to her.
 

His imagination quickly painted visions of cuddling her, kissing her eyelids and temples, feeling the warmth of her skin upon his, whispering words of love into her golden hair. When Riona cut the girl’s wrist, it took every ounce of his willpower not to leap at her and slit the priestess’s throat. His hands were so tightly clenched that he had punctured the skin of his palms and drawn blood.
 

He watched as the Hunters sacrificed the first Amiti female, then the male. Riona held his ripped heart high over her head and dropped it into the golden bowl at the feet of the Great Lioness. Then she grabbed the golden Amiti’s hand. The girl made a weak attempt to pull away, paralyzed with fear. Solus and his assistant lifted her up and placed her on the sacrificial altar. But before they could slip her wrists into the cuffs, Odji was on them like a lightening bolt. Breaking their necks, he picked the girl up and disappeared with her through the side door. It happened in a split second, so quickly and unexpectedly that nobody had time to react.
 

Only dimly aware of Simone screaming at him—“What have you done? Are you out of your mind?”—Odji placed the girl in the back of the helicopter, barely taking the time to strap himself in and go through his checklist before he had them airborne. He had no idea where they were going or what he’d do when they got there. His vision was filled with an endless expanse of clear night sky and the golden, streaming hair of the Amiti girl, an image that would be engraved into his brain forever.
 

Odji’s euphoria crashed when he spotted the two Hunter helicopters taking off after them. Of course; what had he expected? They weren’t about to lose track of their prey. He glanced behind him to check on the Amiti and finally became aware of Simone. She had covered the girl with a blanket and was applying pressure to her wrist, trying to stop the bleeding.
 

The princess!
What luck! The Hunters wouldn’t dare damage the helicopter with the King’s daughter on board.
 

That meant that they were safe as long as they could stay in the air, as long as the helicopter had fuel.
 

“Sim,” Odji called through his headphones, watching as the Hunters’ helicopters began circling them. “If I’m killed, please, take care of her. Buy her, do whatever you have to do; just don’t let them kill her or make her bloodstock. Please, Sim.”
 

“I will, I promise!” she yelled back.
 

The Hunters’ helicopters were closing in, one on either side of him. The Hunter on the pilot’s side was making exaggerated hand gestures, signaling for Odji to land. Odji responded with a one-fingered gesture of his own.
 

He turned and looked into the girl’s sorrowful, frightened eyes. She sat completely still, the blanket pulled up to her chin. Odji’s heart was heavy; he’d give anything to share his life with her, but he wasn’t delusional. He knew it would take a miracle for this dream to become a reality, and miracles simply did not happen. But he couldn’t just give up.
 

“What’s that?!” Simone’s scream came through the headphones. “It’s moving, Odji. It’s alive!”
 

On the passenger side of the copter, a huge cloud of shimmering mist had formed and was hovering in the air. In its center, a black hole was opening like the mouth of a giant shark, doubling in size every second. Then a force like a colossal magnet began drawing the copter toward the hole.
 

“It’s going to swallow us! Go back!” Simone shouted at the top at her lungs.

“I can’t! The controls are frozen. It’s pulling us in.”
 

The aircraft seemed to fly itself, changing direction and heading directly into the center of the black hole. In his peripheral vision Odji could see the wild gestures of the Sekhmi pilots. Idiots! Did they think he couldn’t see it? And ... why wasn’t it affecting them, too?

As it passed through the portal, the helicopter’s engine died and they plummeted in freefall through an infinity of darkness.

Chapter 35

“Let me get this straight. With no provocation whatsoever, my bodyguard interrupted the ceremony, assaulted the priestess’s two assistants, hauled the Amiti sacrifice off to the helicopter, and took off with the Amiti and my daughter inside?”

The three Hunters nodded at Tor grimly. He focused on the two who’d been in the air with Odji and continued.

“And then you gave chase, at which point a giant cloud of gleaming mist formed in the air, and then a big black hole formed in the middle of the giant cloud of mist? And it pulled the helicopter with my daughter, my bodyguard, and this Amiti toward it, but it didn’t pull you even though you were flying on either side of my pride’s helicopter, right next to it?”

The helicopter pilots nodded again. Hunters were used to being the intimidators, and these guys weren’t handling the role reversal well, sweating and shifting their weight as though they might suddenly sprint out of the room. Tor almost felt bad for these guys. Except he didn’t.

“And then my helicopter and those inside it got sucked into the black hole, and it immediately disappeared, taking the giant mist with it, and it was like nothing had ever been there at all, just clear skies, and you flew around for another half hour searching for them, but there’s no trace at all?”

They both looked at him, nodded, and then looked at the floor. One mumbled something that sounded like “Yes, that’s right, your Majesty.”
 

“Very well then. You may go. Stay with Theores in case we require follow-up.”

The two Hunter pilots shuffled out, leaving Tor and Crian alone in Crian’s study. Without a word, Crian stood and crossed the room to the wet bar. Tor braced his elbows on the armrests of his chair and rubbed his temples.
 

Lately, between the Amiti Queen situation and Simone’s never-ending crises, things had just been one clusterfuck after another. And now Odji had kidnapped an Amiti who’d been chosen and prepared as a sacrifice to the Great Lioness. In addition to defying logic, it was the greatest of blasphemies; this girl had been chosen by the Lioness and belonged to her, and Odji had stolen her. Now, as though things hadn’t already been going badly, they could also expect Sekhmet’s wrath to be visited upon them—upon Tor, his pride, the entire Sekhmi race. This was a bad, bad, bad omen. And now she was missing, along with the two people Tor cared most about; all three might as well have simply evaporated into thin air.
 

Crian entered Tor’s frame of vision, wordlessly handing him a drink and then sinking into a comfortable leather chair opposite Tor.
 

“It’s been a while, Tor. If it hadn’t been for this unfortunate situation, I probably wouldn’t have had the pleasure of your company for another century. Even if you don’t require my services, you could still come and visit just to catch up with an old friend.”
 

As the Alpha of the Hunter pride, Crian was directly or indirectly responsible for supplying all Sekhmi with Amiti bloodstock. But he was also a skilled sorcerer who served as the King’s personal magician and astrologer. A few centuries ago, when times were tough, Tor had used Crian’s services often, but lately he’d come to Crian only rarely.
 

Only Tor and Anock knew the source of Crian’s magical power: Crian’s father was a vampire, and his mother one of the most powerful sorceresses in Europe. But his half-blood background made him a Nightwalker, so he kept the secret of his parentage well hidden, presumably using sorcery to make himself invulnerable to sunlight. Over the centuries Crian had developed his powers extensively, supplementing the Hunters’ tracking skills with his magic and making his pride the richest of the rich. But Tor knew Crian wasn’t just in it for the money, phenomenal as it was. No, Crian loved the thrill of the hunt.
 

“I apologize for the actions of my bodyguard, Crian. I hope the priestess’s assistants are recovering nicely. And I will, of course, reimburse you for the full value of the Amiti.”
 

“I never doubted that you would take full responsibility, Majesty. But the Amiti your boy stole already belonged to the Great Lioness, so it is not I who requires reimbursement.”
 

Tor stifled a shudder at the thought of what
reimbursement
Sekhmet might require. “I have no idea why Odji would have done this. Ordinarily, he’s nothing if not levelheaded. And what was Simone’s involvement? Do you have any idea what happened?”
 

“I’m afraid you’re not going to like my answer, Tor.” Crian leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms across his chest.
 

“Tell me.”
 

“I sense the presence of the Keepers.”

Tor was silent while he assimilated that information. So here it was: his worst fears coming to pass. Whatever Odji’s crazy motives had been, this wasn’t about the theft of the Amiti. Odji was collateral damage. The Keepers were targeting Simone, reclaiming their power. Nothing would stop the Keepers now; they were extremists. The lives of those he held most dear were in jeopardy.