Vulcrum looked over at Lash, a frown of confusion marring his face.
"There are no councilors named Demaskeiros," he said in a low voice.
"An alias, perhaps?" Lash returned just as quietly to avoid breaking Fiadh's biochemically-induced rapport with Kanter. "They all seem to be working with at least one each."
Taking that as a bit of cue, the Irish lilith turned back to Kanter.
"Does Demaskeiros have another name?" she asked.
For a third time Kanter was initially silent. Then:
"I don't know, mistress," he confessed in that faraway voice.
"Who makes contact with Demaskeiros?" she quickly asked, changing tact slightly.
"High Lord Giovanni." The answer came swift and sure; Kanter had obviously witnessed Giovanni making the call to their mysterious superior.
"Who makes contact with Giovanni?"
Again the answer was quick in coming:
"Romanescu."
"Where is Romanescu?"
"I don't know."
While it came as quickly as the positive answers, this time Kanter openly admitted to not knowing. Which, if the former Qos Viran were playing according to the service's undercover book, made perfect sense. Keep valuable assets from knowing where each other is, in case one gets captured and interrogated. A situation, ironically enough, that was playing itself out right in front of their eyes.
Lash let that resonate inside his head for a moment as he compared it against his own experiences undercover. Then something occurred to him. If Kanter had seen Giovanni make the call to Demaskeiros, then he had to possess some means of either traveling to where Giovanni is. Or bringing the Italian High Lord to where he was.
"Ask him if he can contact Giovanni or Narvaez," he quietly directed. Nodding, Fiadh refocused on Kanter.
In doing so, Lash could see the growing fatigue in the Irish lilith's face. It was somewhat surprising that it took physical effort to control a pheromone cloud. But, seeing how tired she was getting with the constant level of effort needed to keep the level of the compulsion pheromone consistent in her cloud, he couldn't deny it. He needed to wrap this up before she was exhausted!
"Can you contact Giovanni or Narvaez?" she asked.
"Yes, mistress," Kanter answered, then oddly added: "But only in emergency situations."
Lash's eyes narrowed as he picked up Romanescu's phrasing and tonal accent in how Kanter said that. It was obviously a direct quote that Romanescu had said to him over and over, to make sure he retained it. And he had, burning it into his subconscious mind in the exact same way the Romanian had said it to him.
He looked over at a thoughtful Vulcrum, who had produced another tablet from somewhere and was taking notes.
"Did your team search his person after they took him?"
"Standard procedure, my lord Ingamon," the lean spymaster replied. He turned to pick up what looked like a clear plastic exhibit bag you would see being used for evidence storage by a law enforcement agency. In it was a Glock handgun, three spare magazines, a set of metal door keys, a rumpled pack of cheap Russian cigarettes, a lighter, and a smartphone.
After giving the contents a cursory look, Vulcrum handed the bag to a thoughtful Lash. Who quickly opened it, accepting a pair of latex gloves from his spymaster to pull one on and reach in to take hold of the phone.
"Last question, my lady Fiadh," Lash said as he looked at the phone with a critical eye, handing the bag back to the spymaster.
"Ask Kanter where he lives in Antwerp."
As the Compelled vampire rattled off an address, Vulcrum wrote it down on his tablet. Then he reached into the bag to fish out the keys, his hand now also gloved.
"How quickly can we get these back to Belgium?" he asked, holding the keys up with a metallic jangle.
"Quick. I have hypersonic messenger drones. They'll get to Antwerp in forty five minutes or less," Lash said. "You just need to give them a general direction, then control them from the bullpen."
He then stepped to Kanter and, after taking a handful of lank, greasy hair, he pulled the vampire's head up. Lash then activated the phone and held it in front of his face, banking on the fact Kanter was using facial recognition software, as many vampires did, to unlock his phone. And he smiled thinly in satisfaction as the lock screen disappeared and he was on the phone's initial access screen. A quick moment of work in the phone's settings to deactivate the lock, using another facial recognition scan to confirm it, then he was handing it back to Vulcrum.
"We'll get Narcist to bust that thing open and dig out everything in its storage. Hopefully including a number for Giovanni and Narvaez. Then I can put Hunter and Narcist to hacking into the cell phone networks and hunting those numbers down."
He looked back at a tired-looking Fiadh.
"We're done with him for now, my queen," he said with a smile. "You can let him go."
Fiadh nodded and, after letting a shaky breath go, slowly stretched her neck and shoulders before rubbing the back of her neck with a hand. She then stepped close to Lash to carefully mold herself to him, her arms around his body to hold tightly onto him. It was an embrace he didn't hesitate to return, burying his nose in her hair.
"Thank you, my queen," he whispered and was rewarded with a hard squeeze. "That was amazing work!"
"Thank you, my wolf," she whispered back against his chest. "I'm just glad I got the chance to help again."
"You did, and brilliantly. Now, I know you're exhausted. Get some food and blood into you, then grab some tomb time. You've earned it."
"I think I'd rather get you into me, then we can have some tomb time together!" she fiercely whispered in return. Lash smiled and kissed her on top of her head.
"I so wish I had time for that, my darling Fiadh," he replied, then he was carefully and gently pushing her back. Lifting a hand, he cupped her face as he smiled down at her. A smile she returned even as she lifted her own hand to capture his and hold it against her face. Then she was stretching up for a rather passionate kiss before she stepped back, lifting a finger to capture a drop of his blood that got away onto her full lips and carefully licked it off, all without breaking eye contact.
Then, almost as if she abruptly remembered Vulcrum was in the room, she let Lash's hand drop as she turned towards the lean spymaster.
"Vulcrum," she said with a nod.
"Mistress Fiadh," he replied with a respectful nod of his own. Then, with one last, lingering look at Lash, the Irish lilith stepped out of the cell and let the door close behind her.
Vulcrum let his eyes scan off the door and onto his thoughtful master. Before he said anything, however, he gently guided Lash out of the cell as well. When Lash looked at him in question, Vulcrum smiled thinly.
"The unconscious can still hear," he said. "I don't want to discuss things personal to you that he might have the chance to pass on, or use against you in the future."
"Stuck as he is in one of our cells," Lash said, brow lifted. Vulcrum shrugged.
"I don't take such things for granted," he said before leaning forward, his eyes narrowed.
"They've been treating you as a lover, instead of a convenient solution to their seasonals, haven't they?" he asked quietly. And he grimaced when Lash slowly nodded in confirmation.
"I suppose I created the situation myself," the big vampire added. "First helping her with her seasonal, then out and out rescuing Fiadh before extending my personal protection to her; becoming her lover while I escorted her to NachtFeuer came all too easily and naturally. Then rescuing Meredith at Heathrow and bringing her with us, solving her seasonal in rather dramatic fashion on the way to this base. Dru and her seasonal at NachtFeuer, the adjuncts and the Embraced after rescuing them from the slave ring ... it just snowballed."
He looked at a concerned Vulcrum.
"They took one look at me and refused to use Compulsion, as was protocol. And ..."
"They ended up enjoying it so much because your father's good genes have fashioned you into a handsome vampire god with a flawless bloodline that knows how to properly respect and skillfully love a woman, that they've been following you around like sick puppies ever since," Vulcrum finished for him in a dry tone. Yet, the big vampire could hear a hint of humor underneath the dryness.
"You do know, of course, that having a lover is so novel and strange for a lilith used to using an unconscious male to take care of basic biological needs, it likely threw them into immediate emotional turmoil to have someone interacting with them. And not just any lover. Ingamon Lash, who has been carefully taught over a lifetime to actually do a good job of it."
Vulcrum folded his arms.
"I suppose I should blame young Kingsguard for that," he said, brow lifting. "Starting your education in how to handle a woman properly."
Lash chuckled softly.
"She was an excellent teacher," he conceded. "As were all the women that came after her."
Vulcrum snorted, no longer hiding his amusement.
"All that masculine fury, and no lack of female companionship for it to be spent on." He clapped a hand on Lash's shoulder. "A problem your male peers pray to the Night Father to be burdened with." He chuckled at the chagrined look that appeared on the big vampire's face.
"Don't fret, young master," Vulcrum said with another hearty clap on his shoulder. "There isn't much you can do to change it now. And, I reckon because of that dynamic, we'll now go upstairs and find the liliths asking their Silver Legion escorts to get you so they can ask you what they did wrong to deserve being locked down. Instead of proudly demanding to be set free because they are queens of the Night!"