9. James

JAMES

In the light of morning, after the intrusion by the hunters, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. What in the hell had they been up to? Gabriel and Silas went off to track the ones who we’d let escape so we could uncover their trap, but my senses buzzed with an underlying current of unease.

It was the sudden silence that alerted me to the fact that something was amiss.

I sprinted down the hallway, my vision going to red, my worst fears confirmed when I discovered the scene of chaos in her bedroom. Rose was gone.

The shattered remnants of Rose’s bedroom door pushed an ice-cold rage through me.?I let out an unholy, dark roar, the monster inside pushing to be released, to fight, to destroy. It took every bit of training I’d had from day one until right this second to reign my anger in and search for clues.

But make no mistake. When I found those who’d taken my Rose, they would suffer by my hand.

An open window.?The scent of her fear lingered in the air, and the distant echo of her desperate cries haunted my thoughts. I clenched my fists, the anger and frustration coursing through me like a torrent.

While we’d been outside distracted by the hunters on the roof, someone else had been in the castle fucking kidnapping Rose. We hadn’t taken the threats seriously enough. But who the hell wanted to steal my sweet, plump human?

“James?” Mary rushed into the room, looking as primped and polished as ever. I hadn’t even thought to check on her. Fuck. I really was losing my mind to this mating need. There was no ignoring the waves of guilt and fear that threatened to overwhelm me, but I’d trained to suppress those kinds of emotions. Especially after the failed affair with Mary.

Locating Rose and ensuring her safe return, no matter the cost, had to be my only focus. I didn’t care if it meant leaving Mary and the Council of Princesses here and unguarded. V could absolutely fire me, as long as Rose was safe.

“Did you see anything? Hear anything?” I snapped at her, not caring one wit about her station or my place.

“Oh no. What happened?” Mary’s hands flew to her mouth, covering her shock and fear.

They were all going to die. I may have been on babysitting duty, but I was trained to be an absolutely lethal weapon. I methodically searched for clues to her whereabouts, determined to track her down and make her captors pay for daring to touch her.

I grabbed my communicator from my belt and barked into it. “Code seven. I repeat, code seven. All agents report to the left wing, second-floor guest suite. Now.”

Gabriel used a power that only the most ancient of vampires had mastered. Within seconds fog filtered into Rose’s room through the window, and he appeared out of the mist. He glanced around the room, taking in the destruction, noting Mary’s presence. Then he turned to me, and I saw the blood red in his eyes. He was almost as infuriated as I was. Almost. “Vond. Sit rep.”

“Rose has been taken.” I couldn’t definitely say it was The Order, but I had no doubt we’d find proof of that pretty damn quick. I wanted nothing more than to dash out the front door and run after her, but I had failed her once already. I wasn’t about to go off half-cocked, not knowing which direction to run.

No, this rescue mission would be calculated and deadly.

Fleming appeared a moment later, took one look at the room, and pulled out a scanner straight out of some sci-fi movie. Lights flashed, and the thing beeped and booped, and if F didn’t give me some valuable information in the next naught point two seconds, I was going to smash the thing to bits.

“Noise suppressing ward, and strangely, a doppelganger charm, that must be how they snuck in undetected. But definitely humans. Three or four.”

Fine. F could keep his gadgets intact.

Gabriel scowled. “They want to destroy all supernaturals, but happily use magic when it suits their purposes.”

The Order. No ordinary vampire hunters. Humans whose lineage of terror against supernatural beings went all the way back to the Knights Templar. They feared and hated all immortals, supernaturals, and anyone who associated with us. The bane of our existence and the reason V had started the Vampire Intelligence Agency in the first place.

If they hurt a hair on Rose’s head, her body, or even a fucking eyelash, I would be the vampire to destroy them.

Fleming put away his toy and continued his report. “Whoever they were, they were very good at covering their tracks. I didn’t detect any blood, and it looks as if the lady put up one hell of a fight.

I knew Rose would be a fighter. When I got her back, she and I would do some official self-defense training. Not that I ever expected her to need to use it with me by her side. And it was when, not if. When I got her back.

“I can smell the aroma of her blood.”

“You can?” Fleming took his machine back out and scanned in my direction. “I’ve got nothing.”

“She smells like chocolate cake.”

Gabriel, Fleming, and Mary all raised their eyebrows at that. I ignored them and followed my senses to track her trail as I should have done in the beginning. It didn’t matter who’d taken her. I would kill them no matter what.

I followed her scent down the stairs and out a side door. The exit led to into the castle’s courtyard which acted like a parking lot. I rushed outside and recoiled in the strong sunlight blanketing that side of the castle. Shit. One more smart move on the kidnappers’ part.

I grabbed one of the vials of serum of sun Fleming had given me and dowsed myself in it. The shimmering coating it left on my skin would reflect the sun for a few hours, and I’d need every second I could get.

There, scuffed marks on the gravel, leading from the side of the castle. Someone had tried to cover them up. Sloppily and in a hurry if I had to guess. They knew Gabriel and I would only be preoccupied for a brief period of time.

“Silas here.” Our communicators crackled. “I found an abandoned catering van, its doors ajar and the engine still warm. Looks like this was their escape vehicle, but the trail is cold from here. No scents at all.”

“Gabriel. Put out an all points notice. They can’t have gotten far.” Gabriel nodded, and I knew full well he’d get grief from V for using our resources for this. Humans weren’t our priority. Finding Rose wasn’t either. Gabriel needed to make sure the Black Castle of Moulin went into lockdown, and all the immortals in, around, and nearby were secure. Rose was likely a ploy in a bigger plot to get to the Council of Princesses.

Until V redirected the resources for those duties, I’d use everything at my disposal. “Let me know if you get any hits. I’m going hunting.” I wouldn’t ask for more help than that. I may be ending my career, but the VIA black ops team needed their leader.

I began the hunt for the woman who I didn’t want to mean so much to me, but who was rapidly becoming my entire world, by turning into my bat form. I could cover more ground that way, and any onlookers would assume I was some kind of bird.

Rose’s chocolate scent led me straight to Silas, who was still examining the abandoned vehicle. I landed beside him, popping back into my vampire form so we could speak. “Have you found anything more?”

“No, sir. However, I was about to head toward the airfield and search there.”

Fuck. Fuckity, fucking fuckballs. The car was indeed left less than a kilometer from our own damned airstrip. “How the hell had they gotten access without us even fucking noticing?”

“I may be new to the VIA, but it sounds like we’ve got a mole.” Silas said that like he’d cracked the case. Perhaps he had.

I glared at him for a full minute, and to his credit, he didn’t back down even a centimeter. If I hadn’t known who his father was, I might suspect him. He was the newb. “I am assigning you the mission of finding out who betrayed us. You report your findings to no one except for me and Gabriel. Got it?”

He replied with only a simple nod. I’d better be able to fucking trust this kid. He was only a hundred years old, after all.

With this new insight, I had to be careful about using anymore of VIA’s personnel or resources.

My supernatural speed got me to sprint to the airstrip in no time, following Rose’s sweet aroma. But once there, I found exactly nothing. If they’d put Rose on a plane, even I wouldn’t be able to track her scent. The plane she and I arrived in was hidden away in the hangar, and it wouldn’t take me long to get her up into the air. I flew fast, but not as fast as the VIA jet.

The moment I walked into the hangar, it was obvious the culprits had been here. They might think they’d hidden their sabotage, but it took only a second glance to see that the jet had been tampered with. I slammed my fist through the metal nose of the plane.

If my communicator hadn’t beeped, I might have torn the entire thing to shreds. “Vond. I just got a report from an agent in London. He reported known members of The Order taking an unconscious woman into a restaurant.”

“Where?”

“I’m having him call you directly. Expect him now.” Gabe hung up, and right on cue, my phone rang.

“Vond.” The agent’s voice crackled through the phone like we had a poor connection, interrupting my frantic pacing. “The restaurant is located at 61 Jermyn St, St. James’s.”

St. James, huh? Sus-fucking-spicious.

This whole thing had the flavor of some kind of personal vendetta against me and had nothing to do with the Royal Immortals at all. Sure, I’d offed plenty of Order zealots in my time. But this was war. I’d never heard of The Order putting hits out on any one vampire. They didn’t even think of us as deserving of a name, much less individual attention.

“Thank you,” I replied with renewed determination. With the location in hand, all that was left was to rescue Rose and put an end to this madness. Except, that wasn’t it. There was something more nefarious afoot here.

“Be careful, Vond. Trust no one from here on out. Not only is The Order here, I’ve sensed the presence of other vampires.”

I realized after they disconnected that I had no idea who that agent was and, of course, the call had come in from a secure unknown number. I relied on my instincts which told me from some place deeply seeded, that I could trust this intel and that warning. I’d have to check in with Gabriel later to find out who had broken the lead in this case. They knew as well as I did that this rescue mission wasn’t going to be a walk in the park.

“Rose,” I whispered, taking a moment to gather my thoughts and plan my next move. “Hold on just a little longer—I’m coming for you.”

This was one of those times I wished I had Gabriel’s gift of apperating anywhere he fucking wanted to. I’d be adding that skill to my training list when this was over. I didn’t care if it took another five hundred years to master.

Since I didn’t have that ability, I dowsed myself with a second vial of serum of sun, because this was going to be a long fucking flight.

I’d never flown so far, so fast in my centuries of life. But more than seven-hundred kilometers later, I was there. The late afternoon sun exhausted me, and I was badly in need of some sustenance. All the more reason to find Rose.

Because I wasn’t denying myself her sweet blood any longer. Not if she agreed to share herself with me. If she didn’t, well, I’d burn that bridge when I got to it.

“61 Jermyn St, St. James’s” echoed in my mind as I approached the restaurant. The upscale yet old-world exterior radiated a deceptive air of innocence. I took a deep breath before entering, only to be assaulted by the overpowering scent of garlic. My senses reeled, and I struggled to maintain focus.

Yeah. The Order was here, and they knew I was coming. I couldn’t smell for shit.

“Get a grip, James,” I murmured to myself, shaken but determined. “You’re here for Rose.”

“Buonasera, signore,”greeted the hostess, her eyes momentarily meeting mine before flickering away. I couldn’t even smell her. Which was fine, she likely smelled like dog’s ass. “Table for one?”

“Actually,”I said, forcing a smile, “I’m just looking for someone.”

“Of course,”she replied with a knowing nod, turning her attention elsewhere.

I movedthrough the dining area, scanning the faces of the patrons while trying to ignore the discomfort caused by the garlic-saturated air. At last, I spotted a door leading to the back rooms. I knew I’d find Rose there—I just had to get past the vampire hunters staring back at me first.