Page 18

Luc

I stop outside a large property in the heart of the Capital.

This is the address that Harris gave me, asking me to meet him here.

I look again but it is the right place.

There is a bell, I press it and after a while the gate is buzzed open.

There is a paved way with fountains and a well-maintained garden with beautiful shrubs and roses. It looks like a private residence.

The door is opened by a handsome man with a floppy blonde fringe and blue eyes. He extends a genteel hand.

“Luc, welcome,” he smiles charmingly. “I’m Michael. Jon Paul will be back any second, he’s gone to fetch some wine. He says the evening calls for it,” he winks at me.

He opens the door to a foyer with a stunning marble floor and large paintings on the wall. Ferns in gleaming copper pots line the walls. Antique furniture and hand-woven carpets adorn the floors.

“What a beautiful home,” I say and mean it.

“Thank you, it’s mostly my doing, even if I say so myself.”

Michael is obviously Jon Paul’s partner. A young girl comes down to ask him about a sleepover and they have a brief discussion. When she leaves, he rolls his eyes. “Kids!”

“You have more than one?”

He laughs, “Two more, twin boys!”

I didn’t realize that Harris had invited me to his house. It is obviously a show of good faith. He wouldn’t have done that if his plan was to kill me.

“Crazy, right?” Harris says, coming in from behind us.

“Luc, glad you could make it,” he says with a tight smile.

The wine he has brought is blood-based, a product that is extremely expensive but highly rated, especially in some circles.

“Let’s go out to the patio,” he says, taking me through an elegant sitting room and out onto a veranda bordering a green garden with lush plants. I take a seat and when Michael comes round with the wine, I take the glass.

“I wasn’t expecting this,” I admit when Harris looks at me and raises his glass.

“I know, I’m sorry things… got the way they did. I wanted to clear the air, I guess.”

I nod. “I always felt we weren’t exactly on the same side when it came to empire business.”

He nodded. “There’s that. I used to feel that your way was… too direct, too confrontational? I prefer diplomacy and peace.”

I took a sip of the wine. It was excellent.

“Do you remember the Halaila incident?”

It comes to me eventually, a rebellion on an island by a rogue tribe of vampires who refused to stop hunting humans for prey. I had eventually suggested we torch the island and get rid of all of them. The plan was approved and carried out.

“I knew people on Halaila,” Harris said quietly.

“Ah, I’m sorry.”

It made sense now, why he was always pushing back.

“I tend to be over-protective when it comes to friends,” he added. “My own family was wiped out during the virus. All I have left is Michael and the kids. They mean the world to me,” he said.

“Of course,” I said, but I didn’t really understand where this conversation was going. Vlas had brought on Harris as an advisor shortly after he became king and he’d always seemed to be second-guessing me. We were usually at odds about decisions but this invitation seemed to be an olive branch of sorts.

I waited for Harris to get to the point and eventually, he did.

“I wasn’t responsible for the assassination attempt the other day,” he said, “but I know who was behind it.”

“The prince?”

He shot me a quick look. “Which prince…? No, it was Alexandra.”

I wasn’t expecting that. “What?”

“She had been to see the king and was on her way down. I was watching the CCTV footage and saw her leave. I have it for you, if you like.”

He had the footage saved on his mobile. He handed it to me. I could see myself talking to Prince Dano and then walking away, the shudder as the dart missed me and Alexandra coming out behind a wall draping and rushing off.

My mind was whirling.

“But, why?”

“I’ve been trying to figure it out. She is with the Hattari, plotting against us,” Harris said. “Simple. You are on your way to figuring out who killed Matteo and she wanted to remove you. Plus, she hates you.”

“Yes, well,” I said, dryly. “There is that but she didn’t kill Matteo.”

“Are you sure? She was at the same lodge, pretending to help our cause when we now know she never had any intention of backing us. She supports the shifters.”

I mulled this over and told him of the vision she’d shown me.

Harris nodded. “Those can’t be manipulated, you’re right but how do you explain it?”

“Maybe she is working with a vampire, someone who wants to get rid of the king. Take over.”

Harris put down his glass. His face grew grave.

“That is a possibility I really would not like to consider.”

“It may be the most viable one,” I said. “I mean, what is going on with the king? Would you tell me? He collapsed the last time I saw him?”

Harris put down his glass. “He is sick,” he finally admitted. “He was exposed to poison a few years back and we never totally managed to stop the spread. We always knew it would get to him, but he has entered the final stages. He is not expected to last much longer.”

“I had no idea!” I exclaimed. “Why was it kept a secret?”

“We are at war,” Harris shrugged, “We can’t let this get out now. The last thing we need now is a power struggle within our house, we need to stand together. It was his decision, only family knew.”

“And you,” I said. He shrugged.

His words made sense.

“And Taheera?”

He picked up his glass and drained it. “I’m trying to keep her in check,” he said, “but it is proving harder than I thought. She is ambitious, but I have no proof yet that she is involved in anything treasonous.”

“You think she’d want to take his place?” I pondered the thought. She was unpopular though and despite her ambition and intelligence, she had a reputation as a party princess more interested in cocktail parties than governing. “What about the sons? Dano and Vermont?”

Harris shook his head. “The king favors Vermont and it is possible that Dano resents him for it, but enough to kill his own father? I don’t see it.”

I didn’t either.

“Who poisoned Vlas?” I asked him. He shrugged. “It was at a wedding somewhere outside the capital. We had an extensive investigation at the time but we got nowhere.”

“Whose wedding?”

“Prince Dano and Princess Asia.”

I remembered it. A lavish reception and ceremony on a private retreat. There had been drugs and dancing and various blood stimulants. I had attended it with Alexandra, it was when our relationship was at its best. I tried to remember all the people who attended but nothing jumped out.

“At the time, I wondered if Asia’s family had anything to do with it. The Castellanos are a bunch of psychopaths, really but we couldn’t find any evidence they were involved.”

Thinking about Alexandra made me think of the footage I’d just seen.

“Why did you show me the CCTV footage?” I ask.

Harris gave a tired smile. “I guess it’s an olive branch? I do think we are on the same side. We may have different methods, but… your plan with the Sharks was inspired. It was a major coup for us. At least our facilities are safe now.”

“But…?” I could see he was leading up to something.

“The battle is not only in the South. Armies of shifters seem to jump up out of nowhere and when they are on the brink of being defeated, they seem to disappear.”

I told him about my suspicion of the tunnels and how we were trying to get more information. Harris sat up, renewed energy in his eyes.

“Let’s bomb the tunnels!”

I laughed. “Who is being aggressive now?”

“I know, but that is where they are breeding, right?”

“The problem is that the only entry to the tunnels appears to be in Sunside Swamp, on the property belonging to Sunny the Snake. We can’t get anywhere near it without being detected.”

Harris fell silent.

I also didn’t want to tell him that I thought Ruby was down in the tunnels and that I couldn’t risk anything happening to her.

Harris started talking about ways of smoking them out, getting soldiers into the tunnels and pumping gas. I told him that the swamp was a vital resource for humans who needed the fish and water, that was diverted into rivers for agriculture. If we polluted or destroyed the swamp ecosystem, humans would feel it in their food production. It could pollute the water, damage infrastructure. That would bring more conflict with the humans.

“You’re right,” Harris said, musingly. “This has to be thought out carefully.”

“What do you know of Sunny the Snake?” I asked him.

“Not much, to be honest. Always thought he was fairly low-level scum but it seems he has aspirations to make more of himself. He has been seen in the Capital, with the movers and the shakers.”

“And the al-Hattari,” I added and saw Harris nod.

So, he knew.

“If he is the leader of this rebellion, we need to focus our efforts on him,” I said.

Harris nodded.

There was a moment of silence. I thought of Matteo and how he had been killed close to Alexandra and only months later, I had survived an assassination attempt and again, Alexandra was close by. Had she been trying to get me off course by pointing at vampires when there was no evidence of it?

There was a link somewhere in all of this, a part of the picture that I wasn’t seeing. Whoever had killed Matteo was after me too and I had a feeling it wasn’t Alexandra.

I got up and thanked Harris and Michael for the drink and the invitation to their home.

We shook hands and I had the feeling that while Harris and I were more on the same page now, we were still not completely in sync.

There was something about him that I was missing.

I decided that warranted a closer look.

As I left his house, a sharp pain shot through my chest.

Ruby.

She was closer, all of a sudden, within reach.

Our link had been restored.

I had to get to her.