“Will you please stall Cole if he gets here before CK leaves?” I ask him. “I can’t deal with that right now.”
“Yeah, of course, Livvie. What do you think he wants?” Devon asks, curiously.
I shrug and push open the door to my office. CK is already waiting for me.
Closing the door behind me, I glare at him. “What’s all this about?” I demand. “I have plans in a few minutes.”
Watching me, he slowly walks over to stand in front of me. Looking into my eyes, he slowly lowers his mouth to mine and claims me in a soft kiss, pushing his tongue between my lips and against mine. Bringing his hands up to my face, he deepens the kiss and any surprise or annoyance I felt, leaves me, and all that’s left is him. I cling to him, kissing him back and then suddenly he pulls away with a wicked glint in his eye.
“There, that’s better,” he smirks. “An acceptable way to greet your sire.”
I huff at him, thoroughly aroused.
“Sit,” he orders, gesturing to the chairs. “I have something to tell you.”
Not bothering to argue, I sit and wait. He pours us both a Scotch and hands me one. I accept with a nod of thanks. CK takes a sip.
“Well?” I snap.
He smiles at my impatience. “Patience is a virtue, my sweet,” he says.
I snort and reply, “Well, I am not feeling very virtuous right now, so out with it.”
CK’s eyes go darker as he is no doubt thinking about my severe lack of virtue. He takes another sip and leans casually against the sideboard. He is striking in his black suit and white shirt, casually open at the collar. My eyes focus on the small patch of skin I can see, and I feel a ripple pass through me. He shifts as he senses the thrill running through me. I snap my focus back to his amused expression.
“Do you remember centuries ago I told you about the prophecy,” he finally begins. “The one about the fourth Council member?”
I nod, wondering what that has to do with anything.
“It dates back to the Witch, Corinne. As you know there were originally four members of The Council. When Ahmed disappeared in the year AD2 and couldn’t be located, he was presumed dead. Although no one could figure out how an Initial Vampire was killed, it was recorded in the archives as a death in AD4.” He pauses to take a sip.
I exhale loudly in exasperation. “I know all of this, CK. What’s with the history lesson?”
He glares at me to be silent, so I shut my mouth. “You only know the bits that I have told you. I am going to fill you in on some of the details. The battles continued for the fourth seat with no resolution, another year passed and then one day in AD5, Corinne requested an audience with us.”
At this point, I interrupt, “Corinne? AD5?”
At my confusion over the timeline, CK explains, “Ahmed turned Corinne in 1BC, at her request. Before he drained her, she cast a spell that would allow her to keep her Witch powers once she was turned.”
Wow, this story is getting interesting now. CK smirks at me as he sees he now has my undivided attention.
“So, she’s a Vampire-Witch?” I ask and he nods.
“Are there others?”
“No, the spell was never written down and Corinne has long since forgotten. Or so she says,” he adds dryly. “It was well known that Corinne had special abilities as a mortal Witch. These were amplified tenfold when she was turned. She quickly became known as a ‘Vates’: A Seer. When she spoke to us that day, she said she’d had a vision: that a fourth member of The Council would be chosen through a series of events and would bear Potentia Uno. The Power of One.”
“The Power of One? What’s that?” I ask, now riveted to his tale.
“That part is not clear. All she saw was a symbol, like a diamond.” He comes to perch on the edge
of my desk. I instinctively turn towards him. He smiles at my reaction to his closeness. He leans back, resting his hand behind him, his glass hanging loosely from his left hand. It’s a very relaxed pose for him and it takes my breath away to see him so.
“She said a union would occur on Holy ground and the Chosen one would claim the fourth seat. She listed a series of numbers, but couldn’t determine their meaning,” he continues. “We had the best minds of the time work to figure out what the numbers meant, but no one was able to make head nor tail of it. It was thought, at first, that they were dates, or years, but it was quickly discarded, as they didn’t make sense at the time. Anyway, the years passed and soon the prophecy was forgotten, but the battles remained for the seat. Corinne disappeared and Gregor, Eloise, and I were determined to keep things as they were with just the three of us. Then a couple of days ago, one of The Council cryptographers was in the record room and happened upon an old copy of the transcript of the prophecy. He said it just appeared in front of him as if by magick.” He shrugs and pauses for another sip. My drink has been forgotten. I’m engrossed in his story, as well as how much I’m enjoying hearing him speak. His lightly accented voice is like honey and I remember how I felt when he used to read to me for hours on end centuries ago.
“This cryptographer was intrigued, of course, by the prophecy,” he continues, sitting upright, but still relaxed. “He ran the numbers again through our new programs and came up with this.” He pulls a piece of paper out of his jacket and fingers it as he stands. “The first line is the numbers that Corinne saw in her vision. The second line is one of the sets the program threw out. Remember your lessons, my sweet, that N stands for…”
“Nulla,” I interrupt. “Zero. I remember, my love.”