Chapter Four

Someone was pounding at the door. I rolled over and squinted. It took me a minute to realize I wasn’t at home and that my boyfriend was cuddled up next to me in a luxurious hotel room. My bleary eyes took note of the time. The alarm hadn’t gone off, but it was already after noon. We hadn’t gone to sleep until almost dawn, but that’s what happened when you were chasing a vampire.

I snatched up my drumstick and went to answer the door in my sleep shorts and Vaughn’s baseball jersey.

It was Thorn.

“What do you want?” I asked. “I’m still sleeping.” I felt a little bit bad about being snarky to her, but she had lied to me and spied on me, so she’d have to deal with it.

“It turns out Mason Alicante isn’t in Barcelona,” Thorn said. I was relieved that she didn’t call him Dad or, even worse, something like “our father,” even though he was our bio dad.

I sucked in a breath.

“He came home early,” she said. “And he wants to meet you.”

“Hey, he’s only seventeen years late,” I deadpanned.

“Better late than never,” she replied, but I wasn’t sure that she believed what she was saying. From her expression of dread, it was the opposite.

I decided to go easy on her. I could only imagine what kind of dad Mason had been. Thorn had once said that the scars on her stomach were from a hellcat attack. An attack that Mason had ordered. Most dads would ground their daughter or maybe take away a privilege. Mason had sent a pack of hellcats after his own daughter because she’d disobeyed him.

“Mason Alicante is here?” I repeated. “In Vegas?”

“He’s in his office,” she replied. “And he wants to see you. Now.” That answered one of my questions. Mason was obviously used to people jumping when he said jump, and he had the patience of a riled-up Chihuahua.

“His office?” I asked. “I have no idea where that is.”

“I’ll take you there,” Thorn said. She started to walk out the door like she expected me to meet my biological father sporting bedhead and jammies, but I put a hand up.

“I need a shower first,” I decided. I wasn’t going to meet my father smelling like road dust and too many Big Gulps. And I wanted to send the message that I wasn’t one of his little meat puppets, dancing to his tune.

Mason Alicante might be the head of the Paranormal Activities Committee and my biological dad, but I was a vampire queen and a Mariotti witch.

He could wait.

“Give me five,” I told her, then marched into my room. She looked like she might follow me, but I shut the door in her face.

Vaughn was sitting up in bed, looking sleepy and deliciously rumpled. “What’s going on?”

“Mason has decided to grace me with his presence,” I said. I gave him a peck on the lips before adding, “I’m going to take a shower before I meet him.”

“Want me to go with?” Vaughn asked.

I shook my head. “I’ll be okay.”

I hadn’t really packed for meeting my biological dad for the first time, so I grabbed one of the dresses I’d shoved in my suitcase. It was wrinkled but the cutest thing I’d brought. My charm necklace was my only jewelry.

When I emerged from my room, Thorn was pacing, her face sweaty, even with the hotel’s air conditioning going full blast, as she stared at her phone. “He’s getting impatient.”

After seeing the look on my sister’s face, I wanted to make him wait even longer, but instead, I said, “Let’s go.”

We passed by one of the creepiest paintings at the hotel. The portrait of a young woman looked like something we’d studied in art class last year, with the same blank eyes and horrific smile.

“His office is just down that hall,” Thorn said.

“You’re not coming with me?”

She shook her head. “Didn’t get the invitation.”

I made a face, then threw my shoulders back. “I got this,” I said.

“Good luck,” Thorn called out to me as I strode away.

I went through a set of double doors into a waiting area.

There was a guy sitting behind a desk, typing away on his laptop. “Can I help you?” He looked young with fair skin and freckles and a mop of curly hair, but he was a vampire, so he probably wasn’t as young as he looked.

I frowned. “Tansy Mariotti to see Mason Alicante,” I said.

“Queen Tansy.” The assistant jumped to his feet. “He’ll be with you in just a minute.”

“I thought he was in a big ol’ hurry to see me?” I commented.

“Can I get you anything?” he asked. “A human donor? A cup of warm blood?”

I wrinkled my nose. “No thank you.” He fluttered around me, making more suggestions until I said, “I’m fine. Please go back to what you were doing.”

There was a groan coming from somewhere down the hall, the thick carpet and sturdy walls not enough to completely muffle the sound. It was followed by a moan, but I couldn’t tell if it was in pleasure or pain. Was my father having sex in his office? Or beating the shit out of someone?

The thought turned my stomach. I got my answer when a man screamed in pain, long and loud. I ran toward the sound, ignoring the vampire assistant’s protests.

I burst into the room. An enormous snake lay coiled around a young man whose terrified face pleaded with me to help him.

My drumstick in hand, I approached the serpent. “Let go of him,” I ordered.

The snake was green and gold, its eyes a flame red. It hissed at me and then released its prey.

The man staggered away from the reptile. His lip was bloody and he was clutching his side, but when he saw me, he straightened and gave me a low bow. “Queen Tansy.”

I realized then it was the valet who’d turned up his nose at Beckett’s purple monstrosity of a van.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

He gave me a smile, although it took effort. “Thank you. I’m fine.”

He didn’t look fine, but before I could suggest a trip to the doctor, the valet left.

When I looked back to the spot where the snake had been, I saw the man who must be Mason Alicante.

It was my first face-to-face look at my biological father. He wore an expensive suit and shoes that had been polished until they shone. Magic swirled around him, stronger and darker than anything I’d ever felt before.

He could have been anywhere from forty to four hundred, but he looked like a handsome, well-maintained businessman, if you could ignore the blast of power that emanated from him.

“Where’d the snake go?” I asked.

A trace of amusement crossed his face. “There’s a reason they call me the Serpent King.”

He wiped his bloody hands on a snowy white handkerchief. His bright white shirt was stained with spots of blood. I stared at the crimson marks a little too long before I took a deep breath and forced myself to gaze around the room instead of at the bloodstains.

“Welcome to Las Vegas, Tansy,” Mason Alicante said. “Or do you prefer Queen Tansy?”

“Tansy’s fine,” I said. “Since we’re related and all.” I studied him. He was still handsome—youthful, even—with gray at his temples the only hint that he’d aged at all.

There was something cold and reptilian about my father, but it had a life to it that vampires lacked. His scent was tangy, musty, and cold. Like something that had been sunning itself on a rock, waiting for some unsuspecting prey to walk by. That was it. I was still processing the knowledge my father was a snake.

“Does the valet need a doctor?” I asked.

“He’s fine. Just in need of a reminder.” Mason’s jaw was tight. “I will not tolerate my employees disrespecting anyone who visits The Bran, but especially not my daughter.”

“Overkill much?” I said.

He gave me a small smile. “I didn’t kill him. Just made sure that my little talk sunk in.”

I’d expected Mason’s office to scream power, and it did. Although the hotel was decorated in old-world decadence, his office was modern and spare, almost colorless with black, white, and gray. The only color was a wall of paintings behind him.

“Tansy, my dear, it’s lovely to finally meet you.” Mason Alicante reached out to embrace me, but I sidestepped him. He continued to smile, but his eyes were icy.

“You look so much like your mother,” he continued.

“I’ve never considered that a good thing,” I replied.

“She was beautiful,” he said, his eyes faraway.

My mom was a monster, but I’d admit she was a hot monster.

“How’s your grandmother?” he finally asked.

I frowned. “You know my granny?”

“Only by reputation,” he said. There was something about the way he said it that set my teeth on edge. He studied my charm necklace. “That’s imbued with very strong magic.”

I nodded but didn’t feel like elaborating. I wasn’t there to exchange craft tips.

“What brings you to my city?” he asked casually.

“Wanting to meet my biological father isn’t enough of a reason?”

There was a long pause, one that I knew he was waiting for me to fill, but I didn’t. I couldn’t decide if I could trust him, but he was the head of the Paranormal Activities Committee. I was guessing he knew everything that happened in the hidden world.

“Is there something you’d like to tell me, Tansy?” Mason asked.

He probably already knew, but I told him anyway, just to see his reaction. “Vanessa’s here,” I said. “And she’s with Vaughn’s dad. We need to find her.”

I didn’t think it was possible, but his eyes got even icier.

“Your mother is in Las Vegas?” he asked. Maybe he hadn’t known.

I nodded. “I’m trying to track her down,” I said.

“I’ll do anything I can to help,” Mason replied.

“Why would you help me?” I asked. I narrowed my eyes. “What’s in it for you?”

“I would like to spend time with you while you’re here.”

“First time for everything,” I quipped.

He frowned. “There are things you don’t know.”

I didn’t want to hear his excuses, so instead, I said, “Vanessa’s with my boyfriend’s dad. We want to get him back. Unharmed.”

“You have a boyfriend?” he asked. “One of the werewolves who arrived with you?”

“Yes, Vaughn’s a werewolf,” I said.

“But his father is not?”

“Does it matter?”

He didn’t answer my question. Instead, he smiled blandly. “Please stay here as long as you would like.”

“Thank you,” I said.

“I have something for you,” Mason said. He slid a black credit card over to me. The name read Alicante Enterprise, and the logo was an ouroboros, a snake eating its tail.

I slid it back. “I don’t want your money.”

He studied my face. “Vanessa never told you that I gave her money.”

I couldn’t conceal the shock on my face. I had wondered, but no, I hadn’t known.

“But you didn’t bother to find out anything about me,” I replied. “She dropped me on Granny’s doorstep when I was little. Until last summer, I thought she was dead. Not a vampire. Dead.”

“Your grandmother took care of you,” he said. “Vanessa would not have.”

I didn’t think it was the time to point out that he’d been fine with leaving me with the woman who’d tried to murder his children. Maybe that was why he couldn’t look me in the eye.

“Did you know where I was?”

He hesitated and then said, “Until you were sixteen, I had no idea you were still alive.”

My eyes filled with tears, and I couldn’t look at him, so I searched the room for something else to focus on. I was drawn to a painting that at first glance looked like a puddle of blood, and I pretended to study that while I got my emotions under control.

When I stopped crying, I realized it was a close-up of an enormous ruby, dark red and glowing. I stiffened and examined it more closely.

“You like it?” Mason asked.

“It’s stunning,” I said. “What’s it a picture of?” I tried for casual, but I felt my shoulders tense.

“It’s a ruby,” he said. “A family heirloom. The painting was a gift.”

I had a very bad feeling that the ruby I had hidden in a book was the same jewel. “What happened to it?” I asked.

His face went cold and dark. “It was stolen. I never discovered who took it.” Had Vanessa stolen the ruby? But if so, how had it ended up in Jure’s possession?

I gulped. If he ever found out who had taken it, that person would regret it. Vanessa Mariotti had been involved with Mason and had been Jure Grando’s second-in-command.

The ruby had belonged to Mason Alicante’s family. Then someone had stolen it. Then it had somehow ended up in Jure’s possession. Someone found it and sent it to me. But who?

Certainly not my mother. Maybe she’d stolen it from Mason and then either given it to Jure or he’d taken it.

Someone had sent it to me anonymously, but the return address was Jure’s ranch. I was planning on selling that house of horrors soon, but I realized I needed to go through the entire place and make sure there weren’t any other magical items hanging around.

“Can I offer you a beverage?” he asked. “I have Diet Dr. Pepper. I was told it’s your favorite.” He crossed to a hidden mini-fridge and pulled out a can before offering it to me.

“No thank you,” I said. “I always bring my own beverage.”

“Ah, your grandmother’s tonic,” he said. “I have some of that as well.”

My mouth opened and wouldn’t close.

“Your sisters and I want you to be comfortable here,” he explained.

I tried not to let him see how those words affected me. It was a little thing, but I felt like he was making an effort. More than I’d expected from someone the hidden world called Serpent King.

I changed the subject and pointed at the painting. “Why do you keep it, then?” I asked. “Since you no longer have the real thing?”

“To remind me of what I lost. Of what was taken from me.”

He was showing more emotion about the loss of the ruby than about the loss of his youngest daughter.

“Funny you should say that,” I said, looking around his office pointedly. “I don’t see a photo of me anywhere.”

He was silent for a long time. “We can change that.”

“Thank you for showing me the painting,” I said.

“Yes,” he replied. “Do you like it?”

“Not even a little bit,” I said.

My honesty did not make him happy. I got the impression that Mason was used to people telling him what he wanted to hear.

“Why did you want to talk to me?” I asked.

“I just wanted to see my daughter,” he said. “Get to know you.”

I cleared my throat and decided to change the subject. “Do you have time for a couple of questions? It won’t take long.” I wanted to ask him about his life with Vanessa and maybe sneak in a question or two about the ruby.

“Why don’t we meet tomorrow?” he suggested. “I’m afraid my schedule is impacted the rest of the day today.”

I nodded. “When and where?” I asked, then added, “Maybe somewhere quiet so we could talk?”

A smile lit his face, and I saw for the first time what a young Vanessa could have seen in him. The Vanessa who’d been human, with human hopes and dreams, not the merciless vampire she was now.

“I know the perfect place,” he said. “A little restaurant right on the Strip. We can have brunch.”

Like he didn’t know that I had a slight—okay, more than slight—allergy to the sun. And we were in Vegas.

“Why don’t we meet here in the hotel? Maybe later in the day,” I suggested.

Mason’s assistant popped his head into the room and said, “You have a call scheduled in two minutes.”

We agreed on lunch, then said our goodbyes, and I headed back to the room. Meeting my father had been a weird experience. Not what I’d expected at all.

From the little bit Rose and Thorn had told me, I knew their childhood hadn’t been the greatest. But Mason had shown glimmers of kindness and what I hoped was genuine interest in getting to know me.

Still, anyone called the Serpent King wasn’t going to win a parent of the year award.