Blood Infernal: The Order of the Sanguines Series (12 page)

In less than ten seconds, only the two
strigoi
remained standing. Broken and bloody bodies lay at their feet. Each figure picked up a wounded woman from the floor, slung her over his shoulder, and disappeared out of the frame.

Erin shuddered to think what lay in wait for those poor girls.

The cardinal tapped a key, and the image froze.

Erin swallowed hard, thinking of the pain and fear those people must have felt in their final moments. None of them had stood a chance.

“Are the police looking for these killers?” she asked.

The cardinal moved his monitor back around. “They are searching, but they don’t understand what they’re hunting.”

“What do you mean?”

“The police were never allowed to see this footage. As you know, we cannot allow proof of the existence of
strigoi
to be revealed to the world at large.”

She sat back in her chair. “Then how can the people protect themselves?”

“We have sent additional teams out. They patrol the city night and day. We’ll find this pair of killers and destroy them. That is our sacred duty.”

Erin wondered how many innocent lives would be claimed before that happened. “Those
strigoi
were fast, like nothing I’ve seen before.”

The cardinal grimaced. “And they aren’t the only ones. We have similar reports globally. For some reason, the
strigoi
have begun to change, to grow more powerful.”

“So I’ve heard, but why is this happening? Why now?”

“I don’t know for sure, but I fear that it is related to the prophecy.”

She bunched her brows, guessing what he was referring to. “That Lucifer’s shackles have somehow loosened.”

“And because of that, more evil is entering our world. A fundamental balance has begun to shift, giving additional strength to evil creatures, while sapping holy forces at the same time.”

She stared harder at the cardinal, sizing him up. “Do you feel weaker?”

He clenched one hand atop his desk. “Here, on these blessed grounds, I do not. But we have lost eighteen Sanguinists in the field over the past twelve weeks.”

Eighteen?
The order had already begun fading in numbers over the past decades, much like the Catholic priesthood. The Sanguinists could not afford to lose more foot soldiers, especially if a war was coming.

“Do the attacks have any geographic pattern?” she asked. “Perhaps if we knew where all of this started, it could offer us a clue to stopping it.”

His eyes narrowed, studying her. “Dr. Granger, as usual, you always seem to hit the nail on the head.”

She sat straighter. “You figured something out.”

“We’ve been meticulously recording dates and locations of these attacks.”

“To build a database,” she said. “Smart.”

He nodded acknowledgment of her compliment and tilted his monitor toward her again. He quickly brought into view a map of Europe. Small red dots bloomed, marking attack sites. She balked at the sheer number, but she kept her focus.

“If you extrapolate backward,” Bernard said, demonstrating on the map, “it appears these attacks have been expanding outward from a single location.”

He zoomed into the epicenter of the attacks.

She read the name written there, feeling the blood sink into the pit of her gut. “Cumae . . . that’s where the sibyl’s temple is located.”

And where Jordan is working
.

She stared over at Bernard. “Have you heard anything from Jordan and his team? Did they learn anything?”

The cardinal sank heavily into his seat. “That was the other reason I summoned you. I thought you should hear it from me first. There was an attack—”

He was interrupted as Father Gregory arrived with a silver coffee service. Erin glanced back, a light-headed panic rushing through her. Gregory must have heard the frantic flutter of her heartbeat and froze at the door.

Erin turned back to Bernard. “Is Jordan okay?”

Bernard motioned to Father Gregory. “Leave the coffee on the table over there. That will be all.”

Erin didn’t bother waiting for Bernard’s assistant to leave. Her days of waiting until the Sanguinists got around to telling her things were over.

“What happened?” she blurted out, leaning aggressively forward.

Bernard held up a palm, plainly urging her to calm down. “Do not fear, Jordan and his team are unharmed.”

Erin settled back. She let out a shaky breath, but she also sensed that the cardinal was holding something back. But with her most important concern addressed, she waited until Father Gregory left to confront Bernard.

“What aren’t you telling me?” she asked.

“This morning, Jordan’s team discovered a new tunnel, one that looked recently excavated. It appears something may have dug its way out of that buried temple.”

“
Something?
What does that mean?”

“We don’t know. But we do know that Brother Leopold’s body is missing from that temple.”

She took this all in. During the battle in that temple last winter, Leopold had been killed by Rhun . . . or at least, it sure looked that way. But if his body was now missing, that meant either he was still alive or someone had taken his body.

She returned again to a worry closer to her heart. “You said there was an attack.”

“A
strigoi
ambushed Jordan and his team down in that temple.”

She stood up and crossed to the coffee service, too anxious to keep sitting. She poured herself a cup, reminding herself that Jordan was fine.

Still . . .

Warming her palms on the cup, she faced Bernard. “Was this attacker one of these super
strigoi
?”

“It appears so. The good news is that the others are bringing the
strigoi
’s body back to Rome for study. We may learn something from the remains.”

“When?” she asked sharply, anxious to see Jordan, to make sure that he was safe.

“They should be here in the next hour. But they also found something else in the chamber, something they didn’t want to discuss over the phone. In fact, Jordan said that he wanted you to see it first.” The cardinal looked peeved that someone was withholding information from him. “He believed you might recognize it, because, as he adamantly insisted, you are the Woman of Learning.”

She took a sip of the coffee, allowing the heat to warm away the residual chill of her panic. She appreciated Jordan’s confidence, but she hoped it wasn’t misplaced. With no idea what he was bringing back from Cumae, she pondered the mystery of Leopold’s missing body and returned to Bernard’s cryptic assertion.

Something dug its way out of that temple
.

7:02
P
.
M
.

Rome, Italy

Legion sidled along the edge of a tall wall in the heart of Rome. He kept the barrier’s shadow over his form. Though the sun had sunk below the horizon, the surrounding streets still glowed with twilight. He preferred darker places to prowl. As an extra precaution, he pulled the hood of his coat farther over his head, knowing one certainty.

No one can look upon my bare face and not recognize my glory
.

Yet, so much more remained
unknown
.

And that must end.

His vessel, the one called Leopold, has proven valuable. From that flickering flame that still glowed in the darkness inside his being, Legion had learned more about this prophecy and those who stood against him in his duty.

The words of that divination rang through him with each step.

Together, the trio must face their final quest. The shackles of Lucifer have been loosened, and his Chalice remains lost. It will take the light of all three to forge the Chalice anew and banish him again to his eternal darkness
.

He pictured the face of the one known as the Warrior of Man, fixing that image of his blue eyes and hard planes of his face. The Warrior exuded all that masculinity represented, a true figure of a man.

As he continued along that tall wall, a large vehicle rushed past on the road beside him, stirring up trash, belching out foul fumes. From Leopold’s memories, he knew this was called a bus. But he retreated to his own memories. As a fallen one, he had spent endless years walking this garden of a world, well before man had trampled through it. Where once wild things grew, mankind had clad the land with artificial stone. Where once clear streams trickled under blue skies, now there was filth—both in the water and in the air.

Even from the beginning, he had known man was unfit to inherit this paradise. During the war of the heavens, where he had joined others against God’s plan for man, he had hoped to claim this garden for himself. But in the end, he and the others lost that battle and were cast down, and now mankind had proven, as he had envisioned, to be a blight in this garden, a weed that needed to be rooted out and burned.

I will take this paradise back
.

He would let nothing stop him.

Not even prophecy.

To that end, he must learn more about this trio, enough to stop them. He ran his shadowy fingertips along the wall next to him, feeling the burn of holiness in those stones. This barrier separated Rome from Vatican City. He prowled its length for one determined purpose.

He had learned from Leopold the names of the remaining two members of the trio: the Woman of Learning and the Knight of Christ. They were likely nearby, hiding in this bastion of godliness. He pulled his fingers from the wall and stared down at his palm, swirling the darkness across his skin.

If he laid his hand upon one of the trio, he could possess them in an instant.

With a single touch, I can end this prophecy’s threat
.

The first step toward that goal approached him now. He had hoped to find such a one haunting the edges of this holy city. The figure walked toward him on the sidewalk, looking like any other pedestrian. But with the sharpened senses, Legion registered one significant difference.

No heart thudded in this one’s chest.

He was a
Sanguinist,
a word learned from Leopold. This servant of God registered Legion’s own unnatural state a moment too late. Legion grasped the man’s bared forearm with his black fingers. His prey fell to his knees as Legion burned away his will, pushed his shadows into this one’s heart.

You will be my eyes and ears in that holy city
.

Legion stared up at the wall. With this slave he could learn where his enemy was hiding, and end this threat.

I will not fail again
.

7:15
P
.
M
.

Vatican City

As she waited for Jordan’s return, Erin studied the map on Bernard’s computer monitor, noting the outward spread of the attack from Cumae.

“It’s like a plague,” she mumbled.

The cardinal glanced up from the reports he had been reviewing. “What was that?”

She pointed to the screen. “What if we consider the pattern of these strange
strigoi
attacks more like a disease, a pathogen that is spreading far and wide?”

“How does that help us?”

“Perhaps instead of trying to find a way to thwart these attacks, we should concentrate our efforts on finding Patient Zero. If we can find him—”

A short rap on the door cut her off.

“Come in,” Bernard called out, straightening the crimson skullcap of his station. The cardinal was vainer than he would ever admit.

She turned as the door swung wide and Father Gregory stepped inside, but he was only holding the way open for others. She caught sight of the first visitor and was out of her seat and halfway across the room before she realized it.

Jordan caught her in his arms and lifted her off her feet. She hugged him back, hard. Once he let her down, she leaned back, keeping her hands on his shoulders, while taking him all in.

Despite the cardinal’s prior reassurance, a knot of concern for his well-being had remained. But he did indeed look fine. In fact, he looked terrific, his tanned skin practically glowing with health.

She lifted on her toes, inviting a kiss. He leaned down and gave her a peck on the cheek. His lips burned, as if he were feverish. She settled back to her heels, a hand rising to touch her cheek.

A peck on the cheek?

Such a tepid sign of affection was out of character, and it felt like a rejection.

She studied his clear blue eyes and reached up to run a hand through his shock of short blond hair, wanting to ask him what was going on. He didn’t react to her touch. She laid the back of her hand against his forehead. His skin was burning hot.

“Do you have a fever?”

“Not at all. I feel great.” He stepped back and jerked his thumb toward his companion behind him. “Probably just overheated from chasing after this guy.”

It was Christian, but from the young Sanguinist’s expression, he was equally concerned. Jordan was definitely not telling her something.

Before she could press the issue, Christian entered the room. He was dressed casually in worn black jeans and dark blue windbreaker, beneath which showed a priest’s shirt and collar. He nodded to Bernard. “Sophia and Baako are bringing the
strigoi
’s body to the pope’s surgery.”

Erin let go of her worry about Jordan’s continuing estrangement and focused on the mystery he and the others had delivered to their doorstep. If they could discover the source of this
strigoi
’s unusual strength and speed, then maybe they could devise a way to short-circuit it in the future.

But apparently that would wait.

Christian pulled a khaki rag from his jacket pocket. He glanced guiltily toward Jordan. “Sophia asked me to show this to Erin.”

Erin caught her breath as she recognized the scrap. It was a piece of Jordan’s shirt—only it was caked in dry blood, with a clear slash through the middle. She looked anxiously at Jordan.