Blood Royal

* * *



Angelo muttered softly and angrily—he didn't want to go. Dominic (under Xenides' heavy compulsion) was going with him to pick up the vampire and kill his female companion. Winston Byrnett had been missing for years and Xenides had need of vampire reinforcements. Only a few days earlier, many of Saxom and Xenides' turns had been killed in Great Britain on a single night. Xenides had rolled the dice and lost that round. Now, Xenides was actively searching for replacements to rebuild his army, and those vampires living below the Council's radar were ideal targets. Byrnett would do nicely. Angelo and Dominic could bring in the vampire; Xenides was going to stay with his newest female.



* * *



Dominic didn't want to be there. Never wanted to leave Europe. During more coherent moments, he cursed Xenides for forcing him to do unspeakable things. Dominic had been to the states before, but that had been with his sire and his brothers. Now, following his abduction at the hands of Angelo and Xenides, he was trapped in compulsion and forced to stay in mental contact with Xenides when needed. Xenides felt oily and evil to him; he shuddered whenever the ancient vampire came close. Xenides laughed as Dominic recoiled at his nearness.



"Can't abide your Dark cousin, now can you?" he'd say. Dominic hadn't a clue what Xenides meant.



"Stop daydreaming and get in the car," Angelo ordered. Dominic was older than Angelo and wasn't susceptible to the younger vampire's compulsion. Xenides, however, would punish him if he didn't do as Angelo said, so Dominic slid into the passenger seat and shut the door. Angelo started the car and drove toward I-35.



* * *



Gavin, Radomir and I were huddled inside one covered trench; Tony, Bill and René were inside another nearby. A handful of carefully selected agents were with Winkler, Dalroy and Rhett in a stand of trees behind us, far enough from the house that they wouldn't be seen, heard or scented. Gavin had ordered Roff, Lorenzo and Thaddeus to stay at the hotel; they didn't have what he called "combat experience." Thaddeus and Lorenzo grumbled that I was getting to go, but René shut them up quickly. Tony lectured them as well, but I got him calmed down after a while. Now, here we were, waiting for Xenides or his minions to show up.



A black Mercedes rolled up the dirt road and stopped a few minutes later. Two vampires climbed out of the vehicle and approached the house cautiously. One I didn't recognize; the other was Dominic. He fit the description his brothers had given. Time to go, I sent mindspeech to everyone inside the bunkers. I misted Gavin and Radomir first, before going to collect Tony, Bill and René.



We were behind Dominic and the other vampire as mist; they were now searching through the house for Winston. We waited for them to walk out again, just to have more fighting room. One of the two—the one I didn't recognize—was cursing; he'd just realized Winston had fled. I dropped my passengers behind him and they went to work. Gavin had claws at the throat of one vampire while René collared the other, faster than the eye could follow.



"Tell him not to send mindspeech!" I shouted at René, who held Dominic with lengthy, razor-sharp claws at his throat.



"You will not send mindspeech," René hissed compulsion and Dominic sagged to the ground in relief. Radomir now held the other vampire tightly, as Gavin paced before him.



"Tell me your name," Gavin growled out a mind-bending compulsion.



"Angelo." I didn't interfere with Gavin's pacing or his growling; I learned what I wanted to know from Angelo's scent.



"You're one of the shapeshifters, aren't you?" I accused. Angelo jerked in Radomir's grip. Radomir cuffed him and he cursed.



"Answer her!" Gavin thundered.



"Yes," Angelo whined unwillingly.



"Yet you are not Dark Elemaiya," I went on. "You come from the other side. Why are you in league with Xenides?"



"He caught me and turned me," Angelo muttered as he twisted in Radomir's hands. I'd known that already—he had Xenides' taint about him.



"How many others has Xenides made?" I demanded.



"I don't know, he won't tell me. I've only been vampire for twelve years."



"Does Xenides have any misters with him right now?"



"Not now; someone killed most of what he had."



"Come, cara, we will take these two with us. The Council will deal with them. The jet is still in Oklahoma City after bringing Thaddeus and Lorenzo." At Gavin's curt nod, Radomir hauled Angelo toward the van Winkler was parking in the yard. René and Tony followed closely behind Radomir, Dominic held between them. Another van, driven by human agents, pulled up right behind Winkler.



"No," Angelo begged as Radomir shoved him inside Winkler's van. "Please kill me now. Do not send me to the Council."



"You will go to the Council," Gavin snapped and that was that.



* * *



Xenides was in the throes of a vampiric orgasm after feeding off Jordan, his newest human conquest, when Dominic's mindspeech came to him. Xenides! was shouted mentally before it was cut off. Xenides grunted, concluding that he'd have to call in other reinforcements. He'd already collected as many rogues as he could from the surrounding area, and had sent them to a designated location. A handful of his vampire children were doing the same in other places. He didn't really need Byrnett, and Angelo and Dominic were no longer a necessity. Xenides dismissed them and went back to his lovemaking.



* * *



"Brother, we will stand with you," Lorenzo was distraught; Dominic was chained and settled into a seat at the back of the Council's jet. Angelo was similarly manacled on the other side, and bound with Gavin's compulsion that he couldn't shapeshift. Who knew what he could become? I hadn't bothered to ask.



Dalroy and Rhett, acting as extra guards, were flying back to London with Radomir and the prisoners, with a brief stop in New York to spend the day. At least Thaddeus and Lorenzo had their brother back. I hoped Wlodek wouldn't be too hard on Dominic, since he'd been an unwilling victim in all this. Perhaps Wlodek could find a use for another vampire who could mindspeak.



We'd tried, numerous times, to get past Xenides' compulsion and get Dominic or Angelo to tell us where Xenides was. They couldn't give out that information. He couldn't be far away, and Bill had his people working diligently to check on recent home and hotel rentals. They just weren't getting very far. I figured Xenides placed compulsion on his new landlord to lie about it if asked. It wouldn't be hard to do.



Gavin sighed as the door was closed on the jet and the pilot prepared for takeoff. Winkler had come along as our driver; Bill had also come, fascinated by the entire process. Gavin had allowed Bill to climb inside the jet for a few minutes. He'd watched, silently curious, while the prisoners were chained to their seats.



"They don't fool around, do they?" Bill asked when he'd come out of the jet.



"No, they don't." He had no idea I was speaking from personal experience. Bill left before we did; he'd come alone since he didn't want his agents to know any more than necessary. I was more than happy to get back to the house in Nichols Hills afterward. I was still wearing the same clothes I'd worn the day before, though I'd showered at the motel.



Roff was fussing the minute we climbed out of the car, herding me toward the guesthouse. Gavin was smiling and following along behind. "Lissa," Gavin held his cell phone out to me as soon as I stepped out of the shower later. Gavin wrapped a big towel around me and settled me on the foot of the bed, drying my hair with a second towel while I put the phone to my ear.



"Hello?" I said.



"Lissa, tell me what you know of the prisoners," Wlodek ordered. Well, somebody sounded grumpy.



"Angelo is a shapeshifter and has Bright Elemaiyan blood. I don't know what he becomes when he shifts. Xenides is his sire, father. I think Merrill will have to ask some of the questions—Xenides has some pretty strong compulsion on him and Dominic."



"Merrill won't be able to get past much of the compulsion placed on Angelo, then, since Xenides is his sire. We'll have better luck with Dominic, I think. Do you think he went willingly with Xenides?"



"No. Not in the least. He finds Xenides repulsive. Only compulsion kept him with Xenides; Dominic was forced to do his bidding."



"I am still quite aggravated that Maxwell kept a mindspeaker from us," Wlodek growled. He was pacing; I could hear his footsteps. "If he had let us know, then Dominic would have been with us instead of available for Xenides to abduct." I was thinking that we couldn't know that for sure, but I also couldn't say otherwise.



"Well, Maxwell is dead, so we may never know what his purpose was, more than likely," I said.



"True," Wlodek agreed. We talked for only a few seconds more before hanging up.



"Would you like a bit of blood, Lissa?" Gavin pulled me against him, nipping my neck lightly.



"Sounds like you want some," I said.



"That is certainly true." He peeled the towel away and bent his head to my breasts.



* * *



I was hearing voices before I came fully awake; someone was talking to Gavin. I moaned and attempted to shut out the drone by curling up in a ball on the bed and lifting the sheet over my head. "Raona, you should wake now and bathe; the wolf and the others have important information," Roff pulled the sheet away from my face. I blinked up at him and then turned my head, seeing that Gavin was indeed talking with Winkler. I was naked under the sheet; there was no way I wanted to rise and parade in front of Winkler sans clothing.



"Roff, I'm naked under here," I muttered. Of course, Winkler and Gavin both heard. Winkler laughed; Gavin just frowned at me.



"Then I will bring your robe," Roff was off the bed and walking toward the bathroom. I could have misted out of the bed, but Roff had already gone to get my wrap. Sighing, I waited until he came back with it. Roff held it up so I could slip into it, though I was pretty sure Winkler was doing his best to stare. I tied the robe around me and stalked into the bathroom with as much dignity as I could gather under the circumstances. Yeah, it wasn't a lot. "Raona, would you like help?" Roff followed me into the bathroom.



"That's all right. I can get this," I said. He looked disappointed. I shooed him out the door and closed it behind him.



After I was clean and dressed, I walked out to the small living area of the guesthouse, located next to the kitchen. Winkler was still there, having a snack that Roff put together for him. That man—well, werewolf—could eat better than anyone else I'd ever met.



"Lissa, come and sit, cara," Gavin patted the seat next to him on the sofa.



"What's wrong?" I asked. There had to be something wrong. Nobody asked you to sit unless there was.



"They found Sara Workman's body," Winkler said. "Bill called two hours ago. She was dumped out by Crescent; some kids found her body in a ditch. Looked like she'd been savaged by animals." Crescent was a small town forty miles north of Oklahoma City, surrounded by wheat fields and farmland.



"No surprise. Xenides' shapeshifters probably got into that sort of thing. She was already dead, though." I looked away from Winkler and Gavin. This was my own personal hell, I think. People were dying because they were related or connected to me. I was running out of relatives, too. The two cousins in Kansas were the last of the lot and they were Don's relatives, not mine.



"They're doing an autopsy to determine the cause of death," Winkler went on when I didn't turn back to him. I nodded wearily.



"Cara, you cannot accept the blame for this," Gavin said softly.



"Can't I?" I turned to stare at him. "If I hadn't walked into that stupid bar after Don died, Sergio and Edward would have picked somebody else to play their sick little game with. It wouldn't have been me."



"Lissa, I'm alive because you walked into that bar," Winkler said softly. "Twice over, at least. From what I understand, Gavin's alive too, for the same reason."



"How many live because you are what you are, Lissa?" Gavin tucked me against his side. "How many will live in the future? You have no idea. You are upset and blaming yourself for this. That is understandable, but not the truth, love."