Of Scions and Men

by Courtney Sloan

  I knew his fear was making him act like this. Fear at what had happened–for me. I could taste his anxiety through our bond as I’m sure he could taste mine. If I backed down now, he’d continue to walk all over me, and with Will and I moving in here in a week, this needed to end. Now.

  “I didn’t tell you because he is harmless,” I spoke calmly. “I can handle Curtis. I have done that my whole life.”

  Devon’s posture loosened and his eyes drew down. His voice was tired as he responded, “Not with Masterson backing him, you haven’t. Try to understand, Rowan, this is bigger than you.”

  A pale hand slid over Devon’s shoulder and gave a slight squeeze as Nadia’s face moved into my view. She pursed her lips. “Devon, darling, do shut up.”

  Devon snapped around to face her, and I had to stifle a smile at her. He opened his mouth again, but she was quicker. “I said shut it. She conducted herself beautifully. You can’t ask for more.”

  He shook himself from her grasp and, with a look at me, stalked to the sidebar and grasped a decanter without pouring anything. How the hell could he blame me for this now?

  “Masterson is using her to further his agenda,” he said. “I can’t allow her to be used. He’ll take her down with him.”

  Nadia opened her arms in a small gesture to the room. “No, he won’t. We won’t let him.”

  I gave Nadia a small smile of gratitude and kept my tone gentle as I tried to bring the conversation back to the more important matter-at-hand. “We need to find out who is trying to make scions. This out-of-town group seems like a good place to start. There haven’t been many foreigners allowed to travel around in over fifty years, so people with accents should stick out like sore thumbs, even if they are trying to be discreet. We can do some real work and find them.”

  Devon still held the decanter. As much as his macho attitude pissed me off, he cared, and there weren’t many people who did. In my head I added to Devon, Let’s work on something we can fix.

  His shoulders raised and lowered, and he turned to me. His posture was still wilted, but his eyes looked brighter. Okay, cherie. Out loud he added, “Together we can cover far more ground. Romaric has charged us with dealing with this discreetly.” He glanced over at Nadia. “I know how much is riding on this.”

  Carson cleared his throat and joined the group between Nadia and me. “I hate to throw another twist into this plot, but are we sure we can trust the information this Masterson provided us with?”

  I meandered to the sidebar and poured myself a glass of Devon’s whiskey. If I ever deserved a drink, it was now. My nerves were shot. “What do you mean? I paid for it. That’s how he works.”

  “He’s trying to break the connection between scion and vampire. To succeed, he’d have to understand how the connection was made. It seems to me, from what he did to you at his establishment, he would be the sort who would be okay with unregistered, populace-based research.”

  Nadia put one of her delicate fingers to her temple as if the thought hurt her. “You think he’s the one causing these deaths in the name of science?”

  “I just think we should explore the possibility before we go charging off to capture these foreigners solely on his word that they exist.”

  Nadia sat on the arm chair, facing me with such grace that she seemed to float there. “Rowan, you were the only one who could read him. What are your thoughts?”

  I sipped my whiskey and reviewed my conversation with Masterson. He was ruthless; his past showed that, and he was getting results–my lost connection showed that. Devon was sure he was playing me, and that was without hearing about the job offer, though I’d carefully kept that piece of the conversation buried deep. The alcohol burned my throat as I locked the thought away from our connection as fast as it came. Didn’t want to burn that bridge until the natives forced me over.

  Devon eyed me hard, but whether it was over his anger or that he’d caught my errant thought, I wasn’t sure.

  “He knew about the murders,” I said more to myself than to them, “but he was surprised by the pictures. I’d bet on it. He was concerned.”

  “It could have been an act. Playing concern is not hard,” Carson countered.

  I squinted at him. “I’ll keep that in mind. Masterson’s rep would be nothing if it got around he was giving out false information and getting paid for it.”

  Devon stood beside me but not close enough to touch. “Rowan was there and has made the call. We’ll move on this. Just to cover all bases, I’m also going to push the DEC for some further backup.”

  “Talk to the medical examiner, Walton or Watson… something like that. He might have seen more than he’s willing to put into the report.”

  “On our end, how do we find a group of foreign vampires who may or may not exist in a city of this size?” Nadia questioned.

  I grinned at her. “We send out the hounds. And the birds. And the rats. And the lizards. And the–well, you get the point. The shifters move around this city in more ways than any other group.”

  “The wolf pack?” Carson asked.

  I thought about it. They may find a scent trail, but most official packs didn’t sneeze without official orders, much less work for a scion on the down-low. “No, we’ll start with someone who has more versatile friends.”

  I pulled out my cellphone and speed-dialed Lyle.

  ill curled up on my lap as I stared at the wall again. Devon’s well-decorated wall was now covered with a map of the city and the crime reports. Carson had made it with the help of his extensive, TV show detective expertise. He’d used different colored pins for the death scenes, the victims’ places of employment and schools, and the suspects’ homes. I’d spent the last couple of days on the phone, decreasing our still-too-big list of rejected scion applicants and their corresponding pins. Somewhere on this map was our answer, Carson assured me. So far, all I’d found was a headache.

  “Two days, and no one has found anything,” Carson grumbled.

  “This is taking too long.” Frustration laced my voice. I shifted, trying to find a comfortable position without waking up my brother.

  “If his pattern holds, and he hasn’t given up, then he should be hurting another girl any time now.”

  I snorted. “Tell me something I don’t know.”

  “Why does your damnable government not step in further? This is an outrage to vampires and scions alike. They should have this all over the news so everyone becomes our eyes and ears.” He threw his pencil against the map.

  “Devon has been trying. He also is attempting an end-run by buttering up Walton. He was overly eager at the scene. Devon is playing on that. The Basement doesn’t want this information leaking.”

  “Why not? They want ignorant women unaware of the trap they’re walking into?”

  “If they released the facts, they’d be giving away a lot of information to the public on the way scions are made. They’d rather sacrifice a few than educate the public and create fifty new copycats who’ve also been rejected by the system.”

  “But their process doesn’t work. Don’t these crazy murderers understand? They are killing people over and over in a process so obviously not functioning.”

  “Definition of insanity, I know, but that doesn’t help us find them.” My anger rumbled through my voice, vibrating down and waking up Will.

  He stirred on my lap, wetting his lips and arching his back in a stretch. I thanked the gods for the sudden release of blood into my legs.

  Devon ambled in and handed me a glass of water and a couple of aspirin.

  “Get out of my head,” I told him without any venom. I downed the pills quickly and handed the glass back, making him figure out what to do with it.

  “I take it your search is going no better today?” he asked. The sun had just set, and Devon appeared remarkably more refreshed than I’d felt in days. Stupid regenerative vampires always getting their beauty rest while the rest of us had to suffer on in grunginess.

  Wi
ll stretched and smiled up at us both. “They’ve been yelling at the pins again.” To me he added, “Ro, are we staying here from now on? Devon said I could decorate my room however I wanted. I want the tree house bed from the magazine. It looked neat.”

  I glared at Devon, who had the good sense to stare at anything but me.

  “No, buddy, we’re going home soon,” I said.

  “But I like it here. Marie’s here, and Shahid. They let me run around.”

  Devon put a hand on my brother’s little shoulder. “We’ll have this conversation another time, Will. We’ve got to do more boring grownup stuff. Why don’t you go play your racing game on the N-Cube in the living room?”

  “Okay,” he said as his smile reached across his entire face. With a tight hug for me, and then one for Devon, Will ran from the room, and soon the sound of car engines wafted in.

  Nadia wandered into the room, closing the door behind her. “Has your Ouija board revealed the answers yet, love?”

  Carson rolled his eyes at her, then, catching me smirking at him, he turned a bright pink. “It’s at least organizing our efforts. It’s better than running around everywhere at once.”

  “Now, how else could you have seen the city in such detail if I hadn’t run you around so much your first couple of days here?” I teased him while stretching in my seat.

  Nadia gave us both a sidelong glance again. She’d been doing that a lot lately. I’d never known vampires to be jealous. Possessive, yes, but petty jealousy always seemed beneath them.

  Turning my attention back to Devon, I went for a new nerve. “So, how’d the meeting with Romaric go? He decide to loosen his hold on this crime?”

  Devon leaned against the desk, a glass dangling carelessly from his fingers. He crossed his ankles, and not an inch of his casual suit seemed to wrinkle. How did he do that? Even at my best, I looked like a rumpled mess. It was infuriating.

  “He’s sure we can accomplish this,” Devon replied. “Translation: we need to accomplish this or face his wrath and permanent demotions”–he glanced at the other two–“and deportations. Nadia, he mentioned–well, more like threatened–that perhaps he should help you see your native Russia again. He made sure I noticed your grandfather’s personal business card lying on his desk.”

  Nadia shivered. “That would go badly,” she whispered.

  Carson put a hand on her shoulder. Note to self: Nadia’s grandfather is next-level nightmare. Don’t want to deal with him.

  “On a better subject,” Devon continued, “I think we’ve found a handy work-around with Walton. He appears more than happy to please us with his findings. His desire to please is pitifully obvious. I think if we give him enough support, we’ll hear about anything the office tries to hide.”

  I tried to change the subject. “Keller will strangle me, thinking I’m strong-arming the media to cover this up for the vampires.”

  Devon didn’t move from his relaxed position at his desk. “If we tell the police more, their lives are in danger that they can’t handle.”

  “Right, because allowing a citizen’s police force to work in ignorance is always the best bet for a safe society.”

  “Just the way it’s always been, cherie.”

  “Stop calling me that.”

  He went on as if I hadn’t fussed. “The police have always only been told what was necessary. Military, too.”

  I crossed my arms. “And look how well the secrecy worked out. The Reclamation took out almost two-thirds of the world’s population.”

  “But it allowed us to step up and bring an order back that hadn’t been seen in this world since, well, ever.”

  “And allowed us to slip down in the food chain.”

  He raised his eyebrows in challenge and lowered his voice’s pitch so the feeling rumbled through my body. “Cherie, you were always at the bottom. You just became aware of it recently.”

  I clenched my fists and started to yell back, but both Nadia and Carson burst out laughing.

  Nadia took her usual reclined position on the divan with a lighter air. “Why do you bait her so?”

  Devon joined their laughter. “Because she is magnificent when she’s angry.”

  I opened my mouth but found I had no reply. Turning away, my phone rang. Thank God. “Hello.”

  “Rowan, you all right?”

  I glared down at the number. “Yeah, Lyle. Peachy. What’s up?”

  “We’re needed across town. There’s been another one. They just found it.”

  I checked my watch and then out the window. “But it’s just now sunset.”

  “Forensics says she’s been dead for at least a day.”

  I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Crap. They’re getting faster.”

  “I know.”

  I sighed. “We’ll be there soon.”

  “Bringing the whole Scooby gang?”

  I glanced up, and both Devon and Nadia were shaking their heads. Hard to have a private conversation with vampires in the room.

  “Well, I’m going,” Carson said.

  Yeah, can’t have a private conversation with scions in the room either.

  he crime scene was buzzing with the usual people and then some. Several officers stood with Keller in a deep conversation. Uniformed officers secured the scene and threaded through the crowd, questioning onlookers who were straining for a glimpse of the tragedy.

  Checking my tools on my belt, I threw a questioning eyebrow to Carson. He shrugged his shoulders, but tried to watch everywhere at once, his eyes darting every which direction as if loose in their sockets.

  As we trudged together to the powwow around Keller, Lyle circled our heads in his bird form, then glided left with three short bobs in his flight pattern.

  “And what did that mean in bird-speak?” Carson asked.

  “He’s going to canvas the crowd and listen in on the interviews and personal conversations.”

  “He’s an interesting bugging device.”

  “And breaks down far less.”

  Together, we traveled up to the main stage, but I turned at the last second. The hairs on the back of my neck stood. Someone–or something–was watching.

  “You all right?” Carson whispered, peering around.

  I shook it off. “Yeah. Probably just Masterson’s invisible cronies.” I couldn’t help but glance back at the crowd gathered in the early evening light. People, mostly in work clothes, having just gotten home, huddled together, watching and whispering. My instincts screamed there was something else out there, but nothing stood out.

  “Rowan?”

  Caught in my search for the invisible watchers, I spun at the unfamiliar voice calling my name. The frumpy Doctor Walton hurried over to me. His face was painted in excitement, and he exuded a conspiratorial air as he sidled up next to me. He came in too close for comfort, and I took a step to move away.

  Let him come close. We need him to think he’s in on the cloak-and-dagger work. Don’t blow our one inside track.

  I ignored Devon, but shifted my weight to allow Walton closer into our circle. “Hello, Doctor.”

  “You remembered me. Good, good. I only have a second before they’ll realize you’re here and drag you away. Oh, Keller’s been complaining about you to anyone who’d listen.” His words fell over each other in a rush out of his mouth.

  I rolled my eyes. “I’ll survive his gossip. What’s new?”

  “They’ll tell you the big stuff, but I have some stuff they don’t know. They didn’t see it. Can’t talk here. Devon warned me. I want to get together. Need to tell you.”

  “Okay, when?”

  “Officer Brady, we’re waiting.” Keller called out, loud enough for everyone in the crowd to hear him though I was only ten feet away. He tapped his watch and raised his eyebrows at me. Who the hell did that?

  “Coming, dear,” I responded in a sweet little voice.

  Keller grimaced and his face mottled. I smiled.

  Walton deflated and clammed up.
“Later,” he whispered, and scurried to his waiting team.

  Shaking my head at Carson, I plodded the rest of the way to the porch.

  “Glad you could join us, Brady and company.” Keller’s voice pierced my head. He spoke much louder than was necessary. What was going on? I’d never seen him so unsure and uncomfortable.

  “I’m right here; no need to yell. What have we got this time?” I asked.

  A second man, who’d been in the porch powwow, stepped up and extended his hand to me. He was a good five inches taller than Keller and Carson, and his deep ebony skin was flawless. His dimpled smile reached all the way to his eyes, contrasting with the kind of power his presence demanded. “Scion Brady, I am Lieutenant Paul Rigel. I’m here on behalf of the Tracking Division of missing persons.”

  After a second look, I placed him. He’d led the tracker wolf pack at the other scene.

  The man’s grip was strong, but not crushing, and his smile was easy. He stood with a formidable confidence, but didn’t try to stare me down like others usually did. I appreciated that and gave him a smile back. “A pleasure. Lieutenant Rigel. This is Carson Holt, scion to Nadia Gavrilova. He’s assisting me on the case.”

  The two men shook hands and exchanged polite nods.

  Giving him another once over, I determined he ran often, probably on two legs as well as four, by his well-toned but not muscled physique. With this guy and his pack around, hiding or twisting the facts to keep what was really going on from Keller was about to get tricky. At least he gave me some respect.

  “Great,” Keller’s venom pierced the evening. “Getting back to my case, we need to up our work.”

  I took a step toward Rigel and ignored Keller’s need for importance. Keller bristled behind me. Yeah, sometimes I’m not nice, but I could get more done with Rigel.

  “Why is Tracking here?” I asked the shifter. “You guys were at the first scene, so do we have new evidence to follow this time?”

  “Unfortunately.” He sighed. “The dead girl inside, Abigail Lennas… according to Lieutenant Keller here, her death follows the same pattern as the others. But this time… well, my pack and I are here to find the girl’s roommate, Hannah Warner, who is now missing.”