“End recording but don’t end call,” I said to Alex.
“Recording ended,” he said.
I took pics of the maps and sent them to Alex.
“How may I serve my mistress?” Santiago asked.
“Alex. Check your texts. Santiago found some old maps of Algiers. I’d like him to work with you on the maps and the journals.” To my new scion, I said, “Copy Alex’s number into your cell and you’ll talk. We’re looking for something of value, in some place of value, that we think could be a church, or maybe that was once a church but now is something else, or a site that used to be a church and is now long gone, with something else built over it, on Algiers Point.” I was prevaricating. We knew very little. It was a lot of land and not-to-scale maps drawn over a hundred years apart. I needed help and maybe Santiago could provide that help. “Alex, Santiago is trying to align the streets and the buildings from old maps with current day.”
“Copy. I think I have the shoreline resized and matched from your photos,” Alex said, “but neither map is exactly to scale, and one doesn’t even show streets. There are a number of churches that were wiped off the map in one hurricane or another, and several that have been morerecently damaged. Repairs have been slow. Lots of buildings have been sealed shut.”
“Alex Younger, I will call you on my cellular phone,” Santiago said. “I will also take the original maps to you for scanning and computer adjustment, which might assist with the difficulties in scale.”
I nodded, said all the polite things, ended the call, stood, and left Santiago’s room. As I walked into the hallway, I felt the weight of all the people who had sworn to me, people I had to protect, people with long histories of abuse, possibly,probably, from each other.
And Leo... Leo had sent me to the journals. There was no way he had read them before I killed his son, which meant he’d found, read, and placed them in the library between then and now. Which also meant he had known the maps were there, in place to be given to me when needed, which also meant that Leo had seen this additional proof that his son wasn’t really his son when he died at my hand, but an imposter. The change in the handwriting had been a dead giveaway.Haha. Dead giveaway. If I smiled it was a hard, unhappy smile. Leo and his blasted layered machinations.
“Quint,” I said to my silent bodyguard / lady-in-waiting, “two things. Once Alex narrows locations down, schedule a trip to the area Santiago specified for whatever time the security team wants. Then write and send a letter to Wrassler. He’s acting as something like an HR person, but we need HR protocols and methods to accept reports of abuse between humans and vamps, and vamps and vamps. Someone to investigate and deal with problems. And we need a mental health person available for counseling. I thought about that once before and never did anything about it. Get Wrassler to see if Santiago wants to be part of putting that together and, you know, counsel. And stuff.”
Quint, who was walking just a little behind me, gave a delicate snort. “Forgive me, My Queen, but you want to start a human resources department and a counseling service forvamps? Abuse is their middle name.”
“What two people do together, consensually, is theirbusiness. But some vamps have a history of mesmerizing and coercion. They will stop, make reparations, and be good little bloodsuckers, or they can leave. And the counselor is for the abused.”
“You will make more enemies on the inside, who may join the enemies on the outside.”
“You’re saying political considerations come before common decency?”
“No. But I agree with your brothers. They say you walk a tightrope between dangers.”
My people had a point. But I had backup. I grinned as the thought occurred to me. “How’s this? The Vampira Carta of the Americas will be the basis of the complaint system. And anyone who disagrees gets to deal with the Dark Queen and anoutclan priest. Personally.” I glanced at her from the corner of my eye. “Leo was one of the vamps who put the new VC together. He’ll want it followed to the letter. And the outclan have always been judges in issues with vamps.”
I’m freaking brilliant,I thought.
Quint made a humming sound. “Good move.” I heard her texting as we walked.
Jane is best hunter,Beast thought at me.But Leo may die in Jane war.
Okay. So it’s not perfect, but it will do for now.
I turned a corner and came to a stop. Bruiser was leaning against the wall facing me, ankles crossed, arms crossed. I hadn’t noticed what he was wearing earlier: white long-sleeved T, black jeans, his hair a little too long and hanging down over one eye.Oh my. Sex on a stick. There was something green held against the white tee.
Is good mate,Beast thought.
“Wait,” I said to my escort.
I stepped forward but Beast shoved herself into the forefront of our brain and changed our walk. She stalked slowly to him. Eyes on his.
I could see the reflection of her golden eyes in Bruiser’s brown ones. And when we got close my inner big-cat practically rolled over inside me and started purring. The green stuff was catnip and little violet flowers.
I slid a hand up the back of Bruiser’s neck to his head. Brought his mouth down that few inches to mine. Even after all this time it was strange to kiss a man taller than me.
“Hey, Consort,” I nearly growled. “You brought me a present.”
“In my day it was called a posy,” he said, his words vibrating against my lips. “Men brought them to their ladyloves.”
“Uh-huh. Call it anything you want. I know seduction when I see it. Our rooms. Now.”
His eyes kindled with heat and laughter. “Whatever my love desires.”
