Waterloo Barracks
Telios returned to
his perch near the gargoyle and puzzled over what he’d seen. A
flash of a man who could turn into water? It wasn’t a Fae talent
he’d ever heard of, but the Fae kept their secrets close and their
enemies closer. He’d be a fool to believe that Prince Gideon na
Feransel truly wanted him as an ally. More likely the Fae planned
to use him and discard him. Or kill him. Until he knew the truth,
he couldn’t trust any of the new members of his vampire coalition.
They’d watch for which way the wind shifted and be as likely to try
to kill Telios themselves as to assist him.
Telios’s fangs
extended and he danced a little capering jig. Far more powerful
beings than a minor Unseelie prince had tried to kill him before.
None of them still walked the earth in their precious Summer Lands.
Or anywhere else, for that matter.
The water man was no
concern of Telios’s, anyway. If he’d been carrying the sword,
Telios would have seen it when the man had lurched off the roof.
Time to move on to part two of the plan and go inside, find out
what the uproar his vampire hearing had detected was about, and get
a little help from one of the dogs. He so loved making shifters
obey.
Telios flew down to
the front of the building, timing it perfectly for the guards’
circuit. He focused every ounce of his power and stared them down,
enthralling the human first and then the shifter before either
could so much as draw a weapon.
“We need to go see
the Jewel House,” he said.
“We need to go see
the Jewel House,” the human responded, eyes glazed over and
blank.
“Make sure Vanquish
is safe,” Telios prompted.
“We must make sure
Vanquish is safe,” the shifter said. His face was a blank mask like
the human’s, but a tiny bit of twitching ran through his muscles.
Shifters were always harder to completely enthrall, and he’d never
yet managed to put more than one of them under at a
time.
He shrugged. He’d
make do with what he had, as usual. He’d been doing just that since
1888. “You’ll kill anyone who tries to stop us.”
“We’ll kill anyone
who tries to stop us,” they both repeated.
He stood aside and
pointed. “Lead the way.”
Telios had expected
the guards to discover him every step of the way: through the
employee entrance, down the twisting corridors, and even while they
stood, exposed, as the shifter punched in the code that opened the
security door to the Jewel House. Naturally, since he was prepared
for every contingency of attack, none happened. Now they stood
guard, his two minions, as he admired the lovely jewels on
display.
Not as many as he’d
expected, to be sure. Perhaps the queen and her offspring were
prancing around somewhere at some state dinner, all bejeweled and
crowned. Did they even do that anymore? It was so hard to keep
track of current traditions as the decades passed, faster and
faster. The closest he’d come to a spark of interest in years had
been when that American author came to London to try to discover
his real identity. She’d failed, of course—they all failed. But
then again, that had been before they knew vampires existed.
Perhaps now was the time to unleash his alter ego
again.
Whitechapel and its
residents had missed him for far too long.
A sound from the
hallway interrupted his reveries of flesh and blood and death, and
he crossed to the case that held his prize. Vanquish, sparkling
like a whore who’d robbed a jeweler. Gaudy and over adorned. The
question crossed his mind yet again—why did the Fae want this
particular sword so very, very much?
Voices in the hallway
sounded, closer, and he had no time for questions. He pulled on his
favorite leather gloves, punched a hole in the glass, and removed
the sword with both hands. Even through the gloves, a tingle of
power zapped him with an almost electrical shock, but it wasn’t his
left hand that felt the jolt. It was his right—the hand that held
Vanquish’s hilt.
The jewel on that
hilt glowed with the fierce blue of the ocean dazzled by sunlight.
He’d never seen a more beautiful gem, but it wasn’t only the beauty
that captured his interest. This aquamarine was magical, somehow.
No wonder the Fae wanted it. Perhaps Telios would keep it for
himself for a while and try to discover its secrets. Always better
to know the things that others tried to hide. Especially the nasty
secrets of Unseelie Fae.
The voices changed,
from conversational to aggressive, and he realized his presence had
been discovered. By the time he whirled around to face them, his
two enthralled guards were fighting like madmen to keep their
colleagues from entering the room. Three lay dead or dying on the
floor already. Telios knew he could take on the remaining five by
himself if he had to do so, but there was no need.
“Guard me as I
leave,” he commanded, and his two guards immediately fell back to
protect him.
But they were
protecting him from no one. The other guards weren’t attacking.
They weren’t rushing his two guards or even trying to attack
Telios. Every single one of them had turned, backs to Telios,
weapons held in the air at a readiness position.
Telios tried to
understand this new trick. How was this strategy supposed to work?
Before he could puzzle out even a possible answer, all seven
guards—the two he’d enthralled and the five others—spoke as
one.
“We guard you as you
leave, Master.”
Telios’s mouth fell
open and his fangs retracted involuntarily from pure shock. He
stared around the room at the guards. Each face held the same
expressionless blankness. The same readiness to serve him. The gem
in the hilt of the sword pulsed once in his hand, flaring a
brighter blue than before, and he slowly bent his head to look at
it.
“It’s you, isn’t it,
my beautiful bit of rock?” He whispered the words, almost not
daring to believe them. “No wonder the Fae prince wants you so very
badly. The sword was a distraction. What he really wants is you and
your power.”
He raised his head
and felt the triumphant grin spread across his face, stretching
long-unused facial muscles. It had been a very long time since he’d
had reason to smile. “Let’s all dance,” he told the guards, and he
laughed his very rusty laugh as they waltzed all the way to the
door.