by R. J. Blain
“I proved my prowess but gave her the ultimate choice. She stays because she wishes to, not because I forced her to. The choice to remain with my brood is always hers. Would that be the same with yours?”
Mistress Avalon clamped her lips together and narrowed her eyes. “My brides are content, Master Lowrance.”
“And they survived because that’s the life they truly wanted. Times have changed, and you’ll have to change with them if you want to have more brides to keep you company throughout your eternal life. Take comfort in this: Pepper survived. Why? That I don’t know. I suspect it is because she’s so stubborn she’d claw her way out of a shallow grave to live even a cursed life. But I will not tolerate you interfering. If you choose to lose this battle now, perhaps we can find a way for your brood to survive through the future. No matter how picky you are about your women and the men they love, you’ll eventually lose them to the rest of their eternal lives.”
Mistress Avalon clasped her hands in front of her, and she regarded Emerick with the faintest of frowns. “It’s unlike you to offer me anything, Emerick.”
“I’m not offering you anything other than an opportunity to discuss this issue with me in the future at the price of leaving Pepper alone. She has much to learn about being a vampire, and it is best to let her settle. Should she wish to discuss your brood with you, she will have that freedom. But she will always keep that freedom. There will be no dowries to buy her hand, and she will not be put up for sale like a broodmare in season.”
I wielded my sweetest smile as a weapon. “And I’ll be more than happy to stake anyone who tries. I might not know enough about what it means to be a vampire, but if there’s one thing I do know, it is how to end an eternal life.”
Ben sighed, lifted his hand, and pinched the bridge of his nose, likely in the futile effort to ward away the headache I induced with my words.
Mistress Avalon’s gaze shifted to me. “And how many have you killed, child?”
“Forty-eight,” I replied, staring into her dark eyes. “All of them attacked the innocent, and they deserved their deaths.”
“She’s the one who has been killing fugitives and draining them, Mistress Avalon, and it would be wise if you kept that information to yourself. Pepper may hold the key to your brood’s ultimate salvation, and it seems a pity if you were to throw it away seeking revenge against me for outwitting you this time.”
“You will pay for this insult, Master Lowrance.”
“But you won’t try to make me pay for it through Pepper. We can continue our games and petty attempts at revenge upon each other as always. You’ll inevitably gouge me should one of my brood want one of your brides for a wife. But this is my match, and I won’t accept anything other than my victory. Do we have an understanding?”
Something about Mistress Avalon’s expression softened. “I’ll agree to ignore your Pepper’s affiliation with your brood and convince Mistress Pettigrew to do the same. In exchange, we will expect full disclosure on the circumstances of her resurrection into eternal life.”
“When we find out more, we will tell you, but I can only tell you this much, Mistress Avalon. She was left in a shallow grave to rot by her master. I recommend should you find him, you offer him to Pepper as a sacrifice, as I believe she may have risen from her grave out of spite and the desire to kill the man who stole her life.”
“You can confirm he’s a man?”
“I stole her from him already. I’m sure enough.”
“Did you learn anything when you welcomed her into your brood?”
“Not much,” he admitted. “He wanted to keep her, so I believe he knows her worth. Don’t underestimate Pepper, Mistress Avalon. She requested, specifically, I make my claiming of her as wretched for him as I possibly could.”
The woman’s smile transformed her into a beauty I could never hope to match. “How long did you drag it out for?”
“Long enough she slept through an entire night afterwards. It didn’t help she’s been malnourished. Her maker left her to fend for herself. Everything she’s accomplished has been due to her wit and her wit alone.”
“I can see why you’d value her, then. Very well. Keep me informed and understand I will extend an invitation for her to meet with brides of my brood. It would do her well to be among other women.”
“I would have no complaints if she were to befriend your brides. For now, until she’s better adapted to life as a vampire, I’m hesitant to have her venture off unescorted, but I see no reason I can’t open my home to some of your brides for visits, especially should any of yours be interested in any of mine. Ben’s been alone long enough it might be time to plan a suitable match for him.”
Ben’s eyes widened, and I suspected the vampire held his breath.
Mistress Avalon turned to Ben, and I bet she smiled while looking him over. “Yes, the older ones do need companionship for a better chance at a happy eternal life. I know some who have long admired him, and I’m certain they’d like to meet your Pepper. How does two weeks sound to you?”
“It’s been a while since we’ve hosted a ball and dinner. Let’s plan for two or three months from now and have a more extravagant party, shall we? It seems I have more wealth than I know what to do with and eager young vampires who’d appreciate a chance to charm one of your ladies.”
“And that is a battle you have no hope of winning, Emerick.” Mistress Avalon laughed. “I consider us even, then. Very well. Mistress Pettigrew will be informed she’d be wise to leave your Pepper alone. Would you like to extend an invitation to her brood?”
“I’ll have invitations for both of you written up within the week. I trust you’ll show some mercy should any of my vampires find the love of their eternal life at this event.”
“I will suggest to Mistress Pettigrew that the first bride to step forward with her choice shall do so with her dowry paid to her and only her so she has the best start to her new life beyond our brood.”
“Excellent. Then we’re agreed. I will pick a date and time based on when I can get a reservation at an appropriate venue, and it’ll be a party other broods will be talking about for centuries.”
Mistress Avalon laughed, her voice airy and sweet. “Do extend invitations to some of the other masters. I’d like to see their faces when they realize you’ve earned the favor of our broods.”
“Send me a list of those you’d like to be invited, and please ask Mistress Pettigrew to do the same. It’d be a shame to bereft you of such a rare opportunity.”
“I’m so pleased we could see eye-to-eye on this matter, Master Lowrance. I’ll be in touch.”
Without as much as a wave or farewell, Mistress Avalon turned on a heel and strode out of my office. Ben fell into step behind her. Emerick waited until they were out of sight before closing my office door and dissolving into helpless laughter.
“Why are you laughing?”
Emerick coughed, recomposed himself, and flashed me a grin. “You’ll find out soon enough.”
Six
He likes reducing empires to ashes.
Mistress Avalon lingered for several hours after her departure from my office, and Emerick monitored her whereabouts on his phone, receiving a text from Ben whenever she changed locations. Until she left, Emerick didn’t want to discuss anything, something I accepted with a resigned sigh.
I would’ve preferred if he’d gone away to let me work, but he seemed to believe if he left my office, Mistress Avalon would come barreling in, steal me, and make a mess of his plans. I’d like to see her try. The black oak stake would make an excellent chest ornament for her.
“Do you always fondle your stakes so lovingly, Pepper?”
Crap. I set the stake aside and forced my attention back to my tablet so I could make more sense of everything I’d learned in my first round of research. “It’s a very nice stake. It deserves to be fondled lovingly. I’m not sure I want to give it back.”
“Don’t give it back. I’ll have Ben find
a sheath for it. I’m more impressed touching it doesn’t bother you.”
“It’s warm.”
“Old stakes have personality. Perhaps that one likes you.” Emerick shrugged and perched on the edge of my desk, his attention returning to his phone. “Mistress Avalon and her brood are now leaving the building.”
About time. “Does that mean you’re ready to listen?”
“Perhaps.”
If Emerick’s goal was to make me want to strangle the unlife out of him, he was well on his way to victory. “There’s going to be a lot of paperwork you’re going to need to do if you want to close the loopholes the new laws will grant landlords. Every member of your brood will need to sign it, and you’ll have to make any provisions for children.” I frowned. “Can vampires have children?”
“Technically, yes. Realistically? It’s very uncommon. We’re fertile, but it takes a great deal of blood for a woman to maintain a pregnancy, and we theorize only human blood is sufficient to bring a baby to term. It has to be planned from before conception. If you want children in the future, it’s possible, but you’ll need to find a lot of women willing to donate to make it happen. At current estimate, we believe you’d need a pint of blood from another woman nightly to ensure the child’s health. The child would also be predisposed for vampirism.”
“Predisposed for vampirism? What does that even mean?”
“The chances of a vampire’s child rising from the grave for their second life is high and they may spontaneously turn after death. The brood has several children from human women, but they’re all sons. It seems something about vampirism prevents the birth of daughters.”
“So, if you wanted a kid, you’d have to bang some human broad and hope for the best?”
“How uncouth.”
“Truth, though.”
“That it is. No, should I want a child, it would be with a vampire, one with as much of an interest in having one as me.”
“I’m going to take that to mean you don’t want children since you’d need an excessive number of women donating blood.” I shook my head and forced my attention back to work. “I’m drawing up a preliminary lease agreement for your brood, but I want to talk with some of your other lawyers. This wasn’t that hard to figure out, so I’m wondering why your brood overlooked this. I shouldn’t be able to come in here and start finding this crap on my first round.”
“We’ve identified some of the loopholes you’ve discovered, but we’ve only had the papers a day or two longer than you have, and we’ve had other situations to contend with. It’s been busy. I realize that’s not a valid excuse, but it’s the truth. So, your skills came to us at a good time, as you have no other obligations to distract you from the work.”
I eyed the boxes of papers, and I snatched one, checking the date of proposal and date of voting. Sure enough, the first one I’d grabbed was hot off the presses. “I don’t even know how I missed that.”
“Dates haven’t been important to you until now. Don’t blame yourself for that. It’s normal. Unlife skews time, and you’ve been under a great deal of stress. You have time to go over the documents again. In the meantime, I’ll review my staff and find someone to assist you. We have some undergraduates in process of joining the brood who might be of use to you. Send me a list of qualities you want in an assistant. I’ll check and see if anyone makes a good fit. If not, we can hire someone.”
It took me all of ten seconds to understand hiring someone would be a critical mistake. “If my father is looking for ways to use and control the preternatural population, he’ll be looking for a way into your brood. Do you do background checks of potential applicants?”
“Rather thoroughly.”
“You may want to do another check for connections with my father. If he’s wanting to get insight into the broods, he’d find people who were willing to get their hands dirty for an insider look. I don’t know if he’d stoop to having someone become a vampire to serve as his spy, but it wouldn’t surprise me.”
“I appreciate your caution. We do have a vetting process, but in light of the severities of your discoveries and our established knowledge of the situation, you’re probably onto something. It’s not typically an issue, but these new laws could easily make it an issue. Expect questions and requests to assist in the vetting process. You know more about your father’s operations than I do. Frankly, he hasn’t been on my radar because I have zero intention of moving the brood to Harlem.”
“Unless he decides to target SoHo next.”
“That would take more money than even he has. My properties alone would severely tap his finances.”
I bet. One of his condos alone could sell for millions, forget the entire building. “How many condominiums do you currently own?”
“In SoHo or in the New York area?”
“Let’s start with SoHo.”
“A hundred and sixty-three.”
My brows shot up. “That would do some significant damage to my father’s petty cash fund, that is true. Estimated total value?”
“Land plus units plus building, my current SoHo property value is just shy of seven hundred million.”
Okay. I’d underestimated his general value. “And in the general New York area?”
“An additional five hundred thousand.”
“Billionaires should be outlawed,” I complained.
“While I technically own the properties, I have no intentions of taking them from my brood. I would consider my value to be a great deal less. I’ve invested most of my wealth into caring for my brood. My brood helps replenish funds, but with every new vampire we welcome into the brood, our expenses rise dramatically. We are not the richest brood, but we do well enough.”
To survive any financial maneuvering from my father, Emerick would need to step up his game. “That’s not going to be good enough against my father. He’ll take you for all you’re worth and then some if he has his way.”
“While I share your opinion, I’d like to know why you think my brood’s current situation isn’t sufficient.”
I’d skated on thin ice often enough with my father to recognize I risked a quick plummet into icy depths with the brood’s master. Since backing down would only hurt me later, I met Emerick’s glare with one of my own. Glaring would’ve been easier without the violet gleam in his eyes distracting me.
Damn, the man had pretty eyes when he got riled up, and I foresaw developing a dangerous hobby of pissing him off for the selfish purpose of admiring him. I gave it a week before I drove him to the brink of insanity or pushed him into wanting to stake me.
It would do.
I graced him with my best smile. “I know my father. He isn’t satisfied with just winning. He wants his opponents to know they’ve been crushed beneath his heel. The more he hates his target, the more he wants to crush them. You? He’d want you reduced to nothing more than fine powder when he finished with you and your entire brood. He likes reducing empires to ashes.”
“He doesn’t even know me.”
“He doesn’t need to know you. You’re a vampire. You’re an obstacle to his plans. That’s all he needs to confirm you’re his enemy. I’d just get used to the idea now, so he doesn’t blindside you later. He enjoys that, too.”
“I take it this is something you’ve put a lot of thought into?”
“Every day. Well, not as much after I crawled out of my own grave, but there you have it.” I shrugged. “My inheritance wasn’t worth the nightmare, but my mother would pay for my failures.”
“Which explains why you lacked any hesitation to take on my name.”
“Exactly. He’ll figure it out, I’m sure. He’s not a stupid man.”
“He’s just smart enough to be dangerous.”
I liked the way Emerick thought. “You’ll need to figure out how you want to play the game with him. Like it or not, you’re going to have to deal with him one way or another. You’re his target for this Harlem scheme. You and your entire brood. And he m
ight try to undermine your efforts by offering terms too tempting to resist to the lower members of your brood.”
“I’ll make everyone in the brood aware of the risks, but it is their choice if they relinquish their right to a condo in exchange for his offerings.”
“He’ll try to turn your brood against you. That’s his style.”
“I think he’ll discover that vampires are more loyal than the average human. More than mere blood binds us together.”
Magic. I’d gotten used to the idea of magic, but like my father, I’d never dabbled in it to keep myself pristine in the eyes of the law. Without the law protecting me due to an unfortunate case of vampirism, I’d have to find new ways to protect myself. “I presume you mean magic?” I asked, hoping he might shed some light on the ties between vampires and other preternatural powers.
“I promise science didn’t raise you from the dead,” he replied.
Someone had, and the anger I’d carried since waking up in the smothering confines of a grave boiled beneath my skin. I’d gratefully accept a second death if it meant I could drag the bastard down with me if I went. “How long do you think it will take to find him?”
“Your maker?”
I nodded.
“It depends on him and how much he values you. Considering how long it’s been since a woman has been turned, I expect he’s already hunting for you. With the brides aware of your existence, I give it a few days before rumor reaches the west coast broods. The ball will ensure everyone knows of you. It’ll be my pleasure to introduce you to the rest of the world. The timing’s perfect for preparing you for our version of elite society.”
“And you’ll be presenting me as what?” I struggled to keep my tone neutral.
“Many things. Perhaps as a partner, perhaps as a cherished child of my brood. Perhaps as something more.”
“And nothing less?”
Emerick arched a brow, snorted, and shook his head. “Would you allow me to present you as anything less?”
I wouldn’t, but I answered him with a shrug.