Rising Son (The Juliana Lucio Series) (15 page)

I was instantly ready to go back to my room and finish what we never really got started on when Christian showed. It must have been pretty obvious in the way I was looking at him because my thoughts were interrupted by an annoying voice I didn’t think I’d ever get used to hearing.

“Get a room would you.”

“Gladly,” William replied as he made his way quickly to me and pulled me in for a deep hard kiss, “I love it when you look at me like
that
.”

“Like what?” I asked him trying to dodge his fangs that were starting to reveal themselves.

“Like there’s no one else around, like there never has been, like there never will be again,” he told me as he started to kiss me along my neck.

“Yeah, well, there are other people around so knock it off. You need to change, Juliana we have a meeting with the Coven.”

This did pull me away from William, and I really looked at Victoria for the first time since walking in the door. She no longer looked sweet or innocent, and she certainly didn’t look 17. She had her light brown hair down in long loose curls along her back, and was wearing pants so tight I wondered if they were a new type of latex paint or really jeans. She had a blood red silk blouse on that matched her lipstick perfectly. She looked like she was out to catch prey of more than one variety. My gaze drifted down her intentionally seductive attire to her stiletto heels that looked suspiciously like the ones Ana would turn into silver spiked weapons.

Great, just what I needed; Victoria armed.

“Now?”

“Yes, now, do you have a problem with that?” Victoria chimed in.

“Oh, this is going to be a joy having her here, let me go change.”

I left Ana who was always impeccably dressed with Victoria while I ran upstairs to change with William following close behind me.

“What is her problem?” I hissed as soon as I shut the door behind me, “Is she always going to be like this?”

“As long as she knows it’s going to bother you, yeah. She doesn’t have to impress the mother of her boyfriend or ex-boyfriend, she’s centuries older than you, don’t let her looks deceive you.”

“Okay, okay, but she can lose some of the attitude don’t you think. After all, she is the one that kidnapped my son, not the other way around.”

“Yes, well that is also debatable as she says that she was working undercover trying to stay close to Nathaniel. No one in the Council knows when or where the Coven plans on outing vampirekind. We need her, don’t forget what our mission. We need to stop the Coven.”

I was trading my workout pants for a pair of jeans; there was no way I was dressing up tonight.

“I still don’t trust her.”

I looked up from my search of my shoes to see William standing by the bed holding my heels in his hand, “She tried to get Christian out of that building before anything could happen to him she didn’t want to see him hurt or used either. I know he’s your son, but you need to be reasonable about this.”

“I am being reasonable, I’m agreeing to work with her aren’t
I
? I trust your judgment on that matter. I’m just refusing to let her around my son again. Why are you holding my heels? I’m not wearing those, I need my running shoes. I hate heels.”

“They’ll look great with those jeans,” he said eyeing me up and down, “and that sweater.”

I had put on a deep purple V-neck sweater that hugged my curves.

“Besides, these have silver spiked heels in them, you’re running shoes don’t. You are wearing these, love, whether you like heels or not,” he said still holding them out to me.

“You’ve gotten awfully bossy recently.”

William ca
me over and knelt in front of me lifting my
right foot onto his bent leg. He pulled off my sock and kissed my ankle then slid the shoe onto my foot before putting it back onto the floor, and doing the same with the other. When he had finished he stood up and took my face into his hands and kissed me gently, I felt the fire of it all the way down to my core.

“It’s because I love you. I will go to the ends of the earth to keep you safe, and even keep you from wearing those disgusting running shoes if I have to.”

“Oh they aren’t that disgusting,” I said laughing, grabbing his hand in mine.

We made our way downstairs to find Ana and Victoria waiting for us impatiently, they looked like they had just been arguing about something; stopping at our arrival.

“It’s about time. We can take my car,” Victoria said turning on her heel scratching out part of the floor as she went.

“Hey watch the floor!”

“No, Jules and I are taking my bike. Ana?”

“I’ll follow too; I have to make a stop on the way back.”

“This is isn’t how it’s supposed to go?”

“How what’s supposed to go? You aren’t in charge here.”

Victoria flashed over to me almost as quickly as her sire Nathaniel had been. I couldn’t see her move, even with my vampire sight, but I could sense her. She was before me with her hand on my throat before I could move. I didn’t need to breathe so it was more a threat of how quick she was, how easily she could get to me than anything.

“And neither are you, newborn.”

“Get your hands off me.”

I felt my compulsion snap to attention in an instant. It was coming to me quicker and more easily than ever. I hadn’t used it on her, but I didn’t have any qualms about doing so.

“Look you two, we need to leave. Save the fighting for the real enemy. Juliana, drop it.”

Ana was referring to the compulsion; she didn’t say it out right in case Victoria couldn’t sense it. Ana was very sensitive to my using it because she was my sire. Victoria wasn’t letting go of me.

“The only reason you were able to kill Nathaniel was because William did it for you don’t think you’ll get that chance with me.”

“I said let go of me,” I moved to grab her hand from around my throat, but she blocked it hitting my arm with a strength that was flooring.

William stepped forward clearly ready to separate us. I didn’t need him thinking I couldn’t handle myself though.  Ana didn’t seem concerned, she knew what was coming. I had done this to her before. I let my compulsion go looking Victoria in the eye.

“Victoria, let go of me now,” there was fierceness in my voice that had more anger to it than I realized I held.

She dropped her hand and looked at me with an almost blank look on her face. I threw out my leg, catching her ankle and dropping her to the floor. She landed flat on her back and still looked at me blankly.

“Jules, you made your point. Let’s go.”

“I haven’t made my point. She needs to understand that I won’t allow her to bully me simply because she thinks she can.”

I glanced up at Ana who was looking at me, not giving away her opinion on what I should do. I knew that if I could have fought back against Ana while I was still a human I would have. I couldn’t fight then, but I certainly could now. I stood over Victoria putting the heel of my st
iletto over her heart; if I cho
se too I could stake her here and now. Everyone knew it but Victoria, and it was time she found that out.

“Victoria, I release you, but I’d move carefully.”

She blinked her eyes seeing me standing over her, her fangs instantly dropped, and her eyes turned black. Before she could attempt to move me, I slid the tip of my heel between the button of her shirt placing the silver tip directly on her skin. She let out a vicious his
s as her skin started to sizzle,
stinging my nostrils. I looked down at her not moving.

“Now that I have your attention I want to make something very clear. You will not ever attack me again. As you can see I am perfectly capable of defending myself without Ana or William’s assista
nce, and I have no apprehension
about doing so.”

The stench of her burning skin was starting to permeate the room, and I moved my heel just enough to keep it off her skin, but left it over her heart.

“I will work with you. I don’t trust you, but I trust Ana and William. So, I will work with you. You will, however, stay the hell away from Christian or I don’t honestly know that I can control myself next time.”

As I started to remove my foot, I looked down at her and saw the anger and resentment she had in the depths of her eyes. I stopped my leave and instead leaned down to look her in the eye one final time. I didn’t need compulsion this time.

“If you attempt to betray us, if I think you are going to do something to jeopardize
the existence of Ana or William,
I will kill you.”

I stepped off her then reached my hand out to help her off the floor.

I found myself walking into a house of Coven members. Instead of the overwhelming midnight rave we were at in New York, this time we met at an ordinary house, in an ordinary neighborhood; the company, however, was everything but. There were only a handful of vampires this time instead of
the
thronging crowd like before, but they weren’t any less intimidating. The only one I recognized was Michael, their leader. He was lounging on the couch as though he were a carefree man who had never once had the thought of world domination on his mind. He was just as striking as he was the last time I had met him, his light brown eyes twinkling as he laughed at a joke. It was so hard to believe this man was the monster I saw that first night I met him.

“Gloria! How good of you to make it and I see your friends have found their way back to us. I wasn’t sure where they had gone.”

Michael stood from the couch with a feline grace as he came over and took my hand in his, kissing my knuckles. His eyes didn’t stray from mine as he brushed his lips across the top of my hand. I could feel William tensing up next to me the longer Michael stood there.

“Michael, it’s good to see you again,” William said holding out his hand to shake Michael’s, clearly trying to break him away from me.

As Michael turned to look at William his fang scraped along my skin drawing the smallest amount of blood. It wouldn’t have even been noticeable to a human, but every vampire in the room stopped what they were doing to look over at us. Michael’s eyes were no longer on my own, but on William’s whose eyes had instantly turned black. I tried to pull my hand away, but he held it firmly to his lips not letting go. He turned his eyes back to me and licked the small amount of blood from my hand before returning it to me.

“My apologies, a complete accident.”

“Of course.”

I took a quick look at William who still seemed as though he was ready to attack Michael if he so much as glanced my way again. Talk about the vampire version of a male pissing contest.

“William, it’s fine,” I said tugging on his arm, bringing his attention back to me. He retracted his fangs, but his eyes stayed their stormy black. They would probably be like that for a while; he was definitely the jealous type.

Ana hadn’t reacted more than stiffening slighting at the smell of my blood. She was standing on the other side me. The two always seemed to flank me like my own personal guard.

“Hello, Michael I missed you,” Victoria said pushing her way through us.

She pressed herself onto Michael pulling his mouth to hers and gave him a kiss that left little to the imagination. Once they had pulled themselves apart, and we were all still standing there unsure what we should be doing with ourselves. Michael looked at Victoria and saw the small round burn mark on her chest. It was inflicted from silver so it was still healing.

“What is this?” He brushed apart the folds of her shirt with the gentlest of touches.

“Oh, someone just has a hard time sharing. There was a fight over a pair of shoes. You know how it goes with girls, especially with newborns.”

“Over a pair of shoes?” he asked a little bit incredulously, “I don’t think I’ll ever understand the female gender.”

Victoria shot me a murderous look as she spoke to Michael.

“Don’t worry,
you know how getting back at someone is what I’m best at.”

“Oh dear, Gloria, you had better find somewhere else to sleep tonight. There is always room in my bed you know,” Michael offered me as his full lips turned up into a seductive smile.

“Thanks for the offer, but I’m more than happy right where I am.” I told him, pulling William closer to my side, “Besides I think we all know I’m perfectly capable of defending myself, right Victoria?” I told them all with my most sickly sweet voice.

“Oh, whatever.”

Victoria pushed past Michael and went into the next room with a trail of laughter following after her.

“Come sit down, it’s good to see you. After our visit in New York, I wasn’t sure when I would have the chance again.”

The three of us started following him into the living room of the house. There were four other vampires in the room having a conversation on their own. The house was a small suburban mid-sized home. It looked to be about three bedrooms, two bathrooms. It had mismatched furniture, but was clean and obviously cared for. There were pictures on the walls of children playing various sports and standing in front of Christmas trees.

“I have to say this isn’t exactly the kind of place I expected you to live in.”

The homely atmosphere did have its own way of putting me at ease though. A woman walking into the room started laughing a high shrill laugh that sucked away all of my momentary calm.

“Oh, please, like we would ever be caught living or dead in a place like this.”

The woman moved with a feral like grace. It was easy to tell you wouldn’t be able to catch her off her guard. She glided over to us with her shoulders back and not a single black hair on her head out of place. She licked her lips as a drop of blood started to escape from her perfect pout.

“This shack belongs to a cute little human family; they’re letting us borrow it for the time being.”

She was trailing her fingers along Michael’s shoulders, looking William over like she was a starving animal while speaking to me.

“Quite generous of them don’t you think?”

There was a pitiful whimpering coming from one of the back bedrooms, it must be from the family whose
house this was
and
from
whom she had obviously just fed.

“Yes,” I said clearing my throat remembering that I needed to fit in, “very generous.”

“William, how I missed you. It has certainly been too long.”

The woman came over to William. She was just a few inches shorter than his 6’2” and was incredibly slender. Standing before William she was the perfect height to lean over and kiss him which she tried to do, except he turned away at the last moment giving her his cheek.

“Monica, I don’t believe you’ve met Gloria yet.”

She turned giving me an icy glare, “So, this little thing has stolen you away from me?”

“I don’t remember him ever being yours to steal,” Ana chimed in.

Michael let out a huge bark of laughter. He had gone back to relax on the couch. “You certainly have a way of making new friends don’t you Gloria.”

“It would certainly appear that way.”

I started making my way to the couch opposite of Michael. At least he seemed easier to deal with than Monica.

“I don’t like this, Michael. How do we know we can trust her? Let me compel her to find out if she had anything to do with Nathaniel’s death.”

“No, Bastian said they’re on our side, I trust him. Victoria was there; don’t you think she would tell us if it was Gloria that had anything to do with it?”

I inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. I knew she couldn’t compel me, but I did
n’t want to have to start lying,
at least not this early in the game.
I was about to step further in
to the living room when Monica put her hand on my shoulder turning me around to face her. Before I even had a chance to realize what she was doing, I could feel pressure banging on the walls of my psyche.

“Were you there the night Nathaniel was killed? Do you know who killed him?”

She pushed the force of her will into me. She must be incredibly old because it’s the only time I was tempted to answer anyone who tried to compel me. I fought against the strain and pushed back at her.

“The next
time
you want to know something just ask, but if you’re going to try to compel me you’ll have to do a better job than that.”

I shook her arm off my shoulder and turned back finally making my way into the living room. Victoria was standing in the corner of the room with a completely expressionless appearance, watching the entire interaction play out before her.

Behind me I heard Michael yell, “Stop!” I turned just in time to see Monica reaching for me once again. Michael tore across the room at lightning speed taking hold of Mo
nica’s arm ripping it completely
out of the socket with a bone crunching snap. He stood over her as she collapsed to her knees clutching her empty shoulder joint in utter agony. Blood was pouring from the gaping hole onto the carpet making a pool of blood surrounding her.

Michael leaned over Monica his face contorted in rage, “I told you not to compel her and I said I trusted them.”

He waved her severed arm at her the way an angry owner would wave a stick at a dog. He looked at what he held in his hand and threw it across the room to land in the corner.

“Should there be a next time, I will tear all your limbs from you a piece at a time, and throw them into the fire until they burn to ash. There will be no reattaching them. There will be no disobeying me. Is that understood?”

“Y-yes, Master,” she wept at his feet.

“Is that understood?
” Michael yelled into the room. Every vampire that had been there with him previously yelled out at once that they too understood.

Michael turned to me where I stood frozen with fear as Monica crawled across the floor to retrieve her torn arm. He came over taking both my hands in his smearing Monica’s blood on them as he did it.

“Are you okay?”

I glanced over at Monica trying to reattach her arm to her body. She held it to her empty socket as it appeared to stitch itself back together. “Me? I’m fine, that wasn’t . . . umm necessary, really.”

“But, it was. I don’t tolerate betrayal or insubordination from anyone.”

“I see--well thanks, I guess. I suppose it’s a good thing that Bastian vouched for me then?” I laughed a little wearily at my bad attempt at humor.

“It’s a very good thing.”

“Michael,” William came over taking my waist and leading me to the couch, “why haven’t you returned any of my calls? Things have been in a bit of an uproar since Nathaniel, and it would have
been
nice to hear from you. A little reassurance that whoever killed him didn’t get to you as well.”

William cut straight to it didn’t he. I was starting to think it would be a great idea to not piss this guy off any further.

“Yes,” Ana cut in, “we had to go all the way to New York to find out what was going on. Would you care to fill us in or is Chicago completely ready to go?”

Oh sweet Lord they are both going to get us killed.

“Well you two seem just a little bit angry tonight. I have my reasons for keeping quiet, and you’re here now right. Isn’t that all that matters? Besides you apparently are friends with the one person in Chicago I need on my side, so that makes you my new best friends as well.”

“If you aren’t going to keep us in the loop that means you don’t value what we have to contribute. If that’s the case, Michael, let us know now and we’ll find another city to go work with. Just keep in mind that if we go my child goes with us,” Ana said putting her hand on my shoulder from behind the couch.

“Your?” Michael looked from me to Ana and back again with a slightly baffled look to his face, “but why aren’t you . . .” obviously meaning with her instead of William.

“It is none of your damn business the Coven, however, is. Tell us what is going on or we all leave now.”

Michael gave each of us a hard look appearing to think inwardly about what he was going to do. Before he finally spoke he shot a meaningful look to Victoria, still standing in the corner, who nodded yes.

“Alright, we have some inside people at the Council. They’ve let us know that the Council is starting to send in covert agents to infiltrate us. They want to discover our plans in an attempt to sabotage them. We haven’t been able to discover any names yet, but we are working on it.”

“That’s crazy, the Council isn’t that smart,” William scoffed.

“
Well, I thought the same thing until Nathaniel was killed, then I had my doubts. As a matter of fact it isn’t that crazy, considering I have a double agent of my own, working for me supplying the information. Who’s to say that the Council can’t do the same?”

“So, that’s why you were avoiding us? You thought we were Council spies?”

“Not you specifically, I went off-line from everyone. If you found your way back to me you have to have a real connection, not a storyline fed by the Council.

Shows how much he really knows, the idiot.

“Makes sense, so who’s your inside man at the council?” William asked.

“Sorry, friend, can’t tell you. I can’t risk that information leaking to anyone.”

“Hey, don’t worry about it; no offense taken,” William told him with a congenial smile as his hand tightened slightly around mine.

If Michael was telling the truth then someone at the Council, who knew about Sub-Rosa, was betraying them. If he truly was the only one who knew who the traitor was; then I was the only one who could find out the truth. This meant I was going to have to get very close to him to do that. I would have to subtly compel him bits at a time for it to go unnoticed by him. The only way I could compel him, and be completely sure that others didn’t notice it was to be alone with him. It would be incredibly dangerous for me to do it, but even more so for the traitor to remain unknown.