Heir to the Coven

by Melissa Leister

  “She was rotting in the ground because she died giving birth to me. The only people around to hover over me were my vampire nanny and assorted members of Lucius’ court. For the most part they called me ‘the child’ and I was treated like a lapdog the way my mother, the dessert, was treated. Which means we were over dressed, passed around and considered property. She was screwed by Lucius before he screwed me over.”

  Chris went pale. “I am so sorry Natasha. I had no idea. I never would have said that if I had known. I thought you were just being shy.”

  I pushed my hair out of my face and took a deep breath. “I’m the one who should be sorry. There was no way for you to know and I wasn’t explaining. General rule of thumb with me; if I’m giving one word answer it’s probably time to change the subject.”

  “Desserts have to be willing don’t they? Who would want to do that?” Then his eyes went wide and he began to babble. “Sorry, again. I was thinking to myself and it came out of my mouth. Forget I said it. Forget the entire conversation. I will not bring up the mother topic again starting now I promise.”

  Maybe it was because I felt bad for snapping at him or maybe it was because I was looking for something to do to ease the tension, but I stuck a forkful of that damn potato salad in my mouth and froze.

  He saw the look on my face and asked, “Is the mayo bad?”

  I shook my head and started to chew. I needed a plan. When Chris bent his head to take a bite of his sandwich, I used my preternatural speed to spit the mouthful out and cover it in sand. I looked up and found a blonde haired little girl staring at me.

  She smiled at me and waved at Chris, “Hi.”

  “Hi,” we both said.

  Then that little bitch looked at Chris and said, “She spit her lunch in the sand.”

  It was mean and immature, but I deliberately reddened my eyes and glared at the little girl. She squealed and ran away. I turned back to Chris who was staring at me in bewilderment. There was no way to explain so I decided to change the subject. “Do you like being a reporter?”

  “Uh…yeah, I like it.” He looked over at where the little girl was crying to her mother and pointing back at me. “You’re really not going to explain it are you?”

  “If I told you I would have to kill you.”

  “Very funny.” Chris ate some more and then asked, “I wanted to be a writer, but I’m not very creative so now I write about other peoples’ stories since the ideas are already out there waiting to be found and I don’t have to manufacture them.”

  “Did you want to write novels? What kind?”

  “Fiction. Maybe historical fiction. I bet you could help me there.”

  “I don’t know about that one.”

  “It is so weird to think of everything you’ve seen in your life Tash. Stuff I’ve only read about you experienced first hand. I should do an article on you.”

  I laughed. “There would be some people who would be very unhappy about that.”

  “Like your father? He probably wouldn’t come off very well, how could any man let his child be caste? Even if he couldn’t stop it, why wouldn’t he do whatever it took to get it away from the vampires or the coven that did it?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Don’t you wonder how your father could let this happen to you?”

  That’s where things got ugly. I shot to my feet and stared down at him. “If you had any comprehension about vampires or true half-castes you would know that no one really has a choice in the matter, but since you’re an outsider I would stop passing judgment on people and situations you know nothing about. Of course you wouldn’t understand the need to create more of your kind, you’re barely even one of us. If you registered in the slightest with anyone you would be in a coven and not asking me stupid questions. I’m out of here.”

  Before he could say another word I was out of sight. I had gone two blocks before I realized it was a two hour drive here and while it wouldn’t drain me too much to walk all the way back home, I really didn’t feel like walking so I called Max to come get me.

  Chapter 13

  When I got back to the house that night I had the sneaking suspicion that after Max had hung up the phone with me, he had warned everyone to vanish the second we returned because no one, and I mean no one, was around. Usually there were people sprawled out on the couches watching TV, or reading in the library, or going in and out of the house for duty or an evening out. Couldn’t a girl call her driver to demand he pick her up at a discount chain store because she walked out on her date with a few rants about potato salad and men and their questions tossed in without public notice being given? Was there some sort of color-coded alert system in place that I was unaware of?

  Trouble was I really wanted to talk to someone about this, but I didn’t want to seem like I wanted to talk. I knew I could always talk to Rainor about life, but not my dating life especially after the dressing down he gave me the other night. Even if he didn’t decide to lecture me about appropriate behavior for a coven leader or cringe away from the idea of what he would think of as girl talk, he would find it way too funny. While the man could keep a secret about a great many things, I knew this would not be one of them. By the next morning I would have potatoes and potato salad showing up everywhere. Maybe I would even wind up with a sandbox in my bedroom. Respect was important in a coven, but this particular coven knew no bounds on its sense of humor and if Rainor made my date public knowledge then it was open season. Which brought me to Mercy who was at least bound by the girl code and the knowledge that I knew things about her that Kain didn’t and turn about was definitely fair play when it came to romantic secrets.

  That didn’t mean I was without reservations about talking to her about my personal life anymore than I already had. The whole way to Mercy’s room I argued with myself that I shouldn’t open the door to girl talk. Not because it was unleader-like, but because once that door was opened it usually meant it couldn’t be closed again. Mercy and I had once talked about everything, but even if I were the same person I was back then I couldn’t escape the hard truth that there was most likely a traitor in this house and I was uncomfortable at putting my trust in anyone about anything at this point. I reminded myself that she had never betrayed my secrets in decades gone by and that I was supposed to be trying to ingratiate myself back into coven life. I knocked on her door.

  “Come in.”

  I opened the door and peered in. “Is Kain here?”

  Mercy was sitting on the bed reading a book. She closed it and stood up. “He’s out right now. Is there something I can help you with or is this about this morning?”

  “Actually I wanted to talk to you. It’s sort of personal.”

  “Oh. Yeah, sure. What’s up?”

  I pushed the door shut and followed her inside. “Well, it’s about Chris.”

  Mercy’s face brightened up. I definitely had her attention if I was going to talk about men. She wasn’t guy crazy like Dawn, but she liked all the gory details and unlike Dawn she had tact and discretion. “Ok.”

  “We went to the beach.”

  “Has he looked at your skin?”

  “I don’t burn. And I don’t eat potato salad.”

  “I’m going to leave that second one alone because of the randomness and focus on the not burning one. Does he know that? I know he’s a half-caste, but he isn’t part of a coven he doesn’t really know how everything works.”

  “Not the real issue.”

  “Sorry, but you and the sun look like you shouldn’t be on the best of terms. You’d think he would check before taking you somewhere you could be burned to a crisp and the sun does bother your eyes sometimes.”

  “Anyway…we went to the beach which was as un-fun as I remembered it being, but I was willing to try to have a good time because he must like it to want to take me there until he started asking me about my mother.”

  Mercy winced. “Again not the best of choices on his part.”

  “Tell me
about it.”

  “What did you say to him about her?”

  I laid out the entire conversation for her including how I eventually stormed off and left him standing there staring after me like I had grown a second head. You would think after 109 years of life I could respond in a more mature manner. So much for my speech to Kain about no longer being capable of spitting in Anton’s face, after the way I acted today I’d probably resort to kicking him in the shins. “I told him that she was a dessert and having me killed her.”

  “What did Chris say?”

  “He wanted to know why anyone would be a dessert.”

  “I bet that hit a nerve.”

  “Several. He apologized for the second time in five minutes and promised not to bring up the subject of mothers again. Then I ate his stupid potato salad and spit it out so that snot nosed brat could tell him, which made him get all weird. We were ok for a little while, but then he asked how my father could let his child be caste or at least not get me away from the vampires if he couldn’t stop it and I lost it and took off.”

  “Define ‘lost it’.”

  “I didn’t kill him, hit him or spit in his face if that’s what you’re asking. But I did say some really nasty stuff to him about not comprehending vampires or true half-castes because he was an outsider to coven life and barely registered as one of us anyway.”

  “Ouch.”

  I flopped back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. “This is why I spent years only having casual hook-ups. The emotional crap didn’t factor in.”

  “You feel bad about it? I mean, you’re not here because you’re mad he pried. You want to know how to fix this.”

  “Can this be fixed?” Do I want to fix it? That was the better question. Emotional attachments were messy as my friendships with Mercy, Dawn and Kain proved. It was so much easier to be cut and dry, all business, but was that really a life? I was starting to miss the simple days before I came back.

  Mercy lounged back next to me and studied my face like she could see what I was feeling if she looked at my features long enough. “Here’s my non-expert advice. Call him.”

  “That’s it?”

  “What more did you want?”

  “I don’t know. More than ‘call him’.”

  “I’m a half-caste foot soldier shacked up with an enforcer, not a relationship counselor Tash. When Kain and I fight I throw things at his head, he shouts, eventually I manage to hit him with one of my missiles because he’s too busy ranting to get out of the way and we wind up having wild hot monkey sex. I don’t think Chris’ reflexes are that good so I can’t recommend throwing stuff at him, you might kill him.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Thanks for that monkey image.”

  “That’s what I’m here for.”

  “Mmmm. Warn me the next time you two fight. Ok? I really don’t want to turn a corner and walk in on that.”

  Mercy reached over to grab her cell phone off the nightstand and handed it to me. “Call the guy. Then come find me and tell me all about it.”

  “I’ll go, this is your room.”

  “Exactly. This is my room so no one will barge in to interrupt you, which is what you are hoping for so you can get out of this. Look, Natasha, he seems like a decent guy. Either try to make it work or cut him loose before he invests in it.”

  I smiled at her. “See you know more than throwing things and monkey sex.”

  “Who’s having monkey sex?” Kain asked as he barged in.

  Mercy gritted her teeth. “Once again your timing is impeccable my love. You vanish this morning when you’re needed and show up now when men are unwelcome. I’d say she put you up to it, but I know you were patrolling the city since sun fall.”

  “What did I do?”

  I laughed. “Nothing. How did it go?”

  Kain shot Mercy a look as she muttered about people stalling, but he focused on my question instead of his glaring girlfriend. Looks like I should beware what corner I turned tonight. Kain said, “It was an interesting evening. I killed a vampire.”

  “What?”

  “I was on Sixth Street and I found a vampire feeding on a human. I told him to back off, but he didn’t so I got him off her. We fought. He lost.”

  “One of Anton’s vampires was going for a kill in our territory?” I could feel my blood rising. If one of his people were that brazen I wouldn’t put it past them to have created that half-caste baby after all. They could use Kain’s kill as an excuse to attack us if they accused him of lying. “Did you secure the woman as proof?”

  “I took her to the hospital for a transfusion, but the vampire I killed wasn’t one of Anton’s.”

  “Are you sure?”

  Kain nodded. “I know most of his people and they all wear his crest. This guy didn’t have it and I never saw him before.”

  “Were there any identifying marks so we know who to thank?”

  “Didn’t really get to check before he burst into flame, but jewelry usually survives the implosion and there were only ashes left.”

  Mercy cursed softly. “It could be a set up. All he had to do was take the crest medallion off.”

  “True, but if one of us saw him before he started feeding and he didn’t have it we would have given him a very difficult night,” Kain said. He glanced over at me. “You’re very quiet. What’s cooking in that brain of yours Little One?”

  “That someone wants us to jump to the conclusion that Anton or one of his caste is behind this to sow discord and distrust between us at the very least. And at the most to provoke a battle.” Most likely the same someone that sent outside vampires to guard Megan McCoy and cross my path the other night. Or else Kain was trying to throw me off his trail by saying he was attacked, but I had not told anyone about my adventures with the two vampires, unless his rumored new friend Megan told him.

  Kain said, “You think this is connected?”

  “Very much so.”

  Mercy spoke up. “Sorry, but what are you talking about?”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Kain said.

  Ignoring the new tension in the room, I said, “I want a double guard on the house and extra men in the streets. Tell Rainor what happened and that I’ll talk to him about it when I get back.”

  “Where are you going?”

  “To see Anton.”

  Chapter 14

  When Anton returned from his evening out, I was waiting for him in his living room after I helped myself to a pint of cookie dough ice cream I found in his kitchen. I could tell he was irritated by the way his body tensed and his jaw clenched. I wasn’t sure if his irritation was my presence, my petty larceny, that I had roamed his house to find the kitchen or the way I was sitting sideways in his armchair with my feet dangling over the side; he hated sloppy posture.

  “Hello, brother dear,” I greeted him while waving the spoon at him. We had the relationship we had whether Rainor liked it or not. I had to obey Rainor to a point, but at the end of the day I was free to leave any time I wanted and if I was going to run things the coven was going to have to get used to the way I was, not the other way around. I would try to keep the sexual goading out of it so long as Anton did, but I liked to bait people and that wasn’t going to change.

  “How the hell did you get in here?” Anton asked.

  I glanced down at the floor where two of his guards lay unconscious. The first one had tried to take the ice cream. The second one had tried to restrain me after I knocked the first one out. “If you want to keep me out you’re going to have to do better.”

  “So I see,” he said in a grumpy tone. “At least you didn’t kill them.”

  “I’ve matured.”

  “That remains to be seen considering you are eating ice cream out of the container while slouching in my favorite chair like a child, Natasha.”

  I smirked at him. “Well at least I’ve stopped sucking my thumb.”

  He laughed heartily. Anton rarely gave such a full-throated laugh, but when he did it made
my stomach lurch. Eh, maybe it was the ice cream? I checked the expiration date. It was fine. I guess it was his laughter after all. Anton took the carton from me and placed it on top of a stack of magazines. I think he didn’t trust me not to put it on his cherry wood table and make a condensation mark.

  “Hey! I wasn’t done with that,” I said. “Although while were on the subject could you ask the dessert to start stocking the kind with the brownie pieces in it? That’s really good.”

  “Her name is Ashley as you well know.”

  “You’re right, I do know, but it’s so much fun to irritate you by calling her the dessert. Besides, what is she to me? I’m a soon to be coven Mistress and she’s your private whore.”

  Anton moved very quickly. So quickly I barely had time to swing my feet down to the floor before he was face to face with me. “Are you jealous? Is that why you disparage her? Because Ashley can be gone in a heartbeat if you’d like to take her place Natasha.”

  Now it was my turn to show off. Before he had a chance to move I was on my feet so that I towered over him. “As your dessert? I think not. I prefer it when you keep your distance.”

  He shrugged and stood up. “I could force the issue.”

  “Fine. Right here, right now. Top or bottom Anton? Or would you prefer it against the wall?” I started to reach for the hem of my shirt to pull it off like it was so ho hum to me if we went at it on his floor, or wall, right that second.

  “Enough.”

  “What?” I asked with feigned innocence. “Isn’t this what you wanted?”

  “Why must you try my patience?”

  He looked weary and I almost felt sorry for him. Almost. “I’m not the one that just threatened rape.”

  Now that provoked a snarl before he said, “I did not threaten to rape you!”

  “I believe the word force came out of your mouth, vampire, not mine. We could go at it another way if it’s not sex you’re after. How about it, brother? You and me hand to hand combat?” I knew my eyes had changed to blood red. Just the thought of what that fight would be like gave me chills. How screwed up did you have to be to get hotter over battle than sex?