It’s about time.I nodded for him to continue. Sipped my water. Breathed. The relief pulsed through me with my blood, doing as much to soothe and heal as the wine-bone-stock.
“Under the new Emergency Medical Protocols, Eli received infusions of blood donated by three O-neg humans who had been previously tested for, and found negative for, atypical antibodies. He drank from Kojo and Thema, and they bled all over him and all over Angie. With all that, and with the Everharts’ healing magic, both are feeling better than anyone expected. The other vamps they waked fed the others, no rolling, no non-consensual attempts at sex, and the vamps didn’t kill anyone.”
“Where are they? Eli, Angie, and Wrassler.”
“On premises,” Alex said, sounding very Eli-like. “Liz is with Eli. We moved some humans around for Cia and Carmen, and Angie is with her parents in a suite with a—I guess a playroom?—for as long as they need. Wrassler is recuperating. I called Jodi and she’s on premises as well, ordering people around like a drill sergeant.”
“Is Angie going to scar?” I had seen her burns. She had been blistered deeply, the blisters already busted and the cooked tissue beneath visible.
“Not much, if any, for Angie, and much less long-term damage than previously for Eli. Evan, Molly, and Liz had been working on healing magics and amulets. Molly said two of the new ones for trauma flew and are now proven.”
I managed a breathy chuckle. Magic was mathematics and geometry and mental control of energy. When the math went bad, Molly made paper airplanes of the calculations and flew the failed working across the room. Thefact that Moll could heal with her earth magic and hold down her death magic, in the midst of a major crisis, was a good sign for her future mental health and magical control.
“Security teams are stationed everywhere,” Bruiser said, “with good sight lines of the air, the property, and the rest of the block. There are additional teams at each of the Clan Homes and your house. We have team leaders available to give you an update if you want.”
“What Iwant?” I looked at my Consort. Now that my worry was gone and I was feeling a little stronger, my anger flared. “What I want is for what happened today with the local emergency responders, led by the politicians, to Never. Happen. Again.” We had all nearly died because of the Heir. But Eli had nearly died because the locals played politics in the middle of a paranormal war.“Never.”
Bruiser tilted his head and his smile grew. There was a mean edge to it, as if in answer to my own rage. “My love and My Queen, Jane Yellowrock, studied under Leo’s tutelage. She understands the power of a threat that is backed up by proof. I left messages with the town and parish leaders after the null house attack. The messages were clearly ignored. I am prepared to carry out the orders of the Dark Queen.”
“Good. I want a press release drafted that states the Dark Queen was impeded in her protection of her territory and local human law enforcement, by local politicians, who instructed law enforcement to that end. I want it stated that our humans nearly died protecting the human citizens in the area and that several of our people were injured, including a child. I want it to be stated that I’m considering abandoning NOLA and the entire Gulf Coast. To hell with just talking nice to the politicos. I want the public informed that I’ll withdraw my political protection of New Orleans and its citizens and leave the way open for a takeover by a local warlord. There’ll be war in the streets as the European vamps fleeing the war there fight it out for control here. Let it be known that my people and I are the ones standing between peace and dozens of events where our enemies prey on the populaceand eat them like a buffet. Send that press release out through every media outlet you can think of.
“I want teams at the mountain house, getting it ready for the permanent residence of the Dark Queen, with more garages, an expanded landing pad for the helo, steel shutters on all windows and access points, including all the cottages. And finish the underground bunker. All those plans you and Eli talked over? Finish them. Put some money into it. Whatever you need. Use local companies so word gets out fast. Good ol’ boys talk. A lot.
“Then I want a serious, nationally recognized press personality given secret access to the inn and property, as if that access was being done without our knowledge. I want it to look absolutely positive that I’m moving HQ permanently to the mountains. And when that press person calls HQ for comment, I want them transferred to you. And you can tell them the details of what will happen to this city if there’s no vamp presence here. Make sure they get directed to the YouTube vids of the vamp war in Europe, and what happened to entire towns that were taken over by warlords. If I, personally, have to do a live interview, fine. Set it up. I’m done playing games.”
“Yes, My Queen,” Bruiser said. “Leo would be proud.”
“Yeah? Leo should have done this years ago.”
“Leo could never be seen in public in the daylight. He was never perceived as human. He was secretive and seldom let the public near him. Leo drank blood and kept blood-servants and blood-slaves. He hunted humans in his city for centuries, a creature whispered about and feared. That alone made him more than simply non-human, it made himinhuman. There was a time after he killed his daughter when he was a monster. And then you came and turned his world upside down. When he discovered that there might be a bloodline that could potentially save the long-chained, even his own child, who was by then true dead, he lost a great deal of his control for a time. Because he had killed herhimself. Knowing that they had killed their own? Every Mithran mourned.”
That had never crossed my mind. That every vamp who had dispatched a long-chained scion would have tomourn all over again because if they had waited, it was possible to have saved them with the blood from Amy Lynn Brown and others like her.
“You?” His smile softened into pride. “You can pull this off. Leo never could.”
“Yeah?” I had never thought about any of this, not the way he stated it. “Okay,” I said. “Set it up. Fast. Make the people and the reporter believe it.”
“With pleasure, My Queen.”
***
It was late afternoon and most of the security team members were gathered in the security room, silent, the humans eating from the platters of food on the table or leaning against the walls. No Everharts were present.
I was sitting in my chair, a two-pound rare steak on a platter in front of me, and a serving bowl full of loaded mashed potatoes beside it. A large bottle of water and a teapot with mug, sugar, and creamer were to the side. I cut a wedge of steak with a thick layer of fat and shoved it in, chewing. Being human-shaped meant I had to properly macerate and masticate the protein. The taste was amazing, but then, starvation makes everything taste better.
As I ate, Alex was talking, explaining the screens overhead. The largest one was divided into smaller sections, showing the events of the day gathered from our people’s vest cam footage, security cam footage, and some video posted by witnesses onto the Internet. Two screens were blank, marked “Police Audio,” and showing that jagged line that meant either an earthquake or decibels, hertz, whatever. He looked at me, and asked, “Which first, My Queen?”
I swallowed a hunk of steak down. “Audio,” I said, cutting another slice.
We listened to the cop chatter about the explosion at the airport that took down the new hangar. We also listened to their chatter about the Dark Queen, armed and dangerous, and how one politician wanted her in jail for endangering humans. I expected there to be a lot more of that until Bruiser set our plan in motion.
The audio-only parts were broken down and hashedover by Wrassler, Bruiser, and Alex. The other team members were mostly quiet. Derek’s teams had seen combat and they understood the danger their brothers in arms had faced today.
We watched the video of everything Alex deemed worthy of my time. The cop vest cam footage of me riding up in half-form, full Beast face, Benelli to the fore, was impressive, if the scent change in the room was anything to go by. I did look kinda scary. One particular angle showed our fangs catching the sunlight; that one was Beast’s favorite.
Beast is best hunter,she thought.
Yes, you are,I thought back.
