by Sierra Dean
The two wardens jogged behind me, obviously motivated to stop me before I got to the elevator.
“Ms. McQueen, you know you can’t go down there on your own,” the female warden said.
“So have someone take me down.”
The goateed guy huffed with annoyance, like I was a dumb human who simply didn’t understand their rules. “As I previously explained, the Tribunal are too busy to see you at the moment. You’re going to need to leave.”
I drew to an abrupt halt and spun around to face the young vampire, not for a second showing the slightest fear or concern for the fact he could basically snap me in half. I still had pretty nasty bruises on my neck from the guy who had almost succeeded in killing me last night. The medical unit had been a bit too busy to deal with basic cosmetic stuff.
“Do you know who I am?” I asked the most Los Angeles question of all time. I hated myself for saying the words, but this asshole was acting like I was a nuisance, and be that as it may, I was an important nuisance.
“Ms. McQueen?” he replied uncertainly, echoing what the female warden had called me.
I took a deep breath, ready to do the full Daenerys Targaryen Mother of Dragons speech on his ass, when a calm, Southern female voice said, “She is Special Director Secret McQueen of the FBI, werewolf Queen of the East, pack Princess of the South, and former Tribunal leader of the East. Elliott, you will show the lady the proper respect she deserves for her position.”
The man ducked his head in a quick bow. “Yes, Tribunal Leader Clementine. My sincerest apologies for the grave offense.” He bowed again to me, but a glimmer in his eyes told me he wasn’t sorry at all and didn’t see me as someone to respect.
Shithead.
The other woman apologized and sounded a hell of a lot nicer about it. They both scuttled off to their desks, and I suspected they’d get a bit of a lecture about this later on. Being a warden was grunt work at best, and they tended to get kicked in the dirt by vampire society in general.
But that was the system. You took your thankless licks and did what you were asked, and if you were a good little bloodsucker, you became a sentry, and maybe even an elder.
I had been the highest of the high. I had once been a member of the vampire Tribunal, something you could only accomplish by killing one of the seated members.
I’d done it by accident.
The woman in front of me had very much done it on purpose, though I doubted her goal had been to claim a seat of power. She just really wanted to kill the guy whose job she took.
“Clementine,” I greeted warmly.
She took my hands in hers then kissed each of my cheeks in greeting. “Secret, dahling, it’s so wonderful to see you again.” Clem was a stunner. She had a sharp, angular face that was offset beautifully by her pixie-cut white-blonde hair. She forever appeared as if she was laughing at a joke no one else was in on. Even as I looked at her now, her lip was lifted in a smirk.
“I’m afraid I’m here on business.”
“Of course you are. Come along with me, then. We’ll go visit the others.” She linked her arm through mine, and we walked towards the elevator. It was awkward, given she was a fair bit taller than me and built like a Victoria’s Secret runway model, but we managed to make it work.
I was eternally grateful I’d gone home to change before coming here though, because she was wearing a beautiful, slinky silver dress, and if I’d still been in sweatpants and Tyler’s top, I would want to kill myself.
As it was, I was wearing jeans, my brimstone-singed Chloe boots—no, I hadn’t given up on them yet—and a plain gray scoop-neck shirt. I looked presentable, but she looked like she was about to hand out the Oscar for Best Achievement in Sound Editing or something.
We boarded the elevator, and she released my arm but stayed close to me, her shoulder pressed against mine. I had known Clem a long time but still felt like I didn’t know her at all. She was the definition of enigmatic, and every time I thought I might be able to consider her a friend, I had to wonder if the Clementine I knew was the real her, or just a pretty invention she put on.
The elevator went to the basement level, something that really shouldn’t exist in downtown L.A., and we found ourselves in the ruins of an old hotel lobby, one that had sunk beneath the streets during a particularly brutal earthquake and had since been forgotten by time and local lore.
Clementine guided us down a hall until we were in a simple chamber, and I stood facing three chairs. One, of course, was vacant, and Clementine drifted over to it to claim her rightful place.
The other two members of the West Coast Tribunal gave me tight smiles. “Ms. McQueen,” said Galen, the true leader of the group.
“Tribunal Leader Galen,” I greeted politely. I then nodded to the woman on his other side. “Tribunal Leader Eilidh.” I pronounced the Gaelic name perfectly as Aye-leigh. I’d practiced.
“You have business for us?” Galen asked, his tone clipped. I got the distinct feeling they weren’t thrilled about being at the beck and call of some random human, no matter who she had once been.
“Yes, there’s something I think it’s important you know. That is if you didn’t know it already.”
Eilidh spoke in a soft but amused voice. “If I didn’t know better, I would say she was accusing us of something.”
Where Clementine looked poised and lovely, Eilidh looked every ounce the political figurehead. She was, as usual, sporting navy blue, which made her black hair look all the darker in contrast and made her deep-blue eyes pop. Her hair was down today, which was her version of playing it wild and carefree.
Get it, girl.
Galen was Eilidh’s brother and had similarly dark hair and eyes, but was all square-jawed masculinity compared to her dainty feminine features. Swear to God, Galen could have played Superman in a heartbeat, as he just oozed easy power and otherworldly handsomeness.
Clementine worked well as a foil to them. The vampire she’d replaced, Arturo, had been similarly blond, and it did the Tribunal good to have a little diversity in their midst.
No one here had cried when Clem had killed him. Arturo’s death had been necessary, and I didn’t say that solely because he’d set me up to have me killed. I wasn’t a fan of the guy, but someone willing to sell out vampires to a madman was someone who couldn’t be in charge of anything in our society. That’s just common sense. Too often vampire leaders were secretly nutcases—the East Coast Tribunal was not exempt from this—and we were all better off with Arturo gone.
I could still remember the moment Clementine killed him. One minute he’d been threatening a warden, and the next minute, in a fit of annoyance, Clem had broken his neck. Just like that. She hadn’t liked his attitude or behavior, so she killed him.
The funny thing about it was that that kind of decisive action was probably what made her a perfect fit for being a Tribunal leader.
At least it looked like she was fitting in right at the moment.
“Secret, be a dear and tell us what’s so important,” Clem urged.
Oh, right. The point.
“Last night a mixed group of vampires and humans tried to open a gate to Hell.”
All three of them sat stock-still and stared at me as if I’d spoken in another language. Unless I had suddenly begun ranting in ancient Enochian, I was pretty sure they should have been able to understand the sentence, so I simply stared back at them and waited.
Eilidh spoke first. “I’m sorry, what are you saying?”
“We have a big fucking problem with the vampires of Los Angeles, is what I’m saying.” I quickly elucidated on what Harold had told me, about certain vampires trying to wipe out humanity.
The three of them exchanged uneasy glances, and I know they were annoyed they couldn’t speak freely in front of me.
“You know I used to be a Tribunal leader, right?” I reminded them. “You don’t have any top-secret Tribunal policies I don’t already know about.”
Galen gave me a gr
im smile. “You were once a Tribunal leader, it’s true, and while I believe you may be the only person to hold the title of Former Tribunal Leader, the former is a very important aspect of it. I’m sure you understand the council can’t openly discuss our business in front of a human.”
Human. Here we go again with the mortality shaming.
“Yeah, what was I thinking, suggesting you might talk to the person who brought the problem to your attention.”
I was wary of putting any trust in the West Coast Tribunal. They’d burned me before. I just had to hope they’d do the right thing here.
They whispered between themselves, and since I only had my sad, limited human hearing, I couldn’t tell what they were saying. After a few moments of them chittering away like birds on a phone line, they turned their focus back to me.
“Ms. McQueen, we appreciate you bringing this to our attention, and we can assure you we take it quite seriously,” Galen said. “We will provide you the assistance of a handful of our best wardens to aid in the recovery of the demon who got away, and we will be launching a full internal investigation into how this could have happened in the first place.”
The three of them nodded as if they were all quite pleased with this decision, and I gave a tight nod in return. “Great.” Wardens. That was totally helpful. “Send them to our FBI office when they’re ready.”
“It was really lovely to see you again, Secret,” Clementine said, her Southern drawl as warm as honey. But there was no doubt this was her way of ending our meeting.
“You too, Clem.”
I showed myself out of the dank subbasement, past a group of vampires working on the never-ending task of reinforcing the wall against earthquake damage.
Back on the main floor I passed the two wardens who had stopped me on the way in, then headed back to the front step where my cell phone got signal again. It beeped with a new message from Holden.
He’d called while I was out dealing with the demon cult but hadn’t left a message.
Maybe I should stop ignoring him.
I played the unheard message, my heart already beating faster because of how strange it was for Holden to leave voicemails in the first place.
His words were enough to make me brace myself for balance against my car.
Holden’s voice was tight and uncharacteristically filled with worry. “Secret, Sig is missing. I need you to come home.”
Chapter Thirteen
If having Holden leave me a voicemail was a surprise, an even bigger shock was waiting for me when I got back to the FBI headquarters about an hour later.
The man himself, in all his GQ-model, perfect good looks, was sitting in my office when I opened the door. Tyler, who had clearly been awaiting my return, blocked me before I could even get to my desk.
I’d been trying repeatedly to call Holden from the car, but now I knew why he wasn’t answering. Our office had a strict phone ban for anyone who didn’t work there, so he wouldn’t have gotten any of my calls.
“Care to tell me what this is all about?” Tyler indicated the office door.
“He can hear you, why don’t you ask him?” I said.
“I tried that, and he said it was Tribunal business and he’d only speak to you directly.”
I gave a faux-helpless shrug. “Guess that’s your answer then, isn’t it?”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “What did our Tribunal have to say about your visit?” I was glad he wasn’t going to make a big deal out of Holden. Perhaps Tyler and I were making progress when it came to mutual respect.
“They told me they’ll launch an internal investigation, and they’re going to send us some wardens to help. As far as the Tribunal goes, it’s better than I was expecting.”
“I guess we can’t ask for much more. I was hoping they might give you some insight on the vampires who did this.”
“From what I gathered, they honestly didn’t know. If that’s the case, we might be in serious trouble, because it takes quite the effort to keep that level of duplicity under wraps when Big Vampire Brother is watching.” I glanced into my office then back to Tyler. “You’re not going to be happy with me in a second.”
“Oh goody.”
“I need to go back to New York a bit earlier than expected.”
If looks could kill, Tyler would have murdered me about six times before he finally asked, “And why is that?”
“He’s not just here for a friendly visit.” I pointed at Holden. “I think shit may have hit the fan in New York, and the Tribunal needs my help.”
“You haven’t even spoken to him yet, how do you know that?”
“One day, when I have time, I’ll explain cell phones to you.”
“Ha.”
“Seriously though, he wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t important.”
Come to think of it, how was he here already? He would have had to have be in L.A. when he left the message in order to be in my office now.
“Secret, in case you haven’t noticed, we have something kind of important to deal with here at the moment. Shit. Fan. The whole ordeal. There is a very bad demon on the loose, and that’s sort of on us to stop.”
“I know. We’ll have the wardens to help while I’m gone, and you can use Harold too. He seems pretty keen to assist.”
“You want me to use a demon to catch a demon?”
“Sure.”
Tyler rolled his eyes. “I’m not giving him a badge.”
I broke into a wide grin and patted him on the shoulder. “You’re softening on him, aren’t you? Soon you’re going to be getting lunch together and calling each other bro and shit.”
“Get away from me before I change my mind about you going.” He swatted my hand off and headed down the hall, muttering something about demons, and I heard my name at least once.
Holden got to his feet as I entered the room and moved towards me in a gesture of embrace. I accepted the invitation, letting him fold me into a familiar hug. Holden never changed. Even though it had been five years since he had killed me and I was starting to look like the almost-thirty-year-old I was, he was still as timeless as ever.
For the first time it occurred to me that if I managed not to die a second time, there would come a day not far from now where I was going to look a lot older than Holden’s late-twenties exterior, and I would never stop getting older than him after that. Yeesh, what a downer.
I pulled back to look up at him, his unbelievably beautiful face staring down at me. He had dark-brown hair just long enough to brush his nape, and his chocolate-brown eyes showed signs of both exhaustion and amusement.
“I only got your message now,” I confessed.
“I called last night, and when I didn’t hear from you, I decided it would be smartest to come get you myself.” I wasn’t surprised he’d been able to make it to L.A. during the day. The Tribunal had special airline arrangements that let vampires travel at night and then wait on the plane in special sun-safe pods until sunset. It was incredibly expensive to move around that way, but for the first time in centuries it was giving vampires an opportunity to see the world.
In this case, it meant Holden had been able to leave New York last night and be here waiting at my office not long after dark.
I went to sit in my desk chair, and he took his own seat across from me. For a moment we just watched each other.
“Is it that bad?”
“It’s not out of the question for a vampire as old as Sig to take some time to himself, but it’s not like him to vanish without a word. He always tells someone where he’s going so we can coordinate accordingly.”
“How long has he been gone?”
“About four days.”
Four days for a two-thousand-year-old vampire wasn’t all that long, but in terms of being a Tribunal leader and arguably one of the most important vampires in the world, it was concerning.
“What about Ingrid?” Ingrid had been Sig’s daytime servant for the last seven-hundred-some-odd years. She
was still human, but her connection to Sig kept her young and beautiful, as if she were a vampire herself. She took care of Sig’s business during daylight hours, and if anyone knew where the big guy was, it would be Ingrid.
“No one has heard from her either, but we assume she’s with him. It’s not like him to go anywhere without her.”
“It would have been nice to be able to ask her, though.”
He gave a solemn nod. “This isn’t some spur-of-the-moment decision, Secret. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think it was vital to call you in. You and Sig have a connection, and whether or not you want to acknowledge it, I think you’re the right person to find him.”
The connection Holden was referencing was a blood bond that had become more complicated now that I was human. Sig was my father’s grand-sire, and my father’s blood had been given to me in utero to keep me and my mother alive. It’s what had made me a half-vampire half-werewolf once upon a time. That blood was still a part of me, even though I wasn’t a vampire anymore.
Sig was, and would always be, a part of me.
If I was being honest with myself, Sig’s interest in me had been more than a little unnerving. He’d favored me when I’d been nothing but a grunt working for the council, and he’d done things in the time I’d known him that made me think he might even love me.
What that love meant to him, I didn’t know. Was I family? Was I something more? It was impossible to understand what someone so old and powerful was thinking. I learned to accept that Sig would be a part of my life in whatever way he chose.
Holden wasn’t out of line thinking I might be the best choice to find him, though. If there was anyone Sig might come out of hiding for when he wanted others to leave him alone, it would be me. He’d come all the way to the Canadian border to drag me home once.
“This isn’t the greatest time,” I protested.
“I already heard you tell the lanky detective you would be coming home.”
It was amusing that Holden still referred to Tyler as a detective, which was the role he’d had—or pretended to have while actually working for the FBI—when we’d both lived in New York still.