Xavier: Vampires in Europe (Vampires in America Book 14) Page 21

  More curious than anything else, he asked, “The attacks on me, the weapons. Did he teach you that, too?”

  “Yes. And we were eager to serve him, to rid the world of you and your bloodthirsty vampires. You’re little better than animals, all of you.”

  He chuckled. “Did he tell you that he, too, is a vampire?”

  “You lie. He told us you would. You tried to change him into one of your own, but his magic fought back and refused to permit it. But you had already poisoned his blood like an incurable disease, so that the sun harms him terribly.”

  “And the blood?” Xavier pushed.

  “His blood flows like any other,” she answered quizzically, as if not understanding the question.

  “He requires blood to remain alive. He drinks blood like any other vampire.”

  “More lies,” she hissed.

  Interesting, he thought. So Sakal wasn’t using his flock of followers as food. He might be roaming the streets hiding among the vamps in a rogue nest, like the one his vampires would root out tonight. But that wasn’t Sakal’s style. He considered himself far above the common man, whether peasant or aristocrat. He wasn’t about to troll the streets and pay some whore to let him feed from her. And he wasn’t powerful enough to entrance an unwilling victim.

  Sakal could be using magic to erase the memory of his bite from whomever he selected for the night. But that would be cumbersome and time-consuming if he wanted to erase only the biting and none of the other mind controls he’d already planted. Not to mention that others would eventually notice bite marks on one or more of their fellow acolytes’ necks and be curious.

  It would be much easier to pay a whore, except that this was Sakal. So he must have a small stable of willing donors whom he kept close, but didn’t reveal to his followers. Interesting, but not helpful for tonight’s interrogation.

  “I’m sorry, Cláudia, but this is going to hurt. I feel compelled to remind you that the sooner you talk, the sooner the pain will end. Just think of me as a truth seeker, like you.”

  She gave him a puzzled but frightened look, as if believing him, but not wanting to. “Lord Sakal is our teacher,” she said in hesitant voice. “He is the source of all truth.”

  “Did he tell you that?”

  “Yes. We were fooled by our parents and their government. But he’s taught us the real truth, and we love him for that.”

  “What did he teach you? I’d like to learn.”

  “We can only be free when we break away from the chains of authority, revolting against those who want to enslave us to serve their interests.”

  “And what do I or my people have to do with this? Why kidnap the children who look to me for safety just as you look to Sakal?”

  “Because you’re a monster,” she spat back at him. “A demon who would enslave us all to feed his unholy hunger and nourish the vampires he’s created.”

  “Is that why you took the children?”

  “We took them to save them.”

  She was so earnest that he believed she believed, though he knew better. Sakal would have killed those children if forced to it, if only for the pain it would have caused Xavier. He wouldn’t have cared about the pain of their parents, their families.

  “They have parents, Cláudia. Families who love them and would miss them.” He didn’t know why he was trying reason with her. But she was so young. It was a shame she’d been used by Sakal, and would now die at Xavier’s hands.

  “It’s too late for their parents, but the children can still be saved.”

  “I see,” he said, sighing. “Then tell me. Where is Lord Sakal?”

  She clamped her lips tight and glared up at him.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, then gripped her arm and gave her pain.

  She screamed, going stiff within the bonds, too terrified to thrash, in too much agony to move the slightest muscle. Tears were streaming down her face when he released her, and when she sobbed, it was as if she would empty her chest, the sound she made was so hard and so full of pain.

  “Where is Lord Sakal?” he repeated softly and waited until her sobs let up enough that she could breathe, knowing that the pain would have lessened just enough to permit her to speak, while lying in wait in a way that she would feel it lurking, would know it could pounce at any moment.

  “He saved me. I don’t want to betray him,” she said in a pitiful voice, as if hoping that Xavier would release her out of pity.

  She knew too little of vampires, if she thought that. Xavier had no pity left for any but the ones he loved. And even they would diminish in his eyes if they ever betrayed him.

  “You love him,” Xavier said reasonably. “But he is hurting the ones I love. He is willing to kill, or send you to kill to further his goals. And I am willing to kill anyone who would hurt those whom I love, including every man, woman, and child who lives within my Fortalesa, and looks to me for protection.”

  “I can’t,” she pleaded, straining against her bonds as much as she could. He gripped her arm again and before he’d even begun to increase the pain, she screamed, “Please! I can’t!”

  “But you can, nena. And you will.”

  Blood was pouring from her eyes, from her nose, and the arm where he’d gripped her was burned as if from a fire, but she eventually told him everything he needed to know.

  “He comes to us every night,” she whispered, shivering from the pain, now utterly defeated.

  “He comes to you,” Xavier repeated. “But he doesn’t live with you, doesn’t stay with you.”

  “No. We have a farm of our own. We grow food, and we have animals for meat and cheese.”

  “Where does he go at night then?”

  “I don’t know,” she said, then stared up at him in sudden terror. “I don’t. It’s the truth. None of us knows. He has guards who are always with him. They take down his words when he teaches us, so that we may study and learn.”

  “They live with him?” he asked, suddenly knowing exactly where Sakal’s blood was coming from.

  “I think they must.”

  Xavier’s mouth quirked up in a cynical smile. “These assistants . . . are they women?”

  “Yes. His very first students,” she said eagerly. “They’ve been with him from the beginning of his journey to teach the truth.”

  “Where do they live with him?”

  Fear clouded her eyes again. “I don’t know. I told you. I don’t know.” She began crying again.

  “Cláudia.” His voice was cold and demanding as he stared down at her. “Tell me the truth.”

  She shuddered, choking on a final sob as she tried to hold them back. “They leave every night,” she said, her voice hitching on the final words. “But I don’t know—Wait!” she screamed when he lifted his hand. “Barcelona. He lives in Barcelona. In a, a building, not a house.”

  Xavier tilted his head curiously. “How did you discover that?”

  “I didn’t, not by myself. One of the others told me. He described a beautiful, gold building like a temple, where he first learned of Lord Sakal’s truth.”

  “He remembered being there?” Xavier thought that odd, either that, or very negligent. Surely Sakal wasn’t stupid enough to recruit new acolytes where he lived.

  “It was his first night on the farm,” she whispered, barely audible. “He, he disappeared after that.”

  “Of course, he did. When Sakal and the women leave you, how do they leave? Helicopter? Do they drive away in a vehicle?”

  “Vehicle,” she said in that same bare whisper. “A big one. Black . . . all over, windows, too.”

  He glanced at Joachim who jerked his chin at the girl and mouthed the word, “Where?”

  Nodding his understanding and irritated that he hadn’t thought of it, he asked,
“Where do you and the others live, Cláudia? We’ll give you a ride home.”

  Her expression when she looked at him was so full of hope that he hated himself for deceiving her, but only for an instant. If he set her free, she would go straight back to her friends and they’d report to Sakal. Better the damn sorcerer not know that Xavier had any idea what he was up to.

  And even better that he not know Xavier was coming for him.

  LAYLA WAS BOTH uneasy and curious when she accompanied Xavier out of the interrogation area and back along the way they’d come. Joachim and Chuy had remained with the prisoner, and she had to ask the question, even though she wasn’t at all sure she wanted to know the answer.

  Steeling herself, she asked, “What will happen to her?”

  “What do you think? What would you do with a prisoner who had revealed too much, and who, if set free, would go right back to her master and tell him everything we’d learned?”

  Layla clenched her jaw unhappily, but gave him the truth. “Kill him.”

  He glanced down at her. “Kill him. Do you refer to the master, or the prisoner? Are you reluctant to kill a woman? Especially a very young one, who is nonetheless as capable as a man of betraying you.”

  She lowered her head to avoid his gaze, not because she didn’t know the truth, but because she did. And she wondered what he would think of her once she told him. “Man or woman, there is no difference. A young child, I would try to save if I could.”

  Xavier was smiling when she finally dared to look up at him.

  “What?” she demanded. “You asked, I gave you the truth.”

  “We are very much alike, cariño. That is why you are mine.”

  “I told you, I don’t belong to anyone.”

  “So you did,” he agreed pleasantly.

  Frustrated at the non-answer, she looked for something to change the subject. “I didn’t know the vampire wing was so big.”

  “Why would you? Few humans are ever permitted inside.”

  That was true. Like everyone else, she was familiar with the above- ground offices and facilities occupying the elaborate structure that rose above the rest of the Fortalesa. But the rest of this, Xavier’s offices and that hall with the interrogation room—probably more than one—that was all new to her. And she’d seen more stairs than just the ones that she’d taken to get down to Xavier’s office. Stairs that continued even farther down from where they’d exited to this floor. There had to be at least one sub-basement down there, maybe more.

  Xavier had gone quiet, not offering any additional details about the vampire wing or what might lie beneath it. Instead, he led her back to his office, walked in ahead of her, and then held the door politely until she’d passed.

  She turned when he closed the door and asked, “So where is Joachim taking her?” She didn’t add “to be killed,” although she was thinking it.

  “To a cell which will be her home for the next while.”

  “How long? And why?”

  He considered the question for some time. Probably because he wasn’t used to anyone questioning his decisions. “As long as it takes,” he growled finally.

  “To do what?” she pushed.

  “To kill Sakal, and negate the threat he represents.”

  Layla thought about that. He probably expected her to demand more from him, more details maybe, more about what he’d do to the rest of Sakal’s sycophants. She did none of that. “Okay.”

  He was so surprised that he didn’t manage to conceal it.

  She chuckled. “My life for the last six years has been war of one kind or another. There is no gray on the battlefield. Only black and white.”

  “I can’t say I’m happy you chose that path, but I’m glad you understand.” He’d circled around the map table and was studying it intently. “Come here. We need to discuss what we do next.”

  “I think that’s obvious. We have the location of the farm compound, and Sakal supposedly visits there every night. I’ll take my people and check it out.”

  He regarded her for several minutes, and she was convinced he was about to order her to stand down, that she and her team were not to do a recon of the farm. She would have ignored him, but it still would have pissed her off.

  She didn’t know which of them was more surprised when instead of rejecting the idea out of hand, he said, “You would do this during the day, I assume?”

  “Late afternoon,” she corrected. “Cláudia said Sakal visits every night. I want to know if that’s true.”

  “It’s not worth the risk. He’s dangerous, Layla. And we have other ways of gaining information, if we need it.”

  “We’re dangerous, too. I’ll let you know what we find.”

  “YOU SURE ABOUT this?” Brian asked the next morning, standing with legs spread wide so she didn’t have to look up at him.

  “Of course, I’m sure. Why would you ask that?” Layla scowled. “Do I usually give my people orders I’m not sure about?”

  “Cheap shot, Cap. You know that’s not what I meant.”

  “What did you mean?”

  He took her arm, and with a glance back at the others who were dutifully not listening, pulled her farther into the trees on the hill above the farm compound. “I mean are you doing this for the right reasons? Or just to get back at your fanged boyfriend.”

  “He’s not my boyfriend. He never was. And this has nothing to do with him. If we’re going to run an op against that building”—she pointed at the main structure below—“we need better intel than we can get sitting a hundred yards away on a hillside. We’ve already been watching the place for two hours, and we’ve learned everything we can from this position. We know they all come out to work in the morning, that they don’t wear uniforms or stupid robes. And since their glorious leader will be arriving after sunset, plus them being farmers and all, it’s good bet that they’ll stop for the day close to sunset, put away their tools, and return inside for the night.”

  “And we learned all that sitting right here, where they can’t see us.”

  “I don’t get it, Brian. This is a standard recon op. What’s your problem with it?”

  “My problem is you’re going in blind. For all we know, they have checkpoints inside every door. Maybe they all have a secret tattoo, or a fluorescent stamp, like in a bar. For that matter, they might have pressure plates outside all the windows, and most of the doors.”

  “That’s pretty extreme for a kids’ farm compound, don’t you think? Besides, Cláudia didn’t have a tattoo or a bar stamp, and she didn’t say anything about the kind of security measures you’re thinking of,” she dismissed.

  “So you stripped her down, searched her head to toe? Did you scan her with a black light?”

  “You know we didn’t.”

  “So how do you know—?”

  “I don’t, okay? Are you saying we’ve never scouted an unknown location before? Have you been working with the same team I have for six years? Come on, Brian.”

  “Who’s going with you on this intel gathering mission? Because I know you’re going.”

  “Kerry. We’re the only two women, and if we have to, we can play the part of adoring servants long enough to get out of there.”

  “Fuck. You’re going to do this, no matter what I say.”

  She shrugged. “Unless you can come up with a good reason why we shouldn’t. We need better intel on the interior of that building. Is it one big room inside? A warren of hallways? Who the fuck knows? But don’t you think we should?”

  He sighed. “You really think we’re going to assault that place?”

  “I don’t know. I do know that Xavier wants Sakal, not a bunch of teenage truth seekers. So any op we do run will have to be at night, to be sure the asshole vamp is there.”

 
He dropped his head, jaw clenched as he studied his boots, before looking back up. “All right. But you’re not going in unarmed, and you’re wearing comms. River and I will move in closer, but we’ll still need to know if you’re in trouble before it happens, not after they drag your dead bodies out into the dirt.”

  “You really think that Kerry and I couldn’t take a bunch of kids, if we had to? Have some faith.”

  “I have plenty of faith. I just know you too well. Let’s get this damn thing organized.”

  AN HOUR LATER, LAYLA and Kerry were ready. The grounds of the compound had been crowded with acolytes until maybe fifteen minutes ago, performing a variety of tasks, including farming and maintenance. But then, a soft chime had sounded outside the building, and the workers had responded instantly. They patted the dirt around a final plant, put away their tools, and headed for a row of outdoor faucets to wash their hands. They’d been orderly about it, but not horror movie creepy orderly. There’d been no falling into line and marching in silent lock-step to the sinks and through the open doors. After washing up, they’d walked into the building in small groups of quiet conversation, and that was it.

  Layla glanced at the time. They had another hour until true sunset, maybe an hour after that before Sakal would arrive, since according to Xavier, the vampire was weak and wouldn’t rise until well after dark. If she and Kerry were going to infiltrate the compound, it had to be now. They wanted to be in and gone before Sakal arrived. Weak or not, if he had anything close to the kind of enhanced senses that Xavier and his people exhibited, Sakal might sense their presence, and they’d be cooked. She glanced at the other woman and found her staring back, waiting.

  “We go now,” Layla said softly. “They’re probably settling in for their evening meal down there, before prepping for the vamp’s arrival. If they eat communally—and why wouldn’t they, with the whole group- think mentality—they’ll all be in one room, so we can snoop some.”