The Immortal Compromise (The Mortal One Series Book 3) (21 page)

Chapter 26

“NOW THAT YOU see how happy Jen is to be a vampire, what do you think about saying goodbye to your mortality?” Nico asked as we laid in bed.

I nodded. “I’m getting closer to the idea.”

“Yeah?” He asked. “Any questions I can answer?”

I laid my head against his chest, gazing up at his face. “Olivier has two blood lines. He made Jen and she has the same two blood lines in her. As a result, they are both stronger.”

Nico nodded.

“I want to be a strong vampire if I am going to become one.”

“I do not like the idea of Olivier turning you. Besides, you have already been marked by me.”

I smiled. “I’m not talking about Olivier turning me. I want to go in search of the third blood line.”

Nico’s attention was suddenly piqued. “You want to find the Celtic blood line?”

I nodded. “What do you think?”

“I would love to. What are your thoughts?”

I shrugged. It was still an idea in the early stages of forming. “If Olivier has Western European and Asian and you were to have Western European and Celtic, the two of you could be an unstoppable force because of having so much power between the two of you.”

“And you would have Western European and Celtic as well.”

I nodded. We would get you the Celtic bloodline and after that, you could turn me.”

“Can you perform the ceremony?”

“Me?” I asked.

Nico smiled. “You have been working with Gregorio on it.”

“I, well, yes, but…”

“Do you need to spend some more time with him in order to figure out exactly how to do the ceremony?”

“There are a few ceremonies that Olivier performed in order to get the blood line. I don’t know if Gregorio would show them to me because he doesn’t trust vampires. He thinks they are power hungry and territorial,” I confessed.

“It may be a good idea for you to ask.”

“Olivier could show me. He has already done it once, so he could do it again,” I suggested.

Nico thought about it for a moment. “My only hesitation is that he doesn’t have the necromancy magic flowing through his veins anymore. Gregorio does, and so do you.”

It sounded weird to hear him say it that way. I hadn’t really thought about me having magic flowing through my veins, but I guess I did, though we had yet to put it to the test.

“About that,” I said.

“Yes?”

“We never got the chance to put the necromancy magic to the test,” I said.

“How is it tested?”

“He and I have to perform a ceremony and it will be my magic that does it all.” I still didn’t like the idea of performing any of the ceremonies, but was ready to present the idea to Nico.

“What ceremony?”

“That’s where you come in,” I smiled. “I think it’s safe to say we don’t want any zombies up out of the ground.”

Nico nodded. “I’m listening.”

“It’s possible to raise you during the day,” I said.

His eyes grew large and he opened his mouth to say something and then shut it.

“Nico?”

“You want to raise
me
?”

I nodded. “Apparently that is how Olivier was able to get the first bloodline. He rose the vampire during the day to get the blood.”

“So I have heard. I don’t know about this,
mia mortale
.”

“If you have questions, you can ask Gregorio,” I suggested.

He seemed to process everything. “We could fly down to Berlin for a day or two.”

“Together?”

“Yes. I don’t want you going into that city without me. While Wenzel apologized, I don’t trust the man.”

I got goosebumps thinking about him. “That is fine by me. We can go to Alexanderplatz for dinner.” The idea of being able to explore Berlin at night in the company of Nico was more than a little exciting.

“Okay,” he smiled. “We can do that.”

“And Gregorio and I will raise you during the day.”

He took a deep breath and shook his head. “That remains to be seen. I will ask him some questions before I agree.”

I could only imagine the level of apprehension that he felt. He did not know enough about necromancy to know if he would be safe and my level of knowledge was not much higher. But that was okay. We would go to Berlin and meet with Gregorio and learn together. I could find out once and for all if the magic was in me. There was a small part of me that hoped I simply got sick that night in the graveyard and that the necromancy assumption was a big mistake. It came with more responsibilities than I was ready for.

“I’ll call Gregorio and let him know that we are headed his way tomorrow for a few days?” I asked.

Nico nodded. “You talk to him. I’m going to speak to Adrien about a few things,” he said. “I’ll be back in a few.”

“I bought a plane,” Nico said, walking through the front door.

He couldn’t have just said what I thought he did. “What?”

“A plane. It’s a Cessna Turbo Stationair,” he said and smiled.

I knew Nico, or rather we, had a lot of money, but it still took me by surprise. “A plane?”

“There was never a need in the past because I didn’t travel a lot and when I did, it was just me. With you, it seems that we are always jet setting somewhere and it’s thrilling. While I’m not a fan of air travel, I would prefer to do it in my own plane.”

“Okay,” I said. “Do you know how to fly this plane?”

“No, which is why I wanted to talk to Adrien. He flew planes when he was in the military. He and I had talked about planes one day and I had mentioned I was thinking about buying one. He suggested this one because it holds up to six people.”

“Wow. You hadn’t said anything.”

“I wanted it to be a surprise.”

“Oh, it is. So we can go anywhere, whenever we want?” I asked.

“Basically. It can only go seven hundred nautical miles in between fill-ups, but that is plenty to get to anywhere around most of Europe. And with having our own pilot, we don’t have to worry about the airline flight times.”

Well, this was about the best news, ever. I have always wanted to travel Europe. Nico has known this and I’m sure that was part of his decision in buying the plane. He also chose a plane that held six, which meant we could take Olivier and Jen at times, too.

“The plane will be ready for Berlin tomorrow night?”

Nico nodded. “It will. Now remember, this is a smaller plane. It will take longer to get to Berlin.”

“That’s okay,” I said. Being in a smaller plane made me a little nervous, but I liked the idea of owning it.

“Adrien is going to work on becoming certified on some of the larger planes,” he said.

“Why?”

“Eventually, we may upgrade to a larger plane. Maybe a jet. That would allow us to get farther on a single flight and arrive sooner.”

“Oh, well that sounds fun,” I said.

He followed me as I walked upstairs. “So Gregorio is fine with us visiting?”

“He is. And he said we are staying at his apartment.”

“We can get a hotel room.”

“He said you would say that and he said absolutely not,” I said, walking into the closet to get my suitcase out.

Nico shook his head. “The two of you have this whole trip planned already, don’t you?”

“Not all of the details, but it is easier to stay at his place because of the ceremony that we will be performing.”

“That you
may
be performing,” Nico corrected. “I have not agreed to it yet. I will talk to Gregorio about my concerns.”

“Understood,” I said. What I didn’t tell him is that I already knew he would agree because if he was thinking about it, he could be swayed. Besides, he wanted to have a second blood line in him for the power, just as I wanted to have another one in me. If this was what he had to do in order to eventually make it happen, he would do it.

***

“You know how to fly this, right?” I asked, standing at a local airport. This wasn’t a standard airport. There was one runway with a small building a stone’s throw away. There was no control center and two pole lights were lit to show what was going on.

Adrien was sitting in the cockpit of the small plane. “Of course. The two of you can climb in. I have already done the system checks.”

I held the door and looked at Nico.

“It is fine,
mia mortale
,” he said and gave me a push on the butt to get me up and into the plane.

The interior was relatively small, but the leather seats were comfortable. Nico climbed in beside me and shut the door. Adrien reached back and handed us each a headset. “Plug these in to the connections beside you. The large plug is on the left,” he said.

I nodded and took the headset. I adjusted it on my head. “What do these do?”

“They allow us to communicate with each other during flight,” Adrien said.

“Oh.”

Nico patted my knee as we prepared for takeoff.

It was louder than any other plane I had been in. It shook and the engine sounded more like a lawn mower than anything.

The flight itself was smoother than I expected. We were able to fly lower than the commercial planes, which was cool. It allowed me to see more of the country. Adrien announced when we were flying over Belgium and then when we had entered German airspace.

In just over three hours, we landed at a private airport just outside of Berlin. It had a similar setup to the one we took off from. Not much to look at and there were no terminals to deal with. I looked over and saw Gregorio’s car. He was leaning against the trunk, his tattooed arms folded across his chest.

Gregorio saw us and started walking towards the plane. “This is nice,” he said.

“Thanks,” Nico said and extended his hand. “I appreciate the pickup.”

“Absolutely.” He looked over at Adrien. “Will there be three of you?”

Nico shook his head. “Adrien will be at a hotel in Berlin. He has a two day vacation until we need to fly back.”

“Nice,” Gregorio commented.

Adrien climbed down out of the plane and made a few final adjustments and then closed the door. “That’s what I said, too.”

We made a few introductions. Adrien took off in one direction. Nico and I climbed into Gregorio’s car and emerged into the city of Berlin in no time at all.

Chapter 27

“DYLAN, YOU HAVE to listen to me,” Gregorio said.

I pushed the hair out of my face and groaned in frustration. “I don’t think this is going to work,” I said. “You are making a lot of assumptions about me.”

He and I were sitting in his living room. The only light was from candles that were lit sporadically through the room. All of the curtains were pulled tight and there were sheets pinned on top of the windows as well. Nico wanted to make sure there was no sunlight in the room if he was going to be raised during the day. He had agreed easily enough, but these were his conditions. I couldn’t say I blamed him one bit.

“You have the magic,” Gregorio said.

I shook my head.

“Say it.”

“I have the magic,” I said, rolling my eyes.

“Believe it. Say it again.”

“I have the magic.”

He nodded. “Now, repeat after me,” he said, “and hold your hands like this.” He held his hands out over Nico’s body. He said several words that were in a foreign language.

I held my hands over Nico, palms to the floor. Gregorio removed his hands. I repeated the words.

“Now tell him to do something.”

“Sit up.”

Nico sat up and I scooted back, slamming my back into the wooden bookcase behind me.

“What’s the matter?” Gregorio asked, humor in his voice.

“He sat up.”

He laughed. “That is what you told him to do.”

“I didn’t think it would work.” This was terrifying to know that I was responsible for what just happened.

“Guess what? You have the magic,” Gregorio announced.

Every hair on my arms was standing on end. I wasn’t sure I was happy about having this magic. It was easier to live in denial and now there was no way to deny it any further. “Now what?”

“Tell him to do something else,” Gregorio said.

“Stand up and spin around.”

Nico did as I said.

“Can he speak?”

“No.”

“Will he remember?”

“No.”

I thought about all of this. It was why Olivier was able to steal his immortality and get away with it. He rose a vampire, took the blood, and put him back down without the vampire knowing. Scary thought.

“Can we put him back down?”

Gregorio looked confused. “Why?”

“I don’t want him up like this. It’s not actually him. He’s more like a zombie than anything.” Nico had a glazed look in his eyes. He was breathing, which was all wrong. He didn’t recognize me. It was creepy.

“Put him back down, then,” Gregorio said.

Nico stood there, as if waiting for instruction.

“What do I do?” I asked.

“Do you remember the words you repeated to wake him?”

I nodded.

I rose my hands and held my palms up towards Nico. I repeated the words and Nico laid back down on the floor. He stopped breathing. He was dead to the world once again.

“That’s it? Really?”

Gregorio laughed. “Yes.”

I took a deep breath, not sure what to think about it. If we found a vampire with the Celtic bloodline, then I would know how to raise him.

“Can I do anything to the vampire without him knowing?”

This had Gregorio’s attention. “Do what? What are you thinking about?”

It was time to tell him everything about our plans so he could tell me what I needed to know to perform any of the ceremonies.

“You know that I’m eventually going to become a vampire, right?”

Gregorio nodded. “I assumed as much. What are your plans?”

“Nico and I wanted to go in search of a different bloodline. We are prepared to take it by any means possible.”

Realization flashed across his face. “Oh.”

“Yes,” I smiled.

“So you want to raise a vampire and take his blood?”

“Yes.”

“You will need a few more ceremonial tutorials,” he said. “And I can teach them to you, but you can never reference my name if someone asks you who you learned them from.”

“I won’t, but why?” I asked.

He thought for a moment before speaking. “What you are doing is dangerous. I don’t want my name connected with it. But I do want to know how it went.”

“Understood.”

Gregorio spent the next two hours explaining to me how I would find the dead as well as how I would make sure they were returned to the state they were when they were found. He also told me how to wipe any trace of being there. That would ensure that after the blood was taken, the vampire would not know that anything had happened while they were in their state of sleep for the day.

***

As sunset approached, I anxiously waited for Nico to rise, this time of his own accord. Gregorio and I had some unusual conversations throughout the afternoon about raising a vampire and what could be done if we found the Celtic bloodline.

“Nico,” I said as he rose off the living room floor.

He stood up and stretched. “Yes?’

“It’s you,” I smiled and reached for him.

“Did it work?” He asked.

“So you don’t remember anything?”

Nico shook his head. “So it did work?”

I nodded.

“Well, that is good news, although slightly disturbing since I have no memory of it.”

We all laughed while standing in the middle of Gregorio’s living room.

“Give me one moment,” Nico said. “I want to call Adrien and make sure that he is preparing the plane for takeoff later this evening.” He paused. “I’m assuming the two of you have gone over all that is needed?”

I looked at Gregorio and he nodded.

“Okay,” Nico said, “Pardon me.” He stepped outside.

“You can always call me if you have questions,” Gregorio said.

I nodded. “Would you come and perform a ceremony with me if I asked?”

Gregorio rubbed the back of his neck. “Ummm,” he hesitated. “We will have to see about that.”

“Oh.”

“It is not anything against you. It’s just that as necromancers, we have to be cautious. Vampires are scared of us because of what we can do. Don’t think that they aren’t. They won’t show their fear, but I have been threatened on more than one occasion. You and Nico need to keep it an absolute secret that you possess the magic.”

“Okay,” I said, nodding. “Thank you for everything.”