Walter looked up, his tone musing. “When I met Nyoka for our tryst, after World War Two, she told me the hunter went by the name Gertrude Lothringen. Back then, papers were lost, people changed identities, names, even faces through surgery, and assumed new identities. Lothringen may be known by any name, any gender. But unless the witch hunter received a great deal of vampire blood or were-creature-tainted blood, she would be ancient.”
“I think we can assume she’s ancient, but doesn’t look it, so I agree—not fully human. After Nyoka got away, Gertrude probably found other vamps to imprison and drink from. The guest roster won’t help us, then. Unless Nyoka already knows who the hunter is.”
Walter’s head came up slowly, and he went completely still. EJ watched as Walter was instantly stonelike, breathless,undead. EJ waited. Walter tilted his head, that not-human, vaguely lizard-like thing vamps did. “The shadow in the corner was Nyoka. What if she spotted Gertrude? What if Gertrude’s appearance on the scene is what triggered Konstantin’s plan to go awry?”
“Or the one major player who was missing from the reception. You. Your absence might have caused them to abort the plan.”
“I have considered that,” Walter said.
There were too many players on the field, EJ thought. This part was just like the war—too many enemies. Knowing in his gut it was a wild-goose chase, EJ tapped the virtual keyboard to visibility on the table. He orderedOjosto run deeperbackgrounds on the nine unfamiliar humans at the queen’s event, just in case.
Walter said, “We need the security tapes from Karson Marrazzo’s Clan Home for the two weeks before Londyn brought a demon bomb to you. I need to know if Londyn made a recent visit there. I need to know when Nyoka arrived, and Konstantin as well, because only a Rus witch would attempt to use a demon. Nyoka was possessed of a presence when we arrived, a powerful one, yet, for an instant, I saw her own true self in her eyes, fighting the possession, trying to control it.”
EJ paused, his fingertips off the table. No one—not vampires, not witches—no one could stand against a demon for any length of time, unless…Unless the Rus had been successful in developing a particular working, one that allowed a possessed person to use the demon for their own ends. In the war, the length of time a person could control a demon was extremely limited and the possessed person—witch, vamp, human—then had to be killed. What if Konstantin had refined it? If Nyoka had been fighting back against demonic control, orusingthe demon to accomplish her own ends, then he needed to reevaluate the stuff in the vial collected by Walter. “Where are the vials taken from Londyn’s?”
Walter touched his face, his fingers sliding over the brand on his cheek. “The vial from the garbage can, I sent to the queen’s lab to see if they could identify its ingredients and replicate it. The liquid had no identifying characteristics except that Angelina said it glowed, but the vial itself was similar in style to those used by apothecaries in Europe in the 1800s. It looked like something Nyoka and other witches with a similar elemental power, would have chosen to transport a liquid-based working.” His fingers glided over his scar again, following the puckers and raised edges of the initials.
And the full vial?EJ thought. Where was it? Before he could ask, Walter went on.
“When Londyn brought her demon bomb here, ruining their timeline, someone sent attackers to take her out. Konstantin? Terenzio Marrazzo and Julietta Ravensport? All would have employed lower-level scions, not acted themselves.” He sipped his forgotten wine and added, “There was so much fresh blood at Londyn’s house, I could smell nothing else, though Nyoka might have been there, even recently. She might have stolen a vial, drank, and driven straightaway to Karson’s.”
Into the silence that followed those words, EJ said, “Nyoka was at Asshat’s to kill Terenzio and Julietta, not by Sangre Duello, but by pretending to help them? And then stab them in the back—metaphorically?” he added before Walter could tell him a stabbing would not have killed vampires of their age. “She drank the vial to fight off a demon and still was possessed? And we interrupted?”
Walter waggled one hand in the air as if he thought it was a possibility. He finished his wine and drizzled a few ounces from the bottle into the glass.
EJ said, “Willim and Karson at the queen’s reception. Maybe both were ready to put their plan of attacking us with demons into action, but…they needed you for something first?”
They had needed Walter. Yes. That made sense. But for what purpose?
“Ojos, comms, please,” Walter requested. “Head of security at the Dark Queen’s residence.”
EJ put comms on the wall screen.
Seconds later, Eli Younger appeared on the screen, a medium-toned black man, former military, a deadly strategist, who was still vital and capable despite nearly mortal injuries, too numerous to count. He had been healed by drinkingcopious amounts of vampire blood, and by forming some sort of bond with the queen. He was no longer human. Or so it was said.
“Yes,” Eli said, making the question a demand. A busy man, making time because he knew EJ and Walter wouldn’t abuse access.
Walter said, “Please have someone speed through the front entry–camera videos at the Marrazzo Clan Home for a visit by Londyn in the last two weeks. Check the footage there for the last forty-eight to seventy-two hours for the appearance of Nyoka. Locate some interaction between her and Konstantin and Willim at the clan home. I need to see it.”
“Copy that. Running program. What else?” Eli enquired.
“I’d like a transcript of the interview with the Mithrans captured from the home of Londyn Simms and transported to the queen’s residence for aread and bleed. That is all.”
“Acknowledged. Transcript sent.” The contact ended.
To EJ, Walter said, “Nyoka isnotworking with our enemies. We must find a way to dispossess her without killing her and take the demon into Angelina’s staff.”
Walter wasn’t the kind to abandon anyone, not even a former lover who had left him for others. EJ’s icy heart felt a moment of warmth.
Walter said, “I think…Nyoka went to the queen’s soirée to find and kill Gertrude Lothringen and discover where Ravensport and Terenzio Marrazzo were staying, but either Gertrude didn’t show, or Nyoka didn’t recognize her or couldn’t get to her. But Nyoka discovered Willim and his interest in us and perhapsshetook Ivyanna from the reception. She might have learned Londyn was her next best hope of getting to someone who would lead her to her targets.”
“And keep you safe,” EJ added.
As if in answer,Ojossaid, “Londyn Simms’s family history and DNA profile have been acquired. Timestamps of security cameras at Karson Marrazzo’s lair to follow.”
Londyn’s family tree appeared on the wall screen with a tiny ping of sound. With a tap of EJ’s finger, the file opened and they studied it. Walter opened a new bottle and poured more wine.
“Well. Look at that,” EJ said after several minutes. “Gertrude Lothringen was Londyn’s great-great-grandmother. If Gertrude was still tracking down the vampire she tortured in World War Two, did she provide the money to refurbish Londyn’s house and tea shop? If so, Gertrude has been in Chat-town for a long time.”
