Chapter 10 #3
Mr. Brock planted his brass-topped cane and rolled his shoulders beneath a thick, fur cape, straightening up.
The tattoos around his eyes and dripping down his cheeks looked even more sinister than usual in the weird violet light.
At full height, he had to be close to seven feet. “Don’t you now, darling?”
The vampire in the circle dropped to her knees, her head bowed.
Holy shit. Felix glance between them. It was weird enough to see Mr. Brock anywhere other than the archives below the library. He rarely left his lair. Like, maybe twice that Felix had heard of, ever. And after all her bluster, the vamp’s reaction to him was straight up bizarre.
“Do you know her, Thaddeus?” Ms. Pao asked.
“Only by reputation.” He pursed his pale lips, as if he were unhappy about that. “Ms. Diamondé is quite the celebrity in some circles—or was. She’s been rather absent from the public eye of late.”
“You don’t say,” Aggie muttered, glancing at her watch.
“Mmm.” Mr. Brock cocked his head, the pointed tip of his ear poking through his feathery, snow white hair. “My. Kremlyn’s done quite a number on you, hasn’t he, child?”
The other vampire didn’t say anything, her head bowed.
Mr. Brock sighed. “It’s a pity I didn’t get here in time to return you to his tender mercies. I’ll have to let court know that you’d already pledged your services. Once sworn, not even our sweet prince would dream of breaking a covenant.”
Ophelia’s eyes flicked up to meet Mr. Brock’s dark gaze. That he was giving her some kind of an out was apparent, but Felix was dying for the details. What the hell was going on?
Her entire body whipped around to him, and she skittered forward on all fours, then popped up to stand before Felix, smoothing her rags. “It was you who called me, right, freckles? You need a lawyer?”
“Yes, and maybe? I-I mean, technically, I guess I did?” he stammered trying to take a step back and ran up against the stone pillar. His throat bobbed. Shit. She couldn’t get past the containment circle, but still. Those pale pink irises were like a gas gauge, and she was about running on empty.
“Fabulous. I, Ophelia Catalina Diamondé pledge my legal services to…” The filth on her brow crinkled, and she rotated her hand, waiting for Felix to fill in the blank. He swallowed again, not certain that was the best idea.
“The town of Havers-by-the-Sea,” Aggie supplied from across the circle. “Wouldn’t want anything to befall your sponsor and let you off the hook prematurely.”
Ophelia scowled like that’d been a distinct possibility, and Felix shuddered.
“Fine,” she gritted out. “I pledge my legal services to the town of Havers-by-the-Sea. By blood and fang, until my counsel is no longer needed and the earth below releases me.” She raised her wrist and bit it.
Blood spattered to the ground, hissing, and the magic of the node rose up in a flash of purple, leaving zero doubt that it’d just accepted her oath.
Across the circle Jena gasped, and the vamp’s eyes went wide.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Ophelia screeched at Aggie. “A node? A ghandi-damned node?! You’ve just gotten me stuck here in perpetuity, you stupid bitch!”
Aggie cocked a brow. “Aren’t you supposed to be a lawyer? Pretty sure it’s the signee’s responsibility to check the fine print before they consent to the terms.”
Ophelia sputtered.
Mr. Brock chuckled darkly, just shy of full on-malevolent glee. “If you all would be so kind as to drop the circle, I’ll take Ms. Diamondé back with me to freshen up. I’ll make sure she understands how she’ll be expected to comport herself as Havers’s newest resident.”
Mr. Fynbender murmured a few words, and the circle was broken.
Mr. Brock extended a gnarled hand to Ophelia.
“Come, child.” She shot Aggie one more dark look and shuffled to him.
He tucked the battered vampire against his side.
“Have whatever you wish her to review sent to the archives,” he said to Felix, then inclined his head to Ms. Pao, stepped back into the shadows, and disappeared.
“What the hell just happened?” Felix asked, his pulse racing.
“You got your lawyer,” Aggie said, pulling her coat from the pile. “Now I get my shows. Hop to it you two,” she snapped at Jena and Chase. “At this rate I’ll be lucky to catch the last fifteen minutes.”
Jena rolled her eyes, letting Chase help her into her ski jacket. “Like streaming isn’t a thing.”
“Streaming.” Aggie snorted. “Half the fun of watching them’s the anticipation…”
Felix tuned out their banter and grabbed his parka, hurrying to catch up with Ms. Pao as she was leaving. “Do you know what all of that was about?”
The diminutive librarian’s lips pressed together.
“Not entirely. Vampire culture is very different than ours,” she said as they picked their way back through the garden.
“From what I’ve been able to piece together, Thaddaeus has standing in their court, but is something of an exile.
I believe that’s by choice, though I’m not totally certain. ”
She slipped, and Felix caught her, pausing to let her regain her balance. That was one hell of a choice if it’d lasted this long. Havers’s three hundred and fiftieth birthday celebration was coming up this summer, and local lore had the vampire here before the town’s founding.
Felix offered Ms. Pao his arm as they went over the bridge, steadying the frail older woman. They didn’t need anyone else with a broken hip. He chewed his lip, thinking about what she’d just said.
He didn’t know much about vampires, save what they’d been taught in school.
He was pretty sure he remembered that they were ruled by an iron-fisted, dynastic monarchy.
Their tribal lands weren’t considered federal jurisdiction, and their society was caste driven.
The upper echelon was referred to as the court, but wasn’t refined in the least, and rumored to take depravity to a whole new level.
Like, bathing in the blood of virgins, impaling your enemies, and feasting on their corpses was just another Thursday kind of depravity.
Felix had always chalked that up to savvy marketing designed to keep people out of their territory after the Purge, but after seeing the condition Ophelia was in, he wasn’t so sure anymore.
“What I do know,” Ms. Pao said, breaking him from his thoughts as they exited the garden and started past the house, “is that Thaddaeus is very protective of the town. You’re probably too young to remember, but he’s kept more than one of his kind from thinning the herd in Havers.
I can’t imagine he’d do anything to endanger it. ”
Thinning the herd. Felix shivered at the vampiric term that roughly equated to wholesale slaughter.
There’d been an incident a few weeks ago up north, and the footage of the aftermath was chilling.
Vampires didn’t need to eat often, but if they got to the point where their irises went completely white, then you got the vampiric version of a were going feral.
Except instead of running into the woods to eviscerate woodland creatures, vampires sought out cities and towns.
For whatever reason, that had been on the rise of late.
Felix ducked deeper into his parka, chilled at the memory of how pale the vamp’s irises had been in comparison to Mr. Brock’s.
The town archivist’s had been practically black, though who he was filling up on wasn’t a mystery Felix was keen to delve into.
“If Thaddaeus allowed that girl to stay, I’m sure he had a good reason—” Ms. Pao lost her footing again, almost taking Felix down with her. No way were they making it to the bottom of the tor without breaking something.
“Aye, I’m sure he did at that,” Sweets said, the big woman coming up from behind them and taking Ms. Pao’s other arm. “But whether it’s in his own best interest or the town’s is what I’m wanting to know.”
Felix glanced over at her. She sounded like she’d heard something. “Oh?”
“Mmm.” Sweets’s lips pinched flat, and he didn’t think it was because of the terrain.
“You know as well as I that karma is never random. It’s always seeking to level the scales, and that prince Thaddaeus mentioned, Kremlyn.
I’d bet my eye teeth there’s a connection betwixt the two, and that the fates played a hand in us snapping that vamp girl up. ”
“And I’m gonna bet it won’t sit well,” Matilda snipped from somewhere behind them. “Mark my words, but we made enemies tonight, and it’s only a matter of time before they come calling.”
Sweets hummed again like she agreed, and Felix pinched the bridge of his nose with his free hand. Great. Exactly what they needed.