Alek flicked his hand toward his stolen drink. A thin line of red fog streamed from his hand encompassing the cup. When it disappeared and reappeared in his right hand, he grinned at Tiller.
“Well, hello, Fox, how have you been?” he asked cheerfully as he took a deep drink. “Did you bring the others?”
Tiller ordered his own drink, “And why would I bring them?”
“Well, aren’t you plotting on dragging me back?” Alek asked as he polished off the rest of his drink. It would seem his enjoyment of his drink was over; Tiller was here now. “Though, I can’t help but wonder where your courage comes from?” His moon-colored eyes flash a hard red. “I still remember your invasion of my mausoleum.”
Tiller took his drink from Anansi. “Courage, desperation.” He shrugged and took a sip from his glass, the ice ball spinning within. “It helped us these last five years, didn’t it?”
“Maybe,” Alek said as he sighed. He glanced over his shoulder at the clock on the wall. “My time as a Jackal has reached its end.”
Tiller, who was lowering his cup, paused and glanced out of the corner of his eye at Alek. Setting his cup down with a short click. “Does that mean what I think it means?”
Alek hummed as he rolled his neck creating the sound of his bones cracking in an ominous way. “A Surrem infiltrated the council and was defeated. With that and the evidence you uncovered about the other councilmen who were complicit in his crimes, the Veil is now rumbling with the aftermath.” Alek shifted so he leaned on his left arm, his chin supported by his hand. “You have more than enough weapons to assist you, especially with Raijin gathering others like him. The Jackals have only begun.”
“The information about the Witches helped a great deal, but it wouldn’t be wrong to keep my most deadly weapon close at hand,” Tiller said.
“I am as finicky as the sword of King Arthur,” Alek said, pushing his stool back as he came to his feet. “I don’t dream ofrighting wrongs. I dream of killing those who killed my Queen and my people.”
He inhaled slowly and closed his eyes. “Blue eyes. The scent of summer.” His jaw tightened. “That is how I remember her.”
His fingers curled against the bar. For a moment he did not speak.
“And then,” he continued, more quietly, “I recall eyes as black as a starless sky. Nightshade.” His throat worked once. “And I am reminded that even that will fade.”
Opening his eyes, he looked down at Tiller. “Do you know how my kind mourns?”
Tiller reached inside of his suit jacket and pulled out a USB and placed it on the bar. “That is the information I could find about the rest of them. They hide well, and some, from what I’ve researched, have disappeared completely from every surveillance radar that the council had on them.”
Red mist wrapped around the USB swallowing it from sight.
“Don’t think I wasn’t prepared for this but tell me one thing.” Tiller asked, “How worried should I be for Veil City? I hope that you won’t bring your war with them to our streets.”
Alek turned around giving him his back, “My hunt is not bound to a single territory. That is all I can say for now.”
He didn’t look back as he made his way out of the bar. The door slammed loudly from behind him, and his nostrils were immediately filled with the scent of wet cement, iron and the multitude of beings who occupied Veil city, home for monsters and other beings.
A dark blue Rolls Royce pulled up in front of him. Alek smirked as he vanished from sight.
“I didn’t think you would meet with him before leaving.”
This was said to him the minute he appeared within the car. His son Mihai didn’t look at him but focused on the road before them as he pulled away. Mihai was everything he wasn’t. Darklyhandsome, with blue eyes that had entranced more than his fair share of humans.
He gripped a flask in his hands and lifted it out to Alek, “Do you want some?”
Alek could smell the irony blood inside it. “No, I’ve eaten.”
“More for me then,” Mihai stated with no change in his stoic expression as he took another swig.
The black T-shirt he wore stretched over his muscular body. Exposing the skull faces caught in mid scream that decorated his right arm. “Sorin isn’t pleased you didn’t tell him about leaving today.”
Alek laughed. “When is your elder brother ever happy with me? He didn’t like when I allowed you or your two brothers to live. And now he adores you. He didn’t like drinking the blood of runaway soldiers and yet, he enjoyed the battles. And now? He dislikes the role of crime lord and yet.” He looked Mihai over. “You four took to it like fish to water.”
Mihai snorted. “He doesn’t want you to go alone.” He settled his flask in the center counsel. “He still believes that he is a prince and that he must play his role to you.”
Alek lost his humor at his second son’s words. “Prince of what? Our kingdom is now the streets of the Veil, our titles mocked by rats. The elders hide, your grandfather and grandmother live like worms in dirt. Well golden dirt, but dirt nonetheless.” Alek shook his head. “There is no need for you four to leave your seats of power. I only need your men and the item I requested Dmitri make.”
“He made it, but don’t expect it to be an easy battle,” Mihai said as he drove closer to the red district where most common vampires hung out. Many called it Russian street as they were under the impression that the area was run by the Slavic vampires. The Slavic’s had lost power the minute Alek had arrived with his sons.
