Now that our couple's delightful weekend has passed, Blake continues his search for both Malphas and the vampire who aids him. This snippet contains my favorite pixie minx doing what she does best: push the limits of a very dangerous vampire.
Hold on tight, though, as things are about to start moving and get really bumpy real soon!
Enjoy!
xxxxxx
There's a Fine Line...
Chapter 11
Blake
reviewed the file on Xanthe Petrou, the Councilwoman representing Virginia and
Washington DC. She’d been the first to be interviewed that week about the
vampire working with Malphas. Though none of the women were under suspicion,
Petrou had been a staunch advocate of an emergency override for the Council’s
drop box system. Since the traitor had managed to accomplish just that, it
placed her position on the matter under scrutiny. It wasn’t beyond the realm of
possibility for the traitor to have had help within the Council. Blake just
wasn’t placing bets that the aid came from Petrou.
She
was the daughter of a minor Greek prince and a housemaid, raised amongst luxury
and riches but forbidden to possess them. The royal blood that ran through her
veins meant little when her mother was of the lower classes. As she grew, the serving
class envied her royal lineage while the nobles looked down on her common parentage.
She was part of both worlds and yet belonged to neither. Her need to rise above
her detractors, to make them pay for the pain of her youth, took root at a very
young age and only grew with time.
It
was easy to believe that Petrou was capable of participating in, or even
developing such a plot. Her father had commanded she learn from the premiere
tutors of the time and she’d continued her education long after she’d thrown
off her mortality and embraced the life of a vampire. She was intelligent and
cunning, but her ambition twisted her knowledge towards darker ends. She had a
thirst for power that had only grown since her childhood. Xanthe Petrou was more
than capable, but she’d never bow to anyone – much less a demon.
Putting
the report aside with a few new notes in the margins, he pulled out the next
candidate’s file. Karen Walker was a young vampire whose rise to the council
had been sponsored by the missing Lucas Davenport. Though the identity of her
Sire was listed as unknown/not provided, it was a fair bet that her sire and
sponsor were one and the same. The fact that such a young vampire – she was
less than a century old – was trying to hide the identity of her Sire sent up
the red flags to the Primary Investigator. Unless he (or she) was wanted by the
Primus, involved in something the council might consider unacceptable, or
unknown, there was little reason not to provide the information. Granted, the
council was unaware of August’s heritage but allowances were made for age -- most
vampires of his Child’s age had survived their Sires. Regardless of the reasons
why the information had been suppressed, it was definitely something to denote and
ask the girl when she arrived.
“You’re
looking all gloom-and-doomy this morning, Pointy Teeth.” Sapphire fluttered down from one of the air
grates to perch upon his desk lamp. “What’s got your tighty-whities in a
bunch?”
“Good
morning, Sapphire,” Blake murmured without looking up from the file. “How was
your weekend?”
“Not
as good as yours, I bet.” The tiny pixie wrinkled her nose and drifted from the
lamp onto the desk, walking along the edge of the grooves Alicia had cut into
the expensive mahogany.
“Perhaps
not.” Blake chuckled softly and closed the file. “Was there something you
wanted, you little blue demon, or did you simply wish to torment me this
morning? I don’t have anyone scheduled until after ten.”
“I
know.” Dancing over to the laptop, Sapphire leaped and pirouetted around keys
to spell out a taunting message: I know
something you don’t know. “When you told me to leave for the weekend, I was
going to see Opal. It’s not fair that you get to see your mate but I don’t.”
“And
what prevented you from visiting your mate?” Blake smothered a grin while
watching the tiny fey creature dance to music only she seemed to hear. He could
easily imagine her saying the typed phrase in her sing-song voice. “I was
assured that the distance wasn’t too far for either of you to fly.”
“Of
course it wasn’t too far, Pointy Teeth, but someone was trying to be sneaky.”
She snorted in derision and returned to the eight large gashes in the desk’s
varnish. “I expected them to be deeper,” she murmured with a twinkle in her
crystalline blue eyes. “I suppose it’s to be expected at your age.”
“At
my age--?” The pixie’s melodic laughter
forced the vampire’s indignant reply to come to a spluttering halt. Narrowing
his eyes, he gave the creature a terrible smile that promised payback. “Never
mind that, you mentioned someone being sneaky?”
“No,
I said he was trying to be sneaky. Pay
attention, vampire. He wasn’t doing a good job of it at all. Pitiful attempt,
really, even for an Infernal.”
Blake
tensed immediately. “Enough games, Sapphire. Explain yourself.”
“Oh,
fine. You never let me have any fun,
you know. And I missed being with my mate and everything.”
“Sapphire.”
The single word was hissed between elongated fangs as the vampire’s patience
was tested to the breaking point. The fey realized she’d pushed him a bit too
far and nervously faded out of sight.
“Right.
The Infernal. Well, he was just standing outside the building trying not to
look like he was watching it, which meant he looked even more like he was
watching it because, you know, when someone tries not to look like he’s spying
it makes him look even more like a spy.” A low growl cut off the pixie’s
nervous babbling and she gulped audibly. “Yes, anyway, he stayed until you
returned with your mate and then he left. I followed him into a building with a
sign that read Devil’s Playground…
Did you know that it was full of males of all races watching as the females
removed their clothing to music? The women were dancing very oddly; like a
nymph who’d eaten one too many overripe glisterberries.”
“It’s
a strip club, Sapphire. The women are paid to remove their clothing for men to
watch. That’s irrelevant.” Blake waved his hand as if brushing away a
bothersome fly. “Did this Infernal make contact with anyone?”
“Oh,
yes! He met with the First Circler, Vergil Merrow.”
