by E. Blix
“And you must be Analie.”
She nodded mutely, having completely forgotten the whole speech of greeting she’d rehearsed. Rohrik’s smile about melted her down to her toes, even if he did look old enough to be her grandfather. He radiated the pure surety and ease of one who was born to be alpha rather than the contained violence of someone who fought their way to the top.
When he put out his hand, hers trembled as she shook the influential Were’s. He didn’t seem to notice. “Thank you for coming, my dear. If the other young Goliaths are as respectful as you, I’m sure we can make an arrangement for some of them to stay here. Which reminds me, I’d almost forgotten. We have another guest here tonight.”
Christoph’s head came up in alarm as he glanced at the fourth person who’d stood somewhat apart, waiting in the shadows. This wasn’t part of the arrangements.
“Christoph, Analie, please meet Alec Royce. We asked him to come tonight to see if what they say about your younger pack members being blind to the presence of vampires was myth or reality.”
Christoph took an involuntary step back, and Analie paled when the shadows shifted as the vampire moved into the light. He’d left his ruined jacket behind, but his slacks and white button-down shirt looked relatively clean after the scuffle. His smile was fierce as his black eyes focused on Christoph, the promise of pain to come written in his expression.
“Oh, no worries about introductions, Rohrik. We’ve already met.”
Chapter Two
Christoph’s gaze shifted back and forth between the slightly puzzled leader of the Moonwalker pack and the angry, anticipatory look of the vampire. This was not good.
“Is there a problem?” Rohrik asked, wondering if Christoph was looking so panicked because of the vampire or because of the change in plans.
There was natural enmity between vampires and werewolves, but that had been set aside on the East coast for the common good of all Others. The leaders of the different races and packs wouldn’t go out for beers together, but they’d collaborate on projects and changes that would affect the territories of any supernaturals involved. They’d formed the loose alliance after a crazy sorcerer-mage had attempted to kill or enslave them all. Such a treaty didn’t exist between the Others in southern California, where the Goliath pack was from.
“Alec won’t harm you, if that’s what you’re worried about,” Nathan said. “He’s only here for negotiations like the rest of us.”
“That’s right,” the vampire purred, the silken promise in his voice sending a shudder down Christoph and Analie’s spines. “We have much to discuss. Things like apologies and reparations, in addition to limitations to be imposed on their pack before any more of them enter our land.”
One of the other pack leaders, Chaz, raised a brow. “What for? Nobody mentioned anything about this to me before the meeting.”
“Me neither,” Nathan said, frowning. “Was there an attack we should know about?”
Christoph would’ve tucked his tail between his legs if he’d been shifted when the three alphas and the vampire all turned to look at him. Instead, he lowered his head, assuming as submissive a stance as he could manage in his human form. There was no way to put any kind of spin on this to make it look good. “We… uh… had a scuffle. Just a bit of a disagreement, really.”
“He attacked me, unprovoked,” Royce stated flatly. “Twice.”
Grimacing, Christoph nodded at the others’ incredulous stares. Analie looked mightily disappointed in him, but kept her mouth shut.
“Yeah. I made a mistake. I’m sorry.”
“You attacked Alec Royce? Over ice cream?” Rohrik looked like he was trying hard to keep from choking on his laughter. He knew Christoph had fought with a vampire in that convenience store, but no one had told him who he’d been fighting with. The warm brown eyes of the elder Were focused on the vampire, glittering with mirth. “And you didn’t kill him for his impudence? Of all of us, you’re the last I expected to go soft.”
The question, while asked in jest, posed a deadly serious problem for the vampire. If he admitted to weakness, the packs might use it against him. Unperturbed, he kept his voice as cheerful as Rohrik’s, though the others stiffened at the implied menace behind his words.
“Not at all. I wasn’t interested in starting a war in my city over so minor a trifle. It seemed a small enough concession at the time.”
“And now you want your pound of flesh,” Nathan added quietly.
“Exactly.”
The laughter sobered. Analie wouldn’t come any closer to where the others were standing, but the vamp talking instead of messing up faces had her emboldened. She wasn’t supposed to butt into this part of the negotiations, but she asked the question on everybody’s minds.
“What would you consider adequate amends?”
She took a step back when Royce shifted to look at her, unnerved by what she was seeing. Unlike the adult Weres, she was blind to vampires except for the shadows on their features. Even his scent, which she would normally rely on heavily in order to tell something about the people around her, was so barely-there as to be nonexistent. Having his attention on her was extremely unsettling when she couldn’t see an expression, save for vague impressions of disembodied shadows cast by the street lamp, and he exuded only a very faint whiff of some mustiness not laced with the oils and pheromones of emotion. He paused for a long moment, considering her question, only making the others more nervous.
“Considering you participated in the second attack, I would accept the service of either one of you to work for me and those under my protection for not less than five years in any way I deem fit. Which of you will be coming with me when this meeting is over?”
Analie staggered back as if he’d slapped her, fetching up against a tree. Christoph swayed on his feet, reaching out to hold onto the nearby fence to stay propped up. His voice came out as a rough squeak, particularly when it didn’t seem like any of the other Weres were surprised or outraged by this demand.
“F-f-five… years?”
“That’s maybe a little much, Alec. How about three?” Rohrik asked, glancing at Analie’s pale features in mild concern.
“On the contrary, I think it quite reasonable. Aside from the property damage, as well as destroying my clothes and doing me minor injury, both scuffles occurred in very public places. One on the subway just before this meeting, as a matter of fact. The damage against the reputation of Others in our city, let alone nationally, is inestimable. You remember how hard it was to turn around that White Hat campaign a year or so ago where they were using footage of the Were attack in the Embassy Suites that made us all look like dangerous animals, don’t you? Imagine what those hunters might do with the footage picked up from that convenience store, or interviews with the clerk, or from witnesses on that train we stepped off of right before this meeting. Five years seems rather light, if you ask me.”
Christoph’s sickly pallor deepened as the expressions on the other Were leaders became decidedly unfriendly as they discussed this among themselves. The White Hats were always a nuisance, spreading their lies and bigotry against Others wherever they went, and hunting supernaturals when they thought they could get away with it. As far as the hunters were concerned, humans were the only race deserving of rights, and they took every opportunity to twist any public missteps by the Others into a new angle for their hate campaigns.
With Royce’s unpleasant reminder, even Rohrik was becoming peeved with the Goliaths. Analie’s head was swimming with the implications of what she and Christoph had done. The vampire had a solid, valid argument, and she had no idea how to counter it.
“Take her.”
Conversation abruptly ceased. Analie’s bones creaked with tension as she turned her head to stare in wide-eyed shock at Christoph.
“Take her,” he repeated,
clenching his hands. “Just for now. I outrank her, so what I say here goes. I’ll work something out with the rest of the pack, and we’ll figure out something else we can give you to replace her. Maybe in a few days. Okay?”
Royce smirked, inclining his head as Analie made an incoherent sound of mixed terror and anger. “I’ll consider renegotiating if the new offer is reasonable.”
Christoph breath whooshed out in relief, while the others seemed mildly irritated at this diversion from the business they’d originally come for.
All except for Analie. She was quietly, rapidly backpedalling in the hope that no one would notice she was gone until it was too late.
“Before we bother with examining the girl—” and here Analie froze, realizing her escape attempt must have been detected by Royce “—I offer this for your consideration. Not just one, but both representatives of the Goliath pack have flaunted their differences as Others before human witnesses without thought for consequence or the overall good of our community. They’ve proven to be of violent temperament. I imagine any of my lesser kin, and perhaps even the local Weres, might be endangered by their presence. I recommend disallowing the Goliath pack to expand into our city. They are too troublesome to allow even their young to stay in our territories.”
Christoph’s mouth dropped open as the others started nodding.
Nathan, the Ravenwood alpha, spoke up, his voice soft but carrying a menacing weight that had not been present when the meeting had started. “You have a point, Alec. I agree. I see no reason to open our doors to more trouble. I’m not willing to put my pack members in danger for the sake of an alliance.”
“Yeah. I hate to say it, but I’m with the vampire on this one,” Chaz said, folding his muscular arms. “Most of the time, I don’t really care one way or the other, but we can’t have more scuffles like this out in the open.”
Rohrik shook his head, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “I see no other way. I received no reassurances from the Goliath alpha that this sort of thing wouldn’t happen again after the fight at the store. We might have been able to overlook it if it had been an isolated incident, but it is inexcusable that violence would be done in public on the way to this very meeting.”
“Granted, I may be somewhat prejudiced in this, but I’d like to think that my reasoning is sound,” Royce said.
The pack leaders nodded. Christoph was barely restraining himself from making a third attack on the silver-tongued vamp.
Rohrik continued, his low voice tinged with worry. “We’d achieved a balance with the humans here which took us almost a decade to build. Now there’s a chance that balance is shattered, and we are the ones who will be stuck rebuilding the pieces. I’m sorry, but I also agree with Alec and won’t support any move by the Goliath pack into New York at this time.”
Christoph made a little choking noise in his throat. He had completely, epically, failed his entire mission for coming to New York.
Oh, God. The Goliath alpha was going to come out of solitude to kill him.
Rohrik turned to Christoph. “You or another representative can return to New York to continue negotiations with Alec, if you choose. Analie, or anyone you send in her place, will not be harmed by any of the New York packs. If one of your pack members needs to come to New York on business, it must be cleared and approved by majority in advance by the alphas for the Moonwalkers, Ravenwoods, and Sunstrikers. Otherwise, the Goliath pack’s petition to foster their young with our people is denied, and the pack is barred from entry into New York State.” Rohrik said. “God, I hate this lawyer-speak. Does that about sum it up?”
“Yes, I think that covers it,” Chaz said, bored. “If that’s all, I’m going home to get some sleep. I’ve got work tomorrow.”
“Yeah, agreed,” Nathan said, giving a parting nod of deference to everyone before padding across the grass toward the street. Chaz gave a wave goodbye and was soon lost to the shadows.
“Analie, go with Alec,” Rohrik said.
He frowned slightly as he watched her, concerned at her shaking. It wasn’t the cold breeze coming in off the bay; she was terrified of what was to come. He felt bad for her, but she had made a grievous error in trying to harm the influential vampire. Alec was a conniving monster, no doubt about it, but she was fortunate that he wasn’t a particularly violent one.
Rohrik counted himself lucky that Royce kept the more dangerous vampires out of the city, tightly controlled his own, and mercilessly destroyed or ran off any of his own kind who thought to abuse the meager trust humans were affording supernaturals these days. The pack leaders considered him a necessary evil. Rohrik didn’t want to muddy up the relations between his pack and the local vampires, so he would help drag Analie along if necessary to make sure she went wherever Royce wanted her.
As for Analie, as much as she wanted to make a run for it, she didn’t dare. Even if she got away, none of the packs here would take her in. They’d track her down and deliver her to Royce. If by some miracle she escaped them all and made it home, her own pack would have to abide by the deal or they would start a war. As violently tempered as the Goliaths were, war was the last thing any of them wanted.
She wouldn’t run, but she didn’t respond to the vampire’s dimly seen beckoning as he gestured for her to come closer either.
Christoph ended her paralysis by stalking over to where she was rooted, grabbing the back of her jacket in one hand, and hauling her off her feet. Soon enough, she was flailing and squirming and crying out, but he ignored her protests and set her down a few feet away from Royce. She surged back from the vamp as soon as her feet touched the ground. Christoph hadn’t let go of her shirt, so she didn’t get very far.
He winced and shook her a little to make her settle down when she scratched at his cheek. “She won’t be able to see you unless you’re in the light. You’re going to have to guide her, or she won’t know where to go.”
Royce nodded, stepping forward to place a hand lightly on her shoulder. He might as well have touched her with a live wire, she jumped so badly. He didn’t bother hiding his smile at her reaction.
“I won’t harm you. Follow me.”
Every step was leaden, feeling more like she was going to the gallows than to her new home. She lifted hazel irises from the ground long enough to muster a heated glare for Christoph, who was staring across the dark waters of the Hudson at the lights on Ellis Island, so far away.
“You are so going to pay for this, you dick!”
“That’s the spirit,” Royce murmured.
She shuddered as his grip tightened, turning her gaze straight ahead and trying very hard not to look at the there-but-not vampire at her side as they moved through the deeper shadows beneath the trees in the park. “Where are we going?”
“One of my havens.”
“Where is it?”
“In the city.”
Very helpful. Figuring out soon enough that he wasn’t planning on being forthcoming, Analie tried a different tactic. “What do you want me for?”
“I thought we’d been over this.”
“Not specifically,” she said. “You didn’t say what you expect me to do.”
He tilted his head to look down at the girl, taking note of the fact that her heartbeat wasn’t quite so fast and her breathing more regular now. Some of her fear was coming under control, even if she was still shaking slightly under his touch.
“Honestly, I hadn’t thought the boy would be so craven as to send you in his place. You’re too young to act as a bodyguard, or to work in any of my clubs. I’ll have to find some other way of working that twenty grand out of you.”
She came to an abrupt halt. “What?”
He paused when she did, sounding all too reasonable. “You destroyed my jacket. I just had that fitted last week. I’m not going to hurt you for it. I want you to
work out some kind of amends for having damaged my property and preferably a way to earn back my loss.”
She stared at what she thought was him in stupid shock. “The jacket?”
“Yes, the jacket. You remember, on the train? Torn to shreds by those claws and teeth of yours?”
“Oh,” she managed, cheeks flushing in embarrassment. That stupid piece of cloth was worth more money than she’d ever seen in her entire life. Freddy would have kittens when she told him about it. If she could tell him about it. She quickly resumed walking, hoping the vampire wouldn’t notice how flustered she was. The light touch to her shoulder made her yelp in surprise as he put more pressure there, urging her in another direction. Yet more embarrassment.
“It’s not that much, really. More the principle of the thing.”
Not that much. Right. Swallowing hard, she followed his lead onto the sidewalk as he hailed the lone cab moving their direction, relaxing a little more since the lights were casting shadows that helped her keep better track of him. “I’ve heard your name somewhere before. Were you ever in California?”
“No.”
After a minute, as the cab was pulling up, she realized he wasn’t about to elaborate. This conversation was getting very disheartening. “Christoph never said your name to anyone.”
“I gathered as much.”
She glared in his general direction as he pulled the door to the cab open and held it for her. Due to his lack of scent and her inability to see his expression, unused to judging moods by tone of voice alone, she was unable to tell that he was amused with her. He slid in after her, brushing a hand down his shirt as the cabbie twisted around in the seat.
