I was frozen, I wasn’t supposed to leave the bar area, I was the only bartender tonight. Yet, having this confrontation in front of a bunch of normal humans, most of them men trying to pick me up, was a bad idea.
Not because their flirting was a problem, that was part of the job and wouldn’t ever go any further. It was the idea that they might come to my defense. Even dead drunk Ted was a match for every man at the bar, and worse, with little control over himself he might hospitalize or even kill one by accident.
I thought about using spirit manipulation, to just make him sleep. I knew that mesmerizing him wasn’t really an option, vampire bamboozling wouldn’t really work on a shifter that well, if at all. Still, the idea of knocking out the beta of the pack I was supposed to be joining seemed like a really bad idea.
I relaxed slightly as he sat down at the end of the bar and glared at me. At least he wasn’t drunk enough to expose us all.
I walked down to him reluctantly, and asked, “What are you doing here Ted?”
Ted replied in a voice he knew I would hear, but that the music would completely drown as far as the humans went.
“Well, I figured if a damned bloodsucker could come on pack lands, then I could come here and have me a drink.”
I sighed, “You’re already drunk enough, want a coffee, or water?”
He might have even had a slight point, except for anyone with a glimmer of intelligence. I’d been invited to pack lands, by the alpha himself, I hadn’t invaded.
He glared at me, ignored the offer, and accused, “What’d you do to Jared you bitch? He’d never let a bloodsucker near the pack, not after what happened to his sister.”
I felt a surge of anger at the hatred in his voice, and what he called me.
I said coldly, “I didn’t do anything to Jared, you know vampires can’t mesmerize shifters.”
Mostly, I was pretty sure the older ones could, their air magic was much stronger. It was true that I couldn’t though. I wasn’t an average vampire baby, but I was still very young power wise.
He snorted as I grabbed a glass, filled it with ice and water, and put it on the bar.
It was just window dressing, most of the guys sitting at the bar were staring at us, and a few had narrowed eyes. It wasn’t hard to tell that Ted was angry, and drunk. It probably wasn’t hard to tell I was upset as well.
He shook his head, “I know that, it’s your damned sorceress powers you must’ve used. And stay the hell away from my daughter.”
I frowned, and shook my head subtly as two men stood up and moved this way. No doubt to save the damsel in distress. Men drove me crazy sometimes, all that would do was escalate the problem. I could handle it myself, at least until Jared got here to pick him up.
Of course, my subtle signal to stay out of it didn’t work.
“Is there a problem?” one of them asked in an intimidating voice.
Ted looked up and smiled, “Yes, some jackass doesn’t know how to mind his own business. You think you can take care of that for me?”
I couldn’t help it, I giggled.
Ted glared at me as if offended I’d found something he said amusing, and the guy who came to my rescue looked at me as if I’d shot his dog. I felt guilty, but it really was funny.
The other guy turned red faced with anger and clenched his fists. I figured it was time to put an end to the nonsense. I might not have been able to mesmerize Ted, but two humans weren’t an issue, and it was about to come to blows.
I stared at them until they locked eyes with me, and their eyes got a little loopy. It wasn’t necessary to turn them into zombies or anything, that was plenty.
“Everything is fine gentlemen, but thank you very much for checking on me. You can go sit down now, enjoy your drinks.”
The two men stumbled back to their stools, and Ted snorted derisively.
I frowned at him, I wanted to talk to him about it, try to work it out, but there was no reasoning with prejudice. There was no point, not about Jared, nor about what happened to his wife.
He wouldn’t hear me, especially now while he was drunk.
I answered his question anyway, “I didn’t do anything to Jared. He’s my mate, and I am his, it’s as simple as that.”
He made a disbelieving noise and drank down some of the water.
I didn’t want to leave him, but even on a slow night standing still too long meant I was running behind. I moved away and started to mix drinks for the waitresses, and a couple of people at the bar who needed refills.
It felt like forever, but what was probably just another twenty minutes, I felt Jared come into my range. I truly could have handled it myself, but it would be better if I didn’t have to. I sent my three bouncers another message, telling them the alpha was here for Ted, and everything should be fine.
And really, it should have been.
Jared arrived, and walked in. Ted blanched and shot a glare my way. Jared nodded toward me, and led his beta toward the door. It should have ended there, but it didn’t.
My mile range was apparently too short to feel Ceara coming, because one moment she wasn’t there, and the next I felt her powerful aura, and saw her standing in front of my mate, and his drunk beta.
And she looked pissed.
The only thing I can figure, is Andrew, Steven, and Paul had updated the coven on the situation. Technically, it was an invasion of turf, Ted really had screwed up badly by showing up at Pulse. I’d tried to smooth it over, but after one look at Ceara’s face, I knew that bird had flown.
I wondered what the humans would make of such a confrontation. Two men over six feet tall and built like linebackers, being confronted by a short cute and attractive redhead that looked too young to even be in the bar.
She looked more like she’d snuck out of her parent’s house than the most powerful vampire in existence, for those that couldn’t feel her aura anyway.
Ceara’s voice was hard, and her power of compulsion overwhelmed him when she spoke to Ted, except for the humans who wouldn’t hear a thing over the music.
“You will never approach vampire claimed territory again without an invitation.”
Jared stiffened, and growled, “I will handle him.”
Ceara turned to him, and though her words were still hard, there was no compulsion behind them.
“It is already handled alpha. My compulsion will hold him until his last breath in this life. If you can’t control your pack, I will.”
Oh hell, Jared wasn’t going to like that at all. I kind of got it, it would be weak on our part to let it go. The coven might lose faith in a leader that didn’t enforce our boundaries. Still, the circumstances were kind of unique. Then again, that’s probably why she’d just used compulsion, instead of simply killing him.
Worse, the best I could do was stand there neutrally, and watch it unfold. If I got involved… hell, I wasn’t even sure what side to be on. I wanted to defend my mate, but the pack was in the wrong.
Jared asked harshly, “And me?”
Ceara nodded toward me, “You were invited here, were you not?”
Jared replied, “Yes.”
Ceara said, “Then there is nothing further for me to do. I do not wish war between us, but I can’t countenance what your beta did tonight. I did what was necessary, and no more. Leave in peace.”
Ceara stepped aside, and after a moment Jared walked outside with Ted.
I’d hate to be Ted on that drive home, I imagined Jared would read him the riot act. The idiot could have started a war. I was also torn, this wouldn’t help my mate and I.
Jared’s ego had taken a hit, I hoped he wouldn’t blame it on me.
My dream of connecting with my mate had come true, but what would ultimately be the cost? What would the rest of the pack make of tonight? I didn’t want to be a catalyst of trouble in the pack, but I worried I wouldn’t get my wish. Although tonight it was even more than that, I was a point of contention between the pack and the coven.
Ce
ara nodded to me, and walked out like a normal human. Showing up from nowhere was one thing, and could be explained by the crowd and dim lights, humans that saw it would have fooled themselves. But disappearing while half the male eyes in the room were on her would be something else entirely…
Chapter Nine
The next morning, I woke up with a stab of disappointment. I’d slept through the night, and no dream visit to Jared. I wasn’t sure, but that might have been my fault, I’d been worried how he would react. It was also just as possible however, that Jared hadn’t been asleep when I’d tried to connect last night as I went down for the night.
Either way, I’d see him in about an hour at Legends, hopefully we could talk then.
I was a little short on sleep again, just four hours, but the quick shower woke me up, and I threw on a nice pair of jeans, skintight white shirt, with a loose blouse over it buttoned up halfway. I added the obligatory boot sheathed knives and my sword, and then headed down to breakfast.
I grabbed a ham omelet, and moved over to the usual table. Lisa, Kelly, Jerry, and Paul smiled a good morning at me. Cheryl however scowled and narrowed her eyes.
I sat down, “What’d I do?”
Lisa smirked, “Ceara wants to see you after breakfast, Cheryl got stuck with dog watching duty.”
I wondered just how much crap I was buried in, and it must have shown in my face, because Lisa shook her head.
“She needs your particular help with something.”
I nodded, and felt a little relieved, but not by much. Besides meaning I wouldn’t get to see or talk to Jared about last night, it also meant I’d be investigating something. A part of me hoped it wouldn’t be another list, I still hadn’t come to terms with what happened last time in L.A.
I wasn’t worried about the tenets, those were observed, since I’d only provided information. It had been Ceara that killed the vampires I said couldn’t be trusted. It was the morality of it that I wasn’t sure of, what gave me the right to be judge and jury that way?
That Ceara would have probably chosen the same people to live and die there, if she’d stayed a week to look into it, and the fact that she might have even killed a few more on the borderline to be safe, wasn’t as helpful as I might have expected. I found it hard to view as good people I’d saved, all I could remember was those lives being snuffed out in the blink of an eye.
Would doing things like that damage my own soul’s journey, and the next life?
Two more people sat down at the table, and were a welcome distraction. Tammy and Matt.
“Hey, you two have a good time?”
Tammy nodded, “Fantastic. We just got back a minute ago.”
“Where’d you go anyway,” I asked.
Matt shook his head, “We might want to escape again, that’s top secret information.”
Tammy giggled, but I also noticed she wasn’t saying either.
“So what’s been going on here?”
I let the others fill her in, while I focused on breakfast before it got cold…
Lisa and I walked into Ceara’s lounge, and the ancient vampire smiled at both of us. At least she didn’t seem to blame me at all for last night. I decided to put off talking to Jared until I heard what I was doing, so I could let him know everything at the same time.
Ceara picked up a remote, and a large screen lowered from the ceiling. When she hit play, it appeared to be a series of YouTube video clips, each one of a vampire feeding in an alley, or even right in the street. The vampires were obviously aware, because several of them turn to the camera at the end and flash their fangs. Ceara paused it on an image of a dark brunette with large brown eyes, and the woman was in a dress that looked a couple of hundred years old.
What the hell?
Ceara said, “You can see the problem. These videos all originate in Dallas, in their west end. The vampire on the screen is Sherry. She’s originally from England, and moved here the turn of the nineteenth century. She’s just about twelve hundred years old, and despite what you see, she’s also a good friend of mine. She not only adhered to the council’s orders and rules, she was also a staunch supporter of them.
“These videos started to pop up about a week ago. I hadn’t heard about it until late last night for reasons which are both good and bad. The bad part is obvious, exposure risk, but the good part is because this isn’t on anyone’s radar officially in the government. The agents that look for this type of stuff for us dismissed them as frauds, since even rogues aren’t that stupid. As far as the public, most people think, if you read the comments, that it’s either a fraud, or quite possibly just a clever ad campaign that the city of Dallas is behind to increase tourism.”
I wanted to laugh at that, but held it back.
“So what do we do?”
Ceara replied, “I want you two to come with me to Dallas and read some of these people. I’m loathe to believe Sherry truly went rogue, in the last couple of hundred years we’ve never had trouble coming out of Texas, and now this… absurdity. She was in fact on my short list for council replacements, but she refuses to leave her coven.”
I nodded, and said hopefully, “Plane?”
The idea of travelling underground again kind of freaked me out. I liked Melody and all, but…
Ceara smirked in true amusement at my discomfort, “Our flight is in ninety-four minutes, pack an overnight bag just in case, don’t worry about weapons since we’re taking the jet. Be downstairs in thirty.”
We have a jet? Of course we do, or Ceara does.
Lisa and I exchanged glances, and then headed toward our condos to pack.
I threw a couple of changes of clothes into a bag that would go with my red calf high boots, and double checked my weapons just to be sure I had them all. I looked at the clock, and had another twenty minutes before I had to be downstairs. Out of excuses, I reached out to Jared.
“Jared, I’m going to Dallas with Ceara to look into some stuff, not sure when I’ll be back. I… missed you last night.”
Dear Inari, I almost told him that I loved him. Way too early for that, plus I didn’t want to say it the first time in mind speech from twenty some odd miles away. Although, considering I was moving in next week and his wolf had claimed me for life, maybe me saying that wouldn’t scare him off.
Jared replied, “I missed you too, but I haven’t slept. I needed to handle the fallout from Ted’s actions. He won’t do it again. Will you be in danger?”
“I don’t think so, I’ll be with Ceara. I believe I won’t have to do more than read a couple of people. I’ll let you know if that changes, and when I’ll be back in town. I’m sorry for last night.”
“Not your fault. Legends?” he tersely asked.
It took me a second to realize his anger was on my behalf, and not toward me. I felt a surge of relief.
“My usual replacement, Cheryl.”
He replied, “We’re pulling in now, got to go. Be careful baby.”
I shook my head at him calling me baby, but didn’t even try to get mad this time.
I still had a few minutes, so I pulled out my phone and checked messages. I grinned and ran downstairs when I saw my package had arrived.
Joseph was behind the desk, he wasn’t my favorite, or rather he didn’t like me at all. He was another of Mark’s turns, but he’d never gotten over me kicking his ass.
He frowned, and tossed me a box off the desk without a word.
It was fairly small and I had no problem catching it. I suppressed rolling my eyes, and ran back up to my condo and went into the bathroom. I opened the box, and pulled out a pair of the sports contacts. It was a little disturbing, touching my eye and all, but after blinking it wasn’t that uncomfortable.
My eyes looked a little weird, their normal soft light brown looked darker, but it wasn’t too bad.
I sighed, and walked over to my window, and then opened the heavy blinds to let the sunlight stream in. My eyes stung a bit, but no more than they normally did while
wearing sunglasses. They were disposables, so I packed them in the bag too in case I needed a replacement, and just in case they started to irritate me I packed my sunglasses as well.
It was about time to go, so I went back down to the lobby and waited for Ceara and Lisa…
Chapter Ten
I couldn’t help but giggle, as I saw their confused faces when we pulled out into the street, and I hadn’t put on sunglasses yet. We were actually in a limo, and another vampire was driving with the three of us in the back.
After a quick explanation of what sports contacts were, I gave them a couple of pairs to try out.
“I’m not sure how it’ll work out yet, my eyes may not like it, but I figured it was worth a try.”
Ceara shrugged, “Most likely our magic will prevent any eye irritation, what made you think of these?”
I replied, “Wearing sunglasses on a gloomy day draws a lot of strange looks. I may even just wear them then, and keep to sunglasses when it’s sunny out, but today’s the test run.”
Ceara nodded, “It could be a problem, if one pops out during a fight on a bright day. But I suppose no more so than if our sunglasses fell or got knocked off.”
I’d half expected Ceara to talk to me about the pack, and Ted in particular, but as the silence in the car grew longer, and ever more comfortable, I knew that wasn’t going to happen. It was a relief, I felt the same loyalty not to air the dirty laundry of the pack to the coven, as I felt the other way around.
My life wasn’t simple, and it seemed to get more complicated every day.
Why we needed a driver became apparent as we pulled up right next to the plane and got out. It looked much like any other corporate jet, and I took a look around as we went inside.
The seats were tan leather and looked very comfortable. There were just twelve seats on the plane, a restroom, and what looked like a bar area with a fridge. The pilot showed up a couple of minutes later, and closed the ramp as he got on and headed up to the cockpit.
Sorcerous Rogue: Spirit Sorceress: Book 3 Page 5