Betrayal (Blood Haze: Book Three) A Paranormal Romance (10 page)

“I see,” Alexi said, scowling
disapprovingly.

“It’s my fault,” I said quickly. “I started
it.”

“I highly doubt that,” Alexi grumbled.

“No, she’s right. It is her fault,” Liam
added.

“Hey!” I shouted, snickering and throwing a
handful of popcorn at Liam.

Alexi sighed.

“Honestly,” Alexi lamented. “Will you ever
grow up, Liam?”

“What, and become a boring old fogey like
you?” Liam scoffed. “Never.”

Alexi shook his head somberly.

“Anyway,” Alexi said, changing the subject.
“I think I have found a way to defeat the wraiths.”

We all followed Alexi upstairs to the
library. Alexi had a fire going, probably because he knew the
fireplace relaxed me. My mother always had a fire going, even in
the summer. I guess it must have relaxed her, too.

“Alright, so what is this big plan you have
to defeat the wraiths?” I wanted to know.

“As I told you before, wraiths are the souls
of vampires,” Alexi explained. “They are trapped here by an evil
spell, and they do as they are commanded by the one who casts the
spell.”

“Right,” I agreed. “I remember.”

“Because they are souls, I believe they can
be exorcised,” he said.

“Exorcised? Like by a priest?”

“Exactly.”

“I thought it was usually demons that were
exorcised,” Kai said.

“It is,” Alexi agreed. “But I talked to a
priest I know, and he said he believes wraiths could also be
exorcised, because they are controlled by an evil spell. Demons are
basically evil spirits. While wraiths are not inherently evil, the
magic that binds them is. The priest thinks it might work.”

“And a priest is willing to work with
vampires?” I asked.

“I have known Father Jacobs for a long time,”
Alexi explained. “He understands vampires are not all evil.”

“Okay. But does he know how dangerous this
is?”

“It is no more dangerous than the demonic
exorcisms he regularly performs,” Alexi argued.

“And what if this doesn’t work?” I wanted to
know.

“Then we will have to go to plan B.”

“And that is?”

“I do not know, yet.”

“Alexi!” I groaned.

“I will think of one,” he tried to assure
me.

“I don’t like this,” I told him. “You’ll all
be at risk, because we don’t even know if this will work or
not.”

“What choice do we have?” Liam asked.

“You know what choice we have,” I said.

“That is not even an
option
,” Alexi
snarled.

“Alexi, please just consider it,” I begged.
“You know what it will do to me if anything happens to any of you
because of me.”

“And you know what it would do to all of us
if anything happened to you,” Alexi countered.

“Maybe you can’t protect me forever,” I told
him.

“Maybe we can try,” he said seriously.

“You’d better come up with a good plan B,” I
said. “Because I really don’t like this.”

“I honestly believe it will work,” Alexi
assured me.

“Really?”

“Do you think I would risk you getting hurt
if I thought it would not?” he asked me.

“No, I suppose not.”

“Then
trust me
,” he said, putting his
hands on my shoulders for emphasis. “I really believe it will
work.”

“Alright, Alexi. I trust you.”

“Why don’t you and Kai go watch another movie
while Liam and I talk about a plan B?” Alexi suggested.

“What? Why can’t Kai and I stay and help?” I
asked.

“Please, Alice,” Alexi begged. “Just do this
for me.”

I sighed, but then I relented.

“Fine,” I groaned. “But come get me as soon
as you think of something.”

“You have my word,” he promised.

Kai and I went back to the media room and
left Alexi and Liam to strategize. I had a feeling they wanted to
talk about something Alexi didn’t want me to hear, but I’d learned
it was useless to argue with Alexi. He could be extremely
stubborn.

I insisted we clean up the media room before
we chose another movie. We’d made a terrible mess with the popcorn,
and I didn’t think it was right to leave it in such a state for the
cleaning crew. It took us more than an hour to finish cleaning it,
but once it was all done, Kai said he had just the movie in mind.
He pulled it off the DVD shelf and held it up with a smile, and I
squealed with delight, throwing my arms around him.

“I thought you’d like it,” he grinned.

During the movie, I rested my head on Kai’s
shoulder. He seemed happy, but he didn’t try to press me any
further. I was genuinely impressed with his restraint. About an
hour into the movie, Liam walked in.

“Oh, God. Sparkly vampires?” he groaned. “I
leave you alone for two hours and you’re watching the sparkly
vampires?”

I narrowed my eyes at him.

“I happen to
love
this movie,” I
grumbled.

“Why?” he asked, clearly unimpressed.

“It’s romantic,” I said, as if the answer
were obvious.

“It’s stupid,” he scoffed.

“It’s not stupid!” I growled.

“Vampires that sparkle and drink animal
blood? It’s ridiculous,” he countered.

“It’s no more ridiculous than any other
vampire lore,” I argued. “Garlic? Holy water?”

“They
sparkle
, Alice!” Liam jeered.
“It’s so silly it’s insane!”

“We’re just going to have to agree to
disagree on this one,” I finally said.

“I guess so,” Liam agreed. “You know, I can
maybe understand human girls falling for this crap, but not you,
Alice. Of all people, why you?”

“Like I said, it’s romantic.”

“If you say so,” Liam said, still not
swayed.

“
I
think it’s romantic,” Kai whispered
proudly into my ear.

“I don’t doubt it,” Liam mumbled.

I have to admit, Kai won a few points in that
moment. It wasn’t so much that he was agreeing with me, but that I
knew it was true. Not only did he have the guts to admit it in
front of Liam and risk ridicule, but he really did think it was
romantic. I also got the sense he wanted to be able to sparkle for
me.

“What do you want, anyway?” I finally asked
Liam.

“Oh, yeah, that,” he said. “Alexi and I have
a plan B.”

“Really?” I asked, my curiosity piqued. “Tell
me about it.”

“You can finish watching your silly mush
fest, first, if you want,” he said, rolling his eyes.

“Liam, stop it,” I pleaded.

“Alright, fine,” he conceded. “Do you want to
finish watching it?”

I picked up the remote and pressed the pause
button.

“No, tell me now,” I demanded.

“Alright,” he said, sitting down in the seat
beside me. “One word. Sleep.”

“Sleep?” I questioned him. “What does that
mean?”

“Your sleep touch, of course!”

“That won’t work on wraiths, will it?” I
asked. “They’re not solid.”

“It won’t work on wraiths, but it might work
on Dmitri,” he said.

“But won’t the wraiths still attack us?”

“We don’t think so,” Liam explained. “We
think the connection will be broken, and the wraiths will be free
to make their own choices.”

“And what if they choose to attack us?”

“They won’t.”

“How do you know?”

“Remember, they were vampires, just like us.
They’ve been enslaved by Dmitri. If you were captured and turned
into a mindless slave, would you want to be loyal to the guy that
did it to you?”

“Good point.”

“So you think it will work?” Liam asked
me.

“I think it’s a good plan B,” I admitted.

“We have a plan C, too,” Liam said.

“Really? What?”

“Run!” he shouted, ruffling my hair and
laughing.

“Clever!” I picked at him. “Did you think of
that one all by yourself?”

“I did! Aren’t you proud?”

“Immensely,” I said, rolling my eyes
playfully.

“So what do we know about this Dmitri guy?”
Kai asked.

“Not much,” Liam admitted. “He has a few
powers, but nothing too major that we know of. If Father was still
alive, he’d know.”

“Would anyone your father knew know of
Dmitri?” I suggested.

“I doubt it,” Liam said. “He knew Dmitri a
very long time ago, and they haven’t even spoken in decades, as far
as I know.”

“Could you find out for sure? Contact people
who knew your father well and ask if any of them know anything
about Dmitri?” I asked.

“Good idea, Alice,” Alexi said from the
doorway.

I turned to face him.

“How long have you been there?” I asked.

“I just got here,” he answered. “But you had
a very good idea. We need to know everything we can about Dmitri,
and I think calling Father’s old friends and associates is a good
place to start.”

“Do you have his address book?” Liam asked
Alexi.

“Indeed, I do,” he answered. “I thought it
might be useful, someday.”

“Do you want to split it up and start calling
people?” Liam offered.

“Yes, let us get started immediately,” Alexi
agreed.

“Can I help?” I proposed.

“You wouldn’t know Father’s friends like we
would,” Liam said. “But you know what you could do? In the library
there’s a book of vampire lore called
Ancient Vampyrian
History
. If you could go through that and see if you can find
any references to Dmitri, it would help.”

“That would definitely help,” Alexi
agreed.

“Alright. Kai, do you want to come with me?”
I asked.

“Of course,” Kai answered.

“Okay, let’s get started, then.”

Alexi and Liam went off to start making
calls, and Kai and I headed to the library to find the book in
question.

“Maybe I could look through these other books
to see if there’s anything that looks promising?” Kai offered.

“Good idea,” I said. “His name is Dmitri
Dukas.”

“Okay, I’ll start looking through anything
that looks like a history book or anything,” Kai said.

I located
Ancient Vampyrian History
and took it to a table. The book appeared to be very old. It was
bound in rich, brown leather, and the pages were cream colored, and
darkened around the edges. I was afraid I might damage it, so I
touched it very delicately. There was no index, so I had no choice
but to delve in and start scanning page by page.

For hours, I poured through the massive,
dusty book. I saw no references to anyone named Dmitri, and I was
starting to nod off. It was very boring work.

“I think I found something!” Kai shouted
suddenly.

My head had nearly dropped onto the pages of
the book, and it shot up instantly in surprise.

“What?” I asked.

“There’s an entry in this book about a
vampire named Dmitri,” Kai said. “There’s no last name, but the
book says he delved into dark magic, and it says he got kicked out
of his clan for attempting to control wraiths.”

“Wow, that does sound like it could be him,”
I agreed.

Kai brought the book over, and he sat down in
the chair next to me. We looked at the entry together.

“Oh, look,” Kai said. “It says he had some
‘unusual abilities’,” Kai noted.

“Like what?”

“It doesn’t say.”

“Damn, then that’s useless.”

“What’s useless?” Liam asked, walking into
the library.

“Kai found an entry about someone named
Dmitri who was into dark magic, and who got thrown out of his clan
for attempting to control wraiths,” I explained. “It says he had
‘unusual abilities’, but it doesn’t say what they were.”

“Let me see the book,” Liam demanded.

I pushed the book across the table, and he
took a seat across from me. He scanned the page we had it opened
to, and his face lit up.

“The name of his clan…” Liam muttered. “I
can’t believe it.”

“What?” I asked.

“His clan was Mavro Drako,” Liam explained.
“It means ‘Black Dragon’ in Greek. We have an entire book about the
history of the Mavro Drako clan.”

“You do?” I gasped.

“Yeah. Our father and grandfather were both
Greek, and Grandfather was in Mavro Drako a long time ago. He was
one of their Elders.”

“Wow! Kai, you found something really
important!” I gushed.

Kai blushed.

“I better tell Alexi about this right away,”
Liam said. “I think he actually has that book in his office at… oh,
no.”

Liam’s face blanched.

“What?” I asked.

“It’s in his office at Father’s compound,” he
moaned.

“Can’t you have someone send it to us?” I
suggested.

“This place doesn’t have an address!” he
shouted. “No one even knows exactly where it is except Grandfather
and Hillary.”

“Wait…” I said. “Then how are we going to get
out of here? If Hillary was the only one who knew where it is
besides your grandfather, and Hillary no longer has the ability to
portal, what are we going to do?”

“We’ll have to take a random portal,” Liam
said.

“A what?”

“A random portal. Hillary was one of the only
vampires who have ever been able to open portals to specific
locations, but we have a few here who can open portals to random
locations.”

“Random. How random? Like… ‘we could end up
on top of a pyramid in Egypt’ random?”

“No, not
that
random,” Liam chuckled.
“We can get in the general location of where we need to go. We just
might not end up exactly where we need to be.”

“You mean, we’d at least end up in the same
town?”

“Most likely, yes.”

“Well… that’s comforting… I guess…”

“Don’t worry, I’ve done it before. It’s not
so bad.”

“If you say so.”

“Alexi and I will be with you,” Liam reminded
me. “And Kai.”

“I’m not afraid!” I snapped.

“I never said you were,” Liam clarified.

“You’d better go tell Alexi about all of
this,” I suggested.