Follow Me When the Sun Goes Down (24 page)

“I’m sorry to say I did not.  I thought it all a joke at first, until I saw the blood.  I tried to get to you, honestly I did, but some damned fool stepped in front of me and tripped me up.”

“It’s okay, Aubrey.  It’s not your fault.”

“You truly are well then?”  His eyes dipped to the thin swell of cleavage visible under my dress.  “No lingering after effects?”

“No, I’m fine,” I said, shifting uncomfortably.  Great, now I’d have people staring at my chest all night.  Cool beans. 

“I’d be more than happy to offer my blood if you need it.  Family bonds and all that,” he grinned.

“She’s doing fine on her own, yeah?” Rob stepped up, looking like he wanted nothing more than to put his fist through Aubrey’s teeth.  “Time to shove off.”  

“I’d like to hear that from the lady’s lovely lips, if I may,” Aubrey replied, his eyes never leaving my face. 

“We really should get going now, there’s a meeting waiting for me to start,” I said diplomatically.  “Are you coming?”

“I wasn’t invited,” Aubrey admitted.  “It’s for delegates only.”

“Oh.”  Tough break for him.  I wanted to ask him what his position was around there, but we really did need to get moving.  “Well, we can catch up more later.”

“My offer is genuine, you know,” Aubrey leaned close.  “My blood is powerful, at least as strong as Ulrik’s,” he whispered. 

“I will, um… keep that in mind, thanks,” I smiled awkwardly, glad to have the excuse to leave.  We headed right for the main meeting hall, the only one with a table large enough to accommodate all of the Houses at once.   

Security Chief Brody
stood in front of the door, his eyes sweeping over me before dropping to study his boots at first.  But as my entourage drew nearer, his hand came up to block us.  “Delegates only,” he said, addressing Rob.

“Don’t care.  We go with her, or she don’t go in.”

“My instructions are to…”

“Stand aside,” I commanded Brody, channeling my innermost diva.  “Like the gentleman said, they come with me.”

“Yes, Your Grace,” Brody dropped his eyes again, and I admit, I felt a twinge of glee to see him bend so easily. 

Tucker bounded up to my side in wolf form again, giving Brody a wide berth.  He gave my hand a single broad lick and I stroked the top of his head, not like a dog, but in silent acknowledgment of his support and protection. 

“You can’t take the Were in there,” Felix leaned forward to whisper.  “They won’t allow it.” 

“Let’s see them stop me,” I muttered back.  Motioning to the other two guards at the door, I sailed into the room, my head held high. 
I am a strong, confident, vampire
, the little voice inside my head reminded me. 
I’m way ahead of you, sister
, I answered back.

All eyes were on me as we entered the room, and I greeted the delegates with a serene smile, gliding with preternatural grace to my assigned spot as though I didn’t have a care in the world. 

“I can understand your need to feel secure after such a traumatic event, but this is a closed meeting,” Corley spoke, his dark eyes following me like a hawk.

“That’s nice, Simon,” I replied mildly, spreading my skirt carefully across my chair, taking some time to get the fabric to drape nicely.  “And if your House security wasn’t so completely inept, I might care about your arbitrary rules.  But as things stand, I’ll be keeping my own team with me at all times, and I’d encourage any of you to do the same.”  

“Let the girl keep her people with her,” Faust fired back.  “We are none of us safe until those responsible for this cowardly attack are caught and punished.”  There was a general murmur of assent in the room and Corley looked mad enough to spit nails. 

“Very well.  Just this once I will allow it.  However, you cannot be thinking of bringing that animal in here,” he replied with a pointed look to Tucker, who sat back on his haunches beside me. 

“You’re more than welcome to try and talk him into leaving yourself,” I smiled sweetly.  “But something tells me he doesn’t want to go.”  Tucker punctuated my words with a deep growl, his lips curling to reveal wickedly sharp teeth at the Warden of Vetis. 
“I think it’s more important to get right down to it though, don’t you?”  I gave him an out, and Corley took it.

“Yes, the attack.  We’ve all been speaking of nothing else.  Let me be the first to offer my best wishes on a speedy recovery,” he added with a hollow smile.

“Thanks, but I’m good.  It’ll take more than an arrow to the heart to bring down the West,” I declared, my chin coming up.  “I’m more interested in hearing what your plans are to keep the rest of us safe for the duration of the Gathering.”

“I can assure you, steps have been taken to make certain nothing like this will happen again.”

“I’ll believe that when I see it,” Jean Pierre Severine muttered under his breath and Corley shot him a look.

“What was that?”

Jean Pierre waved him away with a shake of his head, but I wanted to bring everything out into the open.  “No, he’s right.  This isn’t an isolated episode.  My predecessor, Thomas Lyons was killed on our last visit to Vetis.  It’s no longer safe here.”

“
Lyons was killed by a hunter, everybody knows that.”  Corley spat out, but I met his dark gaze with a steely look of my own.

“You and I both know that’s not true.” 

“Oh yes, because you and the hunter were very close as I understand it.”  Corley’s eyes narrowed.  “The woman befriended a traitor who killed his own kind, that should tell you something right there.”

“Hey, I got him to leave your turf, you should be thanking me.  Look, the point is, we don’t know where the axe is going to fall next.  We’ve got to nip this in the bud before someone else winds up dead.”

“It seems certain it’s directed at the West, which has nothing to do with us,” the delegate from Thyssa scowled.

“I wouldn’t be too sure.  I’ve heard rumblings about attacks on Toulac and Nira’in as well,” I retorted. 

“That’s ridiculous.  She’s just trying to sew dissent among us for her own political gain.”

“If that isn’t the pot calling the kettle black!”  Corley and I had descended into a screaming match and Erik Erlendur, the Elder of Valbjorn pushed himself up to his feet, holding up a hand.  A giant of a man, six foot five with a mop of unruly curls
, the color of straw, he cut an imposing figure.  I also happened to think he was mad as a hatter based on the ten minute conversation I’d had with him that first night about how nobody appreciates a good public whipping anymore. 

Erik smiled, his large teeth tarnished, like jagged tombstones crowded together after a plague.  I could see his Warden tense beside him, as if afraid to hear what the man might blurt out.  “Allow me to say what we’re all thinking,” he began, sticking his thumbs into the tiny slits in his vest that weren’t meant to really be pockets.  “This was an assassination plot by the Order, pure and simple.”

All holy hell broke loose, and there was nothing pure or simple about it.  The outbursts came so fast, I wasn’t sure who said what.     

“That’s preposterous!”

“She was taken below to the Order levels, that supports his claim.”

“That’s because her
brother secreted her away.”

“He was part of the plan, he hasn’t been seen since.”

“Bishop doesn’t have a dishonorable bone in his body.”

“If he was involved, why shoot her in plain view of everyone?  Why not lure her away?”

“To make it look like an accident?”

“That’s rubbish.  If it was to be an accident, then why not attack her out of sight?”

“It was a well executed plan, the humans compelled to create the right amount of chaos.  Only the Order could orchestrate something like that.”

“Oh please, I could arrange a better murder in my sleep.”

“Perhaps murder wasn’t the object?  She wasn’t killed, she was taken.”

“Maybe she was only taken because there wasn’t time to lop off her head?”

“I saw her taken.  There was a man and a woman.  They both wore boots.”

“Plenty of people here wear boots, didn’t you see anything useful?”

“Not like these, they were combat boots like the Order wears.”

“Why would the Order try to kill her?”

“Are you daft, man?  Haven’t you heard of her politics?  It was definitely the Order who had something to gain in removing Miss Gudrun from office.”  It was enough to make my head spin.  The last was said by Faust, who’d leapt to his feet as soon as the lively debate started. 

“I don’t know who it was who came after
me, but I think I for one am leery about making any other agreements until we know for sure who was behind it,” I pointed out.   

“What can we do?”
Jean Pierre said.  “Even if it was the Order, we have no proof.  We have no jurisdiction over the investigation.”

“Who says?” I spoke up, prompting confused looks all around me.  “Who says where we do and don’t have jurisdiction?”

“The law,” Corley said dryly. 

“Let’s see it,” I insisted.  “I’ve never read it, have you?”  I turned to the others around the table.  “Have you?”  Nothing but silence greeted me.  “Show me in the law where it says the Order is completely above it.  Show me where it says we can’t investigate them if we think they’re implicated in a crime.”

Simon Corley rose to his feet.  “Miss Gudrun, you’ve been through a terrible shock.  Clearly some time is needed to gather your wits before you start flinging accusations…”

Erlendur cut him off.  “No, she’s right.  They can’t get away with something like this.  They should be made to pay.”  His brilliant blue eyes blazed with madness and I looked to his right where his Warden, Niels was doing his best to get the man to sit again. 

My hands came up in a supplicating gesture.  “I’m not saying they’re to blame.  But we should have the right to at least question them about it.”

Corley stepped away from the table.  “I won’t be a party to this.  If the rest of you want to descend into chaos, you can bloody well do it without me.”  He turned on his heel and stalked out.  There were a couple of other guys who looked like they wanted to follow, but no one moved out of their seat. 

“So what do we do now?” Felippo ventured, after the door clicked shut again, and I decided to take the bull by the horns. 

“I think we start with asking the right questions.”

* * *

It didn’t take long at all to summon Angel, and I was glad to see Bishop appear with her, the better to defend himself against the rumors surrounding my disappearance.  Of course it didn’t look all that great for him to show up by her side, but at least he looked
like his normal self, not in super-broody mode. 

“This update will be brief, I’m very busy at present,” Angel declared loftily, the moment she stepped into the room.  I chose to set the tone of the meeting right from the start. 

“I think you’re under something of a misconception here.  You’re not here to report on your interrogations, you’re here to be interrogated.”

“What?” she balked as Felix rose and held out Corley’s empty chair for her to take a seat.  “I have nothing to say.  I’m not required to answer any of your questions.”

Bishop touched her lightly on the elbow, then not so lightly as he urged her toward the chair.  “Come on, Angel.  Tell them what they want to know and you can get back to work.” 

“This is ridiculous.  I will not be treated like a common criminal.”  She looked like she wanted to dig her heels in, but Bishop was stronger.  I was glad he was there to help out
; no one else would have been able to grab a hold of her without creating an incident, I’m sure.

“Nobody said anything about you being a criminal,” Felix smiled blandly, backing away from the chair as they approached.  “We just want to ask you a few simple questions.  Where’s the harm in that?”

Guilty conscience much?
  I could see the panic in her eyes, despite the outward calm she tried to portray, and I
knew
we had our culprit.  “Let me have five minutes alone with her, we’ll have all the answers we need.”  I should be able to compel her without too much trouble, and then Bob’s your uncle, as Rob would say. 

“Violence is not the answer,” Khalid said gravely, taking my words as a physical threat and I had to give him props for defending a woman from harm, even though I was pretty sure I’d heard him say he thought she was involved in the jumbled discussion earlier.

“I think I can get her to see reason.”  I rose from my chair, Rob by my side as I slowly approached her side of the room.  “Have a seat, Angel.”

Angel cast a last longing look at the door, but Bishop blocked her way, his arms crossed over his formidable chest.  “I don’t have time for this.”

Neither did I.  I reached out with my will to send her a push.  “Sit!”  Obediently she sank into the chair, her eyes trained on me.  “The sooner you answer our questions, the sooner we’ll be done with this, but you will answer them.  Do you understand?”

“I understand,” she nodded slowly. 

Feeling a bit like Wonder Woman with my lasso of truth, I plunged ahead, trying carefully to ask questions that didn’t make it seem like I was compelling her in a room full of my peers.  Let them think I was intimidating her the good old fashioned way.  “Good.  Now, where were you the night of the masque when I was shot?  And please keep in mind that we can get to the truth of it from any humans that were compelled.”

“I was on the stage.”

“What were you doing on the stage?”

“I was in costume.”

Man, it was like pulling teeth.  “What were you doing up on stage in costume?”  She squirmed a little, and I sent a burst of compulsion her way.  “Answer me.”

“I played the part of Death.”

A collective gasp went through the room, not so much in surprise of her guilt, but that she’d admit it, more likely.

“So you’re the one who shot me.”

“Yes,” she said simply, squirming again, but she was still under my compulsion to sit. 

“Angel…” Bishop’s sharp intake of breath could be heard across the room.  “How could you do that to me
?”

I tried to ignore the
to me
in Bishop’s plea, focusing on the bigger issue.  “Why?”

“It wasn’t my idea.”

Though I could guess how easily she’d gone along with it.  “Whose idea was it then?”

“Simon Corley.”

There was no shortage of murmurs at that announcement, as most of them had been expecting to hear someone higher up in the Order’s echelon of power, but it made perfect sense to me.  I already knew they’d been working together to exploit the hunter situation and take Tommy out. 

“There’s no proof of that,” Jennike Vendal spoke for the first time that night, her dark eyes trained on me instead of Angel, in the most disconcerting way. 

“Why would she lie?” I countered.

“She might be trying to push the blame away from her superiors.”

“There’s no reason to believe a word out of her lying mouth,” Cipriano spat out.  “She’s trying to confuse the issue to avoid a harsher penalty.”

“Death is death,” Faust pointed out only to be challenged by Cipriano again.

“It’s not an automatic death sentence, she didn’t actually kill her.”

“But
you did kill Tommy, didn’t you?” I redirected the line of questioning back to Angel.

“Yes, also at Corley’s request.”

“Someone go get Corley, he needs to hear this,” Faust said, but nobody moved.  “Felippo, you go and get him.”

The swarthy man’s lips pouted at the order.  “I don’t want to miss anything.”

“Have Brody go fetch him, he’s right outside the door,” I suggested.  “You’re right, Corley should be here to defend himself.”  I didn’t want to miss this opportunity to bring everything out into the open.