My vote is totally no.” Fi didn’t need to think it over. No way a vampire was getting into the house. No. Way. She kinda hoped the vamp tried something while John was outside watching her. He seemed like the sort of guy who wouldn’t hesitate to take off a vampire’s head if the need arose.
Doc nodded, his hands clenching and unclenching like he was agitated about something. Or about to reach for the switchblade in his belt. “I say we stake her. Over and done.”
“Except,” Damian said. “She might have information we could use.”
Everyone looked at him. He held up his hands. “I’m not saying let her into the house, but maybe we could put her in the guesthouse.”
“How do you know you can trust her?” the mayor asked.
“You can’t.” Damian worked his jaw to one side. “She’s a vampire. None of them can be trusted.”
“I wouldn’t say none, bro.” Doc glanced at Fi, but even without reading the look in his eyes, she knew what he was thinking. “I’d trust Mal with my life. I have. Doesn’t mean I like everything he does, but he’s as tight as you get.”
“Yeah,” Fi added. “I know him better than anyone and I’d vouch for him, too.”
“Does that mean you’re for keeping the woman?” Luke asked her.
“No… I don’t know.” Fi hadn’t even entertained the thought that the vampiress might be telling the truth. “You think she’s for real?”
Velimai slapped the table in the center of the living room. No, she signed. No, no, no. Her hands flew again. Luke translated. “She says anyone who worked for Tatiana is up to no good.”
Damian stood and tapped a finger against his chest. “I worked for Tatiana. I didn’t have a choice. Maybe Daciana didn’t either.”
Velimai shrugged one shoulder and signed, Sorry.
Doc leaned back. “But you’re a comar and she’s a vampire. There’s a big difference.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “You sound a little too much on her side.”
Damian tipped his head back, anger lining his face. “I am not on her side.”
“Actually, I think he’s got a point,” Luke said, sliding to the edge of his seat and leaning his arms on his knees. “We don’t know the real circumstances. And she could have info. We should treat her like a prisoner of war until she proves otherwise. She wants asylum? Let her earn it.”
“What does that mean?” the mayor asked before Fi had a chance to.
“Let Damian, Doc, John, and myself have a chat with her outside. See if she gives us anything, then we’ll go from there.”
Doc stood. “It’s gonna have to be damn good to change my mind, but I’m willing to hear her out.”
Fi jumped up beside him. “I’m coming, too. Tatiana killed me after Chrysabelle’s blood made me fully corporeal again, so if anyone has a say in this, I feel like I do.”
“Fine with me,” Damian said as the group moved toward the door.
Doc smiled and grabbed her hand, giving it a squeeze before quickly letting it go. “Maybe we should turn Daciana over to Dominic and let him work her over.”
Fi raised her brows at him. She was surprised he’d suggest giving Dominic anything after the vampire had almost killed him, but maybe Doc was softening up. She snorted. Doc? Softening up? Yeah, that was going to happen.
Outside on the front landing, Big John had Daciana under Damian’s sacre and had shifted into his half-wolf form for more power. His ice-blue eyes almost glowed under the security lights, but his gaze stayed focused on the vampire as the rest of them exited and shut the door. “What’s the decision?”
“That’s up to her,” Doc said.
“I want to stay, please,” Daciana said, glancing from the sword aimed at her to the men gathered in front of her. She didn’t look at Fi. Didn’t she think Fi had any say? One more reason not to like her.
Luke nodded. “Vampire, what information can you share with us that will convince us you’re telling the truth?”
Daciana’s eyes filled with hope and pleading. “What do you want to know? I’ll tell you anything.”
Doc snorted. “Just start talking.”
She opened her mouth, shaking her head slightly as if searching for what to tell them first. “She’s just been made Dominus.”
“That was inevitable,” Damian said.
“She lost her hand in some big fight and has had it replaced with a metal one that she can transform into any shape.”
“That’s not news,” Fi said. “Chrysabelle’s the one who lopped Tatiana’s hand off in the first place.”
“And I saw the metal hand in person.” Doc rolled his shoulders like he was trying to shrug the memory off.
Daciana drew herself up a little taller, although she still wasn’t an inch over Fi. “If you release me, and she finds out I’ve told you any of this, she’ll kill me.” She swallowed and wrung her hands together. “In front of the council, the Castus told Tatiana he was coming to visit her alone after she was made Dominus. Then he told the rest of the council that she and her family were to be protected.” Daciana shook her head. “I don’t know what he meant exactly, but Tatiana doesn’t have any family. Unless he meant the rest of the House of Tepes.”
“The baby,” Doc muttered. “That’s what he meant.”
“You don’t know that,” Fi said.
He turned toward her like his head was on a swivel. “You think a demon can raise a child? He’s more likely to eat it. No, my gut tells me he’s given it to her. Dammit.” He bent his head. Fi could have sworn she saw a flicker of blue flame dance across his fingers. She reached to grab his hand, but he balled both hands into fists. He exhaled and lifted his head, his eyes the fierce green-gold of his half-form. “Put the vampire in the guesthouse.”
“The soulless woman,” Creek whispered.
Yahla nodded, her smile kind but forceful. “You know me.” It was neither question nor statement, but a mind reading.
He swallowed. “You’re not real.”
“Aren’t I?” She spread her arms, the shadows clinging to her like wings.
“You died.”
She dropped her arms, clasping her hands before her with an unearned innocence. “And now I am reborn. I have no soul, I cannot cease to exist.”
He backed up one step in preparation to leave. “Samhain approaches. The covenant is broken. Nothing can be trusted tonight.”
“Meaning me, but those things have nothing to do with me. I have always been. Always. Until the witch caught me in her spell and confined me in her house.”
“Why would she do that?”
Yahla laughed, lifting her head and revealing the pale line of her neck. “Why did the witch do anything?”
“Power.”
She nodded approvingly.
Something exploded in the distance. He glanced toward the sound, convinced she’d be gone when he looked back. She wasn’t. His pocket vibrated again, no doubt Argent texting him the location of the next demon to take out. “I have to go. I have work to do.”
“Yes, you are Kubai Mata. You protect the city. And now I protect you.”
How she knew that about him, he couldn’t guess. “I don’t need protecting.”
“It matters not what you need. You freed me.”
“If this is one of those things where you have to save my life for us to be even, I’m good. Really.” Everything he remembered from his grandmother’s stories told him Yahla, if this really was her, which he still couldn’t believe, was prone to harsh moods and fits of anger. She wasn’t exactly known for her rational thinking, either.
She laughed again, the sound like a songbird’s trilling. “The city is besieged.” She walked to the corner and stared toward the demon’s carcass. “There are more than just this one to deal with.” She stared back at him, the lamplight outlining her ethereal beauty with its solar glow. “I will help you.”
The tales swirled in his head. “How do I know you won’t turn on me?”
“You freed me. I cannot hurt you. I would not.” She held out her hand to him. “Come.”
He took a step forward but shook his head, remembering. “I won’t touch you.” He shuddered, because he had touched her already. She must have been dead when he’d picked her up or he would be, too.
With a smile, she dropped her hand. “Your grandmother taught you well.” She ran her hand through her hair and plucked out three feathers. She pinched them between her thumb and forefinger and offered them, her arm outstretched from her body and the strange, shadowy wing visible again. “Take these to her. She will make you a charm to wear to keep you safe from me.”
He hesitated for a moment, then came close enough to take the feathers by their pointed tips. She held very still until he’d stepped back again.
“When you have your charm, I will see you again. Soon.” She did the slow blinking thing, then spun apart into a cloud of ravens. They rose, silent except for the rasping of their wings against the air, and disappeared into the blackness of the night sky.
He stared after them for a moment longer than he should have, finally tucking the feathers into a hidden pocket on his chest holster. He had demons to kill and mortals to protect, no time to think about the mythical, dangerous woman who’d just pledged her allegiance to him.
Or why he wished she’d stayed.