by Julie Wetzel
“She did,” Darien agreed. “But it wasn’t by choice.” He glanced over at Vicky as he explained. “Kusanagi had taken something from her and was forcing her to help him.”
Whatever Kusanagi had taken must have been very important to Shuri. “So you agreed to help her?”
There was a long pause before Darien answered. “If I had done nothing, Kusanagi would have discovered Shuri’s betrayal and come after both of us. And I couldn’t just leave. Shuri wouldn’t tell me where she had hidden you.”
“So you challenged Kusanagi,” she said, working through the logic to see that he really didn’t have a choice in his actions.
“I really didn’t want to kill him, but I couldn’t find a way around it,” Darien said unhappily. Realization flashed across his face, and he cursed as he slammed on the brake. “I forgot about the body!” he said in a horrified tone.
Vicky reached out and placed her hand on his arm. “Is he going to come back?” she said calmly.
Darien looked down at where she comforted him before meeting her eyes. “No. I left him in a very sorry state.”
Horrible thoughts raced through her mind, but she pushed them away. She wasn’t exactly sure what he meant by a sorry state, but she was sure she didn’t want to think about it. “Then let the Council people deal with him,” she said. “I’m sure they can take care of one body.”
A thoughtful look crossed Darien’s face. “You’re probably right,” he agreed. “The mats will have soaked up most of the mess, so it should be easy just to roll them up and burn them.”
Vicky raised a curious eyebrow at him. “Do I want to know?”
Darien grimaced at her, thinking of what he had done. “Not really.”
“Then leave it to the Council,” she said again. “You need to rest more than you need to worry about micromanaging the situation.”
Chuckling, Darien lifted his foot off the brake and put the car back into motion. “I’ll call Shuri to make sure it’s taken care of when we get back to the hotel.”
Vicky shook her head but let the conversation fall into a comfortable silence as she looked out of the window and watched the darkened countryside roll past. After a few minutes, she drew in a breath and turned to face Darien again. “So what do we do now?”
“I don’t know,” Darien admitted in a tired voice. “My plans ended when I got you back from Shuri. I’m going to have to really think about what to do with the Hawaiian Council now that I’ve taken it over.” He paused as the seriousness of his predicament hit him. “Damn it. I don’t want to run a Council. I’ve got too much going on already,” he said, slightly angry at the entire situation.
The silence hung between them for a few minutes as they thought about everything. Finally, Vicky broke the atmosphere with a disappointed breath. “I guess this means our vacation is over.”
After considering her disappointment, Darien gave her a quick glance with a smile. “I don’t see why it should be.”
“But the Council?” Vicky protested, unable to see how they could continue on with their plans and take care of Darien’s new responsibilities. Running his new kiss had been a major undertaking. Running a full Council was going to be a monumental task!
“It will take the Council members a few days to get out to their people, gather them up, and get back to the complex,” he explained. “I don’t see why we should waste that time sitting around in the hotel. A lot of the arrangements have already made and now that I’m head of the Council, no one’s going to complain that we’re someplace we shouldn’t be. What would you like to do?”
“Everything!” Vicky squeaked in glee.
Darien laughed out loud. “Then we shall start first thing in the morning.”
Leaning over, Vicky pecked him on the cheek before relaxing back into her seat for the rest of the ride back to the hotel. Excitement filled her as she thought about all the things to see and do on the island. They would finally get to enjoy their honeymoon for a while.
The stuffed sea turtle was massive. With a shell that was two feet wide and nearly three feet long, it was all Vicky could do to carry the fluffy creature out of the gift shop. The Waikiki Aquarium had been amazing. “Thank you,” she said as she cuddled the turtle and bumped into Darien’s side.
Darien smiled and shifted his sack of gifts from one hand to the other so he could wrap his arm up around Vicky’s shoulder. “You’re welcome,” he said and squeezed her to his side. He watched as she ran her fingers through the soft fur on the turtle shell. “You know, I would have gotten you the big one.”
Laughing, Vicky hugged the stuffed toy tighter, thinking about the monstrous sea turtle that had been the centerpiece of the gift shop’s display. She, Darien, and Zak could have slept on top of the thing with room to spare. “And how would we have gotten it home?” she teased.
“I’m sure they could have shipped it,” Darien said with a twinkle in his eye.
Vicky laughed again. “I like this one,” she said, holding the massive turtle she’d chosen out to look at it. “Do you think Zak will like it?”
Eyeing the fluffy beast, Darien considered Zak and how the hellhound treated everything he could get his grubby little tentacles around. “He might eat it if you’re not careful.”
Drawing the turtle back into her arms, Vicky squeezed the thing tight. “He better not! It’s for the babies.”
Darien chuckled. “Then you should probably let the little monster know it’s off limits.”
Considering this, Vicky nodded. “Point.” She snuggled into Darien’s side as they walked down the sidewalk to the parking lot. Her eyes were drawn to Mano waiting on the curb for them. The day had been perfect, but soon night would fall. Her joy slipped as she thought about what was to come. “We meet with the Council tonight, don’t we?”
Darien drew in a resigned breath and let it out quickly. “Yes,” he said unhappily.
“Have you decided what to do with them?” she asked softly.
“No.”
Vicky held her breath waiting for Darien to explain.
After a few steps, he finally went on. “I’ve considered all the options I can think of but none of them are acceptable.”
That didn’t sound very good to Vicky. “What are the options?” she asked, trying to think of a way to help him make this decision.
“There aren’t many,” Dairen explained as they approached the car. Handing the bag of trinkets over to Mano, Darien let the subject hang as he took the large turtle from Vicky and helped Mano stuff the unwieldy thing into the trunk of the car. “Thank you,” he said to Mano as the man added his weight to the trunk lid, forcing the thing to latch. Holding out his hand, he ushered Vicky into the car and climbed in behind her.
“So what are they?” Vicky prompted as soon as they were both settled into the car.
“Well,” Darien started again. “The most obvious choice is for me to take on the responsibilities of the Grand Master and lead the Council, but that would mean uprooting and moving to Hawaii.”
Vicky made a disapproving face. “I’m sure your board would just love that.”
There was a note of sarcasm to her voice that made Darien smile. “It wouldn’t be hard to retire from the company and leave it for the board to run,” he said.
Shock widened Vicky’s eyes. “You would do that?”
Darien nodded. “It’s something I’ve considered.” He wrapped his arm around Vicky and reached over to rub her belly. “Especially now that I have a family to think of.” Leaning over, he kissed her cheek before sitting up and letting out a snort of indecision. “But I’d still have to move the kiss down, and I don’t think anyone would be happy about that.”
Vicky leaned into his side and smiled, thinking of the fuss that would be raised if they told everyone that they had to move to Hawaii. “No,” she said, shaking her head. “What’s next?”
“I could relinquish my claim on the Hawaiian Council, go back to Brenton, and forget about this whole sordid a
ffair,” Darien suggested.
This sounded like a good suggestion to Vicky, but there had to be something wrong with it or Darien would have suggested it first. “And the drawback?”
There was another long pause as Darien gathered his thoughts to answer her. “A Grand Master’s job isn’t to just run a Council. They also protect it. If I withdraw from the Council, I’ll basically be abandoning them. In their weakened condition, anyone who wanted Hawaii could come in and try to take them over. The power struggle would be devastating to the vampires of the area and could go on for years.”
“Okay,” Vicky said, agreeing that this was not a plausible solution to the problem. “So we can’t leave them to their own devices.” She paused and studied their chauffer. She could tell he was doing his best to pretend he wasn’t hanging on every word they said as he drove them back to their hotel. She turned her attention back to Darien. “So what else?”
He let out a forlorn sigh. “That’s it,” he said, resigned to his two choices. “I can either keep them or abandon them.”
Vicky’s brow furrowed in concern. “There’s got to be more options than that.” There was no way that there were only two solutions to the problem.
“Vampire laws are pretty rigid and when it comes to this stuff,” Darien explained. “The situation deals with a great deal of power that, improperly handled, can bring disaster to the Council.”
“Okay,” she said and worked through the problem in her head. “We can’t abandon them, but we can’t move down here either.” She paused and glanced at the local handling the car. “I mean, I like Hawaii,” she said, trying to make sure she wasn’t offending Mano, “but I would miss my friends too much if we stayed.”
“Then what do you suggest?” Darien asked, unable to come up with another answer.
Vicky sat forwards, placed her elbows on her knees, and hung her head as she processed the situation again. “Let’s try thinking outside the box,” she said after a few minutes of hard thinking. She sat up and turned to Darien patiently waiting for her to speak. “You can’t give up your responsibilities to the Council, but do you have to be here to run it?”
Darien cocked his head in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“Can you get somebody to run it for you? Like the board that runs your company while you’re gone?”
“Run it by proxy?” Darien asked, considering the idea.
“Yes.”
Darien turned the idea over in his head, looking for holes. “I don’t see why not,” he said when he couldn’t find any problem with the idea. “It’s not uncommon to leave a Council with a second for a short period of time. But I couldn’t do it for more than a few months. Six at the most. Anything longer than that and the link would weaken, leaving the Council abandoned and unprotected.”
“So we get somebody down here to run it for now.”
Darien smiled at her, loving the way she’d stepped up to help him figure out the situation. “And who would you suggest?” he asked more seriously.
“Elliot?” she suggested.
“No,” Darien said, shaking his head. “I need Elliot at home to help with the kiss. Besides, I don’t think he would be willing to take on this responsibility. Not as he is right now.” He hoped that his talk with Elliot would help to straighten the man out, but Darien was afraid that it was going to take more than a few hard words and shared memories to get his second back into the shape he needed to be in.
“True.” Vicky agreed. “How about the twins?”
Laughing, Darien shook his head, ruling them out. “It would be a great way to get them out of our hair, but whomever I choose has to be a master, and they aren’t quite there yet.”
Vicky gave him a meek smile. “It was an idea.”
“It was a great idea,” Darien agreed, seeing the merits of packing the twins off to a remote island where they wouldn’t be running around his house all day long, “but even if they were masters, I’m not sure I would be willing to send them down here. I’m not sure Hawaii could handle those two!”
More giggles erupted from Vicky as she thought of all the trouble Jakob and Josh could get into with the entire Hawaiian Islands at their beck and call. “Point,” she said when her mirth subsided. She drew in a calming breath and got more serious about the problem. “So what about one of the masters from the Hawaiian Council?”
Darien opened his mouth to refuse, but stopped and considered it. “That’s an excellent idea.” He turned the idea over a few more times, studying it. “But there’s one problem. I don’t know them well enough to choose.” He looked down at Vicky, wanting to make sure she understood him. “If I choose the wrong person, it could lead to in-fighting and might tear the Council apart.”
“Then how about we ask somebody who knows?” she suggested.
“Who?”
Vicky looked up at the man driving the car. “Mano,” she called, making sure he was listening to them. “How long have you worked for the Hawaiian Council?”
Mano met her eyes in the rearview mirror. “Since I was fifteen.”
Vicky nodded. “And would you say you know the Council well?”
He glanced at Darien before looking back at Vicky. “Yes.”
“And who do you think would do the best job running the Council?” she asked.
“Makani,” Mano said, without taking time to think about his answer.
“Why?” Darien asked.
Mano stopped at a light and met Darien’s eyes in the mirror. They held each other’s gaze for a long time before Mano dropped his eyes to watch where he was going. “Of all the members of the Council, Makani is the oldest,” he finally answered. “His sire ran the Council before Kusanagi took over.”
“And do you think he’d be willing to run the Council for me?” Darien asked, considering what Mano had said.
“Yes,” Mano answered, glancing in the mirror again. “Makani isn’t just a local, he’s native. And he would be willing to do what was best for the Islands.”
“Okay,” Vicky said as she put things together. “So we need to talk with Makani to see if he’s willing to run the Council.” She nodded, seeing this could be the answer they needed.
“If he’s willing to do it, that’ll take care of the needs of the Council for now,” Darien said withholding the enthusiasm building inside him. Getting a native to run the Council was a fantastic idea. “But that still doesn’t solve the problem long term,” he said and pondered the rest of the issue.
Vicky let out a defeated breath and flopped back in the seat. “So what do we do?”
Darien let his mind work on the potential of the situation as they rode. After a little while, something came to him that drove his eyebrow up in curiosity. “I might have an answer,” he said softly, considering this new option.
Vicky sat up straighter.
Ignoring her, Darien considered the man driving the car. “Mano, where can I find Makani right now?”
Mano thought about it for a moment before answering. “He should be back at the complex preparing for tonight’s meeting.”
“Then take us to the complex, please,” Darien said.
“Darien?” Vicky asked when he didn’t come out and share his thoughts.
“There’s a way to gift a Council seat to a younger member of a kiss, but I will require some finagling to make it work with the Grand Master’s seat,” Darien explained. “I need to talk to Makani before I know if it will work.” He sat back and thought his plan through as Mano turned the car around and headed to the Council’s complex. If all went well, this could be the answer to all of their issues.
***
As the car pulled up outside the familiar house, Darien popped the door and was out before it completely stopped. His mind had been working out the logistics for the solution to his problems and it was nearly perfect, but he was missing one thing: Makani’s cooperation. Darien wasn’t sure he would get it once the native vampire heard what it entailed. But the excitement of the prospect m
oved his feet up the pathway to the door.
“Darien!” Vicky yelled as she hurried out of the car and chased after him.
Darien slowed to wait for her. Once she reached his side, he pulled the door open and let them both inside.
The cool air of the main hall soothed the sting of the sun from his skin. Darien looked around, trying to decide where to start looking first. Makani had to be here somewhere. The sound of the floor in the hall to his right stopped him from racing off. He needed to calm down so he could handle this situation properly, if he had any hopes of putting his plan into action. Drawing in a calming breath, Darien settled down and pushed his excitement away.
“What’s going on?” Vicky whispered, trying to figure her husband out. She could feel him trying to control his enthusiasm, but he didn’t answer. Instead, he shook his head and waited for the person coming down the hall to step out into the main room.
When Polunu stepped down from the hall, Darien smiled to himself. In the few short visits Darien had had with the man, he hadn’t been the politest of people, but he had a feeling that was about to change. “Polunu,” he called out to the man as he walked towards him. “Do you know where I can find Makani?”
Polunu’s spine went rigid. “I’m a master,” the man snapped. “And Master Makani is where you should be, preparing for tonight’s meeting with the Council.”
There was a bitterness to the man’s voice that drove a shard of irritation into Darien’s good mood and a sinister smile to his face. He was tired of the man’s outright hostility. It was time to take the younger vampire down a notch. “I am well aware of your status, fledgling,” he said in a low tone as he approached the offensive man. “And why should I prepare for a meeting when Makani has it well in hand?” His tone took on an antagonizing note. Darien could feel Vicky’s concern through their link, but he kept his attention on Polunu. The comments hit their mark and Darien watched as Polunu went red in the face and took a challenging step towards Darien. “I would think twice before you commit to that action, young one,” Darien warned.