Chapter 22: Chapter 22
After Mira turned away from me, I followed her from a discreet distance. I knew she didn’t want me tailing her, but I just couldn’t let her go off on her own, no matter how much I was hurting from her rejection. Her safety was still my top priority and after tonight, it must be taken more seriously. My heart twisted when she ran into the arms of the man she was with earlier. Actually, it was the man who ran to her and not the other way around, but the result was the same, nonetheless. She still ended up enveloped in his arms when he spotted her walking dazedly into the plaza. Mira had been gone for about a quarter of an hour yet he looked like he’d been worrying about her for a fortnight. I didn’t stay long after that infuriating and agonizing scenario.
Work had always been my refuge, and I intended to bury myself in it for now.
Stefan, who arrived five minutes after my call, appeared stoic as always. Yet, he couldn’t hide the turmoil swirling inside his brain. This was the second time I had battled rogue vampires on my own and Stefan took his self-assigned job as my ‘bodyguard’ seriously. He didn’t like just cleaning up after me, he preferred to also be there to watch my back, contributing to the mess. Next time, I would make sure to bring him along to my hunting expeditions. To be fair, I had not foreseen dealing with these mutts two nights in a row. All I wanted was to see Mira and find an opening. I did get my opening, but it didn’t turn out the way I wanted. Mira now knew the truth about me and had been repulsed by it. I pulled my thoughts away from my dire situation and forced my mind to focus on the task at hand, disposing of these mutt’s carcasses.
I had carefully inspected the bodies and didn’t find any tattoos or pictures of Mira. However, as Stefan was bagging the heads, he noticed something I didn’t. My sword had sliced where the neck met the shoulders, leaving the nape untouched and this was where Stefan found the strange markings. I wasn’t an expert on ancient symbols, but this was clearly Egyptian in origin. If memory serves right, the eye inside a chalice with a cross at the bottom was one of the lesser-known symbols for the god Osiris. Both men had the same imprints on the back of their necks. There was a time when a few vampire covens dedicated themselves to the Egyptian god of Death and Resurrection. However, they all disbanded after their leader, Prince Djoser, was killed by one of the Royals. Could they be rising to power again?
“Stefan, take the jet and go back to Manila. Come back here tomorrow with Boris and Marcus,” I told Stefan as I took pictures of the men's faces and the symbols on their napes with my phone. “I’m going to meet with Oleg and show him these. He must be warned.”
“Shouldn’t I go with you, sir? What if Oleg is a party to this?”
I appreciated Stefan’s concern, but it wasn’t necessary. Oleg was an adopted son of the Count and would never go against him. If the Count trusted him, so should I.
“I’ll be fine, Stefan. Oleg can be trusted,” I said.
Stefan nodded reluctantly and went back to work. After bagging the heads, we buried the bodies deep in the woods and left the scene as pristine as it was before. I dropped Stefan off at the hangar and proceeded to Oleg’s mansion in the suburbs. Sunrise was still several hours away, he and his coven would still be awake. I just hoped they weren’t out hunting forest creatures or something. I wanted to conclude this business with him as soon as possible so I could fly back to Manila when Stefan returned with Boris. It pained me to do this, but I decided to leave the protection of Mira to my second-in-command. She needed someone who wasn’t at risk of doing something stupid and I didn’t think I could take more of her budding romance with this human. I would leave Marcus here as well to act as Boris’s backup in case he needed one.
The vampires guarding Oleg’s property immediately opened the gates after I showed them my mark. I was then led to the pool house where Oleg was entertaining. At least he would be in a good mood, I thought. Those girls prancing around him naked would keep him satiated for hours. Oleg was a few inches shorter than I was, but stockier. His bulging muscles and closely cropped head reminded me of those wrestlers I used to watch on TV. His smiling eyes plus salt and pepper beard, however, made him look more like a buffed-up Santa. But I didn’t let that jovial facade fool me. Oleg was known to be a vicious judge and executioner when wronged. And as I anticipated, he was furious when I showed him the pictures. Someone had violated his peaceful haven and he would not tolerate it. Vampires are a territorial lot and we take serious offense when it is breached.
“You say these scumbags were hunting here? In my paradise?” Oleg growled, his hazel eyes turning red with anger.
“Yes, unfortunately. This is my first time encountering them, though, so I can’t give you much information. I just wanted to give you a heads up,” I said, leaning back on the sofa. It was marvelous to watch Oleg slowly turn from a docile kitten into a raging man-eater.
“Viktor!” Oleg bellowed as he paced in front of me like a caged tiger. A dark mountain of a man was immediately in front of him, bowing low.
“Yes, sire,” Viktor said, his voice rumbling in his chest.
“Take a picture of these and have them sent to all our men. Tell them to be on the lookout for strangers. But make sure that they do not kill them if they encounter one. I want them brought here for questioning,” Oleg said, shoving my phone into Viktor’s large hands. Viktor did as told and returned my phone to me before disappearing in a flash. I wondered how such a hulking man could move so fast, even if he was a vampire.
“I will take care of this, don’t you worry. If I have to tear through the whole of Cebu to find them, I will. And then I will rip them apart limb from limb until they spilled their secrets,” Oleg said, still seething. “It took me close to a century to turn this place into a safe refuge where vampires and humans could co-exist peacefully and I will not let these scumbags destroy it with their filthy ways. No offense meant to present company,” he turned to me with a deferential nod.
By filthy, he meant hunting humans and drinking their blood and Oleg could tell that I still indulged in the latter. Oleg had always been a strong advocate of vegetarianism, as he adopted the term for their practice of abstaining from the consumption of human blood. The movement had been gaining ground, especially among younger vampires who still had some traceable ties to the human community. But it had suffered a huge setback when hundreds of vampires worldwide fell ill after drinking contaminated animal blood. It was only these past few decades that Oleg’s advocacy had begun to flourish again so I understood his fury and frustration.
After Oleg had calmed down, we settled into talking about ‘society gossip’, which the older vampire lorded over. I wasn’t much into gossip of any kind, but I found his anecdotes diverting. When he suggested that I stay and party with him and his girls, I wanted to decline. I wasn’t looking for entertainment. But then, remembering that I would be faced with an empty bungalow, which would only tempt me to go back to stalking Mira, I agreed to remain. A guy could use a break once in a while. Yet, as the minutes dragged into hours and I still couldn’t bring myself to touch even one girl, I decided it was time to go. I didn’t want Oleg to think that he was boring me to death, though, so I told him the jet had arrived at the hangar. It was a lie, of course, but it at least allowed Oleg to save face. Even with us vampires, our jobs took precedence over our pleasures.
Thankfully, I didn’t have to wait long for Stefan to return with Boris and Marcus. I had just finished an extended and exceptionally cold shower when Stefan sent me a text message. They were back and were now on the way to the resort. I gathered what little of my stuff I had unpacked and threw them back inside my duffle bags. By the time my three Knights arrived, I was raring to go. Boris didn't question my decision to leave Mira's protection to him and only promised to keep me apprised of the situation every day.
Stefan and I were in the air within the hour, settling into a comfortable silence for the entire flight. He was obviously exhausted and fell asleep as soon as he was ensconced in one of the soft leather seats of the jet. I, on the other hand, didn't enjoy the same peaceful oblivion. My mind kept drifting back to Mira, sending another painful stab to my heart as this could truly be the end of our fleeting romance. It shouldn't affect me this much as we had not even been intimate yet. Still, the possibility of losing her was devastating and unbearable. It caused a gaping emptiness to settle at the center of my heart. Was Irina right? Had I fallen in love with Mira?
I shook my head to clear it and pushed all thoughts of her at the back of my mind. My love life shouldn't distract me from my job. Solving the mystery surrounding the new attack on her must be at the top of my list of priorities, not our hopelessly doomed affair. The vampire named Gunter said their instructions were to take Mira with them. But to where and to whom? Could they be working with the Royal Guard's group, the one who had a picture of Mira? Yet Gunter and Karl didn't have Mira's picture. Was it because they were after some random girl and not Mira specifically? Or were there now two groups hunting her? Were they both creating Newborns? The Royal Guard had a Newborn with him, did the worshippers of Osiris have one, too? And who was trying to revive the ancient cult of Osiris? The Royals had forbidden any form of worship a long time ago. Who would have the guts to go against this Royal Decree?
I sighed and slumped back in my seat, frustration getting the better of me. It seemed that the more I tried to connect the two incidents together, the more questions kept popping up. How was I supposed to present my report to the Count when I could not even answer my own questions? But more importantly, how was I going to explain killing one of the Prince's Royal Guards? Would my rank as Chief Enforcer be enough to get me out of this mess?
Fuck! This was more complicated than I expected. Perhaps it was better that things ended between Mira and me this early. At least she wouldn't miss me if things didn't work out in my favor. Because, if the Prince was involved in everything that was happening, the only reward I would get at the end of this assignment was a drawn-out and very public execution.
Going against a Royal, whether intentionally or not, was a death sentence not only for the offender but for his loved ones as well. And I didn't want Mira getting involved in this sordid business any more than she already was. It was bad enough that she was being hunted for her rare blood. She didn't need a condemned boyfriend added into the mix.
Yes, I would stay away and keep her safe from a distance, I promised myself.
But as I learned, later on, that decision wasn’t entirely up to me.