Chapter 33
There was a collective silence and then Vesta growled. Jacques’s head whipped around and he saw her, his face lighting up. “My beloved, I have found you,” he said in a ridiculously dramatic fashion although I had to give props to the whole accent thing.
“Are you kidding me?” Erika Boklund hissed out.
“I am not,” he said, affecting an offended expression. “Vesta O’Carroll is my beloved and no one can argue otherwise.”
“I can,” Vesta said starting to stand.
“Is this Jacques Armond?” Lydia suddenly asked, her face lit up with unfettered delight.
“It is Jacques Armond,” Nika said, her own smile absolutely brilliant.
“No?” Katrina chimed in, looking stunned or even starstruck.
Cora leaned down and whispered to Vesta and me, “Watch and learn.”
The three vampire ladies shot across the room, surrounding Jacques before he could take two steps. Faces beaming in adoration they clung to him.
“The famed son of the Alpha of Whiskey Tango,” Lydia gushed. “Your father practically owns that world.”
“Ah, well, he does, in fact,” Jacques said, completely confused by the bevy of pretty vampire women clinging to him.
“And he is making inroads to own land on Golf Alpha,” Nika said, her head tilted slightly. I had seen that head tilt before, when she was reading my open mind. “Why, you must be so proud of your brilliant father,” she added.
He frowned. “He is not all that brilliant,” he sniffed. “I have already surpassed him.”
“Ah, because of your beloved?” Nika asked.
Lydia and Katrina exchanged glances at her words. “Oh,” Lydia sqeed. “He may have two minor planets, but your beloved is Heir to Earth, the crown jewel,” she guessed.
“Of course,” he said, nodding but still looking bewildered.
“And you don’t even think her father will live very long, based on his appearance,” Nika said, turning to look at Declan, who just wore a who me expression.
“And since she will be your female, she will tell Earth what you want done,” Lydia said.
“But what about the rest of us females?” Katrina asked, pouting. “Will you only limit yourself to just her?”
“No, Katrina. Vesta is simply the first in his harem,” Nika said. “There will be many more, of course.”
Suddenly, her words sank through his confusion and his face flashed to panic and then anger. “What is this you are doing?” he asked and then looked at the rest of us across the room. “You… you… how?”
“Okay, did we not introduce ourselves?” Lydia asked, all sweet. “I’m Lydia. This is Nika and she’s the foremost telepath in the Coven, and this beautiful girl is Katrina, sometimes known as the Queen’s Dark Knight, on account of her being an assassin.”
Jacques took in her words, his intent flashing through panic and worry, rage and fury. Then he spun on his heel and left the room, slamming the door.
“He is almost crippled with narcissism,” Nika said.
“He’s intent upon the guards at the doors and…” I said, my mind focused on his retreating intent. “Their force pistols.”
“That could be bad, if I didn’t, in fact, control every force weapon ever issued,” Omega said.
Jenks stood up and left the room. The sounds of a fight came through the door. The noises were brief.
“Jenks is not our mole,” Nika said as my biological grandfather headed to the guard station.
“Also, that kid’s father, according to the kid, is Henri Armond, one of the biggest landowners on Whiskey Tango and currently lending money to the atomic weapons project on Golf Alpha in exchange for land rights.
Henri has two or three competitors on WT but in Jacques’ mind he owns the planet.
Jacques has disappointed his father his whole life, so when Vesta was revealed, he came up with the plan of paying off a were for his slot at Arcane, swooping in and sweeping her off her feet, and then owning Earth. ”
“Grandiose,” Lydia said.
“He cannot comprehend how you have not fallen at his feet, Vesta,” Nika said.
“Is he a source of intelligence for Da-Ni and the Adversary?” Tatiana asked.
“Secondhand,” Nika said.
“And not that intelligent,” Lydia quipped.
“So drama aside, who is our mole?” Lydia asked. “It has to be humint—human intelligence, as any listening device, passive or otherwise, would be detected, right?”
“I cannot guarantee that a passive, voice-activated recording system could not escape immediate detection,” Omega said.
“Are there any current employees who worked here back when Craig’s mom was here?” Vesta asked.
“Three,” Gina said.
“Craig knows every Arcane employee by name. It’s just how he is. Based on what I saw on that recording, I would say he gets that friendliness from his mother,” Vesta said. “She could have someone who is sympathetic to her.”
“Or what about a previous employee who knew her and now has a local business?” Toni asked.
“What are you thinking?” Gina asked.
“We had a line cook when I was a kid, Miguel Torres, who about fawned over Yoon Da-Ni,” Toni said. “He left us and opened a florist business—the same one that provides fresh flowers every few days.”
“Flowers in the cafeteria, main entry, and admin offices,” Gina said.
The door opened and Jenks came back in. “Idiot attempted to disarm one of my guys. They stunned his ass and he’s bound with silver,” he reported.
“Yeah, he has to go home,” Gina said.
I was only half listening to all of this, as my focus was on Katrina.
She was working on a decision, and I was at the center of it.
Should she kill me because I was too dangerous?
Eight vampires. Twelve seconds. Six men on a magically drained planet in less than three.
Glamour disguises at will. Unstoppable built-in magic weapon.
Sight unseen warning system. Heart or brain targeting with absolute reliability.
She turned slightly, looking at me from the corner of her eye.
I had a flash of the immediate future. Death and bloodshed.
Hysteria. I started to move toward the door.
A hand slapped down on top of my leg. “No!” Vesta said.
“Enough!” she roared and it was the deep voice of an enraged werewolf, not the bell tones of a college co-ed.
“Stop,” she said to me, then turned to look at Katrina. “You, too.”
“What’s going on?” Declan asked.
“Ask Katrina,” Vesta said.
The vampire in question just frowned.
“She’s decided to kill me,” I said.
“That’s rude, Craig,” Katrina said. “Stay out of my thoughts.”
“You want to kill the boy who protected my twins?” Tatiana asked in a cold voice.
“No, he’s wrong. I thought, in my own private head, that he might be too dangerous to live. I never thought about killing him myself.”
“That’s not fully truthful,” Nika said.
“I mean, well, of course I wondered if I could do it, not that I was going to,” Katrina said.
“Accurate,” Nika said.
“And you…” Tatiana said, turning to me. “You were just going to leave?”
“Seemed better than killing your assassin lady,” I said. “Am I right?”
“What about words?” Tatiana pressed.
“Not sure how much you folks would believe me,” I said.
“And how did you know about this?” Cora’s mom asked Vesta.
“Same way you would know if your Chosen was worried about something… our bond,” Vesta said.
“Why is he too dangerous to live, Kat?” Chris Gordon asked as his wife continued to stare at Vesta and me, a surprised look on her face.
“He’s got an unstoppable magical weapon that he can target unerringly. He killed Vegas’s absolute best team of hitters in a span of seconds from a dead sleep. All just magic, though, right? But no, he goes to a magicless world and shoots six thugs to death in mere seconds… without magic.”
“Um,” I started to say but Lydia rolled right over me.
“You’re just pissed that he’s a better killer than you!” she said to Katrina.
“Don’t be absurd,” the vampire killer objected. “I’ve got poisons older than him.”
“Um,” I tried again.
“Kat, are you butt-hurt because a schoolkid beat the Vegas dream team?” Cora asked. “Perhaps you could just concentrate on finding out why they tried to kill Wulf and me?”
“It was payback for your daddy killing a contender for an Elder position almost thirty years ago,” Katrina said. “Now Tavian and Elisabeta are terrified he’ll be sent after them.”
“They should just worry about me,” Chris Gordon said in a deep voice that was more than mildly terrifying.
“Which is what I told them,” Katrina said. “But they’re fixated on Vesta’s boy toy.”
“Craig, you were going to say something, weren’t you?” Erika asked.
“Um, just that I did have magic on Greenacres,” I said. “I had Vesta’s ruby.”
“And that was enough to bend time?” Declan asked, very intensely.
“Um, a little. It just happened. I Apported two of the guards, but I didn’t think I had enough juice to get the ones in the basement. The time stretch thing happened on its own.”
“Of course it did,” Lydia said in a tone that seemed exasperated.
“My vote is that no one kill anyone, least not the kid who saved my life. And if we can all agree on that, can we be done for now?” Caeco asked. “I’d love to call it a day. Like take a nap, maybe.”
“Yeah, why not,” Declan agreed.