Kitty Steals the Show (Kitty Norville) (20 page)

Antony said, “Right now the most visible public vampire is Mercedes Cook. She’s beautiful, amiable, charming, has given dozens of interviews—and she’s a follower of Dux Bellorum. We have to counter that, get one of our own in the public eye.”

“You have someone in mind to be your first public vampire?” I said. “’Cause you know, I could help out with that. It’s not too late to get in on this week’s show.”

They all looked at Ned, who rolled his eyes.

“It’s perfect,” Antony argued. “Cook was already famous before she declared herself. It endeared her to the public. Ned can do even better than that—he was famous four hundred years ago! She’s an actress, you’re an actor—who better?”

“I will have Shakespeare, Marlowe, and John Donne scholars camped on my doorstep for the rest of eternity. Do you have any idea what I’d go through?” Ned said. He leaned conspiratorially toward me. “I married Donne’s daughter, did you know that?” I hadn’t.

To get a scoop like that, to be the one to help Ned Alleyn go public as a vampire … my talk show personality was absolutely drooling. But the rest of me knew it wasn’t that simple.

“It only works if people believe you’re really Ned Alleyn,” I said. “Can you prove it? Link the person you are now with who you were then?”

“That won’t be the issue,” Ned said. “Mercedes Cook has endeared herself to the public because they don’t
have
to believe that she’s four hundred years old, or older. She rose to fame in current living memory. She says she’s a vampire and it makes her a novelty, but it doesn’t make her threatening. Try to tell that same public that an Elizabethan actor is still alive—it’s not merely fantastical to the average person, it’s frightening. I’m willing to listen to the argument that more of us need to become public figures. I’m not willing to agree that that person ought to be me. There are better choices.”

“You’re being stubborn, Ned,” Antony said.

“I’m also right,” he answered.

“I think I agree,” I said. “It would be like a grave opening up and the occupant climbing out. Too creepy.”

“Kitty’s made a career of public relations,” Ned said. “We would do well to listen to her.”

“You’re a coward, Edward Alleyn,” Antony said.

“I’m also over four hundred years old. There’s a correlation. Besides, I don’t see how that matters. It’s not as if Mercedes is rallying the masses to the cause of our enemy.”

“Not yet,” Antony said. “But if she already has the majority of us on her side, there’ll be damned little to oppose that when the time comes.”

“You talk like this is going to be a real war. Not a metaphor,” I said.

“It is,” Antony said, as if it was obvious.

“And you think it’s coming soon.”

“Don’t you?”

“Depends,” I said. “Soon on your scale or mine?”

“Soon on a mortal scale, Kitty,” Ned said. “Dux Bellorum has exposed himself these last few years, revealing himself to people like you, who are—or at least were—outside the Long Game. He’s gathering power. It can’t be long.”

I sat on a chair at the edge of their circle, leaning forward. Ben stayed behind me, hand on the chair’s back. I could feel his warmth radiating.

“What’s he planning, then? Everyone I’ve talked to about the Long Game says it’s leading to something, that there’s an endpoint. What are we talking about? He enslaves all the werewolves? Destroys all the vampires? Overruns nations with his hordes? Runs for president? Does anyone have any idea?”

“‘And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.’” Ned the orator intoned the words, which filled the room, and the house, echoing through the foundations.

“That’s not Shakespeare,” I said.

“No,” Marid said. “It’s the Book of Revelation.”

Oh. Well then. “Okay. So we’re talking Biblical. That still doesn’t tell me anything.”

“If we knew, we’d be able to stop him, wouldn’t we?” Antony said.

“We’d prefer to stop him before we reach that point,” Ned said. “None of us really wants to find out what he has planned.”

The conversation reached a lull; maybe we were all contemplating the possibilities. It was enough to turn any party somber. I had an urge to call Cormac to ask his advice, interrupting what was no doubt a nice domestic scene across town. But I wasn’t going to ask him in front of the vampires. I asked myself, as I often did when I was stuck in a situation I couldn’t seem to solve: What would Cormac do? What did the true hunter’s extinct call for in this coming war?

Cormac would say to go after Roman until we completely smoked the bastard. Trouble was, we’d tried that one before. Maybe we had to come at this a little more defensively.

I straightened, caught their attention, spoke. “In summary, you’re worried that London is in danger from Mercedes and her allies, and you don’t know who to trust among the vampires. So why not turn to the werewolves? Ally with them.”

Antony chuckled. “I don’t mean to sound rude—I’m happy to listen to any and all recommendations of course—but what can the werewolves possibly do to help?”

I managed to keep my voice calm. “Caleb has united the werewolves of the British Isles. They can help you.”

“Ah, yes, you’ve gone and met Caleb all on your own. When were you going to tell me about that?” Ned sounded genuinely put out. As if he wasn’t the greatest actor of his generation, able to sound however the hell he wanted.

Flatly I said, “You never asked. As I was saying, the werewolves here are independent, not under your thumb at all—”

“Because I don’t need them,” Ned said. “Caleb understands that. We don’t bother each other. It’s an equitable arrangement.”

“You don’t need each other, either, I understand. Rick in Denver and I have the same deal—except we go a step further. We help each other, because the city is stronger when we work together. That’s how we’ve kept Denver out of Roman’s hands.”

“Werewolves aren’t that powerful,” Antony said.

I spread my arms. “Hey, I’m the one who broke up your party the other night.”

“Regina Luporum. Hmm,” Antony said, tapping a finger on his chin, considering.

Facing the ceiling, I growled. Ben patted my shoulder and kissed my cheek. “You brought this on yourself, hon.”

“Fine. I quit.”

He just grinned at me.

“Perhaps she’s right, Ned: you should arrange a meeting with Caleb,” Marid said.

London’s Master regarded me with a narrowed gaze. “Kitty, perhaps you should arrange the meeting. Since you two apparently get along so well—”

“I wouldn’t say that—”

“If I approach him he’ll think I’m conspiring. He won’t trust me. But if you mediate…”

“But you
are
conspiring,” I said.

“Yes, for all our benefits,” he replied.

I’d practically asked for this, hadn’t I? I put my hand over Ben’s and glanced at him. “What do you think?”

“I think it’s worth a try. You’ve said it before—the more people are keeping watch against Roman, the better.”

I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and walked to the other side of the room to make the call.

His greeting when he answered was practically a bark, designed to make the listener cower. I resisted the urge and tried to sound annoyed. “Hello to you, too. It’s Kitty Norville.”

“I can hear that. What sort of trouble have you gotten yourself into?”

“Nothing yet. I’ve volunteered to mediate. Ned Alleyn wants a meeting.”

“He does, does he? What for? Going to try to convince me that due to current turmoil I need to put myself under his protection? For my own good and the good of my wolves, of course.”

“Sounds like you two already had that conversation.”

“What’s he want, then?”

“I believe he wants to discuss an alliance.” Smiling pleasantly, I turned to look at Ned, who was watching me with a raised brow.

“Now I’m confused. What are you all playing at?”

“Agree to a meeting and find out.”

The rumble over the line might have been distant static, or his growl. I hoped I dangled enough bait in front of him. He had to be curious.

Finally he said, “All right, but we meet on my turf. Hyde Park in an hour. My people have used the park for emergencies before—we can disable enough of the CCTV cameras to create a protective blackout.”

“I think that sounds entirely reasonable.”

“And just him. He can bring flunkies to stand watch, but when it comes to talking it’s just the two of us. I don’t want any of those other Masters there.”

“As long as the same applies to you, I expect. A few flunkies, and that’s it.”

“He’ll never agree to terms I set. Just watch.”

“We’ll see you there, Caleb.” I clicked off before he could harangue me further. “There. Meeting set.” I relayed the details.

Ned pursed his lips like he’d tasted something sour. “I was hoping we could meet someplace a little more … sheltered. Like here, for example.”

He’d overheard the whole thing. Just meant less for me to explain. “I think he has every right to avoid that. You’re not worried, are you?”

“Don’t worry Ned,” Antony said, smiling. “We’ll be there to back you up.”

“Ah, no you won’t,” I said. “Caleb said just Ned. You all have to hang out somewhere else.”

“Isn’t that a bit unreasonable?” Ned said.

“Not to mention presumptuous,” Antony said. “We agreed to the meeting with certain assumptions in mind. Who are you to undermine that?”

“A werewolf?”

“Exactly! The nerve—”

“Get used to it,” I said. “If this is going to work, you have to treat Caleb and me as equals. If you can’t do that—why are we even here?”

Antony slouched back in his chair, glowering.

“There there,” Ned reassured him. “Humility is a lesson we all have to learn.”

“Remind me again—why are we listening to her?”

“Because she’s faced Dux Bellorum and lived to tell about it. Pay attention, Antony.”

They planned among themselves, which of Ned’s followers should tag along as bodyguards, and how close Marid and Antony could get without violating Caleb’s terms.

“I assume you and I are going to this?” Ben said, leaning in close and whispering. We couldn’t guarantee that the vampires didn’t hear us, but we could make the attempt at privacy.

“I’m the mediator, right?” I whispered. “You know, this makes me seem a whole lot more badass than I actually feel.”

“Just keep playing badass and you’ll do fine.”

“Thanks, dear.”

Chapter 14

I
HAD A
sudden need to look up where the Jack the Ripper murders had taken place. Not near Hyde Park, it turned out, which was only mildly reassuring. At night the place was spooky enough to start my imagination running. The nearly new moon and gas lamp–looking lights on posts gave the wide lawns and straight paths a sepia tone cast: gray, orange, murky. Stands of trees ringed the area like sentinels, and the buildings beyond the park seemed unnaturally far away.

I was a creature of the night, I wasn’t supposed to be afraid of the dark. Not that it was the dark I was afraid of—it was the
other
creatures of the night.

Caleb had chosen a spot almost in the center of the park, where several paths converged, and some distance away from the Serpentine, the long, winding lake on the south end, where someone could easily be trapped in case of an ambush. Not that he was thinking in those terms. He probably just wanted to be in a place with good visibility, where he could watch people approach.

Ben, Ned, and I followed one of the paths, then cut across the lawn, roughly in the area Caleb asked us to wait. Emma stayed home; Ned was worried at the interest she’d drawn from Jan’s flunky and wanted her safe. He had four other vampires standing guard. Marid and Antony promised to stay out of the park, but they didn’t say where they would be. I hoped they didn’t spook Caleb. What was I saying, could anything spook Caleb?

“This would be nice if I weren’t so twitchy about it,” Ben said, scanning the shadows.

The place was quiet, peaceful. We could go for a run—the four-legged kind even—and not feel the press of the city. Lie together on the grass and watch clouds passing in front of the moon. But yeah, twitchy. Caleb and his wolves were on the way; I could sense them, a touch of wild on the air. We were in their territory, and Wolf wasn’t happy about it.

“Well, we’re here,” Ned announced. Bundled in a coat, face up, hair ruffled, he was a shadowed figure in the dark, perfectly at home and not at all nervous. “And no werewolf. I’ll give him ten minutes, then give up on him.”

“Here he is,” I said, nodding.

Caleb and three men approached on one of the other paths. He spoke to his companions briefly, and they broke off, cutting across the lawn to take up some kind of perimeter lookout. Ben watched them go—keeping a lookout on
them.