Page 78 of The Vampire Always Rises
Dark One.
“If you want me to keep my hands off you, you’re going to have to distract me,” I said when he hauled the still unconscious form of Nico over to a corner, and swiftly used the man’s own tie to bind his wrists behind him. “Are you certain your buddy wasn’t trying to capture Carlo?”
“I doubt that he was.” Merrick’s voice was grim. He glanced up when Ciaran, with his arm around a stumbling and bleary-eyed Han, appeared in the door. “I think Nico sold us out to Victor.”
“So Carlo is Victor?” I asked.
“I don’t think so. He would have had many more men at his disposal if he led the organization. I think, judging by the fact that he was taking the laptop and records, that he was in charge of this arm of the Revelation.”
I felt a tiny bit of relief that my cousin hadn’t been ultimately responsible for the death of Merrick’s sister. “That means Victor is still to be found?”
“Yes,” Merrick answered. “Unless Nico can tell us where he is, and somehow, I doubt if he was given that information.”
Ciaran looked from Carlo on the floor, to me, then over to Nico. “Bloody hell. That would explain a lot.”
“Money,” Han said, letting Ciaran assist him to the chair behind the table. “Nico always wanted money. Never was happy with what he had. Always wanted more.”
“To the point of turning us over to the enemy?” Ciaran shook his head, winced, and put a hand up to the back of it.
Han made an aborted gesture toward the traitorous Horseman. “I agree that he’s a bit unbalanced, but if he was working with Victor, he has the blood of several dozen Dark Ones on his hands.”
Ciaran walked over to where Nico was slumped, and squatted next to him. “If he’s betrayed us, betrayed our own people, then he should die.”
“That’s not for us to decide,” Merrick said, a note of warning in his voice. “We’ll leave it to the Council to weigh the evidence and make a decision. I have no doubt they’ll find he’s guilty, though. He’s always preferred to go it alone, and never wanted us to come to search in Italy or France.”
Ciaran squinted down at the prone form. “Let me kill him just a little.”
“No,” Merrick said firmly.
“Just a few pokes with a knife. Or a sword. Han, you have a sword?”
“Not on me, no. My gun was taken away when someone bashed in the back of my brain. Ow. There’s a huge lump there. And speaking of being bashed ...”
“That was probably Nico, as well,” Merrick said, his jaw tight. “No one else could have taken us unaware. He knew we were coming here, and obviously got here before us, lying in wait to pick us off one at a time. Tempest says they had Ciaran ready to be handed over to one of their buyers.”
Ciaran grimaced, but sent a grateful look my way. “I’m delighted you interfered when you did. I will be forever in your debt.”
“Stop looking at her like that,” Merrick said, his lips thinning.
Oooh, are you jealous?
Not in the least. He simply needs to stop looking at you like he has the right to do so.
I laughed in his mind.You are beyond adorable.
“I guess that means we’re now the three Horsemen,” Han said, looking a lot less groggy. “We’ll have to recruit a new member.”
I raised my hand.
“Absolutely not,” Merrick said, glowering at me.
“Oh?” I lifted my chin and glared right back at him. “You wouldn’t be trying to tell me what I can and cannot do, would you?”
“No.” His jaw worked a couple of times. “It might seem like I am, but the simple fact is that you can’t be a Horseman. You’re not a Dark One.”
“I’m a Beloved!”
“But not a Dark One. I know full well you’d be able to fight even the worst threat to our people, but Horsemen must be Dark Ones. It is from that we draw our strength.”
