by Lucy Lyons
“Yes, Caroline, it was a good plan.”
“The club is full of humans. We have to evacuate them before we even sit with this guy, whoever he is.” I tucked a stray tendril of hair back into my bun.
“Leave your weapons here, Caroline,” he commanded. “No matter what happens, you cannot kill him. He’s an emissary of the council. If he dies in our territory, we’ll have the full wrath of every master vampire here and in Europe.” I sighed and removed the gun I’d just slipped back into the waistband of my skirt.
“Fine. But I agree under protest. Don’t get too close to him, okay? If he hurts or threatens you in any way, I cannot hold myself or my people responsible for what happens to him next. You’re our leader and we need you, alive and healthy, to survive” I couldn’t have described what I thought would happen when we finally got a visit from the council of Grandmasters. Perhaps it was the lack of fanfare that made it feel unreal that the day we’d been dreading had arrived. It could’ve been simple disbelief that anyone as powerful as Louis must have been, could fool me and hide from my ability to detect magic.
Whatever it was, his arrival was unsettling and frightening in a way I hadn’t expected. He could’ve come as anything, from an honest representation, to a patron of the club, an no one would’ve known the difference. Instead, he’d sent me a message. That he knew everything about me and where I was from, and potentially had access to everything and everyone that was a part of my life.
Suddenly, the visit I’d been expecting took a more sinister turn. I had a feeling come over me that froze my blood in my veins. The council wasn’t here to evaluate, but to execute a decision they’d already made. And from what we’d seen so far, I was at the crux of the execution, which put Nick in grave danger, and it might all be my fault.
Chapter 6
Nick took my arm and folded my hand over his elbow before walking to the elevator. Two of the Seattle vamps I didn’t know well. I tried to hide my discomfort, but Nick covered my hand with his and I felt him calming me through his touch. I stood straighter and controlled my breathing. That Nick was worried was affecting me, but I was a goddamned Venatores watcher, bound to not just a master vampire, but wererats and werewolves, an ability that had been lost for an age before Nicholas and I had resurrected it.
“Again, we can kill him if he tries to kill us, right?” I asked, for clarification. “I mean, we aren’t expected to just stand there for him.”
“This is not that kind of meeting, Caroline. Please don’t kill anyone.” One of the vampires behind me snickered and I turned slowly and looked at him over my shoulder.
“I promise not to kill the council messenger. I do however, reserve the right to maim anyone else who pisses me off.” I only half meant it, but the vampire stifled his grin and stared straight ahead at the elevator door without expression.
Nicholas cleared his throat and patted my hand with a sigh. He was the master, but I was the sword, and I would not have my own bodyguard laughing at me before a council member, human liaison or not.
Colette had set him up in a VIP lounge that overlooked the entire bar, but sat far enough away from the action that even vampires below wouldn’t be able to pick up the conversation, or fighting, if it came to that.
“Louis, it feels like we were just hanging out,” I quipped at him as he rose to his feet to greet us. He coughed to clear his throat and nodded, flushing and smiling thinly.
“Yes, ah, the subterfuge was a bit of a necessity. I needed a way to be invited in,” he explained. “I have no American identification, and no way to procure one that I knew I could trust to look authentic.
I listened to his clipped German accent and felt more foolish for not realizing right away that he might not be what he appeared. But, the Venatores recruited hunters from all over the world. How would I have guessed there’d be no fanfare with the arrival of the liaison?
Damn me and my sense of honor, Nick. I should just start reading everyone’s minds, all the time. I sent to him telepathically.
No, he is powerful enough to block you, anyway. Besides, I like your sense of fair play. It keeps me honest, he replied. Nick pointed to the seats, and the three of us sat carefully, choosing our places for their advantages, including any that would serve us in combat.
There was no sign of Louis’ guns, but the hilt of the sword stuck out over his shoulder, making me glad I’d kept my hidden blades, the curved Indian karambit in my hair, and a simple butterfly knife in a sheath on my forearm. I sat to Nick’s left out of habit, leaving my right hand free to draw a blade or, when I had it, my gun.
Nick sat with his back to the window and guards facing out, to watch for flying attacks, and I sat facing the door, with my second, Colette, and the head of security flanking the door and staring stone-faced at the room.
“So, what brings the esteemed servant of Grandmaster Caius to Seattle?” Nicholas began. I knew my place in the meeting was to keep my mouth shut, but I realized how used to being his mouthpiece I was by how hard I was biting my tongue to stay silent.
“My master Caius sends his greetings and wishes me to inform you that your message regarding the lady Kele has been received and an audience granted for witness statements regarding what you encountered in the Arizona territory.” He paused and I felt questions bubble out of my throat before I could stop myself.
“Did you send anyone to Arizona? Is Amitolane okay?” I had tried to contact the human servant of the master vampire Kele, or Queen of the Stars, after we’d brought the vampire’s first love back from a self-imposed imprisonment in the body of a monstrous creature. The vampiress was old enough to consider herself a goddess, and to have a mistrust of technology, which left me with no conventional methods to contact her. The emissary looked at me like I was insane, and refused to answer my questions.
“Your servant’s reputation appears to be accurate, Lord D’Elbrecht,” he said with a sneer, and I bristled in my seat. “Control her, or send her away.” I made a low growl of rage in my throat and tried to stand. Nick placed his hand on my thigh and pressed down forcing me to sit still and fume in silence, or retort and possibly hurt Nicholas in the report Louis took back to his master.
“I’m going to assume that you don’t get out much, Lou,” I drawled. “Because your master might be a big deal, but you’re still just a servant. You order my master to do anything else, and I’ll feed your tongue to my rat.” I felt Fin cringe behind me and made a note to apologize to him later. I’d heard one of the wolves use the same threat on a challenger, and I had to admit, it felt good to say, partly because thinking of the wolves opened me to them.
For a moment I was blind to Louis, the room, even to Nick sitting next to me, even though I felt the thread of power glowing between us as I invoked the wolf pack. I could see through the eyes of a wolf, and I was standing in a great circle of two dozen or more of us, around the ritual stone hidden away in a quiet clearing near Mount Rainier, away from foot traffic and campers.
Just as suddenly, I was back in the VIP lounge of Pulse, blinking to clear my vision as Louis stared, agape. Nick squeezed my thigh, and I recognized his unspoken command to prevent a repeat performance.
“So,” Louis choked out before clearing his throat and trying again. “So, you do have animals to call. I wondered what everyone else had seen when I was transported, and glanced at Nick for instruction. “I see it. I see the wolf in you, a specter that paces just under the surface of your skin, waiting to be released.” Louis sounded almost frantic as he pushed back into his seat, trying to put as much distance between the two of us as he could.
“The council was aware of my bond with the shifters,” Nick began, but Louis cut him off with a frightened snarl. “The council was apprised of the bond between yourself and the Rat King. There was no mention of wolves.”
“The wolves are mine, Lou, not Nick’s. we didn’t have to report it, because as you are well aware, servants are nothing to the Grandmasters.” I paused and leaned forwa
rd, scooting myself to the edge of my seat to violate his personal space. “I’ve heard that Grandmasters can even shed their servants and replace them without risk to themselves, is that true?” The shade of grey that fell over his already pale face was answer enough for me. Lou had to take home something real, or he could be killed off for displeasing his master, and replaced by another.
The council was made up of the oldest and scariest vampires, but this servant didn’t feel more powerful than I was. He certainly wasn’t ancient, like Nick or Dominique. There was no way that the man sitting before us was a real threat on his own. I actually felt for him a little, and wondered how long it had been since he’d felt safe. I’d already learned that Nicholas was aberrant among the masters. He loved his clan, and wanted everyone to be powerful in their own right, not just as tools for him to use. Louis belonged to a master who would surgically and callously excise those who displeased him, even his own most valuable servant.
Nick must have followed my line of thought. He stopped me from saying more, with a light touch and urged me out of my seat and gestured to the cocktail waitress to take me over to the bar in the corner and get me a drink while he and Louis talked.
“We are happy to comply with any reasonable request the council makes, Louis, of course,” he said, his voice low and soothing. I texted Rachel and requested her to join us, but I feared that I’d already done too much damage to get off just by having her spread her calming glamour around.
“Leave it to you to insult the liaison of the biggest, baddest, scariest Grandmaster on the council, Caroline,” A voice behind me said softly. I glanced over my shoulder and Dom was standing at my shoulder. “Can I join you?” I motioned to the bartender to repeat my drink for Dom and moved to make room next to me for her to sit.
“I didn’t insult him. Dom. I insulted his servant. You know we aren’t important enough for that to be a killing offense,” I drawled as I sipped my Fang Bang, a sweet Pulse cocktail that sold us out of rum and grenadine every night. “I scared the poop out of him, though, didn’t I?”
She laughed and played with her swizzle stick as we sat in silence. She was my biggest hero, but when it came to Nick, she felt like my worst enemy. I knew she still cared for him, and more, she craved the power he could have given her. Power that would’ve prevented her psychotic, murderous cousin from taking control of the Venatores.
“I missed you, kiddo,” she said softly. “I guess I can’t call you that anymore, huh.” She looked me over and shook her head. “You have grown up over the last year.”
“Did I have another option? Because I wouldn’t have minded going a few more years without seeing the price of all this,” I chuckled mirthlessly and gestured around the room.
“Louis has been around a couple of hundred years,” Dom whispered. He’s not as old as some, but his master almost didn’t make it when he lost his last servant. They’d been together a long time. Now, the Grandmasters kill off their servants after a few hundred years and replace them, so they get all the benefit and none of the cost.”
I looked past her at Nick and then I met her gaze.
“Things you could’ve told me before now.”
“Would you have listened?” she asked. I shrugged and drained my glass.
“Yes. But in the end, it wouldn’t have made a difference. I needed the power. I thought I was saving people, so I let him mark me and make me his, permanently.” I glanced back again, as Nick and Louis spoke in low tones on the other side of the large room. “Is he here to learn what we have here, or is he just here to prove the council is justified in killing us?”
“I don’t know, Caroline, but mark my words. The Venatores already know he’s here. The vamps still loyal to nut-job Glory know he’s here. Someone is going to make an attempt on your lives. For proving that vampires and humans can live together. For being so damned powerful. There’s even talk that you’re a necromancer, and you can mind control vampires.” I jumped at the last, staring at her in sheer bewilderment.
“Wait, what?” I asked, my mind flitting over the possibilities. I refused to admit to her that even part of the rumors were true, and she laughed and touched my arm lightly. Automatically, I checked my mental shields to make sure she wasn’t getting any of her information by using her exceptionally stealthy mind reading abilities.
“I know, crazy, right?” she said, and I relaxed a little. “But it doesn’t change the fact that people are afraid of you, even more than they’re afraid of Nicholas.”
“That has to have its plusses, right?” I teased, even though my world was teetering and threatening to crash down around me.
“Just make sure that whatever the gossip, you’re more conditioned, trained, and powerful than anything they will expect. And don’t worry, Caroline. You are surrounded by people who love you, because despite your power, all you care about is family. We care about you, and we won’t leave you alone to face what’s coming.
I thought about the zombie animals I’d raised from the forest floor. Necromancy was a burning crime. Even the vampires hated necromancers, and if the only two in the country were me and Ajax, Kele’s lover, then I couldn’t see any reason the council would spare us. And so Kele hid out in the desert and separated herself from her council I thought for the hundredth time.
The drink got watered down while it waited for me and after a few more minutes of talking at me while I sat silently, she wandered over and sat with Nick, pressing up against his side and rubbing his thigh as one well-acquainted with flirting, making herself welcome to the conversation I’d been dismissed from.
I’d terrified the servant of a master vampire who was older and more powerful than mine, and now my mentor was feeling up my boyfriend. I glared at the bartender and she took my watered-down drink with a sympathetic smile, replacing it with a new one.
If ever there was a time for me to get stupid drunk and forget a night had happened, I had just found it. I drained my cocktail in one long swallow and ordered another. I glanced back at Dom, laughing at something one of the men had said, still clinging possessively to my boyfriend.
Yes indeed. Tomorrow would be the day I paid for so many of my choices, and hopefully purchased freedom for my new life with Nick. If ever there was a night for drinking myself into oblivion, I had arrived.
Chapter 7
The light was warm and soft on my face, and I sighed before I was jolted awake in a panic, looking for what I thought was sunlight and throwing the comforter over Nick’s head.
“We’re underground, Caroline,” he mumbled from under the blankets, in a tone that made me mentally add, “stupid.”
“Right, of course we are. Wow.” I blinked to clear my eyes and glanced around. A light next to the bed was glowing softly and I watched it as the glows brightened marginally every couple of minutes.
“Do you like it?” Nick asked, and the uncertainty in his voice made me look at him. “It’s a special alarm clock that slowly lights up like the sunrise before the alarm goes off.”
“Even when I’m down here, I can still wake up like a normal person, huh? I love it.” I rolled over and snuggled into his chest. “Wait. How did I get here, and why don’t I remember going to bed?”
“You aren’t a vampire, Caroline. And you also, apparently, aren’t much of a drinker.” I shuddered.
“Did I start any fights after Louis left?”
He chuckled and pulled me closer. “No. We danced, though.”
“I remember that, jerk.” I shoved him and he laughed. “I didn’t drink that much, either. So how did I get to bed?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. Do you remember not feeling well? You said someone was messing with you while we were dancing.”
“Well, crap. Never mind. I’ll deal with it myself.” My thoughts immediately turned to the wolves. Last night was the full moon. Just as I was still earning the boundaries between Nick and I, we were learning the effects of the moon on my new animal to call. Even their connection to Nick was
secondary to their connection to me, so any pull the moon might have had on him would be dampened by the opposing nature of his power to the pack’s. “I mean, I’ll take care of it after this lamp lights up all the way, because this is so nice,” I added Nick laughed again and snuggled closer.
“Don’t kill anyone, okay?” He whispered in my ear. It feels better than I ever believed it could waking up next to your warmth, his thoughts resounded in my head.
“I’m just worried that Maybe I should’ve been at the lunar circle last night. I hope I didn’t adversely affect the wolves.”
“I didn’t sense anything moving along our connections. I was afraid you were going to blame Lady de Borgia for poisoning you,” he drawled sounding, for all the world, like a guy who’d just woken up and was preparing for an argument with his girlfriend over the night before.
“You and Dominique have unfinished business, Nick. Honestly, that’s on you. If you want to play the field, you shouldn’t have pursued me so hard. I’m not the kind of girl who shares.”
“Am I safe this close to you? You sound so calm.”
“Fine. I’ll be the bad guy.” I sighed and sat up, looking down at his tousled hair and bare chest. For a moment, I forgot what we were talking about completely, which only ticked me off more. “Stop allowing her flirtations, Nick. It sends the kind of signal that makes her think she can step on me. Just tell her to stop. I don’t care if you were sleeping with her for a hundred years. You ended it for a reason, and I don’t deserve to be in some weird love triangle with two people who loved each other centuries before I was born.” I took a deep breath and exhaled hard. “There, argument done. Can I get back to cuddling now?”