“Oh, Jean,” Geoffrey said, pulling a small packet of white powder from his inner pocket. “It’s beneath your dignity as a Hegemon to hold petty grudges against servants. If he misbehaved in some way, just pass it along to Sebastian and have done with it.” He added the powder to his water and stirred it.
“So, it’s straight to the hard drugs, is it? In that case, I’ll forgive you the martinis.”
“It’s an additive of Vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, B12, E, K, pycnogenol and ginseng,” Geoffrey said.
I waited, afraid to interrupt.
“You’re becoming an utter bore, do you realize that?”
Geoffrey took a sip. “I just don’t mix business with pleasure as you do.”
“I suppose you practice Yoga every evening, as well?”
“Gave that up. NLP’s more direct and effective.”
Valmont laughed. “NL-what?”
“Neuro-Linguistic Programming, the art and science of excellence. It’s a set of holistic self-programming techniques to control one’s thought process and subconscious, increasing performance and efficiency.” A sip of vitamin and mineral water.
“Isn’t that the religion some science fiction writer started?”
“Don’t be tedious.”
“You know, there is such a thing as having too much control.”
“No, there isn’t.”
“What’s become of you, Geoff? You weren’t always like this.”
“Yes I was.”
Just when I thought I ought to slink away, Geoffrey glanced back up at me. “Sorry, was there something else?”
I’d gotten so caught up in waiting that I almost forgot. “Uh, yes, Majesty. I wanted to ask what you’d like me to bring for your breakfast tomorrow evening, so I can get the order in before the rush.”
This was it. Geoffrey hadn’t requested me to bring him breakfast in any way shape or form but if he was as political as Caroline thought, I hoped he’d recognize my approach for what it was. If he asked what the hell I was talking about, I was gonna have to fall back on the weak excuse of having misunderstood Mrs. Kai’s instructions. It would also remind Valmont of another opportunity to torment me.
Bishop gave me a suspicious look but Geoffrey stepped in without missing a beat. “Right. Let’s make it a bowl of that Sweet and Sour Curry Soup done with Type O. Excellent recipe.”
I couldn’t keep a hint of a smile off my face as I nodded. I’d done it! We had the evidence of Sebastian’s crime and we had Caroline’s knowledge and experience with North America, that had to be enough to buy us some maneuvering room with Geoffrey if things with Iago didn’t pan out. If they did, I was sure those two could figure out a reason to meet with Geoffrey.
Assuming we got a meeting with Iago at all.
Just as I turned away, Valmont called, “Just a moment, you. Did my girl give you those samples?”
I turned back and told him that she had. He said to bring my cart over, telling Geoffrey, “I have a little investment opportunity for you.”
I wheeled the cart over and Valmont took the bowl I’d placed all the little colored plastic baggies in. “Here,” he said to Geoffrey, selecting a blue one. “Dissolve some of this in your water.”
I moved away to make my eavesdropping less obvious.
“So, it’s the narcotics again, eh?” Geoffrey took the blue packet and examined it. “I wondered where the money for AIDS research was going.”
“They’re not like last time,” Valmont said. “I’ve been using recreationally for over a year now with no ill-effects.”
“Do Vampyrs build a tolerance?”
“No! Isn’t that beautiful? A day’s sleep wipes it out completely, which also makes the odds of overdose quite low.”
“Addictive?”
“Well, of course but only in the psychological sense. Geoff, you’ve seen the sales figures from my first attempt—they were incredible! Even with a seventy percent mortality rate, I had more orders than I could fill!”
“Very well. Let’s hear the proposal.”
“You’re really not going to try it, are you?” Valmont asked with a sigh. “All right, then. I manufacture it, sell it to you at cost and you market it under your label. We share the profits equally.”
Geoffrey snorted and tossed the packet back into the bowl. “Sell it yourself.”
“You know I can’t,” Valmont grumbled, flopping back against the armrest again. “Damn it, I’m only asking for distribution. You already have the sales structure and customer base from the packs and blood liquor. You need merely add this to the catalogue.”
“And in order for that to happen, I need a controlling interest,” Geoffrey countered. “My people get access to all your development materials and you run the manufacture under my quality control and productivity standards. I take the product at no cost and market it under a new label. You receive a five percent sales commission.”
“That’s absurd!” Valmont pretended to choke with outrage, then decided it wasn’t worth the bother and grabbed a piece of blood rock candy from my cart. “Thirty percent?”
“Ten. And the formulas are proprietary. No introducing cheap knockoffs through Julia.”
“You mean I can’t have the thrill of sinking my meager profits into some project she fobs off on one of her tight-fisted Praefectors, only to watch you buy the company out from under me before it opens?”
Geoffrey said nothing but I thought I saw a faint smile.
“Please, Geoff, I need the money. Twenty percent, for friendship’s sake.”
Geoffrey’s glare was ice cold. “This is business.”
“Fine. Ten.”
Geoffrey gave Bishop a glance, indicating the bowl. The Dhampir opened up his briefcase and put some samples into it. “Splendid. Have your people gather all the R and D materials. As soon as my people confirm the quality, they’ll send you the contracts.”
“You are an absolute bastard, Geoffrey.”
“Right. Fancy a game in the library later?”
“No,” Valmont said, looking past him. I turned and saw Jade Tiger and her majordomo arriving. “I think I shall have something else with which to occupy myself this evening.” With a raised eyebrow and a smile, he swung off the couch and sashayed over to her.
I wheeled my cart back to position just as Valmont escorted Jade Tiger into the room and snatched a few drug packets. Apparently, Jade Tiger was late joining us because she’d changed again. She’d been dressed formally when I’d seen her on the video of the council session but now wore a short black satin dress that was cut down to her belly button in front and the top of her perfect ass in back.
Her majordomo, who gets to go through eternity known as Flea, is a petite Chinese teenager with a bowl-cut and a blank expression. She wears brown, pajama-like outfits that draw as little attention away from Jade Tiger as possible. Still, I know it’s a status symbol for Jade Tiger to have her, since Flea is a Shen too and they can’t create more of their own kind the way we Vampyrs can.
The trio strolled over to the fireplace on the other side of the room where Draco sat brooding over a drink. Oh yeah, this is gonna end well…
I watched Draco grind his teeth and try to hold his ground as Valmont and Jade Tiger flirted and giggled and started their foreplay on the couch. I blame the combination of post-stress fatigue and my reawakened libido for making me too engrossed in this little mini-drama to notice Sebastian approaching until he popped my ear. Hard.
I stumbled a few steps, my ear ringing and throbbing with little stabs of agony but managed to remember my situation quickly enough to stop the “Ow, man, what the fuck?” that was on the tip of my tongue.
“Attend me properly when I speak or next time, I’ll take yer poxy head!” Sebastian barked. Nobody else paid attention.
I was in too much pain to be angry yet and my submissive manner calmed him a little. I noticed that his canines and nails were both extended and he seemed more twitchy than usual. “Thou shall accompany me for
the remainder of the even’. I’m of a mind to test those fine savages Valmont presented. While time allows, I also mean to instruct thou in such arts as thou can learn.”
So there I am, about to get dragged off to play Great White Hunter with Sebastian and I’m trying to think of a graceful way out despite the throbbing pain of my ear because of course, if I was off with Sebastian then I wouldn’t be around for Draco to create a pretext for us to meet with Iago, assuming that was even gonna happen, which wouldn’t matter because I also wouldn’t be there to speak for Caroline, which might or might not doom our plans because—
“Hegemon Blackwood,” Draco’s voice boomed across the space, making us both turn to him in surprise. He stood, monolithic, beside the couch where Valmont and Jade Tiger paused in their frolicking. Geoffrey and Julia also turned from where he’d joined her, so did Mrs. Kai, who’d stopped on her way back to the kitchen to ask if Bishop would like anything else.
Draco seemed to grow in stature from all the eyes on him, his ramrod spine stretching maybe an inch, his arm pushing down on his silver dragon-headed walking stick from a greater height. “Before you leave, I wish to claim the debt I am owed.”
Ash came in through the morning room as Sebastian frowned at Draco. “In truth, I recollect no debt owed by me. Explain.”
I held my breath, hoping that Draco’s timing was not coincidental.
“Seventy-two years ago, you fed too deeply from one of my servants during a visit to my Domain and home. You did not make good my loss,” he stated.
“But that…” Sebastian said, trying to think back seventy-two years. “I made my apologies to thee that very night and thee acknowledged me forgiven!”
“The deed was forgiven, the debt remains. I see that you misunderstood and thus, will take no insult.”
“Hegemon Draco,” Julia said from where she sat between them. “May I ask why you choose to claim such a trivial debt now?”
Oh, shit, I thought. She’s suspicious!
Draco inclined his head in a gesture of acceptance. “After Hegemon Blackwood’s declaration of intent this evening, the possibility exists that he may become Judicis. By tradition, should that occur, all his debts are cancelled. As this trivial debt is all I am owed, I see no reason not to clear it now.”
Julia smiled and nodded, turning back to Geoffrey. Even Sebastian looked pleased and I realized that Draco had made it appear that he accepted the inevitability of Iago’s defeat. Slick move.
“Very well, then,” Sebastian said, also drawing himself up a bit. “I recognize the debt. What is it thou ask in compensation?”
Draco’s free arm rose, the black-gloved hand rotating and clenching until only the index finger remained pointing—straight at Mrs. Kai.
“Her.”
We all turned and watched the color drain from the housekeeper’s face. It looked so much like the finale of a corny murder mystery where the detective gathers all the suspects together in the parlor and points at the killer that it didn’t even seem real.
Mrs. Kai turned her head from Draco to Sebastian, her eyes large and moist. “Hegemon Blackwood—please, Majesty…”
Because of my angle, I noticed Sebastian’s hands. They were clenched into fists and blood ran between the knuckles from where his nails stabbed his palm. Making an effort not to look at his loyal servant of fifteen years, he asked Draco: “Why that one? She is my housekeeper, not some common serving girl.”
Draco just returned the stare for a few seconds and I thought he wasn’t going to answer. Then he turned his head and looked, not at Mrs. Kai but at Jade Tiger. “I wish to keep in practice.”
So, he chose her for no other reason than her simplistic likeness to Jade Tiger. Jade Tiger’s nostrils flared as she lifted her chin in disdain and Sebastian growled, turning away from both Draco and Mrs. Kai.
“So be it, then,” he said. “Ash, escort her to wherever the Hegemon wishes.”
Mrs. Kai screamed as Ash took hold of her and I started to worry that this was for real and was unconnected to our plan. Had I been wrong? Had Iago turned us down?
But, as the band played louder to muffle Mrs. Kai’s pleas, Draco crossed the room toward us, telling Sebastian, “I shall also require the use of your Pupil for a time. There will be tasks involved for which my Revenants have no ability.”
Sebastian stopped a few steps into the morning room and turned back. He looked at me for a moment and I swear it was a look of pity. “So it seems thou’ll take instruction of a different kind.” He continued out, shouting for Wilkes to meet him outside.
“Bring her to my chambers,” Draco said as he passed me. As strange as it sounds, I felt a surge of relief wash through me. I knew this was all a scam orchestrated by Iago and nothing was really gonna happen to Mrs. Kai. After all, he’d arranged for us to let his “breakfast” go free.
Ash and I half carried and half dragged Mrs. Kai through the entrance hall and up the stairs to Draco’s suite. In hindsight, it’s impossible for me to accurately remember what I knew or thought or suspected. Everything happened so quickly once the ball started rolling that it’s still somewhat scrambled, even with the vastly improved memory I’ve developed as a Vampyr.
I do remember her addressing me by name, saying, “Avery, please don’t let him hurt me!”
“I won’t,” I promised her.
There was an eerie moment when the door of Draco’s suite appeared to open for him magically, though his Revenants must have sensed his approach. He strode in and we followed with Mrs. Kai.
Once inside, the Revenants closed the door as the master of the suite drew aside his huge tapestry to reveal an upright wooden frame with manacles to hold someone within it.
Mrs. Kai fell to her knees and cried.
My arms went limp as I gazed around in shock.
The walls held every instrument for inflicting pain I’d ever heard of in my life.
Draco set down his walking stick and thrust his hand toward the fireplace on the opposite wall.
The paper kindling burst into flame and ignited a roaring blaze! I jumped, then took a step toward it in fascination. Pyrokinesis. I hadn’t believed it when I’d read Caroline’s bio of him but it did explain how he’d gotten his name.
The Revenants whipped past me and Ash like sharks, snatching Mrs. Kai and lifting her completely off the ground. She began screaming again and tried to kick the disgusting creatures as they shoved her into the frame and manacled her.
I moved to help her but Ash grabbed me by the shoulders. Still half in shock, I snapped my head back to look at him. The Marine looked like he was barely holding his stomach in place and he had tears in his eyes.
“Go now to the Judicis’ quarters,” Draco said, not sparing a glance in our direction. “You and your Creator are expected.”
“No, wait,” I said, yanking out of Ash’s grip and heading for Draco. This wasn’t right. I’d made a promise. Mrs. Kai was a good person, she’d always tried to help me and this kind of shit shouldn’t happen to the good guys. This was where the hero stands up for the innocent victim with wit and bravery and saves them from a horrible fate.
This is what Angel, Buffy and Anita Blake would do.
My mind raced through a hundred semi-coherent ideas before it hit me. Iago. Draco supported and respected Iago!
“Hegemon Draco, don’t—”
That’s as far as I got before he backhanded me.
I imagine my head must have turned so hard that the rest of my body had to leave the ground and spin to compensate because the next thing I remember is being face down on the floor with a fractured jaw.
Draco loomed over me, Revenants on either side of him. “Don’t dare presume to speak to me with such comportment again. Our business is concluded. Leave now or I shall teach you a lesson in manners you’ll not soon forget.”
My eyes watered from the pain and I felt his dark, wintry authority hitting me like hail. Deep in the most primitive part of my brain, my instincts said that th
is man would end my life with violence and cruelty if I didn’t flee from him with my tail between my legs. Right. Fucking. Now.
Less than a second passed between Draco telling me to leave and Ash grabbing me. “C’mon, goddammit!” He sounded angry but I could smell how scared he was.
After he drug me to my feet, I got my legs to work and the two of us hurried out the door. As soon as the door closed behind us, Ash threw me down onto the floor. I’ve seen it on the surveillance footage from that night. After he throws me down, Ash shuffles over to the top step and sits down for a few minutes, wiping at his eyes, before getting up and heading back downstairs.
I just lay where he threw me for a while. It wasn’t Mrs. Kai I thought of, or even what had just happened with Draco. I thought about my stepfather.
That first Thanksgiving after Mom died, a few members of Jim’s family came over. We all sat around the living room and Jim kept making jokes about my clothes, my hair and the books I read, while everybody else laughed or added a remark. After about ten minutes of trying to smile good-naturedly, I muttered, “Oh, fuck you,” and got up to go to my room. In an instant Jim was on his feet, snatching a glass jar of peanuts from the table and whacking me on the head with it. I dropped onto the rug and started to cry while Jim yelled at me about my language and called me a big baby and everyone else sat watching me and feeling awkward. I remember that the pain wasn’t that bad, it was the humiliation and feeling of isolation that had made me cry.
That’s what did it to me this time too.
* * * * *
“Avery?” I heard Caroline say. “Avery, what’s wrong?”
I lay on the floor, my jaw throbbing and my thoughts stuck in a loop of self-pity and bad memories while the sound of Mrs. Kai’s cries cursed me through the wall. Hands grabbed me and I realized they were Caroline’s as she pulled me to a sitting position. Her presence reminded me of the meeting, breaking my thought-loop and returning me to the track I’d been on before Draco hit me.
Iago.
There was still a chance to get his help. It might be too late to get Mrs. Kai out untouched but I could still save her life and maybe the Judicis could take care of her memories like he had with the girl from the cellar. We could get Ash to smuggle her out later that morning with the other girl. Not perfect but better than the alternative.
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