“People are dying,” I said. “ Vampires are dying-”
“Yes, yes, and you’re the only one who is fighting it, or can stop it?” Nyissa said, and I looked sidelong at her. “You bring us this ridiculous story of remote attacks on other vampires by graffiti, of all things, and then ask us to turn our backs on the real threat right here.”
“And yet, we had heard of the disturbing attacks on other vampires,” Transomnia said pleasantly. “Now why is it, Nyissa, that when you argue with her I feel like taking her side-her my worst enemy, and you my most loyal servant?”
While she froze, I leapt in. “No, my master is the last best hope to stop it. He’s a real old-school magician with hidden knowledge, and we need to get him involved. So I need you to do him a favor on my behalf, something spectacular, so he’ll forget I… I blew him off.”
Nyissa looked at me with sharp amusement. “To make him forget you stripped your mastermark, you mean,” she said, eyes narrowing at me. “According to Zinaga, Arcturus considers it a personal insult. Our favor would need to be spectacular indeed.”
“Honoring her request would be spectacular… and in the apprentice’s interests as well,” Transomnia mused. “It would make it unlikely she would rat you out to the authorities.”
“Can we not order the apprentice to silence?” Gregor asked.
“Threats to the apprentice will not endear us to the master,” Nyissa said, “and are not likely to be effective. Zinaga’s powers are growing.”
“Look, this… plague affects all of us,” I said. “And, yes, I am effectively the only one fighting it. The police are tripping over themselves because they can’t involve magicians in the investigation. The Consulate can’t help because they’re vampires, and this stuff will eat them alive. Even you can’t help-directly. But you can help me try.”
Transomnia frowned. “Assuming I wanted to help you fight this plague,” he said, “why should I allow an army of my enemies to flourish in my stronghold?”
“They aren’t your enemies. You, personally, have a bad history with skindancers,” I said. “So you banned skindancing magic here. But this town is known for its tattooing, and by acting like gangsters, you’ve pissed off a townful of people, half of whom have magical powers.”
“What does that matter?” Gregor said. “We have the Sanctuary Stone-”
“It’s a burglar alarm, not a defense system,” I said. “If Nyissa built it, she knows.”
“We… we could still take them,” Nyissa said, resentful and almost… pouting?
“I know you’re vampires,” I said, trying to remain patient, trying to remain calm with her on the arm of my chair. “You’re tough, experienced and powerful. You might win the battle, but if it came to that, you’d almost certainly lose the war-you’d have to flee Blood Rock.”
“Well, aren’t you the peacemaker,” Transomnia said, still smiling pleasantly, but more mocking. “Shooting for a secretary of state position in the new administration?” The vampires laughed at me, and I said nothing. “Do you have any suggestions, Dakota Frost?”
“Start with an olive branch to Arcturus,” I said. “I need him in this fight, and more importantly, we all need to be on the same side. Send him the message that you’re laying off the ban on exposed tattoos, that you’re willing to talk. He’s respected in Blood Rock.”
“Would you like Nyissa to deliver this olive branch for you?” Transomnia said.
“Me?” Nyissa said, standing. “My Lord, what have I done to deserve-”
“Nyissa,” Transomnia said. His voice was strangely… gentle, almost like he was dancing around a difficult subject. “You may not be powerful, but your personality is strong. No one will mistake delivering a message for weakness. I want the townspeople to start thinking of you as an authority figure, and not just the pretty madam of the brothel.”
“I was right. This is a brothel, a B amp;D B amp;B,” I said. Were all the vampires like this? Little things Calaphase had said started to add up-all the dates he went on, how cagey he was about his source of income. Even some things Saffron said now sounded suspect; did she have a stable of human clients as well? “For what it’s worth… I’m sorry you have to live this way.”
“Don’t be,” Transomnia said. “Hiding here beats being a lackey for a serial killer.”
“Or running a protection racket,” Nyissa said.
“Like the Oakdale Clan was running with the werehouse,” I said.
“No,” Transomnia said. “We served a valuable function, keeping the werekin hidden. I picked the Clan… I picked Calaphase because he was an honorable man.”
“Yes, he was,” I said, eyes tearing up a little. “You made a good choice.”
Transomnia’s eyes narrowed. He rose from the throne and walked down to me. I squirmed in my chair, trembling, as he turned aside my head to stare at my neck. My heart started beating in my chest as he kept staring at my bite marks.
Finally I said, “It’s not an open invitation.”
Transomnia smiled, full fangs, and I looked away. “Look at me,” he said.
Unwillingly I looked up, eyes off center from his glowing red pupils. All the other vamps were staring down at me hungrily. Now that they had started to think of me as willing meat, you could see them calculating how they might get their own bite of the pie.
“How did you get that wound, Frost?” Transomnia said, relishing the moment.
“I seduced Calaphase,” I said, and Transomnia flinched. “Then he got carried away.”
“ You seduced-” Transomnia began, scowling-and then his face softened. “You seduced him, he bit you… and then he died right in front of you.”
“The same night,” I said, staring at the floor. “That same hour. He saved my life, then had the blood sucked right out of him by magic graffiti.”
Transomnia stood there. “I wanted to kill him,” he said, his hand falling to my shoulder. “Just like I wanted to kill you for causing my exile from the clan. You’ll never know how much. Being the thrall of Mirabilus was… horrible. You saw how I acted under his geas.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. Mirabilus skinned his victims alive-and Transomnia had acted like his sick little protege while under his spell. I couldn’t imagine what he’d made Transomnia do-and didn’t want to. “I never meant to get you kicked out.”
“Calaphase was attracted to you and overreacted,” Transomnia said. “But how could he have known what exile would do to me? I couldn’t betray Mirabilus’s secrets, not even with Calaphase’s aura protecting me from the worst of the geas. I don’t blame him… anymore.”
His hand squeezed my shoulder. I shuddered at that easy familiarity. I didn’t like him that close, either physically or emotionally. But… some part of me appreciated that brief second of comfort. Transomnia wasn’t just someone who assaulted me, or who had hurt my daughter. He was someone who knew Calaphase and regretted his passing.
Transomnia released me, then turned and ascended to his borrowed throne. “No matter our disagreements,” he said, sitting, “I do not think I can let him go unavenged.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” I said quietly. “How are we going to do that?”
“Thanks to you, Dakota Frost,” Transomnia said, “I’m going to do nothing. I’m now known to the police as the dangerous minion of a serial killer, rather than third flunky to the left in an obscure vampire biker gang. I can’t even go by name in public anymore.”
I swallowed. I would never know everything Transomnia had lost. “So… ”
“So I am going to let you do this for me,” Transomnia said. “Let you, you understand? I will allow you to return to Blood Rock, and even extend an olive branch to your old master, so you may learn what you need to learn to fight this thing. But this is a favor I am doing for you.”
After a moment, I nodded. “I understand. Thank you, Lord Transomnia.”
Transomnia stared at me for a long time, then his mouth quirked up in a smile. “If I do this thing fo
r you, one day I may ask you for a favor,” he said, miming a hoarse old Italian accent. “That day may never come-”
I laughed-I couldn’t help myself. I quickly choked it off, hoping not to piss him off; but while the other vampires were unamused I could see that the guards found it quite funny. Finally I managed, “One wish at your command, Don Transomnia.”
“Excellent,” Transomnia said. “Get her a token.”
Nyissa sighed, climbing the steps. “Yes, of course, my Lord.”
“She’s still the enemy,” Gregor said, somewhat perplexed. “ They’re still the enemy.”
“Oh, shut up, Gregor,” Nyissa said. “Why do we keep you around?”
“I seem to recall I’m good with figures,” he replied.
“If Arcturus can help her, Frost’s next step will likely be to go to the Consulates for aid,” Transomnia said, very calmly, lecturing without sounding like he was talking to a child. “If she petitions with our backing, and the Vampire Queen accepts her help, our standing will be enhanced, and this overture can be followed by another. If they do not, we can plan accordingly. So we shall give her a token to remove any doubt about our backing for Frost.”
“I hate to say this, Trans,” I said, flipping open the cuffs and standing as Nyissa stepped behind the throne. “I really do. But being in charge has done well for you.”
“And getting the shit kicked out of you has done the same,” he responded. “You’ve developed quite the backbone to go along with that bravado.”
Nyissa returned with a small gold amulet on a chain and held it out to Transomnia. “What did I say?” he asked. “Give it to her.” When she hesitated again, he said, glancing at me, “Lady Nyissa, Dakota is
… family now, so I’ll tolerate this. But if she was a representative of the Consulates, or, the dark night forbid it, the Gentry… ”
Nyissa straightened. “I understand,” she said. “You could not be so lenient.”
“ I was going to say, we must present a united front,” Transomnia said. “If discord leads to actual harm, however… I assure you, I cannot show lenience.”
Nyissa walked down the steps of the throne to stand before me. “Please accept the sign of the House Beyond Sleep, Dakota Frost.”
“Thank you, Lady Nyissa,” I said, taking the chain and slipping it around my neck. “Far more convenient than the sign of the House of Saffron, and classier than a laminated ID card.”
“Calaphase didn’t give you one of those silly things, did he?” Transomnia asked.
“Yeah,” I said. “About the only thing I have left from him.”
Transomnia frowned. “Go in peace, Dakota Frost,” he said. “Talk to your old master, make your case to the Consulates, the Gentry, to whomever you have to, and the House Beyond Sleep will protect you, for what good that will do. But remember one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“The balance sheet has changed, Dakota Frost,” Transomnia said. “Now, you owe me.”
A Drop of Blood and a Quarter
The limo slid through the hairpin turns and rickety bridges of Blood Rock. I sat in the rear seat, staring forward, at Nyissa, who sat opposite me, green eyes blazing, her shag of violet hair shimmering against her porcelain-white skin. Her corset-topped dress-like coat flared open on the seat around her to expose leggings and riding boots, and she had woven strips of cloth into her outfit, accentuating her curves with a dangerous Mad-Max-meets-steampunk air.
Knowing that she was one of the Sanctuary’s professional dominatrices should have made her less threatening, but she didn’t carry a crop: she carried a metal poker. She’d threatened to blind me the last time we met. And I was alone in the car with her.
Her eyes blazed at the gold coin around my neck.
“I’m sorry about the Stone,” I began. “I didn’t know-”
“I don’t care if this makes political or strategic sense,” she interrupted. “Vampires survive by being disciplined. By following the rules. Those who violate the rules must be punished, and yet he has rewarded you.”
“I’m sorry to offend you,” I said. “But I called ahead. I was willing to walk away… ”
“That is not the point. Normally, to win protection, a client must offer… tribute,” she said, rolling the poker in her fingers. “Blood, and money, the occasional service.”
“That protection racket again,” I said.
“An act of submission,” she countered. “Clients, after all, come to us-as you did.”
“Not willingly,” I said. “Only because I had no other option. And I’d have thought twice if I had known a favor required a pound of flesh.”
She laughed at me. “Surely a vampire has demanded service of you before,” she said. “Were you not under the protection of the Vampire Queen of Little Five Points?”
“She never asked anything of me-” I said, then stopped. That was not quite true.
“She had to take blood, or she could not have protected you,” Nyissa said, eyes boring into me. “If you were too skittish for a bite, perhaps she demanded a cut.”
“A pinprick,” I said. “One of those little medical finger pricks.”
Nyissa nodded. “How sanitary. I use them myself. And what toll did she require?”
“I didn’t want her help,” I said hotly. “I just needed safe passage-”
“Past my master, Transomnia, who asked for blood as his toll,” she said. I squirmed, and she smiled. “Yes, I know your history. You refused his toll, and paid another price.”
“Are you vampires or trolls?” I asked. “He got kicked out over that.”
“And yet we must live, and so even passersby must pay the toll,” she purred, twirling the poker in her hands. “Unlike humans, vampires need not kill their prey to feed, so the arrangement worked well for centuries, until you Edgeworlders upset the order.”
“We never intended to starve you,” I said, staring at the poker. The light from her eyes was actually reflecting off its metal surface, which somehow made the glow more real. “We just wanted to use magic freely, and all the stuffy old rules just sounded like excuses.”
“Understandable, but now you know our secret. Vampires trade in sex and blood. We demand submission and tribute from our favored clients, and grant them safety in return. For those not so favored, there is the toll of passage.”
I sat there frozen, acutely feeling the blood pound in my throat.
Her eyes gleamed. “I think I shall make you pay the toll.”
“Transomnia gave me his protection,” I said.
“From external threats, but not from me,” she said. “And your ignorance is no longer an excuse. If you refuse me, you will pay another price. I will not help you. In fact, I will throw this olive branch in Arcturus’ face. When I’m done, he will rather die than help you-”
“Transomnia ordered you to help me,” I said.
“And what if I disobey him?” she said, leaning back in the seat and thwapping the poker against her palm. “We have seen what he does to those who break the rules. I will likely be rewarded. What a coup, to make his enemy my client for a drop of blood and a quarter.”
“I’m not going to give you blood,” I said, mouth dry as paper. “And I have no money.”
“Not a drop? Not even a quarter?” Nyissa said, smiling viciously. “That is all I demand for my clients to claim protection. Just a token of the traditional toll of blood and money. That’s all you’d have to give up. Just a drop of blood… and a quarter.”
“That… ” sounds so reasonable, I thought, but it also sounded like a deal with the devil. I didn’t know what being her client meant, and given that she was a vampire dominatrix I had no desire to find out. Well, very little desire. Still… ”That’s so not going to happen.”
“I shall make you my client,” she said more firmly, mouth opening until I could see her fangs. “But not yet. For now, you are just a passerby. Nothing more than a toll would be appropriate. But what toll could I demand that would
give you the taste to return?”
She pulled her dress apart father, and my eyes went wide.
“Now,” she said, planting one foot in the middle of the limo, “kiss my boot.”
I stared at her for a moment. Then I laughed. “I have far too much self-respect-”
“You will kiss my boot,” she said imperiously, “or I will not help you. That is my toll.”
“But… Transomnia gave me his protection. He ordered you to help me,” I said, voice sounding unpleasantly petulant. For her part, Nyissa arched an eyebrow and tilted her head in an effort to look imperious. “I don’t think he will approve of you adding conditions.”
“But Transomnia is not here,” she repeated, “and he need not know.”
I just stared at her, wearing her boots, her corset, with her poker, so like a crop.
“You know you want to,” she said, eyes burning at me.
“Are you… hitting on me?” I said, eyes tightening. Her lips slowly curled into a smile-and then mine into a snarl. “Oh, you insensitive bitch! ”
I don’t think it was possible for someone as pale as Nyissa to actually blanch, but her eyes widened and her eyebrows shot up, accomplishing the same thing. “Well,” she said, scowling, “whether you want to or not, you must lick my boots, or I will not help-”
“I’d rather die!” I snapped, leaning forward, and as I did so I felt a flush hit my cheeks and a ripple of mana go through my tattoos. “The hell with you and your toll! You can go shit on Arcturus’ doorstep for all I care, and sort it out with Transomnia!”
Nyissa froze. “My apologies,” she said carefully, her eyes tracing my tattoos, no doubt following the mana still trickling through them. “Given the stories that are told about you and the Maid of Little Five Points, I thought you would find that appealing.”
“Have you lost your mind? Were you not listening?” I snarled. “My lover was just murdered, and here you are, treating me like a side of fresh meat.”
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