The Suck Stops Here

by Kristen Painter

  With Francesca behind her, Marcus at her left side acting as proctor, and Pierce on her right awaiting his own hearing, she stood before the large screen and projector that had been set up as a way to video chat with the council and maintain their anonymity. But did that mean they hadn’t been to the funeral after all? Or were they doing this from another place on the property? She had no idea, but it was the same system that had been erected at her home in New Jersey the first time she’d been called before the council.

  She’d never imagined there would be a second.

  But here she was. And she was ready to fight. She hadn’t expected so many of the funeral guests to show up, but then, she had extended an invitation to them.

  Fortunately, she looked good. Maybe that was a small thing to some, but Pierce had taught her just how powerful the right outfit could be.

  She’d worn the same Roland Mouret dress that she’d worn to the Millers’ house, this time with scandalously high black Louboutin spike heels, big gold jewelry, and strong makeup. Harper had helped her flat-iron her hair into a sleek, shiny curtain of dark silk.

  Donna kept her head high and did her very best to portray herself as the queen everyone else seemed to think she could be. Maybe it was working. She felt powerful. The clothing, hair, and makeup helped, but she was also trying to focus on how Artemis might react to all this.

  With a kind of cool indifference, Donna imagined. Artemis had lived for so long and seen so much that very little had intimidated her.

  In a small way, Donna had come to realize she’d lived that same kind of life. For far fewer years obviously, but why shouldn’t she adopt that same attitude? After all, she’d survived being abandoned by her father and mostly ignored by her mother, then had become entangled with the Mafia for the better part of her adult life, only to ultimately face down not just her own mobbed-up in-laws, but the Russian mob as well. And that was after accidentally draining one of them to death after being turned into a vampire.

  She’d become governor and rescued an FBI agent from the fae, who were also out to kill her. She’d befriended a fae who’d ended up as king and formed a treaty with him and the werewolf pack who’d helped her.

  Last, but definitely not least, she’d raised two exceptional children and managed to meet and not kill the boy who’d impregnated her daughter. With the added bonus of forming a treaty with his alpha werewolf father.

  Cammie was right. Donna could handle being queen. Wasn’t going to be easy, but few things in life worth doing were. She just had to survive this council hearing. And make sure Pierce survived as well, although in his new form as reaper, there wasn’t much they could do to him physically.

  Then she’d announce her intentions to accept the throne, and all would be well.

  Looked pretty good on paper. How it played out had yet to be seen.

  To her left, Fitzhugh had just arrived, looking smug in a dark suit and bold purple tie. Didn’t seem like a coincidence that he’d chosen a royal color. His admin, Quentin, and the redhead were with him as well. Claudette, once again, was not.

  Donna wasn’t surprised about that. She was sure Claudette had left after hearing the recording of her lover boy stating she’d deserved to die and that he didn’t love her. And even if that wasn’t the reason Claudette wasn’t here, facing the council that had passed her death sentence couldn’t have been high on her list.

  The screen flickered, and the council appeared.

  “And so it begins,” Pierce said softly.

  She brushed her fingers against his hand. She would have loved to hold it and squeeze it tight, but such a display would do neither of them any good.

  Seven members appeared, all in shadow, seated at a long wooden table against a wall covered in dark fabric. The location could have been anywhere, the council members anyone. Body shapes made it easy enough to tell who was male and who was female, but nothing more than that.

  She wondered which one of them was in Fitzhugh’s pocket. And if it was just the one. She knew the anonymity was necessary, but these people were about to pass judgment upon her and Pierce. She deserved to know who they were. People were right to think that it was time for change in the vampire nation.

  At the last hearing, a woman had run the show. This time, one of the men, seated in the middle, banged a gavel on the table. “The hearing of Fitzhugh versus Harrison is now called to order. Are all parties present?”

  Marcus nodded. “They are.”

  “Very good,” the councilman said.

  Marcus gave a short bow, then went to stand at the edge of the gathered crowd, next to Walter St. Simons, leaving Donna, Pierce, and Fitzhugh to face the council.

  Pierce, because he was facing a charge of his own, couldn’t act as her council.

  The councilman looked at the camera. “You are Pierce Harrison, the accused?”

  Pierce nodded. “I am.”

  “And you are Governor Hawke Fitzhugh, the accuser?”

  Fitzhugh crossed his arms. “That’s right.”

  “You attest that this mortal assaulted you, a vampire, at a social gathering?”

  Fitzhugh nodded. “I do. And he did.”

  The councilman consulted some paperwork on the table, then looked up again. “Pierce Harrison, do you affirm you are that mortal?”

  “I was, Your Honor.”

  A little murmur went through the crowd, and even Fitzhugh seemed unsure.

  “You were? Please explain.”

  “I was human at the time of the party.” Pierce took a breath, and the air shivered with dark shadows as he transformed into his new self. The soft shush of his wings unfolding filled the room as they flexed behind him. A gasp went up from the audience. “As you can see now, that’s no longer the case.”

  The council stared, staying still for so long that Donna thought maybe the transmission had frozen.

  Then the councilman raised his hand to someone off-camera. “We will take a brief recess.”

  Donna glanced at Pierce. He gave the tiniest microshrug in return.

  But the council was back as quickly as the screen had gone black. The councilman closed the file before him. “In such as Pierce Harrison is no longer human, the matter between Governor Hawke Fitzhugh and Pierce Harrison has been deemed null and is hereby dismissed.”

  Joy swept through Donna with a fierceness that made it almost impossible not to respond. She didn’t, however, holding it together so that she wouldn’t do anything improper in front of the council.

  Thankfully, quite a few others were expressing their happiness behind her. Mostly Neo, Francine, and Temo, by the sounds of things. She snuck a glance. Francesca gave her a nod of approval.

  That lifted Donna’s spirits even more. She smiled at Pierce. His eyes were black, and his enormous leathery wings hung over him like a specter, but he was still her Pierce.

  He smiled back, giving her a little wink, then went blank-faced as he turned to the council and nodded in response to their verdict. “I thank you for your discernment.”

  Fitzhugh stared at Pierce while sputtering about injustice. He looked like he might explode with outrage, but there wasn’t much he could do. And even he had to know that an outburst wouldn’t serve him well with one more hearing to go.

  Donna had great hopes that his claims against her would be resolved just as quickly. He had to be wondering the same thing.

  The councilman banged the gavel again. “The hearing of Fitzhugh versus Barrone will now be heard. I see both parties are present, so let us begin.”

  Donna took a breath. This was it.

  “Governor Barrone, we will hear your counterclaim of conduct unbecoming against Governor Fitzhugh after this.”

  She nodded. “Thank you.”

  He opened a new file. “You are accused of causing the death of Queen Artemis. Do you understand this charge?”

  “Yes, Your Honor.”

  “How do you plead?”

  “Not guilty.”

  “What
evidence do you have to support your claim?”

  Donna was prepared for the council’s guilty-until-proven-innocent approach. “I’d like to ask my technology admin, Neo, to come forward and present my evidence.”

  “Proceed.”

  Neo brought her phone and a wireless speaker as she joined Donna. She handed the speaker to Donna, who aimed it at the screen. She wasn’t actually sure where the microphone was, but the council seemed to be hearing them all right, so it had to be there somewhere.

  Fitzhugh looked bored.

  “Should I just play when ready?” Neo asked.

  “Please,” the councilman said.

  “Got it.” Neo tapped her phone’s screen, and sound began to spill from the speaker, starting with Donna’s voice.

  “So you hate me because I’m not living up to your vampire standards. Are you sure it doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that I turned down your initial offer to host a party together? For me, but in your state and at my expense?”

  Donna watched Fitzhugh to see when he’d understand what they were doing. He had to know she’d recorded him. They’d tipped their hand on that when the MP3 files had been sent to Claudette.

  His voice came next. “That party would have done you a world of good. You would have met all kinds of important vampires. They all like me because of my influence. You’d have seen that if you’d paid for that party like I told you to.”

  Fitzhugh let out a disgusted grunt. “That was recorded without my knowledge.”

  Neo hit pause.

  On-screen, the councilman leaned forward. “Then you admit that is your voice?”

  Fitzhugh shut up for a second. But only a second. “I admit nothing.”

  “We have more,” Donna said.

  The councilman waved his hand. “Go on.”

  Neo hit play again.

  Their voices filled the room a second time. “Since we’re being honest here, why don’t you admit that you know I'm not responsible for Queen Artemis’s death?”

  Fitzhugh’s soft, defiant laugh came next. “She was there because of you.”

  “I pleaded with her not to get involved. I tried to protect her, but she insisted on participating in the battle, because that's the kind of person she was. Brave and willing to do what had to be done to protect the vampire nation. Bottom line is that she was there because she wanted to be. And you know that.”

  Fitzhugh again. “Doesn’t matter. Neither does the truth. The council will side with me. You’ll see.”

  Neo hit stop. A few soft murmurs spread throughout the crowd.

  Donna hoped the recording was enough. “As you heard, Your Honors, Governor Fitzhugh acknowledges that there is a falsehood in play. He also believes, for whatever reason, that as a group, you are on his side. Something I find concerning and perhaps worthy of further discussion, since I’ve been led to believe the Immortus Concilio is impartial.”

  A few of the council members leaned toward each other, exchanging words too quiet to hear. After a moment, the councilman leading the proceedings spoke. “I assure you, Governor, we are impartial. However, we will take your concern under advisement. Governor Fitzhugh, do you have any evidence to support your claim?”

  Fitzhugh smiled broadly and pulled out his phone. “I do. I have a witness, Your Honor.”

  “Please call that witness.”

  “I’m doing that right now.” He was tapping at his screen. “You see, my witness is fae, and as this compound is thickly shielded with iron, they can only attend via video chat. I hope that’s acceptable to you.”

  The councilman nodded. “Yes.”

  Fitzhugh turned his phone to face the council, but Donna couldn’t catch enough of the screen to see her new accuser.

  Then Fitzhugh turned his phone toward her.

  She looked at the screen and saw a face she hadn’t expected. Ishalan. Her lips parted in surprise, but she quickly closed them again. Ishalan had told her to trust him. Well, this was his do-or-die moment.

  She did her best not to freak out. He wouldn’t have turned on her, would he? She didn’t want to think that, but with the ways things had been going, nothing would surprise her. If he had betrayed her…he could consider his treaty broken. She might do the same to a few of his bones as well.

  Fitzhugh was still smiling like the village idiot. “If it pleases the council, my witness, a fae by the name of Sylan, will give his account of the battle.”

  “Go on,” the councilman said.

  Had she seen the screen wrong? That was Ishalan, wasn’t it? She frowned. Or was this what Ish had meant when he’d said he had the witness handled? She prayed that’s what was going on.

  A voice came from the screen. “On behalf of the fae people, I would like to thank Governor Barrone for helping to deliver us from the despicable reign of King Dredward.”

  Donna almost smiled. That was Ishalan’s voice, all right. Her calm returned.

  “Furthermore, I was present at the battle and can attest that she in no way caused Queen Artemis’s death. The queen charged King Dredward of her own volition, which is what resulted in—”

  Fitzhugh hastily ended the call.

  The crowd snickered, and an amused buzz filled the room.

  The councilman banged the gavel. “Silence, or we will demand the room be cleared.”

  That shut everyone up pretty quickly.

  The councilman spoke again. “Is there any further evidence on either side to be heard?”

  Donna spoke up. “I have character witnesses, Your Honor.”

  “We are aware of your character, Governor Barrone, and do not feel any further testimony to such is necessary at this time.”

  So much for that.

  Fitzhugh shook his head. “Nothing else from me, Your Honor. I feel the queen’s death is evidence enough.”

  Donna almost rolled her eyes at his comment but realized the council might interpret it as her being flip about the queen’s death.

  “This hearing is closed for review by the council. We will take up Governor Barrone’s counterclaim next. Governor Fitzhugh, you are being accused of conduct unbecoming in regard to your behavior at a social gathering held at the home of Francine Werther. Are all parties present?”

  Marcus returned to face the council as Francine stepped up beside Donna. He glanced over at her, then nodded to the councilman. “They are.”

  “Then we shall proceed. Governor Fitzhugh, do you understand these charges?”

  Fitzhugh frowned. “I do.”

  “How do you plead?”

  “Not guilty. Obviously.”

  “Do you have any evidence to support your claim?”

  He lifted his chin, his gaze haughty. “I believe my reputation speaks for itself.”

  Had he expected Claudette to testify on his behalf? A vampire who’d been previously sentenced to death by this council? Was that who he’d been counting on? How had he not come up with a witness to support him? Seemed self-explanatory to Donna.

  The councilman looked at Donna. “What evidence do you offer to support your charge?”

  “I have Francine Werther here as a witness, Your Honor, as well as several others who were present during the altercation in question, but as Francine was the host of the party at her home, she’s probably the one you’ll be most interested in hearing from.”

  “You are correct. Francine, what is your account of that night?”

  Francine gave them a big smile. “Oh, that’s easy. Hawke was drunk on free champagne and mad that Donna wouldn’t host a party with him—”

  “Speculation,” Fitzhugh snarled. “She can’t know what I was feeling.”

  “Sustained,” the councilman said.

  “Fine,” Francine said. “But he was drunk. He was wobbling more than a one-legged stilt walker.” She patted her little studded Valentino cross-body bag. “I can show you some photos on my phone if you like.”

  “That won’t be necessary,” the councilman answered.

&n
bsp; “It was a party,” Fitzhugh gruffed.

  Francine shot him a sharp look before continuing. “Anyway, he caused a scene, saying all kinds of nasty, untrue things about Governor Barrone and embarrassing not only himself but all of us who had to watch it. No governor should act that way. As a citizen of New York and a constituent of Governor Fitzhugh’s, I found it mortifying.”

  One of the council members jotted something on a pad of paper, then slid it to their neighbor.

  “Anything more to add, Governor Barrone?”

  “Yes. Again, I call my tech officer, Neo.”

  Neo joined them with her phone and speaker again, which Donna took from her. Without asking anything this time, Neo pressed play.

  Donna’s voice started off the recording. “I understand why you filed charges against Pierce for punching you that night at Francine’s party, even though we both know you were out of control.”

  “So what if I was? I’m a vampire, and he’s human, and he shouldn’t have laid a hand on me.”

  “Even though you were visibly drunk and verbally assaulting me? What would you have done if the woman you cared for was being treated the way you were treating me?”

  Fitzhugh’s response came immediately. “I probably would have punched me too. But that’s no excuse for a human to hit a vampire. Humans are barely more than food.”

  Neo ended the recording.

  Across from them, Fitzhugh was steaming.

  Donna ignored him. “As you just heard, Governor Fitzhugh admits he was out of control and makes his feelings toward humans clear. With that, I rest my case.”

  “Very good.” The councilman looked at Fitzhugh. “Do you have anything further to add, Governor?”

  “Just that this entire thing is a sham.”

  The councilman jerked back slightly. “Are you disputing the council’s authority?”

  Fitzhugh paled ever so slightly. “No, not at all. I was referring to the underhandedness by which Governor Barrone obtained those recordings.”

  “I see. Then nothing further?”

  “No.” Fitzhugh glared at Donna.

  She glowered right back.

  “Then the council will convene to discuss the matters at hand. We will return when we have made our decisions.”