Chapter Eleven - The Grieving Hunter
Leora's eyes bulged out when the limo stopped in front of the hotel. It had a revolving door, and there was even a red carpet leading to the entrance. Not to mention it was triple times taller than their old hotel.
“I’ve had the suites paid. This should be enough for you three?” asked Elizabeth from Elijah’s phone. He had her on speaker.
“It’s more than enough,” answered Elijah. Certainly more than backstabbing cheapskate Zea, he thought.
“What are the chances of Zea knowing we are in this place, Telera?” asked Josephine.
They were in a three way call.
“She’ll have a very hard time cracking the new comms,” said Telera from Elijah’s phone. “It would take her at least a week.”
“She won’t spend any time on it. The auction is tomorrow,” said Elizabeth.
“I’ve set up a bank account with some sweet over-inflated fake money,” said Telera. “So bid as high as you want.”
“Don’t make it obvious,” pleaded Elizabeth. “It would look too suspicious to start with one billion.”
“Of course,” said Elijah, though he rolled his eyes. “Is there anything else we need to know about Zea and or the EC?”
“EC are assholes and I don’t know how they will be at the auction. If they managed somehow, bet that Zea will be there. She relies on her speed. Your best chance of survival is to make her slow down,” said Elizabeth. “That shouldn’t be too hard for the One-in-a-Thousand?”
“Child’s play,” said Elijah indignantly. “But what if she,” he bit his lips but he couldn’t think of a better way to say it, “starts ninja~ing? I am pretty sure she can punch into my chest and rip my heart out.”
“I’ll handle that part. I don’t ever miss,” said Josephine. She patted her jacket where her gun was. “I have put her on the ground before,” she grinned and nodded at Elijah.
Elijah shook his head, having no idea what the hell Josephine was referencing to.
Leora frowned. “We shouldn’t be fighting each other,” she said quietly.
“Well she shouldn’t have tried to kill us either,” said Elijah.
“Work together. The fate of all vampires are in you three hands,” said Elizabeth. “It doesn’t seem like there is anything else to discuss. If there are any questions thereafter, you have my number.”
Elizabeth hung up.
“I’ll go monitor Zea’s communications but I think she’s onto me. I haven’t seen any exchange of data between her and the vampire council in the past hour or so. I’ll continue to monitor,” said Telera.
“Thanks. I owe you a dinner,” said Josephine.
“You owe me more like five dinners,” chuckled Telera before hanging up.
Josephine turned to Leora, who was still looking sad. “C’mon, let’s go. I promise once you’re in an actual hotel, you’ll cheer up.”
They left their limo with their luggage and went into the lobby. Leora was looking around like a kid in a candy store. She was looking down at the marbled floor as Elijah was checking them in.
“So fancy,” said Leora.
“Oh, it gets better,” said Josephine.
A bellboy approached them and offered to take their bags up to the room.
“This is so cool!” squealed Leora. She never had someone offered to take her stuff.
Josephine hooked her arms with Leora. “Wait till you see the jacuzzi,” she said.
Elijah shook his head. “C’mon let's check in and finally sleep on our own beds!” He had hated using the sleeping bags Zea provided.
They went up to their suite with Leora gawking at nearly everything. As they walked down the hallway someone nearly bumped into Josephine. A marking on the person’s coat had her attention.
“And here we are! No need to tip. It has already been paid. Enjoy your stay!” said the bellboy, and he left.
They entered their suite. Instantly Elijah zoomed into the bedroom where there were three separate beds. Leora went straight to the living room.
“There’s a tv here!” said Leora. She opened it after picking up a remote control. “Cable! Hell yeah!”
“See, I told you it gets better. Hey, I gotta take this call. I’ll be back in a jiffy,” said Josephine. “Just stick my stuff in the bedroom.”
“Yeah, okay,” said Leora as she changed channels.
Josephine left their suite. The marking she saw was an encoded message that only hunters would use to communicate with another. Laced with magic from their graces, only they can read it. This one was a message asking to meet him at the lounge.
She took the elevator and descended. When she got to the ground floor, she headed straight to the lounge. When she got there, Jociam wearing a long leather coat was waiting. He was at the bar with a drink in his hand.
“Mind me asking how you know I was here?” asked Josephine as she sat next to him. She ordered a drink. She didn’t see any visions, so there was no harm chatting up the old hunter.
“Y’know us ordains. I have developed impeccable intuition,” smiled Jociam. “I just want to talk.”
“Alright,” said Josephine. She received her drink from the bartender. “What do you want to talk about?”
“Where we left off. I would like to know your thoughts, Josephine,” said Jociam.
Josephine took a sip of her drink. “Lemme guess, vampires?”
“Indeed. You must have realized that we can, in one day, decimate the vampire council here. Just one day. But do you know what they tell us?” Jociam took a gulp of his drink. “They tell us we must wait. For what? We have the power of Ascension. Nothing can stop us!”
“Well the Order got to have a bad guy,” said Josephine.
“Exactly, and that’s the problem. They wait and in doing so costing lives,” he said. He brooded over his drink. He took out a silver pocket watch and rubbed it with his thumb. “Lives like my wife. She died before you came into the Order, so you never met her.”
Josephine took a gulp of her drink. That wasn’t exactly true.
“Long ago there was this vampire that seemed to elude us. He somehow knew all our tricks. Every time we cornered him, he’d slip away. My wife had begged the Echelons to send a team after a group of children had been murdered by that piece of shit. The Echelons denied her, so she went after him anyway. She never came back,” continued Jociam.
“I am sorry. My condolences,” said Josephine. She meant that.
Jociam smiled bitterly. “The pope said the same thing.”
“He’s….” Josephine bit down her anger at the mention of the pope. She looked down at her drink. She had to choose her words carefully and didn’t want to raise suspicions as Jociam doesn’t know the killings she had done. The pope and the Echelons would keep it a secret. Just like how they kept how Jociam’s wife died.
“He’s incompetent. Vampires are our ultimate threat, but he sits on the throne pretending like they are nothing but mere flies. He says we got to look at the bigger threat but what is bigger than vampires? They need to be put down once and for all.” Jociam’s voice was dripping with hate.
“Is that the same with you?” he asked.
Josephine swirled her drink. “If they’re in my way,” she answered coolly.
Jociam studied her for a moment. “I think you and I deal with the grief the same way,” he said finally.
“Revenge,” she said simply.
Jociam nodded. “Revenge.” He lifted his glass to her.
Josephine lifted her glass to clink with his.
Then they both finished their drinks.
“Good, then I have no worries tomorrow,” said Jociam. He got up, put the silver pocket watch into his coat and looked at the bartender. “I’ll pay hers as well and this is with tip.” He tossed money onto the bar counter. He nodded at Josephine before parting with final words. “I trust that you will do the right thing in the end. My intuition never fails.”
Josephine watched him leave the lounge room. She felt guilty that it wouldn’t be what he wanted and that he probably would die not knowing the truth. She ordered another drink.
Chapter 12 - Hidden Path