The Suck Stops Here

by Kristen Painter

  Instead, he was sitting on the couch, typing away on a smartphone.

  Cammie gasped. “It really is him.”

  Richard looked up, put his phone away, and stood. “Camille.”

  Pierce came in with two more glasses of water. He set them on the small table between the two chairs opposite the couch, then left with a quick glance to Donna.

  She understood. He wouldn’t be too far away.

  “Sit,” Donna said as she moved to take one of the chairs. Cammie did the same.

  Richard hesitated, then moved slowly back to his seat, adjusting his suit as he went. It looked very expensive. Like his shoes. But then, she didn’t imagine a man in his position wanted for much.

  She nodded at him. “I guess being the Prime’s emissary pays better than plastics.”

  She didn’t remember much from her childhood about what he’d done for work except that it had something to do with plastics and the machines that molded and extruded them. And she remembered that only because there had always been samples in the house. Everything from toys to medical devices.

  He nodded, looking from her to Cammie and back. “It does.”

  “Is that why you left?” Cammie asked. “For the money? For some kind of different life?”

  “No.” He wasn’t looking at either of them now. “It wasn’t planned.”

  Donna and Cammie stayed silent. Waiting for him to elaborate.

  After a moment, he began. “I was in San Francisco. At that convention I went to every year, Plasticon. I’d been out at a sponsored dinner, had a bit too much to drink, which was pretty standard at those things, and so I decided to walk back to my hotel instead of taking a cab. Beautiful night. The fog was rolling in, giving the lights that soft glow and making the city look the way you think San Francisco should look. Like the setting of a noir film.”

  Cammie grunted softly as if to say his editorializing wasn’t amusing her.

  He went on. “Anyway, I got lost. Ended up in Chinatown, but there was some kind of festival going on, so I wandered deeper. After a few minutes of the fireworks and dancing dragons, I figured I’d better get back and go to sleep if I was going to be productive the next day. I had meetings booked. More of them than was probably doable, but I was there to hustle.”

  He stared at the glass of water on the coffee table. “I was there to make a better life for you girls.”

  “Mm-hmm.” Donna wasn’t about to get pulled into whatever drama he was trying to sell. Not this quickly.

  He shrugged. “I was. Do you think I liked traveling so much? I didn’t.”

  “And yet,” Cammie said, “you decided to travel permanently.”

  He sighed. “It wasn’t really my decision. I went down an alley that I was sure was a shortcut and found a woman being mugged. At least I thought that’s what was happening.”

  He shook his head. “What was actually going on was a vampire was about to have her dinner, but I thought she was the one being mugged. I interfered, her victim escaped, and I became her dinner, but the fact that I’d tried to help her apparently amused her enough that it bought me some mercy.”

  Donna had a feeling where this was going. “So she didn’t kill you, she turned you.”

  Richard nodded. “I woke up in Amsterdam two days later and was told that my life was no longer my own. That I was a servant to Queen Esmer, the vampire ruler of the Netherlands, and that I would do as she asked or lose the gift I’d been given.”

  Cammie glanced at Donna as if to see if she believed all of this.

  Donna shrugged. She honestly didn’t know. “Why didn’t you try to contact us?”

  “Because it wasn’t allowed. I was made to understand that my human life was over. If I tried to reach you girls or your mother by any means, your lives would be forfeit so that you would no longer be a distraction to me.”

  He glanced toward the windows. “Esmer was…” He went silent for a long moment, as if he was remembering. “Not a kind woman. She was demanding. And unpredictable. Given to whims and impulses. She cared very little for anyone’s comfort but her own. Her word was law. And that was that. Until she crossed a line and defied the council.”

  He looked at them again. “That got the Prime’s attention. She chose me to deal with him. Not a great move on her part. I told him everything. And he offered me a job.”

  “Which you obviously took,” Donna said.

  “I did. It seemed like the best option, considering Esmer’s fate.”

  Cammie crossed her arms. “He ended her, didn’t he?”

  “The council did, but he supported it.” Richard let out a breath that seemed more for punctuation than life support. “Unfortunately, he refused to let me contact you as well. He said there was no way I could explain what had happened to me or the new life I was living without revealing the truth about the supernatural world to all of you.”

  “You couldn’t sneak an email?” Donna asked.

  “I actually tried to write a letter. He knew. Found the letter and destroyed it. Then he cut off my right hand.”

  Donna stared at his hand. It didn’t look missing to her.

  He caught her questioning gaze and held his hand up. “Took three months to grow back. Incredibly painful. And not a lesson I will ever forget.”

  Her brows lifted. “We can do that? Grow back missing parts, I mean.”

  “We can,” he answered. “I don’t recommend it, though.” He sat back. “So now you know what happened, and it changes nothing, does it? You still resent me for leaving you. Maybe more since finding out I’ve been around this whole time and not dead, like you might have imagined. Did it really do you any good to find out?”

  Donna sat in silence. Cammie didn’t seem too eager to say anything either. Finally, Donna asked the question stuck in her head. “Did you even miss us?”

  He laughed, then looked away again. “More than you can imagine. But you learn to blunt certain feelings as the years go by. I did manage to send your mother money twice.”

  Cammie frowned. “You did?”

  He nodded. “Through convoluted means, both approved by the Prime, I made it seem as though she’d come into the money through circumstance. Once in a fake sweepstakes. The other by inheritance when your aunt Helena passed.”

  Donna made a face. “Aunt Helena didn’t have any money.”

  “I know,” Richard said. “But I made it seem like she did and used the occasion to give your mother money. Hopefully, it was enough to pay for your college tuitions. Or whatever you needed at the time.”

  Donna looked at Cammie. “Did you have any idea Mom got money?”

  “No. None. Although I do know she made a donation to the church when I—” Cammie slanted her eyes at Richard.

  Donna understood. Cammie had been about to say when she’d joined the Sisters of the Holy Rosary, which she obviously didn’t want to say in front of him. “Right.”

  But his explanation didn’t really clarify why he’d been so reluctant to tell them this story earlier.

  Donna shifted in her seat. “If the Prime refused to allow you to contact us, why did he let you come here? To see me? He has to know who I am.”

  “He does,” Richard answered. “But you’re a vampire now. There’s nothing I need to keep secret from you any longer. Within reason, of course. The Prime’s business isn’t something I’m about to share with anyone.”

  She stared at him. It was easy to see him as someone besides her father the longer she looked. After all, he’d actively not been her father for more of her life than he’d been her father. She’d gotten used to him not being around.

  Didn’t mean he hadn’t left a wound when he’d disappeared. He had. And it might never be truly healed. Their mother certainly hadn’t gotten over it. But Donna had been through so much in such a short period of time that this new ripple seemed like just that.

  A ripple. One that would soon ebb away and disappear.

  “So what, then?” she asked. “Are you hopin
g that the channels of communication will be open between us now? Or is it back to business as usual? Because I don’t know what you’re thinking, but I’ve lived thirty-seven years of my life without you. I’ve gotten used to it.”

  He nodded. “I’m sure you have. Both of you. I don’t expect anything. Other than facilitating whatever communication needs to happen between you and the Prime. I am first and foremost his emissary.”

  His emissary. Not her father. She understood. She really did. And yet, twelve-year-old Donna, who’d cried her eyes out when her daddy hadn’t come home, wanted to punch him right in the face for all the hurt and pain he’d caused their family.

  She wouldn’t, though. She’d gotten her explanation. And she’d made her decision about Christina meeting him. Big fat no on that one. She lifted her chin. “What did the Prime send you here for, then?”

  He looked at Cammie before answering. “This is for you and you alone.”

  “No, it’s not.” Donna steeled her expression. “Cammie is part of my inner circle. Anything you say to me can be said to her. In fact, I need a moment to call the rest of my team in.”

  His eyes narrowed. “This was not my directive.”

  She got to her feet. “I couldn’t care less what your directive was. This is my house. My rules. My team gets read in on everything that concerns me as governor. I assume this concerns me as governor?”

  “It does, but…” He sighed. “Could we please have a moment alone?”

  Cammie got up. “It’s fine. You stay here and listen to what he has to say. I’ll go get Charlie and Temo and let Pierce know you’ll be ready for us shortly.”

  “Okay.” Donna could give a little. This was business with the Prime, after all. If he’d put the queen of the Netherlands to death, there was no telling what he might do to a governor.

  Cammie left, shutting the door behind her.

  Donna interlaced her fingers and stared at the man she would from here on out consider only an employee of the Prime. “Speak.”

  He cleared his throat softly. “I’ll get right to it. The Prime is aware of you. Obviously. But I mean in a good way. Mostly. There is some concern over the current charges being brought against you and your assistant.”

  “You mean the ones filed by Governor Fitzhugh of New York, of course.” Fitzhugh didn’t like being punched by a human, apparently.

  “Yes.”

  She shrugged. “He’s a jerk. And I’ve filed a countercharge of improper conduct.”

  “The Prime is aware of Fitzhugh’s character, but he has been governor for a very long time, and while this might be hard to believe, he is well liked by those he rules. There are a lot of high-ranking vampires who admire him as well.”

  She rolled her eyes. “If you say so.”

  “I do, but it doesn’t matter for the sake of this discussion. This is about you. The treaty with the fae that you accomplished was rather unprecedented. And granting the previous governor a pardon to spare her life when the council deemed otherwise? A unique and rare act of mercy.”

  “Don’t you think it’s a little sad that sparing someone’s life is considered a rare act of mercy among our kind?”

  He shook his head. “No. But then, I’ve spent years in this life. You’ve barely been turned a month. That’s the other thing that’s brought you to his attention. Your meteoric rise.”

  “Not planned, I assure you.”

  “And yet, you’ve handled it extremely well. Which is why he’s put you on the short list for queen.”

  She laughed and shook her head. “I don’t want to be queen.”

  “Yes, you do.”

  She snorted. “I assure you, I don’t.”

  “Bella.”

  She made a face. “No one’s called me that since I was in middle school.” Since he’d used to call her that. “I have no desire to bring it back. Especially not since I’ve become a vampire. I don’t need jokes about why I don’t sparkle.”

  He held up his hands. “Understood. But trust me when I say you want to be queen.”

  “Why?”

  “Do you like being governor?”

  She didn’t have to think about that. “Yes. I like being in a position where I can help people. It’s a nice change from the human life I lived.” There was a lot to be said for having power, that much she couldn’t deny.

  “Imagine how that would multiply if you were queen.”

  “But so would my responsibility. And my problems.” There had been one fire after another to put out since she’d taken over. Being queen sounded like an excuse for the universe to start an inferno with her name on it.

  “Your staff, your budget, all of your resources would be essentially unlimited. If a problem arises, you form a committee and delegate. You don’t have to deal with it personally.”

  “That seems like an irresponsible way to rule.”

  He shrugged. “How you rule is up to you, but I promise that you could do great things. The North American vampire nation needs new blood. No pun intended. Artemis was a good ruler, but she’d begun to grow complacent.”

  Donna didn’t know about all that. She hadn’t exactly been besties with Artemis. And while she had very much liked and respected the queen, Donna had been smart enough to be wary of her too.

  She didn’t have any hard feelings about that either. She understood very well what it meant to be in a position of power. You had to keep a certain distance between yourself and those you served. Enough that you could do your job without allowing emotions to make all of your decisions.

  But to say that Artemis had become complacent? That didn’t seem like her. Perhaps she had been bored, but she’d been alive for so long…was that really the fault of her position?

  Donna folded her hands in her lap. “I understand what you’re saying, but the bottom line is, I don’t think I’m ready to be queen. I wasn’t ready to be governor. I am very new at being a vampire. For another thing, it would mean moving again. I’ve barely settled in here.”

  That was a weak excuse, and she knew it, but being queen just felt so far beyond her scope of capability that it wasn’t something she could give serious consideration to.

  He raised his brows. “There’s something else I need to tell you that might change your mind.”

  “What?”

  “Fitzhugh is campaigning hard to be considered for king.”

  Of course he was, but hearing it out loud still chilled her blood. “Will the council really consider him?”

  “They already are, among others. But Fitzhugh’s making a lot of noise about his qualifications. He’s not wrong about them either. He’s done a lot of good for his state.”

  “You mean he’s gotten others to do a lot of good for his state. I don’t think he pays for anything if he can help it.”

  “That’s splitting hairs. The council looks at achievements, not the process.”

  “Great.” She sighed.

  “So you don’t want him to be king?”

  “No! Who would? Seriously.” She put her hands on the arms of the chair and leaned forward. “My admin told me the council usually picks from the oldest vampires.”

  “Usually, yes. But like I said, there’s a movement to bring new blood into power. Perhaps not as new as you, which is why the council won’t put your name on their short list, but like I said, the Prime is aware of you and very interested.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t know.” But she hated the idea of Fitzhugh being king. He was already an egotistical maniac. Putting a crown on his head and scepter in his hand would probably turn him into a full-fledged despot. “I need to think about it. I need to talk it over with my team too.”

  “I understand.”

  She hesitated. “Would I be able to keep my team?”

  “You’d be queen. Your staff would be completely up to you.”

  That was a plus.

  He flicked an invisible bit of lint from his trousers. “There is something else to consider.”


  “And that is?”

  His eyes narrowed. “If the Prime offers you this position and you turn him down, you’d be turning down an unprecedented offer from the most powerful vampire in existence.” He tipped his head a little. “It would make him look bad to go out on such a limb only to have things not work out. Trust me when I tell you it’s far better to have him in your corner than to be the vampire that embarrassed him.”

  Suddenly, everything became very clear. She inhaled a little harder than she’d meant to. “That’s really why you’re here, isn’t it? He’s already put my name before the council. Now you’re making sure I say yes so that I don’t make him look like a fool.”

  “You always were a smart one, Belladonna.”

  She rubbed her temples, overwhelmed by this new wrinkle. “This isn’t fair. You’re basically telling me I don’t have a choice.”

  “Oh, you have one. But there is very clearly a right answer and a wrong answer.”

  “What about Fitzhugh’s claims against me? Surely the council won’t look at my nomination favorably with those charges hanging out there.”

  “They’ll investigate, like they always do, and a decision will be made. I don’t believe for a moment that you’re guilty of causing Artemis’s death.” Then he shrugged. “The charges against your assistant, however… A human hitting a vampire in public like that? Such an offense could carry a heavy penalty.”

  He stared at her hard. “Or that matter could be made to go away.”

  She could feel the muscles in her jaw tighten. This was like dealing with the mob all over again. Do what the boss wants, and everything’s fine. Do what you want, and you walk alone. She couldn’t speak for a moment because she was afraid of what she might say.

  Richard filled the silence. “The salary is exemplary. As would be the salaries for your staff. You wouldn’t need to move out of New Jersey if you didn’t want to. You couldn’t stay here, of course. The new governor would take over these apartments. But there’s an ample budget for you to buy a suitable property.”

  She didn’t care about any of that right now. How could she when faced with such a decision? She shook her head. “I can’t give you an answer today. And I’m about to leave for the queen’s funeral.”