Darkly Wed (Darkly Devoted Series, Book 3)

Chapter 9B

Chapter 9B

Blake waited in his car just beyond the Cairn Castle entrance for Mighell to join him. It was easy to compel Mighell to leave his place at the Balan table and wander outside into the pitch darkness, past the castle gates, and to the awaiting car. The foul-mouthed pissant didn't have it in him to resist.

Blake hadn't put up a strong show of resistance to leaving Vivienne at Cairn because it was clear that his ability to compel Mighell would keep her safe. Even so, now Gabriel was getting on his nerves. He wanted to teach the old bastard a lesson.

As Blake saw the tall, gangly duke stumble drunkenly toward the car, he chuckled despite himself. This was proving to be very easy.

Up until now, Blake had only experienced being compelled from the end of the demon. Over the years, he became extremely good at resisting it although he often hid just how much protection his Sarastri bloodline offered him.

Although his bond with Mighell was young, the duke was too weak-willed to resist. As Blake saw the haggard man's bloodshot, jaundice-tinged eyes, he wondered if the man's sickly disposition had something to do with it. Everyone reacted to the effects of Dark Waters in different ways. The tablet Blake had slipped Mighell had been sourced in Montenegro, and it didn't offer any curative properties.

"What do you want, you English mottttafuckar?" Mighell slurred as he fell into a seat across from Blake.

"My ancestral roots are actually derived from Austria, but I appreciate the sentiment," Blake responded, his mother's side were at least. These days, his father's heritage was up for debate. "Now that we are alone let's talk business. I want to know who is supplying your weapons, your soldiers and most of all - your black gold."

"Black gold," Mighell said with a resentful whisper. "Like the shitte you left in my whisky."

"Yes, exactly," Blake said, impatiently.

"Our prime source is from Yageron," Mighell choked out with difficulty as Blake compelled the words out from him. "They are an eastern company, no?"

Blake took a moment to think as Mighell's chest heaved with his efforts to resist the interrogation. He knew Yageron; they were a Chinese company located in Beijing with close ties to Russia. They had ties to the mob too. He had crossed their paths in the past when Tercel had owned warehouses in Shanghai. He had long suspected they were behind the fire in Shanghai that had attracted the attention of the Levanti.

"Our secret hide hole in Mongolia make swimming pool of Black Gold," Mighell stated. "Yageron doesn't even know."

"That's dangerous," Blake said, eagerly drinking in the secrets of the Nivarrin rulers. There was a part of him that still had a personal attachment to Tercel and their enemies. "To go behind the back of your supplier and gut their resources."

"When they find out, too late," Mighell said with a forced laugh. "Our démon slave army will march on the slant-eyed cocksuckers."

"That is most interesting. One more question," Blake said. "Has your king ever done business with Shadowfall?"

"In the past, yes," Mighell stated as he raised an eyebrow. "Their leader, the imbécile, ve did shipping. We cut his product with powdered rat's feces." Mighell laughed. "Skim off profit to rebuild our ports. Oslen disappeared, no? May-be killed by own stupidity."

"Alright, that's enough for now," Blake said and opened the car door to air out the smell of cheap liquor and unwashed European male. "Your cooperation is much appreciated, Duke Nicolet."

"Eh, Monseigneur Thorne, how do you know very much about the drug trade?" Mighell asked, as he finally managed to resist the interrogation enough to get out a question. "Are you Levanti?"

"No, most definitely not," Blake said. "It doesn't matter who I am. Go back to your fiancée and check on her. Let me know if any harm befalls her. That's all."

After Mighell left, Blake lowered the divider. Glenn jumped into action, slipped his phone away and started pulling the car back onto the main road.

"Pee-ew," Glenn said. "Does that guy ever shower or does he wash himself in cologne? Interesting meeting?"

"Very," Blake said as he reflected on what Mighell had revealed. Now that he knew who the Nivarrins did shipping for, he had another motive behind invading their small outlaw country. He could do it as a warning to Yageron about interfering with his business. Even as Blake saw the lights of Cairn fade in the distance, he felt a pang of guilt for his sordid past. Somewhere, in that castle, his son was sleeping, completely oblivious to the sins of his father. Orion Balan had no clue he was the son of a renegade drug lord.

As the car sped away from the forested wasteland around Cairn and back into the city, they drove past the skyscraper that housed Tercel. As Blake glanced up at its dark, ominous windows, he couldn't help but to think back to the empire he had built and was no longer a part of. He still owned the land which supplied Tercel with its raw materials but without his special talents for enchantment, for warding off the more unpredictable effects of Dark Waters, he wondered if the company would fall further into doing business with underground drug lords like the Nivarrins.

His own father had once been involved in the sordid affair of sourcing Dark Waters and placing it into the hands of criminals. Blake had tried to avoid that side of the business, but eventually, he had established Shadowfall as a way of unloading defective product, and it turned into a rich source of revenue. He communicated with his drug lords under the alias, Oslen.

He never had any intention of telling anyone about this side of his business, least of all Vivienne. Even so, she must have had some inkling of where all the diamonds and mansions were coming from. She wasn't entirely unjustified in questioning his worthiness as a father. As he thought about his own broken marriage and his son who he had yet to truly meet, Blake decided to bring up the topic of Glenn's sick spouse again.

"You should take some time off," Blake offered. "Go home and spend your time with your family. You've given enough of yourself to mine." Blake recalled sending Glenn to kill the Levanti spies who had come snooping around after his wedding. He had used his power of possession to force Glenn's gun that morning; he didn't think that Glenn even remembered most of it. As he thought about the loyalty Glenn had shown with regard to Vivienne and Orion the past year, he felt overwhelmingly guilty. Glenn was kind, and he was innocent.

"I'll think about it," Glenn said, in his typical cheerful manner. Now that the subject was broached, Glenn happily chatted about his wife's recent hospitalization for kidney problems and then about his struggles to find find a sitter for his daughter while his aging mother was at her book club. Blake had to admit; he was surprised to discover that Glenn even had a daughter.

"Orion is a good boy," Glenn finally said as he seemed to notice Blake's interest waning. "On that night, when I followed Vivienne through Aemon, she did crazy things using his powers. I think I saw things that even you can't do. Since that night, he's quieted down, but I think one day he'll really impress you."