The Suck Stops Here

by Kristen Painter

  That meant Rixaline knew now about the charges Fitzhugh had brought forth. Donna had been hoping to spare her the worry. “How is our girl doing?”

  “Very well. She is much loved, and I am grateful to you every day for reuniting us.” He paused. “I am grateful to you every day for many things. Which is why I am so upset about this possible traitor. Not only does it embarrass me that one of my subjects would be so stupid, but we as a people owe you for bringing us out from under Dredward’s reign. I will be in touch as soon as I know more.”

  “Thank you.” She could practically hear him bristling. He’d changed a lot since becoming king. Matured, really. But then, his goals were very different now. “I appreciate it. And I don’t hold you accountable for the actions of one of your subjects. I hope you know that.”

  “Your consideration is appreciated. Good night, Governor.”

  “Good night, Your Highness.” As she hung up, she sat on the bed. If Ishalan could deal with the witness, that would be incredibly helpful. But exposing Fitzhugh’s machinations was still important. Doing so could be the lynchpin in his demise.

  At least she hoped it would be. She wasn’t sure how much more of that idiot she could take.

  She went out to the kitchen, made herself a cup of Evening Bliss tea, then took it back to the bedroom, where she tried to lose herself in a good book.

  It was a great read, but she had a hard time concentrating on it. Finally, as dawn began to approach, she put her tablet aside and tried to sleep.

  They pulled into Lebanon, Kansas, eleven hours and thirty-eight minutes after they’d left Timberville.

  Donna knew, because as she lay there in bed, she felt the RV slow and start to take some turns. She’d also been tracking their movements on an app on her phone. What else was she going to do? Sleep hadn’t been easy. Her mind had been too occupied with…well, everything.

  Her daughter, Pierce becoming a reaper, Fitzhugh, the emissary, the possibility of becoming queen, the funeral, the pending charges sitting with the council. Even her sister’s transition from vampire hunter to whatever she was now weighed on Donna’s mind.

  Sleep, when it had come, had arrived only in small batches, and those short spans had been disturbed by dreams.

  None of them good. Well. One. But that had been about Pierce and had left her with more questions than answers. And a rather warm feeling she wasn’t ready to think about.

  Will was no doubt exhausted, having driven straight through for a second night in a row. And he was too young a vampire to ignore the tug of sleep.

  She pushed the covers aside and got up, pulling on her robe to head out and see how he was doing. Cammie was sitting at the kitchen table, reading on her tablet. Pierce was doing pushups in the middle of the lounge but got to his feet as she approached. Charlie was in her usual recliner, laptop open.

  All three greeted her as she joined them. “Morning.”

  Donna’s mind was on Will, however, and making sure he wasn’t overdoing it. As she focused on the driver’s seat, however, she realized Harper was at the wheel.

  “Coffee?” Cammie asked, looking up.

  “Absolutely, but I can get it,” Donna answered.

  Cammie was already standing. “I was about to refill my cup anyway.”

  “Thanks.” Donna slipped into the passenger’s seat beside Harper and started yawning before she could say anything else.

  Harper smiled. “Morning, Governor.”

  “Morning. Your dad okay? I didn’t expect to see you driving.”

  Harper nodded. “He’s fine. A little tired. I took over just before eight. I promise I’m qualified.”

  “I’m not worried about that.” Donna frowned. “Was he normal tired or worn out from the ritual, or something else?”

  Harper hesitated. “A little bit from the ritual. But mostly, he’s not acclimated to the way the dawn makes him feel.”

  Donna nodded in understanding.

  Cammie handed her a cup of coffee, fixed just the way she liked it. “Thanks, sis.”

  “Sure.” She went back to the table.

  Donna glanced at Pierce. “How are you feeling this morning?”

  “Fantastic. How did you sleep?”

  Donna shook her head before sipping her coffee, which was everything she needed in that moment. “Not my best.”

  Charlie closed her laptop a few inches. “Maybe you should get a nap this afternoon. The funeral isn’t until tomorrow night. There won’t be much else going on.”

  “Maybe,” Donna said before looking at Harper again. She was still worried about Will, that maybe giving up his scythe had hurt him in some way. “Is your dad in his bunk, then?”

  “He is. He’d better be sleeping too. Although I’m sure he misses having Maggie curled up next to him.”

  Donna’s brows went up as she drank more of her coffee. She hadn’t been aware that Will had a girlfriend. “Maggie?”

  Harper smiled. “Magpie the Second. Maggie, for short. She’s the second tuxedo cat that came into our lives, and the name just stuck. I know we talked about Magpie and Clementine.”

  Donna nodded. “We did. And I saw your dad’s amazing tattoo. They sounded like wonderful companions.”

  “They were. Little lifesavers. Anyway, Maggie sleeps with him every night. Usually on his pillow.”

  “Aw, that’s sweet. Lucky will sleep on the bed with me, unless one of the kids is home, then he’ll pick them over me. When Rixaline was staying with us, he was glued to her side.”

  “Cats certainly have their people.”

  “They do.” Donna stared out at the landscape before them. It was utterly flat, although dotted with large swaths of forest where there weren’t broad expanses of farmland or prairie. “I’ve never been out to this part of the country. It’s pretty.”

  Harper nodded. “Very different than what I’m used to.”

  “How long before we get to the queen’s estate?”

  Harper glanced at her GPS screen. “Shouldn’t be more than forty minutes now.”

  “Wow, we’re that close? I’d better get ready. Back in a bit.” Donna got up and took her coffee with her but stopped at the table to see Cammie. “If you want to use my shower after I’m done, you’re welcome to it.”

  Cammie nodded. “I might take you up on that.”

  “I won’t be long.” Donna went straight to the bathroom to turn on the shower. She couldn’t meet the queen’s staff looking like she’d just rolled out of bed.

  Which was exactly how she looked right now.

  Donna returned twenty-five minutes later, dressed in black leggings, her new tall brown boots, and her new oversize oatmeal-colored cowl-neck sweater. She’d kept her jewelry simple, choosing only a pair of polished wooden hoop earrings, her Cartier tank watch with the brown croc strap, and a wide cigar-band-style ring made of hammered gold.

  She’d done her makeup a little heavier than her standard daytime look, adding some shadow and paying extra attention to her brows. Her hair she’d kept simple as well, going for a low ponytail and wrapping the elastic with a small Hermes scarf. The final look had given her a nice Ralph Lauren in Town & Country vibe.

  Not her usual thing, but chic. Kind of the way she always imagined the women in the Hamptons dressed. Upscale casual. So what if it wasn’t her standard look? She liked it. And you only got one chance to make a good first impression.

  She fixed a second cup of coffee and rejoined Harper up front.

  Charlie and Cammie hadn’t moved, but Pierce had gone to shower, judging by the sound of running water and the closed bathroom door.

  Then Cammie got up, leaving her tablet behind, and tilted her head toward the back as she looked at Donna. “Do you need to get back in there?”

  “Nope. All yours.”

  “Thanks.” Cammie headed back to Donna’s bathroom.

  Donna couldn’t tell much from the GPS, since the screen was angled for the driver’s viewing. “Almost there?”

  “C
losing in,” Harper replied. She slanted her gaze at Donna for a moment. “You look nice. Like old money.”

  “Thanks. Is that better than new money?”

  Harper laughed. “When it comes to vampires? Probably.” She hesitated. “How are you feeling about this whole thing? If you don’t mind me asking.”

  “I don’t mind.” How was she feeling? “I’m not sure there’s a single word for it. A little anxious. A little curious. A little happy, which sounds odd, considering the circumstances, I suppose. But I’m glad I can be here to pay my respects to the woman who’s ultimately responsible for my being alive.”

  Harper nodded. “Sure, that makes sense. She was your grandsire, right?”

  “Right. I wish I’d been able to get to know her better, but it’s not like that would have happened even if she’d lived. Not with her being queen and so busy with all that comes with that. She wasn’t suddenly going to make time to hang out with me.” Donna shrugged. “Even so, I feel like I knew her in a small way.”

  “What was she like? I only saw her for a moment or two at the battle.”

  “Artemis was…a bit of an enigma. Although I think she liked me, I always had the feeling that our relationship, whatever it was, would never come before her doing what needed to be done. Like, she didn’t let friendships dictate how she governed.”

  “That’s a pretty smart way to handle things. But that’s also a hard thing to do. Treating everyone equally, I mean.”

  Donna nodded. “It is. I try to do it too. Try not to play favorites.”

  Charlie spoke up. “You’re very good at that.”

  “Thanks,” Donna said. “I can’t imagine what that meant for Artemis as queen, though. She may not have had any truly close friends.”

  Harper squinted. “I’m sure she had some.”

  “I’d like to think so.” Donna twisted to see Charlie better. “Do you know if she had friends?”

  Charlie’s expression turned a little sad. “I don’t. I know she had an extensive staff. But whether or not she considered any of those people friends? I can’t say. It’s been my experience that the older a vampire is, the fewer confidants they have in their lives. Their inner circles grow smaller. The queen was no different. And her position certainly didn’t make it easy to cultivate close friendships.”

  Donna found that disheartening. And one more reason to say no to the Prime’s offer. She valued her staff and absolutely considered them friends. More than that, they’d become family to her. She couldn’t imagine losing them because being queen meant keeping them at arm’s length.

  She was just about to get up to add a little more coffee to her cup when Harper put the turn signal on.

  Donna stayed where she was, eager to see their destination.

  Harper turned the RV onto a smaller road that led through a heavily forested area with no sign of civilization in sight. After a few moments, they crested a small ridge, and a sprawling ranch appeared.

  Harper’s mouth opened slightly. “Wow. There it is. That’s the queen’s estate.”

  “Really?” Donna leaned forward. “It’s huge.”

  Harper nodded, a little smile bending her mouth. “I actually looked the property up on Zillow. It’s enormous. The house is over eleven thousand square feet, not including the guesthouse, which is, like, thirty-six hundred, plus there’s a fifteen-car garage, and it all sits on a hundred and twenty acres. There’s a stocked lake in the back behind the pool. Stables, too, although I don’t know if there are actually horses, and apparently an underground bunker. As you saw when we drove in here, the whole thing is surrounded by woods, which keeps it very private.”

  Donna was impressed. “You really did some homework on this place.”

  Harper shrugged. “I was curious.”

  Donna was too. The estate seemed to get bigger as they got closer. The house itself was longer than it was wide, or at least it appeared that way from the front. A wing came out from each side of the two-story main building. The massive entryway extended quite a bit over the driveway. That drive led around toward the back of the house but split off to curve again and rejoin the main drive. If the queen had ever had parties, there’d been no lack of available parking.

  Cammie came out in jeans and a sweatshirt, hair wet but pulled back. She returned to her spot at the table.

  Donna couldn’t help but think the place looked more like a resort lodge than a residential building. Maybe it had been. But no, hadn’t the queen built this property? Donna wasn’t sure. “I can’t wait to see the inside. Did you see pictures of that on Zillow?”

  “No. And the ones of the outside all looked like they’d been taken by a drone.”

  “Interesting.”

  Donna looked back at her sister again. Cammie’s eyes were glued to the window. What was it like as a former vampire hunter to be arriving at the late vampire queen’s estate? That had to be a slightly surreal experience.

  Harper pulled through the covered area and parked outside of tall double doors. A stone path and simple landscaping led to the house. “Are they expecting us?”

  Donna glanced over her shoulder at Charlie for the answer.

  Her admin nodded. “They know we’re coming, but I also texted her deputy, Marcus, when we were about an hour out. Someone will greet us. And they’ve been made aware that your newly acquired ability has rendered you impervious to the sun, so no need to worry about that either.”

  “Great, thank you.” Donna downed the last sip of coffee and got up.

  As she did, Pierce came out of the bathroom, looking sharp in a dark gray suit with a crisp white shirt and pale-blue-and-navy-patterned tie. “Ready,” he said.

  Charlie closed her laptop and set it aside. She was in a navy pantsuit with a cream-and-navy-striped sweater shell underneath and navy pumps with a small gold medallion detail.

  Donna frowned. “You guys are more dressed up than I am. Maybe I should change.”

  “We’re staff,” Charlie said. “We should be more dressed. It’s okay if you’re more casual.”

  “Agreed,” Pierce said. “Don’t change. You look beautiful.”

  “He’s right,” Cammie said. “You look great.”

  He reached up and pulled off his tie, then unbuttoned his top button and looked from Donna to Cammie. “How’s that? Better?”

  Cammie laughed. “Somehow, that makes all the difference.”

  Donna nodded. “Yep, that’s perfect.” She looked at the driver’s rearview camera. The bus was parked behind them, and Temo was getting out. He was in jeans and a black leather jacket, which was perfect for her head of security.

  Everyone else on the bus, except probably for Kace, was most likely sleeping.

  “Temo’s on his way,” she said. “Let’s just go in, introduce ourselves, and then figure out where they want us.”

  “Now would be a good time to return the queen’s sword as well,” Charlie said.

  “Okay, I’ll grab it.” She looked at Charlie. “We have the RV park sites reserved just in case staying on property doesn’t work out, right?”

  Charlie nodded. “Yes. Two spots, side by side just like last time. That will put us about thirty minutes away, though I’m hoping it doesn’t come to that. Marcus seemed confident that they had a spot for us.”

  “I hope that’s still true. If we’re not on property and Fitzhugh is, I won’t be able to stand his gloating.” Donna was not about to be outplayed by that loon. She headed back to her bedroom and retrieved the queen’s sword from underneath her bed. It was wrapped in soft felt.

  Charlie was just letting Temo into the RV as Donna returned to the front.

  “Hey.” He nodded at them as he came up the steps. “How’s it going?”

  “Good. How are things on the bus?”

  “All right.” He smiled.

  “That’s nice to hear.” She had no doubt he was enjoying all the time with Neo. She addressed them as a group. “Listen, if there is any offer of a tour of the house or
to sit down and talk or to have a meal or any of that, let’s not. As much as that might be nice, I’m sure they have a million things to do before the funeral services. Not to mention, I need to get a little more sleep before I deal with Fitzhugh, and since we don’t know when he’s arriving, I need to make sure I get that sleep right away.”

  “Understood,” Charlie said. “If it becomes necessary, I can create an urgent reason for you to return to the RV. Pierce, Temo, and I can always stay behind as well and make small talk.”

  “Perfect. Well, then, let’s go ring the doorbell and let them know we’re here.”

  With Harper and Cammie staying behind, Donna led the rest of them off the RV. She held the sword with both hands and paid close attention to her surroundings as they approached the house. The covered area of the drive was significant, enough to park maybe ten cars under. Anyone with an aversion to UV light would be able to come and go comfortably, an understandable necessity for a vampire’s residence.

  She had no doubt that all of the windows in the house were UV-protected as well, and there were a lot of windows. Looking at the place, you’d never guess the queen of the North American vampire nation had resided here. Maybe a cattle baron or an oil magnate, or some kind of import-export tycoon.

  But ancient vampire royalty? No one would ever suspect. Then again, that was probably the point.

  Security cameras, although well disguised, tracked their movements, making Donna wonder if there were cameras in the trees as well that had kept watch on them the moment they’d driven onto the property. Seemed like a smart move. And Artemis had been no dummy. Even sacrificing herself upon Dredward’s sword had seemed calculated.

  Donna didn’t get the chance to ring the bell.

  As they approached, one of the massive wood and wrought-iron front doors opened, and a slightly familiar face met them.