Heroes (6 page)

This did sound like it bothered her. “Think you ought to diversify?”

“We were diversified. He had a good business with a great reputation and more clients than we could handle. Then Ben gets a call from this Ibis the Ancient—”

“Ibis the Ancient? He really called that?”

She laughed. “Yes. Supposedly he’s from ancient Egypt. There’s a rumor that he’s the father of all vampires.”

“Is he?”

“Doubtful. I’ve only been able to trace his movements back a couple hundred years—”

“What with? Geneology dot com?”

“You’re DesertDog, all right.”

Haven gave her a sideways glance. “Recognize me by my sarcasm?”

“Yes. Can the wisecracks for now, please. I’ve got a lot to say and not much time to say it.”

He appreciated the risk she took. Even if her vampire boyfriend was obsessing about someone else, there was always the chance some awareness of Clare would leak into the vampire’s awareness. “Talk fast,” Haven told her. “Can I ask questions?”

“At suitable intervals.” She took a deep breath, fixed her gaze on the road rolling ahead of them, and went on. “My initial interest in this meet was to talk about Ibis, and what he keeps at the Silk Road. It’s important data, so I’ll go through it first, then get to newer, much more important information the companions’ group needs to be aware of.”

“Much more important? Maybe you should—”

“No. Useful stuff for the rebellion first. Then we’ll talk about the crisis.”

This seemed like a stupid way of doing it to Haven, especially when she used words like
crisis,
but he doubted he’d get the intel from her any other way. “Go ahead.”

“Never mind who he is or where he came from, the one true thing I’ve been able to discover about Ibis is that he’s a collector of vampire memorabilia. He collects stuff, other vampires entrust it to him, he’s got tons of stuff. It’s said he can see the future.”

“Stuff. What kind of stuff?”

“Documents, artifacts, data. Lots of historical data—stuff about vampires that should never have been written down.”

This definitely piqued Haven’s interest. He had no scholarly interest in vampire history, but he’d learned that knowledge was a weapon and he was very good with weapons. “You’ve seen this data? Examined it?”

“Not exactly.” She held up a hand to keep him from interrupting. “What I’ve done is set up secondary security on the vaults where he keeps the important stuff, and primary security on the artifacts on display in the hotel.” She shook her head. “Ibis is playing a huge joke, not only on the public, but on the strigoi.”

“What’s the joke?”

“The Silk Road’s built around the theme that the place is a recreation of a mysterious Central Asian pleasure city. There are display cases full of artifacts supposedly found by an archaeological expedition from the nineteenth century. There are jewel-encrusted books full of untranslatable ancient writings, jewels the size of ostrich eggs, erotic wall paintings, gold ceremonial dishes, ritual weapons with carved bone handles and silver blades. Incredible stuff. It’s all presented with a wink, of course, as a tall tale of wizards and lovely sorceresses with beauty so ethereal it could not survive the sun. It’s all about moonlight and starlight. Very exotic and sensual—a place of earthly delights and magical wonder—without any mention of blood sacrifice and slavery.”

Her matter-of-fact tone had become increasingly bitter. She paused for a moment, and took a few steadying breaths before she went on.

“I can tell you that none of the stuff in those cases is fake. Those artifacts are old, and they’re authentic. The truth is, the Silk Road hotel and casino is based on the city the vampires built in Central Asia.”

“The city—”

“Really existed,” she finished for him. “I’ve gotten a good look at the magical artifacts. Ritual implements,” she explained. “Heavy with magic. I don’t know what the writing on the gold vessels says, but it twists my guts into knots to look at it. Most of the tourists don’t notice, but I’ve got lots of videotape of people passing by the cases. I can tell how much psychic ability anyone has by the looks on their faces.” She gave a bitter laugh, and added, “There’s a stage magician working in the hotel who gets a hard-on every time he goes near the display. Sick bastard doesn’t know it yet, but he’s going to be Ben’s new companion. But the display cases are just for show.”

“The books—are they spell books?”

“Very likely.”

“Can you get at them?”

“I can. But unless we can translate them, it isn’t worth the risk. It’s the data Ibis keeps hidden that we need to access. There are secret histories, diaries, every kind of information we need to put ourselves on an equal footing with even master strigoi. Vampires are made by magic, but they aren’t the only magic users in the world.”

“I’ve encountered a crazy sorcerer,” Haven admitted. “And a family of witches.”

“You’ve met me. And yourself. You and I have the potential of using the same magic that vampires use—or we wouldn’t have been picked to become vampires. I want to be able to acquire that magic to even up the balance between vampires and companions. I want a spell that’ll make me an equal to Ben instead of his property. I want to find a spell that’ll reverse the hold his blood has on me.”

Excitement raced through Haven. “Do those spells exist? Does Ibis have them?” He wanted to ask if a spell existed to cure vampirism. Char might not think she needed a cure, but—

“That’s what we need to find out.”

“Is this a trap? An elaborate setup?”

“Good questions. I’ve been cautiously trying to find out, studying Ibis and his nest as much as possible. Doing my best to make friends with them. They’re an odd bunch. Ibis is an odd duck.”

“What makes him odder than any other vampire?”

“He’s nice.”

Char was nice. “He an absentminded scholar type?”

“Yes. And . . . Gentle. Wise. Amused. Kindly.”

Haven snorted. “He’s a bloodsucker. Does he keep slaves? Companions?”

“Yes. A lot. He has a huge nest. I think there may even be a waiting list of vampires wanting to get into his nest. But we both know that no matter how tight a ship a nest leader runs, how revered the master, there’s always at least a hint of disgruntlement, resentment, or jealousy somewhere among the household. That’s human nature, and no amount of blood, hypnotism, coercion, or torture can completely blot out individuality. Ibis’s people all adore him, from senior nest vampire to newest slave. The other nest leaders working at the Silk Road respect him. Even that bitch Martina defers to him, though I think even he has trouble keeping her in line. Ben can’t stand her,” Murphy added.

Haven caught the contempt, and the fear, in the woman’s voice. “Martina? She part of the crisis you mentioned?”

“Yes. She’s head of a nest Ibis brought in to run the hotel.”

His instant suspicion was that Clare Murphy had lured him to Las Vegas to get him involved in local nest politics. He knew that the nest Clare was part of was the only known viable nest in the city—until this Ibis and Martina showed up with their crews. “The Silk Road brought in outsiders, and your boss doesn’t like them in his territory. That’s your crisis?”

“Hell, no,” she answered. “Ben was all for the project. The outsiders don’t give him the respect he deserves yet, but that’s his business, and he’ll take care of it. I shouldn’t have brought up Martina yet.”

“Yet? If she’s a danger to us—”

“She’s a danger to the Enforcers. So are we,” Clare added. “But not the way Martina is. We’re going to be Enforcers.” She gave him a sideways look. “I assume your vampire’s a Nighthawk.”

“Damn right,” Haven admitted, and was surprised at the pride he felt in the reflected glory of Char’s position in the vampire world. As usual, much of the surprise was in realizing how much he cared for her. He’d grown at ease with being in love, and that made him uneasy.

“All of us in the conspiracy are companions to Enforcers or potential Enforcers,” Clare said. “At least as far as I’ve been able to determine.”

“Not all of us are companions,” Haven told her.

“But you’re involved with an Enforcer.”

“You didn’t know I wasn’t a companion until we met. There’s a lot you don’t know about—”

“I know that at least one of the online group is a vampire. Now I know that there’s an unbitten psychic as well. We’re all after the same thing. And we’re all, more or less, kin to each other.”

He raised an eyebrow at her. “Kin?”

“I belong to Ben. Ben was bloodchild to Alice Fraser. I’ve traced Alice’s origin to a Nighthawk named Selim.”

“
The
Selim? Enforcer of Los Angeles?”

“Yes. You have to be bloodchild of a Nighthawk to become a Nighthawk, though not all members of the Nighthawk line actually become Nighthawks—Enforcers.”

“I know that.”

He also knew that Siri, the woman who had organized the companions’ group, was the current companion of the same Selim. Selena, who had really united the group as an active force, was companion to Istvan, the most powerful of the Enforcers. Yevgeny, the vampire member of the group, had told Haven that he’d been companion to a reclusive strig who was ancient, powerful, and had never hunted humans. Her prey was always vampires, which meant she had to be Nighthawk even if she lived outside the rules and regulations of the underneath.

“You might be right about most of the group. Maybe Nighthawk companions are different than regular companions.”

“Maybe the Nighthawks subconsciously choose companions with stronger wills or—I don’t know. What I do know is that all the Nighthawks are descended from the same person. All,” Clare told him. “Whether it’s a natural mutation or was caused by a magical incantation, I don’t know. But I want to know, and I think Ibis has the answer. We need to know everything Ibis knows. We can’t change the future until we understand the past—where vampires came from. What can and can’t be done.”

She sounded like Char. A whole lot like Char. “Knowledge is power, right?”

“Right.”

Mostly, he thought firepower was power, but knowing the enemy did help in deciding the best weapons to use against it.

“So we’re agreed that extracting data from Ibis’s archives needs to be a priority for the companions’ group?”

“Uh—sure.”

“Good. Then let’s table the Ibis discussion and get on to the more pressing problem.”

“Fine.”

Maybe others in the group might find this Ibis project interesting, but was it really that important? He wasn’t the best person to try to break into Ibis’s vault, or wherever the old vampire kept his stash of ancient wisdom. Haven had learned a little bit about computer hacking, but he was still better with a shotgun than with anything that required subtlety. Besides, wouldn’t all these ancient texts be written in magical scripts and foreign languages? Still—Yevgeny was good with languages, and Selena could probably handle magic shit. He wouldn’t mind being the muscle.

This really was Char stuff, but he couldn’t exactly go to an Enforcer of the Laws and ask for her expertise to acquire intel for a companion rebellion. He’d decided long ago that she might sympathize with their goals, but the way the vampire world stood now, Char would react like any other Enforcer faced with a threat to the Laws. She’d have no mercy.

Haven noticed a sign for an exit a quarter mile up the highway. He decided to take it and turn back toward the city. Clare waited silently with her hands clasped tightly together in her lap until he made the turn. He wondered if it was his driving or the information she had to share that caused her white-knuckled nervousness. “Okay,” he said when the surreal skyline of Las Vegas was in view again. “Tell me about Martina.”

“She’s an arrogant, fanatical bitch,” were the first words out of Clare’s mouth. “I don’t mind that she’s arrogant and bitchy, those tend to be exploitable weaknesses. It’s the fanatical part that’s dangerous.”

“Fanaticism’s a weakness,” Haven answered. “What’s she fanatical about?”

“Enforcers. Hates ’em. She’s out to destroy the Laws, and the entire structure of the vampire world.”

Haven didn’t see what the problem was. “And we’re not?”

“Martina doesn’t think Nighthawks are true vampires. She wants to kill them all. Not just the Enforcers, but the whole bloodline. We have to stop her from killing the vampires we love. And destroying our potential future at the top of the strigoi food chain.”

Maybe the Enforcers posed a threat to the companion conspiracy, but who the hell would ride herd on vampires hunting humans if not the Enforcers?

Haven snarled at the thought of any vampire trying to harm Char. “Okay,” he said, slowing the Jeep as he eased his foot back on the gas pedal. Maybe he wasn’t in such a hurry to get the woman back to her car. “We’ve got a crisis. I’m listening.”

Chapter 5

“I’M SUPPOSED TO be in rehearsal.”

Ben watched Morgan Reese as the man ran a finger down his jaw and finished by rubbing his chin. The gesture held grace that was for once not conscious or calculated, which Ben found far more attractive than Reese’s usual mannerisms. Even better, Reese’s genuine confusion and sudden loss of self-confidence were delicious stimulants to Ben’s psychic senses.

Reese didn’t know why or how he’d gotten from the theater and up the wide sweeping staircase to the entrance of the hotel museum, but Ben did. Ben had leaned against the wall, folded his arms, closed his eyes, ignored the crowds of tourists, the guards that were his property, and the concealed cameras that were monitored by his property, and
wished
for the mortal man to meet him in this spot.

Ben had almost been surprised when Reese appeared at the bottom of the stairs, but he’d been more pleased and sure of his control with every slow step the magician took up the staircase. Ben caught the man’s gaze and held it, reeling the mortal in with his will. When Reese reached him, Ben almost took his hand, but recalled in time that they were in public. Ben was used to being in the closet in one way, but this was a new wrinkle in his existence. He frowned, hating the notion of one more aspect of his life he needed to conceal.