SpellBreaker: First Ordinance, Book 4 (18 page)

They'd kept Hraede safe from harm, ruling from the shadows, as I'd taught them. Many times since then, I'd considered ending my long life.

My vampire sire was certainly dead—I'd watched until the last moment as he walked steadily into the sunrise.

A wise and honorable man was my grandfather, who'd become a wise and honorable vampire. I still missed his calm demeanor and steady hand.

Something always held me back from a walk in the sun; perhaps it was because a part of me knew that someday, I might become useful again.

From the dark confines of the nearby forest, I studied the large vacation home belonging to an off-worlder. I had my methods of spying, as I'd taught Rigo everything he knew of it.

Something was going on in the Rovell home, and I doubted it was closely acquainted with anything considered legal.

Yes, I knew Yerbys Rovell had been kidnapped while on a business retreat with several others in the same income bracket. They'd thought themselves safe, with the best ship their money could purchase, which was guarded by the best security their money could buy.

Where they miscalculated, however, was hiring only mortals to provide security. Those mortals in turn relied solely on weapons to protect their employers. They hadn't taken into consideration that a powerful wizard or warlock might augment what they already had.

Therefore, when two powerful criminals, who happened to come from Karathia attacked the ship, the wealthy were kidnapped and their security guards were murdered.

I understood Kooper Griff, Director of the ASD, was using every asset he had to combat the two responsible, but so far, he was trailing far behind them.

Yes, I understood they'd taken over Vardil Cayetes' empire, with their sights set on bigger things. I could only assume that somewhere in their future, the throne of Karathia could come under attack.

I considered contacting Rigo, in order to gain an audience with the King of Karathia. As I'd been gone so long, Rigo could be less than cooperative with my request. I held that idea in reserve while I watched the Rovell house carefully.

Yes, I imagined that it was spelled against intruders, so I hadn't approached it, yet. For now, I would be content to watch and carry any findings to Rigo, who had the ear of the ASD when needed.

* * *

Hraede

Quin

Barra Kend would be delivered to the mansion after nightfall; I read that in Dorgus after he returned from a meeting with Pargun.

I was beginning to despise Pargun almost as much as I despised Deris and Daris. In my mind, I pictured him as a Brakka slug, a creature that consumed almost anything organic and left a trail of poison behind to kill potential predators and anything else that happened across it.

Pargun wouldn't care that Barra Kend would die; he merely wanted payment for keeping her in an undisclosed location until called for.

When Pargun himself appeared in the kitchen while I gathered food for Vardil at midday, I also saw something he knew but Dorgus and the others didn't; Barra Kend was pregnant.

Deris and Daris would kill her and the child without a second thought, if they failed to get what they wanted from Barra's husband.

A plan was forming in my mind; I'd been ordered to serve Dorgus and the twins, but Pargun, as far as I knew, hadn't been included in the Orb's command. If I couldn't prevent Barra Kend's death, then I would have another in exchange.

Setting a bowl of soup that hadn't been burned on the tray, I was out the kitchen door before the cook could call me back.

* * *

Karathia—Past

Zaria

It was late before the kitchen was clean and Helsa sent off to her bedroom. While she hadn't said the food was bad, she'd made a fuss about it anyway, only taking two or three bites of what was set in front of her before flinging dishes at the servers.

Gerrett allowed me to see all of it in his eyes; Helsa railed against the guests arriving the following day while Wellend sat at the other end of the long table, eating his food without comment.

Afterward, I'd gone to clear away the mess with a spell so the others wouldn't have to; I'd waited for Helsa to retire to her sitting room with a brandy before arriving in the dining hall and eliminating the remaining mess before Gerrett and the others got down on hands and knees to clean up broken glass and smeared food on expensive rugs.

The glass and crockery returned to the kitchen whole, where it was washed by two kitchen helpers while Bekzi supervised.

This is a horrible mess
, Gerrett informed me as I studied the clean dining hall. I understood he didn't mean the dining hall itself; I'd just set it to rights.

Helsa is horrible
, I agreed.
I sure hope her father and the others aren't worse
.

I'm not sure they can be worse, only more of the same
, Gerrett observed.

My hands were on my hips as I studied the rug beneath my feet—yes it was clean—cleaner than it had been before I'd cast the spell to remove the food and broken dishes.

"I feel I know you from somewhere," Wellend appeared and startled a half-scream from my lips before I could slap a hand over my mouth.

"We've never met, my Prince," I said when I caught my breath enough to bow my head respectfully and speak.

"I understand that, but the feeling persists. As if we knew one another in a different age."

Here was the father I'd never known, and I could never tell him that, or call him Daddy. My soul wept for that terrible twist of fate, and once again I blamed the Lyristolyi and their drug for tearing apart the fabric of my life.

"My Prince, we have never met until now," I whispered.

He hesitated for a moment. "Dinner was excellent," he said and disappeared.

* * *

Hraede

Kellik

A hovercar the color of smoke traveled quietly through the trees on the way to the Rovell home. My eyes, as sharp as they ever were, saw three inside the vehicle.

One—the only woman, was bound.

A hostage
.

Slipping silently off the high limb that bore my weight, I dropped quietly onto the track and followed. With darkness as my only shield, I gripped the crash-guard on the back of the vehicle and swung it around, smashing the front of the hovercar into a thick tree.

While two men fought to free themselves from the wreckage, I leapt on top of the vehicle, drew a line in the metal with a single claw and pulled one side away, as if I were ripping the lid off a pressboard box.

Without a thought, I removed the head of the man pointing his weapon at me.

The other pissed himself and shrank into the vehicle.

Careful not to harm her, I cut the bonds holding the woman and lifted her away.

"You will tell no one you saw me," I hissed compulsion at the man. "You wrecked the vehicle due to your own carelessness."

With a leap I was in the trees again, hauling the terrified woman with me.

* * *

Rigo

Hal's comp-vid rattled the warning tone—something had happened. He and the others never received messages from their team of vampire spies unless communication was necessary.

"A hovercar was wrecked outside the Rovell house," the vampire on the other end sputtered.

"What happened?" Hal demanded.

"Unsure at this time. We held back at a safe distance as directed, when the vehicle crashed. We heard it and moved in, but I can't explain what we found," he said.

"I can explain it."

I knew that voice.

Kell
.

My sire.

"What?" I turned swiftly in his direction before the next words died on my lips. Kell, as mighty as he ever was, held an unconscious woman in his arms.

"Lissa," I shouted verbally and mentally. From my place at the meeting table, I could scent the woman's pregnancy. If something weren't done soon, she could lose the child.

* * *

Lissa

"She'll be fine," Karzac sighed as he turned away from the bed. Barra Kend slept peacefully, her pregnancy still intact. Karzac had healed the damage done by the wreck, then placed her in a healing sleep.

All she'd babbled the whole time I'd asked questions was her fear for her children and her husband.

I couldn't blame her. What concerned me was this; shortly after I'd gone to Hraede to help, the Rovell house went dark and any who'd inhabited it were now gone.

I suspected that included Ruther Kend. Rigo and the Rith Naeri had gone to the Rovell home to investigate—I asked him to search specifically for Kend's scent.

It's there
, Rigo sent as I walked along a palace hall with Karzac.
Pargun's body is here
, he added.
Quite dead from no apparent injury
.
There's another scent you may be interested in, too
.

Who?

Quin was here
.

I cursed.

* * *

Karathia—Present

Quin

In the twins' desperation to get away after the crash and abduction of Barra Kend, they failed to notice that Pargun never met with the others inside the basement for the move.

He was dead inside his suite; I'd made sure of it. In all the chaos, it was easy. Whatever Pargun knew, I also knew. The hostages he'd taken, I could find.

I felt no pity for him; he died swiftly and with less pain than he deserved.

I hoped someone would come to investigate, to find the body. Queen Lissa would understand that I'd been there, if nobody else would.

"We're on Karathia," Dorgus whispered as he and I settled Vardil on a bed in an unfamiliar suite. "This means we could die in an instant if the King and his spies learn we're here."

Karathia.

Bel Erland and King Rylend's home planet.

How could I get them to notice us?

Perhaps this was why the Orb had changed me. I no longer had my wings or a familiar face. If these died about me, I'd likely die with them.

"This is the ancestral home of the Arden twins," Dorgus continued. "Through their maternal great-grandfather, Hegatt Blackmantle and their grandmother, Queen Helsa Blackmantle-Arden. I can't say I'd miss them if the twins were killed, but I have to save him," he jerked his head toward Vardil.

I pitied Dorgus at that moment, because he refused to see anything but the criminal he still loved with all his heart.

Moreover, because I'd chosen silence, I couldn't tell him how I felt, and that was perhaps the wisest choice I'd inadvertently made. If I told him how many lives Vardil had taken, or the planets he was set to destroy beginning with Siriaa, Dorgus would only attempt to kill me himself.

He saw no wrong in Vardil Cayetes.

I realized then that I'd set aside the problem of poisoned planets; the Orb had me chasing other demons instead. Why it wanted me to serve Deris and Daris, however, I still didn't understand.

Why wouldn't it desire their deaths, like it desired Vardil Cayetes' death? Had it turned aside from Vardil, now that he was nothing more than a pathetic simpleton?

Did Deris and Daris play a role in the Orb's ultimate goal? Was that why I was with them now, and under their thumbs? Too many questions tumbled through my mind as Dorgus fed Vardil with the gentle hand of a parent feeding a baby.

When the meal was done and Dorgus began cleaning Vardil's face and hands, I slipped away.

Somewhere in the massive castle surrounded by a lake, Ruther Kend struggled to build a better death machine, unaware that his wife had been rescued by the unknown and was now likely out of reach of his captors.

The castle was grand and richly appointed, with gilt covering elaborate plasterwork and furniture carved by talented craftsmen scattered throughout. Rich, Serendaan rugs ran through rooms and hallways, lit with spell-lights in hand-blown glass.

Outside, elegant water birds graced the small lake, while squirrels, fox and other creatures chased and hunted through the forest. I understood then why Deris and Daris chose the home on Hraede—it had come closest to their ancestral domain.

Almost invisible as I slipped from one hallway to the next, I overheard snippets of conversation. One of those conversations involved Pargun and his absence. Stopping for a moment outside the half-closed door, I listened while Deris fumed that Pargun hadn't responded to his comp-vid messages.

Deris thought the information broker to be alive and merely ignoring his communications. Drawing in a breath, I slipped away as silent as a fox in the forest, heading for the rooms set aside for Ruther Kend and his assistants.

* * *

Karathia—Past

Ilya

My love, stop fretting
, I brushed dark hair away from Zaria's forehead. Something troubled her and I couldn't get her to tell me what it was.

Maybe we should try this another time?
Bright-blue eyes pleaded with me to understand.

"Shhh, cabbage," I soothed. "Come, let me love you and take your mind away from these things."

"But," she began.

"Hush." I held her face in my hands and kissed her—gently at first, then with more urgency. I and my body ached for her. "Yes," I murmured against her mouth as I lowered her onto the sheets. Her skin so soft against my mouth and fingers; her eyes closing with pleasure as I nipped her collarbone before traveling farther down.

It is a simple thing to remove clothing with a spell. I did it slowly, one piece at a time. "Ilya," she whimpered when my fingers found the sweetest spot.

"I won't be rough, my love," I promised, before lowering my head to where my fingers had been. The taste of her was exhilarating, like that of a perfectly cast spell, sweet on the tongue as it envelopes the caster with pleasure. I was more than pleased to bring her to climax that way, then I moved over her body and gave her another before taking my own.

* * *

Zaria

Ilya woke early, as did I; I had work to do in the kitchen while he went to tend the horses in the stable. I didn't want to let him go; his presence in my bed made me feel safe enough to sleep soundly.