Chapter 18
Cori
From what Cori understood, every major city in the world had a supernatural master who governed all the rest of the non-humans in that territory. It was their job to keep control of their people and protect them from outside threats. The race of the leader varied, depending on who had been tough enough to fight their way to the top. It was almost never nephilim because, according to Melena, they weren’t wired for long-term leadership. They didn’t want the responsibility or to be tied to one place for long. They lived wherever they wanted and answered to no one except the angels—that last part reluctantly.
Because vampires were the other most long-lived race, they were the most common masters. It took longer for them to become strong, usually many centuries, but once they were powerful, few could defeat them. Werewolves often took control of cities no other race wanted. The last ruler of Fairbanks had been a twelve-hundred-year-old vampire named Nik, but in a twist of fate that ended in a beautiful and kind fairy dying, he’d lost his seat to Derrick—an alpha werewolf. Unlike all other werewolves, though, Derrick wasn’t mortal. Tormod’s father had made him powerful and immortal with his half-demon/half-angel blood. Cori didn’t know what kind of deal was worked out to make that happen, but she had to admit Derrick had done a decent job of running the city since taking over despite having a questionable background. He’d do anything to protect his territory and everyone in it, including humans.
She felt a certain sense of satisfaction as she pulled her truck up to the heavy wrought-iron gate that led to the master’s house. The whole place, including the surrounding land, was encircled by two-foot thick stone walls. Normally, the only humans allowed entry inside were those used to feed the vampires who lived there. Cori was the rare exception because she was friends with Melena, and she’d helped supernaturals out of some rather major binds in the past. They sort of treated her as an honorary “sup.”
Guards walked up to the doors on either side of her truck, so she rolled down the windows. The passenger side window had been stuck before, but thankfully Ned had fixed that problem while repairing the rest of the vehicle. Her truck ran so well now that she didn’t think she’d have problems with it for a long time, which was a relief since she’d paid a large chunk of her meager savings to get it back to working order.
A man peered closely at her face—probably a werewolf since the sun wouldn’t set for another hour. “Name?”
“Cori Marsh,” she answered.
He glanced at an iPad he was carrying. She caught a glimpse of the screen where there was a picture of her and a short bio. Too bad she couldn’t quite make out what it said. Probably something like “crazy human woman who is friends with the sensor, Melena Sanders.” The paragraph was a little longer than that, but she figured that could be the gist of it.
On the other side, another guard questioned her passenger. “Name?”
“Go fuck yourself,” Bartol replied.
Wow, he was in a cheery mood. She’d thought he was moody with her, but it appeared he was even less cordial around strangers. Cori had known he didn’t like to talk to them or be near them, yet this was worse than normal. He must not have liked that the werewolf had gotten too close to his face.
“Sorry, sir, but the master requires we confirm your identity before you can be allowed inside,” the guard said, a hint of fear shining in his gaze. Derrick got rid of any weaklings in his pack, but even the strongest werewolf knew they couldn’t take on a nephilim.
Bartol glared at the man. “Do I look like I’m in the mood to be questioned? You know damn well who I am.”
He rarely said curse words around Cori, which had made her think he didn’t say them at all. Now she wondered if he hadn’t just been acting old-fashioned in her presence. Bartol had certainly forgotten his manners now that a werewolf had made the mistake of angering him.
“But the master…”
“Expects me,” Bartol interrupted. “And if you don’t open the gate in the next ten seconds, I will rip it off its hinges, and we will drive through whether you like it or not.”
“There’s a spell on the place, Bartol. Even you can’t bust through uninvited,” Cori pointed out. Melena had told her all about the time Kerbasi had attempted to break the magical barrier around the mansion, and how he got burned in the process. The guardian was more than twice Bartol’s age and power, so no way was the nephilim getting through by sheer might.
A female voice came through the guard’s radio. “Stand down and let them through. How many times have I told you not to piss off our nephilim visitors?”
Cori recognized the voice as Kariann. She was a six-hundred-year-old vampire who worked on Derrick’s security team, just as she had for Nik before him. The woman was strong and not someone you wanted to make angry. With it still being daylight, she was probably holed up in the room with all the video surveillance equipment.
“My apologies,” the guard said and hurried toward a small building with the controls for the gate. It opened a moment later, which opened the magical barrier as well, and Cori started up the long drive toward the main house.
She glanced over at Bartol. “You’re as bad as Melena about harassing the guards.”
“They annoy me.”
“Everything annoys you,” she replied. “I think you’re only riding in the truck with me because you want to annoy me as well. It’s like a vicious circle or something.”
“It is not safe for you to drive alone,” he replied, keeping his gaze ahead.
She pulled into the parking area next to the two-story house. It was a huge place with beige siding, a gabled roof, and metal shutters that could shut out the sunlight during the day in rooms the vampires inhabited. She noted most of them were closed at the moment, though even the youngest vamps would be stirring by now.
Cori and Bartol got out of the truck and began the trek to the front door. Cori estimated there must have been dozens of bedrooms inside. There were two wings branching out from the main entrance, plus the central common area. Derrick had built onto the place since taking over, but he’d tried to keep the basic style of the house the same. It was designed as a refuge for supernaturals who weren’t ready to function in society, or who preferred living away from humans. Most of the guards and staff lived on the premises, as well as willing human blood donors for the vampires.
Two large guys—probably werewolves—paced in front of the entrance, swords and pistols strapped to their sides. They stopped to nod at Cori and Bartol, but they didn’t say anything. Someone else opened the door from the inside. The older man was dressed like a butler, wearing a black suit with a starched white button-down. He was short at maybe four and a half feet tall, had pitch-black skin, and his ears were pointed. He had to be fae, but Cori didn’t know which race from among them.
“Welcome,” he said in an unusual accent that was a cross between Irish and something else. Then he pointed directly across the foyer toward a large sitting room. “Please wait in the receiving area, and someone will be with you shortly.”
Cori and Bartol moved past him to where he indicated. It used to be a living room, but she noted it had been expanded and remodeled since she last visited. There’d been one fireplace before, and now there were two on either end. A piano sat off in one corner, a table with a chessboard against another wall, and Victorian furniture of all types made up the central area. Most of the wood floor was covered in a massive burgundy rug. It was rather formal, considering a werewolf ran the place, but maybe he was trying to give visitors a good impression of his home.
Cori took a seat in a high-backed chair and whispered to Bartol. “What was that guy?”
“I’m not certain,” he said, frowning in the direction of the foyer. “But I suspect he is a crossbreed of some sort. Perhaps between a sluagh and a troll? I suspect he came here for refuge because the fae do not tolerate the mixing of their races and would never allow him to live among them.”
Cori knew very little about the fae. Bambi was considered part of that group, and there used to be a fairy who ran the herb shop before her, but that was about all the experience she’d had since discovering the presence of supernaturals. Most fae chose to live in their secret cities, which no one would talk about except Melena, who was not affected by the spell that protected that knowledge. She’d only said the nearest city was in Canada, and it was a magical yet primitive place.
A young woman with curly brown hair came into the room and gave them a polite smile. “Can I offer either of you refreshments?”
Cori couldn’t decide whether she was human or something else. She looked normal. “No, thanks. But when can we—”
“How long are we supposed to wait here?” Bartol interrupted, finishing what she was going to ask.
He’d yet to take a seat and had been pacing the room since they arrived. Cori would have too, except that she was already getting tired. Healing rapidly had taken a greater toll than she expected. Bartol had warned her she wouldn’t be back to full speed yet, but it had taken a few hours of exerting herself with chores and errands to figure that out. There was no way she would tell anyone that, though. It was rather embarrassing, and everyone already saw her as weak because she was human. She wouldn’t add to that impression.
“I’m sorry.” The woman glanced worriedly toward the foyer. “The master just told me to make certain you were comfortable.”
“We don’t have time for this,” Bartol growled.
Cori stood and put a gentle hand on his arm, relieved when he didn’t pull away. “Don’t yell at her. You’re the one who insisted we couldn’t even come here until now.”
Bartol worked his jaw, then drew his gaze down to her. “You’re getting tired. I can see it in your eyes and in the way you move.”
Damn. Apparently, Cori hadn’t hidden it as well as she’d thought. “It’s fine.”
When she had first heard they might have Griff, she’d wanted nothing more than to see for herself. Now that she’d had hours to think about it, she’d become nervous. What if it was him? And what if it wasn’t? Either she would have to face her ex-husband again and the horrors the sight of him would bring, or she would have to face the disappointment of not capturing him. She didn’t know which would be worse. All she could be certain about was that she didn’t feel the same rush to find out as earlier.
“Sorry to keep you waiting,” Melena said, coming into the room and giving them an apologetic look. She must have been at her office at some point in the day because she was dressed in one of her agent suits. Today’s was black with a red blouse underneath.
Derrick followed closely behind her. He was a big guy who didn’t have classic good looks but rather a rugged appearance that drew women with his pure animal magnetism. It was evident in his brown eyes that he was a breath away from breaking into violence at any moment, but that he could control it as long as no one pissed him off. The alpha currently wore a suit that fit his large frame well, though he didn’t look very comfortable in it. He’d also slicked back his chestnut hair and shaved his face recently, revealing lightly tanned skin and a square jaw.
Cori frowned at Melena. If she and the alpha had taken this long to come to them, they’d been busy with something else. “Is the vampire awake? Have you already talked to him?”
“Yes.” The sensor hesitated. “He is not Griff. He says he is your ex-husband’s brother, Jacob, and that he just arrived in town the night before your attack.”
“What? But he isn’t supposed to be a vampire, and he was living in Seattle the last I heard.” Cori was at a loss to figure out how Jacob had gotten involved in this. When she’d known him before, he’d been a decent guy. It was one of the reasons he’d left town soon after he finished high school. He didn’t want anything to do with his brother or father.
“That’s what I got from my research as well,” Melena agreed. “He has a current residence and employment there. I didn’t see anything in our database to indicate he might have become a vampire, but we’re still working to identify all the sups in the country, so that’s not unusual.”
Bartol crossed his arms. “When I visited the parents, they hadn’t seen either of their sons recently.”
The sensor cleared her throat. “Apparently, Griff’s return to Fairbanks wasn’t just about Cori. He’d decided to drag his brother into this as well because he had plans for his parents, too.”
“What do you mean?” Cori asked, a chill running down her spine. Surely her ex-husband wouldn’t hurt his mother? She was sweet, and he’d loved her.
Melena took a deep breath. “Griff took his brother over to their parent’s home last night and forced Jacob to watch as he killed their father. Then he made him help bury the body elsewhere. The plan was to send Jacob and their mother back to Washington tonight.”
Cori took a moment to soak all of that in. Griff was not only attacking her, but now he’d gone after his father and killed him. Had he gone off the deep end and lost his mind? She couldn’t make sense of any of it, and why now?
“How does a vampire travel that far without getting caught by the sun?” That was another thing Cori couldn’t figure out. She knew the richer vampires had private jets with the windows blacked out so they couldn’t get burned, but Griff and Jacob wouldn’t have that kind of funds.
“They can use Anchorage as a port,” Melena informed her. “There are ships there that will transport vampires for a small sum, which Griff obviously knows about since he’s managed all of this so far. He likely uses the nighttime hours to travel by land and then hides in windowless rooms on the ship during the day. Once it’s dark again, he can disembark.”
“How long has that deal been going on?” Cori asked. Sups had just come out earlier in the year.
Derrick spoke up, “Probably since the city was founded. Vampires have been rulin’ that area for as long as I can remember, and they don’t tolerate any of the other supernatural races except a few witches they keep on retainer.”
“I got an invitation once when I was at a ball in New Orleans,” Melena said, giving the werewolf a satisfied smile. “I think she’d let me visit anytime I want.”
Derrick snorted. “With conditions.”
“True.” Melena shook her head. “Genevieve is probably one of the coldest and scariest vampires I’ve ever met, and she’d love to have a sensor under her control, though she makes it sound like it would be a partnership. I don’t buy that story for a second.”
“If she’s allowing Griff and his brother to come and go from her city,” Bartol began, rubbing his chin. “She’s getting something from them in exchange.”
“I’m thinkin’ that, too,” the alpha werewolf said.
Cori swayed a bit on her feet, suddenly feeling lightheaded. She was going to have to eat again soon if she wanted to get her strength back up. Bartol took hold of her arm, steadying her. To her surprise, he didn’t let go, though he kept his gaze on the others.
It was weird, but just being in contact with him made her feel a little better, and she was able to think with a clearer head. “Could Griff be trading any intel he gathers on Fairbanks to Genevieve?”
Derrick’s expression darkened. “Yeah, it’s possible.”
“He’s been testing our defenses in a roundabout way if you think about it,” Melena said, worry entering her gaze. “Griff has probably been informed about all of us, which is why he’s been going after Cori indirectly except for the first time she saw him. We weren’t prepared for that, and he knew it.”
Bartol let go of her, glanced at her to make certain she was steady and started pacing the room again. “We should have kept a closer watch on the parents’ house.”
“Actually, I had a guy there,” Melena said, pulling out her phone. “But he hasn’t reported in today, and I was too busy to check on him.”
Cori swallowed, thinking that couldn’t be a good sign. “Is he human?”
“Mostly, except he’s got a little elf in him. He works at the police department, but sometimes my office borrows him. He can be discreet.” She tapped on the screen and put the phone to her ear. For a few moments, they all waited in silence to see if the man would answer. Melena’s expression brightened when he did. “Hey, Burkes. I just wanted to check in with you about that case.”
A moment later, Melena’s expression changed to one of frustration and worry. Cori couldn’t hear anything on the other end of the line, but it was clear the others could. Bartol had stopped pacing to listen, and his expression was darkening by the moment.
When he cursed under his breath, she gave him an inquiring look. “What is he saying?”
“The vampires attacked him before going into the house sometime around two in the morning,” Bartol answered in a low tone so as to not interrupt Melena. “They left him for dead, but he woke up a few hours later and managed to get to the hospital. He was lucky that the elf side of him kept him strong enough to call for help.”
“Why didn’t he call Mel earlier?” Cori asked.
Bartol didn’t answer right away, busy listening to Melena’s conversation. “He was in surgery and then in recovery. After that, he had to explain to his police department what happened to him. They’re letting him rest right now before he has to answer more questions for their reports. It sounds like they’ve already brought Griff’s mother in for questioning as well as found his father’s body.”
And they’d been going about their day not even realizing so much was happening. Cori wished they could have figured this out sooner. She wasn’t exactly sorry Martin was dead, but she did feel awful for Ruth. Griff’s mother had always been quiet and withdrawn, but she’d also been nice to everyone she met. The police were going to come down on her hard while they tried to figure out what happened, and she may have been compelled to forget. After putting up with that horrible husband for so many years, she didn’t deserve that kind of treatment.
Melena hung up the phone. “I’ve got to go.”
“Wait,” Cori said. “Can you watch out for Ruth and keep her safe? Griff probably compelled her, so she’s not going to have any idea what’s happening, and he might still try to take her.”
“I’ll take care of it, don’t worry,” the sensor promised.
After she left the room, Derrick looked at Cori. “Do you still want to talk to Jacob?”
She considered it. “Yeah. I have a couple of questions I need to ask him.”
“One of us could ask for you, if you’d rather not see him,” Bartol offered.
“No.” She shook her head. “It’s fine.” She was definitely getting tired, but she’d force herself to push through a little longer so she could get to the bottom of how Jacob had gotten involved, and what had happened to make him become a vampire.
Derrick led them down the hallway to the basement stairs. It was darker and cooler, which was made worse by the cement walls and low lighting. Cori counted six doors down there, but only two had locks on the outside. The alpha werewolf led them to the first one. He pulled out a set of keys and opened the door. It was totally dark in there, but he flipped a switch from the hallway and a bulb hanging from the ceiling lit up.
In the middle of the cold cement room, a man wearing only a pair of dirty jeans hung by his wrists in chains. His brown hair was tousled, and his pale torso was leaner than she remembered. Other than a trickle of dried blood on his bottom lip, he didn’t appear hurt.
Cori had only seen Jacob a few times before he moved, and a few more during holidays. He’d always been kind and respectful to her. The only thing that made her cautious now was that he had been turned into a vampire, and she didn’t know how that might have affected him. Melena swore most people didn’t change that much from their original personality, other than a hunger for blood, but there could always be exceptions to the rules.
“Jacob?” She took a couple of steps into the room, mindful of keeping a healthy distance. Bartol stayed close behind her while Derrick remained out in the hallway, watchful but giving them space.
The vampire lifted his head, confusion filling his dark eyes. “Cori?”
“When did you become a vampire? How?” she asked. “Was it Griff who changed you?”
Jacob drew in a deep breath. “No. It was just as much of a surprise to my brother when he found me last week.”
“How then?”
“I got stomach cancer a while back. They treated it, but it came back and spread fast to my other organs. I didn’t have more than a few months to live.” He gave her an ironic smile. “I got the news not long after the supernaturals announced their presence to the world, and it gave me an idea.”
Vampire blood couldn’t cure cancer, but if the person became a vampire, they wouldn’t be sick anymore. “You found out you might get to live if you were turned.”
It would explain why he looked so much leaner than when she last saw him. Cancer would have caused him to lose a lot of weight, and whatever he looked like when he turned was more or less what he was stuck with except for darkening eyes and lightening skin.
Jacob nodded. “It wasn’t easy to find someone willing to help, but the master vampire for Seattle eventually heard my story and offered. He’d lost a lot of people after the sups came out and needed to replenish his ranks. Someone who was going to die anyway was a safer option than grabbing just anyone off the streets.”
“I can see why you did it, though it was still risky.” Cori didn’t bother to tell him that wasn’t an option for her.
“He explained everything to me. Said if it didn’t take, it would be a painful death, but I knew it couldn’t be a worse diagnosis than what I already had, and at least I wouldn’t build up a bunch of medical bills that way.” Jacob chuckled softly.
“Was it worth it?” Cori asked.
His brows knitted in thought. “My master is fair and looks out for me. I can’t complain.”
So far, Jacob wasn’t showing any of the deranged signs his brother exhibited. She started to move closer, but Bartol grabbed her arms and pulled her back—almost into his chest.
“You can’t trust him,” the nephilim said into her ear.
She gave him an annoyed look. “He’s in chains. What’s he going to do that you can’t stop in time?”
Bartol narrowed his eyes. “There’s no reason to get closer.”
“Why are you being so overprotective and controlling?”
Surprise entered his gaze, and he let go of her. Somehow, Bartol hadn’t even realized the kind of behavior he was exhibiting. Now that she’d pointed it out, he was backing away from her like she had the plague.
“Do as you wish,” he said, striding out of the room to join Derrick in the hallway.
“Do you think they’ll let me live?” Jacob asked, drawing her attention back to him.
“It depends.” Cori shrugged. “On whether you’ve done anything bad, or they decide you’re a threat to anyone in this town. If they think you’re good, they’ll let you go after we find your brother.”
“I didn’t come here to hurt you or anyone else,” he swore.
She really wanted to believe him. “Griff is trying to kill me, and you’ve been with him. It makes that kind of hard to believe, especially now that your father is dead.”
He shuddered. “I didn’t want any part of that. My dad deserved an ass-kicking, which I thought was what we were doing, but Griff tortured him for over two hours before finishing him off. I begged him to stop. He just wouldn’t, so I kept our mother in the other room, so she wouldn’t have to see it.”
“And you helped bury the body,” Cori pointed out.
His gaze turned desperate. “Only because Griff would have burned our father and the house if I didn’t insist on a burial. He planned to make our mother think it was all a horrible accident.”
That didn’t entirely surprise Cori. Griff wouldn’t have wanted to bother with a tiresome chore like burial when he could find a faster way to dispose of the corpse and any evidence of what he’d done. “What are his plans for me?”
“I told him I wanted nothing to do with that.” Jacob looked down. “Griff says you tried to kill him and nearly succeeded. The only reason he’s alive is because he was turned.”
Cori’s chest tightened. “He killed our daughter, and he didn’t feel any remorse about it. I sort of lost my mind.”
Jacob was quiet for a moment, then he met her gaze. “I’m sorry about Faith. Only got to see her a couple of times, but she was a sweet girl.”
“Yeah, she was,” Cori said softly.
He worked his jaw, as if he was coming to some sort of difficult decision. “Griff has big plans for you. I don’t know what they are specifically, but I know he wants you for himself—dead or alive.”
Bartol flashed in front of the vampire and grabbed his neck. “Tell me everything Griff plans to do to her.”
“That’s all I know,” Jacob gasped, eyes instantly glazed from what must have been a healthy dose of compulsion laid on him. “He wouldn’t say anything more. The only reason he brought me to town was to take our mother home. We didn’t even spend daylight hours together because he didn’t want to be near me any more than necessary. It’s like he’s on some special mission, and I could only know the parts relevant to me.”
“That’s it?” Bartol asked.
Jacob nodded his head jerkily. “Yes.”
Bartol turned to her. “Let’s go.”
Cori left the room without a backward glance. They’d gotten all they were going to get out of Jacob, and she didn’t want to look at him anymore.