Trust Me When the Sun Goes Down (7 page)

There was no mistaking the skepticism in his voice.  “What would you say to them?  There ain’t no law about killing humans.”

“Well, maybe there should be.”

“I dunno, boss.  There’s very few laws accepted in vampire society and for the most part, we like it that way.  You start making extra hoops for people to jump through and they’re just gonna move to another place.” 

“That doesn’t sound like such a bad thing to me if all the most violent people move away.  Shiny, I’ll help them pack.”  Let Jennike deal with them all.

Felix let out a long breath.  “What does Jakob think of all of this?  I gotta think he’d be against setting any laws like that.  But hey, if he’s behind you on this, then that’s a horse of another color.  All he has to do is proclaim it publically and you got yourself a new law.”

“Oh right, about Jakob…” 

I realized I hadn’t told Felix about Jakob’s agreement to leave me and the West alone when I’d updated him on Lodinn’s demise.  “Ah, the thing is, we both agreed it’s in both our best interests if he moved on.”

“Moved on how?” 

“As in he’s not here any more, I think he’s in New York now.”

“When’s he coming back?”

“Never, hopefully.  I’m sure we’ll all hear from him when he’s ready to settle down and you can plan a pilgrimage to go see him if you miss his company.  But as you can see, we don’t need his blessing to make this thing a new law.”

The line went quiet for a few seconds, and when Felix spoke again, he sounded shell shocked.  “I gotta say, I’m sorry to hear that, boss.  I was looking forward to his ideas on how to make the West great again, and I know the council was too.”

I hadn’t anticipated that, but I could see I should’ve, given their positive reaction to Jakob’s speech at my inauguration.  “Trust me, any ideas Jakob had about our territory are more about his glory than ours.  He was more likely to take us back to the stone age, not into the future.”

“Yeah, but most of us were looking forward to working with a real live
Ellri
,” he added, a touch of wistfulness creeping into his voice.

“There is no working
with
an
Ellri
, there’s only working
for
one.  He would’ve made us all slaves in our own lands, mark my words.  The only welfare Jakob is interested in is his own.”

“Still, the council ain’t gonna like hearing he’s gone, out of the blue like this.”

His objections started to grate on my nerves, as well as his cavalier attitude toward the violence against humans on our streets.  The council respected strength, well, I’d give it to them.  “Tough.  This is my territory, and I have my own ideas on what’s great.  We don’t need Jakob.”

“If you say so, boss.”  His tone was instantly contrite.

“I do,” I snapped irritably, counting to ten in Chinese inside my head before I spoke again.  I was tired of trying to rely on Jakob to solve our problems.  He’d been disappointingly useless up against Lodinn.  If not for my plan of attack I’d be sitting at Lodinn’s feet, shackled to my sister, and Jakob would be long dead.  “I’m sorry, I just don’t like all this needless death cropping up so often.” 

“That’s the way the cookie crumbles,” Felix replied and I could practically hear the shrug in his voice.  “We ain’t the PTA, we’re vampires.  It’s in our nature to kill.”

“I’m sick and tired of hearing that.  We’re not animals, we can control who and where we feed from and whether or not to kill.  And if people won’t control themselves because it’s the right thing to do, then they damn well better do it so the Order doesn’t come after them.”

“People ain’t exactly shaking in their boots from the Order nowadays.  Breaking the law don’t mean an instant death sentence no more, vamps are growing bolder.”

“Yes, but exposing ourselves to the humans is a bad idea all around.  That is one of the laws that the Order won’t pussyfoot around.  How many mistakes involving
neck trauma
have to be made before the humans start asking different questions?  We have to do something about it before the Order has to take more direct steps.  If this attracts Rome’s attention, Bishop will have no choice but to send more troops to deal with it.  I trust our local guys, but I’d rather not have gung-ho soldiers roaming our streets if I can help it, whether they’re shooting to kill or not.”         

“I’m just sayin’, since you took away their ability to kill on first sight, a lot of people ain’t sweating the Order’s involvement no more.”

Ugh
, was there no way out of this mess?  It felt like I kept digging myself deeper and deeper.  Every time I tried to fix one problem, another one cropped up in its place.  Sure, vamps weren’t being killed left and right by the Order anymore, but at what cost?  How many humans would pay the price because of
my
policy?  “There has to be balance in here somewhere so that we can all live together,” I muttered, rubbing my temples at the tension headache that gathered there. 

“In peace and harmony?” Felix snorted.  “That’s sweet and all, but it ain’t too realistic, boss.  I thought you knew that.  If Jakob was around…”

“Well, he’s not,” I snapped, tired of hearing his name bandied about.  What good had banishing Jakob done if we couldn’t stop talking about him?  “Look, I’ll take care of this situation, you focus on finding us a new magistrate.  I haven’t received your candidates yet.”

“I’m sorry, Your Grace,” he said contritely.  “I’ll have them ready for you within the hour.”

I felt bad about jumping down his throat, but didn’t apologize.  There were some things we obviously didn’t see eye to eye on, but I was the one in power, and he needed to remember that.  “Why were you calling in the first place, Felix?”

“Oh, right.  That hunter buddy of yours is on the move again.  Last I heard he’s been killing vamps up in Reno.  I thought maybe you could…”

Was he talking about Carter?  He was the least of my problems.  “I can’t even begin to worry about that right now.  Actually – no, on second thought, let’s talk about Carter,” I decided, changing tacks to a course Felix might be on board with.  If he wouldn’t get behind me on legislation against violence to protect humans, maybe he’d do it out of self preservation?  “How long do you think it’s going to be before he shows up here in town when we can’t keep our kills out of the paper?”

Unexpectedly, Felix’s voice took on a light of excitement.  “Maybe we can use these killings to our benefit after all?  If we can lure Carter here, then maybe we can stop him from hunting in our territory once and for all.”

“Please tell me you’re not sanctioning these deaths as a means to trap Carter.”

“No, not at all.  I’m just saying, we should take advantage of the opportunity it presents us with.  If we can plan where he’s gonna pop up next, it’ll make it easier to catch him.”

I worried about the danger to Carter for exactly half a second until I realized he was more than capable of protecting himself.  “I wouldn’t be too sure of that, he’s been one step ahead from the beginning.  And do I need to remind you again that he hasn’t broken any vampire laws?”  It wasn’t forbidden for a vampire to kill another vampire, as long as he kept it hidden from public view.  Carter had made a career out of killing vampires who treated humans badly, the only reason Felix cared at all was because some of those vamps were powerfully connected in society.  If Carter had been killing off vamps in back alleys, he wouldn’t have cared less. 

These days I felt more and more like I was on Carter’s side instead of my own government’s.  Except for the killing and all, I didn’t want anyone to die, but I had to admit, his methods were effective.  Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea to try and contact him after all?  Trouble was, I had absolutely no idea how.  I put that idea aside for later. 

“Listen, about the new magistrate candidate,” I asked.  “Do we actually have any candidates or were you blowing smoke up my skirt before?”

“I got a few people in mind. I’ll send you over some files, like I said.”

“Thank you.”  I paused, still uncomfortable with our earlier blow up, but wanting to end on a personal note.  “I’d better get going.  Give my love to Bridget.”

“Will do.  Sorry about what I said before, boss.  I think you’re doing a bang up job, seriously, top notch.”

For the first time I wondered if any of that was true, or if he was trying to
handle
me.  “Thanks, Felix.  I’ll talk to you later.” 

I left a message for Detective Mathis to give me a call.  Mostly I wanted to pick his brains about the killings to see if there was anything for me to worry about or if I was getting worked up over nothing but a lot of media hype.  I supposed I could’ve contacted Mason or Frost about it since they had access to police records again, but I figured it was better not to tip the Order’s attention to the possibility that Carter might come calling, despite Felix’s wishes. 

When I emerged from my office a while later to make myself a cup of cocoa, I was surprised not to find Rob back yet.  The night was more than half gone and I hadn’t heard a peep from him. 

“Maggie, do you know where Rob is?” I asked on my way to the kitchen. 

“No, sorry, I haven’t seen him.  Gunnar came back about a half hour past, I could ask him if you like.”

“No, that’s okay.” I waved her off.  I didn’t want to make a federal case out of it.  He certainly had the right to go anywhere and do whatever he wanted, and I had pointed out that I wasn’t leaving home that night.  Still, it felt odd not having him around.  More than anything, I wanted to talk to him about everything going on and see if he thought I was making mountains out of molehills. 

I loitered in the kitchen to drink my cocoa, avoiding my office, when Lee came strolling in.  He took one look at me and straddled a chair beside me. 

“Got somethin’ stuck in yer craw?”

Smiling over that colorful turn of phrase, I struggled for a moment how to articulate what had me down.  I felt like Buffy at the end of the musical episode asking – where do we go from here?  “I guess I just didn’t think it would be this hard.  We beat the bad guy, and I sent the other scary
Ellri
away, but we’re still surrounded by so much death and violence.  Now it’s looking like the work I did to reform the Order’s charter might possibly be to blame for some of it.  I’m not sure what to do next.  There has to be a better way to fix this.”

Lee reached out to pat my hand in a comforting manner.  “You find it, you be sure and let me know.  But don’t go beatin’ yourself up about it none.  Leaders been trying to get folks to get along now for longer’n you or I been around.  I expect it ain’t in our nature to get along too smooth.”

“I can’t accept that.”

“Sure you can.  The first step is realizin’ you can’t control anybody but yourself.”

That wasn’t strictly true. I could compel a large swath of the population thanks to my
Ellri
Sire, but imposing my will on others wouldn’t make me much better than any other petty tyrant in history.  Maybe I did have to cut myself some slack and not assume responsibility for the empire vampire nation?  “Fine, but I don’t have to like it,” I grumbled.

“No, you don’t,” he chuckled.  “Come on,
mija
, let’s get you somethin’ to eat.  Things’ll look brighter with a full belly, they always do.”

I let him fix me a mug of bagged blood, even though I wasn’t particularly hungry.  While he pushed buttons on the microwave, I sent Rob a text with a little heart <3.  Not exactly asking him where he was, but I might as well have.  Almost as soon as I’d done it I wished I had a way to take it back.  I
so
did not want to be the clingy girlfriend.  

Less than two minutes later he texted me back. 
Love you heaps.  See you in an hour, yeah?

Smiling, I sent him a smiley face and a
love you too
, not bothering to ask him what he was up to.  There wasn’t anything to worry about, I trusted him completely.  There were oceans of things we didn’t know about each other, but I knew the most important thing – Rob loved me and he’d never ever hurt me.

A couple of weeks went by and we settled into a basic routine.  It was nice not to be rushing from one crisis to another, nobody making demands on me that didn’t stem from my normal work duties.  I hadn’t heard from Jakob and that suited me fine. 

I hadn’t gone out much, working from home mostly, except when I went along to hunt with Rob.  He only asked me to go with when I needed to feed though, the rest of the time he took care of it on his own while Elder business kept me busy. 

One night I woke up later than usual, a little worn out by Rob keeping me up the night before, eager to make up for lost time.  I was surprised to find the space next to me vacant except for a black satin blindfold with a note that said,
See you tonight
.  I ran my fingers over the soft material, a shiver of anticipation tingling down my spine until I realized – Where the heck was Rob?  Had he set the alarm again and I hadn’t even heard it? 

Maggie reported that he’d said he had some errands to run and would be back later, and I tried not to sound like a worry wart, deliberately avoiding the urge to text him.  The door opened then, and I looked up in anticipation, my heart sinking when Jenessa strode in without knocking.  We were definitely going to have to get the spell turned back on and I resolved to ask Rob about whether or not he’d reached his sister. 

“Why didn’t you tell me about you and Rob?” she demanded, smoothing away non-existent flyaways over her sleek blonde hair.  She was dressed in a simple pair of tailored trousers and a pale pink blouse that made her peaches and cream complexion appear particularly rosy.  Elegant as usual, though her tone was better suited for gossiping at the water cooler.  “Honestly, Anja, I have to hear about it on the street like a common subject!”

“Because it was complicated,” I dodged, wondering exactly what it was she’d heard.  “I wasn’t at liberty to declare my feelings for Rob while I was supposed to be on Jakob’s arm.”

“I know, but you made it sound like you were hot for Bishop.  Or are you and he still an item too?”  She arched a perfectly sculpted brow.

“No, Bishop and I are just friends, we have been for a while. I’m sorry if I led you to think differently, I didn’t have a whole lot of choice.” 

“I think it was romantic, lovers kept apart by a cruel fate,” Maggie ventured with a dreamy smile.  “Far more romantic now that they’re together, of course.”

“I just wish you’d told me,” Jenessa insisted.  “I never would’ve made a play for him if I’d known how you felt.  I guess that explains his lack of interest. For a while there I thought I was losing my charm.”

“Somehow I don’t think that’s something you have to worry about,” I murmured, more worried about what she’d said before.  “What do you mean you heard about it on the street?”

“Oh, it’s all anyone’s talking about.  How you cast Jakob off after he killed Lodinn and took up with Rob instead.”

“That wasn’t quite the order things happened in, but close enough, I guess.  Is that what people think though, that I dumped Jakob?”  Technically it was true, but I hadn’t wanted to broadcast it everywhere.  Where had all this come from?  I knew it hadn’t been spread by anyone who’d actually been present in the house, I trusted them all implicitly.  One of the extra guards had to have loose lips. 

“Why else would he leave so quickly after you gave him the heave ho?”

“That isn’t why he left in such a hurry.  I mean, it’s part of it.  I did ask him to leave me alone, but he ran off so quickly because Lodinn told him that Carys is still alive.”

Her blue eyes stretched wider.  “Oh, no wonder they both left so quickly.”  So the rumor mill obviously hadn’t been privy to
everything
that went down that night.  “I’m so sorry, that must’ve been a terrible blow to you.”

I exchanged a look with Maggie, both of us unsure what she meant.  “Why would this be a terrible blow?” I ventured. 

“Because with Carys back, you’ll lose your position and any chance at winning Bishop or Jakob back.”

My mouth opened and closed again without saying anything, at a loss for what to say to that. 

“Why would she lose her position?” Maggie asked.  “Carys has no claim to the West.”

“Oh, no, I meant by Jakob’s side as his consort,” Jenessa explained, her face still schooled into an expression of pity I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why I deserved.  Hadn’t she been listening?

“Good.  I didn’t want the position, remember?  Hence my asking Jakob to leave.” 

“No one will believe that now.  They’ll think it’s a sort of sour grapes you’re circulating since he’s gone off to find his favored progeny.”

Cool beans, exactly what I needed, more rumors swirling about me.  “Well, he can have her and I couldn’t care less what people think about it.  I hope they’re happy together.  And Bishop isn’t chasing after her, he’s gone back to Rome.”

“That’s odd.  Perhaps he’s merely coordinating the search from there?  I imagine the Order can find anyone they set their sights on.  I can’t believe he wouldn’t pursue her after all these years.  I know how devastated he was after her death.”     

Cripes, was I getting tired of the subject.  “It’s none of my business what Bishop does.  If he decides to go after Carys, it has nothing to do with me.  I’m with Rob now, remember?”

“Of course you are, and that’s perfectly understandable, you being his Sire and all.”  She patted my arm gently. 

Why did I get the feeling she was condescending to me?  I’d always considered Jenessa to be one of my friends, but the more she talked, the more I started to fantasize about popping her in the mouth.  Not that I’d ever do that in a zillion years.  I opened my mouth to tell her I’d fallen in love with Rob way before I’d turned him, but decided in the end it was none of her business. 

“Okay, I need to be getting down to the office.  Was there some other reason you stopped by, Jenessa?  Did you forget anything when you moved out?”

“Oh no, no other reason.  I simply wanted to catch up with you,” she smiled.  “I’m glad Jakob was able to defeat Lodinn and set your sister free.”

“Thanks.”  Not that it was all Jakob’s doing.  Any other time and I would’ve filled her in on all the other bits of that night, but I wasn’t in the mood to go over it again.  I wanted to get on with my life.  “Well, it was nice to see you again.  Thanks for coming over.”

“She means well,” Maggie ventured once she was gone, and I shook my head.

“It doesn’t matter.  I don’t care what anybody thinks about what went down here that night.  All that matters is that Lodinn’s dead, Jakob’s gone and I can finally start to live my life the way I want to.”

“That’s right, and you deserve every speck of happiness coming to you,” she smiled warmly.  “Are you actually going to the office or working from home tonight?”

“I probably should, I feel like I haven’t been there in ages.  What about you?”

“I was thinking of going down anyway, it’s easier for me to get things done with my proper desk.”

“Right, of course it is.  You know, you don’t have to stick around here on the nights I work from home.  If you’d rather go work down there you can, any time you want.  I’ve got plenty of security to spare, or you can take one of the cars.” 

“Yes, I know.”  A flicker of emotions twisted her features and the brightness of her mood dimmed.  “I just miss having Marcus with me.  The office feels so empty when I’m there alone.”  She blinked away the shine of tears, looking away, and I pulled her close for a quick hug. 

“It’ll get better, Maggie, I promise.  If you need to take some time away…”

“No, I’d rather keep busy,” she sniffed, offering me a watery smile.  “It helps to feel like I’m being useful.”

“You are,” I assured her.  “More than you know.”

* * *

I hadn’t been to the office since Lodinn’s reign of terror had landed me on house arrest, so it was quite a shock to walk into the mess the Order left behind during their short occupancy.  There were maps tacked up all over the walls, empty equipment boxes cluttering up the corners, and the chairs from the conference room were all stacked out in the hallway leaving barely enough room to get by.  I even found a cache of ammunition in the bottom drawer of my desk. 

For once I was glad to have my team of redshirts along, and I put them to work setting things to rights.  Besides the bullets, I also found a sleek laptop left behind on my desk.  A quick powering up told me exactly who it belonged to – Hanna’s smiling face on the desktop background meant it could only be one vampire. 

I’d only traded a few brief words with Hanna since she’d returned home.  My guys retrieved her purse and a few belongings from Lodinn’s coastal house and dropped them off for her while picking up the borrowed car, and she’d called to say thanks.  Despite her assurances that she was doing fine, I couldn’t help but feel like she had a long road ahead of her before she was back to her usual snarky self. 

Of course, that made me wonder how Mason was holding up.  I considered calling him to remind him about the laptop left behind, but instead I decided to pay him a visit.  That way I could kill two birds with one stone and talk about some of the other issues on my mind. 

After seeing Maggie safely ensconced and leaving Gunnar behind for company so it didn’t seem so lonely, Lee and I set off to Jakob’s building with the laptop in hand.  Okay so, when I say Lee and I left, it was more like Lee and I and the half dozen thugs in suits that followed me everywhere.  While I’d been glad to have their muscle when it came to cleaning up the office, all I could think was what a waste of money and their time it was for them to follow me around like a motorcade everywhere I went. 

If I thought my office was trashed, it was nothing to the chaos I stepped into on the floors the Order had taken over in Jakob’s building.  After we were waved through the front security desk, it took a few minutes to find Mason, sitting on his backside in a room full of computer equipment, a slow but steady torrent of obscenities leaving his lips with an impressive array of visuals. 

“Is this a bad time?” I ventured, the laptop tucked under my arm.

“That all depends, are you here to jam another red hot poker up my ass?” he asked after a brief glance in my direction, his hands still busy on whatever it was he was messing with in the guts of a computer.

“That wasn’t my first thought, no.”  I shook my head, trying to decide how literally to take that from the pained expression on his face.  His beard had started to grow back in nicely, the burn scars only visible up near his eye and bisecting one brow.  “But I could give Jenessa a call, I’m sure she’d be happy to help you with that red hot poker issue.”

“No thanks, I’m getting used to it,” he smirked.  “What can I do for you, sis?”

“Just playing errand girl and hoping to catch up a bit.  Recognize this?” I held out the laptop and he sprang up, light on his feet to take it from me.  It was good to see he’d recovered his agility after his brush with death. 

“Oh yeah, sorry about that.  I forgot all about it, things have been kinda busy around here coordinating all the new equipment Bishop sent over.  And now I’m playing tech on top of it all,” he scowled, kicking at one of the computer towers with the toe of his boot. 

“Isn’t that Frost’s job.”

“Don’t get me started.”

“I’m sorry, I guess I picked a bad day to visit.” 

“Probably, unless you feel like being pressed into service,” he muttered, setting his laptop aside and wiping his hands off on his pants. 

“I should maybe take off then.”  The last thing I wanted to do was make his day any worse. 

Mason cracked his neck first one way and then the other.  “Naw, fuck it, I could use the break.  If you come with me I can halfway justify it if Frost checks up on me.”