"He has called off the hunt in favor of future business prospects," Bartholomew informed the vampire on the other end before terminating the call. He was slipping the phone inside his suit coat pocket as he was snatched away from the door of the restaurant and compulsion was laid a bare second later.
* * *
"Back from the dead?" Will grinned as he placed chains on Bartholomew inside Merrill's Range Rover. He, Gavin and Merrill had gone after Bartholomew when René informed his cousin of Bartholomew's whereabouts. Gavin had taken Bartholomew's cell phone first thing; he'd turn it over to Wlodek. Merrill placed compulsion; Wlodek hadn't wanted to take any chances with the rogue vampire.
Bartholomew didn't enjoy the ride to the holding facility. He'd been given permission to blink but that was all. Gavin glared at him the entire time, as if he'd like to execute him right then without waiting for the Council to pass judgment. Gavin's cell rang. It was René, so he answered.
"We have him, thanks to you, cousin," Gavin said. René's sigh of relief was heard by every vampire inside the Range Rover.
"Thank you, cousin," René returned. "If you need anything else, let me know." Gavin ended the call and continued glaring at the prisoner.
Wlodek, Charles and Radomir were waiting when Bartholomew was unloaded and forced inside the underground bunker that housed the holding facility. "The reports of your death are greatly exaggerated, are they not?" Wlodek watched while Will and Gavin pushed Bartholomew into a seat inside the office. Wlodek had read Mark Twain, along with a great many other authors one might not expect.
"You will answer everything any vampire in the room asks you," Merrill commanded. If Bartholomew could still sweat, he would have. He could only nod and he did.
"First, tell me how you managed to make everyone believe you walked into the sun," Wlodek commanded. "Whose ashes were those?"
"Lucius," Bartholomew replied sullenly. "He wanted to turn us in." Wlodek's eyes became red; Lucius was a friend and had disappeared suddenly. Wlodek was afraid that Lucius' human lover had staked him at the time, but he'd never found the girl either, after Lucius' disappearance.
"Did you kill him and Jovana?"
"No," Bartholomew smiled a little. "Jovana staked him. I used his ashes and wrote the note."
"Where is Jovana now? What happened to her?" Wlodek always worried about her but Lucius was in love with the human female and she'd been approved by the companion vote—his and Oluwa's had been the only dissenting votes.
Bartholomew almost laughed. "Saxom turned her," he said.
Wlodek cursed in Greek. "Is she enslaved to Xenides, now?"
"No," Bartholomew was smiling. His answer caused Merrill to stand swiftly. Lissa had said something not long ago, about the possibility of Saxom turning females, along with the fact that Saxom had known what to look for as far as misters and the like had been concerned.
"Is she a Queen?" Merrill demanded.
"Oh, yes," Bartholomew smirked. "You don't want to meet up with her. Even Xenides is afraid of her. Why do you think he wants your little princess so badly? Jovana has become a bit of a problem for Xenides and he wishes to be rid of her."
"So, Saxom was the only one who could control her?" Wlodek asked.
"Yes. A shame isn't it, that you managed to kill my sire?"
"That's a matter of opinion," Wlodek snorted. "Do you have any idea what he was planning, or with whom he had allied himself, there at the end?"
"He promised us that we would all be kings," Bartholomew hissed.
"You would have been dead," Wlodek replied. "There was no room in his plans for any of you. He only made you to be his pawns, to get him what he wanted or to take his revenge, should he die. It's too bad you can't see that for yourself."
Bartholomew growled a little but Merrill's barked command kept the disrespect behind his teeth. "How many children did Saxom make?" Merrill demanded.
"I only know of forty-seven, but Xenides always hinted there were more. He wouldn't give me the information when I asked."
"Give me names. Immediately," Wlodek snapped. Bartholomew began ticking off names.
* * *
"This Queen business worries me. Where is she?" Merrill paced restlessly. He'd never met Jovana; he only had Wlodek's account of her. According to him, she was self-serving in the extreme, in addition to being beautiful with thick, platinum blonde hair and a fair complexion. Lucius had been smitten, no doubt about that.
"She made me gag every time I saw her and she was in her forties the last I saw of her, shortly before Lucius disappeared." Wlodek sat in the office at the holding facility. Gavin and Merrill were the only ones remaining; he'd sent the others home after settling Bartholomew in a cell next to Llewellyn.
"Then Saxom had a hand in all that; he could have overridden Lucius' compulsion easily," Merrill observed. "And if Bartholomew is correct, she can turn to mist and use mindspeech, in addition to being immune to compulsion."
"At least we know what she looks like, but who will we send after her?"
"I'm the only option," Merrill sighed.
"I wish to settle the dilemma of Lissa," Wlodek said. "Xenides and Saxom's turns present a terrible fate for her, if they get their hands on her. I know," he held up a hand when Merrill started to speak. "But you and I both know that there may be ways around your compulsion. Therefore, I have taken the liberty of presenting this option to the Council, with the exception of Ilaisaane, of course. Their opinions coincide with mine. We feel that her marriage to Gavin should take place as soon as she returns and then she will be confined and placed under the strictest of compulsions unless she can be of assistance to you, Gavin or one of the Enforcers. Then we will allow her to work in controlled circumstances. Her susceptibility to compulsion is a glaring weakness, as you both know. Otherwise, there is nothing we could do to control her. Our enemies know this too, now, thanks to Ilaisaane."
"You know what this will do to her, Wlodek. Lissa will walk into the sun the first chance she gets." Merrill wasn't happy with Wlodek's and the Council's decision.
"That will be the first compulsion I place," Gavin growled. He knew what this would do to Lissa as well, but he couldn't deal with the sight of her blackened body again. The attempted suicide earlier in the year had left a terrible mark on his soul.
"That is what I hoped for, and you know the Council will loosen the law for a spouse's compulsion," Wlodek nodded. "That is why we wish to move the marriage up."