by Lisa Olsen
“A kid?”
“When I say kid, he was turned about twenty years ago.”
I could see how he might think so. “That must make me an infant in your eyes.”
“You, my love, have more wisdom in you than many achieve after a hundred years or more.”
It was the first time he’d ever said anything like that to me before, and my heart melted at the endearment. “Aw, you sure know what to say to a girl.”
“Not hardly,” he snorted, reaching up to touch my cheek. “But I get occasional bursts of inspiration. More so when you’re around.”
“That definitely qualifies as a good thing to say to a girl,” I smiled up at him.
“I’d better go get samples of the blood while it’s still fresh.”
“You should’ve quit while you were ahead,” I said, wrinkling my nose at the sudden shift in topic.
“Sorry,” he chuckled, leading me back into the ballroom, which was less chaotic, but still nightmarish. “Will you be alright here?”
“Of course. I’ve got Gunnar and Carter, and Lee’s around here somewhere.”
“Okay, I’ll call you as soon as I know anything. I’m guessing you’ll be busy here for a while?”
I looked around at the bloody chaos. “Yes, I’ve got more than this mess to clean up. But later…”
“Later,” he nodded, his eyes full of promise.
“You about done making cow eyes at your boyfriend?” Carter demanded, massaging his sore knuckles as he entered the ballroom. “There’s the little matter of someone trying to poison you at hand.”
“They didn’t poison me.”
Carter turned and swung his gaze over the carnage. “Not for lack of trying.”
He had a point. “Still, I think if it was targeted at me, we would’ve seen something entirely different. And nobody died, not even Bakareh, who drank enough of the tainted blood to drop a rhino. No, I think this was designed to embarrass me more than anything.”
“Embarrass you? Seems like a messy way to go,” he frowned. “Couldn’t they have posted naked pics of you on the internet or something?”
“Okay, A – there are no naked pictures of me to post as far as I know, and B – I hardly think that sort of thing would be shocking to vampire society.” Me personally, maybe, but not the community. “And C – don’t say that so loud, I don’t want you to give anyone any ideas.”
“Whatever, then. So Vaughn was a bust. What now?”
“Let them clean up and go home.”
His brows rose in surprise. “You want us to let everyone go?”
My eyes landed on Jennike, who looked more amused by the turn of events than anything else. “I have a feeling that the person we’re searching for isn’t going to go far.”
Seeing the direction of my gaze, Carter perked up. “Ooh, now her I’d like to slap around a bit.”
“None of that,” I said, laying a hand on his arm before he went off half cocked. “Extracting information from one of my subjects is one thing, accusing the Elder of the East is another. I’ll have a private chat with her later.”
“Not too private, I hope. You shouldn’t confront her alone.”
“Don’t worry, you’re invited.” I’d need Carter to watch my back.
“Sweet, it’ll be like old times.”
Chapter Twenty
“Well, this is almost like old times.” Carter spoke in hushed tones by my side as we stole through the quiet house. The only difference being, this was my house, not some vampire stronghold designed to keep us out. As such, we kept any weapons out of sight, but I knew Carter was heavily armed.
“Almost. Only we’re not messing around with her brain as much.”
“Why not?”
“She hasn’t broken any laws. Even if she is guilty of tampering with the blood, we have to be careful how we handle this.”
Carter let out an inelegant snort. “You don’t know her as well as I do. She might not have broken any vampire laws, but she’s torn through just about every human law in effect.”
“Which means nothing in our society. That’s why we’re doing this real quiet like.” Jennike was up in the yellow room, but I didn’t know if she had any of her staff in the suite with her. “I had no idea the two of you had any history,” I added, wondering what it was she’d done to him personally to leave him so hot under the collar.
“We don’t, exactly,” he said with a half shrug. “Let’s just say that if I’d been able to get this close to her before you compelled me not to kill people, she’d be nothing more than a pile of dust by now.”
“Why, what did she do?”
“She’s an apex predator at it’s most evil. Everybody knows how she clawed her way to the top, but the human casualties are far worse. Human lives mean less than nothing to her, and…”
He was getting all worked up, the vigilante in him taking over, and I cut him off before he picked up too much steam. “Carter, I need to know that you’re going to leave your prejudices at the door. Can you promise me that?” A vampire hunter with a score to settle was more of a danger than a help to me.
“Relax, I know how to stay frosty when there’s a job to do,” he insisted, rolling his shoulders as he let the righteous anger melt away. “All I’m saying is, we could do a lot worse than to kill two birds with one stone here. I don’t suppose you’d consider spaying this kitty while you’re at it? Fix her so she’s sweet, and takes up needlepoint instead of ruining people’s lives?”
This was a dilemma I’d struggled with many a time. While I had a natural aversion to poking around in people’s brains, I knew he had a point. This was an opportunity that was too good to pass up. Who knew when I’d get another chance to curb Jennike’s more violent tendencies again? “I’ll see what I can do,” I promised, laying my finger across my lips as we turned into the corridor that led to her door.
Prepared to greet her or whatever servant answered the door, I pasted on a bright smile, rapping my knuckles on the door.
“Who is it?” A male voice replied after a few seconds.
“Candygram,” Carter called out in a weird, high pitched voice.
“Stop,” I mouthed at him, smacking him on the abs. “It’s Anja, I came to speak with Jennike,” I added in a much more reasonable tone. After a few second delay, the door opened to reveal a young man, more of a boy really, probably not more than seventeen or eighteen, wearing a towel around his hips and nothing else.
“Beat it, kid. Go home,” Carter jerked a thumb toward the hall, adding a level of compulsion that sent the human walking off without a backward glance.
Jennike emerged from the bedroom, wearing a red silky robe, her dark hair loose around her shoulders. “I said we’d talk later, but I didn’t mean now,” she said, some of the old haughtiness hardening her voice, but I wasn’t in the mood for it.
“I’d rather get this over with now. Sit down, there are some things we need to discuss.” My compulsion took hold of her easily, and she settled on the couch before the fireplace, her robe sliding open to reveal an expanse of smooth, toned legs as she sat. I caught Carter looking, and stepped on his foot. “How about you go make sure we’re alone?”
“Ah, right. Sure thing.” He went off to search the bedroom, even as Jennike spoke up.
“There’s no one else here,” she insisted, compliant, but not at all pleased with her night’s interruption. I could’ve called Carter back, but decided that maybe it’d be better to give him something to do.
“Good, then we can get started,” I smiled. “I want you to be completely honest with me. Do you understand?”
“I understand,” she nodded, her face going still and doll-like as I dialed up the compulsion level, her annoyance slipping away.
“Why did you come here?”
“You invited me.”
“But why did you accept? We both know you don’t like me.”
“Because I want to use you.” She said it matter-of-factly, still staring straight ahea
d.
“Excuse me?”
“I want to use you to unite our two Houses under one rule.”
I’d expected her to say something about the whole Canada situation, and this threw me completely for a loop. “Use me how, exactly?”
“As a figurehead.” Her expression became more fluid as her personality started to reassert itself, but the compulsion still held. “We both know you’re far more popular than I am. I don’t mind, it’s a passing fad, but one I can use to my benefit.”
“How do you benefit by me ruling our combined Houses?”
“I’d be second in command.” She leaned forward, her face coming alight with fervor. “Think about it. There’s nothing we might not accomplish.”
“Isn’t that sort of a step down for you?”
“It is temporarily. After a time I’d assume my rightful place over the new nation, and I’d have it all.”
“How would you manage that?”
“I’d have to kill you, of course.”
“Of course.” I would’ve laughed if she hadn’t looked so completely at ease with the idea.
“See, she can’t be trusted,” Carter scowled, pulling a wicked looking knife out of his sleeve. “I say we take her out right here and now.”
“Put that away, Carter, I’m thinking.” It was an interesting concept, I just didn’t get how she thought we’d pull it off. “So the idea is, you pitch me as the new leader, combine our two Houses and then bump me off once it gets up and running.”
“Yes.”
“But that’s illegal. We’d never be able to combine our Houses into one. We’d have to get all of the other Houses to agree to it, and they’d never go for it. We’d be too powerful.”
“I think they might with you in charge. I’ve watched their treatment of you most closely. I wonder if you understand your own power, Anja,” she said with a speculative smile. “You’re the darling of this new age. Strength tempered with a sweetness that doesn’t threaten them – that is your gift. At least half of them underestimate what you’re capable of, we can use that.”
“You know she might be right about that,” Carter considered aloud. “If anyone could pull it off, it’s you, Anja.”
“Except that not only am I not interested in expanding my rule, I wouldn’t get much of a chance to enjoy it. Would I, Jennike?”
“Long enough to firmly establish command and our place in society. A decade at least.” She gave a delicate shrug of the shoulders. “It seemed a fair trade to me when Corley suggested it.”
My jaw dropped. “This is Corley’s idea? Why am I not surprised. Is that why he’s got vamps massing in Canada on both sides of the border? The better to build up his new nation?”
“It would make us more powerful than any other House, even the House of Jiao-Long.”
Ah, was that where Corley had gotten the idea from? I knew from my history lessons that the House of Jiao-Long had recently absorbed two other Houses – Kazai and Punleu. It made them much more powerful, but too concerned with their own internal power struggles to impact the rest of the world much. The other Houses had sanctioned the move, but I had no idea what it’d taken to push it through.
“So then you end up as Elder of North America with Corley as your Warden?”
“Yes.”
“I’d be careful, if I were you. That knife that Corley’s so eager to stick into my back will be looking for a new home once I’m gone.”
“Corley would never betray me.” Her brows drew together with scorn and I threw up my hands.
“Okay, sure, whatever you say.” And people called me naive. “Well, I’m sorry to break it to you, but I have no intention of going along with your spiffy plan, so you can forget about it.”
“But don’t you see, you…”
“That’s enough, I don’t want to hear another word about it,” I barked, sending out another wave of compulsion, and she fell silent. “Now, back to the original topic at hand. Did you have anything to do with the tainted blood tonight?”
“No. It was entertaining, but not especially my style.”
“Do you know who did it?”
“No.”
Ugh. Was I going to have to question every vamp in town? “Fine. Now for the fun stuff. No more killing humans. Or vampires either. In fact, you’ve completely lost your taste for violence. And Simon Corley. Any advice that Simon gives you sounds like a bad idea, even if you’re not sure why.” Okay, so it made me a bad person to rearrange her head like that when I knew I didn’t have the right. It was kind of hard to stop once I got started though.
“And you’ll give up any idea of uniting the East and the West, with or without my support. Once you thought it through, you realized no one House should have that much power.” There, that should corral her more dangerous inclinations for a while. I smiled to myself in satisfaction, but Carter gave me a look, and I decided we might as well go for the whole shebang.
“And you’ll make a sizeable cash donation to the Red Cross. At least ten year’s income. Is that good enough for you, Carter?”
“Yeah, that works for me,” Carter smiled happily. “Unless you want to throw in something about taking holy vows?”
“Don’t push it.” I added the standard bit about her not remembering our conversation, and we got out of there.
I let out a long breath as we started down the hallway, my head stuffed with too much information, but not the right kind. “So where do we stand now?” I asked, trying to push aside Jennike’s plot and get back to the investigation at hand.
“Exactly the same place as where we started. Zilch, zip, and nada is what we know,
Carter muttered in disgust. “Who should we start with next? Any of Bakareh’s people?”
“No, I can’t believe Amunet or any of his own staff would be involved. He was one of the hardest hit.”
“I’d consider poisoning him if he was my boss,” Carter snorted, and I couldn’t help but smile. He had a point.
“Maybe the blood just went off?”
“Oh, come on, tell me you don’t actually believe that.”
“It could happen,” I shrugged. “There doesn’t have to be a plot afoot.”
“I still say we should keep questioning anyone who had something to gain.”
“That’s just it, I can’t figure out what anyone had to gain. No one got sick enough to die, and nobody pushed the blood at me in particular. It seems like there’d be an easier way to ruin the party if that’s what they were after.”
“But it sure got your attention.”
“That’s true.” Was that all it was? A bid for my attention? Or was it to keep me distracted while something else went on in my territory?
“Did you really mean that stuff about not wanting to join the Houses?” Carter asked, bringing me out of me reverie. “It seems like a good way to bring the East away from the dark side.”
“Of course I did. I meant it when I said nobody should have that much power alone.”
“Did you say something about joining Houses?” Felix came out from around the corner, his face alight with enthusiasm. “That’s a fantastic idea! I think you might be on to something. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before.”
Uh oh. I recognized that look of excitement.
Chapter Twenty-One
“No, it’s not my idea, it was Jennike’s.”
“That is one sharp lady. She knows she could never swing something that big, but the two of you together…”
“Yes, but there is no together for us,” I cut him off. “Jennike only wanted me to front it to gain the approval of the other Houses. Then I would’ve gotten a discreet stake in the back and she would’ve seized power.”
Felix’s brow furrowed at the thought, but he quickly dismissed it. “I don’t think she’d go that far. Sure, she’s always been power hungry, but she knows how to play with others.”
I couldn’t get into how I knew it was a fact without revealing my ability to compel other vamp
ires. “Like I said, I’m not sure any one person should be in power over the entire nation.”
“It works for the president,” Felix pointed out.
“Only because there are checks and balances. Do you seriously want to start in on duplicating American bureaucracy?” God knew our country had enough problems of its own. “Besides, you’d end up demoted in the bargain.”
“I wouldn’t care about that. Any position in a House that strong would be worth having,” he dismissed that thought. “The council would have to be brought in to talk about it, of course.”
“Felix, don’t you dare!” I wagged a finger at him, prepared to compel him if that’s what it took to make him drop the idea. “I told you, I’m not doing it. I can’t trust Jennike any farther than I can throw her.”
“You can probably throw her pretty far, boss,” Felix started to say, but he backed off, his hands coming up in supplication. “Okay, if you say so. I still think it’s an exciting possibility for the future though. If not with Jennike, then maybe with her successor some day.”
“Fine, then we can talk about it in another fifty years, or so. Deal?” I proposed to get him off my back. The idea of actually still being Elder in another fifty years made me feel tired, but maybe that was the late hour.
“Deal,” he grinned. “Listen, have you seen Bridget around? I lost track of her at the party.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t see her.” I looked to Carter, but he just shrugged.
Felix scratched at his chin. “She gets in her moods sometimes, but it ain’t like her to stay gone for so long.”
“I can have security see if they can track down her last movements if you like?”
“Nah, it’s fine.” He waved the suggestion away. “She’ll come back when she’s done being pissy.”
“Did the two of you have a fight?” I knew their relationship had its ups and downs, but he shook his head.
“I didn’t think so, but I must’ve done something to rub her the wrong way. Women, huh?”
“I’ll keep an eye out for her, and so will Carter,” I promised.
Carter looked up, only barely paying attention to the conversation. “Huh? Oh, yeah. Sure I will,” he saluted. “Hey, reviewing the security tapes isn’t a half bad idea. I’m gonna go do some poking around and see if I can turn anything up with our saboteur.”
