Triquetra

by Marguerite Labbe

  Tony was a vampire and it had happened in the space of a single night, not this gradual change over months. I finished my laps and paused to grab my water bottle. Tony’d be able to answer my questions, some of them anyway. There had been a point not too long ago when he would’ve done anything to help me. My gut churned. It seemed like an awfully personal thing to ask, especially all things considered.

  I swallowed hard and blinked back the almost overwhelming burning in my eyes. Yeah, well, I’d royally fucked that one up. Tony wouldn’t help me. Kristair couldn’t help me. I was on my own.

  Still running at the easy lope, I started the second lap. It didn’t help, though. My inner demons continued to chase after me. No matter what I did, I couldn’t escape the memories, the regrets. How things had ended with my friend was as much of an open wound as losing Kristair, and there was no chance of a resolution there either, even if his conversation went well with Ussier.

  Chapter 7

  THE CROWD at Pooh Corner hadn’t changed much at all from the night before except that Deke wasn’t at the bar. The lady in his place wore a tight leather vest and the first genuine smile I think I’d seen in the place. I studied her as I walked up the long aisle. The problem with vampires was there was no real way to tell who was a vamp and who was human. I’d recognized Kristair instantly, but now I knew it was because of the bond developing between us, not because he had a huge neon sign over his head that announced he liked to snack on humans.

  Deke’s replacement was human though. I’d stake my life on it. No pun intended. There was an openness about her that was missing in most vamps. They, of course, had to live in secrecy. Still, did she know about her boss? How could you work that close to something like him and not suspect?

  “You Jake?” She asked as I neared the bar.

  I grinned. “The one and only.”

  “Deke and Mr. Ussier are in the back room. They said to go on in.”

  “Anybody else with them?” If Tony didn’t show, I swear I was gonna kick his ass just ’cause.

  “Not yet. They’re still expecting Ms. Dupree and another gentleman.”

  “Thanks.” Frowning, I went around to the back room. It was twenty ’til so Tony still had time to arrive. I just worried though. What if he chickened out? And I couldn’t really blame him either. This was a big thing and he had no reason to trust me.

  The body guards Ussier assigned to me didn’t follow me into the back. I actually hadn’t seen them once since I’d gotten back to my dorm last night. Not until I arrived at Deke’s place. The only thing that told me they were still hanging around was the prickle of awareness at the back of my neck.

  Deke and Ussier were at the small table. It looked like they were modifying the range of semiautomatic weapons arrayed before them. “Is that what you spend all your spare time doing? Making weapons?”

  “I’m always looking for a better way to kill my enemy.”

  The casual way Ussier said it about made my hair stand up on end. “You guys scare me.” That was no damn joke. I joined them at the table, curious despite myself.

  Ussier gave me that wolfish grin of his, complete with dimples. “I believe in survival and I’m not stupid enough to think I’m safe just because I’m at the top of the motherfucking food chain.”

  Deke grunted. “Makes you a bigger target if you ask me.”

  “You talk to that friend of yours, Mr. Corvin?” Ussier shook my hand.

  “Yeah.” I still wasn’t sure Tony would show, but I could hope. “I think he’s suspicious it’s a setup.”

  “Good.”

  “Good?” Ussier’s logic baffled me. “Won’t it be harder to strike a deal then?”

  The vampire leader lifted his head from the gun he was putting back together and shot me a glance of disgust. “Now I know that’s not your old man talking. He’d have known better. Deals are for dipshits.” He shook his head. “I said ‘good’ because it means he’s picked up some brains in the last six months. If you walk into a situation like this without thinking twice about it, you deserve to have your brains bashed in.”

  “What are you if you think twice and still come?”

  “You’ve got balls.” Deke laughed. “And you just might make it.”

  “Glad you think so.”

  I started at the sound of Tony’s voice coming from the door. How long had he been there? I twisted around, studying him now that we weren’t in some murky alleyway. He was definitely paler, but I’d expected that. There was a dark fringe of hair dusting his upper lip, as if his hair had continued to grow for a bit after he was turned and he never bothered to shave it off. The thought made me cringe inside because it made me think of Tony locked in that coffin for who knew how long before he was released.

  I pushed those thoughts away and watched him as he came to the table. I think the thing that changed the most about Tony was the way he moved. Catlike and soundless, with an easy grace, his eyes more green than gray now, gathering the light from the naked bulb hanging overhead.

  “Good to see you, youngling. I would’ve been pissed if I had to call a hunt on you.” Ussier gestured to the empty chair. “Go ahead; sit.”

  “I aim to please,” Tony murmured and sank down into the chair, studying us each in turn.

  “Are we waiting for the wench to show?” Deke asked, starting to pick up all the paraphernalia on the table.

  “No, my youngling waylaid her. I suspect they’ll be occupied a while.”

  “I hope Taylor knows what she’s doing,” Deke said under his breath and rose to stow the box of gun parts on top of the crates along the wall. “Anyone want a beer?”

  “We’ll all have one,” Ussier said and then grinned at me. “Though I’m sure Mr. Corvin would appreciate the tame version.”

  I frowned as Deke opened a fridge. I didn’t think vampires could drink beer. I remember many a time Kristair sitting with me as I ate and drank and he never had anything. Then the answer came to me, filtered through one of Kristair’s memories of vampires taking blood from intoxicated humans and saving it. I shuddered. That was fucking foul.

  Warily, I eyed the bottles Deke set down on the table and my skin crawled as Ussier handed one to Tony then opened up his own. I had to look away as he drank. God help me, I’d loved Kristair, but this was not a world I wanted to be a part of. Deke returned from the bar with a brimming mug of beer. I muttered a “thanks” as he set it down in front of me. It may be genuine, but my stomach roiled at the thought of touching it.

  Ussier sat back in his chair in a pose that somehow seemed indolent and superior all at once. “So youngling, Mr. Corvin tells me the Syndicate’s decided to ignore my promise and has returned anyway. You can start by telling me how many of your people are in my city and where they’re staying.”

  “They’re not my people,” Tony retorted.

  “Semantics. Are you going to argue with me, or are you going to answer my questions?”

  Tony took a deep breath and shoved his hair out of his face. “For right now there’s only about a half a dozen. They’ve rented a house in Oakmont and are planning on bringing more in during the next few weeks. Bit by bit to keep anybody from getting suspicious.”

  Ussier and Deke exchanged sharp glances and Ussier’s eyes narrowed. “Now that’s real interesting. Oakmont, you say?” Tony nodded. “Well now, that’s real, real interesting.”

  I had to admit, I didn’t get it. What was so interesting about Oakmont other than the Syndicate could argue that they weren’t exactly in Pittsburgh? Before I could ask the question, Ussier leaned back in his chair and gestured for Tony to continue. “And you say they’re here to grab Mr. Corvin.”

  “Actually, he’s not the main target.” Tony kept his eyes on Ussier, neither looking at me nor Deke. I didn’t blame him. Ussier could probably leap across the table and have Tony by the throat before he said goddamn.

  “They plan on using him as a distraction and if they manage to nab him as well they’ll look on it a
s an added bonus.” His gaze flickered to me for a second, coldly amused. “They have plans for him if they do.”

  I swear my insides twisted at the nonchalance of his comment. I don’t think I could be expecting another rescue from him if I managed to get myself into another bind. “So last night was a setup. They weren’t really planning on grabbing me and torturing me for what I know.” I didn’t know whether to be pissed or relieved.

  “I think last night was a mistake, or somebody acting outside of orders. The Council is in chaos ever since Roland Montrose was killed. There’s a lot of infighting between the remaining members. If anyone manages to seize control it would be Gabriel Castillo. He’s the most ruthless one there now, only he’s been closeted with his pet prophet for years now, from what I understand. They may have gone after Jake because they wanted Ussier to hear about their presence and distract him. I don’t think they really believed he’d go out of his way to protect you, especially now that the Ancient One is gone. And they honestly don’t think you know a damned thing.”

  Tony studied me, his brows drawn in thought. “But if Ussier’s chasing shadows then that leaves them free to get what they really came for. Or, for that matter, it could’ve just been a pact between those guys hoping they’d score extra points for bringing you in. In that case, they’re lucky they’re already dead because the Council would be furious they’ve alerted Ussier. Nobody seems to know what anybody else is doing. The only thing I can say for certain is what the cell in Oakmont is planning.”

  “Enough with the background bullshit,” Deke growled. “Why are they here?”

  “They’ve come for Artemise Dupree.”

  Ussier went still, the kind of terrible stillness that comes just before striking. Deke began cursing under his breath. Tony shrunk back in his chair as he stared back at the vampire lord. “The Council knows that he isn’t due to go through the changes for at least another century, but they reason that if they get him now, they can watch the process from the beginning. They think they waited too long last time before trying to bring in the Ancient One.”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a fucking minute,” I broke in. “Pittsburgh cannot be the only city with Ancients. Wouldn’t it be easier to go somewhere else and get an unsuspecting one? One who doesn’t have friends already gunning for ya?”

  Tony shrugged. “They carry a grudge. Quite a big one.”

  Ussier leaned over to Deke. “Get Artemise here, and for god’s sake don’t breathe one word of this to Alette. The last thing we need is her going ape shit on us.” Then he pinned Tony with his gaze, all trace of dimples gone. “Tell me, youngling, how is it you know so damn much about what the Council is up to? You’re too young to be wandering about alone. Isn’t someone missing you back home?”

  “That place isn’t my home,” Tony hissed. “Pittsburgh is. In case you forgot, my sire died that night and the people in the Syndicate weren’t too keen on taking me in at all, despite their bullshit philosophy about helping out the younglings and banding together.”

  Deke returned to the table. “He’s on his way. Hugh and Lisabeth are with him.”

  They returned to grilling Tony while I stared at my hands and tried to figure out what I was gonna do from here on. I wasn’t the target, which was cool, but I wasn’t exactly safe either and that was decidedly uncool. I had experienced the Syndicate’s unique brand of torture once before and wasn’t eager to go through it again. I guess the one thing I had going for me was I did have everything they wanted locked inside my head. I just didn’t know if I could stomach using it.

  Then there was my doctor appointment tomorrow afternoon and my meeting with Kayla and Steve whenever it was I got out of here. The anxiety weighed down my chest so badly it made it hard to breathe. One thing at a time. That’s all I could handle, one thing at a time, and right now that one thing was Tony and what was going to happen with him. At this moment, I couldn’t focus on anything else.

  Ussier and Deke conferred in low voices. Tony’s eyes were strained and his mouth was tight, but when he saw me looking at him he scowled. Then to add to the tension, Lisabeth, Hugh, and Artemise stepped into the back room. As Deke rose to gather more chairs, I began to think I never should’ve come. I didn’t belong here. Artemise I had no problem with. He seemed almost friendly, his blue eyes merry as he came forward, leaning on his ever-present cane. He greeted both Tony and I with a handshake and a smile. He was the one who had urged reason over wanton destruction that night. And that had always stuck with me, made me a little ashamed of myself.

  Hugh could’ve been a linebacker. I’d never seen him smile, not once. Granted, I hadn’t spent that much time in his company and I didn’t really want to change that either. Now his scowl was so deeply etched into his dark face it emphasized the harsh planes. It was Lisabeth, however, who really gave me the creeps as she took the chair between Ussier and me.

  I realized I was leaning away from her as Ussier filled them in on the details, but if she made me nervous, she downright freaked the fuck out of Tony as she studied him unblinking. He tried to meet her stare, but ended up glowering down at the table after only a few moments. His fingers twitched as if he wanted to drum them and only managed not to through a supreme effort of will.

  Lisabeth couldn’t have been more than eleven or twelve when she was turned. It was weird to see those old, old eyes on that tiny, midnight-dark face. What kind of person turned a child into a vampire anyway?

  Artemise frowned thoughtfully as Ussier finished his recap and turned to Tony. “I’m curious to hear how this all started. Go on; tell us what happened after you first arrived in Rome.”

  Tony stared at the scarred tabletop and then downed half his beer. “They were divided on what to do with me. Some just wanted to destroy me on the spot. But eventually this other group within the Syndicate took me in. They oppose the Council. They believe that the Council’s methods are going to lead to all of them getting killed.”

  “Well, at least the entire group isn’t butt-assed stupid,” Deke said.

  “Claudia was a member of that particular group.”

  “Who?” Ussier asked.

  Oh Jesus, he had to be joking. “Claudia? You mean the same bitch who attacked Kristair the night he met with the Syndicate? The same bitch who tried to kill him?”

  “She wasn’t trying to kill him—” Tony started, and I jumped to my feet.

  “Ya could’ve fucking fooled me. I was there that night and I saw her attack him.” She had been insane, I’d swear it. I don’t think I’d ever forget how her eyes had burned, her fanaticism glowing from within them.

  “Hold up, Mr. Corvin,” Ussier said in a soft voice. “I want to hear what he has to say.”

  Fuming, I shut up, glaring at Tony as I struggled to get my temper under control. He turned away from me and focused his attention on Ussier as if I wasn’t even there. “The Council was fairly certain the Ancient One wasn’t going to agree. They wanted to put him off guard with the meeting, make them seem harmless, reasonable. Claudia made sure he knew they were a genuine threat. She went in there, knowing she was going to die.”

  “God damned extremists,” Deke said. “I hate ’em, crazy fucking mooks.”

  “There has to be more to it than that,” Ussier disagreed with a frown. “The old man told me something similar and my Razor Children confirmed it. She attacked him to make sure there was no chance of a compromise between Kristair and the Syndicate, ever. The question is why.”

  I frowned, remembering my conversation with Kristair when he’d come to my apartment after the fight. “Okay, so maybe she wasn’t trying to kill him,” I grudgingly admitted. But she was still a nutso freak. “Kristair told me that her faction believed the Council was gaining too much power.”

  “That’s partially it,” Tony said. “It’s how the Council is going about getting the power that disturbs us.” I shivered. Us, Tony grouped himself in with the vampires like Claudia.

  “The Syndicate’s original
purpose was to provide a haven for younger vampires to give us a chance to survive by banding together, but the Council has perverted that purpose. All the Council cares about is getting more power and knowledge, by whatever means necessary, and they can’t see that those very methods are going to destroy them.”

  “That’s the damn truth,” Ussier said. “If they keep trying to abduct Ancients, they’re going to have every older vampire in the world emerging to tear out their throats.”

  “Claudia took it a little further, though. She believed that getting this knowledge the hard way, by learning over the centuries, led to a higher purpose. There are some others who believe it as well and they’re all as fanatical as her. The rest of us just want to get by and not draw attention to ourselves.”

  “Kristair believed something similar,” I said. “He was mostly offended by the Syndicate before things got bloody because he thought the knowledge had to be earned, not freely given.” It was like with his books in his precious library. He shared them, but on his own terms and no more.

  “I can agree with that,” Ussier said. “The things we learn to do, they’re hard won. It gives us our edge. I’m not going to share that with very many people. And who even says it can be taught? It’s like a talent. Either it emerges or it doesn’t.”

  That tickled something in the back of my brain, but I remained silent for now. If Tony and the other members of the Syndicate believed I knew nada, I was kinda inclined to keep the truth to myself. Besides, I wasn’t sure I wanted to explore the niggling thought despite my promise to Ussier to tap into Kristair’s knowledge. God only knew what it would do to me.

  “Now that Montrose is gone, Castillo is trying to consolidate his position, promising the rest of the Council immortality if they back him. Or at least that’s the rumor.”

  “Immortality? Aren’t vampires immortal already?” I asked. “That’s kinda overkill, don’t you think?”

  “There are many definitions of immortality,” said Lisabeth. “A vampire can still be destroyed, no matter how powerful they are. Perhaps they seek a way around that.”