****
“Keep your temper,” Sy coached me as we walked toward what looked like a barn door. “We didn’t call this meeting. Leilah did before either of us could. I know you’re angry, but if you want answers, then follow my lead. Holden thinks they were impressed with you, which is a good thing. But I promise we will find out why she sent you.”
He had lost his damn mind, because there was no way in hell I was keeping my temper. Not tonight. I squeezed the handle of the bag so hard my bruised knuckles turned white. I didn’t care if they threw me a fucking parade. What happened wasn’t okay.
“They don’t see things like you or I do. They are too far removed. All they care about are the results. You’re lucky they aren’t angry about Paolo.”
“You see this?” I pointed at the cuts up and down my arms that still hadn’t healed totally. “They are about to become very acquainted with how the real world works.” I charged through the opening. “They’re lucky you took my knives away or we’d have another fight on our hands.”
Once again everyone was already there, sitting around a table that looked eerily similar to the one at the restaurant. Seven of them sat imperiously (except for maybe Holden) in their high-back chairs, cloaked in shadows and candlelight. The room smelled damp, with faint traces of animals.
“This is highly irregular,” the man with solid black eyes said, his voice deep, dark, and hollow. He stood, floating toward me, studying me for weakness. It wasn’t the first time someone had sized me up, and they almost always came to the wrong conclusion. “She does not respect us.” His bright red forked tongue ran over his lips.
I turned to slowly face him. “You’re right. I don’t. Why would I respect anyone who lies and sends me to slaughter with my arms tied behind my back? Do you know how many people have died because of you?”
“Do you know how many will die because of you?” Leilah asked. “Marcelo, take your seat.”
“And yet here you stand.” Marcelo reached a bony finger toward the cuts on my arms, but didn’t quite touch me. “She smells wild, desperate. I like that.”
“Sit. Now,” Leilah thundered.
He slowly floated back to his chair, and though his back was to me, I could still feel his eyes running over me, which made my skin crawl.
Leilah waved for me to continue.
For once in my life I chose silence. I stared back at her. Why was I here? Looking around the table at the solemn faces, it was clear Sy and Holden were wrong. This meeting wasn’t to pat me on the back.
“Defend your actions, Sekhmet. This is the only chance you will be given before the vote.”
“What?” Sy said, his head popping up. “What vote?”
“Life or death,” the huge man rumbled like rocks falling from a cliff. “She broke the contract.”
“If everyone is through interrupting,” Leilah said like she was talking to children, “the Sekhmet still has the floor.”
Sy shook his head. “She solved the case. The contract was bullshit and you know it.”
“And yet she signed it. If you interrupt the process again, you will be removed from the room.”
Holden gave a subtle nod, which was all fine and dandy, but I had no clue what he wanted me to do. Did the nod mean I should talk, or did it mean something else? I didn’t know and I didn’t care. Instead, I unleashed the one thing I was certain about.
I took the final two steps to the table and slammed my fist down on it. “I won’t defend a single step I took in the last two days. You wanted me to solve a murder, and that’s what I did.” I set the bag on the table. “The ‘wolf’ is dead. Case closed. I’m leaving.”
“Wait.” Leilah’s commanding voice stilled my feet. “You solved the case, but you broke the contract. You will stand trial. It is our way.”
“I vote death,” Marcelo said.
“You always vote death,” the blonde woman said. “I want to hear what happened.”
I unzipped the bag. “This isn’t a game. We aren’t pieces you can move and adjust. We’re people. Lives have been destroyed. Do you have any idea how long that ‘wolf’ tried to get to you? How many people he killed along the way because you didn’t care? My real question is why? Do any of you even know why he wanted your attention so badly that he was willing to kill anyone just to get the chance to get to you?”
None of them spoke.
I shook my head, reaching into the bag. I took out the files for each person who was killed. One by one I dropped them on the table. “Each life that was taken, they all had families. They all had friends. They all had people who will mourn and miss them. Each and every one of those people will become your new enemy. You cannot act without regard to lives you destroy. If you want to rule the Abyss, then rule it openly.”
“You made an emotional decision and killed the only leader the vampires have ever accepted. It took years of grooming and planning to get him in that position,” Leilah said calmly. “How many lives will that destroy? How many civil wars have you started? I remember the time before the vampires had leadership. I am not the only one at this table who does.”
“He slaughtered humans in the street in full view of the public. He broke our laws.”
“You have no authority to make that judgment,” the man with slicked-back hair and sunglasses said. “That was not the job you were sent to do.”
“Are you certain?” Holden asked, and they all looked at him. “All I am saying is that I’m still unclear why she was sent. It wasn’t for a fake wolf attack.”
“She said it was a wolf,” the big one said.
I lifted Dempsey’s head out of the bag by the hair. “This is your ‘wolf.’ At least, it is the last body the skinwalker took. Before him, it was Amos, my council contact. And Holden’s right, I wasn’t sent for this case. I was sent for Paolo to use and kill.” I looked straight at Leilah.
She lifted an eyebrow over her sunglasses.
“The vampire you chose to rule was struggling. He lost Corbin, and the rest were slowly losing the faith in his abilities. All the good will and deals meant nothing without any real strength behind him. That’s why you needed me. The result is your fault, not mine.”
“Did you or did you not kill Paolo?” Marcelo asked.
“I saved myself,” I said. “Put me in that position a thousand times and I would do the same thing.”
“No matter your reasons, you left the vampires in unrest.”
“Not necessarily,” Holden said. “I have spoken to Corbin. He could easily step into Paolo’s seat. The vampires already know and trust him, and as far as most of them know, he killed Paolo. At the very least, it happened in his fight with him. It could be built into quite the legend. The jinn could help spread it.”
Several heads nodded around the table.
“Do you have anything to add?” Leilah asked me.
I shook my head.
“Then I move for a vote. Holden.”
“Live,” he said.
“Anessa?”
“Live,” the woman with white-blonde hair said.
“Grafton?”
“Die,” the man with slicked-back hair said.
“Marcelo?”
“Die.”
“Ralston?”
“Die,” the giant said.
“Nash?”
The only person in the whole room who hadn’t spoken the entire time looked up. With pale gray skin and red eyes, I didn’t know how he was supposed to blend in anywhere, but he did. Had there not been a chair for him, I might not have noticed him at all. “Live,” he said.
Leilah drummed her fingers along the table. She pulled off her sunglasses, revealing purple and red reptilian eyes. “The problem with you is you are emotional. You make reactionary decisions that may or may not be for the best. However, I didn’t believe you would survive, and you did. Without even losing a life, I am told.” Her inside eyelid blinked vertically before her top eyelid blinked horizontally. “I am curious to see what you could ac
complish given time… Live.”
“Great,” I said dryly, and started for the door again.
“However, I do have another case for you.”
“Not interested,” I said.
“Did I make it sound like you have a choice? You don’t.” Leilah’s voice came from too close behind me.
I turned to face her. “I’m done working with you.”
“Is that so?” Her mouth curled down at the edges.
“Yes. You have nothing to hold over my head.”
“Oh, Femi. There are people you love. People you could lose. Races sometimes go extinct.”
Ice went through my veins. Even a dragon wouldn’t be crazy enough to take on the Sekhmet race, would she?
“I hear your mother is very ill,” she said, just in case I didn’t get it.
“What do you want?” I asked.
She smiled. “I knew we’d see eye to eye eventually. You like humans so much, I have a rather special task for you this time. Shezmu has been causing some trouble in the catacombs. I thought who better than an impetuous, human-loving Sekhmet to convince him to return to the underworld.”
Right—convincing a demon who was fond of red wine and murder would be simple. “And when I succeed?”
She smiled. “I guess we’ll have to wait and see.”
I shook my head. “No. I want assurance. I want it in writing that if I convince Shezmu to return home, you will leave me and my family and friends alone.”
“Convince him to return and I will grant you one favor. I will even put it in writing.” She held out her hand to me.
“Deal.” I shook her hand.
She went back to the others, and Sy came over.
“You didn’t take the case, did you?”
“She threatened my family,” I said, looking up at him. “I didn’t have a choice.”
He closed his eyes for a moment. “What does she want this time?”
“Can we not do this? I’m tired and hungry. Let’s just go.”
Epilogue