Chapter 5 - The Traitor in Voss House
Livia wanted to leave immediately.
Adrian refused.
She argued.
He refused again.
She threatened to go alone.
That ended the argument.
“You will not make it through the airport,” Adrian said.
Livia stood in the center of the study, shaking with fury.
“You don’t know that.”
“I do.”
“My mother is gone.”
“I know.”
“Then stop standing there like we have time.”
“We have exactly as much time as Sabine allows us.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means she did not take Celeste to kill her.”
Livia’s face tightened.
“How can you know?”
“Because dead hostages do not attract Keepers.”
The word made Livia flinch.
“I hate that name.”
“It doesn’t care.”
She glared at him.
Adrian sighed.
“Sabine needs you alive. She needs Celeste alive until you arrive. That gives us leverage.”
“And what are we doing with it?”
“Finding the traitor.”
Elias stood on the far side of the room under guard.
He had surrendered his phone and weapons voluntarily.
“I am not the man in that photograph,” he said again.
Livia looked at him.
“You have his face.”
“I can see that.”
Adrian had spent the previous hour opening records Elias had never seen.
Birth certificates.
Hospital documents.
School records.
Family photographs.
Everything supported his story.
Elias had been born in 1987.
Eleven years before Prague.
The man in the photograph, however, appeared at least thirty.
“Could vampires make someone look like him?” Livia asked.
Adrian shook his head.
“Not exactly.”
“Twins?”
“No siblings.”
Elias looked toward the fire.
“My father.”
Everyone turned.
“What?” Adrian asked.
Elias rubbed his face.
“My mother never showed me photographs of him.”
“Name?”
“Marcus Vale.”
Adrian froze.
Livia noticed.
“You know him.”
Adrian walked toward a bookshelf.
He removed a small ledger.
“Marcus Vale served my father.”
“When?”
“From 1959 until 1998.”
Elias whispered, “1998?”
Adrian opened the book.
The final entry beside Marcus’s name read:
Presumed dead, Prague fire.
Livia held up the photograph.
“So that is his father.”
“Yes.”
Elias looked sick.
“Why didn’t you recognize me?”
“I never met Marcus closely enough to remember his face.”
Adrian looked at him.
“My father handled his unit.”
Elias laughed bitterly.
“So my father may have murdered Livia’s grandmother.”
“May have.”
“And you hired me.”
“I hired you because you were the best security analyst I had seen in thirty years.”
“You investigated me.”
“Obviously.”
Livia muttered, “He does that.”
Adrian ignored her.
“Your mother’s records listed your father as Michael Carter.”
“She told me Marcus Vale was his real name shortly before she died.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Elias looked ashamed.
“Because I thought he was a criminal.”
Adrian’s gaze hardened.
“He was worse.”
Elias flinched.
Livia stepped between them.
“Great. We found the traitor’s son. That doesn’t tell us who kidnapped my mother tonight.”
Orion suddenly lifted his head.
He walked toward Elias.
One guard reached for his weapon.
Adrian raised a hand.
Orion sniffed Elias’s coat.
Then moved toward the bookcase.
He scratched once at the floor.
Livia frowned.
“What is it?”
Adrian crouched.
There was a narrow gap beneath the cabinet.
He reached inside.
Pulled out a device.
A transmitter.
Elias stared.
“That isn’t mine.”
Adrian examined it.
“No.”
“How long has it been there?”
“Long enough.”
Elias looked at the guard behind him.
Then at another.
Anyone could have planted it.
Adrian’s face became unreadable.
“Lock the house.”
Within minutes, every employee and guard was confined to separate rooms.
Phones confiscated.
Vehicles disabled.
Adrian personally reviewed internal cameras.
Livia refused to sleep.
At three in the morning, she sat beside Orion in the library.
“You know who did it, don’t you?”
Orion looked at her.
“Helpful.”
She leaned back.
“I wish you could talk.”
The hound placed one paw on her shoe.
Livia smiled weakly.
“Yeah.”
Adrian entered carrying two cups.
“Coffee.”
She accepted one.
“You drink coffee?”
“Yes.”
“I thought vampires only drank—”
“Please do not finish that sentence.”
Despite everything, she laughed.
It surprised them both.
The sound faded.
Livia stared into the cup.
“Will she hurt my mother?”
“Not if she is thinking clearly.”
“Is Sabine ever thinking clearly?”
“Yes.”
“That’s worse.”
“Much.”
They sat in silence.
Then Livia asked, “Why did my grandmother distrust you?”
Adrian looked toward Orion.
“She didn’t always.”
“What happened?”
“I made a mistake.”
“What kind?”
“One that cost lives.”
Livia waited.
Adrian continued.
“A century ago, Sabine proposed ending the Covenant peacefully.”
“She lied.”
“Yes.”
“You believed her?”
“I wanted to.”
“Why?”
Adrian’s expression darkened.
“Because she was my sister.”
Livia almost dropped the coffee.
“Your sister?”
“Half-sister.”
“You forgot to mention that.”
“It did not seem relevant.”
“Your murderous vampire sister kidnapping my mother seems extremely relevant.”
“Fair.”
Livia stared at him.
“What did she do?”
“Used negotiations to locate human families who held Covenant records.”
“And killed them.”
“Yes.”
“Elena?”
“Not then. Elena survived that purge.”
“But she stopped trusting you.”
“Yes.”
Livia studied him.
“You blame yourself.”
“Yes.”
“Does that help?”
“No.”
“Then why keep doing it?”
He looked at her.
The question seemed to surprise him more than accusation would have.
Before he could answer, Orion stood.
His head turned toward the ceiling.
A low growl filled the library.
Adrian rose.
“What?”
Orion moved toward the hall.
They followed.
Upstairs.
Past guest rooms.
Toward the west wing.
He stopped in front of a locked door.
Adrian frowned.
“That room hasn’t been used in years.”
He unlocked it.
Inside was dust.
Covered furniture.
Old paintings.
Orion walked directly to the fireplace.
He pawed at a stone.
Adrian pressed it.
A section of wall opened.
Livia stared.
“Of course you have secret passages.”
“This house is old.”
“That doesn’t make it less ridiculous.”
They entered.
A narrow stairway led downward.
At the bottom was a hidden room.
Recently used.
Computer monitors.
Maps.
Photographs.
Livia’s photograph.
Her mother’s.
Maison Aurelia.
Her home.
Adrian’s estate.
Someone had been monitoring them from inside the mansion.
Elias arrived behind them with two guards.
His face changed.
“What is this?”
Adrian looked at him.
“You tell me.”
“I have never been here.”
Orion ignored everyone.
He crossed the room.
Stopped beside a desk.
On it lay a passport.
Adrian picked it up.
The photograph showed Marcus Vale.
Elias’s father.
The issue date was six months earlier.
Elias whispered, “He’s alive.”
A slow clap came from the doorway.
Everyone turned.
One of Adrian’s oldest guards stood there.
Thomas.
A man who had served Voss House for forty-one years.
He held a gun against Livia’s mother.
Celeste’s face was bruised but alive.
Livia stepped forward.
“Mom!”
Thomas smiled.
“Stay where you are.”
Adrian’s voice became ice.
“You.”
Thomas laughed.
“You always were slow to suspect loyalty.”
Orion growled.
Thomas pointed the weapon toward the hound.
“One more step.”
Orion stopped.
Livia’s heart hammered.
Celeste looked at her daughter.
“Don’t give him the pendant.”
Thomas smiled.
“Actually, Miss Marcel, that is exactly what you’re going to do.”
Behind him, a second figure entered.
Older.
Gray-haired.
But unmistakable.
Elias stared at his own face aged by decades.
“Father?”
May you like
Marcus Vale smiled.
“Hello, son.”
