“Damn it, Bishop!” I stomped over to where he stood leaning against the tree, his arms folded over his large chest. “You know me. You know what we’re capable of. I’m being set up.”
“And it’s working.”
Snarling, I took a swing at him, but he was expecting it. Pushing off the tree, he grabbed both of my wrists and pinned them over my head against the tree. He pressed in close so that his face filled my field of vision. I positively itched to put my knee in his groin, but I waited to hear what he had to say.
“It’s working, Mira. Someone probably does have it in for you and they’re successfully setting you up. How many enemies could you possibly have here?”
“A few,” I admitted. Justin Ravana instantly came to mind. While he had never made any play to seize power of the domain from me, he had always been a steady voice of unrest. But in the end, he kept to himself so I let him be.
“Would any of these enemies have a reason to kill this poor human?”
“One would,” I growled. Killing Katie would be Justin’s way of wiping out the last of Bryce’s ties while potentially making me look bad in front of the Coven. Justin was my next target, and I was happy to take the fight to him.
Frowning, I stared at Bishop for a moment, trying to suppress my few memories of the nightwalker. Too many nights washed in blood and violence. “You know I can clean this up and get the territory back under control. This is about Macaire wanting me under his thumb in Venice,” I said, shifting slightly so that the tree bark wasn’t biting into my back. Macaire had hated me since Jabari had taken me under his wing five centuries ago. With Jabari now missing, the ancient nightwalker now thought it was safe to make his move against me, and if I didn’t think of something fast, it was going to work.
“Why does it have to be about only Macaire?” Bishop shifted his hands so that my wrists were held loosely in one of his large hands. His left hand came down and moved some hair away from my face. “Admit it, Mira. We had fun in Venice together. You used to enjoy our games with the fledglings. Hell, they feared you more than the entire Coven. You thrived on their fear. Why don’t you just come home? Macaire will leave you alone if you listen to him.”
“I can’t go back to that life. I’ve outgrown it. This is my home now,” I said. Leaning forward, I brushed my lips across his cheek. “Why can’t you stay here?” I whispered. “You’ve been with the Coven most of your life. You’ve got to be growing weary of it. Stay here with me. Make this your new home.”
“And go from being a messenger for the Coven to being a flunky for the Fire Starter? Not likely,” he said snidely.
“No. Just live here. Be your own person.”
Bishop stared silently at me for a minute, the skepticism clear on his face, but I could also see the hope in his eyes. The offer was appealing. Bishop had a lot of freedom due to his position within the court, but not true freedom—not like what I was offering.
“It’s tempting, but not everyone’s master is as forgiving. My leash is not quite as long as yours,” he said, releasing my hands as he stepped away from me. And it was true. I didn’t belong to Jabari in the same way Bishop belonged to Macaire. Yet if Jabari demanded I return to Venice, I would out of loyalty and a good dose of fear.
“Then all I ask is that you be fair about this,” I pleaded, cupping his face with my hands. “Give me a chance to fix this.”
“You’re flailing.”
“Temporarily. I can fix this.”
“One more dead body not of your own making and you’re going back with me,” Bishop warned, gently lowering my hands from his face.
I nodded, pulling from his grip. “The offer still stands. You’re welcome here.”
“Maybe someday, but not now, not like this.”
5
I was done chasing my tail. I was ready to take the fight to the one person who had the most to gain from my removal. Justin Ravana’s three-story brick house was located on a hill on the outskirts of the city. Its location not only allowed him to easily sense the approach of any nightwalker, but he could watch them crawl up his hill like a supplicant coming to request a boon.
Driving up the hill, I realized that I had made a mistake in the handling of him. I had thought that he would be content to rule over his family, and for a time he had been, but now he wanted to take all of Savannah from me. For him, the easiest way to claim it would be through the Coven. I had little doubt that he had been the little bird chirping in the ear of Macaire, telling his lies so that I would be drawn back to Venice and all her horrors.
My temper was barely caged when one of Justin’s fledglings showed me to the main parlor where Justin sat waiting for me. The air in the house was thick with the scent of blood and fear. Muffled screams and heavy footsteps could be heard on wooden floors about me.
“Mira, this is a surprise,” Justin opened, pushing slowly out of his cushioned high-backed chair as if he was reluctant to rise to his feet in my presence.
“It shouldn’t be. Bryce belonged to you, didn’t he?”
“And so did poor Heather. Savannah has certainly become a dangerous place to live,” he said with a shake of his head.
“I’m sure your fledglings would argue that it always has been.”
A smile toyed with his lips as his eyes traveled over the length of me. “Yes, well, one has to do what one must to keep the young ones in line.”
“And what did Bryce do to deserve the death he received?”
“You think I had something to do with Bryce’s death?” he gasped, looking honestly surprised. “Mira, you know my methods.” Again, the same dark grin spread across his lean, angular face, reminding me so much of an animated skull. “If Bryce had crossed me, I would have taken care of the matter here, in the privacy of my own home. I would have kept the matter in the family.”
“So the fact that Bryce had come to me looking to make his own fledgling didn’t bother you?” I asked.
Justin sat back down in the chair he had been seated in, his sharp gaze drifting away from me to a spot on the floor. His left hand curled into a fist on the arm of the chair, but his voice was calm, even when he spoke again. “I was…unaware of his request, but Bryce knew that I would not object to expanding the family. I would have welcomed his fledgling.”
“Maybe that’s just it. He didn’t want this fledgling to be a part of the Ravana family. He possibly wanted something outside of your reach,” I said, purposefully twisting the knife in his chest as I struggled to keep the smile off of my face.
“Then I would have killed him, but again I would have done it my way. Here and slowly. I’m afraid if you came here looking for Bryce’s killer, you have come to the wrong place.”
Unfortunately, I believed him. “No, that’s not the only reason why I’m here,” I said with a smile. I was about to comment on his recent trip to see the Coven when a bloodcurdling scream rent the air, effectively silencing me and wiping the smile from my face. We both looked up at the ceiling. I got flashes of a naked female chained to the brick wall in the attic being tortured by a lycanthrope and three other nightwalkers. She was streaked with blood, and her face was swollen to the point that she could barely see out of her puffy eyes. One of her tormentors was projecting the fight for Justin’s benefit since the master of the family was stuck dealing with me.
“Who?”
“A new fledgling that has elected to join the Ravana family. She’s being broken in. Would you like to help?”
“No.”
“But it’s been so long since you took the time to appropriately break in a fledgling. These young ones have no concept any longer of what it means to exist in our world. They don’t respect you as they should.”
“I want no part of your games,” I growled.