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Fain didn’t much like their temporary Guild House. It had no personality at all, shitty security, and it wasn’t even completely light-proof so it was useless as a dwelling. But it was his Guild House, for now, and the idea of someone coming to take it from him made him furious.
They sat in the living room of the temporary Guild House on cheap, equally temporary furniture. Kaltenbach paced by the window, likely unhappy about being indoors after sunset. The Spider sat in the corner, surfing on her phone. Fain sat on the couch next to Medina with his arm extended, who was practicing sticking a vein.
Fain shook his head. Holzhausen was so utterly predictable. There were only a few ways that a vampire could safely fly from Seabingen to Red Rock. Did they forget who his sire was? Albers was the master of using humans to gather information, and Fain had been under her wing for a century and a half. They paid the airline workers so little; it didn’t cost very much to get information when a certain type of passenger was scheduled to arrive. He’d sent a text to Rivera, asking him to fetch the items he needed. Two of each, just in case. Rivera had not just delivered the items but had assembled them in the back room with some packing tape and box cutters. Good man.
“Who are they sending?” Kaltenbach asked.
“Norwicki and Walker,” Fain said, with as much casualness as he could muster, but he was seething. How dare they. Hadn’t he risked everything to build this Guild himself? Hadn’t he funded this Guild himself? They all mocked him for working even after the point at which most vampires would have retired and spent their days gossiping and planning mischief and their nights doing political machinations over cocktail parties. He had learned from Albers the value in information, but he was not like his sire. He wasn’t one to endlessly scheme. He was a man of action. He winced briefly. “Are you trying to impale me, Medina?”
“No, Sire. Sorry, Sire,” Medina said, pulling the needle out. She was wearing a spaghetti strapped camisole and when she leaned over, he had a pleasant view down her shirt. Was that deliberate? Probably. Women tended to be aware of their effect on others.
“Gabrielle Norwicki?” Kaltenbach asked. “An unusual choice.”
“Not her. Her husband Damien.” How dare they? They’d exiled him here. He hadn’t even had his choice of where to go. Four years. Go to a shithole town in Arizona and establish a colony. A colony. And now that he had built something worth having, they wanted him to hand it back.
“He is expendable, and weak,” Kaltenbach said. “They either underestimate you, or they don’t care enough to send force.”
“Damien Norwicki and I worked together. He’s a bit nervous in a fight, not my first choice on a squad, but I like the guy. Holzhausen is probably counting on me being reluctant to shoot him.” Damien’s wife, the other Norwicki, had also been Damien’s sire, and she was smart, fierce, and a bit of a looker, so Fain had never understood what drew the two of them together.
“Are you?” Kaltenbach asked seriously.
“If he is coming to depose me, he has made his choice. I’ll be sorry to shoot him, but I’ll do it. If Norwicki thinks he can take me in a fight, he’s deluded.” And did Holzhausen even stop to consider that Fain owned this house? So many decades he had been pulling in a decent salary, and not spending it, accruing money while they all laughed at him for working full time like a human. Siang had told him something once in passing. Money is power. Would he be leading this Guild if he didn’t have money? Probably not. The Red Rock fledglings were in awe of Kaltenbach. He knew they called her ‘La Patrona’ behind his back. But she didn’t want to lead, not like he did, and she would respect him as long as he was strong. This was his first real test of mettle.
“Good, Medina. That one was much better.” Fain nodded as Medina stuck his vein. “Spider, do you know anything of Walker? He and I didn’t cross paths much.”
“They say he knows magic,” the Spider said from the corner of the room. “And he is an arrogant little shit.”
“Ow, Medina, that one went too far. The vein is right there. Palpate it and you’ll see.”
“Sorry, Sire,” she said, pulling the needle out. She leaned over again, arching her back just enough to offer an unobstructed view of her cleavage. Yes, she was being deliberate about it.
“Try it again. You’ll lose hosts if you can’t do this painlessly,” Fain said, then turned to Kaltenbach. “Their flight arrives at 10:45 tonight. Tell Wolfe to show up and ask the others if they’ll consider coming tonight. We want a show of strength.”
“Not possible.” Kaltenbach shook her head.
Fain sighed. Kaltenbach had explained that Joe and Mercedes refused to be in the same room as Wolfe, but Fain kept wanting it to not be true. One more problem he needed to deal with as soon as possible. Fain turned to Medina, who had succeeded in sticking his vein on the first try this time. He pulled the needle out and handed it to her. “Medina, my Dayrunner left some sheets of plywood in the back room. Would you bring them in here please and attach them to the wall?”
“I’m here, what did I miss?” Wolfe asked, sauntering in like he owned the place. He carried one of those giant cans of energy drink, the sickly-sweet ones that tasted like caffeine. It irritated Fain. Everything about Wolfe irritated him these days. If only they didn’t need him; Kaltenbach would be so happy to arrange an accident.
“Help Medina bolt those sheets of plywood to the wall.”
“Why?” Wolfe asked.
“Because I told you to,” he snapped.
“We going to meet them in here?” Kaltenbach asked.
“Might as well.”
At his nod, the Spider got off the couch and pushed it against the wall. Kaltenbach took the wingback chair that looked most like a throne and put it by itself at the far end, away from the plywood, and away from the door. They’d walk in past the Spider and Kaltenbach and Medina and Wolfe, flanking them on either side, so that they couldn’t be anywhere in the room without having someone at their backs.
Fain went into the ammo boxes they kept in the coat closet, opening sections until he found what he was looking for. He emptied the bullets he used for target practice out of his magazine and loaded the ones he’d specially purchased for just such an occasion. A nice big exit wound, not a lot of drywall damage. The right tool for the job.
And then they killed time until the plane arrived. Kaltenbach went for a run, Wolfe went into the other room to play one of those video games, and Fain had Medina continue practice sticking his vein until he felt like a badly healed pincushion. Medina finally got it perfected about half an hour before midnight, so he asked her to put the needles into the sharps bin and act as doorman when the Seabingen Guild members came in.
Norwicki looked the same as he always had, a slightly balding white guy who wore a lot of Land’s End and Eddie Bauer but had a physique that showed a dedication to the great indoors and looked as though he’d get winded jumping to a conclusion. His hiking boots and plaid flannel shirt must have been brutally hot. Even out here in the desert, it didn’t drop below 80 at night this time of year, and he’d heard the heat during the day was enough to melt plastic. In any group of more than one person, Norwicki would not be the leader, so Fain wasn’t surprised when Walker swaggered into the room and started talking.
“Leonard Fain?” Walker said. He was a tall and skinny guy with a leather jacket that looked like it had been dragged through a ravine, torn jeans and a tee shirt washed to near translucency. His craggy face and permed black hair missed the 80’s rocker look by four inches of back combing. “Pack your bags. There’s a new sheriff in town. I’m—”
Fain didn’t particularly want to hear any more than that. He unloaded the clip into Walker, relishing Walker’s look of utter shock. The Spider stepped forward and relieved Walker of his gun, while Kaltenbach drew her own sidearm and held it to Damien Norwicki’s head. She held the tip of the muzzle at the hollow between his ear and jaw, pointing up. Norwicki stood there frozen, like a rabbit under a hawk’s stare. Some people just didn’t have the temperament for a violent life. And a vampire’s life was nothing if not violent.
Medina and Wolfe began to tie Walker’s wrists and ankles together. The carpet was ruined, but you couldn’t have everything. Maybe Joe knew how to lay carpet. Guys like him often showed up with surprising skills. They packed Walker into the waterproof sack and then put the sack in the sturdy cardboard shipping box.
“Damien, what am I to do with you?” Fain asked.
“Perhaps it’s best if I just go home,” Damien said, holding up his hands as if trying to calm an aggressive dog. “Fain, I have no problem with you. I was just following orders.”
“What do we do with this guy?” Wolfe asked, nodding at Walker.
“Ship him back to Seabingen. My Dayrunner already filled out the shipping manifest.” Fain slid Wolfe the paperwork without taking his eyes off Norwicki. “The pickup location is on the Post-it note.”
“Car parts?” Wolfe asked, reading the paperwork. “You’re calling him car parts?”
“It’s the only thing heavy enough. Do you need help carrying him?” Fain asked, just to needle him.
“No, Sire,” Wolfe said, and he picked up the box.
Fain steepled his fingers. “Let me guess, you were sent down here to replace me.”
Norwicki nodded.
And then Norwicki surprised him. He pulled out a Taser from under his plaid flannel and fired at Kaltenbach, ducking simultaneously so that her shot went up at the ceiling, scattering a hailstorm of acoustic plaster. Kaltenbach fell backwards and began to convulse. Fain was distracted by her seizure, and he didn’t see the second Taser until one of the barbed prongs hit him.
But Medina had jumped between him and Norwicki, and the second prong went wide. Damien drew a gun, but Medina smacked him upside the head with the DeWalt cordless drill. Fain heard bone crunch and saw Damien’s eyes roll back in his head as blood spilled down his collar.
“Quickly. Tie him up before he heals,” Fain ordered the Spider.
Kaltenbach stopped jerking, and Fain removed the probes to let her recover, then turned to see the Spider quickly trussing up Norwicki. The wound on his skull looked pretty bad, denting in at least an inch and gushing blood.
“Did I kill him?” Medina whispered, wrapping his ankles with twine.
“Probably not,” Fain said. “We’re made to survive. Let’s put duct tape over his mouth so he can’t chew through this.”
He probed at the wound gently. It certainly didn’t look good. She’d hit him hard enough to crush part of his skull. A human would certainly not be neurologically intact after a blow like that, even if he’d been lucky enough to survive. Head wounds were bad news. Even vampires could die of head wounds if they were bad enough. He imagined Gabrielle spoon-feeding her husband blood, cooing at him. Damnit. He hadn’t wanted to do this. He wasn’t friends with Damien, but he didn’t dislike the guy. Should he give him blood? No. If Damien healed, he’d be strong enough to snap the twine, even if he did look like a scrawny couch potato. Best to just ship him home in a box, let the Seabingen Guild take care of him.
That was too close. If Medina had not managed to block the Taser ... Fain shook himself off and helped the women tie Damien up and stuff him into a sack, then crate him up in the box.
“Kaltenbach, are you okay?”
She muttered a dark curse. “I need blood. I’m going home.”
“Good job, everyone,” Fain said. “Spider, can you drop Norwicki off at the shipping depot? And while you’re at it, would you mind returning that rental car?”
The Spider picked up the box easily and carried it outside. Fain watched her go. He had been unsure of her at first, wondering if she was a spy for someone up in Seabingen, but as he got to know her, he thought she was exactly as she said she was: a refugee who wanted to get as far away from Toronto as possible. Kaltenbach, the Spider, Medina. Maybe Varga and Joe. Five people he trusted. Six, if you counted Rivera. Was it enough? Still top heavy, if they didn’t kill Eric and Wolfe and whoever else was in that house.
He turned to see Medina staring at him. She was still holding the cordless drill in one hand, and the other gripped her elbow shyly.
“You did well, Medina,” Fain said. “That was good thinking. It would have gone very badly if he’d Tased me.”
Medina nodded, biting her lip like a schoolgirl. She wasn’t much older than a schoolgirl. Chronologically, she wasn’t even thirty. “Have I proved myself worthy, Sire?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Wolfe said that you weren’t going to let all of us live, that we had to prove ourselves worthy.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Fain snapped. At Medina’s flinch, he softened his expression. “He told you that? What the fuck would Wolfe know? And why would he be worthy, if so?”
“It’s his house. He said you needed him to get in, but that the town was top heavy and you’d only let us live if we were worthy.”
Fain palmed his face in frustration. “And you believed that?”
“You killed Mercedes Varga,” she said. “He said I was next.”
“I did not kill her,” Fain said. “Wolfe told you that?”
Medina nodded. She looked like she was about to cry.
“Why would I have spent the evening teaching you how to draw blood painlessly if I were just going to kill you?” Fain put a hand on each of her shoulders. “Why would I have lectured you and Wolfe on finding hosts if I wouldn’t take my own advice? We didn’t even kill Walker and Norwicki; we just sent them home again as a message.” Well, Walker would make it for sure. Norwicki was touch and go.
She nodded skeptically and set the cordless drill down on an unstained island in the carpet. Even an unwounded human might die from being shipped 1,500 miles in a box. But if a vampire could ship herself across the Atlantic in a wooden crate on a three-month journey, a vampire could survive a week’s transit in the belly of a bus.
“Remember the night when I said I would be your new sire? What did I promise you?”
She looked up at him, eyes wide. “To teach me?”
“And to protect you as much as I could. Do you understand? You have already proven yourself worthy. I am your sire, not Wolfe. We are creating a new Guild here, a society of peace and strength. I want you to live a long and healthy life. I want you to think about where you will be in 2120. Where will you be in one hundred years? Where do you want to be? That’s what I want you to think about. You said you were with me, that you would obey me.”
“I am, Sire. I do, Sire,” she said, breathlessly. The look she gave him, she would have run into daylight at his command. God, it was intoxicating. Would a pretty young woman be looking at him like this if he didn’t have the power of life and death? If he weren’t El Patron? Highly doubtful. No, he was never going to relinquish this kind of power.
“I believe you.” Fain cupped his fingers around the bare skin of her shoulders. He was acutely aware not just of her, but of how much she was fixated on him. Becoming her lover would be easy. Getting out from under it, that was the harder part. “Forget Wolfe. He doesn’t know as much as he thinks he does. Trust me, not him. Trust me.”
Medina flung her arms around him, pressing her body close like a boneless cat. “I love you, Sire.” Medina whispered breathily into his ear.
Fain closed his eyes. This was just the sort of complication he didn’t need right now. He should have seen it coming. An impressionable young woman, heightened emotions of fear and danger, and here he was with the allure of authority. Then again, she was young and pretty. Would he be so terrible if he seduced her? Wasn’t this part of the perks of power? It might be fun. Or, it might be a dumpster fire. Hard to say.
And then he was kissing her, without being quite sure how it happened. She was so sweet and yielding; how could he resist? Maybe dating Medina wouldn’t be a disaster. Kit had been young when she was his lover, and that had worked out well for him.
Wolfe, now, Wolfe was a problem. He’d hoped that they could resolve it, but Kaltenbach was right. It wasn’t just his past transgressions that Fain could no longer overlook, it was the dissension he was sowing right now.