Duel Nature (34 page)

“Fifty!” she looked around the room at each
of her fellow Patrons before looking back to me. “Fifty full grown
weres!”

“Bah! So he says!” Frimunt exclaimed.

Mausya studied me. “Oh, I believe him. Just
as I believe our Guardian when he says that he can’t guarantee our
safety from Gordon here. In fact, that is really the whole point.
The safety of our species from this man. He has already worked with
the humans to eradicate one of the most violent groups of
non-humans in recent memory…and he did it mainly by himself…without
weapons!”

“You paint him an uncontrolled monster, yet
he is Chosen of Tatiana and she would not permit him to harm our
species!” Chilka said sharply.

“See, that’s where I think
you may have it wrong. I think, based on what I’ve heard from some
fellow Russian vampires who have firsthand knowledge, that she
doesn’t exert control over him…
he controls
her!
”

Chapter 33

“What? Are you on drugs? Some kind of vampire
crack?” I asked. “She doesn’t ‘control’ me and I certainly don’t
control her! Have you met the girl? Control? That’s crazy. And if
your ‘source’ is good old uncle Illarion than you’ve been had! He’s
a whiney little bitch who ran crying home ‘cause I wouldn’t let him
take over America!”

Every vampire in the room looked at me like I
was two cards shy of a full deck, but the flicker on Mausya’s face
when I mentioned Illarion told me I had scored a hit.

“In fact, I did talk to Illarion. He said you
murdered his servant and took over the Coven yourself when Tatiana
was conveniently indisposed,” Mausya answered with slightly raised
eyebrows.

“Yeah, ‘course he did. Tatiana was attacked
with silver powder – by a South American vampire – “ I looked at
Salazar as I said that part. “Galina and Lydia were stepping in to
rightfully run things when Illarion made a power play. I told him
no, he told his bodyguard to kill me and I objected to that. Have
you watched the security video? I’m sure we can crank it up on a
monitor for you.”

“Oh yes, I do recall some fantastic claim
that Tatiana had been severely burned with silver. So bad in fact
that she lost both eyes, yet when I saw her earlier she looked
fine. How could that be?” the Russian vampire asked snidely.

“Talk to Dr, Singh. He healed her with virus
rich blood.” I said crossing my arms.

“Not even an Elder’s blood is rich enough in
virus to heal silver burnt eyes,” Frimunt said in disbelief.

“Whose blood was used Mr. Gordon?” Atta
asked.

“Mine.”

“You are suggesting some rather fantastic
claims,” Gault said.

“Yeah? Like the whole of
Tanya’s existence isn’t fantastic? Or any of my story? Check the
security tapes for Plasma where Tanya was attacked, check the tapes
for Citadel when Illarion tried to take control, talk to Dr. Singh,
talk to Arkady, talk to Elder Senka and by all means, go ahead and
suggest that
she’s
a liar!” I shot back.

They were silent for a moment, then after a
glance around at his fellow Patrons, Gault looked at me and spoke.
“We are through with you for the moment, Mr. Gordon. Remain
available as we will likely have more questions for you. You may
go.”

I turned to leave but Frimunt spoke as I
did.

“And watch your tone with
your superiors,
boy
, or we may choose to chastise you,” he said, smirking at
me.

I kept my face blank as I completed my turn
and walked out, feeling a huge bulls eye painted on my back.

***

I found our quarters empty, so after grabbing
a pemmican bar from my personal stash I went looking for Chet to
see how he was doing. I found him in Dr. Singh’s office. Most
vampires don’t get sick and almost all wounds heal rapidly, so
Singh really didn’t have sick bed facilities, but a cot had been
brought in and six of Arkady’s security bruisers were lined up in
front of Singh’s door to prevent further attacks. They all knew me
and let me right through.

Chet was sitting up in bed, typing on an iPad
while sipping beef broth from a giant stainless steel coffee
mug.

“Hey dude, how ya feeling?” I asked.

“Chris, my man!” he said,
then started to sit up. I
moved
to the bed before he could more than twitch,
sitting on the edge of his cot so that he didn’t have a need to sit
up.

“Damn dude, stop going all blurry like that!
Gives me flashbacks!” he said.

“Sorry Chet. I just didn’t want you having to
move on my account.”

“I’m not that bad. Just bruised and slightly
anemic. Doc’s got me on this high iron and protein liquid diet so
I’m healing quick. Plus,” his voice dropped to a whisper. “Senka
gave me some of her blood and I feel really pretty great! Better
than any drug I ever heard of.”

“Yeah I she told me about that. She holds you
in high regard,” I said to my friend.

“Damn straight! I got skills and the vamps
know it!”

I laughed although he was right.

“I heard you used your own freaky skills to
get likenesses of the guys that jumped me,” he said.

“Yeah I did. Have you heard if they got
anything out of them?” I asked.

“Well, Nika said they were tough nuts but
that it seemed they worked for some German vamp. I think they both
died during questioning,” he said.

German vamp sounded suspiciously like
Frimunt, who I had already decided was pretty much a total
dick.

We chatted for a few minutes more and then I
left when he started to look a little peaked. My link to Tanya told
me she was somewhere in the business center, probably doing
business things so I headed to Remy’s kitchen to get something more
substantial than pemmican.

The master chef was starting a soup stock,
but as soon as he saw me he grabbed a plate of fresh tomatoes,
mozzarella, Italian bread and olive oil. It was more platter than
plate, covered with the better part of a loaf of toasted bread
which was still warm.

“You all right Christian?” the French vampire
asked.

Nodding around a mouthful of tomato and
cheese, I gulped it down and answered.

“Mostly, Remy. A bit weirded out by the
Conclave and all,” I admitted.

“Large groups of older vampires are creepy,”
he said, adding a goodly dose of salt to his pot.

I looked at him sideways. He noticed.

“What? You think you’re the only one to feel
that way? I’m one hundred and thirty-seven years old and some
nights it feels like I’ve been on this planet too long. But a
Darkkin who reaches six centuries or more of age is almost a whole
different species than us younger ones. I don’t mean just in terms
of strength and speed. Their whole personalities are different. The
way their brains work is upside down and sideways to a regular
human, were or young vamp. They get paranoid, spend all their time
plotting and planning.”

“Why is that, Remy?” I asked, shoveling
another oily slab of cheesy tomato goodness into my mouth.

“Living past your fourth and fifth centuries
is a big deal. Lots of dangers out there. Other supernaturals,
human vampire hunters, even accidents, but the biggest danger is
other vampires. We are a violent species, more so than the base
human stock, which is saying something. Even with Elders and the
Coven, there are enough violent disagreements that the stupid vamps
get weeded out quick,” he said, dumping a small bowl of mixed
spices into his cauldron of soup.

“My grandfather used to tell me that old big
rack white-tail bucks are like a separate species from the other
deer. Much smarter and craftier,” I said.

“A decent analogy, although deer are hunted
and Darkkin are hunters so maybe an old crocodile would be a better
comparison. Crocs have to survive weather, predators, drought and,
of course, other crocs.”

“Remy, I didn’t realize you were such a
naturalist,” I said.

“Discovery channel and Animal Planet. Amazing
shows, really,” he said with a sly smile.

“I never pictured you watching television,” I
said.

“Have to, Christian. You have to keep
involved in society’s changes, both good and bad. Isolating
yourself will leave you feeling separated from life itself. Once a
Darkkin or other long lived being,” he pointed at me as he said
that, “shuts themselves away from the world, death is not far
away.”

Feeling separated is exactly how I felt in
the Conclave when Senka had been speaking. My poker face must have
failed me, because Remy read me like an open cookbook.

“Ah, you feel that way now, yes?” he asked,
smiling.

“I don’t belong here, Remy. I don’t even fit
in with the new vamps. Plus everyone is always on guard around me,
like they’re torn between being afraid of me and wanting to drink
me dry.”

“Christian, when I first became a vampire I
was miserable. My whole life, my human life, had been about food.
Creating, tasting, enjoying new cuisine. And I was very good at it.
That was gone when I woke from my ‘death’ and found that all my
cravings were only for blood. It made me sick. Not that I’m
squeamish about blood; a good chef must deal with blood daily. But
the loss of my life’s passion was almost too much. I wanted to true
die.”

“What happened?” I asked.

“An older vampire steered me through it. She
taught me that I could still cook and create, in fact, now my
senses of taste and smell were so much greater that I could produce
dishes undreamed of. And I could enjoy my own cooking if I sipped
blood from a human who had eaten my food. Not exactly as it was
when I was human, but not bad and in some ways better. I don’t have
an interest in vampire politics, I just keep my head down and do
what I love – cooking.”

“It was Senka who helped you, wasn’t it?”

“Yes it was. Of all the older vampires, she
is best at preserving talent and mentoring young vampires,” he
said, smiling. “Of course, she’s utterly ruthless and more cunning
than all the rest combined,” he added with a shrug. “C’est la
vie!”

I felt Tanya approaching and knew she was
tracking me down, so I finished the last bruschetta and took the
platter to the sink, washed it and was drying it when she entered
the kitchen. Remy greeted her, saw how intensely she was staring at
me and excused himself.

“Hey babe,” I said, trying to get a read on
her mood. Both her body language and the link told me she was
anxious about something to do with me.

“How was the Conclave?” she asked as she slid
further into the kitchen and into a chair at the prep table I had
been eating at.

I felt myself grimace. “They’re mostly kind
of assholes and we spent almost the whole time talking about me and
not Fedor.”

She froze for a split second. “What did they
ask you?”

“First they started to ask about Okwari, then
got all intense about me and how many weres I’ve killed and how
dangerous I am and that I secretly control you and make you do what
I want.”

Her face held something I had almost never
seen there before – fear. She was frightened of my words.

I tried to lighten her mood.
“Of course my argument to that is that if I
truly
controlled you, we would never
leave the bedroom.”

She smiled at that and reached for my hand
then looked pensive again.

“The control part came from Mausya, right?”
she asked.

“Yeah, you don’t seem surprised.”

“Lydia and Nika heard that rumor going
around, the one that you are secretly running everything through
some mind control power you have over me. Mausya seems to be the
source of these rumors.”

“Yeah, but I think she got the idea from good ole Uncle Illarion,
‘cause she flinched when I brought his name up.”

She nodded at that, then looked me in the
eye. “Tell me everything they said and did!”

I did. Twenty-seven minutes later she
finished cross examining my recollection of the Conclave.

“Christian you must promise me to keep your
temper at all times when you’re in there. I think that Mausya is
using this story to increase her chances of getting selected as the
next Elder. If she can convince others that you are a threat to me
and the Coven, it gives her a unique platform for election. I think
part of that strategy is going to be to trick you into losing your
temper. If you hurt or kill someone, particularly one of her
rivals, it increases the odds for her.”

“That makes sense. I’ll keep cool. Arkady
told me to keep my temper too.”

“I doubt Arkady knows about this theory. He
just knows your temper. Chris, you have to be really, really
controlled in there. Always remember she will try to trip you
up.”

I reassured her a dozen times I would behave.
Finally, she glanced at the clock on the wall and announced she had
to be at the business center in two minutes. A long kiss goodbye
and she was gone, leaving me with my thoughts.

Chapter 34

Three hours later I was recalled before the
Conclave. Gault got right down to business.

“So, according to your story, Vadim and Anton
took you from the night club when this demon fight was finished.
The demon was dead or gone or what have you and you were
unconscious, correct?”

“Yes.”

“What happened next?” he asked.

“I woke up in a shipping container down by
the waterfront. Vadim and Anton came in. Anton bragged about how
Tanya would follow me to the shipyard and they would kill her and
use her blood to produce a much stronger street drug with the
demons help. I told them the Elders would kill them but then Fedor
appeared and claimed credit for the whole plan,” I said.

He made a ‘go on’ motion with his hand.

“At that point I think I may have insulted
his intelligence.”