“You are now”—Leo smiled gently at her—“Blood Master of Clan Fonteneau and banished to Atlanta, where you will take up the mantle as Master of the City.”
“No!” Katie shouted, her fists bunching as if to sock him. She jerked back on the one in Leo’s hand, whipping against him. He held firm and she struggled, almost growling, “I refuse to be master of clan or city.”
Okay. That was a surprise. A vamp refusing power? Alesha, at her side, was still as stone, her eyes slowly vamping out.
Katie’s voice rose and she yanked against his hold. “I refuse the city. I am made for pleasure, not boardrooms. I am made for beds, not negotiations.Tu sais ça!”
I recognized the phrase.You know this. I had been among the French-speaking vamps too dang long. I was understanding French.
Leo actually laughed and, with the back of his free hand, wiped his face clean of the tear track. “Dearest Katherine. Katherine,mon amour, you have ruled this city and her humans for a hundred years, through the web of hedonism and decadence. Did you think I was so foolish that I did not know? Did you think me unaware that Katie’s Ladies was the center of your web? That you had spun silken snares about your clients and victims? That they smiled in pleasure and desire as you strangled them in a snarl of coercion and bled them dry of favors with extortion? You have been my hand to power for far too many years to count. You have served me, even as you led.”
Katie went still, standing, her body bladed to Leo, as if she might yet fight. Or as if she might pull away and run. Or as if she might pull a weapon and kill her master.“Je ne régnerai pas.”I will not... something.
“You will,” Leo insisted. “You will rule as Master of the City of Atlanta, as the Blood Master of Clan Fonteneau, with your heir Alesha at your side and your Enforcer Ro Moore as your sword and Tom as your primo.”
Katie’s eyes were wide and frenzied, shooting to every person and every corner of the room as if looking for allies or a way out. And then Katie heard what Leo had said. He had given her an Enforcer only a few days past. He had now given her an heir. He had... he had been planning this for a while. Leo was making a new clan, one loyal to him.
Then it hit me. The MOC was making more than one new clan tonight. He was rebuilding his power base.
Leo smiled into Katie’s dawning realization. “You have all you need to govern and control Atlanta. You willcare for her Mithrans and convert her murderous Naturaleza to the way of the Mithran. You will ensnare and protect her helpless cattle, her politicians, and her moneyed and powerful.” He paused. “And you will swear to me as master and ruler of the Southeastern United States of America.”
Katie’s eyes flashed black fire. “You bastard,” she hissed.
“Au contraire.”Leo lifted her hand and kissed her fisted fingers. “I am the son of my father, planted in my mother’s belly, born in wedlock. My name is listed in the family Bible and recorded in official parish papers.” Leo was laughing at her.
Katie’s fangs dropped down slowly with a faint click of the hinges. Her eyes vamped out—the sclera bled scarlet and the pupils went wide, eclipsing the irises, black holes in a bloody sea. “For how many years have you planned this?”
“It was never planned, my love, but this move has been on the board forever.”
“I refuse! You need me here. You need me to fight at your side. You need me to ensnare our ancient enemy once again. I will not leave you.”
Leo pulled her into an embrace and said gently, sweetly, “Then I will have my Onorios take you and your sister to the mountains of Georgia, far from the nearest habitation of cattle, far from the nearest protection from daylight, far from food and safety. They will drain you both, in the Onorio way, and drop you from a helicopter.”
“La faute est à moi,”Alesha said. Katie whipped her head to her sister, still standing at her side. I had practically forgotten her, in the soap opera of Leo and Katie, playing out on a public stage. Madam Spy was biting her knuckles with her own fangs. Clear, human-looking tears ran down her face. She shook her head.“Je suis la coupable. Tout est de ma faute. Tout est de ma faute.”
“Katherine!” Leo demanded, his voice low.
Katie whipped her head around to Leo.
He said,“Nous vous offrons le salut. Acceptez notre miséricorde.”
I had learned a lot of French just being around HQ,but I must have looked confused because Edmund said from the dais, to me, “Alesha says it is all her fault. Leo offered her mercy.”
Leo said,“Ne me forcez pas à vous tuer toutes les deux.”
Edmund said, “Do not make me kill you both.”
“Nous acceptons votre offre et jurons fidélité,”Alesha said.
Edmund translated, “We accept your offer, and swear loyalty.”
“C’est pour cela que je suis née.”
Edmund murmured, “I will govern. It is what I was born for.”
In English Alesha said, “Your conniving lover made certain that I was trained in duplicity and governance. Ask him.”
“You!” Katie leaned away from Leo, who tightened his arm on her waist. She whipped her eyes wildly around the room as if she felt a noose closing over her neck. Her hair slid out of its coil in an ash-blond swoosh. Her shoulders hunched, fangs flashed in the pale lights. Then she blinked. Slowly, as if understanding was dawning. Katie turned her head in one of those inhuman motions the fangheads had. In a totally different tone, she said to Leo, “You!”
