by Lisa Olsen
In fact, they’d pretty much come to accept me as this public figure, almost like a celebrity, and now that I had a place to live I didn’t have to be ashamed of anymore, I thought it might be nice to host a reception. Sort of a ‘hey, I’m the Jarl, check out my swank pad’ kind of party. Of course, I’d never had to put together one of those types of shindigs before, and once I realized how much work went into it, I almost wanted to cancel the entire thing.
Maggie proved an invaluable asset, pretty much stepping in and taking care of all the arrangements, leaving me with finding a suitable dress to wear and little else. I insisted on taking both girls shopping with me for something elegant. Maggie displayed her good taste as always, choosing an off the shoulder gown in a bottle green that shimmered when she walked.
I picked out a deep, red dress, the color of pomegranates, the bodice liberally seeded with tiny black stitches that made the overall effect a much darker patina. It was slim fitting, with a simple square neckline and spaghetti straps. I felt like a movie star when I put it on; all I needed to do was arrange my hair hanging down over one eye, Veronica Lake style.
Ellie surprised us both by picking a basic black dress, and I thought she’d finally grasped the concept of elegance until she coupled it with a bright red, velvet bustier with fluffy white marabou trim. “It’s Christmassy,” she shrugged when Maggie gently suggested she find something less showy.
I was pretty nervous about inviting people into my home and playing hostess. Though I got ready a full hour before the party started, I blew that lead by changing my hairstyle three times. I kept going back and forth between the long, Hollywood glam look and something upswept and sophisticated. In the end, my clumsy fingers kept messing up the braids, and Maggie was too busy seeing to last minute details for me to bother her about fixing it. So, I went with the simpler, loose style, adding a curling wave to the hair falling over one eye.
I stepped out into the hallway, catching Rob leaving his room as well. He wore his black suit, the one he’d worn to go out dancing, and he looked pretty sharp all cleaned up. “I always did like you in that suit,” I smiled, striking a pose so he could get the full effect of my gown. “What do you think? Will it do?”
For an instant I thought I saw something in his eyes, approval maybe (it was gone too fast to tell what it was), but then he shuttered it away. “It’s very nice,” he replied without much inflection.
“I don’t want to look nice, I always look like a nice girl. Just for tonight I want to look as rich and powerful as I’m supposed to be. You don’t think this dress’ll do it?”
“I’m not the best judge of women’s fashion,” he shrugged, uninterested. “Don’t worry, you’ll impress,” he smirked, stepping back to let me go up the stairs first.
Just not him apparently. “Okay, whatever.” I gave up, having too many other things to worry about with the first guests due to arrive soon to spend much time on what was stuck in his craw.
I fretted over everything, from whether or not I should serve food to if I should have hired a staff to circulate with drinks rather than just the bartender set up in the front parlor. There would be humans there no doubt, feeders mostly, or people like Rob who fit into the vampire crowd for their own unique reasons. When the doorbell first rang, I started forward to answer it out of habit, but Maggie laid a gentle hand on my arm with a slight shake of the head, motioning to Isak to open it.
“Oh right,” I nodded, smiling faintly. What was I thinking? Rich muckety mucks never answered their own doors. I turned up the wattage on my smile, prepared to greet the first visitors to my new home repeating the mantra over and over in my head: You are a strong, confident vampire…
A rush of people piled in the front door, all eager to get a look at the place. “Jeez, did they all take a bus over together?” I murmured to Maggie, standing at the ready to greet them all in an endless procession of faces.
Once the initial torrent of guests slowed, I left off the front door duty to mingle among the guests, full champagne flute in hand. I didn’t dare have anything to drink, not yet. Maybe after I survived the first hour without horribly embarrassing myself, but I didn’t want to tempt fate.
It felt like everyone I’d invited came, including the magistrate, who I offered a frosty smile to. I didn’t see Mason anywhere, but that wasn’t surprising. I hadn’t wanted Hanna to be there, and he spent most of his evenings with her down in San Jose now. I saw Frost arrive though, sticking out like a sore thumb in his tactical gear.
“Don’t you own any other clothes?” I asked him, when he came to pay his respects.
“Sure, but you’re not having a luau.” He gave that laid back grin again, but his eyes scanned the room, force of habit I supposed.
“Next time,” I laughed back. “But you’re welcome to strip down to your skivvies now if you’d feel more comfortable that way. I could probably even dig up a pair of flip flops for you.”
“The sign of a first-rate hostess, making everyone feel comfortable in her home,” he chuckled. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“I aim to please,” I said, handing him my still-full glass. “Why don’t you get started with this and mingle a little? Let the people get to know you.”
“Oh, I already know most of the people here,” he replied, taking a small sip. “Same crowd, different decade. You know how it goes.”
“I do,” I nodded. I hadn’t realized he was in such familiar territory, and it made me feel like I had less of an advantage over him. What if he asked me why we’d never run into each other before? “If you’ll excuse me, I think I see the magistrate over there. I have some business to discuss with him.”
“Yeah, no problem. Hey, thanks again for the invite. I like your place.”
“Thanks,” I smiled, catching Rob’s eye as I headed in Byrne’s direction. What I wanted to discuss was best done in private, and he’d asked me to give him a heads up whenever I left the main party.
The magistrate was all smiles and handshakes when I approached him, agreeing to speak with me privately as if it was a magnanimous gesture on his part. I led him to the study, which had been kept closed off from the crowd.
“Have you given some thought to what I said the other night? I really think we could make a great team.” He grinned the instant I got him alone.
“That’s not why I asked you in here tonight.”
“No?” His smile turned smarmy and it took everything I had in me not to recoil visibly when he stepped forward, but I was prepared to clock him if he got too close. Luckily, Rob cleared his throat just then and Byrne noticed him for the first time. “Oh, hi, Rob. I didn’t see you there.” Byrne grew noticeably flustered, springing away from me as if he’d been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
“Hullo, Terry,” Rob replied, not so much as moving a muscle, but his presence alone was enough to keep Byrne off balance.
“You’re back in town, huh? That’s good to know.”
“Seems that way. Why don’t you have a seat and listen to what the lady has to say?”
“Sure, of course. That’s why I’m here, right?” Byrne grinned, sliding into the nearest chair.
I tossed Rob a quick wink before settling behind the huge walnut desk, reaching for a stack of papers from the top drawer. “I’ve received some petitions that need forwarding up the chain of command.”
His hands came up, and his whole body leaned away from the desk. “Oh, I’m afraid I can’t touch those, not without observing the proper protocols.”
“Which are?”
“You’re new to this arena, I can tell.” His whole manner took on an even bigger air of condescension. “It’s alright though, anyone could make the same mistake. See, there’s a process that’s been established. I meet with the supplicant directly and weigh the validity of their petition against their particular needs. The higher the need, the more my personal influence is required to get it processed in time. Now, I can generally meet any deadline, no matter how tight,
but it does take a certain finesse when dealing with the higher ups.”
I started to see where he was going with this. The bastard wanted to charge for even touching them. “And the more of your finesse that’s needed, the more of a fee is collected.”
“It’s less of a fee than a deposit on their future. Any monies paid are fully refundable if their petition is denied outright.”
“If they haven’t already been put down by the Order for taking matters into their own hands first,” I grumbled.
“Hey, don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time, that’s what I always say,” he smirked, fingers lacing together over his belly.
“So, let me see if I get this straight. If I were to hand these over to you for review, you would assign a specific cash value depending on criteria based solely on your years of experience. Then, if I meet that cash price, the results would be nearly guaranteed at an agreed upon time frame? Does that about sum it up?”
“You’re catching on quick,” he winked. “I like that.”
“And if I refuse to pay?”
“Let me reduce it to simpler terms. No pay, no play.”
“I’ll give you something to play with,” Rob muttered, taking a threatening step towards Byrne, but I stayed him with a hand.
“No, it’s fine, Rob, I’ve got it. Mr. Byrne, I think you overestimate your position here. I asked you to deliver these out of an obviously misguided sense of propriety, and that’s my fault for not anticipating the level of depravity you bring to your position, you gormless weasel.”
Byrne shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “Hey now, there’s no need for name calling.”
“Make no mistake, these petitions are going to get the attention they deserve, and without your greedy fingers dipping into it. Now, you can pass them along to Felix, or I’ll have to go over your head and take care of it myself. Of course, if I do that, he’ll want to know why I didn’t go through you directly. I’m thinking… you don’t want that kind of attention, not during your bid for Elder. It’s one thing for people to look the other way, but it’s quite another for them to ignore corruption when I’m shining a big, fat spotlight on it.”
“You know, I think maybe you misunderstood what I meant before. What I meant to say was, I’d be happy to pass these along.” Byrne reached forward and snatched the sheaf of papers off the desk, paging through them quickly. “Ah, yes… right, good reasonings there. I don’t foresee a problem with that… yep, that should work too,” he commented, giving each page a quick glance.
“Oh good, I’m so glad to see you fit them into your busy schedule. Well, that’s all I wanted to discuss tonight.” I rose to my feet as Rob pulled open the door. “Enjoy the party, and please, keep me updated on their progress. I’ll be watching over these cases with particular interest.”
“I’ll personally see that these make it right to the top.” Byrne folded the papers and tucked them into the inside pocket of his suitcoat. He looked like he wanted to say more, but merely gave Rob a nervous nod, and sort of crab walked out of there, as if he was afraid to turn his back on us.
Rob shut the door after him, favoring me with a faint smile. “That was well done. You didn’t need my help one bit.”
I collapsed against the back of my chair, letting the stress seep out of my bones now that no one was watching me. “Sure I did. I would’ve spent at least ten minutes trying to escape his hands before I got his attention if you hadn’t been here.”
“I think you had him right where you wanted him.”
“Still, it was good to have you around again. It’s nice to know you’ve got my back.”
His face clouded. “About that. I’ve had a few words with Jakob on the matter, and we’ve agreed, I’ll only stay on long enough to make sure your security here is top notch. Once I’m satisfied you’re safe and secure, I’ll be on my way.”
“Oh…” It was hard to keep the disappointment from my voice. “Alright then, whatever you think is best.” Somewhere along the way we’d lost that easy familiarity between each other, and it bothered me more than I liked to feel so awkward around him now. “I should probably get back to my guests. Jarrod and Leander are out there if you’re looking for friends to talk to.” Despite my best efforts, I choked on the word friends, since he obviously didn’t consider me to be one anymore.
“Anja…” His voice showed more emotion in that single word than I’d seen from him in days – only I couldn’t tell what kind of emotion it was by the time I looked back at him.
“Yes?”
“It’s not what you think.”
“What do I think?”
“I’m not angry with you, so you can stop with the calf eyes, yeah?”
“I don’t understand then. If you’re not mad at me, then what’s the matter? Ever since you got back…”
“It’s complicated.”
“It seems pretty simple to me. You’d rather be off having your own life, and you blame me for having to come whenever Jakob snaps his fingers. It’s simple transference. You can’t get mad at Jakob because he’ll squash you if you make him angry enough, so I’m the obvious target. It’s even my fault, in a way. If I didn’t keep getting myself into stupid situations, he wouldn’t feel like I needed safeguarding.”
“That’s not it at all.”
“No? Then why are you treating me like some goob you just met on the street? I thought we were better friends than that.”
“Yeah, I know,” he sighed, hand rubbing against his clean shaven jaw. “Look, I’m sorry if I’ve made you feel low, that wasn’t…” Rob shook his head. “Bollocks…” he muttered, brushing past me in his hurry to get back to the party.
I was still deciding whether or not to go after him and make him hash it all out once and for all, when Maggie rushed up, her eyes wide with panic.
“You’d better get up here before we have a bloodbath on our hands.”
Chapter Nineteen
I didn’t ask any questions, I just followed Maggie through the throng of people, smiling and nodding to my guests instead of hinting we’d gone on red alert. When she took me up to the second floor, I could guess where we were headed, and the tang of freshly spilled blood that filled my senses the instant she reached Ellie’s door confirmed my worst fears.
Maggie turned to look over her shoulder before she pulled it open, her voice pitched low. “I’ve been trying my best to clear the floor, but Gunnar’s got his hands full with Ellie right now.” I could hear Isak barring the stairway behind us, but there was always a chance someone might wander up the back stairs.
“How bad is it?”
“Bad enough.”
Once she was sure the coast was clear, Maggie opened it enough to slip in, shutting it as soon as I squeezed in beside her. I almost wished she’d kept it open, the room absolutely reeked of blood. The sheets were liberally smeared with it, as well as the wall above the headboard, and fat drops of blood spattered across the hardwood floors on all sides of the bed.
A young man in his early twenties lay sprawled across the bed, naked but for the sheet barely covering his bits and pieces. His neck and chest gleamed wet and sticky with the stuff, but the slight rise and fall of his chest told me he wasn’t a goner yet, despite the slack mouth and closed eyes. In the corner of the room, Gunnar sat with Ellie in his lap, desperately trying to keep hold of the slippery girl who wore the red velvet bustier and little else.
“What happened?” I demanded, picking my way to the window and throwing it open. If I didn’t vent the scent of blood somewhere, I’d have a surge of interested vampires up the stairs in a heartbeat.
“Anja!” Ellie’s glazed eyes fixated on me, her words sloppy and slurred. “Tell ‘im to let me go, I wash jusht having a bit of a laugh with um… Lord shtrike me… what wash your name again?” she blinked at the bed.
Once the initial stench of blood cleared, I caught the sour reek of alcohol swimming beneath it. “Are you drunk?”
“Aw, I’ve been way mor
e fluthered than thish plenty of timesh.” She waved me off and stopped struggling against Gunnar, content to chat. “Thish ish jusht feeling mellow, yeah?”
I felt anything but mellow as I peered at the bed, trying not to get any blood on my dress. “Who is this guy?”
“Matt or Mickey… shomething with an M. Mighty fine if you ashk me,” she snickered.
I crouched down by the side of the bed, leaning closer, careful not to breathe or I might lunge at the poor guy myself. Tilting his head gently, I realized I recognized him as one of the human feeders I’d seen with Mr. Vaughn, one of the more prominent vampires in the community. “Something tells me you didn’t get Vaughn’s permission to borrow his companion for the night, did you?”
“He didn’t sheem to mind.”
I remembered the guy as being deeply tanned, but his lips had an almost bluish tinge now, underneath the smear of his own blood. “Ellie, he’s pale as a sheet. How much blood did you take?”
“Guessh I might’ve gotten carried away. Hey, he looksh pretty shook, don’t he?”
I touched his ankle, staying as far away from his torn neck as I could. His pulse was too shallow, too slow. “Give him some of your blood right now,” I ordered and her face scrunched up with an overly exaggerated moue of protest.
“I don’t like him that much.”
“I don’t care, Ellie. You did this too him, now you have to fix it before he dies or we’ll all be in serious trouble. Gunnar, bring her up here. We don’t have much time.”
“I guessh if he turnsh up his toesh you can alwaysh fix it,” she grumbled, complying with a bite to her own wrist. I couldn’t understand the cavalier attitude, but consoled myself that it must be the alcohol talking. “He’sh not drinking, I reckon he’sh too far gone,” she reported after spilling only a few drops.
