Chapter 5
Kira paced around her room. Tina hadn't answered when she tried calling her earlier.
She could just be out, but what if something happened and her sister was too ill to get the phone? Kira debated asking Mencheres to send Gorgon around to Tina's apartment to check on her. According to Mencheres, the blond vampire was already stopping by her office today to somehow mind-manipulate Frank into believing that Kira was unable to come into work because of the flu. Kira had her doubts that the vampire could make her hard-nosed boss okay with her suddenly taking a week off, but Mencheres seemed confident in Gorgon's abilities.
Her gut wasn't sensing any menace from Gorgon, just like it hadn't with Mencheres, but maybe that was part of a vampire's natural camouflage. Nothing helped predators more than their prey's thinking they were harmless. Kira wasn't about to risk exposing her sister to a vampire, even if Gorgon was harmless and it would set her mind at ease to have Gorgon report that Tina was fine.
She'd just have to try calling her sister later. Mencheres didn't seem to be so draconian that he'd only allow her one call, regardless if she reached Tina or not. For an undead captor, in fact, Mencheres was turning out to be pretty accommodating. He'd told Kira she could have free rein of the house, pool, and the surrounding garden - as long as she didn't try to make any unsupervised calls, e-mails, texts, or attempt to run away again. Her shackles would be velvet-lined, apparently. How odd. She'd been in harsher captive circumstances when she was married.
Kira brushed aside the thought as quickly as it had come. That chapter of her life was closed, and everything she'd seen in the decade since had just served to reinforce that she'd done the only thing she could. Survival. Sometimes it wasn't noble or pretty, but it was necessary.
Her stomach growled, reminding Kira that she'd only had a banana for breakfast and nothing at all to eat the day before. Mencheres told her to help herself to whatever was in the refrigerator, actually sounding apologetic when he said she'd have to prepare her own food.
Velvet shackles, indeed.
Kira strode out of the bedroom, heading for the kitchen. Time to see if Mencheres meant it when he said she'd have free run of the house.
She went down the staircase, pausing on the landing of the second floor. Her bedroom was on the third floor, and though there were two more doors in her hallway, she hadn't heard anyone else on her floor. If Mencheres was up there, he was very quiet. Or was his room on the second floor? Aside from her, Gorgon, and Mencheres, she hadn't seen anyone else in the house. Were they the only ones here? If so, why did Mencheres need such a big place, if it was normally just him and Gorgon?
And either Mencheres was the most unsentimental person ever, or he hadn't been here long. The house had no personal photos or memorabilia that Kira had seen, and it had that cold, model-home perfection that spoke of habitual emptiness. If this wasn't Mencheres's main home, why was he here now? And where did he live when he wasn't here?
Laughter jerked Kira's attention away from curiosity over her mysterious captor. It had a distinctly feminine lilt to it, correcting Kira's assumption that she, Mencheres, and Gorgon were the only ones in the house. Kira went down the last flight of stairs almost cautiously, hearing a masculine chuckle next. A peculiar twinge went through her. Was that Mencheres? If so, who was the woman he was laughing with? His girlfriend?
Or wife, perhaps? The vampire wore no wedding ring, but who knew if that meant anything? Maybe vampires didn't do ring exchanges.
Kira squared her shoulders and followed the sounds. At least they came from where she was already headed - the kitchen. No need for an excuse to go in there; her growling stomach would explain her presence. But when Kira caught her first glimpse of the people clustered around the dinette table, she didn't recognize any of them.
Conversation stopped as Kira entered, and they looked up at her. From the food in front of them, Kira surmised that the two men and one woman were human. More witnesses kept against their will? Kira wondered. Good Lord, did Mencheres have a stable of people held captive who'd inadvertently found out about vampires? A tremor went through her. Maybe everything Mencheres had said was a lie. Maybe he had no intention of ever letting her go.
"Hi," the blond woman said in a cheerful way, waving over at the stove. "There's some eggs and bacon left over, if you're hungry. "
" 'S up," the dark-haired male said, to an accompanying friendly grunt from the sandy-haired guy whose mouth was full.
Kira blinked at their greeting. If these three were prisoners, they sure seemed relaxed about it.
"Thanks," she managed, heading over to the stove more for something to do as she pondered this new development. Kira glanced around. No signs of Gorgon or Mencheres, but that didn't mean they weren't nearby.
She scraped the leftover eggs and bacon from the two pans onto a plate, then sat at the remaining empty chair at the dinette table. Three sets of eyes regarded her curiously.
"I'm Kira, by the way," she said, wondering how to discreetly find out if they were being held against their will.
"We know," the black-haired guy replied, with a slight grin. "Name's Sam, and this is Selene and Kurt. "
Kira chewed some eggs, trying to appear casual. "You know, huh?" she remarked once she'd swallowed. "What do you know?"
"That you're not staying here long, and that you're not thrilled about the time you are spending here," Selene summarized with that same sunny smile.
Kira swallowed another bite of eggs before replying. "And you are, ah, thrilled about the time you spend here?" she asked carefully.
"Beats working a nine-to-five," Kurt said, speaking for the first time.
The three of them laughed at that. Kira blinked. They were here willingly? Did they not know what Mencheres and Gorgon were? Mencheres had sounded so confident about his ability to mesmerize humans under normal circumstances. Was it possible that these three had no idea their other "roommates" were vampires?
"So, are you three self-employed, then?" Kira asked, wanting to keep them talking.
More chuckling. "You could say that," Sam replied. He leaned back, balancing himself on the back two legs of his chair. At a glance, Kira guessed he was in his early twenties.
All of them looked younger than she was, in fact.
Come to think of it, so did Mencheres, despite his "older than dirt" comment. Maybe she was wrong. Maybe these three weren't human. They were eating regular food, yes, but so far most of Kira's assumptions about vampires had proven to be wrong. Maybe vampires ate three square meals a day just like everyone else - except they followed up those meals with a blood chaser. Kira looked them over as surreptitiously as she could while she pushed her eggs around on her plate. Selene, Kurt, and Sam appeared normal in every way . . . but so did Mencheres. Right up until he started moving like greased lightning or ripping heads off people.
"How did you meet Mencheres?" Kira settled on asking.
Selene shrugged. "I was turning tricks for meth back in 'Frisco several years ago when Mencheres rolled up on my pimp knocking me around. He drank him, then asked me if I wanted a new life. I did. So Mencheres took me with him, got me off the drugs, and here I am. "
Kira had heard far-more-sordid tales as a P. I. , but she almost gaped at how casually Selene relayed a tale of drug addiction, prostitution, and murder to a complete stranger.
Before she could even say anything, Sam spoke up.
"I was a Legacy. Used to belong to Tick Tock, but he died in the war over a year ago.
Mencheres was Tick Tock's Master, so he inherited all his property when Tick Tock died, me included. "
"Master? Mencheres considers you his slave?" Kira blurted, aghast.
Sam gave her a look. "Not Master like that, lady. Master of the line of vampires Tick Tock came from. If you're a human who belongs to a vamp, you're considered their property, but I can walk away from this anytime I want to. I'm no one's damn slav
e, got it?"
"I'm more like you, Kira," Kurt said, breaking up the tense moment. "Didn't know about vampires until I stumbled across some by accident, but I decided to stay because they were safer than the gang I ran with. "
Kira's mind spun with this new information. Selene, Sam, and Kurt knew exactly what Mencheres was, yet they all stayed with him willingly. Or did they? Had Mencheres manipulated their minds to make them think they'd chosen to be here? Was he waiting to do the same thing with her? What if she were thinking Mencheres's ability to erase her memory was her ticket home, but in reality, she was giving him the ability to lock her up forever?
It was such an ugly thought that Kira felt bile rise in her throat. Her instincts, which had been her flawless compass for the past dozen years, might not be trustworthy when it came to Mencheres. If vampires could manipulate minds, then it stood to reason they could alter someone's gut reaction to them, too.
Kira looked around at the kitchen and the three people seated in it. On the surface, everything was the picture of normalcy, but scratch the surface, and all of that disappeared.
Just like her trust in the instincts that assured her Mencheres meant it when he said he'd let her go.
Kira stood up, barely managing to keep her hands from shaking. "Nice to meet all of you," she got out.
Then she quickly left the kitchen to go into the garden, feeling as if the walls were closing in on her.
Mencheres strolled past the pool toward the garden, drawn toward Kira's heartbeat as if it were a beacon. She was on the far edge of the garden, sitting in the lower branches of a tree, of all things. A breeze carried her scent to him, that lemony fragrance tainted with fear, confusion, and anger.
He sat on a concrete bench at the opposite side of the small garden, wondering what caused Kira's sudden shift in mood. She'd seemed fine this morning as he listened to her move about her room. Then nothing in the conversation he'd overheard between her and the others in the kitchen should have alarmed her, but Kira had gone straight into the garden afterward and stayed there the past three hours. Was it normal chafing at the circumstances that necessitated her being here? Or was it something else?
He shouldn't care. It was utter madness that he'd come out here to sit on this bench in the hopes that Kira would tell him what was bothering her. After all, if he were being logical, he'd concern himself with crucial matters instead of with a woman who would soon not remember him.
That breeze lifted her scent to him again, tantalizing him with the invisible caress of her on his senses. Then again, what was the harm in a little pleasant madness? Mencheres decided, breathing in Kira's fragrance. At this point in his life, hadn't he earned the right not to make every last decision based on cold, unfeeling logic?
His attention snapped away from Kira when something else swept over Mencheres's senses. Something old, strong, and vindictive. He straightened, already coiling his emotions back into their familiar, impermeable shell by the time he heard Gorgon answer the door.
"I am here to see Mencheres," an all-too-familiar voice stated.
"Guardian," Gorgon replied, with the proper amount of respect his enemy's station warranted. "I shal let him know you're here. "
Laughter rolled from Radjedef like quiet thunder. "He knows, boy. "
Mencheres kept the anger that flickered in him tamped down to undetectable levels.
Radjedef could only guess that his derisive treatment of his people angered him; if Mencheres gave him proof, the Law Guardian would increase his insulting behavior.
Radjedef knew the protections his status gave him and exploited every one of them when it came to Mencheres.
If he wouldn't have been the very first suspect in Radjedef's disappearance, Mencheres would have done away with his old enemy thousands of years ago. But that was the problem. Their history went back so far, everyone knew about it.
And if Radjedef were anything except a Law Guardian, Mencheres would have risked it regardless.
Gorgon came into the garden. Radjedef, as expected, followed after him instead of waiting to be announced.
"Sire, you have a visitor," Gorgon said.
"Thank you," Mencheres replied. Gorgon turned around, heading back to the house before the Law Guardian could bark at him to leave. This wasn't the first time Gorgon had dealt with Radjedef.
"Menkaure," Radjedef said, calling Mencheres by the name he'd been born with. "I am surprised you didn't try to hide your location from me. "
"I weary of our games, Radje," Mencheres said, using the abbreviated name Radjedef had hated as a boy.
His enemy's lip twitched so subtly, no one else might have caught it. But Mencheres did, and he gave an inward smile. After four and a half mill ennia, Radjedef still couldn't quite let go of his childhood insecurities. If he had, they might have met today as friends instead of adversaries.
"No one delights in games as much as you," Radjedef replied coolly, taking a seat next to Mencheres without invitation. His hand swept in the direction of the house. "Such squalid accommodations. Are you doing some form of penance by staying here?" Mencheres lifted a bored brow. "Even you would not come merely to mock my current residence. "
Radjedef smiled. "I have been speaking to many sources, my old friend. Such terrible things they say about you. Repeated theft of property. Murder. Imprisonment. Witchcraft.
How many laws do you think you've broken this year alone?"
"If you had credible sources, you would be asking me this in front of the council of Guardians, not by yourself," Mencheres replied in an even tone. "You cannot prove any of this. You never could. Find a new pastime, Radje. I hear Wii is extremely entertaining. "
"Everyone knows you killed your wife by raising wraiths through black magic and sending them after her," Radjedef said sharply.
Mencheres just shrugged. "If everyone says that, then your proof should be easy to obtain. "
"You know that all those who witnessed Patra's slaying are loyal to you," Radje said with a flash of naked bitterness.
As for Mencheres using wraiths to kill his wife . . . it hadn't exactly happened that way.
But the fact that the most serious charge Radjedef could bring against Mencheres was mostly true, yet it benefited Radjedef nothing, was almost enough to make Mencheres smile.
Almost.
"What will you do, Radje, when I am no longer here for you to center your hatred on?" A gleam appeared in Radjedef's black eyes. "I have no intention of killing you, old friend. That would not give me what I seek - and it would be too merciful for you. "
"You might find me gone regardless if it is what you seek," Mencheres muttered in a rare moment of unguarded honesty.
Radje smiled. "My heart twists in my chest at the thought. "
Not as much as it would if I struck silver through it, Mencheres mused darkly. But such a thought, while tempting, would carry with it too many repercussions. Law Guardians were the highest ruling body among vampires. Mencheres might be able to kill another Master vampire with only the risk of war between himself and that vampire's all ies, but if he killed a Law Guardian, all vampires would have cause to unite against him. After the last few wars he'd been in, Mencheres had too many enemies who would relish his making such a stupid mistake, but he wouldn't. Not when Bones and others he loved would have to face the consequences.
" I am weary," Mencheres said. In that moment, he felt the weight of all his years pressing on him; the countless strife, guilt, and toil swelling with merciless relentlessness.
Suddenly, he wanted Radjedef to know that his schemes for an elaborate vengeance would never come to pass. "You should have struck at me before, old friend. When I still had the desire to give you the fight you sought. "
Something passed across the Law Guardian's face, as if he just now realized Mencheres wasn't feigning his apathy.
"You would never abandon your people, Menkaure. "
Amidst his
mental exhaustion, Mencheres felt a glimmer of satisfaction. Did Radje finally grasp that his chances for revenge were slipping away?
"That is true, which is why I gave Bones the gift of my power when I merged my line with his. "
"Power that should have been mine to begin with!" Radjedef exclaimed, showing more emotion than Mencheres had seen from him in centuries.
"still you lament that?" Mencheres scoffed. "It was our sire's choice who he gifted his additional power to, just as it was my choice to give my power surplus to Bones. Even now, Bones grows more into his strength, and his wife Cat's powers grow as well. Radje, Radje . . . " Mencheres allowed himself a small, thin smile. "You waited too long. " Radje stood so violently that the concrete bench crumpled beneath him. He paced in a short, furious stride before stopping with the same abruptness.
"You lie," Radje said, perfect control in his voice now. "You seek to deceive me as you have always done, but I know you. You would never do such a thing. " If Radje had made such a statement even a year ago, it would have been true. But with Mencheres's wife dead, Bones strong enough to lead their combined lines, Cat transitioned into the rarest type of vampire, and Mencheres's visions gone . . . he had no reason to stay. His death would end his cold war with Radjedef, denying his enemy the opportunity to bring down Mencheres's line along with him.
For thousands of years, Radje had sought to hurt him through his people, but his attempts had been hampered by Mencheres's visions. With those gone, the Law Guardian would attack those belonging to Mencheres without mercy. But Mencheres had no intention of letting that happen. He'd leave this world knowing he'd secured his people's safety and thwarted Radje in one stroke. It was something he almost looked forward to.
Except for Kira. She alone remained to keep him alive, but the sands ran ever faster through that hourglass as well. Soon, Kira's memories of him would be gone - and then he would be free to go. In his rest, Mencheres would achieve a victory over Radje for all eternity. It made his smile widen as he stared at the Law Guardian.
"You know me, Radje? Then you should fear. "
A branch snapping brought Mencheres's attention back to Kira. She'd abandoned her perch in the tree to slide down the trunk to the ground. She glanced in their direction, her heart rate accelerating. Guessing, no doubt, that her descent had been overheard.
"Who is that human?" Radje snapped, whipping around to glare at Kira.
Mencheres chuckled. "You are so arrogant that you just now noticed a woman in the garden with us?"
"That heartbeat could have belonged to a dog, for all that you love to surround yourself with curs," Radje said coldly.
Mencheres stiffened at the insulting way Radje referred to Kira. Then he forced himself to relax when he saw the Law Guardian's eyes narrow. Too late. Radjedef had noticed.
"Bring this human forth," Radje said, staring at Mencheres.
Refusing would make Radjedef even more intrigued about who she was. Mencheres assumed a bored expression as he called out, "Kira! Come. "
She slowly made her way through the garden toward them, glancing around as if seeking out possible exits. Mencheres showed no reaction as Radjedef slid his eyes over Kira in a way that left no curve of her body missed.
"Pretty," Radje said, drawing the word out. Then he smiled. "Not as pretty as your dead wife, though, is she?"
Mencheres kept his face blank and his limbs loose, appearing as relaxed as he was when he rested on the bottom of the pool. Thankfully, Kira didn't rise to Radjedef's bait.
She looked at the other vampire for a long moment but didn't say anything.
"Don't you speak?" Radje asked, losing his patience.
"Sure," Kira replied in a perfectly neutral tone. "But you weren't talking to me before. " Her scent betrayed her nervousness, but aside from that, Kira was the picture of assurance as she stood before the glaring gaze of the ancient Law Guardian. From the narrowing of his gaze, Radjedef didn't like her cool composure.
"I suddenly find that I'm thirsty," Radje said, his voice lowering to a menacing purr. "This human will do. "
Radjedef moved, his hand closing around Kira's arm before she could even flinch . . .
and then his whole body froze.
Mencheres slowly tightened his power around the Law Guardian until nothing twitched on his old enemy except his mouth. Kira's eyes were wide as she stepped away from Radje, but she didn't run. Smart.
"You dare to assault me?" Radjedef hissed.
"If I assaulted you, you'd be missing your head," Mencheres responded coldly. "Yet I am well within my rights to stop you from putting your hands on one of my people without my permission, Guardian. "
Radje's gaze burned with the promise of vengeance, but both of them knew it was futile. He wasn't strong enough to break Mencheres's hold, and the laws were on Mencheres's side. He allowed himself another moment to enjoy Radje's helplessness before releasing him from the hold of his power.
As soon as he could move, Radjedef backed away from Kira as though she were a snake. Then he caught himself, glaring at both of them.
Mencheres smiled. Kira hadn't moved since she'd detached her arm from Radje's frozen grip, showing more poise than the ancient Law Guardian. From Radje's furious expression before he schooled his features into blankness, he knew he'd been shown up by her.
Radjedef flicked his hand in a dismissive gesture at Kira. "I've seen enough of her. " Mencheres glanced at the house, and Kira turned around without a word, leaving the garden. His respect for her grew once again. If she'd panicked before, or argued with the Law Guardian over his deliberate, baiting treatment of her now, Mencheres might have been forced to punish her - which was what Radjedef wanted. But her poise left Radjedef with nothing to do but simmer in his own impotence. The very laws he could have invoked to punish Kira kept him from being able to do anything now.
And once Kira was safely back home and Mencheres was gone, both of them would be forever past Radjedef's bitter reach. Mencheres smiled again at his old enemy.
"You know the way out, Radje. "