“Why?” I asked, amused.
“Because she’s weird,” Evan repeated. “Not that I mind keeping you company.”
Going by the odd expressions being exchanged between the brothers, I’d say they were having a telepathic conversation. And it wasn’t altogether pleasant.
“But won’t that upset your consort?” I said to Evan, teasingly.
“Oh I don’t have one.” He waved a hand as if the whole concept was dumb. I liked Evan.
Just then Antonio, his two guards, his two Pit Bulls, Sebastian, and a strange, tall Keja bloke who had long white-grey hair and a matching long beard entered.
That’s Luther, Jared informed me. He’s Antonio’s Advisor.
Someone should tell him that he’s not living in the film Lord of the Rings.
Jared coughed to hide his giggle.
The brindle dog, Nero, nuzzled my hand then lay by my feet almost protectively. Instantly there was whispering in the room. My God these blokes were like little old women the way they gasped and gossiped about every little thing.
Antonio only rolled his eyes at Nero’s behaviour. The red Pit, Achilles, sat up straight beside Antonio’s chair. “You will no doubt all be wondering why I was in such a great rush to have this latest squad prepared so quickly,” said Antonio as he gracefully sank into the chair at the head of the table. Apparently he didn’t like to beat about the bush. “You will also be curious as to why I have ordered for the other squads to be pushed to their limits these past few weeks.” After a long pause which I assumed was for dramatic effect, Antonio spoke, “Luther had a vision.”
With those words, all eyes fell on the Gandalf lookalike. The odd bloke was staring at me.
“He foresaw that The Hollow’s walls would be attacked in the near future. It was not possible at the time to be sure of when, but just two nights ago he had another vision. It was clearer, and Luther saw a great number of vampires preparing for battle, lead...by the Sventé High Master vampire Bennington.”
Bennington, British like me, had quite a reputation for collecting gifted vampires. I’d met him a few times. He had tried to buy me from Victor, but even though Victor barely had any money he refused to hand me over for any price.
“As you are all aware, Bennington is a Sventé vampire with no impressive gift to boast of. His gift is to measure the power voltage coming from other vampires. Using this gift, he has compensated for his own ill defence by selecting extremely gifted vampires to build himself a team of bodyguards. We are now thinking that perhaps it was not a security team he was building, but an army to aid him in overtaking The Hollow. We must be ready in every sense of the word, which is why I have employed Commander Parker to assist with training the new recruits in controlling their gifts.”#p#分页标题#e#
“How many did Luther see?” asked Evan, all seriousness now.
“Approximately three hundred, which leads us to believe that Bennington will add more and more to his own numbers as he makes his way here. I would imagine that he will try and rally supporters during Rupert Connelly’s gathering in a few weeks’ time. I am hoping that some of those High Master vampires will refuse his offer and then journey here and aid us in guarding the exterior of the walls. We can only be glad that Luther’s vision has enabled us to have the time to properly prepare.”
“You said you wanted the new squad ready in a month,” said Jared. “You don’t think they’ll be here before then?”
Luther answered that. “No. In my vision during the attack I was rounding up the humans to take them into hiding and there were Summer Sales signs up in one of the clothes’ stores. After I’d had the vision I asked the manager of the store when those signs will be put up. That is not for another four weeks. So I would say that it will be a minimum of one month before the attack is made.” Again Luther’s eyes found me. His gaze was searching...like he was trying to see through me.
Uncomfortable, I looked away quickly. “Antonio,” I began, “you say you’re going to protect the walls...?”
“Yes, we will attempt to stop them before they enter.”
“I’m sorry but it sounds like the battle for Troy all over again.”
“You want to leave the walls unprotected?” giggled Commander Hyena Baker.
I rolled my eyes. “How about you pipe down and try not to crack a not funny joke for just a few minutes?” I ignored the laughs and continued speaking to Antonio. “I don’t see why you’re going to let them get so close to The Hollow’s walls. They’ll probably guess that you’ve got someone who has the gift of precognition. They’ll expect you to be lined up outside the walls waiting like Trojans. I mean, think about it, you’ve got rainforests surrounding the entire place – rainforests that the squads train in and probably know inside and out. This is your front and back yard which gives you an advantage, use it.”