Tommy clutched her oval face with both hands as I set the decanter down.
“Vampires exist,” she wheezed, hazel eyes huge. “Teeth. How is that possible? Wait, the lady said they don’t know. But they’ve been around a while. Fuck. Fuck! Does this mean werewolves are real? They’re like yin and yang, right? Corn cobs and butter. Teeth.”
I let her babble wash over me and tugged her to the chaise.
She sank onto the cushions without prompt.
“Shh,” I said, pulling her into my arms. “I’ve got you.”
She shook in my embrace, and guilt swarmed me. Did I do right by telling her? I knew exactly how adrift she felt right now.
Knowing all that, I’d still told her.
“It’ll be okay. I swear to you.” I hushed into her chestnut hair.
“You went through this alone.” Her voice cracked.
“Yeah, but I’ve got you now.”
She hiccupped, arms clamped around my waist. “Damn straight you have. W-We’ll get through it.”
It wasn’t a temporary thing, more like the rest of our lives. Tommy would have more freedom—not having a personal homing beacon in her blood or compulsion on her mind. Surely she’d be safer for knowing Vissimo existed in the long run.
I tightened my hold on her. “Yes. We will.”
A knock sounded.
“Who disturbs my reverie?” I boomed.
“Fred, Miss Le Spyre.”
I pulled away from Tom and fixed her with a look. “Did you hear the end of the recording?” It was crucial she understood the very real danger the vampire presented.
Her bottom lip trembled. “Yep. I heard.”
“You can never, ever speak of what you know outside of this room? Not to your father, not to your future penis, not to brats you spawn. You never know when they might be listening.”
She narrowed her gaze. “Was the woman speaking in fucking Icelandic? I understand.”
Fuck me. Her emotions were bouncing faster than a rubber ball in a concrete room.
“Come in,” I called.
He pulled the heavy doors open but lingered on the threshold. “I’ve come at a bad time.”
Tommy dropped her head into her hands, wailing and hiccupping.
I dragged my gaze from her to the butler. “Long overdue reunion.”
“I see.”
Tommy’s sobbing swelled, and I winced.
Fred kept his polite gaze trained on me. “Is there anything I can procure for Miss Tommy to make her feel better?”
“Tequila,” she choked out.
Couldn’t judge her for that.
The butler bowed, glancing my way. “I’m afraid we are fresh out of tequila, Miss Tommy. I will send someone to replenish our stocks, and in the meantime—”
Tommy wiped her nose on her sleeve. “Jägermeister?”
Ew.
“At once,” he replied.
He met my gaze again, hesitating.
I smiled. “Is there something else?”
He recovered, shaking his head. “Nothing that can’t wait, Miss Le Spyre. Do you require anything else?”
There was an entire list of things I required, top of that list being some way to sever the connection between Kyros and me. Could the butler do that?
Tommy slid onto the floor and began crawling to the decanters.
I cleared my throat. “Yes, Fred. Please set up the movie projector in my suite. We’ll need to watch musicals for the rest of the day.”
Across the room, Tommy pulled herself up, draping herself along the mantle as she reached for the brandy.
Shit.
“Better have some cheeseburger pizza and mint ice cream whipped up too,” I added, hurrying to intercept her.
He bowed. “As you say, Miss Le Spyre.”
This was going to be a long-ass day. I blew out a breath, knowing I should feel bad. Terrible, really. I’d completely undone my friend—for life.
But Tommy was back with me despite all odds. I had my best friend again, for better or worse. Call me soulless, call me the worst fucking friend in the world, but finally, something had gone my way.
And damned if I was going to let anybody take that away from me.
Sleeping was hard without tequila. Really fucking hard.
So the rap at my door didn’t drag me from slumber whatsoever.
I froze, lifting my head, but Tommy didn’t stir on the bed next to me. Thank the powers for small mercies.
I untangled myself from the duvet, the pleading voices of Sandy and Danny in Grease winding through my lounge from the projector.
Cracking open the entrance, I squinted at Fred in the dimly lit hall.
“Miss Le—”
I held a finger to my lips.
Sidling out, I drew the door closed. “She’s asleep. I don’t want to wake her.”
“Forgive the intrusion. Is Miss Tommy well?”
Nope.
“She’ll get there. Did you get the medical certificate to her boss?” I answered.
“Yes. I took the liberty of letting Mr Tetley know she was safe and cared for too.”
I’d called the stable master to say Tommy and I were working through a few things and she was staying with me for a while. “Thank you. Does something else require my attention?”
Hesitation flickered on his lined face before his features hardened. “I had hoped to wait until Miss Tommy was better, but four days have passed.”
Tell me about it.
Tommy was rocking this mental breakdown hard. I’d listened to back-to-back musicals for over one hundred hours. Around the thirty-six-hour mark, Tommy decided she really liked My Fair Lady. If I had to listen to “The Rain in Spain” one more time I’d lose the plot.
Again.
I pressed my ear against the door, listening. Nothing. Maybe she’d finally passed out instead of jolting awake every hour.
“We’re good for a bit.” I straightened.
He stepped back. “This way, please, Miss Le Spyre.”
I frowned at his tone. “Something is really wrong?”
“The cameras picked up a group lurking close by. Daniel rerouted some of the cameras to the roads and properties surrounding the estate. It appears the lurkers retreat during the day, creeping closer at night, but there’s no mistake they are surrounding the property.”
Ah, fuck nuts.
“Do they come any closer?”
“They remain just inside the perimeter. I upped our security measures as a precaution, but for all intents and purposes, the group is either gathering intel or waiting for something. I am as yet unsure.”
We entered the small office toward the front of the main house, tucked away down a smaller hall. Cameras lined one wall while the long desk was filled with screens.
“Hey, Daniel,” I greeted the rake-thin man on the chair there who managed our online and our home security.
He smiled. “Miss Le Spyre. It’s nice to see you again.”
Sober? Or in general?
“And you. How are Marissa and the girls?”
“Better since the twins started school. Marissa feels halfway human again, I think.”
I arched a brow. “I’m sure. Please send her my regards.”
He beamed. “I will.”
My grandmother’s staid voice filled my head. You do not ask, Basilia. You shall be the head of estate. “Please bring up the footage of our guests, Daniel.”
He swivelled in the chair, hands flying over the keys. “Take a look at the top-right screen. These people are good. They know where our main cameras are. But your grandmother asked me to hide cameras in the gargoyles last year. Our visitors haven’t spotted them.”
A tall, willowy shadow moved across the camera. Female visible by her silhouette. The night settings showed her as a green frame.
I relaxed somewhat.
“How many?” I asked. It wasn’t the Tonyi triplets, or at least they weren’t alone, and that didn’t seem like their style. Th
e female could be any of the Fyrlia princesses, I supposed. But I doubted they dressed in leather jackets. Still, the lurkers could be Fyrlia Indebted.
Daniel brought up more footage. I scanned the screens quickly. All female. All in leather jackets.
“Seven, we believe.”
I’d say that was spot on. “All females, yes?”
“Correct, Miss Le Spyre. Any idea who it could be?”
Oh, I had an idea alright.
If Laurel and the rest of my crew were here, they were listening to this entire conversation. Which meant they’d intended estate security to notice them.
I pushed off the desk. “Where are they right now?”
“Spread out around the perimeter, miss. The last sighting was in the nut orchard.”
“Okay, I’ll go out there. Wait in the house, please.”
Fred opened his mouth, and I held up a hand.
“I’ll be alright,” I informed him.
A smile trembled on his lips at my hand gesture before he bowed.
Yeah, okay. Agatha’s hand raising thing had stuck around. Only because it was a time-saver.
Winding back to the lobby, I yanked on one of the monstrous front doors and padded out onto the gravel.
Dang, gravel was not foot-friendly.
Peering around, my gaze fell on the golf cart parked out front.
That’ll do.
I whistled low at the damage to the front. Must’ve crashed into that wooden step pretty damn hard. Oops.
No more tequila-fuelled golf cart ventures for me.
Twisting the key, I sent gravel scattering as I blitzed down the driveway. Halfway to the southern gate, I yanked the wheel to the right to crash through the plants lining the driveway behind, wincing as the branches scratched the cart. Georgia, the estate’s head gardener, hopefully wouldn’t have too much fixing to do.
Where were the lights on this thing?
I couldn’t see shit.
I zoomed past the stables where Tommy’s father could be found during daylight hours, and reached the nut orchard, slowing when walnut shells popped and crunched under the tires.
Rolling to a stop next to my favourite pecan tree, I turned the engine off.
“Alright,” I hollered, sliding out of the vehicle. “Come out. I know you’re there. Stop lurking like creepy fucking stalkers.”
A twig snapped behind me.
“Took you long enough,” a voice purred.
I faced Laurel, grinning despite the fucked-up situation. “I was busy. Watching musicals.”
She scowled. “We heard.”
Snickering, I searched the trees behind the Vissimo. “Where are the others?”
“Spread out.”
I folded my arms. “And why are you all here?”
I was happy to see her. Really happy considering I’d expected to be embarrassed. Certainly happy enough to know that not all my happiness was due to her being here. The presence of the Indebted was a tie to Kyros, and my stupid blood-bound body was delirious about the link.
“Kyros sent us. We’ve been here since you left.”
“I don’t suppose there’s any chance he’ll change his mind about posting you guys here?”
“You want him to?” She cut me a look before inspecting the scratches on my cart.
I mulled that over. “I don’t. The Tonyi triplets are after me, and no matter how professional my staff are, they’re human.”
She crouched to peer at the front of the cart, whistling low.
“Yeah… I crashed.”
“We heard.”
Damn. Bet they’d heard a truckload I’d rather keep buried. During my tower stint, I’d gotten used to not saying stuff aloud that I didn’t want overheard, but I was willing to bet tequila loosened my lips. Had I screamed abuse at Kyros at one point?
Before anything else happened, I had to get something off my chest. “Laurel, thank you so much.” For telling me when no one else did.
Her blue eyes darkened. “I knew from the first time we went out with Tommy. You shouldn’t thank me.”
Why would anyone just blurt out the truth to a stranger when it could put their life and future at risk? That she’d told me at all reinstated my faith that not all vampires were fuckwits, even if she’d done it to save Fernando’s life too.
I reached out and gripped her arm. “With the burdens you carry, I consider it an honour that you did. So don’t be boring.”
She looked at me quizzically.
“That is how I talk now I’m rich again,” I informed her. “Now, please call the others to the house. No point in you all standing out here like weirdos.”
Laurel snorted, clambering into the cart after me. “It’s been nice, actually. Just me and the trees.”
I slid a glance her way. “How many nuts have you eaten?”
“… A few.”
Vissimo appetites were huge, so I didn’t doubt that for a second. Though I did doubt what kind of nuts she was referring to. Pretty sure Indebted had harems too.
Firing up the cart, I gunned for the house, trying to stay in the same set of tracks on the grass because Georgia’s mental state was linked to the smoothness of the lawn.
I screeched to a halt in front of the main house.
“It’s big.” Laurel took her time getting out.
I lifted a shoulder, spotting four of the other Indebted approaching. “Things usually get bigger when you get closer to them.”
She threw me an exasperated look. “What I meant to say is that knowing you’re filthy rich, and seeing just how rich, are different things.”
Yep.
Which is why I’d never invited Tommy’s school friends around. When people saw evidence of my wealth—and the estate didn’t register as more than a sentimental blip on the Le Spyre overall wealth—they tended to become very, very uncomfortable. After that, they either smiled double as much or half as much.
Hardly anyone treated me the same after seeing where I lived.
“I guess,” I mumbled. “I grew up in this house but don’t really like anything else in the rich world apart from Grandmother’s friends. I was trying to leave it behind when Live Right drew me in.”
Laurel twisted to look at me. “It must be hard to be back here. Doubly so with your grandmother’s passing.”
Understatement.
Josie waved from the other side of the courtyard roundabout, and I waved back.
A throat cleared. “Miss Le Spyre?”
I whirled. “Fred! Hey. Come meet our stalkers.”
“Laurel,” the Vissimo next to me stepped forward, hand extended.
The butler took her hand without hesitation.
Laurel smiled, keeping her teeth out of sight. “I apologise if I caused you or the rest of the staff concern over the last week. We were assigned to Miss Le Spyre after an altercation with some high-profile criminals who attacked and killed the man she was with.”
The jolt over her flawless switch from Miss Tetley to Miss Le Spyre was usurped by the casual mention of Rhys’s passing. The loss of my grandmother had cast everything else in shadow.
Fred’s eyes settled on me. “I see.”
He saw too much.
I gestured at the incoming Vissimo. “Until the criminals are caught, Laurel’s team will work with ours to heighten estate security.”
“These criminals are organised and dangerous?” the butler asked.
I shifted my weight at the soft reprimand in his eyes.
He narrowed his gaze on Laurel next. “Do these criminals have anything to do with your presence outside this property a few days before Mrs Agatha Le Spyre passed?”
Whoa. I’d totally forgotten that he’d seen Laurel before.
The vampire tilted her head. “That’s why we drove past, yes. We’re not connected to the death of Miss Le Spyre’s grandmother, if that’s what you’re insinuating.”
The two stared off.
Uhm.
I glanced over my shoulder. Most of
the others had joined us.
I clapped my hands to break their visual battle. “Let’s reconvene inside for refreshments, shall we?”
Fred broke off first, recovering his polite smile. “Of course, Miss Le Spyre. Where would you like to take them?”
“The conservatory will do, thank you.”
He bowed.
When the butler was out of earshot, I squared my shoulders. All seven of my crew were here.
I met each of their gazes. “I’m about to invite you into my home because you’re my friends,” I said. “As Vissimo currently in debt, I expect you to respect that what happens on this property is none of Kyros’s nor King Julius’s business. Aside from vague reports or attacks, what happens here on this estate remains confidential, always. That puts each of you in a tricky spot, I know, but that’s the only way I’ll accept Kyros’s presence on my property, no matter how I feel for each of you personally.”
Their smiles drooped.
Jillian glanced at Laurel, who surveyed me without emotion.
I held her regard without flinching. “If you can’t accept my terms, stay outside. I will understand if you feel incapable of meeting my terms. For those who stay, I’ll meet you in the conservatory presently.” I scanned their ranks once more and turned to enter the house.
Fuck it all, I had to warn Tommy. If the Indebted were here for the foreseeable future, my friend would have some serious acting to do.
I hurried up the stairs to leave her a note on the bedside table.
“Miss Le Spyre.”
My hand shot for my throat as I choked on a scream. “Shit.”
His face was stricken. “I apologise, miss.”
My heart pounded in my chest. Freakin’ butler standing in the pitch black. I just birthed kittens. “Are you okay?”
“I am well, thank you. I did have a separate matter I wished to discuss with you. Just regarding estate affairs. Is tomorrow morning convenient to meet?”
He wanted to speak about this right now?
I suppose it was past time I took the reins back. Running the estate wasn’t even his job. “Of course. Thank you for being patient as I…”
He smiled. “No need to thank me, Miss Le Spyre. I’d do anything for your family. You know that.”
“I appreciate that endlessly,” I replied, my heart settling. “I’ll meet you tomorrow morning at nine.”
His gaze shadowed. “Tomorrow at nine, Basilia.”
Vampire Debt: Supernatural Battle (Vampire Towers Book 2) Page 10