Terra's Victory (Destiny's Trinities Book 7) (10 page)

Beth put her coffee down. “No, they wouldn’t. I don’t know what their plan is. I only know they have one. The attack on the bunker was too strategically perfect to have been a whim.”

Zack sucked in a breath of shock.

“What is it?” she demanded.

“Aubrey.” He let his breath out again in a rush. “Aubrey was one of the elders. When he died, you automatically called for a general meeting. Maybe they were counting on that.”

Lindal dropped the chair legs with a little thud. “They killed Aubrey to
make
us call a meeting?”

“The hounds weren’t interested in me,” Zack said. “I might not be sitting here if they had been. The one I tried to stop actually pushed me aside so it could get at Aubrey.”

Beth swallowed. Every time Aubrey’s death was mentioned, all she could see was an image of Zack lying on the bridge, his leg torn open and blood everywhere. Her heart always ramped up whenever she did, making her feel weak.

She picked up the coffee cup again, holding it carefully. “I don’t think there’s any maybe about it. The Grimoré went on the attack. They took out Aubrey, knowing it would cause us to gather in one location, where they could attack us all at once. We’d already agreed that they understand strategy. This confirms it.”

Lindal turned the laptop around so they could both see the screen and tapped it. “If they’re so strategically oriented, then why did they let a couple of hounds try to mow down little kids? I can’t figure out the pay off.”

“There isn’t one,” Beth said slowly. “Not for them, anyway. All the fallout from this is related to the media, which the Grimoré do not understand. Therefore, that would not have been part of their considerations. Ergo, they didn’t allow it.”

“The hounds slipped the leash,” Zack finished.

Beth stared at him. “Yes!” she said, turning in the chair to look at him properly. “That’s it.”

Zack just looked at her blankly.

“Pneumonia,” Beth said, reminding him.

Zack’s puzzlement faded. “They’re too sick to control the hounds.”

“Control,” Beth repeated. Abruptly, far-flung thoughts and facts shifted. There was something there…something big, if she could only put it together coherently. She got to her feet, heading for the window.

“Beth?” Lindal asked, behind her.

“She’s doing a ‘you’,” Zack told him. “Leave her a moment to sort it out.”

Beth stared at the virgin snow. No one had disturbed it in over a week. It made the perfect blank canvas to stare at, while her thoughts raced.

“What do you mean, doing a ‘me’?” Lindal demanded.

“Communing with nature,” Zack replied. “It’s your version of coffee.”

“There’s no
nature
out there,” Lindal said, sounding affronted. “This is New York.”

“Except when it rains, or snows, or there’s a storm, or the wind blows, you’ll be right there with your nose pressed against the glass.”

Silence.

“Beth?” Zack asked, his voice soft.

She stirred herself. “I’m almost there,” she said. “It’s all about control. The Grimoré control the vampeen. Call it telepathy for now. They have a way of bending the vampeen to their will, making them do what they want.”

“Maybe they just give orders,” Zack suggested.

She shook her head. “The vampeen aren’t willing soldiers. They don’t have the discipline to follow commands voluntarily. Think of Blake’s daughter—she fought their control tooth and nail, right up until she died. I imagine the vampeen would all do the same, if they had free will. So the Grimoré
must
be controlling them in a way that removes free will and that implies some sort of mind control.”

“Ugh,” Lindal murmured.

Beth nodded. “It’s the stuff of nightmares,” she said in agreement. “It explains a lot, though. We have to assume the Grimoré control both the vampeen and the hounds. I can’t see them letting the vampeen direct the hounds at all. I don’t think trust is part of their set up.”

“Rhys said the hounds are stupid.”

“He would know. His and Zoe’s trinity are fighting them on a daily basis. There doesn’t seem to be too many hounds in the cities,” Beth said. “At least, not that we’ve seen, yet. If they’re really stupid, as Rhys says, then
someone
must be directing them. The Grimoré again. Except when they get sick, their control slips.”

Zack sat up straighter in the chair, then crossed his legs and tucked his bare feet under his knees. “In every single standing battle we’ve had with them, the Grimoré have always hung back. I figured they were just sending in the troops and staying safe themselves. What if they hang back so they can concentrate on controlling the cannon fodder?”

“Which implies they need to be nearby to maintain the control,” Lindal said.

Beth nodded. “That fits, too. Nearly every time we’ve dealt with vampeen or hounds, there has been at least one Grimoré nearby. Not always visible, not always in reach, but close by.”

Lindal put his chin on his hand, propping it up on the table. “We’ve always fought the vampeen, trying to make our way through them to reach the Grimoré.”

Beth nodded. “What if we took the Grimoré out first?”

Zack and Lindal just looked at her. She could feel their growing excitement.

“Take off the head…the body drops,” Zack said.

“Does it?” Lindal asked. “Maybe, if the Grimoré aren’t controlling them, the vampeen go bat-shit crazy and tear into everything in reach, including each other. The hounds Rhys just dealt with sounded as if they were out of control, only interested in grabbing the nearest food. You really want to be standing in the middle of an army of psychotic vampeen when they go off their meds?”

Beth almost laughed. “You sound so human,” she told him.

Lindal rolled his eyes. “My point…”

She nodded. “Yes. I get the point. If we take the Grimoré out, do the vampeen fall apart and…I don’t know, wake up or something? Or do they go berserk? There’s only one way to find out.” She moved over to the table and picked up her cellphone.

“Um…a phone call will help you find out?” Zack asked with puzzled politeness.

Beth shook her head. “The only way to find out is to put the trinities together to draw the Grimoré out, then kill them and see what happens. That’s a
huge
risk. I’m not going to give that order without some advice.”

“There’s no other direction to go,” Zack pointed out.

“I know.” She pressed the fast dial button and looked at him. “I’m tired of making unilateral decisions. Calling the general meeting was my decision.”

“
No one
could have guessed the Grimoré would crash the meeting,” Lindal said. “You can’t blame yourself.”

“I don’t blame myself,” she said honestly and brought the phone to her ear and listened to it connect. “I
am
responsible for what happened, though. It’s only going to get harder, now. I won’t put anyone else at risk without first considering every angle.”

“You can’t lead by committee,” Lindal said.

“I
can
use advisors,” Beth told them.

“Good morning, Seaveth,” Remmy said in her ear.

* * * * *

In the Canadian Rockies, the snow was thick and deep, with paths carved out of the white for hotel guests to navigate to cabins and parking lots. The sky overhead was utterly cloudless and a perfect Wedgewood blue. Everyone wore sunglasses, even inside the glass-walled café in the Jasper Park Lodge, for the sun was dazzling.

Blake glanced out the windows once more. He was the born and raised New Yorker and the majestic peaks kept pulling his gaze. “Why here?” he asked, bringing his attention back to the breakfast plate in front of him.

“The Grimoré can’t stand the cold,” Beth said. She had eaten a whole waffle and was working on her bacon. Around the table, everyone else who needed food was eating with gusto, while the non-eaters were toying with coffee cups, to give the illusion of a breakfast meeting.

“Yet the trinities bring them running whether it’s cold or not,” Remmy pointed out.

“They didn’t break up the meeting in my apartment,” Beth said. “I think the trinities only draw them when all three of a trinity are in the vicinity of another full trinity.”

“That makes sense,” Aithan said, frowning. He had surprised Beth by ordering breakfast and was now slowly eating it. He seemed to savor every bite, too, which reminded her of the way Zack had experienced his first meals after their trinity had formed. “The trinities can only fight at full power when all three are there.”

Declan, sitting next to Zoe, frowned. His pacifist ideology made him an essential member of this group. “This is an interesting range of people you have here, Seaveth,” he said. “Not all the trinities are represented.”

“You’re looking for diversity of opinion on something, aren’t you?” Aithan said.

Beth nodded, not surprised it was Aithan who had figured it out. “We believe now that the Grimoré
literally
control the vampeen and the hounds, directing them like drones. So, the question is, what would happen if we focus on taking out the Grimoré? We could experiment, but there are huge risks in doing that.”

Remmy pretended to drink his coffee, then put the cup down. “What happens to the vampeen if the Grimoré are not there, is what you’re thinking, yes?”

“Exactly,” Beth said.

Blake leaned forward, an odd, almost pained expression on his face. “You think the vampeen will revert back to human?” he asked. His voice was strained.

Beth let out a gusty sigh. “No, I don’t think so, Blake. Their change is like a vampire turning. It can’t be reversed.”

Blake licked his lips. “I don’t know if I’m happy about that or not,” he said, his voice low.

She rested her hand on his shoulder.

Aithan was frowning. “If they’re being controlled like drones, as you say, that means they have no free will. Take away the Grimoré and free will returns.”

“Does it?” Declan asked. “Perhaps, without direction, they go crazy. The sudden loss of direction, when someone has gotten used to never making a decision of their own, can develop bizarre pathologies.”

“Does it matter?” Remmy asked, his voice even. “Mad or not, they’ll be free of the Grimoré. That might make them a lot easier to eliminate.”

“They were human, once,” Blake said, his voice harsh. “Do we ignore that now?”

Aithan nodded. “Once the Grimoré stop controlling them, then they become entities with free will and consciousness, mad or not. They should be free to determine what happens to them next.”

“You mean, let them just walk away?” Zoe asked, sounding horrified.

“If that’s what they want,” Aithan said. “I guarantee none of them asked to be turned and none of them want to fight this war.” There was a note of pain in his voice.

“If they go mad when the Grimoré are gone, what is to stop them from turning on us?” Remmy asked. “Tearing us apart is all any of them have known for years now. Maybe that conditioning remains even after the Grimoré have gone and they will follow it simply because they don’t know how to make decisions of their own anymore.”

Beth nodded. “Exactly. It’s such a huge question mark, with big risks attached to answering it.”

Remmy’s face was troubled. “It’s a risk we must take. What happens to them afterward…is for after.”

“You can’t leave them loose to roam the countryside,” Zoe shot back.

“Why not?” Blake asked. “They’re people, too.”

“They’re mortal,” Beth reminded everyone. “Eventually, they will grow old and die.”

“So let them find what freedom and peace they can until they do die,” Aithan said.

Remmy stirred. “What’s to stop them from turning fresh humans?” he asked.

Declan sighed. “Procreation. Individuals die, yet the vampeen will linger forever.”

“They
eat
people for food,” Zoe said, her voice low and hard. “They get a free pass after the war because that’s their nature? We executed the Nazis and they said they were just following orders, too.”

The silence around the table was tense.

Blake looked as though he had a headache. He was rubbing his temple. Aithan didn’t look happy, either.

“So what do you plan to do, Seaveth?” Remmy asked, using his polite, charming tone.

“You thought this was the key, didn’t you?” Aithan asked her. “Find a way
around
the vampeen and take out the Grimoré, then the vampeen will be neutralized and the war won.”

“Something like that,” Beth said slowly. “It seems to me that we all agree, more or less, that the vampeen were human and once free will is restored to them, they should be treated as individuals with human rights once more.”

Zoe grimaced, but nodded. No one disputed her.

“No offense, ma’am,” Remmy said, “That’s not your issue here.”

“No?”

“It’s what the vampeen
do
with their new-found free will that will be the decider,” Aithan said.

“If they become psychotic, then they won’t be capable of making any rational decisions,” Declan added.

“We need to find out what happens to them,” Blake said, his tone urgent. “Nothing should be decided until we do.”

Beth sat back. “That’s what I need you to figure out, all of you. We make no direct move against the Grimoré until we know.”

Aithan blew out his breath. “Tall order,” he said.

“And then some,” Remmy added.

Cole was sitting on the front verandah when they got back, his face turned up to the sun, which was as high as it would go at this time of year. He wore jeans and a tee shirt and that was all.

Zoe shrugged into her heavy winter coat and boots and went outside. Declan was already there, sitting on the verandah railing, facing Cole. He didn’t need outdoor clothes, either, although he would always dress to match any normal humans in the area, just as the vampires worked to look more human.

“Telling him about the meeting?” Zoe asked.

Declan shook his head. “About what Blake said, after.”

“About the trinities breaking up?” Zoe shook her head. “He was upset, Declan. Everything he said was tinted black. He lost a daughter to the vampeen, remember.”

“Breaking up?” Cole said sharply.

“He had a theory—” Declan began.