by Sophia North
The settee was still draped in the same tartan blanket and on her Gran's favourite chair, a black and white cat was sprawled out, enjoying the warmth of the roaring fire.
"You must be Leo," Penny said in greeting to the feline on the chair. "We've never properly met, I'm Penny...the granddaughter."
Vlad’s rich laughter filled the room. "It's a bloody cat, not some long lost relative you've happened upon," he teased. "You truly are the nuttiest of creatures sometimes."
Penny sent him a sizzling look. "One can never be too careful with Gran's cats. They have a way of making you think twice about the concept of reincarnation. Trust me, I speak from experience."
The black and white, lifted his head and blinked at her. "See, Leo knows what I am talking about."
Far be it for him to naysay the cat.
"You must be famished," she said...again to the cat.
"I'm more concerned about you than the damn cat," Vlad sighed. "When was the last time you ate something?"
Penny ignored him as Leo jumped down from his perch and jingled his way to her. "Yes, ye poor wee laddie. Gran's going to be fine, I promise. Come on, let's find you some dinner."
Yes, it was official. Vlad was no match for a black and white cat.
As his Royal Highness sauntered past him, rather than the expected hiss he usually received from the feline race, the cat butted his head against Vlad's leg.
"See, he likes you." Penny banged around the kitchen, looking for cat food. Eying the icebox, she wandered over to see if her instincts were right. Sure enough, there was a freshly caught salmon sitting on a plate. Her Gran detested fish, which meant it was destined for the mouth of the four-legged one.
Leo sprinted off from giving Vlad a thorough once over when he heard the refrigerator door open. He was no fool.
"Please tell me you are not about to feed the cat..."
Penny plonked the plate down on the floor.
"Salmon." He finished.
"Look at how hungry he is...poor little lamb."
Vlad strode over to the fridge and yanked it open. "As I said, I'm more concerned about your lack of sustenance." Rustling around, he pulled out some cheese and cold meats. "Here," he said, shoving them into her hands. "Maybe there is a loaf of bread. You can make a sandwich or something."
Penny put the items back. "I'm not hungry. Let's drink."
Vlad glanced up at the clock on the kitchen wall. There were still a few hours left before dawn. And like her, his nerves could do with a bit of alcohol. It wasn't every day he had to deal with 'family' issues. In fact, it was never. He hadn't taken the time to have anything to do with his while they were alive. Not even the death of his own mother and half-siblings had interested him.
Going over to the sink, he opened the cupboard underneath.
"What are you doing?" Penny asked, laughter bubbling on her lips. She had a fair idea what he was up to.
"Looking for the booze. I assume your habit of keeping it under the sink is a family trait."
She started laughing. "My Gran would be highly offended. Booze under the sink, how uncivilised. I used to do it to annoy her, guess it stuck with me."
Standing next to a large walnut cabinet, she flung open its doors to reveal a well-stocked bar within. "Voila...the best selection of Scotch in the Highlands."
"I may have never met your grandmother, but I can tell she and I will get on famously," Vlad replied, admiring the impressive number of neatly lined bottles.
Penny chewed her lip. She had her doubts about that. Esmeralda MacGregor was not like other grandmothers. She had a way of knowing things most humans were oblivious to...such as the existence of vampyres. If she figured out Penny was madly in love with one, she was pretty sure there would be hell to pay.
Sensing Penny's hesitation over agreeing with him, he poured them each a drink before engaging her on the subject. "You don't think your grandmother will like me, sweetheart?" he asked, handing her a glass. "Why is that? Last time I checked, most would describe me as the charming sort."
Her continued silence started to make him uncomfortable. Jesus, had he totally misread their time together? He could have sworn they were making progress with one another after their recent turbulent spell.
"What did Darius mean when he said you were too stubborn to break your oath?"
Talk about bowling him a fast ball from out of nowhere. Where the fuck had that come from? One minute they were talking about him charming her nigh on hundred year old grandmother and the next she wanted to dig into his past. Penny knew how to keep him on his toes.
"Darius said a lot of things he oughtn't the other night," Vlad replied softly.
"You should have told me about your being a..."
"Bastard is the word you are looking for, sweet."
"What a ludicrous thing to be upset about. I am as much of a bastard as you are...I have no idea who my father was...is...see, I don't know whether he's alive or dead. It doesn't matter, his absence from my life hasn't affected me in the slightest."
Vlad sighed. He didn't expect her to understand. How could she? Times were different now, but back in the eighteenth century being a bastard mattered. And those scars were deep. Too deep.
Penny studied his expression over the rim of her glass. He looked disgruntled about the prospect of discussing what was obviously a sensitive subject. But better his past than her present.
She had no idea how to he would take the news that her family bloodline produced some of the most powerful witches ever known on the British Isles. Her guess would be, not well.
Also, there was another wee bit of information that might make him run for the door. As the sole heir of her line, she stood to inherit it all as long as she agreed to take the power when the time came. And as it stood, she had been adamantly against doing so. But her ancestors seemed to be having a hard time with that fact.
"Is being a bastard the reason you've decided not to have children?" she asked tentatively.
Staring into the contents of his glass, he drank it down in one. "Yes."
Not exactly the most detailed response. Penny waited for him to elaborate. Vlad was not quick to respond.
It was like trying to get blood from a stone, but eventually he came round. "I vowed to never sleep with a woman while I was a mortal man, and even as a vampyre, I kept the oath. Although, to be fair, the not sleeping with a human woman was rather easy to accomplish as a vamp. Lowerton banned the act and with female vamps I didn't have to be so strict for the obvious reasons."
"But, if that's the case, what did you mean by your 1881 comment?" Penny asked, perplexed by what he'd said.
"This is stupid. Do you really want to hear about my sexual proclivities over the centuries?" He stalked over to the fireplace, finding it difficult to look at Penny.
"No, I only want to understand you better. Is that so wrong?" she replied softly.
Leo purred at his feet, weaving in and out between his legs, head-butting him continuously. The tom cat could sense a brother in trouble, he mused. Penny's probing was taking him into uncharted waters. He wasn't good at this sharing shit.
"Not wrong, more like irrelevant," he answered, leaning down to rub the cat behind his ear. Leo, satisfied with the obligatory attention he'd demanded, strutted back to his chair to settle down.
"Very well, I won't push my luck. Maybe we'll move on to why you've continued to reject me after I've told you that I not only don't want children, I am incapable of giving you any, even if I wanted to."
Radio silence descended once again.
Vlad gripped the mantelpiece as he stared into the fire. The dancing flames reflected in their depths his riotous emotions. Penny put her glass down and went to stand before him.
Gripping his chin, she turned his head so that their eyes met. "Is your vow more important to you than this..." She brushed her lips against his and pulled back to stare at him again. "Or this?" She pulled him back to her and kissed him with all the passion and love she felt.<
br />
Vlad groaned and crushed her to him, devouring her lips in equal measure.
"Spider approaching. Arrival in two minutes." Vlad's watched chimed out.
Penny broke away from their embrace to exclaim, "What the..."
But Vlad was already at the window. In the distance a pair of headlights could be seen heading up the drive.
"Incoming video message from Alessio Polidori."
Vlad pressed the icon on his watch to receive it. The video began to play.
"Vlad, I've had to send the Spider. Your presence is required back in Lowerton urgently. I shall explain when you arrive. Yours, Alessio."
"Not one for technology, is he?" Penny commented with a wry grin over the stiff way Alessio had behaved in the recording. Joining him at the window, she watched the McLaren Spider pull up and park next to the Audi.
Vlad turned to face her. Cupping her chin, he brushed a thumb along her high cheekbone. "I don't want to go, but..."
Penny nuzzled his hand, eventually placing a kiss in the centre of his palm. "Duty calls, I understand. Promise, you'll hurry back...we have a lot more to talk about," she joked, referring to her pet name for the passion they'd shared.
Vlad kissed her tenderly. "I'll be back tonight...but should warn you talking is not what I intend to do with you. And Penny..."
"Yes?"
"I love you."
Chapter Twenty-Six
FOUR WATCHERS MARCHED in square formation around Vlad as they escorted him into the Council Chambers. The coliseum teemed with vampyres. It had been a while since they'd had some real entertainment. And an Elder being charged with high treason made for top billing.
Alessio Polidori sat in the Grand Elder chair, a frown marring his face. He'd been powerless to stop this spectacle after having been outvoted on pressing charges against Vlad in the first place. And now it was time for the trial.
Brought before the high table, Vlad kept his expression neutral. He'd not expected the Welcoming Committee when the doors of his Spider had opened. It had been a long drive back to London. The car went into blackout mode at the first opportunity, in order to keep him safe from the coming day.
Vlad hadn't thought much about Alessio's summons. He'd spent the journey dreaming about making love to Penny when he got back to Stonehaven later. But the sight of an armed escort had given him pause. Being brought into a packed council chamber was his next clue that all may not be as it seemed.
With a wide grin plastered across his face, Vlad bowed. "Evening, Grand Elder. I must have missed the memo about tonight's meeting. Your message was rather vague on the reason for my expedited return. What's up, are we under attack?"
Elder Walpole stuttered and stammered, shocked by Vlad's boldness. "What's up, is that this meeting is about your attack! The Grand Elder has no obligation to explain himself to the likes of you."
Hoots of encouragement broke out. In a far corner, Vlad was sure he heard someone hiss 'rich cunt bastard'.
Alessio held up a hand, demanding silence. The coliseum duly obliged.
"The subterfuge was an unfortunate precaution. Some, not all, believed you may not have come willingly if alerted to what awaited, given the nature of the charges and circumstances involved," Alessio answered Vlad.
"Charges? What the fuck am I guilty of...taking a few days off?" he barked, somewhat incredulous at what was happening.
"Master of Law, will you please read out the charges," Alessio instructed.
Wonderful. Ignatius Mathers, the Master of Law, hated his guts. Vlad had an annoying habit of breaking too many 'laws' in his books. And as for the wording of the new treaties Vlad had negotiated. Fuck. The Master almost had kittens over the language and speediness Vlad demanded.
He'd often told the crotchety old vamp he didn't have centuries to get shit done. Flowery phrases and archaic legal mumbo-jumbo wasn't going to cut it anymore.
"The appropriation of Lowerton resources for personal uses and conspiring to fix a Starr Chamber vote," he read out.
The coliseum again erupted in shouts of accusations. Holding his scroll, the Master of Law waited, poised to continue as soon as the ruckus eased. It took a few minutes, but eventually order was restored.
"For these crimes you stand charged with High Treason and will be questioned and judged by your peers, which in your case is the Council of Elders. And I will remind Elder Barath, as he sometimes has a tendency to forget such trivialities, the sentence for High Treason is summary death."
They had to be fucking kidding.
"Would you enter your plea, Elder Barath?"
Vlad gazed around and noted the rabble eagerly awaited his answer. "Not fucking guilty," he barked out clearly.
The crowd yelled all sorts of abuse at his decree. The most common chant being 'Lying, rich scum'. Vlad found it particularly confusing. Last time he checked, he'd handed all his wealth over to Lowerton, so he had no idea what the fuck they were on about. And when had being rich become a crime? The way these vamps were going on, one would think they were hard done by. But they were far from being paupers.
"Very well. The trial will commence immediately," Mathers announced, unable to completely hide the glee in his voice.
"Uhm, am I suppose to build and deliver my defence in a matter of seconds? I haven't seen the evidence behind these fucked up charges," Vlad growled.
Elder Walpole leaned over, his portly face ruddy in anger. "You believe we will allow you the time to buy yourself a good cover story? These charges were not made without a vote in favour to proceed. And I can assure you, Elder Barath, the evidence was overwhelmingly convincing. As you will soon discover."
Vlad listened to Walpole's spluttering and realised he had but one way forward. "Then by all means, gentlemen. Present your evidence. I have nothing to hide."
How those words came back to haunt him. After hours of meaningless testimony, Vlad sat leaning back in his chair trying to muster restraint. They were still going on about his 'crime' of appropriating Lowerton resources for personal use. AKA taking the jet to fly Penny to Scotland.
This charge he found particularly insulting. It had been his fucking jet in the first place and without Vlad's vast wealth, they'd still be flying coach for fuck's sake.
Vlad had been very good at making money before joining the Council. Extremely good at it, if one wanted to get technical. He'd amassed trillions. Thank you, Industrial Revolution. But if he was honest, things hadn't really started humming until the dawn of the Technological era.
"Are you certain there were no abnormalities in the Lisbon affair?" Malcolm Poe, First Elder, asked again sharply.
The Master of the Treasury, Rikard Sterling, cleared his throat. Vlad sympathised, the vamp's vocal chords must have been tired of having to answer the same questions over and over again. Vlad was certainly tired of hearing them.
Surprised by the agitation Elder Poe had directed at Sterling since he'd taken the stand, Vlad had been observing the proceedings closely. Something was off but he couldn't put his finger on what exactly.
"As I have stated previously," Rikard Sterling responded carefully, not wanting to come across as impertinent, "Elder Barath completed all the required paperwork for the upfront payment to ensure the Travellers returned to Romania without any further unfortunate incidents. He utilised the proper channels to gain access to the funding. Nothing was amiss."
The answer did not appear to satisfy the usually even tempered vamp. Malcolm, or 'Malc' to his close acquaintances, was not known as someone led by his emotions. But the vehement grilling of one his most trusted advisors was starting to raise eyebrows.
"Thank you for the clarification, Master Sterling," Grand Elder Alessio replied following Elder Poe's continued silence. "Are there any more questions for the witness? If not, we will move on to rendering a verdict on the first charge."
Godfrey banged loudly on the table. Looked like the monk giant had something to ask. Scribbling chalk on his slate, he held it out for a Page to collec
t.
Hoots of appreciation broke out as said Page appeared. Traditionally, the role was held by new initiates to Lowerton's ruling class as a way to introduce them to the way things worked. But with the low number of male recruits available since the Haan-Anton revolt, things had changed.
For the first time in Lowerton's history, a female vampyre had been admitted to the ranks. And what a recruit.
Roxy Malloy had been appointed for her service in the Hive during the lead up to the ultimate war against Anton and Haan. Without her work rallying those loyal to Lowerton, it would have been destroyed.
Her courage made her the perfect candidate to take on this bold new challenge. And Roxy loved a good fight.
The cheers and lewd promises got louder. But who could blame them? As the first amongst her sex to hold the position, it meant she had free license in the design of a new uniform. The result suited her fashion tastes. Sex vamp to the nth degree. She didn't give a damn about tradition.
Collecting Godfrey's outstretched slate, Roxy's form-hugging long black dress trailed behind her seductively, as she sauntered over to stand before the Grand Elder's chair.
With a deep bow, she presented the slate to Alessio with two hands.
"Thank you, Page Malloy," he replied with a slight grimace at her plunging neckline. "Present yourself in the Starr Chamber later. We need to discuss finding you a more appropriate Page uniform," he gritted out, as the coliseum erupted into shouts of admiration for the show. Her current ‘uniform’ left little to the imagination.
The stunning brunette smiled generously. "With pleasure, Grand Elder. I'd appreciate an older vamp's...input."
The laughter from her provocative comment brought the house down. Boots pounded the floor in applause, accompanied by yet another round of hoots and dog whistles.
If Vlad's very existence wasn't at stake, he might have found the trial's farcical Music Hall motif amusing. But as it stood, he wasn't remotely fucking amused.
It took a few minutes for the crowd to come back under control.
"Elder Locksley asks for Elder Barath to explain his connection to Charrington Investments," Alessio announced.
