I slip my arm around his waist and rest my head on his chest. “What’s wrong, baby?”
He shakes his head, and draws his lips tight, and this, out of all the shit that’s gone down is the most upset I’ve seen him.
“I’m worried the other covens will not cooperate and resist our help.”
“They’ve got too,” I say stubbornly. “If he could he’d wipe out all the vampires.”
“At least the Draugur. It’s always been a Baetal goal, though my father, and I thought cooler heads prevailed recently.”
“Your father? You’ve never mentioned him before.”
“He rules over sections of Europe. He sent me here a while ago to set up holdings in the New World.”
“Wait? New World. Like in the original colonies?”
“Yes. I was only, let’s see, two-hundred and fifty years old then. Competition was fierce with the Baetal, the Istria and the Kresova, who had the same idea. I started with a tobacco plantation which was very lucrative, but the Civil War destroyed that plantation. We pushed west when I heard about gold in Rocky Mountains a couple hundred years later. The coven pulled a lot of gold out of the hills until the veins ran dry. The money I made thrilled my father. I bought real estate after with cash, so we weathered the Depression just fine. We herded cattle then while I waited for the price of land to rebound. Then after the Second World War and the housing boom, I sold a lot of land. This created another fortune, though now I wish I hung onto more of the land.
“The point of all this, Sasha, is unlike the other covens, we just took care of business instead of fighting it out with the Istria, the Baetal and the Kresova. And that made me look weak to the other covens. I’m supposed to step into the master position when my father retires. I suspect my father keeps those plans on hold until I establish my authority in North America.
“And I haven’t done that well. My sister is sick—”
“But that’s not your fault.”
Arsen pursed his lips and looked away. “That’s not the point. I wasn’t able to protect her and a Master’s job is to protect his coven. She didn’t have to join my coven. She could have stayed with father. But she came with me, trusted me enough to protect her like I should.”
“Arsen,” I sighed. “Women do not need protection. Not like that.”
“Sasha,” Arsen says sadly, “have you not learned that we are a people out of time? Civilizations rise around us, humanity changes and evolves, but we also have witnessed how easily humans destroy themselves if one of their changes proves ill. We adopt things from the outside world slowly. Otherwise with our fewer number we’d get wiped out.”
“Well, Niko didn’t seem to adopt things slowly. And just where did he get his scientific knowledge anyway? I mean he did quite well in the Provokar.”
“Niko? During the Age of Enlightenment, he worked with those who developed the scientific method. He was a very young vampire, and it was a scandal for him with his father and coven. But science never stopped fascinating him even when he had to step back because it was apparent that he did not age.”
This stopped me in my tracks. I only thought that vampires were concerned about feeding and status games, not contribute to the development of science. And I glimpsed also that this thing between Arsen and Niko is a very, very old rivalry. At that moment I felt very young and very foolish. But I also realized that I underestimated Niko’s danger.
Here is a guy that worked with the foundations of science as we know it. He presumably understood the importance that whatever knowledge we gain it's for the betterment, not the destruction of mankind or vampire kind. It’s a bedrock idea that’s at the foundation of all we do as scientists. And Niko just didn’t care. He had no qualms about perverting the aims of science for whatever single-minded goal he had. Niko was a monster, not because he was a vampire, but because he was a sociopath.
“Wow, Arsen. Just wow.”
He gazed down at me. “Have I blown your mind?”
“In all always, babe,” I say as an attempt at humor. But it fell flat and Arsen did not smile. “I mean, it’s your ruthlessness or lack of it that marks your strength as a leader?”
“It’s always been that way for us. But you did not help.”
“Me? What did I have to do with it?”
“I won you in the Provokar and you ran away.”
“You did not win me. You cheated.”
Arsen rubbed his jaw with one hand. “Points of law aside, what it looked like is that you had no respect for me, and ran back to the maker who lost. You made the weaker vampire look like the stronger one.”
I bit my lip. I may not agree with what he said, but I see his point.
“And on top of it, I’m working with your friend Jackson, a vampire hunter that is, as you would say, a rock star of vampire hunters.”
If this conversation wasn’t so serious, I would have giggled. But again, I feel like an idiot because all these years I had not a single clue what Jackson did on the nights he blew off a study date. Or took the time to find out what he did on those long weekends he took, supposedly as family outings. But maybe my nerdy self just was so glad to have a friend I didn’t look so closely at the times that Jackson and I didn’t hang out. And now calling Jackson a Rockstar vampire hunter?
So Arsen blew my mind once again.
“So you see, my love, to the other covens I’ve just plain lost my mind.”
Oh shit. This is my fault. I made him appear weak after leaving him after the Provokar. I insisted that he worked with Jackson. Me, in my big brain nerd pride thought I knew what was best for everyone. And Arsen, because he trusted me, went along.
When I’m going to learn not to listen to my big brain?
A knock at the office door rolled through the room.
“Yes,” says Arsen loudly.
“My lord, Sir Mallory is at the door along with representatives of the Istria.”
“No Kresova?”
“No, my lord.”
“And the vampire hunter?”
“Here, with some friends,” hissed the vamp in disapproval. “We searched them to make sure they have no weapons.”
“Escort them to the dining room,” Arsen huffed. The security man shut the door.
Arsen sighed. “Without the Kresova… They are the strongest of us in the New World.”
“Arsen, if the Kresova doesn’t want to join the party, that’s on them.”
He shrugged, but he was unhappy about the situation. I squeezed his hand as we walked into the dining room where a long mahogany stretched the length of it. A gorgeous oriental rug lay on the stone tiles, and heavy drapes hung on the windows. A fireplace center of the outside wall, and a gas fire danced within. But even with the magnificent surroundings the atmosphere, electric with tension, made you want to flee. On the fireplace side stood a group of eight vampires, and the other Jackson and some humans I hadn’t met before. They stared at each other, each side waiting for the other to make the first move. At the door stood six of Arsen’ security, dressed in black, eyes hidden by sunglasses. They held their hands clasped before them with their legs spread, at the ready to quell any problems. Their jaws were tight, and it didn’t take basic math to figure that they were not happy with this meeting.
“Ah, Arsen,” says one vampire with a smile. He stood taller than Arsen, but thinner and his hair hung in a golden cascade past his shoulders. What I would give to find out what hair products he uses.
“Mallory,” says Arsen warmly. Mallory stepped forward and clasped Arsen’s shoulder. “It’s good to see you.”
“Same here.”
“And this must be your lady, the one we’ve heard so much about.”
“Sasha Keleterina, Lord Mallory Nash, of the Baetal. He’s second to Nikolai.”
“We’ll see for how long,” says Mallory with a charming smile. Why did I get the impression he was a rattler waiting to strike?
“At your service,” says Mallory, lifting my outstretched h
and and kissing it. Was it my imagination or did Arsen’s jaw tightened?
“And the man at the fireplace in the center, is Lord Gheorghe Agaricu of the Istria.”
“Nice to meet you,” I said.
The Istria lord raised an eyebrow as if my greeting was graceless and garish. And I suppose in this room chock full of old world manners it is.
“The pleasure is mine,” he says dryly.
“Good. Shall we get to business? Please sit, friends. Henri, have the refreshments brought in.”
I shivered because I did not know what refreshments meant, and I remembered the conversations at the Provokar of different ways to serve up humans.
But a servant brought several decanters of blood. I sniffed its scent right away. She poured a glass for Arsen, who raised it, and drank. The woman served the others.
I sat kitty corner to Arsen at the head of the table and he pushed his knee into mine.
“Drink,” he whispered. “Otherwise, they’ll think I poisoned it.”
I had to resist an eye roll and drank the blood, which was tasty. And it struck me that I’ve moved past tolerating blood for sustenance to appreciating it. I’m shedding humanity faster than I expected. I glanced at Jackson, sitting at the other end who eyed the glass with distaste.
“So, Arsen,” says Gheorghe, rolling the glass stem between his fingers, “we’ve heard this story from your emissary here, off how Nikolai Jederick, commissioned a virus to destroy vampires. The question is why should we trust you?”
“Arsen’s telling the truth,” blurted Jackson. Gheorghe stared at him like Jackson was a bug to squash.
“It is not my place to dictate who my host allows as guests,” snapped Gheorghe, “but at any table the inferiors do not interrupt the masters when they speak.”
Jackson opened his mouth to speak, but Arsen shook his head, and stared pointed at Gheorghe.
“You are correct, Gheorghe, that guests do not dictate what happens at my table, and at my table, Jackson speaks as the lord for human interests. Are we clear, Gheorghe?”
Mallory’s eyes glittered with appreciation at Arsen taking control of this meeting when the Istria lord so clearly wants to.
“Yes, Lord Eskandar,” sniped Gheorghe.
“Good. Let’s proceed.”
“But first,” says Mallory. “I’d like to ask Lady Keleterina’s permission to speak for the Baetal.”
Arsen’s jaw stuck out and his eyes narrowed, and I see once again I’m in the middle of shit for which I did not get the memo.
Chapter 6
Holy shit. What is happening now? It strikes me that Arsen held something back, once again, and we will have a very long talk about later.
“I’m sure that will be fine,” Arsen answers quickly.
“No. I want to hear from Lady Keleterina's mouth.”
“I don’t understand,” I say stupidly.
“Ah,” said Gheorghe, “Of course, Lord Eskankar has not had the time to fill you in on all the details. Three things," he said holding up his fingers. "One. You drank Lord Nikolai's blood making you Baetal. Two. You're officially Niko's mate since the Elders rendered results of the Provokar invalid. Three, Lord Nikolai is missing in action. These three things render you are the defacto head of the Baetal in this territory.”
Oh holy fuck. I want to look toward Arsen to get his reaction but I dare not. This is a classic dick measuring contest, and both Mallory and Gheorghe looked to whittle Arsen down an inch or two. And I will not let that happen. To do that I have to wield some chutzpah of my own.
One dick coming up.
“I'm aware,” I say rendering as much hauteur in my voice as possible. “I meant that I assumed Lord Mallory would speak for the Baetal because Arsen invited him, with my approval. Go ahead,” I say waving my hand. “Represent away.”
But holy fuck. Claudette’s words about Arsen loving someone while he had a use for them haunted me once again. Did this mean that through me Arsen hoped to control the Baetal? I see Arsen’s offer to help the Baetal in a new light.
“Fine,” says Gheorghe. “It makes no difference to me who stands in the place of this whore.”
Now I had more than dick to show. Pure rage poured through me and I launched across the table and grabbed the throat of Gheorghe in one hand and squeezed. He rose from his seat and our eyes locked. Blood trickled from where my nails dug into his neck.
"You are impolite," I said. "And I thought you were such a genteel man. Isn’t politeness and protocol a thing with vampires? I might be new but at least I caught that in orientation. Now sit down, shut up and don’t speak until Arsen or me speaks to you.”
One vampire in the room gasped, and others murmured but I didn’t pay attention as I bore my will down on his and compelled him to sit.
But unlike humans, this was no weak-willed creature unaware of what I did. Our eyes locked and we strove for dominion. A part of me that wanted to give up, but I figured that was Gheorghe playing with my mind to win this contest.
But Sasha Keleterina does not give up. All I have to do is remember that he called me a whore to call up an extra blast of rage. The bastard fell to his seat gasping as he batted my hand away.
The other vampires and Jackson and his confederates all stared at me in shock. I scooted off the table and looked to Arsen whose eyes widened only slightly. But he smiled at me with approval.
The Istria lord opened his mouth, and I cocked my head. “Did you forget what I just said?”
He shook his head.
“Then let’s get this show on the road. I have a mission of mercy to perform, and I suspect that will be a hell of a lot more interesting than measuring my imaginary dick to yours.”
Arsen filled them in on Niko’s activities, how many of the Draugur were affected. The Baetal lord, when queried gave us his number of infected and where, Arsen pulled out his phone and mapped it.
“It’s going across country,” I said.
“Yes,” says Jackson grimly, “and since the virus can linger six months before it manifests, Niko put the virus out to infect the other vampires at least that long ago.”
“How do you know this!” demanded Mallory.
“Because I’ve been helping Sasha with her research.”
The other vampires exploded, some in exclamations. But it was an Istria sitting next to Gheorghe that spit, “How do we know it wasn’t Lady Keleterina who made this thing?”
“Sasha didn’t even meet Nikolai until a month ago,” says Jackson. “And point of fact, he turned her to get back at me, because we’ve been friends since our teen years. The coward wouldn’t attack me, so he picked on Sasha.”
I crossed my arms across my chest. “You are welcome to review all my work, my dated work in my notebooks. And if you still don’t believe me, then that’s just fine. The fact is, I and Arsen control the cure, and if you want it, you’ll help find Niko. Because if we don’t then, he’ll keep implementing his crazy plan. And if you don’t, then you’ll die. And I tell you that’s a better deal than Niko would offer you. He’d bleed you dry financially so you could save your lives.”
“That does sound like Nicholai,” agreed Mallory. “I will talk with the other Baetal lords. He has many holdings throughout the United States and he will have to show up at one of them.”
“You may speak,” I say to Gheorghe.
“I will contact my subject lords and see if they have any information on Niko’s whereabouts.”
“But what if we can’t find Nikolai?” says Mallory. “He’s slippery and difficult to track.”
“We’ll find him,” I say with more confidence than I felt. “We have more than one source of information.” I got up to leave and I waved Jackson to join me. He and his vampire hunter friends followed, probably relieved to be out of that room of bloodsuckers.
“I’ll see you out,” I say.
“Wow,” says Jackson. “I didn’t know you were so bad-assed.”
“Yeah, desperate times and all tha
t.” I stopped in the hallway and faced the vampire hunters who all, except Jackson, glared at me.
“Whatever contacts you have, we need the same information from you. Rates of infection, location, and any Niko sightings.”
“We should all let you die,” muttered one in the back.
“And as I pointed out to Jackson, before that happened a whole lot of humans would suffer, so no. Your best bet is in controlling, not eradicating the vampire population. Because from what I can see, there is an entire world of vampires out there who’d love fresh hunting grounds. So far, this virus is confined to North America. Better the devil you know. I have it on good authority that should the Kresova Queen show up, you’d be in big shit. Let’s not start another chorus of ‘let the vampires die’ song. It’s boring and has no beat.
That joke floated like a lead balloon.
“Don’t worry, Sasha. I wanted them to see for themselves what’s at stake.”
“Is that a bad vampire hunter joke?”
“Yes,” he says with a smile. “We’ll get what info we can.”
The other vampires in the coven watched from the shadows as the vampire hunters leave. As the door shut they hissed and muttered curses.
“Hey,” I say filled with my new authority. “Do you not have something else to do besides eavesdrop on my guests? If you do, do it. If you don’t, I’ve got work for you.”
The whispers of footsteps and rattling of doors followed my words. There is nothing like the promise of work to clear a hall. I go to the lab and work on more batches of the cure until Arsen comes to the lab. And I almost dread this because of the conversation we must have.
He walks behind me and puts his arms around me and kisses my neck.
“You were magnificent,” he murmured.
“Thanks,” I say dryly. “Just fulfilling my role as leader of the Baetal coven.”
Arsen stiffened behind me and I turned to face him, which was a little uncomfortable since he was so close I bent backwards toward the table.
“Why didn’t you tell me.” My eyes are narrowed because I’m working up a good mad and Arsen stiffened.
Girl, Immortal (Girl, Vampire Book 3) Page 5
