“Oh.”
“Disa said Dave was with Admes, patrolling the border. Any idea where they’d be?”
“Probably as far from Niall as possible. She likes to keep them apart because they take such joy in being together.”
“Isn’t that kind of petty?”
“Well, Niall wanted Aine to be Deyrar.”
“I’m saying.”
Tarasios acted like he wanted to rush to Disa’s defense. Then he remembered. “Yes.”
“Okay. So if they’re all headed toward the wagon house, we’ll go in the opposite direction, to the woods southwest of the villa. Surely somewhere around there I’ll be able to pick up Admes’s scent.”
I put Ziel on the short leash Blondie had brought him walking with. Then I glared at the dog. “You try to hump me one time and I swear I’m wrapping this sucker around a tree trunk and leaving you to the wolves. Got it?”
He stuck his tongue out, panted a couple of times, which I took to be an affirmative, and the three of us trotted through the dank, empty villa and out the back door.
“You going to be able to keep up?” I asked Tarasios as we quick-hiked through an olive grove whose canopy loomed over us with a menace I assured myself had more to do with him stumbling and gasping every few steps than any actual danger Dave might be facing up ahead. I glanced over my shoulder. Disa’s former flame was breathing harder than necessary, looking pale and sick in the early-evening moonlight. I wasn’t so much worried about him. But if he dropped No Frills I was going to be pissed.
“No problem,” he said.
I wasn’t so sure. Maybe if I kept him talking he’d be able to continue moving as well. “So why the dive into the ouzo bottle? Did you and Disa have a fight?”
“I told David already. You don’t fight with Disa.” Well, that certainly had been proven. “She just . . . dismissed me. Like some employee. She actually said, ‘Your services are no longer necessary,’ and shoved me out the bedroom door.”
“Did she say why?”
“She didn’t have to. I may be slow, but I’m not stupid.”
“Uh-huh.”
“It’s your boss.” Hard to ignore a theory that was gaining momentum. But I tried.
“Are you sure? He ripped her into vampirism, you know.”
“Oh, I know.” Tarasios rolled his eyes. “Haven’t I heard that story a hundred times? How he took her hard and fast like a pirate captain. How he left her to die, only to return and save her, murmuring apologies into her ear until she wept with joy. Ugh.”
Yeah, that version grossed me out too. It sounded like something she’d pulled from the pages of a bodice ripper. Had the reality warped in her mind over time? Or had she always loved him? Always wanted the eternity he could give her if she just played the right strategy?
“So Disa’s in love with Vayl?”
“As much as someone like her can be.”
Which led me to wonder if she’d manufactured this whole situation. Had she arranged for Samos to prey on the Trust, knowing that Hamon would call on the one vampire who could save it? And then had she killed Hamon and maimed Blas so she’d be in charge when Vayl arrived? Hmm, that seemed a little extreme. Plus, her job was to protect the Trust, not tear it apart. On the other hand, she had offed several of its members.
But she hadn’t known the details of our contract. She hadn’t been aware of it at all until Vayl mentioned it. Aw hell, it was all too confusing to straighten out while running uphill, dodging the shrubs that had grown up between the trees, trying to scent out werewolves, werebears, and whatever else the Trust had mortally offended. I had a feeling the list was lengthy.
I’d activated Bergman’s lenses. Though nothing moved within my enhanced vision, I could sense others lurking just outside the border of the Trust’s lands. Not Weres. Vampires. But it was so faint I imagined it was miles distant, maybe a group of hunters stalking prey in one of the dark alleyways of the city whose lights filled the coastline below us.
I reached out for Admes’s scent and found it much closer. I began to run, no longer caring if Tarasios could keep up or not. Ziel galloped by my side, his tongue flopping like a big pink necktie. Thirty seconds later I found my quarry, walking the tree line carryinghis gladius in one hand, an AK-47 in the other, a crossbow strapped to his back. After a space of about three feet, Dave followed.
“It’s Jaz,” I called in a low voice, hoping neither of them felt extra jumpy tonight. Admes nodded while Dave motioned me over. “Tarasios is with me,” I said as the vampire and my brother turned to check out the injured-boar sounds coming from the darkness behind me. Somebody should just put that man out of his misery.
“Whose dog?” asked Admes.
“Uh, he’s a loaner,” I said. “We’re letting everybody in the Trust have some face time with him to see if he grows on them. Do you like dogs?”
Dave came over and hissed in my ear, “What are you doing?”
“We got to find this ball of fur a new residence pretty soon. It would be highly convenient to leave him in the villa after we go if—”
“You’re going to dump an innocent animal with vampires?”
“He’s hardly pure. You should’ve seen what he did to my shoe!”
Tarasios caught up to us, interrupting the argument with a short bout of hawking and spitting. “Don’t get any of that on No Frills,” I said.
“Sorry. Just trying to get this taste out of my mouth.”
This from a guy who’s drunk Disa’s blood?
“Let’s keep moving,” said Admes. He led Dave, Tarasios, and myself along the trail he’d been taking, though I didn’t really see the point. All the action was at the wagon house. Where Vayl had no backup, except possibly Niall. And not even him if it came to a choice between my sverhamin and the Trust. Now that I knew Dave was safe, I couldn’t help but think that’s where I needed to be.
I stared into the darkness between the fir and beech trees that grew thickly on this edge of the property. I tried to reach out with my Spirit Eye to sense any threats to the Trust. But I couldn’t make myself concentrate on the job at hand. Knowing Dave and I should be watching Vayl’s back made me so jumpy I nearly shot Tarasios when he stepped on a stick, cracking it so loudly I thought we’d been attacked.
I went back to my obsessing. We should leave. Admes and Tarasios can hike all night long if they want to. Disa wanted Dave here, which is enough in itself to insist we get the hell out. I stopped just as Dave said, “I don’t like this.” Most people would’ve thought he meant our patrol in general. I knew different. Something about the layout of the land disturbed him.
We’d just begun to head down a hill. The forested edge of the property, which we’d kept to our left, banked around in front of us before straightening out again, enclosing the depression we were about to enter on two sides. The grapevines that filled the area hadn’t leafed out yet. Between them the grass grew short. In most places it barely brushed our ankles. A couple of trees had gone down recently, their bare branches reaching into the path Admes meant to take between the vineyard and forest like the open jaws of sleeping sharks.
Would it be so bad if I grabbed the AK-47 out of the vamp’s hands and sprayed the tree line until bark and pine needles flew like grenade fragments? I knew I’d feel better. Especially now that I’d look like a big wuss if I tried to get us off this crappy little detail.
I clutched Grief, solid and reassuring, in my right hand. The other held Ziel’s leash so tightly it would leave red marks when I finally released it. As we trekked down the hill I wished we’d had time to break out our communications devices before Vayl left. Now the only way he and I could contact each other was through Cirilai. Maybe if my emotions tipped the holy-shit! scale he’d get the message. Were we there yet? I took inward stock. Almost.