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I was certain this was another secret slayers weren’t supposed to share with vampires, and for the first time, I wished I wasn’t obligated to share it with Marco.
I went up the side stairs and out the side door, and he headed to a different stairwell, which would put him out into the customer area, and I assumed he’d go out the front door.
* * * *
Ryan
I’ve been around the Fabulosa Trio — Fabio, Eunice, and Collosa — enough to know they’re mostly the good guys. Eunice is a top-level assassin, and he was a lead torturer for the government, so calling him a good guy isn’t possible, but as far as I could tell, he only used his skills on those who needed to die, or who needed to give up their secrets. I knew Drake Security still used those talents when necessary, but mostly, he kept people safe these days.
The three men have different skills that mesh perfectly together, and as a group, they’re beyond formidable. If I ever have to take them out, I’ll either blow their house up with them in it, or I’ll find another way to take them all out at once. I’d manage to kill one of them if I take them out separately, possibly two, but I’d never find the third.
And yes, it’s my job to figure out how best to kill supernaturals if they ever go to the dark side. All of them. Even Etta, though it would break my heart to have to do it.
I drove separately and then followed the group into the basement, and noted the grizzly’s reaction to me. He was lounging on a bed in the back corner of the sitting room, trying to look relaxed and comfortable to show he belonged there, but he sat up as if he’d gone to a war footing the second he realized I was with the group. His face went neutral within a microsecond, but he didn’t like me in his space. At all.
But the instant he heard they’d made Kelsey kill someone, he was up and across the room, the young vampire in his arms as if she was a child who must be protected and coddled.
He addressed Etta as the most powerful person in the room, which was exactly what he should do, but for the first time ever, my inner slayer wanted to prove otherwise. I’ve killed vampires much stronger than Etta. I could easily kill Etta. That made me more powerful, but I would never be part of the official supernatural hierarchy. Slayers try to pretend to not be one of the monsters, after all.
So why was my inner Slayer demanding to be noticed as the most powerful? I shushed him and sat quietly.
I hadn’t known the mongoose and leopard had been watching a video feed while Kelsey was forced to kill the duck, but it made sense to let them see. They were her support system as well as her disciplinarians. It was something they needed to understand.
However, Etta’s response was priceless, when the mongoose told the grizzly, “We watched on the security feed. If I’d been able to get into the room, I’d have stopped it. You’re right, training has to be brutal sometimes, but this was too much for me to watch. I can only imagine what this has done to our sweet girl.”
Etta made a noise in her throat like she was being strangled. “Sweet?! There are no sweet vampires! I know she was turned for her mind, but she’s a fucking Strigorii Vampire from a warrior line! She’s going to have to buck up and deal. I’ve done worse than she did today without batting an eye. Much worse. If I have to make her kill someone every day for a month to give her some perspective, I fucking will.”
I had to suppress my grin and make my presence known, no matter how much Etta’s indignation endeared me to her. I stood and told the room, “No. That won’t be necessary. She needed to do it once, so she’d see the results of losing control. Not everyone needs the kind of thick skin you’ve been forced into, Etta.”
If looks could kill, I’d have been in serious trouble. “You know I’m right.” I said it so softly, humans probably wouldn’t have heard, but this was a room full of supernaturals, so everyone did, but I hoped saying it quietly would soften the blow a little.
“Fine.” Etta looked back to Collosa. “I’m told her daytime hole is large enough for three vampires, so the two of us should easily fit. Alternatively, we can do this at the coterie house, but Marco felt you’d want to do it here.”
“Will the Slayer be staying?”
“No,” I told them. “I’ll drop in occasionally to see how things are going, but I won’t stay.”
The conversation went to the specifics of security and logistics, and when things got tense, Collosa said, “Etta, I don’t believe we’ve invited you to sit. It was an oversight, and I apologize. You’re here to help Kelsey, and that makes you a friend until you prove yourself otherwise. Drake Security has traditionally gotten along well with whatever Strigorii vampire was in charge in their city. It’s true this is usually The Abbott, since he and Aaron are so close, but Abbott always looks to find a replacement for himself who will do right by the city he’s leaving. I haven’t had a chance to get to know Marco, but I assume he’s one of the good guys. If he’s made you his Secundo, that would make you one of the good guys as well.”
“I didn’t introduce myself as his Secundo.” Her voice was like ice, frosting the inside of the entire room.
“I’ve read through the available data on the new top five in town.”
She looked up, focused on Eunice behind him. “Did you recognize me?”
“I have not read that data. The three of us have different specialties. Being nice to people is not my specialty.”
I sensed Etta was coming to like the mongoose, despite him calling Kelsey his sweet girl. She gave him an actual smile, and those came few and far between with my Etta. “No, mongoose, I don’t imagine it is. Despite this, your blood is not in Kelsey, and yet there’s a connection. Is this because your housemates are connected to her, and you’re connected to them? Or is it a personal connection?”
“Was that a rhetorical question?” Collosa asked.
She shrugged and sat in a straight-backed, armless chair halfway across the room. She sat straight, without slouching, and I marveled that I was one of the few who got to see her sitting relaxed and comfortable.
“I was thinking out loud,” she told the grizzly, “but if you know the answer, I’d be interested in hearing it.”
“We’re both fantasy freaks,” Eunice told her. “Tolkien. Douglas Adams. Frank Herbert. Dungeons and Dragons. Manga. Anime. Studio Ghibli.”
Etta turned to me, as if I might explain, and I told her, “Books and movies. There’s an entire counterculture.”
