Vampire Nation 3: Titan Rules, page 7
“He told Micah he didn’t know why I was headed here but he must have known more. What was the council told about my mission?”
“They weren’t told any reasons or plans. I let them know you were going there a few hours ago. This must have been Menolo’s first opportunity to call Micah. You might have already been in Montreal before I spoke to the council on a conference call. Menolo is hosting an event so he had duties that would keep him busy.” Arria was angry. She was doing a good job of controlling her temper but the anger was showing in her voice.
“So, another council member.” I said, plainly. I knew Arria would understand. It complicated things but not too badly.
“We may use Menolo by the time this is done. I will make sure Lorac and some of the others know not to trust him. Maybe this can be beneficial.”
“I will keep snooping. We’ll see if more old ones are a part of this.”
“Be careful, Titan.”
“I will.”
We disconnected.
I stayed in the empty room for a while. All of these fighter quarters looked exactly the same. My mind drifted back to my days as a fighter. My friends would all gather in my room to talk. We shared some good laughs.
Now, I was too mentally exhausted to even smile. It had been three days since Ghost made his ominous statements. It was hard to go too long without going back over that conversation. I was tired of thinking about it now. I was simply tired.
This trip sounded like a good diversion for me. I could do some simple spying. I wouldn’t even need to speak except on the phone with Arria or Ghost. I already knew I would limit the phone calls to Ghost since I still might get a headache from his mental gymnastics. Besides, he was hiding more than he was sharing these days.
I knew there wasn’t any pressure at the moment. It brought a smile to my face when the thought hit me to get some sleep. I already had a room now. No one would come to this part of Horace’s facility since there wasn’t a group of fighters assigned to this section.
I made sure the illusion would stay in place as I slept. No need to be reckless.
I woke refreshed. I felt for the illusion out of reflex and found it still in effect. Good. I smiled at the memory of how the Darius illusion drained me. Now, I wasn’t feeling it nearly as much. My strength had really grown over the past year.
My smile faded as I headed out to continue my spying. It took a while to find anyone. When I did, I grabbed for my phone but waited before calling.
I ran from room to room. Section to section. I scoured the whole facility. All dead. I ran to each of the exits to see if I could find how the killer left. There weren’t any clues that I could see.
I made the call to Arria.
“Hello?”
“They’re all dead. It is a lot like Gnome’s facility. The only difference is the incinerator wasn’t used. The bodies were left as they fell.”
Silence. I hated to be the one to have to tell her this news. She was the leader of the council though. She would need to be the first one called even if I weren’t in love with her.
“Wait there. Keep your phone with you. I will call soon.” Arria hung up after her brief statements.
Chapter 9
Arria, Ghost, and Lorac landed just before morning. I’d spent the entire night surrounded by corpses. Arria asked me to make a round and try to find the most interesting areas. Truthfully, there weren’t any. Headless corpses were headless corpses.
I waited in the hangar for the plane. Employees of both Arria and Lorac would be working the cleanup. I didn’t envy them. There were seven teams here. That would mean old ones, employees, and fighters for each of the six visiting teams. Horace had a full house of vampires for his facility.
Arria led the progression down the ramp. Lorac and Ghost followed. I waited at the bottom, solemnly. Arria hugged me and gave a quick kiss for a greeting.
“Anything of note?” Lorac asked.
“No. Everything is as I described. No struggle or damage anywhere. Only headless corpses.” I informed him.
The employees were told to remain in the waiting room as the shaft first enters the actual facility. Lorac and Arria wanted to see everything to draw their own conclusions. Ghost and I followed along as they went from place to place through the tomb.
“I take it you slept under cover of the illusion.” Ghost stated somewhere between a question and a fact.
“I did. No need to take chances. I would have heard if my door opened though. The killer didn’t check to see if the room was occupied.”
“I’ve seen enough. This is like Gnome’s facility only worse. No struggle. The oldest of the old ones was twenty one hundred. That narrows things down somewhat.” Arria was trying to hide her frustration. Lorac knew her too well. Ghost could read a wall. I’d made it my life’s goal to understand how she felt so I could make her happier. She didn’t fool anyone.
“I’ll go get everyone started on clearing the bodies.” I offered.
I turned to leave when Ghost stopped me.
“I’ll go with you.”
“Make sure everyone works in groups. If one is attacked, the rest run. Scattering if possible. Tell them not to try and fight. They should try to find one of the three of us.” Arria warned.
“Ghost, stay very close to Titan.” Lorac insisted.
“Yes, Lorac, Arria.” Ghost said, with a slight bow.
I saw more with the bow. I felt bad for my friend then. That plane ride must have been hell for him. If I was seeing things right, Arria and Lorac were pressuring him to speak his thoughts. Ghost wouldn’t if he thought it best for the whole.
Once we were away from our old ones, I asked.
“How bad were they pressuring you?”
“They tried everything, including threats and bribery.”
“Sorry. I won’t ask. I understand enough to know ignorance may be bliss from time to time. I trust you.” I meant it. I knew he would see that.
“Thank you.”
Horace’s peach colored hallways weren’t as cheerful as they were intended to be. Ghost and I took our time getting to the employees.
Apollo sat facing the door we entered. He was the first to come to us. The others came immediately after.
“Listen up everyone.” I spoke a little louder to make sure all of them would hear. “There are hundreds of bodies here that need to be taken to the incinerator. We need you to split into groups of five and begin taking the bodies down to be burned. Part of Arria’s group has done this once already, though there weren’t nearly as many corpses. Be on your toes. I have searched this place as carefully as I could but I haven’t found the killer. I am fairly sure he is gone. Just in case, you need to know not to try and fight. If you are attacked, run away. Try to find Arria, Lorac, or me. I will be in the lobby room. If you can scatter when you run, it might help you get away. Reptile, you know the layout better than the rest. Please assign sections for each group to clean. Let me know if you have any problems.”
“Yes, Titan.” Reptile said, respectfully. He still treated me like an old one. He even bowed some of the time even though I asked him not to do that anymore. He turned to face the rest of the employees then. “If you would break into groups of five, I will give you an area to clean…”
I nudged Ghost and walked away.
The lobby room was the most comfortable place I could think of to pass the time by while we waited. Ghost and I sat without speaking. I kept a slight eye on his mind in case he wanted to tell me anything. I made sure not to watch too closely though. I didn’t want the headache.
Ghost looked worried. He knew he didn’t have to hide his feelings and knew I wouldn’t pry. I could tell it was serious.
I decided to try again. I’d been over every scrap of knowledge pertaining to our current crisis but couldn’t find the big worry Ghost was dealing with now.
Ares wasn’t to blame. I didn’t do it. I was fairly sure none of the council would get their hands this dirty. That left Cronus, a small number of old ones who were capable, or a group of old ones acting together.
Gnome was eighteen hundred. One here, I didn’t know which one, had been twenty one hundred years old. It would take someone near to Gronk in age and ability to kill everyone in this facility.
So, we only had a small amount of suspects. Gnome was no longer among them. I figured since one here was older, he couldn’t pull it off unless he had help. That would put things back into the group category.
Ghost became worried after hearing the warnings Ares gave me about Cronus. I wondered if Ghost got his word with Ares like he said he needed. I would have to ask.
“Don’t tell me anything you feel you shouldn’t but I was wondering if you’ve spoken to Ares again.” I left him an easy out.
“Yes. He answered a few questions for me.” Ghost gave me a look that said he wouldn’t divulge any information from that conversation.
“Good enough. It will help me with my own thinking.” I was about to sit back and dive in further but Ghost stopped me.
“Don’t. For now, just play along.”
“You got it…You did hear about Menolo right? He is a part of what Micah was planning with the extra fights.” I asked so we could have a subject change. Ghost’s slight grin let me know he understood completely.
“Yep. Arria was furious and Lorac wasn’t too happy himself. They will be calling Menolo in soon. There will probably be another council meeting. I would expect Menolo’s replacement to be called in soon after.”
Ghost and I dodged the main problem with small talk and comfortable silence while the facility was cleared of the bodies. It seemed to take forever.
The plane ride was a quiet trip. Ghost and I sat in the luxury section with Arria and Lorac. I had half a mind to go sit with Reptile and talk to him but knew Arria wouldn’t approve. Arria and I had our hands linked as had become our custom.
As we entered Arria’s facility, the employees were just as somber. I watched as my group of friends all made their way into the dull green shaft.
“We need to brace ourselves. There will be an onslaught of allegations coming. They will be aimed at Titan.” Ghost warned.
I already reached that conclusion. It was kind of like breathing to a human, it was simply a part of my life. I understood this would be more of an uproar than before though.
Arria and Lorac must have felt the same. Together, we made our way into Arria’s facility.
I sat in the lobby room with my friends. We had our full group now since Sweetie and Ghost were with us. We were trying to avoid the bad stuff but it kept coming back to invade our conversation.
“So, where is Ares now? I would think he is trying to stop this stuff too.” Apollo asked Sweetie.
“He called last night but wouldn’t talk about it. He tries to protect me from anything that might be bad. He wouldn’t even tell me where he is right now.” Sweetie told us.
“He is helping.” Ghost stated. We waited for clarification but it didn’t come.
“What is the council doing? Are they going to have another meeting?” Jade asked.
All eyes turned to me. Well not Ghost’s. He was too busy trying to shut his mind down for a while.
“They are on their way here. Two will arrive tonight. The rest will be here tomorrow. There isn’t much they can do though. I have some ideas of what they will want moving forward but it won’t help.” I noticed Ghost’s reaction. The look he gave let me know he wanted to hear those thoughts in more detail. So much for his mental break. “I expect them to send a council member to each event in the near future. Or at least as many as they can attend. It will be a show of trying to keep the old ones safe while showing there isn’t any reason to panic.”
“Did Aria tell you that?” Venus asked.
“No, it is just what I expect to happen. There will be one big problem though. I’m pretty sure the old ones won’t be willing to accept Arria on their card if they can help it.” I figured they could figure out why.
“Why” Pan asked. He hadn’t seen the things that would make this as plain as it was for the others.
“The old ones will be accusing Titan of doing the killing. They won’t want Titan anywhere near their facilities.” Ghost answered for me.
“I don’t get it. You explained the act of being Darius. I understand how different your gift is. I heard about what Ares did. Still, anyone who knows you can see that you are good. You wouldn’t do this kind of thing.” Pan argued.
“Some of it is the old ones themselves. I was acting as Emelia the way Titan was acting as Darius. It is an entirely different world with them. They lost sight of how a real person should behave. Almost all of them have some underhanded dealings. They are spoiled and self-serving.” Sweetie smiled then unexpectedly. “Although there was one, Hermes, he was really nice. Apollo, you need to meet him one day. The two of you would get along perfectly.”
I smiled. The same thought crossed my mind more than once.
We were interrupted by my phone ringing. Ghost’s phone rang a split second after mine. We grimaced knowing our free time was over.
“Hello?” I answered.
“Yes, Lorac.” Ghost answered.
“Come to the council chamber.”
“Come to the council chamber.”
Our friends all had smiles as they watched the simultaneous calls.
“Yes, Arria.”
“Yes, Lorac.”
I felt my smile replace the earlier grimace.
“Sorry guys, duty calls.” I told them.
“Hehe, you said duty.” Speedy was laughing. Everyone joined in as Ghost and I walked away.
Arria and Lorac weren’t alone. Dmitriy was already here. Ghost and I made our way to where they were standing.
“We expected it and Dmitriy is confirming it. The old ones are blaming you. Since you were at both places and had the opportunity, they believe you are responsible.” Arria told me as I moved to stand near her.
“I’m not surprised. Like you said, we were expecting it.” I replied.
“The old ones keep calling me to demand your head on a platter. I tried to defend you but they won’t listen.” Dmitriy was being honest, I could tell.
“It has been like this since I was turned, Dmitriy. I’m used to it.” It didn’t mean I liked it.
“So, what’s the plan?” Ghost asked.
Ghost’s words threw me. He was the planner. It was his intellect the rest of us relied on. That being said, it threw me again to think he didn’t know what they would do before they decided to do it.
I looked into his mind and saw. He already knew. He was making it a point for Lorac to not pose the same question to him.
Lorac didn’t like it. I could tell.
Arria was looking from one of us to another, while growing both amused and frustrated.
Dmitriy was smiling in his confusion.
“I’m expecting some explanation. I know something is up.” Dmitriy broke into our wordless discussion.
All eyes turned to me. Arria decided to be the one to speak.
“Titan, you seem to be the one to handle what to tell Dmitriy.” Her anger was apparent but I knew it wasn’t completely aimed at me and Ghost.
“Dmitriy, we are in a bind. All of us, including you.” I paused to decide how to word this. “I am being set up as the killer. There will likely be more killings to come where I will appear the guilty one. If we act too hastily, or in the wrong way, the killings might hit closer to home.”
I made a pointed look to Arria when I said that. She saw the look and couldn’t hide her shock. Lorac caught up just as quickly. Both of them turned to Ghost with apologies on the tips of their tongues. Ghost held up his hand with a slight smile and pointed back to me. I understood.
“For now, we need to play along until the real killer is tired of his game. Unfortunately, many more old ones might die along with a few hundred less guilty vampires.” I finished out the explanation but decided to add one more thing. “Don’t trust the new council members, Dmitriy. Sabina, Alexander, Lorac, and Arria are okay but the new ones shouldn’t be told any of this.”
“You might need to tell us about that part. We knew about Menolo. Why not the rest?” Lorac asked.
“One of them is helping the killer. Not Menolo.” A few things were clicking for me.
I saw Ghost smiling when he saw me catching up to what he thought should be obvious. I gave him a fake mean look that made him laugh.
“What is so funny?” Arria asked.
“Ghost is kind of making fun of how long it is taking me to catch up to the things he’s known for some time. He likes to make me work for my knowledge.” I said, as I smiled down at Arria’s beautiful face.
“I will never understand how you two can have a full conversation without opening your mouth. It isn’t even the mind reading from what you’ve told me.” Arria shook her head.
“It is painful to be a mind reader around Ghost. I stay out of his head unless the situation demands it. I’ve seen the same from Titan.” Lorac added.
“Why? I don’t understand that.” Dmitriy didn’t know the full extent of Ghost mind. “It looks like it would be fascinating.”
“He thinks so much faster than a normal human or vampire. It actually makes my head hurt to try and keep up with him.” Lorac admitted. “As for the wordless conversations these two have, I wouldn’t mind hearing how that is possible myself.”
“Part of it is a sad upbringing in my case. Ghost is just too damn smart. Reading people is a skill that comes in handy.” I offered as a slight explanation.
Arria asked once about my childhood. I told her enough but left out some of the worst things. When you have abusive parents, you learn to read everything like body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice changes. It might mean the difference in how many beatings you have to endure.
