The Last Guardian Rises (The Last Keeper's Daughter) (12 page)

Krieger remembered Merlin’s dream. Could it have been Eva who he saw and not Lily? Or was this part of the reawakening of magic? He could tell that Eva was almost awake. “I should prepare for the evening’s festivities.”

Beline reached out and Krieger placed his forearm to his, in the Roman way. “You have my vow that together we will break the Brotherhood, but we must bide our time and wait for the moment to strike.”

Krieger left the room and closed the door behind him. He took his time walking down the tower stairs and paused in the communal room, watching the servants prepare the night’s meal before ascending the stone steps of his tower. The fate of two kingdoms now weighed on his shoulders. If he wasn’t successful in uniting them, then he would be replaced, and no ruler ever left the throne living.

Hunter

“Did any of the security cameras catch the man with her?” Hunter asked the hotel security manager.

He, Meirta, and Harvey – Harvey was a vampire Meirta had worked with before – had flown to Sydney, Australia. Hunter kept a close eye on any strange, unsolved murders around the world. The massive cave-in and the death of an entire mining crew in Australia had not seemed like anything mysterious. Not until he saw a tabloid piece saying something deep underground had been unearthed.

He was intrigued and called the reporter, an Erich Blount who after some research Hunter realized specialized in articles about unexplained phenomena. Was there a monster in Loch Ness? Had aliens invaded the pentagon? If Hunter hadn’t experienced the Other world he would have never given this article a second glance, but now he liked to think he had a more open mind. As he expected, it didn’t take much convincing to get the reporter to talk. Blount had spoken with the emergency crews who’d arrived at the cave in. The dead bodies were neatly stacked like cordwood. Some were completely torn apart, resting against others that looked almost normal, except all had been drained of blood. All except for one man who had lived long enough to say a few words to the EMT before he died. The dying man said that one of the miners came out with a man he’d found inside. A man who’d been imprisoned deep in the earth, wrapped in silver chains inside a cage of iron.

There was a trail of unsolved murders leading to Sydney. All the victims were men with bite marks on their bodies and massive blood loss being the cause of death. On the plane ride over Meirta had handed him a more reputable tabloid that specialized in all things Hollywood.

“Read this one,” she’d said, tossing it into his lap.

One of Meirta’s guilty pleasures was keeping up with Hollywood gossip. She had a long list of sites she checked daily. Something so mundane and human made her even more endearing to him.

“Why?”

“Just read it.”

It was about Audrey Moon, an American actress who’d been promoting her film in Sydney. How she’d met a man who’d completely changed her life. How she no longer needed drugs or alcohol and how much she wanted to thank him. Hunter scanned through the rest of it looking for a name. “Anson,” he said out loud.

“She’s making a very public plea in an attempt to locate him,” Meirta responded. “I think it’s our rogue.”

That’s what they’d been calling him, the rogue. Hunter liked rogue better than Anson. Now they were at the hotel where Audrey had stayed and encountered this man. Hunter used his police skills to obtain information and when that wasn’t effective, Harvey used his trancing abilities.

“She had her own guards with her. More brawn than brains,” the security manager said.

Hunter had met the type before. Usually high profile celebrities wanted bodyguards that were attractive and large instead of efficient and deadly.

“Here.” The manager tapped the pause button. “She’s coming through the front entrance.” He advanced the images frame by frame. “All those men are her guards. I don’t see anyone else with her party.”

“Pause it; I want to look at all the faces following.” About twenty people trailed Audrey’s party. Some were taking pictures and some were probably hoping to get an autograph. Hunter didn’t see anyone that looked out of place.

“We don’t have cameras inside the suites,” the manager continued.

“What about the elevators and stairs?”

“We have them in the elevators, but not the stairs. I tried to get them installed on all the floors but management says it’s too costly.” The manager hit the play button and they watched Audrey and her entourage board the elevator. “I do have some cameras positioned on the two top floors.” He looked a little sheepish. “Towards the VIP suites, just in case there is any trouble.”

They watched Audrey, her head down, shoulders slumped, and looking nothing like the femme fatale of her movie roles. Hunter was an admirer of film noir and from her images in the tabloids he’d thought she was a dead ringer for Veronica Lake. Same long hair tossed to one side and that certain glint in her eyes that could switch from sultry to playful in a blink. The guards held the elevator doors open for her and walked in front of her to the suite. The manager had to switch to a different file to see the floor footage. They could see her enter her suite and the guards station themselves outside her door.

“See, it’s always the same. She goes out for public appearances and then back into her room for the rest of the day. We’ve had our share of celebrities here. Ms. Moon was not a problem. Back in the nineties we had a boy band and—”

Hunter interrupted him. “Stop, go back.”

“It’s just room service.”

“No,” Hunter shook his head. “Look at his uniform. It doesn’t fit him, the pants are too short and the jacket is too tight.”

“You’re right.” The manager hit the play button and they watched him enter the room and not leave.

“How long does this tape run?” Hunter asked.

“Till five p.m. that day.” He fast forwarded but there was nothing more.

“Can you give me a still picture from the footage?”

“Sure, it won’t be good quality though.” The manager activated the printer.

He was right; it was grainy, black and white. Hunter couldn’t make out much. “Let’s look at the other feeds. He had to leave sometime.”

The manager gave him a smile, clearly enjoying the intrigue. He and the security manager had spent another two hours going through all the camera feeds. They never saw him leave.

Meirta and Hunter were now sitting at an outdoor café along the harbor. He placed the one photo of their rogue on the table. “This is the only image we could get. What do you think?”

Meirta took a sip of wine and turned the picture towards the light, trying to get a better look at the image. “I don’t know. Maybe he was just a nice guy who helped her.” She twirled her fork around, speared through a slice of kangaroo meat. “She was a child actress with an abusive father. It could be something just clicked with this man.” Meirta chewed, clearly savoring the taste. “It doesn’t mean he’s our rogue.”

“How can you eat that?” He wasn’t an adventurous eater. A cheeseburger was pretty much a cheeseburger no matter where you got it. She gave him a shrug and cut another slice. “What kind of country eats their national emblem?” He went back to his cheeseburger. “You’re right, he could be just a nice guy, but I think it is our rogue.”

“Say this Anson is our rogue; why didn’t he kill her?”

Hunter had asked himself the same question. There was a clear trail of dead bodies from the mine collapse through the Western territories of Australia. Not as many as the mine, but a man here and there drained of blood all the way to Sydney. Interestingly, all the men were less than reputable, and from what he could gather most of the communities they resided in were happy to be rid of them. He looked at Harvey, who was watching a group of children playing on the harbor rails.

“Do you have any thoughts on the rogue?” Hunter asked.

Harvey slowly turned his head towards him. Hunter still had a difficult time feeling comfortable around vampires. Though they looked just like him, they were not like him. Hunter had seen the movie
Westworld
as a kid. He’d had nightmares for weeks afterwards. Vampires gave him that same visceral fear as Yul Brynner had in his role as the cowboy robot.

“Can you tell from a photo if he is a vampire?” Hunter asked.

“No.” Harvey’s voice was higher than you’d expect. “But he moves like one of us.”

Harvey had watched some of the footage with the security manager. Hunter thought back, trying to remember how the man had moved.

“He’s learning,” Harvey said, interrupting Hunter’s thoughts.

“What?” Hunter asked.

“You were asking why he didn’t kill the human woman.”

Harvey had an annoying habit of making a statement and then not elaborating on that statement.

“Learning what?”

Meirta rolled her eyes at him. “What would you do if you hadn’t eaten in a week?”

“I’d eat everything in sight.”

“Exactly,” Meirta said. “If our rogue was trapped without food, he’d eat anything in sight. Once his hunger was sated, he’d need to learn about where he is.”

“It’s what I would do,” Harvey interjected. “If I didn’t know anything, I’d find someone of power.”

“Audrey Moon is not someone of power. She’s a...” Hunter searched for the word.

“You’re such a snob.” Meirta slapped his arm. “She is rich and famous.”

“She might have been the best he could find.” Harvey went back to watching the children play.

“So what now?” Hunter didn’t like the way he looked at the children. Harvey had been very helpful, but Hunter didn’t care for him.

“I have to go.”

“Why?” Not that Hunter wanted Harvey to stay. “It won’t be dawn for hours.”

“He has to go back to America, because he can’t stay here much longer. There aren’t many vampires in this region, but he is encroaching on their territory.” Meirta placed her hand on Harvey’s forearm. “Thanks for your help. Tell Merlin what we’ve found out so far.”

With a nod he was gone. Hunter looked around to see if anyone had noticed a tall, dark-haired man leave at superhuman speed, but no one had.

“Do you trust him?” Hunter asked.

“Harvey? Yeah, he’s fine,” she replied.

“Is it just me, or has Merlin been a bit strange lately?”

Meirta was watching the children; he could only see her in profile now. She was lovely in this light. He waited for her to say something, but she did not.

He changed the subject. “What about the vampires who live here? Could they tell us anything?”

She exhaled loudly, clearly in exasperation at his lack of knowledge. “We can’t risk contacting them. They’d want to know why we are here.”

He could tell she didn’t want to talk anymore. So he swirled his fries in ketchup and tried to think what a vampire who’d been imprisoned for centuries would do next. Maybe this was nothing more than a string of strange murders. Not everything was about vampires and the gates. Who knew, maybe the gates weren’t even real. He certainly had his doubts. He and Meirta had planned to ride over in the plane with Krieger and the others, but at the last minute Hunter had discovered the news about the murders and wanted to investigate. The king knew that Grigori wasn’t the rogue. Hunter’s old copper sense told him that much. He looked down at the photo; at least they had this, whatever it was worth.

The fact was there hadn’t been anymore murders since the rogue arrived in Sydney. And that an American actress had met and, it would seem, housed a man who was able to take away her addiction to drugs. The security manager said that she was a suspected heroin addict. Hunter knew that a vampire could trance away memories and perceptions. It would be possible for him to have taken away her desire for drugs. No wonder she was searching for him. Hunter wanted it to be harder somehow, but his gut told him that this was their man. Where would the rogue go from here?

He placed his hand on Meirta’s thigh. She’d been distracted ever since they’d arrived. First Merlin was acting strange and now Meirta. “What is it?” he asked.

She gave him a Mona Lisa smile and blinked her vivid green eyes, but said nothing. The intensity of love he felt for her was rooted deep inside him. They would have their arguments, and in the future she might decide he wasn’t what she wanted, but he would never stop loving her. Whatever was bothering her would remain a mystery to him. Later perhaps she would share.

“How far could he travel?”

Meirta thought for a moment. “Can I see the map?”

Hunter had a file folder of information with him. He pulled out a map of the world and a map of Australia, both printed off the internet.

“He won’t stay here. I mean, if he is what Henry pulled from the gates then he’d want to find Lily or go back to the places he knew.” She ran her fingers over the countries on the world map.

If their rogue was the darkness that slipped through the gates then he would be seeking his daughter, Lily. Pity she could not be used to lure him in. If only he could dangle Lily into the metaphorical waters like a juicy worm to entice the rogue to surface. “Lily and MENA are west.”

“MENA?” Meirta placed her hand over his.

“Sorry, Middle East North Africa. It’s jargon from my law enforcement days. I would assume he’d go in this direction.” Hunter moved his finger across the islands of Indonesia and Thailand. “Could he fly directly from here to, say, South Africa?”

“Maybe at full strength, but…” Meirta took a sip of wine. “If he worked his way up and through the islands like you showed then he could feed and learn more along the way.”

Hunter pulled out and sifted through the photos of the artifacts on display at the British Museum.

“I hate to leave here, but I think our Anson is gone.” Meirta seemed sad.

“We can come back on our honeymoon.” Hunter made his eyebrows jump and flashed his most charming smile. “That is if you’ll ever agree to marry me.”

“You know you really are a big goof.”

“As long as I’m your goof.” He leaned in and kissed her, tasting the wine from her lips.

“Let’s get back to work. We don’t want to upset the humans.”

“Absolutely not, the humans must not be upset. Work.” Hunter placed the photos side by side on the table.