Blood Finale (God Wars #5) (6 page)

Bones
. Something I'd been without for six Earth months. I felt every one of them, now. "Do you ache, too?" I asked Charles.

"I do," Ashe volunteered. "Corporeality sucks, sometimes."

"You weren't complaining after energy sex on Avendor," Charles pointed out. "Give me a hand, I need to get up."

"Was that a pun?"

"Take it any way you want."

"How long will we be like this?" I asked as Ashe rose unsteadily to his feet and held out a hand for Charles to take.

"A while," Charles grunted when Ashe pulled him upright. "All we can do now is watch and wait."

Chapter 4
 

Earth—past

Trajan's Journal

I listened while Jayson's cell phone rang in the media room next door. "Hey bro," he said. James Rome Jr. was calling. Likely, the call concerned their father's estate. With everything that had happened in the last six months, I'd forgotten about Rome Sr.'s death.

I'd suggested reactivating Jayson's old cell number, in case someone from the enemy camp started looking for him again. Bill had seconded that suggestion—we could work from this end of things to start tracking them. This call came almost immediately.

"Yeah, I can come," I heard Jayson say after several seconds had passed. "When? All right, I'll be there." I folded into the media room as Jayson ended the call with a sigh. "Are we allowed to have bank accounts now?" he asked.

"Bree did."

"Yeah, I guess she did. Dad divided the estate three ways in his will. I'll have to bring Mom, I guess. We're supposed to meet at the lawyer's office in L.A. next week."

"Don't go alone," I said. "Take Bill and Lissa with you."

"Sounds like a plan." Jayson shook his head. "Never thought the old man would go like this. Can't help but think I'm partly responsible."

"Don't even start," Lissa walked in and held up a hand. "I'll go with you, for sure. Bill will come and I'll bring Merrill, too, just in case. Trajan can stay here with Kiarra, Adam and Opal. That ought to be enough, and we'll be mindspeech away if they need us."

"Somebody say my name?" Opal folded into the room. "Connegar taught me how to use nexus echo. Cool, huh?" Opal grinned at me.

"Very," I agreed. "Ashe taught me, long ago. I didn't use it much. We probably should all do it, now."

"You know what I like best, though?" Opal said.

"What?" Bill joined us by folding in next.

"Only using the bathroom to take a shower."

"A definite advantage," Lissa laughed. "That's the first thing I appreciated about being vampire."

"I have a question," Bill said.

"What's that?"

"Who else knows about the reading of your father's will, Jayson?"

"The lawyer, his staff, Jamie, his wife Laurel and probably half of L.A. if Laurel's been talking," Jayson sighed.

"Are you thinking we could be ambushed?" I asked.

"Yes. Your brother, his wife and your mother are vulnerable, Rome. If the enemy knows anything, they know that," Bill pointed out. "What they won't know is who might be coming with you, or that you're more than mortal, now."

Our conversation was interrupted by Jayson's phone ringing a second time. "Hello," he answered after checking caller ID. Everyone else listened in as Bob Sullivan, Ross Gideon and Rome Sr.'s private investigator, told us he had a line on someone who had information about their deaths.

"Why are you contacting me instead of Jamie?" Jayson asked.

"Because I called him first," Bob Sullivan snorted. "He said your old man was dead and that was the end of it. That the police were doing their job and for me to stay out of it."

"So he isn't paying you?" Jayson asked.

"Nobody is paying me for this. I got pissed when I kept getting the runaround from the police, so I started looking into it myself."

"Where can we meet?" Jayson asked, cutting his eyes toward me. I nodded. We'd check this out, in case Sullivan was now obsessed or coerced. I wasn't the one who could tell whether there was an obsession, though.

"Yeah, I can be there in an hour," Jayson agreed before ending the call. Well, we were about to meet with a private investigator.
Hank?
I sent.
We need your help
.

* * *

An hour later, Hank, Jayson and I sat in a booth at a coffee shop just outside Hollywood, waiting for Bob Sullivan to arrive. He was likely having difficulty parking—the lot was nearly full when we folded in.

"Jayson," Bob Sullivan nodded to him before taking the open seat. "Here's what I have on Marc Cummings." He handed a file folder to Jayson.

"You tracked down Marc Cummings? I'm impressed," Jayson said after flipping the folder open. "Look," Jayson handed a photograph to Hank, who in turn handed it to me. It showed Marc Cummings talking to a waitress at the all-night café in Tyrone, New Mexico.

"Did you approach him?" Hank's eyes were darker than usual as he studied Bob Sullivan.

"Hell, no. I heard what happened to Ross and Jayson's dad. We had no idea we were in over our heads on this one. Cummings never knew I was there."

"Does anybody else have this information?" I asked.

"No. I would have given it to Jamie, but he wouldn't talk to me."

"What else do you have?" Hank asked.

"This," Jayson handed over a second photograph. Hank held it up to cover the smoke flying from his nostrils. "Calhoun," he growled and handed the photograph to me.

"And Obediah Tanner," I nodded. I recognized the rogue werewolf, who stood in the late afternoon light in New Mexico, discussing something with the rogue god Hank identified as Calhoun.

"When was this taken, and how close were you?" Hank asked.

"I tailed Cummings for a little while. Turned off on a dirt road while he went on up that hill. Had to take that photograph with a high-powered telephoto lens. I already had a picture of Cummings—he was going to meet those two. Something made the hair on the back of my neck rise, so I got the hell out of there after I took that shot."

"Probably a good thing," Jayson muttered. "Bob, don't approach any one of these. They'll kill you. I'll pay for your time and take this information to Director Jennings. He'll help with this."

"Heard you were with him—at least for a while," Bob shook his head. "If he needs my help with any of this, you have my number."

"I'll send a check," Jayson said. "Thanks, Bob."

"Anytime, kid." Bob rose, nodded to Hank and me, then walked out of the diner before the waitress made it to our table.

"No compulsion," Hank breathed a clear breath as he drummed his fingers on the Formica tabletop. "This is real."

* * *

Avendor—present

Hank's Journal

I had to bend time to meet Kifirin outside the grove boundary, but I was there when he arrived. The information gleaned from the private investigator on Earth confirmed a few of my suspicions, too.

Jayson and Trajan had taken the photographs to Bill while I left to attend to this errand. "Are you ready?" I asked Kifirin. He gave a slight nod. I folded us to SouthStar, where Trace and Lord Nedevik Weth waited for us.

"Lord Rath, Lord Kifirin," Nedevik bowed respectfully to us and invited us to sit. Trace lounged against a nearby doorway at the villa given to Nedevik and his family on the southern edge of SouthStar.

"Tell him what you told me," I said, inclining my head toward Nedevik.

"I have been reading in the archives and watching for a very long time," Nedevik began. "I became especially watchful while you slept, Lord Kifirin."

* * *

"It is, in our opinion, best to prove their beliefs to them," Moxas declared.

"What beliefs?" Calhoun was immediately interested.

"Oh, many, but let's start with this one." Moxas turned the reference book around for Calhoun to see.

"I knew Acrimus was wise to bring you to us," Calhoun breathed. "This is indeed genius."

"Might we consider taking Saxom's love? We were promised this," Moxas reminded Calhoun.

"Let us begin with this, and depending upon its success, this may motivate the General to provide even more help. I hear help is coming," Calhoun studied the image closely as he held up a hand. "Never fear, the woman will come to you. I swear it."

* * *

Earth—past

Lissa's Journal

"It's too bad Sullivan didn't hear what they were discussing," Bill dumped the photographs on the kitchen island. "They could be plotting a takeover or their next meal, for all we know."

"I heard from Weldon, Wlodek and Winkler," I said, rubbing Bill's back. "They're all here and in place," I added. "If we need help with this, all we have to do is ask."

"It's daylight in England, right now," Trajan pointed out. "Wlodek could come if we called a meeting."

"Then let's do that," Bill said. "Lissa, call Kiarra and the others. Maybe they'll have some ideas about this." He tapped the two photographs.

"It's a cinch that Zeke Tanner is involved, if Obediah is," Trajan observed. "That means drug money may be backing whatever schemes they come up with."

"Yeah." This Trajan would know everything there was to know about Zeke and Obediah Tanner, whereas the one who'd been taken off-world wouldn't. Not yet, anyway.

"You call Wlodek," Trajan nodded to me. "I'll get Weldon and Winkler here."

* * *

Winkler sat with his arms around me while we talked in the media room. If he'd been wolf, his tail would be thumping and he'd be panting, I knew. "I think we might be able to put a tracer on the money," Bill suggested.

"It would be easier if Ashe were here to hack their system, but I think I can handle it," Winkler's attention turned back to the reason for his visit.

"Joey can do it," Wlodek pointed out. "He's Mil'Karha now. That ought to help."

"Is he?" Weldon turned to Adam and Kiarra.

"He's at the house now; he followed us," Adam grinned before sending mindspeech. Joey, MIT graduate and former vampire genius, joined us in seven seconds.

"Joseph, we need a computer system hacked," Wlodek began.

"Just say where and when," Joey grinned. "I'm ready whenever you are."

"We know where Obediah is, we just have to get past his guards," Weldon said. "We'll have to scope out the area beforehand—we need to know if any of the powerful are with him, guarding that wildlife refuge."

"I can mist in," I volunteered. "They won't know I'm there."

"Take me with you," Winkler said, nuzzling my neck.

"Then I should ride along as well," Joey pointed out. "Why waste the opportunity if it's there?"

"Sounds like a plan," Bill slapped his knee. "Let's go to New Mexico tonight. I believe there's a compound outside Albuquerque we can borrow," he said. "The rest of us will wait there, in case Lissa needs help."

* * *

"I really want to kick Obediah's ass," Winkler muttered as we waited for midnight to arrive. The compound outside Albuquerque was the same one Bill and the others used before, and Winkler and I ended up in Hank and Breanne's bedroom. Shaking off the feeling of melancholy that came with that thought, I turned to Winkler. "No deliberate manipulation of the timeline," I pointed a finger at him. "If we could do that, I'd join you in kicking his ass."

"Lots of ass needs kicking," Winkler grinned at me. "Wanna fuck first?"

"How long will that take?"

"I think we can bend time if it takes too long."

"Then what are you waiting for, furball?"

"Did you call me furball?" Winkler growled and began stalking me with slow, deliberate movements.

"Oooh, the wolfman cometh," I pretended to be afraid.

"Not yet. Hopefully soon," Winkler leaned in to kiss me. "Very, very soon."

* * *

This place is a maze
, Joey whispered mindspeech as we traversed Obediah Tanner's compound shortly after midnight. Connegar and Reemagar insisted on folding us to the compound in New Mexico, and the others stayed behind while I pulled Winkler and Joey into my mist and carried us to the wildlife refuge outside Albuquerque.

Joey was right—Obediah was obviously paranoid—there were warrens of rooms and hallways inside the massive residence he kept near the center of the refuge, and he kept dozens of werewolf guards around his centrally located private suite.

Bastard wants to save his own skin by putting everybody else in harm's way first
, Winkler growled silently.
His computer will be in his private study, you can bet on that
.

I wanted to gasp as we misted inside Obediah's private study—his bedroom was nearby and all of us heard his snore—he was asleep. Several werewolves patrolled the outside of the compound, but we'd slipped past them easily. My worry was Wildrif; he slept in a bedroom down the hall from Obediah's.

As long as we're shielding while Joey works, there shouldn't be a problem,
Winkler pointed out when I mentioned Wildrif.

Is that?
Joey asked as we misted past the stuffed white buffalo taking up much of the floor space in Obediah's study.

Alex Thompson, Amos Thompson's brother
, Winkler growled again.
Obediah is the worst kind of bastard, but his brother Zeke may be worse
.
If they hadn't found Wildrif or vice versa, we'd have had them long before we did
.

We shouldn't mess with the timeline
, I pointed out judiciously as I released Joey from my mist. I knew what Winkler was thinking—destroy Wildrif while he slept and let Obediah try to hide from the Grand Master afterward.