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“To make sure they can’t reproduce, can’t pollute the precious gene pool, even if they somehow get loose!”
“It’s a charge the Circle denies,” Marlowe put in mildly.
Tami whirled on him in a fury. “The goddamned Circle wouldn’t know the truth if it bit them on the ass!”
Only Tami wouldn’t think twice about telling off a master vampire in front of half the Senate, I thought, as Marlowe backed up a step. He raised his hands, mouth quirking in a smile he mostly managed to conceal. “I never said I believed them.”
“But why are you here?” I asked. “I mean, I know you broke the law, but it wasn’t anything that serious.” Locking up a den mother in the most secure prison they possessed seemed a little overkill, even for the Circle.
Marlowe arched an eyebrow at me. “Blowing up half a dozen of the Circle’s educational facilities isn’t that severe? Oh, but I forgot to whom I was speaking.”
I frowned at him, and then the rest of what he’d said registered. I transferred my frown to Tami. “Wait a minute! You’re the Vixen Vigilante, aren’t you?”
She scowled, running a hand over her creased skirt. “Do I look like a vixen to you?”
Considering what she’d been through, I thought she looked pretty good. But that didn’t mean I agreed with what she was doing. “What on earth were you thinking?”
“I was thinking I needed to get my son away from those SOBs! But after I broke Jesse out, he begged me to go back in for some friends of his. And then they had friends and then the friends had friends…And sometimes wards weren’t the only obstacles, especially once they figured out I could get past them. They started rigging booby traps, so I started carrying explosives and…it snowballed.”
“Oh.” I blinked, finding it hard to reconcile the crazed vigilante with the woman I’d known. Of course, she was probably having a similar problem with me.
“But the Circle set a trap and I fell into it, and now they want me to give up the names of everyone who’s been helping me find homes for the kids. And I won’t.” She glared some more at Marlowe. “I don’t care what you do to me. You damn vampires can drain me dry and I won’t tell you a goddamned—”
“That’s not why you’re here,” I told her, jumping in. A show of spirit was one thing; insulting the Senate was something else. I’d already done enough of that for both of us. “I want to see Mircea,” I told Marlowe, pulling Tami behind me.
“He’s indisposed.”
“You already said that. I still want to see him.”
Marlowe’s expression blanked with that creepy speed the vamps sometimes showed. “No,” he told me seriously. “I don’t think you do.”
“Where is he?” Alphonse demanded. He and Sal had been prudently keeping to the background, but they came forward now. One of the Senate guards moved to intercept, but Marlowe made a gesture and he let them pass.
“He had to be moved to a more secure area.” Marlowe shot me a look. “I have need of every operative right now; I do not have the men to keep Lord Mircea safely confined.”
“Confined?” The word didn’t make sense in context with Mircea. He was a first-level master. They went wherever they damn well pleased. “What are you talking about?”
“He attempted to leave, I assume to find you. But he was not in full control of his faculties. We did not know what he might do if he escaped into the human population in such a state.” Marlowe grimaced. “He was…displeased…to have his wishes denied. I have six men in critical condition who can attest to that fact.”
I swallowed and tried for a neutral expression. I doubt I made it. When Mircea had been thinking clearly, he had ordered me away. If he was trying to track me down now, it meant that things had deteriorated—even faster than I’d expected.
“Where. Is. He?” Alphonse repeated, although it sounded more like “Don’t make me eat your face.”
Sal grabbed his arm while Marlowe just looked irritated. Clearly, he didn’t think much of Alphonse’s intelligence. It was a point of view I was coming to share. Challenging any Senate member wasn’t bright, but antagonizing the chief spy was suicidal, especially for someone who was barely a third-level master.
When Marlowe ignored him, Alphonse let out what could only be called a growl. “Control your servant,” Marlowe said, “or I will.”
It took me a moment to realize that he was addressing me. It didn’t make sense. Alphonse was not my servant. Alphonse was…oh, shit. “You’re treating me as Mircea’s second, aren’t you?” It came out okay, even though my lips had gone numb.
“He named you as such while he was still…capable,” Marlowe admitted.
Okay, this was bad. Really, really bad. It explained a lot of things, including why the Consul had yet to order me dragged off to a cell somewhere, but that was about the only positive aspect.
Technically, Mircea could appoint anyone he chose as his second, the person who spoke for the family in the event that the master was unable to do so for a time. It was the position Alphonse had held under Tony. But why on earth had Mircea chosen me? He had an entire staff at his home in Washington State, not to mention a vast family of adherents, any one of which would have made more sense as temporary guardian. I couldn’t defend the family, which was a second’s primary job. I had trouble just keeping myself alive! What the hell had he been thinking?
I licked my lips. It was a telling gesture that would have won me a smack upside the head from Eugenie, but they were suddenly so dry I couldn’t speak otherwise. But nothing seemed to be coming out of my mouth anyway.
“Well, of course he did,” Sal said. I felt an iron grip descend on my shoulder. It said, don’t you dare pass out and disgrace us all. I straightened my spine slightly, and the pressure eased enough that I might get away with only a slight bruise. “The master and the Pythia have formed an alliance.”
