Blood Rebellion (Blood Destiny #7) (21 page)

"We will honor their wishes." That was a flat and final answer.

"What about humanoids wanting the turn?"

"Highly unlikely, at this point. I won't say impossible, because very little is impossible. I will not entertain applications for vampirism. Those will be returned unopened," I replied. "Female humanoid vampires are very rare. The mere attempt at turning a female humanoid almost always results in her death. It is suicide to attempt it."

"What do you think the success rate is?"

I had to call Wlodek over to get an answer. The reporter repeated his question. "Perhaps one female in twenty-five thousand attempts will make it," Wlodek replied smoothly, his dark eyes betraying no emotion. If anybody would know, he would. There had been few females on Earth and none on Refizan or Beliphar. The other six worlds whose vampires now lived on Le-Ath Veronis had maybe a handful between them.

"And the success rate for turning male humanoids?"

"Nine out of ten are successful," Wlodek knew that answer right away.

"That's a huge discrepancy," the reporter whistled. "What do you think is the cause?"

"I have spent three thousand years attempting to find an answer and have personally reached no verifiable conclusions," Wlodek replied enigmatically.

* * *

"Gabron, stay with us for a little while," Shala coaxed. She and Elthine had wandered around the brothel naked, taken several clients and now they were off the clock. Shala had the tip of a nail under Gabron's chin, smiling at him. She was slightly taller than he was and rubbed her body suggestively against his. Elthine, not to be outdone, was at Gabron's shoulder. "We will make your day worthwhile," she kissed his cheek. Gabron nodded and they led him toward a room.

Chapter 9
 

Arvil San Gerxon paced. Sat down, angrily rearranged items on his desk and rose to pace again. The vampire planet was all over the news networks. The first week's take had far exceeded every projection. And customers were coming away from the place happy. There were winners and losers as always, but this was completely unexpected. He'd walked through his own casinos, listening carefully while his customers discussed Le-Ath Veronis even as they gambled on Campiaa.

Many of his high rollers were discussing trips to the vampire planet—they'd already applied for tickets and were waiting to hear if their applications had been accepted. The hidden deals that might be brokered on Campiaa could be brokered anywhere—they didn't need Arvil's casinos for that. And the gambling payouts were regulated and certainly better on Le-Ath Veronis—those were mandated by Reth Alliance laws.

Arvil was not willing to accept this—it could certainly affect his business concerns and cut into his profits. Theos was scheduled to return to Campiaa in two days. Arvil had gotten information daily from his employee, as requested. Theos was a good servant and completely under his thumb. As quickly as he could review the information provided, Arvil planned to get his management and security teams together to see if it could be exploited in any way.

Arvil sighed. The interview with the Queen of Le-Ath Veronis had received more airtime than it deserved. Who cared that she'd caught a criminal during the interview—the man had accepted a bribe to pass information over to some archaic religious sect. Arvil snorted. More than likely, it had all been set up for the public's entertainment. He could do the same, if he wanted. Perhaps he should consider it. The Larentii, though, that was a stroke of genius. Who could have imagined that any of the blue giants could be bought or convinced in some way to pose there with the Vampire Queen? Unheard of. If they
were
Larentii. Perhaps she'd hired two Warlocks to present themselves as Larentii. A possibility to look into.

Arvil had begun building casinos on the property abandoned by Erland Morphis and A&M Consortium. He would not be losing business over this. He'd still draw the criminal element; they always had money, but the regular, wealthy customers? They might all be lured away and it was never wise to cheat the non-Alliance criminals that came to Campiaa to gamble. He always made sure they won frequently.

Theos and the information that he would provide upon his return—information that couldn't be sent through normal channels—was what Arvil waited for. His eyes gleamed at the prospect. This was a challenge and Arvil was more than up for it. If he could damage Le-Ath Veronis and its bitch Queen, he would—in any way possible.

* * *

"Why am I buried in fan mail?" I had everything from scented paper notes to electronic messages. Grant was doing his best to coordinate everything and had drafted form letters that could be personalized and sent back. He also pulled out the ones that sounded threatening and turned those over to Gavin and Tony (which could be a mistake) and the special ones he held out for a personal reply. Erland had come in two days after the interview, saying that my fan clubs (I had them and didn't know) were having parties just to watch the footage. People were dressing up as one of my mates or me and having theme parties.

"It won't do a bit of good to do another interview," Erland laughed at me. "They're not interested in finding something better to do, even if you tell them that. Somebody already tried it. It didn't work."

"And we have the requests for personal meetings," Grant handed a stack of papers and a comp-vid to me.

"Oh, Lord, what next?" I muttered.

"Did you address me?" Erland laughed. Yeah, he was
Lord
Erland Morphis, but he wasn't the one I meant. I thought a good elbow in his ribs might shut him up. I leafed through the requests. I was about to hand all of them back to Grant when something made my hand tingle. I went back through the stack slowly, until I got to the tingly one again and pulled it out. Someone named Theos Wimple had asked for an audience.

"Bring this one in," I handed it to Grant. "As quickly as possible."

"Want me to stand guard with you?" Erland offered a blindingly beautiful smile and then took a chance and kissed me. The kiss was nice. He seemed surprised that I didn't hit him afterward. "We'll work on more of that later."

"Uh-huh. How are your guarding skills?"

"I can create a gate and send them somewhere they never expected to go," Erland grinned.

"Good enough." I watched as Grant contacted Theos Wimple on the communicator and told him we'd have a car sent for him right away.

He was in my office in less than an hour and Drake and Drew had come along to back Erland up. Erland recognized Theos right away; Theos cringed and whimpered when he saw Erland.

"This whelp works for Arvil San Gerxon," Erland snarled and Drake and Drew were just about to haul him out the door. Theos was short and slight of build, with no strength to tussle with two strong Falchani, even if they weren't Spawn Hunters for the Saa Thalarr.

"I want to beg for asylum!" Theos wept, his heels dragging on my expensive rug. "I hate Arvil San Gerxon. If I leave him, though, he'll have me killed—I know too much!"

That was how Theos ended up in my study, under compulsion by Merrill, Adam and Gavin, answering all sorts of questions. Merrill asked Theos what Arvil San Gerxon was doing with the vacant lots he, Adam and Erland had left behind. Theos explained that Arvil was already building on the property.

"We don't have much in the options department, since Campiaa isn't an Alliance world. This is why we razed the casinos to begin with," Adam raked a hand through his dark-brown hair. I could tell he was frustrated at the information.

"I'd like to send this one back as a spy, but that could get him killed and not in a nice way," Merrill glanced at me, piercing blue eyes asking a nonverbal question.

"We can't send him back." I was sure of that. Merrill nodded—that was the answer he wanted as well.

"We need more employees on the light side," Erland suggested.

"Fine," I shrugged. "But how are we going to pass the news along to Arvil San Gerxon? He'll put a contract on Theos. Theos," I turned to him; he was sipping his second Scotch and soda. He needed it; he was shaking. He lifted his eyebrows at me. "Do you have any family or loved ones that Arvil can threaten?"

"No," Theos' gaze dropped to the floor. "He already killed everybody I know."

"Christ," Adam muttered.

"Find him a place to stay on the light side; we'll figure this out," I sighed. "And don't put him to work for a week—he needs some time."

"Thank you," Theos was about to cry again, I think, when he was led from my office.

"How do we get a message to Arvil San Gerxon?" I asked Erland, who was still there. Grant was, too, and he'd watched the entire incident with openmouthed astonishment.

"I can get a message to him; what are we going to say?"

"I have an idea," Grant volunteered.

* * *

"We caught your spy," Gavin snarled into the camera while Theos, cuffed and chained, sat in a chair behind Gavin looking terrified. Well, he probably was; Gavin's eyes were red and he was showing fang. "He will be detained indefinitely."

"That's a wrap!" Bryan Riley was getting a high five from Brock and Grace, who also had experience in this sort of thing. I didn't know that Brock and Grace had once been award-winning documentary filmmakers. Who knew?

"We'll have this put together as an electronic message in no time," Brock was having a blast. Gavin went back to normal; Theos breathed an understandable sigh of relief as Drake and Drew removed the chains and cuffs.

"Do you want to come to the kitchens and have something to eat?" I practically pulled Theos from his chair. He went with me and Cheedas found something for Theos to snack on.

"Do you do this all the time? I thought the Queen would be inaccessible," Theos said over his roast-beef sandwich.

"She comes to my kitchen often," Cheedas nodded. "We talk. If I need anything, I tell the Raona. Things get done after that."

"I can see how things get done," Theos nodded. "Yesterday, I was a slave to Arvil San Gerxon. Today I feel like a free man."

 "You are. As long as you're honest with us, we'll protect you as well as we can." I was having half a sandwich with Theos—dinner had gone right past me, causing quite a bit of grumbling among the mate department.

* * *

"What the hell happened?" Arvil's Chief of Security watched the video with Arvil.

"He got caught. Probably trying to record something he wasn't supposed to. No way to get him back—and he wasn't that important anyway. We'll just have to find someone else to send. Look through the applicants and see who might qualify."

"Will Theos pass over any information?"

"Nothing Erland Morphis didn't already know," Arvil snorted. "I kept him out of the important things."

"I'll find someone else for you," the Chief promised.

* * *

"You all know what to do." Gart had dropped Felix and twelve thousand troops in the plowed fields on Beliphar. Now, Felix was handing orders to his troops. Spring had arrived and planting was about to begin. Farming had been done by vampires before they'd all disappeared—during the night since they could see just as well then as anyone else might during the day. Now, Beliphar was missing its slave labor. Most of the population had wakened one morning to find empty cuffs lying everywhere. Most of the cuffs were near piles of ash, but many were clean. The authorities were now scrambling to place humanoids in vampire positions and laying blame while they did it.

Felix's second and third in command nodded to their leader as he stood in the soft soil of the tilled field. All they had to do was pass their saliva or blood to any one of the Belipharan population and they would be infected. It took roughly a month for the symptoms to manifest and about twenty percent of the population would die—the very young and the older ones, mostly; their bodies wouldn't adapt. The rest would become soldiers, like them.

Felix had already made plans to get off world—Beliphar still had starships. Granted they were aging and hadn't been used in a very long while, but that shouldn't matter. They'd get where they were going, one way or another. Felix had lost touch with the contingent on Falchan and didn't know what that meant. It could be something as simple as a broken communicator, since Falchan didn't have that technology or the supplies or equipment to facilitate repairs. Felix would consider that problem later. For now, he had a planet to take.

* * *

"He left his ring." Shala held the gold ring in her hand. Gabron had removed everything when they'd gotten into the hot tub with him. "Look, it has the royal crest on it." Elthine pointed out the claw crown on the round signet ring.

"You know, I think I know what to do with this," Shala giggled.

* * *

"Roff, how did you do this?" I picked oxberries at lightning speed alongside Roff and twenty other comesuli on the High Demon planet. Giff had come, too, after leaving Toff with Grant. Grant loved to babysit and found a sling to carry Toff while he worked. He didn’t even mind feeding Toff. I'd ordered a new wardrobe for Grant, since his current one was stained with Toff's lunch selections.

The sun shone warm and bright over our heads as we picked berries. Garde had come when we'd gotten started, laughed at my straw hat and then went to do Prime Minister things for Jayd.