by Kay Williams
Sat around Carson’s table were Ross and Valdine who seemed more content to scowl at each other than to notice our arrival. The last man must have been another Councillor; he was tall with a short crop of dark hair, a lean frame and looked in his mid-twenties. He was attempting to get between his two colleagues with soft words that didn’t seem to be impressing the others.
Carson cleared his throat and the three looked up.
“You remember Valdine and James. Jonathan Shay, Hannah Roberts. Everyone, this is the dragon Aolir.”
“It's very nice to meet you, Miss Roberts,” Shay smiled. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“Hello,” I replied.
Carson took a seat next to him and Aolir and I found chairs at the other end of the table.
“Hello?” Valdine queried, bringing me back to the room. “That’s all you have got to say for yourself?”
“What would you like me to say?”
“Perhaps some form of 'I’m sorry'.”
“For what?”
“You killed a man last night,” Valdine snapped.
“So did he,” I replied harshly, I wouldn’t let the men at this table forget Pear.
“So it’s an eye for an eye is it?” Ross demanded.
“Don’t you judge me!” I yelled. I didn’t mean to and I almost frightened myself with the sound, but it caused all four of them to hesitate. “You are the Council for your people, you are supposed to be reason and justice and punishment but you only care to do it when it is your own Faction the crimes are committed against. How often do you turn a blind eye to the failings of your people? Have you even managed them at all? Or do you wait until Human police catch up with them, and then send in Anthony to get them out on some legal technicality, only to turn them loose back on the street with a slap on the wrist? How many people has Snow taken because of their taste or their abstract? How many have you allowed to be abused because it doesn’t interfere with your work or your play? You may get an Eternal life but I only have one short one, and I don’t have time to waste waiting for you to do your job.”
Valdine drew himself up as if I had insulted him directly. Ross blinked at me as if I had only just appeared, Carson had looked away guiltily and Shay was surprisingly smiling at me in agreement.
“It is not your place to decide our justice for us,” Valdine censored me.
“No. It is your place,” I agreed. “It is your place and you ignore your duty, you have no morals, no regard for life and to me that doesn’t just make you a worthless politician it makes you a poor specimen of a man.”
Valdine’s cheeks hollowed.
“Miss Roberts,” Shay spoke quietly. “Last night you were forced to do our job for us, and you did it very well.”
“John!” Ross protested.
“Don’t try to defend Charlie Snow to me, James,” Shay cut him off with a stern note. “He killed one man by tearing his throat out without compassion or Bespelling solely to get at Hannah; he did not do so to feed and was not in bloodlust. Charlie murdered an innocent man, and would have done worse to another innocent to satisfy only himself.”
“Before the Pause if this had happened you would have sent me to post bail,” Carson agreed. “We would have given him a good talking to and sent him on his way, not with a threat, but a warning not to get caught doing it again.”
Valdine squirmed as the hard truth was laid on the table.
“What did you mean when you said I had done your job very well?” I asked.
“You did it in such a way as to remove yourself from suspicion and at the same time making it look like an accident,” Shay explained. “I wish Anthony had had the sense to do something about it when you were first attacked.”
“I consulted Valdine and Ross for a vote and the majority was to let it play out, it wasn’t want I wanted,” Carson protested.
“Then you should have acted, Anthony!” Shay scowled him. “Aolir is sitting right there, you had his number and he clearly is happy to help. You are capable of thinking for yourself without a vote. It’s this stilted attitude that makes Hannah right when she said we don’t manage our people properly.”
Carson looked down at the table and closed his eyes.
“Mistakes have been made,” Aolir spoke before Ross’s open mouth could begin another argument. “The reason we are here is to find out what you intend to do about it.”
“Long and the rest of his...‘Team’...” Shay shot me an apologetic look as if he wasn’t sure how to refer to my situation.
“Cult,” I offered.
“That’s a bit melodramatic,” Valdine snarled.
“Cult,” Shay agreed. “They have gone underground. Anthony did manage to trace them and gave the information to the police last night who were none too pleased to find out they had been left out of the loop in our hunt for known offenders and that someone had been killed because of our slow reactions. They did however put some men in a dawn raid that came up with nothing, I guess that after Snow didn’t check in and with the police crawling all over the museum Long must have decided to play it safe.”
“Which leaves me where?” I asked.
“In need of protection,” Carson answered. “At least until we can find them.”
“I cannot stay with you indefinitely,” Aolir spoke. “I still have a job to do at the fair, and my tent is hardly comfortable, but it is safe.”
“You can stay here,” Carson offered. “John and James will be here as well.”
“I’ll go with Aolir if he doesn't mind, ” I answered. Carson took it as a slap but looked away without a word, I hadn't meant to make him feel inferior and added. “Aolir can’t
hunt Dependants without risking infection. You can.”
“My charms and wards will protect the tent and everything in it even when I am not there.”
“Alright,” Carson agreed.
“You should get settled before nightfall,” Valdine said. “It is harder for you to be followed in daylight.”
“I would like to get my things into storage.”
“Your life is in danger and you are worried about your things,” Valdine winged an eyebrow.
“Unless your things represent a lifetime of collecting and of restoration and are insured collectively for nearly half a million pounds you wouldn’t have any idea of how important they are,” I answered. “If they know where I work then they know where I live.”
“And in an effort to draw you out if you vanish something like a fire would be very simple to organise,” Ross completed my thought.
“I’ll sort it,” Carson promised. “I have a big locker in Wandsworth, everything will be safe there. I promise.”
“Thank you.”
“We’ll catch them, Hannah,” Carson promised. “I know that it’s delayed and you have been forced to do something that will be with you for a lifetime because of our slow reactions, especially after you gave us everything we asked for.”
“What did we ask for?” Shay looked confused.
“She kindly gave a donation to Valdine’s cause.”
“And you voted to let the Long come after her?” Shay’s eyes narrowed in anger at Valdine. “You heartless bastard.”
I rather liked Shay in that moment.
“I didn’t think there was any danger, I thought maybe she was over exaggerating Long’s request.”
Aolir issued a snarl that vibrated the windowpanes, he had saved my life that afternoon when his Camouflage Spell had come between me and the hunting Dependants, I might have been exaggerating but Aolir wouldn't have, and the footage from his camera couldn't lie.
“And what was your excuse?” Shay turned his frown on Ross. “Or could you just not be bothered?”
“Valdine needed me to install and configure some new lab tech,” Ross’s cheeks hollowed.
“Lab tech that he wouldn’t have needed without Hannah’s blood?” Shay guessed, shaking his head. “You are both as selfish as each other.”
I mentally w
ished a Blood Bond on to each other Councillors, Carson I felt needed a friend and the other two needed reality checks to draw them out of their own self-contained little worlds. Although I could tell Carson was trying Shay appeared to be the only one with a moral compass.
“Hannah,” I looked over to Aolir and saw only disgust in his expression. “Let's get going before they start squabbling again. I have to be back at the fair by this evening.”
“Alright,” I agreed readily.
Carson and Shay saw us to the door to the music of Valdine and Ross attempting to
blame each other for the vote they had cast which could have ended my life.
“Anthony and I have lots of experience, Hannah,” Shay offered as Carson opened the door. “This will be over quickly.”
Aolir slipped his hand into mine and issued another snarl; though this one I felt was born of frustration.
“With respect Councillor, it is no wonder that you can’t rule your people when you fight amongst yourselves, your Faction is not a law unto themselves.”
“I’m working on it,” Shay promised.
Aolir just shook his head and pulled me back towards the car.
It would be an impossible task for the one of their number who had any morals to try and impress them on those who had lost their code or had it worn away from too many years without a direction.
Mentally I wished him luck, in truth the meeting had only left me with the impression that Long would find me, and when he did it would be up to me to take care of myself. Not once had any of them ventured any clear-cut promise of what they would do with Long when he was caught, the implication that justice would be harsh wasn’t enough for me.
There was only one outcome that I wanted, only one way to send a clear message to the other Dependants that might want, or already were, taking advantage of abstracts or people with potent blood. But I didn’t think the Council had it in them to commit themselves to it.
# # #
Aolir took me back home and I packed a light bag, something in me knew that the next few days were going to be the deciding ones and there was no need to plan for a long trip.
We went through my fridge and freezer packing a second bag of food. Aolir appeared to be a better cook and I didn’t think it fair that he should have to feed me as well. Especially as I intended to eat more while there was the distinct possibility that Long and his men would try again, both out for my blood and for vengeance; I was going to need the extra food to fuel my abstract.
It was only a short drive back to Hyde Park, where Aolir left the car with an attendant.
“Why do you have rental cars?”
“Some of the fair’s staff have to live on Earth planning for our visits, especially for these kind of huge events,” Aolir explained as we walked back towards his tent. “The cars are shared between those staff and us when we are on Earth.”
“That makes sense.”
I stayed close to Aolir through the crowd of people who were visiting or perhaps revisiting the fair, every one of them believing it was just another day. Most of them would have read or seen in the news about Pear’s death and they had probably shaken their heads or sighed over it, then dismissed it to carry on with their days.
I had thought of the Dependants as being cold hearted because they didn’t police their people, but everyone who surrounded me now entrusted that duty to the authorities so they didn’t have to worry about it themselves. Giving to charity when they could but not worrying about it if they didn’t, it was no wonder that over the course of hundreds of years Dependants lost their Human thoughts and feelings, they had all been like the people around me now.
Time could only dull the flaws that were already there.
If I lived through this I would apologise to Carson for thinking of his people so meanly.
I was also very aware that people running stalls or games nodded in recognition to Aolir and despite the fact he had been gone all night, was now holding my hand, between us we had three bags and were clearly intent on reaching his tent, no-one so much as battered an eye.
I doubted that Aolir had ever taken a girl to his tent who had quite as much baggage as I did but he clearly had a lot of different visitors for none of his colleagues or friends to think it strange. I was actually rather grateful for it, it helped me reinforce the feelings I had had this morning, it would be fun while it lasted, but there was no point in hoping it would be something more meaningful.
Aolir’s tent was untouched and chilled without a fire but he quickly got one going with a few logs in the pit and a well-placed cough. I had never seen a dragon in their true form and I had only seen a few basic Spells, but Aolir’s confidence in his own powers and in displaying them was impressive to me. Perhaps it was because I was so self-conscious about displaying my own, maybe I could stand to learn a thing or two from the dragon.
“You should have stayed with Carson,” Aolir commented. “This is fine for me but not good for you.”
“I’d rather be here,” I replied.
“Really?” Aolir queried. “Is that why you are trying to pretend that last night didn’t happen?”
I flinched back a step. He shook his head with a scowl, his disappointment was a tangible force in the air and it threw me sideways so hard for a moment I couldn’t breathe, let alone think straight, but my silence only seemed to infuriate Aolir.
“I’m sorry,” I began, his instant growl didn’t help me get my thoughts in order, I had been so prepared for him to be the one backing away I had never even thought about what it would be like if he had felt that last night was more than a distraction or stress relief. “Aolir, listen, please. My abstract, the force of it as raw potential, frightens people.”
“I am not people.” Aolir drew himself up to his impressive height and the wounded look in his eyes told me he was genuinely offended by the simplification.
“I know that,” I agreed. “But I am used to people who just want to be friends, or who run as fast as they can in the other direction, and you aren’t people so just because you want to help, which I am very grateful for, I didn’t want to assume that that meant something.”
“So last night was gratitude?” He made a face that was caught between a wince and disgust.
“No,” I wasn’t explaining myself very well. Then again I had never had much practice at it, morning afters were usually awkward and painful affairs better of forgotten. “Gratitude sounds a bit more sedate than the tangle we got into.”
That made Aolir snort with soft amusement.
“I wouldn’t have had to entangle you if you weren’t so small, slight and nimble.”
I decided to take that as a compliment.
“Lie still next time; got it.”
Aolir frowned and came back across the tent to enfold me in his arms.
“I don’t think I would enjoy it half as much as if you lay still.”
“I can throw things at you if you like?”
“You are deliberately misunderstanding me.”
“I intend to be difficult for the dragon that went through my things with a fine-tooth comb.”
“You have a very eclectic hoard.” His chuckle was soft and a little guilty.
“Thank you. Aolir?”
“Hmm?” The sound he made was contented and vibrated along my skin as he manoeuvred me closer against his chest and rubbed his cheek against my forehead. Even after a night of having his scales caressing my sensitive and intimate parts the sensation of each of the little scales defined against my skin was new and I was hyper aware of it.
“How come none of your colleagues seem surprised you are bringing a woman back to your tent?”
“They were surprised, they just know better than to show it.”
“What does that mean?”
“If your boss walked across the office with a strange woman in an unprofessional sense would you comment?”
“You own the fair?” I stuttered in my surprise and jerked out of his arms.
“Not the whole thing, it is rather large. What did you think I did that allowed me to ditch everything at a moment’s notice and come to your aid?”
I felt ashamed that I had never even considered it, as if reading my expression he tugged me back in close and made that contended sound again, purring I realised a little amazed, or the dragon equivalent of it anyway.
“My boss is laid back but I wouldn’t risk it,” I offered instead.
“There you are then. May I borrow your reproof?”
“My what?”
“When you told Valdine that ‘he was a poor specimen of a man’ I like that, I can think of people that would apply to.”
“Oh. Sure,” I agreed flushing despite myself.
“No guilt now, Hannah,” Aolir reproached me with mock sternness. “It’s so much more fun when you just be yourself. I would not be surprised to learn it is not your abstract that bothers people.”
“Aolir?”
“If attraction was so easily understood,” the dragon replied, seeming to know where my hesitant tone was leading. “Then there would be no mystery to passion.”
It was a kind way for the dragon to say that he was as baffled by his own pre-occupation with me as I was to be on the receiving end of it, but he was braver than I was because he was willing to indulge in it.
I had had too many pointless goodbyes to make as light of it as he was.
There in Aolir’s arms, his reassuring rumbled purrs vibrating against my skin, I wondered if my abstract was less about inspiring a fear and more about putting up a shield. Nothing was more uncomfortable in a newly forming relationship of any kind than emotional distance, or the feeling that you just aren’t reaching the person you are trying
to connect to.
For so long I had thought of myself as thin and unattractive but Aolir wasn’t bothered by those things, he wasn’t bothered by whatever it was that had scared off so many before him, he wasn’t bothered by my flat and actually delighted in my possessions to the point where I wanted to ask him to turn out his pockets.
Rather miserably it was me that turned out to be the problem but not in the way I had always assumed.