"We're going into London tomorrow. I'll see what I can find," Franklin offered.
"Frank, you've already spent too much money on me. Let me see if I can pry some of my money away from dad over here," I nodded at Merrill. He was standing next to Gavin, watching the rest of us.
"Lissa, Franklin has one of my credit cards. He may use it for whatever you need," Merrill said.
"Fine," I mumbled, leaning on the island and burying my face in my arms.
"You don't like being dependent on anyone, do you?" Greg rubbed my back a little.
"No."
"Lissa, a child may be considered a dependent, legally, but a parent generally doesn't see it as an annoying obligation," Merrill said. I'd hurt his feelings, somehow. Gavin didn't look happy either. Where were they when I was getting the crap beat out of me? And that had happened because I'd disobeyed my vampire parent. Yeah, it didn't make a lick of sense to me.
"Then buy two woolly hats," I sat up and looked at Franklin. "And not those kind that have the weird tassels hanging down." Greg laughed this time.
What I received was a huge bag full of hats in all colors when I woke the following evening. They were mostly knit berets that could be pulled over the ears if I wanted. Some of them were cashmere and had a bit of embellishment, which was quite pretty. For my visit to the Council meeting, I picked out a nice pair of gray pinstriped slacks, a black crossover top and a black wool blazer. Winkler put paid to my leather one and I hadn't replaced it. Since the top was a knit, it hugged my body close enough but the pants were loose. I sighed, hunted down the thickest pair of black socks I could find and put my black slippers on. My toes were a little longer, thank goodness, so my hobbling wasn't quite so bad. My fingers were growing out as well but I still had no fingernails. I figured those would come last.
A black cashmere beret went on my head last of all, and if I'd had any suitable earrings I'd have worn them, but I didn't. I pulled the knit beret down to cover most of my ears and went out to find Merrill and Gavin. Gavin checked my fingers when I walked up to him and he kissed what I had. He hadn't asked to get in bed with me since I'd nearly died and I did and didn't appreciate that. I hadn't worn his ring, either, until now. I was worried it would just slide off or something. It was a little loose but I didn't think I'd lose it. Gavin fingered it while he held my hand.
"Honey, what's wrong?" He hadn't done much talking lately. Reaching up, I touched his face.
"Lissa, we need to have this conversation another night, I think," he said. "We have Council business tonight. Do not fear," he touched my face. "I love you so much it is painful. Your hat is quite becoming," he smiled and kissed me.
"I'm the one who can wish for longer hair for Christmas," I complained. "Yours is back to normal." I ran stubby fingers through the dark brown wealth.
"I had my doubts that you'd noticed." He was still smiling.
"I may be pissed at you sometimes, honey, but I always notice," I sniffed.
Brock came to drive us and Merrill asked him to take the Rolls. I sat in the back with Gavin, who pulled me close against his side. Once we arrived, we sat and waited near the park. I wasn't blindfolded this time and soon the vehicle that held the prisoner pulled up next to us. Brock, Gavin and I watched as Merrill placed compulsion on Claremont to answer all the Council's questions truthfully. Wow. Wlodek used Merrill more than I knew. We waited until the prisoner was escorted in ahead of us and then followed behind. My walking still wasn't up to par so Gavin carried me until we arrived at the cave entrance. He set me down there and he, Brock and Merrill walked slowly through the tunnel so I could keep up with them.
Claremont was already in the spotlight when we arrived, standing before the U-shaped table and chained head to foot. Wlodek, his face a bit grim, was waiting impatiently for us to arrive. He mentioned it to Merrill, chastising him for holding things up. Merrill nodded respectfully and we moved to a place at the left against the wall. Brock separated from us and took up a guarding position farther along the cave.
Wlodek and eight Council members, seated around the horseshoe-shaped granite table, had their faces of stone in place as they stared at Claremont. He knew he was going to die; I could see it in his eyes. I glanced up at Gavin. He, Merrill and I stood spaced apart, not touching one another. Somehow, I figured that touching would be frowned upon. Would they call on Gavin to deliver Claremont's death? I saw Sebastian standing on the other side of the cave. Perhaps he would do it and that made me wonder if he played with his kills first. Yeah, I didn't like him at all.
"Claremont," Wlodek addressed the prisoner, "you will answer the questions of the Council truthfully from this point forward." Wlodek was repeating Merrill's compulsion. Intrigue, indeed. Claremont nodded at Wlodek. "Now, what contact did you have with your sire after the initial two years you spent with him?" Wlodek was asking my question for me.
"He contacted me from time to time," Claremont answered. That caused a little stir around the stone table where the Council sat.
"And how did he do this?"
"I was expected to leave an address or some way to get in touch with a third party," Claremont replied.
"And who was this third party? Do you have a name?"
"He calls himself Xenides," Claremont answered.
"So, were you required to stay in contact with your sire through this Xenides? Did he have assignments for you?"
"Yes. Xenides often had assignments for me—he made sure I received these messages from my sire. I delivered things that he ordered I not open. He sent me to kill at times. To steal at other times."
Well, well, well. I wondered if Gavin's cousin, René de la Roque, had ever done anything at Saxom or Xenides' behest. René certainly had the penchant for theft.
"Did you see a pattern in any of these things at the time?"
"I was always told not to question," Claremont answered Wlodek's question, bringing me out of my mental side trip.
"Did any of these assignments have any lasting effects on the political state of affairs?"
Claremont named a few minor nobles and politicians he'd offed over the course of his life. There wasn’t anything done that would raise eyebrows more than a fraction. I wondered if those deaths meant personal gain for Saxom. Perhaps he was picking away at the threads of history, one strand at a time, instead. How could we know? Silently I begged Wlodek to ask if Claremont had killed any vampires. Wlodek did and Claremont answered.
"Reynard in 965, Nikolai in 1277 and Aurelius in 1422," he said. The last name caused Gavin to stiffen but he didn't say anything.
I might have asked about involvements with terrorists and such just to make sure, but Wlodek didn't go in that direction. Wlodek concluded his interrogation and asked the other members if they wanted to question Claremont. "Do you recall what your sire looked like?" A member on the far right asked. I remembered him; he'd voted for my death when I'd first been brought before the Council.
"I was instructed not to say," Claremont replied stiffly. The sire-child bond is a strong one; even Merrill's compulsion couldn't get past that. I didn't think for a minute that Wlodek was going to spell out my ability to smell the taint on Claremont to the entire Council. Charles and Radomir both were under his thumb; Radomir as his own vampire child and Charles as the child of his vampire child Flavio. Did vampires claim grandchildren? If so, that's what Charles was.
"How did you kill Nikolai?" Another Council member asked—a woman this time. She was the female who voted for my death. I wondered if anyone would care to put names with faces and scents for me. I'd never been formally introduced to most of them.
"My sire lured him into a trap where I was waiting," Claremont explained. "I beheaded him with my sword before he knew I was there."
"And the others, how did they die?" The black Council member asked. He'd voted for me in the beginning and I'd appreciated his support. All of them were still on my shit list, though, for having me beaten.
"In a similar fashion, only we lured Au
relius in with the lie that one of his children was dying. That he'd walked into the sun." Gavin stiffened again.
"And that worked?"
"Of course it did. He died easily and unsuspecting."
"Of course," the Council member muttered. His voice held anger and that surprised me. The mask had cracked just a little.
"Are there other questions?" Wlodek asked. He waited for a minute or two and there were none. "Very well, in the matter of Claremont, what say you?" Nine votes of guilty came swiftly, with Wlodek's being the ninth and final vote. "Let the record reflect that the guilty vote was unanimous," Wlodek said and Charles, in his usual efficient manner, tapped it all into his computer.
"I was going to ask Sebastian to perform this task should it prove necessary, but in light of the evidence given, I believe I will offer it to Gavin instead, if he desires it," Wlodek turned his gaze in Gavin's direction.
"I want it," Gavin growled, moving forward swiftly. Claremont was poised to beg for his life when Gavin, faster than a blink, had Claremont's head separated from his body. I knew two things, then. Aurelius was Gavin's sire, and Gavin would want to be alone tonight.
I was correct; Gavin asked Stephan to drop him off at his home, wherever that was. I still didn't really know. Merrill and I made our way out of the cave, Brock remained with us and he was the one to lift me up and carry me to the car.
"What did you understand from all of that, Lissa?" Merrill asked while Brock steered us away from the park.
"Do you really want me to say?" I asked. Normally I was left in the dark and had to keep my musings and discoveries to myself.
"Yes. I do," Merrill nodded. He was in the front seat of the Rolls with Brock and turned to look at me.
"Aurelius was Gavin's sire," I said. "And therefore René's, since Gavin told me they were turned by the same person. I'm disappointed, though, that Wlodek didn't ask if Claremont and his sire had any dealings with terrorists or with banking or anything else that might affect the economy."
"Lissa, you surprise me at times," Merrill said, not bothering to explain. He merely turned away and stared out the windshield.
Franklin and Greg were in bed by the time we got home. Brock was spending the day and accepted a bag of blood from Merrill before retiring around dawn. Huddling into my bed with a book, I reflected on the night's events. I knew Gavin was furious when he took Claremont's head, and that meant Gavin cared deeply for his sire. And Claremont? I didn't have a problem with his death. It was clean and swift and Claremont was an evil if I'd ever seen it.
Chapter 2
"René, I have news," Gavin said after phoning his cousin.
"I never thought to hear from you, Gavin, after the incident." René wasn't giving details—Lissa's injury in René's home still stood between them. René claimed it was a practical joke gone awry, but Gavin knew he'd truly been trying to take Lissa away.
"That was before the Council meeting tonight, René." Gavin's voice was clipped.
"What news do you have, then?" René was suddenly all business.
"The one who killed Aurelius was executed tonight. He claimed that Aurelius was lured in with the news that one of his children became injured by walking into the sun." Gavin waited patiently for René to stop cursing in French.
* * *
Gavin hadn't returned when I awoke the evening of March ninth. Greg and Franklin were dressed to go out and were only waiting for me to rise for the evening. Merrill had business to attend to, so Franklin asked if I wanted to go out with him and Greg.
"I don't want to hold you guys back," I said.
"You think you're going to hold two old geezers back?" Greg teased. Franklin was sixty-two; Greg was sixty-three. Of course, Merrill was probably two thousand or more, but who was counting?
"What should I wear?" I asked. I'd dressed in jeans and a sweater and wore one of my new berets. It and the sweater were cream in color.
"Just put shoes on," Greg said, pointing to my sock-covered feet.
I went to get shoes. I hadn't had an opportunity to go to London in well, forever, and the prospect of an evening out was certainly appealing. Franklin drove us to a restaurant first, where he and Greg ate a nice meal and I had a salad and a glass of wine. The waiter, who was family as Greg put it, tried to get me to eat more. I'm sure he thought I'd been ill—he'd noticed my baldness but was discretion itself over it. At least my fingers were longer now and not so noticeable as stubs, so it wasn’t horrible to hold a fork. I let the waiter know I was fine and left a nice tip when we finished.
We went to do a little shopping after that and I bought a dozen pairs of earrings at a department store. Greg and Franklin helped me make my selections and Frank paid with Merrill's card. Merrill still hadn't given me any money or credit cards but I did have my ID back. I also had a few pounds with me from my sock drawer, but it wasn't enough to pay for jewelry. I put a pair of earrings in my ears when we got back to the car. I know you're supposed to clean your earrings before wearing them but I was vampire and not susceptible to human diseases. The sun, though? Enough about that.
What shocked me was where Franklin drove us next; Greg and Franklin took me to a bar. Not just any bar—a gay bar. I think I was the only woman inside the place and I had to give my ID at the door. The man checking IDs was in drag, looked pretty darn good and asked what happened to my hair. I just told him I had the Sinead O'Connor thing going and he laughed and let me in.
"When's the last time you were in a bar?" Greg asked as we settled around a small table in a corner.
"I think I was in Sacramento, California," I said. "The person I was with wanted to do Karaoke."
"Funny you should mention that," Franklin said. "That's why Greg wanted to come here. He likes to sing."
Really?" I was interested, now. "What do you like to do?"
"All kinds of things. I wish I could do Barbra but I don't have the voice for it," Greg said.
"My favorite is Memory and he can't do that, either," Franklin said.
"If they let girls sing, I'd do it for you," I offered. "It's one of my favorites, too."
"We'll see if we can fix that," Greg said. We waited until they set everything up. This bar had a piano, which the one in Sacramento didn't have. Greg signed both of us up, but there were several ahead of us. Some were good, some not. I could see that they had some regulars there.
Greg did Embraceable You and he had a low, mellow voice that fit the song perfectly. I would have played the piano without the canned music when my turn came, but my fingers weren't whole, yet. Singing Karaoke was fun and I hadn't had fun in a while. The whole place was standing and clapping when I finished and came off the stage. Franklin hugged me when I made my way back to the table. We stayed for two hours and Greg sang again. He and several others tried to get me to sing something else but I told them I wasn't up to it.
"You looked awful hard at that piano," Franklin said once we were inside Merrill's Cadillac and on our way home.
"My fingers aren't healed up," I said. "Otherwise I would have played." He nodded silently at my explanation and drove away from London.
Merrill was there when we arrived and he surprised me by handing my laptop over. "You may have this but under no circumstances may you tell anyone what happened since your return," he said. I wondered what his reaction would be if I saluted him or something.
There were probably fifty emails from Winkler, quite a few from Tony and several more from Weldon. I sat at the kitchen island, plugged in the power source for my laptop (the battery was drained) and went through all my mail. Winkler sounded desperate. A wedding was in the works for him and Kellee, since she was pregnant and daddy was rushing things. Love (or in this case, sex) truly was blind. Honestly, Kellee might have more in common with a garden slug than she did with Winkler.
Winkler, stop hyperventilating, I wrote back. I wanted to tell him he'd gotten himself into this mess but I didn't. He was also asking why I hadn't answered his zillion emails, so I told him I'd
been busy. Get Whitney to help, I suggested—she'd be good with wedding crap, I just knew it. If it were me, I might consider tossing Kellee through a wall. After she had the baby, of course.
I turned to Weldon's messages then. He thanked me for what I'd done for him, carefully skirting what happened before I'd been taken away. The tour was finished finally and he was happy about that. He said Rhett and Dalroy had done a good job but didn't have a sense of humor. I figured it was because they were a bit uncomfortable working with werewolves. I'd gotten a few smiles from Rhett and Dalroy the short time I'd been with them. Of course, I didn't point that out to Weldon. Instead, I wrote back and told the Grand Master to relax and enjoy some time with his part-time lady. I had no idea if or when I'd see him again but at least we could talk to each other through email.
Tony's emails came next. He should learn to be more circumspect and I told him that. He was the one concerned for my welfare, asking if I was all right. Well, he'd witnessed part of my verbal drubbing at a warehouse in Santa Fe, so it was no wonder he asked how I was. I told him I was fine and that he should reconsider buying crackers or wash his sheets more often if he was still having problems with crumbs in his bed. That was a joke between us now. I didn't offer my new phone number and wondered if he'd track me down anyway.
There was one last email, from Charles. I opened it, feeling a little weird.
Lissa, I beg you, don't ever do anything like that again. I was almost ill when I saw you, he wrote. I never got the chance to thank you for my Christmas gift. I hardly ever get something like that and it was a breath of fresh air. The game is fun. I do that one and a few others when I have a spare minute. They teach me to slow down a little.
So. He'd seen me. I wondered what I'd looked like. Something like Gavin had when he'd been hit with the flamethrower in Florida, most likely. I had to think for a while before I sent a reply. Charles, I finally wrote, I appreciate your note. As for doing something like that again, I don't know that I'd have the courage a second time. I hope you are well—Lissa.
Blood Sense (Blood Destiny #3) Page 3