Radiance (Brotherhood of the Blade Trilogy #3) (8 page)

“
Thanks.” I swallowed hard.

Mikhail said, “I’ll hold the fort with you, Joan. No one should stay alone in the castle.” His eyes lifted toward mine. “You’re going somewhere, aren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“
With Ambra?” he asked.

“
If she’ll come with me. I haven’t asked her yet.”

“
It’s not a secret vampire hunting mission, is it?” Mikhail asked.

“
I know better than that,” I said. “This is much safer. I’ll fill you in later, after I talk to her.”

After everyone ate—Ambra never showed up for the meal, but I figured she was having her usual pre-sunset ski—I put the dishes in the dishwasher and turned it on.

I looked at my watch and suddenly realized I was late for an important meeting.
With her.

Chapter Six

Ambra was the first one to show up in the library at the one-on-one meeting I had called. As usual, she was early. She was sitting in the guest chair in front of my big desk, a desk that I hadn’t even looked in yet, because everything in the drawers had belonged to Lucas. All of his spaces and material things were now mine, as well as the oversight responsibility and management of both Brotherhood of the Blade and Sisterhood of the Scythe. I could still smell a hint of his aftershave in the room and wondered if his ghost was nearby.

“Hello, Rand. You should know the police contacted me because I am the owner of the house that Nina was renting. And because her new husband supposedly died in an accident at which I was present when it happened…well, they aren’t dumb. They made a connection.”

She hasn’t even spoken to me for days and this is what she says to me?

“Ambra, it’s good to see you, too. What did you tell the police?”

“
Not much. I can’t get into the house right now. They are combing it for clues to her death and trying to figure out if we chased Linus from the scene of the crime and ran him off the road. The road is covered with ice right now, and also was that night, so it is unlikely they are going to find any tread marks or things like that.”

“
Damn it. I am sorry.”

“
There’s no evidence, according to Jade, who hacked the police server. I am not likely to be charged with anything at this time. And they didn’t find Linus Ankeny’s body, so they are of the mindset that he killed Nina and faked his own death somehow by sending his car off the road without a driver in it.”

“
Good theory, I like it. Did they recover the car?”

“
It’s winter. And there’s no way to get down there, not even by helicopter and there is no hiking access to the bottom, or even skiing. So, they’ll probably close the case or shelve it.”

“
Are you in trouble?”

“
I doubt it. I’m just as cool and collected as you would expect. And I have nothing to hide. We told the truth. Mostly.”

I let out a relieved sigh.

“They hardly asked me any questions about Nina. They saw the email that she sent me about Linus, so he’s definitely a murder suspect. My understanding is that they will charge him, if they find him alive.”

“
Oh, my goodness. I am so sorry for this horrible aftermath.”

“
Moi, aussi.
I’m not worried that much about the police. I will miss her.”

“
Did you ever talk about vampire hunting in your emails to her or in texts?”

“
No, never. I told her how Pieter died, in person.”

“
Good. Are you going to rent out your house again?”

“
No. It’s my family home, but I think I’ll sell it. I can’t go back, other than to clean out Nina’s things when the police are finished. Even then, I will likely hire a service to do it for me and box up everything and deliver it here.”

“
That might be best.” I paused and changed the subject. “Don’t think I’m weird, but I smell Lucas in this room.”

“
Me, too,” she said.

“
Ghost?”

“
Don’t think about it,” she said. “If you don’t think about it, you don’t give it power or credence.”

“
Maybe I want to give it power and credence. Maybe I want to talk to the ghost or the spirit of Lucas and ask his advice.”

She smiled at me. “If you could, what would you do with that advice?”

“Argue with him.”

She nodded. “I would expect no less of you.”

“All right, I’ll save the attempted ghost communications for another day.”

Ambra and I sat across from each other. I was behind the massive desk and looked at her, feeling the usual jolt of admiration shoot through me. Her hair was long, blonde and shiny and her Scandinavian face was tinged with pink from vigorous exercise and from the fresh, cold air of an athlete’s lifestyle. Her figure was knock-out pretty.

“Did you have a nice sunset ski?”

“
I did. You should get up earlier and come with me. Let’s make a regular thing of it.”

“
It was fun.”

“
You have much to learn,” she added. “I will make a Swiss skier out of you yet.”

“
I should go with you every day, now that you’ve forbidden Corbin from accompanying you.”

“
Do you blame me?” she snapped. “He was going to turn me into a werewolf!”

“
I don’t blame you. He crossed the line.” I spoke calmly. Obviously, she had not forgiven him one bit and even just bringing up his name was a mistake.

“
Yes, he
did
cross the line.
Ach!
Is that what this meeting is about?”

“
No, but I do worry about you skiing by yourself with the wolf pack out and about.”

“
Then ski with me. They won’t pursue two of us, unless they are starving. It is a fact that most wolves prefer pursuit of a single prey. Our numbers would provide us with greater personal safety.”

“
Good to know. I promise, I’ll join you again soon. Everything got skewed after we went skiing that first time, you know?”

She frowned.

There was a problem with our current conversation and I wanted to change the tone of it. Then I realized what it was. I felt weird with that big desk between us, separating us like I was some kind of king or arrogant boss. I didn’t like it. We were equals. I rolled back my chair.

“
Let’s move to the couch by the fire. I want to talk to you about something important. I need to get your ideas without Lucas’s big desk between us.”

She nodded and followed me over. We sank into the leather cushions and she grabbed an afghan off the back of it and tossed it to me. “You look cold, surfer boy. Have a blanket.”

“It’s winter in the Alps. I’m from California. Don’t razz me for shivering.”

She put her hand on my cheek for a second. “Your broken nose is healing up.”

I wrapped the afghan around my shoulders and settled in. “Slowly, but surely. Soon, my face won’t even be green and yellow anymore.”

She got up and put another log on the fire, poked it for a minute, and then sat down again on the opposite side of the couch. “There you go. You’ll be warm in no time. We have plenty of wood and the more we use, the more jobs we create for the poor people who chop it on the sly from the castle grounds and have the nerve to sell it back to us at the front gate out of the trunks of their cars.”

I laughed. “Thanks. I needed that.” My eyes flicked to the fire as the flames caught the new log and crackled. I still didn’t like open fire because it reminded me of Megan’s burning.

“
Rand, what’s up?”

I turned my gaze back to her. “A lot.”

“I think I know what this specific talk is about.”

“
You do?”

“
Oui.
We’re in deep trouble,” she said. “I’m not even talking about how much my heart aches that we have lost two more of us, that our beloved Lucas and Daphne are dead. The big picture, beyond my broken heart of losing two friends, is that we have lost so much ground in our mission that we don’t have enough people to keep this going for a safe vampire hunt.”

“
I agree, but I have an idea. Let’s go to Romania.”

“
Again?” Ambra tilted her head. “Why?”

“
To recruit Lucian.”

Ambra shook her head. “For what?”

“To join the Brotherhood of the Blade.”

After a pause, she said, “You want to hire a vampire as a vampire hunter?”

“He helped us to kill Vlad.”

“
He did it because we said we came in the name of his children. It was a spur of the moment decision, not a career choice.”

“
The bottom line is, he helped us. I think he would do it again.”

“
Do you plan to run this by the other brothers? And sisters?”

“
Did Lucas ever do that?”

“
Rarely.”

“
This company and the running of it is only a democracy up to a point,” I said.

“
I see. This is apparently the point where you take over as king and use me as your prime minister.”

“
Ambra, please. Don’t. You’re a great sounding board, but this is an executive decision,” I said. “We just lost two of our best vampire hunters. We have to replace them because we need more people. You said so yourself. Don’t make it about the power of my new position. It’s about necessity and practicality. No one can really replace them. But we need to.”

“
They aren’t easily replaced,” she agreed.

“
I know, but if we recruit Lucian, he is likely equal to two of us, maybe three, with some training in team vampire hunting.”

“
I still think this idea of yours is unconventional at the very least, life-threatening at the very most.”

“
Care to pose your concerns in a specific way?” I asked.

“
Gladly. How do you propose to secure the long-term loyalty of a vampire as a vampire hunter?”

“
Money. Security. A safe place to be a vampire.”

“
A vampire living in the bosom of a group of vampire hunters?”

“
It sounds even better when you put it that way,” I told her.

“
He has kids! He can’t leave them. What in the world are you thinking, Rand?”

“
We’ll bring his whole family here. Having them with him assures his personal happiness and also assures his motivation not to be a vampire who slays us all in our sleep.”

“
That’s not a pretty picture. Where would we put everyone?”

“
It’s a castle, Ambra. We have plenty of room.”

“
A space would have to be renovated for them and the rats exterminated in their sector. We need things to be child safe and immaculate. They have a crawling baby.”

“
We’re ready for them right now.” I paused. “They can have Lucas’s palatial suite of rooms. It’s massive. It’s clean. It’s sealed up from rats with concrete. It’s got three big bedrooms and a marble floor that’s easy to keep clean. And two bathrooms, for that matter. It’s perfect for a family. The suite once belonged to a king, so it’s not like we’re shoving them down in steerage. They’re the best rooms in the house.”

“
Those are supposed to be
your
rooms, as the head of everything now.”

“
I don’t need two thousand square feet, nor would I want it. I’m perfectly fine in the haunted bedchamber I have. Right near yours. And this library is my office. That’s all I need to run this show.”

“
Rand, have you really thought this through?”

“
I have. We’ll offer Uta a good salary, too, as cook and caretaker of the dairy cow and the small animals in the barn. She could take care of her children and work for us. She can grocery shop and oversee occasional maintenance men and our endless parade of rat exterminators, that sort of thing.”

“
What about schooling for the children when they are old enough?”

“
We’ll pay for a private tutor or an au pair or—what do you call it—a governess?”

“
Ah, you finally decide to think like a European?”

“
I’m trying to make everyone safer, happier, and more successful in our missions. We need to do this from the inside out, so that each person who works for us has what they want out of life and work and love.”