Crimson Veil

“No, there were a few humans, too.” Weaver shook his head. “They’ve got a tight operation. By the way, I have to contact my superiors. You’re going to find out sooner or later so I might as well tell you.”

Shade glanced up. “He’s an operative for the Fly by Night Investigations Agency. A freelancer.”

Again with the FBN agency. Twice in one night meant it might be time to pay a visit to the business, especially since it was being run by a vampire. But that could keep.

“What were you doing there?” I accepted the bottle of blood that Hanna handed me. After the experience with the daemon’s blood, I thought I might stick to bottled for a while. The whole out-of-control thing had been frightening.

“Searching for Shay. Her family reported her missing, and the last known contacts were through Supernatural Matchups. Alex hired me to do some research. It led to me getting captured. We thought we were dealing with a kidnapper or serial killer—we had no clue the villain was the dating service itself. By the time I realized what was going down, it was too late. I have no idea why Alex didn’t come sniffing around—he takes good care of his people. Even those of us who freelance for him.”

“We’ll try to find out. But here’s the deal, peeps. You can’t go home. You can’t even come out of hiding. If Lowestar Radcliffe—the daemon who runs the slavery operation—finds out where you’re at, he’ll come after you. He won’t know if you’ve spilled any info or not, but he won’t take any chances. If nothing else, he’ll try to shut you up. Or he’ll kill you out of spite.” I shrugged. “You have to stay missing for a while.”

“She’s not kidding.” Delilah waved a cookie at them. “I saw into the mind of one of their now-deceased partners. They’re vicious, they’re sadistic, and they have absolutely no conscience when it comes to trafficking in people. Or in killing those that cross them. The fact that we rescued the five of you? It’s going to go down in a bad way and the last place you want to be is on the receiving end of their anger and revenge.”

“Then what do we do? Our families must be worried sick—can’t we tell them we’re okay?” Daisy spoke up, her voice wavering.

“I’m afraid not. If they find you, they’ll try to find out who rescued you before they kill you. And then they’ll find out about us. We can’t risk that. Chances are they’re going to discover it was us anyway, but you don’t need to be in the middle of it.” I glanced over at Camille. “We need to figure out where to hide them.”

“We need to start our own underground railroad, given the number of peeps we seem to be running through lately.” Her gaze flickered and I knew she was thinking of the Keraastar Knights.

“We can’t keep them here.” Smoky leaned against a wall, crossing his arms. “If Lowestar figures out we’re the ones who rescued them, we can expect a raid sooner or later, and if they’re here, they’ll be in just as much danger as they would at home.”

Nerissa started to say something, then paused. We all looked at her and she shrugged. “I might know of a place, but I’m not at liberty to say just yet. I’ll have to talk to… someone… tomorrow. For tonight…”

“I think I know where we can keep them for tonight. You guys wait here. Vanzir, Smoky, you’re with me.” Camille jumped up and grabbed her keys.

“You’re going out? But you’re exhausted.” Trillian rested his hand on her arm.

She shook her head. “This won’t take long. We’ll be back soon. For now, get them down in Menolly’s lair. She’s not going to bed just yet. I just don’t want to chance anything—not with life as precarious as it is lately.”

And with that, she was out the door. I motioned to Nerissa. “Take them down below.” As she and Vanzir led the Fae away, Tanne gave Violet a long kiss before letting her go.

Meanwhile, I put in a call to Roman. “What’s up? You need to see me?”

“Yeah, there’s some heavy shit going down and we need to talk.”

I glanced at the clock. Three A.M. Realistically, I could get to his place in half an hour, but I wanted to wait until Camille got back safely. Sunrise was about three hours away. “I don’t know if I can make it tonight. Is it really important?”

“It’s important, but not dire. I know tomorrow night is your Samhain celebration—but afterward, perhaps you can come over?”

I thought about it. It seemed insane to make promises of more than a day now, with so much chaos surrounding us, but we had to keep on the move, keep acting like there was a tomorrow we could count on.

“Menolly?”

“I’m nodding,” I said. “I’ll be there tomorrow night—I don’t know what time, so I’ll call you before I leave.”

“Good enough. I lo…” He stopped, to my relief. And then quietly he said, “Be safe, my love.”

I stared at the phone, wanting to say, “I told you don’t fall in love with me. It’s dangerous, I’ll break your heart if you let yourself love me.” But in the end, all I said was, “I’ll see you tomorrow.” That was all I could say.

Chapter 15

When Camille returned, she had some good news. “Grandmother Coyote will look after them for the night. They can hide in her tree. Vanzir, Shade, can you run them out there? They’ll be safe until Nerissa finds out whatever it is she needs to know.”

“Great.” Delilah snorted. “As if they’re not shell-shocked enough, they get to hang out with one of the Hags of Fate.”

“Better that than if Lowestar finds out about us and launches a preemptive strike.” Camille shook her head. “We’re in a wartime situation on so many fronts—we do what we have to and accept help from wherever we can find it.”

She yawned. “I’m done in. I say we get some sleep. We have to be on top of things tomorrow. We need to find out what Lowestar gets up to. Now that we’ve disrupted his little operation, you know he’s going to be after us.”

As Vanzir and Shade took our guests out to an even darker space than they’d been in—albeit with less danger for them—my sisters headed up to bed and, hopefully, a deep, dreamless sleep.

I still had a couple hours before sleep claimed me, and all I wanted to do was cuddle with Nerissa. But she was exhausted, too, and I sent her back to bed after a long kiss and a quick feel of those beautiful breasts.

The house was silent within ten minutes, everyone tucked in for the night. I sat at the kitchen table, looking around the room. We’d worked so hard, and our family had grown. Now everything felt shaky and at odds. Not internally—we were a strong unit—but the dangers looming from the outside. I was tired. We were all tired, and we needed a break.

As I sat there, toying with the tablecloth, a noise startled me and I looked up to see Trillian. He was in his bathrobe, leaning against the door frame.

“Couldn’t sleep?”

He shook his head. “Am I interrupting? I can go in the living room if you like.”

“Not at all. Come. Sit.” Truth was, I welcomed the company. Too long alone with my thoughts wasn’t always a good thing.

Trillian put on the teakettle and rummaged in the fridge, looking for a snack. He found some leftover chicken and an apple, and then fixed his cup of tea. Sitting opposite me, he took a long sip of the hot drink.

I watched him eat. “Why can’t you sleep?”

“Thinking. A lot on my mind.”

I knew what was bothering him. “You’re thinking about Darynal, aren’t you?” At his nod, I decided to ask something that had been in the back of my mind for a while. “Trillian, do you have family back in Svartalfheim? Are you worried they might be in danger?”

He paused, lingering over the drumstick. After a moment, he set it down on the plate, wiped his fingers on his napkin, and propped his elbows on the table. “Yes, I do have family there, but I’m not concerned. They disowned me many years back—before I ever met Camille.”

“I didn’t know that.” I had never heard him talk about his family, but that didn’t always indicate a problem.

“I wasn’t… they didn’t like my attitude. Believe it or not, Darynal and I are considered too philanthropic by our families, if you want to put it that way. You think I’m arrogant—oh don’t bother denying it.” He waved away my protestations. “I know it’s true, you know it’s true. I don’t care either way. But the fact is, that for my family, I’m considered meek. I care too much about people outside the family, outside the caste I was born into. I mingle with ‘undesirables’ and had the gall to fall in love with…” Here he stopped, and picked up his tea again.

I stared at him. That cast a whole new light on matters. “You think they wouldn’t approve of Camille.”

“Think, nothing. They found out about us shortly after we met, and blew a gasket. My father gave me an ultimatum. Leave her, or leave the family. They had arranged a marriage for me to one of the higher-ups in the Court. And I wouldn’t play along. Now, Vodox—the King—he is the most progressive ruler we’ve had in centuries. But his rule is still criticized. And my family is old school. They are firmly ensconced in the caste system. Tradition means everything to them.”

That was the most I’d ever heard him talk about his background, and by the look on his face, I began to realize just how far away Trillian was from his upbringing, and the sacrifices he’d made to be with Camille.

“And our father treated you like dirt, too.” I suddenly felt ashamed that I’d backed Sephreh in his opinion. I hadn’t really bothered to find out the man behind the mask. And it was obvious that there was a lot more there than I’d anticipated.

“He was a product of his upbringing. But that only goes so far. Once you discover what someone is like beyond your preconceptions, then it’s up to you to make a change in your perception and action. Your father didn’t want to change his beliefs.” He was treading carefully, I could tell. And I knew it was because of Sephreh’s death.

But I understood—probably more than Camille, and definitely more than Delilah. “He was the same about my vampirism. He hated vampires, and was suddenly up against the horror of a daughter of his being turned. It was hard for him. For the first couple years after I returned home from the OIA’s year of rehabilitation, he could barely look at me. He was civil, but it was all lip service, and he never once told me he loved me during that time. And after he managed to learn how to treat me with any semblance of respect, I still always knew that I was broken—that I’d been whole and lovable, and then Dredge tainted me.”

I seldom dwelt on the past, but some days, the memories swept up as if they were from yesterday. I pressed my lips together, trying to keep from sinking into the mire. It was never a good thing when the quicksand of the past rose up and sucked me down.

“He had a narrow range of acceptability. Look at what happened with Camille.” Trillian finished his tea. “I know she’s not going to say anything, but it’s breaking her up that he wasted time they could have spent together being angry at her. She’ll never say a word, but you know it’s happening.”

I leaned forward, gazing into Trillian’s face. “It was always like that. He loved her most, but only if she stayed strictly on the path he approved for her. One misstep and he was yelling at her and calling her names.”

A cloud passed over his face. “Oh, I know. After Hyto’s attack, a lot of those memories came back and she told us about how strict Sephreh was with her in terms of forcing her to run the household. And how angry he was because she could never do anything as well as her mother. You all had a rough time. I do believe your father loved you, but he had no clue on how to show it.”

“He had no clue on a lot of things.” I stared at my hands. “I want to apologize. I treated you badly. I didn’t look beyond the fact that you are Svartan. I was brought up to consider your people dangerous. And I just accepted it as fact.”

Trillian broke out in a smile then, the easy charm giving a warm glow to his otherwise aloof nature. “Not a problem, Menolly. I think… if anything… the past couple of years have brought us to an understanding and—I hope—a mutual respect.” He leaned back and yawned, stretching. “And now, I think I’ll head back to bed. Your sister is snuggled warm, and I want to be next to her.”

He stood and—without thinking—I rose and crossed around the table to give him a hug. Surprised, he accepted and returned it. Then without another word, he headed back upstairs.

I watched him go, suddenly feeling more at peace. Yes, we were facing danger from all fronts, but we had a pretty damned good foundation here at home, and no matter what, we’d persevere. Another glance at the clock told me it was nearing three thirty. While I couldn’t fall asleep early like most people, I could go down, crawl into bed next to my gorgeous wife, and just let my mind wander. And that’s just what I did.

The next night, I received a call from Erin. She wanted to take Roman up on his offer, and with both a heavy heart—it suddenly felt like I was losing her in an odd way, like she was “growing up”—and a smile, I told her that I’d contact him and we’d hammer out plans soon. I slowly dressed, my thoughts drifting over the past few years as I thought about how far we had all come from where we started, then, glancing at the clock, I shook away the memories as I headed up the stairs.