Mona Lisa Awakening

Chapter Twenty

It was good to be a Queen. The High Council authorized a private jet for our exclusive use. An hour later, we were winging our way to LaGuardia Airport. But my heart wasn't able to enjoy the luxury, the gold trimmings, the gourmet meals and drinks, the king-sized bed that came with a private shower on the jet—all befitting the status of a new Queen. Neither did anyone else. The mission in our hearts leadened the flight.

"I need your help, Chami," I said as we were descending. "Are you able to gain entry into a locked building quietly and unnoticed?"

Charm nodded, confirming what I had suspected. All of us could easily break down doors and smash windows with üttle effort, but Chami employed stealth in his practice. He killed quietly.

"Good," I said.

Chami's blue eyes glinted enigmatically. I knew he thought I wanted to employ his deadly assassin skills.

"Gryphon, Amber, and Chami will come with me," I said to them. "Aquila and Tomas, you will stay behind to watch the rest."

"I would like to fight for you, milady," Tomas said. "May I come?"

"You job watching over the others and our Book of Holdings is just as important a task," I told him gently.

Tomas nodded unhappily.

At LaGuardia we were met by two stretch limousines complete with two chauffeurs. Hats, uniforms, and all. They looked fine, but looks didn't matter so much as the tact that they could be bought. I couldn't afford the risk. Pulling a stack of crisp one-hundred-dollar bills, I said to the chauffeurs, "Take this and split it between you. You can go home now. We'll do the driving."

"What about our limos?" the taller driver protested.

"We'll take good care of them."

The two looked at their money, then looked at each other and smiled. They walked away, not even bothering to say good-bye, busy counting their money—three thousand dollars exact.

"Aquila, how good are you at the wheel?" I asked.

"I believe I drove one of these things when I was eighteen. That was about a hundred years ago."

"Good enough for me. Take this." I handed him another stack of Benjamin Franklins and whispered the name and address of a hotel in his ear.

"Got it," Aquila said.

Tomas herded Jamie, Tersa, and Rosemary into the limousine and off they went, jerkily, joining the traffic stream.

I got behind the other wheel, and headed toward the Midtown Tunnel, the skylights of Manhattan looming before me.

The East Village was quiet and the orphanage was even smaller and older than I remembered it to be. It was a simple red-brick, three-storied affair with drab, weary windows. A few sad shrubs huddled around the cracked stone steps as if they had passively absorbed the emotions of the many little lives that had lived in the orphanage. It was a time of true quiet, those few hours before dawn when all slept, even the criminal elements.

It was a simple matter to blend in the shadows and wait quietly as Chami pulled out a small case of tools and fiddled with the back entry lock for a few short moments.

Chami twisted the knob and like magic, the door silently swung open. We slipped inside and I led the way to the lower office. It was locked as well, and just as easily breached by Chami. I made my way to the cabinet files.

"What are we looking for?" Gryphon asked quietly.

"A boy with the first name of Thaddeus who would have first come here on January 5, 1989, or close to around that time."

Amber and Gryphon began helping me search the countless old folders. Chami, to my surprise—for I hadn't imagined such familiarity with such modern human technology—booted up the computer. The screen illuminated the room with an eerie blue glow.

It was a frustrating, unproductive task. All the files in my cabinet were of children in current residence. I moved to the next cabinet—there were five in all—but it only dated as far back as children who had resided here ten years ago. Amber finished the three rows of his cabinet file and moved on to the next one.

It was Chami who finally found it. "Milady," he called softy, and indicated the computer screen. I took the seat he vacated and read the information eagerly.

A boy named Thaddeus, with black hair and dark brown eyes, had been taken into the orphanage sixteen years ago, wearing a silver cross with his name engraved on the back of it. My heart pounded and a sudden surge of moisture blurred my vision. I swiped my eyes with my sleeve and read on. He had been adopted three weeks later. I committed the name, address, and telephone number of the adopting couple, Henry and Pauline Schiffer, to memory.

"Good job, Chami. Thank you."

"It is my pleasure to serve you, milady."

"Are other Monère computer-savvy like you?"

"Not many, no," Chami confessed. "But I found it necessary and useful in my line of work."

They'd aimed Chami at human targets as well, I realized. The Queens had used Chami in his own lethal way, much as Mona Sera had used Gryphon and Sonia's sexual services in her business dealings, eliminating any obstacles that could not be lured with money or seduced with a cold finality.

When we left the orphanage, night was fading and faint light pressed against the thinning darkness. We came out of the building one by one, silent dark shadows. As soon as I hit the street, rounding the block where our limousine was parked, I was jerked into an alley with bruising force.

I'd had no warning because there'd been no heartbeat to warn me of any intruders in the radius around me. The hand that grabbed me was golden-skinned, with sharp, familiar nails. But the bestial face I looked up into was not Halcyon's.

One bronze arm wrapped around my waist, lifting me off my feet, pressing me against my captor with a terrible ease, trapping my arms at my side in an unbreakable grip. The demon was impossibly strong and huge, at least seven feet tall. He'd been expecting us.

Amber and Gryphon came around the corner in a blurred rush. I felt the demon move sharply. One quick downward slash of his hand and Amber's chest was ripped diagonally open, ribs breaking, flesh peeling down all the way so that I saw with vivid horror, his slow, pulsing heart. Warm blood splashed across my face as Amber was flung away. He hit the ground some distance away in a crumpled heap. I opened my mouth to scream but all the breath had been squeezed out of my body by that imprisoning grip. Another swipe and Gryphon was sent flying, demon nails ripping deep furrows in Gryphon's stomach.

I called my silver dagger to my hand, the one I had taken from Mona Louisa, and with a twist of my wrist, drove it into the demon's belly. He hissed with pain and his arm squeezed me so tightly mat I was in true danger of being pinched in half. With an animal snarl, he ripped out the little offending dagger. Invisible bands wrapped my hands to my sides, and stilled my kicking legs. I couldn't move or break free of the invisible mental force he had wrapped around me.

The demon's mouth twisted in a vicious snarl, his eyes becoming fiery red like a wash of angry blood as another knife plunged into his chest from out of nowhere. The demon's hand swept out and grabbed something. Charm came into sudden view, with the demon's claw wrapped tightly about his neck, his arms banded to his side as if invisible forces restrained him, too.

With a savage drooling snarl, the demon sank sharp teeth into Chami's throat. Deep red blood trickled slowly down Chami's white fragile neck as the demon's throat worked strongly. Dear Goddess, I realized with sickening horror, he was drinking Chami's blood, draining him, and growing stronger with the intake. Chami's eyes glazed over and his body fell slack. No! With every ounce of force and will within me, I struggled to break free. My hand moved slightly.

With a snarl of rage, the demon discarded Charm, throwing him away like a toy he no longer desired. The invisible vise holding me secure snapped tight once more. With a simple move, the dagger was pluck out from the demon's chest and tossed aside. Blood oozed sullenly from the demon's two wounds.

Gryphon had picked himself back up and thrown himself forward. The demon stopped Gryphon's rush by simply digging the sharp points of his nails into my throat.

"What do you want?" Gryphon demanded harshly.

"Tell Halcyon that Kadeen has his precious Mixed Blood Queen," the demon growled in a guttural voice, the smell of fresh blood heavy on his breath. "Have him come meet my challenge. Or she dies."

The demon carried me deeper into the alley, into a wall of mist, stepping into a terrible buzzing force of energy that I'd never experienced before or ever hoped to experience again. Hot, searing pain lanced me like a thousand vicious stabbing knives and darkness took me.