I looked down at my plate, pulling myself back to reality, understanding part of what I’d just done was an attempt to escape. To step out of this crazed scene with its snarling, half-human Weres and screaming bloodsuckers grooving on the carnage. I took a deep breath. Okay, Jaz. Do something. Say something. Anything to block the noise.
I turned back to Meryl. Not that I expected her to know anything. But talking to her was better than sitting silent while the wolf and bear destroyed each other. “So, had Eryx talked to Genti about how he wanted to handle negotiations?”
Meryl tossed her head, attempting to cow me with her superior beauty and fashion sense the way she must have once subdued the nerds at her high school. “He never told anyone anything, including the fact that he’d invited the Tolic and his avhar into the Trust.”
Though Vayl seemed to be chatting it up with the Deyrar, when Meryl called him the Tolic, he stiffened so abruptly I thought for a second Disa had shoved a dagger through his heart.
I twisted in my seat, noted both of her hands wrapped around her goblet, and met her haughty gaze. The insult was clear. Vayl had left the Trust. Something only one other vamp had done that I’d heard of—ever. He’d explained to me that many, if not all, of the members would consider his departure the worst kind of betrayal. Some would even call it treason.
I turned back to Meryl. “I’d be careful what words I used to describe my boss,” I warned her, slipping my hand inside my jacket to emphasize my displeasure.
She raised her hands and sat back. “I’m just repeating what I’ve heard him called since I came here ten years ago.”
Sibley leaned forward. “Many among us still feel the sting of Vayl’s departure. He, almost like Hamon himself, was part of the foundation of our Trust.”
“Well, I am here to build a new foundation,” Disa announced.
“Of course. I did not mean to imply anything to the contrary,” Sibley said quickly.
Disa’s tone made my teeth clench. And her hold over these vamps, whose powers lapped at me like lions’ tongues, put me on edge. Why was she so adamant about her position? It just made me want to annoy her more. “How did Eryx die?” I asked, barely managing not to jump as the wolf squealed in agony and blood spurted onto the floor in front of me.
“He was in an automobile wreck,” she said, her voice suddenly lacking as much inflection as Vayl’s. I recognized her game right away, mainly because I’d seen him pull it so often. She was crushing her emotion, stuffing it into a tiny lockbox.
“Wow, that’s so . . . normal. How did he not survive?”
Meryl answered me. “According to Genti, who was driving behind him, he pulled out in front of a fast-moving delivery truck. The impact took off his head.”
Yeah, that would do it. “Was anyone else in the car with him?”
“You walk outside the Trust,” snapped Disa. “Do not presume to meddle in our private matters.”
“Sorry,” I said easily. “You know how we cop types are. Very detail-oriented.” But behind the Lucille mask, my eyes narrowed. It seemed like anywhere Edward Samos went, people ended up dead. So why not do a little Q & A to see if Eryx’s recent passing sounded fishy, or if it really was just a coincidence? So I’d dug in, knowing Rule Number One regarding tragedies—people love giving you all the gory details. Unless they’re criminally involved.
So. Had Disa killed Eryx? Maybe. She clearly thought his leadership skills stank, and some of the Vitem might even back her up on that count. But her timing? Well, maybe she figured Eryx would foul up the negotiations and they’d end up wriggling in Samos’s net unless she did something extreme. Or maybe she hadn’t even known about Samos’s offer.
It was all theoretical BS right now, but I wondered if Vayl was sharing similar thoughts when he said, “I am missing several members of the Trust whom I expected to see here.” He motioned to the empty spots at the tables that I’d noticed earlier. “Where are Aine, Fielding, and Blas, as well as my old friends Camelie and Panos? Did they also die with Eryx?”
The room didn’t exactly go silent. The animals fought on, persistently savage, mad to kill each other and accomplishing the job, if very slowly. But the vampires all turned to their Deyrar to see how she’d react to Vayl’s question.
“You have been gone, how long now, Vayl?” Disa asked.
“Nearly one hundred years,” he said.
“A great deal can happen in that time.” She seemed to be talking about more than the vampires he’d mentioned.
“Like what?” I asked.
“Change,” she said, almost dreamily. “Evolution. The rise of new, exciting times, when Trusts can be more than stale, enclosed conclaves. When they can become—”
Two echoing booms silenced her, brought me out of my chair. I drew Grief and released the safety as I raked the room for the shooter. When I saw him standing in the corner, his Beretta still pointed at the fallen Weres, I finally realized how close to the edge my brother had come.
Chapter Five
The room swirled with the kind of silence that falls just before riots break out. Dave’s voice thundered in the empty air, so painfully loud a couple of vamps covered their ears. “They’re free!” he shouted. His wild stare burned into every pair of eyes in the room. “And as soon as I find out which one of you leeches trapped the poor sons of bitches, I’ll make sure you go the same way!”
Holy freaking crap! Dave’s gone ballistic!
Part of me wanted to pick him up and shake him till his teeth fell out. The rest couldn’t blame him. Because he’d recently been the victim of a necromancer called the Wizard. This terror broker had killed and then reanimated him, only in such a way that his soul had remained trapped inside his body, slave to the Wizard’s whim. We’d rescued him, only to have him die for real. Which was where my Spirit Guide had stepped in.
Raoul recruits people like Dave and me to fight the extra-creepies. Those others regular humans can’t quite perceive and don’t have the power to combat. We have the edge because we’ve died at least once already. And having been brought back by Raoul, we’ve developed special abilities that give us a leg up. Unfortunately, the hell we go through afterward also has a tendency to tear through our sanity like a California wildfire. I should’ve known Dave would identify with anything that had been forced into service against its will. But I never would’ve guessed he’d resort to mercy killings to fix what was broken.
Before anyone had time to react, Vayl lunged to his feet, his chair flying back into the wall as he rose. “Nobody move!” he snapped, his power billowing through the room like the fog from dry ice. Though I could hear the hypnotic command in his voice, I was surprised the vamps in the room obeyed. “This entertainment has voided our contract!”
I stood beside him, making sure my presence and the fact that I’d pulled Grief let everyone know they should think carefully before they reacted.
Disa’s lips stretched so far back her snarl might actually leave wrinkles. The Vitem looked equally annoyed. Genti jumped up on the table. “Fine with me!” he shouted. He pointed a long-nailed finger at Dave. “That bastard has spoiled our Sonrhain. Kill him!”