Bella Flores Urban Fantasy Collection

by R D Martin

  7

  She had taken a few wrong turns and had to ask for help twice before she made it back to her shared quarters. Bella threw open the doors and strode in, half hoping to see the Finder's box sitting atop its plinth whole and unmarred, and it was almost a punch in the gut to see it still lying on the ground.

  The noise from her entrance must have roused Cat because he came trotting through the doorway of her room. The way his tail twitched in the air told her the feline was happy about something.

  "What did you do?" Her brow furrowed as she stared down her familiar. When his pleasure showed like that, it meant trouble for her.

  "Whatever do you mean?"

  "Just tell me."

  "Oh, all right. You know, I think I spoil you a little too much sometimes. I don't think any other familiar would let you talk to them the way you talk to me. It's a fault. I guess I just care too much."

  "Cat?"

  "Yes?"

  "I've had a hard day, and I may have just started a war—"

  "A war? You? I hardly think so. You have a hard time killing spiders, and you hate spiders."

  Bella huffed. Who didn't hate them? All those legs, and the poison. Oh, and the eyes. The thought of all those eyes staring at her gave her the shivers. "Just tell me already."

  Bella didn't know if all cats could do it, but her familiar stared at her with a look that could only be called smug.

  "So, as you know, there's no television here. After your meltdown before"—Bella made a noise at his choice of words. She'd had Cat long enough to know he'd ignore any objection she made—"I got bored and began wandering around this place. It really is massive, you know." He paused as if to wait for her to praise him, but he continued as the quiet stretched.

  "I was about to turn back when I caught the scent of something amazing. I followed the trail until it took me to a dead end. The smell was wafting through a crack in the wall. I couldn't get through, so I did the next best thing. I found the nearest shadow and stepped across."

  Even though the way he said it made Bella imagine Cat stepping over a shadow, she knew what he really meant. All cats, by nature, can show up where they're least expected. You could open a locked room you knew to be empty and find a cat perched on a windowsill, basking in warm afternoon light. Magical cats took this further with the ability to shadow-step.

  Shadow-stepping is not a rare ability, since there are a lot of supernatural creatures who do it. Since all shadows are linked, shadow-stepping allows someone to literally step into a shadow in one place and step out of the shadow in another. The major drawback of the magic is that, for it to work, most creatures doing it have to know the place they step to. Not just know it, as in having been there before, but know it so well they can describe it well enough for a blind man to recognize it.

  For cats, though, shadow-stepping was different. Cats didn't have to know where they were going, nor did they need to have been there before. Shadows were less like a tunnel for them to travel through and more like an open field to be explored.

  "Okay, so? What did you find?"

  "The kitchens. I found the kitchens." Cat sat up a little straighter, as though announcing he'd found the cure for cancer.

  "The kitchens?" Bella groaned. Trust her familiar to follow his stomach anywhere he went. If she'd had something at hand, anything, she'd have thrown it at him.

  "You don't understand. They keep cages of mice down there. Cages. Can we get cages for the apartment? I mean, it really would be best, don't you think? I wouldn't have to go out hunting so often, putting my life and hide at risk every time you're out. It would solve a lot of problems. Not to mention the money you'd save."

  "And have them scurrying around my apartment the first time you left it unlocked? No, thanks. Besides, we've got more important things to do."

  "More important than food? You know, there's a reason human lives always seem so messed up. You forget what's important."

  "Cat, shut up before I turn you into a mouse."

  "You'd have done that a long time ago if you could have."

  "Well, you're tempting me to try this time."

  Cat sighed as though carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. "Okay. So, what's wrong now? You said something about war? What have you done?"

  "Why do you think I did anything?"

  "Because you always do. Now spill or I'm going back to the kitchens."

  With all his interruptions to ask questions, too many of which she didn't have answers to, it felt as though it took forever to explain. When she finished, she was almost out of breath from trying to race through the ending.

  "So you voted for something and you didn't know what. That about sum it up?"

  Bella nodded. To hear her mistake boiled down so much was embarrassing, and she was glad no one else was around to hear it.

  "You're an idiot."

  "Excuse me?" Bella jerked up almost as if he had struck her. She'd expected him to say several things, but that wasn't on the list of them.

  "I said you're an idiot. If you didn't know what you were voting for, you shouldn't have voted."

  "I had no choice. They made me vote."

  "Did they? Did someone hold a gun to your head and force you to choose?"

  "Well, no. But everyone was staring at me, expecting me to—"

  "And there's your problem again. You keep trying to do what everyone expects you to do. Did you even stop for a second to ask what the choices were? If they really couldn't move on until you voted, then you had the time."

  "It's not like that. I mean, people were yelling and…" And what? Delegates might have been yelling, but they couldn't have done anything. She had had the time to at least learn the choice but had felt too embarrassed to do so. Burying her face in her hands, she tried to stifle a groan.

  "And now you're going to try locating the Finder and hope he can fix everything? I take back the idiot comment. You're not an idiot. You're a moron hoping to be an idiot someday."

  "Okay, Cat. That's enough. If you're so smart, what would you do?"

  "Me? That's easy. Report the Finder missing, perhaps get the vote delayed while his disappearance is being investigated. While that's going on, learn as much about this motion as you can. You can't unvote, but at least you can make an informed vote."

  He's right. It was a hard pill to swallow, but his ideas made sense. If she reported the destruction to the Finder's box to the Conclave leaders, they'd have to delay the vote. And while she was talking to them, she could learn what was really going on, why the Conclave would want to break off from the Imperium. They would have to know, right?

  Reaching her conclusion, she opened the room's double doors but looked over her shoulder. Cat sat stiff as a board, watching her leave without blinking, as though waiting for the doors to close behind her. It was unnerving.

  "What are you going to do while I'm gone?"

  "Me? I will inspect some cages." He stood and turned, sauntering back into the adjoining room and disappearing around the corner.

  Bella shook her head. Trust Cat to be Cat. Insulting as he was, and too often correct for her comfort, he never pretended to be anything other than what he was. She was sure there was a lesson in there somewhere.

  Straightening her spine and tossing her hair back, she released the doors and stepped into the corridor beyond. The doors closed with a thud and click that echoed down the halls in both directions. The click sounded like someone pulling back the hammer on a gun. She only hoped the barrel wasn't pointed at her.

  8

  Bella followed the receptionist into an office that would make any world leader either very happy or very jealous. The room was larger than her entire apartment would be if all its walls were knocked out and the bathroom removed. Shelves made of a chocolate-brown wood lined the walls all around, each one holding a mass of old books with rich leather spines. She couldn't name the vast majority of them, but she had no doubt every one was a first edition.

  A fireplac
e was built into the wall in the one spot not covered with bookshelves. The stone maw was enough for three men to walk in without ducking and stand shoulder-to-shoulder. She half expected flames to leap into life as she stared at it, but its soot-free walls and general lack of char told her the fireplace had never seen so much as a match lit for it, much less a roaring fire. Besides, if Cat was right, and this structure was underground, lighting a fire in here would kill everything in the place not already undead.

  In the center of the room sat a short oblong table flanked on both sides by deep brown leather couches. All three items sat on a woven rug so thick walking barefoot on it would be like walking on a cloud. Though the couches looked brand new, they still appeared as comfortable as any she'd seen and had an inviting feeling that almost demanded she sit on them.

  On the far side of the room, almost against the wall itself, was a brown wooden desk that almost matched the couches for color. Unlike the rest of the room, this desk shouted neither comfort nor wealth. Instead, it was almost utilitarian. Plain surfaces and sharp corners made it look no different from that of any manager in any corporate office. Well, perhaps not any manager, but definitely senior management rather than corporate officers.

  Her heart leaped from her chest as she spied the occupant in the chair behind the plain desk. Darius, with his long hair, piercing eyes, and powerful presence, looked up from the sheaf of papers he was examining and smiled. It wasn't the million-watt smile she'd experienced, nor was it perfunctory. Instead, it seemed like the smile of a man happy just to see an old friend, and it still made her pulse race a little harder.

  "Prime. Welcome. Please, have a seat." Darius stood behind his desk and walked around while holding out a hand toward the couches in the room's center. "I must admit, I did not expect to see you after the vote. It is most gratifying to be surprised after so many centuries."

  "I, um, I'm happy to be here. Though, to tell the truth, I have a bit of a problem and I was hoping you could help."

  "A problem?" He continued his languorous pace to the couches. The way he took his time was as much a surprise to her as the fact that he had a limp and favored his right leg. She'd always imagined being a vampire meant not having to deal with things like that anymore. He must have noticed her staring because the corner of his mouth twitched down for the briefest second before he spoke again. "What can I do to help? Surely your master would—"

  "He's gone."

  "Gone? Gone how? I was not informed of his leaving and none of the spell casters have reported breaks in the wards."

  "That's just it. I don't know how he's gone." Bella launched into her story of the Finder's disappearance. It was easy to talk to Darius, and Bella told him everything. The vampire didn't even appear to mind when she went off on a tangent. And as embarrassed as she was about her stupid vote, he didn't appear to judge her at all. If only William had been like this, they would still be together.

  Reaching the end of her story, Bella slumped back on the couch, exhausted both physically and emotionally. Strange as it seemed, she felt a warm sensation in her center, as though her retelling had been almost cathartic.

  Darius made a gesture to his right, and the air beside him blurred for the shortest moment before resolving itself into a vampire. The speed at which they moved was astounding. Studying the new arrival, she realized he looked familiar, and though it took her a moment she remembered where she'd seen him. This was the vampire at the portal landing pad, the one with his nose in the air and the slicked-back hair. Even standing next to an Elder, he still exuded an air of superiority that made her bristle.

  The young vampire knelt at the side of the couch and listened as Darius whispered in his ear. Rising, the vampire gave Bella a look that made her skin crawl, and disappeared in another blur. His appearance and disappearance reminded her why even young vampires should be feared.

  "I hope you don't mind, but I've sent someone to check your quarters. If there is anything to be found, it will be. As for the other matter…" Darius got up and walked around the couch to a low table behind it. There was a chorus of clinking and he returned with a glass in each hand, one of which he offered to her. She must have blanched at the red liquid, because he chuckled before speaking. "It's wine. A rather excellent vintage too."

  Bella took the glass and swirled the liquid, watching it crawl up the side of the glass, inching its way toward the container's lip. It was a stray thought, but she realized that if the red wine were to spill on the rug, the color would blend in so well it might as well have been invisible. Another reminder of where she was and who she was surrounded by. It wouldn't take a moment for Darius to reach over and tear out her throat, and there would be nothing she could do to stop him. The wine inched closer to the glass's edge, threatening to spill over any second.

  Darius said something, snapping Bella out of her macabre thoughts. Looking up, she shook her head to clear her mind, trying to remember what he'd said. "I'm sorry. I… I was lost in thought. What did you say?" It was embarrassing to admit, and she felt a blush start a slow burn.

  "I said there's nothing I can do about the vote. You are a Prime, empowered to vote in your master's place."

  "But I didn't know what I was voting for."

  "I understand, but the system ensures that everyone is heard regardless of circumstance. I'm sorry, but the vote must stand. If it bothers you so much, vote against the motion tomorrow."

  "But what is the motion for? I mean, I know it's about severing ties with the Imperium, but why would we do that? They keep us hidden from the mundane world, keep us protected and safe, don't they? Why would we give that up?"

  "That's how some beings see it, true." Taking a sip of his own drink, he placed the glass on the table separating them and settled back. "Others don't see it the same way. They view the Imperium as subjugators, ready and willing to grind down any who would stand to oppose their power."

  "That's not right."

  "Isn't it? When the vampires grew too numerous in the seventeenth century, the Imperium unleashed a spell that killed almost a quarter of the Italian humans."

  "Wait, what? What are you talking about? I've never heard of anything like that."

  "Of course you have. History books refer to it as the bubonic plague."

  "Wait. Wasn't that the Black Plague? But that was, what, three or four hundred years earlier?"

  "Science," Darius scoffed but cleared his throat and continued. "Science says a virus carried by fleas that infected rats and people started the Black Plague. It's wrong, though. The Black Plague was a spell that went wrong. Later, when we became strong enough to challenge the Imperium, they used the same spell to start the plague in Italy, though this time they kept it under control."

  "But why would they do that? How would that even work? Vampires are immune to disease, aren't you?"

  "We are. But we are not immune to hunger."

  "I don't get—" But then she did, and it was as though an explosion happened in her mind. "So they poisoned your food source."

  The vampire smiled and nodded. "We can't catch diseases and are immune to most magic, but poison our food and we are poisoned too."

  "But, but that's awful. The plague killed millions of people."

  "It did, and when the plague served its purpose, cutting us down from thousands to a mere handful, they ended it."

  Bella watched Darius rub his right leg as though he was trying to ease a knot in it.

  "And what they've done to us isn't even the worst of it. The American dust bowl wiped out a colony of nature and water spirits working to set up an American Council that would keep the Imperium out of the country."

  Darius continued to recount disasters including earthquakes, fires, and floods. Then he moved on to individual disappearances. The last struck a chord with Bella.

  "So, how does voting to separate from the Imperium solve anything? They're too powerful. Why would they even need the Conclave in the first place?" It was a fair question. If they were stro
ng enough to wipe out most of the vampires in Italy and didn't care about the human cost, what would stop them from destroying anyone standing against them?

  "Because they can't control us without our consent. It's true, individually we are weaker than their organization, but if even half the supernatural world rises against them, there would be no way to keep it secret. If the world knew about us, there would be no need for an Imperium. Once the genie is out of the bottle on a global scale, there is no putting it back."

  "So it's about freedom, then?" She had to admit, the argument was tempting. To use magic whenever she wanted without fear from humans or the Imperium would change her life. No more skulking in the shadows, no more lying to friends or trying to hide who she was. That was a world she dreamed of.

  "That's the argument. If we were free of Imperium shackles, we'd be free to live as we choose."

  "And the humans? What about them?"

  "They are of little consequence. They'll adapt."

  As wonderful as the entire thing sounded, she could see the flaw in the idea. Humans don't adapt, they fight, and she said so.

  "What strength is a gun compared to the strength of a vampire? We can crush their tiny bits of metal the same way we used to bend their swords."

  Swords and guns would be the least of worries when they brought out bombs that could level cities. Bella looked closer at her host. She'd learned long ago to trust her feelings, and she was getting the oddest vibe from him. His eyes turned a deeper shade of red as he continued comparing supernatural power against human. His entire body almost seemed to vibrate like a string pulled too tight and it reminded Bella of that moment when the sky turns dark just before a downpour, when the air is heaviest. The rain hasn't fallen yet, but it is only a matter of time.