Chapter Nineteen – Jack
Chapter Nineteen
Jack
I pulled into Vermillion’s parking lot in the truck and found it eerily empty, and when I got out I found a sign blocking the door announcing the club was closed tonight for a private party. The door locked.
I rapped on the glass, and a girl ran up to let me in.
“Hi, Jack,” she said, like I ought to know her. I had seen her before once, with Rosalie—when she’d been bringing Rosalie a leash to tie me to a pole.
“Hey,” I said, not bothering to ask her her name. “Where’s the queen?”
Maya stalked out to the hostess stand. “You’re early? On what strange planet?”
“Because we need to talk.”
“Again?” She folded her arms. “You’re not changing my mind.”
“About that,” I began, looking around. Our voices echoed, without the usually present bass. “I’ve found a way around the situation.”
Her eyes narrowed and she jerked her head sideways. “In the back.”
I followed her through to the private room where we’d killed Rosalie.
It was the first time I’d ever seen it well lit—which explained why humans were milling about, thoroughly cleaning things while wearing club clothes.
Near the front dais there were rough hewn tables with empty leather cuffs.
A scantily dressed woman with auburn waves was sitting on one of them, and she looked nervous.
“Dare I ask?” I said.
“Treaties are always sealed with blood, Jack. They offer one of their slaves, I offer one of mine, everyone takes a few polite sips, and the deal is done.” Maya reached over and ran her hand through the woman’s hair.
“I wouldn’t let anything untoward happen to Zevvi.
Not after so recently acquiring her for myself from Rosalie. ”
No wonder Luna had been so quick to try and find some other owner—although I had no doubt she’d helped Rosalie sign a pact or two while in her service.
The woman, Zevvi, swallowed and gave me a brave smile.
I fought not to return it—I didn’t want to make promises I couldn’t keep.
I drew Maya into one of the private booths that’d already been cleaned.
“The Faithful reached out to me again. They believe it’s imperative that we don’t sell that land, Maya. They want us to quarantine it so that all humans stay away.”
“It’s too late—the wire’s gone through.”
I eyed her. “You haven’t spent the money yet, have you?”
“No.”
“Then you’ll wire it back.”
Maya scoffed dramatically. “I’m not doing something just because the Faithful demand it,” she said. “Do you know what kind of precedent that sets? If we work with the Faithful and get caught—other nests will slaughter us as traitors.” Bewilderment and disgust fought for control of her expression.
It would have been nice for Sam to mention that, but maybe she assumed I knew I was playing with fire.
“So we won’t get caught. I came up with a plan B.
The Faithful show up here after midnight, help us kill all the Rojo that arrive, and then take the deed themselves.
You’ll wire the money back, appropriately apologetic—and we’ll claim casualties as well.
That way we’ll have a shared enemy, we don’t lose face, and they don’t get the land. ”
“I’ll just be out a lot of money, then?” Her tone was sarcastic.
“Cash is replaceable.”
“But I’m not!” she hissed. “If your plan blows up, I’ll have a target on my back—and you too!
You don’t just invite the Faithful in to your home, Jack, and then offer up other vampires to sate them.
What’s to say that you’re not being played?
What’s to stop them from killing all of us?
And then even if they don’t—who’s to say they’re the best guardians of whatever it was Rosalie left out there? ”
“What…she left?” I asked, leaning in. I’d whammy her if I could. “Tell me.”
She pulled back. “I don’t know. Rosalie had her secrets, all right? And some of them—she kept out there.”
“Like what?”
“Like that thing that wanted to eat the boy, remember?”
I recalled the ominous stone coffin that had held something interested in eating Rabbit, Angela’s son, so much so that it made the boy turn into a wolf for the first time. “The Sleeper?”
“Yeah—that,” she said, with a shudder. “And who knows what else. The mines were bigger than you think, Jack—but then you blew them all up and who the hell cared? I wasn’t going to go sifting through the rubble every night.
” She reached over and clutched my hands, speaking in a terse whisper.
“Jack—call them off. The Faithful are just as likely to kill us as they are the Rojo.”
I swallowed. I still wanted to believe in Sam—but what was it Luna had told me about my pride and getting myself killed?
For the first time since meeting her, I wished I had her and her strange weapon at my side.
I opened my mouth, ready to explain that I didn’t know how, when one of Maya’s people shouted: “Places! They’re here! Places!” and it was too late.
Maya growled a curse. “I hope you’re happy, Jack. You’ve killed us both, on the eve of your lover’s ascension. I’ve never met a man with worse timing than you,” she whispered, and then stood straight and shouted. “Let them in!”