Page 42 of Bishop's Flight
“I had no idea.”
Carwyn shifted in his seat. He was as eager to get into that house as Miguel was. “There are so many willing donors now, it’s rare that a vampire would ever need to feed from an unwilling human unless that was part of the appeal.” He looked at Miguel. “Make no mistake, the taste of fear is desirable to some of our kind.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. So does your wife—?”
“Miguel, is that house on a raised foundation or a slab?”
“Uh…” He squinted. “I’m honestly not sure.”
“Either way, I’m going to tunnel around the house and see if I can hear anything.” Carwyn jumped out of the car and stripped his shirt off. “Keep your lights off and wait for Brigid and Bernard.”
“But Carwyn—”
The ground opened up the moment he took off his shoes.
Ahhh, hello my old friend.
This ground was new to him. His amnis reached out and greeted the living earth, stretching into the land in front of him. It was hard-packed earth, thick with metal and minerals, older than the new land closer to the city. This land had been sleeping for centuries, baking in the desert sun.
He moved slowly at first, letting the earth become accustomed to him. He could have tunneled directly to the house, but he didn’t, instead moving around several large boulders so as not to displace the old stones.
The ground approved of that. It grew softer the closer he got to the house, greener with living things and roots and new life. He moved through the ground, reaching out for any trace of vampire amnis.
As he approached the house, he sensed the presence of immortals above him, but they weren’t of his element. Zasha Sokholov was a fire vampire, but the Sokholov clan was mostly earth vampires. He was surprised to feel none of his element, but then again, he knew that Zasha didn’t have many loyalists. They hired those of any element who were motivated by money.
He poked his head up in a flower bed on the side of the house. His face was crusted with dirt and his hair was thick with stones, so he was well camouflaged.
Carwyn listened for signs of life, but he heard nothing.
Except…
There was the stench of death in the soil.
He returned to the ground and followed the scent to an area behind the stables. Mixed with the manure and smell of composting hay, he smelled the familiar stink of decomposition. Impossible to tell if it was human or animal.
He rose from the ground, careful to keep out of the line of sight of the Preston house.
He walked around the stables, his amnis reaching into the ground to sense where the ground had been disturbed.
The earth wasn’t concerned by the dead. To his element, death was just another form of life. The body made of earth returned to it to feed the plants that fed the animals above. The animal that had once lived in the sun rested in the dark, and the insects and fungus that recycled the dead were happy in the work of eternity.
Carwyn found three bodies in the ground and knew they were all adult humans. He pressed his palms to the ground and asked the earth to reveal their secrets.
The ground shifted and unfurled, slowly revealing three dead humans, a man and two women. One was Gary Preston, based on the file Lee had sent him. His face was bloated, but he was recognizable. The two women with him were wearing uniforms that appeared to be the same, so they were likely domestic workers.
“Thank you,” Carwyn whispered. He asked the earth to cover them again, and the soil around the bodies settled and sighed.
In the distance, he felt his mate arrive, her amnis as familiar to him as his own.
Take me back.He returned to his element, returning to the spot where he’d first touched the ground on the edge of the mountain. He passed the old boulders in the ground again, brushing his palms against them and whispering a prayer for the dead as he passed.
He emerged from the earth to find Brigid looking down at him.
He smiled up and felt the grit between his teeth. “Hello, wife.”
Brigid ran infront of him, her feet so swift that he could barely keep track of her as she moved, clothed in all black, a tiny angel of justice in the night.
Carwyn had kept his shirt off and his feet bare, the better to use his element in the upcoming fight. Bernard had two wind vampires on the security staff, and the women had identified four vampires visible in the house and it was possible there were more they weren’t seeing.
