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He stepped into my office, closed my door, and said, “It’s too quiet in here.”
The room was supposed to be soundproof, and we also had music the tech people assured us would interfere with listening devices. I opened the file folder on my computer and double-clicked a Bach piece with an underlying tone that would garble our words if someone tried to listen electronically.
Our security people swept for listening devices twice a day, but security procedures still state such music shall be playing when discussing sensitive matters.
“Your boyfriend killed one of our security team. An eagle.”
Arguing whether he was my boyfriend or not wouldn’t be productive, so I merely said, “I told you Ryan put Evan on notice about a number of his people.”
“Have you heard from him?”
“I have not. I wasn’t aware he’d returned. Do we know why he killed the eagle?”
“He told Evan his man had followed a deer shifter home from classes on the UTC campus and raped her. Ryan caught him in the act, killed the eagle, and drove the deer shifter to the deer enclave. He assured Evan the body will never be found. He also told him he’s holding Evan and me responsible for the rape. Do you know what he means by that?”
“He doesn’t approve of you bringing so many Eagles to town, unvetted, to his way of thinking. There are four you took the free will of, so they can’t continue to do what they did under Avila, but others who were allowed to do bad things without oversight or consequences for so long, you should expect they’ll continue to do bad things.”
Marco sat on my loveseat. “The bitch of it is, he isn’t completely wrong. The buck has to stop with me.”
“Buck? Did he rape a buck, or a doe?”
He shook his head and gave me an affectionate smile. “Another Americanism, dear Etta. Saying the buck stops with you means you have to take responsibility. You can pass the buck, or pass responsibility on, for only so long, but it has to stop somewhere. Someone has to be responsible. I believe one of the former U.S. presidents popularized the phrase.”
“What do you propose to do, to make sure the eagles you’ve moved to town don’t continue to cause problems with the human and non-predatory shifter populations?”
He didn’t say anything, and I knew exactly what I’d do in his situation. “You need me to find someone who’s been bad and make an example of them.” As I’d done with Leesa, to make the naughty vampires terrified of crossing me.
When he still didn’t say anything, I asked, “Has one been naughty?”
“Largo is in a holding cell. I’ve been through the memories of ninety percent of the security staff in the past seven hours. We’ll call a meeting for the entire team tomorrow evening just after sunset, when our vampires can take over all security while we have the shifters — all of them, not just the eagles — in the same room. I’ll go through the rest as they assemble, and if I find another, you can call them out during the meeting and drain however many I find, all at once.”
He eyed me speculatively a few moments. “I’d like to invite Ryan to observe, but I’m not sure that’s the best thing for a budding romance. I’ll take steps to keep him out, should you not wish to perform in front of him.”
I sat back and stared at him a couple of seconds before saying the only thing I could to my friend and Master. “Whatever is best for the coterie. If you feel inviting Ryan would be best, you should do so.”
He shook his head. “In the long run, what’s best for the coterie is to have a happy and functional leadership team, and that means making sure their Secundo is happy. I’m ordering you to tell me what you believe would be best for whatever it is you and the Slayer seem to be working towards.”
“I’m not sure I know the answer. He knows I can drain others through fear. It isn’t a secret. If he’s looking for a reason to turn away from me, this’ll give it to him, but if he’s looking, he’ll likely find one.” I sighed. “The thing is, I like keeping long-term pets I can feed from and send off on simple missions. More slave than pet, but…” I’d leaned forward while I talked, and I sat back in my chair. “Will Ryan approve of me doing so, if the visual of an eagle being made my pet acts as a deterrent to all the other naughty eagles?”
“Yes or no. Do you want me to invite him or not?”
“Yes.”
“Reason?”
“Transparency. I don’t want to give him any reason to think I’m hiding who I am from him.”
“There’s more.”
And of course Marco picked up on it. “If it’s going to push him away, I’d just as soon do it sooner rather than later.”
He nodded. “Very well. Do you want Largo well fed or hungry?”
“A half-dozen plain, unsalted scrambled eggs, since I’m going to keep him. He’ll need some carbs, so maybe a cup of plain white rice as well, and as much water as he wants.” It was giving him a little more strength so I could drain it from him — so I could make him hurt longer. So I could put on a better show.
“Anything of note in Moira’s journals?” Marco asked.
“Tidbits. Nothing big. I’m making notes on possibly important background info as I go through them. I’ll send them once I finish — I don’t think it’ll be constructive to share them piecemeal. I’ve been invited to a Girls’ Night Out the second weekend in January, which is a ways out, but I guess they’ve decided not to do one during the holiday rush. We’ll begin here and end at The Diamond Club, with two human establishments in between. The RTMC used to handle all security, but it’s a joint thing now — bikers, Drake people, and our people. We’ll need to come up with five of our men you want to send, either vampires or shapeshifters from our security team. My recommendation would be Venom, Evan, and a mix of vampires and shifters, but only your most professional and trusted. The combined team will practice together twice before the event, with another brief run-through immediately before. It’s usually once before each outing, but since our people will be new, Kirsten says they’ll want a few extra times, so everyone understands protocol and is used to working together.”
