Victor barked out another laugh. “You didn’t look like much back then, but the eyes don’t lie, and you had it—that stare the old vampires have.”
Victor knew Merrick wouldn’t consider that a compliment, but Merrick stayed with his back resting casually against the chair.
“I think maybe that’s why you always wear sunglasses around humans. So they don’t see it.”
“What can I do for you, Victor?”
“We go all the way back, Merrick. You’re an asset that I brought into the syndicate. I’m sentimental about that kind of thing.”
Merrick smirked. Snakes were more sentimental than Victor.
“Which is why I’d really hate to kill you.”
Merrick’s expression didn’t change. No need to get agitated when they were just getting started with this dance. If Victor had made up his mind to have Merrick killed, he would never have let Merrick into his office where he’d be too likely to take Victor to hell with him.
“Conversations are like drinking packaged blood: the longer it takes to go down, the worse it tastes,” Merrick said. “If there’s a problem you want me to fix, lay it out.”
“We know you took the girl from Cato’s balcony. You can deny it, but c’mon, Merrick. Nobody else is that smooth. Get into his territory, put the guards down, get the girl, and get out. Practically blending with the shadows? Plus, there’s the way you move. With such economy, like an animal or a machine. No motion wasted. You probably don’t even know you do it, but it’s your signature as sure as your palm print or that vampire stare most ventala don’t have.”
Merrick waited. Something was coming, but Merrick wasn’t sure what.
“Two things I don’t know. The first is why.” Victor rested his arms on his desk and leaned forward. “Why do it? You’re a stubborn, cocky son-of-a-bitch, but you’re not a troublemaker, Merrick. Not without reason.
“And the second thing is, after you had her, how did you put her back in her house without anybody on her side of the wall finding out?”
“I’m still waiting to hear what you want done.”
Victor sighed. “See, this is why the rest of the syndicate wants to kill you. You never come on board. You’re always out there on your own, keeping secrets, breaking rules like they don’t apply to you. You’ve got this idea that you’re above everyone else and don’t have to answer to anyone. That’s just not true, Merrick. For that to be true, you’d have to kill me and take over everything. But then to run things, you’d have to have meetings and make conversation for more than ten minutes at a time, which is about nine minutes more than you can stand.”
Merrick glanced at the pearl-handled letter opener and wondered if putting it through Victor’s hand would make him get to the point or at least end the meeting. Out of habit from his enforcer days, Merrick followed that line of thinking, speculating on how he’d get out of the secure building after a hit.
Victor would alert security. Guards would take about three minutes to come through the door. Plenty of time for Merrick to create an exit. If he swung the desk chair hard enough at the plate-glass window, he’d shatter it. He’d get to the roof using the cable concealed in his belt. Take out the sniper on the Infi building to get control of his gun. Then shoot—
“Why did you want your own territory, Merrick?”
Idly, Merrick again glanced at the letter opener.
“The more I think about it, the less sense it makes,” Victor continued. “You’ve never wanted roots. You make more money as a boss, but you don’t spend like you need it. Enforcing paid for your suits and then some. There’s power in being a regional boss, but what do you need it for? As an enforcer, you were like a rock star; girls threw themselves at you from sundown to sunrise. So why the hell did you fight for and pay so much for what used to be the most filth-infested piece of the Varden?”
Merrick rested his hands lightly on the arms of the chair and thought about his reason. There were six-hundred-thread-count Egyptian cotton sheets on all the beds in his apartment because skin as soft as Alissa North’s shouldn’t be wrapped in anything less. The odds of her ever being in his place had been long, but sometimes fortune favors the prepared mind. It was how Fleming had discovered penicillin.
Merrick had wanted a permanent address so she had a place to send her letters. And so that if she’d ever wanted to slip in through an open window, there would be one for her to come through.
“I think you wanted that territory because you found a way in and out of the Etherlin. I think you wanted to seduce and drink the blood of the world’s next crowned muse. You’re just arrogant enough to think you could pull that off. And maybe you did pull it off, because it took you less than two minutes to figure out the girl in this office wasn’t her. How would you know that unless you’ve been up close and personal with the real thing?”
Merrick gave the letter opener serious consideration. If the syndicate started prying into his relationship with Alissa North, she would end things immediately. Of that, Merrick had no doubt. He contemplated ways to divert their attention from her.
“You know her, don’t you? So help me, Merrick. If you hold out on us where a muse is concerned, there will be hell to pay.”
Merrick leveled a stare at Victor, then raised a brow. “You’re right. I seduced Alissa North. Went right past the Etherlin Security command post, the security cameras, into her house and convinced her to ruin her life and give up her bid for the Wreath that all the muses would kill for.
“Since that night, I smuggle her in and out of the Varden all the time. Nobody from her side ever notices she’s gone. We use the piled-pillows-under-the-covers trick to fool the staff. Works every time. Etherlin Security and the hundreds of people in the club and on the street outside my building never notice her coming or going because no one pays very close attention to what Alissa North does or where she goes.
“As a precaution, sometimes I turn her invisible. Having unlimited power comes in handy. People say it makes me cocky. I don’t see it,” Merrick said. “Since you and I go way back, I’ll confess my identity. I’m the sits-on-high, betrayed-by-my-favorite-angels creator of heaven and earth.” Merrick stared coolly at Victor. “You can call me God for short.”
Victor blinked and then roared with laughter.
Merrick stood and stretched his legs.
“Not so fast.”
“I like you, Victor. Don’t make me smite you.”
“Hey, we’re not done,” Victor said, grabbing Merrick’s arm.
Merrick slammed Victor into his chair, then adjusted his shirt cuffs. He stared Victor down, all humor gone from his voice when he spoke. “We are done. We were done before you asked any questions. You say you know me, but you don’t act like it. If you knew me, you’d have realized something by now.” Merrick paused. “I don’t apologize, and I don’t explain.”
Victor’s face turned to stone. “I know it was you on that balcony.”
Merrick shrugged. “So?”
“Cato and the syndicate have to be compensated or you have to die. That’s what we’re left with, and for the—”
“How much?” Merrick demanded.
“It’s not just the money. You have to return the girl.”
Merrick laughed.
Victor held up a hand. “Don’t answer. I want you to think about it. You can get in there. You’ve done it before.”
“I can get in. Myself, alone. I can’t get her out.”
“Take some time. You’ll think of a way.”
“What is this about? This isn’t about Cato scoring the ultimate blood slave.”
“No, it’s not. The syndicate needs her for something.”
“What?”
Victor shook his head. “Can’t tell you that.”
“She hasn’t won the Wreath yet, so you don’t have to have the lead muse. You could use another muse in her place.”
“She’s the only one without family. All the rest, even if there’s a scandal and the com
munity rejects them, they have family—people who will want them back. She’s the only one who doesn’t have anyone.”
Yes, she fucking does. She has the most dangerous protector of all. Me. “Her father’s alive.”
“The guy’s lost it. He’s ready for an institution. He won’t be a problem for us afterward. That’s why she’s the right choice. She’s alone. And if you’ve got some connection to her, that just makes it easier. You can lure her here.”
“Tell me what you want her for.”
“Not a chance, but I will offer this. She can stay with you. You’ll keep her until we need her. And afterward, you can have her back.”
Merrick paused, tempted by the thought of having her to himself for good. But of course, he wasn’t going to share her with the syndicate. Not for a day. Not for an hour. Not for a second.
“Think it over. Because if you don’t do it, we’ll kill you, and when we get her without your help, she goes back to Cato.”
Chapter 10
Alissa slept for several hours and felt better when she woke, until she remembered that she’d agreed to leave the Etherlin. What if Theo Tobin was luring her outside the wall so that Cato Jacobi could abduct her?
The Sliver was a small stretch of four city blocks that lay between the Varden and the Etherlin. When the wall around the Etherlin had been built, the owner of the Sliver had declined to be enclosed within it, fearing that he would lose control of his property. Later however, as the ventala bought and took control of everything west of him, he regretted being outside the wall. His children and grandchildren had become attorneys and police officers and fought to keep the area ventala free. No Sliver real estate had ever been sold, rented, or leased to the ventala, so it was considered neutral territory where visiting humans from around the world who couldn’t attain access to the Etherlin directly could stay in hopes of gaining the security clearance needed to get inside and meet a muse.
Although ventala weren’t welcomed as residents of the Sliver, they could stay in the hotels and visit the bars there, so it would be possible for Cato Jacobi to lay a trap for her.
She paced the carpet in her room. If she took Etherlin Security with her as bodyguards, they would report back to the council about her visit with Tobin and whatever happened. On the other hand, she didn’t dare go alone.
Alissa paused from her pacing when her phone rang. She was surprised to see the display with Mrs. Carlisle’s name, since she was working downstairs.
“Hello?”
“Yes, miss, sorry to interrupt your evening. A delivery-man from Pead’s Florists wanted you to sign for some flowers. I told him you don’t sign for deliveries and had to threaten to summon ES to convince him to leave. I’ve unwrapped the flowers. They’re lovely pale purple roses and seem to be okay—nothing dicey in the box with them or anything.”
Lavender roses. Merrick.
“Is there a note or a package?” she asked, hurrying to the door and rushing from the room. Normally, if he wanted to send her something very discreetly, the messengers delivered the flowers to her while she was out, but she hadn’t been out all day. She should have realized that she needed to leave the house for them to deliver a package to her.
“There’s a note. Garden variety admiration, quite literally—”
“Hold on to the note. I’ll be right down. I suspect I know who the flowers are from. An eccentric admirer.”
“Well, he needs to learn the protocol! As if we’d interrupt you every time someone sends you a gift! You’d never get any work done. I wouldn’t have disturbed you about this, except the boy acted so odd. I wanted to know if you wanted me to call Mr. Easton about it. You know what he always says. Anything suspicious, however minor, should be reported. And I agree with that! There are men who would pay anything to get their hands on you. Deliverymen, even from Pead’s, would be tempted by the kind of money they’d offer. The thing is…your father’s been roaming all over today, and he’s more talkative than usual. I wasn’t sure—well, I thought you might want to go and talk to Mr. Easton at his home rather than have him come here.”
“Mrs. Carlisle, you protect us so well.” Alissa stepped into the kitchen, spotted the gray-haired dumpling of a housekeeper, and flipped her cell phone shut. “You know the council maintains all the household accounts, so I can’t simply give you the raise you deserve. Please accept the sapphire earrings I tried to give you in December. You can take them to Dusselburg’s, and they’ll give you the cash value. It’ll be a bonus. You deserve it. We couldn’t manage without you.”
Mrs. Carlisle frowned. “Miss Alissa, I’ve told you so many times! Your mother did more things for me and my family than I can ever repay. What would she think of me if I— No, I won’t. She had the best heart. She really did, and you’re the same way.” Mrs. Carlisle dabbed her moist eyes and her voice turned steely. “I’d look after you for nothing and feel lucky to do it. Those Xenakis girls aren’t half as pretty or talented, and they’ve got twenty-five people or more looking after them. The same for Ileana Rella. You’re going to be the Wreath Muse, and you did it all yourself. I like to think that my helping with your dad and the house let you concentrate a little better.”
She’d known that Mrs. Carlisle prized her position, but she hadn’t realized how much pride she took in Alissa’s accomplishments. “It did help me. I couldn’t have managed alone.”
Mrs. Carlisle smiled. “There’s my bonus. And when I see you wearing the Wreath like a crown princess, that’ll be my bonus, too.”
“I still have to get through the voting,” Alissa said.
“You will. You’ll come out on top as you always do. Now, what about tea and some shortbreads?”
“I’ll have tea, but no cookies. I have to go out for cocktails tonight. I should have dinner early so that I’ve got something substantial in my system. May I have the note that came with the flowers? Where are they, by the way?”
“Front hall on the console. The note’s with them.”
“Thank you,” Alissa said. She walked to the front and smiled at the lavender roses that had stunning indigo tips to their perfect petals. She picked up the note.
You’re as lovely as cherry blossoms. M
There were two cherry blossom trees on the grounds. That Merrick knew the landscape made her shiver. What else did he know about her home? And how did he know it? The council hadn’t approved pictorial spreads or Internet images of the muses’ homes since one of Alissa’s stalkers had managed to get almost to her front door before Etherlin Security realized the invitation and identification he’d used to get past the security checkpoint at the wall were fraudulent.
They’d used a taser to subdue him before anyone had opened the door for him, but the contents of his duffel bag, which included duct tape, KY lubricant, a straight razor, and a journal outlining his plans in horrific detail, had upset everyone. Phrases like “forced seduction” and “achieving the afterlife as one” were among the man’s chilling goals. He’d intended to tape her mouth shut immediately so she couldn’t use her magic to confuse him or talk him out of “bringing them together forever.”
Strangely, the security force took the experience harder than she did. As a muse, she understood the way passion could rage out of control, that a spark could smolder into a dangerous and irrational obsession. She’d seen firsthand the devastation the magic could wreak. Unfortunately, becoming a target for emotions run amok was a necessary risk if she were to perform her duties. She’d accepted that early on in life. All she could do was take precautions and hope for the best.
She went to the hall closet and slipped on a jacket and walking clogs and went out, but paused about fifty feet from the trees. Thinking about the stalker who’d gotten to the front door made her trip to the Sliver without an ES detail seem ridiculously risky. What would Cato Jacobi have done with her if Merrick hadn’t gotten her off that balcony? She’d been dying, but what if Jacobi had been the one to give her a transfusion to keep her alive? She shu
ddered.
The muses had all been trained in self-defense, but the training wasn’t likely to be effective against a supernaturally strong and swift ventala. Her palm-to-the-nose strike had temporarily stunned Cato Jacobi, long enough for her to escape to the balcony, but she doubted she’d be able to take him by surprise again.
The muses had had weapons training, too. When Cerise traveled outside the Etherlin, she was often armed, but Alissa had resisted that path, knowing that viewing people as potential threats who meant to do her harm would negatively influence her ability to help them. She was a muse. A vessel of inspiration. Closing herself down from connecting with people wasn’t an option if she wanted to be the best muse she could be—and if she wanted to win the Wreath.
That thought brought her full circle. Someone had conspired against her. Someone would do whatever it took to keep her from getting the Wreath. If she had no idea who that was, how could she protect herself? She needed Theo Tobin’s information.
She walked to the trees and circled them, easily finding a small package wrapped in brown paper that blended with the color of the tree’s bark. She sat on a bench that looked out over the lake and opened it.
There was a single number programmed into the small black phone. She pressed the button and, a moment later, she heard Merrick’s voice.
“It’s me,” she said.
“So it is. What can I do for you?”
“I need another favor.”
“Then ask.”
She lowered her voice and gave him a full account of her conversation with Tobin. “What do you think?”
“I think you should stay on your side of the wall tonight.”
“He has something they want. Something that could be damaging to me. If I don’t help him get home, eventually he’ll be found.”
“I’ll take care of it.”
“He said you threatened him.”
“You mentioned that.”
“You understand that if I send you to Handyrock’s in my place and you hurt him, I’ll feel responsible.”
All That Bleeds Page 9
