All That Bleeds

by Kimberly Frost

  Chapter 19

  Dimitri sat in a wingback chair with a file open on his lap. His black pinstripe power suit and platinum cuff links signaled the seriousness of their meeting. He was clearly on his way to the Dome.

  He stood and embraced her briefly before reclaiming his seat. He set the file on the round side table as she sat down, and she noticed that there were savory breakfast turnovers and coffee there as well. The staff catered to him as if he were at home.

  “I’m sorry for my part in last night’s unpleasantness,” she said. “Troy and I have had some trouble in the past, but I know that exchange was really uncomfortable for you and Grant to see.”

  “I’m not worried about angry words spoken behind closed doors. Sometimes that helps clear the air. I’m concerned about the implications of the accusations that were made. Do you have any evidence, concrete or not, that Troy put you in danger?”

  “No, I spoke rashly. I’m sure that those ventala were there for some unrelated reason.”

  “They were. According to Theo Tobin, they were looking for him.”

  “Oh.” Her hands went to the chair’s arms, but she forced herself to rest them lightly. “Did he say why?”

  “They wanted to buy some pictures and information from him. When he refused, they beat him. He stopped in Handyrock’s on his way back to the Etherlin.”

  She nodded.

  “Though clearly there are some missing pieces of the story. No one with a battered face and body, who’s being hunted by the perpetrators that assaulted him, stops in for a drink at a club his assailants might search. Why wouldn’t he have simply come home? If he needed a drink, he could’ve gotten one at a club in the Etherlin or from his liquor cabinet, presumably.”

  When she didn’t answer, Dimitri added, “Any thoughts?”

  She shook her head.

  “Grant says Theo called you.”

  “How does Grant know that?”

  “He reviewed the phone records.”

  She pursed her lips. “I was told that allowing my bills to be paid by the community fund did not mean that my calls would be a matter of public record.”

  “Grant’s hardly the public. There’s just been a major violent incident. He’s the head of Etherlin Security, and he’s investigating. I’m surprised that the thing you’re worried about is an invasion of your privacy.”

  She sighed. “I’m sorry. Grant and I haven’t been as close lately as we once were, and we strongly disagree about me refusing an ES detail when I’m in the Etherlin. Ever since the attack on the Arts & Innovation Ball, when I became aware that an ES bodyguard would hold me against my will if he thought it was the best way to protect me, I’ve been uncomfortable.”

  “But ES has neutralized so many threats. You wouldn’t be alive or be able to function the way you do without security. Surely you see that.”

  “I do. I’m grateful to them. I just don’t want to feel like I’m under house arrest or under constant surveillance by people who report to the EC rather than me.”

  “Do you have something to hide?”

  “Does Cerise? Does Ileana? Dorie? They’ve all been offered permanent twenty-four-hour protection, and they’ve all refused live-in bodyguards.” She folded her hands on her lap. “I do understand the need for security. Especially after last night. As luck would have it, I’ve become friends with a member of a consultant security firm. For now, I’d like to have him provide additional personal security.”

  “Who is he? Have you talked to Grant about it?”

  “Where is Grant today?”

  “He’s in the Sliver, assisting with the investigation there.”

  She nodded. “Exactly.” She steepled her fingers. “I’ve known for a while that Grant’s first loyalty is to his ambition. I think he’s going to be a wonderful council member one day. He’s kind and fair, and he cares so much about the community. Unfortunately, I sometimes feel that as he focuses on the big picture, he forgets that I’m not just a muse. I’m also a young woman who wants a voice in all the decisions that affect her immediate surroundings. Mr. Clark was a very qualified ES officer, but he was also uncompromising and often condescending. When it comes to a personal bodyguard, I need to be the one to choose him.”

  “Who’s the security consultant?”

  “His name is Len Mills. His firm was selected and vetted by ES, so I think he’s a good compromise.”

  “It’s natural to want to exert your independence, but by doing this, you’ll appear critical of ES and, by extension, the Etherlin Council. Is that the impression you want to give as we head into the vote?”

  “I’m not planning to flaunt my decision. I respect ES, and I’m very grateful to the Etherlin Council. The work you do allows me to do my work without having to concern myself with so many other things. I really value that. I know my mom did, too. As a muse, I want to spend my time studying and working with aspirants. I don’t want to manage a household or choose financial investments. I really am happy to leave that in the council’s hands.

  “I just don’t want to feel like I’m being watched and judged every moment. I know we’re in the middle of the competition now, but afterward, I expect to be able to work in peace. I’ll certainly always do my best to represent the Etherlin well, and I won’t take needless chances. You can be sure I’ll never leave the Etherlin without security again. But as an adult muse, I need a say in decisions that pertain to me.”

  “By raising this issue now, you’re putting your life’s work in jeopardy.”

  “My work speaks for itself. I’m the most accomplished muse. I’d also make the best leader, since I’m the most open to working with the other women. I won’t try to exclude anyone, thereby squandering valuable talent.” Her implied meaning didn’t need to be stated. Dimitri already knew that any of the others would try to close ranks, leaving her out of any combined muse efforts.

  “I know you’re intelligent and savvy about these things, which makes me wonder why you’re courting controversy now.”

  He’s going to keep pressing the issue of the timing. If you really want to keep Merrick here in the guise of Len Mills, Dimitri will have to be convinced an outside consultant is necessary.

  “I don’t have a choice.” She studied Dimitri’s face, wanting to gauge his reaction to what she would say next. “Someone attempted to abduct me recently, and someone I know may have been involved.”

  He looked genuinely shocked. “What?” he sputtered. “Were you hurt? Who—?”

  “Grant’s looking into it. I haven’t said anything to anyone else because I don’t want to disrupt the Wreath Muse activities and the EC’s vote. I know ES is supposed to be unbiased, but the individual officers have their favorites, I’m sure. That’s the reason I’d like additional security from outside the Etherlin.”

  Dimitri stared at her. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me about this immediately.”

  “I didn’t want you to worry.”

  A clock in the hallway chimed, and he looked up. “You’re leaving in the morning for the retreat center?”

  She nodded.

  “I’ll make sure we send extra security. I can’t be there myself until tomorrow evening. If you need to reach me, don’t hesitate to call. One other thing. Is there any possibility Theo Tobin was involved?”

  “I don’t know. Why?”

  “Because Tobin’s going to be among the photographers.”

  Despite being keyed up, Alissa had lunch with Merrick. She noticed that he ate very little and licked his lips numerous times as though they were dry. She remembered reading that repeatedly licking their lips was an early sign of bloodthirst in a ventala. At the moment, it was difficult to get a sense of how he was feeling since he was buried beneath the heavy glamour of the Ovid Medallion. It took some getting used to. She missed his real face.

  “You bled quite a bit. Will you need blood? The retreat center’s isolated, and I’m sure you realize there’s no blood-derivative available in the Etherli
n.”

  He didn’t look worried, but his silence felt evasive. He probably hadn’t anticipated losing blood. How long until he’d need to feed?

  “Will the lack of blood supply be an issue?”

  The shake of his head was barely perceptible, and her instincts told her he wasn’t being honest.

  “The retreat center—tell me about it,” he said.

  She eyed him. If he didn’t want to talk about the blood situation, she couldn’t force him, but it made her uneasy.

  “The center’s incredible,” she said. The retreat center had been her idea, and it was one of the few projects about which all the muses had been excited. “Ileana Rella, whose area is architecture, helped inspire the most amazing design. You’ll have to see it to appreciate it.

  “The drive takes a few hours, but it’s worth it. Normally I’ll have several rooms at my disposal, but on this trip there will be some members of the media photographing the new center and writing articles about it and us. Etherlin Security might want to house you with their security officers.”

  When Merrick didn’t answer, she glanced at him. He licked his lips and drank a couple swallows of tomato juice that had been fortified with iron powder.

  “That’s okay, I take it?”

  “I’ll be in the room that best allows me to protect you.”

  “The rooms might already be assigned.”

  He shrugged as if that wouldn’t be an obstacle to his rearranging things.

  She leaned forward. “There’s more to a disguise than changing your looks, you know.”

  He glanced at her as he drank more juice.

  “There’s an air about you that’s too much your own. You need to act like we’re friends and as if you work for me. People will expect you to behave a certain way.”

  He squinted at the light streaming in through the dining room windows, then stood and turned his back to them and slid on dark sunglasses.

  She frowned, realizing that despite the human visage, the daylight still hurt his eyes. “I didn’t think this through. There will be times at the center when I’ll have to be outside. There’s so much reflected light off the snow. It’s blindingly bright in some places.”

  He drank the rest of the juice while standing, saying nothing in response.

  Since he was a consultant, ES would be watching his every move. They were bound to notice his sensitivity to light.

  He set the glass down. At her sigh of exasperation, the corners of his mouth quirked up.

  “This is not a game, Merrick. If we’re caught—”

  “I know what happens if I’m caught.”

  “Listen, it’s all right to admit this was a mistake. You made your decision to come too quickly, without knowing what would be involved,” she said, striding toward the door. “I can arrange for someone to drive you into the Sliver. You’ll be able to get home from there.”

  “Alissa,” he said softly.

  She paused. “What?”

  “Relax. Wearing sunglasses isn’t unique to ventala. Light burns my eyes and makes me feel sluggish, but even in bright sunlight, I’m faster than a human being will ever be. When the sun rises, I do have to sleep at least a couple hours. Are they going to expect you to work at sunrise?”

  She shook her head.

  “Then it’s not a problem. And don’t worry about the way I’ll come across. Mills is a former Navy SEAL who works for an elite private security firm. I promise you that high-profile clients want their bodyguards to be seen, not heard. ES will expect him to be watchful, not chatty, while on duty.”

  He was right, of course. “I’m nervous,” she said. “Your frequent sphinxlike silences are unnerving.”

  “You’ll get used to it.”

  “I don’t actually want to get used to it. I want you to talk to me, like you did last night.”

  “Last night I had an incentive.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “I shouldn’t need to bribe you to talk to me. What do you have against conversation?”

  He shrugged.

  “Like now. I’d really like you to tell me what you’re thinking.”

  He pinned her with a look. Even with someone else’s face, there was something dangerous in his eyes. “I’m thinking,” he said, lowering his voice to a whisper—a very intimate whisper, “that we have unfinished business from last night.”

  Her heart thudded behind her ribs. He licked his lips and glanced at her throat, where she was sure he could see her pulse thrumming beneath her skin. She blushed.

  “I’m thinking,” he said, and paused deliberately, leaning close, “that if there were a lock on the dining room door, we could take up where we left off.”

  Her jaw dipped open, and she drew in an unsteady breath. The idea had its allure, but they really couldn’t. A lot of staff milled about on the ground floor during the day. Anyone could come in or notice the drawn drapes. Her eyes darted between the floor and the door, then back to him.

  The way he watched her made her body temperature rise another degree. She swallowed.

  “I could move the dining room table to block the door.” He lifted a corner of the long, heavy table experimentally. “I could barricade us in—”

  “Point taken.” She shook her head with a small smile. “You can stop talking.”

  Chapter 20

  Merrick said he wanted to see the area she’d walked through on her way home from the Xenakis party, so she led him out the back door to the lakeside path.

  “Tell me what it’s like to wield the muse magic.”

  “You expect me to answer questions when you don’t?” she asked.

  He shrugged, the hint of a smile playing at his lips.

  “That hardly seems fair.”

  “If life were fair, we would’ve been lovers the first weekend we met,” he said.

  She slid a glance at him and raised her brows. If he thought he could continue to throw her off balance by flirting, he was mistaken. She was, after all, an experienced public figure, and she was certainly used to being propositioned by men. The only reason he’d flustered her at all was because she was attracted to him, too. But she realized there was an advantage to his being different. With a lot of men, she had to walk a tightrope by flirting in a way that made them feel good without promising too much. Yet Merrick flaunted his unflappable control, making her trust it. Also, being outside, bathed in the afternoon light, their walk was very public.

  She smiled at him and widened her eyes with mock innocence. “From the very first weekend?” The back of her hand brushed his arm in a light caress. “And, if it had started then, would we still be lovers after all these years? If life were fair?”

  “What do you think?”

  She paused thoughtfully, then shook her head. “I doubt it. By nature, muses flit. Lots of passionate love affairs. Men, though not always prone to monogamy themselves, don’t like to share. Long relationships are hard to sustain. Before my parents’ generation, muses either didn’t marry or they married a lot.”

  He smirked.

  “Ventala aren’t known for their long attachments either,” she said. “Our correspondence probably lasted much longer than a full-blown affair would have. Maybe we’re lucky there was a wall,” she said. “What do you think?”

  “Anticipation can eclipse actual events, and I do like my letters. The way the ink soaks into the heavy bond paper. The sexy sweep of the letters.” He licked his lips. “You’ll have to work pretty hard to be better in the flesh.”

  She laughed. “A challenge. I do like challenges.” She glanced at the lake, a glacial blue stretching to the far shore and a thick forest of evergreens. “You asked what it’s like to wield muse magic. The magic can be used in a couple different ways. The side effect of having it is being able to infuse my voice with persuasive power to influence people, but I don’t use that much because it borrows power that should be used for greater things. Using power for persuasion is also against Etherlin rules, but you may have noticed that I occ
asionally break Etherlin rules,” she said, shrugging her brows.

  “Using it for inspiration with aspirants, that begins like a dance, an exchange of energy and ideas. I can almost share their thoughts and follow them forward. I start talking, filling the empty spaces. Encouragement washes over them like rain, enlivening them to the possibilities. Hunger follows, a need to reach a conclusion, to see what hasn’t been seen before. Anticipation builds, and the power ignites in a frenzy of thoughts and impulses. The few spoken words mean infinitely more than what’s actually said. It ebbs and flows, until there’s a rush, like being intoxicated, and then there’s a crescendo. It’s orgasmic, I suppose, but more intense. Afterward, the buzz continues for hours and there’s a sense of satisfaction and bliss, a knowing that something has been created that will ripple through the world and touch people’s hearts and minds, possibly shape their lives. The aspirants are giddy and manic and grateful, while I feel connected to all mankind. In those hours, I’m powerful and humble at the same time. And there is complete clarity. No matter what else I waver about in life, there is one thing I know with absolute certainty. I was born to be a muse. Setting that blaze of inspiration makes me truly happy.”

  “There wasn’t always an Etherlin,” he said. “Why did the muses create it?”

  “People think it was created to separate us from the world, but quite the opposite is true. Or was true initially. The muses noticed that their powers had faded over the generations, but the magic was strengthened when they were in close proximity to each other. They met several times a year to cultivate that enhanced strength. During World War Two, many of them came to the United States before it entered the conflict. We always try to avoid choosing sides during wartime; no one wants to inspire a weapon that results in human casualties. When the U.S. entered the war, Fleming’s discovery of penicillin was ready to be exploited and the muses used their influence to inspire mass production, which, of course, continued long after the war and saved millions of lives.

  “The muses of that generation, my grandmother’s, were all very close friends. They decided to live in the same city. One of them was involved with a real estate developer, and they bought the property for the Etherlin and developed it.