The Fifth Clan (17 page)

"Exactly. It's let me keep the loss of life to a minimum in my time and I like it that way."

I leaned back and lit my cigarette, blowing out a cloud of smoke before I glanced at her again to find she had a very self-satisfied smile on her face as she watched me.

"What?"

"I knew you didn't love killing as much as you claimed you do."

I smacked myself in the forehead and groaned, quietly cursing her in every language I could think of as she threw back her head and laughed at my expense.

22

March 05, 2005: Scotland

Getting through customs wasn't nearly as difficult as I had expected it to be. The convenient thing about the private plane meant that we didn't go through a terminal and into the airport itself the same way commercial flights would. We landed on the tarmac and taxied to the hanger, our fake passports in our pockets.

Instead of going into the airport for customs however Ghost and I ran, out of
sight of the building and as quickly as our natures would allow us to, Rachel cradled protectively in my arm. The far end of the runway was surrounded by a rather high fence but we easily jumped that and strolled casually around the airport to the front where we waited for Grim to clear customs under his fake ID.

We hailed a cab, or a lorry, or whatever, fuck if I know what they called them in Scotland, either way we hailed one and got a ride to the nearest hotel where we booked rooms and then headed downstairs to the dining room for a meal while we considered our next move.

Grim and Ghost talked quietly while they and Rachel ate and I picked listlessly at my food. There was just so much wrong lately that I had no appetite and it was beginning to piss me off. Too many unanswered questions hung over my head and I hated the feeling that I was a rat in someone else's maze, scrambling around for a scrap of cheese.

I don't even really like cheese.

I know I keep getting off topic, bear with me.

The point was I didn't like the way things were going. I had come here, thinking it was my idea to do this. It was my idea to confront the council directly but something about it didn't sit well with me.

I stood abruptly from the table and stepped back. "I'm going for a walk," I said and waved the three of them down when they started to stand. "I just need to get some air. I'll be back. Rachel stay with Ghost or Grim around here would you? I don't want you getting hurt." Thankfully she didn't argue with me about it, just nodded silently to indicate that she'd heard me.

I walked quickly out of the hotel and made a
left down the street. I didn't know which street and nor did I particularly care. It was late in the evening by that time and fairly chilled but I welcomed the cold and my coat kept me from feeling the worst of it. Again not that it would have bothered me. Sometimes I wished that old could make me shiver like it did humans. It was just another sin to me that I was something different. Even amongst my own kind I was different and feared as the current situation attested to so strongly.

When we left Oregon I was strongly considering bringing violence directly down against Threntü himself. I would gladly have done so too. But since I had discovered my old tormentor was dead I wasn't so sure anymore. If I wanted the Brotherhood to believe that I wouldn't attempt to return us to the war times I couldn't exactly come barging in guns blazing, and if I approached the Council with a Child that could also be considered an attack.

By proving that I could build a new clan the political climate would shift dramatically and there was nothing I could do to stop that. As a clan head I would be required to participate in Council decisions, even if I only wanted to be left alone.

And with my participation that meant a new voice. Some might try to curry favors with me to advance their own agendas, and others might try to blackmail, bully or otherwise strong arm me into doing as they wished. With only one child my clan would be weak so I would have to make more. I would have to let Rachel make more so our numbers could act as a further deterrent
to the other clans from whatever machinations they may have in motion.

I groaned and rubbed my eyes vigorously.

I did not have the kind of mindset or all this political bullshit. I hadn't even seen the lay of the proverbial land yet and it was already giving me a hell of a migraine.

The city was relatively quiet, so late at night. There were few cars on the road and even fewer pedestrians. It was getting quite cold and most sane humans were at home, in bed and warm, not wandering the freezing night as I was. The night was suddenly far less wonderful to me than my thoughts the night Claus approached me.

It was becoming sinister and foreboding, and that, more than anything pissed me off. The night belonged to me and I would be damned if some asshole puppeteer would take the night from me. The night was my solace and I would reclaim it.

"Are you going to watch me all night or did you actually want to talk? Since you haven't attacked me yet I figured there was some other reason behind this visit?"

"I was wondering how long it would take you to notice."

"I noticed the second you showed
up Vera. I've learned from my recent mistakes." She stepped out of the shadows ahead of me and I showed her the gleam of a silver edged knife hidden in my palm. "Fool me once..."

She smiled, lips stretching in a vicious caricature to show extremely white and straight teeth. Her blond hair fell in long curly waves to her waist and her breasts were pushed up and on display by a tight, black corset. Black leather pants encased her legs like a second skin and a decorative stainless steel belt rode low on her hips. Black boots finished off the ensemble with high stiletto heels.

"Going for the fetish look tonight?" I drawled and she laughed, a deep throaty thing that seemed to have a life of its own as it echoed on the empty street.

"No, my pet. I'm just here to talk."

"We have nothing to talk about."

"The Vayun will never let you reach the council."

"What do they have to say about it? Their leader is dead. They have no orders to follow to that effect."

"Unless they are receiving orders from another source?" She stepped toward me, every motion oozing grace and sex rolled off of her in waves that I could feel even from where I stood still twenty feet from her. With each step closer to me though she became more distracting and I firmly kept my eyes on hers, ignoring the pale expanse of exposed flesh spilling from the top of her corset.

"Who could give the Vayun orders that they would even follow?"

Her eyes flickered behind me but I failed to take the bait. I was fairly certain she was trying to get me to take my eyes off of her but I stretched out my senses and the Vasith in me told me there was nothing there to be worried about.

"I don't know, myself. But they have been following orders for years. It took them two years to discover your location but as soon as they did they delivered the information to the council and a week later I was sent to apprehend you."

"I still don't understand that. Why apprehend me? I was leaving the brotherhood alone. I have not sired any children of my own so why come hounding me? There was no reason to do so. The council could have simply left me alone and I would have left them alone."

She shrugged, an action that did some very interesting things to her anatomy, but I exercised every ounce of will that I possessed and kept my eyes firmly north.

"I cannot say what I do not know." Despite working less effectively on the wolves and other vampires my Vasith powers told me enough to know that she was telling the truth there. She honestly didn't know why they had chosen now to bother me with this.

"So if you have no information to impart then why are you here? I'll simply have to ask the council themselves when I see them at the meeting tomorrow afternoon."

"I only came to warn you that the Vayun will do everything they can to keep you from approaching the meeting. It is to go on for three days and they will have large numbers of their clan stationed outside the Hall to intercept you."

"And the rest of the council is ok with them doing this?" I was skeptical and I did nothing to hide the fact.

"The rest of the Council hasn't shown any interest in trying to stop them at the very least." Her eyes flickered a glance over my shoulder again. Something I wouldn't have noticed if I wasn't trying so hard to avoid looking at her other assets. A sneaking suspicion began to worm its way into the back of my mind.

"You keep looking behind me," I said as I lit another cigarette. "You're either trying to distract me, because you want to use the opportunity to attack me. Which is honestly unlike you, and we both know that I can tell there's no one behind me."

"True enough," she said with a smirk tugging at her full lips.

"Orrrr," I drew out the word for several seconds. "You're trying to keep my eyes on you so I don't notice something else going on." I spun quickly and looked behind me, leaving my back open to an attack I now knew wouldn't come.

Back the way I had come the sky was lit with an angry orange glow and I could now dimly hear the sound of sirens in the distance. The hotel I had left my friends at was on fire.

"You had better run Gabriel," She called to me as I threw away my cigarette and began sprinting down the sidewalk. "Your little bird might have already had her wings clipped." There was laughter in her voice and I cursed her mentally as my boots pounded the pavement beneath me.

She had kept me distracted long enough already for the real attack. I had never been the target to begin with.

I swear, if I had anything to say about it, I was going to kill that fucking bitch one day very soon.

* * * * * *

By the time I reached the hotel chaos reigned supreme. Fire engines lined the street and emergency personnel ran to and fro in the madness. They shouted back and forth to each other in that thick Scottish brogue that always sounded to me like they were trying to talk around a mouth full of mashed potatoes.

Several of them shouted to me as I ran by at a more human speed but I ignored them, couldn't understand what they were saying anyway, and plunged through the open doors of the hotel and into the flames.

Fire licked at the surface of my leather coat and I ignored it as well as I ignored the cold. I could feel my hair getting singed from the heat but I pushed on. The interior lobby was already engulfed in flames and in the distance I could hear the grunting and crashing of combat.

I ducked to my right, sprinting quickly and as low to the ground as I could, making my way up the stairs to the fifth floor where our rooms were located. Several patrons of the hotel ran past me, screaming in hysterics about monsters and I knew I was on the right track as I turned down a hall, mostly devoid of fire. Just as I reached the door to my and Rachel's room there
was a thunderous crash and the door exploded outward in a shower of wood splinters as a large, furred body came flying through. Ghost hit the wall opposite and slumped to the ground in a daze for a moment before climbing to his feet. His grey coat was tattered and smoked at the edges and blood ran freely down the left side of his face from an already closing gash above his eye.

He growled a greeting at me and ran back into the room with me right on his heels. One of the joys of operating at a physically higher speed than humans is that your brain has to operate at a similar speed, otherwise everything becomes a blur.

As such I needed less than a second after I burst into the room to take everything in and formulate a response. Grim was in the south corner of the room, one of the Shadu held in one hand and with the other drawing a wicked looking Kukri from where he'd just embedded it in a Vayuns' wind pipe. Ghost was bearing down on three of the Vasith clan. He crashed into them, bore them across the room, and out of the east facing window. The last three in the room turned to face me and I was on them.

The one on the left found himself lifted into the air and thrown violently back through the same window Ghost had just broken while the one on the right took two of my throwing knives through his eyes. The third, the one in the center, blocked my
charge, grabbed my wrist in a tight grip, swiveled to the side, and threw me over her shoulder.

I flew, without the benefit of my powers, and crashed hard into the wall across the room. I landed hard on my head on the floor and rolled quickly to my feet, just in time to catch the foot aimed at my face.

There was one problem they had overlooked. Based on her actions with throwing me they had orders not to do serious damage. I had no such concerns.

I twisted hard, shattering her ankle and she cried out in pain. I shoved her away and she stumbled back falling to her ass on the floor and before she could muster a defense I drove my knee into her face. Her nose shattered and several teeth were knocked out as blood spurted and she bounced back, her head striking the floor under us.

I reached down, grabbed her head, and twisted as hard as I could. Her head turned all the way around, three-hundred-and-sixty degrees and I dropped her body and stood in search of more opponents.

The only one left was the man with the knives I had thrown sticking out of his eye sockets. I kicked them hard as he stumbled past me, driving them all the way into his brain and he tumbled
boneless to the floor, the tips of my knives protruding a half an inch from the back of his skull.

"Grim," I growled. "Where is Rachel?"