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“The current Eagle King has recruited a lot of muscle to hand over to Marco,” I noted. “Ex-military, mercenaries.”
“Right, and the wolves have done the same with the hawks,” she said. “Or rather, Homewood has.”
She impressed me again. If she were anything but a vampire, I’d have pressed her against the stone cliff behind her and kissed her senseless. I looked out at the Tennessee River, glowing and moving under the moonlight. “The Eagle King is moving from Florida to Tennessee. I’m still investigating to find out why. The men and women he gave to Marco have been blood-oathed. They belong to Marco now, not the Eagle King.”
“Marco negotiated with the individuals. Most agreed to be ours from five to eight years, and then we’ll release them. In most cases, we chose single Eagles. A few cases, we took on an Eagle mated pair, but none with kids.”
I turned and met her gaze, head on, testing it. She looked down and away. She thought I could control her. She wasn’t willing to test herself on me. The most important thing I’d gotten out of the meeting was that Etta didn’t pick up on my fears when she looked into my eyes.
“Did you know the Eagle King is planning to move to the Gatlinburg area?” Not terribly close to Chattanooga, but certainly something the new Master Vampire over the state should be aware of. She hadn’t asked where he was moving, to let me know this was news to her, but she also hadn’t told me where he was moving, to prove she knew and Marco’s people were on top of it.
She shook her head. “Thank you for bringing it to my attention. I’ll let Josef know.”
“Vincent Avila needs to die,” I told her.
She shrugged. “Maybe, but vampires can’t go to Faerie.”
“No, but if you talk to Josef about it, you’ll discover there are ways to bring about his death.”
Her eyes swung to me again, focused on my mouth this time. “The rumors say you’re a hired assassin when you aren’t doing slayer business.”
I shrugged. “Are the rumors any more specific than that?”
“Yes. Are you recommending we offer a bounty for the dead body of Vincent Avila?”
“Slayers could never officially make that kind of suggestion.” I hadn’t been suggesting she do so, nor had I wanted to bring up the fact I can be sent after supernaturals who aren’t on my radar and should be handled by other Slayers. I’d wanted to point her towards how to motivate Marco to take care of him.
“Rumor has it you don’t even consider a job unless it pays at least a hundred grand.”
My heart wanted to freeze in my chest, but I forced myself to stay relaxed and not alert her to my internal shock. She was right, but only a handful of people knew that — a good friend, my main analyst, my business manager, and some people who’d been turned away until they’d upped their price.
“You’re grasping at straws.”
“Am I, slayer?”
“Yes, vampire, you are.”
I was tired of her using my race as a name. Usually, it doesn’t bother me, but today it was getting on my nerves.
“Hypothetically speaking, what price would a professional assassin need to make it worth his while to break into the Dark Queen’s dungeon and steal one of her prisoners?”
Only someone completely insane would break into the Dark Queen’s dungeon. Instead I’d have someone purchase him for a week, and I’d kill him while in their household, but Etta didn’t need to know that.
“Talk to Josef. Moira would probably do it for you if you could get her into Faerie, but I wouldn’t recommend trying.”
Marco was using owls in his security team, too, but no one was supposed to know. I wanted her to know I’d found out, and I wanted to play with her a little, so I asked, “Have you met the new Owl King?”
“New? He came to power after the battle. He isn’t so new.”
“Two and a half years? That’s nothing to a vampire.”
She sighed. “It depends on which years, doesn’t it?”
Something in her tone gave me pause. I took a wild stab in the dark. “You had a particularly difficult time, once the power structure was in chaos.”
“What do you know of it, slayer?”
“Ryan. My name is Ryan. The Concilio took over Griffin’s blood-oathed vampires when he was killed. What happened to you?”
