Bound to Blackwood (12 page)

Everything throbbed — her clit, her pussy, her elongated fangs — and begged for release. When it came, the orgasm was so complete it threatened to break her open, a golden fire reaching every part of her. The power of it drove something between a shout and a scream from her lips and for a moment, the world became a molten — gold wonder. Her breath hitched in a sob and her legs finally gave way as she slid breathlessly down the wall.

She stayed on the floor so long that the hot water ran out. It was only when the water was absolutely freezing that she jolted upright. She was no stranger to sexual release but she had never experienced such intensity, such heat, even on her own.

She often imagined what it would be like to be with Thorn, to feel his broad, powerful shoulders under her nails as he pounded into her. It was one of her most regular fantasies, especially when she was alone and in need of relief. What she had seen tonight was not his broad shoulders or even that perfect arse of his. It was just his eyes and a look of pure possession so strong that the memory made her shudder again.

Confused, yet more sated than she had ever been, Lena dragged herself up and into the reassuring comfort of her Egyptian-cotton towel; her brow knitted together, her teeth worrying her bottom lip.

Thorn marched down the hallway towards the Command Centre. He knew Lena was itching to get the mission to find Eden back on track. Instead of heading back over to Heath’s, he’d made a call. He wasn’t surprised that a seasoned Shield Bearer had kept detailed records of all his missions and he was genuinely grateful for it; it meant that he and Lena could retrace Heath’s steps immediately without the worry of disturbing the old man’s already exhausted mind. Someone had to know something.

Entering the Command Centre, he glanced down at his watch and smiled. Lena was late. Again. He must be going soft, why else would he be smiling about a soldier reporting late for duty? He pinched the top of his nose then spread his thumb and forefinger across his forehead, trying to iron out the creases.

Puffing out a breath he moved over to the docking stations for the Order’s state-of-the-art, hand-held PDA devices and picked up his unit. To Thorn, they looked much the same as any of the current generation of smart phones. They had the touch screen and camera he would expect, but they weren’t all shiny like the ones the kids down the pub sported. These had a gun-metal grey, matt finish and though they weren’t bulky at all, the unit he’d picked up felt much more substantial than anything else he’d seen.

According to Mercury, who was the Order’s unofficial quartermaster, the military-grade devices were virtually indestructible, worked in all sorts of conditions including ten thousand feet below water and in temperatures akin to those found on the surface of the sun. They were “not toys.” Mercury took his equipment seriously.

Thorn didn’t even want to know where this latest batch had come from. He was an amateur when compared to Mercury’s technical savvy, but even he knew that these devices didn’t come from the mainstream market. He doubted the military for whom they had been designed even knew they existed. He shook his head; yeah, he definitely didn’t need to know how Mercury had got his hands on not one, but eight of the things. He also didn’t want to know how much they cost.

He powered his unit up but nothing happened. He tried again; still nothing.
So much for state of the art!
“Hey Mercury, this thing isn’t working!” he called across to the Guardian.
 

There was no reply. Thorn swivelled round to watch Mercury as he stood in front of the large transparent screen in the middle of the room. His hands were a blur as he moved the images displayed on the screen, checked the result, and then moved them again. His eyes were ablaze with intelligence yet the lines at the corners showed his frustration. Thorn made his way over to the display.

The Guardian sighed as he turned around to meet his gaze. “Any chance the Fallen 'av got anythin' with Freemasonry?” Mercury asked.

“Huh?”

“Yeah, you know, funny handshakes and all that.”

“Yeah, cos I thought you meant the other Freemasons,” Thorn retorted.

“Very funny.”

“Sorry, my man. Why are you asking?”

“We found the archives; Lena was right, they are on a server.”

Thorn felt his face beam with pride and, if he was honest, a little bit of self-satisfaction. He worked hard at wiping the expression from his face when he looked back at Mercury. He didn’t look happy at all. “Why do you look like you’ve been put on blood rations?"

“Yeah, yeah. Old news.”

“It's not old news to me! Didn’t anyone think to tell me we’d found the archives?” the timbre of Thorn’s voice escalated and Mercury winced.

“I’m sorry, Thorn. It wasn’t on purpose. We found the archives this morning. The security was surprisingly easy to break once we located the server.” Mercury looked down at his feet as he finished.

“But?”

“But we 'aven’t been able to crack the security to the archives. They’re on a completely different system to the main server. When the main security wall was so easy to break, we didn’t stop. We thought we’d be able to crack the archives and give you something solid to work with.”

Ah. He supposed he couldn’t really blame Mercury for just carrying on. It was a definite breakthrough that the team had located the archives, but the Guardian was right; they were no good if they couldn’t get into them.

Thorn nodded at the other Vampire and Mercury’s demeanour lightened a little, like a child who’d been forgiven a small indiscretion. “So. Why were you asking about Freemasonry?”

“It's the code. It kinda looks like it might be based on the Pig-pen Cipher.” At Thorn's questioning look, he explained, “Freemasons were sly old buggers. They developed 'undreds if not thousands of codes to help keep their secrets. The pig-pen cipher is the most common. They called it that 'cause you write the alphabet into a grid of lines, which kinda look like pig-pens.”

“And
that
looks like a pig-pen?” Thorn asked, pointing at the screen.
 

Clearly exasperated, Mercury continued, “No! The code doesn’t look like a pig-pen it's the way…”

Thorn couldn’t help it. A belly laugh erupted from him, interrupting Mercury’s explanation. Codes weren’t his strong point but he knew what Mercury was talking about. He just couldn’t help but rib the younger Vampire.

“Alright. Alright! No need to take the piss!” Mercury replied, yet his voice held laughter not anger.

“You deserved it!”

“Yeah, probably,” Mercury agreed. “Still be 'elpful if we knew if there were any links between Masons and the Fallen.”

Thorn sighed. He had to admit he was embarrassed at their lack of knowledge. Sure, they knew how to fight Fallen in hand-to-hand combat. They also knew where a lot of their strongholds were — despite Fallen propensity for moving around — but they didn’t really know what made Fallen tick. Well, except for the fact they liked sucking out human souls and killing Vampires.

“Maybe Lena will know,” Thorn offered hopefully.

“Maybe Lena will know what?” Lena’s voice announced her arrival. She leant against the doorframe, her arms crossed underneath her firm breasts, head cocked to one side.

Thorn couldn’t be sure, but he thought she was avoiding his gaze. All her attention was on Mercury and a familiar heat pulsed slowly through his veins.

He couldn’t help but stare. Somehow, Lena looked changed, yet still the same. Her eyes had regained their intelligent sparkle, but her milky white complexion had a new glow to it. It must be new; surely he would have noticed that before?

She was wearing her black uniform, the two gunmetal-grey daggers on each epaulette. They caught the light from the monitors, showing her newly elevated status. Her head held high, Thorn could see all of her usual arrogance had returned with vigour and he felt his mouth turning upwards at the thought.

He inhaled deeply and caught something in the air. Frowning, he couldn’t decipher what it was since it dissipated almost as soon as he sensed it. What he did know was that it had a profound effect on his body. The heat that had gently uncurled just moments before suddenly kicked into overdrive. His nerve endings were all alive and it seemed that each and every one of them connected directly to his groin.

His fists clenched so hard he was sure he was drawing blood from his palms. He had to fight the urge to adjust his combat trousers. His frown deepened; he was an eight hundred year old Vampire not a lustful youngling with no control over his bodily functions.
What in green Faerie was going on?
 

Mercury answered Lena's question, breaking Thorn from his tumbled thoughts. “If Fallen are linked to Freemasonry.”

Her brow knitted as she considered the question and she still didn’t meet Thorn’s face. For once, he was very, very grateful for it. He was also glad he’d chosen to wear his uniform; jeans would be a lot less forgiving in his current predicament.

Lena pushed away from the door-frame and made her way over to the huge, transparent screen. Thorn backed away, convinced that if she so much as brushed past him, he’d have an even bigger problem to deal with than the unexpected hard-on still raging in his trousers. He forced himself to sit in one of the executive chairs and concentrated on looking relaxed.

Thorn watched as Lena considered the information on the display before gracefully swiping some of the images across to the left of the screen. She stared at the remaining image for what seemed an eternity before turning back to Mercury. “Because you think it's based on a pig-pen cipher?” she asked.

Mercury beamed at her. “Exactly!”

Lena crossed her arms as she faced her comrade, pride sparkling in those brilliant midnight-blue eyes. “It’s possible, but I doubt it. The Freemasons have too much honour for a start."

“But they are pretty secretive,” Mercury offered in return.

“We all keep secrets, Mercury.”

Mercury looked disappointed. Lena placed a hand on his shoulder to comfort him and Thorn’s brow shot up in surprise. Two days ago, Lena would have sworn at Mercury. Then again, two days ago, Mercury wouldn’t have even thought to ask Lena’s opinion on the time, let alone Fallen ciphers. The transformation was unbelievable.

It made Thorn realise that promoting Lena was proving to be an inspired decision. Giving her the position meant that the rest of the Order had to take notice of her. Judging by what they’d discovered in two days, it would seem Lena was a woman worth listening to.

“I think you’re on the right track with the code. It looks like it’s based on the pigpen cipher, but it is different. Plenty of cryptographers use this kind of code now. It’s not proprietary to the Masons.”

“Yeah. You’re probably right.”

“Mercury, you live for this shit. Wouldn't be any fun if you cracked it straight away, would it?” Lena said.

Mercury nodded.

Finally, Lena’s attention switched to Thorn and again he had to fight the urge to adjust his trousers.
What the hell was going on?
To add to his confusion, Lena still didn’t look him in the eye, but seemed to be looking at his chin instead. She was considerably shorter than him, but that still didn’t explain it. He narrowed his eyes at her, scrutinising her face, hoping the answer would be there. It wasn’t.
 

“You ready to go?” she asked his chin.

“Yep. Except we don’t need to go to Heath’s first. I called him and he has detailed accounts of all his missions. His man, Drake, brought them over and Mercury has had them uploaded to the PDAs.”

Lena just nodded.

Thorn glanced down at his PDA unit and remembered it wasn’t working. He activated the slider control for the power, but again, nothing happened. Exasperated, he resorted to banging it on the desk. He was in the middle of his second downward stroke towards the unforgiving surface when Mercury shifted across the room at lightning speed and stopped the motion.

“Don’t do that!” the other Vampire all but screamed at him in a tone akin to a woman watching her child being bashed against the desk. Yeah, Mercury was serious about his beloved equipment.

“I thought they were indestructible?” Thorn asked, a hint of amusement in his voice.

“They are, but that doesn’t mean you’ve gotta throw them around on purpose!” Mercury replied, incredulous. “They’re thumbprint encoded. Press your thumb against the panel on the back.” Thorn could practically hear the silent ‘dumb-arse’ Mercury refrained from adding.

Thorn did as instructed, placing his thumb against the back of the unit. Sure enough, the PDA came to life, a brief message of “Thorn Blackwood, ID confirmed,” scooting across the screen before disappearing to reveal the menu page. He swished through a few options on the touch sensitive screen to get his bearings and was pleased to see the thing was relatively user friendly.

He looked up to see Lena trying out her own unit. The light from the screen made her eyes look even more blue and he couldn't help but stare. Yep, he was definitely going soft.