Well, neither did I, not completely, but there wasn’t much we could do. I shrugged, hoping to convey that exact message, just as Johnny stopped in front of an open door.
“I’ve checked everywhere else and found nothing,” he said. “This leads downstairs. I was on my way there when I heard you. Once we reach the landing, we should split up. Cherry, you and I go left. Constantine and the human can check the other side. We’ll meet back here when we’re done.”
His plan wasn’t the best I’d ever heard, especially because it involved my ex and current flames, alone, in a dark basement. I was trying to find a delicate way to suggest an alternate division of forces when Constantine did that for me. “I’m not going with the human. He’s Cherry’s problem.”
Not knowing whether to be thankful or upset, I went with indifferent and snatched Alex’s waistband. “We’ll take right.”
Constantine winked as I passed in front of him to climb down the stairway. “Good luck,” I told him in a cheery voice.
“You too,” replied Johnny Boy. It sounded flat, despite reverberating on the walls of the narrow corridor.
* * * *
That level of the manor was almost barren in contrast to the upper one. The stone walls were naked except for lit torches every ten feet or so, and the floor was gritty underfoot. Apparently, despite the years she’d lived and the fortune she’d amassed—let alone the furniture she’d picked for her living room—Ádísa was still a warrior at heart and had chosen a frugal style for her more private space. Her chambers were probably underground too. I looked at the lit torches again. Something felt off, but I went ahead and rounded the bend in the corridor.
I ran into a cold male body, hard enough to bounce back. If I were to judge the living status of the man in front of me by his eyes, I’d pronounce him as dead as his temperature indicated he was. I knew better.
I tried to scream, but he covered my mouth with one hand and grabbed Alex’s neck with the other.
The council member who scared me the most had a firm grip on both Alex and me. “Make a sound, and I snap him like a twig,” Benjamin said. “Is that clear?”
Alex gasped for breath and kicked at our captor to no avail. I could possibly get away with nothing but a bruised jaw but couldn’t do much to help Alex; Benjamin stood with his arms spread, so we couldn’t reach for one another.
“Is that
clear
?”
It was possible that Constantine and Johnny had heard Benjamin and were rushing to our rescue, but I couldn’t afford to wait for knights with sharp canines, who might or might not show up. I nodded behind his palm. Feeling it against my lips was disgusting. It felt…
dead
. Touching my lips to it was like touching them to wax. Cold wax, not the kind I’d used to get rid of unwanted hairs when I was alive. It was odd since I knew he and I had to be the same temperature.
“Will you keep quiet if I let you go?” His thumb dug into the soft tissue underneath Alex’s jaw, making my lover tilt his head back and wince.
I nodded again, more vigorously, my gaze glued to Benjamin’s dirty thumbnail.
“Good.” He squeezed my face once and pulled away.
“You’re the one working with Ádísa,” I said as soon as he’d loosened his grip on Alex. My tone was as accusatory as I could manage without raising my voice.
He raised both eyebrows. “I’m here to take her down,” he said. “The bitch will get what’s coming to her. She will pay for what she did to my daughter.”
“Your daughter?” My turn to be taken aback. I had never imagined he’d have a family.
Even though his eyes weren’t as wide now that he could breathe again, Alex looked just as shocked at the revelation; he didn’t need to know who the man in front of us was to find the idea of said man having a family odd. Even at first glance, Benjamin seemed incapable of human contact.
Yet now Benjamin’s face showed more emotion than I thought possible for him, becoming almost human instead of the carved stone mask it usually resembled. “She was killed a few days before you were turned. I knew a vampire had done it, but I could do nothing about it. The death of a human meant nothing to the council. I wasn’t supposed to have kept in touch with my family after my turning anyway. Ádísa approached me the day before Willoughby’s hearing and promised me the one responsible would meet the sun if I helped her.”
Things were falling into place. “That’s why you were the first to revolt against the old council.” I remembered Benjamin jumping up and hurling accusations at them, remembered him urging spectators to join him in attacking the council members, to help bring them down. “The one who killed your daughter,” I whispered. “Was it…?”
He nodded. “Willoughby. He was supposed to dust for what he did to my little girl.” I was shocked to see a tear run down his cheek. “She was only twelve. I only had a year with her before I became a vampire—too little time. I couldn’t give her up, so I watched over her and my wife as much as I could. Then he—” His voice cracked. “When you came to us and said he was still around, I confronted Ádísa. She called me an idiot for believing you.” He shook his head. “I looked into it anyway, and once I discovered Willoughby was her childe, I knew for certain that you were right. A maker would never have their offspring killed. She lied to me from the start. For all I know, she was the one who ordered my little girl killed so she could eventually get to me. I could be the reason my Virginia died.” His face crumbled, and it was as if he shrank, the wind knocked out of him.
I didn’t know what to say; I was frozen there, watching a man I’d considered emotionless be torn apart in front of me.
“We’re going to bring him down. Her too. For everything.” Alex’s voice sounded raw for the second time since I’d met him. Hanging out with me didn’t exactly do wonders for his well-being, I thought.
Benjamin nodded again and let Alex go. “Come with me and keep your voices down. She’ll hear you.”
“She’s here?” That was bad—so
very
bad!
Benjamin was already walking by me, toward the direction Alex and I had come from. “Yes,” he said over his shoulder. “I didn’t see her leave tonight. I meant to wait until she left, then break in and wait for her to come back, but I didn’t have the patience. Thought she’d be underground, but all I found were some newly turned vampires. They may be the girls you said you were looking for.”
What about Dotty? “Did you see the human woman too? Thirties, tall, with short hair?”
He shrugged. “Saw someone. She was restrained. I don’t know if she’s the one you want. She was sleeping, I believe.” With that he was out of my field of vision, around the corner.
Alex and I hurried after him. I wanted to ask him where she was and rush to her, but I knew our chances of helping her and the rest of the girls would be much greater once Ádísa was out of the picture. Then another thought occurred to me, and I wanted to smack myself for not having it sooner. “We have to find Constantine and Johnny Boy and warn them,” I said, stopping Benjamin with my hand on his arm.
His thick eyebrows rose. “Johnny is here too? But he didn’t believe you. Or me.”
He hadn’t? Then why was he there?
Oh shit!
I’d been so stupid, letting myself be fooled by Johnny Boy’s friendly act.
He’d conveniently appeared at Ádísa’s the same night we had, with a story that would have worked had he not been a council member. Why would he be looking for proof of her guilt by himself, when he could have ordered someone else to do that for him?
And why hadn’t I thought of all that sooner?
He’d said he’d looked everywhere upstairs for the girls. If he had, he’d have known Ádísa was still inside the manor. But of course, he’d known that from the get-go. He’d wanted
me
to go with him and leave Constantine with Alex because he wanted to take me to her. He was leading Constantine into a trap—unless my ex was in on it.
No
. Constantine had been the one to insist I stick with Alex. Whether he’d suspected something or not, he definitely wasn’t in cahoots with Johnny. And I had to warn him before it was too late.
“Let’s go,” I said and started running toward the stairs, where we’d said we’d meet the other two, barely holding back so Alex could keep up.
Constantine and Johnny weren’t at the bottom of the staircase, and I was positive we wouldn’t find them in any of the basement rooms. Without thinking, I climbed the stairs and burst into Ádísa’s horrid living room.
* * * *
“I suggest you don’t come any closer.” Johnny smiled amiably, as always. He was sitting on the armrest of the chair I’d noticed on our way in. The thing was uglier than ugly, from its winged back to its clawed feet. Ádísa stood behind it, leaning against its back, her sharp nails tapping on the upholstery. Willoughby flanked her other side, his arm folded around Constantine’s chest, the stake in his hand pressing over Constantine’s heart.
They made for a very evil if totally clichéd tableau. I sort of felt bad for Ádísa. For all she had going, she seemed too desperate to prove her superiority.
Still, her guys were armed with things, so I froze in my tracks, as did Alex. Benjamin, however, unconcerned with my former lover’s unlife, shoved me aside and lunged for Ádísa with a roar.
Johnny raised his arm. I heard the
thwack
of the cord releasing but still didn’t have time to warn Benjamin. An arrow shot out of the mini crossbow in Johnny’s hand, sliced the air, and found Benjamin’s heart. Benjamin turned to dust midleap. One moment he was lifting off the ground, about to close the distance to the woman who’d promised him retribution for his daughter’s murder and had used him as a pawn, and the next he was a thin cloud of dust descending slowly toward the inappropriately colorful carpet.
Alex’s gasp reached my ears. That was the first time he’d seen someone dusted, since he’d been knocked out when I’d offed the vampire at his mother’s place. I wanted to make sure he was okay but didn’t dare avert my gaze from Willoughby’s hand.
“Why?” I muttered, unsure of what that why was about. Why did they kill Benjamin? That was kind of easy to figure out. Why were they turning the girls? Why was Johnny teaming with Ádísa?
Why…?
Ádísa replied to the obvious question. “He was dangerous. He had to be put down.” She looked between me and Alex. “You are dangerous too.”
“We’ve done nothing to you,” I spat out between gritted teeth. She was a council member, and we were nobodies. There was no reason for her to fear either of us. “You were the one who ordered me turned and had him”—I pointed to Benjamin’s remains—“help you overturn the council. And you had Constantine keep an eye on me. Why?”
“I am not going to explain myself to you or to a human.” She straightened up and went to Constantine.
“Why take the girls?” I asked, unfazed by her turning her back to me. “Or me? You could have turned anyone. Why set up this scheme?”
Willoughby apparently hadn’t noticed how bad guys in movies die after presenting their elaborate plans to the white hats. “Those girls are exactly the type rich, powerful men go for,” he said with a grin. My confusion only made his grin grow wider. “Place them in the right spot at the right moment, and they can bring those men to us.”
“So this was about money?” That was absurd. Ádísa had to be richer than Donald Trump.
“No,” Ádísa said, her tone scornful. Apparently she wasn’t above explaining herself if that meant pointing out my idiocy. “It is about power. Turn a few men at key positions, kill a few more after they’ve signed their companies over to their latest significant others, and we rule the world.”
I gaped at her. “You’re planning to take over the world with an army of what?
Five
gorgeous, undead escorts? Ten?”
She scoffed. “You’re assuming we limited ourselves to just one city.”
“Why not turn those men to begin with?”
“The ones we’re after are hard to get close to, to begin with. They have people around, monitoring their every move. Turning doesn’t happen within seconds. It’s one thing for Bill Gates to disappear for a whole night after an appointment at his office, and another for him to
ask
not to be disturbed because he’s spending the night with a conquest. And the girls are trained to be conquests. Men in power have to hunt their prey.”
“Bill Gates is married,” was the only thing that came out of my mouth. My mind couldn’t process what I’d just heard.
“Why did you break into my mother’s house?” Alex asked from behind me.
Willoughby smirked. “We needed to know what progress you’d made with the case. I’d followed you there before, and she’d told us when you’d be there alone. We were planning on wiping you after, but
she
”—he pointed at me—“got in the way.”
“Well, you shouldn’t have messed with me. Why turn me to begin with?” They’d turned me and let me loose. I didn’t even fit the type they were after.
Willoughby opened his mouth, but Ádísa glared at him and he shut it again.
“What? No more playing the James Bond villains?” I asked.
Blank looks all around. They obviously lacked basic pop culture knowledge.
“You know: answering our questions so we aren’t left wondering after we escape and kill you?” I was acting braver than I felt but wasn’t exactly trembling in my boots either. Ádísa and the others’ displays of power made them seem less scary than the ideas of them I’d had in my head.
“It isn’t as if we’re risking anything. You’re already as good as dead.” Ádísa arched two perfectly shaped eyebrows. With an order from her, Willoughby dropped his arm, and I let out a sigh of relief. Imminent danger to Constantine was averted.
Probably.
Ádísa locked her gaze to my ex’s and said, “I knew I could count on you to bring her here.”
The ground opened under my feet, and my stomach plummeted. Constantine had betrayed me? I stared at him, certain Ádísa was trying to play me. She had to be lying.
Constantine was silent. Why wasn’t he denying her words?
He smiled at her, and I almost took a step toward him before the memory of Benjamin’s perma-death stopped me. I’d have to kill the double-crossing bastard later. Because I
would
kill him for making me trust him and letting me down.