“I don’t.”
“She’s only fifteen and super nice. We became friends during our time together,” Fiona said, laying her head back on my chest.
“I’m glad the experience wasn’t all bad,” I said, curling her hair over her ear and lightly brushing her cheek. She no longer flinched when I did so against her scars. “I’ll put in a good word for her with Jack.”
“So… about that tattoo,” she pressed.
“What about it? What would you want us to get?”
Fiona sat up, moving her face closer to mine with a devious sparkle in her eyes. “I don’t know,” she said, then pressed her lips to mine. “But it would have to be something amazing.”
I kissed her back, then tugged playfully on her bottom lip, swelling it to just the right size. “You think about what you want and tell me when you’ve got something perfect.”
“That’s a tall order.”
“I have faith in you. I expect greatness,” I said.
“Maybe you should manage your expectations just a tad,” Fiona said before climbing onto my lap and exceeding all my expectations as her mouth sought out mine.
26
Fiona
After my night with Matthew, I thought I actually had some good information to relay to Frederick. When I felt guilty and heartbroken about spilling such secrets, I remembered Sean’s face as I’d seen him back in Frederick’s suite; it wasn’t free will any longer.
I drove back to Fangloria on my own again and dared the vampire at the gate to give me shit. But, this time, there were no problems. It was the same sultry woman as two days prior, but this time she didn’t even talk to me, simply flagging me through.
I really thought about pressing my luck and strolling in with my gun under my jacket. But it must have been eighty degrees outside and I figured my choice of clothing would raise a red flag. I wanted to bring in a firearm, yet didn’t want to be caught with one.
No escort was called for me either, this time around. It was early afternoon and security wasn’t even standing outside the door yet. The entrance was open, so I walked straight up to it while keeping an eye on my periphery to make sure I wouldn’t be surprised by someone lurking in a corner somewhere. There were no guards, but what I did find positioned in opposite corners were small security cameras. The entrance might have been unmanned, but someone was obviously watching.
I gazed confidently into one of the cameras as I passed the threshold of the entrance and strolled into the quiet club.
Inside, people were already cleaning but no one stopped their work to pay me any attention. I continued down the employee-only stairs and searched out Frederick’s unmarked office, ending up knocking on several doors before finally getting a reply.
The woman who’d escorted me the last time was the one to answer—Ajah, I thought her name was—and from my peek inside, I was clearly not at the right room.
“Fiona, what are you doing here?” she asked, looking sleepy-eyed like I’d just woken her.
“Looking for Frederick,” I said. “I have information he’s looking for. I thought this was his room.”
“His room is down the next hallway on the left, but I don’t believe he’s here right now.”
“Can you call him? I really need to talk with him.”
“I’ll see if I can locate him. Come in.” Ajah held the door open, waiting for me to enter.
This room was more of an office with a large desk, multiple monitors, and a line of filing cabinets, only there was also a couch with a pillow and blankets arranged into a makeshift bed.
“You sleep here?” I asked, glancing curiously around.
“Long night. Sometimes it’s just easier to stay.”
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to wake you.”
“As long as you don’t make it a habit, then we’re good.” It almost sounded like a joke, but I couldn’t quite tell. “Why aren’t you going through your mother? She has as much access to him as anyone.”
“My mother is the last person I want to talk to right now.” The only place to sit other than Ajah’s desk chair was the couch, but with it acting as her bed, I figured it was more polite to stand—especially since I was the one asking for a favor.
Ajah made the call, and just when it seemed like she’d get through to voicemail, Frederick picked up and she told him who’d unexpectedly shown up at the club. That was all she had to say, the rest of her side of the conversation consisting of simple confirmations and agreements.
When she hung up the phone, Ajah turned to me and said, “He’ll be here in an hour.”
“And I thought he lived here—you know, with that bedroom suite and all.”
“God, no.” Ajah laughed. “He’s here a lot and I don’t know if he ever sleeps, but he doesn’t live here. He’s got a spectacular mansion in Hollywood Hills, another in Malibu… a lavish apartment in San Francisco and another in New York City. He probably has more, but I’m not privileged to all his real estate holdings. Your mother would probably know more.”
“This club makes that much money for him?”
“It makes a lot of money—don’t get me wrong—but he does a lot more than just this club. He has his hand in a number of lucrative businesses.”
“Like what?” I asked, innocently.
She didn’t take the bait. “You should ask your mother,” she said. “I don’t know how much I should be telling you. I know you’re like the golden child and all, but you’re still new here.”
I didn’t want to seem offended, so shook it off like it was no big deal. “No problem. I get it.” Looking at her, I could tell she was contemplating what to do with me for the next hour since she clearly wanted to get back to sleep. But I suspected she didn’t want me roaming the mostly empty club alone while waiting for Frederick to arrive, afraid I’d get into trouble that would be pinned on her. So, I offered an option. “My friend’s being held here,” I said. “Can I see him? I won’t try anything stupid. I just want to make sure he’s all right.”
Ajah glanced at the door while she considered my request. “It’s Sean, right?”
I nodded.
“Leave your purse here and empty your pockets,” she said.
I’d hoped to at least be able to smuggle in my cellphone, though I guessed I was expecting too much. I needed to manage my expectations, as Matthew had a habit of saying.
I set my bag on the desk and retrieved my phone from my back pocket, stuffing it into one of the purse’s side pockets. Then I lifted the bottom of my shirt and performed a single slow spin to show I wasn’t concealing anything.
“You act so much like your mother,” she said.
“Yeah; I never get tired of being compared to her,” I said sarcastically.
“Sorry; it wasn’t a criticism.”
Ajah led me out of her office and down several more hallways before stopping at a door that looked like all the others. Before putting the key into the lock, she turned back and said, “It would be best for me to lock you in with him until Frederick arrives, then he can retrieve you.”
“I’m good with that,” I said.
Seemingly satisfied with the arrangement, she opened the door and allowed me inside the room.
Sean’s bruised face lit up when he saw me. At least all he visibly had were bruises and not injuries that would scar, since Frederick had yet to heal him. Sean leapt off the couch and crushed me in a desperate hug.
“I don’t understand any of this,” he said, frantically. “Your mom says I’m going to be okay, but I just don’t know. How are you involved? Who are these people? Is this like the mafia or something?”
“I’m so sorry this is happening to you,” I said as he released me from our embrace. “Are you being watched?” I scanned the room for any cameras and found one near the ceiling in one corner. I had to be careful what I said.
“What has my mother told you?” I asked, figuring it was best to find out what he already knew before offering new information.
; “The less I know, the better,” Sean said, then dropped onto the couch and gnawed on a cuticle.
“How did you even find this place?” I asked.
“Harrison got us in through a new girl he’s seeing.”
I gulped. “She’s probably not someone he should be involved with.”
“I dunno; she seems pretty awesome to me.” He paused and went back to chewing on his cuticle. “Why does it take me being kidnapped for you to show some interest?”
I hadn’t come here to be interrogated about our relationship, but I took a breath and remained calm. “Just because we broke up doesn’t mean I don’t care about you. I’ll always care about you. But it was time for us to go in our separate directions. I moved on and you were moving on, too. I know, I should have seen you off. I already got hell for it from Alexis.”
“I bet,” Sean said, giving a small snort of a laugh. “Well, it’s good to see you now, despite… well, you know… all this.” Another pause. “How did I not know about this part of your life? And about Matthew? I used to think we told each other everything. The stuff with finding your dad… I thought we really confided in each other. Now it’s like I never even knew you.”
“You knew me,” I assured him. “And I so appreciated everything you did to help me find my father. It was something special that only you and I shared. This—this is all new. I’ve been dragged into my mother’s secret world and it’s still quite overwhelming.”
“Then help me out of here,” Sean pleaded. “Let’s get away from these people. Come with me to New York like we always talked about and start over. I’m not even saying this as some attempt to win you back but as a friend. We’re still friends, right?”
“Of course, we are,” I said. “We’ll always be friends.”
“Then let’s escape from all this.”
I shook my head. “You don’t understand. I don’t know exactly how they found you, but they’d be able to find you again. They’d definitely come looking for me. These are powerful and extremely dangerous people,” I said, almost letting the word vampire slip. He didn’t seem to know, otherwise, I suspected our conversation would have ventured in a very different direction already. “The safest thing we can both do is cooperate.”
Sean seemed to deflate before my eyes. He was really hoping to convince me to help him escape, but I knew that was suicide. “Then I’m stuck here—at everyone else’s mercy.”
“There are worse places to be. Believe me.” I went over and sat beside him, then lay my head on his shoulder. He leaned against me, which felt so comfortable and familiar. We sat quietly for a long time.
Before I knew it, the door was being unlocked, then Frederick was regally standing in the open doorway.
“I hate to break up this heartwarming reunion,” he said without an ounce of noticeable sarcasm. “But Fiona, you called for me. As you can see, your friend is being well cared for—safe, clean, and fed.”
I gave Sean a kiss on the side of the head before standing. “Thank you. You seem to be upholding your side.”
“Now let’s see how well you’ll uphold yours.” His expectant grin widened.
I gave Sean one last glance back before slipping past Frederick, who locked the door and led me to his suite. He didn’t bother locking his door and instructed me to sit.
“What do you have for me?” he asked as he strolled behind a mini-bar and fixed himself a drink. “Can I make you something?”
I doubted he had an espresso machine hidden back there, so I simply said, “A water would be great.”
“Coming right up, sweetling. Go ahead and talk; I can hear you just fine from over here.”
He was all the way across the expansive room, but I knew how much better vampire senses were compared to ours. “Matthew will be leaving on another mission in less than a week.”
“Good; then he’s been informed about the Benefit Dinner,” Frederick said, finishing up my iced water.
“You’re luring him away?”
“It’s better to have him out of the way, is it not? I doubt you have many vampires inside that hidden base. I know I’ll already be sensed as one, so we’ll have to think of a way around that.”
“And that’s the more important bit of information I have to share,” I said, then bit my lip as I considered the ramifications of going through with everything.
Frederick walked over and handed me the glass of water. He had a wine glass of blood for himself and again perched on the coffee table directly across from me. “I’m all ears.”
I repositioned myself on the couch, curling my legs under me, pushing as hard against the back cushions as I could manage in a bid to secure a bit more personal space. Then I took a long sip to stall even more, but there was only so long I could keep him waiting.
“It’s about Matthew’s tattoo,” I began. “As you know, all of the compass tattoos have special properties. For starters, they sense vampires. Mine’s able to appear and disappear at will, which I realize you already know. But if you’ve noticed, Matthew’s doesn’t. It’s permanently on his arm like a regular tattoo.”
“Which is significant because vampires can’t keep traditional tattoos.”
“They heal; I know,” I said. “Matthew’s doesn’t because there’s angel blood in the ink. I guess angel blood is poisonous to vampires, so it does something to keep the tattoo—the wound from healing.”
“Then I would assume he’s in constant physical pain,” Frederick said, seemingly intrigued by what I was saying.
“He deals with it,” I answered. “I don’t know how much pain he’s in because he refuses to get too specific. But that’s not all the angel blood does for him. His tattoo mutes the identifying sensations felt by the rest of us with compass tattoos. It’s not nearly as strong.”
“So, other members of the True North Society can determine if it’s Matthew without even having to see him?” Frederick said.
“Exactly. So, what that means is, we just need to get you a tattoo like his and practically no one on the compound will even be looking for you. A few people will know about his mission, but I suspect it will be kept pretty quiet—limited to the Assembly of Seven and maybe a few higher-ups.”
Frederick took a sip from his blood, the wheels clearly turning in his head. “This is good information. If I can get past the gate undetected and move around the compound relatively unseen, then no one would specifically be looking for me, dismissing the tattoo’s warning with Matthew being nearby. I think there’s something here we can definitely work with.” Frederick patted my thigh before getting to his feet, now grinning from ear to ear like a fiend. He downed the rest of his blood and set the sickly glass down on the coffee table. “Good work, Fiona. I’m proud of you.”
I looked him square in the eyes and said, “Thanks, but I’m not doing this for you.”
27
Susan
As Damien Galt had become the public face of our operation and grown into quite the celebrity over recent years, it was hard to meet with him without somebody noticing. It was much easier and safer to have his right-hand woman and partner in crime, Clementine Beal, slip away instead.
Frederick had found them both over two decades earlier when they were in their early twenties. They were patrons of the club, already submerged in the subculture so he gave them each a small position in the fledgling Vampire Nation before grooming them for their ultimate roles.
Damien Galt was once Elliott Newland; at fourteen, he had emancipated himself from abusive parents, struggled with drugs, and turned out to have a rather dark streak. However, he had natural charisma and Hollywood good looks, drawing people in like no one else I’d ever seen in person. Frederick had paid for him to get clean and refined his rough edges. As a combination of revenge and housekeeping, Frederick then had Elliott’s parents killed, ensuring Elliott was able to emerge into the public eye seemingly from nowhere.
Clementine Beal had once been Dorothy Chamberlain, third-generation trailer trash, a hi
gh school dropout before becoming an online vintage clothing entrepreneur. She found pieces from unlikely places, fixed them up, and sold them for huge profits, quickly growing a fanatical online following. She may not have had a formal education, but she’d made her first million by the time she was twenty-one. Her father had been imprisoned for a long list of petty crimes, while her mother had died when Dorothy was still a teen. The rest of her four siblings were all following in their parents’ footsteps, Dorothy being the only one who’d gotten out and made a life for herself. When Frederick had discovered her, he knew he’d found someone special; she needed less grooming than Elliott.
By the time I came into the operation, Elliott and Dorothy were working hard for Frederick, but Damien and Clementine had yet to be born.
Elliott emerged as Damien Galt first and was placed at the head of a pharmaceutical empire. A few mergers led to the creation of Galt Sciences. He quickly became more than just the company’s figurehead, making a name for himself as the CEO with the heart of gold in the tabloids, and as an early adopter of social media. Then with the formation of the Galt Foundation, his star continued to rise.
Dorothy, on the other hand, almost didn’t become Clementine Beal. Frederick had been planning for Dorothy to become the woman behind the name, and for me—as the newer member of Vampire Nation—to be groomed as Clementine Beal. I was to become the arm candy of Damien Galt and the legendary partner Frederick had heard of so many years ago.
But then—he changed his mind.
Frederick had become increasingly fond of me and had learned of my indirect association with the True North Society, even though I didn’t understand what they were at the time. One day everything changed—the decision had been made—and Dorothy became Clementine Beal, and I remained at Frederick’s side.
Sometimes, I’d think of how different the lives of Fiona and me would have been if I’d been the one to become Clementine Beal. She’d lived a glamorous life in public for the past decade, but everything comes at a cost. It was now time to plan the capture of both Clementine and Damien Galt.
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