Chapter Nineteen
Cyrus cracked his knuckles and looked over his shoulder at the humans. They were sitting on the floor, hands bound behind their backs, heads lolled to the sides as they slept. Using compulsion, he’d extracted every bit of information from them and then sent them off to dreamland.
Brone tucked his cell phone into his pocket. “Mishka agrees with your idea, Cyrus. Let’s get it implemented and get home.”
Cyrus nodded. Thanks to his compulsion, he’d been able to remove the spell that had kept Ven out of their minds and discover that it had been cast by a fae female who was living in the human realm, calling herself a mercenary and performing any spell for anyone, for the right price. She was a dangerous enemy to have, but she was about to discover how dangerous a mated vampire male could be when his mate’s safety was on the line.
“Ready?” Ven asked.
“Yep.” Cyrus and Ven moved to the group of males and one by one, they were woken and compelled to lead the human authorities to the location of the Cleveland brand of the church. Temple put trackers on the humans, as well as a tiny video camera on the shirt collar of the leader, before Ven instructed them to leave and complete their mission. When they were gone, Temple looked at the tablet and chuckled, showing the screen to Cyrus and the others.
The males looked like zombies, walking stiffly and silently.
Rage stepped away and called a contact at the human police, explaining that they had information on the restaurant bombing. “In fact,” he said, “I’m going to send you the tracker information and video links, so you can catch them at their headquarters. I think you’ll find them very willing to tell you everything they know. You’ll want to have a warrant ready to search the premises and be sure to interrogate a human male named Vincent.”
The humans had been instructed to go directly to their headquarters, a location that the coven hadn’t been able to discern before Cyrus got it out of the ringleader’s mind. The church kept their locations secret. There appeared to be only one person at each large city’s headquarters who knew the next person in the chain of command. Keeping things close to the vest allowed their people to be interrogated by human police without being able to reveal anything important. The leader of each city was called a captain, and they were protected at all costs. It seemed that the locations were fluid, able to relocate at a moment’s notice and stay under the radar of human authorities. But this time, the humans were leading the police right to their headquarters. Once the police showed up with their warrant, the humans who’d been part of the bombing were going to be compelled to tell the police everything, exposing the church for what it was – a group that didn’t mind putting innocents in danger in order to rid the city of vampires.
Cyrus was on top of the world. His vampire nature had been instrumental in getting to the truth.
“What about the fae?” he asked, looking at Brone.
“It’s handled,” the male said with a nod.
“Good.”
It was generally known that fae weren’t allowed to live in the human realm and keep their wings. In order to stay in this realm, they had to have their wings cut off, which took away their fae powers and left them with only natural powers, such as the ability to heal. A fae with his or her wings cut off, wouldn’t be able to cast a spell that could mask a human’s evil intent, allowing them to walk into the club and past the wiccan-spell barrier that Arissa had erected, or resist even the strongest of compulsions. Thanks to whatever it was that made Cyrus unique, he was able to not only get through the spell but erase it entirely. Naima, a fae who worked for the coven and had her wings cut off, contacted a family member in the fae realm who alerted the authorities to the renegade fae. According to what they’d learned from the ringleader, the fae lived at the Cleveland church’s headquarters.
“What do you think will happen to her?” Cyrus asked as he followed the vampires out of the dry cleaners.
“She’ll be tried by the governing fae body,” Ven said. “And either they’ll execute her or put her in prison indefinitely. They don’t look kindly to fae living in the human realm with their wings, and that she was using her powers to harm other supernatural creatures will be a strike against her as well.”
“I don’t particularly care what happens to her as long as she can’t cause any more trouble for us,” Cyrus said.
He climbed into the SUV and settled in the second row. Brone and Ven were in the front seats, and Temple and the other vampires were in the SUV that pulled out behind them as they headed home.
“You did well tonight,” Ven said, looking at Cyrus in the rear-view mirror. “How are you feeling?”
“Good. Not hungry, if that’s what you’re asking.”
Ven chuckled. “Yeah, just checking. You’re not drinking SyBl, so it crossed our minds that you might suddenly become hungry.”
“I could go for a steak, if that’s what you mean.”
“You are a mystery, Cyrus. We’re glad you’re on our side,” Brone said.
“Hear, hear,” Ven said.
When they returned to the club, Cyrus saw Cella standing in the garage with Bellamin and Dylan as guards. He jumped out of the SUV as soon as it shifted into park and raced to his sweetheart. He caught her around the waist and pulled her close, kissing her deeply with a purr that stuttered in his chest.
“Did you miss me?” she asked with a chuckle.
“More than anything.”
“I’m so proud of you,” she said. “And surprised to hear about your compulsion ability. Mine isn’t very strong, a really stubborn human can ignore me.”
Temple clapped Cyrus on the shoulder. “He’s better than Ven and Mishka combined, I’d wager.”
“What’s going to happen now?” Cella asked.
Temple tapped the tablet in his hand. “The police just showed up at the church’s headquarters. Mishka’s waiting for us in the War Room so we can watch it live on the big screen. We also alerted news outlets. It’s going to be quite a media circus.”
He and Cella followed the others into the club and to the large meeting room, where a screen had been pulled from the ceiling against one wall. While Temple plugged the tablet into the projection device, Cyrus pulled a chair out for Cella and sat next to her. He nodded at Mishka.
“I understand you’ve inherited a more powerful version of compulsion than I have,” Mishka said.
“How is that even possible?” Cyrus asked. “Why wouldn’t my power be the same as yours or weaker?”
Mishka shrugged. “It’s how supernatural traits work sometimes. They often don’t follow any kind of logic. It might have something to do with you still being part tiger, or the combination of mine, Cella’s, and the two other males’ blood. But the power of your compulsion reminds me of my sire’s. He could compel anyone. Except vampires, of course.”
“It’s good that vampires aren’t subject to compulsion,” Rage said. “That would suck.”
“Definitely,” Temple said. “I like my free will just fine.”
Cyrus chuckled and kissed Cella’s hand. With a whisper he said, “Maybe we can test out my compulsion on you a little later.”
She grinned. “Sounds like a plan.”
* * *
Jason Finnegan swirled the tumbler of bourbon in his hand, the ice cubes clinking softly against the cut crystal. On the desk in front of him was his calendar, nearly every day filled with a meeting, phone call, or activity related to The First Church of Humanity. Next to the calendar stood framed photos of his beloved family, lost to him by the dangerous plague known as vampires. He’d always been wary of them because they were so clearly dangerous but had somehow enamored the public and human government into believing they were docile. But then his family had gotten caught up in a battle between two covens, and in the aftermath only he, his sister Olive, and his brother Sean had survived. He’d started the church to deal with his grief and help promote humans back to the top of the food chain. Vampires were animals in his opinion, and they should be treated as such – not given rights as if they were equals.
His gaze caught on Olive’s smiling image and he let out a grunt of frustration. She’d been killed by the whore of the leader of the vampire coven, who’d destroyed half his Northern Ohio church members in an unprecedented slaughter. But no matter how many times he petitioned for justice for his sister, the human government sided with the vampires, saying that she’d killed them all in self-defense.
As if there was any defense against animals who could compel humans to do their bidding!
His hand tightened on his drink and he swiveled in the chair to look at the paintings at the back wall of the office. He was underground in what had once been a fall-out shelter in the mountains of North Carolina. He’d moved to the larger, underground fortress after Olive’s death, taking Sean, his trusted assistant, Pamela, and the most loyal church members with him. They were his eyes and ears on the surface. Jason hadn’t been topside since the move, worried about being caught by a vampire and subject to their version of justice, which would most likely include turning him, and he’d rather die than become a vampire.
The serene beach scene paintings taunted him. How long had it been since he’d seen the sun?
The office door opened with enough force to crack the handle against the wall. He spun in his seat as Sean and Pamela rushed inside.
“There’s trouble, Jase,” Sean said, picking up a remote from the coffee table and pointing it at the flat-screen on the wall. “Big trouble.”
He rose to his feet and joined Sean and Pamela as the screen switched to a local newscast. He didn’t have to hear the reporter to know he was witnessing a raid on one of the church’s regional offices.
“Damn it,” he said. “Where is that?”
“Cleveland, Sir,” Pamela said.
“It’s all over the damn news,” Sean said, turning up the volume.
“As you can see, authorities in Cleveland are taking people into custody right now. A source inside the department said that they were led to the location by an anonymous source, and that the people were cooperating fully with authorities, including giving information on the reclusive leader of The First Church of Humanity, widely known to be an anti-vampire group,” the reporter said. Behind her, Jason watched his regional captain, Alvin Pierce, being led out in handcuffs, along with his staff.
“Damn it!” Jason threw his glass against the wall. “Shut that fucking thing off!”
Sean turned the TV off and Pamela hurried to clean up the glass that glittered on the floor like diamonds.
“What are we going to do?” Sean asked. “That coven is the biggest in the Midwest. They’re responsible for Olive’s death. We can’t just let them get away with taking such an important regional office down.”
Everywhere he turned, the Cleveland vampires thwarted him, from increasing security and utilizing witches for protection spells to bringing in a damn dragon shifter to read the minds of people working for him and figuring out that they were tampering with the delivery vehicles for the synthetic blood substitute. And now, after the Cleveland office had successfully set off a bomb in the coven’s nearly-complete restaurant, their entire Northern Ohio operation was in jeopardy.
He looked at his younger brother and squeezed his shoulder. “They’ll suffer, Sean. For Mom and Dad and Aunt Lucille. And especially for Olive. I promise.”
* * *
The door to the War Room opened and Naima walked in. Temple muted the news report showing the raid on the Cleveland office of the church. Cyrus had enjoyed seeing something good come from the bombing. He might be a freak of nature now, but at least he was alive and with his beloved.
“You have good news for us?” Mishka asked.
“Absolutely,” Naima said. “Authorities in the fae realm sent soldiers to apprehend the rogue fae. She’s standing trial in three days and will most likely be imprisoned for the rest of her long life, after they take her wings of course.”
“Why would they also take her wings?” Cella asked.
“It’s par for the course,” Naima said. “If she retained her wings, she might be able to devise a way to escape. Without her wings, she’s fairly powerless as far as spell-casting goes.”
“Excellent,” Mishka said.
“Did you find out how she’d been able to stay in the realm so long and keep her wings?” Harmony asked.
“It was an apparent oversight. She had the authority to leave the fae realm for a short trip, and she simply never returned. No one was aware, until the situation was brought to light again. This has also led to an overhaul of the current system to ensure that no other winged fae are traipsing around the human realm unaccounted for.”
They returned their attention to the newscast, cheering as the leaders of the church’s Cleveland office were arrested and walked out by the human authorities.
“Damn successful night,” Cyrus said.
“Yes,” Mishka said. “But this was a shot across the bow to Jason Finnegan and his people. We can be certain he won’t take this attack lying down, which means we need to keep our security top-notch and our people safe.”
“What’s going to happen with the restaurant?” Rage asked.
“Midas is coming in tomorrow to inspect the building. He’ll be making a plan for repairs. Our conservative estimate is that this has put us behind by six to eight weeks,” Mishka said.
“So no Valentine’s Day party there,” Cella said.
“No,” Harmony shook her head. “We’ll have it here at the club.”
When the news report changed focus to other things besides the church raid, Cyrus stood and gave a gentle tug on his mate’s hand. “Shall we, beloved?”
She gave him a sweet and slightly naughty smile. “I thought you’d never ask.”
They said goodbye to the family and hustled out of the War Room. All Cyrus could think about was getting his sweetheart behind closed doors. He wanted to play with his compulsion power, although he was fairly certain he wouldn’t be able to convince her to do something she didn’t want to do, but more than that – he wanted to get her naked and chase the night from the sky with their pleasure. There was nothing better on this earth than Cella in his arms.