Laws of the Blood 4: Deceptions: Deceptions (26 page)

Falconer shook his head. He didn’t know what to think or do. He needed to confront Olympias. Find out what she intended to do. Talk to her and—

She has claws, a sudden ache in his side reminded him. Super human strength; the ache in his wrist was evidence of that. Big nasty teeth.

But she didn’t do this to me, he remembered. Besides, never mind the aches in his body, there was a different ache in his soul, some sort of combination of loneliness and yearning and recognition. He knew it wasn’t wise, knew he might have to kill her, but such complications didn’t stop him from needing her.

“Olympias,” Falconer said, and closed his eyes to go Walking.

Maybe it was the combination of the pain pills and beer. Maybe it was because he needed physical rather than ephemeral contact. For whatever reason it didn’t work, and Falconer gave up within a few seconds.

How was he supposed to contact her if he couldn’t—

“Damn! I am an idiot!”

He found a phone and called Sela. “I feel fine,” he told her after her initial burst of concern. “I’m good. I’m home. No, I don’t want to see anyone yet. If they’re at Grace’s tell them to stay there. I’ll be in touch. I have to check something out first. You know the woman we were talking about when we were interrupted last night? Yes. I know what I told you about her. Forget I said it. You had information about her. Do you have an address? Yes, of her lair.” He memorized the street and number as Sela told him. Then, to avoid any more questions, he hung up on her.

•••

“Sara! You’re not Sara,” Olympias said after flinging open the door. She frowned up at the big man whose shoulders blocked the view of the yard and the street beyond. The sun hadn’t been down long. “Sara wouldn’t use the doorbell. What am I thinking? I’m not thinking. That’s the problem. I’m barely awake, and she still isn’t home. I should have sensed it was you. You look terrible. What are you doing out of the hospital?”

“I heal fast,” Falconer answered. “Nice dog,” he added, as she stepped back and let him into the house.

“She’s nice until I tell her not to be. That’s Bitch.”

“Charming name. I think we’ve met.” He touched his throat with his good hand while Bitch padded forward to press her big head into his crotch for a proper greeting sniff. Olympias admired that Falconer managed not to flinch. Bitch liked everybody until she was told not to, so it was no surprise when she pressed her head against Mike’s hand. Fortunately, it was the hand that wasn’t bandaged, and he automatically began scratching the beast’s furry head. “Soft as velvet,” he said. “Can I sit down?” he added. He swayed on his feet. “Before I fall down.”

“Sure.” She took his arm and led him to the office at the back of the house. “Sara’s office,” she told him after he settled in the office chair. Olympias spread her arms out to take in the computer and file cabinets, the shredder, the fax machine, and all the other paraphernalia of the modern world. “I have no clue what most of this stuff does. I need Sara.” She waved her arm. “I’m helpless. By the way, how did you find me?”

He glanced around. “I have my own—Sara. She’s your assistant, right? Is she a vampire, too?”

“Not if I can help it. Everybody needs a Sara. She’s not here.” Olympias tapped her head. “Even worse, she’s not here.” She leveled her gaze on Mike. “Do you know what it feels like to lose someone you care for?”

“My father,” he answered without hesitation.

“You were what, four? I’ve got a few thousand years on you. It doesn’t get any better with time. I miss everyone I lose, and I miss them all the time. It’s too soon to lose her, but I know I have. If she’s dead there’s going to be hell to pay. If she isn’t—there’s going to be hell to pay. You have no idea who or what I’m talking about, do you?”

“I have—a small idea.”

He looked at her with a calmness that was quite disconcerting. What was worse, there was a sort of pitiless compassion in his emotions that might have calmed and soothed her if she’d let it. He didn’t judge her, but there was also a strong sense that he wouldn’t put up with any bullshit from her either. And he’d called Bitch a nice dog even after what had happened the night they met, which was another strong point in his favor. If she got him to leave her life soon maybe she wouldn’t miss him—except that she’d missed him even while she spent most of day dreamseeking the missing Sara.

“Maybe I’ve been thinking too much about other situations to concentrate properly.”

“What other situations?”

“Secret situations.” She’d lost track of things the last few days. And Sara had been distracted. Olympias saw that now.

“Me?”

Olympias settled down on the floor, her legs crossed and her back against the wall. Bitch flopped down beside her and rolled over in hopes of a belly scritch. She rubbed the hellhound’s stomach. “You are not the most important problem on my plate right now,” she informed Falconer. “Though I suppose I should explain to a nest leader about killing one of her nestlings.”

He looked both appalled and curious for a moment before he said, “I suppose that’s the polite thing to do.”

“Technically, I don’t have to explain my actions to anyone, but Rose—Oh, great, I forgot I need to talk to Rose about—never mind. As you can see, I’ve forgotten
more important things than disbanding your crew before they get in deeper trouble. There’s always more stuff going on around here than a sane person can deal with. If only I had Sara here to remind me of what I’m—”

“Like what?” he questioned. “What sorts of things do you have to handle?”

“Every damn vampire emergency.”

“Such as?”

She wished she didn’t find his interest charming. She had no business telling Falconer anything, but she answered. “Such as right now I suspect there’s a dragon loose in Las Vegas.”

“That’s not around here.”

“And it wouldn’t be my problem if the Enforcer of Las Vegas wasn’t missing.” She waved her free hand to keep him from inquiring further. “Drop it, before I have to bite you, kill you, or give you brain damage.”

“Why haven’t you?”

“Killed you?”

He smiled. “The other thing.”

“Well, if you want to be a vegetable . . .” She rose to her feet. She moved too fast for him to see her, but he didn’t blink an eye or feel any surprise when she was suddenly standing before him.

He stood, slowly unfolding his big body from the chair. She had to look up at him when he was this close to her. She appreciated that he had four or five inches on her. She appreciated his mental strength, and his confidence.

“If I did what I want to right now, you’d be screaming in pain.”

“Destroying my mind?”

“Fucking your brains out.” Olympias moved closer and touched his injured wrist. When he winced she kissed him.
Does that make it better?
she thought.

His good arm came around her, pulling her close.
Does it?
he thought back.

Olympias’s arms came around him, and she fitted her
body close to his. They both forgot his injuries while lost in sensation for a moment.

He made her forget things, important things. Falconer was a dangerous distraction. “You take up too much of my attention,” she complained, making herself step away from him.

He smiled. “You do the same to me.”

“You shouldn’t sound like you enjoy it. We’re grown-ups.”

“Some of us more than others.”

“We have responsibilities to other people.”

“More or less—people, that is.”

She laughed, when she probably ought to be offended. Damn the man, he made her laugh!

As she laughed, Falconer grew serious. “You’re not doing anything to my people. Whatever happens between you and me, you don’t touch my people.”

He was dictating to her. At another time, or with another person, Olympias would have been coldly furious at the presumption. Or she might have been coldly amused. She couldn’t be cold about anything with Mike. There sure as hell was something about those Falconers.

Falconer—

“Shit!”

“What?” Mike grabbed her shoulders. Bitch growled.

Olympias pulled away from him and turned to face the door. The temptation was to take the hellhound and scour the city. She knew what Sara had been keeping from her. She knew who Sara was with.

“Andrew Falconer,” she said.

“What about my father?” he demanded.

She almost explained, but it occurred to Olympias that Mike wasn’t ready to hear about how a vampire committed suicide. She was going to kill Andrew all right. No one took what belonged to her and lived—but she didn’t suppose she could tell Andrew’s son about that, either. Not when she needed Mike’s help to track his slimy, slave-stealing father down.

“Your father came back to Washington for a reason,” she told Mike. “You’ve been seeing him in your dreamriding.”

“Walking,” he corrected.

“Never mind what you call it, it’s your key to finding your father. It’s time you and I went looking for him together. Sit down,” she ordered. “We’re going to do that thing you do together.”

“Thanks for coming,” Sara said as Gerry slipped into the booth in the hotel coffee shop. “But I wish you’d come sooner. Like before sunset.”

Her beloved was up in the room taking a shower. Much as she wanted to be sharing the experience and scrubbing his hard-muscled naked back for him, Sara had more vital things to do. Things she wished she could have done hours ago, while the fang and claw crowd was harmlessly snoozing.

Curiosity and concern vied on Gerry’s expression. “Why haven’t you called Olympias? You’re the only one who can reason with her. We’ve been worried.”

Sara took a shaky breath. “You’ve talked to Olympias?”

“I had to find out about a vampire from the Alexandria nest getting killed from Bentencourt. The local vampires are really pissed off, and we need your help to calm the situation down.”

He kept saying ‘we,’ but Sara wasn’t sure whom he meant. Gerry had mentioned talking to Bentencourt twice when she’d called him to set up this meeting. Sara sat back in the thickly upholstered booth seat and put her hand down flat on the tabletop. Looking steadily at Olympias’s slave, she said as calmly as she could, “Gerry, please understand that I do not give a rat’s ass about what Roger Bentencourt wants, needs, or desires. My only interest in talking to you right now concerns
your
mistress, Olympias, the Enforcer of the City.” Her
voice rose as Sara added, “You do remember her, don’t you?”

“Olympias is the problem,” he agreed.

“She’s certainly my problem.”

“She’s the whole city’s problem. She has to be controlled, Sara. Brought to heel. Someone who understands the changes that need to be made has to be at the helm. He needs your help,” Gerry told her earnestly.

Sara stared at her friend and working partner. Gerry had a frightening, fanatical look in his eyes. Oh, dear. “He? Bentencourt?”

“Of course. He’s just the man we need.”

“Yeah. He’s a
man
. We—you—work for a vampire.” A vampire Sara’d hoped Gerry would help her get to and reason with on some neutral ground. “I need you to go to Olympias for me. Set up a meeting. Maybe at the cathedral.”

“Bentencourt needs
you
. Come with me.” He held a hand out to her across the table. “We’ll go to him now.”

“I don’t think so.”

Sara looked up and smiled at Andrew, who was the one who’d just spoken. He was so beautiful. She was filled with so much longing at the sight of him that she was barely able to keep her mind on the subject. The only thing she wanted to say was that she loved him. She snuggled up close to him when he slipped into the booth beside her. She was overjoyed when he picked up the coffee mug she hadn’t touched and drained it.

“Sorry it’s cold,” she said. “Want me to call the waiter over to—”

“It’s fine.” Andrew put his arm around her shoulders. He looked hard at Gerry. “Who are you? Where do you want to take my companion?”

Sara managed to claw out of her happy fog of adoration to say, “He belongs to Olympias.”

“You don’t have to worry about Olympias,” Andrew told her. To Gerry he said, “Leave.”

“But—” Sara managed to protest.

“I’ll deal with Olympias,” Andrew promised.

“How?” She hated that the word came out as a squeak of terror.

Andrew chuckled. “Legally. That’s how I do everything.”

“Yes, my love. But—”

“Come on.” He slid out of the booth and brought her with him.

“Are you ever going to let me finish a sentence?” Sara asked when she was standing beside him.

“Frequently. But not any about your former mistress, at least not right now.” His arm was still around her, and he turned her toward the coffee shop door, leaving Gerry seated in the booth. “Right now we’re going back to Rock Creek Park to get my stuff, and then we’re going to go introduce ourselves to my son.”

All things considered, what Bentencourt had to work with was pitiful. It was Olympias’s fault, of course. It was her doing that had reduced the population of vampires in the vicinity to the handful that was seated in Rose’s living room this evening. Even though they’d all brought their companions with them, the room wasn’t exactly overcrowded. Three small nests in Alexandria, Bethesda, and Arlington made up the entire local strigoi population. With Lora’s death, that made exactly seven vampires, four companions, and a handful of slaves. What a weak, pitiful bunch of losers—and they were all he had to work with. Which, when he thought of it, was a good thing. For all his gifts, he was still mortal. It would be some years before he was able to raise an army of darkness to serve at his command.