Page 62

“Good evening, Ulrika,” I said pleasantly enough. “I am fine, thank you. How are you?”

Next to her sat her brother, Thern Gustafson and another family member. I took out my weapon and killed Thern with a shot to the heart. The other one leapt into the air, but Zoran felled him quickly.

Ulrika stared around her in shock.

My guards came in to take the bodies out. “Burn them,” I said.

“Where is Simon?” she demanded to know.

I walked over to her and sat down.

“Please sit,” I invited her courteously.

“What is going on?!” she cried, a note of hysteria creeping into her voice.

“Simon is dead,” I said, in the same tone of voice.

Her eyes narrowed in hate. “You fucking bastard!” She sneered at me. “You killed him!”

“Well, it was me or him,” I said.

“But how did you… I mean…”

“No,” I said. “That is not what I want to talk about.”

She stared at me. “My father will…”

“I don’t care about your fucking father or his stupid, fucking family!”

That shut her up.

“All I want to know is what Da Salle promised you.”

A knowing look flashed through her eyes.

“It’s too late. Nobody can stop us now. It is our time again. Soon, we will have all the power!”

Ulrika couldn’t help herself. She started gloating about how the world was slowly being taken over by vampires, while the humans were busy worrying about climate change and carbon footprints. She said all the major organizations and institutes of power would be taken over by vampires, most of them hidden and, soon, laws would be changed to allow blood servitude again.

“Not here,” I said. “I’m going to stop Da Salle.”

“You can’t,” she gloated. “He’s already stronger than even the oldest of us. He has been taking a specially formulated protein steroid that has increased his intelligence and mind control. Nothing can stop him!” her eyes sparkled with glee.

“Perhaps occillite can?” I said, to see her reaction.

She blinked a few times. “You don’t… I mean you wouldn’t…” then realization dawned. “Ah, of course, that girlieof yours, that witch! She’s got her hands on some has she? It won’t work.”

“Why not?”

“She won’t get in the door. He’s had people watching her for years,” she smiled nastily at me. “She’s like a cockroach, hard to kill but not impossible. He’s come close, hasn’t he? The moment she enters New York, the monitors will pick her up and she will be neutralized.”

“You underestimate her. Like you’ve underestimated me, for years,” I said, taking out my gun, holding it casually.

“You’ve been trying to get rid of me for years,” I said.

“Please!” she spat out the word. “If we’d wanted that, we’d have done it. But we needed to keep you occupied here, so we could play in Europe. Simon was supposed to take over now but I could do it, I guess,” she said with a shrug. I saw that she hadn’t cared about him at all. It was all a game to her, a chess board of pawns and pieces. You lost the bishop, no bother, you simply employed the horse.

“I don’t think so,” I said, pointing the gun at her face and pulling the trigger. The bullet entered between her eyes and she collapsed in the chair.