RBC05 - Bloodline (16 page)

Cathos placed his hand on my head so that he could see what I had seen and feel the power I felt.

“That Belnovus has demonic power and he may not be Belnovus at all. I just can’t tell from a memory. Your instincts as usual are correct, that’s not Auguste or any of his brothers.”

“Wonderful! Will he be able to detect our powers?”

“Yes, if you don’t block them.”

“I could actually sense when he started to mask and block his power. Does that mean that he will know that I am blocking mine?”

“You could only tell that because you sensed his power beforehand. If he had been blocking them to begin with, you wouldn’t have known that he was more powerful than you until you tried to mark him and couldn’t.”

“That also must mean that he could mark us.”

“You would need to use your power as the Five, the accumulated power you have when you join together, but I suggest you kill him in another way.”

“Another way?”

“Cain will understand. Before that, find out as much as you can about him and what his plans are. I saw from your memories what you are up to and I may have to visit your establishment myself before this is over.”

“All the men in my life are quite amused by this. Actually I would love to have you drop by the party we are giving to introduce ourselves to Paris.”

“Really? Well then consider it a date. I don’t suppose you can stay for a little while?”

“Sorry no. Could you send me back to my house in Paris, please?”

Suddenly I felt faint and my knees started to give way. Cathos scooped me up into his arms and set me down on a chair.

“Crimson,” he demanded holding out his hand.

The goblet instantly appeared and he smiled and offered it to me.

“You have been doing too much. Drink this and then I will give you a power boost.”

“I am starving again. Thank you for everything, Cathos.”

He smiled again, “You are very welcome. I am so glad I
can
help you and that you continue to ask me.”

“You mean because I’m always in trouble? It’s a gift.”

We laughed and I felt better.

“I’m ready to go back now.”

Cathos helped me up and touched my forehead with the index finger of his right hand. I felt the additional power surge through me just like the time before when he had taken the dark power away and replaced it with some of his Jinn power.

“That should help, but you are going to need a booster again soon. You take care of yourself.”

“I’ll try. See you at the party?”

“I wouldn’t miss it.”

I found myself back in my room and before I could say anything, Sarah rushed in.

“What’s wrong?”

“We had a little incident at the government house. I’m fine now. I had a nice, little visit with Cathos and he sent me home.”

“Turn around, I’ll loosen your corset and I want you lie down for a little while before you have something to eat.”

“What time is it anyway?”

“Almost three,” she said as worked on the garment’s lacing.

“That only gives me an hour before Damien arrives with Cain to discuss the party plans and what they can do to help me.”

“And about what happened today.”

I yawned, “Yes. I’ll just lie down for a minute.”

I fell right to sleep.

When I woke, someone was sitting on the bed next to me.

“Damien, what are you doing here?”

“You invited me. Besides I was worried about you.”

“I’m fine, just a little tired. Did you hear about what happened this morning?” I said as I sat up.

“No, what happened this morning?”

“We discovered Belnovus at the government center when I went to get the permits for this place. Since Parliament was in session I asked for a tour. Gruen had detected an enemy in one of the council rooms, so we went to observe. The person Gruen pinpointed happened to be the minister of war, Adolph Meil. This Belnovus had so much power that I knew I couldn’t mark him. We left soon afterwards because I realized that he could feel someone appraising his power and was actively trying to find the source of the seeking.”

“Then what? Does he know it was you?”

Damien searched my face franticly. He was scared for me. I realized then that he did still care for me.

“No, I always have my powers blocked, just like you do and Cathos…”

“Cathos, you saw Cathos?”

“I needed his help. I needed him to answer the questions that you are asking me now. This Belnovus has demonic power, but he’s not Auguste. Auguste supposedly received his power from Belial, but we have no idea if that’s where the vampire I observed today got his.”

“The fact that he is the minister of war isn’t comforting either. What do you need me to do?”

“We need information about him. Unfortunately, now he will be on his guard. We also need to watch him very closely and see who else he’s involved with. One bit of good news is that Liridon did find out where many of the Belnovus are being housed. The ones that do the dirty work have a barrack style building near the V club in district one.”

“Well that’s something anyway.” He smiled and patted my hand. “I better get out of here before Sarah gets upset. There is food downstairs, but I would love to take you out for dinner later.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Damien. Besides, there is too much to do.”

“You haven’t forgiven me. I understand, but I am not giving up. After all, if I’m seen with Suzette DeMarques, it will further convince everyone that I have left the Protectors.”

I had to laugh, “All right, I’ll think about it. Now get out of here and let Sarah get me put back together. If the girls are back, ask if they can give you something to do for the party.”

“Yes Madam,” he said with a mock salute.

Just then Sarah came to the door.

“I was just leaving,” he said as he stood and before she could scold him.

He turned and gave me a wink before walking out.

Sarah watched him leave the room. “He still loves you, that’s very plain to see,” she said as she tightened my corset back up and then began to fix my hair.

“I can’t think about that right now. Are the girls all back?”

“Yes and Liridon just came in as well. I told him no more rats! Well, Suzette, you look lovely.”

“Thank you, Sarah. Now it’s time to finalize our plans for the party. How many guests do you think we can have?” I said as we walked down stairs together.

“Seventy–five with ease.”

“That sounds fine. Do you have enough help to prepare food and serve?”

“More than I need. I have the menu all ready for you to approve and cases of the finest champagne are already ordered.”

“Have I told you how happy I am that you’re here?” I laughed.

For the moment everyone was in the front parlor to discuss the party in case anyone was listening in. I was about to address that tonight.

“Suzette, you look lovely. We were just discussing plans. This party will be the talk of the town,” Cain said.

“I’d first of all like to thank you and Damien for offering to help. Since we are new to the city you have connections that we don’t have as yet.”

Cain gave me a mock bow. “Glad to do anything we can.”

“I have decided that protections are in order,” I continued. “We must protect our client’s identities fiercely, as privacy is everything in a business as personal as ours. That said, I will need someone of extreme skill to make sure no one will be able to breach them. Is that something you can handle for us Damien?”

“Yes of course. I know someone who will be very discrete and can do it without coming here at all.”

“That’s fine. I understand their need for anonymity as well. Please have that done as soon as possible.”

“I’ll make sure it’s done today.”

“We have decided on a masquerade. We thought people would feel more comfortable coming in costume,” El said.

“Great idea. How about invitations then?”

“We thought masks, black, edged in gold. The invitees would have to lift the mask to read the invitation.”

“I can take care of that as well,” Damien said.

“Thank you, sir. Now if you would please join me, a buffet has been set up in the dining room with samples of food so we can all help choose the final menu for the party.”

That was it; conversions for public consumption were over and as we moved to the other room Damien, Cain and I slowly raised the protections for the entire complex, affording us the safety we needed and our customers expected.

“We can speak freely now. That was brilliant Kat…Suzette,” Damien said. “Letting those that were eavesdropping know that we were now putting up protections for ‘business purposes’ and they that wouldn’t be able to listen in anymore.”

“Why thank you sir,” I said with a mock curtsy.

“The food is fabulous,” Gruen said. “Small, but very good.”

“It’s called Hors D ‘Oeuvres, Gruen. Food the size of just one or two bites. These were created especially for parties so people can walk around and pick up the small portions as they wish while they continue to talk and mingle. They are very good.”

“I say we let Sarah decide, any of these or all of these would be wonderful,” Letta said as we all filled our plates and sampled the champagne.

“Liridon, what did you find out when you followed Meil?”

“That the other Belnovus Gruen detected were Meil’s aides and that the chateau that I found earlier is his official residence.”

“I suspected as much. He will be receiving one of the first invitations.”

“We’re going to need more than just the five of us to satisfy all of our new customers,” Rosa said.

“And they have to have powers similar to ours, unless they wish to pleasure the customers in the old fashioned way,” Kate said and then cringed.

“I have an idea for that. Our abilities will allow us to  change our appearances to whatever the client’s tastes may be…...”

“…….we could give the illusion that there are many more of us than there really are. It might actually be fun,” Rosa finished, quickly having caught on to the idea..

“Good. Now, nothing could give you better publicity than to be seen in public. Let’s go out and have a good time!” Cain said raising his glass.

“All right, have the coaches brought around,” I said.

In no time at all we had entered the coaches and were off. At a walk, the pace of our team allowed our Jinn gifts full range and the journey was a good way to check locations for hybrids. We announced our plans for the day so obviously because this time we hoped that we
were
being followed. Kate had communicated with Eric to let him know where we would be, so that they could follow and we could all be introduced at the same time.

We entered the restaurant and were surprised that even at this early hour it was quite crowed. Damien was right; our entrance caused quite a stir. I had to smile as we passed through the dining room and I heard a wave of murmurs erupt in our wake. We took a large table near the front windows.