by Flynn Eire
“We brought the first two in by boat and then truck. It was a headache and a half, and now with the weather, it’s too dangerous. I’ve got the next shipments coming in on train, and that track runs a few miles off Ashton’s property, and I’ll handle those logistics. Alastair will tell me where he’s got stuff he wants to bring in, and I handle the chaos. That’s what I do best.
“If people try to fuck with us or there’s an obstacle, I handle that too in a way that reminds others not to fuck with us. I’m also the healer and doctor, making sure we do whatever we’re up to right and not let our egos overrule our brains about what’s best. That’s what I do, and in between, we hunt zakasacs when Nero feels any near us, though they’ve gotten better about that, and I have a theory one of them can feel him so they get warning to jet, but that’s just a theory.”
“It’s not a bad theory given how far his range is,” I agreed, digesting all of that. We were back to the main building by then, and I opened the outer door for him and followed after. “So what do you do when not on a venture like this?”
“We’ve never had a venture like this ,” he snickered. “I get what you mean, though. As I handle a lot with imports, I have a lot of connections with illegal shipping. One of the things that chaps me is stolen artifacts or destroying history, not taking care with the past or trying to profit from it when it wasn’t theirs to begin with. Those who take from countries ravaged by war tend to get Ebola when I visit them and return the artifacts or give them to the proper museum.”
“That’s sorta awesome of you,” I chuckled, thinking it was a good fit with his personality. A really good fit with his personality actually and showed me a lot of the man he was. And another reason to love him, if I was being honest.
That list of why I did was starting to get pretty damn long. Great, right?
7
I spent lunch getting to learn more about Sen… Much to his embarrassment, which I adored. He wasn’t some full of himself asshole that liked to brag, instead he was humble after his centuries of awesomeness. We stayed in the cafeteria, picking at food and talking until I could see he’d finally had enough. I went over to the plans for the orphanage and stared at them.
“Could you do something for me? Try at least if I asked for something maybe impossible?” I murmured as I traced the lines for the inviting and grand entrance design.
“Anything,” he immediately agreed.
“Can you ask your network about my parents?” I whispered, a knot forming in my stomach at bringing up the topic. “I just want to know more, you know? Not the line the government employees gave to a scared kid or the vampires who found me pissed they had to deal with me. Even here, I know Dimitri tried to find out once for me but didn’t get anywhere. You’ve got more clout, though. Can you ask for me?”
He cleared his throat as he moved next to me, covering my hand with his. “I already did. I could see it was something that bothered you when you spoke of them, and I put out feelers. I got an answer from a surprising party.”
“Who?” I turned to face him, raising an eyebrow.
“Marissa Neal knew your mother,” he answered, giving me a soft smile. “Your parents were originally from the New York coven, lovely. She recognized your name and, after some thought, put the pieces together and told me what she knew. I can tell you, or you can hear it from her.”
“Tell me, and I can ask her about specifics and stories later,” I murmured, taking his hands in mine. “It’s always been hanging over my head, Sen. I have nothing, no memories of them, nothing of theirs, or no idea who they were.”
“Nothing of theirs?” he asked, frowning.
I shrugged. “They had no other family. No will. Everything went to the state, and I went into the system. No one ever told me anything when I asked. I don’t even remember where we lived.”
“You poor thing,” he whispered, hugging me tightly. “I will get into more of that, as there is always a paper trail with this bureaucratic government.” He led me to sit back down, keeping my hands in his. “The New York coven leader isn’t a nice man. Marissa has told many about his behavior and exploits, mainly that he believes the coven lives to serve him and his mate who is the daughter of an East Coast council member.
“He tried to force your mother to bed, but she fought him off and panicked at the repercussions. Your father, who was deeply in love with her from what Marissa said, ran with her and they eloped. They were both young. Not even thirty when they ran off, which she said was about thirty years ago, so they must have had you not long after they ran. You were a child of their love, El. They were young and scared and on the run.”
I bobbed my head as I listened, closing my eyes when he was done. “They wouldn’t have known how to prepare for the future, what to do. Okay, makes sense why nothing was in place. What of my other family? What of anyone else on either side of my family?”
“Marissa said she believes , but cannot remember with complete certainty, but your father’s father was a warrior who died in battle, and his mate did not survive that. She knew your mother better and said your maternal grandmother died of a broken heart when she couldn’t protect your mother and had to run away. Whether that’s true or not, I-I don’t know. I will look into it more, but you might be the last.”
“No, not the last. I have you,” I murmured, pulling him to me and hugging him with all I had. “I’m never alone again now that I have you.”
“I swear it,” he whispered in my ear. Then he cleared his throat. “Will you show me this ring you spoke of?”
“Um, sure, but it’s just an, um, idea,” I muttered, pulling out my phone to pull up the ring I’d found. “It’s not expensive, or I mean, I think it is, but it’s probably cheap to you. I thought they were diamonds, but it’s amethyst, but we could find purple diamonds, right? Don’t they come in different colors?” I quickly moved the phone behind my back when the page loaded. “Maybe we should just look at new ones. I mean, what if this is plain to you and you think I don’t know you?”
The phone was suddenly out of my hand and in his. Damn his ancient speed!
“I love it,” he rasped, smiling brightly. “It’s perfect. It’s not plain. It’s elegant, sophisticated with a bit of personal flair. I adore it, El. And yes, they make purple diamonds now, so I will call the jeweler I’ve used before and have one commissioned.”
“I wanted to buy it for you,” I mumbled, leaning in and kissing his cheek. “I know you’re rich, but I can buy your wedding ring, Sen.”
“Please do.” He caught my lips, and I felt my phone slipped back into my pocket before his hands moved under my shirt. “Should we take lunch to go?”
I frowned. “No, maybe later. I was pretty rough with you, and you didn’t end up resting.”
“I heal fast. Let’s go to bed.”
I shook my head. “Healing fast is great, but you need a longer break when we go several rounds, Sen. You’re too precious to me to risk mistreating.”
“Thank you.”
We went for food and sat at a large table with the mockups for the orphanage, Sen listing all that had been decided so far.
“Go with the reclaimed floors,” Falcon suggested as he sat next to me. “Verge was talking about it, and the supply company Nero works with specializes in precast concrete and recycled materials. They pull up floors from old buildings and reuse the supplies so all the hardwood floors that will be in Gaius’s houses won’t come from newly cut down trees.”
“Our house, Godiva,” Gaius chuckled.
I pretended not to see the way it made my best friend blush to hear the name. Okay then. “Yeah, that sounds awesome.” I winced as I glanced at Sen. “Does that make it way more expensive?”
He shrugged. “I prefer eco-friendly. We’re saving tons in getting precast concrete everything instead of bricks or whatever, and a lot of the concrete is recycled too. The rebar is, I believe. Alastair demands recycled for his wind turbines. I know in the spring when it comes time for p
atios, terraces, and pools to be put in there will be a lot of reclaimed stones used too.”
“Yeah, Nero insists on it,” Verge agreed as he sat down with his lover… Or fiancé? I wasn’t sure where they were, and I wasn’t close enough to either of them to ask. “This is for the orphanage? Cool. Nero was totally stressing over it because it bothered him to think of munchkins lost.”
“It wasn’t so bad,” I muttered, focusing on my food. “Lots of humans live that way just fine.”
“Yeah, but they aren’t vampires,” he said gently. “Everyone wants to help, Ellison. It’s something none of us ever thought could happen. Plus, there are just too many orphans in our world that get overlooked when they don’t come from money.”
“Amen,” Norris agreed as he plopped down with Philo, Zibon and Alastair joining us as well.
“Have you thought about your suite yet?” Zibon asked as he glanced over what we were looking at. “I helped Falcon with his. I came from money, so I know what’s worth making sure you get.”
“Yeah, that shower and bath setup you’ve got sound amazing ,” Falcon groaned, shooting a shy smile at Gaius. “Super luxurious and hard to ever want to leave the suite when you have it.”
“My evil plan has worked then,” Gaius chuckled, leaning in and kissing Falcon. “And a large fireplace for our room is a must.”
“Gaius,” Falcon hissed, his cheeks flushing so red I thought he might faint. Oh, interesting and something I never wanted to think about… Especially when they both glanced at the large fireplace in the cafeteria.
Gross. Now we all knew where they’d had their first time.
“Ashton was also talking about buying another foreclosed ranch in the area and starting a tree farm, just for all the trees we cut down to help the air and planet,” Alastair told us.
“What? Why?” I asked, wondering how much that cost.
“Less land owned by humans around us, the less amount of potential problems,” he answered easily. “I have an in for bunk beds like we got for the pre-trans. They’re nice, sturdy. The company has other options, and I’ve worked with them. Might want to get warmer ones than metal if they’re going to live in those rooms for longer than a year while training.”
“Good point. Yeah, one of the group homes I lived in had cheap cots to stuff as many of us as they could so they got more.” I realized people were confused when the conversation died. I cleared my throat as I fiddled with my fries. “Humans get paid to take in foster children. It’s a subsidized program, so some use it as their real income, like a business, so if they fit more kids, they get more money.”
“That’s horrible,” someone hissed, and I agreed.
“And make sure siblings get to stay together,” I said, getting excited I could be on the other side of it all now, help make things easier for them. “Always they stay together. I knew a lot that got split up and it—it destroyed them. Also, don’t just group by age. Let the older kids help with the younger kids. The only way I kept my sanity when I got placed in a bad home was when I could help one of the younger kids. It helped me.”
“Anyone specifically?” Sen asked gently.
I nodded but didn’t answer, looking up what I was thinking of on my phone before handing it to him. “Get loft bunks like this where the older kid has a bigger bed on the bottom and the younger one can have the cute twin bed. They can personalize them, goof around like it’s their own fort—bond and not feel alone.”
“Who was the boy who helped you, El?” he murmured as he took the phone, nodding he agreed with me.
I cleared my throat, feeling all the eyes and ears. “A boy named Mark. He was eight when I was in high school. He had problems wetting the bed after the home he’d been placed with and—we helped each other. Made it through that way. I checked in on him after I left, got my scholarship to college, and after before I came here. I haven’t talked to him since, it’s not smart to, but I look at his social media now and again. He went to college, graduated. He’s doing okay.”
“I’m glad he is, and if he needs help, we can help him,” Sen offered, covering my hand with his. “But you get why it’s better not to stay in close touch with humans, right?”
“Yeah, but I spent more years of my life thinking I was one of them than vampire, Sen. It’s a hard gear to just switch. Sometimes I think all of this, all of this crazy and different world is a nightmare or fantasy and that was real.”
The conversation died with me saying that, and it made me feel totally awkward, so I appreciated when Alastair took it over and went a different direction.
“We got Jordan Gilliam to agree to move here,” he said easily as if there was nothing else going on or any tension. “He’s going to move his whole shop and everything, build that plant he was wanting to branch out into on the edge of the wind turbine farm if we facilitate it all and keep him safe. He had concerns about his people being allowed to come too because he employs a few hundred vampires, but if they pass our interviews, there’s no reason they can’t.”
“I don’t know who that is,” Falcon confessed, and several of us nodded.
“He’s some huge , world-renowned artist who does glass blowing and has several ridiculously expensive crystal lines that his apprentices do, as his pieces go for gobs of money,” Zibon explained. “The stuff was really cool but way too expensive. Whatever. But he’s been branching out into recycled glass stuff. His coven leader’s been saying there’s no way to keep him focused on the pricey stuff.”
“One of his gifts is to be able to call glass as you can metal, Falcon,” Alastair elaborated. “So he goes to city dumps and pulls tons of it out, crushes it, and reuses it in some of his pieces, but lots aren’t that level of quality. He wants to make countertops and tiles and everything he can, his name behind it that would make it crazy popular.”
“And give tons of jobs to normal vampires who could live here safely or at Ashton’s,” I filled in, smiling. “Awesome. So those are the types of people you went looking for to move here?”
“Yeah, we agreed it’s not going to be all about money to move here,” Zibon answered, nodding and then sighing. “But money is needed. The guy is cool, a bit eccentric, but a good guy. His first concern was all the people he employees, and yeah, that’s someone we want here. He’s also had problems with stalkers and is high profile too. It gives the subdivision legitimacy if we have people like that move there with all the security.”
“Makes sense,” I murmured, taking a big bite of my sandwich. “We should move up getting post-trans trained for their CDLs. It would be good if warriors and post-trans handled convoys to move. Those are going to be huge targets and not just from zakasacs but anyone not on board with what we’re doing. Plus, we know how to drive the trucks in shitty weather, so if we’re not needed for outside construction once the snow really starts, we can do that.”
“Smart, very smart,” Sen agreed, Nero and Alastair nodding.
“What about warriors?” I asked, taking advantage of all the openness. “I heard the camps want to increase the numbers stationed at camps instead of too many at private residences of council members.”
“Actually, if we’re doing all the training for North America, there isn’t much of a need for the camps,” Alastair admitted, shrugging when there were several gasps. “The problem then becomes if they should take charge of coven security—”
“Which we’re not in favor for because covens become nests and that’s bad,” Nero grumbled, shaking his head.
“Or all council members get assigned warriors instead of those with the most pull or supposedly under the most threat.”
“Which we don’t want either, because then they could be pulled into political shit, which warriors are supposed to be free from,” he explained again. “We’re pushing for more haven communities, which changes the centuries old way of covens, and that will go over well.”
I snorted. “Tell them what happened in Quebec. Denver. Charlotte. Just be honest with them in
stead of whatever bullshit someone gets through the grapevine because the secrets kept between councils is as bad as the US and their enemies.”
“Yeah, except their ‘friends’ change too often into enemies,” Verge drawled then bounced his head around. “Actually, yeah, that does sound like our councils.”
“But we’re still only twenty-six here officially, right?” I murmured, glancing around. “Evan’s not coming back under the hierarchy, and with the ones you guys have had transfer out get promoted, my count is twenty-six now with Norris. Gary would make twenty-seven in a few months. That new dorm fits a hundred plus scores of post-trans. So where are we getting them? Twenty-six can’t do all this training and protect Ashton’s and the subdivision.”
“Hi, we’re here,” Alastair drawled, waving his hand at me.
“You don’t fall under our hierarchy,” I argued, raising an eyebrow when he frowned at me. “You going to start training post-trans on swords?” He snorted, and I held my hands out to my sides to say I rest my case then . “We need more warriors.”
“We’ve got them coming,” Verge promised, which I thought were big words. He simply shrugged when I didn’t hide that in the glance I gave him. “I heard two in the entourage from East Canada’s camp were new and wanted the fuck out of there. That all the guys there are nuts, and they want out and real training like we get here. I heard London say the same about a few from the West Coast camp. We have a lot of not nuts warriors trapped too.”
“We’re working on that,” Gaius sighed, scrubbing his hands over his head. “We can’t all go and handle this all at once, either. I mean, we’ve got messes all over we’re cleaning up and building here. Fuck, I thought Claudius might quit after hearing how fucked up everything was. I swear he’s at his limit and ready to wash his hands of everyone dirty or not willing to help.”
“I feel his pain,” I grumbled, dropping my now cold fries. “It’s hard not to give up and just run away, but run away to where? Where would be better? Where would be safe? I mean, really, where would be safe?”