Chapter Twenty-Six

Ben had felt the gathering of vampires—air and water mostly—the moment they stepped inside the meetinghouse, so he knew that Carwyn, Brigid, and Tenzin felt them too.

His amnis stilled, joining his mate's, as the room fell silent.

He smelled a faint whiff of smoke that had to be Brigid, and the ground vibrated slightly beneath his feet.

Carwyn's voice was a warning. "Careful, everyone."

Despite the smell of smoke, Brigid took a deep breath and spoke in a calm voice. "Oleg, I told you that Katya wasn't behind this, and you've heard everythin' we said here."

"And Katya" —Carwyn's voice remained a low growl— "you know us. We have lived peacefully in your territory and recognized your authority for years. You've listened to Brigid. You've seen the files Gavin sent you, I'm assuming?"

That day, while the vampires were resting, Gavin's people had sent through a treasure trove of information, and Ben had forwarded everything about the ships, the gold transfers, and a list of known associates who were working on Paulson's new fleet to Katya's and Oleg's email addresses as Brigid and Carwyn had requested.

"I read the files," Oleg said in a low voice. "Ekaterina Grigorieva, I swear on my honor that I had nothing to do with these attacks. When I attack you, I will not use humans as my shields or sneak behind your back like a fox."

Ben looked at Katya's face, visible on Carwyn's tablet.

Brigid prompted her. "Katya?"

The small woman was sitting in the dark, and a faint red glow illuminated her pale skin. Her chin was propped on two delicate fingers, and her lips were slightly pursed. "What do you want from us, Brigid Connor?"

"We need to cooperate," Brigid said. "We need both your resources and both of your permissions to share information. Zasha is workin' with Paulson, and if you've seen Gavin's files, you probably both have come to the same conclusions."

Oleg grunted. "Brigid Connor, you have my permission to share the information I gave you with whomever you deem necessary to rid this territory of this menace."

Brigid looked at Katya.

The small vampire didn't look pleased, but she didn't look angry either.

"Jennie, you can work with them," Katya said. "Give them what they need. Paulson isn't our friend and he never has been. Whatever he's been paying me isn't enough to make up for unleashing this on our people and whatever fucked-up plans he has to take over." She looked from Jennie to Brigid. "And make no mistake—the people lost in Kenai are my people." With that statement, the screen went blank.

"What a pleasant evening." Oleg sounded amused. "If you need reinforcements?—"

"We don't need anything from you." Jennie cut him off. "And Brigid, I want to see what you have on Paulson. I'm sick and tired of being in the dark."

Tenzin laughed, and everyone looked at her.

"It's amusing because the nights here are long," she said. "We're all in the dark."

Buck and Carwyn spread a large map of Alaska on the center of the table and another one beside it that was a larger detail of the Inside Passage.

Tenzin floated over the table, trying to picture the geography in her mind. "Tell me the dates."

"Paulson's boat wasn't the first," Buck said. "A fishing boat went missing two weeks before Zasha met with Paulson."

Tenzin saw Buck put a pin on the map. It was just north of Vancouver.

She made a mental picture of Zasha's movements. They'd moved from Las Vegas up through Katya's territory, possibly skirting into the sparse interior of Western Canada to avoid the prying eyes of the Athabaskan Confederation.

"The first attack was outside Vancouver." She closed her eyes and pictured the two vampires she was tracking. "Where did Zasha meet with Paulson?"

"Not far." Buck placed another yellow flag. "Within the Hecate Strait."

"The Hecate Strait is north of Vancouver." Tenzin blinked her eyes open. "They met about their plan. The crew gossiped that Paulson didn't look pleased to see Zasha. Perhaps they were more than Paulson bargained for. Perhaps Paulson didn't like Zasha drawing attention to themself in Las Vegas."

"Either way," Carwyn said, "at that point, Paulson was committed. A few weeks later, he and the entire crew of the Dolphin drop off the map just outside Sitka."

Buck placed another two flags. "And after that, another fishing boat goes missing."

Brigid stood, looking down at the maps, her arms crossed over her chest. "Now Zasha's movin'. There's a gap between the incidents. Nearly a month that nothin' happens after Katya's second fishing boat disappears."

"But then the attacks start up north." Tenzin's eyes moved to the western edge of the Alaskan Peninsula. "The first compound that Oleg reported was south of Katmai Bay."

"Lev called it a village." Brigid went over and pointed to a spot on the map, and Jennie placed a red dot. "At least twenty victims that we know of. They estimated somewhere in the beginning of September, but they didn't find it until weeks later."

"Then another one on Kodiak Island." Tenzin drew a mental line on the map. "Moving across the water. Maybe a week or two later."

Jennie lifted a small yellow flag. "That would be the beginning of October?"

Brigid nodded.

Buck said, "We had another ship go missing in that time, but it was in Prince William Sound."

Tenzin blinked. "Zasha isn't a wind vampire. They can't move the way Ben and I can."

Carwyn's booming voice interrupted Tenzin's train of thought. "Zasha has wind vampires working with them, and it's clear from what we know of the attacks that they have hunting parties with every element. Isn't it possible that Zasha sent someone to grab another boat in Katya's territory to sow confusion?"

The priest was right, but Tenzin wasn't going to say it.

Ben added, "It's logical that there would be multiple raiding parties at work, especially if the goal was to get Katya and Oleg fighting each other. Steal a boat in Katya's territory, attack a village in Oleg's."

"It's not Oleg's territory." Jennie's voice was sharp. "And I resent the implication that?—"

"Officially it might not be." Tenzin stared at the map from her position overhead. "But this part of Alaska looks east to Oleg for protection" —she waved a hand over the territory west of Anchorage— "and this part of the state looks south to Katya. Let's not get caught up in politics when we're hunting."

"So they attack a village in the west," Brigid said, "then jump over and steal a boat in the east. But still movin' steadily along the coast."

"Zasha and Paulson don't want to go inland, and they don't want to draw the Athabaskans into this," Ben said. "If they do that, they're way outnumbered."

"Moving along." Carwyn stood and started pacing around the room. "The attacks continue along the coast, roughly one every couple of weeks."

"And then back toward the tip of Seward," Brigid said. "We know that one was only a few weeks back because there was a survivor."

"More confusion," Buck said. "Keep moving south but send a few people to attack Oleg's people so there's not a clear pattern."

"There were ten victims in the Seward attack," Brigid said as she placed another red dot. "Last I heard, Walter was hangin' in there."

"Spite," Tenzin whispered. She had to admire the old man she'd flown to the hospital. He's survived a vampire attack and human doctors.

Go, Walter.

"Zasha's overall trend is east and south though, pushing toward the Inside Passage," Tenzin said. "Why?"

Ben looked at the flags and the dots on the map. "I think we have to assume that Paulson is on a ship here somewhere." He waved a hand over the map of the watery maze that curved south from the Gulf of Alaska.

Buck said, "Most of this area has deepwater channels and pretty decent traffic, so you could move ships in and out of the area without anyone noticing. And there are" —he shook his head— "thousands of places to hide."

Tenzin surveyed the area. It was still huge. "Somewhere among all these islands, Paulson and Zasha have some kind of base."

"A base?" Carwyn frowned. "That doesn't sound like Paulson. From what we've heard, he's always mobile."

"He has a base." Jennie's voice was soft.

Every eye in the room turned toward her.

Tenzin stared at the quiet woman. "What do you know?"

"The elder that Carwyn found." She nodded at the big vampire. "He was talking in his sleep a little bit. Said something about a floating city." She shook her head. "I thought he was talking nonsense, maybe remembering old stories, but what if he was talking about a larger vessel, like one of these sea-steading things people talk about?"

"A floating city?" Tenzin pictured Penglai Island floating in the sky. It was a beautiful image. And terrible. That many dangerous vampires shouldn't be comfortable and mobile at the same time.

Ben shook his head. "As far as I know, none of the sea-steading environments that have been proposed are anything more than theories. And I definitely don't see anything of that type surviving an Alaskan winter."

Carwyn laughed a little. "It's obvious what he saw."

"A floating city is obvious?" Jennie asked.

Carwyn smiled. "What's a common sight around here? Something one of the old ones might see as a floating city."

Jennie shook her head. "I don't?—"

"Large enough to survive the winter," Carwyn said. "Might be a little unusual this time of year, but not unheard of. And in the summer you wouldn't think twice."

"A cruise ship," Brigid answered. "Paulson must have a cruise ship."

Tenzin remembered Brigid talking about them before.

"Cruise ships?"

"Humans all grouped together on large boats. I'm talking massive boats."

"Yachts?"

"Bigger than yachts. Hundreds of bedrooms. Restaurants. Swimming pools. Nightclubs and pubs. Theaters sometimes."

Tenzin repeated her thought at the time. "It is a floating city."

Carwyn nodded. "And one that would blend into the background in a place like Alaska."

"It wouldn't in the winter," Ben said. "Don't the cruise ships float south in the winter?"

"Yes, but that elder was attacked in the summer months," Jennie said. "Maybe he saw something he shouldn't. Maybe that's why Zasha tried to kill him."

Tenzin looked at the many islands and peninsulas dotting the map. "Could you hide something that big?"

Everyone in the room spoke at once. "It's a big ocean."

She narrowed her eyes. Yes, the ocean was big, but vampires still had to drink human blood, and humans had to eat and sleep. If Paulson had created a floating city, there would be trails leading back to it.

If Paulson, Zasha, and all these vampires were hiding out on a giant boat somewhere, Tenzin would be able to find it.

She was wrapping herself in every warm layer she could find when Ben walked into their room.

"What are you doing?"

Tenzin looked at him. "It's cold."

"In our bedroom?" He frowned. "Why do you have a wool blanket tied around your torso, Tiny?"

She looked out the window of the house where they were sleeping. "There are at least five hours of darkness left. I love the winter here, but it's cold. Why are all the really dark places so cold?"

Ben leaned against the doorframe. "Sometimes I really question if you listen to yourself speak."

Fine. Whatever. She wasn't looking for a scientific answer. "A boat that could be mistaken for a floating city would be massive," she told him. "And it wouldn't be easy to hide even in a place like this."

"Are you sure?"

"It's a big ocean, but they'll need fuel, they'll need to hunt. They'll need food if they're keeping humans. Anything that big will have lights. I can find lights."

"Not necessarily," he said. "That barge I was watching had very few lights visible."

Tenzin considered that. "Then what do you suggest?"

"I suggest planning." He pushed away from the door, closed it, locked the dead bolt, and began to unwrap the layers around her body. "Zasha hasn't attacked anyone in nearly a week. They're going to start getting restless, so right now Jennie is putting out an alert to every vampire compound in the area, trying to warn everyone that they could be at risk."

"That sounds wise, but what are we supposed to do?" She spread her arms. "I'm not going to wait around for another attack."

"You and I?" He smiled. "Well, after I get finished taking all these blankets off—Buck has modern rain gear, you know—I'm going to strip you naked, lick between your thighs, and make you come very hard."

Tenzin's fangs were always down, but they got longer when her blood moved. "Is that the plan?"

"Then, after a couple of hours of that, if we still have some night left, you and I are going to go through Gavin's list and start tracking all the day people we can find who have worked for Henri Paulson. I want to find out who's picking up that cash in Vancouver and where they're taking it."

"A couple of hours?" Her lips heated at the thought. Ben was very good at the thing he was describing.

"Mm-hmm." He unwound the last scarf from around her neck and trailed his fingers around her collarbone. "I'm still mad that you left me." His light touch skimmed over the top of her clothes, circling her nipples, which rose at the sensation of his fingers over her skin. "I might need to torment you a little bit."

"This is not tormenting behavior, Benjamin."

Ben reached down and cupped her sex with one hand as he put the other around her throat, holding her still as his fangs scraped along her exposed neck.

"Not yet." His tongue flicked against the sudden pulse that rose in her veins. "But don't worry; we'll get there."