by C. T. Adams
“You have never planned a council meeting. I have, at least, attended a council meeting, long before you were born. I have hosted a gathering of kings before I left Court in Russia. I worked as a hotel maid while you were a baby. I really think you should step aside and allow me to plan this gathering so that it will honor our pack. We decided last night that we will rule together, did we not?”
Nikoli’s mouth was moving, but no sound was coming out. I noted that all activity had stopped in the hotel. People were standing at the railings of all four floors, staring down at the scene.
“Besides, you have no time to organize this meeting. You will be a council member, Niki. You must study the issues that affect the wolves—research how it will impact the Sazi of Chicago. And of Boulder. And of mother Russia.” She waited for a reaction, but Nikoli was a little shell-shocked. “Well? Shoo!”
A bit of movement caught my eye. I glanced to my left. Lucas was leaning in the doorway of the big conference room, looking amused. His arms were crossed over his chest and a small smile played on his face. I was too far away to catch any scent other than Lelya’s thick boiling coffee and Nikoli’s burned metal frustration.
She looked up and around, and then clapped her hands. Yurgi scampered away as soon as the restraining hand moved. People flinched as the sound echoed through the lobby. “The rest of you—come down here. We must meet.”
Nikoli started to mutter under his breath and moved to step past Lelya. In a movement so sudden that it made him start abruptly, she reached out and threw her arms around him. She hugged him close for a moment. Oranges and cloves burst into my nose, along with the brief scent of deep, foggy sorrow. I could just make out the whisper in his ear. “I am so sorry about Mila, my son. I know you loved her deeply. And I am very proud, Niki. You honor us all with your standing, Councilman Nikoli Gregorovich Molotov!” She held him at arm’s length briefly and moved forward to kiss each of his cheeks soundly.
Nikoli’s eyes glistened sadly for a moment. But then a slow smile stretched his beard and he nodded once. He pulled her close, and gave her a quick squeeze before stepping back. He was suddenly a little less angry and once again standing erect.
He waved his hand imperiously to the waiting pack members. “Well, you heard your Alpha Female! Do as she says! You will report to her until the council meeting is over.” He took a deep breath and then glanced at Lelya. He winked. “I have important documents to review.”
The moment he walked away and Lelya glanced up once more with a raised brow, there was a thundering of sound as people literally ran to obey. I was one of the “rest of you”, so I stepped down the few remaining stairs.
Lelya nodded to me warmly. “It is good to see you again, Tony. The wheels turn, do they not?”
“Not always in the directions we planned.” I shivered as another burst of black despair flowed over me.
She nodded understandingly as she saw the shudder. “The trials are always more difficult for the strong.”
Then she squatted down next to Denis, who was still holding my hand, and fixed him with twinkling gaze and bright smile. “And who is this handsome young man?”
I was starting to get the hint that the Duchess had kept to herself so much that she didn’t even know the members of her own pack. I also realized that was about to change.
Denis lowered his gaze, but smiled shyly. “I’m Denis Siska, Alpha.” He flinched a bit when Lelya’s power flowed over his skin. It must have hurt his bruised arm, because he rubbed it unconsciously.
Lelya sniffed carefully around him, zeroing in on the sleeve over the bruise. Her eyes darkened for a moment, but then cleared. She nodded to herself and stood.
The rest of the pack had gathered in a circle around her. She looked them over carefully and noted which ones were flinching. She knocked her power down until there was barely any glow around her.
Her words were quiet, but we could all hear her just fine. “This will be a difficult time for you all. The men and women who will attend this conference are the best and brightest—and the most powerful—of all the Sazi. While they all will do their best to hold their power in check, it will be a time of high emotions. The power will sting your skin. I will try to keep the lesser wolves from direct contact as much as possible. If at any time one of you hurts too much to function, come see me. I will help to dampen the power as much as I can.” She noted a few disbelieving looks and looked at each of them strongly, willing them to believe. “We are Sazi—we are pack. I will protect you.”
There were a few scattered smiles and smattering of applause. She turned to me.
“Tony, you will head security with Asri. I am told by Lucas you install security systems. Wolven has a standard system that will be adapted to our hotel. Lucas has arranged for the materials to be delivered in a few minutes. Please be sure that the system is adequate for the meeting, but still keeps the warmth and flavor of our home. I am sure that based on your past history, which Lucas has also advised me of, you have arranged for meetings such as this.”
I nodded without speaking. Yeah, I’d set up security for more than one meeting of family patrones.
“Asri will attend to traffic control and weather crisis management when she returns.”
Huh? “Weather management? Asri can control the weather?”
Lelya chuckled. “No. But the others can—and do—affect the weather. The magical energy from a single council member can cause darkening skies when clear weather was forecast. Each time a councilman arrives, the weather will worsen. During the meeting, it will be a full fledged blizzard.” She rolled her eyes expressively. “Why in heaven’s name they chose Chicago in mid-winter is beyond me! The winter meetings are usually in the southern latitudes. But, it is what it is. Our plan to manage the meeting is to ensure that the delegates stagger their arrivals and methods of transportation so that there is time for the streets to be cleared and the planes de-iced before the next arrives. Do you understand? Asri’s duties are critical for the humans of Illinois and Indiana to survive this meeting, so you will have to bear the burden of installing the system alone.”
Wow! That someone could be powerful enough to change the weather was a new concept. Was that why it was storming when Lucas arrived and got worse when he was irritated in the woods? I’d never thought to tie the two together. Maybe they need to consider teleconferencing.
Then something she said clicked. “Alone?” I crossed my arms over my chest and settled my stance. “In four days?” I shook my head. “It can’t be done, Lelya. I’ve got to have at least one person. I can’t string wire in the walls over four floors by myself.”
She nodded her head, I guess pleased that I was thinking logically. A few people dropped their jaws when I called their Alpha by a familiar name—and she let me.
She swept her hand around the circle. “Fine. Choose a person to assist you from among those here.”
“Actually, I’d prefer Yurgi.” He follows orders well, and I would bet that he had a lot of practice doing grunt work.
She nodded once more. “When he returns with the sheets, he will assist you. As soon as we’re done here, please report to Lucas.” Then she turned to the rest of the people. “Which of you has experience cooking? For a large group?”
Alena tentatively raised her hand. “I went to school to become a Sous Chef. I was nearly graduated when I became pregnant with Alek and had to drop out. Then Denis came and…”
Lelya dropped her head briskly. “Good. You are in charge of food service. You will choose two to help you. The children can help you as well.” Alena looked pleased. She smiled at her boys.
Then the queen wolf looked around again. “Who has worked in housekeeping?”
No hands raised. Her scent grew angry and her glow increased a bit. “I said—who has cleaned before? State your name and your ability.”
The little Latina, Celia, raised her hand. Boris winced just the tiniest bit. “I’m Celia Golubev, Boris’s wife. I was working in hou
sekeeping for a ski resort when I met Boris, Madam Alpha. I worked there for many years. I was a supervisor.”
Lelya smiled brightly. “Excellent!. Why would you be afraid to speak of it? You should be proud. You are in charge of housekeeping, Celia. Choose four to help you.” Then Lelya turned and stared at the glowering man with one arm in a sling. “Sergei, you will be in charge of janitorial, and will report to Celia.”
The words dropped like a chunk of lead. Shock appeared on the faces of Celia and Boris. Sergei went from surprised to angry to livid in a matter of seconds. He sputtered for a moment before he could come up with a barely polite reply.
“Forgive me, Alpha, but she is human. It is beneath my station to answer to a human woman—the wife of one of the lowest pack members. I should be in charge of housekeeping and she report to me.”
Lelya looked at him for a moment and then glanced around at the other pack members. They were all curious to see how she would respond.
“There are no pack stations until this council meeting is over. We must all serve in the capacity we are best able. You are injured, Sergei, and cannot clean a room. I was offering some way you could serve.” Her words were quiet, but I knew the tone. It’s one Carmine uses a lot—offering rope for the person to hang themself. “Are you refusing the janitorial supervisor position?”
He thought for a moment, and apparently wasn’t bright enough to see the trap. He nodded, believing he’d won. “I am. I should be housekeeping supervisor, Alpha.”
She nodded for a moment, thinking. “Ah. Tony, shoot him.”
I was happy to comply. He was an annoying little shit. I pulled my Taurus before he could even react and fired a silver bullet through his good arm. He shrieked and fell to the floor. Eyes went wide around the room and people backed up to avoid him. I caught Denis smiling. I glanced at Lelya to see her staring at me.
I shrugged. “You didn’t say kill him, and I hated to waste a perfectly good sling.” I figured if she’d meant for me to kill him, she would have said so.
“Actually,” she said with a small smile, as she stalked toward the bleeding man on the floor, “that was exactly what I expected you to do. I think we’ll work together fine.” She leaned down over Sergei and stared into his pain-ridden face. “You will be the doorman. Your left arm is healed enough for that task. Each time you open the door, you will be reminded that it is wise to do as you are instructed.” She leaned a little closer, and I saw a whip of energy slash across his body until he screamed again. Her voice became a weighty snarl of power. “And, in the future, you will keep your hands off the cubs of this pack. You will learn to control your temper, or you will die. Do I make myself clear?”
He nodded slowly with fear radiating from every pore. The Queen had spoken.
Chapter 15
THE REST OF the morning went by in a blur of activity, interspersed with stops in to check on Sue. When she finally woke up she was well rested and seemed in good spirits. Whatever Amber had done didn’t seem to bother her. Wish I could have said the same. Every moment that I wasn’t touching her made me break out in a cold sweat. I stayed by her bedside until she decided to get up, and then followed her into the kitchenette to help her cook. I couldn’t seem to help it. I needed to be near her—touching her, holding her.
She laughingly threw a loofah at me when I was sitting watching her bathe, and told me to get out. Her scent didn’t match the laugh. The burned metal and hot coffee gave her away, so I left. When she took Pamela up on an offer to help with decorations, I was a little annoyed. It was okay so long as she was in sight. Between them and the other pack members, the hotel was being transformed. The atrium sparkled with holiday decorations from around the world. The scent of cleaning fluids was replaced by the sharp tang from the pine boughs and the scent of fine foods being cooked in the hotel kitchen.
One of the people taken by Alena was the cook from the fast food restaurant where Sue was to begin work. Lelya had announced that all pack businesses would close until the end of the conference, with all people getting pay. It had won her friends. Sue was very pleased, because it would allow her time to go through the books privately, without new daily reports coming in or having to deal with the employees. But after throwing up for the third time in an hour, I had to wonder if I could afford to let her work.
I was sitting in the room, fighting through the latest round of muscle spasms when Sue appeared, after I’d searched the entire hotel for almost an hour. “Where have you been?” I fought not to scream the words.
She was taken aback. “I went out for a walk with Pamela. We went down to the drug store for more garland. You were busy working. What’s wrong?”
I took a deep, shaky breath. “I really need you to tell me if you have to leave right now. I can’t afford to have you too far away.”
“It was twenty minutes, Tony.”
“No. It was well over an hour. You can’t be gone that long! You’ve got to understand that whatever Amber did is making me sick.” I stood and walked over to her. My fingers ran through my hair and I wanted to rip it out to get rid of the pain. “Please, Sue. This is really important to me. I’ve got a job to do and I can’t do it if you’re somewhere else. I know—you can help me install the system!”
She looked frustrated and hurt. “I’ve got things to do, too, Tony.”
I held out my hand to show her. She watched with wide eyes as it trembled. “Look at this! I can’t even hold a fucking screwdriver, Sue. You have to stay nearby.”
“Um, I don’t know what to say. What did she do to you?”
The headache started again and dropped me to my knees. I alternately ground my teeth and swore. I was panting by the time the sparkles left my vision. Sue was looking down at me in shock, but the hot and sour soup told me that she was afraid to touch me. “Tony, this isn’t normal. You need to get some help. Maybe Lelya…”
“Can’t do a frigging thing,” I snapped. “Already tried it. Whatever Amber did, only she can undo. But no one can find her.”
“Wait!” she exclaimed. “I have an idea!”
She bolted out the door before I could stop her. I tried to stand, and it took three attempts. She returned in a few minutes, dragging Lucas along into the darkened room. He took one look at me and cursed in three languages. He threw a wave of blue-white power directly at me. It hit me in the chest and turned the room blue. The black depression and pain faded into the background. I could finally think again for the first time in half a day.
“You’re pining, Tony, and you’ve got it bad. I’ve been in the same spot. I’ll send someone out to find Amber. This will take care of it for a bit. But Sue needs to get out of here. The closer she is, when you can’t touch her, the worse it will get. Trust me on this.”
I quickly moved forward and put my arms around Sue. The pain subsided completely. “No, goddamn it! You’re wrong. It’s better when I touch her. You have to be able to smell the difference. You’ve got it backwards.”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “I do not have it backwards. Sue needs to leave. In fact, I’ll make sure of it. Then you need to get back to the installation. If you keep your mind and hands occupied, it’s not so bad. Feeding the addiction is the worst thing you can do while you’re separated like this.”
The rotten bastard froze me in place while he took Sue downstairs. Nikoli offered to let her in the restaurant to start to work. She accepted—more eagerly than I liked. My hands shook every time I thought about her absence and I hated it. But Lucas had been right. By the time she was gone for a bit, the pain subsided. But then the depression set in.
“Are you well, Tony?” Yurgi’s voice sliced past my thoughts of Sue. I shook my head to come back to reality. It was the fourth time in an hour that I’d blacked out like that.
I’d apparently been holding the screwdriver to the wall long enough without moving that my fingers were white from blood loss. I shook them until they were pink, and then finished tightening up the molly that would
hold the fourth camera in place. Most of the walls in the hotel were plaster and lathe, which were not conducive to installing wiring, so I’d had to adapt the plans Lucas made to only install fixtures into drywalled sections.
“Yeah, sorry, Yurgi. I’m fine. I’ll need to go up into the ceiling here to run the wiring from the second floor. Run downstairs and grab the electrical tester. Remember? It’s the yellow box with black and red wires coming out the front.”
“Ah, yes, I remember. Is in conference room. I will be back quick like the bunny.”
I climbed the wooden ladder next to me and lifted the ceiling tile out of the brackets. There wasn’t much room between the bottom of the upper floor and the tiles, so I had to wiggle along the metal bracing. Fortunately, it was an older style drop ceiling, and pretty sturdy.
I was busily pulling wire down from the second floor when I heard quiet voices down the next hallway.
“Asri, would you please talk to me?” Bobby’s voice was a harsh whisper.
“There is nothing to say, Robart. We have already discussed it. My decision is made.”
A rush of heavy feet stopped abruptly, along with the lighter patter of shoes. Bobby’s words were a hiss that sounded wounded and fearful. I couldn’t smell a thing from this far away. “You can’t tell me that you love him.”
Asri’s voice quavered just a bit. “Love has little to do with this, Robart, although—if you must know, yes, I do care for him. I have already explained it. Mila is dead, and the position of favorite is empty. I intend to fill it, the mistake of the last two days notwithstanding.”
Bobby sniffed lightly. “Hardly a mistake. How many times, Asri? Ten, twelve? You can’t say it—that I—mean nothing to you.”
Asri started to walk again. Her voice was impatient, annoyed. “You are a Wolven agent, Robart. I have status in this pack. I have purpose. Before Nikoli accepted me, I had nothing. No family, no future. This is my home. What do you want me to say? That I will mate with you—be the good wife while you come and go on your errands of mercy and punishment? That is not the life I choose.”
