CHAPTER THREE #4
We weren’t exactly off to a good start. This was all Laurie’s fault, I decided as I sat down and rearranged my dress. The Seelie King claimed one of the chairs beside me, and I whispered from the corner of my mouth, “There’s this thing called tact. Something you obviously were deprived of.”
“And clearly I soaked up all that was left, since you have absolutely none,” Laurie volleyed back under his breath. A laugh bubbled up in my throat.
“Are you two finished?” Collith cut in from my other side, keeping his voice low.
My skin prickled again. I pulled away from Laurie and glanced around, confirming that everyone was still watching us. Heat flooded my cheeks, but I raised my chin. Thankfully, just a moment later, the room’s focus changed. I turned to see who the latest arrival was.
Dracula stood in the doorway.
The vampire’s intelligent eyes immediately met mine, and I watched them crinkle at the corners. “It’s lovely to see you again, Lady Fortuna,” he said with an elegant bow.
“Dracula.” I didn’t move, but I gave him a warm smile in return.
Once again, I could feel others in the room staring.
I was a little surprised, myself—I hadn’t forgotten about the time Dracula gave me coffee spiked with vampire blood, but when you were in a room full of powerful, supernatural strangers and short on friends, beggars couldn’t be choosers.
Dracula’s gaze shifted toward the others seated at the table. “The Vampire King sends his regrets, and sends me in his stead,” he informed them.
“No surprise there,” someone muttered. I couldn’t tell who.
“Now that we’re all here, can we get to the matter at hand?” Alexander’s companion asked snidely. His cousin, I remembered. “I prefer to spend as little time near land as possible.”
“We’re not all here.” This was from Wichonne Babdock.
“What is the matter at hand?” Alexander drawled, leaning back in his chair.
The werewolf alpha raised her eyebrows. “Do you not watch the news? Wake up and smell the bloodbath. Something is eating people like they’re an all-you-can-eat buffet.
And whatever it is, the Beast apparently has no concerns about exposing our kind.
There hasn’t been a threat like this since Jack the Ripper. ”
I fought to keep the surprise and curiosity from my expression. Jack the Ripper had been Fallen?
Wichonne Babdock extended her arm and tapped her gnarled finger on the table. “Something is at work in the shadow world. The seers moan in my halls, and there have been tidings—”
“Not with the tidings,” Alexander groaned. “Here we go again.”
Mercy’s eyes narrowed at him.
“Why are we here?” I interjected. “Collith and I are no longer associated with the Unseelie Court.”
“Because you’ve been spotted on the Beast’s trail,” someone said from behind me.
A ripple of awareness went through the room, and the tension heightened.
I turned around to discover which new arrival had gotten everyone so worked up.
When I saw who stood in the doorway, my stomach dropped in shock. Holy shit.
It was the shapeshifter from the black market. The girl who had transformed into an owl and flown away after I’d freed her from a cage.
When our eyes met, she tilted her head in acknowledgment. “Well met, Lady Sworn. I am Nan, Queen of the Shapeshifters,” she said.
I was still reeling, but a quiet voice in my head urged me not to reveal the fact that I’d met this queen before.
“Well met, Your Majesty,” I replied.
I felt that telltale prickle over my skin, and I turned again, glancing across the table. The kitsune wasn’t ignoring me anymore. Instead, he was looking at me thoughtfully, and there was a glint in his eyes that I didn’t like.
“The Seelie King,” he murmured. “The Unseelie Queen. The vampires. The witches. The werewolves. The Shapeshifter Queen herself. You have friends in high places, Fortuna Sworn. You may be more dangerous than the creature currently eating its way down the eastern seaboard.”
Laurie shifted. It was subtle, but the small movement spoke volumes.
This definitely wasn’t going well. Damn it, I thought.
Apparently I was a shitty liar, and we also hadn’t been careful enough when it came to our pursuit of Oliver.
Or the Beast, as this lot were calling him. There was no use denying it.
What could I tell them about Oliver without sounding insane? What if they didn’t even believe it? Hell, what if they decided I was too dangerous to continue living, just as Collith had warned me?
Nan bought us some time as she started toward the last empty chair.
Her movements were graceful and light, like a deer creeping through sun-dappled woods.
I noticed that no one seemed to be guarding her, which meant she hadn’t brought any protection.
If I had to guess why, I’d say that Nan was the sort of creature no one ever fucked with.
Focus, Fortuna. I fought the urge to let out a nervous breath—every creature in this room would hear it. They could probably hear my heartbeat, too. They’d know if I lied. I had to do this the fae way, and dance the line between the truth and my own version of it.
Just in case God did care about my fate in some way, I mentally sent out a brief prayer. Then I opened my mouth.
As if he knew I was on the verge of confessing, Laurie quickly leaned forward. Collith, too, moved like he was about to speak, but Laurie beat him to it. “The creature is a beast of the Seelie Court. A witch’s spell gone wrong that we have kept contained, until recent unfortunate events,” he said.
The lie rolled so smoothly off his tongue that I was reminded, once again, of Laurie’s darkness. Violence and deception were as natural to him as sex or breathing.
“Recent unfortunate events?” Dracula echoed, clearly skeptical.
Maybe Laurie wasn’t as good a liar as I’d thought.
“It’s a Seelie problem. We’ll handle it,” he said. Nothing about Laurie’s posture changed, but some of the easiness had left his voice.
Dracula heard it, as well. The corner of his mouth tilted up, but I couldn’t tell if he was mocking Laurie or just amused by him. His tone was courteous as ever as he replied, “I mean no disrespect, faerie, but my warriors would be much more efficient than your Guardians.”
During the brief time I’d known him, I had learned that Dracula had no limits when it came to keeping Fallenkind a secret. He would torture, manipulate, and kill to glean information or eliminate a threat. If this vampire went after Oliver, the Beast’s death would be agonizing and slow.
I’d also vowed to do it myself.
I darted a glance at Collith, and he saw the objection in my eyes. He refocused on Dracula. His voice revealed nothing as he said, “It won’t just be King Laurelis’s Guardians. He will have my considerable power, as well, along with Lady Sworn’s.”
“And why is that?” Katashi demanded, leaning forward in his chair. “You never mentioned why you’ve been hunting the Beast.”
Once again, all the attention at the table shifted to me, and I realized the question would just keep coming up until I gave an answer.
Collith and Laurie must’ve reached the same conclusion—neither of them intervened this time.
Another silence fell while everyone waited for my response.
I scrambled to think of something, anything that would steer them away from making a connection between my powers and Oliver’s sudden appearance in the world.
In a rush of realization, it occurred to me that I had an obvious motive for following the Beast. It was actually the truth, too, so it wouldn’t raise any alarms to a room full of lie detectors.
Just hold on, Finn. I just need you to hold on a little longer.
Forcing myself to think about the night I’d knelt in a pool of Finn’s blood, the night I had held his broken body and filled his head with pretty things while he’d died, I met Katashi’s gaze and said, “The Beast killed someone very dear to me. I’m following it because I plan to obliterate this thing from the face of the Earth. ”
No one spoke, but every figure was perfectly still. I knew they were probably listening for any hint of deception. They all must’ve heard the truth in my voice, my heartbeat, because there were no more questions or challenges.
“I say let him slaughter all the humans he likes. There’s too many of them anyway,” the water nymph king’s companion said. I couldn’t remember his name, if I’d even learned it.
“You sound like someone who’s grown tired of having a full set of teeth,” I said calmly.
The male’s eyes flashed, and he turned in my direction, snarling. “How dare you speak to me that way, you insignificant maggot!”
As he spoke, he raised his hand to strike me.
But he had to lean slightly over Laurie to do so, and Laurie moved so fast I didn’t realize what had happened until a spray of blood appeared on the table, the floor, the wall.
For an instant, the water nymph’s body hovered there, and what remained of his neck spurted like a fountain.
Then it slowly toppled over and hit the floor in a graceless heap.
“Holy fuck,” Alexander said, leaping up from his chair. Responding to his magic, the water in the middle of the room shot into the air, splashing all over the floor and the edges of the table.
“Is he dead?” Viessa asked, leaning back to peer at the body. Nuvian stood behind her with his sword half-drawn, his body taut with readiness.
“No, no, I’m sure a healer can reattach his head,” Laurie chirped, settling back into to his seat. An attendant was already rushing forward to tend to the mess.
Alexander turned to the Shapeshifter Queen indignantly. “I demand retribution—”
“You demand nothing.” Laurie rested his elbows on the table and placed his chin on his crossed hands. “I was well within my rights, as per this council’s own rules. He attacked me, and I defended myself.”