Of Scions and Men

by Courtney Sloan

  So we learned to adapt. With borders closed and the country reduced into the central portions from Chicago to Salt Lake City to Little Rock, people tried to remember how to live again. The vamps had to have new rules too. Poaching blood was added as a federal larceny offense. Blood became a commodity, rationed due to need and traded on the market for those rich enough to pay to play. All this to ensure everyone acted civilly, and we could pretend the term “monster” belonged in the movies.

  What a joke. Here I was in our capital city, the pinnacle of modern civility, and a vampire had killed eight children in one night by barely lifting a finger. Our new government wasn’t doing enough.

  The sobbing mass of blood marching in front of me was another reason I’d given up my freedoms and humanity to take this job. Someone needed to keep creeps like him from picking off the weak, and, to them, humans would always be weak.

  As I gave him a shove, he stumbled.

  “Please,” he begged through his toilet paper filled nose. Even with the runes blocking most of his abilities, he was healing fast. He’d be ship shape by tomorrow night, unlike his victims.

  I shoved him again. “Shut it.”

  We were crossing the hall by the elevators to the upper office levels when I heard a gasp from some shifters we passed. I guess we did look less than civilized.

  The filth moaned as I arm-barred him through another set of doors, holding them open long enough for Lyle to swoop through. He flitted in front of me, obviously still pissed at my choice of entrance.

  “Lyle, move it or lose it. I just want to make sure everyone sees I am taking him in officially. I won’t lose this one to red tape.” Again.

  I am in a meeting on basement floor three. We must share tonight.

  Rolling my eyes, I answered Devon aloud, so Lyle could hear at least my side of the conversation. “Yes, I know. I’ll meet you tonight after I check on Will.” I kicked the calf of the vampire, who had stopped and leered at me, to get him moving again. “I wasn’t talking to you.”

  You have company.

  Momentarily stopping, I spotted a suited man, maybe early forties–who could tell anymore–watching me from not far off. He reeked of polish and disdain. His manicured blond hair was gelled to the side in a very trendy, if old-fashioned, sort of way. His suit clung to his body, an older style than most of the guys wore around here. A single, silver stud earring glinted against his pale skin, making him something more than just a suit. He came off like a mix of old-fashioned, Dudley Do-Right meets The Bodyguard. And God help me if it didn’t work for him. If he wasn’t acting so stuffy, he’d be cute for his age. He had the air of being out of time, like many vamps, but he didn’t smell like a vampire, or a shifter for that matter. It was too late and way past curfew for most humans.

  He squinted at me and my cargo while he rested on the benches across from the elevators to the basement levels, obviously waiting for someone. Hopefully not me.

  Jerking my filthy captive around, I squared my shoulders toward the newcomer as Lyle flew around him, searching for other potential surprises in the area. “Can I help you?” I asked.

  Standing straight, he slid his hands into his pockets and ambled at an angle to me.

  After surveying the vampire in front of me, he said, “I don’t appear to be the one in need of assistance, but thank you.” His surprisingly young voice resonated with his disapproval.

  You are in DEC headquarters, and Romaric is here. Act accordingly.

  Lyle made a right arc in the air. This guy wasn’t carrying nor did he have friends. I loved my backup.

  Exhaling and trying to count to ten, but only making it to five, I tried again. I pasted on my best smile and spoke with a more controlled tone. “Are you lost or searching for someone?”

  He eyed Lyle’s blue jay form with amusement. “Oh no. I’m just waiting. Out of curiosity, what has this man done? I assume you’re responsible for the current state of his mangled face?” He had an accent, but I couldn’t place it. The borders were closed. What was this guy doing in the capital?

  I shifted the vampire to a more submissive angle. He needed to get in lock up before he tried something. “Don’t feel bad for this thing. He deserved every tap I gave him and more than I was legally allowed to.” Anger bubbled back up to the surface, fighting my pleasant public persona.

  “I can’t imagine anyone requiring such treatment in a society such as ours. Certainly there are others who could help him more, um, gently.”

  I ground my teeth. I was so sick of people questioning me doing my job tonight. “He tracked, nested, and ate eight children.” I challenged him.

  “Children?” He took a step back and ran a hand through his gelled hair, disheveling its pristine state. “Here? How can that…” He stopped midsentence and gazed away from me a bit. As he stood still and didn’t finish his sentence, I realized something—he was talking to someone. He was a scion. His vampire must have been in a meeting on the lower levels.

  I absolutely didn’t want to get more bloodsuckers involved in this. Tilting my chin at him, I hoped I wasn’t interrupting. “Look, if you need something, there are people at the desk. I’ve got to finish my work.”

  He smiled back at me and smoothed his hair with a deliberate motion. “Please, carry on. I didn’t mean to interrupt.” He inclined his head to me a bit and moved back to his bench.

  Annoyed at being held up for nothing at all, I sighed loudly enough for the stranger to hear and moved the pathetic sack in front of me toward intake again. “Come on, Lyle, let’s get this one in. I have things to do tonight.” I peered back over at the man still watching me. “Take care of yourself in the big city. It can be dangerous out there.”

  I keyed in the code to the intake doors and opened them to the madness of the back offices where I worked. People were moving about, some with their own perps, others with the equally painful paperwork in hand. Several colleagues nodded to me as I passed, but most ignored us as just another issue for the night.

  As I maneuvered the vampire and took the paperwork to fill out, Devon interrupted my thoughts.

  I’m heading home. Bring Will with you. I’ll have Shahid bring in some dinner for you both.

  “I can feed my brother, thank you very much. I’ll be there in a couple of hours.” A woman I was passing jumped at my words, but I ignored her as I continued toward my cubicle.

  My way is easier and lets us all rest sooner.

  “Fine,” I huffed, changing my direction and striding through the next door. “I’ll be there in half an hour.”

  he pain of his bite had dulled to the usual throbbing by the time Devon pulled away. He licked the puncture marks he’d made, closing them before any more precious blood could spill out and ruin either of our outfits—or, more importantly, his couch that cost more than two months of my salary.

  Without a word, I took the offered cloth to clean my neck and poured myself a glass of orange juice from the waiting pitcher.

  “You bit harder than usual. Stressed?” I quipped, then drank down the glass in long pulls.

  “It wouldn’t have to be unpleasant at all if you’d just allow me make the experience more pleasurable for both of us.”

  “Not on your undead life.” My words held the tone of an argument repeated too often. I was too tired and too sore to snap anymore.

  He smiled and moved with his damnable grace to the other side of the room, giving me space to cool off. As his legs shifted in his tailored pants, I wished I didn’t enjoy watching him move, but his motions were like a hypnotizing ballet. He stretched and turned, leaning against his desk.

  I didn’t want to like anything about him, but I did. I liked that his olive cheeks had more color now, and I knew his hands would be warm; they always were after sharing. It was the only time they were. His dark eyes were also brighter, taking in everything in rapid assessment. Then there was that damnable dimple. Just one. On the left side. It gave him a stupid, devil-may-care appearance that always prece
ded him thinking he was better than me.

  And there it was, on his left cheek, as he picked up his paper weight and tossed it around in his hands. “So, once again you decided to play Supergirl alone, draining both of us to our limits.”

  “I got the guy,” I sulked into my glass.

  “Tell me about tonight.”

  I gave him a bleak gaze. “Why bother? You saw the whole thing.”

  He sighed, and the dimple disappeared. “I thought talking would help.”

  I glared at him. The pain of everything weighed on me and made my eyes water, but I refused to let the tears fall. Not in front of him. Why the hell would I want to talk about it? He could feel how much seeing those kids had sickened me. Refusing to answer, I poured another glass of orange juice and sipped it, looking away.

  Will had gone off to play in the solarium with the new video game Devon gave him when we arrived. His cries of encouragement to his video hero had eased the vice around my heart, but I hadn’t heard him in a while. Where was he?

  “We’re leaving,” I said. “I still get the day off tomorrow, right?”

  He nodded but then grimaced. “No. Nothing during the day. I need you here tomorrow night at sunset. I’m inviting a visiting diplomat and her entourage to dinner. You need to be here to represent me.”

  Dammit, I really needed a break. We’d gotten the sharing out of the way. I’d been looking forward to me time. Maybe getting a pass and taking Will to a movie or bowling. Now, I’d have to come back and deal with Devon again so soon. But he was the one who kept Will and me from moving back into those tenements I’d visited tonight. The smell was still on me.

  “What do I have to do?”

  He rolled his eyes at me, the modern movement odd on his face. “Shahid has taken care of all the prep work. You just have to show up and be your charming self. The event will be an evening cocktail. Do you require a new dress? I don’t mind.”

  “I can wear what I did for that damn art gala you brought me to.”

  “No, this diplomat may be from Canada, but she’s there by way of Russia originally. She’s expecting more genteel appearances than our common nobles have established here. Go to 300 Chic tomorrow. Gwen will be told what you need. She’ll find something that will compliment you grandly.”

  Something genteel? Really? The thought was intriguing. Their world was anything but genteel. I couldn’t help but poke him. “In that case, let’s show them the real America, and I’ll just come in jeans.”

  He visibly bristled. “As enticing as that might be, tomorrow your tight-fitting, low-rise, almost-falling-off jeans do not belong.” His old world accent came out so cute when he was being outrageously misogynistic. He quickly added, before I could respond, “Not your leathers either. That would be worse.”

  “You try apprehending a vampire or a shifter in a dress. I’d be leaving skin all over town.”

  He smiled at me, something lighting behind his eyes I couldn’t quite understand, and he wasn’t sharing his thoughts with me at the moment. “Go to Gwen. She will find something you’ll approve of. I promise.”

  Throwing my jacket over my shoulder, I nodded. “Fine. See you tomorrow.”

  “Till then.” He returned to the paperwork on his desk.

  Leaving him to his work and whatever needed his attention this late at night—or was it morning already?—I shut the study door behind me and made my way to the side sitting room. This house had far more rooms than one man needed, but they made good places to hide.

  And, right now, I needed to hide. Not from Devon; there was no hiding my shaky feeling and dizzy head from him. I needed to collect myself before I drove Will the half-hour home.

  Sitting on the fuzzy, pink loveseat, I let my head drop close to my knees. Tonight had been long and crappy, and ending it with a feeding was just a bit too much. I wished I was home, snuggled into a warm bath, letting the bubbles soak away the troubles of my day. I bet Devon had one of those huge-ass tubs an army could soak in. I wondered if he’d let me sneak up there and check.

  Only if you agree to act like a proper scion and move in. Then you can have one of your own for all I care.

  Frustration at not even being able to have this one, weak moment in private cleared my head faster than any deep breathing could. I glared and yelled at the wall between Devon’s study and the sitting room. “I swear to God, if you don’t leave my brain in peace for five freaking minutes…”

  Silently, he withdrew to a much deeper place in my head. It was all the privacy he could give me, but it was something.

  Someone shuffled outside my door.

  I screamed through clenched teeth and grabbed the door handle so hard the edges dug into my skin. Could Devon really not leave well enough alone? If he thought he could stick his nose into every part of my life—

  Flinging open the door, I ran smack into the chest of a tower of a man. Devon’s bodyguard, Shahid, peered into the room, taking in my state and making a sweep with his eyes. His Middle Eastern features were strong and serious as he searched for the danger that had upset me. The jagged scars down the right side of his face were indicators he’d been turned either during or after some great injury the vampire enzymes couldn’t heal. Given his lineage, he had to have been alive and fighting before the Reclamation when most of his ethnicity had been wiped out to cleanse the terrorist threat.

  Coming to the conclusion I was alone and just having a fit, he shifted his stance. With a sly smile, he crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe, successfully barring all entrance and exit.

  “Is there a problem, Rowan?”

  I flushed at how I must have appeared. “No. I was just leaving.”

  He gave me a long look then called over his shoulder, “Rogers, Crane, please tell the others we’re all clear here.” Stepping fully into the room, he closed the door and eased back against it, dropping the poised-for-action demeanor, but only by a degree or two. For him, this was relaxed.

  “Tough day?” he asked.

  Sagging in relief, I leaned against the table. Shahid strode to the wall and returned with a glass of water for me. “You sure you’re all right?” he asked with real concern.

  I grimaced at him. He was the only one of Devon’s staff I actually got along with. Well, him and the cook, Marie. But he was the only vampire on the staff I liked. Sighing, I tried to collect my hair into a ponytail, forgetting I didn’t have a band. I let it drop again, blowing out my frustrations.

  “Another day, another dollar, I guess.”

  “You know, if you wanted to take easier cases, it could be arranged. That’s not against the rules. Devon would take care of it. You could spend more time with Will and less time with the scum of the Earth.”

  I studied the door so I didn’t have to meet his gaze. “I don’t accept charity. I will take care of Will and those who need it, too. That’s what this mess”—I touched my sore neck—“gives me.”

  He crossed his arms and raised his chin at me. “There’s honor and strength in your choice, Rowan, not weakness.”

  “Not everyone believes that. Hell, Shahid, I don’t believe that.”

  “Devon’s not bad. He takes care of you both without asking much in return.”

  I flounced backward against the pillows, not caring I looked like a pouting five year old. “That’s just it, Shahid. I don’t know what he does expect of me. I mean, I know what everyone else expects, both humans and vampires. Hell, they already think we’re doing it. He wants us to move in and spend more time over here, but I never feel like he’s really pushing. I don’t really think he wants me here anymore than I want to be here. I don’t trust him. What does he want from me, Shahid, other than the obvious? I’m tired of constantly preparing for the other shoe to drop.”

  He shuffled his feet and sighed. Coming to some decision I didn’t understand, he said, “You make him smile. Both you and Will. He jokes again. He hasn’t done that in ages.”

  I turned away, gesturing back at him with
my hand. “Great, I’m a joke.”

  He caught my hand and turned me back around by it. Once he had my attention, he let go and gave me space. “You didn’t do this for him. He knows that, and he doesn’t care. He will make you stronger than you’ve ever been. He will provide for you and Will in many ways you ask and a lot you won’t.”

  I snorted a laugh.

  “He’s going to be stubborn about it and think he knows best. Your job is to make sure someone is reminding him he doesn’t.” With a nod, he resumed his parade-rest professional stance. “And I will watch over you all. That’s my job, and I’m damn good at it.”

  I tapped him with my foot. “Yes, you are.”

  He held out a hand to help me to my feet. I accepted his hand but rose without taking his aid. I didn’t sway as I stood and realized my body must have caught up with the feeding.

  “You’ve made a good choice that’s going to help you in more ways than you know now. And I’ll take down anyone who says different. Give me a list, and I’m on it.” He winked at me.

  I thought about who I wouldn’t mind seeing dead for a long minute then sighed. “They’re not worth it.”

  “Rowan, if I had the standing to petition for a scion, I’d want someone just like you. Not one of those paper doll scions. Devon is damn lucky.”

  I couldn’t help but smirk. “Damn straight, he is.” His humor leaked into me, bringing me back.

  He reached for the door knob. “Ready?”

  “As I’ll ever be.” The mirror showed my now slightly smudged appearance. Striding over, I felt more myself as I took control and fixed what my emotions had damaged. Determination rang through me. This wasn’t put upon me. I wasn’t trapped. I had walked into this with eyes wide open, and I’d be damned if I was going to play the victim now. Nodding at my once again coiffed form, I turned to Shahid. “Time to take that boy home.” I smiled.

  He held the door open like the gentleman he was. “He’s sleeping in the guest room. Marie put him to bed after dessert and video games.”

  “Thanks, Shahid.”