Chapter 9 #2
“Yes, I am aware. How is life at the Dragon Court?” He says it with such derision that I reconsider hanging up the phone.
“Better than at the Vampire Court, that’s for sure.”
“To be fair, that isn’t saying much at the moment.” He pauses. “Our whole world—all the species—are watching you and Hudson. Wondering if you’re really going to defect for a dragon and a gargoyle.”
He says the last like it’s some kind of disease.
The rage I’ve worked so hard to tamp down goes into overdrive. To combat it, I wave a hand and send every pillow on my bed flying against the wall over and over and over again. It’s not a lot of energy to release, but it’s just enough to keep the windows from rattling. Or worse, exploding.
“You’re going to want to watch how you talk about Flint and Grace.” I don’t try to hide my annoyance.
It must register to Reginald, because he starts to backtrack. Quickly. “I mean no offense to the new queen or to your…mate.”
It’s a fishing expedition, one I have no intention of indulging, so I stay silent, waiting for whatever other garbage he wants to spew.
Like I suspect, it doesn’t take long. “I’m sorry. I know you and Hudson care about these creatures, but mating with them? Building a life with them away from the Vampire Court? It’s a terrible idea, not to mention a disaster waiting to happen.”
A quick thought has the pillows dropping to the ground while the bed I’m sitting on begins to float.
“Is that what you call falling in love?” I ask, genuinely curious. Not regarding how Reginald feels about us specifically—he’s made that abundantly clear—but about how people in his generation feel about the match.
Based on the response Flint and I have been getting since I came here, he and the dragon clan elders have more in common than any of them would like to admit.
“Princes don’t mate for love,” he opines. “They mate for political gain.”
I guess that answers that. And yet I still feel the need to push a little. To find out more. Especially since Flint and I aren’t mates…at least not yet. “And here I thought mating the gargoyle queen would be as politically advantageous as it could get.”
“You mean the gargoyle queen who’s been mated to both vampire princes?” he asks dryly. “Now that girl knows what political gain is.”
The window across the room rattles loudly, and I take another slow breath. This time, a quick thought has everything in the suite floating. I’m not taking any chances after what happened in the training center last night.
“Hudson needs to channel some of her energy,” he continues, oblivious to just how badly his words are landing. “Use some of her clout to help the Vampire Court regain its standing.”
“Considering it was the vampire king who made it necessary to freeze the entire Gargoyle Army for millennia, I doubt she—or anyone else—feels too kindly about us right now.” I’m living with that fact every day here in the Dragon Court.
“Not to mention a whole lot of vampires did recently try to take over the paranormal world, killing a lot of people in the process.”
“Which is why we need you or your brother to come back and help us rebuild. We are falling apart. The Council is in hiding, the Vampire Guard is in tatters, and the court is practically empty. It’s your responsibility to unite us again. We need to regain our stature—”
“I think you’re forgetting that Hudson and I were both fighting for the other side.
And so were the dragon queen and king and the gargoyle queen,” I snap as his self-aggrandizing bullshit gets to be too much for me.
“What makes you think any of us care what happens to any of you? You all took part in trying to kill us.”
Reginald pauses for several seconds. Some might believe it’s because I finally got through to him, but I’m a little more cynical. More likely he’s trying to regroup, looking for another angle of attack to get me to do what he wants me to.
“Maybe we did choose the wrong side,” he finally says.
“Maybe?” It’s the last straw. “Goodbye, Reginald.”
I start to hang up, but he yells, “Wait! Please, Jaxon. Wait. I’m not calling for me.”
The urgency in his tone has me pausing—well, that and the fact that this is the first time in the entire conversation he hasn’t called me boy-o. “Of course you are.”
“Okay, fine. But I’m not only calling for me.
” He sighs. “People are suffering. Not the Council or the guard, but real people who did nothing to deserve it. They didn’t pick up arms with Cyrus.
In fact, they refused to fight in his war because they didn’t believe in it.
But without order, without someone sitting on the throne, they’re defenseless.
And whether you like it or not, they’re paying the price for what your father did. ”
I want to discount what he’s saying, but there’s a ring of truth to it. Damn it. “What do you mean?”
“With no one around to protect them, the hunters have declared open season on vampires. People are being slaughtered in their beds, on their way to work, playing in the park with their children.”
“Hunters?” I repeat. I’m vaguely familiar with their existence, but not enough to know if he’s telling the truth.
“The Crone is raising an army to destroy paranormals,” he answers in a tone that sends chills down my spine.
Because, for the first time since I answered the phone, Reginald actually sounds like he’s being honest. “Right now, they’re taking aim at vampires, but it won’t be long before they widen their scope.
If you won’t come back and take the throne to save us, do it for your dragon.
Because once they’re done with us, I have no doubt they’ll be coming after you as well. ”
The bed hits the ground with a thunk, as do the other pieces of furniture in the room. My rage has died in the face of my confusion and concern. “Do you know where the Crone is right now?”
“I—” He breaks off as a loud bang sounds. “No! Don’t! Please don’t hurt her— Don’t—”
He breaks off as a high-pitched scream fills the connection.
“Reginald? What’s going—”
The phone clicks off, leaving me with nothing but silence and a very, very bad feeling.
So bad, in fact, that I pick up the phone and call my brother without bothering to check and see if he’s in class first.
He answers on the third ring, sounding a little out of breath.
Because I don’t want to think about what could possibly have made him that way, I cut straight to the chase.
“I just got a call from Regidull.” I use the nickname he and I had for our cousin when we were kids—back before I was sent to the Bloodletter and Hudson was forced to spend most of his life in Descent.
We’re not FaceTiming, but I can practically see Hudson roll his eyes. “Didn’t get what he wanted from me and thought he’d make a go at you, hmm?”
So Hudson had already talked to him? “A little heads-up would have been nice, asshole.”
“Sorry, I was a little preoccupied here.”
Grace giggles in the background.
“Is that what you call your sex life?” I ask dryly. “A preoccupation?”
“And here I thought you were too busy thinking about your sex life to worry about mine,” he answers in a voice that’s ten times as dry as mine. That damn British accent does it every fucking time.
“No sex involved!” Grace says primly. “He’s having another go at teaching me how to axe throw.”
“Now, now, Grace, you flatter me. You have to be careful with that,” he adds with an extra dose of smarm in his voice. “You know how insecure Jaxy-Waxy can be about his little hammer.”
“Fuck off, dude,” I snarl. But then I laugh despite myself. Because it’s good to see him and Grace so happy, even if it means he loves to “take the piss” out of me. “My axe is just fine.”
“No. Just no,” Grace says with another giggle—this one loaded with embarrassment. “We are not doing this right now.”
“Okay, okay.” It’s my brother’s turn to laugh even as he asks, “So what did Regidull say to get your basic boxers all twisted up, anyway?”
“We can’t all wear Armani,” I toss back.
“And on that note, I’m out.” Grace’ s voice sounds farther away, and seconds later, I hear a door close.
“He said vampires are being hunted—” I start.
“I know,” he cuts in grimly. “I’m working on a plan for that.”
“His plan involves someone ascending to the vampire throne, quickly. And since you’re the incoming gargoyle king—”
“Don’t even fooking say it,” he shoots back. “You’re the incoming dragon king. Or did you forget that?”
“How can I, when I’m in love with the damn prince?” I shove a frustrated hand through my hair. “But we can’t just let them go on slaughtering innocent people, either. Cyrus and those who followed him can burn in hell. But what about everyone else? We can’t just leave them unprotected.”
“I have no intention of leaving them unprotected,” Hudson tells me. “I’m working on something, but I don’t have all the pieces yet.”
“Have you told Grace?”
“Not yet. As soon as I have enough information, I’ll tell her about it, get her opinion on what we should do—”
“What we should do is stamp these fuckers out of existence!” I growl, thinking of the ambush in that damn alley.
Flint is so sure the dragon clans are behind it, and maybe they are.
But maybe they’re working with these hunters, humans who know enough to coat a bullet with something that made it impossible for me to shift and heal myself.
“While I don’t disagree with your endgame, I do think we need to figure out exactly what we’re dealing with—”
“They went after Flint.” My voice breaks as I think about the moment that gun pointed at Flint. The moment I thought I might lose him forever. “You can’t tell me you wouldn’t feel the same way if they went after Grace.”
“They’d already be dead.” He says it matter-of-factly, but that just makes it more believable.
“Exactly. Reginald seems to think he’ll be able to stop it if he ascends to the throne—”
Hudson snorts. “He’s an imbecile. But if he wants the throne, let him have it. I’ve got no use for it, and neither do you.”
“You know it’s not that simple—”
“You know it’s not that complicated,” he fires back. “You’re just making it that way. You love Flint. Flint loves you. He’s going to be dragon king, and that means you need to stay your ass in New York with him. Problem solved.”
“The throne—”
“Fook the throne!” Hudson growls. “It’s never done any good for either of us. We absolutely need to figure out this hunter thing and take care of it. But the throne can burn for all the shite I give about it. You’d do well to adopt the same attitude.”
“We’re still not mated.” The words come out before I even know I’m thinking them, let alone that I’m going to say them.
“Well, fook.”
“Thanks, that’s very helpful,” I snark.
There’s a long pause before he says, “Have you talked to Flint about it?”
“Seriously?” I ask in disbelief. “That’s the best you’ve got. Have I talked to Flint?”
“He is your partner and the person you want to be your mate. Is it so unreasonable to ask if you two have discussed the problem?”
We haven’t. Of course we haven’t. How can I talk to him about it when it feels like an open, gaping wound between us? Every time I even try to hint at it, Flint freezes up.
“I’ll take your silence as a yes,” he says quietly.
“There’s a lot there. Luca, Grace…” I pause awkwardly, because this is something Hudson and I don’t talk about, either.
But my brother—who is apparently totally secure in his relationship with Grace—takes it in stride. “Which is why you need to talk to him. All that noise will continue to be between you until you work through it.”
He’s right. I know he’s right. But knowing it and doing something about it are two different things—especially when talking about it is going to hurt Flint. That’s the last thing I want to do.
Hudson must decide to let the subject go for now—not forever, because he’s like a dog with a fucking bone when he wants to be—because he says, “We’re going to have to do something about the hunters.
I’m going to think on it some more, then find time to talk to Grace about it.
We’ll need to reach out to the other Courts and take care of these bastards once and for all. ”
“Think fast,” I tell him, because no way am I putting up with a threat to Flint. No fucking way. “Or I’ll find a way to take care of them myself.”