The Last True Vampire(78)
His accent thickened, the long-lost brogue of his ancestral tongue returning with his anger. He’d turned his curse into a blessing of sorts, letting the Sortiari use him and his brethren to their benefit. But it was apparent now that he and his were nothing more than the lapdogs the vampires thought them to be. Kept on too short a leash.
No longer.
“You’ve killed them all, Gregor. What more do you want? There is a change on the horizon. A change we hadn’t foreseen until now. It’s time to let the scales balance. This has to end.”
“It’s not over until I say it is.” Gregor pushed himself up from the chair and stalked toward the door. Not all of them were dead. There was still one more vampire walking the earth, and once Gregor wiped Mikhail Aristov from existence he’d begin the task of wiping out Mikhail’s kin. And perhaps as Gregor strangled the life from every last dhampir he’d finally find the one he was looking for.
“There is a girl.” Tristan’s urgent tone gave Gregor pause and he stopped halfway out the door. “Blond, still a child. She’s under the protection of the vampire’s mate. Not a hair on her head is to be harmed, Gregor. Do you understand me?”
He turned a caustic eye to Tristan. “She’s important, is she?”
Tristan’s somber words struck a chord. “You have no idea how important.”
Looked like the director had his priorities in order. Gregor decided to read between the lines on this one: Kill the vampire and his mate if you must, but spare the girl. Of course, Gregor made no guarantees.
“You should think about redecorating,” he said upon leaving. “Try Crate and Barrel. I’m sure you can order online without even having to leave the safety of your office.” And with that, he closed the door behind him, having likely exchanged the last words he would ever speak with any member of the Sortiari.
* * *
“Well? What did the bastard say?”
The Sortiari’s leashed pet no longer, Gregor fell into step beside his second, Alec. “Nothing that matters,” Gregor answered as he gathered his weapons from the security desk. McAlister was so gods-damned paranoid he wouldn’t even let his own people into his office armed. “Did you find her?”
“Aye,” Alec replied. “Right where we left her. Mikhail must have cut her loose. That or she’s decided keeping company with a vampire isn’t in her best interest.”
Gregor let out a derisive snort. Was that the reason McAlister had shut him down? Had Aristov’s little pet experienced a change of heart? “He’ll come after her.” They stopped in front of a bank of elevators and stepped inside the first available car. Gregor pushed the button for the ground floor. “And we can ambush him.”
“It’ll have to be soon. If we wait long enough, the son of a bitch will have amassed an army of his own. No use giving him the upper hand.”
“No, there isn’t. That’s why you’re going to take a detachment of men and wait for him at that diner.” If the bitch was stupid enough to carry on with her life as though it had never changed, you could damn well bet that Gregor would capitalize on it. “And I want her followed. Find out where she lives.” If they failed to capture Mikhail at the diner, odds were good he’d scent her out at her home. Maybe then Gregor could set his eyes on the human girl as well. The one who was so gods-damned important to the Sortiari. If he played his cards right, the girl could be a useful bargaining chip in the future.
“How many men do you want me to bring along?”
Gregor stepped out of the elevator into the parking garage and headed toward his car. The number of berserkers employed by the Sortiari totaled a little over four hundred. Two hundred of those were in Los Angeles right now to deal with Mikhail’s ascension to power. Gods. Two hundred berserkers to take down one vampire. Shameful.#p#分页标题#e#
Though hadn’t Gregor been the one who’d failed to kill Mikhail in the first place? They wouldn’t be here now had it not been for his mistake. “Take thirty. I don’t want the odds tipped in his favor.”
“You’d think if Fate wanted the vampire dead it wouldn’t be so hard to accomplish,” Alec remarked. “If it’s Fate’s will, then the fucker should die whether we take three or thirty men along.”
Gregor bristled. Sound logic from his cousin. Wonders never ceased. “That’s why you’re taking thirty.” He hit the key fob and disengaged the alarm on his BMW. “To make sure that Fate gets it right this time.” It had been a long gods-damned time since he’d bought into the Sortiari’s views on Fate. He didn’t give a single fuck about their grand mission—or their seers. He cared about one thing and one thing only: that every last vampire and dhampir on the planet was dead.