Daywalker chronicles com.., p.21
Daywalker Chronicles Complete Series Boxed Set, page 21
Sorina laughed. “Yeah, but you’ll have gas for days.”
I winced. “Yeah, there’s that.”
“I’m going to tell you something. Not because you’re making me. Because I think you should know.”
“What’s that?”
“Be careful with Dracula. I took his dark power, it’s true. But he was a brute long before he mastered the Scholomance. Have you even asked him about his human life? All the things he did, the unspeakable violence he committed before he was a vampire?”
I shook my head. “It never occurred to me to ask him about his life before. Kind of crazy, all that time in the car it never came up. He’s been a vampire so long sometimes it’s hard to imagine a time when he was a regular man.”
Sorina shook her head. “Trust me, there was nothing regular about the man he once was.”
I sighed. “The key phrase is once was. I don’t know the things he did before. What I do know is that he’s been nothing but a gentleman, noble and virtuous, ever since we left Kansas City.”
“A tiger can’t change its stripes. I’m not saying he isn’t trying. I’m not even saying he’s not a better vampire now than he was before. Perhaps he’s even nobler than he was as a human. Speaking of tigers, Siegfried and Roy had a tiger they thought they’d tamed. They performed with him for years. Then one day, out of the blue, the tiger attacked Roy. It took four men and a fire extinguisher to get the beast off of him. It left him partially paralyzed on one side of his body.”
I grunted. “I could say the same thing about you, you know.”
Sorina nodded. “You’re right. Somehow, I think you’re far less likely to let your guard down around me.”
Dracula returned sooner than I expected with a whole crate of blood wine. I don’t know how much it cost, but apparently it was from the Rhine, circa 1945. A combination blend, each bottle containing every blood type. I didn’t know how they collected the blood, or if the donors gave it willingly. Whatever the case, it was bottled a long ass time ago. It was scrumptious. Sorina finished an entire bottle alone. I suppose after a century, from her perspective, paralyzed by werewolf enzymes, she was more than a little hungry. Dracula and I split a bottle.
“Your phone should be charged by now,” I said. “Ready to make the call?”
Sorina nodded. “What should I tell him?”
“Tell him not to do anything Carver says.”
Sorina laughed. “I can’t do that. I shouldn’t. Not unless you want to drive the old man insane.”
“She’s right,” Dracula said. “Conflicting commands between sires will drive a man right out of his mind. It will force his consciousness to split into multiple personalities.”
Sorina cleared her throat. “And we’d never know for sure which personality was listening. We couldn’t trust that he’d fulfill my demands.”
I bit my thumb. “All right. Well, we don’t know what Carver has told him to do. Say you tell him to come here but Carver told him not to leave Washington.”
“The same problem would occur,” Dracula said. “Besides, if we told the president to come here, he’d come with an entourage.”
Sorina nodded. “The first step in the plan, as Carver and I discussed it before all this went down, was to turn the president’s cabinet. They’re all loyal to Carver. If the president comes here, they’ll know it. That means Carver will also know.”
I shook my head. “Carver gave me a month. I suspect he’ll be showing up here soon, one way or another. He didn’t give me a way to contact him.”
Sorina shrugged. “He’s the Lieutenant Governor. At least he’s the Lieutenant Governor-Elect. He’s in Baton Rouge. Perhaps he expects you to do your invisible girl routine and tell him your answer.”
I chuckled. “If he’s not a dimwit, and I hardly think he is, he wouldn’t let me go astral anywhere near him. I could rip his heart out before he realized it.”
Sorina winced. “I know. It doesn’t feel good.”
I bit my lip. “Sorry, not sorry.”
Sorina laughed. “I’m not looking for an apology. You couldn’t have taken me without the use of mystical devices. Woman to woman, I’d take you every time. But anything goes in love and war.”
I chuckled. “Love had nothing to do with it.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that. Your feelings for that wolf and his feelings for you were all a part of the plan. My plan, before, I mean.”
“A plan that ended with me ganking your heart and you taking a very long nap.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Dracula said. “We need a plan to reach the president without alerting Carver.”
Sorina shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. Say we reach President Brandon. By now, I imagine the vice president is also in Carver’s thrall. I hate to tell you this, but even if we feed the president some of my blood, and supposing there’s some of that elixir pumping through my veins, and we kill him and he revives, Carver will have the president assassinated, Probably by one of the vampires in his cabinet. The vice president will take over and we’ll be back at square one.”
I folded my arms in front of my chest. “Then we need to lure Carver here.”
“You promised Van Helsing we wouldn’t kill him.”
I nodded. “You’re right. And we won’t. One of the wolves has to bite him. He won’t be able to control any of the vampires in the president’s cabinet, but we’ll still be able to keep tabs on the president through Sorina.”
Dracula nodded. “That might just work. Then, we deliver Carver to his father in the Scholomance. We let Abraham worry about rehabilitating his boy.”
Sorina reached into the crate and pulled out another bottle of blood. She shoved her thumbnail into the cork, twisted her hand, and popped it open. “I have an idea. It may or may not work. It all depends on what Carver has told the president. If you really want to lure Carver here, then fine. We can ask the president to arrange a visit. Maybe he shows, maybe he doesn’t. But if Carver knows I’m here, that I tried to reach the president, you’d better believe he’ll come after me.”
“Are you sure about that?” I asked. “He double-crossed you once before. He let you fight us, knowing there was a chance we’d kill you.”
Sorina nodded. “We weren’t supposed to bite the president. Carver was supposed to become the next president, the candidate in waiting once the current president’s term was up. Then Carver’s brothers showed up. You and Dracula pushed the issue. We had to push our agenda forward. It also made both Carver and I dual sires for the president. An arrangement I was willing to live with. I’m betting he wasn’t willing to allow me to. He has to realize if I’m back that I’m a threat. He’ll come. Partially, I’m sure, to see if you’ll join him. He still needs you, Sienna. But he doesn’t need to come here to get your answer. He’ll come after me.”
“You’re suggesting we use you as bait?” I asked.
Sorina nodded. “That’s precisely what I’m suggesting.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Why would you suggest that? I didn’t compel you to get creative.”
A half-grin formed at the corner of Sorina’s mouth. “This wasn’t Carver’s plan. It was mine. I’ll be damned if I allow Samuel Van Helsing to become the emperor of the world. He might be a vampire now. But he was a Van Helsing first.”
I furrowed my brow. “I thought the plan was to make him the next president. The original plan. After this president’s term was up, Carver would be the candidate in waiting.”
Sorina nodded. “I cannot be president. Carver has established his citizenry already. I had plans of my own to take a place of influence representing Romania in the United Nations. We were supposed to keep one another in check.”
I shook my head. “You were working with the Van Helsing brothers. You have been for centuries. You said they were the ones who helped you break the sire bond with Dracula.”
Sorina took a deep breath. She let her lips flap when she exhaled. “That was a long time ago. The Van Helsings were a means to an end then even as they were supposed to be now. I never intended for them to take the reins. Not the way he now intends. Not unchecked by me.”
I watched as Sorina put the bottle of blood to her lips and gulped down half of it. She placed her hand to her chest and belched.
“Excuse you.”
Sorina giggled a little. “Sorry. I’m still so thirsty.”
Dracula grunted. “How about you make that call?”
“On speaker,” I added.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
We arranged a bunch of old school desks together so that they formed a table. They weren’t the desks with chairs attached. These were the kind that were open in the middle, where young children could cram all their assignments and then go digging for them later when they came due. More bad school memories.
I arranged several chairs around the desks. They were too small for us. We couldn’t get our legs under the desks, so we all sat sideways around the makeshift table. I placed Sorina’s phone in the middle.
Sorina dialed the president, put it on speakerphone, and set the phone back on the table. The phone rang a few times. That was a good sign. If Carver changed the number, we wouldn’t have gotten that far. We would have been greeted by one of those “the number you have dialed is out of service” messages.
“What do you want, Carver,” the familiar deep but gravelly voice said on the other end.
“It’s not Carver,” Sorina said. “It’s your mommy!”
“Excuse me?”
“You’re going to listen to me,” Sorina said. “I made you. I bit you first.”
“Of course.”
“Tell me the truth. Did Carver forbid you from coming back to Louisiana? Did he give you any commands at all that would restrict your travel?”
“He did not.”
Sorina smiled widely and rubbed her hands together. “In that case, you’re going to plan a trip. I’ll text you the address when we get off the phone. I want you to come by tomorrow.”
“Of course, but it’s quite the ordeal when I travel. A lot of arrangements have to be made.”
“That’s fine,” Sorina said. “Arrange what you must, but you will come to the address I’m sending you. You’ll arrive just after sunset.”
“I will be there.”
“Good boy. Now, one more thing. Make sure Carver knows you’re coming. Don’t speak to him yourself. Have one of your aides send him a message.”
“I understand.”
“Did Carver order you to pick up the phone when he calls?”
“He did.”
“Did he forbid you from breaking the phone?”
“He did not. He only told me not to lose it.”
Sorina winked at me. She was showing off her compulsion skills. “Good. When we get off the phone, you will wait for my text message. You will write it down so you don’t lose it. Then you’ll smash the phone you’re talking on to pieces.”
“Absolutely. Consider it done.”
Sorina hung up the phone. “That was easier than I expected.”
“Clever,” I smirked. “Now we have to get ready for Carver.”
Dracula nodded. “We should disarm all the traps. We don’t want him dead. We want him paralyzed.”
“Do that,” I said. “I’ll brief the wolves on the plan. We’ll lure Carver into the gymnasium. The wolves will be waiting just outside the door. The first wolf to bite him wins.”
“What about me?” Sorina asked.
“Wait here. Drink as much blood as you’d like. If you need more, find Dracula and let him know. Don’t hurt anyone. Don’t set up any traps. Don’t scheme in any way to undermine our plan.”
Sorina rolled her eyes. “I think you covered it. It’s unnecessary, you know. I want to remove Carver from the equation as much as you do.”
I nodded. “I know. But someone told me recently that a tiger can’t change its stripes.”
Sorina chuckled. “Clever girl. We’re more alike than you know.”
I gathered the wolves in the gymnasium. I gave them the rundown of the plan. The plan that everyone else thought we were enacting, anyway. I saw Carver’s power. I didn’t know how it worked or what the source of his magic was, but I knew it was something beyond what we could handle if he unleashed it on us.
A young child could kill even the greatest of the world’s warriors if the child catches him in his sleep. With the right weapon, catch a mighty wizard doing his business on the john and any regular Joe can take him out. The element of surprise is the great equalizer.
I pulled Dylan aside.
“Excuse us. We could use a moment alone.”
The wolves hooted and hollered. They thought Dylan was about to get some. Maybe he would, after this was over. They could think whatever they wanted. So long as they didn’t know the real plan.
I took Dylan’s hand and led him into the girls’ locker room.
Dylan chuckled. “I always wondered what it looked like in here. It’s disappointing. Just like the boys’ room, without the urinals.”
I laughed. “What were you expecting? Floral arrangements and potpourri?”
Dylan smirked. “Hello Kitty posters and statues of unicorns.”
“You forgot the seashells on the back of the toilet.”
Dylan scratched the back of his head. “What’s the deal with that anyway? What about taking a dump makes someone think, gee, I wish I was doing this on the beach?”
I removed my brooch. I reached into one of the lockers. I’d planned this in advance. I pinned the brooch to Dylan’s shirt and tossed him a jacket.
“What is this about?”
I slipped a jacket on myself. “I can’t handle Carver myself. I need you to bite him. He can’t see you coming.”
“In the gymnasium?”
I shook my head. “He can’t get that far. He’ll be waiting for a trap. Do it in the hallway before he even walks in. You have to catch him when he least expects it.”
“How do I work this thing?”
“You touch it. You disappear. You’ll want to practice. I can give you a quick tutorial. You can’t give Carver an inch. You will have to rematerialize with your teeth already sunk into his skin. You’ll get a mouthful, but he’ll drop.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’ll talk to him. We’ll negotiate a partnership. I know what he wants. I’ll tell him that I’ll agree to join him if he agrees to a few terms. He’ll ask me what those terms are. Before he gets his question out, you bite. The second I tell him I have terms.”
Dylan nodded. “How much time do I need to practice?”
“You won’t have to walk through walls or anything crazy. All we really have to do is make sure you don’t have any crazy thoughts. We have to keep your feet on the ground. I’d say a few minutes on the astral plane, just to get your bearings, will be sufficient.”
Dylan grinned. “Everyone thinks we’re doing it, anyway. What do you say we make the most of our time?”
I grabbed Dylan by the waist of his pants and pulled him into a kiss.
Talk about a great way to redeem one’s memories of school locker rooms.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Dylan picked up astral walking like a natural. He got it almost as quickly as I did. Sure, he accidentally got his rear end stuck in a chair when he tried to rematerialize while sitting in one. He just didn’t quite have his focus right. A quick touch of my brooch and he shook it off his ass in a hot second. I don’t imagine it felt good. Getting things stuck in your butt usually doesn’t. Not that I’d know anything about that.
I had my jacket zipped up tight. So did Dylan. We didn’t want anyone to know that he was wearing my brooch. The zipper still gave him quick access. Any tip of the hat, any odd glances from one of the wolves, Dracula, or Sorina could raise suspicions.
Carver pulled up to the school well before the president was due to arrive. I expected that. It was a much shorter trip for him. I was watching and waiting.
Dracula disarmed the booby traps. I expected Carver to walk through the front doors. Instead, he wandered the perimeter. I had to run from classroom to classroom to catch a glimpse of him out the windows. He stopped right over where we’d buried Sarina’s sisters. He chuckled and shook his head. Could he sense them down there? There wasn’t any other explanation. What was he looking for? He was probably expecting a trap. If I was in his situation I’d want to do a little recon on the property before I walked through the front doors.
I grabbed Dylan in the hallway. “It’s time. I don’t know if we’ll be able to get him inside. We might have to do this out in the playground. Same rule applies. When I mention my terms, you bite.”
Dylan kissed me on the cheek. “Got it.”
Dylan reached inside his coat and touched my brooch. He disappeared. I didn’t realize how creepy it was to other people when I did my disappearing act. To know that Dylan was right there, beside me, but I couldn’t see him was strange. Not freaky, really. If it was anyone else, maybe it would be.
Carver stood in the middle of the playground and looked up at the sun. I forced one of the windows open. The thing was so stiff it caused enough of a racket that Carver heard it and turned to me.
“You coming in or not?”
Carver laughed. “Why would I do that? You didn’t invite me.”
I smiled. “I don’t have to invite you in, you know. This isn’t a home.”
“It sort of is. But you’re right. That lore is crap. I could come in. I’m really just here to see Sorina, to talk.”
“We can talk. Just come on in.”
“Don’t get me wrong, Sienna. We’re overdue for a conversation. But you know as well as I do that Sorina is in there. I need to talk to her.”
“Well, she isn’t going to come out in the sun, Carver.” Technically, Carver didn’t know she could. As far as he knew, she was still a regular nights-only bloodsucker.
Carver shrugged. “I could wait.”
“Do you want to talk to her before or after the president gets here? Seems to me things will be a lot messier if you two don’t sort out your issues first.”
