Heir to the Coven (4 page)

Dawn snapped to her feet and walked out. I sat back down and sipped my drink.

Here is an interesting commentary on human males. None of them would take a step near me when I was the icy brunette at the bar that they secretly feared might kill them, but seeing me bitch slap another woman had them all panting at my feet. I was literally surrounded five seconds after Dawn left. I looked over at Mercy and rolled my eyes. Her smile was hesitant and I knew she was reevaluating our friendship and me. She thought I overreacted to Dawn’s comment. Well, that was her problem to get over; I was no longer a child to feel stung when someone disapproved of me and seeking approval was not a quality that lent itself to a long life in a coven.

“Hey,” said the twenty-something looking man who took Dawn’s former stool. He had auburn hair and green eyes and just enough vampire blood in him to attract my attention, but not enough to be useful to anyone.

Just as not all vampires were required to live or associate with their castes, many roamed about alone, not all half-castes joined a coven. Usually the ones too weak to fight or who popped up accidentally because mom liked to get frisky with the undead and wanted no part of the war steered clear of coven life. Unlike vampires, our covens were a hodgepodge of bloodlines brought together by geography, or order of the Elders if one coven had too many strong fighters while another had too many weak members.

I raised a brow at him and turned to talk to Mercy.

“Christopher,” he said.

“James.”

“Huh?”

“I was tossing out a male name. Isn’t that the game we’re playing?”

“She has a sense of humor, I like it.”

“And he’s not intimidated by what he saw and he has a fraction of the power the woman I sent sprawling does. It means you’re either very self-assured or very stupid. Neither is very amusing.”

“Ok.”

Once again I tried to speak to Mercy when he tapped my shoulder. To Mercy I said, “It’s persistent isn’t it?”

“It told you its name,” Christopher said, “and it would like to know yours.”

I laughed. What can I say? I’m a sucker for a smart ass. I held out my hand. “Natasha.”

Christopher smiled. “Wow, an actual response. It must be my lucky night. I met a beautiful woman and managed not to get killed before I got her name. I was on shaky ground there I could tell.”

“Most people do not consider themselves lucky to have met me. Usually they run in the other direction.”

“Not me. Can I buy you a drink Natasha?”

I tapped the glass of chocolately goodness in front of me. “I’m covered.”

Christopher glanced over at Mercy. “What’s a guy have to do to impress your friend?”

Mercy smiled. “I’m staying out of this one.”

“Don’t want to end up on the floor?”

“No, for this she’d be more creative. Bleach in my shampoo or maybe ipecac in my morning cereal.”

“Now wait a second,” I interrupted. “You know I wouldn’t put ipecac in your breakfast Mercy. You get up at four to start guard duty and I’m still in bed.”

Mercy’s eyes bugged. “See, creative and so subtle with her threats.”

“What’s a girl have to do to dissuade you?” I asked.

“Secretly be a man,” he joked. “Come on, one dance. What could it hurt?”

I did come out to have fun and he was one of us, which meant he lacked most of the complications a human would come with. And it was just a dance. “Sure.”

I took his hand and let him lead me to the dance floor.

Chapter 4

Rainor was sitting up in bed with some color to his face when I arrived at his room after my meeting with our business managers and accountants. I tended to think it was knowing that I was here to ease his burden now and take over once he was gone that perked him up. I handed him the papers I had been given, along with my notes, and waited while he read them.

Rainor shuffled the papers back together and put them on his nightstand. “You want to turn the Kensington into your ‘hybrid’ club.”

“It’s near the vampire border and it’s not doing outstandingly as it is. Makes sense to either close it or convert it.”

“Beautiful, brainy and deadly. My kind of woman,” Rainor teased.

“Careful, you might give me bad ideas. I do like the bad boys.” I glanced over at the picture on the wall. The blonde woman smiled back at me above the scowling face of the little boy she embraced from behind. “You miss Claire a lot, don’t you?”

“She made me laugh and she gave me peace. I knew what loving a human meant, but I wouldn’t trade all our years together to escape the heartache of losing her.”

“So it was worth it then?” Not a question I would normally have asked, but his time was limited and he was one of the few people who I would ask such a thing of.

Rainor eyed me for a moment and instead of answering me he asked, “Have you ever been in love Natasha?”

“Now that’s a loaded question,” I said with an uncomfortable riff of laughter.

“That’s not an answer.”

Had I? I really didn’t know. I thought I was once, but the darkness in me and in him twisted it and in the end…well the end made me wonder if it had ever been love or even close to being love. The other time, I was too young to really know or to do anything about it if I was and then he left me so it did not matter what I felt.

“Natasha?”

Rainor obviously wasn’t going to let me off the hook. “Sorry, I was thinking.”

“If you have to think about it, the answer is no.”

“You sound disappointed,” I said. Rainor sighed, but did not comment. “I haven’t led the sort of life that lends itself to love. It’s an emotion that has been discouraged in me in every imaginable way and I don’t think that’s entirely a bad thing.”

“No weakening of the inner walls?”

“The lone hunter.”

“Ah. But is the hunter lonely?”

“Can we talk about something else, please, sir?”

“Still out of contact with those feelings and still eating nothing but sugar. The cook tells me you eat cupcakes for breakfast, ice cream for lunch and chocolate bars for dinner.”

I laughed. “Are we going to delve the murky depths of my eating habits now?”

“No. But out of curiosity, how long will this last?”

I shrugged. “As long as I crave it.”

“Right.” Rainor rubbed his eyes and yawned.

“I’ll leave you to rest sir.”

“One more matter before you go my dear.”

“Yes?”

“Dawn.”

What could I say about Dawn? Did I tell Rainor that she was as she ever was, but that my patience for her had thinned? Or did I tell him that she lacked respect and needed to be disciplined? I didn’t want to be a tattletale, nor did I want to cover for someone who did not deserve it.

“Be honest Natasha. You chastised her in public, something must have happened last night.”

“I’m not sure if it’s my new lack of tolerance for her or if she will try to challenge me. Either way she’s likely to end up dead for it.”

“No lingering loyalty to old friends?”

“To Mercy and Kain, as much as I can safely allow, but to Dawn…we were never that close. Dawn was always fun, but our only real bond was Mercy.”

“Thank you, Natasha. That will be all.”

I bowed and left him to sleep. Out in the hall I sighed and leaned against the door. That had been an unexpected probe into my psyche. I had not realized how hard it would be to fit back into being one of many after being on my own for so long. Being around other people made them think they had rights to comment on your life. That had never sat well with me. What made them think they could pass judgment on what I did or felt or didn’t feel? I didn’t go around….this train of thought was going to have me hitting the next person who said hello to me.

I needed to get out of this house.

One of the perks about coven life were the cars. We had a garage full of them and from the day I had taken my now vacated position as Rainor’s enforcer I had not needed permission to use whichever one I wanted. Since it was a bright sunny day I took the convertible and went for a drive. Here was where I was really lucky; I might have the complexion of a vampire, but I didn’t burn. I healed sun damage as quickly and flawlessly as I regenerated from a knife wound. The only downside to me in the sun was how unearthly white it made me look. Usually I wound up with a dozen people asking me if I had sunscreen on.

The drive began to clear my head of account balances and renewing old ties. I found myself thinking about two things. First was the half-caste baby and who brought it over to our side. Second was Christopher. Who was I kidding? First I was thinking about him and then I was sparing a thought for the innocent child who could get everyone I knew in the city killed. That’s a girl, I thought, always thinking of our hormones.

Ok. Chris was cute in a two-month-old puppy sort of a way. He was playful and sweet and a good dancer. Definitely the sort of guy most girls would love to bring home to their parents. Trouble was, I did not have parents and I was fairly certain he would run screaming from the coven that would want him to prove he was worthy of dating their soon-to-be leader. They liked to test people. Test his reflexes by accidentally dropping a glass of wine on his pants. Test his stomach by talking about gory war stories over dinner. Test his faithfulness by having every woman in the place proposition him. Well, maybe not the last one since going after the leader’s guy was taboo. When Rainor was in full command, yes, but likely not now when they were still feeling me out. And certainly not after what I did to Dawn.

I sort of felt bad about that. It would have been less severe if I had grabbed her by the throat, pinned her to the wall and threatened her with physical punishment.
But
, my blood said,
what we did was so much more effective and fun
. It was right. Maybe I should find my own place instead of trying to live in the coven house right away. I could still be at hand when Rainor needed me, but without constant contact with other living creatures it might give my neglected social graces time to recover themselves.

Or I could practice being with other half-castes by calling Chris up and asking him out. Wouldn’t Anton love hearing about that? Wait a second. How did Anton wind up in that thought? The entire time I was away I barely gave him a thought and now he seemed to be popping into my head. I suppose another thing I had to readjust to was being in the same city as him and shutting off the strange connection we had. Best way to do that was to occupy my mind with other things. Focus on the treaty violation and on getting a normal life, or as normal a life as I would ever have. Besides the life would help my cover since it would look like I was building a life for myself because I was here to be Mistress and wanted to establish myself.

My stomach growled and I realized I had been driving for hours. I was not exactly in the best section of town, but what was any human going to do to me? I pulled into the parking lot of a diner I found around the corner and went inside. It seemed to be one of those places that had regulars and where strangers were few and far between because all the waitresses were calling the customers by their first names and everyone turned to stare at me when I took a seat at the counter. Or maybe it was my sex kitten meets biker chick outfit of a short black skirt, silver top, leather jacket and knee high boots with heels.

One of the waitresses appeared in front of me. “What can I get you Mam?”

Most women bristle at being called Mam, but I had long passed forty and still looked as good as ever so what did I care? “I’ll have a piece of that chocolate cake and a peanut butter milkshake.”

I swear she shivered as she wrote down my order. “Anything else?”

“Not right now, but I may want to order dessert.”

She dropped her pen and stared at me. “Sure thing. Be right back with your order.”

While I waited, I pulled out my phone and called Christopher. I was a little disappointed to get his voicemail, but some people did have to work real jobs. “Hey Chris, this is Natasha. I think I’d like to take you up on that date. Give me call. Bye.” Short, sweet and to the point. Speaking of sweet.

“Here you go,” said the waitress as she brought me my order.

“Thanks.”

The cake was as good as it looked. In fact I wanted another piece. I looked around for my waitress, but didn’t see her. A crash from the kitchen assaulted my ears and then I knew where she vanished off to when I heard her angrily speaking to a red faced man I could see through the ordering window.

“You can’t be serious Fred. I’ve been here since seven this morning. I want to go home!”

The red faced man, Fred I assumed, said, “Calm down Lily. I know you and the other ladies have been covering for Megan a lot recently, but she needs our understanding right now. She doesn’t have an easy life.”

“Who does?” the waitress asked. “It’s not like I’m living the dream either, but I get my butt into work on time, do my job and expect to go home at some point. I don’t promise this time I’ll come in and then stay home so someone else gets stuck with my shift. And I don’t care what Natalie and Hannah do; I am not giving that slacker bitch the tips I make while I work her shift. If she wants money she can get in here an earn it.”

“Calm down Lily, ok? I’ll see if I can get someone else to come in early so you only have to do part of it. Now get yourself together and get back out there.”

Fred walked off and Lily looked like she wanted to hurl knives at his back. After a few minutes she returned to the counter, but her smile had been replaced by a scowl. I heard her muttering about Megan and her mewling brat. When she came over to check on me, I asked, “Who said you have to stay if what’s her face doesn’t show? I’d walk out and leave him to wait his own tables.”

“You heard that?”

“Kind of hard to miss.”

“Fred will fire me if I just walk out and I need this job.”

“Why would he fire you and not that other woman?”

“Megan? Because he feels bad for her. She’s a single mom who can’t get a sitter most of the time because her kid is a freak so she winds up staying home to take care of it herself. Even her own family wants nothing to do with it.”