by Erin R Flynn
“You cannot do that.”
“I can,” I assured him. Granted, I hadn’t yet, but after a long talk with Alena, Nina the all-powerful witch, and my own siren, I knew how to now. “But you would still lose your bartender who makes you so much money with your contests. I know the draw he is. Vegas was salivating at the chance to steal him.”
He smiled brightly at me, evil in his eyes. “Look who came to play at the adult table today. Well done, Seraphine. I applaud you researching his time in Vegas. So you know why I also wanted this sit down with you?”
“I do, but one issue at a time.”
“No, this is the same issue. Freeing Tristan for permission to bring wolves from Vegas here.”
“No. I just proved to you I don’t need your help, so the issue is Tristan. How badly do you want to keep your money maker here?”
He gave an over exaggerated sigh and leaned back in his chair. “This is petty of you, Seraphine.”
“Don’t talk to me like I’m fucking five, Vlad. You have gotten away with too much lately, and I’m done letting things go because I didn’t want to get involved in the politics or because I thought we were friends.”
“What have I done?” He knew, he was just being a dick to make me say it in front of everyone.
I let out a growl as I stood and pointed to where Simone sat. “You sat right there and I in your seat when you led me into a standoff I knew nothing about. You risked Tristan, and he doesn’t even know it.”
“I explained I thought Noah would tell you.”
“Did you think Noah would tell me that the plan was for Igor to fuck me and drink me until he had his fill and then pass me around to all his men until I was broken and dry if I didn’t agree to give him the rabbits?” Several growls and hisses filled the room at the news. “Did you tell Igor I was a siren? The council didn’t know originally. But Igor sure as fuck did, and he told them.
“Was I to be collateral damage for you to protect your secret army of vampires that the council doesn’t know about, that I covered for you with the council about? You knew Hagan and Reagan would hold the pack from outsiders, but you were willing to risk me, yes?”
No one said anything for several moments, all waiting on Vlad. Shockingly, it was Tristan who broke the silence first. “Vlad, did you truly know the danger Sera was in?”
“Yes, I told the councilman you were a siren,” he started, holding up his hand when I snarled. “But I did it to divert his attention from the boys. I thought a night with a siren, some of your blood would be a better prize than the boys. How his men boasted later before you arrived was not a turn of events I could have foreseen, nor was their level of madness.”
“But you made the call, that judgement call, to out me rather than give something of your own to handle your councilman? Without giving me all the information even?”
“Yes.” He lost his anger, and there was sadness in his eyes. “I was afraid for my vampires, and I allowed you to be the sacrificial lamb.”
“I’m an endangered species in America, Vlad. If I had died because of Igor, you would have been dead too.”
“I did not think things would remotely go that far,” he yelled, jumping to his feet as well. “He showed up here. I had seconds to make several judgement calls, Seraphine. I still cannot find a path of what I should have done better.”
“Well, you fucked up enough where you have to pay the cost. You bartered me and my life, whether you think it would get that far or not, and when I won against the councilman, you were in trouble again, so you not only called me out on my making the mess, but used me as the way to clean it all up, now and in the future, lying to me as there was more to this than you told me, and you purposefully kept that from me. That has consequences.”
He slowly sat back down. “Like what?”
“Cooper. You will give Cooper and the vampires of my office to Monroe. Monroe is a master but with no land given his job, and the council recognizes him. The vampires working for the FBI shouldn’t be yours if you can’t or won’t protect them from problems their job causes. I freed them that night. You don’t deserve them. Their alliance is with me, and I will free them again, but I want Cooper and the others away from you and with a master who will do everything to protect them.”
“And that will make amends that I didn’t stop their torture?”
“Yes.” To be honest, I had always thought they were with Monroe, as Vlad had once told me they weren’t under his influence. I’d only recently found out that he’d skirted my question, making me think they were free when in fact, he was saying he hadn’t made them vampires and they didn’t hold official positions in his hierarchy.
No, that hadn’t been what I’d asked of him. Bastard. I really had believed we were friends and was an idiot for trusting someone I barely knew.
“So be it,” he agreed with a wave of his hand. “The guilt from the whole situation is thus that I cannot even meet the man’s eyes. Let Monroe protect them with the renewed promise that he will never try to take Chicago over.”
“Agreed.”
“And for Tristan? What is your trade for Tristan?”
“Noah.”
“What?” Noah gasped along with a few others.
I didn’t acknowledge their shock, my gaze locked with Vlad’s. “Look me in the eye and tell me you didn’t assign Noah to the boys that night for a reason, and I will let this go. Lie to me and say you did it for them when we both know you didn’t want Noah here, your head of security and maybe strongest vampire, because he would have jumped in to warn me and fight for me and that would have gone against all your fucking Machiavellian plans for the night.”
“You son of a bitch,” Noah seethed, stepping away from Vlad’s chair. Tristan didn’t look happy, either, but his reaction was nothing compared to Noah’s at being used like that.
Vlad didn’t even deny it. “So instead of taking my bartender, you want my head of security and trainer, the greatest warrior I have? Not a fair trade or reasonable one, Seraphine.”
“Oh, this isn’t meant to be a fair trade in one for the other, but you fucking making some amends and losing a bit of face,” I conceded, sitting back down. “You let me endure several hits and take even more risks. While your vampires are keeping quiet as you promised, enough happened before I could contain it that rumors are flying. Everyone knows there’s a siren in Chicago now, Vlad. You started the fucking dominoes that still have me at risk, and you’re not the one cleaning up the mess. I will. Noah will help me.”
“Still not enough of a trade,” he argued, not meeting my eyes.
“You take the hit, and I will let Noah still work with your people as he sees fit as a consultant as he did for the FBI.” Vlad met my eyes then, angry. “Did you ever think about the price Noah could have to pay with the council for being at the very center of your little army? How about I call them back and tell them I think I was wrong, that there might be a lot more vampires here and I’d like to work with them to clean up the vampires as I did the wolves. Your council likes me a lot right now.”
“You would do that? Risk my entire coven?” he seethed, his hands balling into fists.
“They work with me, the vampires would be safe, simply transferred to distribute them, and I fucking would after you let the Alpha of the wolves walk into a goddamn trap even if it was just for sex and blood. That was not your fucking call to make, Vlad! You made that call for another leader. One who has more people than you. Are you out of your goddamn mind thinking that didn’t come with consequences? Time to pay the piper and get knocked down a few pegs. Publicly.”
“You have more sanctions then?” he questioned, studying me. “You said publicly. You would not allow these negotiations to get out.”
“No, but losing Noah to me and the FBI—since that’s also what I want him for—is a hit, one you could explain away as good relations or Remus or whoever is ready to take over. The sanctions, as you call them, are obeying the goddamn law, Vlad.”
“I have broken no laws,” he argued.
“Bribing the zoning commission?”
He waved his hand at me. “That is politics in Chicago, not illegal.”
I glanced at Simone and her mouth hanging open. “I told you he wouldn’t understand how bad he’s being. He’s too old school and old world.”
“I do not understand.” Vlad glanced between us curiously.
“Vlad, it is illegal. Very. The zoning commission can only hear so many cases, look into so many ideas, and rule on so many properties, otherwise everything in Chicago could be businesses. You bribing them to rule on yours took away from someone else. You weren’t greasing hands only to get looked at or the front of the line, but pushed someone else off the line as well.” He opened his mouth to speak, but I kept going. “And you scared the shit out of the members you bribed.
“They took the bribes but pretty much thought it was take the money or you’d eat them, so that’s really illegal. You did it to get what you want and shut down others. I’ve enough evidence to get you locked up for decades, Vlad.”
“I did not mean to intimidate,” he worried.
“I actually believe you. For all your faults, you work really hard at the image of vampires and have been beaten down yourself, so I believe you would never use those methods on humans. But you did, and that’s not okay. You also cannot bribe health inspectors, Vlad.”
“I do no such thing. All of my establishments are fairly graded.”
“God, you so don’t get it,” I sighed, adjusting my neck. “After they grade you perfectly, you send them a gift basket worth thousands of dollars. That’s a bribe even if it’s after the fact, Vlad. Greasing the gears is still adding grease, which makes everything not fair or legal.”
He sat there a few minutes and then met my gaze. “I am afraid I may have broken many more laws then.”
“Oh, I know you have,” I growled, pulling a fat folder from my bag and slapping it onto the table. “And I’ve got statements, witness reports, and evidence coming out of my ass. So here’s what we’re going to do as your penance for me keeping this between us as a really big fucking favor. You’re going to take an ethics class or have some kind of tutor to school you in legal business practices. You’re going to reverse your zoning shit and allow Simone her club, as she put her application in first.
“And you’re going to get your shit straight at the business you already own, not expand. No more fucking expanding. Especially not into shifter clubs and bringing in your own shifters for your own fucking pack. I got my vampires because you led me into a trap or tried to have me killed. You’re trying this with full knowledge of what you’re doing.” Then I glanced at Tristan. “Did you know that was what you were sent to Vegas to look into? Vlad’s own pack?”
“No, I would never be that disloyal to you,” he muttered, looking as exhausted as I felt.
Vlad held up his hands in surrender, his eyes wide. “I did not mean for my own pack, I swear it to you. Yes, I wanted to bring in wolves and a few cats specifically to work at the new club, but I wanted to work out a deal with this sit down where you’d let them into your pack, Seraphine. That was always the plan.”
“Noe could have gotten the intentions wrong,” Simone admitted. “He was scared and upset.”
“Yeah, and that shit needs to end. No more intimidating shifters like that, either. What did you even threaten Noe with or about?”
“I prefer not to incriminate myself further and simply agree not to do it again,” Vlad grumbled, looking very much like the kid who’d gotten caught with his hand in the cookie jar. “And if I do not agree to your demands of Simone’s club or changing my business ways?”
“Then you go to jail and Noah takes over,” I answered easily, already having thought of that as well.
“Sera, don’t,” Noah worried.
“Noah cannot hold the coven as it is,” Vlad chuckled. “He might be a mighty warrior, one of my best in combat, but he could never be a master.”
“Oh, but I think he can, especially if he had an ironclad treaty with the wolves, my ancient vampires at his back, and traded off the excess vampires we thought might be trouble. Besides, I have more tricks up my sleeve that you cannot even fathom. So this is how things will play out.”
“Wait, you could keep Tristan and have him work the new club and just let Vlad go to jail, which would undo all his blocking of me,” Simone suggested. “Noah takes over and really, we get everything we wanted and more. Isn’t that the better win and Vlad losing more face?”
Vlad actually went pale. I knew she’d been waiting to break that idea out as we’d discussed, and her timing couldn’t have been more perfect. Then anger filled his eyes. “You speak about my breaking the law, but this is extortion, Seraphine.”
I actually snarled so loud and long that no way a human could make that noise. “No, Vlad, it’s not, and don’t try to throw the law in my face again. This is setting right your wrongs so there’s less to report in this fucking pile.” I slammed the folder hard enough that the table groaned. “You’re going to undo the crimes you’ve committed that you can. That is what I’m demanding. If you don’t, then I’ll let you pay for your crimes. Those are your choices. That’s not extortion.”
“Extortion is if Sera came here and demanded a payoff to keep quiet about the crimes you’ve committed and let you keep doing them,” Hagan drawled, and I could practically feel him rolling his eyes. “You really need to learn about modern laws and the rules of the world you live in.”
“Hell, I voted for some serious community service and quietly trading a chunk of your vampires away so the threat they pose isn’t here anymore,” Reagan added. “I still don’t think the punishment fits the crimes.”
“He’s not being forgiven them all,” I reminded them.
“You are saying that I could do all of this, give in to all your demands and orders, and we still would not be even?”
“Not even close, Vlad. This is to fix you letting Cooper and Monroe be tortured. Noah for Tristan is also for your benefit because looking at Noah now that he knows the whole truth, how long do you think it will be until he kills you himself?” Everyone focused on Noah, and the look of hate he had focused on Vlad was enough to make me shiver. Yeah, not smart to piss off a warrior from the Crusades.
“And fixing things with Simone and the zoning board is undoing the crimes you unknowingly committed. So that’s not a favor to me.” Well, it really was since I was going to be a partner in the club. “Cheer up, Vlad, if I wanted to be a real bitch, I’d remind you that my ancient vampires could start coming to the local vampire watering holes and stick their noses in—”
“You have made your point that this is not threats on your part,” he snapped.
“Have I? Have I really, or would you like to be reminded that there’s a more powerful siren in town than Bernard ever was and putting you under a siren’s control would be no trouble at all?” He went pale again, and I actually had a bit of fun with it. Mean? Yes, but fuck, he’d offered me up as the sacrificial lamb. I could make him sweat. “That’s a threat, Vlad.”
“One I did not think you would ever make,” he whispered in horror.
“And I never thought you would offer me up like a meaningless whore to save your own ass,” I rasped, glancing away. Didn’t work to be the hardass if I cried. “Pull that kind of shit again, and we’ll find out how far I’m willing to go. So no, we’re not square, Vlad. This is just to work through what’s on the table now.”
He was quiet while I got myself back together. “Will you at least promise not to bring any more vampires to you?”
“I never wanted any vampires, Vlad. You’re basically the one who gave them to me with sending one to kill me and letting me walk into a trap. But yes, I promise I will never scout vampires on my own. If I’m attacked, I will do what it takes to survive, even if it means tie a whole fucking coven to me.
“If no one comes after me, then I’m not lookin
g to add to my numbers, you have my word. The only additions might be on behalf of the FBI, as we need more people, but they will fall under the same deal as those already in my office. Monroe has no desire to take Chicago.”
I think everyone was holding their breath as we waited. Vlad stared at me, and I gave it right back, not willing to blink on any of it.
“Then we have an accord, Seraphine Thomas.”
“Good. Next time there’s a problem or threat in our town, come talk at the adult table, Vlad, instead of acting like a kid who is moving pawns around that aren’t truly his. We’ll have less conversations like this that way.” I didn’t wait for what I knew would be a shitty reply, but looked at Noah. “The bedroom downstairs is yours. Please figure out blood for Goran and everyone who will be next door because I’m told they’re kinda starving, as they’ve fed from a few of my wolves, but I didn’t want to step on any toes, especially while I was in the hospital.”
I slowly turned my head and gave Vlad a very pointed look. It worked because he looked as chastised as I’d meant it.
“As you wish, Mistress,” Noah agreed, smiling widely.
“And you said my worries about Noah taking my place in your bed were unfounded,” Tristan muttered, his gaze fixed on me.
I was tired of everything with him being my fault, and I was on edge because of the full moon, so I was a bitch. “No, his bedroom’s in the basement. Anything beyond that you only have to look in the mirror to see who’s to blame. Good luck with Vlad again.” I stood and nodded to Vlad. “Let me know when the agreements are written up for us to sign. Alena will hold copies of them as my witness, and if there’s a vampire you want to hold them as well, I’m fine with it.”
“No, I trust Alena’s sense of justice that she will not favor her daughter over what’s right. She proved that with Bernard.” He stood as well and gave me a hard look. “So good of you to keep me in line and all of that, Seraphine, but who will keep you in line?”
