Heir to the Coven

by Melissa Leister

  “It would be the last one you said. I didn’t like him crashing my date and I want him to pay.”

  “Real mature.” Mercy got up and started flipping through my closet, exploring my new purchases which the sapphire blue corset covered in black lace that she disparaged was part of. “I have never seen such a schizophrenic wardrobe in my life. One side looks like a dominatrix lives here and the other looks like a naughty secretary. There really are two of you in there, aren’t there?”

  “Yes and they are slowly learning to get along again, or at least get along as well as they ever did. I was forced to come back before all the pieces were in place, but I’m muddling along.”

  “Hence the mood swings?”

  “To some degree. I’m also trying to figure out how to go from coven member to coven leader and it’s not real easy.” I pondered the outfit again and decided to go with it. I liked it and I liked provoking people so why not have some fun? “I’m sticking with my pick. He insisted the meeting be at his house, so I insisted it be during the day. Then he said I should come without an entourage, which I don’t need but it makes him think he has an advantage, so now I’m going to wear something to drive him crazy.”

  “With all this plotting and counter plotting with Anton, have you given any thought to calling Chris?”

  I had actually, but not entirely for the reason Mercy wanted me to. True I liked Chris, but I was not the type to chase after a guy who stalked off to sulk like a baby. Ok, so compared to me he probably was a baby, but looks could be deceiving. He appeared to be in his twenties, but with half-castes he could also be forty-five. I doubted he was immortal, but he could be a slow-ager like Rainor. No matter how old the guy was it was my personal belief he should be the one calling me. But, Chris worked for The Sun and I needed to find out who told them about Megan McCoy’s baby without leaving a trail for anyone to follow. If I paid my new friend a visit at work, it would not look the least bit suspicious; unlike Kain walking through the vampire quarter. I wondered if Mercy knew where he had been last night? There was no way to damn or exonerate Kain without learning the truth.

  All right, I had talked myself into using the baby as a reason to make nice with Chris. It was self-serving and not that nice, but no one ever said I was nice. “I was thinking of going to see him before my meeting. I have plenty of time.”

  “And then you can go to your meeting with Anton looking hot and with Chris’ scent on you. Nice move.”

  That had not occurred to me. Mercy was more cunning than I gave her credit for. A dangerous thing, my blood whispered, if her mate is tainted she could be too. “Have you always been this sly or it is something new?”

  “Always. You were just too busy stalking the night to notice,” Mercy said with a smile.

  “I’ll have to do better now that I’m back.”

  *****

  The Sun’s office was not the seedy looking wreck I expected to find; it was a two-story brick building with a lot of glass and a pleasant looking lobby that housed a potted palm. I saw the receptionist’s eyes widen as soon as she noticed me. I could hear several men on the second floor talking about the “icy looking babe in the bustier” as I caught sight of a camera being focused on me from the corner of my eye. Someone was ambitious.

  “Take my picture and it will be the last time you see that camera Skippy.”

  The photographer laughed. “Think that’s the first time I heard that? It’s insured.”

  I swooped over and had him by the shirt before he could blink. “Let me clarify. If you take my picture, that camera will be the last thing you see.” I let my eyes go red at him. I may have entered the proverbial snake pit by coming here, but people should be able to visit without being set upon.

  “Natasha?” Chris said as he came around the corner. “What’s going on?”

  “Your friend here decided to be an opportunist. He learned a valuable lesson. Didn’t you Skippy?”

  “Mike. His name is Mike,” Chris said. “And he knows better than to try to exploit a possible client.”

  “Do you know what she is?” Mike asked.

  Better question, did Mike know what Chris was? I doubted it. “And what am I?”

  “You’re a half-caste, a very strong one from the looks of you. They don’t talk about the ones like you; too scary for the humans to know about. Look at her! She’s practically a day-walking vampire.”

  “I’m not the scariest thing in this town and I’m hardly the scariest thing in this world. Believe me. But that still doesn’t mean you want me as an enemy. I came here to see a friend, not to help sell your little rag with an impromptu photo op.”

  It seemed to dawn on Mike that his co-worker had called me by name because he was staring at Chris. “She’s your friend?”

  “She is and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t harass her.”

  “What’s in it for me?”

  I hauled him off the ground so he dangled in my hands. “Well for starters, you get to keep your eyes. And if you’re lucky you’ll get to keep your life.”

  Chris futilely grabbed my arm. “He’ll leave you alone Natasha. No need for threats. He’s only trying to save face. Aren’t you Mike?”

  Mike finally seemed to catch on that he was in some real danger here. It’s not every day a five foot four inch woman lifted you off your feet and held you in the air like a doll. He might have recognized what I was, but he didn’t understand what I was until he saw Chris’ reaction. Yes, Michael, your life was in some danger here. Mike said, “Yes. I am sorry. It won’t happen again, mam.”

  I put him on his feet. “Good. Now run along little boy.” And he did run. I think he ran right to the bathroom. Chris was scowling at me and I realized my coming here was a bad idea. I knew better than to mix with humans or half-castes who pretended they were human. “Look, I shouldn’t have come here. Our worlds obviously aren’t going to mesh.”

  I began to leave, but he said, “Natasha wait. Don’t go. I’m surprised you showed up here, but I’m glad you came to see me. Mike was out of line and out of his depth.”

  “Are you sure? It’s not going to make you popular to be seen chatting it up with the crazy woman who sent poor little Mikey running to the potty.”

  Chris laughed. “You do have a way with words. Let’s take this to my office.”

  “You have an office? I’m impressed.”

  “Don’t be. I think it used to be a closet before they gave it to me and called it an office.”

  Chris put his hand at the small of my back and guided me towards his office. He was right; it probably had been a closet. He shut the door behind me and then pulled out a chair for me to have seat. Someone’s mama taught him well. “It’s a nice office.”

  “But your closet is bigger.”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “But you were thinking it.”

  I hoped I wasn’t going to be that transparent during the rest of this exchange. “Was Mike the guy that ran that story about the half-vampire baby?”

  “No. The guy who ran that knows better than to approach anyone as pale as you are. Mike is an overzealous rookie looking to make a name for himself. Although I don’t think Craps In His Pants is the name he was looking to make.”

  I laughed. “Would they really call him that?”

  “I will.”

  “You would fit in very well with my coven with comments like that.”

  “I wasn’t looking to be recruited.”

  “That’s not what I meant.” Here we were back in the muck. I sighed. “I didn’t come here for round two.”

  “What did you come here for?”

  “To try to explain what you saw last night. I’m 109 years old and with a few notable gaps in time when we were on diverging paths, I’ve known Anton for most of them. For the first few years of my life he was my only…friend I guess you would call him. He looked out for me when I was unable to look out for myself. We parted ways the first time and it changed things between us. He lo
oks at me and sees something that should be his to command since I used to belong to his caste. He doesn’t like sharing his toys so he wanted to play with you a bit and I was afraid he might physically hurt you to prove a point. I don’t think the person that abandoned me has any say in what I do and I like needling people so I used the opening fate presented me with, which unfortunately made you feel bad. But he did have a point about you needing to learn what the ‘rules’ are; Mike’s not the only one who is out of his depth these days.”

  Chris tapped the edge of his desk and stared at the wall. “I understand what you’re saying Natasha, but there was more going on than a case of male territorial display gone wrong and immature goading. You are attracted to him.”

  “Ok. Yes, I am, but I’m not going to act on it because I know I can’t trust him and I’m old enough not to be ruled by my hormones which also happen to find you very appealing by the way.” I smiled at him gamely. “You also have to consider that Anton and I are both predators sharing the same territory, so we are going to butt heads over whose is bigger if you get my drift and since he can’t quite believe that I won’t fall on my back for him those head butting sessions tend to wind up laced with sexual energy because he’s hoping if he makes me mad enough one night I’ll rip his clothes off. One of these days we are going to wind up killing each other.”

  “Or doing each other where you stand.”

  “And they say I’m not one to sugar coat things.”

  “Sorry, but if this is going anywhere we need to be honest.”

  This is where I should tell him that hormones or not at some point I was going to have to fall on my back for Anton because of a deal I made nearly three decades back, but you see this is where I was a shit. “That’s about everything.”

  For a little while Chris stood in silence; I think he was digesting everything I had said and that he had seen since knowing me. Then he grinned wickedly at me and said, “Do you know what my hormones are saying?”

  “Do I dare ask?”

  “That sex with any woman with a temper like yours is bound to be smokin’ so I might as well see where this goes because if I let you walk to try to prevent the broken heart I see written all over this for me, then I have no chance at that sex. Unless you want to go at on my desk so we get it out of our systems and then go our separate ways? Because I would be down with that.”

  “I bet you would,” I said sarcastically, but with humor to my voice. “But before we do the desk thing how about we go on a date that we finish first?”

  “I guess…”

  I gave him a swat on the arm and caught sight of my watch. “How about I call you about the date? I have a meeting I need to get to.”

  “Fine with me, but I owe you a romantic outing since the one I originally planned didn’t work out so well.”

  “Because of Anton. Which reminds me, it’s probably better if you plan stuff for us outside the vampire quarter because I have to tell him when I’m entering his territory and that will just lead to a repeat of last night.”

  “I don’t know what is or isn’t in the vampire quarter.”

  “I’ll give you a map.”

  “Not very romantic. I think I can plan a vampire free date without it.”

  “I’ll leave you to it then.” I grabbed the doorknob, but paused to ask, “Oh, before I go, can I talk to the guy that ran the baby story? He needs to make sure he watches his back.”

  “He’s on vacation right now, but I could let you know when he gets back.”

  “Please do. Thanks.”

  “One more thing,” Chris said. He walked over to me and smoothed the collar of my jacket. “This outfit is…ah…”

  “What?”

  “I’m afraid I’ll get my ass kicked if I say it.”

  “Did it get kicked for that desk comment?”

  “No and thanks for that by the way.”

  “You’re welcome, but what about my outfit? I’ll be good I promise.”

  “Being good is not what that outfit is saying.”

  “And what is it saying?”

  He grabbed the lapels of my jacket and pulled me towards him for a kiss. It was a soft kiss, the kind you end a first date that has gone successfully with. Chris’ lips were warm and gentle against mine. No one had ever kissed me this way, like I was a fragile creature that might break or run away if he applied too much physical or sexual pressure. It was sweet and completely at odds with his blatant words earlier. I didn’t know if I could do sweet. Gentleness was not something that I had ever been led to believe was useful or particularly fun, but part of me wanted to try. I kissed him back just as softly and let my hands slide up his arms, across his shoulders and down his back to rest at his waist.

  One of Chris’ hands was at my waist, the other slid up my back to twine in the hair at the base of my skull. Then both hands came up to cup my face in his hands. He pulled back to smile at me. “I think this is going to work.”

  It was a nice kiss, but I was not sure about anything in my life right now. I told him I would see him later and left.

  Chapter 9

  Freud would have had a field day with the house Anton built for himself. The estate I had spent my childhood in would have fit in half of this monstrosity and still left room for the mansion Vincent had lived in plus the coven house. I had inexplicably thought Anton would have taken over Vincent’s old abode along with the city. Maybe it was because I knew I would inherit Rainor’s house along with his portion of the city. Maybe I had too much damn time to think because Anton hadn’t bothered to show up on time for the meeting he asked for. How hard was it to get to a meeting held in your own house? Especially since it was daytime and that pretty much made him a prisoner in said house.

  So here I sat pondering the square footage of the house that an inferiority complex built while gazing at the over furnished room I had been left to wait in. When I got bored with staring at the furniture, I studied my nails. Yep, they needed to be filed back down to look like nails instead of claws. But they made such a nice clicky sound when I tapped them on the wooden arm of my chair when they were pointy. And it annoyed the vampires standing vigil by the door awaiting their Master’s arrival.

  Shortly after I had been shown to what I termed my holding pen, but what was most likely the living room, two male vampires had glided in and shut the door behind them. The one I nicknamed Leather, because he was in a motorcycle jacket, had told me “the Master” would be with me shortly and I was to wait here. The other guard, who had wheat colored hair and who was not a Hadi, I named the Ancient because he was giving off a vibe of great age. Despite the vague explanation I had been given, I was fairly certain Anton had ordered them to report on how long it took me to explode so he could laugh at how long I was willing to wait or chide me for my impatience when I was not getting any older. But I had a plan of my own; I was going to annoy them until they made him appear just to put an end to their torment. Next I was going to start chewing gum loudly if the nail tapping didn’t produce the desired effect.

  “Must you do that?” asked Leather. We had a taker ladies and gentlemen! His eyes were red; they matched his crayon red hair. I think I was supposed to be afraid.

  I ignored his question to ask one of my own. “How often do you have to dye your hair to keep it that color? I had mine purple once and I had to touch it up every two days because my body kept healing it back to my natural color. Finally I gave up.”

  The Ancient’s blue eyes twinkled. He had a sense of humor, a rare thing in a vampire. He might actually be the only vampire walking the world to have one. Leather obviously didn’t have one since he was glaring at me. I wasn’t trying to be rude, I really wanted to know. That purple hair had been a pain in the ass to maintain.

  “Tell her,” the Ancient said.

  “No.”

  “What does it hurt?”

  “His vampire pride at talking to me,” I quipped. “Never mind. You can both go back to guarding the hall from my unexpected
entry. Is Anton standing on the other side of that door waiting to see how long it takes before I kill you both and leave? This being his house I can’t sense him because his presence is everywhere.”

  The Ancient was staring at me. “You think he is playing hide and seek with you?”

  “He’s playing some game with me, one that’s not very amusing.”

  “You are exactly what he said you were.”

  “Anton has been talking about me?” That was surprising. “How did that conversation go? ‘She’s moody and rude and has abysmal taste.’ Oh, and if he said that purple hair was just to annoy him he was partially right. I did it for me, but I put up with the retouches because I knew he hated it.”

  The Ancient laughed. I should have nicknamed him Cheerful instead, and then Leather could have been Grumpy. “He said you were beautiful, impatient, volatile and irritated people to amuse yourself.” His eyes were twinkling again.

  I was going to like this one. I never expected to like a vampire. I got to my feet and walked over to him. His muscles tensed, but I held up my hands and said, “We haven’t been properly introduced. I’m Natasha Carmichael.”

  “Marcus. It’s a pleasure.”

  He held out his hand and I hesitated. The closer I got the easier it was to see this one was older than I thought and that meant his reflexes would be better. I put my hand out, ready to snatch it back at the slightest hint of treachery, but he took my fingers in his and brought my hand to his lips to kiss it. “It’s been a long time since anyone kissed my hand.”

  “A custom that has sadly gone by the wayside.”

  I turned to Leather. “What should I call you?”

  No response.

  Marcus frowned at him. “His name is Raz and he needs a lesson in manners towards a guest in his Master’s home.”

  “His Master also needs a lesson in manners towards a guest. I know Anton knows better, Lucius never would have put up with this.”