Page 12 of Master Bistrita

I look around, dressed and ready but for one thing. One very important item that will not wait until I return. I pull up the saved document on my phone. In centuries, something I never thought I would want to use. I peruse the boiler plate document from the Club Descallia archives, personalize it quickly, and send it to Gregor. Thankful that he too is under the same non-disclosure agreement as the rest of the staff and can be trusted to keep what he does and reads for the masters to himself. I send him a message to go along with the six-page document.

Please see that Chara receives this packet. If she signs the cover letter, you may leave the NDA document with her and give her my personal cell.

With that done, I pocket my cell and hoist the arsenal that will make it possible to infiltrate our enemies and get rid of them for good. This time, maybe we won’t miss the centers of their dark-souled hearts and they’ll stay in the ashes of death for longer than a few centuries before rising again as so many of our enemies have done.

My jaw locks with irritation as I reach the others, and they start fighting amongst themselves yet again. I look to the spiky haired man with a piercing through his nose who has joined them. Silver stands with his hands on his hips, glaring at the masters. “I refuse to help unless there is a plan to bring Embry home safely,” he demands.

Embry again. Fucking Embry is the bane of my existence these days.

Overmaster Descallia growls, so loud that the empty dishes on the table rattle. “There are no plans for traitors. If she is, she will die the death of one. If she is innocent, then the plan is not ours to make. She will prove her innocence. Am I clear?”

Silver holds his own admirably against our overmaster, who is not known for his patience or tolerance of anyone outside of our group, but my understanding is that he hand-picked the young man to work on the special ops team, and clearly Lucianna believes in his abilities too. Silver gives Descallia a nod, as though he’s listened to what the overmaster had to say and is reserving his right to his own opinion without disagreeing with him.

Descallia glares at the young vampire. “I said, am I clear, Silver? If Embry is innocent, she will be the one who proves it. She is one of the smartest women we know and a trained special ops agent. It’s her move. Understood?”

“You’ve been clear, Overmaster,” Silver says. We all know that if at any time we were in this situation we would figure it out. We would fight to the bitter end to get a message out to our brothers and end the rogues even while they thought they were in control. That’s exactly what Embry should have been doing all this time but has not, because she is with Lucas, whether the young pup wants to think so or not.

I turn to Silver. “We all hope that she is innocent, but from what Master Oradea has shared, she basically lured him down to the basement and kept him just long enough so that Lucas could lure Natalia out of his estate. She helped him against one of our own. She can’t just walk away from that, nor should we want to let her if she’s guilty.”

The witches have quieted, all contemplating the different facets of the situation, probably trying to guess what they would do if the situations were reversed. I try to soften the blow for all of them. “Look, we all hold out the hope that Embry’s part of this can be explained. Let’s see where the night leads us, yes?”

Willow gives me a nod of appreciation, and Raven wipes a tear from her eye. I look up to see Lucianna’s eyes glowing a deep crystalline green that spreads a hue of color across the room. “It’s time to go,” she says quietly, looking at the witches. “If the stones begin to warm or color, you’ll let us know right away?”

All the witches touch the stones around their necks. Three stones that are prophesied to help light the way to the rogues and help us end them, for the good of all the underworld. The stones all begin to glow purple at the very same time. The minute we step out into the night, we know that this was the night that destiny had planned all along.

A long silver spark of lightening streaks across the sky, thunder rumbles in the background, and another bolt of lightning sparks. Humans must make the transition to our side, being allowed to embrace eternal life only after proving their worth.

It is clear that tonight, destiny plans to test us in much the same way. The righteous and pureblooded vampires will do battle, and this will not be an easy fight. All of our training, all of the information that our special ops team has provided, all the loyalty of the underworld, at least those not associated with Isala, against the rogue vampires and what’s left, if any, of the shifters.

Even the witches, who until recently we would have sooner burned at a stake than fought side by side in arms, are with us tonight, stones aglow and ready to fight.

Chapter 10

Chara

A knock on the door pulls me from my reverie at the bathroom mirror while drying my hair. I turn it off and tighten the full-length white cashmere robe borrowed from the hanger behind the door.

Gregor, tall and dark, stands in the doorway when I open it, the hint of an upward curve in his lips. “Don’t look so disappointed, Chara. I do have a message from Master Bistrita for you.”

I grin. “Sorry, was it that obvious? I’m just worried about him. I mean ... all of them. It’s been hours, and no sign of anyone and no word.”

Gregor nods. “The Carpathian Mountain range is vast, and we can’t assume the shifters told them the truth about where the rogues were hiding. It wouldn’t be the first time the purebloods were misled and sent to the wrong place, or that a trap was waiting when they arrived.”

He must see the fear in my eyes or hear the pounding of my heart. “Sorry, I forget that not everyone is used to what we’ve dealt with for centuries and centuries. It’s always the same with the rogues. They want us to go back to the dark ages, attacking and killing innocents for their blood. It’s senseless and unconscionable today, but that’s the way they’ve always gotten what they need, through fear. We’ve dealt with them for too long, and it’s time to end them.”

I glance down the hall as one of the masters and his mate walk out of the elevator. “Was there something you needed?” I ask, not sure how to explain to Master Bistrita that just hours after he left, I invited a vampire into my room while wearing only a robe.

He smiles. “No, this won’t take long. Master Bistrita wants you to read this NDA. If you agree to its contents, sign it. If not, don’t.”

My brow furrows, as he pulls a crisp white piece of paper from a yellow envelope. I quickly scan the document and smile. It leaves me with no commitment, outside of the agreement to keep what I read within the document to myself. “Pen?”

Gregor nods and pulls one out of his jacket pocket, handing it to me. I lean the paper against the doorframe and scroll my signature onto the line intended for my agreement and date it. “There you go.”

“Since you’ve signed this and agree to keep what’s in the packet confidential, I will leave you with both the packet and Master Bistrita’s personal business card, which has his cell phone number on it. He asks that you call with any questions.” He turns and walks down the hall back toward the elevator just as Taylen steps from it and into the hall. “Gregor?” I call.

He turns. “Yes?”

“Thank you. You’ll let me know if you hear something, please?”

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