Page 128 of Shrouded in the Dark
The only reaction from Tarragon was a slight twitch in his right eye.
“The visitor that met with the Venandi right before they attacked your people, was another Fae.” Lario looked at his nails, spreading his fingers as his eyes moved over the tips of his nails. “To be honest, we don’t care if this is because of in-house fighting. We will take this opportunity to take out the Venandi headquarters that you’ve presented to us, but we won’t be forcing anyone to assist this if they are not willing.” He looked up to meet Tarragon’s gaze. “We obviously can’t trust each other.”
“Trust can be earned.” Abram closed his binder. “Give us the day and time and we will be there. We have agents inside right now that we are coordinating with.” He stood and several others around the table followed suit. “Lario, I’ll leave the details to you.” He left the room with five other people following him.
Volinda was the next to stand. She looked at us before turning on her heel and walked out. Half of the people followed.
Lario didn’t move from his chair as Gary moved to sit at his side.
“Just like that?” Becca looked at Gary. She was shaking where I touched her, but it wasn’t in fear. My mate was holding back from going after Tarragon. She’d grown so much in the past few weeks.
“Shhh, love. Trust me?” Jasper whispered to her so softly, even with my advanced hearing I had a hard time with it.
“This meeting certainly hasn’t gone the way I expected it to.” Tarragon’s aura began to lessen in strength. “I agree to provide the time information. Will a twenty-four hour heads up be sufficient?” He spoke as if he were testing out the phrase.
“Yes. And it will just be you meeting us?” Lario removed his feet from the table, sitting up straight. “Besides releasing the curse, are you going to provide any assistance?” This meeting was like a B rated horror movie on repeat.
“No.” Tarragon crossed his arms. “I will not do anything besides being the vessel for the curse’s magic. Oh.” He offered a fake smile. “The curse will last for twenty minutes. After it wears off, the Venandi will go back to full strength.” He stood and snapped his fingers. A folder dropped into Lario’s lap. “A peace offering. The blueprints to the whole compound.”
There was a sudden drop in pressure as what sounded like cloth ripping came from the wall behind the Fae. A black portal appeared. Tarragon stepped through it with not another word.
“What the hell was that?!” Becca stood up again, glaring at her stepfather and the vampire. “It sounded like you all had decided what to do even before we got here! Why even bother letting us come here? Why put up this act?”
Jasper pulled Becca into his lap, draping her legs over the chairs left arm as he pulled her close. She huffed but almost instantly relaxed. My wolf grumbled, wanting to be the one holding her.
“I’d like an answer to that as well.” Gary looked at Lario. “I’m a little shocked you didn’t trust me with this.”
“Sorry about that, Gary.” Lario opened the folder with one finger. He was trying not to touch it as if he were wary the Fae had done something to it. “That’s why I took the fox shifter aside so I could give him a little warning ahead of time.”
A warning? I hadn’t heard any kind of warning when they’d been speaking before we’d come into the room.
“That’s why I didn’t say much.” Jasper ran his hand along Becca’s thigh. “They had their meeting last night is what Lario said. They just wanted to see how we’d react to the news of the Fae. Interesting fellow, though. He obviously was hoping we’d jump at the chance to help take down the Venandi and help out his people.”
“That’s underhanded!” Becca turned an icy glare at Lario. “Why would you guys do that? We didn’t even need to bother to come today if you weren’t going to take us seriously.”
“Child.” A chill filled the room. “You’re new to this world, so I am letting your rudeness slide, but keep in mind that I am still a vampire lord.” Lario’s eyes narrowed as he looked at all of us. “The resistance was created to combat the Venandi and the ultimate goal was to stop them. This is an opportunity that we can’t miss. No matter that the Fae have their own issues happening.” He focused his attention onto Gary next. “I didn’t tell you so your reactions would be genuine. Tarragon’s reaction when we told him that another Fae was responsible for helping the Venandi was telling. They’re up to something, but at this time, it’s not a concern to us.”
Gary rubbed his face, pushing his glasses on to the top of his head. “Alright. I assume we have an actual plan besides the cluster fuck that was this meeting?”
Becca startled all of us by laughing. She slapped her hand over her mouth, trying to stop, but whatever had amused her just made her laugh harder as she tried.
“Mom is going to kick your butt so hard for that.” She wiped at the corner of her eyes as tears formed from her laughter. “I’m going to tell her, too.”
Jasper shook his head as we watched her and we grinned at each other. It didn’t matter that the situation was serious, she made everything brighter.
Once she finished, Lario just continued as if there had been no interruption.
“Yes. Based on intelligence from those inside the compound, the hunters are gathering their forces together. It seems they anticipate retaliation from the Fae. This works in our favor since most of their people will be there when we attack.” He pushed the open folder in front of Gary. “The goal is to take out the leaders. If we do that quickly, odds are most of them will give up so we don’t have to kill everyone.”
Gary held up a blueprint to the light. “These are pretty detailed. Including some areas that we haven’t been able to map out yet. You really think this can be done with minimal casualties?”
My index finger started to tap on the table. It was like a broken record.
“At this point, we’re taking the risk.” Lario met Jasper’s gaze. “I would keep the shifters away. Just a feeling. But we wouldn’t say no to your packs assistance, especially the hybrid, Wyn. He’ll be imperative in this attack.” The vampire pushed himself away from the table. “I think that’s enough for now. Talk about it with your family, fox. Let Gary know if you’ll be there.”
Without another word, he just disappeared, making Becca jump and glance around rapidly looking for him.
“Where’d he go?” She looked shocked. “He went poof! Is that a thing? Can we do that?”
