Octavia's War Read Free Page A

here?”
    “To help the new trinity protect itself. It will be linked to me,” Alex said. “Until the trinity is sealed, the three will be exposed, vulnerable and hunted.”
    “By the things that did that?” Remmy didn’t indicate the mess behind Alex, either.
    “That’s right.”
    “They came for this trinity?”
    “I was pulled here. They were, too.” Alex held out his hand. “Help me find them.”
    Remmy shook his head. “I’ve got something to do.”
    “You’re dead. What else is there for you to do except find your next life?” Alex said harshly. “Help us fight the Grimoré, then you can figure out what you’re going to do.”
    Remmy looked regretful. “It sounds like fun,” he said. “These Grimoré of yours are a nasty threat and not just to you. I can see that. Only there’s someone I left in Garcia’s household. I have to get her out.”
    “You wouldn’t be able to do that if you were human, because you’d be rotting by now,” Alex pointed out.
    “Normally, I wouldn’t try to reach back,” Remmy said. “Octavia is a fully capable field agent and can get herself out of trouble, if the trouble is the ordinary kind. If these things are moving across the state, though, she has no idea what is coming down on her. I owe it to her to at least warn her.”
    Alex considered him. “Is Octavia someone special, Remmy?” he asked.
    Remmy’s lips parted in surprise. “No,” he said flatly. Almost angrily. “It’s not like that. Not at all.”
    Alex held up his hand. Peace. “Okay. Warn your lady friend. Then come and help me.”
    Remmy drew in a breath. “I’ll consider it, once I know Octavia’s situation. Could be I might have to make arrangements to have her pulled out. She’s cozy with the fucker I thought did this.”
    “ La Espada ?” Alex asked, startled.
    “Not her choice,” Remmy said shortly. “Severo took a shine to her. Any man with a pulse would and he’s more ornery than most. Wants what he wants. Daddy’s favorite and all that jazz.” He shrugged.
    “You don’t have to explain it to me,” Alex said truthfully. He understood the patriarchal hierarchy better than many white men. It had gotten him killed in the first place and had delivered Mia to him, in the second.
    Then, finally , the disparate facts connected up in his mind with an almost audible click. Remmy, a vampire, here in a tiny village in northern Mexico, where vampires were very thin upon the ground. A village the vampeen had arrowed in upon.
    “Oh Jesus Christ on a pony,” Alex breathed. “Remmy, I think you’re one of the trinity.”
    Remmy grew still once more. Alex could see him turning it over in his mind, considering every angle. Remmy had always been good at strategizing.
    Then he shook his head again, his wheat-blond hair gleaming in the fitful moonlight. “Doesn’t matter. Not right now. I’ve got something to do.”
    “You don’t understand. These vampeen are going to hunt you across the landscape. They know they have to get you before you find the other two, whoever they are.”
    “This would be the same landscape that Octavia is standing on?” Remmy shot back. “Save it, Alexander. I’m going to see her safe, first. Then we can talk about your trinities.”
    Alex didn’t push the matter. He had known Remmy in San Diego, when the gang had been breathing down his neck. He had known him to be a ruthless man, with no patience for idiots. A man who had hewn his own path. Alex had respected him and kept his distance.
    After he had been turned, Remmy had found him in New York and had debriefed him to exhume every last detail about the gang that Alex could possibly remember, for Remmy to use against them. When Alex had realized that Remmy was a lawman and had been his entire life, stretching back to the very early eighteenth century, then he had been more than willing to help Remmy disassemble the gang.
    Even though Remmy had never reported back, Alex had heard that the gang who had