I Velcroed the paper bag containing a scrap of the cloth stained with Grandmother’s sweat into a secure pocket. Debated on carrying the locket. I didn’t know what it did or if it might interfere with the crown and the Glob. I decided against it. Same for the winged lizard amulet.
A soft knock came at the door. I smelled Quint’s scent from beneath. Thema was with her. “Come,” I said. Leo-like.
They entered. Looked me over. Thema started laughing, approval in the tone. Quint merely nodded and adjusted the position of my weapons for more perfect draws.
I was starving, especially with the scent of seared red meat coming through the cracked bedroom door. With my newer-better-sniffer nose, I could also smell baked potato slathered in butter, sour cream, and bacon. There was also something vegetably that smelled of alkaloids and chlorophyll, and made me want to gag.
I glanced in the mirror one last time. Satisfied that I looked like the Dark Queen should, I strode to the partially open door, grabbed the doorknob, and pulled it open. Ripped it from its hinges. Threw it across the room. Quint, battle reflexes always on high, ducked fast.
The door hit the far wall with a wham that I felt through my paws and resonated through the house. It broke the wallboard. When I looked back out, Eli was standing behind the wall on the other side of the stairs with a weapon pointed at my chest.
“Sorry,” I said.
The minigun targeting me pointed to the floor. “Don’t know your own strength, babe?” he asked.
“Clearly not.” I met his eyes, and his face was drawn with grief. Tears prickled under my cat lids.
“Food?” he asked.
“I seem to find the smell of veggies foul. Meat? Yes. And a lot of it. We have a war to plan.”
“Three pounds of sirloin just for you. Rare enough to still be kicking. Sort of. Nice ears, by the way. I think you put on enough muscle to maybe take me down.”
I snorted and strode from my bedroom, taking my place at the table, having to half-straddle the chair because of the weapons. The steak was tender; the fangs weren’t so big they got in the way of me chewing, which was good, because my throat closed up several times in grief as I ate. I could hardly taste the food. It was sustenance.
When my plate was empty, I was joined at the table by Aya, Eli, Alex, and Quint. I looked them all over as I sipped my cooling tea. Each face, except maybe Quint’s, was etched with grief. Aya looked pretty good for a guy who had nearly died as a bird only hours ago.
I set down my mug. “Any news on Leo’s whereabouts?”
“Nothing,” Alex said. “We sent teams to every known possible lair. No sign of him anywhere.”
I grunted and asked, “Anything on the newly installed cameras and microphones, and any recent sensor data from HQ?” When Cowbird Protocol went into effect again, Wrassler and his security crew had installed mics and cameras in areas of the Council Chambers that had previously been off-limits, and they were all accessed into Alex’s system.
There was a peculiar silence after my question. Eli got up and served me dessert, which was a side of bacon.
“Yeah. We got stuff,” Alex said.
I shoved three crispy bacon slices into my mouth. “I’m listening.”
“You’re not gonna like it.”
“Didn’t expect to.” I chewed.
Alex talked. The more he talked, the angrier I got. When I saw the video and heard the conversations, that anger went from hot to cold and determined. My nose and the hidden surveillance equipment had finally found our biggest traitor. The lynchpin.
I was Dark Queen. It was my job to make sure justice was carried out. And for once I’d take pleasure in death.
***
As I walked into the repaired airlock at HQ after dusk, my presence was being announced over the building-wide communication system and into my headset. Humans and vamps came out of the woodwork to get a look at me, watching as I walked through the inner airlock doors, my armed entourage behind me. I stood there waiting, the vamp scents rising, floral, herbal, bloody. Letting them look. Letting the vamps smell me. Predator. Top of the food chain. More vamps and humans arrived in the foyer, stopping; the vamps silent, still as stone; the humans whispering, breathing, shuffling into better positions.
The humans smelled of uncertainty and curiosity.
Rising over the vamps’ natural scents was the tang of their desire. They wanted to taste my blood. Some of them wanted a full dinner; in vamp terms, they wanted sex and blood at the same time. Once upon a time, that would have offended me, maybe even frightened me. Now it was something I could use to avenge Derek and Storm. I stared them down. I smiled.
The vamps’ scents began to alter, morphing from desire to something more acerbic, resembling anxiety. Gently I began to draw on the power of the crown stuck to my head. The crown of power over vamps for the person who could use it. Smelling their unease grow, I stepped forward. They separated, leaving the way open to the main steps. I walked between them, letting them look. Letting them worry. I didn’t pull a weapon. Iwasa weapon.
Slowly I stepped up the stairs. At the top, I looked down at the foyer with my crest on the floor, exposed by the flood of people who had arrived and then stepped back. Wrassler was on his honeymoon. The woman standing in the security nook doorway was familiar, Sarah Spieth, a new former military person chosen by... Derek.
