AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Gareth sent a message to Stasio.“I’m in the stairwell in the north tower.”
“We’re meeting up with you. Levka’s got a mate, Caitlin. She’s a witch and she will cloak you and Ruric and herself, making you invisible.”
“Leave it to Levka to end up with a witch for a mate.”
Stasio smiled. It had been a surprise to all of them when they’d just been trying to lift Levka’s mood after having been so badly wounded and Caitlin was there, trying to cheer him up. She’d been good for him. Levka was just lucky she and his friends had been there for him.
“Where’s Pierre?”Stasio asked Gareth.
“Last I saw, he was trying to track me through the lobby. I slipped behind a hidden panel that took me to the north tower, but I’ll have to leave it to get to the escape passages.”
“We’re scattering,”Stasio said,“but Ruric and Caitlin will meet you at the north tower.”
“Hurry, I doubt I’ll evade Pierre for long.”
“I see Pierre,”Stasio said to Gareth.
“Don’t get yourself killed over me. I should have said that beforehand. Oh, Ruric and Caitlin are here. Man, you didn’t tell me she was beautiful. We’re waiting in the tower. Is it clear to head for the underground tunnels yet?”
“Yeah, I’m headed for Pierre. He’s in the lobby looking puzzled.”But then Stasio saw someone else targeting Pierre. He smiled. Jasmine.“Looks like your other assassin is about to thwart him.”
“Good, then maybe you can stay out of it. We’ve left the tower and we’re headed toward the tunnels. I can’t believe that no one can see us. Your witch is remarkable.”
“And newly turned. She’s not allowed to communicate telepathically with us when we’re in danger because she can’t control who hears her.”
“Gotcha.”
Levka pulled Stasio to a stop while they watched Jasmine poke her finger at Pierre’s chest, her free hand on her hip, his smile arrogant as he folded his arms and looked down at her, taking her verbal abuse. “Let her deal with him. No telling if he’d learned we’re also considered rogues, and now Caitlin and Ruric will get Gareth safely away.”
Arman agreed.
“Besides, if you were to get in on this situation, who would you be protecting? Pierre from Jasmine?”
Stasio smiled. Yeah, she looked like the kind of vampiress he wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of. Good thing she didn’t realize he was a rogue.
5
“Ithought Stasio already warned you to leave,” Ruric said to Gareth, sounding annoyed as Caitlin and Gareth and he hurried down one of the tunnels.
“He did, but then I realized who was after me, and I shrugged off the concern. Jasmine has tried to kill me before. In New York. I don’t think her heart is really in it. When Stasio said Pierre was now after me also, I knew I had to leave.”
They maneuvered down the dark tunnels dripping with water and covered in wet moss. The smell was dank and wet, and Caitlin heard the squeaking of rats in the distance. With their vampiric vision, they could see in the dark. If she’d been afraid of the dark, she wouldn’t be now. Except for in one situation—floating in the dark ocean alone with only the sharks circling.
“What did you do in New York that caused the league to send vampire assassins after you?” Caitlin asked.
“I protected a hunter from a rogue vampire.”
“You killed the rogue?” Ruric asked.
“Yeah, but you know how we’re not supposed to kill a rogue or save a hunter unless we’re registered as an assassin. We would have to have a squeaky-clean record to apply for the job. I don’t know how anyone would have heard of it though. The hunter claimed the kill for his own, assuring me that I was safe for saving his life. But if someone else had witnessed it and reported it, that could be a possibility. Or…it could be because I dated a girl name Edith and broke up with her. Her grandfather is an elder and he could very well have added me to a terminal list.”
“The league rules be damned. They don’t make sense half the time,” Ruric said. “And if an elder has that kind of power, he needs to be eliminated.”
Gareth let out his breath. “We need to change the rules, but you know how that worked the last time.”
“Yeah, we narrowly escaped being terminated in Wales. Though that was so many years ago I’d hoped they’d forgotten about it.”
Caitlin wondered if they’d be safe anywhere!
