Heir to the Coven (9 page)

Raz and Marcus could only stare at me. I don’t believe they had ever heard anyone speak to a Master vampire that way. They probably also could not believe I had not been knocked across the room by now. Silly vampires, allies didn’t beat each other up.

Anton stonily said, “Leave us.”

They vanished.

When people talked about being called to the principal’s office this had to be the feeling they meant. There were legends of vampires that could start fires with their minds. I was really glad Anton was not one of those vampires given the way he was glaring at me.

He said, “Did you really say that Natasha? Before you lie to me, I remind you that a liar’s heartbeat speeds up and I will hear it.”

I knew that. I could do that too. “Yes, at one point this evening I said that.”

“But that was not what Marcus was laughing about when I walked in.”

“No. What are you so paranoid about? Am I not allowed to talk to the help?”

“I thought…”

“What?”

“I thought you were mocking my argument. I know you heard it, your ears are too keen not to.”

“No matter what you say about my manners to my friends I know better than to mock a fight while I am a guest in your home. After all I was not raised in a barn and your personal life is none of my concern unless you attack mine first.”

Anton ran his fingers through his hair as he took the chair next to mine. “A very mature outlook and subtle jibe at my behavior last evening.”

“Why did you horn in on my date?”

Silence. He was doing that thing where he looked like a statue.

“Anton. Answer me please.”

“I wanted to see your young man.”

Vampires did not have heartbeats to give away their lies, but they could have tells like folding their arms across their chest, which Anton was doing right now. “You wanted him to see you.”

There was that statue again. “You are not wrong.”

“If you said I was right would it make you burst into flames?”

“Natasha,” he said in weary irritation.

“Fine. I will behave myself.”

“I would prefer it if you told me what you did to make Marcus laugh. I could use a laugh this evening.”

He had been honest with me eventually. I guess I really should return the favor. “I was trying to leave, I heard your fight and I didn’t want you to think I was eavesdropping so when you came this way I dashed for a chair and my skirt sort of lagged behind. Marcus caught me yanking it back in place.”

“How high did it go up?”

I was about to give a smart ass response when I noticed his jaw was set. Anton was not happy that Marcus had gotten a little peep show. “Anton.”

“How high?”

“I thought we were passed the days when a woman showing ankle was a crime.”

“You will tell me or I will drag him in here and
make
him tell me.”

I heaved a sigh. My men sucked attitude was returning. “I came here to discuss our pending business venture. I think the Kensington could be converted easily in the time frame we need with a minimum of expense for either of-”

“HOW MUCH OF YOUR THIGH DID HE SEE?”

We were not moving past that one any time soon and I was about out of patience for today. “You want to know how much he saw? This is what he saw.”

Impulsively I went to him, put my foot on the arm of his chair and hauled my skirt up until it was within an inch of showing things that were none of his business whatsoever. His eyes, gone red with desire, slid the whole way up my leg from the tip of my pointy-toed shoe to the parts still hidden under fabric. If he had run his hand up that entire length of skin I don’t think I could have been more turned on. It was incredibly seductive to be admired that way when the man knew how to caress with his eyes instead of leering.

That was when Ashley burst through the door.

Chapter 10

“You bitch!” Ashley screamed. “I knew you were after him!”

Grabbing a book off a shelf, she threw it at my head with as much force as her human arm could muster. Because she had been ingesting vampire blood for a while it packed more of a wallop then a normal human’s her size throw would have, but I caught it in mid-air and resisted the urge to hurl it back at her. “You need to calm down little girl before you get yourself hurt.”

Anton would have gotten to his feet, I could tell by the way his muscles twitched, but my leg was in his way. I removed it from the arm of the chair and smoothed my skirt back in place. Free to move, Anton stalked over to his dessert and grabbed her by the arm.

“Apologize to her.”

“No.”

“Ashley.” His voice was a whiplash of anger. Ashley began to cry and would only shake her head at him. It would be funny if I weren’t watching a grown woman behave and be treated like a child. Did my mother ever resist her position as a third class citizen and face being told she was wrong for demanding fidelity and respect so that all she had left at her disposal were childish antics? Or did she take a sad pride in her position and quietly submit? I’m not even sure which one I found more humiliating. I wanted her to have been a fighter and yet I did not like to think she carried on so the world knew how low she was held in her keeper’s opinion.

“It’s not worth it Anton,” I said. “It’s not the worst thing I’ve been accused of and having a book tossed at me is hardly the worst thing I’ve ever faced. Clearly today is not the right time to have a meeting.”

Without taking his eyes off Ashley, Anton said through gritted teeth, “We are going to have our meeting as soon my dessert understands her place. I will not have you driven from my home because she mistakenly thinks she has any say in who I let in the front door.”

I did not like the sound of that. True I mocked desserts because I found the position degrading and thought anyone who would agree to be someone’s extra on the side was an idiot with no concept of self-worth, and yes I did have mommy issues added into all that, but it was not in me to see someone humiliated for a harmless act brought on by jealousy and Anton’s indifference to her feelings. But it was also not in me to completely forget the class system that had been beaten into my own psyche since the day I was born. I could not disrespect Anton by telling him what to do with his dessert in his home any more than he could come into my home and tell me not to discipline one of my people or barge in on my date and tell me the guy I was with wasn’t good enough. So I summoned up a lesson I had once been taught by him and said, “All people are judged on their present actions by future generations, make sure your actions represent what you wish to be known as.”

In other words, I was going to judge how he would treat me should I ever drop my drawers for him willingly by how he treated Ashley now. If I did not like what I saw, aside from my obligation to him, those drawers were going to stay firmly in place. I could all but see the steam coming out of his ears as he realized I had him by the balls with that one. Sidling towards them, I said, “Ashley does not understand the hierarchy properly, perhaps I should explain it to her privately. She might understand it better coming from a person with an ounce of humanity left in them.”

“Tell her what you wish I am staying and she will apologize for her poor behavior that affronts the dignity of my house,” Anton said at the same time Ashley the ingrate said, “I don’t care what you have to say.”

That was it. I needed to get out of here before I put them both out the window. “Anton, the specs on turning the Kensington into the hybrid club are on your desk. I worked up some figures and some concepts for the direction I think it should take, but nothing is set in stone; I’m open to your suggestions. Look them over and give me a call. Don’t wait too long because this matter needs to be handled sooner rather than later for all our sakes. Ashley, really, I’m not threat to your position in this house or in his life. If he ever realized that I would be his equal and not a subordinate if we were going to last beyond one night, he wouldn’t be eager to have me either. Do yourself a favor and don’t worry so much about who he’s doing. It will give you wrinkles and he’ll toss you aside.” Anton started to walk after me, but I hit the button that controlled the sun-proof window coverings and they began to slide up. With a hiss he shot across the room to shield himself amongst the shadows.

As I breezed down the hall to the foyer, I saw Marcus leaning against the wall. He winked at me and I realized he had let Ashley burst in on us. I don’t think he liked her very much from the way his lip curled as her aggrieved voice reached our ears. I was tempted to ask if they always fought this much, but Anton might hear and think I was hoping they were always on the outs when I really just wanted to know if I was part of a plot to get an unpopular dessert out of the house. I asked, “How
did
she get by you Marcus?”

“Luck.”

“Hmm. Don’t use me to hurt someone else.”

“You didn’t seem like they type to mind.”

“Being a pawn? That I mind.”

“I meant hurting someone.”

I shrugged, “If it’s my choice I’m not opposed to it, but not to further your purposes.”

“My mistake, but I didn’t know she’d walk in to find your leg shoved in his face. That was all you.”

“Touché.” Thanks a bunch Marcus, you made my day complete. It was time to get away from the vampires. I made my way outside and took a few deep breaths of fresh air, but that was not going to be enough to clear the day’s issues away. Feeling the need to do something productive as I climbed in my car to head back home, I decided to call the diner Megan McCoy worked at.

“Hodgepodge Diner this is Lily what can I do you for?”

“Hi Lily. My name is Natasha, I was in there a couple days ago. I don’t know if you remember me; short, dark hair, pale?”

“You forgot the world’s best tipper part,” she giggled. “I remember you, you ate chocolate cake with a peanut butter milkshake. Even without the $100 tip I would remember that. What’s up?”

“I can’t find my favorite sunglasses and I remembered driving with the top on my car down that day and thought maybe I wore them into the diner and forgot them. Has anyone turned in a pair of black Chanel sunglasses?”

“Not that I’ve seen and those would stand out.”

“Ok. Thanks. Oh! Hey, what happened with that waitress who had the vampire baby? Did she get fired?”

Lily snorted. “I wish. Fred kept her on. She’s supposed to work tonight.”

“Still not showing up when she’s scheduled?”

“No, she’s finally pulling her own weight again.”

“That’s good to hear. I’ll let you get back to work. Thanks again.”

*****

The diner closed at one o’clock in the morning so I waited in my car for Megan to leave. I knew it was her because she left her name tag on. It wasn’t hard to track her with her bright red hair. To my surprise she didn’t get into one of the junk heaps parked along the street, she went into a private garage a few feet up the road and after a few minutes came out driving a BMW that no waitress without a sugar daddy or a rich daddy she wasn’t admitting to was going to be able to afford. Whoever bought her car had paid for it out of their own pocket because her accounts had not shown the kind of activity that car, or the rather large house I trailed her to, would require. In fact, when I got home later I had Fitch run another check and Megan’s balance was at $200. The only activity shown had been a withdrawal on her debit card to buy diapers yesterday.

There were two ways I could approach my entry into her house. I could wait for her to go inside and knock to ask to use a phone because my cell was as dead as my car and then scare the crap out of her once I was inside or I could let myself in and then scare the crap out of her. Was I feeling deceptive or sadistic tonight? Decisions, decisions. While it occurred to me that Megan did have a baby and I didn’t want her to drop it because she turned around and found me standing behind her, that baby was also a half-caste and that meant she had seen beings like me. Rather than take the chance of her knowing what I was on sight and bolting, which would force me to chase her down in this nice suburban neighborhood, I decided to go with the stealthy route. The plan was to jump onto her garage roof and use it to access an upstairs window.

Halfway up her driveway I sensed them. I knew three things instantly: there were two of them, they were not Hadi and I needed to try to keep at least one of them alive to find out who they belonged to. On second thought, just because I could tell they weren’t from the same bloodline as Anton and I didn’t mean I shouldn’t check for the medallion vampires loyal to him wore. It was so much easier when blood was the only deciding factor in if you belonged to a particular Master vampire or not. These vampires could belong to Anton and they could be here for the same purpose I was. Of course if they were loyal to him they would know better than to stalk me. No, they were not on the home team, a confirmed fact when they rushed at me from either side.

I don’t think they expected me to be as capable as I was, because they ran right into each other after I got myself out of their paths. They hit each other with such force the driveway cracked where they landed. Having leapt up onto a tree branch for an aerial view of situation, I called down, “That had to hurt,” and grinned when they got to their feet snarling. This was going to be fun.

I had both feet back on the ground by the time one of the vampires jumped up onto the branch I had vacated. He looked so surprised not to find me still there. Where did Number Two go? With my reflexes and senses slightly ahead of my brain, I whirled around instinctually to block a punch and then duck a kick from Number Two. I took a swipe at him and only succeeded in raking his arm open with my claws. Number One gave up the hunt for me in the tree and returned the swipe. I sucked my breath in between my teeth as I felt the flesh of my back part. Son of a bitch that hurt!

Number One licked his fingers. “Vintage half-caste wine. My favorite.”

“That’s the only taste of me you’ll be getting,” I said with a growl. His smirk only made it half way across his mouth when my foot connected with his chest and sent him flying back into the tree I had vacated. A branch staked him through the heart and he was ash. I turned back to take care of Number Two, but he was gone and I could not sense him anywhere. My visit with Ms. McCoy was going to have to wait. I was not about to take on Two and group of his pals in the middle of a human neighborhood. I would wait and let whoever sent them think I had been scared off and then come back during the daylight.