Takashi started to pull away.
Roger tugged him closer. If kindness wouldn’t do it, he’d have to bring out a bit of his own stubbornness. “All right. Then someone needs to tell me what Zack meant about Nell wanting to kill him. Is that true?”
“It is,” Takashi whispered. “I called her. Oh God, you don’t know. It was Nell.”
“What was?” Roger asked.
“She was the one to make a deal with a fey to lock you in a coffin,” Takashi continued. Once begun, his pace quickened. “She wanted you to come back to Chicago and cause a civil war so she could pick up the pieces of the GLC. I don’t know her exact plans, but Zack waking you wrecked whatever she had inmotion. When I told her that Zack was now Seamus’s fledgling, she insisted that I kill him.”
Epiphanies lit like firecrackers, one after another of bright light, leaving him in a shadow of depression as they passed. Nell had been a friend. An ally. And she’d played him. Roger took a deep breath. His lovers needed him to be their buoy right now, and he would do anything to keep them afloat. “Because if Zack dies, he’ll take a measure of Seamus’s power to the grave.”
“Power I think we’ve been underestimating,” Zack added. “Have either of you ever seen his eyes go completely black and red?”
“I have,” Takashi said. “They became like voids with rubies when he was threatening me. Zack, I’m sorry for how I’ve been treating you tonight, but I didn’t know what to do … I still don’t. Seamus … he accused me of trying to seduce Anton. Then he ripped off Evander’s head and sent it back to Nell, basically declaring open war on her. He made a point of telling the representative that he knew about the threat on your life. The only way he would have known that?—”
“Would be if you or I told him,” Zack said. “That’s not a hard leap to make, especially for a creature as old as Nell.”
“And Takashi has built his career on being Nell’s loyal ambassador,” Roger said. The conclusion spilled out of him as he traced the map of logic he found between Takashi’s behavior and his own knowledge of covens. “Siding with one’s sire is expected, even after leaving their coven. The fact that you’ve officially moved, that you’ve been seen standing beside Seamus, and then that message, everyone will know that you’ve switched your allegiance. If you’re willing to move away from someone so powerful, who has given you so much, then others will assume that what you really care for is your own status and prestige. They will believe you are a false friend at best and an active saboteur at worst.”
“I will be welcome nowhere,” Takashi said with a nod. “Seamus has made it clear that he will draw out the agony of my life before snuffing it. Everything I’ve ever done is ash.”
Zack launched himself at Takashi and wrapped him in a fierce hug.
Gently, Roger let go of Takashi’s hand. With all that he had learned, he needed a moment to adjust to his shifting reality. Nell’s betrayal stung, but it wasn’t unexpected. Not entirely. She had been forceful about Roger going back to Chicago, and she’d demanded that he come up with a plan to take the leadership as soon as possible. Her claim that Takashi was her assurance that she would be paid back had made sense at the time, but he had never stopped to think about why she cared so much for a few scant million. The whole reason they had settled on that amount was that it wouldn’t hurt her to extend the loan for some time.
She’d sent Takashi for exactly the reason Zack had suspected in their first meeting. He was supposed to be willing to kill either of them if he had to.
The night the three of them had first slept together, Roger had delved into Takashi’s mind and seen a piece that he kept hidden away. Takashi desired to live his own life as he saw fit. Nell was a decent master—she had far more respect for her subordinates than many—but her underlings were stillunderher. Her fist was not clad in iron, but a hand in a leather glove was able to choke life and happiness, too.
Takashihadbeen out for himself, but that didn’t mean he was without love or loyalty. Freedom of choice was the greatest of liberties. That was what Takashi wanted to do. He had grown from a hesitant young vampire into a sophisticated charmer because there was power in saying the right things to the right people. He’d seen what their lives were like and wagered on political capital to grant him some measure of freedom.
It had been a murky decision, but Roger had done far worse to feel an iota of reprieve from Seamus. Takashi had done the best he could.
Zack’s fumble was understandable. Though some part of Roger wanted to scream that he naturally should have known better, he knew what Seamus could be like when he wanted to impress someone. Newly dead, bound to Seamus, with only Takashi to provide any counterbalancing logic—Roger had no trouble believing that Seamus could manipulate even someone as stubborn as Zack. And Takashi, for all his strengths, had believed in the social game. He might have known how dangerous Seamus could be, but that didn’t mean he’d been prepared. He had been a proponent of working inside the system to change it. He hadn’t come to the revelation that Roger had; change from within was impossible. The only path to liberation was with war.
Roger was also certain that Seamus had played a card that was only useful once and that the bastard’s hand was fully revealed. Neither Zack nor Takashi would fall for any of his shit again.Not that I want to give him the opportunity to try.
His lovers were consoling one another, their distance closing, and the embers of their fight drifting into ash. Roger knew far more must have happened, but his precious minutes alone with them were coming to a close. Though he longed to soothe every stinging pain in all their souls, he needed to keep his head level and his plans moving forward.
“I cannot tell you how much this reunion means to me, but I do have another purpose in being here,” Roger said. His voice drew their attention, and they lessened their hug to look at him. Zack had his forehead against Takashi’s temple, lightly pressed there. “Actually, stay just like that a moment.”
Roger took out his cell phone. Zack started to frown as he had his eyes closed and wouldn’t know what Roger was up to, but Takashi shushed him. Roger snapped a picture with his phone.
“Did you just pause whatever doom and gloom you were about to drop to take apic?” Zack asked.
“He did.” Takashi kissed Zack’s cheek.
“You have got to be kidding me,” Zack grumbled. He nipped Takashi’s jaw and then turned toward Roger. “You have to let me see.”
Roger showed him the photo.
Zack raised his eyebrows. “Uh, why didn’t anyone tell me I’m a hot vampire?”
“I believe I did,” Takashi replied.
“Okay, no one said I was a smoking hot vampire.”
Roger laughed and fought to not get carried away with the lightness it brought to his heart. He put his phone away. As much as he hated for the moment to end, he had to embrace practicality. “Zack, I love you, but if you’re scared that you’ll unintentionally share thoughts with Seamus, you do have to go.”
