The Suck Stops Here

by Kristen Painter

  He scowled. “Come to apologize? Too late.”

  Somehow, knowing Queen Francesca was on Donna’s side made holding on to her calm a lot easier. Fitzhugh was the one without control, not her. She smiled and meant it, a simple task when she realized how pathetic he was. “I was wondering if we might talk for a moment?”

  That seemed to perplex him. “About what?”

  She had no idea what she was going to say. She was acting on impulse and energy alone. “Maybe we could step outside? Onto the terrace?” Thankfully, it had finally stopped raining.

  Fitzhugh looked skeptical. And slightly bleary-eyed. Maybe the traveling had worn him out. Or maybe, once again, he’d already had too much to drink.

  She supposed he had every right to be skeptical. As far as being tired or a little inebriated, who knew? Except that she’d seen him drink too much before, so that wouldn’t be unusual. She held her smile. “I promise I’ll make it worth your while.”

  She actually couldn’t promise that, but she needed to get him alone.

  He tossed back the drink Claudette had just brought him, confirming Donna’s suspicions that he hadn’t learned anything from past history.

  The man sitting beside him, the one Fitzhugh had been engaged in conversation with, laughed. “Are you really considering turning down an offer to spend a little private time with a woman as beautiful as this one?”

  He gave Donna a wide smile as he stuck out his hand. “Governor Martindale of Connecticut.”

  She shook his hand. “Governor Barrone of New Jersey.”

  “Ah,” he said, dragging out the word. “So you’re the infamous Governor Barrone. Pleasure to meet you.”

  He punched Fitzhugh on the shoulder. “Go on, man.”

  Frowning, Fitzhugh got to his feet. “Five minutes.”

  “Perfect.” Donna strode toward the terrace, hoping he was following. The reflection in the glass doors told her he was.

  As she reached the doors, one of the queen’s staff appeared and opened it for her.

  “Thank you.”

  She and Fitzhugh walked out. The air was cold, and the puddles left behind by the rain had begun to ice over. Her breath formed frosty white clouds. Fitzhugh produced nothing. Breathing wasn’t a necessity for him, an indicator that he’d died once as a vampire already and lost that last shred of humanity. No surprise, really.

  “Well? What do you want?”

  Her smile disappeared a little. “To honestly understand what your problem is with me. That’s it. I just want to know what it is that I’ve done that has turned you against me with such venom. We’re neighbors. We should be allies. Why aren’t we?”

  For a moment, he just stared at her. Stared and wobbled slightly before straightening up again.

  “Because…” he began. “You should never have been turned into a vampire. You don’t take it seriously. You don’t care about what it means. You don’t respect the power and influence and…and…everything else that comes with these fangs. You’re a joke.”

  And he was drunker than she’d imagined. “I’m sorry you think that, but it’s absolutely not true. I take this new life and my role as governor very seriously. Can you explain why you think that about me?”

  He clearly hadn’t been prepared for a rational conversation. He snorted, caught off guard. Then he leaned forward like he needed to emphasize his next point. “You pardoned Claudette when she deserved to die.”

  Donna was so glad this was all being recorded. “She may have failed in her duties as my sire, but that didn’t seem worthy of death. And I thought you loved her. You’ve been keeping company with her.”

  He laughed. “Love? I don’t love her. Or anyone. People love me, not the other way around.”

  “I see.” Donna nodded thoughtfully. “So you hate me because I’m not living up to your vampire standards. Are you sure it doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that I turned down your initial offer to host a party together? For me, but in your state and at my expense?”

  His eyes narrowed, and he pointed at her. “That party would have done you a world of good. You would have met all kinds of important vampires. They all like me because of my influence. You’d have seen that if you’d paid for that party like I told you to.”

  “My loss, then.”

  “Yes,” he sniffed. “Your loss.”

  “I understand why you filed charges against Pierce for punching you that night at Francine’s party, even though we both know you were out of control.”

  “So what if I was?” he spat. “I’m a vampire, and he’s human, and he shouldn’t have laid a hand on me.”

  “Even though you were visibly drunk and verbally assaulting me? What would you have done if the woman you cared for was being treated the way you were treating me?”

  Fitzhugh’s shrugged like he was bored with the conversation. “I probably would have punched me too. But that’s no excuse for a human to hit a vampire. Humans are barely more than food.”

  “Quite an outlook you have.” She was getting angry now, her patience with his double-talk wearing thin. His abhorrent attitude toward humans wasn’t helping, either. Her children were human, after all. She took a step toward him, making him bob his head back. “Since we’re being honest here, why don’t you admit that you know I'm not responsible for Queen Artemis’s death?”

  He snickered. “She was there because of you.”

  “I pleaded with her not to get involved. I tried to protect her, but she insisted on participating in the battle, because that's the kind of person she was. Brave and willing to do what had to be done to protect the vampire nation. Bottom line is that she was there because she wanted to be. And you know that.”

  He shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. Neither does the truth. The council will side with me. You’ll see.” He was grinning now, clearly pleased with himself. “I have a fae witness too.”

  “Is that right? And are they on their way out here for the hearing?”

  His grin widened. “I’ll guess you’ll find out soon enough, won’t you?”

  She was going to punch him herself if they stayed out here any longer. She hoped she’d gotten something useful out of him, but what the council would consider useful would be up for debate. “I guess I will. Just like we’ll find out where the council stands on my counterclaim against you.”

  She turned and walked back to the house, the door once again opened for her by a staff member. She was trembling just a tiny bit. Adrenaline coursing through her system, no doubt. She started to return to Charlie and Pierce, who were still sitting with Queen Francesca, but found Temo standing nearby.

  “Hey,” she said softly. “Everything okay?”

  He nodded. “Just keeping an eye on you. Actually, him.”

  Donna smiled. “Thanks.”

  “Did you get enough?”

  She took a breath. “I hope so. For all of our sakes, I hope so.”

  For the rest of the evening, Fitzhugh kept his distance. He stayed only another hour or so, until, leaning heavily on Claudette, he finally left.

  Queen Francesca insisted Donna bring all of her traveling companions over to the area where she was seated, and their small gathering turned into a rather large, festive party. Champagne was uncorked, and countless toasts were made to Queen Artemis as stories of her many exploits were shared by those who’d known her.

  For the briefest of moments, Donna caught Marcus smiling. But as the itch of the rising sun began to tickle the skin of every vampire in the room, the night drew to a close. They all said their goodbyes with ease, knowing they’d see each other the next evening, although under more solemn circumstances.

  After that would be the reading of the will, which had also been a topic of conversation throughout the night. Mostly because no one could guess why all the funeral guests were being invited to attend something that seemed like it ought to be only for those who actually stood to inherit.

  Speculation was that Artemis had planned for one last gran
d gesture, which seemed likely, even if no one had a clue what that might be.

  On the walk home, Donna linked arms with Pierce, but she smiled brightly at Charlie. “You deserve a raise for introducing me to Queen Francesca. She’s amazing. Truly.”

  Charlie grinned, obviously proud of having been instrumental in that connection. “I had a feeling you two might hit it off. I just wish I’d known she was going to be here so I could have laid some groundwork ahead of time, but it all worked out.”

  “Beautifully, I might add.”

  Pierce was smiling too. “Are we really going to visit her in Mexico?”

  “Why not?” Donna said. “If we can drive to Kansas, why not south of the border?”

  “I’m in,” Francine said.

  Donna glanced over her shoulder. Will had graciously offered Francine his arm, and she’d basically adopted him. It was rather cute to see the biker with the octogenarian on his arm and him smiling like he’d found a new grandma.

  Donna sighed a happy sigh. Maybe things hadn’t improved all that much, but tonight had gone very well. Even her talk with Fitzhugh, which they’d be unpacking in a few minutes.

  “Not me,” Bunni said. She tottered ahead of them in glittery black platform heels and a skintight black sweater dress with puffy black sleeves. “I don’t want to get Montezuma’s revenge.”

  “Then don’t drink the water,” Francine said. “Or just drink bottled.”

  Bunni turned to give Francine a look. “You can get it from the blood, too, you know.”

  “I don’t think that’s true,” Pierce said.

  Donna just laughed and let the conversation go on. She was happy, but her mind had drifted back to her talk with Fitzhugh. She couldn’t help but wonder if any of it would be enough to turn the tide that threatened to drown them.

  Back in the guesthouse, things were quiet. Kace was in the living room, watching a movie with Harper, but Cammie wasn’t around. They had the sound turned down low.

  “Your sister went to bed,” Harper said softly.

  “Thanks,” Donna said.

  “How was it?” Kace asked.

  Donna smiled. “Very good.”

  Harper took her feet off the coffee table and sat up. “Did you get to talk to Fitzhugh?”

  “I did,” Donna answered. “Now we just have to see if anything he said is useful.”

  As most of them went off to change and go to bed, Neo approached her. “You might need help getting that battery pack and the wiring off. It’s taped in a couple places. But I don’t want to wake your sister up either.”

  “Let’s go into the bathroom in my bedroom, then. We can tiptoe in and close the door.”

  Neo nodded. “Sounds good.”

  Quietly, they went through the dark room and into the bathroom. Donna shut the door before turning on the light. It was blindingly bright after so much darkness.

  They blinked a few times until their eyes adjusted, then Donna turned and held her hair up so Neo could undo her zipper. Donna shucked the dress to stand there in her strapless bra and underwear, her back still to Neo.

  “This might hurt a little,” Neo said. “That tape looks pretty stuck. Do you want me to rip it off, or take my time?”

  “Seeing as how I don’t want to lose any skin, maybe take your time.”

  “Okay.” Neo got to work, getting a fingernail under the edge of the tape and peeling it back.

  “Ouch.” Donna hissed. “I know you’re being careful, but it feels like being waxed in slow motion. Just yank it.”

  “You sure?”

  “Yes, do it.”

  “On the count of three. One…two…” With lightning speed, Neo ripped the segments of tape off, taking the battery pack with it.

  “Hey! You said on three.”

  “I know, but it’s done now.”

  Donna nodded, laughing softly. “If only we could be rid of Fitzhugh that easily.”

  Donna changed into leggings and a sweatshirt, then met Neo, Pierce, Charlie, and Temo in the living room. Everyone else had gone to bed or had moved to the sitting room upstairs to watch television.

  Neo had her equipment out and was setting up her laptop to do the playback. She plugged in a set of headphones and handed them to Donna, then pointed at some buttons on the keyboard. “This is play. Push this to skip ahead, just like fast-forward. When you get to the part with Fitzhugh, just hit pause, then we can go through it and see what you got.”

  “Okay.” Donna slipped the headphones on and hit play. Her evening began all over again, unspooling through the first few monotonous minutes until she met Francesca. She hit the skip button and jumped forward over and over in small increments, until she heard Fitzhugh’s voice. It was a little unsettling to have that sound in her head.

  Thankfully, she’d gotten to the point where they should all listen. She pulled the headphones off. “It’s right at the point where I was talking him into going outside with me. Although we really have Governor Martindale to thank for making it happen. He sort of guilted Fitzy into doing it.”

  “We’ll buy him a fruit basket,” Charlie said.

  Donna chuckled.

  “All right,” Neo said as she unplugged the headphones. “Here we go.” She hit play, then they all listened intently.

  After the part about Claudette, Neo hit pause. “Wow. Claudette’s really going to enjoy hearing this. But then, she kind of has it coming.”

  Charlie nodded. “She’s never treated people much differently than Fitzhugh, so she might actually expect it. Doesn’t mean she would like hearing that the guy she’s shacked up with thinks her death sentence should have been carried out.”

  “Or that he doesn’t love her.” Pierce snorted. “That’ll be a fun trip home.”

  “If she hears this,” Donna said.

  Neo slanted her eyes. “Oh, she’s gonna hear it. I’ll make sure of that. I’m gonna slice this section out and email her a nice fat MP3 file.”

  “You know that’d only make Fitzhugh hate me even more. Knowing that I was behind recording that.”

  Pierce looked at Donna. “Do you care?”

  “No. I guess not. We’re never going to be best friends. I’m not sure what else he could do to us at this point anyway.” Donna’s phone vibrated. She’d stuck it in the waistband of her leggings. She dug it out and checked the screen. “Hey, a text from Ishalan.”

  “What’s it say?” Temo asked.

  “Hang on.” Donna pulled the message up and read it out loud. “‘The witness is handled. Trust me.’”

  “That’s it?” Temo pulled out his phone. “I didn’t get anything from him.”

  Donna sent a quick text back. Thank you. Any more details? “I asked him for more details, but he may not want to put it out there, you know?”

  Temo nodded. “Ishalan can be a little suspicious of technology. He definitely prefers face-to-face interactions. But if he says it’s handled, I believe him.”

  “I do too,” Donna said. That was one less thing to worry about. She hoped. She tucked her phone away, then gave Neo a nod. “Go ahead.”

  Neo pressed play again, and the sound resumed. Even with the volume turned down, Fitzhugh’s voice filled the room.

  They all listened with rapt attention, and at the end of the conversation, Pierce smiled at Donna. “You did a great job. I am really glad the man has no sense of moderation when it comes to drinking. The part where he said the truth doesn’t matter? That’s gold.”

  “I agree,” Charlie said. “But I like the part where he agreed he’d do the same thing Pierce did if confronted with a similar issue.”

  “But do you think any of that will matter to the council?” Donna asked. “Especially if one of those council members is in his pocket?”

  “It still could,” Pierce said. “After all, one council member might sway things, but would they really be able to shift a decision against this kind of evidence? That would be a lot harder.”

  Donna sat back and sighed. “I�
�m glad Francesca said she’d stand with me at the hearing. Again, no idea if that will have any influence on the council, but it can’t hurt.”

  “Beats me. I’m going to get this MP3 sent off to Claudette,” Neo said. “Then I’m going to bed. My skin feels like it’s got bugs crawling on it.”

  Donna glanced at the windows. The sky was turning pink. “Yeah, let’s all go to bed. We have the funeral tomorrow. And the reading of the will. We need to be sharp. No telling what’s going to happen next.”

  She smiled at Neo. “Thanks for taking care of the technical side of things tonight. That was huge.”

  “You got it.” Neo grinned. “Hey, you want me to mic you up for the funeral too?”

  Donna shook her head. “After Claudette gets that recording, I don’t think Fitzhugh will risk talking to me again.” She perked up suddenly. “Now there’s a benefit I hadn’t thought of.”

  They all laughed. Temo stayed with Neo as the rest of them went to bed.

  Donna washed her face, brushed her teeth, then turned the lights off and headed for bed. Cammie was still sound asleep, her breathing rhythmic and soft.

  Donna took hold of the covers, then hesitated and reached for her crucifix. What would Cammie do if something happened to Donna? Not that Donna didn’t think she couldn’t take care of herself, she could.

  But if the council did something incredibly stupid, like sentence Donna to death because of Artemis’s demise, Donna could easily see Cammie going on a killing spree. She might have been a nun and a hunter, but her hunter side was the one she still seemed most connected with.

  Donna dropped to her knees beside the bed, crossed herself, then said a prayer for all of them.

  After that, she got into bed, but despite being tired, she couldn’t sleep. Again. Too many thoughts in her head, too many worries about her family and friends, too many questions that remained unanswered.

  Maybe some warm milk would help. At this point, it couldn’t hurt. She wished Jerabeth was here to do her heavy-air trick again of sending Donna off to sleep. Could Harper do that too? Didn’t matter. Donna wasn’t about to wake her up. She pulled on her robe and went out to the kitchen, keeping the lights off. Wasn’t like she needed them. The sky was pale with the rising sun.