08 Blood War-Blood Destiny

by Suttle, Connie

  The item I wanted to discuss most came on day four—that's when it would be decided whether each world could approve its own religions. I wanted my say and Grand Alliance Council oversight on that one. Grand Alliance Council oversight meant that each petitioning religion would be carefully investigated by the Grand Alliance Council before they were allowed to set up temples and collect donations on any world. In Solar Red's case, they'd be investigated before they could set up temples and start maiming and killing.

  Meanwhile, there was a lot of other political bull crap to get through, and if Queen Tamaritha's pet Ra'Ak didn't tip their hand before the meeting was over on the seventh day, well, I was going to find a way to follow them right back home, and they were going to get a quick send-off. I wondered if Tamaritha, cousin to Satris who'd helped kill Davan, knew what was following her around.

  I learned later that more than half the Alliance members had been invited to a dinner and ball held that evening by the royal family on Nemizan. Of course, I wasn't invited. That was fine with me—we went back to the hotel and had a quiet dinner. Afterward, Grant and Heathe put a list together of all the members who'd made a point of insulting us. More than two hundred had gone out of their way to be rude. Of that two hundred or so, twenty-seven had vampires on their planets. I found that interesting. Were their vampires being mistreated? I asked Grant and Heathe to check on that for me when we returned to Le-Ath Veronis.

  We were watching the late local news before going to bed, and all stations had reporters positioned throughout the Nemizana Palace, talking to this world leader or that. It was truly boring, too, until my name was mentioned.

  "It hasn't gone unnoticed," the reporter stated, "that Queen Lissa of Le-Ath Veronis has chosen not to attend. Some contend that it is due to the price on her head. Many leaders are concerned for their safety, as they are forced to be in such close proximity to Queen Lissa during the meetings." Then they cut to this member or that, most of whom had already made their feelings known about me already.

  "I can't say that the Alliance is capable of protecting all of us, with that much money being offered for her death. It makes me wonder just why she has a price on her head to begin with." That was the president of Deveiphis speaking—she was a petite brunette who affected a delicate shiver at how much danger she might be in. It made me wonder how she'd gotten her job.

  Overall, I was stunned at the media firestorm that now surrounded me. I hadn't been invited to the stupid ball to begin with and now they were accusing me of snubbing people or putting them in danger. Figures. Twylec was putting them in a lot more danger, the way I saw it. I found myself wishing Le-Ath Veronis had never joined the Alliance. Erland rubbed my back and shoulders while I watched the entire debacle and then the reruns.

  "Don't let them get to you—politics can be a backstabbing business," he murmured. "We'll get through this." Well, I hadn't heard his name dragged through the muck like mine had been over this thing or that. Before, when Gabron had sold me out, that media feeding frenzy had been awful. I didn't find out until later that Kifirin removed all damaging information concerning Gabron from memories and records, just for me. The ones it had affected the most, though; we still remembered.

  Reemagar had to place a healing sleep that night; I would have tossed and turned if he hadn't. The following morning brought more surprises, too, and none of them were good. World leaders and heads of state were demanding that their tables be moved as far from mine as possible.

  That wasn't all I knew, either. Reemagar and Thurlow knew it too—Twylec's Ra'Ak had just made their intentions clear and it chilled me to the bone. I'd known since the first day that these were connected to the one I'd killed on Vionn. They had le'meruh as he did, and had just placed their deadly coercion on the members who attended the ball the night before. It terrified me—if they had plans to take over the Alliance, well, this was the way to do it.

  I heard Tamaritha laughing over the moving of tables at one point. Not only was she clueless to what was going on around her, she didn't think I could hear from that distance. The Queen of Twylec should have studied up on her vampires. Honestly, if there'd been any vampires on Twylec, they would now have a standing invitation to relocate to Le-Ath Veronis, all expenses paid.

  "I feel they are accomplishing their goals in this way, and will cause no physical harm at the Conclave itself," Thurlow whispered in my ear as we took seats at our table. Nobody else was within forty feet of us. It felt as if we clung to a small, round raft, adrift in a sea filled with manipulated hate, fear and disgust.

  "What kind of harm do you think they've caused by casting coercion on the leaders of more than half the Alliance?" I hissed back. "If they get the green light to approve their own religions, and you can bet they'll vote that way in two days, what kind of harm do you think is coming?"

  "Lady, do not upset yourself, I beg you," Thurlow said gently, taking my hand and kissing it.

  "This is so fucked up," I sighed.

  "Le-Ath Veronis may be an island in this storm, if the worst comes," Erland breathed next to me. I sat between him and Thurlow at the table. "Wylend has refused to join the Reth Alliance many times, and Karathia is heavily shielded as a result. We do not depend on Alliance troops to protect us. At least we know that Kifirin, Le-Ath Veronis and Karathia will stand, even if the others fall."

  "Erland, that's not the answer I want," I turned to him and searched his beautiful, dark eyes. "I'm thinking of children, sacrificed to Ra'Ak and Solar Red's sadistic lusts. As soon as this Conclave is over, I'm hunting those bastards down and killing them. It's the only way I know to neutralize the coercion they've placed."

  * * *

  Erland turned on the vid screen the moment we arrived at our hotel, and we watched special news vids broadcast across the Alliance. This was what I'd asked Erland to do for me through his spying efforts—a reputable journalist stood before a temple on one of many worlds he'd investigated, which had ties to Solar Red or Red Hand. He spoke of how those religions had posed as legitimate organizations or blatantly offered money to place their temples on Reth Alliance worlds. Somehow, too, the journalist had smuggled spies inside two temples. We saw human sacrifices in living color, via hidden cameras.

  A list of worlds was given, all belonging to the Alliance, which now had temples attributed to other religions but belonging to Solar Red. A spokesman for the Founder and twenty Charter Members of the Grand Alliance Council, who'd formed the Reth Alliance in the beginning, blamed the worlds themselves for not providing complete information on the religions before they were approved, and the worlds were blaming the Alliance, of course.

  None of those worlds admitted that they'd taken money in any way, and Twylec wasn't on the list of exposed worlds. The Ra'Ak influence, I'm sure. It looked to be a good-sized battle shaping up over the whole thing. My honey Erland had come through for me, though, with flying colors. I think I told him I loved him at least half a dozen times.

  "I would have done this before, if I'd known it would get this kind of response," he smiled down at me after getting a few kisses and a long hug.

  The night was long, though, and every leader that had coercion placed by Twylec's Ra'Ak were calling the vids contrived or false and accusing the journalist and his backers of manufacturing lies in order to further a political agenda. Yep, no matter where you are, politics and politicians are the same. Sadly, many Alliance citizens believed them, so we were at a stalemate and no better off than we were before.

  "Lissa, I do not wish to alarm you, but the hotel is on fire," Reemagar interrupted my vid watching.

  "Crap," I muttered. "And we haven't even had dinner, yet."

  * * *

  News crews were on the scene as we all trooped into the central courtyard at the hotel's insistence, while the fire stations responded to the fire in our building and the two on either side. Yeah, somebody was after me, and the journalists already had that information. They'd heard from several factions and individuals alread
y, all claiming responsibility and all hoping that Black Mist would pay them the reward money in the event of my premature death.

  Some people will do anything for money, and some people will pretend to do anything for money. Journalists were falling over themselves as they attempted to get interviews with me. They shouted stupid questions such as "Were you afraid for your life?" or, "Will this force you to leave the Conclave early?" I wanted to give them the finger, but thought of Gavin and didn't. He would view that as conduct unbecoming any vampire and be embarrassed on my behalf. It was funny, actually, that Gavin was now my conscience.

  The not so good news came later, and if there's worse news than somebody trying to burn down your hotel, it's that the hotel is now kicking you out because you're a security risk. How could I blame them? It didn't do anything to improve my temper, though. I was ready to fold home and fold back in for the meetings each day. We were approached by Alliance security, however, and were assured that they had a safe facility available for our use and protection.

  When I arrived at the facility (under heavy ASD guard), I figured they'd already prepared for what had just happened—there were accommodations for all my crew, including a stockpile of blood substitute shipped in from Le-Ath Veronis. The facility was windowless, belowground and quite sterile—no paintings, comforts or extra supplies were provided. It reminded me of a bomb shelter, circa 1960s Earth. We set up our shields again. The hotel staff might have been very surprised to learn that even had the rest of their hotel burned to the ground, our rooms wouldn't have been singed. That's where the shields had been placed and they would have held no matter what.

  We had guards now, right outside our rooms and outside the facility, too. A lot of trouble to go to, I think, when we could have saved them the effort. I wanted to go home. Nobody wanted me on Nemizan—except the ones trying to kill me and collect the bounty. At least on Le-Ath Veronis, some of the citizens were glad to see me. Thurlow, who'd been quiet until now, looked at me as if he were reading my mind. "We can sneak away with none the wiser, Lara'Kayan. You should go if that is what you want. We can be back in plenty of time."

  "All right," I nodded. "Who wants to stay and who wants to go?"

  Garde, Rigo, Grant and Heathe stayed to keep up appearances; the rest of us went to Le-Ath Veronis. We hadn't been there ten minutes before the attack came.

  * * *

  "The mirrors are placed, brother," Zethias smiled. "They believe they are safe on the darkened half of their planet. They will learn differently in a matter of ticks." Viregruz watched the monitor—he wished to see a major portion of Le-Ath Veronis' vampires die. His brothers on Nemizan were working to bomb and then burn the Queen's hotel suite—all knew that vampires were vulnerable in a fire.

  We have failed with the explosion and fire, Viregruz received mindspeech from Ringolar. It is likely her Larentii mate placed shields and we cannot compromise those. The ASD has now placed the target in an underground bunker, where it will be more difficult to reach her. Send our brothers; we will implement the other plan.

  Very well, Viregruz returned. They are coming now. Viregruz turned back to his monitor after sending Zethias and Levecus to Nemizan.

  * * *

  Solar mirrors—many of them—carefully placed at just the right angle, directed the sun at Lissia, my capital city. Any vampire not hidden away in a darkened spot might have been fried, if it hadn't been for my Larentii's ingenious designs. I wasn't sure how they'd known to place them ahead of time, but they'd done it. Light-gathering nets, invisible to the naked eye, were placed in just the right spots and bled the reflected sunlight away, shooting it outward into space.

  My attackers thought they'd kill vampires—and lots of them. My vampires didn't even realize they were under attack. Thurlow and I destroyed the solar mirrors—he knew the Larentii trick of separating the atoms, and they floated harmlessly away. The nets were left in place, however, in case someone else got the same bright idea.

  "Are there any news crews fresh on the planet?" I stalked through the hallways of my palace, guards, servants, mates and comesuli trailing in my wake. I wanted to know if anybody had been notified so they could circle like vultures and record images of vampires frying. There were a few words I wanted to say to them if that was the case. Information was provided; Gavin, Tony, Drake and Drew supplied it with help from Trevor and his department, and we had six news crews in a meeting room at Adam's casino in no time flat.

  "What did you know, and who told you?" I demanded, after Merrill had come to place compulsion for me. They'd all gotten information—after paying a hefty fee to a high-ranking advisor on Twylec. They didn't look comfortable, either, when I informed them that the show they'd come to see had been canceled.

  "You knew something was going to happen and you failed to notify anyone." I was beginning to feel extremely angry. Turning to Gavin and Tony I hissed out, "Get Bryan." Bryan arrived quickly, with a handpicked news crew. He asked the questions, I stayed out of the picture. I was supposed to be on Nemizan, still, twiddling my fingers inside an underground bunker.

  Connegar folded in and I gave him the biggest hug, after giving one to Reemagar, who was offering me the Larentii equivalent of a foolish grin. They'd protected Le-Ath Veronis. I held both their hands as the news crews spilled their guts to Bryan, and they trilled softly when I found out how bloodthirsty the journalists really were. They wanted to see death and destruction and were ready to interview guests from Casino City after happily recording vampires screaming, dying and turning to ash.

  With help from my oldest vampires, I now had half a dozen news crews in front of casinos in Casino City, all telling viewers via live feeds about the crisis that had been averted on Le-Ath Veronis.

  "We have no specific information," I heard one reporter say as I stood with my mates and security team, my arms crossed angrily over my chest. "We only know from an unidentified source on Twylec that an attack was planned, and someone among the news crews passed information to the authorities so the attempt could be prevented."

  Bryan had one of his vampire reporters there, and he was asking questions. We hadn't told the news crews to spill their guts to him so he was getting the runaround, but he knew it was coming. He asked the questions anyway, and anyone watching the newsfeeds would see evasive reporters. The information that I'd wanted to be passed along was given out—that Twylec had somehow been behind all this. When the newsfeeds and interviews were over, we sent the news crews packing—Trevor and his department made sure they were loaded up and moved off world in as little time as possible.

  * * *

  Viregruz cursed and then proceeded to destroy his private study. His brothers would have to destroy the bitch Queen, but their plans included destroying Nemizan with her. No matter—in the aftermath, the Reth Alliance would be scrambling, making it easy for him and Solar Red to take it over. New leaders would come quickly and more le'meruh would be implemented. Viregruz calmed himself and sent for a Blood Captain. Prylvis would be notified and Solar Red would prepare to send out more Ra'Ak priests at a moment's notice. The Reth Alliance would be theirs—sooner than anticipated.

  * * *

  "Thank goodness that's done," I muttered as Gavin followed me to my suite. I was shocked to find Roff and his brother, Markoff, waiting outside the door.

  "Lissa, Giff's child has come," Roff said. I stared at him. He should be with her, celebrating. He seemed sad and upset instead.

  "What's wrong?" I said immediately. Markoff's face reflected the emotion displayed by Roff, so I knew something had happened.

  "Rolfe is trying to convince her otherwise, but well," Roff stared at his shoes.

  "What my brother is attempting to say," Markoff took up the conversation, "is that Giff fears for her child. She knows of your father's betrayal and interference, and of the price on your head. She refuses to allow you near the child. She worries that Toff will not be the only child taken. I know this is a blow, and I have her resignation," Markoff ha
nded an envelope to me.

  I stared in shock at the envelope now in my hand. It was addressed to me—in Giff's hand. "The baby is all right?" I looked up at Roff.

  "Yoff is fine." His face looked gray. The baby was fine—I just couldn't see him. Giff wouldn't allow it. If a more crushing blow could be delivered at the end of that long and awful day, I didn't know what it might be.

  "Rolfe is trying to convince her that this is foolish," Roff held out a hand.

  "Tell him not to bother. I'm going back to Nemizan, now." I folded away before anyone could stop me.

  I'd wondered why Giff hadn't come to see me after I'd told her about Toff. Well, Griffin wasn't done harming me yet. He'd saved Wyatt at Toff's expense, and the expense of everyone around him. Since he'd broken the rules and interfered, there was no telling how many ripples that act had created, or how many lives might be affected before those ripples stopped somewhere. I intended to go to Nemizan, just as I'd said, but I took a detour, first.

  The Guardian stood at the top of the Oklahoma State Capitol building three hundred years in the past. Night had fallen and a few stars twinkled overhead as I stared over the city. I remembered well the scents in the air around the city; it was early spring in Oklahoma. In nearby Nichols Hills, Gavin and I walked the perimeter of Winkler's borrowed mansion. If I'd known at that time just what my life might come to, would I have stood in the sun in a wheat field instead of digging into the soil to preserve my life? I didn't have an answer for that.

  * * *

  "Things have just taken a terrible turn," Griffin stared down at Wyatt, who slept peacefully in his crib.

  "Brenten, what are you talking about?" Amara stared at her mate.

  "I didn't bother Looking for all the Possibilities. I was afraid to go down those paths," Griffin sighed. "And now, Belen has removed my ability to Look into Wyatt's future. Since Lissa wouldn't punish me, he chose to do this in her stead. I've been Looking into the paths of others, now, and I don't know what to do. Deaths will come and there's no way for me to stop them."