Page 43 of The Vampire Always Rises
“Because I don’t know for certain who he was,” Merrick explained. Nico, the youngest of all the Dark Ones to belong to the Horsemen, had a notoriously short fuse, and always acted before thinking. “There is a chance that Carlo Marcuzzi is Victor, but it’s far more likely that he’s a front.”
“I agree with Merrick,” Ciaran said, rubbing his face. His blondish red hair stood on end as if he’d just gotten out of bed, which Merrick assumed he had, given the time difference between Nice and Quebec. “We’ve worked too hard to find Victor to rush forward when a little observation will tell us if this man is him.”
“What do you suggest we do, Merrick?” Han asked. Behind him, Merrick could see the naked form of a woman lying in a bed, just barely covered with a sheet. Evidently Han had been dining when the call had come through. The faint sound of feminine snoring could be heard. “Do you want us to drop our lines of investigation and come to France?”
Merrick considered his options. It went against his nature to ask for help, even from his fellow Four Horsemen, but he had to put aside his pride in order to focus on their goal. “I have a thief taker working on Carlo’s trail, but that aside, the informant who set me on to him insists that Victor is still in this region. It might be helpful to have more than one Horseman here. Nico, what trail are you following?”
“One that led to a Slavic genetics company, but it hasn’t gone anywhere.”
“A genetics company?” Ciaran smothered another yawn. “Why would Victor want to meet with them?”
“That’s what my informant told me,” Nico said defensively.
“And you see how well that turned out,” Ciaran responded.
Nico’s face darkened. “My informants are normally reliable, which is why we knew Victor was operating out of France and Italy to begin with. What have yours told us? Nothing, that’s what. I don’t even know why you’re in Canada when Victor is in Europe.”
“Calm down,” Merrick interrupted before the two men got into an argument. “Ciaran is following the Revelation’s movement of money in the States, and Han is tracking down the Dark One who supposedly got away from Victor.”
“And I suppose you expect me to drop everything and rush to Italy now?” Nico asked, his tone still irate.
“I’m not telling you to leave Moscow,” Merrick growled, close to snapping at the younger man. He knew Nico was dedicated to the cause, and had an uncanny knack of telling when someone was being deceptive, but his youth and inexperience rubbed Merrick the wrong way. “I’m simply telling you what I’ve found, and that an extra set of eyes might be beneficial. If you believe your contact will provide you a link to Victor, then pursue it. There’s nothing to say we can’t come at the man from different angles.”
“I’ll go to France,” Han said, glancing back over his shoulder. “I’m done here, anyway. The man reported to us as having escaped appears to be a figment of someone’s imagination. At any rate, I couldn’t find proof he really existed.”
“I can go to Europe, too,” Ciaran said with a yawn. “It looks like the financial information isn’t going to pan out as much as we hoped. I’ve found some references to money laundering through South America, but I suspect the federal officials are watching the accounts, since activity suddenly ceased last month.” Ciaran spent the next five minutes detailing what he’d uncovered regarding transactions involving banks in Belize, the US, and Austria. Merrick disregarded most of the information about the transactions themselves, since it was the people behind them that interested him.
“If all of you are going to meet, then I might as well as join you,” Nico said as soon as Han wrapped up the summation of his investigation. Nico’s tone was tinged with petulance that Merrick thought was unworthy of a Horseman. “Although I don’t see what good having all four of us together is going to do. If Victor isn’t in the area, then all we’ve done is wasted time.”
“If you have a better lead, then follow it,” Merrick told him. “It would be foolish to ignore what could be viable information just to join the rest of us.”
“I don’t want it said that I didn’t do my part,” Nico said with a distinct edge to his voice, and disconnected from the video chat.
“Someone is going to have to talk to him,” Merrick said. “And it can’t be me, because he takes everything I say as a personal attack.”
“He’s young,” Han said, running a hand through his hair. “I’m sure we were all just as fervent as he is when we were that age. Right, I’m off if there’s nothing else to discuss.”
Ciaran stretched, and rubbed the stubble on his jaw. “I have one or two things to tie up here, but nothing of importance. I believe Merrick is correct in saying the Revelation is focused on Europe, since all my leads here have dried up.”
“It could well be that they put out some false tracks for us to follow away from the heart of the organization,” Han added. “I’m inclined to agree that we should be focusing on Europe, Italy in particular. And Merrick knows that ground better than any of us.”
“You wouldn’t know it by my results,” Merrick said, mentally damning himself for not having run Victor to earth by now. Invariably, his thoughts moved to Tempest, and the horror of what could happen should she fall into the Revelation’s clutches.
“Don’t be so hard on yourself. You’ve done more than all of the rest of us put together. You not only found two of their operatives. You were so much of a threat they almost killed you. You’ve done your part and more,” Han said soothingly, and, with a stretch, signed off.
“You all right?” Ciaran asked Merrick, squinting at the computer screen. “You look tired. You’re not still feeling the effects of your run-in with Victor’s men?”
“No.” He thought of simply ending the video call, but Ciaran was the Horseman with whom he was the closest, and some odd little urge prompted him to say, “I met the woman who saved me, the one who gave me blood after Victor’s men dumped me at Christian’s castle.”
“And?” Ciaran asked.
“She thinks she’s my Beloved. No, not just thinks—she demands that I make her my Beloved.”
“One of those,” Ciaran asked, with an exaggerated roll of his eyes. “Ever since Christian started writing those books, women have been crawling all over me to make them my ‘dark consort,’ whatever the hell that is.”
“Exactly! She’s a fan of Christian’s books, too, and is constantly telling me what they say about us.”
“Just like you needed to be told what these books say about Dark Ones. Not that we actuallyreadthem.”
