by Joyee Flynn
“Virgil, I say this because I love you. If vampires could be OCD you would. You’re too rigid and a little boring. You don’t do well with people, you keep to yourself, and you barely have any friends. You seem lost in yourself most times. I think fate gave you two men because it will blow open that little box you see yourself and your life fitting into or what it should be.”
I just blinked at the phone for a few moments in shock. “And people wonder why I don’t let them in? So you love me because you’re mated to my brother and family now but you obviously don’t like me or respect me. Thanks, Riley.”
“No, Virgil, that’s not what I meant!” he shouted as I hung up the phone. Ouch! That just, wow, hurt! When he called right back I ignored the call and sent it right to voicemail. I got the answers I wanted and a lot more. Now I had a whole new list of reasons not to want to acknowledge my mates… They wouldn’t like me. Riley knew me pretty well and obviously he didn’t.
I couldn’t take my mates not liking me and just being stuck with me.
I lay down on the bed in the room Caleb had given me for our stay, tired down to my very soul. Now I wondered if vampires could get depressed. Did my family feel this way about me? Yeah, I knew they pitied me being the last of us who wasn’t mated, but maybe it was more than that? Maybe they pitied me because I was me.
Yup, that was depressing.
I didn’t even realize I’d fallen asleep, waking when Stefan knocked on the door and told me it was time to go down for dinner. I called out I’d be down in ten and jumped up. I needed a shower after the long-ass flight. Grabbing my toiletries bag, I hurried into the bathroom, showered, dried off, dressed, and was making my way through the palace a little while later.
“Lost?” Mareo asked as I turned the corner.
“Yes,” I admitted, remembering all my training and the tough situations I’d been in before. I could handle myself. Just because they were my mates and had thrown me the first time didn’t mean I’d act like a child. I was a fucking warrior. I could control my reactions and emotions.
“We’ll escort you to dinner,” Foma offered as he held out his arm for me.
“Thanks. Lead the way.” I gestured for him to go ahead, ignoring the arm. I saw hurt flash in his eyes before he walked away. He wouldn’t have been hurt unless he knew. They knew. Had I been that see-through earlier? I didn’t know but I still didn’t grasp what to do about them, feeling less inclined to tell them we were mates than I had been before talking to Riley.
“Hey, I got a couple messages from Riley asking me to please have you call him,” Stefan said as we joined them for dinner. It wasn’t what I’d expected for a dining room in a palace so I had a feeling this was just a smaller one in the residence wing for normal, everyday meals. “What’s going on? He sounded upset.”
“Doesn’t matter. I’ll have to talk to him when we get home,” I responded, not bothering to hide my annoyed tone. Stefan blinked at me in shock as we all sat down. I know, I know, boring Virgil didn’t ever bitch or say anything bad about anyone. Apparently that was part of what made me unlikeable. So screw it. And it didn’t help that Mareo had sat to my right and Foma on my left. How the fuck had that one worked out like that?
Caleb gave me a funny look when I met his gaze so I quickly focused on my water glass. “The reason Michan, Manus, and Brighid aren’t here is because they’re in Paris fighting for their High Council seats. Their Barnabas for that area is Councilman Dubois and I guess that there’s bad blood there so Michan and Manus living here, out of the Eastern European High Council’s territory, is what he’s saying is the reason that he’s going after their seats.”
“That man be a bastard,” Liam bitched as our salads were served. I had my suspicions he was right and a lot more but I’d kept quiet, waiting for someone else to connect the dots. I didn’t like taking center stage and every time I seemed to open my mouth, most looked at me like I was dense… Which was really the opposite.
But it also made Riley’s words ring in my head. I kept to myself because, unlike my genius brother-in-law, my intelligence wasn’t accepted as a gift. Normally everyone just glanced at me as if wondering why was I wasting their time and moved on. A few centuries of that and I started to become resentful so I started avoiding them too, not interacting with them well. So much so that Riley was correct and I knew that. I just loved how it was my fault of course.
Caleb snapped me out of my thoughts when he confirmed my earlier suspicions.
“Look, one of the reasons I moved from being heir apparent as I was when I found out who I was to being sworn in as King is it gives me more leverage, protection, and a louder voice once I have that title. Plus, it’s more security for my family and prestige that our son brings because I have an heir and a line. It wasn’t just my mates and son I was looking out for by doing this.”
“We’ve heard that other High Councils might be pacing in the wings that we’ve got fae, margays, and wolves in our coven now along with a good percentage of the East Coast covens,” Stefan hedged.
“Aye, ya got that from Finn and Fergus,” Lorcan agreed. “We know. Our das be the ones who told us what the Eastern Europe High Council be discussing. Caleb confirmed it with the Central one along with the Russian providences High Council. They’re nervous. We don’t have as many contacts in the Americas or Asian ones but the ones we do know be riled up.”
“It’s just odd,” Stefan grumbled. “Why make such issue with this? We’ve been telling everyone what’s been going on. You know our High Council’s been communicating about our attacks.”
“But nowhere else is getting as many attacks as you are,” Caleb said quietly. “They wonder if you’re making it up to justify building an army.” I sighed and he glanced at me. “I know this is frustrating but we have to come up with a strategy as to what is the next move. Otherwise the Western Europe High Council could declare war on the East Coast High Council or something. They might require you get rid of the margays and fae.”
“And this isn’t something you can just call Father up about. So you wanted to discuss this while we came to visit,” Stefan surmised, nodding. “What do you think is the best plan to ease their minds?”
“I’ve had a request from the head of the Western European High Council to have some of his liaisons observe how things are going at the palace,” Caleb answered. I felt a rush of adrenaline and fear fill me. Shit. I might not be able to stay quiet much longer. These circumstances were too severe to let someone else figure out the answer as I normally did. “They want to see how having the fae in our coven along with displaced shifters works. Also our alliances with the local shifters.”
“And let me guess, he’s hinted he wants you to smooth the way for the same at our coven?” I said, swallowing back my nerves at jumping into the fray. In a fight as a warrior, I never had a problem. But after centuries of people looking at me like I was stupid or should just shut up most times I spoke, it was hard for me to communicate.
Then again, apparently the way I’d been made me unlikeable, according to my brother-in-law, so fuck everyone and I was just going to be who I wanted.
Caleb blinked at me in shock as if remembering I was there or something. “Yes. He wants his own people to see what’s going on in your coven to reassure that there’s no army being built.”
“Oh I bet he wants to see what’s going on, but not because he thinks we have an army,” I drawled. “You have a map of Europe or projector? I want to show you what I’ve been working on.”
“Virgil, this really isn’t the time for—” Stefan started to say, giving me a confused look.
“I always fucking listen to everyone else all the fucking time about everything. Just this once would someone listen to me without giving me shit or basically telling me to shut it and go away?” I bellowed, letting out years of pent-up aggression. I guess what Riley had said to me really got to me worse than I thought. “I know the answer. Jesus. Just shut the fuck up and listen before we all end up dea
d.”
“Yeah, sure, Virgil,” he whispered, his eyes practically popping out of his head… As were everyone else’s in the room. Fuck them. I was tired of blending in with the scenery now that I knew Riley saw me that way. Because in my heart I knew if Riley felt that way, most others did.
“I’ll get a projector brought in. Do you need a laptop too?” Caleb finally said after a few moments of silence.
“No, I just need my tablet.” I practically raced out of the room, not being able to take their stares. I remembered the way back to where I was staying, grabbed it, and made my way to the dining room again.
“I don’t know what’s going on with him, Caleb,” Stefan muttered as I got to the door, my hand already on the knob. “Riley sounded panicked. Could Virgil have had a nervous breakdown and that’s why the doc was calling? Maybe he thinks Virgil’s unstable?”
I growled, pissed off beyond belief. I yanked open the door. “No, Riley’s just a dick who thought being honest with me about all my personality flaws would help. I asked him a few questions about something personal and he took it as an opening to give me an assessment as to what he thought I needed to work on. Well, there’s a reason I tend to keep my mouth shut, but fine, fuck it. If I’m not liked anyways, I’m just going to be me.”
“We like you,” Stefan argued.
“Right. But you think I’m off. Withdrawn, don’t really pay attention or do well with people. Lost in my own world which was why you were trying to get me to be quiet the moment I opened my mouth, right?” I shot back as I set everything up with the projector one of Caleb’s people brought in. I glanced at my brother and felt my heart twist in my chest. The look on his face said it all. Yes. “Yeah, well, you should be smart enough to not assume you know as much as you think you do.”
“What do ya mean by that?” Liam asked quietly, gently. I looked at him and saw nothing but genuine concern in his expression.
“That apparently no one really knows me or gives a damn enough to take the time to see me,” I answered before clearing my throat and pulling up what I needed on my tablet. I plugged in the wireless connector to the projector and then the maps, first. “Here are the charted demon attacks from 2000 to 2005. Notice anything?”
“They’re pretty even across the board,” Caleb hedged. “Except not many in Western Europe.”
“Exactly. There were two. Odd for all those countries, right? So look at 2005 to 2010. Same thing. We see an increase, but not in Western Europe. I highly doubt that their warriors are all that much better. So I did some more digging.” I pulled up two more maps and put them side by side. “These are all the human abductions, missing person cases, and deaths that could be associated with demons in those years.”
“There are next to none in Western Europe,” Patrick gasped. “Holy shit!”
“Yup. Best way not to draw attention to your area or have people looking into things you don’t want eyes on is to have no problems. Now, look at from 2010 until now,” I said as I pulled up the map. The East Coast flared up with dots of attacks and kidnappings, deaths, and potential demon-related deaths. “Now what changed in 2010 that could possibly have caused this?”
“Riley and I came up with the bullets,” Stefan answered.
“Right, but they didn’t know he was there right away. We know that because they tried to attack his old coven last year to get him,” I explained. “So what else?”
“You have debatably some of the most powerful founding families in the world all in one region,” Caleb answered.
“Yes, but that was always true. What most people don’t know and I only found out after some serious digging is that we had two key players turn demon. Torhn, which you knew and you and Micah killed, but he wasn’t originally from our coven, so it wasn’t attributed to us. He was however in charge of training with our now Councilman Abbott whose father did turn demon that year. Then suddenly the attacks increased and we had more demon activity than anywhere else.
“When they found out about Riley being there, up it some more. Explanation, they took the cook from the warrior compound. We find out Cyrus’s family is still mostly alive and demons, running the operation according to them. Then we have Barnabas come home, and they try to take him out. Why?”
“He’s the last Leopold and it would have thrown the Council into chaos,” Stefan answered.
“They could have done that when he was at Oxford. It would have been much easier then without the additional security,” I replied, hating that everyone just assumed that was the answer. That was the easy answer, but the demons were right on something… We were arrogant. They didn’t lose their IQ because they lost their souls. They weren’t stupid.
If we didn’t start understanding that, all the cool weapons in the world wouldn’t save us.
Chapter 3
“He mated,” Caleb whispered, his eyes going wide. “If Barnabas died most people would have left his seat to one of their mates, but he didn’t.”
“Who weren’t from founding families, and that would have set off some of the Council members. If he died before, Father would have been next in line as the second-oldest founding family on the Council. They wouldn’t have wanted that. That’s what everyone kept missing when they assumed that the demons just wanted to kill the last Leopold. They could have done that years ago.
“It would have put the Mariuses at the head of the Council and with seven warrior sons, that would have been a stupid move for the demons. We’re just as well respected as the Leopolds, maybe even better known since there are so many of us and we’ve taken missions all over the world over our years. Victor is debatably the most respected warrior our race has. Then the best doctor our race has mates into our family. Our line taking over the Council wouldn’t have helped them.”
“But they saw Miles or Digger taking it over as the match that could potentially light the dynamite to make the High Council explode,” Stefan recapped.
“Or at least distracted them with their squabbling long enough to do some damage. Then they come for the Kappas. Why would they want them specifically and not just wolves?”
“They were helping our coven deal with their past and become stronger,” Patrick answered me.
“Right. But they didn’t know about the fae right away, which implies their source wasn’t in the loop. Meaning not a founding family or Council member but someone who could have gotten into the Council estate to accidentally let the demon Queen Magdalena captured be exposed to the sun, effectively killing him before we could question him.”
“That was highly suspect,” Stefan agreed. “So you’ve pretty much ruled out Councilman Abbott even though it was his father that turned demon?” I nodded. I never was a believer of the sins of the father and all that shit. Everyone was different. “Who are you thinking then?”
“So say a warrior,” I said, generalizing, not ready to get into specifics. “Then the fae come over and we’ve got another powerful ally, maybe the most powerful ally of any coven because the Queen lives in ours. All of a sudden the talk starts that maybe we’re building an army, which is ridiculous since we were giving other paranormals refuge, but effective to throw focus off the demon problem.
“It also makes our coven look untrustworthy when we’re showing covens how to produce these next-gen demon-fighting weapons. Who would want to use them if they couldn’t trust the people they got them from?”
“That’s a very good point,” Caleb hedged, leaning forward. “I know the Central Europe High Council isn’t implementing the procedures we are and making their warriors carry the ammo. I thought it odd but they dodged my questions when I asked about it.”
“Then the shit goes down with the margays and their King is attacked. The secret of their blood was highly guarded information that we didn’t even know about. You’d have to have lots of pull or friends to know about that. Say like leader of a High Council who has a large margay population in their territory?”
“You think the head of the Western
Europe High Council is in league with the demons?” Caleb’s eyes looked ready to pop out of his head. I’d get to my proof in a bit, but I wanted to put the idea in their head so I nodded.
“Right. So then we end up having a Kappa who’s an Alpha, mated to a powerful founding family. We barely learn about all this and the demons take such a risk as to try to take Caven out right away?”
“You think they were targeting Caven and not just trying to attack that night?” Stefan asked, blinking at me in shock.
“Yeah, I highly doubt they just so happen to get in an accident with Darcy’s SUV on the way to gathering for an attack,” I drawled. “The target was Caven. He’s an asset. They needed to take him out before he became as powerful as King Rylan and got the wolves to be an asset. Fletcher wasn’t a good or well-trained Alpha. He wouldn’t have been a threat to the demons, but Caven? Mated to Gabriel? Oh yeah.”
“So you think it had to be one of the warriors that day who bared their necks to Caven?” Patrick asked, getting the point I was making about the inside traitor in our coven.
“I do. The demons knew way too fast for it to be through the normal gossip channels. It was within a few days that the attack happened. The wolf elder explained to them right away why they had done that. If you were the traitor, a wolf who could make a vampire submit like a wolf would have screamed power and scared them.”
“Holy shit,” Liam whispered.
“And of all the lack of attacks in Western Europe, there have been only two in the past few years. The margays, where the goal was to get their blood that can let demons go into the sun temporarily,” I explained and then looked at Liam and Lorcan. “And your family. Now why would demons all of a sudden show up at a remote farm in Ireland? There’s been one demon sighting in Ireland in the past decade. But yet your family gets attacked?”
“Our das hate the head of the Council,” Lorcan answered, his eyebrows shooting up to his hairline. “They be the man’s biggest rivals. They also be next in line for head of the Council as your da be. They hate Councilman Dubois.”