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“Not completely true,” Etta said. “You can certainly go more places than most, but Kendra seemed to think Josef figured out how to keep you out of places he really doesn’t want you to get into.”
And I was going to have to figure out how to get into the basement of the coterie house. It wasn’t good for anyone to think they could protect themselves from us.
“He didn’t have a scent the first few seconds,” Evan noted. “It’s like he arrived before his scent.”
“He can play with it,” Etta told him. “He can lose all scent, or come off as human, or Slayer. I don’t know if he can smell like other beings or not.”
On the one hand, it wasn’t good for Etta to be going down that road of thought. We can alter our scent to mimic all three vampire types and most of the major shifters. However, we only do it when everyone who’s realized we’ve done so dies, so no one is alive to spread the rumor.
However, whatever I had inside me that wanted Etta under me, screaming my name while I claimed her, liked that she was figuring me out.
“I was in TBC earlier, Etta. You smelled an awful lot like a human, yourself.”
“What do you want, Slayer?” No emotion in her face or tone. Damn, but I wanted to break that wall down and see what was inside.
“Evan was brought in from Florida,” I said, rather than answer her question. “There are lakes south of Orlando with more bald eagles than is probably healthy, and the shifters have moved into the area so they can fly without garnering attention.”
“There’s a nesting pair just up the river from the Chattanooga coterie house,” Evan said. “So long as we don’t get too close, we can pull it off here, two at a time. Most of us fly at night, to make sure we don’t increase human sightings enough it’s noticed.” He shrugged. “We all try to stay away from the natural eagles’ hunting grounds — we respect them and don’t want to fight them. There are also nesting pairs near Jasper and Raccoon Mountain. We had a hacker zap the cam for the Harrison Bay nest because the Concilio put us on notice, saying if someone spotted one of us when both eagles were on the nest, it could’ve been a problem.”
“I don’t enforce Concilio law. I make sure the humans are safe. With that in mind, tell me why I’m in your backseat.”
“I’m not certain Etta needs to hear this conversation.”
Probably not, but I needed her to know I was here to put Evan on notice. I didn’t want her to think I was here to see her. To smell her. Why the fuck did she smell good to me? Vampires are cold creatures who turn my stomach, so why did I get heat from her? Her energy was different than any other vampire I’d ever met.
“Etta has no problem taking someone’s free will when it suits her purposes, right? Why should you be any different?” I asked the eagle.
“It wasn’t my call.”
“Yes, it was. You cut it down from nine to four.”
“The four who are suited to the job. The other five would’ve been a liability. I need trained professionals.”
“What’s he talking about, Evan?”
I wondered why she didn’t just look in his head. Or, perhaps she had, but wanted him to answer the question anyway.
“Your Master knows,” Evan told her. “If he wants you to know, he’ll tell you.”
We took the exit ramp onto a state highway, and Etta put power into her voice to tell him to stop and fill up with gas.
Before he got out, she ordered him to tell her about the five men he’d referred to earlier.
“They’re leftovers from when Vincent Avila was our king. They brag about rape. They kill too indiscriminately. Marco is aware, and he oathed them so they’ll have no choice but to behave. He took away more of their free will than we negotiated for the rest of us. I was in on the negotiations. I agreed to it, and I signed off on it.”
Everyone oathed as security has a leash put on their free will, but mostly, it just means they can’t harm a vampire in the coterie unless certain conditions are met, meaning one of them is working against the coterie. These five had a tight leash, however, which should keep them from getting too far out of line, but I’d seen shapeshifters get around those restrictions too many times to feel comfortable with these men in my territory.
“When you step out of the car, you’ll forget about this conversation,” Etta told him. “It’s good to have a full tank of gas. You’ll be pleased you don’t have to worry about fuel in the coming days.”
Could she not go into his head? Or, perhaps she didn’t want to, in case he asked her if she had. Either way, I found it interesting she interrogated him using the power of her voice. Not all vampires can do that, so she showed me a little more of herself in the process, too.
I didn’t bring any of this up, though. Evan would hear every word we said, and there was nothing I wanted to say to her I wanted him to hear, so I kept my mouth shut. Etta must’ve been in the same boat, since she didn’t speak, either.
Evan picked up the conversation again once he’d pulled out of the gas station.
“So long as Marco is healthy, those five aren’t your concern,” he told me.
“The rest of you signed four-year contracts. You gave them ten-year contracts.” I said from the backseat.
