Death's Mistress (22 page)

“And you couldn’t find her before this? You’re her master.”

“Not at present. Alejandro broke my hold and established his own.”

All right, I should have guessed that much. Master vampires traded servants from time to time, or lost them in duels or picked them up after their master died. And one of the first things they did with any new acquisition was to establish control by replacing the vamp’s master’s blood with their own.

“How did you find out he had her?”

“I didn’t. Last night, he contacted me and offered a trade.”

It took me a minute to get it, because it was so absurd. “Elyas will trade Christine for
Raymond
?”

“In a way. He wants one of the items Raymond recently smuggled in from Faerie. Elyas was involved in a bidding war for it, and he lost.”

“Let me guess. He doesn’t take losing well.”

“In that regard, he reminds me of your father.”

“Mircea was involved in this auction?” I asked, my eyes narrowing.

“Yes, but he could not go himself. It might have appeared awkward for the head of the new task force to be seen profiting from the smuggling trade. He therefore sent a proxy.” Louis-Cesare looked past me at his own father, who was peering out of the bedroom door again.

Radu’s turquoise eyes were worried, and he’d shredded most of the silken tassel on his robe. “Well, I didn’t know,” he said crossly. “He simply said he wanted me to bid on something for him.”

“You didn’t think that was odd?” I demanded.

“Why should I? I’ve done it dozens of times before. They raise the price when they find out a senator is involved.”

“Okay, so you went to the auction for Mircea, but didn’t get the item.”

“It wasn’t my fault! I kept bidding and bidding, but the price kept going up, up, up. It just became ridiculous!”

“So Mircea lost, too.” I looked at Louis-Cesare. “And you assumed he’d sent me to do what? Steal what he couldn’t buy?”

“It is impossible to steal something unless you know where it is. And Raymond handled the sale.”

“Son of a bitch.” I hated getting played, especially by my own father. Maybe because it had happened once too often. “Mircea sent me to fetch Ray, but of course he didn’t mention what he really wanted to ask him about! I assumed it was that ring of portals we’ve been searching for.”

“I’ve no doubt that it would have come up, after Lord Mircea had gained his primary objective.”

“I told him he was better off,” Radu put in. “He’d said to spare no expense, but we’re talking about the cost of a small country! And it was just some old rune. But he’s in a snit about it.”

My brain came to a screeching halt. “Old rune?”

“Yes, ugly little thing.”

“Did it have a name?” I asked intently.

Louis-Cesare’s eyes narrowed. “You said you wanted the vampire for smuggling.”

“No, that’s what Mircea told me he wanted him for. I took the job to help Claire.”

“Your fey friend?”

“She’s here looking for a little something that was recently stolen from the Blarestri royal house.”

Nobody had ever accused Louis-Cesare of being slow on the uptake. His blue eyes hardened to lapis. “No.”

“Yes. It’s her property!”

“And it’s Christine’s life!” He snatched the bag in a move even I had trouble tracking. One minute, I was holding it; the next, it was in his hands.

I grabbed it, but he didn’t let go. “It may be Aiden’s life if we don’t get the damn thing back!”

“Aiden? Who is—”

“Claire’s son! Half the fey are trying to kill him, and the rest aren’t sure that isn’t a good idea. The rune is his protection.”

“He has an army to protect him. Christine has no one!”

I glared at him and pulled hard enough that the bag’s fibers started splitting. “If you want Christine so badly, fight Elyas for her.”

“The Senates have prohibited duels between masters for the duration of the war.”

“Then buy her.”

“Do you not think I have tried?” He let go of Ray abruptly enough that my back hit the wall. “I offered him money, my vote on Senate matters, my sword to fight his duels! Yet the rune is the only thing he will take.”

“We can get the Senate involved—”

“They will not interfere in a private matter between two senators.”

“Your consul then.” The senior vampire in charge of a Senate could occasionally be persuaded to help out a valuable member, and Louis-Cesare’s fighting ability was a major asset.

“Dorina! Do you not think I have explored all possible options? I was told in confidence that, should I be so impolitic as to make an issue of this, they will only drag out deliberations until she is dead! They do not care about Christine. They care only about their precious alliance.”

And, okay, I could see that. The Senates had recently joined forces to fight a greater enemy, and after centuries of mutual dislike and mistrust, it wasn’t the sturdiest of alliances. No way were they going to rock the boat over a single vampire. But that didn’t change my position any.

“And I care about a little boy who deserves the chance to grow up.”

Louis-Cesare stared at me for a moment, before turning away with a cry of anguished frustration. “What do you wish me to do?” he demanded, whirling back to face me. “I am responsible for the woman whose life I ruined! I must put that right!”

“You didn’t ruin it. You saved her.” Louis- Cesare had made Christine a vampire to save her life. From what I’d heard, she’d been less than grateful.

A pulse jumped in his neck. “You cannot save someone if they do not wish it. She believes herself damned because of me. I cannot change what was, but I can prevent her from having to pay the price for another of my mistakes.”

“Not if it takes—” I stopped. Radu was down the hall, flapping his hands frantically.

“The desk just called. Lord Cheung is on his way up!”

I licked my lips. If Louis-Cesare broke the Senate’s prohibition, he’d be punished, probably severely. And he would break it rather than give in. He had a stubborn streak a mile wide and pride enough for any ten people.

“We’ll share,” I offered.

“How?”

“When are you meeting Elyas?”

“Now. I was leaving when you arrived.”

“Then we’ll go together. You promised him the information; you’ll deliver. And I’ll be there to hear it at the same time he does.”

“That does not guarantee you anything.”

“This is my city. I have contacts he can only dream of, and I have no intention of fighting fair. I’ll get to it first.”

He looked like he wanted to argue some more, but boots were coming up the stairs, and there was no time. “Agreed.”

Gunther appeared in his doorway, a Luger in his hand and a backup at his waist. They looked a little incongruous next to the blue satin robe. “Okay, I take it back,” he told me, heading toward the stairs. “You do know how to bring the drama.”

“You really are a bodyguard?”

“I like to diversify.”

I caught his arm. “They’ll shred you!”

“I’m not planning to fight them. But demanding what they want will buy you a few seconds. I suggest you use them.”

He disappeared into the stairwell, and Radu flew down the hall, dragging Ray by the arm. He pushed me back into Louis-Cesare’s room while pressing something hard into my hand. “It’s brand-new. I came to town partly in order to collect it. Please, please,
please
don’t scratch it!”

“What about you?”

“Lord Cheung can’t hurt me because of the truce, and anyway, with you two gone, he’ll have no cause.” Radu opened the heavy old wardrobe, shoved back the clothes and pushed me inside. I was about to ask what good he thought that was going to do when he gave another shove, and I was falling.

I slid on my back, headfirst, down something like a laundry chute, and landed on very hard concrete. And a second later, Ray arrived, his knee driving the air out of my lungs. I’d have liked a moment to lie there, wheezing, but Louis-Cesare landed—on his feet, the bastard—and helped me up in order to steal the keys.

We were in an underground garage filled with fabulousness, but there was no doubt which car was ’Du’s. We were in a hurry, but I took two seconds to stare anyway. A Lamborghini Murciélago convertible deserves it. Hot damn, I thought, feeling a grin breaking out over my face. And then I was running toward my new upscale ride.

We were already late, but we didn’t have far to go. I stared up at the familiar limestone building, with its turn-of-the-century architecture and its Central Park views. “You have got to be kidding me.”

“Elyas recently purchased the penthouse,” Louis-Cesare informed me, with a twist to his lips.

“Is he crazy? Out of everywhere you could have met, he invites you
here
?”

“He likes taking risks.”

He also liked being a dick. He’d taken the penthouse a couple floors above the apartment Mircea had recently acquired. I strongly suspected that he’d chosen that penthouse in that building just to spite him. It was the sort of petty one-upmanship that the world’s most powerful creatures regularly engaged in, as opposed to doing anything useful.

An attendant jogged over, and Louis-Cesare got out of the car. He’d driven, because there hadn’t been time to wrestle him for the keys. I started to follow and then stopped, watching curiously as he walked around the hood.

And opened my door.

I stared at him blankly as he offered me a hand. It was beyond bizarre, but after a moment, I took it anyway. He helped me out and turned to the attendant, who had shied back when he saw Ray. Louis-Cesare tossed him the keys. “Do not let him drive.”

“Very funny.” I opened the back door and dragged Ray out. “We can’t leave him here.”

“You expect to take a headless vampire to a social event?”

“No, but there’s an outside chance Cheung’s boys tracked us, and I don’t want them staking him while we’re inside.”

Louis-Cesare looked pained. Ray was even dirtier than I was, and his bright red briefs had gotten a tear across the butt at some point, flashing a glimpse of hairy cheek whenever he moved. An awesome trophy he was not.

We marched Ray under the portico, past the horrified-looking doorman and over to a cherrywood-paneled elevator. I leaned Ray against the wall, fished my cell phone out of the duffel and called Mircea’s apartment. Mircea’s old tutor and longtime butler answered. “What?” he demanded querulously.

No amount of training has ever taught Horatiu the proper way to answer a phone. Mircea doesn’t give a damn, since most of the people who call him on his public line do so to grovel anyway, and he’s the only one with any control over the old vamp. Not that I think he has much.

“It’s Dorina,” I yelled, because he can’t hear worth a damn.

“Who?”

“DORINA!”

“Well, there’s no need to shout.”

“Is Mircea there?”

“No, no. Everyone’s gone,” he said impatiently. “Middle of the night, isn’t it?”

“Do you expect him back soon?”

“Not for a few hours. Why?”

“No reason. I’m coming up.”

Louis-Cesare quirked an eyebrow as I replaced the phone. “I need a bath,” I said, before he could ask. He just looked at me. “What?”

“You are a dhampir on your way to a vampire cocktail party, and you are worried about your
toilette
?”

“No,” I said defensively, as he started to smile. “And you’re the one who wanted to park Ray somewhere.”

“Very true.” It was a genuine smile now, curving his lips, lighting his eyes, and I blinked. I hadn’t seen one too often from him, and it was ridiculously attractive.

“I don’t get why Elyas involved you in all this,” I said as the elevator doors opened. “If he wanted to talk to Ray, he could have gone himself or sent one of his men. It’s not like the guy was hard to find.”

“Lord Cheung is known as a competent duelist. Elyas . . . is not. The truce will only last as long as the war, and once it is lifted, Lord Cheung will be well within his rights to demand satisfaction for his loss and for the indignity perpetrated on his servant. Elyas preferred me to have to deal with that eventuality, rather than him.”

“But why didn’t he just buy it?” I asked, confused. “Cheung is a businessman. If Elyas offered him enough—”

“The winner of the auction was Ming- de,” Louis-Cesare said simply.

He didn’t need to say anything else. Ming-de was the powerful Chinese empress, their version of a consul. It would be a rare vampire who wanted to risk breaking a promise to her, and certainly not one who resided in her territory. She could crush him like a bug, and probably would, if he crossed her.

“So no reversing the sale.”

“The auction was yesterday, and Elyas spent most of the last twenty-four hours bombarding Lord Cheung with offers, pleas and threats. To no avail.”

We got out at Mircea’s floor, and I rang the doorbell. “If the auction was last night, why was Elyas pestering Cheung?” I asked. “Doesn’t Ming-de already have it?”

“The fey who owns it refused to bring it here until a sale was agreed upon. He was due to arrive last night, after the auction, at which time the evaluation would be made. If the rune was genuine, it would be delivered tonight and payment made. That is why Lord Cheung is here, I suspect. He no doubt planned to deliver the rune to the empress personally.”

“Only he can’t,” I realized. “He obviously doesn’t know where Ray put it, or he wouldn’t be chasing us all over the city.”

Louis-Cesare nodded. “The auction took place here, because most of the participants were already on hand for the races. But Lord Cheung’s business kept him in Hong Kong until today. He wasn’t here when the fey came through the portal, and therefore he doesn’t know where the rune is. As far as we can determine, only one person knows that.”

Well, no wonder Ray was a popular guy.

A tiny old vampire with a nose to rival Ray’s and tufts of silver-white hair finally answered the door. Unlike most vamps on the planet, Horatiu doesn’t actually hate me, maybe because he’s not entirely clear on what I am. The watery blue eyes don’t work right, and he hasn’t been able to see his hand in front of his face in centuries. Which might explain why he didn’t so much as flinch at the sight of a bloody dhampir and a headless guy on his doorstep.