Ancient Blood: A Novel of the Hegemony (The Order Saga Book 1) (18 page)

“No, wait,” I said, yanking out of Ash’s grip and heading for Draco. This wasn’t right. I’d made a promise. Mrs. Kai was a good person, she’d always tried to help me and this kind of shit shouldn’t happen to the good guys. This was where the hero stands up for the innocent victim with wit and bravery and saves them from a horrible fate.

This is what Angel, Buffy and Anita Blake would do.

My mind raced through a hundred semi-coherent ideas before it hit me. Iago. Draco supported and respected Iago!

“Hegemon Draco, don’t—”

That’s as far as I got before he backhanded me.

I imagine my head must have turned so hard that the rest of my body had to leave the ground and spin to compensate because the next thing I remember is being face down on the floor with a fractured jaw.

Draco loomed over me, Revenants on either side of him. “Don’t dare presume to speak to me with such comportment again. Our business is concluded. Leave now or I shall teach you a lesson in manners you’ll not soon forget.”

My eyes watered from the pain and I felt his dark, wintry authority hitting me like hail. Deep in the most primitive part of my brain, my instincts said that this man would end my life with violence and cruelty if I didn’t flee from him with my tail between my legs. Right. Fucking. Now.

Less than a second passed between Draco telling me to leave and Ash grabbing me. “C’mon, goddammit!” He sounded angry but I could smell how scared he was.

After he drug me to my feet, I got my legs to work and the two of us hurried out the door. As soon as the door closed behind us, Ash threw me down onto the floor. I’ve seen it on the surveillance footage from that night. After he throws me down, Ash shuffles over to the top step and sits down for a few minutes, wiping at his eyes, before getting up and heading back downstairs.

I just lay where he threw me for a while. It wasn’t Mrs. Kai I thought of, or even what had just happened with Draco. I thought about my stepfather.

That first Thanksgiving after Mom died, a few members of Jim’s family came over. We all sat around the living room and Jim kept making jokes about my clothes, my hair and the books I read, while everybody else laughed or added a remark. After about ten minutes of trying to smile good-naturedly, I muttered, “Oh, fuck you,” and got up to go to my room. In an instant Jim was on his feet, snatching a glass jar of peanuts from the table and whacking me on the head with it. I dropped onto the rug and started to cry while Jim yelled at me about my language and called me a big baby and everyone else sat watching me and feeling awkward. I remember that the pain wasn’t that bad, it was the humiliation and feeling of isolation that had made me cry.

That’s what did it to me this time too.

* * * * *

“Avery?” I heard Caroline say. “Avery, what’s wrong?”

I lay on the floor, my jaw throbbing and my thoughts stuck in a loop of self-pity and bad memories while the sound of Mrs. Kai’s cries cursed me through the wall. Hands grabbed me and I realized they were Caroline’s as she pulled me to a sitting position. Her presence reminded me of the meeting, breaking my thought-loop and returning me to the track I’d been on before Draco hit me.

Iago.

There was still a chance to get his help. It might be too late to get Mrs. Kai out untouched but I could still save her life and maybe the Judicis could take care of her memories like he had with the girl from the cellar. We could get Ash to smuggle her out later that morning with the other girl. Not perfect but better than the alternative.

Without a word, I left Caroline to follow as I ran around the corner to Iago’s door.

“Avery!”

I went in. Iago sat in his armchair, the crackling fire beside him revealing that the place still looked like a set from
Dark Shadows
. He turned to me, unsurprised.

“Judicis Medici, I’m sorry to barge in like this but Draco has Mrs. Kai, the housekeeper, in his suite! He used her as an excuse to get me up here but now he’s gonna torture her…”

Caroline, having no choice, had come in behind me and closed the door. “What? Oh, my…” She’d left the security office right after Draco called out to Sebastian and came upstairs to wait for me.

“Yes,” Iago said, sitting forward. “I am sorry for that.”

I stopped a few steps from him. “Don’t tell me that was the plan.”

“Avery,” Caroline whispered, grabbing my arm but I didn’t give a shit about proper etiquette at the moment.

Luckily for me, Iago didn’t either. “Foolishly, I did give Draco leave to invent his own pretext. From your words and my own familiarity with the principals, the rest of the scenario took little thought to reconstruct.”

“All right, fine,” I said. “So, let’s get going. Is it better to call him first or just go there and get her?”

“I truly am sorry,” he answered, looking at me the way you look at a kid who has to be told Fido’s not coming home from the vet’s. “But there is nothing I can do to help.”

“How can you say that? You’re the Judicis!” I felt myself tearing up again and looked to Caroline for support but she just sat in the chair across from Iago and stared at the floor with similarly moist eyes.

Iago nodded. “For the moment. However, even if that meant what you seem to believe, I would still have no authority to intervene. As repellant as they are, Draco’s actions are permissible by our laws and traditions. Sebastian gave her to him, did he not? By law, she is his property.”

“Well, then buy her from him or something, dammit! There’s gotta be something we can do.”

“His business with Sebastian was personal and he will not look kindly on any attempt to interfere in it.”

I glared at him. “You just don’t wanna risk losing his support, do you?”

He met my gaze. “An ugly truth to be sure but one which I shall not shrink from. In this matter, you must recognize that you have done all you are capable of given the limitations of circumstance.” I felt the depths within his eyes reach into mine, felt his words etch themselves into my mind. “Grieve for her without shame, honor her memory and dedicate yourself to protecting others like her if you choose but never let yourself fall prey to the ravages of guilt when you fail. Mark me well, for it is poison of the worst kind and has made monsters of even the noblest men.”

I felt some of the bleak anguish I’d been carrying since leaving Draco’s suite evaporate, leaving behind a dull and unfocused sadness. Strangely, it didn’t make me feel better. I felt cheated, like something had been taken from me before I was finished with it. Who the fuck did he think he was to just reach into my head and try to make me feel better?

“Fuck all of you,” I said, turning away.

“Avery!” Caroline shouted.

“No,” I said, spinning around to face her. “This whole thing sucks! The whole damn society, all its rules, it’s stupid traditions and everybody in it can all just fucking go to hell! This guy can’t even get his own henchman to stop torturing an innocent woman. Hell, he can’t even make Sebastian keep his room clean! Who the fuck are we kidding thinking he can do anything to help us? This is all just a big, sick, fucking game and we’re not even—”

Caroline grabbed me hard. I’d never seen her like this before, so terrified. “What else can we do? I’ve known Mrs. Kai for years and I hate what happened to her but should we give up because of it? This is all we’ve got, Avery … so, please, calm down and apologize and let’s—”

“There is no need, Caroline,” Iago said from his chair, startling us both. “Your lover’s anger is righteous and though he is not especially tactful, he is nevertheless correct in his assessment. This is a game, albeit one of most dire consequence, in which I am a reluctant player with ever-shrinking resources and you are both pieces of negotiable value.”

“Are you … speaking to me?”

“Would you prefer we conduct our conversation through your young man as though we did not speak the same language?”

“No,” Caroline said, moving toward him. “I don’t mind at all, I’m just very surprised.”

Iago indicated the chair across from him, which I noticed had been dusted. “Please, make yourself comfortable.”

Caroline did. “Thank you.”

The chair beside her had also been brushed off. I moved it beside her and sat. “So,” I said, drawing Iago’s attention. “What if we decide we’re not gonna be anybody’s pawns?” Because of my outburst and Caroline’s dragging me back, I decided to try playing the “bad cop” with Iago.

Iago arched an elegant eyebrow. “You have no choice in the matter. The simple mechanics of survival and performance of your duties fit you squarely into Sebastian’s plans. Any scheming on your part simply gives others the opportunity to profit by your actions and desires.” He made one of those little hand-shrugs. “It is the nature of The Game: constant, all-pervasive and inescapable. We play, else we are used.”

I thought about Mrs. Kai again and remembered asking her why she worked for Sebastian. She’d said that the pay and benefits were so good, even as a maid, that she could retire by the time her kids graduated college. The American dream. Then I thought about the people in the cellar and all the other “wine cellars” there must be in this country alone. Those little “Have You Seen Me?” cards I used to get in the mail that I’d just throw out.

Damn right we got used.

“In that case, Judicis Medici, we offer ourselves for use in your plans,” Caroline told him.

I took hold of her hand and she clutched mine. This was the big moment.

Iago thought for a few seconds before answering, “What exactly leads you to believe that I have plans at all?”

Remember in
The Wizard of Oz
where the “great and powerful Oz” turns out to be this old fraud behind a curtain?

“Well, the fact that you’re still alive and Judicis is my first clue.” Caroline’s poise never slipped.

The corner of Iago’s mouth twitched. “You are unfamiliar with the excruciating caution and patience of these jackals. They wait, they observe, they test and then they retreat to a safe distance to begin the cycle anew. That it has taken a century for Agrippina to commit to my destruction is a measure of my former stature and the mighty preparation of her design.”

“But if you know that Hegemon Julia is guiding Sebastian’s moves, then you must at least suspect the Blood Pact between them,” Caroline said. Iago has one of the world’s greatest poker faces but I watched intently and thought I saw a tiny flicker in his eyes at her mention of the Blood Pact. “You’re far too habituated in the functioning of The Order to recognize a hostile intention and not develop a counter, even if you have no intention of employing it.”

Sitting there in her
Age of Innocence
gown with her hair done up like a princess and her large eyes sparkling like jewels, I realized just how completely in her element she was here. She loved this! Her face glowed the way it did when she was focused on a challenge.

Iago also drifted forward to be closer to her radiance before catching himself and slumping back to his former posture. “Ah but I’m afraid you are too generous in your assessment of my faculties. I did only this evening recognize the significance of Agrippina’s coordination with Blackwood and am now passing certain that I am too well entangled in their cunning web to entertain fantasies of escape.”

After the few seconds it took me to translate what he’d said into normal English, I realized he wasn’t making sense. Julia’s gift of the papal robes to Sebastian, Draco’s mockery of Sebastian with that empty suit of Roman armor and even Iago’s parting gift of “the world” to Sebastian; there was no way he could have been in the dark about what was happening if somebody like me could see it. Then I saw the way Caroline’s smile faltered and the way Iago’s attention focused on her as he waited for her reaction.

He’d lied! He’d thrown her a curve ball after setting her up with a series of straight pitches.

“But didn’t you also admit to Avery your need to maintain Draco’s political support? If you didn’t have some intention of fighting back, then what would you need it for?” She even managed to make her questions sound like a puzzling discovery rather than a challenge.

“A thorough argument,
signora
. Now, before we proceed further,” he said, leaning forward and locking her with eyes that were bright, alert and predatory. “I must ask that you look me in the eyes and tell me if you are here at the behest of your Creator or Julia Agrippina.”

I saw Caroline’s face go slack and shot out of my chair. “Hey!”

“No,” Caroline answered in a flat tone. “Sebastian and Julia have no idea we’re here. Sebastian would kill us if he suspected.”

I remained standing but made no further move to stop Iago, deciding that I’d referee things on her behalf. I didn’t know exactly what I’d do to stop him if he took things too far but I was hoping the situation wouldn’t come to that.

“Do you in any way represent an interest other than your own in this negotiation?”

“No.”

“Very well, then,” he said, waving his hand in front of her face and sitting back.

With a look of confusion, she glanced up at me. I gave her a little nod to let her know everything was okay and she turned back to Iago as if nothing had happened.