by Amie Gibbons
“Why would she agree to that if she is killing humans who know about you?”
“I’ll make the pitch to the nest tonight about having us work with you when our humans, which she has allowed to know about us, are being killed. And I’ll explain how the FBI has so many more resources and a better understanding of science than us. She will have to call for a vote, if only to save face, and I can guarantee the vote will swing our way.”
“You guys vote on issues like this?”
“We vote on all big issues, unless the queen gets her way and makes the decisions without telling any of us until it’s too late. As I said, she’s a tyrant. Tonight’s like a town meeting. All vampires in Nashville and the surrounding areas are invited. Maybe two percent actually go to these, but that’s enough.”
“And how many will that be?”
“About two hundred.”
“Ugrl,” I choked, finally sputtering, “What! So there’s like ten thousand of you just around here!”
“You sound surprised.”
“I was thinkin’ a few hundred of you across a state. How do what, millions? Like millions of you hide?”
“We don’t. We’re part of human society too, and just hide what we are. You’re overestimating how difficult it is to be a vampire in modern America. We have vampire actors and politicians that humans just assume have good plastic surgeons after they don’t age for thirty years. Then they retire or mysteriously die, and pop up somewhere else. The internet has made that more difficult, but if you change your look and someone matches you with your past picture, they just assume it’s a distant relative.”
My mouth worked and I couldn’t even say when it’d dropped open.
“I can’t… how big is the supernatural world?”
He smiled. “Compared to human numbers? Maybe a third of a percent of the population. But third a percent of seven billion? There’s around twenty to thirty million of us strange creatures out there. Everything from vampires to fae to shifters.” He smiled. “And people like you.”
“Wow. How many psychics?”
“Not nearly as many as vampires. But we have no idea how many. For one, they pop up here and there without pattern or reason, so they have no community and usually hide what they are. You are the first in Nashville I’ve met. Which means nothing because I wouldn’t know if I had met any others.”
“Any ballpark figures?”
“Maybe a few thousand across the world, maybe more. I couldn’t say.”
“So I’m really valuable and you want to take me to the nest where they kill humans?”
“Well, yes, but-”
“Grant will never allow it.”
“You can’t tell him. I know what I’m asking from you, but the risk is worth the reward.”
“Yeah, for you.”
“Not just for us, for you and your Bureau. You need to work with us to investigate this. And if we do not get at least the queen’s fake permission, your people will start being picked off, one by one.”
I paled and met his eyes.
“When you put it that way…,” I said.
He nodded. “I thought that would get your attention. Our nest can not continue like this. I need to figure out what the queen is planning, and then…”
“Coup d'état?”
“Something like that. If I can get her off the throne by getting others to see what she has done as the tyrant taking over that it is, it will be easier.”
“Vamps don’t know?”
“They have been so conditioned in the last few decades, she controls so much of their education when they become vampires, they don’t see it. If I kill her, I will be seen as a traitor.”
I raised my eyebrows. “What if someone else kills her? You know, cut off the head of the snake?”
He shook his head. “Then her second in command takes over and it is much of the same. Her entire administration is in the same vein as her, and the people have bought it.”
“How do you begin to undo that?”
“I’m still working on that. Assembling like-minded vampires and stopping the tyranny from becoming worse are my first steps.”
I sat down on my bed. “You’re askin’ me to dive into vampire politics. I don’t even like them in the human world.”
He sat next to me. “I’m asking for your help. We need you.”
“We or you?” I asked, flicking my eyes up to his.
He leaned in and my eyes slid closed as I licked my lips.
“You are quite literally flirting with danger, little girl,” he whispered close enough for the air to brush my lips.
I opened my eyes and he stood up.
“I’m not a little girl.”
He smirked. “Yes, you really are.”
I stuck my tongue out at him.
“Case in point,” he said, walkin’ to the door. “Shall we?”
“What am I supposed to tell Grant?”
“On Monday, if all goes well, we’ll meet to discuss how to work together. Don’t tell him about coming with me tonight, or the queen, just about how I want us to work together permanently and how you would be the perfect liaison, because you are an agent but also supernatural.”
If Grant ever found out I went off on my own, he’d kill me.
But this was huge.
A treasure trove of information. A chance to see how the vampire world really worked. A chance to help countless people, cuz we’d actually know what we were facin’.
“Ariana?”
“I’m thinkin’.”
He nodded. “We need you. Lives depend on this.”
Come on. Why did he have to say that?
“Fine. I’m in.”
The gratitude in those big eyes was too much for me.
I shook a finger at him. “But if I get in trouble over this, I’ll stake ya.”
He laughed and it made my heart flutter like a butterfly on speed, makin’ my lips throb along with it.
Oh man, I was in so much trouble.
“In the spirit of cooperation, I should tell you wood does nothing to us,” he said.
My jaw dropped to somewhere around Tahiti.
“Again I have to say, I love pop-culture. If someone sticks wood through our hearts it hurts like hell, of course, but we live through it. Silver, fire, beheading, and the sun are the only things that kill us.”
“Good to know.”
“Can we go? The meeting’s already started.”
I hopped up and tucked my phone into its clip and put it on the side of my pants, pulled on my boots and slid my smallest gun into the boot holster.
“Ready?” Quil asked, lookin’ at my boot like he thought I was being cute.
“Thanks for not lying to me.”
“How do you know I’m not now?” he asked as we walked downstairs.
I didn’t answer, just hit the kitchen, pulled some scraps of cotton outta their bag and lay them on the couch for Pyro for when he got home.
It must’ve shown on my face cuz it was his turn for the jaw trip to Tahiti.
“You had a vision?”
“Yep. I heard you and Len.”
“And you acted like you had no idea what was going on?” He opened the door.
“Yep.” I grabbed my purse and locked the door behind us. “How did you get in?”
“You left the window open.” He waved a hand like he was wavin’ the subject off. “I can’t believe you were faking all that in there. How much did you hear?”
“I just heard you talkin’ about how you were taking a risk, but needed me so I could try to see what the queen was up to.”
I got in my car and he climbed into the passenger side.
“Ummmm, where’s your car?” I asked.
“When we get our speed up, we can run as fast as a car travels on side streets.”
“Oh. So you ran here. That’s convenient. Where to?”
He gave me the address and I punched it into the GPS.
One good thing about driving
when all decent folk are asleep?
No traffic.
“You have garlic, right?” Quil asked outta the blue, staring straight ahead.
“In my purse.”
“Good.”
“Hey, what was with you skippin’ out earlier?”
“I figured it was only a matter of time before you finished processing the scene.”
It sounded like he got that phrase from a movie and was tickled pink about being able to use it.
“And you would go down the stairs,” he continued, “find out you couldn’t get down, and would come to me. So I took a nap to recuperate, then called a human to take me home.”
“Which is where?”
“Behind that door.”
“So you were gonna take me to meet the queen last night?”
“I was planning on setting the groundwork then, telling everyone we had a psychic who could help us, basically everything I plan to today. But this is better, this way a lot more of the nest will be there to see it and the queen won’t be able to kill you right there if she sees you as too much of a threat.”
I turned as the GPS instructed and the next one was onto West End.
“Are we going near the club?” I asked.
“Yes. Different entrance, but it’s under that whole area.”
“Whoa. How?”
“Underground rooms constructed over time and connected by tunnels. Mostly under Centennial Park for safety’s sake. Heavy buildings would make it collapse.”
“Literally underground. Got it. What’s going to happen?”
“We’ll go in. I’ll introduce you directly to the queen. Do you have a middle name?”
“Kay.”
“Ariana Kay Ryder.” He nodded. “I will formally introduce you and explain how I want us to work with you, then call for a vote. Do not speak unless you are asked a direct question and the queen recognizes you. She is big on protocol and I don’t want to give her a reason to hurt you. Can you do that?”
Not speakin’, that’s a pretty big one for me, but I nodded. “So, no questions?”
“No questions. Have your people found anything more on the case?”
I summed up the case for him and finished explaining just as we turned near the club.
“We have people sitting on the club,” I said before thinkin’ it might be better if Quil didn’t know that.
“Thank you for telling me. I was afraid you weren’t going to.”
“Wait! You knew they were there?”
“Of course.”
“And you wanted to see if I’d tell? Same as I did to you?”
“Yep,” he said and I scowled.
We didn’t say anything else as I pulled into the parking lot of a bunch of closed businesses near the park.
We got out of the car and I swallowed.
I was being really stupid, wasn’t I?
“I don’t know if I can do this,” I said.
“You agreed,” he said.
“I didn’t sign anything or even shake on it.” My voice went up and my hands quivered.
“Ariana.” He stepped in front of me, takin’ my hands. “I give you my word as a vampire that Len and I will protect you to our last.”
“Len’ll be there?”
“Of course. He’s meeting us at the doorway.”
We walked behind the line of businesses and Quil paused by a door.
“Remember what I said, do not speak out of turn,” he said. “I beg you.”
I nodded.
“Ariana, darling!”
I was wrapped in strong arms before I even put my head back into position.
“Hi, Len,” I said as he let me go.
“Don’t mind him.” Quil shook his head. “He gets more flamboyant the more scared he is.”
“Did Quil tell you the rules?” Len asked, tossing a frown at Quil.
I nodded, specifically not speakin’.
“Good!”
Quil pulled a large rock up from the ground and underneath was a set of carved out stairs. “I go first, then you, then Len.”
The stairs were nearly as steep and long as the ones in the club. If it was all connected down there, the place had to be huge cuz the club was nearly a mile away.
We went down and hit a door just like the one at the bottom of the club, only this one we could reach.
I had to remember to ask Quil how to get around the spell on the stairs.
Quil did something complicated with his hands before pullin’ on the door handle. It opened with a squeal.
Huh.
We entered a long, dim hallway with nothing but bare bulbs overhead.
Really, could there be any other kind of hallway with a vamp nest?
The hall opened into a large chamber. Paper lanterns hung off the ceiling like colorful bats, casting a warm glow over the dirt and stone. Columns made lines through the place, probably the only things keeping the domed ceiling up. Bleacher-like seats were carved out of three sides, going up at least twenty steps, probably enough seating for a thousand. There were maybe the two hundred vamps Quil had predicted, all whispering and glancing at us.
The vamps were dressed in everything from suits to ball gowns. One was in a wide skirt and powdered wig straight outta The Three Musketeers.
Against the fourth wall was a gold throne decked out with elaborate carvings and purple cushions. Vampires lazed on large dark red cushions around it, wearing silk robes and looking like pets more than anything else.
The woman on the throne wore a green and black kimono tied loosely at the waist.
As soon as I saw her, the light bent towards her, power suckin’ oxygen outta the air.
Something in my brain prickled, almost like my psychic ability was bending, too.
Power.
The kind I had never felt before.
Quil had nothin’ on her.
Holy crap on a cracker! What have I walked into?
She had black hair down to her butt that was straight as an ironed sheet, large eyes just as black, wide pouty lips that were a dark red I wasn’t sure was due to lipstick, and creamy skin.
And she was without a doubt the vamp I saw in my first vision with Quil, the one who made him.
He couldn’t have mentioned that before?
Chapter nine
“May I present to the court,” Quil said with a bow to the queen, “Ariana Kay Ryder. A psychic with the FBI.”
A gasp rose from the crowd and the mutters grew.
“A human?” The queen asked in a husky voice girls like me could only dream of.
The court fell silent.
“Aquila, what are you playing at?” she asked, smirking as she ran her eyes down and up me before focusin’ back on him.
“Her team is investigating the murders of our humans and she has already given me more information than I could have possibly attained otherwise.”
“What information would this be?”
Quil repeated everything I’d told him.
No! Crap on kittens, no! People weren’t supposed to know details of an ongoing case. Quil was kinda like workin’ with another police department, so we could share info, but this? Tellin’ the queen and entire court?
Huge no no!
But I kept my mouth shut on account of not wantin’ to be killed.
“Someone drugged them?” the queen asked as though she’d never heard of such a thing after Quil was done.
Quil nodded.
“How? Was it too much alcohol?”
“Um..,” I said.
Quil slammed his hand over my mouth quick as a bullet.
“Will the court please recognize Ariana?” he asked.
The queen waved an imperious hand with a small, evil smile. “Let the human speak.”
“Thank you, your majesty,” I said in my best formal tone with a small bow. “Our M.E., that’s the medical examiner, did the autopsies on Jo and Miranda. Our forensic tech confirmed both were drugged with GHB. The demon lured them outta whereve
r they were, wearin’ someone else’s face, and then raped and killed them. The demon left behind forensics we’re runnin’ now though.”
I stared at the queen without really meaning to and her eyes sparkled as they held mine.
Her mind… tugged on mine.
I flinched and stared at her chin instead.
Note to self, do not look big, bad queen vamps in the eyes.
“So your human sciences can tell us things about demons we do not already know?” she asked.
“I don’t know, your majesty, we’re hopin’.”
“If I may?” Quil asked.
The queen nodded at him.
“The science they have access to, the way of investigating is so different than ours, I propose we work with them.”
Gasps filled the chamber and the buzzing of hundreds of lips movin’ at once followed.
“Please!” Quil held up his hands and the whispers died down to a few mutters.
“I propose we bring in a few of Ariana’s team. They are a specific division that investigates the supernatural.” He took a deep breath and cold took my stomach.
What was he about to say that’d make him take a dramatic breath he didn’t need?
“And they already know vampires exist through their work.”
Screams shot off the edges of the dome, anger bullets ricocheting so hard I covered my ears as vamps jumped to their feet, yellin’ and fixin’ to do something to Quil... or us! I couldn’t say what.
Quil pulled something out of his pocket and held it up to his lips.
A shrill whistle pierced through my hands and made me yelp as I hit the ground.
It obviously had the same effect on vamps cuz the yells died as they clamped hands over ears and a few collapsed too.
Quil offered me a hand, face unreadable as I took it and let him pull me up.
“She heard that?” the queen asked, staring at me.
“Apparently,” Quil said.
I raised my eyebrows at him.
“It’s like a dog whistle, frequency only vamps can hear… usually.”
Weird.
He turned back to the crowd.
“Just listen!” he said, voice projectin’ like before. “This branch of the government has known about us for years now. Known we exist. And they have not done anything to us. They have tried to understand the supernatural. That is all. This is a chance to pull select humans in, to form a partnership, for the good of us all.”
