All Knight Long, Book I: One Warlock's Love Story (14 page)

“Is that the bodyguard from the club? How did they capture her big ass?” Giovanni wondered.

“I think that is Ooba,” Zander said, astonished.

“I’ll get your grandmother’s ribbon, fashion the divining rod, and wake up the guys if you’ll clean up this bathroom,” Giovanni offered.

They were all up and dressed with the room completely scrubbed of any magical residue within the hour. Zander didn’t take his eye off the stone in hopes of finding some details of where his grandmother might be held captive.

“I am sorry that I can’t go with you,” Hung whispered into Giovanni’s ear.

“I understand. You’ll come to me as soon as night falls?”

“You can count on it,” Hung smiled.

“And don’t worry. I’ll be thinking about you all day,” Giovanni said, and offered his neck to Hung for a quick bite. Hung kissed his neck and sweetly declined the offer to feed from him.

“What’s wrong?” Giovanni asked, rubbing his neck along his MAGIC TRICK tattoo.

“Nothing is wrong. I just want you to know that you are more than a quick high to me. We will enjoy each other later.” Hung softly kissed Giovanni on his lips.

“You look worried,” Tau said to Zander, who was holding the ruby in one hand and his stuffed lion in the other.

“I just hope that we can get to my grandmother in time. I’ve been looking at her in the stone all morning, and she’s been making these weird gestures. I am afraid she may be losing her mind.” Zander put his head on Tau’s chest.

Tau pet his head. “I know, baby. What you are doing here is very brave. I’m proud of you.” Zander leaned in to let Tau look into the stone.

Zander’s grandmother, Zoe, was performing a series of unique hand gestures and movements followed by even stranger head movements.

“She doesn’t normally behave that way,” Zander said.

“Wait. Those are shifter signs,” Tau said slowly.

“What?” Giovanni said from across the room.

“Yes, she is doing shifter signs. When we stay in our shifted state for long periods of time, we sometimes lose the ability to speak before all of our natural animal instincts kick in. The shifter signs were adopted generations ago to ensure that we could quickly communicate during the transition,” Tau explained.

“So, why does Zander’s grandmother know shifter signs?” Giovanni asked.

“That’s not important right now. The fact that she is doing shifter signs must mean that she knows that you’re with me.”

“Well, what is she saying?” Hung said. Tau cradled Zander’s hands in his and studied the stone.

“She is referring to the Potowatomi lands,” Tau told them.

“Where the hell is that?” Giovanni asked.

“In the Chicago area,” Tau explained. “There are six great packs in the United States. The first is centered in Arizona, covering parts of southern California and New Mexico. The second is in Washington and Oregon. The third is here where we are in the Alabama through Florida region. There are two in the upstate New York and Maine area -- one of those is mine. The sixth in centered in Chicago and includes the Great Lakes. The pack lands are designated by the Greek alphabet now, with the largest pack being the Alpha pack. They used to be called by the names of the Native American tribes. When we say the Potowatomi lands, we typically mean Chicago.”

“Great. Let’s head toward Chicago and then use the divining rod to hone in on the exact location when we get there.” Giovanni started gathering his luggage.

“That’s an eleven-hour drive from here,” Tau said. “Hung, do you mind if we take the Mustang?”

“No at all. I am just bummed that I can’t go with you.”

Zander looked back into the stone at his grandmother who was still making the same gestures. She dropped the stone, and the view changed. Suddenly, he saw a great commotion as what looked like the same soldiers who had attacked the club rushed into the room and pulled out a young, female vampire. It was the woman who had checked their IDs at the club.

Chapter 20

The drive to Chicago was filled with conversation about everything from the supernatural community’s waning numbers to the mortal population’s lack of knowledge concerning the supernatural community. Tau drove the Mustang as if he owned it, Giovanni sat in the front seat reading the divining rod, and Zander sat in the cramped backseat memorizing spells from his family’s Grimoire.

“Who do you think has the greater numbers? Shifters, vamps, or magicals?” Zander mused.

“It’s gotta be magicals, but not by much. I bet there are no more than three-thousand supernaturals in all,” Giovanni answered.

“Maybe it’s a good thing that our numbers haven’t grown,” Tau pointed out. “The fewer of us there are, the less likely it is that we will ever be discovered.”

“We haven’t been discovered in all of these years, so I doubt that it will ever happen. The myths are enough to keep the humans satisfied,” Giovanni said confidently.

“I hear that humans can’t have sex without covering their sexual organs in plastic,” Tau said.

“They’re called condoms, and they keep humans from exchanging bodily fluids,” Zander weighed in from the back.

“Then what’s the point of sex?” Tau asked, bewildered.

“I know, right,” Giovanni agreed.

“It’s complicated. They can give each other diseases when they exchange bodily fluids,” Zander explained.

“So how do they have children if they don’t exchange bodily fluids?” Tau asked.

“They don’t use the condoms when they are trying to have children,” Zander answered.

“Then what about the diseases?” Tau continued.

Zander giggled. “Nevermind. Don’t you ever talk to any humans?”

“Why would I?” Tau asked.

Giovanni laughed. “Humans can only have sex for a few minutes at a time, they get old and wrinkly really fast, and they are not very interesting -- they have no magic. They can’t even shift.”

“Fuck you. Shifting is high magic,” Tau said.

“Yes, but it’s your only magic,” Giovanni said.

“It is enough,” Tau said.

“I know that’s right.” Zander agreed from the backseat.

“Tell him, babe,” Tau said.

Zander winked at Tau’s reflection in the rearview mirror before putting the book down and taking another look into the stone. “I’ve been trying to make this out for a while now, but I actually think I remember a few of the people from the club. Some of them have cuffs around their necks, some have bands attached to their arms, and some of them look mildly sedated.”

Giovanni and Tau looked at one another.

“What does that mean?” Zander asked.

“That explains how they’re holding them,” Tau said.

“What do you mean?” Zander asked.

Tau took a deep breath. “The metal collars are designed to keep the shifters from turning. The collars are fit with razors inside. The minute a shifter turns and grows, the razors will cut into his jugular vein and kill him. The collar is used to contain the most despicable and untrustworthy of our species.”

“A witch or warlock’s blood pressure increases when he is about to do magic,” Giovanni added. “The arm cuffs are probably designed to tell if anyone is about to do magic. I’m sure that they have some type of warning device or weapon attached to them, too. They probably don’t suspect that your grandmother’s ruby looking stone is more than just a piece of jewelry.”

“There isn’t much you can do to subdue a vamp,” Tau continued.

“True!” Giovanni agreed.

“That’s probably why they have the vamps all sedated,” Tau finished.

Zander looked back into the stone. “What are we going to do when we finally find them?”

“Free them,” Giovanni answered.

“Just the three of us?” Zander asked skeptically.

“Hell yes!” Giovanni and Tau responded in unison.

Chapter 21

The trio reached the Chicago suburb of Rosemont shortly after sundown.

“What is the divining rod thing saying?” Tau asked.

“Keep going north,” Giovanni said.

After several more minutes and a few more wrong turns and arguments, they ended up in a parking lot on a hill overlooking an isolated medical-testing facility.

Tau peered out the window. “What is this place?”

“It’s like a doctor’s office. It is where humans go to find out what diseases they have,” Zander explained.

“More about weak humans and their diseases,” Tau said.

“There are some advantages to hanging around humans,” Zander defended, as he took out his smartphone and searched for details on the building.

“This seems like a strange place to keep supernaturals,” Giovanni said.

“They’re here,” Tau said, rolling down his window.

“How do you know?” Zander asked, still searching through the Internet for details.

“I’m a shifter. I can smell them.”

“This building is owned by a Mr. Archer Carmichael,” Zander read from his phone.

“That doesn’t really help us much,” Giovanni responded.

“It might help us if we knew why he was keeping them,” Zander said.

“He’s just the owner of the building. He might not even know they’re being kept there,” Giovanni pointed out.

“What we need to know right now is how many soldiers there are in there,” Tau said.

Zander looked up from his phone. “Maybe we need to go get help.”

“Incoming,” Tau said. Giovanni and Zander looked at each other, confused, until Hung tapped on the passenger’s window. Despite Tau’s warning, it startled them both.

Giovanni threw his divining rod into the floor of the car and jumped out to give Hung a big hug.

“It looks like someone missed me,” Hung said, wrapping his arms around Giovanni’s waist.

“Maybe,” Giovanni responded.

“Have you two forgotten what we’re here for?” Tau spat.

“I’m here for this,” Hung said, grabbing handfuls of Giovanni’s ass.

“This is serious,” Tau insisted.

“Tau is right,” Hung responded, reluctantly pulling away from Giovanni. Tau and Zander got out of the car and joined them.

“We can’t just go down there and knock on the door and ask if our supernatural friends can come out and play,” Zander said.

“You forget who we are,” Giovanni said.

“What do you mean?” Zander asked.

“My baby can survey the place for us,” Giovanni said.

Hung bowed. “Your wish is my command.”

“We’ll sit here and wait for you,” Tau said. Tau took a seat on the ground and pulled Zander down to sit between his legs. Giovanni gave Hung a kiss on the cheek and told him to be safe. Hung was gone in a blur. Stealth was the vampires’ forte; they moved at near superhuman speed and were able to bend shadow and light in ways that made their movements practically imperceptible.

Giovanni paced across the parking lot while they waited for Hung’s return.

Zander turned and gazed at Tau. “I really appreciate you being here with me.”

“I can think of no other place that I would rather be,” Tau said.

“Really?”

“My mother says that a man may have many lovers, but that he will only have one true love,” Tau said.

“And how does a man know when he has found his true love?” Zander asked.

Hung returned before Tau could answer. Giovanni showered him with hugs and kisses before he could start talking.

“Let the man breathe, Frosted Flakes,” Tau said, pulling Zander up to his feet.

Hung immediately began to share everything that he had learned. “All of the activity is on the first floor. The second floor is nothing but storage. It looks like they captured eight vampires, eight witches and warlocks, and eight shifters. They are pulling them by species for some kind of tests. Of the twenty-four supernaturals that they captured, three have already been picked apart and killed, one from each species. They have removed their vital organs and are straining and examining their blood now. There is one vampiress on the examining table, and I can’t tell if she’s dead or alive.”

“Blessed be,” Giovanni and Zander said, their voices low with shock.

“So, assuming that the vampiress is alive, that means that there are twenty-one supernaturals in that building,” Giovanni said.

“There are humans down there, too,” Tau added. “I can smell them.”

“You’re right, Tau. There are twenty soldiers and six scientists,” Hung explained.

As the son of a pack leader, Zander knew Tau had been trained in the ways of battle. When he showed off his training, Zander found it extremely sexy. First, he instructed Giovanni to make a witch light drawing of the layout of the building as described by Hung. The result was an illuminated floor plan that literally hung in midair. Once it was drawn, Tau made sure that each one of them knew how to find the entrances, exits, lab, and holding room. When they were done, Giovanni erased the magical drawing as easily as one might clean a chalkboard.

“We have the element of surprise on our side, but that may not be enough. Hung, disable the power in the building, and then we’ll take out the soldiers and the scientists,” Tau ordered.

Zander knew what Tau meant by
taking out
the soldiers and scientists, and although it was necessary, he was chilled by how casually Tau had mentioned killing. Zander had never even torn the wing off of a day fairy, let alone thought about harming another living creature. He didn’t mention it. Instead, he asked, “What about me?”

“We need you to free the supernaturals. Do you have a spell that can break locks and remove the collars and cuffs?” Tau asked, as he removed all of his clothes except for the black pants that Hung had given him. Zander couldn’t help but stare.

“I think I do,” Zander said, regaining his composure.

“Then let’s go shut this bitch down,” Giovanni said fiercely. “Once we have all of the supernaturals out, we will burn this motherfucker to the ground the same way they did the club.”

“I suggest we enter on the far north end of the building. I’ve already unlocked the door for us, and it’s the closest exit to the holding cells,” Hung added.

“Then let’s go.” Tau led the way.

Chapter 22

Zander was a nervous wreck as they made their way down the hill. The only thing that Zander had done that was even remotely close to this was playing hide and seek with his cousins, who always teamed up against him and used magic to make sure that he always lost. Upon closer inspection, the facility sat in a natural bowl, with the old, abandoned parking lot up on the hill on one side and woods on the three remaining sides.