Chapter 5
Norway
Ciara paid the young whore named Ebbe to take a night off and, once she had disappeared into the night, the witch transformed herself into the buxom blonde girl with a flick of her hand. She entered the tavern that sat on the border between a small town and the Norwegian wilderness and waved to the bartender as she shed her blue parka.
Looking down at herself, she sighed. A microscopic tank top and a pair of jeans so tight she feared they might cut off her circulation. Ciara looked around as someone whistled appreciatively. A heavily-muscled vampire with a black goatee and a satanic leer. Great. She hoped she'd find her contact soon as she headed to the bar to stake out a stool and survey the Thursday night crowd of loggers, woodsmen and drifters.
A man approached from behind, which would have put her on alert if not for the slight Scottish burr she picked up in his soft words. "Ah, lass, my night just got a whole lot better."
She turned to him and smiled. "I'm Ebbe."
"Eric," he said. "Can I buy you a drink?"
When they had both settled with her beer and his wine, he looked at her impressive chest and his smile widened. "I like what I'm seeing, lass."
Her eyes widened and he pointed to the tattoo of the Norse goddess Freyja on her shoulder blade. "Goddess of love. I have a lot of interesting tattoos but I can't really take my shirt off here and show you, unfortunately."
"I'd love to see them. And I have a few more too. In places I can't reveal here without getting arrested. There's a room upstairs where we can… see what we both have to offer?"
Gallowglass gulped the rest of his wine and asked the bartender for a full bottle. Once he had it, he took Ciara by the other hand and headed for the stairs. The satanic looking vampire grabbed her other arm and stopped their progress.
"This looks like the tastiest morsel here tonight, Eric," he said. "I'm sure she can handle us both—"
Gallowglass' eyes narrowed and he used his vice-like grip to remove the other vampire's hand from Ciara's arm. "I don't share, Valerian. Get your own girl tonight. Maybe Ebbe will be available tomorrow night. If I'm not here, that is."
He moved himself and Ciara quickly to the stairs and they disappeared into a door at the top of the landing.
"Good God, girl," Gallowglass said. "Please do like ya usually do—"
Ciara immediately made a circle with her hand and shielded the space. Over the next hours, only the expected noises would be heard from within.
"And change back into Ciara," Gallowglass finished his thought. His face broke into a wide grin when she reverted to herself, and he took her up into his arms and into a giant bear hug. "I've missed you."
"Me too," she said, the words smothered by his kiss.
Ireland
After much arguing and a few near brawls, the group arrived at a division of responsibility. Marcus, Miriam and Chris would take blood samples from the O'Connelly witches, and Caitlin would magically transport them to the lab in London to perform the tests they needed. Baldwin had flatly refused to allow her to go to Sept-Tours with the reasoning that she did not know the property at all, and it would not do to have both of the twins' parents in danger. It helped that she apparently did not want to be anywhere near him so she agreed without argument.
Matthew tried the same logic with Diana but she did know Sept-Tours and would recognize Sidonie von Borcke's magical signature, if she was indeed involved. And Diana simply refused to allow Matthew to keep her from going along. Áine would take them to Sept-Tours using the same transport spell they had used to bring them all to Ireland. Fernando would accompany them, as well as Conor O'Neill.
Patrick, Dimitrios and Philippe would hold down the fort in the war room while Sarah, Ysabeau, Agnes, Sophie and Jack kept all the children safe and amused. Hamish and Nathaniel would use their computers to troll the internet looking for suspicious money transfers or other evidence that large sums were being marshaled to wage war on the de Clermonts. And determine where in the world they were initiated.
London
Caitlin materialized in the London lab with Miriam, Marcus and Chris. The three scientists immediately started to prepare the lab for the work they needed to do, but she stopped them. She said a few words in quiet, melodious Irish and moved her hand in a big circle. "Okay," she said. "You can turn on the lights. I've shielded the windows so they will continue to look dark from outside. No sound will escape either."
Miriam looked at Marcus. "I'm beginning to wonder how we prospered for millennia without the aid of witches," she murmured.
Marcus grinned, knowing that admission was a steep hurdle for Miriam to climb. Then they set to work with Chris, using the carefully labeled vials of blood and cheek swabs they had taken from all the O'Connelly witches.
Cait rolled a stool out from under one of the worktables, and then simply observed. She had a lot of questions but didn't wish to distract them until they had finished the first phase of their process and would take a short break while the technology did its work. When that happened, Marcus poured himself and Miriam a cup of blood from their little fridge while Chris went with Caitlin to a common room a floor below that had a few vending machines. She shielded the windows there, and he used all his change to get them a coffee, a tea, and some biscuits. Spying a package of nuts, he cursed quietly, wishing he'd gotten some for Miriam and Marcus.
Caitlin smiled and waved a hand at the machine, whereupon the digital display showed the required amount and she hit the right button. The nuts dropped down the chute and Chris reached in and grabbed them. "That's handy."
"Just don't tell my grandmam," she said with a smile. "I'll just say a few Hail Mary's when we get home."
They were laughing companionably when they returned to the lab and shared their haul.
Miriam jumped into the void the moment they sat down. "How did you meet Baldwin?" she asked. "He's not generally known to mix with humans except in business. And never witches as far as I know."
"We met in New York, at a charity gala. I was coming down the stairs and I felt a vampire's stare. It's… something unique and different, easily discernible from human gazes. I was cloaked so he didn't know I'm a witch."
"And then I saw who it was coming from and—I knew him. The witches in my family all have prophetic dreams. We 'see' the one we are meant for, long before we meet them."
"It will be interesting to see how that manifests in your DNA," Chris said.
"I had seen him many times since I was a child. Dressed as a Roman soldier, a British or French soldier. In a suit of armor. In a business suit. On a speedboat, in a room in an ancient castle in Italy…."
"You were seeing him in many different lives," Miriam said. She had seen Lucius a/k/a/ Baldwin de Clermont in all of them.
"Apparently, though the part about him being a vampire never came through in my dreams. To be honest, with all the costumes, I was kind of expecting an actor—"
Miriam nearly laughed herself sick, along with Marcus and Chris.
"That's rich," Marcus finally said when he could speak again. "You have to tell Baldwin that."
"And now, you must have questions for us, Caitlin," Chris said as he took last swig of his now cool coffee.
"Not sure I even know where to begin. This is more Áine's area than mine. How long will it take to sequence the DNA?"
"We'll have some basic information before we leave today," Marcus said. "But the samples will continue to run automatically overnight through a number of different analyses. In about 24 hours, we'll be able to tell you which witch Clan your family is from, and be able to start comparing your weaver DNA with Diana's and Margaret's—"
"That's faster than I expected," Cait said.
"Yes, well, we have some new, experimental processes and technology that Matthew developed," Chris said. He looked at Marcus and Miriam. "And that we WILL be sharing with the rest of the world soon."
Marcus nodded but Miriam looked skeptical. Matthew was not known to want to connect with the larger world of humans unless absolutely necessary. He generally only did it through scholarly articles in academic publications and even that was rare. The new sequencing machine would bring some notoriety in scientific circles.
"We've had so few samples of weaver DNA, we don't know as much as we should," Chris continued. He disapproved of the fact Matthew had not let them collect samples from Rebecca and Philip. And while Caitlin had agreed, Baldwin had put his foot down on taking samples from their sons. So Chris and Marcus had only gotten their cheek swabs and blood after Caitlin was sure Baldwin was at Sept-Tours. Diana had already confirmed they could not be weavers, since Baldwin had no blood rage. Brendan and Caelin still might be plain vanilla witches though.
"Thanks for letting us take samples from the boys," Chris said.
Miriam's eyebrows rose nearly to her hairline. "Baldwin forbade it." Then she looked directly at the witch. "You have a lot to learn about vampires, Caitlin."
"They are my sons too," Caitlin said. "And legally I am their sole parent, and the custodial parent. Baldwin's name is not on their birth certificates."
"There's human law. And there's vampire law and etiquette. They are his sons…"
"That he doesn't really want to acknowledge," Cait retorted. "I think I am fully within my rights here. And I have my suspicions about the boys even though a witch's powers often don't start to show until around the time of their seventh birthday. I'd like to know for sure."
Miriam grimaced, and nodded. "I am glad we have their samples. But I don't want to be there when Baldwin finds out."
Marcus grunted. "We may want to find out how to travel to another planet before that happens." He looked to Cait. "Can witches…?"
"No," she laughed. "Sorry but I don't know anyone who has perfected that spell yet. Other than that TV witch who wiggled her nose. I think she went to the moon once…."
Sept-Tours
Áine and Diana had first gone to Glasgow to pick up Janet Gowdie, the Scottish witch who took Peter Knox's place on the Congregation. And who had helped Diana remove the wards Knox placed around the facility at Chelm where Matthew was held captive two years earlier.
After considering how much better the Scottish witch knew Sidonie von Borcke's magic, Diana thought it would be helpful to have her along.
On arrival, Áine cloaked the windows to ensure no one outside would see or hear anything from the interior.
Matthew, Baldwin and Fernando arrived just after the witches, using the technology the Tempus Conduci used when they were not accompanied by an O'Connelly witch.
"You must teach me that transport spell," Janet bubbled over to Áine as soon as the cloaking was completed. "Unless it's another weaver thing—"
"I think it may be, Janet," Diana said "and I haven't learned it yet either. But we can try to distill it to something usable by other witches. Once we are well past the current emergency."
"Speaking of which, we need to get started," Baldwin said firmly.
"Right," Diana said as she roamed around the massive great room where she'd spent so many pleasant hours with Matthew and Ysabeau. "I feel a magical vibration that does not have Áine's or Nora's signature…"
"Yes," Áine said. "It emanates from at least two places within the structure."
"And the wards were cast by Sidonie," Janet said. "I'm sure of that. I can't be certain but there may be another witch working with her."
"I think there is too," Diana agreed. "That's why Áine can feel two distinct signatures. And there may be more than two devices."
"Tell us where," Matthew said. "We need to disable them quickly. They may not be set to go off until the de Clermonts are all here but—I don't put it past Benjamin's family to simply blow up Sept-Tours out of spite. Or even accidentally."
"Remember, we need to do it in a way that does not tip off Benjamin's family," Baldwin said. "And Diana, are we sure there are no magical 'trip wires' in the building that might send out a warning signal."
"There are several wards here, set up by Sidonie," Janet replied first. "Diana and I can shut them down the same way we did at Chelm, without alerting anyone outside."
Once that was done, Janet took Baldwin and Áine to a place in the highest tower floor where she sensed Sidonie's magic, and Diana showed Matthew where a second device was. He hissed at the placement at the center of Sept-Tours. "This one alone would bring the entire place down."
Diana briefly rested a hand on his arm and started to speak. "With knot of one, the spell's begun, with know of two, the spell be true…"
Behind a large piece of wood furniture in the largest, tallest tower, Janet and Áine pointed to a place where Baldwin saw nothing.
"It's behind a disguising spell," Janet said, as she murmured something. A device with a single blinking light appeared.
"It's not armed yet," Baldwin said, moving the heavy wardrobe with a single hand. "I think that would happen when the second light goes on. Now we need to disarm it in a way that won't be seen by the sons of bitches who put it here."
Áine murmured a few words and immediately the device was encased in concrete. "That should do it."
Baldwin nodded, impressed. "Now we tour the rest of the building. To locate any other bombs. And anything else suspicious." He was aware that Matthew and Diana had already discovered and disarmed a third device, having overheard them speaking about it. And he knew Matthew would hear him spell out their next steps. "We'll cover the other two towers on this side. Matthew and Diana can check the other three including his tower."
No other devices were found but Fernando and Conor had conducted a search of the building looking for security breaches, and found the door locks in the kitchen and storage areas had been tampered with. "That must be how they planned to enter to take Diana and Rebecca," Fernando said.
"One of the garden doors was also tampered with," Conor added.
"Not a chance I would have let that happen," Matthew growled but had they not known this travesty was a possibility, he knew in his heart that his wife and daughter might have been left relatively unguarded inside Sept-Tours. Or in the gardens. They had been so used to thinking of this place as one other vampires and creatures would not breach. But they had now, more than once.
"I picked up at least one scent I don't recognize when we first got here," Baldwin said.
"They've been inside," Diana replied. "To set the bombs in place."
"No, mon coeur," Matthew said. "He means right now. Baldwin and I will go outside and check for a vampire, possibly two, who are watching Sept-Tours right now."
"We'll go with you—"
"No, sister," Baldwin said. "This step is best done by vampires. Just wait here. Fernando will stay and make sure you're all safe."
Fernando nodded. He had fought alongside Baldwin many times over the centuries and knew he could develop a sound strategy on a moment's notice. However much he disliked the other vampire's overbearing nature, he respected his military capabilities.
"I'll just stay here too, as an extra precaution," Conor said pointedly. He was growing tired of Baldwin ignoring him but understood the next part was for the vampires to do.
Baldwin and Matthew slipped outside by a kitchen door and then began to silently and quickly circuit the chateau. Baldwin touched Matthew lightly on the arm and nodded toward a cropping of trees. Matthew nodded back and they performed a maneuver they had done countless times when engaged in battle against their enemies. Matthew circled one way, and Baldwin the other. By the time Baldwin arrived, Matthew had already killed one vampire. The other had lunged for Matthew but Baldwin hit him like a bolt of lighting from behind, snapping off his head. He then walked over to the other dead vampire and severed his head in a single twist.
"I don't pick up any other scents," Baldwin said. "We should bury these two so the rest of the family won't know for sure they're dead."
He went back to the storage area and retrieved two shovels. They speedily dug one deep hole and another smaller but just as deep, throwing the heads in that one and the bodies in the other. They finished off by throwing the shovels in the longer grave and covering it with a few more inches of dirt, leaves and moss using their hands.
While the two men were on their knees, pushing dirt into the last inches of the holes with their hands, Matthew spoke. "Listen, Baldwin. I don't know why the people in Ireland, including Philippe, are trying to make us suspect Gallowglass is working with Benjamin's children—"
"Not a chance," Baldwin said. "Gallowglass is the most honorable among us. He would never turn on the family."
Matthew nodded. "Just making sure we see it the same."
When they returned, the muck and dirt on their clothing told Diana and Janet exactly what had happened. They had both seen it before in Chelm. Áine's eyes widened with questions though.
"There were two," Baldwin said briskly. "Dead and buried now."
"By the scent, one was Benjamin's son," Matthew added. "The other I couldn't tell."
After one more meticulous trip through Sept-Tours to ensure they had not missed anything, they put out all the lights, Áine removed the shielding spell, and they disappeared back to Ireland.