The Last Guardian Rises (The Last Keeper's Daughter) (24 page)

It was her turn to reassure him. “No. I had no idea anything could be so wonderful, so perfect. I never thought I’d be able to feel this way. I see what all the fuss is about now.” Feeling more confident and comfortable, she sat up.

Emotions she’d kept tamped down broke the surface and she burst into tears. “I know I’ve been horrible. I’m so sorry. I’ve been so afraid to trust you.”

“I know,” he ran his finger along her neck. “Don’t cry.” With his thumb he wiped the tears away. “I have something for you, if you want it.” He moved her aside and went to a tall chest, opened the top drawer and pulled out a velvet jewelry box. “I had it commissioned the very night we met. I couldn’t get your eyes out of my mind.”

He sat back down and opened the box. “It would be my honor if you would consent to be my royal consort.”

A ring with an enormous emerald encircled with diamonds rested like a pampered pet on a bed of royal blue velvet. It was beautiful. It was the most decadent piece of jewelry she’d ever seen. Like a gift an Ottoman sultan would have given his lady love.

Is he…?
She was afraid to ask and let her eyes be dazzled by the sparkling jewels.

“Do you like it?”

“Yes,” she exhaled the word. “I’ve never seen anything so exquisite.”

“Nor have I.” He spoke the words with such reverence that she lifted her eyes to see he was speaking of her. “Will you accept my proposal?”

“You want to marry me?”

“I do, if you’ll have an ancient fossil as me.”

“I love old things.” Lily smiled her complete and utter happiness. “Yes.” She wrapped her arms around him. “A forever of yeses.”

Hunter

“It’s been a while.” Hunter observed the security monitors along the back wall. “The last time I was here we were tracking Nina’s sudden appearance.”

Krieger addressed the guards, “Leave us.” When they’d left he placed a folder on the table. “I have an assignment for you.”

The king and Hunter had an understanding about his role, and it didn’t include taking orders, but he was interested in what could be so secret that the guards were discharged.

“I need your silence on the matter we’re about to discuss.”

“Of course.”

“Open it.” Krieger indicated the folder, and waited until Hunter had scanned the contents. “That is Eva. Lucien took that image for me, unbeknownst to King Beline.”

“No group photos at council meetings.” Hunter chuckled until he saw the look in Krieger’s eyes. “I gather it’s bad form to investigate the wife of another royal.”

“I want you to find out everything you can about her. Beline said they were married by a priest. There must be some record of the marriage.”

“Do you have a last name, or know where they were married?” 

“Check in Scotland.”

Not a lot of information to go on, but it was a place to start. “You think Eva is connected to the Brotherhood?” He squirmed under Krieger’s stare. After too much time passed he assumed there would be no answer and he absently turned the Elder’s ring on his finger.

“That,” Krieger began speaking again and tapped another photo, “is Father Flannery.”

“The priest you saw with King Carlos.” Krieger nodded. “You think they’re connected?” Hunter moved Flannery’s photo aside to find one of Nina.

“The Catholic Church has a network of orphanages around the world.”

“Orphans.” Hunter studied the photo of Nina. “I never thought of that.” He leaned back in his seat, thinking through the possibilities. If there was a sect working inside the Catholic Church they would have unlimited resources by using the credentials of the church. “Then what about the gates?”

“The Brotherhood is the one trying to control the gates. We need to find the head of the snake.”

And chop it off
. Hunter nervously turned the ring. “This Anson?”

Krieger’s eyes lost their focus for a moment. “More than a vampire.”

“More powerful than you?” Was such a thing possible?

“We should assume so. By the time I spoke with Flannery his mind had been severely tranced until his memories were like swiss cheese. But he did mention…the guardian.” 

“And Audrey Moon, have you sent someone to talk with her about this Anson?”

“I have.”

Hunter waited for more information, but the king was not forthcoming. “Could Lucien work with me on this?” He wasn’t exactly comfortable with the slayer, but he knew the man would get whatever task given him completed.

“Lucien is taking care of a matter for me in Brazil. I will talk with him about this when he returns.”

Hunter’s eyebrow rose, but didn’t ask further about Lucien’s assignment.

“Concentrate on the women for now. The rest could be a dead end, we’ll know soon enough.”

Hunter surveyed the room filled with sophisticated equipment for security on the estate. Any one of his staff would be able to track the information Krieger wanted. “Why me?” The king blinked. “I know you’re concerned that the Brotherhood might have infiltrated your operation, but you could ask your guards to research Eva or Nina without raising suspicion.”

Krieger looked almost ruddy tonight; it had to be the lights. “I had my doubts when the Elder brought you to my kingdom. A human with no understanding of our world. Frankly, I saw no value in you at all.” Hunter’s feelings were starting to smart. “The Elder and Merlin assured me that you would be of some use. You’re right, I could have assigned this to one of my guards, but they don’t have the instincts about the human world that you have. Every royal court has spies from other courts. It is the way of things. A human looking for information, even if you did trigger some alarm bells along the way, would be discounted.”

“Yes.” Hunter saw the logic. “I see what you mean. What if I do find some connection between Nina, Eva, and the Brotherhood? What would you do?”

“Be forewarned, prepare.” Krieger rubbed his thumb and forefinger together. “Neutralize the damage.”

“I won’t be a party to killing innocent women.”

Krieger rose and slapped his palms down on the table, looming over Hunter. “Who is truly innocent? Are you a religious man?”

Not sure how to answer the first question or if it had even been a question, Hunter went directly to the second. “No.”

“Then I can’t argue original sin, or going to a better place with you, can I? No matter what you uncover I can do no harm to Eva, not unless I want to go to war with Beline, which I do not. As far as Nina goes, well, later you’ll understand more and then we can discuss her situation.”

“And Merlin, what’s to become of him?” The question had been on his mind for some time. He braced himself for a chilly response from the king, but instead was regarded with a pensive look.

“Did the Elder speak to you of Merlin?”

“No. Why would he?”

Krieger’s eyes narrowed. “I thought he might have.” He raked a hand over his hair. “Merlin has stepped down as my advisor.” Krieger walked the length of the room, stopped, his shoulders visible tightened and then relaxed like a heavy load had been lifted from them. “He has been with me since the beginning. He helped me become king and build this kingdom. He is…was my advisor.” Krieger turned enough to look him in the eyes. “He is my friend. A friend I’ve stood by and will continue to stand by. Soon you will learn that we all have demons – his have become too much of a burden to him.”

The rumors had been flying around court. One was that Merlin was in an underground dungeon. Another that he’d committed suicide. No, others said, he could not die. Hunter would be lying if he said he didn’t miss the conversations with Merlin. Distracted and a little disturbed by the king’s intense gaze, he turned the ring.

“Does it do that often?” Krieger asked.

“What?”

He pointed to the ring. “Glow like that.”

“Sometimes. I wish I could get the damn thing off.”

“Let me see.” Krieger held out his hand.

Involuntarily Hunter snatched his hand back.

“Afraid?” Krieger scoffed. “All that twisting has locked it down.” He went to one of the work stations and opened up a desk drawer. “I need something small and sharp.”

This did not soothe Hunter’s worries.

“This will do.” Krieger held up a safety pin. “Come, it is time we learn to trust each other.” Again Krieger held out his hand.

Hunter thought that was a strange thing to say. Did the king consider him a friend? The relationship had always been rather curt and professional to Hunter. He offered his hand and fought to keep it still while Krieger worked on the ring.

“I remember these.” Krieger had spun the ring around so the stone was facing his palm. “The jewelers created small locks so pickpockets couldn’t yank them off your finger. Ah, there it is.” Krieger held his finger imprisoned while he inserted the safety pin. “See there where the stone meets ring, that small indentation?” No, Hunter did not see it but nodded anyway. Krieger pressed the tip in and the ring snapped open.

“It’s off,” Hunter exhaled and tipped his hand over so the ring fell into his palm. “Thank you. I can’t tell you how good it feels to be rid of it.”

“The Elder probably forgot to tell you,” Krieger said.

“Maybe,” Hunter said absently, pulling a lamp over so he could inspect the ring. Now that it had been removed, he could see the ingenious construction. Unless you knew the latch was there, you’d never find it. “What’s this?” He moved the lamp head to shine on the stone at an angle Krieger could see. “You see that, right?” He placed the ring on the table, leaning back to keep his distance from Krieger.

“A compartment ring.” Deftly, Krieger used his thumbnail to lift the stone top up. “That’s interesting.”

“Compartment for what?” Hunter asked.

“Poison, a lock of hair, whatever.”

“Well.” Hunter wanted to go outside, to walk in the bright sunshine and feel the warmth on his skin and forget for a few moments that he was a human among vampires. Being inside this room with Krieger, even though the king was showing his regard by entrusting him with this task, was too much for him. Would he ever be at ease with them? “Is there anything else?”

“You need to know you can trust me, as I trust you. That I have faith in you, in your abilities. Go where the clues take you.” Krieger lowered his chin to level his gaze at him. “Wherever they take you.”

“Even if they lead back to someone here.”

“Especially so. Now go.”

Hunter grabbed the ring and folder, waved the guards back in on his way out, and walked down the hall thinking over how he would start the investigation. He really should have been paying attention to where he was going. The underground system of tunnels was like a maze.

“Damn.” He kept walking, hoping to see something familiar. Feeling heartened when he saw some stairs – at least he’d be going in the right direction – he jogged up them only to find nothing familiar around him. “How many tunnels could there be?” After walking along an indistinctive hall for far too long, he was finally rewarded with the sight of elevator doors.

Now that he knew he’d found a way out, he took a moment to orient himself.
Where the hell am I?
Before he could answer himself, the elevator doors whooshed open. He stepped in and pressed level 1, realizing he had been on sublevel 2, the level above the garage. Seconds later when the doors opened, he thought about pressing another floor instead of walking out, but the cluster of women spotted him before he could do that.

Two of them he knew, Meirta and Cherie. Pasting a smile on his face, he walked over to join Meirta, who had a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. The two women he didn’t know were twins, buxom with small waists, big hair and the long legs of a model. He willed his eyes to focus on anything but their breasts which were more fascinating than most, large, soft, and barely contained by their thin blouses.
Look away, Hunter, look away
.

Meirta was enjoying his torment and winked at him. “Honey, I’d like you to meet Mercy and Retribution.”

Hunter mumbled something and focused hard on the bridges of their noses. Mercy, the blond, smiled and said, “Nice to meet you.” Retribution was a redhead. One of their dye jobs was very good because he couldn’t tell what their natural hair color should be. Retribution did not smile. She did not say a word. Just gave him a cold look of appraisal and placed her hand on Mercy’s shoulder in a proprietary manner.

“Detective Dale Hunter works with the king,” Cherie said, sweeping her hair back behind her shoulders. “Mercy and Retribution are joining our ouled community.”

Of course they are, Hunter thought, working hard to keep his gaze neutral but friendly while his body imagined all sorts of scenarios with the women.
Please don’t let me get a hard on now, please, please, please
.

Cherie placed her hand on his shoulder. “Since King Carlos has gone to his final resting place–” The twins crossed themselves in the Catholic fashion– “it is good they’ve come, and that we are all part of the same kingdom now.”

“Yes, well…” He wanted to cross his arms over his chest, but realized he still had the folder in his hand, so instead awkwardly let his arms fall back to his sides. Meirta, thankfully, rescued him.

“He’s always so busy,” Meirta said. “Do you have time for just a little walk before you have to get back to work?”

He thought she was slathering it on a little thick, but if it got him out of here, then that was fine by him. “I do have a few things to attend to. It was nice seeing you again, Cherie.” She leaned in and kissed his cheek, smelling of an exotic hothouse flower. “Welcome, again,” he said to the twins. Mercy gave him a small wave but Retribution did nothing but track him with her eyes like he was a shoplifter.

Meirta pulled on his arm to lead him down the long corridor which went by the pool, and then out and around to the garden. They walked past the maze towards the tree line and to the path that would take them to their cottage tucked away at the far corner of the property.

“I thought you were going to bust in there.” Meirta smacked his butt. “The look on your face, oh, I wish I had a picture.”

“You aren’t mad?”