“Dual identities, leading a double life,” Sasha snarled from the sidelines.
The court grandstands were rapt, so quiet that only the sound of inhales and exhalations could be heard as Hunter gave a full accounting of all they’d endured. Shogun stepped up next and told the heart rending tale of brother being turned against brother, editing out some of the more personal issues. He described the firefight that took place at the Buchanan Bayou House and ended his argument with a challenge.
“Anyone that has the capacity for crystal-ball magick, or is a seer of the past, can go in and slowly replay the events that took place that night,” Shogun said, folding his arms over his chest. “My brother came in and pulled me and my men out of an ambush-one that was orchestrated by the Vampires through the agency of the one named Kiagehul! The Buchanans attacked, but Vampires and Kiagehul were behind it!”
Wolves turned toward the Vampire side of the courtroom and growled. Vampires hissed as the Fae erupted again.
“The Buchanan Werewolf clan must be exiled for siding with Vampires!” the North American alpha Werewolf leader shouted from the back.
Pandemonium broke out as stronger wolves leaped over the box rails and took the sparse remaining members of the Buchanan Broussard pack into custody. Once the snarling outlaws were secured, the commotion died down.
“We demand a full and fair trial of our own,” a beta said between his teeth, but quieted when he got punched in the face by the big alpha.
“Bet on it,” the alpha snarled and then returned his focus to the court proceedings at hand. “Let the lady tell the story.”
“But the worst of all offenses,” Sasha said, striding up to the Vampire box, staring past Elder Vlad and taking on Baron Geoff Montague in a bold eye-to-eye challenge, “were the human deaths. You brought this to the streets and outside of the supernatural community, where the beef should have stayed, you rat bastard!”
Order of the Dragon bouncers tried to gently nudge Sasha back to her side of the room, but fury had a stranglehold on her and Hunter was over the edge of the box, challenging the security guard, who backed down.
“You are dangerously close to a breach of court procedure, young lady,” Elder Vlad said in a menacing tone. “State your case from inside your box.”
“Fuck you!” Sasha shouted and pointed at the ancient Vampire.
Gasps cut through the courtroom from the Vampire box.
“Touch her, black bolt her,” Hunter said in a rumble, “and there will be blood. Lots of it. Wolves can sniff out lairs and we’ll open everybody’s up if anything untoward happens to my mate.”
“You all killed innocent people back there, human and Fae alike!” Sasha said, her voice trembling with rage. “That matters!”
Baron Geoff was on his feet. “You are out of order, and after the blood you let at my estate and at my establishments, how dare you disrespect our leadership! Since when is a human life more valuable or sacred than one of ours? We did not retaliate tonight until we had to fend off your attack at the Blood Oasis-the same as when you wrongfully breached my lair!”
“That’s a lie,” Sasha said, pointing at the baron with a hard snap. “There were Vampires in the conflict!”
“Anticipating a hostile affront to our peaceful way of life!” the baron spat.
“Tonight, you involved innocent people who didn’t have anything to do with it,” Sasha shouted. “Pedestrians, parents, who knows-people’s sons and daughters who were just out to shop, or eat, or go to work, or go grab a beer, and they’re dead! That you will pay for, no matter what! This isn’t over, Baron, not by a long shot. This goes beyond what the rules are at the UCE, this is an issue of human justice!”
“Oh, to be sure this is not over, bitch,” the baron said evenly as his gaze narrowed.
“What?” Hunter shouted, lunging, but was caught by Shogun and two of his men.
“And are we not getting away from the true point, which is always the Vampire diversionary tactic?” Sir Rodney called out. “You, Baron Geoff Montague, commissioned a member of the Unseelie Court, one Kiagehul, to report on the progress of black magick spells he cast against my castle-thereby partially financing this treason against the Seelie, which is aiding and abetting a person committing known treason, thus making you an accomplice, and therefore inadvertently declaring war on the House of Clerk and all members of the Seelie Court that fall under my protection… including the Wolf Federations, thus specifically declaring war with the Southeast Asian Werewolf Clan and the North American Shadow Wolf Clan… By harming their members, the human population, you have by extension also declared war against members of the US military!”
“Monitoring the activities of one’s enemies is not the same as an attack!” the baron shouted, looking around. “I admit, we have been watching you and will continue to do so for this very reason… but we had no hand in the dark magick. That is provable-we have ways to draw a confession from the prisoner that are time-tested.”
“I don’t care what you say. On the way to court, you tried to bait us out of the protection of Forte Shannon of Inverness so that we would release the Unseelie prisoner, and you ambushed our evacuation attempts. We knew you’d try something, so we had to be sure that innocent Seelie were out of harm’s way-we just didn’t think you’d stoop so low as to butcher innocent humans and throw them through Aurelia’s Ale Alley’s front window as bait,” Sasha shouted, veins of outrage standing in her neck. “Humans, Seelie, wolves, human authorities, everyone got caught in the crossfire!”
“That is a lie!” the baron shouted, walking over to the book. “Strike me, draw the blood and you will see that this time, she-wolf, you have erred and it will cost you dearly.”
He produced his wrist and the pen struck it, causing thick, black blood to ooze from the slashed vein. When his testimony took, the court erupted again and the crone ran forward waving her hands, shouting over the gavel. Sasha and Hunter glanced at each other and then toward Sir Rodney and Shogun. This was not good. The baron gave Sasha a smug nod and returned to his box.
“Enough, enough-there are so many capital offenses here that we must call the accused! Bring the prisoner up,” the crone yelled as the gavel banged on the bench.
“We don’t have to sit for this out-of-order travesty of indignities and injustice! I demand recompense now!” Baron Montague shouted, still standing.
“Sit,” Elder Vlad said evenly.
Baron Montague sat slowly and smoothed down his lapels, but it was palpable that his nerves were drawn tight by the ancient Vampire’s words. He shared a look with Queen Blatand as Kiagehul was roughly brought to the front witness box by very disgruntled wolves. They shoved him into the seat and the book and pen swished closer to him to take his testimony.
“How do ye plead?” the crone screeched.
“Not guilty by reason of insanity!” Kiagehul called out.
The court erupted and, after many attempts by the frazzled gavel, the audience finally settled down.
“Speak,” the crone said, and then walked away shaking her head.
“I was influenced by very strong forces,” Kiagehul said, beginning to weep. “My queen, I wanted to do it for you… It wasn’t for the money.”
Sasha laughed a cold, hard laugh as she walked back to her box with Hunter. “The little bastard just threw you under the bus, Baron.”
“That is an outright lie!” the baron said, standing and pointing to Kiagehul. “He came to me and offered me a chance to build an alliance, for a price. He wanted the lands and establishments that should have come to him under normal inheritance law-but that had been nationalized by Sir Rodney… Dugan’s properties!” The baron regained his composure and then looked at Elder Vlad. “He then said that he would show me the extent of his capabilities in a way that would utterly shock and surprise me… I of course had no knowledge of how far he would go; my goal was to one day meet the queen of the Unseelie Court to see if there was some common ground. But there is a third party-again, I was simply a monitor of activities, not a direct participant!”