Quiet, sour notes trilled on the air. Walter rubbed his brand. Whatever good memories the two had made on the seashore, it must have been then, when Nyoka put more workings into her lover’s scars. And Walter hadn’t known.
Walter picked up his story. “My failures continued in the decades after. Willim, the coward he is, lived at sea, hiding, knowing I was much more efficient at weapons-play than he.”
Walter picked up his glass again and twirled it, as if suddenly needing something to do with his hands. He held the glass to the light, tilting it slowly back and forth. Sipped. “Your timeline,” he said, his tone saying he didn’t like the word, “continued after World War Two. Terenzio Marrazzo reappeared. Ravensport came to the States. There were a few decades of relative peace in Europe. Then the Vampire War in Europe began in the early two thousands, supported from here by Leo Pellissier in New Orleans. Many European vampire clans lost their seats of power and their heads. Clans and lands were won by Edmund and the Dark Queen’s War Lord, Grégoire of France.
“Marrazzo was not a player on the vampire political stage.
“Rumors say the witch hunter who tortured Nyoka came to the States, though that would make the hunterveryold.
“Karson sank low in power and relevance. When peace was at last restored, and Edmund the First was crowned Emperor of Europe, the Dark Queen’s court opened for refugees. I came to America, for safety. I met you and your family at the queen’s court in Asheville. You two were”—he stopped and shook his head—“ ‘mischievous,’ I suppose is the kindest word. ‘Troublemakers’ would be more accurate.”
EJ said, “I was a kid when Eddie the Great was crowned and vampires got back their souls. I remember people dancing inthe hallways at vamp HQ in New Orleans. Vamps laughing. It was freaky.”
“Umm.Freaky,” Walter said, not smiling but looking amused nonetheless. “Yes. That broken curse brought on more chaos, more upheaval, which lasted until Prince Oleg and his scions appeared onstage and the Witch War started. War after war.
“Karson needed something, someoneto give him a boost in standing.” Walter was staring at the wine as if mesmerized. “He found Angelina. Wooed her. Married her. The only reason he succeeded was that all of Angelina’s allies and family were too engaged with the war to discover his intent. Karson had big dreams.”
“When the Witch War ended, Terenzio, the elder Marrazzo, reappeared, alone and powerless.”
EJ put it all together, his brain practically snapping into place. “With Karson being married to the queen’s godchild, Karson had more power than his sire.”
“Indeed. Karson had found what he looked for. The protection of the Dark Queen, through his wife, Angelina Everhart-Trueblood Marrazzo. Terenzio wanted his scion’s power. Karson’s power.”
“Okay. I have the players, and their histories. What about Nyoka?” EJ asked.
“Nyoka had sworn vengeance on her betraying lovers, and on the long-lived witch hunter who had tortured her. Terenzio Marrazzo, Ravensport, Konstantin, and possibly the witch hunter are here in the States, but Nyoka has never been a warrior. Even if she had some way to reach them, she has no skills to destroy them.” Walter frowned. “The witch hunter should be dead of old age, therefore, if they yet live, they are no longer human, and their motivation to keep searching for prey is either an enigma or an obsession-based abnormal psychology.”
“Then why join Asshat Marrazzo?”
“I don’t know.” Walter shrugged, one of those elegant vampire gestures that drew the eye. “Willim stopped running. He found Ravensport and signed a contract with her, which included a blood clan of Londyn, Chancy/Cennet, Terenzio, all things we have only these last two days uncovered, but which dovetails with the layers of history, vengeance, and passion. Terenzio brought in Karson, who was friends with Konstantin.”
“And there was the emperor’s reception,” EJ said, “planned for months. They wrangled invitations.”
“All of the queen’s attendees’ names were made public on social media. There was no secret that you and Angelina were attending. Did Londyn wish to be your plus-one?” Walter asked.
“Yeah. I told her no guests. She wasn’t happy. Nyoka went to watch her enemies?”
Walter said, “Hidden beneath hershadowworking, she learned what their goals were, where they were staying. She knew they schemed to attack us, and she found my location.”
EJ remembered the car with the dent that had followed him from the tea shop. “Enemies watching us for days. I never noticed.”
“I rather think Nyoka was watching Karson’s allies, who were watching you, and when they sent Chancy/Cennet to you as a client, Nyoka followed her.”
EJ cursed in the deeps of his mind. “So, if Karson doesn’t have Ivyanna Holmes, then who does?”
“Any of the bedfellows, but, I hazard to say, not Nyoka. I believe Nyoka went to Karson’s to find her betrayers, Ravensport and Marrazzo. Instead of killing them she was possessed and the demon went after us.”
EJ leaned forward in his chair and clasped his handsbetween his knees, saying, “So we have multiple players. Karson and his pals who planned to kidnap or kill you, and attack the queen’s party with demons to get to Edmund the First and the queen. Nyoka, who was preparing her own attack on Karson’s allies to protect you and got possessed. And the witch hunter, who may have been chasing them all. Is there any chance the witch hunter was at the queen’s party?”
“Possibly. The name I last knew was not on the guest list. I have checked.” He shook his head slightly, the faintest of motions. “Layers. History. Time. The 3-D chess of vampire politics and vengeance.”
EJ started when Walter said “3-D chess.” That was strategy directly from his own past, from his training with Uncle Eli, Alex’s older, strategist brother.
“If Nyoka thought all her torturers would be in one place at one time, she would have gone to the queen’s no matter what she had to do, no matter who she might need to bespell. I had assumed Nyoka entered the queen’s soirée as a plus-one of an invited party, but I think now she walked in with the servers, hidden by hershadowworking,” Walter said. “It is to be assumed that all parties in all these endeavors and plans, had the means and the power to bring what they wanted to fruition, and that it involved, or perhaps still involves, Edmund the First of Europe and the Dark Queen. But nothing happened at the reception. Perhaps Nyoka never found her human torturer. I do not know.”
EJ said, “Back to the beginning.” He massaged his forehead, feeling exhaustion deep in his bones. “It seems longer. I told Londyn I wasn’t interested in supper with her. Pissed her off. So she went rogue, and we discovered they had demon bombs and possessed vampires. We found Nyoka, possessed, at the Marrazzo Clan Home. And then the drone attack told us they hada lot of EEBs. More in a single location than since the war, thanks to Konstantin’s presence in the city. And now they know my sister has a demon-eating staff.
“Who was the torturer from Nazi Germany?”
