Dawn's Envoy

by T. A. White

  My expression must have said as much because he gave me a charming smile, though its affect was completely lost on me. I’d never fall for that smile again.

  “You are welcome to call the foreman and find out for yourself,” he told me.

  Like that would help. The human would probably just end up parroting whatever Thomas wanted.

  Such was the case whenever humans brushed up against the spooks. Most times they came out the losers. And Liam wondered why I refused to give my alliance to the vampires.

  I chose to ignore Thomas and the tangle of problems he represented. “I’m awake now, so we can go on about our business.”

  Liam didn’t move, his gaze sardonic. “Our presence is required here for the remainder of the night.”

  His words stalled me right as I was contemplating the chances of me remaining on my feet if I tried to stand.

  “You’re joking,” I said.

  That seemed to amuse him. “I’m not. You will be required to portray the part of Thomas’ yearling.”

  “You must know that’s not happening,” I said flatly.

  He gave me a victorious smile that said checkmate as clearly as if the words were spoken out loud. “But it is.”

  Rebellion skated across my face.

  He leaned closer, pressing one fist on the bed at my side as he said, “Just earlier tonight you accepted employment from me. Do you remember the terms?”

  My scowl should have lit paper on fire. I didn’t speak, anger strangling my vocal chords. I got a sinking feeling I knew exactly where this was going.

  He drew back, his smile widening at my expression. “You agreed to follow my orders.”

  Yup. I’d been right.

  I narrowed my eyes at him. No. Just no.

  “Checkmate, darling,” he whispered.

  The urge to go for his throat tingled through my body. I might have tried it too, if I didn’t ache so fiercely moving would send me crashing to the ground.

  Liam straightened as I remained silent, fuming, so angry I couldn’t even formulate a response. “I need to get ready. Thomas will brief you on what is expected and find you clothes.”

  He walked out of the room, leaving Thomas and me alone.

  I bent my head and sighed. Point to Liam. He’d out-maneuvered me. I’d compliment him if I didn’t want to slap that smug look off his face.

  I lifted my head and sent a dour glance in Thomas’s direction.

  My sire was the handsome sort. It enabled him to lure his prey to him, lulling them into a coma of lust pheromones so he could royally fuck up their life while they were still none the wiser. His jaw was strong and hinted at a personality nearly as stubborn as mine.

  “Many think Liam is the more reasonable between the two of us, but I’ve always found his games to be rougher and more vicious. They sneak up and hit you in the face while you’re not looking,” Thomas observed. If I didn’t know better, I thought I detected a hint of sympathy in his voice.

  “You would think it’d be the other way around,” I said.

  Thomas inclined his head. “You would. Yet, I tend to prefer blunt force to achieve my desires whereas Liam goes after what he wants in a decidedly sideways manner.”

  It was odd to agree with my sire, but there we were.

  “Now, let’s see about getting you dressed in something appropriate,” he said.

  *

  After an hour of poking and prodding, of people pulling me one way and then another, and Thomas critiquing dress after dress, I was ready.

  I had to admit he had good taste. The dress he’d chosen was silver, setting off my grayish blue eyes to perfection and turning them stormy. One of the humans, a male, grabbed my shoulder-length brown hair and pulled it back, braiding pieces of it so its reddish tint caught the light and shone.

  In very little time, I stood there, makeup perfect, hair styled back in an elegant swoop. I had to admire their work. I would never have been able to pull this look off had it just been me.

  I looked elegant, infused with danger, the type of person you’d treat with respect even while trying to figure out how you could get closer to their orbit.

  To my eternal surprise, Thomas hadn’t abandoned me when the stylists arrived. Instead he’d tutored me on his expectations of me for the evening. It seemed a yearling vampire’s duties were much the same as children from an earlier time in humanity’s history—to be seen and not heard. I was expected to be a pretty ornament, gracing my master’s side until he decided otherwise.

  In a weird sort of way, it made sense. Vampire society had many things in common with a feudal one. You wouldn’t want a page possibly offending important visitors. No, the page or apprentice was there to learn and observe so when they went off on their own, they would know what to do. In this instance, a yearling might see how vampire dealings were conducted so if and when they rose to a position of power, they could conduct themselves in an acceptable manner.

  Only one problem. I had no plans to take my place in vampire society. There were no positions of power in my future; no circumstances where I would want something similar to what Thomas had.

  It made me question why they’d gone to all the trouble of securing my presence at this shindig. It wasn’t like they needed me as a guard. Liam and his enforcers would be plenty of protection for Thomas.

  I had no expertise to offer, no skills they needed. It was not a good place to be, when knowing your footing was paramount to surviving the shark-infested waters the vampires liked to swim in.

  Not knowing where else to go, I ended up standing in the main entrance foyer. The one thing Thomas had forgotten to brief me on before leaving to get himself ready, was where exactly this event was supposed to take place.

  I was all dressed up with no clue where to go. It left me wandering aimlessly, hoping to find someone who could point me in the right direction.

  “Thought I might find you here,” a voice said from above me.

  I turned to see Rick bound down the stairs toward me. Stairs I’d just come down, and I hadn’t seen anyone in the corridor. It left me questioning how he’d managed to arrive unseen and unheard.

  The enthusiastic vampire reached the bottom of the stairs and gave me a courtly bow with all of the mannerisms of a born courtier. It was a gesture suited to his current attire. Like me, he was dressed to impress in a full tuxedo, his auburn hair styled and his curls tamed.

  I still wasn’t sure where he fell in the territorial vampire hierarchy. He seemed to be on good terms with Liam’s enforcers, but I’d seen him act as an advisor to Thomas before as well.

  His face was open and welcoming as he straightened, grinning. As a redhead who hadn’t seen a lot of sun since his turning, Rick had a smooth, pale creaminess to his skin I would have envied when I was younger. His bright green eyes stood out with his pale coloring, reminding me of a cat’s eyes.

  Or the Fae, I thought, as those same eyes went unfocused and soft, as if they were looking at a scene only he could see.

  I waited quietly to see if he’d return to the present. This had happened once before during the drama with Caroline. He’d given me a warning afterwards, one I hadn’t been able to make sense of until much, much later. At the time I’d simply thought him a little wacky.

  He shook off whatever he was seeing to give me an even brighter smile than before.

  He held out his arm. “Shall we?”

  “What? No dire warnings this time?”

  “Can’t make it easy for you every time,” he murmured gently.

  I barked out a laugh. “I’m all dressed up. It would be a shame to waste all this work.”

  “For the rest of us, as well,” he said roguishly, looping his arm through mine.

  His arm was surprisingly sturdy under my hand, given he wasn’t muscular like the other enforcers I was used to hanging out with.

  Rick was a warm presence at my side as we made our way through the mansion. The Gargoyle appeared big from the outside, but once ins
ide, its layout threatened to send the mind into a tailspin. The interior was a maze of corridors, each neatly folding in on themselves. You needed a map just to find the kitchen.

  I slid him a sideways glance, wondering how much information I could get out of him before he realized what I was doing. As part of the Gargoyle’s household and someone who probably interacted with my sire on a regular basis, he might know something that could prove valuable down the line.

  “Have you met the visitors yet?” I asked, keeping my voice idle. I didn’t want to scare him off by seeming too interested.

  His cheeks creased with a smile. “Indeed.”

  “What are they like?” I asked. “Are they different from the rest of the Fae in the city?”

  Liam had referred to them as High Fae but I wasn’t entirely sure what that meant. I’d never met one before, despite meeting many of the Fae who’d called the city home.

  “Very,” Rick said.

  I struggled with impatience. One-word answers weren’t feeding my need to know more.

  “How?” Two can play the one-word game.

  “They’re more.”

  Two words this time. That was an improvement at least, though it still didn’t tell me what I wanted to know.

  “You’re more like us than you think,” Rick said. Seeing my confusion, he went on, “Vampires learn from the start that staying one step ahead of everyone else is the only way to ensure survival. Our kind like to play at diplomacy. We walk the fine line of power. We’re rarely satisfied, always grasping for more. If we’re not careful, it’s easy to fall to the wolves below.”

  His voice became that of a mentor lecturing a student.

  “Huh. I’ve never been one to pursue power,” I observed. It was nothing but the truth. Even as a human, I’d gone out of my way to avoid leadership roles. I was promoted to sergeant despite my best efforts.

  “Don’t you?” he asked. “There are different kinds of power. You may not desire a leadership role, but you crave control of your own life and your own little piece of this world. You just have a different way of going about it.”

  We walked through several more corridors in silence as I digested that. I wasn’t sure if I agreed with him, but I was willing to consider the point.

  I dropped the facade. “You didn’t answer my questions. Not really.”

  His smile turned wicked, rivaling Liam’s for deviousness. “I didn’t, did I?”

  He seemed pleased by my claim. I didn’t know what to make of that.

  He patted my hand. “The Fae are never what they seem. Our unwelcome guests even more so. The High Fae have assumed the mantle of leaders of all they consider theirs.”

  I frowned. “Even in another’s territory?”

  “And therein lies the problem,” Rick said in a soft voice.

  We stopped near doors I recognized. The ballroom. I’d been here once, during the selection of the territory Master. This place didn’t hold a lot of pleasant memories for me.

  “Ask your friend these questions,” Rick said, lifting my hand from his. “He among us all is uniquely suited to provide answers about our new guests.”

  I looked where he indicated. Liam stood at the end of the hall, brutally handsome in his formal wear. It was a kick to the chest seeing him like that. Most of the time I forgot just how breathtaking he was, lost in the irritation he engendered simply by breathing.

  But dressed like this, his hair styled away from his face to reveal his fierce bone structure, eyes blazing at me as Rick leaned in to kiss me on the cheek, I couldn’t help but see and wonder. He was like a beautiful painting come to life so it could plague and tempt me.

  His face tightened as if he saw something he disliked, abruptly turning unhappy.

  “Good luck,” Rick whispered near my ear before striding away, sending a jaunty wave Liam’s way.

  Liam’s face grew even more taut at Rick’s statement, his eyes snapping back to mine. The expression on his face said he thought I was an idiot.

  I gave him a narrowed-eyed glare telling him he was the dumbass who forced idiot me into this situation.

  He huffed a little, impatience in the sound. He stepped forward, capturing my arm and hauling me after him.

  “What are you doing?” I hissed as he propelled me into an alcove off the hall, using his larger body to block the view of us from anyone who might pass.

  “What are you doing?” he returned. “Rick might seem harmless and fun, but he’s every bit as dangerous as the rest of us. Probably more so, because no one suspects what waits beneath his mask.”

  I rolled my eyes at him. “I was pumping him for information, not offering to do the horizontal tango with him.”

  Liam propped a hand on the wall behind me, caging me in as he loomed over me. Suddenly, the intimacy of the situation struck me, awareness coursing through me.

  “You might think you’re in control, but Rick has a way of turning things to his advantage,” Liam said, destroying the moment.

  I blinked at him, then blinked again. “Yes, because I am a helpless woman who doesn’t know her own mind. I will just fall prey to his lascivious urges. I can’t help it. Really.”

  Liam glowered at me in displeasure, not appreciating my humor in the slightest.

  I sighed and shook my head. “Is there a reason you pulled me into this dark alcove?”

  He straightened. “Yes, but I’m not entirely sure I should share it with you anymore. Your choice in companion shows a distinct lack in judgment.”

  I gave him my death glare. He remained unmoved. Hm, it seemed my death glare could use a little work.

  I shrugged, affecting a nonchalance I didn’t feel. Curiosity about what he’d planned to tell me burned in me. “Suit yourself. I’ll just go find some of that Fae wine Nathan told me about and make even more poor judgment calls.”

  The way he took up the small space meant making a grand exit was out, so I settled for gazing up at him expectantly.

  He sighed and reached into his jacket. “You’re a pain in the ass.”

  “The Judge,” I gasped, snatching the gun from his hand.

  I hadn’t seen my old friend since Nathan confiscated it during my last visit to the Gargoyle.

  I’d missed it. Of all my guns, this was the one I most preferred. It was a revolver, a .45 caliber long Colt. Its stopping power would put most things in the ground, especially when you took into account my homemade ammunition incorporated silver nitrate into the mix.

  “Where’d the ammo go that was in here?” I hissed when I noticed the rounds had been switched out.

  “These are iron, much more appropriate for the current situation,” Liam murmured.

  I lifted my head, slightly surprised. “This wasn’t all just an elaborate excuse to get me all dressed up, then?”

  His gaze turned amused as he tweaked a piece of hair that had slipped free to curl against my cheek. “No, that’s just a happy bonus.”

  I leaned back against the wall. Iron for our Fae guests. They were said to have a weakness for it. The Judge was the perfect weapon, effective on our potential enemies and next to useless against a vampire.

  This indicated trust from Liam—but only to a point.

  It didn’t make me any less surprised to have my friend back. Vampires didn’t like when guests went armed in their homes. I’d almost kissed any thought of getting the Judge back goodbye.

  “You’ll need this,” Liam said, handing over a thigh holster.

  I made a face. Those never fit as well as they should. Not to mention they were crazy uncomfortable. Still, the thigh was the only place I had a hope of disguising a revolver.

  Liam loomed between me and the rest of the hall, giving me privacy to slip my dress up and attach the holster to my leg.

  His eyes gleamed appreciatively at the long expanse of bare skin.

  “You could be a gentleman,” I told him.

  His grin was roguish. “I was never that. A lord’s airs don’t suit me.”

>   My fingers paused on the fastenings. This was a rare, tantalizing hint to who he might have been before his transition to vampire.

  I wanted more. The knowing look on Liam’s face said he guessed as much and was waiting for inevitable questions.

  For that reason, I kept my silence and straightened, testing out the holster’s ability to stay put. It would hold, I concluded after several experimental movements.

  I looked to where Liam still waited, watching me with the kind of look a man gives a woman he intends to get naked. I let confidence infuse my movements as I sauntered over to him, placing my hand on his chest.

  I was gratified and emboldened when his breath caught. I shifted onto my tiptoes, my lips hovering near his, not quite touching. “It’s too bad. The gentleman would have received a kiss in thanks.”

  I dropped back to my heels and smiled up at him, enjoying the slightly frustrated expression. That should teach him to taunt me.

  I swished past him out of the alcove, my shoulder brushing the front of his tuxedo as I began to slip by him.

  His hand shot out, cupping the back of my neck as he pulled me slightly into him.

  “Aileen.” He waited until I turned to look at him. “Only use it if absolutely necessary.”

  I nodded, understanding the warning as his hand slid away.

  I stepped fully out of the alcove, never suspecting my promise would be tested so quickly as I staggered to a stop.

  CHAPTER TEN

  I nearly choked on my spit as a being straight out of my worst nightmare blocked my path. He was tall, his head only a foot below the ceiling, a red substance that looked like blood dripping from the red helmet atop his head. It made him seem even bigger than he was, and he already looked like a small giant.

  But the red stuff couldn’t be blood. Civilized beings didn’t walk around with blood dripping from their heads. I didn’t care if they were Fae or not.