Ashes of the Day (22 page)

“Danny. Hey, man, how’s it going? Long time no see.”

“Hey, Marc. Nice to have you back.”

Suspicion about the curious warmth in Danny’s voice had Drew turning to shoot a swift glance over his shoulder. Sure enough. An eager smile graced Danny’s lips and, good lord, the man was blushing.

“What’s all this?” Drew turned back to Marc. He nodded at the ferals. “We have policies about who we let in. You know that. There’s a reason they’re in effect.”

“Not anymore,” Marc stated flatly. “They’re with me now. And I’m rewriting the rules.” He turned his head, raising his voice so that everyone could hear. “These vampires here are with me. They’re mine—my people, my family. If anyone has a problem with that, or with their being here, either with or without me, I’m the man you want to take that up with. Not one of them, not anyone else, just me. Everyone got that?”

After another moment’s startled silence, the buzz of conversation resumed. Drew closed his eyes and groaned. “Marc. What are you doing? You can’t just come in here and pull a stunt like this. We need to talk.”

“Nothing to talk about, bro, and it’s not a stunt. It’s like I said. They’re mine. We’re here. I’m vouching for them. End of story.”

Drew snorted. “Oh you sure as hell are vouching for them.” He opened his eyes and glared at his friend. “Trust me on that. If anything happens here tonight, you’re definitely the one who’s going to be held responsible for it. Shit. I did not need this crap. It’s not what I signed up for.”

Marc met his glare with amusement. “Dude. Chill, okay? Nothing’s going to happen. We’re cool. Everything’s under control.”

Drew’s temper flared. “Why is it you never heed anyone’s advice? You always have to be different. You always have to do things your own way, don’t you?”

A broad smile creased Marc’s face. “Drew, man, you have no idea.”

“But why? Aren’t you in enough trouble already?”

“Am I?” Marc eyed him inquisitively. “Who with?”

Painfully aware that he never should have opened his mouth, Drew shook his head. “It’s like I said. We need to talk.” He glanced at Marc’s shadow, the little girl who’d started it all, and added, “In private.”

The girl stiffened and clung tighter to Marc’s arm. Marc met Drew’s eyes for a moment then glanced down at the girl and smiled reassuringly. “It’s okay, sweetheart. I’m just going to go and talk to Drew for a minute. I won’t be far. You stay here with Hawk and keep an eye on things for me, all right?” He cocked his head at the feral on his other side, the man Drew remembered from his visit to the warehouse. “You got this?”

The big man glanced around, assessing the room. He licked his lips and swallowed hard. “Yeah. Sure. I got it.”

Marc grasped his arm for an instant. “Good. I’m counting on you. You need me for anything, just holler.” Then he turned to the rest of his crew. “We came here to party, right? So go have fun. And remember what I told you.” He motioned at the bar. “This is Danny. He can set you up with whatever you need. But no pestering him for a snack while he’s working. The management frowns on that sort of thing. Besides—” he shot the barman a smile and added, “—I think that’s gonna be my job tonight.”

Drew rolled his eyes as another blush climbed Danny’s cheeks. He’d forgotten how much charm Marc could exert when he wanted to. No wonder Georgia was so worried and so unwilling to act against him directly. Tattoo or no tattoo, Drew could easily imagine Marc eclipsing her in Conrad’s eyes. It seemed likely the only reason Damian did not feel similarly threatened was because he’d already fallen under the Fischer twins’ spell.

“All right, so what’s so important we had to talk in private?” Marc asked as soon as the door to Drew’s office had closed behind him.

Drew regarded his friend wearily. “What are you doing here tonight, Marc? Have you lost your mind? Why would you bring ferals into my club?”

“Actually, I didn’t,” Marc said as he came and sat across from Drew. “Perhaps you didn’t hear what I said out there? They have a House and a sire now.
Ipso facto
, they’re no longer feral, are they?”

“What are you talking about?” Drew stared at him, mystified. “What House? What sire?”

“Me. I’ve claimed them. They’ve elected me as their sire and I’m establishing my own House.”

“Your own House,” Drew repeated in disbelief. “That’s preposterous. You don’t just start your own House. Even if Conrad has chosen to gift you with a demesne of your own, you’d still be operating under his auspices and you still would only be populating it with your own issue. And ferals…you
can’t
claim them, Marc. They have no loyalty. They may be grateful for the help you’ve given them, they may even be willing to do as you ask, if it suits them, but you can’t trust them. They owe allegiance to no one.”

“Care to put that to the test?” Marc nodded at the door. “You know, that’s a big part of the reason I brought them here with me tonight. For as long as I’ve known about them, you and everyone else has been telling me what I can and can’t do with ferals. And you know what? Every damn thing I’ve been told was wrong. They’re not that different, Drew. They’re not wild or crazy or out-of-control. They’re just vampires. Same as you and me. They just needed a family and now they’ve got one. We’re here tonight to prove that to you all.”

“I don’t know what to tell you, Marc.” Drew shook his head. “I can see you believe what you’re saying, but everything you’re telling me is impossible.”

“Just because everyone says something is impossible, that doesn’t make it so. Besides, think about this. There are a lot of devices and inventions that we live with every day that people once thought were impossible. But, never mind that for now. Tell me what you dragged me in here to say. Who am I in trouble with?”

Drew sighed. “The lady
Invitus
. I probably shouldn’t even be telling you this. If word of this gets back to her, I’m a dead man.”

“Relax, man. She’s not gonna hear it from me. Besides, you’re not exactly telling me anything I don’t know. She already came to see me herself, remember? What’s she done now?”

“She’s been in a couple of times, asking questions, disrupting my business.”

“Which is the real reason you’re upset,” Marc quipped.

Drew frowned at him. “I’m being serious. You shouldn’t take this so lightly, Marc. She’s dangerous.”

Marc nodded. “Noted. But so am I apparently. What did she want you to do, spy on me?”

Drew considered prevaricating, but what would be the point? “Something like that. And, as I’ve said, it’s not a joke. She’s looking for information, what you’re up to, what you have planned. Also…I may have mentioned something to her about the scroll you were looking at when I saw you last week. I didn’t think it important. I rather hoped it would throw her off your scent. Instead, she seemed most interested in the subject.”

Marc grinned. “I’ll bet she did. I’ll bet she’s kicking herself for not finding them first. Well, let’s see, what should you tell her? I already told you what I’m doing. I’m establishing my own House. I know you don’t think that’s possible, but don’t let that stop you from passing along the information. I’m not hiding it. As to what else I have planned, tell her ‘nothing less than total world domination’. She probably won’t believe that either, but at least it will give her something to think about. And, as far as the scroll is concerned, I’m glad you brought that up. I was gonna mention it anyway. I need a favor. I need your help interpreting them.”

“Them? As in plural? More than one scroll? Why do you need me? What languages are the others in?”

“Definitely plural and they’re mostly in Latin, but that’s not the problem. I can read the words well enough, but I’m having trouble putting some of the concepts into perspective and I think I’m missing a lot of the nuances.”

Drew shook his head. “Marc, think about what you’re asking. How can I possibly do this thing—the very thing the lady has asked me to do—and then lie to her about it? She’ll kill us both if she finds out! Maybe you don’t care about that, but I do.”

“Nah, blood, don’t worry about it. No one’s getting killed. Go on and tell her about it. I don’t mind. Makes both our jobs simpler, right? I’m planning on turning the scrolls over to Conrad anyways, once I’ve learned what I need to know. The sooner you help me, the sooner I can do that. And that helps both of us, doesn’t it?”

“Very well,” Drew sighed. “Just tell me one thing. Why is this so important to you?”

“Because,” Marc replied as he got to his feet. “In the past couple of weeks, I’ve learned a lot more about what it means to be Vampire than I ever knew. I’ve come to realize that a lot of the things I grew up believing, things I’d taken for granted my entire life, were false. I need to process that so I can figure out where to go from here. You can understand that, can’t you?”

“I’m not sure I do,” Drew replied slowly. In fact, he was almost altogether certain he did
not
understand. What had Marc just said?

“Well, whatever,” Marc said as he moved toward the door. “Stop by sometime in the next few nights and we’ll talk some more, okay? Right now, I want to get back out there. Wouldn’t do for us to cause a commotion on our first night here, right?”

“Your
first
night here?” Drew groaned and shook his head. “Oh, that’s just perfect.”

Marc just chuckled and left the room, leaving Drew to ponder what he’d been told.

Just because everyone says something is impossible, that doesn’t make it so.

It did seem as though, at least where Marc was concerned, the impossible occurred with almost frightening frequency. And what were these beliefs and preconceptions he’d had about vampires his ‘entire’ life? Drew had never noticed any pronounced tendency toward hyperbole in his friend before, but that had to be a most egregious exaggeration. Unless it wasn’t?

He seemed most interested in learning everything he could about the Infragilis.

What could have put him in mind of such things?

In the past couple of weeks, I’ve learned a lot more about what it means to be Vampire than I ever knew. I’ve come to realize that a lot of the things I grew up believing, things I’d taken for granted my entire life, were false
.

Just because everyone says something is impossible, that doesn’t make it so.

“Preposterous,” Drew murmured. He shook his head angrily. “I don’t believe it. I
won’t
believe it. It’s impossible.” And, yet…

Just because everyone says something is impossible, that doesn’t make it so.

It would explain a lot.

How is he to know what’s real and what’s not real, unless one of us tells him?

Drew felt the blood draining from his head, leaving him dizzy with conjecture. What if ‘what was real’ was not what everyone had always supposed after all? What if, just this once, the fairytales were true? What then?

Chapter Fifteen

From his place at Conrad’s side, on the dais at the front of the room, Damian surveyed the assembly. Though his gaze tracked Georgia’s progress through the crowd, he tried to disguise his interest, tried not to let his annoyance show. Of course she would choose to wear a gown that left so much of her back exposed, that would showcase her tattoo. He should have anticipated she would do such a thing. Once, such a thing wouldn’t have bothered him, once, when he himself wore the same mark…

“Something wrong,
caro
?” Conrad inquired. “You seem unhappy. Why is that? Your party appears to be quite a success. I should think you’d be more pleased.”

Damian shrugged. “
Sí.
I
am
pleased. It’s just…well, there are several things that are not as I’d hoped. For one, the New Year is only minutes away and Marc is not yet here. I had hoped he would at least stop by for a few minutes.”

“Let the boy have his space, my dear. As I’ve said, it’s probably for the best that he stay away. It’s not the first New Year you’ve celebrated without him and it’s such a small thing, one moment in time. What does it matter, when set against all the rest? Besides, look over there; at least
uno de sus bebés
is here tonight. Julie is looking quite lovely, don’t you think? I don’t believe I’ve ever seen her in that color before.”

“I’m sure you have, you know,” Damian pointed out. “You just don’t recall it.”

“Very possible, I suppose. In any event, I commend you on choosing to stipulate evening wear for this event. I’m enjoying this so much more than the last party you threw. I don’t miss all the outlandish costumes or the inevitable hurt feelings when one fails to correctly interpret what someone else is wearing. Plus, this look flatters everyone.”

Everyone? Damian could not help but notice the warmth in Conrad’s eyes as his gaze lingered on Georgia once again. And that damned tattoo. “Oh, indeed. Everyone’s looking marvelous. In fact I was just thinking that very thing. Christian, in particular, looks wonderfully well. Did you not think so?
Muy atractivo
. But, then again, he always was.”

Conrad’s mouth tightened infinitesimally. “Damian,” he growled in warning tones. “Don’t start.”

“What? You disagree?” Damian feigned surprise. “But how is this possible? You once were quite enamored of him, were you not?”

“Did you think so? I, myself, would hardly have phrased it that way.”