Blood Wars (The Bloodborn Series Book 2) Page 21

  “That’s why we came to the best.”

  “And why should Mama Katya help you find the infamous caster?”

  Noomi leaned forward, her face dark and shadowed. “Because everybody in this whole dimension knows exactly what she did, and they’re all trying to figure out how she did it. We’re the only two people that want to find the girl and keep her safe, away from the fight.”

  Katya’s expression hardened. “We don’t like it when the world is imbalanced. And certainly, Calliope shifted the scale.”

  “Which is why you should give them to us,” Noomi emphasized. “We’re trying to keep them off the grid, away from the guild, and the vampires.”

  “It is a tempting offer, I’ll admit…” Mama Katya mused.

  Noomi gave a superficial smile. “Then take it, why don’t you?”

  Katya wagged her finger at Noomi, a smirk forming on her shadowed face. Reykon could feel the anger rolling off her. “We need certain assurances.”

  “Assurances like what?”

  “I have kept a close eye on the girl, throughout this time. Many are searching for her, and many will never find her. But some come closer with each second. As a watcher, I am quite curious. I have looked upon her actions, her dilemmas,” Katya’s eyes flicked to Reykon, “and those who hold her captive.”

  He stiffened, scowling deeply. “Where is she?”

  Mama Katya held a finger out, cautioning him. “If I help you, I want an assurance that she will be presented to me. I would like to meet her and strike a conversation. That is all the payment I require.”

  Noomi shook her head, irritation and confusion obscuring her face. “All the payment? What’s your game here?”

  “I charge those who require my services for their own gain. I do not charge those who do favors for my own gain. I wish to meet the mother of a new race, a girl with half-caster blood, here, and then the debt will be paid.”

  “What are you planning to do with her?” Reykon asked, his fists clenching.

  A featherlight laugh escaped Mama Katya’s lips. “As I have said, a conversation is all I seek. The girl is not harmful to me, or anybody in this place. But in the interest of balance, I think I speak for all of us when we question where her loyalties lie.”

  “Her loyalties are her own,” Reykon insisted.

  Katya made a sharp noise and shook her head. “Her loyalties are invested in many people. You, Reykon Thraxos, her sister, and possibly others. Time will reveal all. But as for me, I like to be ahead of time, just by a hair. You will get what you seek, but the price is for me to get what I seek.”

  Noomi contemplated this for only a moment longer, stiff and frustrated with the ultimatum. “Done.”

  A heavy pit formed in Reykon’s gut as Mama Katya nodded deeply, her dark eyes flaring in triumph.

  Reykon

  He was getting pretty fed up being in the passenger’s seat. First, at Landon Prior’s House, when Lucidia had taken the reigns, and now, here in rogue-caster heaven, where Noomi led the charge.

  Reykon didn’t necessarily have a problem not being in the driver’s seat, but…

  No, that was wrong.

  He did.

  And it stemmed from the fact that he couldn’t trust anybody’s intentions but his own. He had Robin’s best interests at heart. He knew her. He’d risked his life for her. Everybody else spoke about her as an object, a weapon, a creation. But he’d come to know her over that week, that week that he now craved, clung to like a lifeline. He wondered if she thought about it, too. If she even had time to think about it, wherever she was. He was certain about one thing: Robin was an afterthought to Noomi.

  He’d worked with others like her, those who feigned concern in pursuit of their own interests.

  Noomi was Calliope’s magic-daughter-prodigy, or whoever, and clearly, her interest was vested in Calliope. But Robin dying would kill Dragomir too, so at least for the moment, Reykon was certain that Noomi wanted Robin alive and breathing.

  For the moment.

  But he still didn’t know anything about the caster’s background, other than she’d been a spy.

  “How do you know her?” Reykon asked, eyeing the door where Mama Katya had slipped through a few moments earlier to get supplies.

  “I don’t, really. But she’s the best at what she does. Trust me,” Noomi said, stretching her back and letting out a long sigh.

  “You know, you keep saying that, but I don’t know you at all. And certainly not well enough to trust you. All I know about you is that you were recruited as a spy, to give updates about what Calliope was doing, and that you eventually turned sides, so you say. Now, you’re claiming to be back on Calliope’s side, apparently.”

  “What of it?” Noomi shot back, her eyes blazing. “I was forced into spying on her. It was never my choice.”

  “And who forced you?” Reykon demanded. “Because you keep talking about them with this fear that makes me concerned about how far you’re willing to betray them.”

  The caster was nearly shaking with rage, but Reykon didn’t care. He was sick of being the outcast, sick of just being along for the ride, though admittedly, he’d used both her and Lucidia as a means to an end just as much as they’d used him. Call it mutually beneficial parasitism, or whatever. He was fine biding his time, but that time was now nigh.

  Noomi glared daggers at him. “I have sacrificed everything to make it here, and now you’re questioning my loyalty?”

  “Yes,” he repeated. “Be honest with me, right now. If you’re truly invested, it won’t be a problem. I need to know exactly what kind of storm we’re marching into. The royal vampire houses are falling apart, and apparently, the casters have been amassing forces for a war that nobody else knew about, so tell me the whole story, right now, and leave nothing out.”

  Noomi’s jaw tensed, a look of fear crossing over her eyes. “Nobody really knows anything for sure, but people talk. There was a conspiracy to take down the leader of the guild.”

  Reykon scowled. Were people handing coups out like candy? First the vampires, and now the casters. He was having a hard time keeping up. “Were you spying for the leader of the guild?” Reykon asked through clenched teeth.

  “No. I was found by a group of people that told me they were within the caster’s guild but not from it. They gave me a choice: spy on a top-level caster working on a top-secret project or die. I made the only choice I could.”

  “Names, Noomi. I want names.”

  “The person that hired me, or I guess, positioned me there was Calliope Dragomir’s only brother, Charlemagne Dragomir. He’s ruthless, and he’ll do anything to get a leg up on anybody that jeopardizes his standing. He was on the project with her, as a liaison to the guild, reporting progress or developments. But he wasn’t reporting all of them to the guild.”

  “So… Charlemagne was on the elite caster council, but he wasn’t beholden to Felix.”

  “Right.”

  Reykon’s mind flicked back to Felix Wyvern, the only Grand Caster there’d been during his lifetime. It wasn’t a position with a high turnover rate, and that was a very, very good thing. The thought of Felix being overthrown and the casters getting antsy sent a chill running through him. “If it wasn’t him, then…”

  “There’s a small faction inside of the guild that doesn’t agree with the more passive policies that Felix backs. They don’t have a name, or anything like that. Nobody knows about them unless they reach out to you, and once that happens… well, they don’t leave any loose ends.”

  “Until recently,” Reykon muttered.

  “They’re certainly not done looking for me, I can tell you that much.”

  “Who leads this group?” Reykon asked.

  “Nobody you know, but somebody everybody’s going to know, if he gets his way. His name’s Xerxes Onassis. His family pretty much funds the Legion, and they unofficially own them. Felix wasn’t concerned with it at the time, but then again, he had a bad habit of assuming the b
est in people. Now, Felix is a puppet for the true power that rests in the hands of the main caster families, and he’s one step away from being cut out of the fold.”

  “Has something like that ever happened before?” Reykon asked. “I’m not familiar with caster history.”

  Noomi shrugged. “We’ve had leaders like Xerxes, just like the rest of you. There are always a few power players in support, and a whole lot of little people against, but that never seems to make a difference.”

  “Is there anything that can stop him?” Reykon asked. “Restore power to Felix?”

  “Xerxes and his people make the KGB look like a bunch of synchronized swimmers. Even if we had a way to directly attack him, I doubt we could pull it off. That’s why I’m gunning to sabotage him. I don’t know much about what he had planned for Project Robin, but it was valuable enough to have a deeply embedded spy and multiple levels of oversight. Xerxes has something important in the future for her, which means I want to do whatever possible to make sure Calliope and Robin stay far, far away from him.”

  He searched her face, looking for any indication that she would double cross him given the opportunity, but found only honesty and bitter regret. “I believe you.”

  “I don’t care what you believe. I’m trying to cover my own people, just like you are. It just so happens that we have vested interests, and you’re smart enough to do business with me.”

  “Tell me how you really feel,” Reykon scoffed.

  Noomi glanced to the door, her foot tapping a rut in the carpeted ground. “How I feel is that Xerxes is going to do a lot worse than exploit Robin to bring the vampires down to their knees.”

  “What does that mean?”

  A bitter smile spread on her face. “I wasn’t high enough on the paygrade to have all the info, but I can tell you this: Project Robin wasn’t the only effort that Xerxes funded. He’s dipping his hands all over vitalurgical magic, and he’s making all sorts of different creepy crawlies behind closed doors.”

  “Wait, you mean there are other magical creations?” Reykon scowled. “How can you be sure?”

  Noomi looked at him with a sad, scared expression. “Like I said, people whisper. It’s not a coincidence that Fausta Ambrose and Cain Demonte have obliterated the royal houses. It’s all part of his plan.”

  “The casters interfered with vampire affairs?” Reykon asked, his anger boiling.

  Everybody he’d ever known, his entire life that had waited for him at House Demonte had been slain by a group of casters, and now he was learning that their massacre had been coordinated by an imposing group of creatures?

  “How could they…” Reykon faltered, searching for any theory in which her claim held up. “How is that even possible?”

  “I’d heard whispers about an attack on the vampires, separate from Calliope’s mission. I overheard Charlemagne talking about the plan to abandon Calliope in House Demonte and then use her as a scapegoat to incite unrest among the vampire ranks. From what I understood, she was supposed to die that night, but she found out that her own brother had betrayed her and fled. Actually, if Lucidia hadn’t have stabbed her, then she would have certainly been offed by the Legion. I narrowly escaped myself.”

  Reykon shook his head. “How could they have persuaded both Fausta and Cain to revolt? Magnus had become obsessed with power, and Calliope had clearly weaseled her way into his head, but two other old, powerful vampires? They can’t have that kind of persuasion.”

  Noomi’s voice was a harsh whisper. “Nobody knows what kind of power they have, Reykon. Nobody knows what he’s been cooking up in his labs. That’s why I want to get Calliope and Robin as far away from the fight as possible. Robin wasn’t supposed to leave House Demonte, and they cover their tracks, above all else. She was a prototype.”

  His eyebrows crunched together. “A prototype for what?”

  She shook her head. “Charlemagne never told me, nor Calliope. The only reason I knew was because I overheard them, after I began to suspect their intentions. I want to find out just as badly as you do. But scattering the vampires was just the start of whatever he’s planned.”

  Reykon’s mind swam with worries and concerns, images of his people being attacked and imprisoned. It only deepened the urge to find Robin and get to a safe place, while they picked apart the rat’s nest of a situation that Xerxes (whoever he was) had engineered.

  Robin

  As if she hadn’t learned the first time.

  Never, ever trust a caster, she thought bitterly.

  Charlemagne now sat across from her, a smug smile carved on his face as his eyes traced over the magical field shimmering around the chair that she was restrained to. She looked at the thick leather straps, frantic eyes running over the runes that she’d never seen before, and then creeping up to the burning wound that now covered most of her forearm.

  She’d been so, so stupid.

  And it was exactly what Darian had warned her about; somewhere in her naïve mind, she’d assumed Charlemagne had good intentions for her, that he was on her side. She hadn’t even given it a second thought. Just like she hadn’t even thought about trusting her sister, who’d betrayed her (sort of) to Darian. Just like she hadn’t even thought about bringing Reykon up to her apartment the first night she’d met him. Stupid, she chastised.

  That truth now stung, deep inside of her, a wrench in her heart each time she thought about herself, a small, naïve child in a world full of cunning wolves. How could she ever stand a chance?

  Alone, she couldn’t. If she kept making foolish mistakes like this, she wouldn’t. She needed somewhere to go, somewhere with people she trusted, with…

  A flash of dark hair, and sparkling, dark eyes clouded her memory. The picture of him, standing on that boat at sunset with her, before Magnus had even found them, it stirred something inside of her.

  Anger, hunger, hatred.

  “Why?” she growled, spewing hot venom into Charlemagne’s smug face.

  “Why? Always so clueless. You don’t even sort of know what’s going on. Robin, you’re part of a much bigger movement. You should be honored, actually, because your completion opens the gateway for something our alchemists have been dreaming of for centuries.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “You’re a very special girl. You’re the first living being ever born of a caster. We tried, several times before, but none of them took. Finally, we figured out that the only functioning combination was a formidable strongblood, whose blood already contained magical bindings inscribed into the DNA. It all came together so beautifully, until the vampires crashed our little celebration and Kenzo Draxos stole you from us. By then, though, it was too late. He is quite strong in the mind, I shall have to give him that. Even our influence required constant rejuvenation to take hold. Quite exhausting.”

  “So, you were in the human world, living and growing away from the tumult of our politics. Hidden. It almost worked out better than we’d planned. As soon as the first phase of our effort had been enacted, it was safe to resume work on the project, under a more public eye. ”

  “First phase?”

  Charlemagne gave a small, patronizing laugh. “You didn’t think it was a coincidence that the vampires began falling apart just as a weapon forged against them entered the playing field, did you?”

  Robin’s mind whirled with the implications of his claims. “But… how could you have done that? The vampires wouldn’t side with you, not after Calliope.”

  “No, they wouldn’t side with casters,” Charlemagne said with a smile. “But that’s a surprise yet to be revealed. It’s not my bubble to burst.”

  “You’re planning something else,” she spat. “Something with me?”

  “Of course. You, Robin, were meant to be a weapon, but never the whole weapon. You’re a lightning rod; a conduit. Calliope was never given that side of the story, and she, in all her motherly fantasies of fighting alongside you, was too weak to accept it. We let her believ
e that you would be seated next to her when all was said and done, that you two would help weaken the vampire race to an irrevocable point, and that the casters would assume the power vacuum. It was all a dreadfully mundane plan.”

  “That being said, we’ve finally discovered a way to complete phase two. But it hinges on you being safe and whole,” Charlemagne said, his eyes resting on the sizzling wound, growing on her arm. “That’s where my dear sister Calliope comes in.”

  “You said you didn’t know where she was,” Robin said, grinding her jaw together.

  “Oh, I don’t. But if your cellular composition is already deteriorating, then hers is much worse. Every ounce of magic that you use furthers that wound and makes her weaker, more vulnerable. The Legion is chasing her down, and they can’t be too far behind, so she’s either going to die by my hand or theirs. Between you and me, I know which one I’ll bet on. Besides, now that I have you all to myself, you’re going to help me find her.”

  A well of rage boiled inside of her. “Like hell! I’d rather die than see you get what you want.”

  “No doubt,” Charlemagne said with a cutting tone. “But that will not happen until Xerxes is done playing around with your abilities.”

  “Xerxes?” Robin spat.

  “Yes. He’s the one in charge. The one funding all of this innovation. I suppose that makes him, and not Cain, your new master.”

  “You mean he’s the monster in charge of experimenting with human life,” Robin corrected.

  Charlemagne laughed audibly. “How noble of you. It’s easy to tell that you were raised in the human world, you know. The first time I laid eyes on you, I saw how weak you are, how spineless they’ve made you. You were faced with a vampire, I mean, he was right in front of you. He wanted to rip you apart and all you could do was cower in the corner,” he continued, words oozing with venom.

  Robin’s chest pounded, her breath coming harder and harder with each word he spouted at her. Of all the things she’d experienced, Magnus ripping into her neck and Calliope altering her against her will, of Darian holding her hostage and pinning her to the wall to prove that she was still just a little human in a world of monsters, these words cut her the deepest. These arrogant, biting words that drilled into her head.