29. Christopher
Chapter twenty-nine
Christopher
Ican feel Maria shift nervously next to me.
She knew what we had to offer, but not how soon I’d put everything on the table.
Right now, I want the renegades salivating for a quick deal.
So I run through a brief explanation of the Lux, what happened when the climate collapse occurred, the difference between mixed domes and mortal-only domes, and the purpose of the preservation arks.
A lot to cover, but Rose seems like a sharp cookie.
When I finish explaining the background, I return to my offer.
“A battery-operated truck and a dome producing solar energy of your own. You’d have to agree to the same treaty all mixed-dome vampires agree to.
We’ll go over that. You’d scavenge in this area and trade permissible items with the local mortal domes. That’s our offer.”
Silence stretches for a moment, then Rose speaks. “I don’t know.” She rubs her chin. “You can do better than that.”
“Not really. I’ve put everything we have to offer on the table. I’m holding nothing back, because this isn’t a game to us. We want a fast deal to get Zinnia home. Each night she’s with you, the more traumatized she’ll be. And I’m tired of wasting ammunition when your people attack me—I want peace.”
Rose stares at me a moment, then nods. “We’re gonna have to meet with our nest.”
I press the button Tig gave me. The truck appears on the old road.
“Why don’t you take a closer look first?
Kick the tires. See that it’s real. But if you can’t make a deal right now, tonight, send out the people who can.
Because the truck is off the table if we don’t have Zinnia in our hands by sunrise. ”
“What?”
“We know why you want the truck so badly. And both of us know you are better off getting the truck sooner rather than later. Plus, you’re safer handing off the hostage now.
We know where you are. If something happens to the child while she’s in your hands—illness, injury, anything—we’ll level the cavern.
Bomb it to smithereens. You try to sneak her out—not only do we have the tech to trace her if you do, we will bring in a squadron that will hunt you down. ”
“How do we know you won’t do all of that once we agree and return her to you?”
“Seriously? If we wanted to—if we had the will to—we could have done it before you kidnapped her. We didn’t.”
Tig taps my arm, her signal that she’s taking over.
“The treaty council—our leaders—considered you a problem, but one they didn’t need to resolve by destroying a famous geological structure.
Now, they are tiring of the damage you’ve done: the lost truck, the break-in at the ark—these are like buzzing insects to them.
They haven’t wanted to swat the annoyance away…
but push them, and they will. Cooperate.
Play by the rules all other vampires play by, and the Kartchner nest can trade goods with the mortal domes for donor blood and live a good life. ”
That was smooth. I’m thinking Tig worked as a used car salesperson at some point in her life.
“What about our blood slaves?” Rose asks. “Do we get to keep them?”
It takes all my willpower not to cringe. “We’ll cover that in the treaty documents. Let’s stretch our legs and look at the truck.”
Now I’m the one who sounds like a used car salesman. They won’t be happy to learn they can’t keep enslaved mortals.
I lead the way over, not looking back, trusting that they’ll follow and that the gear Tig provided will protect me and Maria if silver bullets start flying.
Opening the doors—all four—I let them climb in, get a deep whiff of that new-car smell. Then I show them how the tonneau opens and closes to protect the goods they collect. “This is a foot longer than the truck destroyed in our last clash. I think you’ll like it.”
Rose crosses her arms. “Let’s see this treaty we’re agreeing to.”
“Happily. Do you have the device you used to take videos of Zinnia?”
“Yes.”
“Show me.” I take the device and pull up the treaty documents. “Do you read English?”
“Yes.”
“If you need a different language, tap this icon and pick the language. To return to English, use the back arrow.”
“It will take a while for everyone to read from this one small…device.”
I nod at Tig.
She goes to my truck and comes back with a fancy leather briefcase. “Will thirty do?”
Rose accepts the offered case. “They can share.” She turns to leave, then looks back at me. “May we take three cases of clone blood with us to feed our nest?”
“Certainly.” Everyone thinks better on a full belly.
“Why don’t you take four of the boxes from the table?
That’s forty-eight bags. Will that be enough?
We don’t want anyone to go without, even though our supplies are limited.
And that ice chest on the table—take it, too.
That’s food for the mortals under your care. ”
Rose gestures to Ed and Diego. They glance at each other, hunger in their gazes, then Diego growls and Ed cringes. Clearly the loser of that little drama, Ed rushes over to grab the ice chest, while Diego takes the boxes.
Tig steps closer to Rose. “We all know you aren’t in the hostage storage business. Make the deal and move on. Subsequent offers will be lower.”
A quick glance at my watch—we still have three hours before sunrise to settle this.
I cross my arms and glare at them. “Present the deal to your people or whoever is calling the shots. You have an hour to confer. Then let us know your status. But if we don’t have Zinnia out here thirty minutes before dawn, you won’t get the truck.”
I’ve built in extra time in case Rose takes longer to convince their nest this is the best deal they’ll ever get.
Ed and Diego carry the goods and follow Rose toward the cavern entrance.
Their guards close in, walking backward and watching us.
Kind of silly when I think about it. If we wanted to, we could have invisible soldiers lined up from here to the cavern.
Though the shimmering edges would make it hard to sneak inside without being noticed.
Tig points at Maria and me, then cocks her thumb toward the vehicles, leaving her crew on guard.
Once we’re in our truck and the doors are closed, she clicks her tongue and puts the vidcon on speaker. “Willow. How are you doing?”
“Still trying to get eyes and ears inside.”
“Copy. Any sign of Zinnia?”
“Faint signal. Means she’s still in the cavern, but we aren’t close enough to determine her precise location.”
Maria reaches over the seat to squeeze my shoulder, and I take her hand and kiss it. “We’ve got this, Sunshine. Did you see the way they drooled over the truck? They’ll agree.”
“I just didn’t expect you to start there.”
“It’s a technique. Protracted negotiations waste our time. We need this done fast.”
We wait for fifty-six minutes, which feel like days.
“They’re back,” Tig suddenly says, already reaching for the door handle.
We meet them at the table. They have a few questions about the treaty and what will happen to any mortals who don’t want to stay. We answer and explain the mortals will have the option of training and integration into a low-population dome.
Rose looks at Ed and Diego when we’re done and then eyes me. “Personally, I wouldn’t take this deal. I think you could provide more trucks. But I was outvoted. So you have a deal.”
I shake her hand, then shake with the two guys.
Tig places another box of clone blood on the table. “To celebrate. Alcohol-infused blood. Like drinking from a drunk mortal.” She hands them out, tosses a few to their guards, and passes one each to Maria and me.
I place the key fob for the truck in the center of the table. “When are you bringing out Zinnia?”
“Uh, soon,” Rose says between sips. “What’s that?”
“The remote key that will allow you to operate the truck. We’ll show you how to use it once we have Zinnia. The Lux will provide battery replacements when you need them.”
She takes another sip. “This is good.”
Ed nods. “We should have held out for cases of these.”
My anger flares at the comment and how casually they keep Zinnia from her mother, but I keep my jaws shut. Maria has taught me to restrain my anger.
“Few cases of alcohol-infused blood are produced,” Tig says. “Our scientists focus on producing regular blood. But we’ll set aside cases from our limited supply to trade with you for certain rare goods you scavenge. Chris can be your point of contact.”
A buzz in my ear isn’t an insect. Someone is trying to contact me. “Chris? This is Willow. Cough if you can hear me.”
The brief flicker on Tig’s face says she’s hearing the same thing.
Maria isn’t.
I try replying using subvocal, but for some unknown reason Willow doesn’t respond. “Chris, we’re having difficulty receiving subvocal. Could be because we’re on the other side of the caverns. Whatever it is, I need you to make a sound, any sound aloud.”
I take a sip of alcohol-infused blood and start coughing, pounding on my chest. “Went down the wrong pipe.”
Rose nods.
“They’re reneging on the deal,” Willow whispers.
“We now have eyes and ears in the throne room cavern. After Rose and her sidekicks left, some asshole held another vote and decided they should overthrow her. They want to keep all enslaved mortals and hold out for seven more trucks. Seems he lost a lot of friends when they attacked you and Maria, and you blew up your truck. You can hear the grudge in his voice. He keeps ranting about remembering the sacrifice made by the dead. So they’re going to cut an ear off Zinnia and send it out with their demand. ”
I grit my teeth, pretending to suck on the straw that’s between my lips.
“There’s more,” she continues. “A vamp who’s in charge of babysitting Zinnia sneaked off as soon as they mentioned harming her. We can’t hear everything, but he said something to Zinnia about protecting her. So he may be loyal to the three you’re meeting with. Copy?”
I cough again to let Willow know I understand.