Blood Redemption (Blood Destiny #9) (12 page)

"But we can demand payment, and that payment will be substantial," a slow smile spread across legal counsel's face.

* * *

"This was just delivered by courier." Cleo dropped the box in front of her father, Glendes of Grey House. "It's addressed to you and Shadow, from Kenderlin of Cloudsong."

"What is it? Some of Findal's effects after the attack?" Glendes was busy putting the monthly accounts together at his desk and barely spared a glance at the package.

"That might be the logical thing to assume, but I don't think that's it, Daddy. I have a feeling you should open this right away."

"Are you going to stand there until I do?" Glendes looked up at the youngest of his twin daughters.

"I think I should, Daddy. Kyler said to."

"The same Kyler who refused to come to the last family dinner?"

"That's the one," Cleo nodded.

"Fine," Glendes grumbled and reached for the package.

* * *

"It's probably the sire-child bond—nobody can get past that," Tony attempted to explain to Norian why the information regarding the bombs and who'd ordered them set wasn't coming. I watched Norian from my seat next to Rigo. He'd settled beside me after his bout of questioning vampires was over and now held my hand in his, refusing to let go.

"Tiessa, you should have brought me with you; I can help with this," Rigo told me softly as Norian asked other questions that Tony was doing his best to answer.

"I know, honey," I replied, squeezing his fingers. All we'd gotten from the captured vampires was that the bombs were scheduled to be detonated in two days. I had no idea what the leader or leaders of Black Mist intended to do when their bombs didn't explode according to schedule. Alliance bomb squads had been dispatched to Tykl to disarm what I'd dropped off there.

"If we notify the local authorities that Black Mist is attempting a takeover, it will cause widespread panic. If we don't notify them and an attack happens anyway, lives will be lost. This is the worst kind of mess," Norian raked hands through his hair in frustration.

"They need to know, boss," Lendill walked over to stand next to Norian.

"I suppose you're right," Norian sighed. "Get the Chancellor on the communicator—see if he can come down here himself." Lendill nodded and pulled out his communicator.

* * *

"It isn't just vampires—it's humanoids and possibly rogue wizards as well," Norian and Lendill were trying to get the Chancellor to calm down—he was about to condemn all vampires, even as he was surrounded by them at the moment. We weren't about to alert him to that fact. The Chancellor was still railing several minutes later when I tired of listening to his rant.

"It is in times like these that we learn what our leaders are made of," I barked at him. He was so shocked he shut up for a moment. "That's better," I said. "Now, this could have been any world under attack by Black Mist. They chose yours, for reasons known only to them. What do you intend to do about it? How are you going to keep your people safe? Now is the time to act, Chancellor. Yesterday is gone and tomorrow may be too late." I watched as his mouth worked for several seconds—he wasn't bad looking or particularly old and I wondered what his qualifications had been for his election. Of course, none of that mattered now—it was what he did from this point forward that would define him and his rule.

"We will not succumb to these threats," he said finally. "I must tell my people that Black Mist wants our world and we must stand strong and refuse to let them take it."

"The Alliance already has three legions on the way, but you must have your security personnel ready to coordinate and get the population involved. We will invite the media in, too, and this story will be spread across the Alliance. All will know that Black Mist is attempting to take control of Darthin." Norian nodded with satisfaction.

Put all the Alliance worlds with long nights on alert
, I sent to Norian, who nodded discreetly to acknowledge my sending.
And alert the other cities here—the ones
we caught didn't have information on other attacks, but that doesn't mean there
won't be any
.

"Already on it," Norian muttered, knowing I would hear. That's how we ended up in two more cities later that evening; Norian's agents had found twelve more vampires and sixteen humans. They'd all been taken into custody before the sun set; the agents were waiting for Norian and the rest of us to arrive and question the vampires after nightfall.

We also found the bombs set in those city sewers, and they were shipped offworld to the bomb squad on Tykl. Gavin and Tony began their questioning after I told them that the oldest of these vampires was barely two hundred. That had Norian raising an eyebrow and hauling me out of the questioning tank, Rigo right behind.

"Do not harm my Queen," Rigo eyed Norian's hand, which gripped my upper arm.

"Do you think I would?" Norian gave a snort but dropped his hand anyway. "You can tell the ages?" We were back to
that
again.

"Norian, I have no idea what you've learned about me or whether any of it is true. Maybe we should get together later and discuss it. In the meantime, you and Rigo should try to get along. You have some things in common, after all."

"And what would that be?" Norian snapped. He was about to get hissy, I figured, and that didn't need to happen with so many others close by.

"I think you could have a long conversation about poisons," I grumbled and attempted to move past Norian.

They were both staring at me now—Rigo and Norian—as if I'd let the most important cat out of the biggest bag ever. "Look," I said, "If both of you think you're going to end up in my bed, then all my mates need to know. Therefore, 'fess up."

"They have already guessed about me, after Satris," Rigo grumbled.

"You did that? Then you have my support and admiration," Norian clapped Rigo on the back. "I couldn't have done better myself."

"He almost killed my tiessa," Rigo defended his actions.

"You think I don't know that?" Norian displayed one of his famous grins. "I might have hunted him down myself. You saved me the trouble."

"See, you do have a lot to talk about. I need a drink." I moved away from them but they caught up almost immediately. Neither of them was satisfied with sitting on the opposite side of the booth at a nearby bar, so I was wedged between Rigo and Norian while I sipped a fruit drink.

Norian was quite impressed with Rigo and his story, and I had a feeling Norian would be studying up on his Hraedan history just as soon as possible. Rigo was Rigovarnus I. Six other Rigovarnuses ruled Hraede, but none were good enough for the turn, according to Rigo. I bumped his shoulder and teased him about it—he doesn't like the formal version of his name much. He leaned in to kiss me, which caused our server to raise eyebrows.

We had to take Rigo to a nearby ASD office later so Norian could make the turn and Rigo, after he recovered from the initial shock, asked Norian if he could have poison to work with. Norian carries the poison glands all the time; they're just well hidden while he's humanoid. He showed Rigo the sacs, located on the sides of his neck.

"I can extract some for you, but I have to release it," Norian explained. Rigo nodded—he had extensive knowledge and a healthy respect for all poisons. Rigo and Norian were well on their way to a strong friendship when we got back to the others. The information regarding Black Mist's attempted takeover had already been distributed to the media across the Alliance, so we were watching the news reports as they were broadcast.

* * *

"Do you see this?" Viregruz wanted to smash the vid screen with his fists, but he needed the information and another vid screen might be hard to come by at that time of night. Viregruz looked sixteen of his thirty-six hundred years, and anyone who failed to respect him when they were looking to join Black Mist, died in the most painful way possible.

Viregruz's two Blood Captains nodded deferentially to Viregruz. They were talented as vampires—both could turn to mist, but neither held the complement of talents that Viregruz held. He not only had misting ability; he could mindspeak and shapeshift. Viregruz became a falcon when he shifted, and while falcons were day flyers, Viregruz's alter ego could see as well as any vampire in darkness. He could take that shape in an instant, rather than waiting lengthy minutes to become mist. Many were the times when he'd gotten into a closed room as mist to commit murder and then shifted to falcon and sat in the rafters or some other out-of-the-way place while everyone went looking for a humanoid perpetrator.

"The Alliance is behind this—only they would notify the authorities and spread this across the Alliance worlds," Viregruz cursed again.

"The ASD," one of his Blood Captains ventured to speak.

"Of course the bloody ASD," Viregruz growled. "If it were that Queen bitch Vampire, she'd have killed my operatives and kept it quiet."

"Do you want us to switch the vendetta?" Viregruz's second Blood Captain asked. Viregruz had pulled back the reward on the Queen Vampire's head, announcing a vendetta against her instead. Viregruz's war with the queen had become personal when she'd managed to kill his brothers, who were his six best operatives. Black Mist would be eliminating her itself, and if Viregruz could do it single-handedly, so much the better.

"No, I want you to add that fucking director of the ASD to the list. Get them both. I demand satisfaction in this."

"Are we going to attempt a rescue?"

"And risk losing others? Besides, our operatives were my turns. No important information will be given out." Viregruz at least had that satisfaction. "The humans were merely slaves. They knew nothing; they were only there to be watchful during the days."

What irritated Viregruz most, even if he held it back from his captains, was that the Alliance now knew that Black Mist had vampires working for them. Perhaps they didn't realize yet that it was also run by vampires, but that supposition had to be there. Too bad they didn't know about Viregruz's stable of rogue wizards and warlocks. That trump card was still well hidden and remained up Viregruz's sleeve. If anyone might be able to track the director of the ASD and the Queen Vampire when she was away from her world, his power-wielding members would.

"Bring Zellar to me, I have an assignment for him," Viregruz smiled grimly.

* * *

"Have you been to bed with her?"

Shadow was offended at his grandfather's question. "No! And I bloody well don't intend to get in bed with her. She's rude to the servants, expects them to wait on her hand and foot and hasn't lifted a finger to do anything. You wanted Calebert to assess her talent—I suggest you ask him how that went!" Shadow wanted to throw something, there just wasn't anything on Glendes' usually cluttered desk to throw.

"Son, settle down." Raffian had come and was now sitting at a corner of Glendes' desk. Shadow had already seen the demands from Kenderlin of Cloudsong when Glendes called him to his study and handed over the package. Glendes had already opened it and read the messages before giving it to Shadow. Shadow was more than angry—his father and grandfather had not only destroyed his relationship with Lissa, they'd brought trouble to Grey House in the form of Melida of Belancour.

"We'll attempt to get a writ of detachment," Glendes sighed. "Your father and I suspect that Marid and Melida both knew of this before shopping Melida around so quickly after Findal's death." He lifted a pile of papers from a desk drawer and pushed them toward Shadow. "If we can't get the writ of detachment, things will go very badly for Grey House."

Shadow now wore a look of concern as he drew the papers toward him and began to read.

* * *

"Lissa, this worries me. You are considering taking a shapeshifter who becomes a lion snake as a mate?" Roff was pacing at the foot of my bed and rustling his wings.

"Honey, I don't get any bad vibes off him. Rigo and his Hraedan Order of the Night Flower concoct poisons all the time, yet you don't have any problem with him." I watched Roff pace. If he had a problem with Norian, what were the others going to say?

"But Rigo is a vampire and only wishes to protect you. How can we know about Norian Keef?"

"If Norian wanted me dead, I'd be dead already," I muttered. In the physical sense, anyway.

"Then give this some time. Surely, you can wait a few months before offering a ring. Do you love him, Lissa? Do you love him already?"

"Honey, I don't know what I feel," I told him honestly. "But there's a part of Norian that is vulnerable, and terrified of rejection. I'm worried about him."

"Then he can court you, as the others have. If you do not love him after six months, then you should reject him, no matter what the effect will be. You are taking in strays, my love. Do not allow the Grey House betrayal to affect your judgment in this."

"But you don't care if Rigo comes on board."

"No. In fact, the others have wondered why you have dithered so long over this."

"You've talked about this behind my back." I wasn't sure how I felt about that.

"Love, this affects all of us, so of course we have discussed it. If you are happy, then we are happy. Things have been off for a while, Lissa. You have not invited Karzac to your bed since Kevis was born. He loves you, and you are both upset. Do not make him feel guilt over having a child."