Chapter 35
Elodie
Five days passed of meetings, appointments, and constant accusations flying around the council building.
Each and every one of the council members who’d made an appointment with us had been seen, and tried to wheedle information out of us that we didn’t actually have.
It was mentally and emotionally exhausting.
Each night, I fell into exhausted sleep in Valens’s arms and woke ten or more hours later, still exhausted.
The heat looming over us was an itch I couldn’t scratch under my skin, pushing me to do something even though there was nothing I could do but wait.
It had me on edge, and that was before all the political bullshit involved in dealing with the council.
But today, we had our last prescheduled appointment.
This one was odd, though, because it was with Councilwoman Rubix.
Of all the representatives I expected to want to see us—we’d already met and reviewed records with Halia, Grist, and even Coruscate, though he only seemed to be interested in nosing into the others’ business—I never anticipated a call from the vampire.
Lug had left immediately after the recess to visit the local goblin clan, but he should be back soon.
Hopefully. I was ready to get the fuck out of this place.
We stood in the hallway outside her ornately carved office doors, covered with graphic scenes of vampires in Dracula-style capes ripping out throats. Delightful.
Her assistant had greeted us, then bustled inside, leaving us standing in the hallway, with a sniff and an angry glare, to let her know we’d arrived.
Valens took the moment alone to turn my way. “After this, we’re going home. You’re exhausted, and you need the pack, not this stress. We’ve conferred with as many of the council members as were willing to see us. I don’t think there’s anything else we can do here.”
“Thank the Goddess.” I was ready to go back, even if I couldn’t call the pack lands home as he did so easily.
The grisly door cracked open, the assistant waving us inside, still not bothering to hide her disdain. Frankly, I shared it. She stank like death, and the cloying scent of sweet decay made my itchy skin worse.
The second we were through, she scurried out as if sharing the same air with us was equally offensive.
Rubix, however, was the picture of composure. She sat behind her desk, fingers steepled, watching us with the unnerving stillness of the undead.
“Please, have a seat.” She gestured gracefully to two plush leather club chairs across from her.
And while it went against my wolf’s instincts to sit down in front of a predator, it would be rude to refuse the invitation.
Surprisingly, the inside of her office was comfortable, with none of the decor as threatening as the door would have led me to believe.
It was done up with soft purple velvet cushions and black damask wallpaper, creating a dim but cozy interior.
And to my relief, there were no unpleasant scents at all, a happy little scent neutralizer humming in the corner emitting only a whiff of eucalyptus.
“We were surprised you asked to meet with us, Councilwoman. We had plans to return home today.” Valens started without preamble, his own exhaustion showing through in the plain words.
She hummed, still studying us as if we were fascinating aliens and not her kind’s natural enemies.
“Frankly, I hadn’t intended to meet with you either.
But circumstances changed. Can I offer either of you a beverage or a snack?
I had the chef prepare a charcuterie tray, if you’d like anything.
” She waved to a side table laden with meats and cheeses that she certainly had zero interest in.
I ignored the glass decanter of thick red liquid at the end, her own sustenance of choice.
“Circumstances?” I asked, more curious than testy given the fact that she’d actually gone to some lengths to be hospitable.
“You didn’t report the missing vampire enforcer to the rest of the council. You might not have known that he’s a member of my own nest. A distant cousin, if you will. His name is Ransom.”
“No, we did not,” Valens agreed. “We heard about it, but Ransom was thought to be a case of dereliction of duty to the ODL, and given that the ODL reports to the council, we assumed you were already aware. We also didn’t want to report anything that could cast a question on the cases we’d confirmed ourselves to be kidnappings. ”
“Wise, for what many assume to be a brash and violent species.” She returned her fingertips to their steepled position, staring at us so long that I was beginning to wonder why she’d bothered asking for the appointment.
“I have something I’d like to show you, based on a conversation I had with Carmine, an associate of mine.
He apparently has already had some dealings with your pack mates and found you to be honorable.
While I would normally ask for a blood oath to ensure your secrecy, I fear that the boundaries enacted by council law won’t allow it.
Which means, if I show you what I have, I am extending a great deal of trust. Do you understand? ”
Valens and I exchanged a loaded look. “We understand,” I said with a nod. “We’ll keep your secrets safe from any outside our pack.”
She flinched, the tiny movement our first sign that she was more rattled than she appeared. “I would ask that you tell no one but your pack’s leadership. No one inside this building must know what I’m about to show you.”
“We understand.”
“All right, then, but I warn you, it’s not pretty.” She rose from her seat, taking only a few paces toward the back wall of her office.
She moved a leather-bound book that probably weighed five pounds, then reached to the back of the bookcase, where she pressed something. The wall split, sliding silently back into hidden tracks, baring a silver-barred door inset into a solid-metal-walled cell.
Shocking though that was, a moment later, when a red-eyed vampire crashed against the bars with his fangs bared, I jumped out of my seat.
Another, smaller creature was also inside and flew toward the bars before bouncing backward off an invisible barrier between the silver.
The vampire clawed at what appeared to be nothing, fully crazed, but it was no use.
Rubix had them both well and truly trapped.
It took my brain long seconds to process what I was seeing.
Shock played a part, of course, because I’d never before seen a disheveled vampire.
His eyes were rings of red, angry black lines tracing up from his throat across his ghost-pale complexion, as if he had a ghastly infection that put him at death’s door, if that were possible for an undead being.
Only after taking all that in, did I notice what he was wearing. A tattered ODL enforcer’s uniform, with the name Ransom stitched over the breast in stained white thread. And just above it, an engraved silver collar locked around his neck.
Lights burst in front of my eyes so quickly, I swayed on my feet.
This one was different from the one we’d found at Leon’s cottage.
It wasn’t destroyed, and the magical signatures clinging to it were overwhelmingly bright, almost too strong to look at directly.
Pixie, lots of pixie, but instead of just dwarven magic like I’d picked up on the melted collar, I also got a subtle underpinning of gnomish magic.
“Valens, the collar… It’s the same.”
“The same as what?” Rubix’s voice was sharp enough to draw blood, her gaze pinned to my face.
I cleared my throat, needing a moment to compose myself.
“We found what we presumed to be a melted collar in the missing lynx shifter’s home.
It had multiple magical signatures on it, despite being destroyed by the fire.
We weren’t sure, though, because it was so misshapen.
Except the collar your cousin is wearing… It has the same signatures.”
Rubix closed the distance between us in the blink of an eye, and Valens growled as she stared down at me, eyes narrowed to slits even as he forced his way between us.
“What do you know about who did this? Who built this vile thing and thought to enslave my flesh and blood?”
“The pixies,” he snapped, forcing me back a step so that he could square off with the angry vampiress. He cast a glance over his shoulder at me. “Does this one also have dwarven influence?”
“Yes, but there’s more. Gnomish too. That’s what I can pick up through the barrier, so it’s possible there is more. But… do you have a pixie trapped in there with him?”
I’d only seen the smaller creature for a second, but it had the bright, pinky-purple coloring most pixies had in their natural forms.
“Yes. When my people found Ransom, the pixie ordered him to attack them. And he did. They were able to subdue them both, but we were unable to remove the collar. At our first attempt to remove the collar, the cursed thing injected him with a blood-based poison. That’s why his neck and eyes look like that. ”
“So he wasn’t crazed before?” I stepped around them both, moving to stand right in front of the barred door, in case I could pick up more detail from up close.
“No. My people reported that he was cool, almost flat. They tried to reason with him, but he just kept attacking. When they tried to remove it, needles shot out from all around the inside, injecting him in at least a dozen places at once. Based on the progression, he’ll be dead inside a week if we can’t safely remove it and treat him. ”
I nodded, considering. It went along with our theory that they were mind-control devices. “And the pixie? How did they capture it?”
“Her,” she spat. “If the bitch holds still, it’s evident. But they used an electrified net, shot her out of the air.”
“Aren’t those illegal?” Valens asked from right behind my shoulder. I hadn’t even noticed him walking up.
“Yes. Much like kidnapping and the vile collar still stuck on my nest mate.”
Valens inclined his head in lieu of an answer.
The pixie bashed against the invisible barrier again, mere inches from my face. Something shiny caught my eye, and colors danced before me once more.
I reeled back with a gasp, but Valens caught me.
“What is it? What did you see?”
“She’s wearing an anklet. It’s tiny because she’s small, but it’s there. It’s got the same signatures. I don’t think the king is only after other species. I think… I think he’s enslaved his own people too.”