Sleeping With The Vampire (Immortal Vampire #2)

Chapter 16

Lucca

As I’m leaving Izzy’s, I think of an incident a few weeks ago, when my old Seer saw Izzy for the first time. I had asked her for help in finding someone who could investigate Tanata’s death. I wanted someone who was independent and objective, not part of the Citadel crowd, but at the same time, someone who would be discreet, who could be trusted. Even then, I knew it was a delicate job.

“It sounds like a job for a woman,” she’d mused.

Then she went into her trance and I left her to it for a while, wondering if a woman would be able to do it. My experience of women had taught me that they were good thinkers and diplomats and quite capable at solving complicated mysteries, but at the same time, I did need someone with physical strength as well. I knew it would involve fighting and sticky situations, and I didn’t know many women able to handle those as well.

Then I remembered Ragnar boasting how he’d beaten the female bounty hunter recently and asked him her name.

Isabella Bonnici. Izzy.

When I told the Seer her name, she had been quiet for a long time. Finally, she said, “She could do it, but if you use her, you will have a lot more on your hands.

I got impatient with the old woman andasked her what she meant.

“She can’t be controlled,” she said slowly. “A wild horse that can’t be broken in.”

At the time, this had only intrigued me.

Later, after I’d hired Izzy, Finn had tried to advise me to change my mind.

“I don’t know about her,” he had said carefully. “Are you sure you want to involve her in this?”

When I pressed him about his concern, he admitted, “I fear you will become involved with her. The witch has foreseen this.”

“And?” Again, I didn’t see what business it was of his.

“She is not like the others,” Finn spoke each word cautiously and didn’t say any more.

I got his meaning, then. I didn’t like to be questioned or spoken back to. Perhaps becoming king had made this worse. I was in charge and my word was law. I was used to people listening to me, following my lead.

Izzy followed her own head.

She was used to doing her own thing and it had not even occurred to me that she would try to defy me the way she had. I had lost my temper, which was something that happened occasionally. Still, I had not expected her to react the way she had. Standing up to me like that, chasing me away like a dog.

I didn’t like that.

Despite everything we had shared, the wonderful passion in bed, she did not respect me the way she should. After all, I was more powerful, stronger in every way. I had lived longer, seen more, understood things more deeply. I knew she had fire in her, a desire to walk a different path and I liked that, I would support that.

But she was young, she needed to learn a few things. She overestimated herself and what she could achieve in life. She had not yet learned how to talk to people, how to play them, gently, to coax music out of the most difficult instrument.

I thought of how she had pushed me on Layrr and felt my anger rise again.

She had no idea what I had been facing the last few decades and how I needed my family to support me in the delicate power balance I had been managing. Even if Layrr was compromised, I needed to think about how to deal with it.

I felt Izzy had forced my hand and I didn’t like that, I resented her for it. She had overstepped her position, taken things too far. I thought she was smarter than that and I was disappointed in her.

We arrived in the village of Carsonne in the early hours of the morning. The house of Hugo Montpellier was on the outskirts, on a road leading into thick woodland. It was hidden from the road by a huge tree-lined avenue. It was a magnificent old place, built by Hugo’s grandfather, once a prominent landowner. His son had been an advisor to MoZa many years ago and his son had gone into politics as well. I knew Hugo as a pretty boy, an on-off romantic interest of Sunil’s, but I didn’t know it had become this permanent. I had respected his private life thus far.

I had the car drive up to the front of the house and got out, making no attempt to hide my arrival.

Daylight was coming and I could feel the rising heat in the air burning my skin, especially around the wounds that were still healing. I was not yet at my former strength and needed to take care.

The door was opened by a house servant who took me and the royal guard to a sitting room. Moments later, a flustered Hugo came in, doing up his shirt and clearly waking up.

“Where is Sunil?” I demanded to know right away.

“I… ah… I …” he stammered, eyes wide.

“I know he’s here.”

“No… that’s not true,” Hugo shook his head, but I stared him down and he fell silent, biting his lip, looking shifty. Could this really be the kind of man my son had chosen to be with? I couldn’t see it. I had to fight the urge to knock him to the ground, pathetic weasel.

“Go get him please,” I said, turning away in disgust.

Moments later, Sunil appeared in the doorway.

“Father,” he said, not looking surprised at all to see me. He was fully dressed, not a hair out of place.

“We need to talk,” I said.

“Come,” he said, “I know a place.”

He took me upstairs to an elegant bedroom, which led to a private suite, probably the rooms of Hugo’s grandmother once. There were doors opening onto a balcony and Sunil closed these now for privacy.

“Why are you here, Father? It’s not safe!”

“I need you to tell me what is going on, Sunil, do you understand me?” My tone was angry and firm. “No more fucking me around. What are you doing here?”

Sunil’s head dropped, he appeared to be considering his response.

I looked at his handsome face, the smooth skin of his face, the almond-shaped eyes and remembered how much Simonis had loved him. Part of my affection for him had been because of his mother. Had I overlooked weaknesses out of fondness for her? I wasn’t sure anymore.

Sunil took a deep breath and came closer, speaking softly.

“I have been using Hugo to get closer to Tempesto. He is one of MoZa’s secretaries and attends all the Council meetings. I have… befriended him and in return, been able to get access to their offices.”

This was interesting. Sunil went on in a low voice, “I have been poisoning MoZa’s tea with Perpicca for the past few weeks, unsuccessfully, as I’m sure you know.”

Perpicca was toxic to vampires. Even the smallest amount of powder was known to kill. But not Tempesto, it seemed.

“It has been so difficult to get access to him, but on three occasions, I managed to doctor his tea. Once, he didn’t drink all of it. But I checked, he definitely drained the cup on the other two times. But he seems unaffected.”

“How is this possible?” I asked.

“I think he has been taking so much tainted blood, from humans high on cocaine and methamphetamine. He has been acting erratically, aggressively, it may be overriding the Perpicca.”

“But why are you hiding here?”

Sunil shook his head. “MoZa has become paranoid. He is convinced assassins are out to kill him. He trusts no one. He fired Hugo last week and told him if he saw him again in the Citadel, he would be arrested. I am too much connected to him now, it is better for me here.”

“Is that all it is?”

He knew what I was asking.

“Father, please, don’t insult me. I would never… Hugo is…” he pulled a face, shook his head. I believed him.

“There is something else,” I said. I told him about Izzy looking into Tanata’s death, finding out Layrr had been there.

“Why would he kill Tanata? Why?”

This was what had confounded me as well.

“We didn’t like her, taking Mother’s place. But to try to kill her? That is insane.”

Sunil was quiet. “But why are you paying this girl to look into all of this? What could she possibly understand about our world, our kind? She is a mortal, a young one at that. She doesn’t understand the complexities of our world.”

Sunil paused. “I don’t like Layrr, as you know. But he is not a killer.”

I found myself agreeing with him, wanting to believe him.

We heard some kind of commotion outside.

It sounded like cars speeding up to the house, helicopters landing outside.

“What’s happening?” Sunil rushed up to the window, pulling open the curtains.

Sunlight flooded in and I felt it burn my skin.

I retreated to the back of the room.

“There are men with guns! SWAT teams, looks like, they’re surrounding the house!”

Sunil stared at me, horrified.

“We’ve got to get out of here!”