Chapter 17
CHAPTER 17
The other vampires led the way across the hall and three doors down. Takashi fell into step at the back of the group. Anton separated from the pack and carried on farther into the mansion while Xenofon, who had taken the front, opened the door. The smell of mortals drew Takashi’s attention, but he pushed his hunger back into its place. These were the other powerful elites of the GLC, and he had spent weeks attempting to know them. Without Seamus or Anton or even Roger, this was his chance to make an impression on them. He followed them into the room.
The space was barren of features except for eight wooden posts. Each side had a metal hoop attached to it. The same kind of heavy metal hoops were attached to the walls at regular intervals. Sixteen mortals—all human, Takashi realized from the smell—were gagged and tied to these hoops. Each was a fair distance from the next. All were naked. Some were weeping, while others seemed too checked out to realize what was happening to them.
Takashi had been in rooms like this before. Ancient vampires rarely had any caring for a mortal’s sanity, let alone their well-being, unless they belonged to their collection. Selections like this were like grapes on a vine, a ripe grouping meant for the plucking and pleasure of a fresh bite.
Before Takashi had taken his third step into the room, Marcus whirled on him. He squared his shoulders, using his few inches of height superiority to puff up and loom over him. While he was nearly two hundred years old, Marcus barely had a scent of the grave. He flared his eyes red, but it was a pale, muddy color. His anger was an obvious and superficial thing. He put his hands on his hips and demanded, “What did Roger do?”
“Pardon me?” Takashi said.
Jong-Su, one of the other lieutenants, stepped up beside Marcus and narrowed his eyes. “One minute, Roger seems like he’s ready to suck Seamus off for the umpteenth time, and the next, Seamus is casting him out.”
“Oh, good lord,” Aileen, another lieutenant, said with a roll of her eyes as she strode to the far side of the room. “Roger declared that human boy his boyfriend at the gala. He’s clearly gone soft. Seamus can’t stand a weak captain, and none of us should tolerate one.”
“I’d buy that if the same human wasn’t now Seamus’s ‘son,’” Xenofon said. He stood beside a boy who might have been eighteen. As he spoke, he was casually using his power on the boy, toying with the boy’s fears and desires in a way that made his body react. The behavior was vulgar and cruel.
And one I’ve seen too often . Interrupting another vampire with their food was a faux pas. Takashi dropped another mental wall into place. Who was to say the boy was an innocent? Takashi had fed on many “good people” who had used their privilege and wealth to intentionally harm others. The boy could have easily been one of them. Takashi didn’t owe some random boy his own life, and wasn’t about to jump up and down on a wire he was struggling to balance on.
“So,” Xenofon was saying, “what did our illustrious Roger do?”
“He was plotting to take the throne,” Dempsey said simply.
Decades of living as a diplomat among dangerous creatures kept Takashi from a knee-jerk reaction. Dempsey had been among the group Roger had trusted. He was one of Candide’s oldest sirelings, one she trusted and treasured.
“A real laugh that he thought it’d work,” Lucille added. She, too, was of Candide. Every ounce of her teenage good looks was morphed by the sadistic glee in her grin into a reflection of the worst Takashi had seen from their species. She gestured at Marcus. “He hates those gray bands of yours, Marcus.”
“They serve a practical function!” Marcus announced defensively.
Lucille shrugged.
As subtly as he could, Takashi kept Candide in the corner of his eye. She had been at the same meeting where Roger had brought Lucille and Dempsey into his confidence. Dmitri and Takashi had been there as well, though Dmitri had left upon hearing Roger’s intentions for their gathering. Dempsey had been advocating for a coven support system for artists like himself, especially for ones that could be turned and join the fold. Lucille had seemed relieved that anyone was willing to overthrow Seamus.
And they were both Candide’s sirelings.
Roger had been confident that Candide was on his side. Was she a traitor?
In public, Candide tended toward smiles and exuded a charismatic warmth. She had a charm that was impossible to deny, but Roger had told Takashi that that was a false face. She used her guiles to lure people into believing her good moods were for them. She’s warm, then cold, then genuine , Roger had said about her. Recently, Seamus had nearly broken through her outermost fa?ade when he’d threatened Ezra.
At the moment, her gentle smile had a strain to it, one nearly imperceptible to anyone who wasn’t looking for such a thing. She tsked at her sirelings as she circled the room to find a victim. She settled on one near the back of the room. Takashi had a clear line of sight to her, but few others would, especially since they were focused on him. “Now, now, mes petits, it’s rude to insult those who aren’t in a position to defend themselves.”
“Give it up , Candide,” Xenofon complained. He said toward Takashi more than the others, “You’d think after almost three hundred years, she’d figure out she has the wrong equipment to please him.”
“And you’d think after two hundred, you’d learn how to enjoy a meal without torturing it first. I suppose that’s why Seamus likes having me around. He’s lacking in sophisticated subordinates,” Takashi replied with a light tone.
The gamble had been a big risk, but the die was cast. Takashi couldn’t take back the quip that had come out of his lips.
Xenofon abandoned the boy in front of him and moved with a liquid speed at Takashi. Though he was quick, Takashi saw him in motion. A few nights without good blood weren’t enough to dismantle Takashi’s powers. He could move out of the way with only a little effort.
Instead, he let Xenofon grab him by the throat and shove him up against the wall. Xenofon’s incredibly emotional response was something that the young were supposed to indulge in, not someone this old. These fuckers love to think they’re so powerful and they’re so easy to play . Xenofon was snarling in his face. The intimidation attempt would have worked—if Takashi had been two nights old and not an experienced vampire who’d had multiple private conversations with Anton that week.
Inspiration struck. Unpredictability had its uses. Takashi leaned back against the wall and laughed in Xenofon’s face. He watched for the reactions across the room. Marcus’s shock was as clear as the trumpet of an elephant. Jong-Su and the final vampire in the room, Kazik, narrowed their eyes at him while doing their best to school their features into expressionless masks. Lucille raised an eyebrow; Aileen and Dempsey continued to slurp blood from their victims.
Candide shot Takashi the glimmer of a brief smile, but it brightened her eyes. Then she bit her prey and ignored him.
Having gathered the information, Takashi slapped his hand over Xenofon’s wrist and held on tight. Then he pumped every inch of fear that had driven him across the tightrope of life for the last few nights into Xenofon. Xenofon’s grip began to slip, so Takashi took greater hold and twisted his arm hard enough that bones snapped.
Xenofon screamed and went to his knees.
The sound was pleasing. A hypnotic rush was swung through Takashi. The centrifugal force was drawing violent desires outward.
Cruelty was part of being a vampire. Takashi tempered his for moments like this, ones where he could punish the fucking worst—their kind, humanity, the fey, it didn’t matter. Justification added a narcotic carte blanche to his actions and absolved him of his guilt.
The right application of pressure and strength would rend Xenofon’s arm from his body, and he wouldn’t fondle any more boys with that hand. At least, he wouldn’t if Takashi managed to destroy the limb before Xenofon could stick it back to himself and heal it.
But that might be the step too far. Seamus would likely blame Xenofon for being weak enough to fall into this position, but how would Takashi ever explain this to Zack? Would he approve? After all, Zack had no problem killing vampires. He’d done so twice without any remorse. Was maiming worse than murder to him? He’s one of us now. His mind might have changed .
Only so far, Zack seemed roughly the same, apart from his newfound abilities and traumas.
Roger, on the other hand, might struggle with the morality of it. In all their conversations about what the coven would look like, he had shied away from any discussion of punishment. Taking someone’s arm probably appeared on his list of don’ts.
Without knowing, Takashi decided to uphold his reputation as a stately professional in complete control and released Xenofon. He kicked him over in order to put Xenofon onto his back and make any move of retaliation more obvious. However, the psychic and violent display seemed to have worked. Xenofon cradled his arm and made muted noises of pain, but he didn’t seem in the mood to strike.
Takashi bent down. He let the ice in his soul crisp his voice. “Put an unwelcome hand on me again and lose it.”
“I am twice your age,” Xenofon snarled as he stood. “You will show me the respect I deserve.”
Takashi rose as Xenofon did. He kept half his attention on his peripheral vision. He stood alone in a room of predators. But he was one of them, and he would show his fangs rather than cower. Nell had had a muzzle and harness on him; Roger had had his leash of hesitance. Now he and Zack were in the midst of dangerous glory-seekers, and his strength would help shield his lover. I’ve been looking for an excuse to let go .
“I do not respect that which is not worth a drop of spoiled blood,” he said calmly.
Xenofon snarled and stretched his hands out like claws, his nails filed to dagger points. He started to rear back for a strike.
Takashi shifted his weight, one shoulder slightly forward, his other foot back. Narrowing his body would limit Xenofon’s easiest target zones. If he goes for strength, then a little maneuvering should work. I could counter a strike, use his momentum to flip him …
“He has a valid point,” Anton said. The elder vampire was suddenly leaning against the doorframe as if he’d been watching the whole interaction from there. He pushed off with the same sort of bored attitude he’d spoken with and strolled into the room. “I begged my love to round you up and allow me to turn you to ashes. I mean, honestly, Xenofon. You might be twice Takashi’s age, but you’ve never been half as talented.
“But do you know what we need from you in this new millennia? What we have not seen?” Anton demanded. He finished half a circle and strode into the center of the room. He made eye contact with each of the vampires in the room except for Takashi. Every single subordinate lowered their gaze. Candide took the longest, but even she bent her head. “ Loyalty . For the rare one among you, it is misplaced, but at least you have it. The rest of you prefer to spend your time guzzling blood, playing with your toys, and shoving each other out of the spotlight in petty displays of what you perceive as strength.
“We have no use for pathetic subordinates. My love will take our coven into a new era, and if you are not ready to devote yourselves to him, then I have a room in the basement for you. At least until I have the fires ready.” On the last word, Anton finally swept his attention to Takashi.
His point was clear. A misstep would lead Takashi to that fate. Likely sooner than it would any of the others . Keeping his gaze locked on Anton, Takashi slid his focus to the edges of his vision. Any mirth in the room had evaporated, and the resulting chill was a familiar one. The others had fallen into an icy stillness common to the long dead.
Anton grabbed the boy that Xenofon had tormented by the back of his head and yanked him forward. Doing so strained the boy against his bonds, and he let out a cry of pain. Over that, Anton said, “Now, I suggest you all stop fucking around and eat.”
Anton sank his fangs into the boy. The smell of fresh, vibrant blood awoke the hunger churning in Takashi. As others began to feed from their victims, that scent compounded and became a hypnotic call. The mortals’ pounding heartbeats were a race, with some already finishing their last run.
Takashi went to the mortal closest to him. Details blurred into the realm of inconsequential information. This was food, nothing more. He threaded his hand through their hair and forced their head to the side, revealing more of their neck. They were whimpering, but that was a flavor that Takashi hadn’t indulged in a few weeks.
He bit his prey, and blood quickly pooled in his mouth. Each swallow was calming the fire twisting through him, and he eagerly drank down every drop. All too soon, the mortal’s heart tripped, skipped, and began to fail.
He could rationalize his action—after all, in circumstances like this, killing the mortal was to be expected. Leaving this one alive in a room where others were dying was liable to break the mortal’s sanity. The excuse was an easy one to make.
But the sweetest blood from a victim came from the moment before death, and Takashi hadn’t indulged in that taste in months. He drank down his prey’s last moments, and something inside him finally relaxed .
His joy lasted the breadth of a singular fractional eternity; while he was in it, it stretched on forever, yet the glory quickly dissipated, and he was left with the reality of a corpse in his arms. Tenderly, he released the body, and it went slack against the bonds still holding it in place.
Anton placed a hand on his shoulder, squeezed, and whispered into his ear, “Come with me.”
The others were still finishing their victims. Xenofon was going for a second as Anton steered Takashi out of the room. Not all of the mortals were on death’s door yet. Jong-Su had left his very much alive, but Takashi was certain that even if the mortals survived this particular night, they wouldn’t leave the mansion.
As he stepped into the hall with Anton, he spied four black-clad security guards at the far end. They would dispose of the bodies, likely taking them to whatever pack of ghouls the GLC worked with. Mortals were just part of the ecosystem. Vampires devoured their blood, and ghouls feasted on their corpses.
Anton paused outside the conference room with Takashi. When he turned toward him, the demeanor of the professional leader was gone, and an inquisitive spark in his ruby eyes gave his smile an impish gleam. He pushed Takashi up against the wall, crowding up against him. “You were marvelous in there. Do you have any idea how hot you are when you’re threatening someone?”
“I’ve an idea.” Takashi attempted to slide down the wall, away from Anton.
“I would love to see more.” Anton put his hand on the wall to block him. As his smile grew, he showed off a hint of his fangs. “Perhaps we should skip the rest of the meeting.” He skimmed his finger along Takashi’s waistband before gripping a handful of his shirt and tugging upward. “I have a wonderful boy I’ve been looking to share with someone fun .”
This was just another of Anton’s masks, though. Another role he was stepping into. He was like Roger, shifting from persona to persona. First, the demanding leader. Now, the horny vampire. Unlike Roger, every word and sexual twist from Anton had a hollow reverberation, like the slam of a metal tube against the ground. A note rang, but it didn’t evoke anything in Takashi’s heart or loins.
Except a small, cautious question poised itself at the edge of Takashi’s mind. He wasn’t ready to dive into it yet, wasn’t sure what to do if the answer he suspected was true, yet it only continued to twist as it waited for its chance to drag him under. Is Anton lonely ?
“We are expected,” Takashi said firmly.
“The meeting can carry on without us. It’s petty assholes with insignificant problems,” Anton purred.
Takashi grabbed Anton’s wrist before Anton tried to put his hand down his pants. At any second, others could be joining them in the hall. There were security personnel just down the way. The thought of getting caught in a public act didn’t bother Takashi, but who he was with did. While Kazik and Xenofon would likely make crass remarks if they spotted Anton and Takashi like this, no one in the leadership would likely care. Upper elites in covens screwed all the time. Hell, I might earn more points as a scary asshole if they did see me making out with him. They’d think I had his ear, at least for now .
What Zack and Roger thought did matter. Though they hadn’t minded Takashi’s occasional physical moments with Carver, Anton certainly was not in the remote possibilities of acceptable hookups. Not that Takashi was interested in him either.
And yet, the real reason Takashi continued to hold on to Anton’s wrist and held off from acting on any urges was the shadow of loneliness he glimpsed deep in Anton’s eyes. He caught a faint echo of an off-tune note, a hint at the broken spirit. Anton had laid layer upon layer over his mental wounds. He had grown around them.
He was the deadlier for it. The more untouchable immortal.
What would Roger have been like without Zack? Without me? Another hundred years, two hundred—could he have morphed into something like this ?
“You won’t win my loyalty with a quick fuck and a nice drink,” Takashi said softly.
Anton pulled his hand away. His grin turned sly, another behavior slipping into place. He held his shoulders a fraction straighter, shifted his weight so he wasn’t pressing up against Takashi so closely. “That’s all Roger seemed to need. Zack, too.”
Takashi pushed away from the wall and forced Anton to take a step back. “Blindly applying pain takes no skill, Anton. If you want to hurt something, go animate a doll. I doubt anything living will give you the satisfaction you crave.”
As Takashi began to move away, Anton roughly grabbed him by the arm. His shell cracked. A boiling anger brewed in his voice. “I could get it out of you.”
However, with that contact, Takashi could steep in Anton’s desires and fears. He slithered through the less obvious gaps in his mental defenses, reaching past the barrage of surface wants and terrors that Anton kept in place to guard against such intrusion.
Anton wanted someone to depend on him. He was desperately scared of losing the love he had. Reading emotions couldn’t give refined thoughts, but Takashi could make an educated guess. Zack was taking what little spare time Seamus had, and he would continue to do so for weeks—possibly years. Raising a sireling was not a one-night endeavor.
“Try all you like,” Takashi said in a low, serious voice, “but I will not be your plaything as you wait for your lover to pay attention to you. Find. Someone. Else.”
Anton narrowed his eyes. “Perhaps Zack will be more amenable.”
A laugh threatened to bubble out of Takashi, but he managed to close his lips in time. The sheer idea of it was so ludicrous, and yet Anton had said it with complete sincerity. Had the arrogance of centuries made Anton believe he was capable of doing anything? Given enough time, perhaps he could—assuming his target wasn’t one of the most stubborn beings in all of existence.
“Zack would never bend,” Takashi replied.
“Then perhaps he will break,” Anton said.
“Your dear true love would be angry with you.” The others were filtering into the hall, so Takashi leaned in to whisper, “Besides, if broken toys made you happy, you’d already be drowning in ecstasy.”
The words must have struck home because Anton released Takashi’s arm, and rather than going back into the conference room, he strode down the hall. Takashi watched him leave far longer than he needed to, allowing the others to return before him.
Candide paused beside him. “I see you are no plucked flower, wilting without its sustenance. Rather, you are the caged lion. Careful how you prowl your confinement, mon cher.”
“If spectators poke, I will claw them,” Takashi said and gave a slight nod toward the direction Xenofon had gone.
“As you should. But be mindful of the keepers.”
“Are you worried about me?” Takashi asked, putting on an air of lightness.
Candide checked the hall for any obvious eavesdroppers and tightened her lips upon spotting the security detail far away. Then she let her shoulders drop and smiled brightly with a small laugh. Her socialite graces came into play as she threaded her arm into Takashi’s. “I clearly don’t need to be. It’s not as if you’re a fox whimpering at the door of my den. I need not shelter you.”
Fox . Kit was a werefox. Was she trying to give him a message? Takashi allowed her to link arms with him and kept his best smile in place. “Hopefully, you wouldn’t turn me away if I was.”
“I might arrange a bed if the circumstance demanded,” Candide replied. “One should always be allowed to lick one’s wounds in peace.”
Kit is with her, and they’re safe . Takashi put his hand over Candide’s on his arm and squeezed. Saying anything else on the subject might become too clear a giveaway.
She apparently thought so, too, because she switched topics. “You know, I saw you perform once in that charming circus. ‘The Gravity-Defying Acts of the Astonishing Sato!’ The way you spun and flipped through the air—I hadn’t seen anything mortal like it. I haven’t since.” She tightened her grip on his arm. “It is amazing how one can twist when one has the need.”
Is she wondering if I’d betray Roger? Or is she warning me not to trust her ? “Agreed. But I think you’ve forgotten something about that act. I may have done a few tricks on my own, but I performed with partners. My most complicated tricks couldn’t be done alone.”
“Oh, isn’t that just the way of it?” Candide said warmly, a bubbling laugh in her voice but not in her eyes.
Though they had taken their time, they inevitably had to reenter the conference room. The scent of fresh death warned Takashi of the body before they turned the corner, and the soft murmur of conversation should have told him that something was happening. Yet he was too caught in his own back-and-forth to analyze these things before. So he walked into the room one mental step behind and watched Candide’s smile tighten. When he glanced over, he was equally rocked.
Seamus had his hand on Zack’s shoulder, and the two of them stood amidst the group of lieutenants and captains. He had a proud, fatherly smile on his lips as he continued introducing Zack to the others.
Matching Seamus’s tone, Zack was also smiling. His red eyes sparkled with the brightness common to one who had just fed, and he shook Dempsey’s hand with a smooth, easy gesture. A smidge of hesitation creased his grin a bit too wide and made him dip his head when he might have held his chin up. Takashi had been watching him for months; Zack had a habit of looking away when he wanted out of a conversation.
So, he knew the angle Zack would eventually pick to look up. Takashi released Candide as she drifted toward the group while he subtly rounded the circle so that he might catch Zack’s gaze. A second later, he did. Zack relaxed just a fraction, and his grin had a hint of fang and warmth. Then he turned that charm on Kazik, who was next in the introduction cycle.
Takashi slid his hands into his pants pockets and continued to keep at the edge of the room. The small lag in Zack’s confidence seemed gone. He was spreading his wings, and though rough winds were bound to lay ahead, he was riding the currents for now.
He doesn’t want it , Roger had said one night in bed, when Zack was fast asleep. Roger had been in the middle that night, and Takashi had cuddled up against him. Zack had been snoring on the far side. He doesn’t have any interest in being a vampire .
Bullshit , Takashi had thought then.
This moment was vindication. Zack wasn’t wallowing in guilt or grief. Likely those emotions were held at bay, but Zack was maintaining his balance. He was already stronger and faster than Takashi. That wouldn’t have been possible unless Zack had willfully taken every drop of power that he could. Someone who, at their core, didn’t want to be a vampire simply couldn’t take that strength. Zack wanted to be immortal, and Takashi had a feeling that was the part he had glimpsed while reading his journal, drinking his blood, and in those rare moments in bed when Zack truly let himself go. He was never going to be satisfied on the sidelines.
Seamus saw this possibility in him, even from a distance . Takashi stalked closer to the edge of the circle for a place among his peers. The pendulum of his rage swung, threatening to crash into his fine mental balance and ruin his control. The choice to turn should have been Zack’s. Not as some farce in a bid to keep living but with his true consent. But would he have been as strong if Roger or I had turned him ?
The what-ifs and anger over past choices didn’t matter. Letting himself get riled up over events he couldn’t change served no one, least of all himself or Zack.
Takashi slipped in between Jong-Su and Lucille and joined Zack on his other side. He wrapped an arm around Zack’s waist and gently kissed his cheek.
Zack leaned into Takashi. The brush of his growing grin made Takashi smile. As they were standing so close, Takashi swept his psychic awareness across Zack’s mind, not prodding but scanning. Zack had a flimsy mental wall built from a desire to make someone else happy, but it was enough that he’d know if someone crashed through it.
Seamus slid his hand from Zack’s shoulder to Takashi’s arm, which drew Takashi’s attention. Subtly as he could, Takashi shifted his stance so that he could peer just past Zack to the ancient vampire. A sharp glint filled Seamus’s mottled red and blue eyes, and he flashed a hint of fang before looking at Zack out of the corner of his eyes. Then he met Takashi’s gaze again.
I never hid that I care for him. But now he knows. Instinctively, Takashi tightened his hold around Zack before he could stop himself. The gesture was minute, but in this crowd, every whisper was a klaxon. They’ll try to find a way to use our connection against each other. To use Roger against us and us against him .
Zack squeezed Takashi once and then drew in a dramatic breath and sighed. “As fascinating as meeting all of you has been, I’m fairly certain there is still coven business to conduct.”
“Too true. Enough fooling around,” Seamus said. He grabbed an empty legal pad and a pen from the table and handed them out toward Takashi. “Takashi, Anton seems to have grown bored with us. Do grab a seat at the end and take the minutes.”
“My pleasure, master,” Takashi said with a slight head bow. He began to make his way toward one of the two empty seats at the end of the table.
Zack started to follow, but Seamus quickly put his hand back on his shoulder and steered him toward Anton’s vacated seat.
Once upon a time, Nell had kept Takashi that close at hand, involving him in confidential affairs of the coven when he was fresh from the grave. She’d had a far kinder hand, but she had given him rank and status far faster than other subordinates. You don’t adopt a right hand, Takashi. You groom one .
But why Zack ? Takashi scrawled the date across the top of the paper in three languages, fully writing it rather than relying on numbers just because the meeting had yet to restart. What was the deeper game? Upsetting the hunters? Putting Anton on alert that he could be replaced in some fashion? Giving Anton more space to work by taking a few responsibilities off his shoulders? Hell, putting the rest of the coven on alert that a new boogeyman was at Seamus’s side? After all, Zack had killed a vampire in public not long ago and had challenged Seamus at a ball before everyone.
The screens flicked on, and the other lieutenants rejoined the meeting by their digital means. Takashi slipped into a mindset that would allow him to take adequate notes while still holding back the details he truly gathered for himself. Power lay in information, and he and Zack needed every scrap they could muster.