Out for Blood (21 page)

Kosmina handed them each a glass. Tatiana met the servant’s eyes for reassurance. She smiled slightly. “I hope you find it to your liking, my lady.”

“I’m sure I will.” She raised her glass. “To the future.” She looked directly at Svetla. “And new beginnings.”

“To new beginnings,” the vampiress repeated.

“To new beginnings,” Daci agreed.

Hades help her, this might actually work. She lifted the glass and sipped, tasting nothing but the champagne’s soft, creamy bubbles.

Kosmina opened the door to the gardens. “Enjoy your evening, my lady.”

Tatiana strolled through with Daci and Svetla on her heels.

Half of Svetla’s champagne was already gone. Greedy pig. “Daci, bring the bottle, will you? Shouldn’t let something so delicious go to waste.”

Daci nodded and ducked back inside. Tatiana continued on. “Do you have gardens like this in St. Petersburg? I saw very little of Grigor’s estate when I was there last.” Mostly because they’d kept her waiting outside the council chambers for so bloody long.

“Not quite this grand.” Svetla held out her glass for Daci to top it off. “Although we do have a skating pond in ours.” She drank a little more.

Tatiana swallowed another small mouthful. “Skating? How lovely.” If you were too stupid to find other ways to amuse yourself. She glanced back. A little farther from the house and she’d begin.

Daciana chimed in, the bottle swinging in one hand, her glass in the other. “I loved to skate when I was a girl. Did you learn as a child, Svetla?”

She finished a sip before answering. “In Russia, all children learn to skate early.” She blinked hard, then lifted her glass. “This is the best champagne I’ve ever had. I feel wonderful.”

“I’m so glad,” Tatiana lied. “I’d be happy to send a bottle home with you.”

Svetla stopped. “You would?”

“We’re starting on new ground, aren’t we? I think a gift between friends would be… a nice way to cement that.” Especially since Svetla wouldn’t be going home.

Svetla’s mouth curved oddly. A second later, she threw her arms around Tatiana. “I’ve been so cruel to you. I am sorry.”

Tatiana stopped herself just in time from thrusting Svetla away. She held still while the intoxicated Russian hugged her. “There, there. It’s all behind us now.”

Daci took both their glasses between her fingers, rolling her eyes and almost causing Tatiana to laugh. “Let’s sit on this bench and enjoy the night, shall we?”

Tatiana pried Svetla off her. “Brilliant idea.” They were far enough from the house now to be well away from any eavesdropping guests.

The three of them settled onto the bench, Svetla in the middle. She was on the verge of becoming maudlin, mumbling something about how hard it was to please Grigor and how she longed for other female friends. How much laudanum had Kosmina coated her glass with?

Tatiana patted her on the back. “You know what you should do?”

Svetla looked at her. “What?”

Tatiana peered deeply into the other woman’s eyes and laced power into her voice. “You should steal Lilith. Take her for your own.”

Svetla nodded.

So Tatiana continued. “As everyone is preparing for daysleep, you will remain awake. You will sneak into the nursery and take her.”

“I will sneak into the nursery and take her,” Svetla repeated, her eyes round and glassy.

“If you are caught, you will claim Grigor charged you with committing the act. It was all his idea.”

“All his idea.”

Tatiana laid her hand over Svetla’s and smiled. “We are good friends, you and I. I would never do anything to hurt you. Which is why you won’t remember we’ve had this conversation.”

“I won’t remember.” Svetla had barely moved since Tatiana had begun.

Daci glanced over Svetla’s shoulder, brows lifted in question.

Tatiana nodded.

“Well,” Daci started. “You look a little tired, Svetla. Shall I help you back to your quarters so you can lie down?”

“What?” Svetla blinked a few times. “I… I am feeling a little odd. Perhaps I drank too much champagne.”

Daci scooped her arm under Svetla’s and helped her to her feet. “I believe I read that the alcohol gets stronger when it sits for so long like that. I feel a bit dizzy myself.” She laughed and made a show of leaning against Svetla, who almost fell over.

“Here, let me help you both,” Tatiana offered. She might as well. It was the last nice thing she’d ever have to pretend to do with Svetla again.

Chapter Twenty

D
oc never thought he’d be so happy to see the penthouse.

Isaiah met him at the door, his face shifting from fearful to relieved a second after he opened it. “Good to have you home, sir. We were so worried.”

We
were worried? He knew Isaiah couldn’t be including Heaven in that. “I told you not to call me that.”

“Yes, you did. My apologies.” He bowed a little. “Is there anything I can get you?”

“Dinner.” Not that he had much of an appetite with Fi missing and Mal taking his place in that damned square, but it would occupy Isaiah.

As soon as the man left, Doc popped another K to stifle the heat that had been growing in him since the cops had laid hands on him. Then he settled onto the couch and exhaled a long breath. Damn, it was nice to be somewhere that didn’t involve chains. “TV on.”

The holovision flared to life and there was Mal, hung out for all to see. Doc cursed. He was thankful to Mal, but if given the option, he wouldn’t have let Mal take the punishment. Still, he understood. Mal had whispered his reasons as they’d passed in the square. Doc had to give him props for strategy.

“That should be you.”

“Keep it to yourself, Heaven. Now is
not
the time.” He didn’t give her the satisfaction of eye contact, although he could see her well enough with his peripheral vision. Hard to miss a woman in a red dress so tight it looked on the verge of exploding.

With a pout, she tottered to the bar in her spike heels and poured a drink, then leaned against the bar and took a sip. “If you hadn’t gone out after that
vac—”

He whipped his head toward her. “You want to spend the night somewhere else? Because I
will
put you out.”

“You cannot put me out. I am your wife.”

He pinned her with his gaze. “I’m the pride leader. I can do whatever the hell I want.” He lifted his finger to point at her. “Say one more word. One. More. Go ahead, I just need a reason.”

She snorted a breath through her nostrils, flipped her hair over her shoulder, and, drink in hand, sashayed out.

Shaking his head, he settled back against the leather. A soft buzzing interrupted his thoughts. He sat up and looked around but saw nothing that seemed like it might make that sound. A few seconds after he’d gone back to staring at the TV screen, Isaiah came in.

“Pardon the interruption, but the council members would like an audience.”

He rubbed a hand over his scalp. “Now? Here?”

“As soon as you can meet them in your office, si—Maddoc.”

He needed to talk to them anyway; he’d just figured he’d do it in the morning, once he knew the outcome of tonight’s events. He glanced at the holovision. From what he could see, the crowds were still being turned away. The cameras focused on Mal, and the reporter was now only visible in a small box in the lower corner of the screen. Mal was doing that still-as-a-statue thing old vampires had a real knack for. Must be driving the TV stations nuts that he wasn’t thrashing around, trying to break free.

“Tell them ten minutes. I’ll head down now.”

Isaiah nodded. “Very good.”

Doc got up as Isaiah left. What he really wanted was a hot shower, but that would have to wait. He jumped into the elevator and went down to his office. He nodded in greeting to the night-shift guards. One opened the door for him and the lights came on slowly to their preset brightness.

He stopped before going in. “Council’s coming in a few minutes.”

“You want them sent in as they arrive?” the guard asked.

“That’s fine.”

“Will do.”

Doc went in and shut the door. Like everything else in his life lately, the place reeked of Sinjin. If this pride leader business turned out to be a permanent thing, something he still had his doubts about, he was definitely going to make some changes.

The light on the e-reader on his desk blinked at him. He turned it on and a message greeted him, telling him the last fourteen editions of the
Paradise City Press
were unread. Headlines from the latest one scrolled across the bottom of the message box. No surprise that the mayor’s curfew was mentioned.

He turned the e-reader off and the holovision on, keeping the volume low. He just needed to monitor the situation, in case Mal needed him. No telling what the mayor might try to pull at the last second.

The door opened and two of his three advisers entered.

“Where’s Fritz?”

Barasa cleared his throat. “I’m very sorry, but he’s quit.”

Doc furrowed his brow. “He quit? Why?”

Omur glanced at Barasa. “He was Sinjin’s man, Maddoc. Be glad he’s gone.”

Doc nodded. “In that case, I am.” He gestured to the sofa and chairs in front of his desk. “Sit, please.”

Omur, a cheetah-shifter, sat last. From what little Doc knew of him, Omur didn’t seem like he’d ever been in Sinjin’s pocket. His words about Fritz confirmed that. “First, we want you to know how pleased we are that you were released. We were prepared to break you out.”

“I’m not sure how helpful that would have been to the situation, but thanks.”

Omur nodded. “We also feel like the time has come to make a statement about the mayor’s curfew.”

“Club numbers were almost half tonight.” Barasa was the pride’s chief physician. The tiger-shifter sighed, clearly frustrated. “Folks are afraid to come out.”

Doc leaned his forearms on his desk. “I hear you. It’s not good for business and it’s not good for the morale of the pride. Have you put any kind of statement together?”

Omur shrugged. “We didn’t want to overstep our—”

Doc held a hand up. “It’s for the good of the pride, isn’t it?”

They nodded.

“Then it’s not overstepping any bounds to get something together. I don’t know how Sinjin would have looked at it, but I’m guessing a lot differently. Forget Sinjin. He’s gone. And I don’t do things like he did. You’ve got to get that.” He took a breath and made brief eye contact with both of them. “Things have been tense since I’ve taken over. Just the circumstances under which I got here have caused cracks in the pride’s loyalties. Fritz and Brutus are proof of that.”

Omur steepled his fingers. “Until
that
situation is resolved, it won’t get better.”

Doc leaned back in his chair. “The vampire Malkolm took my place tonight.” He pointed at the TV. “If not for him, I’d still be chained in the middle of the square. My final word on the Brutus situation is that Malkolm’s act tonight pays his debt. Understood?”

“Understood,” they spoke the word almost in unison.

A new sense of confidence spread through Doc. “Before we work on this statement, there’s another thing I need to talk about.”

Their gazes stayed on him, filled with expectation.

He swallowed and prepared himself for the fight that was sure to come. “I want to divorce Heaven.”

By the time Lola got home, most of her staff was in bed, the same place she planned to be as soon as she scrubbed off the day’s grime. Whatever sleep she could get would have to suffice. In a few hours, she’d have to be up again to deal with the new challenges as they arose. Fallout from the curfew would be a big part of that. She sighed. The job never got easier, but the curfew was a step in the right direction. Both the othernatural and human communities would learn to either get along or pay the price if they wanted to live in her city. They’d also learn she was not afraid of either of them.

As quietly as she could, she made her way to the master suite. She flipped the light on with one hand as she struggled to get out of her suit jacket with the other. Shedding it, she turned around and almost screamed. Her hand went to the gun in her waistband. She brandished it at the intruder. “Who the hell are you? How did you get in here?”

“Mayor.” The well-dressed vampire sitting in her reading chair nodded in greeting. Behind him, the sheers waved gently where the sliding door was still open a few inches. “I am Dominic Scarnato.” Even without the name, his accent gave away his nationality. He stood with more than the usual vampire grace. “I apologize for my intrusion, but we have business to discuss and your
curfew
makes it otherwise impossible for me to meet with you.” He pointed at the gun she currently aimed at him. “That endangers you far more than it does me.”

She held the gun steady anyway, a triumph considering the adrenaline coursing through her veins. “What business could we possibly have to discuss?”

“My business. I own the nightclub Seven. You may have heard of it. The tax revenues alone probably pay city hall’s electric bill.”