Page 36 of Fangs, Frost, and Folios
Beatrice was nearly sure of it, and she felt a spike of fear when she realized that once the bookcases were back in place, their prison would be completely concealed.
You’re a mated vampire, B. Giovanni will find you.
Relief flooded her. Elise might make off with Arosh’s treasure, but she couldn’t blame the woman for that. As long as Elise remained calm and the gun didn’t go off, as long as the knife at René’s spine didn’t move, Giovanni would find them, she could wipe Nick’s memory, and everything would be fine.
“Barnes!” Nick hissed. “Don’t antagonize her. Elise, this is madness. Why are you working for someone called a fire king? What is all this, and why are those men…?” He was finally registering that the men holding René were not simple thugs. “My God, this is barbaric. You must let us go.”
One of the vampires holding René curled his lip at Nick, revealing a long, gleaming white fang.
Nick took one shaky breath, and then his eyes rolled back and he fainted, falling to the stone floor of the vault.
Elise began cursing in French. “This weakling. Leave him, Bertrand.”
The thug moved his full attention to Barnes, who was standing calmly in the threshold of the vault door, the gun still trained on him.
Barnes stepped toward Nick. “Miss Elise, please don’t hurt the earl. There has been no wrong done to you. He has done nothing but show you consideration and love.”
The corner of Elise’s mouth twitched. “He didn’t even know me, Barnes.”
She spat out a stream of rapid French faster than Beatrice could follow; then one of the vampires holding René sped away.
Beatrice was watching everyone, looking for the best way to defuse the situation, keep the humans alive, and escape the vault she was now standing in.
Usually she enjoyed a good vault, but not when guns were involved.
“What’s the plan?” Beatrice asked. “Just want to know what to expect.”
“When Mario gets back,” Elise said, “you can help him pack the treasure. Like I said, if you cooperate, everyone stays alive.” She looked at Nick’s unconscious body. “Bertrand, get him out of the way.”
Beatrice kept her attention on Elise as the other human dragged an unconscious Nick against the wall.
Despite their precarious circumstances, Beatrice couldn’t help but marvel at the Mortimer vault. “Impressive.” She glanced at Barnes. “It’s all from one cache in the Khyber Pass?”
There were gold leaf frames on the walls, surrounding intricately painted classical works of Persian art. There was a large stack of old gold bars and a sizable chest of silver coins. There were gold lamps and ceremonial weapons hanging in a rack on one wall along with a glass pitcher of what looked like uncut gemstones.
There was also a bookcase of manuscripts and scrolls carefully packaged that made Beatrice yearn to ignore the health of the human hostages and let loose an attack that would level the intruders, but she resisted.
At the end of the day, what did she care if Arosh hired someone to retrieve his own treasure? She couldn’t blame him; he’d probably been fending off archeologists for years.
“Not all of it is from the cache, but most of it. They found it in the mountains.” Barnes’s voice was quiet. “It was in a very remote region and was quite hidden.”
I bet.
Arosh was one of the most ancient vampires on earth. No doubt he had caches all over Central Asia and forgot about them all the time.
Just her luck he’d happened to remember this one.
Barnes continued. “They took the treasure back with them and divided it between the men. This is only a small portion of the total cache.”
Beatrice was even more impressed.
“Wait.” Elise looked around. “But where is the rest?”
Barnes frowned. “What do you mean?”
“My employer told me to expect ten times this amount of gold.” She pointed the gun at Barnes’s face. “Where is the rest?”
Beatrice felt the tension rise. Elise was losing control of her emotions. “Didn’t you hear what Barnes just said? They split the treasure among the men who discovered it.” She gestured to the art on the walls, the gold, and the weapons. “This is more than enough to prove to Arosh that you are making progress. Take this and explain you’re still searching for the rest.”
