The good news was that, obviously, their plan had worked.
The bad news was that it hadn’t been only vampire magic which had trickled from the box. There was old magic in there, too. Blood magic. But that was a worry for another day, as was the realization that this was a hurried copy of the real artifact, one the enemy sorcerer had most likely constructed as a throwaway to test his design. And that meant the real thing was still out there somewhere, waiting to be used.
Dragan had the right of it. It was time to kill that motherless bastard once and for all.
Chapter Eighteen
Two Weeks Later
NICK LEANED BACK, legs stretched out in front of him, and soaked in a scene he’d never thought to see again. His warriors sat around him in the big gathering room at the back of the house, all of them alive and healthy and free. The four amazing women who made this day possible sat with them, quiet or laughing according to their personality, but all of them now a part of the family he’d thought lost to him forever all those centuries ago.
His construction crew had completed the necessary repairs on the house, and his security contractor was currently hard at work upgrading his system to include more cameras and imbedded sensors which would cover every inch of the property when armed. None of that would have stopped Sotiris, but it might have stung him a little, and would have given those in the house a few more minutes warning of his arrival. Minutes might not seem like much, but he knew from hard experience that they could make the difference between injury and disaster, life and death.
A chorus of cheers brought his attention to where Lili had entered the room. She generally avoided any sort of get-together, preferring the company of her computers and machines to even these trustworthy men and women who cared for her deeply. He didn’t pressure her to do otherwise, however. She had her reasons, and they were valid enough. She had no need to explain herself to anyone.
The reason for unusual appearance was made clear when she slipped quietly around the edges of the group, and saying nothing, rested her palm on his shoulder in a gesture of solidarity, before leaving as unobtrusively as she’d entered.
He stared after her for a moment, struck by that touch on his shoulder. Why would Lili think he needed emotional support? And from her. He couldn’t remember a previous time when she’d ever comforted him like that.
But the others had begun to cast curious glances his way, wondering why he’d become so quiet, which wasn’t like him at all. Not the him that they knew, anyway.
“Nico, you’re thinking too hard,” Damian said, landing with his usual grace to sit next to him. “I thought this was, if not a true celebration, then at least at happy occasion.”
Nick smiled at the warrior who’d been with him since childhood, who knew more of his secrets than almost any other, and loved him in spite of it. “You’re right, brother,” he said, grinning.
This wasn’t the time for brooding or regrets. They’d foiled Sotiris’s deadly ploy, his latest in a game for which it seemed only he knew the rules. More and more, it had felt as though Sotiris was moving Nick and the others around a chessboard, running them from crisis to crisis, learning their strategies, their skills, getting ready for a final confrontation—one that would see not just be the end of Nick and his people, but the transformation of this world into a place where only he could win, where he would rule with the cruelty that infested every facet of his life, every inch of his being.
“So?” Damian asked. More than one enemy had looked at Damian and seen nothing but muscle, missing the sharp intellect behind those unusual black eyes. “What is it, brother?”
He nodded slowly. Only the truth would do with this crowd. “We won this battle. By a hair’s breadth to be sure,” he said solemnly, “but we’re all alive and well, as are those thousands who knew nothing of the threat hanging over them.”
“But it’s not over.” Kato’s somber voice said what they’d all been thinking.
“No, it’s not.”
“Fuck.” Kato shoved his long hair back and propped his legs on the chunky coffee table. “I knew you were going to say something like that.”
“It’s not over until Sotiris is dead,” Gabriel commented, leaning in close from where he sat in a big chair made for two, Hana next to him. “We all know he won’t stop until he’s dead.”
“Dust in the wind,” Maeve said softly. “That’s what Lili said.”
“Fuck dust in the wind,” Gabriel said, immediately glancing over to add, “Apologies Mae.” When she waved away the need, he continued. “I want that bastard’s ashes split up and scattered around the world, including the oceans. The deepest part.”
“Works for me,” Damian agreed, glancing at his cell phone, then slapping Nick’s shoulder. “But for now, come on, dinner just arrived, and I’m starving.”
Everyone rose at the same time, but Nick raised his voice, stopping them when they would have trooped out to get the table ready and let the delivery guy through the gate with their food.
“Just one more thing,” he reminded them. “We have a huge advantage, now that the hexagon is where it belongs. Its creator never intended it to be displayed under glass for Sotiris to gloat over. It was fashioned at immeasurable personal cost for one purpose only—to destroy Sotiris. And I will not let that sacrifice be in vain.
“All of us are finally together. He can no longer hold your lives as blackmail to get what he wants, to hobble our efforts. We are the hunters now, and he is the prey.”
There was still no rousing cheer, because there was still no victory, but there were subdued kisses from the women, hugs and claps on the back from the men. Until Damian’s phone chimed again, reminding them that dinner awaited.
Nick lingered behind, wanting a few more minutes before he joined the others, a few more minutes to remember the person who was missing from all this. The one who might have made any future victory possible. He sighed, and was just about to rise, when he looked up to find Maeve standing on the other side of the coffee table with a laptop case under her arm. It almost made him smile. The damn computer was attached to her hip. But she was good on it. No question of that.
“Nick? Can I ask you something?” Her voice was soft, but she stood her ground. There was a stubborn, courageous woman under that delicate exterior.
“Of course,” he said. “Join me.”
She gave him a cautious look before walking around to sit next to him on the couch, leaving just enough room for the computer between them. “I don’t know if Lili mentioned it, or if you’re even interested. But when we were going through the files I copied from Sotiris’s computer that night . . . it was mainly financial docs, by the way, not very useful. But we did find one thing in the trash can, or rather Lili found it. It was an email that had been read and deleted, the only one in there. Anyway, Lili said it was nothing to do with Sotiris, that it was your problem and she’d copy you on it.” She peered at him from behind her hair. “Did she?”