“Which is why Isaiah has so many private sitting and drawing rooms available for people to have private meetings.” I sighed heavily. “Let me guess… none of those rooms have video or audio surveillance, do they?”
“They do not, no,” Alexius confirmed.
“Then we’ll need a way to listen in on those meetings.”
“I agree, but there’s no way to do that safely. If we’re caught spying, I will get into a fight I don’t want, not here. If you’re caught spying, and I can’t get to you in time, the wrong person will kill you.”
“Risks have to be taken if we want to learn anything while we’re here,” I countered. “I don’t want this entire trip to be a waste.”
“This trip won’t be a waste of time, even if we sat in this room for the entire visit. There will be whispers and discussions that will come back to us. There will be comments made about us, Isaiah, and Jacob that will make their way back to us. Don’t think you need to take unnecessary risks for information that we will get in due time. If you ever feel like you are in over your head or in danger, you need to let me know. We’ll take a step back and just enjoy the rest of our stay or leave if we must.”
“Alexius, the person emailing is probably the same person who helped Edwin kill Jacob. Are you sure you want to play this passively?”
“I want the vampires who orchestrated Jacob’s murderandunleashed the group in Alaska, butnotat the expense of your life. That’s what a misstep here means. Someone like Sucaria? She’ll kill you before she reports your activities to Isaiah. You will be dead before anyone knows you’re in danger.”
“We’re going to mingle and hope it puts us in the right place at the right time to hear things.” I felt as if he was putting a leash on me. We stared at each other until he pushed away from the couch and stood in front of me.
“Yes. Perhaps if they didn’t threaten you only days before we were due to arrive, I would have allowed you to do more. Whoever it is knows what they’ve done and knows that we’re looking for them and have no idea who they are. It could be any one of them, and we now have to treatallof them as the enemy.”
“I get it. It’s just… frustrating,” I grumbled. “I’m constantly trying to say the right thing, and I’m not sure how to talk to them.”
“I’ll give you one piece of advice. Feel free to speak your mind with the vampires here. If you say something one of them doesn’t appreciate, I’ll easily cover it up by putting the blame on me since I’m supposed to make sure you say the right thing. You’re not going to make me look bad. If you haven’t noticed, I don’t have many friends here. Many are cordial due to my reputation, but I kept my distance, so many of them kept theirs in turn.”
“I noticed. Jamal invited us to his hunt, but he didn’t talk to either of us.”
“I believe Isaiah set us up for that invitation, probably mentioning us when Jamal might have said something about getting a hunt together for the first night.”
“That sounds like Isaiah,” I mumbled. “Want to bet we’ll end up doing more stuff like that, thanks to him?”
“I don’t take bets I know I’ll lose.” Alexius went to the door, looking at me over his shoulder expectantly. “Are you ready?”
“Are you?”
“I’ll take that as a yes.” He opened the door and left me to catch up as he started down the long hall toward the lounge. As we walked, a few vampires also left their own suites, probably intending to go to the same place. Gisela, the Mistress of Vienna, was one. She stepped out before we passed her suite, but she stepped into the door, staying out of Alexius’s way, and let us pass without saying anything. Her arrival had been quiet, part of the wave of vampires. She hadn’t shaken either of our hands, only nodding at Alexius before moving on to find her suite.
We entered the lounge without fanfare, Alexius beelining for a booth in a corner and letting me decide if I wanted to sit on the inside or outside. I decided to go for the outside tonight, remembering how he had trapped me the night before.
“It’s quiet right now,” I mentioned, looking around.
There were only a handful of others in the lounge. Nailah and Isis were in their own booth, having a seemingly casual conversation. Damek and Ivanna from Prague were whispering, looking at something on one of their phones. Sheba and Idir were together at one of the small tables, each sipping on a drink in complete silence. As I watched, two vampires I didn’t recognize walked up to them and moved chairs to sit at the small table with them.
“Ah, there they are,” Alexius murmured. “Those two were late yesterday. The woman goes by Galla. The man goes by Ka. They’re ancients. Ka travels around the world, and won't stick to one place at all. Galla tries to blend in with the human world and lives like a pauper. The only one we haven’t seen yet is Taj. He should have been coming.”
“Do you keep track of everyone like you?” I asked, looking at the group across the room. Ka looked in my direction, his eyes a strange amber color, something I had never seen before.
“I try.”
“He watches for any sign that he might need to kill us,” a woman said softly. I tensed, wondering who spoke, only to see Galla’s head turn slightly, a smile on her profile. “The older we are, the more likely we are to be monsters who need to be put down. It's all a game of odds. Every night is another flip of the coin.”
“Um…”
“Because we used to be monsters,” Alexius said over my shoulder as I was frozen in Galla’s green gaze. “Because we were mindless, hungry predators until someone or something pulled us out of it. You know my story of how Jacob gave me back a shred of my humanity. They’re all similar.”
Galla turned away again, and Ka broke his stare.
“Do any of you know where Taj is?” Alexius asked, keeping his voice low, but it was definitely heard by the other Ancients. Sheba’s head tilted slightly.
“No. He should have been here by now, but he hasn’t arrived,” she answered. “He’s not a punctual man, though. Taj has a funny sense of time. If he doesn’t arrive tonight, I bet Isaiah will see him in a week, or he won’t show up at all.”