Jade (22 page)

* * * *

She laughed when she saw the list that Rose had given Tuck. Her name was Ellen Smythe and she was one of the players in the tournament, a local, human, very highly ranked in the chess world.

“Okay, Jade. This is a test she has thrown your way. You have to remember when Jane was turned she had just turned eighteen, she was still in her rebellious turned independent phase, and when she left, that had not changed. Mom wanted to control her and she was in your face not going to happen. Your choices are to please Mom and her suggestions are straight out of
Jane Eyre,
or you can please your gal, or you can go with something in between and make your own statement at the same time. Now Jane, she would probably wear cut off shorts and a raggedy T-shirt.”

“What will others that are competing and attending be wearing?” I asked.

“Truth is,” she replied, “the vamps are going to wear whatever they feel like. It could be something from the era they were turned in, it could be something contemporary, or it could be something totally off the wall. One year we had a vamp in his PJs, I think it was to distract his opponents, but this type of thing is not unusual. Really, anything goes. A lot of the humans will be in some type of formal wear, or even power business wear, but there are really no guidelines here.”

“Tell me about this chess tournament,” I said.

“Vamps have a lot of time on their hands and live a long time. Most are into long-term strategy vamp games and politics. Chess is the perfect game for them and is very popular among the vamp crowd. The problem was one of recognition. All the regular tournaments are held in the daytime, Jane’s mom came up with the idea to have one that vamps could also compete in at night. It has become hugely popular and has given some of the vamp players the recognition they felt they deserved. All of the best vamp players will be competing, along with many of the human ones, unfortunately there are some that still refuse to play with vampires.”

I knew how this felt. Many angels played chess as well, sometimes there was a lot of downtime and it was good friendly competition. I preferred weapons training whenever I had a chance, the business of death never stopped.

There were rows and blocks of name brand outfitters in Guildford and we had no difficulty finding what we needed, once I decided how I was going to play it. I couldn’t believe I was put in the middle on this one. I was convinced a compromise was possible that would make a statement at the same time.

Ellen seemed pleased with what I finally settled on. I kept the rebellious look but kept it classy enough to hopefully please Jane’s mom as well. I bought two of everything, that would be my statement, we would be matching even to the accessories and bone-stomping boots, it would proclaim us as being together as a couple. I even got my black underwear, black panty hose, black leather jacket, a rose-colored blouse that I felt would show who we were rooting for, and some classy but not very expensive jewelry and purses.

We walked back to the Angel Hotel, Ellen leaving me about halfway to go to her hotel. She said that she would see us tonight in the Gold Room.

The venue that Rose had selected many years ago was going to prove interesting,
I thought.

* * * *

Dusk was approaching and I sure hoped that neither Jane nor Rose would be displeased with my selections. Still, I wished we were dancing again.

“Nice,” Jane said.

We do look good,
I thought.

“Mom might actually not cringe when she sees it but it will make her uncomfortable. I like it.”

Friar Tuck had rented us a limo for the night and he would be going with us. We would pick up Ellen on the way.

“Ellen and Rose are good friends and very evenly matched in their chess game,” Tuck said. “Both of them have won this tournament in the past, I believe it is three wins apiece. There is a friendly competition with them, Ellen lives only a few blocks away from Rose in London and they have a standing Wednesday date for a chess match. Most of them end in draws.”

“For the last five years, a man named Clive Wishmeister has won the tournament. He had been a pretty strong player but all of a sudden and shortly before he got that big part on that American TV show, he started winning every tournament he entered. Rose tells me his game is better but not that much better, he seems to have good fortune with his opponents making some big mistakes or just not being quite on their game. Rose and Ellen both are determined to put an end to his win streak this year.”

“I have seen him on TV,” I said. “That’s a pretty funny show. He plays a lawyer but everybody thinks he really is the devil. They keep killing him off and he keeps somehow coming back, surviving the attempts to kill him off.”

Jane said, “Not only is he winning chess tournaments and starring on a TV show, he has also edged in on a lot of my mom’s business interests and his business interests are not very savory ones. My sources over here say he runs several gambling and prostitution houses and he is heavily into the black market and gun running.”

“This should be fun,” I said. I wasn’t a big fan of chess but this might make things interesting. As we were passing a local shop on the way to pick up Ellen at her hotel, my nose tickled. Not only did I smell wine, I smelled cigars. My dragon started telling me to stop and stop now.

“Stop,” I told the driver and telling Tuck and Jane that I would be right back, I let myself out the door and entered the shop, a little place selling a good variety of wines and cigars called Bacchus, after the God of wine. Entering the door was like entering paradise. I picked out the wine and I let my dragon chose the cigars, I would sniff each one and she would give me a yay or nay. I ended up with several bottles of wine and about a half dozen cigars, a couple of which I stuck in my jacket pocket. I hoped to get a chance to smoke one tonight.

“Sorry about that,” I explained as I got back in the car carrying my wine and cigars. “My dragon loves cigars,” and I took one out and sniffed it some more.

“I love cigars as well,” Tuck said and I showed him my choices, asking him if he’d have a chance to join me in a smoke tonight. Jane thought it was pretty funny.

The Polesdon Lacey House was beautiful from the outside and just as gorgeous on the inside. The matches would be played in the Gold Room, which had some seating around the tables,with additional seating in the sitting room where they had some TV screens set up for us to watch the action from there. Most of the big-wig dignitaries got the Gold Room seating, there was even a member of the Royal family present. Jane and I got a spot in the sitting room where they were serving drinks, including bottled blood. Unfortunately, we would not be dancing tonight.

Rose came over as soon as we entered the sitting room. She and Jane stopped about a foot from each other, neither wanting to make the first move. She looked exactly like her daughter, just a smaller version. Not as tall or athletic looking but she appeared to be in her late twenties when she was turned. The same signature red hair, looking at them you might think they were sisters instead of mother and daughter. I gave Jane a not too subtle push forward and they hugged each other. Rose had a few tears in her eyes and Jane looked like she was close to tears as well.

Jane turned to me and introduced me as her girlfriend and Rose gave me a hug as well. Things were going nicely. I had been so worried. Rose even complimented me on my choice of outfits for us, saying that I had done well under the circumstances. It made me feel good.

Rose took Jane over to say hello to one of her old acquaintances and I made the rounds around the room meeting and greeting. I met Clive in the corner. He had two bodyguards with him. I smelled the guns on them and I didn’t like the feel of them at all. Human but not human, I guessed, demon possessed, some mid-tier demon and angel of hell whose spirit had taken over the human one it was possessing. My angel instincts perked up even more when I met Clive, his demon was hard to read, buried under layers of shielding but I knew this was no ordinary demon, upper tier angel of hell surely, possibly even Lucifer himself. All my instincts screamed out for me to attack. Possessing a human in such a way was an abomination to God.

“Jade,” he said. “I have heard so much about you from my friends in the Southern Territory. Now that I have met you, I am beginning to understand why. You ruined some of my plans there, Jade,” he continued. “I will enjoy killing you.”

“We shall see who kills whom,” I replied, letting my witch surface and letting him see my full magic. His bodyguards actually took a step back before stepping forward again and drawing him away from me. I stood there watching him, thinking again about the plans of God and the choice I had made.
I would continue to do what I thought was the right thing to do,
I determined.
Maybe that was God’s plan for me.

Jane came over, asking why I had gone so still and quiet and asking what I thought of the TV star. “Remind me to kill him before we leave tonight, “ I told her.

Chapter Thirty-One

“Not in front of Mom,” Jane had said. “She would kick me off the island this time and I would be back to square one.”

A dilemma for me, this one,
I thought as we watched the TV screens in the sitting room, first round matches were wrapping up. Rose and Ellen had breezed through their matches and had joined us along with Tuck at a table. We were watching Clive playing with his opponent, drawing the match out unnecessarily according to both Rose and Ellen.

“It’s almost the same with every match he plays,” Ellen said. It’s as if he plays for a draw every time, then his opponent will make some bonehead move and he pounces.”

“Typical demon behavior,” I responded. “He doesn’t want you to think you were beaten by a better opponent. He would rather you think you are stupid and beat yourself up constantly over it. He wants you to think about it, remembering how dumb and inadequate you felt.”

They were all staring at me now. I had not yet had a chance to tell Jane why I wanted to kill him.

“Demon?” Rose asked me but looking at Jane instead. Jane gave a slight nod, letting her know she believed me.

“Not just any demon,” I responded. “I believe it is Lucifer that possesses the body of Clive. What is left of Clive is just a shadow, only enough to keep the body running, the Devil himself is now in charge.”

Complete silence at the table. We had been talking in low voices, almost whispering so others would not hear.

“This is exactly how I felt when he beat me in the finals last year,” Rose said. “I kicked myself over and over for being such an idiot, replaying the game in my mind again and again asking myself, what was I thinking?”

“Angels don’t cheat,” I said. “For a demon, they would cheat even if they didn’t have to.”

“The little fuck,” Rose said. “I will kill him.”

“You will have to get in line,” I told her. “He is behind this mess in the Southern Territory. He told me himself. He wants me to know.”

“Let me ask you, Jade,” Rose said. “Do you know how he is cheating and is there a way you can stop it?”

“He is probably using his power to influence his opponents causing confusion and befuddlement. He is a master of the art of indecision, wanting you to be so unsure of things that you eventually just do something even if you don’t know the consequences. Look at his opponent,” I said, looking up at the monitor. “She looks like she has no clue what she is doing. Notice how her moves have become tentative. She will reach out as if to move a piece then withdraw her hand before touching it. The last few moves she has made have been just as her time is almost up, probably made in desperation.”

“Can you stop him from cheating, Jade?” Ellen asked. She was scheduled to be his next opponent when he won this match.

“Maybe,” I responded. “I would have to be in the same room,” I added.

“I have a feeling our Royal retinue in there is about to be called away on important business,” Rose said. “That table in the Gold Room will become ours in time for his match with Ellen.”

Just as Rose had predicted, the member of the Royal family departed shortly after that and Rose, as host, led us to the table in the Gold Room, leaving herself a spot open. She had a match as well but said it would not take long and she was right. She crushed her opponent in short order, Tuck called it an all out assault, precise and vicious in execution, leaving nothing in reserve. Rose wanted to be with us watching Clive and Ellen’s match and she joined us before anything significant had happened.

Clive had noted our presence in the room with what looked like amusement. He had given me a look letting me see a very brief flash of yellow in his eyes, trying to scare me. From that I guessed he still didn’t know what I was or who I had been. This pleased me and I gave him a smile and flash of fangs in return. “Bitch,” I mouthed at him. He chuckled and turned back to his game.

Ellen had been playing very conservatively they both had been making pretty standard moves. As per plan, as soon as Rose finished her match and joined us, Ellen began to attack. I felt Clive’s influence move out of him toward her and I blocked it easily. He spared me a surprised glance, doubling his efforts. It became a contest of wills. His power was well known among angels but he wasn’t in full manifested form and he was limited much as I was and I was no slouch in the power department either. Still it was a great effort to keep his influence at bay and I began to sweat with the effort. Jane, placed a cup of coffee in front of me and I spared her a momentary glance of thanks. I needed all the energy I had and more.