by Kim Harrison
“You all just needed someone to take charge,” she said, her dust a pale orange.
“Banish him,” Professor Thole said wearily, his lips twisted into a wry grimace. “Unless you intend to give all of us to him.”
“That’s not why I summoned him,” Trisk said. Turning to Algaliarept, she took a shaky breath. The demon’s silence held more threat than his gleeful raging. “Demon,” she said, not wanting to say his name aloud again, “I banish you to the ever-after.”
“Indeed,” Algaliarept said dryly. “I will be back for you, Felecia Eloytrisk Cambri.”
With an inrushing pop of air, he vanished. Trisk shuddered at his last words, but as she looked at the shaken, relieved faces around her, it seemed only she heard them. Even the Weres coming out from behind the couch seemed oblivious. “It was never my intent to give Ulbrine to him,” she said as she stumbled to the nearest chair and collapsed into it. Her gut hurt, and her neck still felt the grip of fingers around it. “I’m not a practitioner.”
“You are a foul guest,” Piscary intoned, and she looked up, eyes widening as the master vampire rose from beside a dazed Rynn Cormel.
“You always let your guests kill one another?” she said, then gasped, adrenaline a pulse of fear as Piscary launched himself at her. “Hey!” she managed, and then he was on her, pinning her to the chair.
“You are a foul guest,” he repeated, his canines inches from her cheek. He held her shoulder down, his fingers twined in her hair to pull her head back and expose her neck. She held her breath, terrified. His eyes were dead black, and an odd tingling coursed through her, desire and fear all mixed up into one heated emotion that threatened to overwhelm her.
“I . . .” she managed before her thoughts turned to blind terror when his weight pressed deeper. The Weres were shouting, and Daniel, too. Orchid’s dust was sifting over them, the sparkles seeming to prick like fire. “Please,” she managed, thinking fast. “He’s a gift.”
“Gift?” Piscary snarled. “You gift me with filth? Filth you brought into my home?”
“Piscary!” Cormel exclaimed. “Not now. Not like this!”
“She brought abomination,” Piscary said, and Trisk got a clean breath of air when he looked away. “She opened the door, invited him in.”
I did not survive one nut job to die at the hands of another, she thought. “He’s a gift! A gift!” she tried again, becoming breathless when Piscary’s eyes found hers again. “You heard his name,” she said, sure she was on the right path when Piscary’s grip eased. “You can summon him. Contain him with witch magic.” It took everything she had, but she looked away from Piscary to Professor Thole. “Yes?” she said, and it seemed as if Piscary’s weight on her grew less. “There’s an earth-magic circle that he can invoke himself to contain a demon.”
Professor Thole nodded, his gaze troubled.
“He’s a gift,” she echoed once more as the hunger in Piscary was replaced by thought. “You have a demon. He will grovel before you, and you can give him information for favors or information in turn. You’ll be the first vampire to have one. Ever.”
For three heartbeats she met his black eyes, waiting. Almost imperceptibly, his pupils shrank, and she couldn’t help her gasp when he was suddenly not there. “A gift,” Piscary said, and she sat up in the chair, shaking at how close it had been. “Write his name down lest I forget.”
Nodding, she stood, no longer comfortable in the chair. Her knees wobbly, she cast about for Daniel. He always had a notebook and pen on him. Seeing him by the bar beside Professor Thole, she walked over, hand protectively on her middle. Will I ever see the sun again?
“A gift?” Daniel said as he handed her his palm-size spiral notebook.
Orchid hovered close, and Trisk let her stay, knowing the pixy wouldn’t know how to read. It took three tries for the pen to work, and Trisk stared at her shaky handwriting. It didn’t even look like hers. Resigned, she ripped the page free and folded it over to hide the print.
“Give it to me,” Rynn Cormel said, and Trisk pulled the paper closer. The man arched his eyebrows. “You smell like a melty chocolate chip cookie right now. He put you back on the counter untasted once. He won’t do so again. Stay here. I’ll give it to him.”
Trisk glanced at Piscary, reading the truth in those words by the stiff way he was holding himself apart from everyone. “Thank you,” she said as she gave Cormel the note. “Tell him I apologize for the way I introduced him to the demon, but at least now he knows what he’s dealing with and will be careful enough to survive.”
Rynn Cormel tapped the paper against his other palm, glancing between her and Daniel, Orchid now back on the man’s shoulder. “I can’t decide if you’re serious, or if you’re trying to kill him.” Head high, Cormel headed for Piscary, stopping to talk to the Weres on the couch to give the undead vampire more time to find his self-control.
Daniel exhaled, taking her elbow as he helped Trisk onto the high barstool. “Are you okay?” he asked, and she stifled a bitter laugh.
“Peachy,” she said, feeling her throat. It was raw and sore, and she thought it might be time to make a new life plan, one that didn’t include demons, or crazy peers, or even crazier superiors. Ulbrine could still try to blame her for everything.
Eyes narrowed, she looked over the room, not seeing him. “Where’s Ulbrine?”
“Ah . . .” Daniel hesitated as he looked over the room as well. “Kal is gone, too.”
“How did they get out?” Thole said, looking up from a narrow glass full of something amber colored. Trisk assumed it wasn’t iced tea.
“There,” Daniel said, pointing to one of the narrow side doors, just now swinging closed. It was then that the large oak doors covered in black goo splintered apart and a handful of distressed vampires spilled in, all fire and spit. Piscary turned his back on them and shook, not because he didn’t care, although he didn’t, but because he couldn’t handle the emotional outflow. Clearly knowing it, Rynn Cormel hastened to cut them off, bundling them back into the hall. Trisk was amazed they did as they were told, like children. But that’s what they are, in essence.
The hallway grew quiet, and Cormel returned, looking as if he didn’t know what to do. He wasn’t Piscary’s scion, but he had enough clout that the lesser members of Piscary’s house would listen. “Perhaps you should have given Ulbrine to the demon,” Rynn Cormel muttered, and Piscary turned. Seeing the master vampire’s questioning look, he added, “Someone has to be blamed for the silence being broken. If he’s in the ever-after, he can’t refute it.”
Colonel Wolfe stood, tugging his uniform down. “The silence isn’t broken,” he said, his gaze going to Daniel. “Not beyond repair.”
Orchid clattered her wings, not rising up from Daniel’s shoulder. “No one is touching Daniel,” she said, and Wolfe’s eyes narrowed.
Rynn Cormel rose from having helped Piscary into a chair. The slip of paper with Algaliarept’s name on it was in his hand, and Piscary tucked it in his suit coat pocket.
“Killing Daniel won’t stop the silence from breaking,” Cormel said, his smile soothing. “Humans will survive the plague in numbers too high to ignore, too low to not protect. As Dr. Cambri has observed, they’re realizing immunity runs in family lines. They will find out why soon enough. That we are not human.”
Professor Thole was shaking his head. “I don’t want to come out,” he said, taking a gulp from his glass. “We tried that once. It didn’t work. They all but destroyed us.”
Mrs. Ray came to the bar as well, nervously tucking her hair back in place. “Just as many humans were killed as you witches.”
Professor Thole scowled as he reached for a bottle to top his glass off with. “When your family is burned at the stake, we’ll talk.”
Rynn Cormel took the bottle out of Professor Thole’s hand and returned it to the shelf. “We should come out now, before we are forced out,” he persuaded in his thick Bronx accent. “It’s a singularly unique opportunit
y to gain humans’ trust as we help them, earn a debt of gratitude that will rub out their fears, both imagined and real.” He turned to Piscary. The vampire was still sitting across from Trisk, his frown puzzling, as it had been his idea to break the silence in the first place.
“Some humans may choose immortality to escape the plague,” Cormel added, and Piscary’s frown deepened. “A welcome relief for us seeing to the needs of the undead.”
Mrs. Ray waggled her finger as she perched on the barstool. “No, no, no,” the petite woman said as if she hadn’t been cowering behind the couch just minutes previous. “I see your intent, Piscary, and you won’t be allowed to increase your numbers. Adding human-based ghouls to your population is a short-term solution that will create a larger problem in the future. If humanity’s numbers are dropping, you will be expected to take a loss as well.”
Piscary grimaced, and Trisk felt a new danger rise. The population balance between witches, Weres, and vampires had been fairly stable for thousands of years, but every time it wobbled, there was a war until it equalized again.
“I agree with Mrs. Ray,” Wolfe said, staring mournfully at his empty shot glass before pushing it to the center of the bar. “Piscary, I understand your predicament, and if there was something we could do, we would. No one wants your people to suffer, but the health of your old ones won’t be given priority over the well-being of the rest of Inderland.”
Gaze distant, Piscary shook his head. “There will be no population bubble. Only those born as vampires make the leap to the undead with no help. The subclass of human ghouls created to get us through this crisis will die when their masters fail to elevate them. Even so, I worry that this is only a slow decline, the beginning of a new era of madness.”
Professor Thole was rummaging for more alcohol. “There are too many maybes,” he said, affronted when Rynn Cormel took the new bottle out of his hand and put it back on the shelf. “If we come out, the laws preventing human takes will become human laws, and we all know how humans love their litigation.”
Piscary idly motioned that Thole could have the bottle, and Cormel smacked it back into the professor’s hand. “What do you suggest?” Piscary asked. “We’re between a rock and a cliff.”
“I have an idea,” Trisk said, and Wolfe started.
“The elf speaks,” he said dryly, the crack of the bottle’s seal loud as it broke.
“And you should listen,” Orchid said, making Rynn Cormel hide a smile.
Seeing Piscary gesture for her to continue, Trisk tugged her tired T-shirt straight. “Seems to me all you need is a drug that increases metabolism and blood production so one living vampire, a scion, could supply their newly undead master with enough blood so they don’t have to go into a new, possibly dangerous blood pool.”
“A drug?” Piscary shocked Trisk with his intent gaze. “You can do this?”
“Me? No,” she said, and he frowned. “But Kal can,” Trisk added, not liking that the dweeb stood to make a fortune from this. “One of the compounds he used in his graduate thesis increased blood production to the point where it was a detriment. I’d be willing to bet he could work from that, making a product that would allow one or two living vampires to safely supply a master with enough blood.”
“That works for me,” Mrs. Ray said, eyeing Professor Thole right back when he stared at her in betrayal. “I say we come out,” she said as she proffered her shot glass and he filled it. “As long as the elves provide a metabolism booster to the vampires.”
“You’re serious?” Professor Thole said flatly.
“Why not?” She sipped her drink with an appreciative mmmm. “Are you telling me the media campaign you’ve been waging the last twenty years was for nothing? All that positive PR you’ve been pumping into Hollywood was so you could remain hidden? Cormel is right. It’s time. They aren’t ignorant savages anymore.” She looked at Daniel, her smile bright. “And neither are we. They need help, and as Dr. Plank exhibits, they’re willing to accept it and us.”
Professor Thole shook his head, and on Daniel’s shoulder, Orchid clattered her wings, frustrated. “I’ve been out there,” Daniel said, his voice almost bland after the rich tones of the Weres and vampires. “They’re hurting, and they won’t care if help comes in the form of a witch spell or a neighbor who can turn into a wolf on the way to get you some groceries.”
Unconvinced, Professor Thole capped the bottle and put it away. “You’re only trying to save your skin,” he muttered.
“Are you blind?” Orchid shrilled, startling Daniel as she rose up on a column of bright silver sparkles. Even Piscary turned to look. “Listen to me, you lunkers. Breaking the silence is likely the only chance for my people to survive. I’ve been everywhere the last three weeks, and I have yet to find a mate. It’s because we have to hide. It’s killing us one species at a time. The only people flourishing since the industrial revolution are those who can pretend to be human. That’s not living. It’s not even surviving anymore. It’s our world, too.”
Colonel Wolfe made a low growl of discontent. “Do you realize how difficult it would be to get a consensus from all the various Inderlanders? In time to be useful?”
“Do you know how hard it will be to remain hidden?” Trisk countered. “Because it’s coming out whether you like it or not. Thanks to the plague, our combined numbers are now greater than theirs. They’re shaken, looking for a way out of the madness. Unless you want to destroy Cincinnati, New York, Boston, the entire world? How many Detroits do you think Inderlanders will put up with before they rebel against their own leaders?”
But clearly both Professor Thole and Wolfe refused to budge, and Trisk’s hope faltered. If she couldn’t convince them, there’d be no hope of convincing any others. They had to come out of this room united.
“I think we can all agree that elves have made a shitfest out of this,” Cormel said, and Trisk frowned. “The question is, can we turn the dire prospect of the faltering human species into a boon? Can we find the courage to be the monster and save them?” Hands spread wide, he smiled with a professional warmth that said all would be well. Much of it was his vampire charisma, but Trisk didn’t care since it wasn’t being used against her. “The question is simple,” he said, hands falling. “Do we break the silence to save humanity, or let their numbers drop even more due to secondary diseases and throw them and us into a new dark age?”
Eyes averted, Professor Thole set his empty glass in the sink as Colonel Wolfe sat down, a grim expression on his face.
“Oh, for God’s sake,” Orchid said, startling Trisk as she flew from her. “Don’t be so scared of the wasp in the room. Not everyone has to come out. If a family wants to remain in hiding, they can, continuing to masquerade as human. God knows you’ve gotten good at it.”
The silence grew, and Trisk fidgeted as Piscary looked at each one in turn, his eyes narrowing when they landed on Professor Thole.
“Fine,” the witch finally said, and emotion zinged through Trisk. “I’ll inform the coven of moral and ethical standards what has passed here along with whose fault this really is. They can decide. I still think it’s a mistake.”
Beaming, Trisk gave Daniel’s hand a tight squeeze. They’d done it. Or at least half of it.
Mrs. Ray slipped from the stool, her pace confident as she went to collect her purse, inclining her head in good-bye to Piscary and drawing Wolfe to his feet. “Wonderful. Wolfe will get a consensus from his superiors. If the military Weres agree—and I know they will if Wolfe puts his mind to it—the business community will follow. As for myself, I’m eager to stretch into a run without having to go to Montana or the Canadian woods to do it.”
Rynn Cormel looked to Piscary. The master vamp dismissed him with a finger twitch, and the living vampire hesitated only briefly, an unknown thought flitting behind his eyes before he hid it with an expansive smile. “I admire your logic, Miss Orchid,” Cormel said as he came forward to leave Piscary in his chair. “Would you accompany me
to DC? I have to bring this to the Columbia vamps for approval and immediate action. They can make a decision for the entire vampire state, and you’ll have one more garden to look for a husband in.”
Orchid glanced at Daniel, clearly loath to leave him, as she’d taken on the responsibility for his continued safety. But when he nodded, the tiny woman rose up on green and gold dust. “You bet, short-fang,” she said cheerfully, circling the man in a maddening circle until he made a grab for her and she darted out of reach with a little giggle.
“What about the elves?” Professor Thole asked as he came out from behind the bar. “I doubt they’ll approve.”
Piscary stirred, breaking his eerie stillness. “As it is their fault, I suggest we all agree to uphold that they’re dead at the hands of the virus they created.” The master vampire looked at Trisk, and she shrugged. They’d been in hiding for two thousand years. It was a small thing.
Professor Thole shook the master vampire’s hand. “I hope this works,” Thole said as their hands parted. “I know you face a difficult choice.”
A flat smile crossed Piscary’s face. “Thank you. Could you stop in next week?”
He’d need a powerful charm to contain Algaliarept, and the tall witch nodded, uneasy as he glanced at Trisk. “I will. Until then, be well, old friend.”
Piscary dismissed him with a wave, and Professor Thole left, taking the Weres, Rynn Cormel, and Orchid with him. “I can’t believe you want this,” Wolfe said loudly as they picked their way past the broken door and into the hall, and Mrs. Ray laughed.
“My dear Wolfe,” she said, her arm possessively on his, “if vampires are reliant upon a drug for their well-being, that will be as sure of a population check as we have ever had.”
Piscary grimaced, the old vampire knowing it as well. And yet he was still for it. A drug would allow them to set aside the mantle of predator, a must if vamps were to make the jump from the shadows to polite society.
Feeling as if they needed to go as well, Trisk took Daniel’s elbow and drew him to his feet. “We should find a radio station,” she said, eager to be gone and back under an open sky. The sooner they could start telling people how to avoid getting sick, the better.