12 | Silver
I’m walking on air when I leave Dante’s place. My entire body buzzes like I’m supercharged.
Now, maybe having my brains screwed by my favorite vamp was moving too fast. I practically threw myself at Dante and begged for us to share each other’s blood. Something I hadn’t ever imagined being into. But fuck, it was easily one of the hottest experiences in my life. And after getting dangerously close to losing Roscoe, after losing Fabian in a different way, and spending months hurting, I’m not willing to hold back any longer.
Dante didn’t seem to mind, either. I actually think he’s a lot shyer than I realized and he’s got some weird hesitation about us being together.
Not anymore, though.
Or... I hope not, anyway. Maybe I should have talked things out with him, but it’s the middle of the day. He should have been sleeping hours ago and even after an earth-shattering orgasm, he was most of the way asleep when I stepped out.
I’ll text him so he doesn’t assume I just took advantage of him and fucked off.
My head is down and I’m one of those assholes texting while walking, which is my first mistake. My second is that I let my post-orgasm euphoria cloud my brain. I forget just how unsafe it is for me to be strutting around Arcanum right now.
Right now, though, it’s not anyone from Nexus attacking me for being a bunch of things they’re afraid of.
It’s not the vamps either, dragging me away to fix whatever new mess they’ve made. Instead, it’s a pair of men in dark uniform. A uniform that’s familiar enough to bring up bile in my throat.
The city judiciary.
The last time I saw them this close up, I was behind bars and they were making sick jokes about a twelve-year-old being scheduled for execution.
The fuckers laughed. Funny how if you narrow someone down enough, you can see them as sub-human, a monster. Then it doesn’t matter that they’re a child or that no one actually got hurt and they didn’t act maliciously.
Monsters need to be put down.
Those were their words.
“Miss, if you could just come with me.”
My blood goes cold. The memory from last time floods back. The cell door clanged shut, and I spun around, ready to crumble. I was so frightened, it all felt like I was trapped in a terrifying nightmare where my mother had handed me over to be put down like a dog. I remember freezing on the spot as soon as I realized I wasn’t the only one in the cell. There was a kid who looked a few years older than me, whose body was too big for the youth of his face, staring silently at me from the corner.
My heart pounds and my hands are sweating, just like they did back then.
Because of Rook, I didn’t fall apart. I forced my tears back inside and faced whatever was to come.
I wasn’t alone.
And I’m not alone now either. Not really.
And thanks to an excellent dicking from Dante, I have my telepathy back, right when I need it.
“Two judiciary guards have stopped me in the street near Dante’s place. They’re taking me somewhere now.” I mentally message Dante, Zeph and Fabian, skipping Roscoe since he needs his rest rather than to worry about me right now.
It’s a good job that I’m still buzzing with energy as there’s no way I’d have the reach to talk to all three of them at once normally.
“Miss?” One of the judiciary guys stops about two feet away from me. They’re not touching me or apprehending me, which is something.
But I can’t teleport or run at super-speed, so I don’t see a clean way of getting out of this. I guess I could mind control the two of them, but the thought of doing that after last night makes me feel physically sick.
“We need you to come with us, Miss.”
I nod. “I’m coming. Where are you taking me?”
“We need to ask you some questions.”
That’s certainly vague enough, but it doesn’t sound like they’re taking me directly to a cell or they wouldn’t bother with the veneer of politeness.
I try to take in their individual appearances, now the uniforms are no longer making my heart pound out of my chest and I’ve calmed myself down from a full-blown panic attack. I don’t recognize either of them. They both look to be in their late twenties or early thirties, too young to have been the same men that laughed at me when I was a frightened child. They look like the kind of guys your attention would skim over if you saw them on the street. One is slightly taller with dirty blonde hair and the other is shorter, stockier and has his hair so short it’s practically shaved to his scalp.
They’re not glaring at me, though. Instead, they just flank me on either side and lead me through the slush-covered streets. To my surprise, they don’t lead me to a car with tinted windows whisking me off to never be seen again. They don’t even direct me toward the judiciary tower, or to Arcanum Heights. Instead, we walk for about ten minutes, with all three of us remaining quiet. Neither of them touches me apart from once where the stockier guy grips my elbow to steer me left when I’m veering right. That causes the taller guy to hiss and the stocky one drops me like my arm is on fire.
Not sure what that’s all about. Maybe they’re afraid that I’m contagious, or that contact might cause me to use my woo-woo necromancy powers on them. I snort to myself.
We eventually stop outside a nondescript office building which is on the edge of the Luminary District. They lead me through an empty entrance and along a narrow corridor that’s lit with fluorescent lighting. It looks like every nightmare I’ve had about being stuck in a mundane office for the rest of my life.
The building is quiet and seems deserted. There are no ambient noises of phones ringing or people chatting or doors closing. Just silence and our thumping footsteps on the grotty carpet that looks like it needed updating a couple of decades ago.
They lead me to a room where a young woman is sitting behind a laptop screen around a large conference table. She barely glances up as we enter and gestures to one of the many chairs dotted around the table.
“Take a seat.”
“We’ll wait outside,” the taller judiciary guy says, earning him a brief nod of acknowledgement.
When I continue to stand there, feeling like an awkward potato whose arms are too big for my body, the woman glances up again and makes a frustrated sound in the back of her throat. I’m pretty sure she’s fighting an eye roll.
“Take a seat. We’ll begin shortly.”
I shuffle to the nearest chair and plop down into it. “Can you tell me what all of this is about?”
“Councillor Clements is just in another meeting. She’ll be joining us shortly,” she says before turning back to her screen, as though her momentary break in focusing on her laptop is too much.
Ice fills my veins. My stomach clenches and I clench stiff fingers into fists.
Councillor Clements. My mother.
This meeting is with my mother, who I haven’t spoken to in over a decade. Not since she organized my detention and sent me off to be executed.
We aren’t exactly close.
My stomach swirls and I think I might actually throw up all over the horrible carpet. I wonder exactly what the woman hiding behind her laptop would say if I did, whether she’d react at all or just sigh and add it to her to-do list. She certainly looks like someone who always has one. And if she works for my mother, she’ll have her work cut out for her. Nothing is ever organized enough. Nothing ever good enough to meet Cecilia Clements’ exacting standards.
I know I never was.
But now’s not the time to boohoo about how much my mommy never loved me. I pull my head out of my ass and glance at the door. Maybe it’s not too late for me to make a run for it. I could distract the two guys with a fireball and just leg it out of here.
Although... part of me is curious about what she has to say to me. It seems a lot of effort to track me down like this and to bring me to this deserted building.
“Anna, are we connected?” My mother’s voice echoes through the laptop speakers and I grip the cushion of the chair I’m sitting in. My heart pounds in my ears and I have to focus on breathing so I don’t pass the fuck out.
“We’re connected, Councillor. I’m turning the screen on now.” Anna, AKA laptop girl, taps a remote and a screen appears on the wall behind her, revealing the stern features of the woman that birthed me.
Cecilia Clements, Archarcan council member and all around ice queen. Her pale eyes scan the room, landing on me for just a moment before she focuses her attention on Anna.
There’s not a hint of emotion on her face. No twitch. No frown. Nothing.
“Silver, is it?” she says, her crisp accent and haughty tone assaulting my ears.
“That’s my name,” I reply glibly, pretending like I’m not sitting here sweating, with my heart beating far too quickly.
“We wanted to meet with you face to face to discuss the events of last night. The council appreciates you clearing the time in your schedule.”
I fight a snort. I’m fairly sure that’s one of her scripted meeting introductions which she hasn’t bothered to modify in years.
“That’s quite all right,” I reply, as though I wasn’t essentially dragged off the street against my will. Also like I have a ‘schedule’ for her to interrupt.
“Your current address is in The Spire, Nexus District, correct?” Anna asks. “Just for our records.”
I try not to let my surprise show. How the hell do they know that? I only moved back last night.
Turns out I don’t need to respond as my mother clears her throat and Anna immediately apologizes, like she’s been trained that way.
“The discussion relates to the events on the evening of December 21st, Ms... Silver, can you tell us in your own words what transpired in the reception hall of City Hall?”
Deflect. Deflect. Deflect. No way am I admitting I used illegal magic.
“Uh, I’m in a meeting room at some crappy office building right near the Luminary District, with... my mother on the screen,” I tell my guys. “Anyone got any suggestions of how I can get out of this without getting arrested?”
I open up my mental walls and send out a wave of my telepathy magic so that I can hear their responses.
“Can’t you just knock them out, Little Witch? Or maybe make her bleed from her eyes. That should be distracting enough, right?” Zeph growls in my ear. “And what the hell are you doing wandering around the city by yourself? We’re going to be having serious words when you get home.”
Huh, that’s an unsettling suggestion. I could make her bleed if I thought my magic could stretch that far.
“Hang tight, Silver. I’m making some calls to try and work out exactly where you are and we’ll get you out of there,” Fabian adds.
“I’ll head down now, angel. I’m coming right now and I’ll find you. They won’t be able to take you if they decide to detain you,” Dante says.
“Why the fuck is the vamp in my head? Is this like a fucked up mental conference call?” Zeph grumbles and I have to reapply my walls quickly. I can’t afford to be distracted right now.
“Is this something you’re doing with everyone that was in the room last night?” I ask. When in doubt and you don’t want to respond, ask another question. That’s my current strategy until I work out something better.
“The situation on the solstice was unprecedented. We’re simply trying to gain an understanding of what transpired,” Councillor Clements says.
I fail to stifle my snort this time. Like they don’t know exactly what happened. Anger is a lit fuse that travels through my veins, lighting me up from the inside.
“You realize you were warned about it, right?” I ask, the words coming out unbidden. “A member of your council was told that a group of vampires had killed and drained over fifty people in order to gain a buttload of power and were planning something to try to destabilize the city’s leadership. No one listened and then last night was the result.”
Roscoe could have died. It was only because Rook, Z, and Fabian got to him in time that he didn’t. And he’s one of the lucky ones. There are going to be people walking around today without a mother, with a hole in their life where their brother or their child once lived, all because the Archarcans are megalomaniacs and the Bad Vamps have had enough and don’t give a shit about collateral damage as they fight their way to the top.
What stings is that things don’t need to be this way at all. If the Archarcans just gave an inch and let anyone else have a say over how things are run in this city, it might not have got to this point.
I’m aware as I’m saying the words that this might not be the best way to go. I’m actively antagonizing the woman that threw me into a cell for the crime of missing my nanna and accidentally using magic that I didn’t understand. I should probably be all meek and helpful and try to fade into the ugly wallpaper and then maybe they’ll let me out of here.
Chances are, though, I could say anything, and the end result will still be the same. To the Archarcans, I demonstrated dangerous levels of power last night and that’ll mean only one thing: I’m too dangerous for them to let me live freely. Plus, I’m so fucking angry. The rage that’s been simmering inside me for years now finally has an outlet, and I can’t waste this opportunity to let them hear the truth. I doubt they’ll listen, but that’s not something I can control.
“They’re currently holed up in a mansion that”s about three doors down from your house, Councillor Clements. Did you know that?”
Fuck. I can’t seem to stop running my mouth off. Anna is staring at me like I’m an idiot and my mothe—Councillor Clements has her lips pursed and is frowning at me through the screen.
“Look into that for me, will you, Anna?”
Anna clears her throat softly. “The, uh, the bodies or... the vampires in residence at—”
“The vampires,” Councillor Clements snaps, causing Anna to nod stiffly and begin tapping away at her laptop again. Although from the look she darts me over the screen, at least one person in this room isn’t unmoved about the pile of corpses that led to the Bad Vamps gaining power.
“They didn’t get what they wanted,” I tell her, ignoring my mother’s furious glare from behind the screen. “What do you think they’ll do next? Slink back to the shadows and lick their wounds, or try something else?”
Anna blinks and I can see she’s heard me. She at least understands the fucking mess we’re all in.
Too bad she’s not the one I need to convince.
“The magic you displayed—”
My mother doesn’t get an opportunity to damn me by finishing her question. Too distracted by a sudden surge in electricity that causes the screen she’s hiding behind to flicker and then go dead.
Then all the lights go out.