To: Tempest, Roxy
Hullo, Roxy! Long time no chitchat. Yes, the boys and I are having a blast, although I’m looking forward to having a home that isn’t prone to rocking. I hope all is well with you and your hub.
To: Ellis, Tempest
All is peachy keen, but now I’ve read back all the chat and I’m dying to know what’s going on.
To: Roxy, Ellis
This is much better. Everyone settled? Do we all have snacks and beverages? It’s going to be a long one. The scene: the official Moravian Council headquarters in Vienna. The cast of characters: Merrick and yours truly, Han, and Ciaran (so three of the official Four Horsemen). Also present is the famous author Christian Dante (Ellis, Christian is married to Allie, who is Aunt Roxy’s friend), and a very intense man named Andreas.
“Are you sure you wish to do this?” Merrick asked as soon as Andreas entered the room. “You have been told about the risk of becoming a Horseman?”
Andreas, who was German, kind of scoffed a little, which I knew would irritate Merrick. “Of course. I am not afraid of anyone, the Revelation included.”
“You should be afraid,” Han said, giving him a long look.
“They have stepped up their game,” Ciaran added, also giving Andreas a good, hard stare. “Five Dark Ones have disappeared in the last three months. The Revelation know we are hunting for them.”
To: Ellis, Tempest
Er ... who or what is this Revelation?
To: Roxy, Ellis
Oh, sorry, Aunt Roxy. The Revelation—also known as the Collective, and evidently in the past as the Triumvirate—is a group of baddies who have targeted people in the Otherworld who they can corrupt. Evidently, they are led by a man named Alphonse de Marco, as well as my cousin Carlo.
To: Ellis, Tempest
Cousin Carlo? I don’t have a ... oh, is that your dad’s side of the family?
To: Roxy, Ellis
Yup. Cousin Carlo is a bit ... well, let’s just say crazy and leave it at that. Anyway, Carlo is working for or with Alphonse, although we don’t know exactly who all the top guys are because whenever one of the vamps gets close to the leadership, they disappear. The vamps, not the baddies.
Merrick says the Revelation used to go after anyone with power like mages and diviners, but for the last fifteen or so years, they’ve picked on Dark Ones exclusively.
To: Ellis, Tempest
So they are anti-vamp? Why?
To: Roxy, Ellis
Not so much anti-vamp as wanting to experiment on them in order to make them ... well, kind of slaves, I guess. This is what everyone thought, mind you, but then ... well, let me get back to the good stuff so it’s laid out properly.
“They know we won’t stop until we’ve finished them off,” Han said (he’s a little more bloodthirsty than I like, but given the doom doom doom situation, I don’t blame him).
“They targeted us through Nico, and they will try again.” Ciaran narrowed his eyes at Andreas, who looked very much like he wanted to pull a rude face, but he managed to get a grip on himself, and instead just looked mildly bored.
“They may try, but I am not Nico,” Andreas said, and the others nodded.
This was purely a formality, since Andreas had been interviewed by Merrick and the others several times, but I gathered this was the official recognition of making him the new fourth Horseman, so everyone was being a bit more formal and using their respective “this is all very serious business” manners.
“Then we are of one mind,” Christian said, glancing at the others with an equally serious expression. “There is one issue I wish to mention before you leave.”
“The rumor,” Merrick said, his jaw tight.
“What rumor?” I asked, giving him a meaningful look.
He avoided my gaze, which means he’s been keeping something from me. I pinched his leg, since he knows I hate being left out in the cold. He covered my hand with his, his fingers stroking mine in a way that made me go boneless with pleasure, until I just wanted to ...
Er ... moving on.
To: Ellis, Tempest
*snicker*
To: Roxy, Ellis
Ahem, Auntie.
“What rumor?” I asked again, this time spreading the look to the other vamps there. They all suddenly became busy with their phones.
Glorious pink poodles, Merrick! What’s going on?
He sighed into my head, something that sounds weird, but is oddly reassuring. “A rumor has been going around the Otherworld that something ... untoward ... has happened.”
“Untoward as in a vampire getting the ever-living crapola pinched out of his manly thigh because he won’t tell his Beloved the latest gossip?” I asked, tapping his leg.
“No.” He was silent for a moment, his attention focused inward. I could feel him sorting through various thoughts, trying to make a pattern from a jumbled mess. “The rumor is regarding an impossibility. It is said that the Revelation have a being who can’t exist.”
“What sort of being?” I asked, starting to get worried. Merrick tended to be a bit focused on the goals of the Four Horsemen—and for good reason, seeing as he was saving fellow vamps’ lives—but all five of the men present looked particularly grim.
“There are many words for him,” Merrick said slowly.
“Werreir,” Ciaran said.
“Guerroieor,” Han said. “Chivaler.”
“Overmaistren,” Andreas added. “Old One.”
Silence filled the room, broken when Merrick said, “Thrall.”
I looked first at his expression, then to the others. “That’s a lot of names, but what exactly is this overmas ... overmeis ... er ... Thrall?”
“The progenitor of Dark Ones,” Christian said, his fingers tapping softly on the table. “It is Thralls who we are descended from.”
“And that’s bad?” I asked, confused.
“Very,” Merrick said, his hand once again warm on mine. “They are not like us. We carry the stains of their sins—the loss of souls for unredeemed Dark Ones—but they were not like us. They were savage, brutal, killing for the joy of it.”
“Turning those who they did not destroy,” Ciaran said, nodding. “Making slaves of their victims.”
“And each time they did so, they came closer to le Reniement.” Han frowned at nothing.
“The betrayal?” I asked, digging around in memories of previous French classes.
“The Breaking,” Han corrected. “At least in this case, that is the translation.”
“They were destroyed, all of them, more than a millennium and a half in the past, but their offspring became Dark Ones,” Christian said. “We carry their blood, but not their savagery.”
A little chill skittered down my spine. “I almost don’t want to ask this, but I feel like I have to know. This Breaking thing—who or what gets broken?”
“Everyone,” Merrick said, his fingers tightening on mine until I had to wiggle them to let him know he was hurting me. “If the Thrall reaches his Breaking point, no one around him will survive. That is why we must investigate this rumor. If it’s true that the Revelation has located a Thrall, we will not be safe. Not Dark Ones, not mortals, not even the Otherworld itself. The Thrall must be found.”
I glanced around the room, my heart sinking at the stark expressions on the faces of the men. “And when you find him?” I asked, wanting nothing more than to drag Merrick off to safety, where he would be protected from any threat. “What will happen to him?”