by Izzy Shows
I wasn’t strong enough for that. Yet. So, I would bide my time until I could handle it, and then I was going to settle it. Whether other people agreed with me or not, I couldn’t just sit by and watch as the world burned around me. I didn’t trust the Order to handle things on their own, not when they’d all but refused to accept that there was a problem in the first place.
Hell, one of their own had been infected, and they hadn’t even noticed. What did that say about them? Certainly nothing good. It made me anxious, to say the least.
I heard the sound of a stick breaking and realized that Diego had to be walking up to meet the two of us at the car. My back stiffened, and I tried to calm myself down; it would do no good for me to freak out right now. I was the one who was going to have to keep the peace between Carmen and Diego. They weren’t going to do it on their own--Carmen couldn’t be trusted not to stir up trouble. Diego couldn’t be trusted not to insult her and rile her up.
And if she got riled up, who could be trusted not to fall into the trap of a fight breaking out? Certainly not either of them. It had been one thing when she’d met Finn and he hadn’t liked her. She could ignore a simple human, but another Wizard?
“Aren’t you going to introduce us?” Carmen smiled at me, jerking me out of my thoughts.
I lifted a hand and scratched the back of my head. “Er, right. Diego, this is Carmen. Carmen, this is Diego. She helped me with the vampire problem I had a while back. Diego is my mentor.”
I grimaced at that. I would have preferred not to have a mentor, but there wasn’t anything I could do about that. There were rules that had to be obeyed. Rigid rules. They were the only thing keeping me alive at the moment.
Carmen lifted her chin, and her eyes narrowed as she looked Diego up and down.
He had practically the same expression on his face.
I swallowed a lump in my throat and fidgeted with a stray string on my jeans. “And you two are going to get along.”
“I’m perfectly capable of behaving myself. It’s this inferior creature you have to worry about,” Carmen replied, lifting her hand to inspect her nails as she spoke.
I shifted a pleading glance at Diego.
Please be above this. Please recognize that she’s simply trying to get a rise out of you.
He rolled his shoulders back, letting out a deep sigh. “Vampire. I would expect no less from you.”
She arched an eyebrow. “You know nothing to expect from me.”
“Carmen has been nothing but civil with me in the past, Diego,” I said.
Although she’d dressed me up like a Barbie doll, and maybe that wasn’t the best example of civil behaviour. All the same, she’d never done anything that would make me doubt her ability to maintain control.
“How is it that you walk in the daylight?” Diego asked abruptly. “You shouldn’t be able to do that.”
She flashed her hand at him, wiggling her fingers. “Special moonlight ring. I carry the light of the moon with me to grant me the grace to pass under the sun. It’s only for a special few of us. I wouldn’t expect you to know anything about that.”
That was a bit of information to pocket. Apparently, the vampires he’d run into in the States didn’t have moonlight rings.
I filed that information into the back of my mind, pretending not to notice. Diego didn’t want me to know anything about the situation in the U.S., and I didn’t want to antagonize him. But maybe Carmen was the tool I needed to get that information out of him.
“What are you doing here, vampire?” he demanded.
“Her name is Carmen,” I said tightly.
“It’s all right, Blair. I understand that not all humans possess your enlightened view of the world.”
I arched an eyebrow at that. I was enlightened? That was news to me. I was just willing to work with people up until the point where they fucked me over. Maybe other people skipped that part and just assumed that the person was going to fuck them over. To a certain extent, I suppose I expected people to fuck me over, too. But that didn’t mean we couldn’t work together until we reached that point in our relationship. There was always the possibility that this would be the time where the universe didn’t fuck me for once.
I liked to think I was optimistic in that regard.
“Right. OK,” I said. “But what are you doing here, actually? I can’t believe that you’re here just to say hello.”
“You’re right about that.” She sighed. “I wish this was a pleasure visit, and perhaps we should have more of those, but this isn’t one. Lord Dudley sent me to inform you that he has need of you and hopes that you will forgive his prior behaviour.” She cut a hard glance at Diego. “He is not invited.”
I gaped at her. Dudley was actually apologizing for his behaviour? This was so new that I didn’t know what to do with the information. I’d never expected him to apologize for anything. He didn’t seem the sort to do it lightly, which must mean that this was a big deal.
He’d recognized the threat that lay inside his home. Yay for the apology, but damn it for the threat being real. And damn him for not being able to handle it. If he was calling for me, that meant that this was beyond him.
“Impressive,” Diego said.
I looked at him, my eyes wide with surprise. “What now?”
“The vampires appear to respect you. I haven’t seen that before.” He didn’t look happy about it, but it was clearly food for thought for him. “That doesn’t mean you can trust a word that comes out of their mouths, though.” And there was a bitter ring in his voice.
Had he trusted a vampire at some point? He seemed to harp on that point quite a bit, which seemed to indicate that there was a reason for it. I didn’t know why he would have done that. I knew better than to trust the vampires. I could still work with them, though.
“Of course we respect Blair,” Carmen said, appearing a little confused. “Why wouldn’t we? She’s done a lot for the community, and she’s assisted us with a vampire problem in the past. She’s proven herself to us.”
Oh, well, that was nice. I’d proven myself. I didn’t know that was even something that had needed to happen, but apparently I’d done a good enough job. Apparently, slaughtering a bunch of vampires hadn’t been the worst thing I could do. Then again, Dudley had been grateful for that in the past, so it shouldn’t be as much of a surprise for me.
Still.
I inhaled a deep breath and let it out slowly. “All right. Let’s get this party started, then. I’ll see you later, Diego.”
He nodded. “Be careful, Blair. You’re my responsibility, and I don’t like you going into a nest by yourself.”
“Aw, that’s sweet,” I said, smiling. “But I’ll be fine. I’ve done this before.”
And I was invited. Dudley wouldn’t invite me if he meant to kill me later.
Right?
Twelve
I stood across from Dudley’s desk, and Carmen leaned against the door behind me. The room was just as it always was: dimly lit and oozing masculinity from every corner.
“I hope you had a pleasant trip here,” Dudley said, leaning back in his chair.
“Carmen was very nice to me, if that’s what you mean.” I turned and flashed a smile at her. She inclined her head.
I was anxious, but I didn’t want to let them know that. It would give them a position of strength to work from, and I didn’t need that. I needed them to remember who and what I was.
“Carmen seems to have grown rather fond of you.” Dudley grinned in turn, and I heard Carmen cough behind me.
“Fond is a bit of an overstatement,” she said. “But the girl does good work. I cannot ignore that.”
That was true. I’d done good work in the past, and they were hoping I’d be able to do good work this time too. I was hoping for the same, although I would have preferred that they handle this in-house.
“And how goes--”
“Cut the shit, Dudley,” I said, then let out a sigh. “We both know I�
�m not here to catch up. What’s going on?”
His lips thinned into a curt line. He didn’t appreciate my tone, that much was obvious, but I didn’t have time to keep dancing around the subject. Every moment we weren’t handling the situation was a moment the enemy could use to grow in strength. I didn’t want that, and I was sure he didn’t, either.
“You were right,” he said at last. “The vampires. They’re out of control, and I want your help.”
“I don’t see what I can do to help. Shouldn’t you be keeping it in the family, so to speak? Handling it yourself? Surely you have the capability to do that.”
He glared at me with darkened eyes. “I would prefer not to slaughter a large number of my vampires, and that’s what would be required to ‘handle it within the family.’ That’s the only way we’ve ever handled rebellions in the past: with a show of strength. And as things currently are, that would mean turning more vampires to replenish the ranks. I’m sure you don’t want me taking your precious humans off the streets to do that.”
I gritted my teeth. “You can’t do that.”
“I can, but as I said, I would prefer not to. I’m sure you would prefer I not do that as well.”
I rolled my shoulders back and paced to one side, then back to my original position, front and centre of the desk. “You’re right, I don’t want you doing that. But that doesn’t mean there’s anything I can do to help. This seems beyond me, Dudley.”
He inclined his head. “I didn’t expect you to grasp the concept quickly, but don’t fear. There is something you can do to help. There’s a large contingent of vampires in my ranks who are afraid of you. They refer to you as ‘the Hunter,’ and they whisper your name with fear.”
Where was he going with this? I frowned. I hadn’t realized there were vampires who were straight-up afraid of me. How had I reached such a point in my career? All I’d done was slaughter a few vampires. Although I guessed when you looked at the grand scheme of it all, it had been more than a few vampires, and it had been rather brutal. Talk like that would get around, and I supposed it wasn’t entirely out of the question for me to have become the supernatural bogeyman.
That wasn’t a role I was entirely pleased to have assumed. I didn’t want to be the bogeyman. I didn’t want to be known at all. I wanted to go about my business as normal. Keep people safe. Not worry about people hunting me down because they were afraid of what I was capable of.
I also didn’t want to get involved in a vampire civil war. That sounded like a recipe for disaster. Hadn’t I just gotten out of the fire with one group of people, and now he wanted me to jump into a different fire?
There was no way he could guarantee my safety in this, after all. Not that I’d want him to. Not that I’d ask him to. That would be admitting that I couldn’t take care of myself, and that was a bad idea altogether. He needed to know I could handle any situation that was thrown at me, because if he didn’t, he’d think he could get rid of me.
Find a real Wizard to take my place.
Not Diego, though, because Diego would sooner be rid of all the vampires in London than work with even one of them. Certainly not the one who ruled the nest.
I let out a heavy sigh and rubbed the back of my head. “So, you’ve got some vampires who are afraid of me. Good for you. I still don’t see what you want from me.”
Dudley looked at me with both eyebrows raised, as if he was waiting for me to put two and two together.
I was acutely aware of my need to fidget under his gaze, but I forced myself to remain still save for crossing my arms over my chest. That way, I could pick at the skin of my forearms without him noticing.
Hopefully. Maybe his vampire senses would allow him to hear the sound of my fingernails scraping my skin, but at least I could pretend that he couldn’t hear it. I shook my head and paced to one side, giving up the pretence of being cool under pressure. I ran a hand through my long, almost white hair and tangled my fingers in the ends, twisting the hair around my hand before I let go and dropped my hand back to my side.
I didn’t get it. I couldn’t do the simple math that he was expecting from me.
His vampires were afraid of me. That was both good and bad, in my book. It meant they knew who I was, and maybe they’d decide to get rid of me. I didn’t want a pack of vampires breathing down my neck because they were afraid of me. I had enough on my plate, between the Others and every little thing that went wrong with them tainting people.
The good of it was that, if I was enough of a threat, maybe it would deter them from acting out in London. That would definitely make things a little easier, if I didn’t have to worry about the vampires in London. But clearly that wasn’t good enough, because those three vampires had been out on their own, decrying Dudley’s rules. So far, I was seeing down sides and not up sides.
But what did that have to do with his vampire rebellion problem? I didn’t see where it helped Dudley at all.
I let out a frustrated sigh. “I’m not getting it, Dudley. What am I missing?”
“He wants you to scare them,” Carmen said.
I whirled to look at her. “What do you mean?”
“He wants you to scare them back into place. Teach them that what they’re up to isn’t acceptable. He wants you to be a weapon.”
“A weapon,” I echoed. I turned to face Dudley again. “You want to use me like a tool to keep your vampires in line?”
He nodded. “Precisely. You scare the vampires, so if they see you working with me, they’ll think that to cross me is to get on your bad side. You’ll hunt them down. It should put them back in their place without too much for you to do. If all goes according to plan, you should simply need to stand there and look threatening.”
I found myself wishing that Weylyn were there. He would have been a comfort in this situation, and he probably would have been able to tell me whether this was a bad idea or not.
I couldn’t be trusted to make that decision on my own. I was the Queen of Bad Mistakes. I always ended up on the wrong side of things, somehow. No matter how hard I tried to do things the right way, they always ended up screwing me.
“I fail to see how it benefits me to let you use me,” I said. What I wasn’t saying was that I detested the notion of being used at all. I wanted him to find a different way of keeping his vampires in line, a way that didn’t require that I bend knee to a vampire Baron.
“It’s quite simple, Ms. Sheach,” he said, steepling his fingers in front of him. “It’s either this, or you have a city full of reckless vampires doing whatever they want.”
I growled, balling my hands into fists. Damn him, he knew I couldn’t allow that to happen. He knew I was going to do everything I could to keep my city safe.
“Fuck you, dude. Seriously, you’re being a real prick right now,” I said.
And I immediately regretted it. His face darkened, and he leaned forward over his desk. His lips parted to reveal his fangs.
“Careful, Ms. Sheach. We have a very tenuous alliance. I would hate to have to be rid of it.”
To my credit, I didn’t swallow. I didn’t allow myself to show the fear that had me quaking in my boots. Figuratively speaking.
“Fine,” I said. “You have a deal.”
Thirteen
I was allowed to go home strictly for the purpose of arming myself further. I hadn’t entered Dudley’s mansion unarmed--I always had my wands and stakes on me when I went to visit him, along with my shield rings, wind chain, and strength bracer. But I wanted to get my staff. And Weylyn.
Oh, yeah, I was bringing a giant arctic wolf into their midst, and there wasn’t a damned thing they could do about it. It would go a long way towards making me look threatening, I’d explained to Dudley, and he’d only put up a little bit of a fight at the thought of it.
We both knew that Weylyn could tear vampires limb from limb with his teeth. Dudley wasn’t a stranger to a Wizard’s familiar, apparently, which made me feel a little better about the whole th
ing. I didn’t have to explain that Weylyn was powerful; he knew it already.
So, I went home and got the staff of unknowable power and collected Weylyn, then returned to the mansion.
Now, I was standing to the right and slightly behind a throne. Yeah, a bloody throne. Apparently, no one had given the vampires a memo explaining that this was the twenty-first century, because they were all dressed just as you’d expect vampires to dress, in varying degrees of period garb. Some were wearing Victorian-era clothing, while some were a little more medieval. Dudley was the only one in modern garb: he was wearing a black pinstriped suit.
At least he wasn’t wearing a crown. If he had been, I don’t think I would have been able to keep a straight face throughout the affair. I couldn’t take this all as seriously as I was supposed to.
But then, a roomful of vampires did a lot to help me feel more serious. I didn’t want to get eaten, and I didn’t like the way they were all looking at me. Anxious and furtive glances were exchanged among several of the vampires, but a lot more of them looked angry. Some of them dared to flash their fangs at me.
I made fire dance on their clothes for a minute or two before I extinguished it. They didn’t like that much, but they needed to be reminded that I wasn’t someone to mess with. Dudley wasn’t entirely pleased--I could tell from the grim set of his lips--but he didn’t say a word.
He’d told me to look as threatening as possible, and I liked to think I cut a particularly scary picture standing behind the throne and scowling. I was wearing my black tank top and ripped jeans. I’d chosen to discard my jackets because it was comfortably warm in the mansion, and also because the tank top showed off my muscles in way I thought made me look more threatening than the jackets did. I was gripping the staff in one hand, and with the other I was idly playing with fire, making it dance from finger to finger, as if it was no big deal. As if it wasn’t costing me energy to keep up the pretence. But Dudley had said that I shouldn’t need to be involved in a fight. I just needed to look threatening for now. And that was what I was trying to do.
