Chapter 84

Noah was murmuring to his colleagues, as I stared down at the name. Just as Noah had said, he was right. Zoran's name hadn't been among those ripped out. Instead it stood out in bold letters among the others. Under his name stood his son's name Vlad. Just a few hundred years difference in dates of death. Zoran supposedly died 172 A.D.

Glancing up at Noah, I ask, 'What about Zoran Dracul?'

I had slowly been going through the Dracul names, Vlad having been among them, but it had been simple. Noah explained that he had died when fighting three other Pureblood's. Unfortunately Nick had reached the fight during the final blow.

His blood song had rushed me to that point and the crushing blow of loss spreading over me, but I blinked it away and nodded. Even as I felt a nagging sensation at the faces of the three Pureblood's who had killed Vlad. But I had shaken it off and continued calling out names.

My heart had raced the closer I got to Zoran and now as I looked up Noah looked troubled. I frown and ask, 'What?'

'Zoran Dracul, the ghostly gray dragon on black foreground, he was killed and eaten by Vlad Dracul.'

I nod, wanting more, but then he frowns and says to the mousy auburn haired girl, 'Write down Vlad Dracul, he may be a possible suspect.'

With that Noah says, 'Next name?'

Just like that I realized Zoran had the perfect alibi, eaten by his son, no one would believe that he was still alive. If he had been eaten by his son, then it left no question of his death. But what about Vlad, could he still be alive?

Closing my eyes, I let Nick's bloodsong overtake me and I speed through the past, returning to that moment that Nick raced across the blood soaked ground and towards the cries of his father's deep tember. As he crested the top of a hill and watched blood spray, his father's brown eyes slowly crystalize clear.

One of the Pureblood's turning to look at him with eyes so blood red and murderous it made me shudder. The man's face obscured by the blood sprayed across it as he ran from the scene, leaving his two companions.

The overwhelming loss as Nick roared out, pain bursting through me and I blink out. Nick had transformed into a beast and only saw red after that, until two bodies of broken Purebloods' remained. Slowly turning to glass to be crushed under the scaled claws of a giant creature.

What about the third? Where had the third gone? It was impossible to find him throughout Nick's bloodsong and so I open my eyes. Noah was looking at me expectantly, 'Guess you didn't hear my question.'

'What question?'

'Do you think Vlad Dracul could still be alive?'

The final picture of Vlad in my mind, a statue of crystal, blood on its broken body said no, but my heavy lips murmured the lie, 'Its possible.'

-D-

My mind was still as I looked out the balcony at the city, the sun having risen by the faint blue light piercing the ice above. It cast a blue glow over the city, giving it a look of being the lost city of Atlantis under the sea waves.

Nick slide his arm around my stomach abd whispers in my ear, making my blood sing, 'What are you thinking about Nina?'

'A lot,' I murmur, keeping my mind as blank as possible, yet in mundane and trivial questions posed as important.

'Something regarding your mentor?'

My heart seized for only a moment as he niped my neck as I reply in a lie, 'I just wonder if Furlow ever came to Kotowa.'

Nick's mind slide through mine so easily. No barrier could stop him, and so a twing of fear skittered through me as he kissed my neck. I knew he was trying to distract me and it was working.

Nick had arrived back at the Dracul castle a couple hours before dawn. He had been calm, even his own emotions were calmer than normal. Must have something to do with the Grand Seeker. The minute we saw each other it was like a dam broke and we clung to each other. Mine out of a sense if relief that he was safe and his just out of love it seemed.

Even now I had his button down shirt on, specs of blood from me biting him in the neck. He brushes my arm and asks, 'If he had, it must have been just as surprising to him as it was you.'

I laugh, feeling his hand brush my ribs and slap his hand away, as I reply, 'I know. I know I'm a rookie with all this, but its enjoyable.'

'Hopefully it lasts,' he murmurs, pressing a kiss to my forehead as I turn in his arms.

This sobered me as I look up at him. So much had shifted in my life in one afternoon that this moment felt surreal. If he knew that his own family was to blame for everything that was happen, no his ancestor, what would he do? His face was relaxed, a small smile playing on his lips as I say, 'Tomorrow night is the party.'

He nods, his arms gripping me a little tighter and I shiver. He was truly terrifying and reassuring with that squeeze as he replies, 'Yes it is. How are things going with the investigation on your end?'

Shrugging, I reply, 'We have finished the names and the Night Hunter's are compiling information on them.'

It hurt not to tell him the truth, but everything told me to hoard it away. There were times I didn't understand my gut reaction to things, but after Dante I had learned not to question it.

Once we had finished compiling the names, I had hidden the letter away in a tome not far from where Furlow had placed it. It was my only way to protect those last words from my mentor.

Nick nods and says as he picks me up with a kiss on my cheek, 'Enough talking business. Let's get back in bed.'

The sudden burst of foreign spiced pheremones hit me, my eyes dilate with need. So much had happened and to spend just a little time with the man I loved wasn't enough. I needed to be reassured I wasn't aline, and even if ohysically I hoped this would help.

He places me on the bed and slowly climbs above me. He was nothing but a greek god, all rippling muscles as he growls out, 'When this is over I want a real honeymoon with you wife.'

Just as his mouth comes down on mine a loud knock comes on the door. We both freeze, my hands tangled in his hair, his hand frozen on the top button of his dress shirt I'm wearing. The knock comes again and Nick sits up snarling, 'What is it?!'

'Sir, Commander Igor is here to speak to Lady Dracul,' came a sheepish male voice.

'Tell him to come back later, we are busy,' Nick growls, turning back to smile down at me, his eyes slits and body relaxed as he slide back down above me.

'Sorry milord, he is adamant,' the man says in an even more hesitant voice.

Nick stands up instantly off the bed with a frustrated growl. Grabbing his hand before he does something rash, I reply, 'Its ok. It has to be something important.'

For a moment, Nick didn't look at me, jaw clinching with frustration. He lets out a sigh, shoulders relaxing as he looks down at me from the corner of his eye before replying, 'Fine, but I'm going with you. I have been away from you for two days now. Not again.'

Nodding, I get out of bed. A wicked smile comes to my mouth as I unbutton the shirt in front of him, slide it off, stepping into the closet.

Nick calls out, 'Low blow.'

I laugh as I pull on a pair of white dress pants and pale eggshell blue shirt. Grabbing a hat, I walk out to see him already dressed and ready in a pair of black slacks and the same button down dress shirt I had just had on. His hair was still ruffled from my hands in it and the little specks of blood on the collar of the shirt just made him that much more attractive and dangerous. He glances up at me with a knowing grin and says wickedly, 'Two can play this game Nina.'

Shaking my head, I open the door a reply, 'Then let the game begin.'

But it wasn't a game as soon as I walked into the study and saw Igor and Ki. My smiling face fading to a calm placid smoothness when I saw Ki and Igor's grim look. Igor held onto his cane tightly as he glanced at me with that same calm demeanor and Ki looked nervous. Nick asks as he steps inside, 'What seems to be the problem, Igor?'

Igor looks between Nick and I before replying, 'It is about Beck.'

Suddenly my blood runs cold as I ask in the same placid tone he does, 'What about her?'

'Our interogration has failed. She doesn't fear us enough to extract information. So we have come to ask for your assistance.'

Ki adds, 'Every time we mention you is the only time we see fear in her. Vampire are hard to interograte without fear, even for Igor who can read minds.'

Nick growls, 'Not happening.'

But I quickly place my hand on his chest and reply, 'Nick wait...'

He looks down at me with apprehension and asks in a smoky voice in my mind, 'Are you sure you're up to this?I nod and reply, If it means learning more about the Phantasma than yes. He lets out another sigh, and nods before cutting a glance at Igor, replying, 'Fine, but I will be joining.'

Igor doesn't seem too perturbed by that and we leave the castle, Nick giving orders to his generals as he leaves. The black SUV awaiting us and we slide in. As I settle in, I ask, 'So where is Beck?'

'At the Night's Temple,' Igor says off hand.

My eyes widen as my mind went back to Furlow saying, 'Beware the Night Hunter's.'

'Why?' I hear myself echoing back to him, my young eyes looking up at him.

'They are dangerous, and if they see you young bitten clanless, you would die.'

'Why?'

Furlow's brown eyes shadowed by the moonlight replied, 'You are something they can't control, you call no one your leader, and so you don't contribute to the vampire society. They are the murderers of the clanless vampire, so if you see them... run.'

Slowly my eyes raise to Ki and Igor. They were not friends, were they? How many innocent clanless vampire had they cut down?

My mind closed to everyone in the car and I could feel Nick looking at me with a frown as my mind went to the letter tucked away in the Great Library of Kotowa. Could Igor be a partner to Zoran? Things didn't add up, his reluctance to give us needed information, keeping Helix away from us, not letting me into Kotowa over some stupid law.

Then my eyes turn to Ki furtively. He was looking out the window, red eyes flickering over the scenery with knowing glances. He was a military genius, having thorted several assassination attempts on his life at a young age, and now held great power over the Night Hunter's. All this time I had been looking into the Library at Alexandria, could he have already seen the lineage books in Kotowa?

Then my mind shifted to Nick, his warm hand laced with mine and I think about how he nearly killed Helix, when he nearly killed me? What about Oxford, could he or Igor be the ones that set the bomb?

So many questions, so many possibilities. Nick is the only one who knows about my ability to walk in the day light. He didn't know yet about what I truly am, a step in the evolutionary scale, a superior creature to vampire. What that meant terrified me. But then my eyes glance at Nick, who had pulled out his phone and was talking on it in greek to one of his general's about security at the party and I wonder if he already does know. I was his mate, his wife, and in some respect he held sway over me. He knew more about me than any other being, except for my now dead mentor and P.A.

The SUV slows and comes to a stop. My thoughts now broken as I look out the window at a true cathedral like building, emmense in size and of the blackest marble that it didn't seem to fit into the white marble buildings beyond its massive walls. Igor says as he steps out, 'Welcome Lady Dracul, to the Night Hunter's Templar.'