Summoned to Rule Page 5

  The screaming around us stopped as the madness died with him. Whatever he was channeling couldn’t survive without him, and I turned to see an army of bewildered shoppers, all looking at each other with suspicion and fear.

  “We should leave,” I said. I grabbed her gun and put it in my pocket, then led the way through the crowd and back to the car.

  “See,” Bec said behind me. “We make a great team.”

  “We’ll talk about it later.”

  “Promise?”

  “Fine.”

  Chapter 9

  The red sedan had seen better days, but it got us to the vampire court. We parked across the road from the long line to get into the club it used as a front. The bumper fell off as we stopped.

  “I didn’t think he’d keep using this place,” I said. The first time I’d visited him he’d hadn’t been the king yet. The real king, Jeremiah, had crashed his party and told him the club wasn’t a respectable place for a vampire king to hold court.

  “He didn’t at first, but Ashe convinced him to keep it.”

  “Ashe?”

  “Blonde dreadlocks,” Bec said. She got out of the car and tried to close the door, but the car was too buckled and it wouldn’t stay closed. She slammed it again, then gave up and just left it open.

  We approached the club and skipped the line. The bouncer was a normal human, as far as I could tell; a tall blonde guy who looked more like a surfer than any of the punk or goth kids in the queue.

  “We’re here to see Artem,” Bec said. The last time she’d come she hadn’t been as confident, but the surfer moved the little piece of rope and let us right in.

  “Cool outfit,” he said, pointing to the blood staining my clothes.

  The inside of the club hadn’t changed; they’d spared every expense and it was little more than an abandoned building with good sound and a bar. A man stood on the stage at one end in front of a giant mixing board, surrounded by laser light.

  “How does he get anything done in here?” I said. The music was loud and obnoxious. Heavy beats and screaming voices blocked out any hope of a conversation.

  “What?” Bec said, as though to prove my point.

  She led me to the back, to another door with another bouncer. This one was a vampire, a well-built man in a fine suit. He waved a pass-key in front of a light beside the door, then opened it for us.

  At the bottom of the stairs beyond the door we reached the actual court of king Artem. None of the booming from the club made it down there, and we waited in a small waiting room while an attractive redhead went through the double doors to see if we were allowed in.

  “They aren’t fighting in the streets anymore,” I said. “But are they getting on?”

  “They have good days and bad. More good than bad, thankfully.” She patted my arm. “Thankfully, you’ve scared them enough that none of them have been to the bar to threaten me in a while.”

  The doors opened and the redhead waved us in. While Artem had gone for a noisy human place above ground, below he stuck to tradition. It was a dimly lit hall with a meeting table at one end and not a lot else throughout the room. He sat at the table with the former leader of the rebels, a vampire with a young woman’s body and long white dreadlocks.

  “Artem, Ashe.” I greeted him first, as was the custom.

  “Agmundr,” Artem said. He didn’t look happy to see me, but then, they never were.

  “Why are you here?” Ashe said. She looked even less happy to see me, somehow. Her fangs were out again, as though she expected she would need to fight at any moment.

  “I thought I’d check on you,” I said. I didn’t think it was wise to launch into asking them for a favor right away, especially when I didn’t really know what that favor looked like.

  “We are doing fine,” Artem said. He’d fully settled into his role as king, tweaking the illusion he showed the world until his old form was little more than a hint within the new. He was tall and well dressed, with black hair and an intense gaze. Perfect for a vampire king, if a little cliché.

  “We are getting somewhere,” Ashe said. She hadn’t changed her illusion at all.

  “As long as you aren’t fighting, I am happy,” I said.

  “Why are you here?” Ashe repeated.

  “I hear you have some problems and I was hoping I could help.” This was probably the best way to get a vampire king to help you out, in my experience. If you could be useful to them they would feel like they owed you something, though keeping them from a civil war should have been enough.

  “We have many problems,” Artem said. He leaned forward, his hands forming a steeple before his mouth. “You will have to be more specific.”

  Bec took over. “We had a run in with Chaos,” she said, pointing to the blood on my clothes. “Looks like we share at least one problem.”

  “And what is your place in things, girl?” Ashe said. If she didn’t like me she hated Bec. “Why are you always under foot?”

  “Just ambitious, I guess,” she replied. She wasn’t affected by the glare from the vampire, though she probably should have been. I wasn’t fully powered and she stood no chance in a fight with them.

  “Stop meddling in our affairs,” Ashe said.

  “Then get out of my city,” Bec replied.

  Artem was losing his patience, and Ashe had never had any. He looked like he was ready to leap out of his chair and do something.

  “Why don’t we all calm down?” I suggested. It felt odd being the one recommending everyone stop fighting, but that was my life now, it seemed.

  “Are you here to threaten us again?” Ashe said to me. “Do you want to start something the minute you get back into town?”

  They’d been watching for me. They’d known I was gone for six months, which told me a lot about their alliance; I suspected it was an alliance to deal with me more than each other. This was the right response to being threatened by me.

  “I want to ask a favor,” I said. “In exchange I will help you with any issues you have. Think of me as your bloody hands, although you’d be able to deny anything that happened.”

  Ashe started to object but Artem shut her up with a raised hand. The ease with which he did it was another sign of the power structure in their court, and one I was pleased to see. Artem was growing into his role in more ways than one.

  “What is the favor you want?” he said. He held my gaze; it was quite mesmerizing and I should have complimented him on it. I figured I’d wait for a private moment.

  “I have a bunch of people I want to bring into the city and I’d like your help keeping them under cover. There are unique problems with their situations and you are well placed to deal with them.”

  “Elaborate,” Ashe said. “That was too vague.”

  I wanted to shut her down and deal with the king, but the politics between them wasn’t clear enough and I couldn’t be sure how it would go. Which was a pity, because I thought Artem might have been helpful otherwise.

  “Are you aware of the gate?” I said.

  Artem nodded and Ashe sat back in her chair, shaking her head.

  “There are people on the other side who would like to make their home here. I have some work to do to make that possible, but once they come through I’d like them to be greeted with warmth and assistance.”

  “You’re talking about demons and hollow men?” Artem said. He saw the surprised look on my face. “Everyone knows about the hollow men, of course, but we’ve seen the work of a demon on the streets. I don’t believe we can help you.”

  “And if I policed them and vetted them?” I was overcommitting myself but I couldn’t see another way to end this without me yelling at them. I’d done enough of that; it was time for a different strategy.

  “You would take responsibility for them?” Artem said. “Completely?”

  “I would, as long as you don’t provoke them first.”

  On the surface I was confident and calm, but in my head I was yelling at myself.
I didn’t want to do this, didn’t want to make myself their babysitter any more than I had wanted to fix the vampire court. It was maddening and beyond my abilities, and someone was going to get hurt in the process and I would have to care.

  Then again, looking at Artem and Ashe, and listening to Bec regarding their behavior while I was gone, I had to admit that my actions had achieved the desired outcome. They had been ready to go to war and drag the witches in for good measure, and none of that had happened. The streets were peaceful and the night wasn’t torn apart by raging creatures of the night. I had done some good, almost despite myself.

  “I can agree to that,” Artem said.

  “I reserve judgement,” Ashe added.

  “What favor would you like in exchange?” Bec said.

  She was leading them, aiming them in a direction I couldn’t anticipate. I suspected they would have been happy with my request as long as they never had to see me again, but Bec wasn’t letting it lie. I suspected she knew something about them that I didn’t, having dealt with them for years before I arrived.

  “You’ve met Chaos,” Artem said. Ashe shook her head at their name. “We are dealing with them. They are not your problem and we don’t want you to engage.”

  “I am happy to oblige,” I said. “But if they attack me and mine I will respond.”

  “That is fair.” Artem paused, evaluating me before his next words. Whatever he saw, it helped him make his decision. “The witches are a thorn in our sides. They have lost the respect they had for Jeremiah and are pushing to have us banned from the city again.”

  “Eat them,” I said, only half joking.

  Artem wasn’t amused. “I won’t have us fall back into the old habits. I was here when we fought openly with the witches, at the founding of this city. People died and in the end we lost.”

  “We wouldn’t lose this time,” Ashe said, almost under her breath.

  “We would,” he said quickly. “And if we didn’t we’d still lose more people than I am comfortable losing. We’d also poison this city for a generation. Either we strike and kill them all at once, or we make peace.”

  “Which one do you want me to do for you?” I said. Killing everything was what I was good at, but I didn’t want it to be. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to hear his proposal.

  “Take a meeting with them. See if we can work something out. They are aware of your involvement in our recent troubles and I believe they will listen to you in areas they ignore us.”

  “I don’t think this is the best favor to ask of me,” I began, but then Bec was talking and the meeting was apparently over.

  “We’re on it, your majesty,” she said, with only a hint of mockery in her voice. “We’ll meet with them as soon as humanly possible.”

  “Don’t threaten them,” Artem said as we walked away. “Be genteel. Nikolette isn’t someone to be trifled with.”

  We left the club and I stopped Bec before she got in the car.

  “What was that about?” I said.

  “What? Ending the pointless meeting before it disappeared up its own ass?”

  “Deciding for me that I was committed to this.”

  “You were going to do it anyway.” She smiled her best fake smile and fluttered her eyelashes at me. “Besides, I’ve got a surprise for you.”

  “I don’t want a surprise. I never want a surprise.”

  She got into the car and tried to slam the door shut, ignoring me. She tried again and again, but it wouldn’t stay closed. I grabbed the handle and forced it shut myself. Metal bent, but it wasn’t going to open again.

  “I don’t like surprises,” I said again.

  She smiled at me and started the car. “It isn’t a punching surprise, I promise. You’ll like it.”

  I climbed into the beaten up red sedan and buckled up. Things were getting more complicated than I liked, and I had a bad feeling Bec was at the center of every new wrinkle.

  She put her foot down and the car lurched onto the road.

  Chapter 10

  She drove us to ACDCs and called Roman on the way.

  “More or less,” she said when he picked up. I didn’t know what the conversation was about, but Bec had been acting so strangely since I came back that I assumed it was something that would irritate me.

  “If this is your surprise, just don’t,” I said. She wasn’t listening.

  “We’re on. Arrange it and meet us at the bar in the morning.”

  She hung up and tossed her phone in the back of the car. She was suspiciously pleased with herself.

  “Why?” I said. I assumed she called Roman to arrange for a meeting with the witches, but that meant he’d already been expecting it and was in on whatever she was putting together.

  “Why what?” she asked, as innocent as a child.

  “Why are you suddenly interested in me?”

  “You’re very interesting.”

  “Stop it,” I said. “I’m not finding this funny, or cute, or whatever it is you’re hoping to make me feel. I’m getting annoyed.”

  “Let’s talk about it when we get to the bar. It’ll be closed by now and we’ll have all the time in the world to talk.”

  I held my tongue, but I was really confused. Being confused was normally an easy thing for me to solve: I punched the problem until it went away. I couldn’t punch her, though, and I didn’t think she’d go away even if I did.

  We parked across the street from the lane Bec’s bar was in. The streets were empty except for a few late night revelers returning home, and everything was quiet. Every other time I’d been to the bar something was going on and it was refreshing not to have a vampire waiting for us when we went inside.

  “Drink?” she said as she walked behind the bar.

  “I’ll need my wits about me tomorrow. Witches are tricky to deal with even when you have the upper hand. I will be walking into this meeting with little idea of their agenda.”

  “Still, though.” She waved a bottle of brown liquor at me and held up a glass.

  “No,” I said, a little too harshly. I moderated my tone. “Thank you.”

  “Your loss.” She poured herself a full glass and drank half of it before putting the remainder down. “So, you have questions?”

  “I have concerns,” I said. I sat on one of the stools and crossed my arms before me. I wanted her to take what I said seriously, but I couldn’t think of a way to enforce that; Bec was a strange human and making her do anything was more tricky than dealing with witches. “First tell me what your surprise is.”

  “No chance. That’s too big a deal and I don’t want to ruin it.”

  “I don’t like surprises, Rebecca,” I said.

  “Well, then, I guess you’ll be annoyed. But you’re always annoyed, so that won’t be too different. Will it?”

  “You’ve changed while I was away,” I said. She was noisier, if nothing else. It was as if she felt the need to comment on things constantly, to always be the center of attention by being the one talking the most. It was strange.

  “I realized a few things. First, I like you, in a romantic way. Second, and far more importantly, I’m bored. You make my life interesting.”

  “Because I was here you were thrown around the sky of a heaven by killer angels,” I said. In any other situation the comment would have been the end of the discussion, but Bec wasn’t done.

  “See, that’s interesting. Do you know what the most interesting thing I did before you turned was?”

  “Get attacked by a vampire?” I said. The first thing I’d done for her upon her becoming my master was kill a vampire threatening her.

  “You were already there at that point, technically. No, the most interesting thing I did was piss off some low level vampire and clean the toilets of this place. Those are exactly as interesting as each other, by the way.”

  I was eyeing the bottle with a little more interest. There were only a few hours until dawn and I could use a drink to tide me over until my visit with the
witches. I decided against it, but I wasn’t happy.

  I took a deep breath and thought through what I needed to say. It had to be convincing and simple, without trying to play on emotions she didn’t have.

  Which was another thing.

  “Why do you like me?” I said. “I was under the impression you didn’t like anything. Or hate it, for that matter.”

  “I have emotions, Agmundr,” she said, though thankfully she didn’t mime any for my non-amusement. “They don’t work the same as yours, but they’re still there. And you bring some of them out in me.”

  “Is there anything else you’d like to share?” I wanted to make sure she had gotten everything out before I refuted each point and moved on.

  “Just this: Before I met you I had spent my entire life looking for different. A different school experience, or a different town to live in. Different, with no real regard for what that difference was. And I now know that I’ve been looking for you.”

  “Is that it?” I said. “Anything else?”

  “I don’t think you’re taking this as seriously as I would like.”

  “Of course I’m not.” I stood and walked away from the bar toward the stage. Whoever had been running the place while she was away had cleaned up more than she ever did; the trash had been cleared from the padded chairs that ran along one wall, which was a sight I’d never seen before.

  “Agmundr,” she said, using the tone she had used when she was my master. “I’m being serious.”

  I turned back and stalked to the bar. “I’m thousands of years older than you. Thousands. Plural. Being with me would be as weird as being with a vampire.”

  “There are whole libraries filled with stories about young girls like me ending up with vampires.” She folded her arms as though her argument was made and she was done.

  “If I were twenty years older than you, or fifty, would we be having this conversation? No, of course not, because there are people your age who would be better for you.”

  “Name three,” she said, still not taking me seriously. “The reason I wouldn’t date someone fifty years older than me has nothing to do with their age and everything to do with looking gross. I’m a bit emotionally stunted, but I’ve got a regular libido. You look like the statue of a god, and you’re more or less my age, physically.”