Chapter Nine
“You can’t keep me here,” Elmer said.
“I could have caught you covered in blood, holding a knife, standing over a dead body covered in stab wounds, with Elmer Did It written in the victim’s blood, and you’d still act surprised. Oh no, whyever could I be in trouble with the authorities!” Rowan rolled her eyes at him. Alice sat to one side while David was at their back, guarding the door.
“I’m not going to say anything to you,” Elmer told Rowan.
“You’re very brave for someone who manipulates children,” Alice said, and Rowan barely stifled a grin as she leaned back in her chair. Alice was good at her job. She was strong, though people tended to underestimate her because she was so lovely and efficient. But when she needed to be badass, she was stone cold. Such an excellent quality. Especially when it came to her position with Clive. Most importantly, Alice wasn’t going to play games and fuck her over.
No denying it’d be less of a mess if the Nation took point on this underage thing. She had enough shit to shovel as it was with witch nonsense and this Vampire lord stuff. Rowan would kill whoever needed killing but had no problem letting someone else draw the fire of the First. The paperwork alone would be a nightmare. And it would do them some good to be on the side of right for a change. They had the money and the staff and she was sick to death of cleaning up Nation messes.
“What is your connection to the guard on this floor?” Alice asked, using her power to push the compulsion to answer straight into Elmer’s chest.
He paused as he fought it. Then a smirk. “What guard?”
Alice grabbed a small, silver hammer from a little black bag at her feet. It caught the light as she brought it down on Elmer’s hand hard enough that it dented the table beneath where it had been resting. Blood spattered—thankfully away from Rowan—and Elmer howled in pain.
Rowan looked back over her shoulder to David. “Just when you think you can’t love her more, she produces a fucking hammer and goes to town,” she told him.
David fought a smile but lost.
“We’re in the same social circle,” Elmer gasped out, cradling his ruined hand to his chest.
The hammer flashed as it came down on Elmer’s kneecap, creating a sound that had Rowan gagging a little.
“I told you the truth!” he howled, tears in his eyes.
Rowan shook her head. They always fucked around and cried when they got called out.
“How do you know the guard working on this floor?” Alice repeated.
Fearing a second shattered kneecap, Elmer finally decided to answer the question he’d been asked and his problem with underaged boys was only a small part of the issue.
“ Sanguis Principatus ,” he said.
Of course it was in Latin. They probably used a gothic font like a heavy metal band and wore robes when they met like the self-important pissants they were. Something poked at the back of her brain. Some long-ago mention of this group. The North American capitalist version of Blood Front shit, if she recalled correctly.
David would get Vanessa working on compiling information about this group as soon as they finished up.
Alice sighed and closed her eyes a moment. So disappointed in Elmer. Rowan’s crush on her grew by the minute.
Then Alice said, “ Blood Supremacy. ” And heaved a heavy sigh. “I was still in England when they had any real power here in the United States. I’m sure you can guess what this little social club is all about, Rowan.” She sat straighter. Neat. Perfect posture. Even the spot of blood on her left shoulder seemed dignified.
At Rowan’s amused snort, Alice continued. “Same basic theme. Vampires are the master race. They’re at the top of the food chain and humans are cattle and meant to serve. More of an American spin. They liked power and money and wanted free rein to do with humans whatever they wished to obtain it. Witches and shifters and other types aren’t as pure as Vampires, but not as base as humans. They’d be suitable employees. Lovers perhaps?”
“It’s not against the law to believe any of those things,” Elmer said, petulant.
“No. It just lets everyone know you’re rather dim. However,” Alice held up a finger, “how one sets about making those things a reality may be against our laws. Let’s find out. How did Eduard know to expect Rowan?” Alice asked. Rowan figured Eduard was the guard who’d shoved her.
Before he could speak, the shiny arc of the hammer caught Rowan’s eye as Alice used her wicked little friend and re-broke the hand that had been healing. “Just to keep you forthcoming. I find it’s better for everyone to remain transparent about consequences,” she told Elmer.
The confidence Elmer had been wearing had begun to wear thin. “I don’t know exactly.”
Rowan cocked her head. “I don’t think it’s true.”
Alice didn’t ask how Rowan knew. The hammer returned. It hadn’t taken nearly as many broken bones to get the answers to the next questions.
“I really don’t know for sure!” he shrieked.
“Give me your best guess,” Alice invited.
“Stephen would have been on watch. He’d have contacted someone depending on whatever problem arose.”
They’d run a loop when they’d first arrived to catch them by surprise, but after that initial three minutes, that video would have begun to run again. Baker would have seen it all but instead of warning Elmer, he’d called Die Mitte .
Alice’s pupils flared as her elemental nature showed through. Disgusted and outraged by this creature before them.
Scary Alice was Rowan’s favorite.
He added quickly, “I like to have someone watching my back. For human cops or Hunters.” Like that made things better?
If the Nation didn’t handle this piece of shit, Rowan would hunt him down and execute him herself. He couldn’t be allowed to continue walking the earth, preying on the weak.
Alice said, “I’ll need that same information on any other such partners in addition to Baker.”
At that point, the fight left him, his spine curved slightly, as if the weight of all his bullshit began to sit on his shoulders.
“Oh and bee tee dubs, Stephen Baker is here in custody too. Just FYI.” Rowan gave a slight jerk of her shoulders. “He didn’t tell you we’d arrived, which I find fascinating . You sat down there in your little pervert bunker watching an action movie while Hunter Corp., the Conclave, and the Vampire Nation rooted through your belongings. I wonder what it could have been that kept him from telling you or Haddon.”
There was a pause as Elmer realized a few things. Given the sour expression, they weren’t pleasant things. Rowan loved it that he was so dejected and suspicious.
Finally, in a tone that said he didn’t even believe what he was saying, Elmer managed, “He probably didn’t have the chance, so he made the choice to have Eduard in the loop. Knowing we’d need help. Someone to defend us against this false accusation.”
Rowan shook her head at this amateur. “Setting aside the fact that when I came into creeper mansion, none of you would have known what accusations I’d have to level against you, what is it you think a guard here could have done? Other than get himself stuck into an interrogation room with an angry Scion that is.”
“He serves as a witness to my mistreatment.”
Rowan curled her lip at him. “You certainly have enough cameras watching every angle of each room in your giant house. I’m pretty sure there’ll be lots of mistreatment on the SD cards we confiscated. But you’re not the abused, Elmer. You’re the abuser. I see you. She sees you.” Rowan jerked her head toward Alice.
“You violated my home! At the behest of some slut I cast off years ago?”
Until this disgusting pig called Aron a slut when said pig had manipulated a damned kid, Rowan had been moderately calm.
The liquid, quicksilver magic that seemed to fill her veins heralded Brigid’s rise to consciousness. She was just fine with Rowan’s loss of calm. She’d only made Herself known to reassure Rowan. You’re on the right path.
“We walked right up to that door and into your secret perv room where we took you into custody after you poked your rodent head out. Then we turned all seven thousand square feet upside down, including the four hidden bedchambers that look a whole lot like holding cells.” She shuddered at that. Silk and cashmere on the beds and locks on the outside of the door.
Rowan wanted to speak more with George, the butler, to get more information on that whole situation. Clive would brief her soon enough.
Remembering she’d warned him away from their bond because she was beyond annoyed with Vampires earlier, she let herself open up to it once again. It wasn’t about punishing Clive, she just needed to be alone with her thoughts for a little while.
“It’s not against the law to have cameras in one’s home,” he said. “Nor is my sexual preference any of your business.”
Rowan curled her lip. “Believe me, I don’t care about your sexual preference as it pertains to legal adults who consent to whatever it is you like to do. But that’s not what I’m going to find on those SD cards, and we all know it. Keep on lying. It’s not going to do you any favors, but it’ll be a gas to watch the Scion strangle you with your intestines. You think Jacques was tough because he was cruel.” A theatrical eye roll. “Cruelty is a coward’s tool. I killed Jacques. As you know. And he wasn’t shit. However, I’m married to the new guy, and I can tell you firsthand, he is hot shit. So, you’ll tell us, or he’ll take it from you and leave you a drooling mess. I hope he rips your dick off before the drooling mess part. Either way, I see you, Marsc.”
She stood, done with this garbage.
“Don’t get comfortable,” Alice said as he was on the way out. “The Scion will want to speak to you later.”
Rowan loved his expression at that so much she wanted to marry it.
When they were alone, waiting for Haddon, Alice said, “I’m not letting the issue of the Sanguis Principatus go. Or of this underage Making. It seemed better to have the Scion handling that. Especially after he speaks with Eduard. I’ll assume the Scion will wish for you to be given information about the group and its history, so I’ll put that in motion.”
“I only have some vague memories, so I’ll definitely need to read up.”
Haddon was brought in. He’d only been a Vampire four years and while there were parts of him that came off very young mentally and emotionally, he didn’t try to evade their questions.
He hadn’t been warned by Baker. He’d been waiting in the car he’d brought around for Elmer when he’d caught sight of all the cars in the drive and had hidden, waiting to attack until he’d caught sight of Rowan and David walking his master out of the house.
There was a sort of sad courage about it. More than Elmer or Stephen had shown him.
He said he was only familiar with Stephen. Though he did know Elmer had other older Vampires he had meetings with. Sometimes Haddon would bring friends, young friends, for the other Vampires. Mostly they ignored him and dealt with Elmer exclusively.
He rattled off names and descriptions, not hesitating in the same way his Maker had. His earlier fire when he’d attacked Rowan in the driveway had gone. Maybe while he’d had time to think as they’d questioned Elmer.
Alice motioned for them to go into the hall to speak privately. David nodded that he’d remain in the room so once they were alone in the hall outside—Alice had emptied the space of personnel—she spoke. “The rooms are soundproof so he can’t hear us. I need to inform Clive of what we’ve learned. Are you satisfied with the questioning? Is there anything else we need to ask?”
That sort of thing was one of myriad reasons Rowan not only liked Alice but trusted her word. It made her lose some of her impatience with the process. A process that was often closed to her. But Alice had made sure Rowan’s perspective was handled and her questioning of the prisoners hadn’t just been about the breaking of Vampire rules.
“There would have been a lot more blood if I’d been doing the interrogation,” Rowan murmured. “I’m good. So long as Elmer is incarcerated and punished. And. I will require information regarding this Sanguis Principatus , so I appreciate that you’ve already got that handled.”
Alice nodded. “It’s my recommendation that Elmer face a tribunal and be sentenced that way. It spreads the responsibility to a group of Vampires instead of the Scion doing this on his own. Haddon? I feel strongly that he should be examined by a physician and a therapist. I know this may not be what you want, given his cooperation with Elmer. But he’s...he’s a victim, Rowan. He was hurt at an age when he barely had enough sense to get himself through the day. Certainly not a match for a centuries-old predator like Elmer.”
Yeah, she was aware of just how little a match a child could be against an ancient Vampire. That was her fucking childhood. And she’d been able to be something more than a plaything because others had given her a chance. She’d dedicated her life to helping others. So, she wouldn’t stand in the way of Haddon getting his second chance. “If he can be treated and come out the other side refusing to continue in his Maker’s footsteps, that will be enough for me. That and he needs to assist in tracking down other young victims. Otherwise, I will carve a path through you all to get him and see he’s punished for what he’s done.” But Rowan thought Haddon, given the help he so desperately needed, might come out the other side better. And as a source for information on this new cabal.
Alice nodded. “Agreed.”
“I will need to deal with all this,” Rowan said, thinking of a call she needed to make to Susan and the other partners. “Tell Clive what you and I agreed upon. I expect a full report from all the interrogations. I want to see whatever it is you all find with this guard. I’m sure every part of his life is being examined as we speak. And the guard.”
“I’ll include transcripts and any video we have from the interrogations, as well as any information we’ve gleaned from the searches of Eduard’s domicile.” Alice walked with her toward the doorway where David waited.
Clive came around the corner and they all headed to the parking garage.
“I’ll see you for dinner in a bit,” he told her.
“I’ve got calls to make before I can take the time,” she explained.
“Make them. I have things to do as well. We’ll skip Fleur, but I’ll have the food sent home for us. When you leave, let me know and I’ll meet you there.” For a refusal to change his plans, it was done rather well so she let it go because it was nice to share a meal with him and reconnect that way.
She nodded.
“Are you all right? You’re limping slightly,” he said as they reached her car.
“I’m a little worse for wear. But I’ll sleep, and you gave me blood. I’ll be fine. I’ll see you in a while.”