“Where’s Cristiãn?” Lucian demanded.
The loud and sudden query brought all conversations to a stop, and everyone’s attention turned to Lucian. A moment later, all eyes in the main hall of the Cavern Nightclub began to search for Cristiãn. As soon as the confused search began, Lucian headed for the kitchen at a hurried walk. He soon raced back into the main hall and stopped several paces away from Nadja.
“Where did he go?” Lucian demanded of her.
Petru moved to Nadja’s side and fixed Lucian with a fierce stare. Nadja’s demeanor remained indifferent.
“I don’t know.”
“But you do,” Lucian grumbled, looking at Petru.
“I knew he left,” Petru hissed back. “But I don’t know where he went.”
Lucian seethed in response. He scanned the faces about him for someone who knew more. After receiving only stares and silence in return, Lucian pulled out his cellphone and dialed Cristiãn’s number. He waited near to a minute until the call went to voicemail. Without leaving a message, he shut down the call and tried it again.
“He’s not answering his phone,” Lucian growled to himself after another prolonged wait.
Nearly fifteen minutes had passed since Cristiãn left the club. The group in the main hall of the club had been too involved with their discussions to notice his absence. The discovery that Cristiãn had sneaked away suddenly made their talks a secondary concern. Everyone began to wonder what possible consequences could result from Cristiãn’s absence.
“There’s nothing he can do at this point,” Radu spoke up in a soothing tone. “Razvan was long gone before he left.”
“Then where did he go?” Lucian challenged.
“Radu is right,” Eugen supported. “Without knowing where Razvan took her, there’s nothing he can do. He probably just wanted to get away so he could call Razvan.”
There were several murmurs of agreement from around the room. Lucian stood still and scanned the room for clues a moment before turning to the group with a frown.
“Then why did he take the detective’s gun and cellphone?” Lucian pointed to the table where they had been.
All eyes looked at the table and briefly scanned the area and saw that Cassidy’s gun, keys and cellphone were no longer in the room.
“What does he think he’s doing?”
“I think he may have gotten a text from Razvan,” Adrianna offered tentatively.
“When?” Lucian asked with a quick look toward Adrianna and Sorin.
“He got a text about ten to fifteen minutes after they left,” Sorin reported. “He said it was nothing important.”
“Damn!” Lucian growled.
Lucian scowled as he dialed Cristiãn’s cellphone again. He paced back and forth as he waited for the call to connect or go to voicemail. Lucian thought the call was on its way to Cristiãn’s answering service when it was suddenly picked up. Despite his surprise, Lucian spoke angrily into the phone.
“Where are you?”
All eyes locked onto Lucian when he spoke and then waited on Cristiãn’s response. Several individuals in the hall inched forward. A few seconds later, Lucian responded.
“What are you doing, Cristiãn,” Lucian growled.
Once again Lucian went silent as he listened to Cristiãn, then he abruptly removed the cellphone from his ear and stared off into empty space with a wide-eyed stare.
“What did he say?” Stefan asked.
“He says things are going to change,” Lucian answered back as his mind continued to ponder what he had heard.
“What’s going to change?” Eugen queried.
“I don’t know. He didn’t say,” Lucian returned testily.
“That’s it? He didn’t say anything else?” Stefan pressured for more.
Lucian backed away from his reverie and gave Stefan a somber stare.
“He says we need to prepare to start hiding.”
Everyone in the room went quiet in reaction to that statement. Their thoughts attempting to understand the possible effects those words would have on their lives.
“I think we need to get out of here,” Flavia said in a worried tone.
“Flavia is right,” Sorin agreed. “If we’re about to be exposed, this is the last place we should be.”
There was a quick round of agreement from everyone there, and then they all began to move toward the front entrance.
“We regroup at the Greenwich house,” Lucian instructed.
The group accepted his instructions on the fly without stopping to acknowledge his message.
******************
“Who are you calling?” Stefan asked as he drove away.
Elisabeta and Lucian were in the back seat of the car that Stefan was driving. Helga was in the front passenger seat. They had been gone from The Cavern for approximately 20 minutes.
“I’m calling Razvan,” Lucian answered grumpily. “If Cristiãn won’t tell me what’s happening, then maybe Razvan will.”
“What makes you think he knows what Cristiãn is planning?” Helga asked, looking back.
“If he sent Cristiãn a text, then he must know something,” Elisabeta lectured back.
Lucian counted the number of rings to Razvan’s cellphone. Immediately after the fourth ring, he heard the line connect.
“What are you doing, Razvan?” Lucian raged into his cellphone.
As Lucian listened to Razvan’s response, his eyes went wide with astonishment. Elisabeta, Helga and Stefan noticed his change of expression and became even more curious in his conversation. A few seconds later, Lucian’s tone changed.
“What is he planning to do?”
Again, Lucian listened to Razvan’s response, then he raged back into his cellphone.
“Damn you, Razvan! This is all your doing!”
Lucian went silent again. The reply he got this time took a little longer.
“You don’t think I know that?” Lucian bellowed back into the phone.
Lucian quickly showed irritation with the next piece of information he heard.
“I tried that. He’s not answering his phone, you-stupid-fool!”
Lucian huffed and shook his head as he took in Razvan’s words, then he went quite still.
“There’s nothing we can do but wait for Cristiãn to call back,” Lucian said angrily.
The other occupants in the car assumed that Razvan had asked Lucian a question.
“We’re on our way to Greenwich,” Lucian replied.
Lucian disconnected immediately after he answered.
“Great. They’re on their way to Greenwich,” Lucian informed the others.
“Does he know what Cristiãn is planning to do?” Stefan asked.
“Cristiãn has Tremaine,” Lucian reported in place of answering Stefan’s question.
Stefan, Helga and Elisabeta were clearly startled by his report, turning wide eyes toward Lucian.
“How did that happen?” Elisabeta blurted out.
“I don’t know,” Lucian returned with a frown and shaking his head.
“Did he say what Cristiãn was planning to do, or where he’s going?” Stefan asked as he glared at Lucian’s reflection in the rearview mirror.
“No. He doesn’t know anything,” Lucian returned as his thoughts wandered elsewhere. “He’s just as much in the dark as we are.”
“Damn Cristiãn!” Elisabeta hissed.
“Do you think Cristiãn will really expose us?” Helga asked Stefan.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if he already has,” Stefan grumbled back. “He’s always been too caring toward the mortals.”
Elisabeta glanced at an intense Lucian for confirmation then took his silence for agreement. Nothing more was said between any of them until their car rolled into the driveway of a six-bedroom house.
“It looks like everyone is here,” Stefan reported as he pulled in to park behind four other cars in the turnabout driveway at the front of the house.
“Everyone but Razvan and Dumitra,” Helga corrected.
“Good,” Lucian returned with a nod of his head. “That gives us some time to talk without them.”
There was no argument to that comment. The four of them climbed out of the car and started for the house. The house was unspectacular in appearance. It was a colonial design at least thirty years old. It had been well kept over the years, but its size was its most appealing feature to most of the people who had rented it in the recent past. Another thing that made the house attractive was the expanse of empty land around it. The closest neighboring house was roughly one-hundred yards away, and it was mostly obscured from view by an abundance of trees, shrubbery and hilly terrain.
Augustus opened the front door when Lucian, Elisabeta, Stefan and Helga reached the short walkway. They walked into the house one behind the other and immediately turned toward the living-room. They expected the other twelve to be there.
“Have you heard anything?” Eugen asked as Lucian and Elisabeta walked into the room.
“Cristiãn has Detective Tremaine,” Lucian reported solemnly after noting that everyone was present.
Nadja and Petru looked to each other with surprise at the news. Several others in the room also looked surprised.
“How did this happen?” Eugen asked in disbelief.
“That’s one of the things I’m going to ask Razvan and Dumitra when they get here,” Lucian said as he led Elisabeta to a vacant chair.
“They’re coming here?” Alina, Eugen’s mate, queried.
“They have to,” Stefan grumbled. “They don’t know where Cristiãn is. We’re all in the same boat.”
“So, what do we do now?” Radu asked, looking to Lucian.
“The only thing we can do,” Lucian answered with a slight shake of his head. “We wait.”
No one bothered to argue the obvious. Everyone understood that the lives they had made for themselves in this time was now on hold indefinitely. They expected a call from Cristiãn. His first message was taken as a warning to them that he was going to do something. They expected him to call with the details on what that something was.
Despite his betrayal, no one there expected Cristiãn to divulge their location at this moment. The first message was interpreted as a warning for them to be on their guard. They all knew that if he wanted to do them harm, he would not have given them a warning. They also knew that he would have called Nadja and told her not to be there with them. Because of that, they collectively believed Cristiãn’s only goal was to protect Cassidy and that the exposure of their existence was a necessary act to create that outcome.
The house they were in was a vacation rental home. Ten of the vampires from out of the area were staying there. Nadja and Petru were spending their visit to New York in Cristiãn’s condominium. They went to the Greenwich rental home for the same reason as all the others: it was considered the safest place for them to be at the moment, and they all wanted to be present when Cristiãn called.
For nearly an hour, the sixteen vampires spoke of nothing of consequence. They mostly waited in silence for a new phone call or a new arrival. Finally, Razvan and Dumitra’s car turned into the driveway and parked. The two rogue vampires jumped out of the car and hurried toward the house. What was left of their clothing was in tatters. Dumitra was wearing a blue auto mechanic’s work shirt in place of her blouse, and Razvan abandoned his suitcoat altogether. But their clothing was the only part of them that exhibited evidence of the fires that tried to consume them. All the burn scars to their heads, arms and torsos were gone.
The sound of Razvan and Dumitra’s car alerted everyone inside of their arrival. Augustus opened the front door for them. They raced past him and went straight into the living-room. Everyone there paused to take in their attire. Razvan questioned the room the moment he came to a stop.
“Has he called?”
Razvan’s sudden query diverted everyone’s attention away from their appearance.
“What happened?” Lucian asked him.
“He got away, and he took that cop with him.”
“Why did you send for my brother?” Nadja challenged forcefully.
“I wanted to smooth things over with him,” Razvan answered defensively.
“You mean you wanted to kill him,” Petru argued back.
“We wanted him to join us,” Dumitra insisted with a hint of desperation. “We would never hurt Cristiãn—if we could avoid it.”
“Is this true?” Lucian bellowed at Razvan with a menacing stare. “Did you use Tremaine as bait?”
Razvan returned the glares he was getting from Lucian, Petru and Nadja. In the end, he fixed his stare on Lucian and responded with a defiant one-word reply.
“Yes.”
“Damn you, Razvan,” Elisabeta loudly scolded. “You did this.”
“Cristiãn was a threat, and not just to me—to all of us,” Razvan insisted angrily. “He’s in love with that mortal. He was never going to forgive us.”
A furious Nadja took a step in Razvan’s direction, but Petru checked her advance with a tug on her arm. Lucian noticed Nadja’s movement then turned his attention back to Razvan.
“Cristiãn gave us his word that he would not come after you,” Lucian growled out with an intonation of annoyance.
“He lied!” Razvan countered with ferocity. “If Cristiãn had any intention of putting this behind him then he would not have responded to my summons.”
“She was still alive!” Nadja yelled out in fury. “Cristiãn was always going to act if there was a chance to save her life.”
“You put this into motion when you dangled her in front of Cristiãn,” Elisabeta supported sternly.
“You’re deluding yourselves,” Razvan disputed with defiance. “Cristiãn was always going to come after us. Anything he promised you was a lie to convince you he was not a threat.”
There was no quick response. Everyone there had entertained that thought. And in the end, no one chose to dispute it.
“Well that threat is probably exposing all of us right now,” Helga said softly.
“We have to call and stop him,” Dumitra yelled.
“He’s not answering his phone,” Elisabeta informed them.
“So, what are we doing?” Razvan grumbled at everyone in the room.
“We’re waiting,” Radu answered in a surly tone.
Razvan was not pleased with that answer. He feared that Cristiãn was going to be an extreme disruption to his plans. He knew that exposure now would put the mortals on their guard far too soon for his plans and that it would be difficult for him to infiltrate the halls of power within the mortal world. He also feared that the other vampires would no longer feel the need to keep him alive.
Because of this disruption to his plans, Razvan was desperate to find and stop Cristiãn. However, the weight of his concern had no effect on the reality of the situation. He had no idea where Cristiãn was or where he was going which made waiting the only option available to him. Subsequently, he and Dumitra settled uncomfortably in among the group and waited.
All 18 vampires found an isolated or semi isolated spot in the house to wait. Lucian and Elisabeta, Stefan and Helga, Augustus and Iona, Eugen and Alina, and Laurentius and Roxana went to their respective rooms to wait. The others went to distant locations on the first floor of the house and waited.
No one in the house had any idea of how long they should wait for Cristiãn to contact them. It was never discussed. They all believed he would communicate something to them as soon as he could. And they all shared the fear: that silence from him meant that he had surrendered himself to the mortal authorities. If he did that, they all knew that an army of investigators would soon be rummaging through his and his associations lives, and that would put them all at risk. That worry grew in intensity with each passing minute.
Two hours after Razvan and Dumitra’s arrival, the house was as still and quiet as if it were vacant. All 18 vampires were sitting or lying in silence as they waited on something to happen. None of them dared to fall deeply into sleep. If they did, disturbances would not quickly register in their minds. At seven after two in the afternoon, the distant sound of a car moving through the vicinity entered everyone’s awareness. It was not the first car to pass through the area. Over the past two hours, a dozen cars had traveled down the narrow two-lane roadway that existed just beyond the grounds around the house. Those vehicles were subconsciously noted by everyone inside and dismissed as they passed by. Initially, they gave this latest car the same amount of passive attention as the others. There was nothing about its presence or movement that gave them any reason for interest. They were not expecting anyone, least of all Cristiãn. It was understood by all that he had signed his death warrant. Even if he did not expose them to mortals, freeing Detective Tremaine to expose them was a severe break of the rules.
“Hey!”
Radu suddenly shouted as the house’s entire compliment of vampires jumped up with a start. Their superior hearing came to focus onto the sound of a car turning up the driveway. They all took a moment to verify the vehicle’s approach and then hurried into the living-room. Radu and Flavia were already looking out the large bay window. Lucian, Elisabeta, Stefan, Helga, Nadja and Petru joined them there. The others hurried to windows in the foyer and the study. They all watched as the car came to a stop and waited to see who would emerge.
ns216.73.216.13da2
and then Add to home screen.