Afterglow (Brotherhood of the Blade Trilogy #2) (4 page)

“
Yikes. What we could do is
cloak
our heartbeats with perhaps some squelcher or music or some sort of drumbeat sound that mixes in with our heart sounds and makes them less detectable or even confusing.”

“
Music. Interesting.”

“
Or white noise,” I said.

We ate our cheese and bread in silence for a few minutes but it was a comfortable silence.

“Though you are still new to us, compared to the others, I’ve become very impressed with your outspoken logistics for many situations. And by your execution of those practical ideas.”

“
Thank you, Lucas.” I raised my coffee mug to him. “I feel like you have created a working environment where we are valued colleagues, as well as mentor and mentee. We share a lot of thoughts and I feel like you see my ideas as solutions and not just opinions.”

“
Well said, Rand.” He cleared his throat. “Which brings me to my reason for calling this little
tête-à-tête.
”

“
I figured we weren’t just shooting the breeze here. And consuming mass quantities of melted cheese and bread.”

Lucas nodded his shaggy silver head. “I want you to take over for me when I am unable to lead anymore and I’ll be forced to retire.”

A spear of fear ran through me. “Are you sick?”

“
No.” Lucas laughed. “But in case you haven’t noticed, I’m getting kind of long in the tooth.”

“
I didn’t notice,” I said politely to the silver-haired man. “A panic just went through me at the thought of losing you as our fearless leader. You are our grounding influence, our mediator, our mentor, our peacemaker, and our visionary, not to mention our silversmith! I can’t do all of that stuff!”

“
Not yet.”

I felt my eyebrows go up. “What have you got in mind?”

“Eventually, I hope to bring another silversmith on board. Maybe. Or train one. You’re so good with your hands, though, the way you McGuyvered all the booby traps, the optics and the vampire trap—it’s brilliant.”

“
Thanks, but that is a lot different sort of skillset than making silver weapons that look like fine art or jewelry.”

“
Are you interested in a silversmith apprenticeship? When you aren’t off hunting vampires?”

“
I might be,” I said. “I don’t know if I’d be any good at it.”

“
We have a lot of down time when we are not training, eating, and fighting.”

“
True. Eating takes up a lot of my free time. I probably need to do less of it, but Daphne is a fine chef.”

Lucas smiled. “Yes, she is. I know she is brusque, due to her New York City upbringing, but—”

“Daphne grows on you,” I finished for him.

“
Yes, that’s a good way of putting it.” He paused. “So, the next time I make a weapon, why don’t you come to the forge room with me and see how it’s done, try your hand at simple tasks and see if it is a good fit and if you have a passion for it?”

“
I’d love to, but what do the other sisters and brothers think about all this, about me stepping into your shoes when the time is right?”

“
You are the last to know of this decision.”

“
I am?”

“
Yes, all of them know that I mean to put you in charge of the operation someday, including the silversmithing, if it moves you to tears like it does me. They are all very supportive of you taking over when I am no longer able to do my job.”

“
Why me? Why not one of them? Some have been with you for years.”

“
You have leadership qualities, a sense of logic and fairness, and you think on your feet, quickly, just like your brother, Rudolph.”

I began to understand. “
Rudolph.
That’s why you brought me here. Were you going to leave the whole shebang to him before he was killed by vampires?”

“
Yes, but—”

I interrupted, “I am
not
my brother. I could never lead as well as Rudolph.”

“
I know that. He was amazing and talented and courageous. But you have achieved the same thing in your own right.”

“
I can’t fill his shoes like that, Lucas. I can only be myself. If you are expecting me to be a clone of Rudolph, you’ll be sadly disappointed.”

“
Don’t doubt yourself. But I can tell you one thing that you are much better at than Rudolph was.”

“
What’s that?” I asked. I couldn’t think of a single thing where my brother hadn’t one-upped me as we were growing up.

“
You know how to stay alive.”

I nodded. “Okay, I’ll do it. But no retiring next week! And I have to tell you that there are many deaths I would have died if not for the bad-ass Ambra covering my sorry ass with her Genghis Khan brand of bravery and skills.”

“She is our baddest ass, indeed, but she has vulnerabilities that you do not.” Lucas’s face creased with worry.

“
I can’t detect one weakness in her,” I said. “I don’t know why you are saying that. Certainly not because she is a woman.”

“
No, things in her past could come back to bite her and I don’t want to put her in a position of authority where she becomes a high-profile target.”

“
Oh, do I need to know what those things are?”

“
It’s on a need-to-know basis.”

“
And I don’t need to know.”

“
That’s right. And unless I put her in the bull’s eye as head honcho, I believe she can stay safe. So, it’s you who will have the position. And truthfully, she does so much for the group that I cannot ask more of her than I already do. She is everybody’s hero and role model. If I put her in charge, the group dynamic would shift in a way that weakens us.”

“
Understood. And yes, she is the best we have.”

“
Rand, we just never know what tomorrow brings, or even what the next hour will bring, so we must prepare the path for the one or ones who will carry on our work to the best of their own abilities.”

“
I can see how important that is. All right. Do I need to sign anything to make this official?”

“
Yes.” Lucas took some papers out of his inside jacket pocket. “I’ll give these to Jade to notarize and file with the government, when the time comes. Upon my demise, or my inability to lead us, then the castle, the land, and the daily operations and the silver, with the forge, goes to you. If you have to remove me as the leader—for example, if I got dementia or made decisions that resulted in loss of life that was my fault—there’s a power of attorney in here. And a medical power of attorney. And a living will.”

I took a deep breath and let it out. “I hate thinking about anything happening to you and I hope I don’t have to use those documents, but okay, Lucas.”

He handed me the pen and I began to read. “Wait a minute,” I said. “Is there a way that all of the vampire hunters could share in the property ownership, and make the responsibility for operations mine? I can’t see owning this whole enchilada by myself. I don’t really
want
to be stinkin’ rich.”

Lucas opened his hands. “What do you suggest?”

“More of a democracy. We should all be partners in it. Especially if I got…killed. It makes things easier when people share. It’s fairer,” I said. “And it doesn’t make me this unapproachable rich guy.”

“
Am I unapproachable?” Lucas asked.

“
Not for me, but I think too often that people automatically take your side on an issue and don’t discuss enough.”

“
Because of my power and wealth?” he replied.

“
Not only that. You have an imposing presence. When you walk into a room, you fill it with this take-charge energy. It’s not a bad thing, but I think that some of the less-aggressive vampire hunters don’t question your authority, and sometimes that would be healthier in a microcosm society like ours.”

“
Hmmm. You read a lot.”

I nodded. “All the time. Novels, political discourses, sociological papers, everything I can get my hands on.”

Lucas steepled his fingers and stared at the contract and then at me. “Okay, I will make it—more democratic.”

I thanked him and handed him the pen to make the changes. We talked about each clause, and some changes were made and initialed, until finally, we signed the bottom of every page and shook hands.

“Don’t you dare die on me, Lucas.”

“
Nah. We’re gonna live forever.” He put the lid on the Sterno can. “That’s enough cheese and bread. Let’s go to the gym and let the Sisters of the Scythe kick our asses.”

“
Let them?” I said. “As if we could stop them. They are far quicker than us.”

“
Don’t I know it,” Lucas said. He clapped his hand on my shoulder. “If I could pick men to be my sons, you and Rudolph would have been my sons.”

A warmth flooded me to the core. “Thank you, Lucas. I will always try to do you honor, even after you are dust.”

“I would expect no less of you, Rand Sebastian.”

“
Thank you, Lucas.” I paused. “I have a favor to ask.”

“
What do you need?”

“
I want your permission to directly contact Samantha Moon.”

“
You don’t need my permission. This isn’t the military.”

“
I know. But I don’t want you to think I am going behind your back to talk to her.”

He took a breath and let it out. “This is about your missing daughter?”

“She’s my priority, of course, but I would also like to talk to her about Gabrielle. Samantha is this well-adjusted vampire who lives an exemplary life. She has a job and small children and she is comfortable in her own skin. We need to figure out how to help Gabrielle to adjust to being a vampire. Gabby’s writing this vampire opera like a crazed Mozart and at the end of it is a big fat death wish. She’s not making a secret of it, either. I’m afraid something horrible is going to happen when she writes the last note of her opus.”

“
I trust your intuition.” Lucas scribbled an email address and phone number on a Post-It note and handed it to me.

“
Thanks. I don’t know what it is going to take to find Kristin and save Gabby from her own plan to do herself in when the opera is completed, but things are heating up around here, and Kristin hasn’t seen me for a long, long time. I think we really need a vampire for hire.”

Chapter Four

As usual, Ambra, the former movie stuntwoman and ex-Olympic skier, was kicking my ass on the intermediate parkour training. Today, we were running, vaulting, and jumping all over the newly designed obstacle course in the vast gym. I was both dreading the day that we did parkour, for real, on a vampire hunt, but also elated about it, to see if it would be my edge against the vampires. Parkour was all about body strength, movement and decisions. I was good at decisions and Ambra was such a great parkour trainer.

After months of freerunning training and practice, I seemed to be as strong as when I had been about twenty-two years old. I was slim, I was fit, and I was cut. As a runner, I was substantially faster than I had ever been at any time in my life. I could cover ground or elevated structures without my old fear of heights. I was still afraid of sharks and jellyfish, but I had no problem scaling walls and jumping between structures, at least in the well-padded gym.

Everyone was participating in parkour today, even Daphne, who was middle aged, but still fairly fast and strong for a woman. After months of training, we were all bouncing like jumping beans on the mats, the trampolines, the trapezes, padded walls, springboards and the climbing wall. It was nuts what Ambra had set up for us tonight, as our new parkour challenge—I was kind of regretting earlier making a pig out of myself on Swiss fondue and bread during my big-ass talk with Lucas.

“
Come on!” Ambra urged us. “Let’s put a little more Cirque de Soleil into your vaults and leaps.”

I tried to leap-climb a padded ten-foot wall and lost my grip due to pain. I slid down to the mat with a thump and gasped as I came out of my tuck and roll.

“You all right?” Ambra asked.

I winced. “Well, not perfectly all right.” I flexed my hands.

“Let me see your hands,” she said. “Your palms.”

I opened them to her, face up.

She whistled low at the bloodiness. “They’re a mess. They are all torn up. The skin, I mean.”

“
Well, if parkour was easy, everyone would do it, right?”

“
It’s hard, but I see your problem. You need to shave down your callouses so they lay flat with the palm and don’t get torn up when you vault over things and touch mats, walls and other rough surfaces.”