Hines sulked into the room with his head down, and Asteria didn’t even bother to look up from the bag she was packing for more than a second. “That was pathetic,” she said, wishing she could stab him in the chest cavity like Cadence Findley had every Vampire who’d tried to take her down, save the ones her sister had taken care of for her.
“I’m sorry, Your Majesty. They’re just not strong enough. LIGHTS has depleted our forces, and obviously, they knew we were coming. It’s that little bitch and her magical powers.”
“It was obvious we were coming,” she said, regurgitating his own words. “They will be on to us from now on, expecting us at every turn. We will have to come up with something else, something they won’t expect. In the meantime, I’m finished hiding out in this hovel. I’m going to collect my son, and then we’ll head to America. That’s where they are; that’s where I need to be.”
“No disrespect, my Queen, but may I suggest you hold off on that? I’ve found out some information that I think might be of value, and it would require you to be here—in Europe.”
He had her attention now, and Asteria stopped packing to look at him. “What is it, you blathering idiot?”
“The book... I contacted someone who could read it. She isn’t a Vampire, so I didn’t give her any details, only that I’d stumbled upon an old book and wanted some help reading it. She’s a librarian in Scotland. Funny story--”
“Get on with it!” Asteria snapped, not caring who he’d found.
Hines looked like a wounded kitten. He straightened his glasses and cleared his throat. “Yes, well, there’s a page in the book that looks like a list, and she confirms it is. I think it might be the locations where the portal opens. Most of them correspond to places we cannot decipher, but the few that she was able to pinpoint are in Europe or Asia. Remember, at the time the book was written, the entire Western Hemisphere was uncharted, at least by those who wrote the book.”
Asteria folded her arms across her chest. “If you’re trying to tell me there were no Vampires in the Western Hemisphere before Columbus I will rip your eyeballs out and shove them down your lying throat.”
“No, not that. I know there were.” He swallowed hard. “Only, the clan who was primarily using the portal, those who recorded the book, they weren’t as familiar with that part of the world and tended to use the portal to pass between locations in Europe and Asia. Only a few of them seem to be associated with North or South America, and that was a guess by the translator. She said that the names used to describe those locations that might possibly be in what we now consider the Western Hemisphere would be nearly impossible to locate, as would many others on the list. But there are a few that are closer to our present location.”
Asteria stared at him hard for several moments, trying to discern what her next question should be before she demanded, “What is your point?”
“My point is... if LIGHTS is able to figure out the same information from their alleged copy of the book, they will likely be headed this direction. It seems hasty to fly all the way over there only to turn back around and trail them here.”
“And if I wanted to intercept her before she figures out what the portals can do, wouldn’t it be better to travel to where she is?”
“While it may seem so, I’d have to say no, Your Highness. I’m assuming she’s just as surrounded now as she was during the attack, maybe more so. If she’s on her way back to headquarters, there would be no way for you to access her there. You’d have to wait for her to come out. She won’t be expecting us to unravel the mystery of the book without Stewart, and he hadn’t gotten that far, obviously.”
It rolled Asteria’s stomach to think of Stewart letting them put this plan into place but not telling her about this stupid list. “Have you attempted to question Stewart as to his interpretation of this list?”
“I did. He wasn’t very cooperative. He told me to go to hell, and he’ll see me there shortly. But when I demanded he let me know, he said he holds to the idea that the portal no longer functions that way. He doesn’t think the portal can open except for during the Blood Moon now, and he thinks the list corresponds to how it used to work before the Vampires had their privileges revoked.”
Asteria rolled her eyes. “By the demons.”
“Precisely.”
He either didn’t pick up on her cynicism or was resolute on convincing her. “So you think I should continue to stay here, in this pigsty?”
“No, if you’d like to join your... baby, I think you should do that. You can continue to shield that location. But be ready to travel at a moment’s notice. We have a few remaining friends who can monitor the Findleys’ movements. They are on their way back to Kansas City right now.”
She had a feeling that would be the case after the Vampire forces were defeated, though she thought it might be difficult for Cadence to board a plane without her beloved. Asteria closed the distance between herself and the German doctor quickly, causing him to back into the wall. “Hines, I am this close to ripping your throat out and eating it for dinner!” She gestured with her hands a miniscule distance, a fraction of an inch.
“Yes, my Queen, I know,” he said, his head tipped back against the wall. “I’m sorry for failing you.”
“Do not let it happen again.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Asteria narrowed her eyes and took him in a moment longer before lowering her hand and smoothing down her long red dress. “I would like to get back to my child now. You will arrange it. Carefully. There’s no reason to tip LIGHTS off to our location. In fact, why don’t you send one of the planes they’re tracking and head in the direction this person thinks may be the location of the next portal opening? We may as well cover all of our bases in case this person actually can read ancient Scottish Gaelic accurately. If it opens, and any Guardians come out, I’d like to intercept them. It may also throw LIGHTS off of my location. You can come with me or stay here. I really don’t give a damn.”
She could tell by the way his bushy eyebrows raised and froze he didn’t like the suggestion, but his head eventually began to nod. “Yes, Asteria.”
“Very good,” she said, even though it wasn’t good at all. In fact, she had a sinking feeling that this scheme of his was also going to fail. But she had to try. Cadence Findley had destroyed her life before—she couldn’t let her do it a second time, not when she had a child to take care of, as disappointing and disgusting as the creature was.
Hines shot out of the room, and Asteria went about her packing again, doing her best to come up with some way to outsmart the little bitches on the other side of the world. There had to be something she wasn’t thinking of. Maybe, if she put her mind to it, she’d come up with an idea, but it seemed like every time she turned around, they were already on to her every move.
