Chapter Eighteen
Rad and Misty, accompanied with Alex and Minty, sat around the table, finishing breakfast. Well, the women were eating, the men were planning.
Alex had his hand on Minty’s shoulder. Every once in a while she looked over, smiling up at his blue eyes. Sometimes she would forget to eat, just looking at the beautiful man who held onto her. They had left the dark, going up to a bedroom that had soft lights. They took a shower together. He had washed her, soaping her all over very gently, kissing the marks on her breasts from the strap of the knife indented into her flesh. They made love on the bed. A blissful love. He had filled her. She had kissed him, hanging onto him, crying again, but tears of happiness.
They both knew happiness would always be a strange mixture for them. There was a dark side to both of them that neither was willing to give up. Others wouldn’t understand, but that wasn’t what they needed. They needed each other. This was the unspoken decision they made in the dark this morning. They finalized it in the light.
“I’m not sure I like your plan, Rad. It separates all of us. You and I have men scattered all over, waiting for the word to attack when they don’t know what they are attacking. On top of that I am leaving first to fly half way around the world and you and Misty will be bringing Minty to follow.”
Rad had one hand on Misty with the other on his phone. He finally looked up and nodded in agreement. “I feel you, Alex. But we need to chop off the head of this movement. We know it is someone in Rome. I know you and Minty communicate in some manner, No, please don’t deny it.” He held up his hand as Alex tried to protect what was between himself and his female. “But none of us can read her mind any more than we can read Misty’s. It is probably just as well. So we need her to point out the one she met at the warehouse. We need it done in such a manner as to upset the whole smug Council. We need to get them to quit fighting you and set up some guides, some real checks. You know the old saying,
who is watching the watchers?”
Later in the day, Alex let Minty ride in the limo to the airport. He wouldn’t let her get out, but kissed her deeply, promising a special gift for her dark panic when next they were together. She sighed, shivering as he entered her mind.
“What do you say to your Master?”
“What would you have me do to please you, Master?”
“I am leaving the knife with you. Each night you will strap it to your breasts, and if I find that you didn’t strap it tight enough to dig deep and make marks, the next morning the knife will think you don’t love it. That is what you will do to please me.”
He had the knife wrapped in a velvet cloth. He placed it carefully in her hands. She looked at him and smiled.
“I obey my Master.”
He kissed her one more time and said. “Listen to Rad and Misty. They have been through this before. There are special clothes to wear. Rad will also expect you to be a surprise to someone. I know you will make me proud.”
He was gone. The limo took her back to the house. Misty met her and drew her aside. “Minty, I would like to take you over to the lab. We know that there are some similarities between you and me, but it isn’t like we came from the same parents.”
She took Minty’s hand and led her down the stairs and along the lighted hallway. “We have a lot of problems here with water.” She pointed out a couple of pumps that were running quietly. “No one builds below ground in Louisiana
—
the water tables are at ground level and sometimes above. We actually brought in huge cement pipes and built this tunnel to keep the soft mud and water out so that we could travel hidden from one location to another, so our nightwalkers could move around comfortably in daylight. You probably know that most of them can go out in the sun, but the younger they are the more uncomfortable it is.”
Minty looked at the door she had spent the night behind with her Master, but said nothing as they went down the hall. At the end they entered a hallway that had many rooms leading off of it that she could see into, as they had glass on the hallway side. They seemed to be labs or computer rooms. She recognized some of the equipment.
Misty entered a room with a comfortable computer set up including several monitors. She sat down and motioned Minty to pull up a chair so that she could sit beside her.
“This is where I do my research. Here, look at these sites
—
this is where I followed the trail back to where you and I were dropped off at the orphanage. Then look here.” She brought up on another screen what were probably DNA sequences. “This one is me, this one is you. Up on the top screen is a normal mortal, beside it is a normal nightwalker. As you see, there are a lot of differences, so we don’t see much in the way of relationships. But yours and mine are similar. Yet we are different from both the ones above. So it looks like we are possibly the third intelligent life force on Earth. Yet there is something that draws nightwalkers to us.”
“Wait.” Minty put her hand on Misty’s shoulder. “I just learned that there are really Vampires. I am still getting my head around the fact that my lover is one. You are sitting here telling me that there are a whole bunch of them and that these others…” She pointed at the lab workers out in the other work areas she could see through the glass. “You are telling me that some of these are Vampires or at least know about them?”
Misty turned in her chair to look at Minty. “I am so sorry. I get wrapped up in my own work I forget about people’s feeling. I forget how it felt when I found out Rad was a nightwalker. It was a big adjustment and I was so scared, so angry. Now you got a double whammy. Not only are there nightwalkers but there is also a relative of yours, even though you had been told all your life that you were an orphan, alone in the world.”
Misty started hitting keys and bringing up files. Minty looked at them and turned to the keyboard in front of her.
“Does this work?”
Misty smiled. Of course her relative would work computers. She flipped a couple of buttons and Minty was into the computer.
* * * *
So this was where Rad found them for the next two days. They were searching for their beginnings and they were searching for others. They took their meals here and they spoke a language that both he and Marco did not understand, but any geek would have loved it.
In the meantime he and Marco made arrangements for their trip to Rome. The only thing that they found unusual about Minty was she requested the lights be turned off in her bedroom. She also needed a night mask. She explained she could not sleep except in absolute darkness.
One of the servants reported blood on a nightgown in the breast area. When Misty questioned Minty, the woman apologized. Explained she cut herself shaving her legs, happened to grab whatever was handy. She offered to pay for the gown but Misty just laughed. Money was not a problem for a woman attached to a Council Lord.
Finally, entering the computer lab, Rad broke them apart. He announced it was time to go. Minty was put on a plane, going the long way through Atlanta to Switzerland via SwissAir. Here, she was met by special servants of Rad’s, who dressed her then drove her in secrecy to Rome.
Radames made a formal request to be heard in front of the Council. He and his mate, along with an entourage traveled through New York direct to Rome. They stayed in the usual hotel, but in one of it’s finest suites with service sent over from some members of the Council. The clothes that were to be worn to Council were unpacked. Arrangements were made for the meeting.
The time of the meeting was to be at midnight. This was a compliment to Radames as their most powerful enforcer. Misty dressed in the long white, low cut dress, as did her female attendants. All the females put on floor length cloaks. They pulled up hoods that covered their heads, hid their faces. They joined the men all dressed in black with the dress warrior swords at their belts.
Six entered the elevator, buy seven exited. No one noticed the extra female in the cloak. They took a limo to the building. Even though it was midnight, the building was lit up. There were people in the lobby. The elevator was waiting for them.
As they entered the conference room, Radames stepped forward. Everyone else held back, the women keeping their hoods in place.
“I thank the Council for attending my meeting. I request an official roll call.”
There was silence in the room. Besides the five Council Lords sitting in their chairs, there were attendants and servants. Some of the Lords kept an attendant at their side at all times, a Lieutenant who acted as a protector and sort of a symbol. There were also females, one a mate.
Calling of the roll wasn’t totally unheard of, but it was usually reserved for more formal meetings. One nightwalker raised his hand. A servant stepped forward and a small gong rang.
“I am Chisim, Council Lord.”
“I am Staven, son of Staven, Council Lord.”
“I am Alexander Bider, Council Lord.”
“I am Adromeda DeMedia, Council Lord.”
“I am Medero Melano, Council Lord.”
The servant rang the gong one more time and announced formally. “The Council is complete, all in attendance, meeting is to commence.” He stepped back.
Radames took the hand of Misty. As she stepped forward she unhooked her cloak, letting it slip to the floor. She had her hair up and the white long gown was beautiful on her, with her neck exposed by the low cut of the neckline.
“I formally present my mate
—
she has not met any of the Lords except Alexander Bider. Lord Bider she knew as a friend. May I now present my mate to you as respect to your position?”
Alex nodded his head. Rad placed his hand on Misty’s neck. Misty nodded her head in the correct manner.
“I would like to make a second presentation. It concerns Lord Bider. I should like to present for him to the Council his chosen mate.”
Misty stepped back. Another figure stepped forward, letting her cloak fall to the floor.
“Minty Macik, may I formally introduce you to the ruling Council? Lord Alexander Bider, whom you know so well. But I need to formally introduce the rest that you are meeting for the first time.”
She laid her hand on Rad’s arm. “Kind sir, and Lord Council, I mean no disrespect, since I am not familiar with protocol at this exalted meeting, but I have already met one other Lord. I met Lord Medero Melano when I was kidnapped and held in a warehouse in Kansas City, Kansas. He asked me if I knew Lord Bider. I am sorry Lord Melano, I would have been more truthful with you if I had known your position on this Council.”
Alex immediately flew across the table with a knife at the neck of Medero. Medero’s Liertenant was trying to protect his mentor. Rad was on top of the table moving to see that no one interfered with Alex and Deck, the Protector of Alex. Deck was also on the table, knife out, his back to his Lord so no one could approach from behind. The two men with Alex drew arms and gathered to protect Misty and Minty as they pushed the two women against the wall in a defensive movement.
The servants ran from the room. The three remaining Lords were on their feet. All three had protectors in front of them, but Chasim stepped forward and slammed something hard on the table causing everyone to freeze.
“Rad, Alex, does the female have proof?”
Alex sat down on his heels in front of Medero, with the knife that had moved from the throat to the area of the chest protecting the heart. Medero was pressed back in his chair as far as he could go. The arm of his Liertenant, which had reached over the chair with a blade, had Rad’s knife pinning it to the back of Medero’s chair.
Rad stepped back as he drew out another blade, still standing on the table. He also pulled out a phone and brought up a screen, pushed a video, handed it to Chasim. It showed the warehouse, the rescue. It showed the interrogation of two nightwalkers. Chasim watched it twice, handed it over to Staven who watched it with DeMedia looking over his shoulder from his chair.
Chasim sat back down. “Can we have order?”
Alex shook his head. “No. This scum has brought a deep insult on my female. Through that action upon my name, I demand the right to dust at this instant. I will face whatever penalty the Council decides thereafter.” He pushed the knife until a thin trail of blood showed thru the white shirt of the fancy outfit the Council Lord had chosen to wear.
Chasim shook his head. “We are trying to be civilized.”
“Then you should have started with this piece of shit. One of his men put a bruise mark on the face of my female. They handled her. They submitted her to indignities by not allowing her privacy when she need bathroom usage.” The more he talked the angrier he became, the deeper the blade went. Everyone heard the moan from Medero.
Chasim looked over at Alex then up at Radames. “Lord Bider, we have seen some impressive proof. It saddens us. There are already precedents in place for actions against Council Lords. It is best that we take that route. Please sit down. Let us put that into place.” He spread his hands placating and hoping.
Alex looked at Rad. He then turned to look at his female, finally at Chasim. With his most photographic smile but without looking at Medero, he pushed the knife forward. Medero was dust. Rings hit, rolling, but for the rest there was only silence.