Ironic Sacrifice (18 page)

The confession seemed to suck the life out of Silas and he slumped at his desk.

Razvan patted his friend’s shoulder awkwardly. In the department of comfort, he didn’t think he’d do any better. “You are doing your best. And Jayden seems to be helping her quite a bit.”

His heart warmed as he thought of Jayden’s concern for a woman she only met recently. It was hard to believe anyone could be so kind, and even more unfathomable given all the other things Jayden had to worry about…things that were his fault.

He changed the subject in hopes of easing Silas’s mind.

“Do you have any idea where Xochitl and the others went?” he asked carefully, more in hopes of detracting Silas from his pain than care for the band. Razvan adored
Rage of Angels
, but in the face of Jayden and Akasha’s plight, they could go to the devil.

The vampire sighed. “I called Dominic while you were unloading your motorcycle.”

“And?” Razvan couldn’t keep the admiration from his voice. Silas’s ability to think and act under stress never ceased to amaze him.

“He said that Xochitl disappeared once before, on Halloween to be exact,” Silas said, irritation and worry creeping into his tone.

Razvan blinked. “Why didn’t he report the incident to you when it happened?”

Silas sighed in abject irritation. “He wanted to, but the Lord of Seattle dissuaded him because she returned a few days later. He didn’t want to cause an unnecessary uproar.” He leaned forward. “Here is what is interesting. The last few times she was seen, it appeared that she had a new boyfriend.”

“What’s so interesting about that?” Razvan asked. “It is about time, in my opinion, though I cannot fathom a man that could keep up with her.”

“Dominic said that there was something very odd about him. Nothing could be read from him, and he smelled like power and unfamiliar things.” At Razvan’s perplexed look, he added, “Dominic couldn’t explain what he meant, but he sounded really unnerved by the gentleman. I wish his lord would have let him call, although I wouldn’t be surprised if he has more of an inkling as to what is going on than he cares to reveal.”

There was a long silence as Razvan loaded his pipe and took a deep draw before regarding Silas intently. “But what do you think of the whole picture? Are they safe? Will they return?”

Silas sighed. “They are safe and they will return. And when they do, their priorities will no longer be solely revolved around making music. Any more than that, I do not know. Although,” he rose and fetched his Scotch from the sideboard, “I believe this incident may be why Delgarias has suddenly turned up missing again.”

Razvan raised a brow. “You think he is involved?”

The Lord of Coeur d’Alene nodded and smiled thinly. “Up to his neck.”

Selena let out another infuriated shriek as she tore through the closet. The signed
Rage of Angels
tee-shirt had to be in the there somewhere! What if it was the artifact with the most power, what if she couldn’t find them without it?

Behind her,
Rage of Angels
memorabilia was piled on the table, surrounded by burning candles like some sort of shrine to heavy metal. She would touch each item in turn while working herself into a trance in which she hoped to see where the musicians had disappeared to. But this last tee shirt, which could hold the most of their essence being that all four had touched it, might be the key.

In a panic she began tearing everything out of the closet. Dresses, scarves and hats flew over her shoulder as a rhythmic mewling sound escaped her lips. By the time the area was empty but for a single coat hanger, she was panting and quivering in impotent rage. Someone must have stolen it.

She surged forward to round up her followers and discover the thief, to punish them like she’d never punished anyone before. Then she stopped and cocked her head to the side in girlish confusion, suddenly remembering what she did with the shirt. Her hand crept up to grasp and tug on a lock of hair. The pain helped clear her mind a little more.

That shirt, as well as another had been worn by the two members of her flock she sent to the
Rage of Angels
concert in October. The two that had failed in their mission and gotten themselves killed by Razvan. She pulled harder on her hair. A hank of hair came free and she dropped it to the floor indifferently, touching a finger to the bleeding wound on her scalp.

Had Razvan killed them? Or had they run away? They were not the first of her followers to disappear. Selena had assumed that Silas and Razvan had been killing them off…until now. Could it be that her flock was abandoning her? Or even worse, were they now plotting against her? Her eyes darted back and forth searching for threats in every corner of the room as her fingers crept back up to her scalp to pull at her hair once more.

***

The next evening, the household of Silas McNaught awoke to discover five reporters camped out on their door step. Razvan and Silas had to sneak out the back door to get their first meal of the evening while Akasha and Jayden remained hidden in the house.

“This is bullshit,” Akasha said for the tenth time. “Why don’t they get the hint and leave us alone?”

“It’s against the holy code of the press,” Jayden quipped half-heartedly as she stirred a pot of beef stew for their dinner.

“Well, they need to leave soon. I’m almost out of beer,” Akasha grumbled as she lit another cigarette.

Jayden frowned. “Don’t you think you should cut back on the drinking?”

Purple eyes narrowed on her. “Who do you think you are, my mother?”

Jayden sighed and ladled the stew into a bowl. “At least eat something first before you tackle the media in your quest for alcohol.”

Akasha rolled her eyes at her, but at least she obeyed and ate two bowls of stew.

The reporters followed them on their beer run. The stress of being tailed was so much that Jayden picked up a small bottle of wine for herself.

They spent the evening cloistered in the living room, drinking and darting annoyed glances at the reporters’ attempts to peek in the windows. Akasha didn’t mention a word about the disappearance of her friends and Jayden left her to her silence.

The next afternoon, disaster struck. Silas had scheduled a contractor to assess the damage to the dining room. As Jayden opened the door to let him in, the reporters, joined now by the paparazzi, forced their way in.

Microphones were thrust into her face. One hit her square in the nose. The reporter holding it was practically salivating.

“Who are you? What is your relationship with the McNaughts? What do you know about the disappearance of
Rage of Angels
? Where is Akasha McNaught?”

“I…I,” Jayden swallowed, suddenly feeling very faint and queasy.

Akasha came down the stairs then, her eyes glittering amethyst flames of rage. “What the fuck are you people doing in my house?” she demanded.

They advanced upon her with their cameras and microphones. “How do you feel about the disappearance of your close friends, Mrs. McNaught? Do you know anything that could lead to them being found?”

“I don’t know shit,” she growled. “Now get the fuck out before I call the cops!”

Jayden danced back and forth behind her, knowing she would be helpless if Akasha decided to unleash her fury. It was very possible that people could be hospitalized…and Akasha could end up in jail.

To the contractor’s credit, he ignored the chaos and headed straight for the dining room, taking notes and doing his job as if everything was normal. Unfortunately, one industrious cameraman snapped pictures at the hole-ridden wall.

Akasha pulled her phone from her pocket. “I’m calling the cops.”

Reluctantly, the intruders departed, still calling questions over their shoulders on the way out. Akasha made a beeline for her beer like she was dying of thirst.

The next day her grieved and angry face was plastered all over the media, along with the trashed dining room.

“
Friend of Missing Metal Band Smashes Wall in Grieved Rage
,” the headlines read.

“Those sick bastards,” Jayden whispered. Her heart swelled in pity for her friend.

“Yeah,” Akasha said sullenly and tossed the paper in the fireplace.

The press continued to harangue them for the next week, which made things difficult, for vampire envoys began to visit Silas to go over the details of Max’s murder.

Eventually, the reporters left. Whether it was because Silas threatened to press charges, or because they finally believed Akasha didn’t know anything interesting, Jayden didn’t know or care. She was just happy to be able to go to the grocery store unmolested. They’d been out of cheese for three days.

Akasha didn’t seem to care either way. She had fallen into a drunken void of despair.

When Jayden had returned and finished putting the groceries away, she heard Silas and Razvan talking in the office. Her stomach fluttered at the sound of the Romanian vampire’s voice. She hadn’t seen him for three nights. She hurried to the office and stopped when she heard another voice, this one with a thick British accent. They were not alone.

“I am sorry, Silas,” the voice said. “I am afraid there is not enough evidence to prove Selena had a hand in your friend’s demise. The autopsy report indicates that all signs point to a heart attack.”

“But what about the signs of blood loss?” Silas protested. “Surely we all know what that means.”

“All it proves to
us
is that a vampire fed from him shortly before he died. Being that he lived with a vampire, it is not unexpected…and to the mortal authorities it indicates a sign of anemia, nothing more.”

Jayden sucked in a breath. Was this one of the famous Elders Razvan had mentioned? She peeked around the doorway and saw that Silas and Razvan were alone in the room.

They spoke to the British vampire on the computer via webcam. He was startlingly handsome, with long black hair like Silas’s and startling silver eyes. It must be a rule that most vampires had to be almost illegally gorgeous, Jayden thought with a small smile.

Razvan turned and glanced at her, unsurprised by her presence. His attention returned to the computer screen as if uninterested.

“I never drank from him, Ian,” Silas remained fixed on the monitor, unaware of Jayden’s arrival.

“Do you think anyone would believe that?” Ian countered, though not unkindly. “And from what the reports say, you had not Marked Mr. Gunderson, so it is irrelevant either way. They were not directly poaching your property by our laws. I do wish more could be done on our end about this unpleasant situation. Please believe that, McNaught.”

“I do believe you,” Silas said. “And I believe that things would have worked out better if I could locate Delgarias.”

“You are probably correct about that,” Ian replied. “But let me give you one more bit of advice from me and a few of the other Elders: You have immunity. Use it. Now I must go.”

The computer screen went blank.

Silas sighed and leaned back in his chair as he turned to Razvan. “I figured that things would be this way. At least it sounds like you’ve made headway ferreting out Selena’s spies in your territory. But we need to come up with another plan, before the bitch sends us a third note or kills someone else.”

Razvan darted another glance at Jayden and quickly looked away. Jayden suddenly realized why he had been spending so much time in Spokane. Relief that he hadn’t been sleeping with someone else warred with anger at his lack of communication. She stormed into the room.

“Why didn’t you tell me any of this before?” Jayden knew there was a hysteric note creeping into her voice but was helpless to stop it.

Silas looked away, but not before she caught a look of shame on his face.

Razvan was as calm and collected as usual, except that he was also avoiding her gaze.

He tugged on his goatee a little before replying, “I didn’t think it was wise with the present condition of your mental state.”

“My mental state?” Jayden nearly spluttered in shock as her rage and frustration seemed to boil over. “
My mental state
?” she repeated and stalked closer to the vampire, hands balled in quivering fists. “Your psychotic ex girlfriend just killed an innocent man because she’s obsessed with some prophecy and you’re concerned about
my
mental state?”

Razvan did not reply. His glittering black eyes were inscrutable and appeared to be focused everywhere but in her direction. The implied shame made an alien kernel of pleasure blossom in her breast.

Akasha came into the room for once without a beer in her hand. “What’s going on?”

Silas said gently to Jayden, “Now, lass, we were only trying to protect you. You’ve been under enough stress what with learning to control your visions and being exposed to our kind. We thought it prudent to—”

“To keep me in the dark lest I have a mental breakdown and slit my wrists?” Jayden cut him off, panting in rage. The Lord of Coeur d’Alene’s discomfort was more obvious, making that inner imp within rejoice. “I think I have the right to know when someone’s threatening to kill people because of me. Who the hell do you think you are to decide to keep that from me?”

“He’s the Lord of this city,” Razvan countered smoothly.

Jayden rounded on him, all pleasure crushed in a new rage of fury. The sanctimonious ass! “Oh
that’
s how it works. Never mind that he thinks I’m crazy and his wife has a major drinking problem but he keeps his head in the sand, refusing to see it!”

She clapped a hand over her mouth, but it was too late.

Silas rose to his feet. His eyes glowed neon green and his fangs bared in a mask of fury.

“You go too far,” he growled. “Akasha does not have a problem. She’s just been under a lot of stress lately.”

“Silas, no!” Akasha spoke for the first time. She met her husband’s eyes. Her pupils were dilated with pain and shame. “She’s right,” she said quietly.

Jayden was stunned silent as Akasha put herself between her and Silas, one hand on her husband’s chest.

“I probably do have a bit of a drinking problem,” she said, voice trembling as if fighting back tears. “And I think somehow you must have known that, ‘cuz you’ve kept me in the dark with the Selena situation along with Jayden.”

Silas’s lips moved, but no sound came.

Razvan chuckled, but there was no humor in it. “I am surprised we have not yet been subjected to your wrath.”

Akasha’s cheek dimpled with a half-smile despite the tears in her eyes. “I thought Jayden was handling it just fine on her own.”

Jayden’s anger dissipated with her friend’s obvious pain. Guilt struck her like a sledgehammer. All of this was happening because of her. Max had been murdered, Silas and Razvan’s territories were in danger, and Akasha was nearly out of her mind with grief.

“Maybe I should just give myself up to her,” she said softly. “Then Selena will leave you all alone.”

Razvan’s chair clattered to the floor. He bared his fangs and growled, “You will not be going anywhere!”

He charged forward, but Akasha seized his arm.

“Jayden, don’t wuss out now. You belong with us.” she said, ignoring Razvan though still gripping him. “Come with me to Max’s room. We need to talk.”

“O-okay,” Jayden stammered. All of her courage had fled.

“She’s not going anywhere,” Razvan repeated with a low growl. “Not after speaking such foolishness.”

Akasha turned cold amethyst eyes to him. “Do you want me to break your arm? Because if you keep being an asshole, I will do it. If anyone’s mentally unstable right now, it’s me…and I mean it. I will break your arm if you don’t stop.”

Her grip tightened on Razvan’s arm and he winced in pain.

“Akasha, lass,” Silas pleaded.

“No,” she said as if there were an unspoken argument between them. “Your love and kindness can’t fix this.” She turned back to Razvan, her voice softened slightly. “I swear I won’t let her go anywhere, so chill.”