Heir to the Coven (3 page)

Kain shook his head. “Rainor never said a word to me. My sources in town haven’t mentioned a thing. Was he testing my skills?”

“I doubt it. He and Anton knew. I assumed Rainor thought if you found out on your own, fine, if not, it was best kept quiet. I don’t think Anton told his people either. After all, the person responsible could be one of our own.”

“So I’m a suspect?” Kain’s body had gone tense.

I put my hand on his arm. “I’m coming into this fresh. I know a lot of the players, but I haven’t been part of this game in awhile, loyalties can change. I know you Kain, I know you are loyal to the core, but you lost as many people to this war as I have and that could be an issue. At this point everyone is a suspect, but you’re low on the list for me.”

“Well that’s comforting,” he dryly. After a few moments of silence he said, “You knew before you came.” It was not a question.

“I’ve always been close to the Elders since they looked after me for several years. They are concerned.”

“Did they send you here for this?”

“Did the Elders send me? No, the Elders didn’t. Rainor’s condition just worked to my advantage.”

“So the club…”

“Is actually a good business move, but it will let us see which humans are vampire groupie enough to possibly agree to be breeding stock if the vampires are making half-castes and which humans think half-castes are a good way to get a taste without getting bit back. Because this could still be a human girlfriend lying for her half-caste lover.”

“So you’ll be paying her a visit?” he asked.

“Thinking about it. I don’t want to tip my hand too soon and have everyone know that I had two reasons for coming back. For now I want the city to think I’m only here to take over the coven.”

We rode in silence back to the house. I was trying to decide my next best course of action about everything and I suspected Kain was still stung by the fact that he wasn’t given absolution from wrong doing at the start. As I started to get out of the car, Kain’s voice halted me.

He said, “I was thinking the whole way home how lucky we are the Order didn’t just descend upon us all and wipe out every vampire and half-caste in this city to protect the peace. I mean they never lost the right to kill one of ours without explanation to the coven leader, but since the war ended, the Order’s right to kill any vampire in any city without a by your leave from their Master or their Council was reinstated. Not that they didn’t do that during the war, but now their kills don’t violate the treaty. Those who belong to Soong can kill anyone anywhere.”

“They are vicious enough to take out an entire city without sending an emissary to investigate first. It would send a strong message. One more thing to worry about.”

As I walked towards the house, I could feel Kain’s eyes boring into my back. No one ever said I was the comforting type.

The basement of the coven house was outfitted as a training area. New members learned how to fight and the rest of us honed our skills there. At this particular moment I was hitting things to help me think. Most people would question if training was still necessary, but aside from preparation should the peace fail, there were always vampires who did not belong to Anton to be killed if they hunted in the city and Anton’s vampires to be chased back where they belonged if they strayed into our area. The rules for who could hunt where and why were complicated. Anton’s people could hunt his territory and kill their victims if they wanted, so long as they kept it quiet, but they could not even take a sip from a human in our territory without our permission. No vampire could drink from a human in our city without Anton’s permission and if any vampire killed their dinner and it made the news, they were up for grabs from either side. We couldn’t kill Anton’s people and his people couldn’t kill ours unless one of us killed of the other without a legitimate reason. Fun no longer counted as a legitimate reason. The same rules tended to apply across the board now that the war was over. As Kain said, only one group could hunt a city at will for a half-caste or vampire without permission and without rebuke, and they were the Order.

Soong’s Order.

I hit the punching bag too hard and put my hand through it. The last thing this situation needed was the Order stepping in full force and taking everyone with a drop of vampire blood in them out. I needed to find out who made the new half-caste and where the missing vampires went, if not into casting that baby, sooner rather than later. My plan to open an all inclusive club would be a good start, but that meant I would have to turn one of our existing businesses into what I needed. Starting from scratch would take too long. Good, that meant I could put off that part until my meetings tomorrow. Next worry: Anton.

He had been a little too accommodating to me tonight. That usually meant he was up to something. I went to the cabinet and took out the stars to practice tossing beheading throws. It also didn’t hurt to practice pinning someone to a wall with them either. Plus it was fun. But I was getting off topic. Anton. He was most likely at home calling me his pet half-caste and cheering my pending ascension as being the same thing as him running our territory because I had the same blood as ninety-five percent of those who served him. This was the one time he would not mind reminding his vampires that I was Hadi and I had climbed out of the car and declared it for him. Damn it! I had compounded it by playing right into his hand, before he even knew he had a hand, by offering to share a business with him.

The stars thunked into the wooden target with a vengeance.

It was still a good idea, I told myself. We would be equal partners and if he gave me crap I could always star his ass to the wall. Just picturing that made me laugh.

“Does that mean you’re done killing the equipment?”

“Dawn!”

“In the flesh baby. I can’t believe I was on patrol when you got in yesterday.”

“What did you do to get sentenced to a week of border patrol?”

“Kain told you.”

“Kain. Mercy. Gabriel. Harris. The guy who delivered the paper to the house this morning.”

Dawn snorted. “Like you were up when the paper was delivered.”

If there was one member of the coven who did not look like a half-caste, it was Dawn. She was all golden hair and tanned skin. Put her on a beach and she could be Miss July. Actually you could put her on that beach for the next fifty years and she could still be Miss July. “Spill.”

“I pissed off Kain.”

“By?”

“He and Mercy had a fight so I sent her a stripper to cheer her up.”

“Very nice.”

“I thought so.”

Mercy and I had been friends for decades before Dawn joined us. In fact Mercy and Dawn had buddied up while I had been away the first time. I came back and the three of us hit it off. “No one ever said Kain lacked a sense of humor.”

“Well I figured since you were back to protect me maybe the three of us could have a girls night out tonight. It’s only eleven, we could hit the clubs.”

Did Rainor’s heir have the right to go party? It would not be dignified. What the hell? What fun was living forever if you spent all your time being serious? Besides the city needed to get a look at me. “I’ll go change.”

*****

“Why is it when I dress like a human I look all the more like a vampire?” I asked when no one else at the bar would come near me except Dawn and Mercy.

Mercy laughed. “You look beautiful Tash, you just give off a vibe. It can be intimidating.”

“It’s the skin and the way you move,” Dawn said. “It screams vampire. You could pass if you had fangs.”

I laughed. “The red eyes when I’m pissed are more than enough. I don’t need fangs on top of that.”

Dawn said, “If I had everything you did I wouldn’t bother hiding it, I’d flaunt it.”

“And then the Elders would come kill her for showing the world there were things very like vampires who could walk in the daylight,” Mercy said.

“The public knows about us already.”

“They know about your average half-caste, Dawn, they don’t know about half-castes like Natasha. Maybe it was a mistake to go to a human bar.”

“Ladies,” I said. “Tonight is supposed to be fun not a debate about the fundamentals of our society. We came here to have fun and to let the vampires know I will be keeping an eye on our humans. Let’s have fun.”

Dawn saluted me. “One round of fun coming up, Tash.”

She ordered a round of shots, but I changed mine to a non-alcoholic concoction that was mostly chocolate. I saw them eying me, but all I said was, “Sweet tooth. Besides me drunk would be a dangerous thing.”

“Speaking of sweet teeth,” Dawn said, “I heard Anton couldn’t take his eyes off you. I always thought he wanted you and the guy is hot.”

“And a vampire. I am no one’s dessert.”

“
I am no one’s dessert!”
I had snarled that at Anton twenty-six years ago when he made me a counter offer on my deal. I had offered to ally my coven with his caste to chase out the invading force trying to pit us against each other in exchange for sharing the city and he had said he would only go against Vincent, who had refused me, if I slept with him on a night of his choosing.

“
One night does not make you a dessert. Blood and years of service do that.” His eyes had run over me from head to foot and blazed red.

“
Well, I don’t ‘service’ anyone and I have enough vampire blood in me, thanks. Besides, we both know that the second I fall into your bed you’ll tell everyone that I am your creature to command.”

He reached out to stroke my hair, but I grabbed his hand. Anton smiled. “Such a rare thing you are Natasha. So close to being a vampire and yet still so human in your responses. I can be discreet, in fact my life often depends on that and in this case if things go badly and it’s learned I went against Vincent and lost our city for a piece of half-caste ass, my life will be over.”

“
Are you saying you want me, but I’m not worth dying over? You do know how to flatter a girl brother dear.”

Anton snarled, as he always did when I called him brother. “No one is worth dying for Natasha; even you.”

“
Is that why you left me? Better to give me over to the Elders than to possibly die trying to protect me from Lucius?”

“
That is what you hold against me?”

“
That is why I guard against you Anton. Your motto is ‘survival at all costs’, mine is ‘never count on anyone’.”

He sneered then. “Is that what you say to your boy? Oh, I’ve surprised you. Yes, I know about you two. Why not admit he is the reason you refuse me?”

“
Leave him out of this!”

“
Only if you will. What do you care about more, Natasha? Your city or your lover?”

“
Why do you want to get me into bed Anton? To prove you can or because you know this is the only way you could ever have me?”

His hands lashed out to grasp my upper arms. Ten claws dug into my flesh as he yanked me towards him.

“Tash? Earth to Tash!” Mercy called.

I jumped a little on my stool. “Sorry, Mercy, I was thinking about times gone by. Being back here after all that time is stirring things up.”

“Do you miss him?”

“Who?” Even distracted I knew better than to answer that question without having it clarified first.

Mercy’s eyes widened. “You thought I meant
Anton
! Oh, my god Tash, he’s right when he goads you, isn’t he? Part of you is attracted to him.”

“I am not attracted to that arrogant, snide, over dressed prick.”

Dawn laughed. “Deny, deny, that’s all you ever do. Come on Natasha, just for once admit the guy makes your blood scream.”

“I am not having this conversation. Anton was a large part of my dubious childhood and, yes, I liked him very much until he dumped me on the Elders to save his own neck. Giving anyone blind trust is a mistake; one that could prove fatal to us all if I made it. My big brother has his uses, but warming my bed won’t be one of them.”

“You need to lighten up,” Dawn said without an indication that she was joining in with Mercy’s teasing. She was firmly criticizing me and I didn’t like it.

Now I had two choices. I could react like a friend, roll my eyes and ignore her impertinence or I could react like Rainor’s heir who had just had herself questioned by a subordinate and, well, do what I was about to do. I did say I am not a big people person. My hand shot out and I backhanded Dawn across the face, knocking her off her stool and onto the floor. For an instant she sat on the ground, stunned, but she got up and bared her teeth. If she had had the ability to snarl she would have been. Every pair of eyes in the place was glued to us except for Mercy’s; she bowed her head and stared demurely at her feet. Dawn took a step toward me.

Calmly, but firmly I said, “You forget your place. Now step back or I will permanently mark that pretty face of yours.” To add some punch to my threat, I held my right hand up with its fingers spread wide so that the lights above the bar could twinkle off my diamond bright claws that had been carefully filed to look like normal nails. Dawn did not regenerate quickly enough to heal cleanly, if I slashed her face she would carry my mark for the rest of her life. But I also had to be careful how far I took this in public. Chastising anyone in front of humans was considered bad form, but sometimes it had to be done. Before Dawn could push to see how far my adherence to the rules was, I put a snarl in my voice and said, “I only give one warning.”

It seemed to sink in that her friend was not going to give her a free pass this time. Dawn bowed her head and went to one knee. “Forgive me Mistress.”

“Return to the house and tell Kain you are at his bidding for the evening. I’ll decide if there’s anything further you need to do to earn my forgiveness in the morning.”