Asteria looked out the window of the apartment where she was staying at a dark alleyway, full of garbage of both the living and discarded debris variety, and wondered how she’d wound up here. In the distance, the lights of Budapest illuminated the sky, though all she could see from this vantage point were a few dim streetlights that highlighted the rundown architecture of Terezvaros. In an adjoining room, the laugh track from some stupid television show interrupted her thoughts. It was just as well; in the past few months she’d become abundantly aware of the fact that often times her thoughts were not her own.
She dropped the thin orange curtain and backed her way to the twin sized bed she’d been sleeping on the last several weeks. After Nello and Venette determined she was no longer safe at the castle, she’d fled here, only Hines alongside her. Leaving her baby behind had been both heartbreaking and a relief. As much as she loved Perses the Younger, as she’d decided to call him, the child was draining in every way possible. Venette had brought on some women of the village to care for him, changing them herself, so Asteria was confident Perses would be provided for until which time she was able to be reunited with him, but in the meantime, she spent every waking hour attempting to find a solution to her problems and getting nowhere.
Hines was certain he had the answer, that the book he’d found in the library right before Asteria had given birth, would explain precisely what they needed to do. But she hadn’t allowed him to discuss it, not yet. He said it would be late summer before the plan would work, so she forbid him to explore it further until mid-August. Now, feeling out with her mind for the ones she loathed more than anything, a foreign emotion overcame her, and she realized it was their happiness radiating off of them, that even across the ocean, she was able to pick up on their joy. It was sickening and enough to make her saunter into the other room. The phrase, “The time is now,” entered her head, making her scoff. Oh, if only the time had been when she thought it was going to be so many months ago, back when she and Perses had an empire, and victory was within their grasp.
She stood in front of the television, clicking it off with her mind, and Hines sat up straight in his recliner. “Hey, I was watching that,” he barked, clearly no longer as afraid of her as he had been for so long. He had changed, that was for certain. His hair continued to flop about his head like an angry bird, but he wore an old white shirt with a stain on it and pants that had grown too tight around the waist. Every night, he went out into the streets and fed off of the underbelly of Hungarian society, often bringing her back his leftovers. He was a shell of his former self, and she couldn’t blame him. She wasn’t the elegant Vampire Queen she’d been before, back when Larundel awaited her return. It had been reduced to ashes, much like her Vampire army. Much like her disposition.
“We need to chat,” she said, folding her arms and taking a few steps across the room to a matching dilapidated recliner. While the accommodations were miserable, the LIGHTS team that was closing in on them would have a harder time finding them here. The fact that Cadence and Aaron were not searching themselves yet told her only that they were biding their time while the lesser members looked for evidence of where Asteria was hiding. Once they actually sought her out themselves, her days would be numbered.
She needed to prevent that.
“What is it?” Hines asked, swiveling his chair slightly so that he was facing her. “Do you need me to find you something to eat?”
“No,” Asteria said quickly, wishing he would take on the subservient tone he had used with her before. “I think... it’s time to explore your plan.” Hines’s bushy eyebrows shot up. “But we must be careful. Remember, she is far more powerful than she was before. She will find out any information we let slip.”
Hines nodded, knowing precisely what she spoke of. “I have a plan, Your Majesty.” It was the first time he’d called her that in weeks, and Asteria felt regal again, at least for a moment, despite the cockroaches scurrying across the apartment floor. “I have a contact in Canada. He isn’t someone they will suspect, and I’m fairly certain he can take care of it, so long as she isn’t able to trace him through me.”
“And why wouldn’t she be able to?” Asteria asked, her forehead crinkling.
“I think she is still limited without knowing a name,” he explained. “And since he does not know my name, she shouldn’t be able to hunt us down.” He grinned at her, his fangs glinting in the dim light. Without the television on, the only source of illumination was the clock on the microwave behind him in the kitchenette and the sliver that came in from the street.
“And you trust this person to be able to research the topic sufficiently and pull it off without my direction—or yours?”
“Yes,” Hines said confidently. “I am confident that of all of our kind in existence, he is the best suited for this task.”
Asteria was confused. “What do you mean?”
“Do you really want to know?” Hines countered.
“No, I suppose not.” The more she knew, the more likely she was to let something go that would tip Cassidy Findley off the next time she went exploring in Asteria’s mind. For now, it was taking everything she had to build a barrier around their location, let alone adding to that the name of Hines’s contact or how he came to know of this fellow. “So it is actually multiple contacts you have then?” It sounded like he was saying there were barriers between the man he'd contacted and anyone who could help Cassidy locate that person.
“Precisely. Again, I fear I should not tell you.”
“I agree. It’s too bad you know as much as you do.”
“Well, if I didn’t know what I know, I couldn’t ask these others to carry it out,” he reminded her. “Don’t worry. I don’t know the details. I read the text, but it made little sense to me. That’s when I decided we needed someone else, an expert. I have arranged for it. Now, all we need to do is let my partners know to go forth with what needs to be done.”
“Very well,” Asteria nodded. “And where is the book?”
“You needn’t ask.” His smile was devious, and for a moment, Asteria was glad he happened to be on her side. The burning of his lab and all of the work he’d done in trying to find a way to change Guardians into humans so that they could be destroyed had changed Hines. No longer a cartoonish quack, he looked more than a little dangerous now, and Asteria was glad for it.
“Do you think I need to consult Daunator again?” she asked, wondering if they had the power to pull this off without him. They had discussed the possibility of pleading with the phantom once more, to see if maybe he would be persuaded to help out, now that their kind was on the verge of extinction.
“Not yet,” Hines said with a loud sigh. “Let us see what we can do on our own.”
She nodded, glad to hear it. She had a feeling she could summon Daunator much more easily now since he had first appeared to her and threatened her if she didn’t stop her plans. All of that had gone precisely how he’d said it would, and Asteria’s world had crumbled, causing all of their kind to suffer. Daunator had to be furious with her, but that might just be what it would take to get him to help, should she need his assistance. She’d conceded to the fact that he was more powerful than her as she’d watched Larundel burn.
“I leave you to it, then, Hines.” She stood, heading back toward her miserable quarters. “You will let me know as soon as you can, won’t you?”
“Yes, of course,” Hines agreed. She could see his reflection in a dust covered mirror across the room. A devilish grin took over his face.
Asteria entered her room closing the door behind her. No longer was her main goal to be the Vampire Queen, to conquer the world. Instead, she had only one dream—to make Cadence Findley as miserable as she was. And she would stop at nothing to see it through.
