by Sierra Dean
“Don’t let those wolves bowl you over, Secret. You’re the prize, not the property.” She grasped the curtain and moved to step out, but I grabbed her wrist to stop her.
“What are you doing here, Genevieve?”
She smiled at me and held both hands in the air, her fingers dancing like the light in her eyes. “Fingers in pies, Miss McQueen. Fingers in pies.” She winked at her paramour and then was gone, leaving me alone with the mysterious French vampire.
I sipped my drink again, gulping in spite of myself, and stood in the doorway, waiting for Rebecca to speak.
“Well then, belle, asseyez-vous.” She nodded to the plush couch that wrapped in a U shape around the entirety of the booth.
I sat a little farther away than I normally might, but she was still black-eyed and I’d forced her playmate to leave for the night. I was playing it safe. I finished off my drink and placed the empty glass on the small table, its film of blood glinting in the candlelight. I stared at the glass so I didn’t have to look at her.
“I may have all night, Mademoiselle McQueen, but I’d prefer we pretend I do not and let us get on with it, shall we?”
“Are you with the council?” I asked.
“Oui. I am a council elder.” She inspected her manicure and radiated perfect vampiric boredom.
“Then you know about Holden Chancery’s warrant.”
She smiled, although I wasn’t sure I liked it, given the context. “Oh you clever little girl. Did Sig send you?”
“No.” My voice wavered slightly. He hadn’t, really. I’d decided to come here when I left Bramley, before my run-in with Sig in Central Park. But I was beginning to wonder how much of what I was doing was my idea and what was suggestions from others being put in to action.
For my entire adult life I’d been doing the bidding of others. My whole life in this city I’d been the puppet on the end of Sig’s strings, and I was only now becoming truly aware of that.
Rebecca kept smiling, running her fingers over the back of the couch behind her. “Of course not. Non. That would be against the rules, wouldn’t it? Sig would be smarter than to send his beloved pet to her death.”
Okay, seriously, did everyone know about Sig’s peculiar attachment to me? What did it mean that the entire council believed I was Sig’s pet?
“Ask me your questions,” she urged.
“Do you know what Holden is accused of?”
“Oui,” Rebecca answered without hesitation. I was stunned into muteness. It couldn’t be this easy, could it?
“Can you tell me?”
“I don’t see why not. The warrant is issued. It cannot be undone now, and I am not bound to keep it a secret like the Tribunal is.” She kicked her shoes off, and each fell to the floor with a hollow thud, then tucked her feet under herself. Outside, music was humming, but I couldn’t have told you what was playing if you paid me a million dollars. I was sitting forward on the edge of my seat, staring at her expectantly.
“What did he do?”
“Holden Chancery stands accused of being a traitor to the council.”
“But that’s crazy. Holden has devoted his life to the council.”
“Certainly. But did we not also ignore his right for advancement? Did we not give him reasons to loathe us, all because of—”
“Me.”
“Oui.” She was watching me for a reaction, and I was doing my best not to give her one. Everything she was telling me was something I’d thought already. I knew Holden’s supposed betrayal could be traced back to me. I couldn’t let the guilt overwhelm me, because it was more important I prove Holden’s innocence than focus on the part I’d played to make him look guilty.
“You know he didn’t do it, don’t you?”
“Does it matter now?” She wasn’t denying it.
“It matters to me. It matters to Holden.”
“Is that because Holden matters to you?” Rebecca seemed genuinely curious.
“Yes.” I let my face show nothing.
“How interesting.”
“Tell me.” I was barely touching my seat, I had shuffled so far forward. She sat up, mirroring my stance, and looked me right in the eyes. Her smile flashed fang.
“Your warden could not have done what they say he has done.”
“What do they say he did?”
“In our council, a council you now count yourself a member of, there are some who need to be protected. Their safety is a priority to us all, because they know secrets or are keepers of power we cannot allow to be risked.”
I nodded, but I was still a few mental steps behind her.
“The council, we have something akin to your human world’s witness protection. Only ours has always worked. Until recently.”
“What changed?”
“Failure…is death.”
“They were killed?”
“Not all, non. But two elders this year were, and another three last year. These were old vampires, well protected, who believed the council would protect them above all else. Protect them even from ourselves. And we failed them.”
“And Holden is supposed to have killed them?”
“Apparently.” But her tone told me she didn’t believe it for a second.
“Why don’t you think he did it?”
“I know he did not because he would never have had access to their locations. He was not powerful enough or trusted enough to be given those details. We would have been fools indeed to give the locations of our protected elders to the warden responsible for our council’s assassin.”
“Bounty hunter,” I said, but felt stupid for it because both of us knew what my real job was.
“Your title is irrelevant, Secret. You are paid handsomely and your prey does not come back alive. You are feared, but not respected. And because of that, Holden was not respected. You made an easy target of a good man.”
I choked back the swell of guilt threatening to eat me alive.
“Holden was always loyal to the council,” I defended.
“And what a great lot of good his loyalty got him in the end.”
I left the booth feeling flustered and burdened, with enough time to see Nolan disappearing up the staircase with a slight, blonde vampire. Just my luck. I strode across the floor, giving the bartender an accusatory glare on my way. She shrugged, but on her face I could see smug satisfaction wrestling with uncertain worry. That look told me everything. She was glad Nolan was away from me, his keeper, but she was worried he was out of the frying pan and into the fire.
There was no sign of them in the hallway, so I took the stairs two at a time back up to the main foyer. The gatekeeper was gone. I ran into the alley and was slapped by a wave of hot air. I breathed in through my nose, hoping to get Nolan’s scent while it was still fresh.
A sound at the mouth of the alley drew my attention, and I followed it, running down to the street and skidding to a halt under a streetlight. Nolan was backed against the brick wall, a blonde vampire latched on to his neck. At his sides his hands hung limp, and his eyelids were open so I could see the whites of his eyes from where they had rolled back into his head.
A thin trail of blood ran down his neck, but he looked for all the world like he was having the most pleasurable experience of his life.
“That’s enough,” I whispered.
For a moment no one reacted, and I might as well have been speaking to the night sky. I took the extra two steps towards the pair, grabbed a fistful of long blonde hair and hissed into her ear.
“Brigit. Enough.”
My protégée released her victim, and after the longest two-second pause of my life, Nolan’s eyes rolled back forward and he let out a raspy sigh.
“Whha?” He looked from me to Brigit, then back. Brigit was smiling sweetly, in spite of the smear of his blood across her cheek. I was less than pleased.
“Do you see now?” I asked him. “Do you see how thin the line between life and death is when it comes to vampires?”
&
nbsp; He gaped at the blood on Brigit’s face, then his hand shot to his neck and the pieces of the puzzle came together. His big body sagged, and he slid down the wall, slumping to a defeated puddle on the sidewalk. I let go of Brigit and went to stand in front of him, crouching down and placing one hand on either of his knees.
“Nolan?”
He looked up at me, tears streaking down his hot-chocolate-colored cheeks. I squeezed his knees protectively.
“I would never have let her hurt you.”
He nodded.
“But I can’t make that promise for any of the others. You are mine in the eyes of the council, but do you see how easy it is for someone to get to you?”
Nolan put his head in his hands and lowered them to his knees, rocking himself back and forth. He made a low sobbing noise over and over. His reaction told me that this experience wasn’t new to him. Brigit and I had thrown him into the dark, frightening corners of a memory we knew nothing about, and in turn had done more harm than good. I’d set out to teach him a lesson, not to break him. I wanted his story, but not like this.
I grabbed his face in my hands and made him look at me. His mind was especially fragile, and I had just fed. I was hoping with my vampire so close to the surface that what I was about to try wouldn’t be an abject failure.
“You are fine,” I said sternly. “You had a fright, but everything is fine.”
His breathing began to steady and his tears slowed. Brigit was watching us with interest, but I didn’t think she needed any lessons on the thrall. She’d succeeded in getting him here without an issue.
“You’re fine,” I repeated. “The past is gone. You’re fine.”
With a final, shuddering sigh, Nolan blinked several times and then he was himself again, awakening from a bad dream. I stood up. Looking at Brigit, I pointed at her face and then wiped my own so she would know to get rid of the blood.
I helped Nolan to his feet and gave him a guarded smile.
“How’re you feeling?” Testing the water.
“Fi—” His eyes got wide, and he grabbed me by the torso. We tumbled to the ground with him landing heavily on top of me one instant before the blade of a sword swung through what had been my head, colliding with the brick wall instead.
The clang of metal against rock echoed through the empty street, shouting the fatal promise of violence into the night. And Death was calling my name.
Chapter Twenty-One
Sparks rained down onto the sidewalk from where metal had struck brick. Time passed in slow motion, and the electric pinpricks of fire that fell from the wall singed my arm hairs. Nolan’s breathing came short and fast, and the crush of his ribs dug in to mine with each gasp. He had his hands on my face, and his mouth was asking are you okay but there was no sound. All I could hear was the ringing vibration from the blade of the sword and the thump of Nolan’s heartbeat.
I rolled Nolan over so I was on top of him and balled my hands in his shirt so I could drag him with me. The sword fell with great force, twanging again, screaming its rage at being denied the kill for a second time. I got to my feet, pulling Nolan up with me, and stood between him and our assailant, although I suspected I was the target.
Flesh wounds were less fatal for me than for him.
I turned to face the attacker at the same moment Brigit launched in to action. I’d been on the receiving end of an attack from Brigit in all her vampire glory, and let me tell you the girl packs a hell of a wallop when she wants to. She had jumped on our attacker from behind, grabbing a handful of hair, and was making great strides to go for a neck bite.
Watching a vampire attack with intent to kill is something that should be on the Discovery Channel. Forget Shark Week. A vampire going for the bite is such a cunning example of predatory guile it makes a crocodile’s death roll look like children playing leap frog.
Brigit meant business, but our attacker was apparently no fool when it came to vampire attacks. During the attempt to keep Brigit’s fangs off, I saw who had come after us with such vigor. Nolan recognized her too.
“Noriko?” His surprise was genuine. He tried to move past me to help her, but I put my arm out to stop him.
The girl who had seemed so withdrawn and terse at Bramley was standing in the street wearing an all black spandex catsuit and carrying a pretty dangerous-looking katana. I’d have been impressed, but the one I had at home made hers look mail order.
Problem was, I didn’t have my sword with me and Noriko did. She was also armed with the obvious intent to use hers for something more permanent than teaching me a lesson. Why the hell did the girl want me dead? Sure, I could have been a little more pleasant at the bar, and yeah, I’d put Nolan in harm’s way tonight, but she couldn’t have known about that.
Could she?
“What the fuck?” I queried eloquently.
Noriko let out an enraged shriek, still attempting to rid herself of the hungry fledgling vampire on her back.
“Bri, get off,” I commanded.
The vampire, her eyes oily black, snarled at me with her canines elongated. Two could play that game, and I was geared up enough for it. My own fangs descended and I growled right back at her, my still-human eyes flashing a warning. Brigit hesitated, and that was all it took for Noriko to throw the blonde off her.
Brigit thumped to the sidewalk but quickly regained her footing. She did not relaunch her attack on Noriko, but watched the sword-wielding vampire hunter cautiously, waiting for any indication an attack should be resumed. Noriko was panting, and her eyes looked wild with anger rather than fear. She still had the sword pointed at me.
I stepped in front of Nolan again. God help me, but I felt responsible for the kid and I didn’t want to see him turned into a human shish kebab if this all went south. This time he didn’t try to skirt around me, he just kept close enough I could feel the rise and fall of his chest at my back. Knowing he was alive made me feel stronger somehow.
“What’s the meaning of this?” I asked. This time I was a little more rational.
Her sword hand hadn’t once trembled or shaken. She obviously knew how to use the weapon well enough to swing it, even if she hadn’t landed any hits. I was still amazed Nolan had managed to move us in time. There might not be a killer instinct in him, but I now knew for sure there was a survivor’s speed.
“Step away from the boy,” she demanded.
“Put down the sword.” As far as counteroffers went, I thought I was being fair.
“I know what you are.”
That gave me pause. My eyes had returned to normal, and at the moment my fangs were withdrawn. There was no way for Noriko to know all of what I was, but I was willing to play along.
“So?”
“So?” Her voice welled with astonishment, but I knew fake surprise when I heard it. “You think you had everyone fooled.”
“Fooled how?” I gave her a quizzical look. “I don’t know what you think I am, Noriko, but I assure you I’ve never tried to fool anyone.”
“You’re a monster.”
“We’re all monsters here.” I inclined my head towards my former roommate, who bared her fangs for good measure. My gaze darted to Noriko’s sword. “You aren’t so innocent.”
She kept looking around the street, then back to Nolan before glancing away again. After a beat, she advanced a step with her sword raised, anger turning her eyes the flat color of a nighttime ocean. Nolan and I shuffled back a step in response. Brigit didn’t move, but she was coiled like a spring and at any instant she might launch. I was going to do my best to not give her an opportunity.
I raised my hands, palms out and up in a gesture of peace but not surrender.
“Put down the sword,” I repeated.
“No.”
I hadn’t expected her to agree, but it would have been nice. “Noriko, no one has to die here tonight.”
She snorted.
I continued as if I hadn’t heard her. “But, you should know, if it comes down to it, the per
son who dies won’t be me.”
“You’re already dead.”
Oh. So she knew I was a vampire. That narrowed things down a bit. At least now her attack made more sense.
“No. I have a beating heart. I breathe.” I took Nolan’s hand without looking at him and placed it on my neck. “Tell her, Nolan.”
His fingers were cold and sweaty; I could feel them shake against my skin. “Sh-she has a pulse,” he confirmed.
“You enthralled him.” Something about her tone bothered me. She didn’t sound worried or even terribly interested in what was happening. Her body, too, showed none of the nervous energy I would expect from someone in her position. She was faking it. If she’d been afraid, I would have smelled it on her. The act was good, so good I’d almost believed it, and good enough I was playing along, but it was total bullshit.
Nolan didn’t move his hand, insisting, “No she didn’t.”
Fact of the matter was, I had. My mind was still reeling from how well my experiment earlier had worked and that Nolan wasn’t still catatonic on the sidewalk. But this wasn’t the time to discuss that.
“What do you want from me?” I asked her.
Silence swam across the street, and for the first time Noriko looked right at me. Her expression was hard and cold, and no part of her showed any fear. All pretense dropped when she realized I was on to her. She lowered the sword and her entire stature changed.
Gone was the wary, fight-ready stance. She cocked her hip to the side and leaned against her sword like a Victorian dandy with a walking stick. A look of contempt with a hint of humor colored her face. This was the real Noriko.
“Well aren’t you smart?” she remarked.
“I’m rarely accused of that.”
She twirled the sword against the sidewalk so with each turn the shiny blade caught the streetlight and flashed it in my eyes. She stared at me without flinching. Brigit had relaxed slightly, but she was still waiting for me to give the word. Nolan’s hand had tightened almost painfully on my neck. I could smell his fear, and I wanted to lick it.
“She was right about you. She told me this wouldn’t be easy, that you wouldn’t go like a fool. Can’t say I didn’t try.” The smirk grew, held, and then was gone. “Come on, Nolan.” She stepped off the sidewalk and into the empty street, turning to look at the boy. I should have tried harder to think of him as a man, but the fear radiating off him made it impossible.
