Chapter Ten - The Deception
Elijah re-read the folded paper that Hammer had given him. He would have thrown it out if it weren’t for Zea who was the last person to show up at their hotel. Leora was frantically texting and calling her, but the super fast vampire did not answer. Leora swore Zea was right behind her until she reached the hotel.
The thumping sound of someone descending the stairs had Elijah look from the brunch table the receptionist lady had set up for breakfast. There was stale toasted bread, some jams, a tray of sugar packets, a few empty cups, a basket of tea packets and a jug of coffee on the table.
Josephine, her hair messed up, sleepily made her way to the brunch table. Her stomach growling as she sat next to Elijah. “Is this it? No bacon?” she asked groggily.
“This is far more than I thought,” he answered. He eyed the receptionist who was reading a newspaper. The headlines read: “Fire Breakout at Charity.” He whispered, “This shit of a hotel would provide.”
“Fuck, if I wasn’t so but tired I’d be at a Dennys,” said Josephine. Using her ordained powers had tired her out considerably as usual. When she got to the hotel, she flopped onto the bed, not caring for Elijah’s protest. She poured some coffee for herself and grabbed some toasted bread. “The other two aren’t going to join us. They’re having their breakfast in the room.” She bit into the toast.
“Good, then we can chat without Zea,” said Elijah. “Do you believe her about why she disappeared for hours after everyone else was here?”
Josephine shrugged. “She wanted to make sure no one followed us. I’d do the same,” she said. She took a handful of sugar packets and opened them, pouring out the contents into her coffee one at a time.
“Until almost dawn? She could’ve picked up Leora’s calls,” said Elijah.
Josephine took a sip of her coffee. It wasn’t too bad. “What’s bothering you?” she asked.
Elijah pursed his lips. “I think I don’t trust her. Think about it. She told us we couldn’t do magic or bring weapons to the charity. She alone went to search for the location and date of the auction. And now this. I trust Leora when she said Zea was right behind her.”
Josephine swirled her coffee to mix the sugar more into the coffee. “She hasn’t tried to kill us. I am very sure about that.” She took another sip and liked the coffee much more.
“How do you know that?” asked Elijah.
Josephine grinned. “I am psychic,” she said nonchalantly.
Elijah narrowed his eyes. He found Josephine’s provocativeness to be annoying, and he wasn’t going to have it today. “I am serious. “ He leaned closer to Josephine and passed a paper to her. “I got this from someone at the charity.”
Josephine read it, crumpled it up and threw it away.
“What the hell?” Elijah could feel his anger running across his fingertips.
“You trust any stranger who hands you a piece of paper? C’mon now,” said Josephine.
“Explain the attack on the charity,” said Elijah. And it wasn’t a stranger, he thought. Zea, on the other hand, they barely met and might as well be a stranger. Somewhere inside of him, despite what Hammer had done, he trusted his former mentor a tiny bit more than Zea.
“Vampire issues. I don’t care,” said Josephine. “You’re not going to leave me alone about it, aren’t you?”
“I just think Zea’s plan of only her scooping out the mansion tonight is weird like everything else since from the start and I thought she was just being a cheapskate,” said Elijah.
Josephine sighed. “Alright, let’s run with your crazy conspiracy, why would she keep us in the dark? What would be the benefit?” She took two more bites of the toast before deciding to spread some jam over it.
“Revenge? Let us idiots do the dirty work? She did mention a mole in her house, but y’know what I am convinced there isn’t one. She’s just using us for, like you said, vampire issues. Maybe start a vampire war over the scroll?” said Elijah.
“What would you want us to do?” asked Josephine. She figured Elijah wasn’t going to let it go.
“I propose that you and I go investigate that mansion in the day. She can actually get some sleep. If she refuses, then I am right and we go the fuck home. I will not let Leora and I be a pawn for some sort of vampire war or whatever,” he said.
Josephine rubbed her neck. Then shrugged. “It wouldn’t hurt to try and your plan is much more sound than what she has been saying. That I will give,” she said.
“Yeah and Leora can watch her which also means she stays here if you get my drift,” said Elijah.
Josephine nodded. “Yeah, that girl is a trouble magnet sometimes,” she chuckled.
After they finished their breakfast, they headed up back to their room. When they entered, they found Leora was happily finishing drinking her blood bag on the bed while watching something on her phone and Zea was at the desk with an empty blood bag neatly rolled by the laptop. Elijah cleared his throat.
“Zea, Josephine and I have been talking and we want to change the plan,” said Elijah.
Zea turned to them. She closed her laptop with her bandaged hand that was injured last night. “What of it?” she said. Her hair was back to white as it turned out she had been sporting a wig the whole time last night.
“He wants me and him to go do the stalking right now and you get some shut eyes,” said Josephine.
“We will have more time to prepare. You said the auction was tomorrow afternoon,” said Elijah. “This is a much better plan.”
“I can’t go with you two tomorrow,” said Zea, but more to herself. She observed the two for a bit before finally replying. “I see your plan is better. Just make sure not to be seen. Take pictures without flash. I don’t know what security would be like after last night,” she said.
Josephine turned to Elijah with a devilish grin. Elijah only pursed his lips and shook his head. “Glad we agreed,” he said.
“Indeed,” Zea said.
“We’ll try to get this done as quickly as possible,” said Elijah. He then left the room.
“Get some sleep, hottie,” winked Josephine at Zea. She turned to Leora. “Take care.” She exited the room, following Elijah.
Leora was now alone with Zea once again. She discarded her empty blood bag by tossing it into a waste basket. “What was that?” she asked. She thought last night after the charity went up into flames they had all agreed that Zea scope out the auction tonight and then they planned for tomorrow.
Zea stretched. “Maybe they don’t trust me,” she said. She turned around and looked at Leora. “Maybe they just don’t trust vampires. We do have a certain history in the world,” she sighed. “That might be the best for them. At least have me away. I did fuck up last night.”
“Fucked up?” asked Leora. She didn’t think so.
Zea shook her head. “It’s none of your concern,” she said. “Are you sleepy? You can take the bed. Elijah said you stayed up waiting for me so you must be tired. I’ll sleep somewhere else.”
“Well, it makes more sense if you do. Technically I can, y’know, um, go outside and find some other place to sleep at this time,” said Leora, stopping herself. She sat down quickly, realizing she may have offended Zea. She should change the subject fast. “I don’t really know why they stuck me here with you if they didn’t trust you, which I think is stupid.”
Zea smirked. “You’re here to watch me.” She didn’t add that it was also because Elijah and Josephine wanted to keep Leora out of trouble too.
Leora opened her mouth to deny but stopped short. Knowing Elijah, Zea was probably right.
“I am sure your witch friend also put wards outside of our door as extra insurance for me. He is truly his mother’s son,” said Zea, looking at the windows draped with heavy curtains.
Leora nodded. “Yeah, that sounds about right. He’d put his thingy wards like he does in the apartment. How do you know that?”
“Let’s say I’ve encountered enough witches in my life that I picked up a few things.” Zea leaned back into her chair and crossed one foot over her opposite knee. Her light blue eyes observing Leora.
Leora twitched a little. She felt like Zea’s gaze was probing her for something. “I guess we can get to know each other till, um, they get back.”
Zea nodded. “Not a bad idea. I do have a few questions for you.”
“Uh, sure?” Leora twiddled with her fingers.
“Who sired you?” asked Zea.
“I dunno,” said Leora.
Zea arched an eyebrow. “You don’t know? I find that hard to believe. We don’t just randomly make someone a vampire.”
Leora shrugged. “It just happened. I was, uh, walking in New York one night and then, like, bam! Someone swooped down and knocked me to the ground. I didn’t even see them.” She shrugged. “When I got up I was a vampire and alone.”
“Hmm,” Zea’s eyes squinted, which made Leora squirm. “I see. A surprise attack, huh?”
“Yep,” nodded Leora.
“Did your attacker have different eye color in each eye?” asked Zea.
Leora shook her head. “Pfft, no, same eye color.”
“Oh, so you saw your sire?” Zea’s eyes lit up.
“Yeah! I mean, no! Ugh, it was so fast I didn’t really get a good look. Why do you want to know who sired me?” asked Leora, realizing that Zea had her contradict herself.
“Why are you not forthcoming with your sire?” Zea’s eyes narrowed.
“Cuz it’s none of your business!” shot back Leora. She leaned back, sensing that Zea may attack her. She looked at the door and wondered if she could bolt out there fast enough, but then Zea would just catch her before she ever made it to the door knob.
Zea closed her eyes momentarily before opening them. There was a glint of sorrow in them. “I didn’t mean to scare you. Just let me ask how your sire looked like and that will be enough questions for the day,” she said softly.
Leora relaxed. “My sire look like me.”
Zea scrunched up her eyebrows but refrained from speaking.
Leora smiled. She admired that Zea was keeping her word. So she continued. “My sire was my mother.”
“I am so sorry,” said Zea.
“It’s alright. I just didn’t want people to know.” Leora twiddled her thumbs again. “I’m looking for her. I don’t know where she is.” Her eyes began to water up, but with blood. “I miss her.”
“Hey, it’s okay.” Zea got up from her chair. She pulled out a napkin from the inner pockets of her jacket and approached Leora. She offered the napkin. “Take this. I don’t think the receptionist would be too thrilled to find blood on the bed sheets.” The hotel receptionist had already charged her for the previous sheets.
Leora took the napkin and dried her eyes. “You’re so nice. Every vampire I’ve met so far is either trying to kill me or say how I’m such a pathetic vampire. Like no one taught me and the forums on the web.” Her eyes started to bloody up again, so she dried them again.
Zea chuckled and then sat down next to Leora. She wrapped an arm around the shorter vampire.“I’ll tell you a secret,” she said. “I was and probably still is a pathetic vampire too.”
Leora turned to Zea with a dropped jaw. “Lies! You’re the coolest vampire I’ve met so far!”
Zea shrugged. “It’s the truth. I fuck up a lot. Sometimes I get it right.” She sighed. “I don’t think I was ever worthy.” She smiled, but her eyes were sad. “Why don’t you take a little nap?”
“Oh, it’s okay.” Leora felt her cheeks blushed as she felt Zea pull her close to her and put a hand behind her neck. “I’m not tired….” Her eyes suddenly felt heavy. She made a big yawn before falling backward onto the bed.
Zea stood up from the bed and tossed a round object up before catching it. “You’ll be safe. Just sleep here and when you wake up, it will be all over,” she said.
Leora, unable to fight the onslaught of sleep, closed her eyes.
***
Zea didn’t like deceiving Leora. She didn’t want Leora involved any further and regretted even having Leora in her plans in the first place. Leora was still green of a vampire. It would be a shame, even with the sun immunity, that a young vampire like Leora would end her life so early.
She put away the round object where she had retrieved with the napkin for Leora to take. It was actually the one that Josephine used on her. She tweaked it and added other things to make the gadget a lot more potent and effective on vampires.
Was this right? She shook her head. Now was not the time to debate herself. She needed to go quickly. She zoned in at the window where the black, thick, heavy curtains blocked out the daylight.
Elijah wouldn’t bother putting on ward out there for obvious reasons. He didn’t expect her to go through the window and burn up. Commendable indeed, she thought.
A vibration from her phone meant that there was a black Fiat with blacked out windows parked below the window waiting for her.
Taking a big breath, she dashed forward so fast that the air in the room swirled up to fling the black curtains up. In that moment, within a blink of an eye, she would wrap the curtains around her, open the window and jump out.
***
Josephine and Elijah were observing the mansion. They had both walked around for an hour, but the tall walls and shrubbery were blocking most of the view of the mansion. At the moment they were at a vendor cart across from the mansion that was selling some Chinese sandwich.
Josephine slurped in her boba tea drink. “These are better than the ones in SF Chinatown,” she said.
Elijah nodded though he was thinking of spells he could use so they can infiltrate the place.
“Y’know, I kinda think Zea was right and we should have let her do the snooping. She’s fast and can get in and out,” said Josephine before taking another slurp.
“We can do this too. Not the way she does—a fact that we don’t actually fucking know exactly except she’s really fast,” said Elijah.
“True but apparently she can’t carry people and be fast,” said Josephine.
Elijah blinked several times. “How do you know that?” he asked.
“Last night. I told her to take Leora out and that’s what she told me,” shrugged Josephine.
“That didn’t red flag you? She can rip out my car’s door in midair. She can totally carry Leora while maintaining her speed,” said Elijah.
Josephine tapped her chin. “You have a point. That now doesn’t make sense.” She observed a man coming out of his car and headed towards them.
“Argh, I feel like I am the only one here not dumb as rocks—hey,” said Elijah.
Josephine grabbed him and pulled him down just as the man heading toward them pulled out a gun. The shot ranged and whizzed past them. More people started to head for them.
Josephine led Elijah behind the vendor’s cart. They huddled there.
“Fuck,” said Elijah. The bullet that was meant for them had found the vendor instead. Her body was slumped over the grill, her face cooking up. “Fuck!”
Josephine had her gun and shot back, striking the first attacker dead on the forehead. “You have some useful spells or you're gonna be deadweight?”
Elijah gritted his teeth and took out his athame. He mumbled some words and the surrounding ground shifted and made a partial wall. This was something he picked up from Marcus when they were at the museum.
More shots rang out and pelted Elijah’s wall and vendor cart.
“I can’t see, I can’t kill them,” complained Josephine.
“I just need goddamn time,” barked Elijah. He was making a ward, tracing his fingers in the air. He banked on their attackers to come close enough where they would set it off.
“Holy shit, you can’t just blast them?” asked Josephine.
Josephine’s eyes glowed, which stunned Elijah for a moment. He had seen videos of the hunters, but they were entirely of the witches who lost their minds and joined the Order eons ago. This was the first time he had seen an ordained in action.
Josephine, taking Elijah’s silence as a no, continued. “What kind of witch are you? Graces can literally throw lasers from their eyes.”
He shook his head. This was no time to be in awe. “I don’t work well stressed, okay!”
Pop! Pop! Pop! Josephine shot through Elijah’s wall.
“Have you lost your mind, psycho?” screamed Elijah.
Josephine’s eyes returned to normal.
“I got a few but you need to finish your ward now,” said Josephine.
“You don’t tell me what to do,” said Elijah as he put the last touches to his ward.
Boom! Green electricity ripped around them. There was screaming and shouting. The air whirled around above them with bodies and leaves. The bodies jerked at odd angles as green energy flowed over them.
Then it stopped.
The bodies and leaves fell to the ground. Elijah’s walls receded as they stood up. At least thirty bodies were all around them. Skin and tactical armor smoked.
“Nice job,” said Josephine, and she put up a high five for Elijah to slap.
Elijah slapped her hand. “Yeah,” he said breathlessly. His phone started ringing, which got the hair at the back of his neck to stand. The ringtone from his phone he had put it just for one person so he could ignore them.
He answered it. “Elizabeth?”
Josephine’s eyebrows went up. Then her phone buzzed too. There was an incoming text from Telera.
“Thank goodness you picked up. It also means Zea failed to kill you,” said Elizabeth.
“What is going on and what about Zea?” said Elijah. He could hear Elizabeth sigh.
“Despite our history, I am truly sorry to the West Coast Coven. House Eagle has a mole problem. It turns out our most trusted agent is a mole for the vampire European Council, our enemy. She had murdered one of our blood suppliers and a member of ours that we had wrongly thought was the mole. She hid their bodies in her room after they discovered she was the real mole. We were finally able to decode messages transpiring between Zea and the EC with help from a hacker friend of yours, Telera,” explained Elizabeth.
Elijah looked at Josephine. She was staring at her phone. She had read a text from Telera. “Holy fuck,” she said under her breath. “I thought she just had trust issue, but fuck. You think you know someone?”
“Zea had hired some assassins, but she had jammed our communications. I barely got to you. Hello?” said Elizabeth.
“We have to get back to Leora!” Elijah said.
However, Josephine was already sprinting to a parked car.
***
Leora felt like electricity was running through her.
“C’mon, wake up!” pleaded Elijah. ”Please!”
It was the desperation in Elijah’s voice that had Leora open her eyes.
“Yes, it worked,” cried out Elijah.
Leora sat up to see a pissed off Josephine standing in front of the bed. She turned to Elijah, who was sitting next to her. His hair was totally messed up and she could smell the unmistakable scent of singed skin. She looked around. No Zea.
“That asshole!” she shouted in realization. “She put me to sleep!”
“We thought that she put you in a coma,” said Josephine. “Elijah here somehow got you to wake up.”
“Well, I had to try. She was going to kiss you to try to get you to wake up,” said Elijah, hooking a thumb at Josephine.
“Where did she go?” said Leora angrily.
Josephine chinned at the curtainless opened window. “Well she jumped out.”
“Why? She’ll burn,” said Leora.
“I would do the same if someone discovered you were a backstabbing bitch,” said Elijah spitefully.
Leora pursed her lips. “I feel like I am missing something and aren’t you two suppose to be scoping that mansion?”
“Zea lied to us,” said Josephine.
“I don’t understand,” said Leora, confused.
“Zea betrayed Elizabeth. Betrayed us. Tried killing us off with her goons while we were at the mansion,” said Josephine. “Elizabeth just phoned us along the way after the ambush.”
“I don’t believe it,” said Leora weakly.
Elijah let out a sigh. “She’s the mole, Leora. Elizabeth wants us to get the scroll and take out Zea. We said yes.”
“Zea will be my job. You two focus on getting the scroll,” said Josephine as she started packing her stuff.
Leora shook her head. She never gets people wrong. She wanted to cry. Zea was so nice to her minus putting her to sleep. “Why did she leave me alone if she tried to kill you two?” she asked.
Elijah shrugged. “My guess is that she didn’t think you were a threat,” he answered.
“Oh,” said Leora, a little hurt. “I just thought--she said she needed me to get the scroll because I don’t fry under the sunlight. She could’ve taken me….”
“Well, she doesn't need you for that now, obviously,” said Elijah. He also started to pack his stuff.
“But she asked me,” started Leora.
“Or maybe there is truth when she said she couldn’t carry people and move fast,” said Josephine. “Or what Elijah said. Doesn’t fucking matter. I don’t appreciate, even as hot as she is, trying to kill me. Pack up. We’re moving.”
“To where?” said Leora as she scooted off the bed.
“A better damn hotel,” said Josephine.
Chapter 11 - The Grieving Hunter