“You know I want to make sure my Pack has the opportunity to find their mates, but I realized Monique would never be able to attend a scratch ‘n sniff while in hiding. I’d like to send her a formal invitation to come down here for a private visit, where I could bring my unmated males to meet her. I’m sure you’re moving her periodically for safety, so why not thousands of miles away? Nicholas and I will make sure she’s safe here.”
“That could work,” she said. She rattled off an address. “She’s staying with Paul and Lois Temple down in Lake City.” Paul and Lois were retired teachers from the Miesville Pack who lived in a condo overlooking Lake Pepin.
“Thanks, I’ll get in touch with them as soon as possible. Bye, Alpha.” I hoped to Luna that she figured out something was wrong. “I did what you asked, now get him to a hospital!”
“Not yet,” Traci said. “Our people will take care of his bastard child, but all this takes money. Money that you are going to send to me. Get out your phone, and get ready to make a bank transfer.”
“While you’re setting that up, I’ll take what I need,” Master Caroline said. She bit down into my neck, her fangs puncturing the artery just below. I could feel her sucking my blood into her mouth and swallowing over and over as I weakened. I almost hoped she’d take too much, but she stopped and licked the wound to stop the bleeding. “Perfect. Master Alessandro’s reign will end tonight.”
She walked out, the door closing behind her as I pulled up my banking information. “They’re going to kill Alessandro AND us,” Nicholas said.
“I’ll delay,” I said. I pulled up my banking information, but for the account used for personal expenses. “How much is the transfer?”
“All of it,” Traci said. “Wait, where’s the fucking money?”
The account had over a quarter-million dollars in it. “What do you mean?”
“You’re a multi-millionaire,” she said. “Where is the rest?”
“My accountant has it in stocks and bonds,” I said.
“Well, GET IT.”
I shook my head. “Transferring those funds takes electronic approval from me AND my accountant and takes seventy-two hours to process. This account is all the cash I have.”
“Fine, we’ll get that later. Transfer everything to this account.” She pulled up a routing number and account on her phone; I went through the steps required to set up the bank transfer and was about to confirm the transaction when the lights went out.
I reacted quickly, slapping her gun to the side as I lunged forward and wrapped my arms around her waist. Lifting with my hips, I drove her to the ground, my shoulder knocking the wind out of her. I heard her head bounce off the concrete floor and her groan of pain. She tried to roll away, but I wasn’t having that. Moving up her body, I got her in a reverse naked choke-while my legs wrapped her waist.
A door slammed open, and I heard someone shouting my name before a single gunshot rang out. Blood sprayed over me as I watched the men running towards me.
*********
Master Alessandro Molari’s POV
I shifted the audio from my phone to an earpiece as I walked out of my apartment. “Consuela, get out and move to where you can watch without being too close. Who’s in the car with her?”
“Just Nicholas and the two security guys who drove us down from Mermaid Beach. I thought something was off, so I followed them in a cab.”
“Did you see anything suspicious?”
“No, it was a gut feeling.”
She’d been right, which was more impressive for a youngling. Vespucci saw enough in her to change her and marry her, but he was an idiot. She had too much potential to kill off in an estate transaction. “Did you see anyone inside?”
“No. I’ll stay on the line and find a spot on another building,” she said.
Four of my Coven members joined me on the express elevator to the private parking level. I’d been one of the investors in this hotel/casino, and my apartment took up the whole 70th floor. It was the ideal spot for a Coven of vampires; thousands of tourists coming through every day, getting drunk and looking for a good time. It was a simple thing to go down to the gaming floor or bar, pick up a woman, bed her, and feed off her before leaving her none the wiser. There were thousands of cameras, but that didn’t matter. Anyone watching would see they all went willingly and returned with a smile.
“What do we know?” Rick looked at me as he checked that his suit jacket covered his pistol. My second-in-command, he’d been with me for over a century.
“Not much,” I said. “Consuela has eyes on the building, but not on the car. Someone had to compromise Vicki’s guards for them to deliver her like that.”
“Another vampire? Organized crime?” Becky was my newest member after Consuela. I’d turned her eight years ago; she’d been caught counting cards at the casino, something that shouldn’t be possible with six decks. She was a whiz with computers and finance, especially now that she didn’t need sleep. It didn’t hurt that Becky was a beautiful, redheaded nymphomaniac. She was carrying her high-powered laptop in her hand.
“Or more werewolves. Vicki has made enemies of some supernaturals, and everyone knows her family will pay five million to get her back.” The door opened to the private resident parking level, and we moved to the two big SUVs with tinted windows in our reserved spaces. Frank and Oksana loaded in the other vehicle. Rick was driving, with Becky in the back seat with me. She pulled up a city map, locating the business and the surrounding buildings. I unmuted my phone. “Consuela, are you in place?”
“I’m on the building to the west across the creek, hiding in the solar panels,” she said. “I’m downwind with a good view of the loading dock.”
“Good. Stay there; I’ll let you know when we are closer.” As we drove, Becky found the floor plans of the building by hacking into the city offices. She sent it to everyone’s phones, and I planned out the attack as we got closer.
“Alessandro? There’s been another gunshot,” Consuela reported.
“Can you see anything?”
“No. Do you want me to get closer?”
“We’re eight minutes out, Consuela. You stay put.” This wasn’t good, not at all. I used the other phone to call the second car. “Priorities are to rescue Vicki, then Nicholas. If my security guys are still alive, try not to kill them; we don’t need the heat we’ll get for gunning down two Australian Federal Police. Anyone else in the building is assumed hostile, so take them out quickly and cleanly. Any questions?”
“Understood, boss,” Oksana replied.
“Frank, park to the south and approach via the creek. Oksana is to take out the power to the building, and then you go in the back entrance. As soon as she cuts the power, Rick and I will go in the front. Everyone needs to call into Becky’s phone and use an earpiece. Becky will handle communications and monitor for police from our car. If Becky or I call ABORT, do what you have to and meet back at the Coven. Any questions?”
“Alessandro, the door is opening,” Consuela said over my phone. “A woman is coming out and going to her car.”
“Take a picture and send it to me,” I told her. I didn’t have to wait long for the bad news. Fuck. “We’ve got a problem, people. The Vampire Master of Los Angeles just walked out of the building.”
“She’s driving away, Master.”
“Get her license plate and stay out of sight, Consuela.” I turned back to briefing my crew. “We may have other Vampires in the building, so pay attention to your surroundings. Frank, drink the emergency blood at the next light.”
I opened up the power-cooled Esky that contained our supply. The blood captured in the raid on Vespucci’s estate was too valuable to waste; he’d already committed the crime, but we could use the proceeds. I’d returned home with one bag from each of the girls except Vicki, whose three units poisoned the vamps. It was too valuable to waste, but any vampires left inside could have fed from Vicki or Nicholas, and I couldn’t give them that edge. Becky transferred Makani’s blood into a travel cup and handed it up to Frank, while I sucked down Amy’s blood straight from the bag. “Fuck,” I said as I finished it off. “That’s some strong shit.”
“This stuff is aces,” Frank agreed as he drank it down. “I feel like I could take on the world.”
I picked up my phone. “We’re a minute out, two black SUVs. When we go in, you make your way to the closest SUV and get in, do you understand?”
“Yes, Master,” Consuela said.
We parked and walked towards the building, staying in the evening shadows. “We’ve found the main breaker to the building, so I can just turn it off,” Oksana said over the phone. “Frank is in place at the back door and ready.”
“Twenty seconds, then we go on your signal,” I told her. We reached the corner of the building and moved along the loading dock doors towards the entrance we’d picked.
“Three, two, one, GO!” Rick hit the door with his shoulder, knocking it off its hinges, and rushed inside. I was right behind him, letting my vampire nature out and scanning for enemy vampires. I took a deep breath as my eyes searched the dark space.
BANG. Frank was moving forward, the flashlight on his pistol illuminating a man without much of his brains left. As his flashlight went over the bodies, I saw movement in the one on the ground. It was a wounded Nicholas.
“Let her go, Vicki,” Frank said from the side.
“She’s out,” Vicki replied as she relaxed her hold. Sure enough, the woman was unconscious, and Frank quickly had her secured.
“Building is clear,” Rick called out a few seconds later.
“Turn the lights back on,” I ordered Oksana.
The overhead lights turned on, and I saw the extent of the bloodbath. “Are you all right,” I asked Vicki.
“Help my mate,” she said as she sat there, breathing heavily.
“Shit.” I shoved the dead body off of Nicholas and checked him out. He was unconscious, had a gunshot to the abdomen, and covered in blood. His ashen face and weak heartbeat told me he didn’t have long. “Rick, get our car and drive it over here. Oksana, bring yours around too.”
“We should grab our people and get the fuck out of here, boss,” Rick said as he headed for the door, wiping his blood-soaked shoes on the entry carpet before going outside.