High Society

by Bond, Casey

  The pastor’s lips tightened into a thin line. “Thank you for the information, Enoch. I’ll pass it along the proper channels.”

  “Thank you. I was going to travel to speak with Washington, but something draws me back home.”

  The pastor nodded. “Never ignore instinct. It’s there for a reason.” He clapped my elbow. “Be careful returning home.”

  I gave the child another coin, praising him for taking such good care of Eve before I rode away. Patting her neck, I thanked her. “I know you didn’t get to rest for long, but I’ll make it up to you with a nice, shiny apple when we get home.”

  The farther away from town we got, the more unsettled I felt.

  Something was wrong.

  * * *

  Eve

  Once everyone left the dining room, Asa turned to Titus. “You must be tired from your travels, and since you will wake early to repair the coop you damaged, I wager you need a good night’s sleep.”

  “I’m good, actually. Not tired at all,” Titus retorted cheerfully.

  Terah growled from her seat. “He would like to speak to Eve without you inserting yourself in the middle of the conversation.”

  “I know,” Titus replied, “but you see, I just don’t trust either of you alone with her.”

  Terah smiled wickedly at Asa. “Shall I escort him to his room?” she offered sweetly.

  “Please,” Asa answered.

  Terah blurred to Titus, plucked him from his seat as if his bulky weight was no more than a feather, and dragged him from the room so fast, his hollering was nothing more than a series of garbled noises.

  “Was that really necessary?”

  Asa smiled. “Yes.”

  I sighed and slumped in my chair. “What do you want?”

  “For you to speak to your clone.”

  “Where is she?”

  “Locked away.” I glanced to the floorboards.

  “Let me guess – she’s pissed. I’m sure she’ll want to spill all her secrets now that you’ve made her mad.”

  Asa shrugged. “She would’ve made your presence here… difficult.”

  “She isn’t as obedient as the rest under your command?”

  “She isn’t obedient at all. She follows me everywhere. Everywhere. Even into battle.” His eyes flicked to my gown and back to my eyes.

  “Which was why your men, and Mary, weren’t surprised to see me. They even said something to the effect that I should’ve learned by now not to follow you around.” Mary didn’t blame her for it, though. She thought Asa was handsome enough to follow. “You don’t seem to hate her presence at all times,” I noted wryly.

  “Oh, I do,” he promised. “But I choose to keep her close. She wants me to bite her. Do you have any idea why?”

  I could feel my brows kiss. “Bite her, or turn her?”

  “Both.” He stood up, the legs of his chair raking across the brightly patterned carpet, and sat on the edge of the table just beside me, crossing his arms over his chest. “Why would she want that?”

  I took a moment to think. “When the vampires took over our country, it was a storm at first. But things eventually settled and people got comfortable with them being part of everyday life. Some became infatuated with them. They wanted to be like them. They wanted to be strong so nothing could hurt them, and so they could protect their families no matter what came. Others wanted immortality. They would seek out vamps and offer their blood. They would beg for the vampires to turn them.”

  “Did the vampires honor their wishes?”

  I shrugged a shoulder. “Sometimes. Some were turned, but most were drained of blood and their bodies left to rot.”

  “Not a risk most would take,” he mused.

  “The possibility of dying didn’t deter the ones who thought they had a chance to become something stronger. To them, the risk was worth it.”

  Asa tried to smile. “It was the same when we were young. Nephilim were sought out by mortal women and men who wanted strong offspring, or the thrill of conquering something mighty – even if only for a night. They would throw themselves at us. The clone is doing the same, but there’s a sharpness in her eyes that belies her motive. She wants it far too much. Something larger is at stake.” His eyes flicked to my thigh where I wore my holster. I fought the urge to roll my eyes as he continued. “I want to know why she wants me to turn her so badly.”

  The thought of women throwing themselves at Enoch made me sick. I’m sure Asa had enjoyed his fair share of mortal women, but I hoped Enoch hadn’t.

  “You’re wondering about my brother’s past.”

  I swallowed, ashamed I let him read me so well. “His past doesn’t matter.”

  Asa smiled cruelly. “It doesn’t seem that way. It seems to matter a great deal to you.” He leaned his head back and stretched his neck from side to side. “Have you wondered how he spends his life between the years in which you fall?”

  “No.” Yes. Of course I did. What girl wouldn’t wonder if he’d found someone else to love? Someone who could stay put and who didn’t have to keep running away?

  “The way you care for my brother is troubling.”

  “Troubling? Why would me loving him bother you?”

  “Because I am somewhat aware of your past as well, and I’m not sure someone like you is truly capable of love. My brother, on the other hand, is.”

  “How do you know anything about me?”

  “As persuasive as she is, your clone is willing to do absolutely anything to be turned. I simply use that yearning to obtain information, and she has plenty about the three of you.”

  This must be how Enoch felt when we showed up at his castle, ready to stab him through the chest. Like a game board had been set up and he’d been thrust into the role of opponent before he had time to consider who sat across from him. I hated that I’d put him in that position.

  “Do you really intend to marry the clone?”

  Asa cocked his head at me. “Absolutely not. I intend to marry you.”

  “Yeah, that’s not happening.”

  “No, it won’t. What will happen, is that you will pretend to be my fiancée. Someone in my company tried to kill your clone last week, and I want to know why. I returned your stakes so you can defend yourself if they try again, but you’re going to help me find the traitor amongst us.”

  “So, what you’re saying is that you need my help,” I gloated.

  Asa leaned down, putting his face too close to mine. “What I am saying is that if you prove unhelpful, I will kill you before my brother returns.” He looked toward the ceiling “And I will end your friend upstairs, too.”

  I seethed, “I hate people like you. I’ve known men like you my whole life.”

  “Like what?”

  “Men who are too weak to do something themselves, so they manipulate and threaten someone stronger to do it for them.”

  He smiled. “Then I’ll make you a promise. And mind you, I always keep my promises... At some point, I will show you who is the stronger of us.”

  “Want to make a bargain?” I challenged.

  “What sort of bargain?”

  “For every answer I get out of my clone, you answer a question for me.”

  His eyes narrowed. “You have my word.”

  I wasn’t sure his word was any good, but I would soon find out, one way or another. I had to play this game well, or the penalty of failure was death. I didn’t plan to lose.

  A shiver scuttled up my spine as he slowly stood and ambled from the room, accented by a loud bang from the cellar.

  Chapter Five

  Eve

  As I walked toward the back of the house, I came upon a door that led to the kitchen, which was located outside within a smaller building that was detached from the main home. I entered the kitchen to see a fire crackling merrily in the hearth inside the tidy, white room. The strong scent of onions burned my eyes. Why are they cooking onions at night?

  “Miss?” a woman said, startling
me. I turned to find her carrying a straw basket full of onions.

  “I’m looking for a way into the cellar,” I inquired lamely.

  The woman’s brow furrowed. “I just saw you in there. How are you already out here?” she asked.

  “Where is the cellar door?” My patience was unraveling the longer I stood there enveloped by the pungent smell of onions.

  The woman hefted the basket of onions onto one hip and pointed toward a hinged wooden door, which I now noticed led into the earth beside the main house’s staircase. “Thanks.”

  “Wait!” she hollered. She sat her basket down and ran into the kitchen, coming out with a lit lantern in hand. “You’ll need light to see by.”

  Taking the lantern, I thanked her and headed to the cellar, wrenching open the door. A few steps led down into a long room with stone walls and a ceiling of thick, wooden beams. Anything that held a house up had to be built sturdily, so I assumed I was safe enough.

  In the back corner was my clone, seated in a chair, her legs bound to its legs and her arms tied behind her back. A handkerchief was stuffed into her mouth. She let loose a muffled, shrill sound and began bouncing around in the chair. The warm light of the lantern illuminated Asa’s handiwork.

  He was good with knots. I wasn’t sure I could even wriggle my way out of these ropes.

  “You fall over just right, and you’ll break your arm or hand,” I chastised. “If I were you, I’d stop acting like a moron.”

  She fumed, but calmed down. I approached and took the gag out of her mouth. When the piece of tied fabric was loose, she spat a matching ball onto the floor. “Untie me,” she ordered.

  “Not until you answer a few questions.”

  “Un. Tie. Me,” she demanded slowly.

  “I’m not stupid, and I’m not untying you yet. You’re a 1776 model?”

  “Duh,” she answered, rolling her eyes.

  Jesus, did I act like this? “How in the world did you get Asa, of all people, to propose?” There was another cobweb-coated chair nearby. I dusted it off, dragged it over, and positioned it backward in front of her before straddling it and propping my forearms on the back slats.

  Evading my question, she snapped, “You’re wearing a gown and sitting like a man. You’ve done no research on this time period. Why would they even send you?”

  “Answer my question.”

  “Asa is attracted to me. I used that to my advantage.” She tossed her head and flipped her hair back over her shoulders haughtily.

  “Asa is attracted to everyone, sweetheart.”

  She cocked her head to the side and gave me a bored look. “I don’t know why you’re down here, but if you aren’t going to untie me, just leave. I can’t stand to look at you.”

  “You can’t stand to look at me? How do you think I feel?” I fired back.

  “Well,” she cooed, “you don’t seem very bright, so I’m going to assume you’re not. Now, I’m extremely close to accomplishing a goal I’ve been working toward for nearly a year. I’d appreciate it if you’d stay in your lane – which, in case you don’t understand, that means stay far, far away from Asa and let me finish what I came here to do.”

  “I’m afraid I can’t let you.”

  She growled. “You will not keep me from this! I was born for this. I was made for it.”

  “Made for what?”

  “To do what no one else has been able to!” she whisper-yelled.

  “To stake Asa?” I snorted. “You aren’t even close. No matter how much you think you’re in control of him, or of your sordid relationship, you aren’t.”

  “Oh, I am,” she boasted. “I’m so close I can taste it.”

  “You actually want to be turned?”

  Her smile fell away. “Of course I do.”

  “Why do you want to do that?”

  “Why wouldn’t you?” Her tone grew suspicious and I could feel the distance she was forcing between us. “That’s why we were sent.”

  “We were sent to strike down the firsts,” I countered.

  She scoffed. “No, we weren’t. Only the top Assets were given that task, and they failed miserably. We were sent to collect…” she trailed off.

  “Collect what?” I prodded.

  She choked out a harsh laugh. “You can’t possibly be her.”

  I gave her a wide smile and nodded.

  “Let me see your mark,” my clone demanded.

  “I have no mark, sweetheart. I’m the real thing.” I held my wrists up for her to see, rotating them all the way around.

  She paled. “I think I’m going to be sick.”

  “Don’t vomit on your dress. It’ll stink for days.”

  “How can you be here? In this time?”

  “I wish I knew.” Not that I’d tell her what was going on, even if I did know. If the clones I pushed over the cliff landed back in our time, maybe Victor knew I sent them. Then again… maybe he didn’t.

  “How many of you have returned home?”

  “None, as far as I know, but my knowledge is limited,” she answered.

  “But you’re supposed to collect venom and then jump back home?”

  “That’s our mission, yes. I want to be the first – the only, if I can.”

  She was just like I had been. Driven. Thirsty for revenge. She enjoyed hearing her name whispered on the lips of lower Assets, for them to not only respect but fear what she was capable of. She wanted to be the best, to look down at everyone else from the top. Did they give her the same false memories they gave me? The thought made me sick.

  “Eve, please don’t leave me down here,” she pleaded sweetly as I stood and put the chair back in its place.

  “You only want Asa’s venom, or I guess I should say Kael wants their venom. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why.”

  She growled and began hopping around again. “Let me loose!” she howled.

  “Nope,” I replied, turning on my heel and striding away. Thinking twice about her big, fat mouth, I grabbed the wad of fabric from the floor and shoved it back into her mouth, then secured it with the fabric hanging around her neck to keep the wad securely in place. When she tried to bite me, I grabbed her hair and pulled her head back so she was forced to look at me. “I’ll send you home if you do that again,” I warned.

  She tried to say something to the effect of You can’t do that, to which I replied, “Oh, yes I can. I’ve done it before. All I have to do is activate your tech before throwing you off something tall. You’re wearing your suit, right?”

  I lifted the hem of her skirt just enough to see the circuitry glowing beneath the layers. “Oh, look at you. All ready to go home. All you need is to be bitten first. Well, I’m afraid I can’t let that happen.”

  She panted and screamed as I took hold of the lantern, strolled toward the door, and ascended the steps that led out of the cellar. Leaving her in the darkness, my mind spun with the implications of my clone’s mission. Kael must be trying to develop an anti-venin. I needed to talk to Titus and tell him what the clones’ true purpose was.

  Closing the cellar door, I used a nearby stick and rammed it through the door handles to lock it into place, then returned to the kitchen. The woman was gone, but Asa stood near the fire. “You did well.”

  “I’m going to remove her hand tech so she can’t go home.”

  “I should kill her,” he mused. “It would save us both the trouble of dealing with her. If you remove her only way home, she’ll forever be your enemy.”

  “We both know I can’t stay here long.”

  “Which will mean she will be my enemy – until she dies. Which brings the argument full circle, and me back to the assertion that I should just kill her and save everyone a great deal of agony.”

  I closed my eyes. “Please don’t.” During my last time jump I’d plunged a stake through my own clone’s heart. I watched her – watched myself – die a horrible, probably very painful death. I didn’t want to see that ever again. “Besides, you ow
e me an answer.”

  He stood up straighter. “I suppose I do.”

  “Why do you and Enoch hate each other so much?”

  Asa stiffened at the question. “I thought you’d ask what he’s been up to in your absence, but you never choose the obvious path, do you?”

  “I guess not,” I bristled, trying not to let him get under my skin. I got him the information he was unable to get for himself. He owed me. And I would never take a path he pointed out to me. He’d just as soon kill me along with the clone.

  “Enoch and I hate one another, because he is responsible for the death of a woman I deeply loved.”

  “What happened? How is he responsible?”

  “I’d prefer not to rehash the story.”

  “You call that an answer?”

  “It is equally as detailed as the one your clone provided me. I consider us even.”

  “How’s your relationship with Enoch these days? I can’t imagine it’s gotten better since you decided to ask my clone to be your wife.”

  Asa gritted his teeth. The sound tore at my ears.

  He crossed the space between us. “And what lies are you telling my brother? He’s been worried for a bloody century because he thinks your body is failing, yet other than the slight swoon on the staircase, you seem perfectly healthy to me.”

  “I wasn’t lying,” I justified myself. “I don’t know what was wrong with me back then, but I’m fine now. If I were you, I’d remember that.”

  He smiled cruelly. “Do not threaten me. I am not my brother.” The wind began to churn, gusting into the kitchen and extinguishing the well-built fire.

  “How do you do that?” I breathed, watching as broad, dry brown leaves tumbled across the kitchen’s tile floor.

  “Enoch could do it. Terah, too. But now they’re too afraid.”

  “Of what?” I asked, watching as he turned away and looked outside at the clear night sky. It was full of stars, and I wondered if he could only call dark things to him, or if he might be able to call on something lighter. The way he called the creatures in the earth, the fog, and now the wind wasn’t much different from the extra upgrades that gave me the abilities I had over Titus and Abram.