Authors: Lauren Dane
She hummed as he licked and nibbled up her rib cage, her nails sinking into his skin a little as she did.
“I don’t think this is coming from Hunter Corp. But it’s also affecting Vampires, so if it’s you, whoever is doing it isn’t afraid of being caught and killed.”
Some Vampires did mess around with magics. Usually the older ones, so it could be Victoriana or someone from her camp.
“I don’t think it’s Collette. I’ve never known her to dabble at all.”
“Maybe one of the Blood Front flunkies. Or Enyo herself? I need to know more about her. I can’t be going into this blind. We want the same thing, Clive. I know you support the amendment in some form. I’m not going to use what you tell me to harm the Nation. You know that.”
He sighed. “It’s not that. She’s a very old one, Rowan. Even
I
don’t know much more than that. I understand enough that she scares me and I’m worried for you. You’re poking at her.”
“I told you I’m not. But Brigid does
not
like her. Not one tiny bit. Theo doesn’t seem overly crazy about her either. But he totally banged her back in the day.”
Clive winced at the way she spoke about The First. Not as a Vampire would have, but as The First’s daughter, he knew. Well, if one had Rowan as a daughter anyway. But it still made him nervous. At times it felt like blasphemy.
“Can I tell you,” she whispered against the spot just below his ear, “that when you get all judgy and slightly paranoid when I talk about Theo banging someone, it really makes me hot for you?”
“You’re a twisted individual, Rowan Summerwaite. And she is a very old and powerful Vampire. Victoriana is bad enough, but Enyo is another sort of danger.”
“It would really be helpful to me if you all had, like, a breakdown of who you all are so I can keep track. Didn’t they use to have something like that in Regency times? So you could see which duke’s daughter or whatever was up for auction?”
Against his better judgment he laughed instead of being outraged. “We didn’t auction them off. But, yes, there was a sort-of almanac for bloodlines. Vampires don’t want that. We like our privacy. We don’t want nosy Hunters being able to look up our history any time they take it into their heads to do so.”
“Whatever. It would be way easier for me. And the world should organize itself thusly for my convenience. It’s best for everyone. Since this Enyo bitch has BCE in her CV and all.”
She pushed him back to the bed and scrambled atop his body, pulling his shirt from his body and shoving his pants down.
“I—” He groaned as she nipped his earlobe. “I don’t know much or I’d tell you. Even if I shouldn’t. I rather like you living.”
“I’ll see if Theo will part with any details tomorrow when I take tea with him.”
Her hair fell around their faces as she kissed him long and slow. “You’re the best-tasting Vampire ever.”
He smiled against her mouth as he moved his hands to her pants, undoing them and sliding his hands between them and bare skin. So warm. She burned, but in the best possible way.
Things simmered as they managed to get out of their clothes, not breaking the kiss for longer than a breath here and there.
That desire that always lay inside him for her burst into flames as need had him trying to surge up to get her to her back, to taste more of her skin.
She laughed, though, countering that move as she stayed in place. She reached back and grabbed his cock, sinking down on him. He nearly shouted at how incredible it felt.
The inferno-hot squeeze of her body around his cock was dizzyingly good. Better than anything he’d ever felt.
“Impetuous this evening, are we, Hunter?”
She looked down at him, a smile on her lips as she rolled her hips just so. “I’m an impetuous woman, Scion. Impatient for you. Plus, with all the chaos here at this meeting, heaven knows if I don’t take what I want when I want it, I might get interrupted before I actually get it. I’d rather fuck you boneless than deal with yet more politics.”
“I’m a supporter of that plan.”
He thrust up into her and she arched her back, taking him so deep he lost his breath.
* * *
It was scary, how much
this
had settled into her life. Easier to think about fighting and killing. But loving was something else. Needing even something more. Needing left you vulnerable and exposed. It allowed someone close enough to really hurt. And some wounds never scarred over.
He drew the pad of his thumb over her lips so tenderly she couldn’t brush it off or lie that it didn’t matter.
He
mattered.
He looked up at her, seeing her in ways very few ever did. Knowing right then she was panicky and freaked out, and he just smiled, ridiculously handsome. Who looked so good while they were having sex? He even looked perfect when he came. Who did that?
“I can’t believe you never get sweaty. You’re like a fucking warlock or something. You’re not even disheveled.”
“On the other hand, you’re delightfully so. Your hair is tousled around your face. Your lips are swollen from my kisses, skin flushed from pleasure. I wish I could sweat and be disheveled in honor of how you look right now. Perfection.”
She tried to frown at him, but he did something with his hips that hit all her right spots.
“Accept it, Rowan.”
She chose to evade his meaning. “I totally accept that I’m a sweaty mess when I have sex.” She gave him a stern look and found herself on her back.
“You talk too much.” He kissed her hard as he picked up the speed and depth of his thrusts. “You talk too much and you use your bitchy to try and push me away, but while I do want to shove something into that mouth to keep you quiet, you can’t push me away. Apparently my favorite flavor is bloodthirsty bitch.”
She didn’t want to be touched. Didn’t want to be amused. She wanted it to just be hot sex and nothing more. Rowan pushed all the emotion away but it came back like the tide.
She closed her eyes because looking at him made her a liar and she didn’t have the energy to face that just yet.
He made a sound, his fingers digging into her hips as he held on, his mouth dropping kisses over her brow, her closed eyes, the curve of her cheek. She sank deeper, pulling away from the emotion, embracing the physical, arching to break away from his kisses.
Even as orgasm stole through her, she knew he would only let her evade for so long. And maybe a small part of her liked that he’d only stand for it so long.
Chapter Fifteen
“Petal, you look rested.” Theo took her hands and leaned in to brush a kiss against her wrist over her mark of service.
Having two rounds of very satisfying sex with one of his Scions did that to a gal. But she figured neither one of them really wanted to have
that
discussion. Though, it was hilarious to imagine Clive’s face if he knew she’d even had the idea in the presence of his sainted First.
“As well as one can with all sorts of drama brewing.” This needed to be a slow dance toward the point. He was in an easy enough mood, but the blunt approach wouldn’t work with him as well as if she charmed her way there.
“How many of us have you had? Vassals, I mean.” She moved to stoke the fire as he sat, waiting to have his tea served.
“Oh, memory has a way with you when you’re my age. Your father’s family has been in my service for about two millennia. Before that, I had individual human guards or servants, who’d serve for a few generations. But those times were very hard on you. Humans can be so fragile. You all get sick and die easily enough, but then, you lived and died like candle flames.”
“But not all Vampires have families in service to them.”
“No. Some are nomadic, preferring to come and go as the wind and their whim takes them. A family in service like yours, that’s a very old-fashioned way to live. Newer Vampires keep humans around for blood and to handle their daytime business, but it’s not the same. Paola has had the same family in service to her house for the last five or six centuries, I think. But Clive does not.” He shrugged. “It’s also expensive. Which makes it a—what do you call it—a mark of status. Most of my people can’t afford a staff like mine.”
His smile made her laugh, even as she tried hard not to.
“Sometimes it’s a good thing for them to understand they are not like me. It prevents a great deal of pretension to my office.”
“I remember you saying Flavius challenged you.”
“I’m feeling nostalgic, so I will share with you.” He looked at her over the rim of his teacup. “And then
you
will answer my questions. Do we have a bargain?”
She’d known he could tell she was up to something, but he was rarely so blunt in their game. Rowan nodded. “Yes, of course.”
She went through all the movements of the ritual between them, handing him the plate with sweets first. He loved cookies and cakes. And then she followed with the tea before doing the same for herself.
“Flavius and I were particular friends. Of a sort. It’s not easy to maintain a friendship with other Vampires. We’re territorial and jealous, and so, as you know, we run together for a few decades and break away for a time. We’d done that since our youth. He was one of my first children. I did not end him idly. It pained me to do so, even though he was an absurd fop with an overinflated ego by the end.”
Ha, overinflated ego was a mandatory Vampire character trait by the time they got to be a few hundred years old.
Still, she knew it had been a difficult choice for Theo. He did value loyalty very much. “Even if he challenged you and you had no choice.”
Theo nodded, letting go of that memory. “Two centuries ago he showed up in Berlin and killed two of my humans and one of my children who’d been retrieving some art for me. He sent their heads back in the box my sculpture was supposed to have been in. He thought it dramatic, you see. There was no other response to such an action. I went to Berlin, where he was quite easy to find, and I tore his head off and left him for the sun. No one has killed any of my protected since.”
He was the glue that held the Nation together. She knew this, of course, had grown up understanding it without being told. But each time she heard a story like this, complete with the pain of loss in his voice as he recounted it, she understood it better. Understood, too, the toll it took on him to not only mete out justice no matter who the receiver was, but the monumental control it took for him to live without daily bloodbaths. Especially as he grew older. Bloodlust was part of who a Vampire was. But he lived there in his Keep away from most humans and Vampires. He could easily rip the heads off powerful Vampires, and he did when he had to. He could also whip a nine-year-old girl until she bled, for forgetting how to conjugate Latin.
He fought the madness, but he was still mad.
And, in many ways, he was her father and she loved him despite the scars on her back. She didn’t know if that made her pathetic or honorable. Probably as crazy as he was.
“Victoriana hates you for that.”
He shrugged. “I care little what she thinks. Her love for him had a few centuries to root. He was my child.” He focused on her again. “Being a parent is a difficult thing. Thank goodness some of you have better control and are not spoiled brats.”
She blew out a breath. “Maybe if I lived to be a few thousand years old, I’d be a brat too.”
He shook his head. “You have too much self-control, and sadly, no small amount of self-loathing to be a brat. You carry a great deal of guilt for things you cannot possibly own. It’s why you are on the path you are instead of here with me. I am...” He paused and she made herself remain still, wanting desperately to know the rest of what he planned to say.
“I admit I am bitterly jealous at times. Of your Goddess and your destiny. I miss you, Rowan. I am proud of who you have become. Proud to see you stand tall and do right in Her name. It is easier now that you do not hate me as much. I like having you here within the walls of my Keep. I like knowing you’re safer than you are outside them.”
She blinked back tears. “I never hated you. I wanted to. I’ve wanted to stake you. Wanted to hurt you the way you’d hurt me.” Sitting there with him at that moment, she knew he did suffer for it. Knew, too, that he’d have done exactly the same as he had before because that’s what it took. Rowan swallowed the emotion before it swallowed her.
“Doing what needs to be done is a lonely road. I expect you know this. We are not so very different, you and I, in that way. It is a weight very few can bear, being so very other.”
She breathed in deep. He was, in many ways, the only one of his kind. The rest were beings he’d had some part in making, but he was not made, he was born. He remained aloof to keep the rest of his Nation in line. His estrangement was necessary, as, she supposed, her own was.
The truth of it rocked her, though she’d known this for some time.
Finally he spoke, breaking the tension between them. “It is my turn, Petal. Tell me what’s going on in that mind of yours.”
“Here at this meeting, did you know Vampires and humans alike have been plagued with bad dreams?”
His gaze, which had been soft with memory, sharpened. “No one told me of this.
You
tell me then.”
“I only was made aware yesterday when my valet told me of his dreams. I asked around and heard from Vampire and human alike that many had been experiencing dreams so terrible it affected their overall rest, leaving them impatient and angry in the evenings. During their waking hours they have what can be described as flashbacks to those images from their nightmares.”
“Vampires told you this?”
“Not all of them. Some of them don’t like me, imagine that. But the ones who did speak with me said their daylight rest has been plagued with disturbing images, especially the time they began to surface as dark approached. Some spoke with Clive. I did check in with Nadir and she reports the Five are unaffected.”
“Ah. She did say she wanted to brief me when I’d finished our tea. What about you? Have you had these problems?”
She shook her head. “Nothing. I dream, yes, but nothing disturbing. I spoke with Dina about it, and she gave me some herbs to put under the pillow but said she thought the Goddess protected me against magic like this. I have spoken with some humans here this afternoon, and they reported they slept deeply with no dreams. Other than Nadir and Recht, you’re the only Vampire I’ve spoken to today. Have you had dreams?”
He shook his head, and she admitted to herself that she was massively relieved. Theo being driven to irritation by bad dreams would be a very unpleasant thing for everyone.
She nodded and breathed a little easier.
He looked at her, seeing through her defenses easily. “I dream all the time. Unlike other Vampires, I always have. Sometimes they are disturbing. But mainly they are memories, snatches of my life. I, too, am unique and protected, I suppose. What is your hypothesis on this?”
She decided to be straightforward with him about her thoughts. “Humans need sleep to live. Vampires need it too. Disturb the rest, and you create testy people with short attention spans who are prone to upset and frustration. At a meeting like this one? That could be disastrous. If people are uneasy and disturbed, they’re distrustful. That’s the opposite of what I need.”
He watched her as he sipped his tea, waiting for her to continue.
“I think someone is using magic to mess with people here. To affect the outcome of this meeting. And I think that someone is a Vampire. It could be a side effect of something else meant to mess with the Joint Tribunal. But whatever the source and reason for it, it has affected the meeting.”
“Is that so? The Hunter Corporation has sorcerers in its ranks. And certainly given the performance by Mr. Wesslyian last evening, no shortage of humans who want this Amendment of yours to fail.”
“True. But the amendment is backed by a majority of the Full Partners. And his behavior last night didn’t hurt my cause. It made him look crazy, and I ejected him. He’s no threat at this point in any way. If it was Hunter Corp., and I’m not saying it’s past what we’d do, it’s actually quite clever, but if it was us, someone I know would also know it and would have told me. Our world is too regulated otherwise.”
Theo shrugged. “Dina helped you?”
“Don’t get on her case. She was kind to help me. Don’t punish her for that.”
His brows rose and she wanted to throw herself on his mercy immediately, but she pushed that urge back. Still. “I apologize for my hasty reply,
Vater.
What I meant to say was that your household staff was incredibly helpful in protecting me and my people, in addition to your Nation Vampires, and should be commended for that assistance.”
He sniffed. “I do like that you care about the humans who work here.”
“Some of them are family.”
“I’m glad you see that too. Now, for the sake of this discussion, let’s assume I agree that most likely Vampires are behind this. And let’s assume I agree that something like this is a way to disrupt the proceedings here. What is your plan?”
“Tonight is the final vote. I need to run interference until that happens. The vote needs to be taken. That’s the entire point of this meeting. Once that’s done and squared away, I need to figure out which Vampire is responsible and end them.”
“And you think I should help you kill one of my people?”
“I will kill them in either case. It is strictly forbidden to use magic on the unwilling. It is certainly forbidden to use it to influence a Joint Tribunal.”
“If I find out any of my Vampires have used magic on our Nation, I will kill them first. Maybe we’ll have a race.” His eyes lit, and as horrified as she knew she should have been about engaging in such a contest with him, as twisted as their relationship was, she found herself smiling.
“Tell me about Enyo.”
He shook his head at her. “You are cheeky today.”
“She’s a few thousand years old, and she’s here to mess with my process. I’m operating blind here, which makes me nervous.” She paused and decided to reveal some more. “Brigid doesn’t like her. Not one bit. I get the feeling they’ve come in contact before. And you clearly have, given the way you reacted when she came in. I need information and I most humbly seek your advice.”
“My advice is that you need to keep away from her. She’s old. And powerful.”
She wrestled annoyed impatience. “I know that much. Did you make her?”
“No.”
“Flavius?”
“No.”
It was frustrating that he was being so damned coy. But he never did a thing without a reason so she just had to figure it out.
“She’s from Hellenistic Greece, so she’s about what, five or six hundred years younger than you are?”
“She became a Vampire in 160 BC.”
And Rowan knew Theo was born roughly around 800 BC.
“She has some sort of magical knowledge.”
He shrugged just barely. Enough that she knew she was on the right track.
“Victoriana is obviously part of Enyo’s cadre.” A cadre was a group of Vampires who had a loose affiliation. Usually based on geography or perhaps who their Maker was or what their core beliefs were.
“I’m given to understand that, yes.”
“What’s Marcilius’s story? Is he just blinded by love or what?”
“Tut-tut, Petal. I can’t give you all our secrets. We are on opposite sides of the table, after all. I am entrusted with millennia’s worth of secrets and stories. I want you to succeed. I want you to be safe. But I cannot—and will not—reveal everything to you simply because you are curious. The Hunters have archives. I suggest you make use of them. You can’t afford to be lazy.”
Yes, but there was only so much time she had left before the vote, damn it. But she knew when to back off and so she did.
“One more question. This one from Rowan to Tages.”
“I indulge you far too much.” But he spoiled it with a small smile. “Go on then.”
“You and Enyo? I mean, you know.” She waggled her brows at him.
He chuckled and the sound flowed over her like a caress. “Back when we were a lot younger, she was...singular. She still is. But dangerous. Too dangerous to be around for very long.” He finished his tea. “And since you asked about my love life, I ask about yours. Things are good between you and my Scion?”
She took a deep breath. “Yes. Mostly. He’s a Vampire, so he’s arrogant and bossy and cocky.”
“But he nearly got into a fight over your honor in a meeting here. He has publicly claimed you. I like that. He’s strong enough to keep your interest, and you’re strong enough to not get run over. And I’m powerful enough to end him should he ever harm you. It’s a good situation for a father to be in.”