Secret Unleashed: Secret McQueen, Book 6 (12 page)

“You know a sire can compel their offspring, don’t you?” Arturo asked.

“I think that rule is more for…
traditional
sire-offspring relationships. My father didn’t turn me. His blood was fed to me in utero. I was born like this.”

“A born vampire?” Eilidh sat upright, suddenly far more interested in what I was saying. “That’s impossible.”

“It’s not a perfect science, as you guys can tell.” I was referring to my apparent heartbeat. “I don’t owe him my un-life, and he has
never
had my blood. The rules don’t apply. You can’t control a vampire whose blood you’ve never had.”

As far as any of us knew, anyway. Like Eilidh said, there was no precedent for my situation. There weren’t a lot of half-vampires running around, certainly not those born with the affliction. I couldn’t be so bold as to say
no
other halflings existed, since the word
dhampir
existed solely to describe them, but I’d never met one and no one else I knew had either.

There was a word for
unicorn
and
chupacabra
too, but it didn’t make them real. Cryptozoology existed to name things that weren’t real, and a
dhampir
might be real or it might be a cryptid. I was inclined to be skeptical, except for the fact I
was
half-vampire.

“
Very
interesting,” Eilidh said.

“How can you be certain?” Galen asked.

“Because Sig thinks I’m the perfect person to find him. And if Sig believes it, so should you.”

That much I
could
convince myself of.

“And what do you think?” Arturo shifted forward in his seat, hands clasped together and wearing an intrigued expression.

“First tell me why you want him. Then we can discuss whether or not I’m the one to help you find him. Am I correct in assuming you haven’t declared him a rogue?” Keeping focused on being formal helped ground me.

Holden, Ingrid and the others had left after I’d introduced myself, meaning I didn’t have the sentry with me for additional support. This was all up to me, and the more officially I behaved the easier it was to stay calm.

I guess that meant it was natural for me to want to lose my cool.

“Sutherland was looking for something in San Jose, something important to the council. He was meant to report back a week ago, and we haven’t heard from him.”

“And you think…what exactly?”

“We’d like to believe something has happened to him,” Eilidh said.

“You’d
like
to?” That sounded ominous.

“When the other option is that he’s found this item and taken it for himself or another group…” Galen’s voice drifted off. “We’d prefer not to think ill of him, but he’s had trouble adjusting to life here. Trusting him after this will be difficult.”

“So it’s easier to believe something terrible has happened to him?”

“It’s that or sign a warrant for his death,” Galen said. “Which do you prefer?”

I frowned, unable to stop the downward curve of my mouth. “No, no warrants. Not yet. Does Maxime know the details of Sutherland’s mission?”

“
Maxime?
” Eilidh sneered. Maybe she didn’t like anyone. I wasn’t special after all. “Why would he know anything?”

“The sooner he knows the better. Because he’s coming with me to San Jose.” I didn’t trust any of them, but Holden said he trusted Maxime, so that gave me one ally within the council.

“We have others. Sentries…” Arturo started to suggest.

“Thanks, but I have my own sentry. I’d like Maxime, please. If we’re keeping things all in the family, that is.”

Galen and Eilidh exchanged glances, but Arturo continued to stare at me with his fierce, catlike eyes. “May I ask you something, Secret?”

“You may.”

“What happens if you find Sutherland and discover he has gone rogue? That our worst fears are realized and he has abandoned the council?”

Did he think I could be tricked into saying the wrong thing with such an obvious question? They clearly didn’t think much of me, in spite of my position. “If my fath…if Sutherland is a rogue, he will meet a rogue’s fate. That’s justice I’m well-versed in delivering. Probably more than any of you are.”

Eilidh reclined in her throne and glared at me, but Galen seemed more interested, pivoting his attention from his sister back to me with a look of intrigue. “You speak boldly for one so young.”

“I speak as I would to any equal.”

His mouth formed a thin line, but for some reason—perhaps the amused twinkle in his eyes—I thought he was masking a grin rather than a frown. What was it about me that fascinated true Tribunal leaders so much?

I thought about Sutherland, and Sig, and I was starting to realize Sig’s interest in me had very,
very
little to do with how precocious I could be and was rooted in something deeper.

Sig’s interest ran to the blood.

Chapter Thirteen

As soon as I was back in the hall and the ginger twins had left to service their masters, I gave Ingrid a withering glare equal to all the disdainful looks she’d ever shown me during our association. We were still within earshot of the Tribunal chamber, so as we walked I simply said, “Call your master.”

“Excuse me?”

The three of us climbed into the elevator, and Holden remained silent while Ingrid and I spoke.

“You heard me.”

“You aren’t in a position to give me orders. I don’t belong to you.” When I growled, she arched one flaxen brow and appeared as if she was debating being impressed. “And might I remind you threats of violence are pointless, unless you want to make them against Sig.”

Her body made a soft
thump
when I threw her back against the wall of the elevator, my fingers wrapped around her throat.

Now I had her attention.

Getting my face within an inch of hers, close enough I could smell the fear coming off her, I said, “Maybe I do want that. Maybe you’re the next best thing I have right now.” When I released her, she scuttled out of my reach, touching her neck.

“You’re insane. No one has
ever
—”

“I don’t care what anyone else has or hasn’t done, Ingrid. I care what Sig has done. Now, I’ll ask you one more time. Get. Him. On. The. Phone.”

The elevator door slid open on our floor, and Maxime was waiting. “Tribunal Lea—”

“No. None of that right now, please. If I hear the words
Tribunal Leader
one more time tonight, I’m going to snap. Call me Secret or call me nothing, but those are your only two options.”

Maxime gave Holden a helpless glance, to which my vampire consort shrugged. “I once called her
Queen of the Bitches
, but I think she’d frown upon that becoming commonplace.”

The valet looked appalled. “I… Secret?”

“Yes?”

“Can I get you anything?”

“A glass of blood, my sword and some privacy.” I was deadpan when I said it, but for some reason Holden snorted.

“Here.” Ingrid’s voice was downright frosty as she handed me her cellphone.

“Did you tell him what I did?” I asked.

“I don’t need to tell him things like that. When something happens to me, he knows.”

I snatched the phone from her hand, and knowing Sig was on the other end, I dispensed with any niceties. “You have a
lot
of explaining to do.”

“If you believe it is necessary for me to explain myself to you, you are sorely misunderstanding the dynamics of our relationship.”

I walked ahead of the others and into my suite. Holden and Maxime were close behind, but I went into my bedroom and shut the doors, wanting the illusion of privacy for this conversation.

“I can’t believe you sent me in here without any forewarning.
I think you’re the perfect person for the job,
” I said, repeating what he’d told me before I left. “Well,
fuck you
. You might have mentioned you thought that because the missing vampire was my goddamn father.” The plastic casing around the phone cracked, and I had to calm myself before the whole damned thing shattered in my hand.

“Are you quite finished?” he asked after a period of silence.

“No.”

“Will you allow me to say something?”

“Could I stop you if I wanted to?”

“No.”

“Then go ahead.” I sat on the end of my luxurious bed, the satin bedspread rustling under me. The faint aroma of night-blooming jasmine filled the room, but since I couldn’t see any flowers around me I assumed it must be coming from the foyer.

“What, precisely, is it that bothers you most about this? Is it that you were unprepared to meet your father, or is it discovering—through Sutherland—you and I have a deeper connection than you previously believed?”

His question had me stumped. I still didn’t fully grasp what Sig was to me through this new development, and that set my internal compass spinning.

“What
are
we?”

“Is that it, then? That’s what has you so upset?”

“Everything about this has me upset, Sig. You surprise attacked me with my father, knowing he was the one you were sending me to deal with. Some warning would have been great, but it’s more than that. I don’t know what this makes you and me.”

“What did you think we were before today?” He sounded so calm I wanted to strangle him through the phone. But none of this was news to him. He’d known everything.

“I don’t know.” Friends and colleagues didn’t seem right. We weren’t lovers, though sometimes he treated me in a way that suggested he’d considered it. But now I wondered if his affection towards me had been for another reason entirely.

That I hadn’t known the difference between attraction and a familial bond skeeved me out.

“If you don’t know what we were, why does it matter so much to you what we now are?”

“Don’t play games with me. You’ve known about this the entire time we’ve known each other.”

“Of course.”

“Is that why you allowed me to hunt for the council? Why you didn’t just kill me on sight when I showed up at your door?”

“Yes.” Blunt. I’d been expecting him to soften his honesty to make things easier on me, but that had been a foolish hope. I had threatened his servant mere minutes earlier, so perhaps he didn’t want to play nice either.

“Holden asked me once if I’d let you drink from me because he couldn’t understand why you were always able to find me. It’s because I carry your bloodline, isn’t it?”

“I think you answered your own question.”

I gnawed on my lip in an apparent attempt to take my frustration out on myself. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Does it matter?”

“Of course it matters,” I snapped.

“Very well, if it’s so important to you, ask your questions.”

“What am I to you?”

“In what sense?” I didn’t think he was being intentionally evasive, but the question rankled me all the same.

“In
every
sense.”

“According to vampire genealogy, you are of my line but not directly mine. So while it is my blood that ignites the vampire spark within you, we are not…related. Not in the way humans consider it, anyway.”

That made any past innuendo slightly less sketchy than it had felt a moment before. If I’d had to think of him as my great-grandfather, it made all those times he suggested getting me out of my clothes to be really creepy. Knowing his blood was in me, though, made it difficult for me to think of him as anything other than a parental figure now. As handsome as he was, I didn’t think I could ever get past that notion.

“So we’re connected but not related.”

“Yes.”

“If you don’t think of me as a relative, why the extra attention? Why were you so interested in me? You protect me from Juan Carlos and go out of your way to make things easy for me. You wouldn’t do that for just anyone.”

“You’re correct. I have taken a special interest in you. Imagine my surprise when you came through my door at sixteen, full of spite and angst, and you demanded to be given a job. Picture it from my side, knowing the instant I saw you I’d had a hand in creating you. The spark igniting you had—in part—begun with me. I loved the fire I saw in you, and wanted very badly to know how my line had ended up in this spunky hybrid girl who was more attitude than she was monster.”

His impression of me at sixteen still summarized me in the present, except now I had the power to back my attitude up with something.

“And what did you think when you got to know me?” I lay back on the bed, staring up at the gray ceiling. With the lavender accents in the room I was reminded of Desmond’s eyes, and my heart clenched with longing for him.

“I think you’re an amazing woman, Secret, and I’m proud to have you in my lineage. But you’re as much a pain in my ass today as you were the evening we first met.”

For some reason that made me smile.

“I still don’t understand why you never told me. I shouldn’t have found out this way. It blindsided me, and I was unprepared.”

“I didn’t realize it was that important. Until this week I never expected you and Sutherland would cross paths, so why complicate our relationship with unnecessary details?”