Chapter 24 - Percy

I expected the leader of the vampires to be an old, withered man with hardly any hair and protruding fangs, but he looks more like the quarterback of an NFL team, fresh off the draft. He's almost impossibly American-looking, with the kind of features that remind me of a Midwest dad and car salesman, golf hobbyist, and proud dad.

"Good morning, everyone," he says, greeting us all with a broad, white-toothed smile. Not a protruding canine anywhere in sight. I glance at Aris.

Sure you got the right guy? Pampers is looking for the dad from their commercial.

Aris lets out a little laugh but covers it with a cough before leading the man, who introduces himself as Paul Smith, to a seat at the table. He's wearing a pale pink polo and a pair of tan cargo shorts. Even Rafael, who's supposed to be our lead vampire guy, looks surprised.

"Thank you so much for inviting me," Paul says, clasping his hands together like a youth pastor about to launch into song. I can't stop thinking of hilarious comparisons for this guy—that's how unsettling it is to look at him right now. "If you don't mind, I'd like to get right down to business, my daughter has dance in about an hour."

"Right," Aris says, coughing again. "Well, uh, Paul ," he's struggling, and it's kind of hilarious. "I guess, I wanted to call this meeting today because there have been some violent interactions between our people lately, and I'd prefer to keep the peace."

"I am so glad you brought that up," Paul says, bouncing his clasped hands on the table once. "Because I was not feeling too good about those interactions, either. It's a privilege to be here, talking them through with you. Violence like that is never acceptable."

"There's also the matter of the wolfsbane," Aris says, looking like he doesn't believe a word this guy is saying.

"Right—" Paul says. "You'll have to forgive me. I just took over this position from my father. Stomach cancer, but he lived a good life. Rest in peace. Anyway, I'm still getting used to it."

I glance at Linnea, who is staring at Paul, her eyes wide. Ado and I catch eyes, and share troubled looks. I wasn't aware vampires could die from normal causes. Aris has to blink a few times.

"Sorry for your loss," he says, though it comes out more like a question. "Anyway, Paul, I just—that wolfsbane that your men were guarding, that's the strain that Varun used in his serum. And our tech analysts found conversations between you and Varun taking place over the last few years."

"Right, so when my dad was running things," Paul sighs, like he's been waiting for this. "When I found out about the wolfsbane, I wanted to shut the whole thing down. But they told me we had to let them die out, because harvesting them all at once could send toxins into the air," I glance at Rosa, who's wrinkling her nose, "so we were waiting for them to die out, had some guys guarding the field just in case. When your man trespassed on our property, we thought he was a shifter looking to use the stuff against his own kind. If you'd wanted a sample, you surely could have asked."

When Paul turns and looks at me, his eyes are decidedly unfriendly. I glance away, toward Rafael, who's sharing a glance with Veronica. I took note of it and decided to ask her about it later.

"Okay," Aris says, "but your men followed a member of my pack to a hotel and attempted to attack her—in fact, bit her."

"That's right!" Paul says, his eyes scanning the room. "Is she here today? I'd like to personally apologize for that—it was mixed wires. We thought she was the one who'd been at the field, but turned out she was human."

"No, just a mix-up of smells. She's very much a shifter," Aris says, his eyes trained on Paul. "And you can apologize to me. I can relay the message to her."

I feel Veronica relax next to me, and I put a hand on her thigh. She puts her hand over mine, squeezing, and though I know it's not the right place for it, and I should be focusing on the meeting, I think about what Bigby and Aris said to me in the woods.

After how Veronica was feeling yesterday, she must be having some residual stress, because her heart is beating so hard it's like I can hear an echo of it, faintly sometimes not keeping time. I wonder if she might have a heart arrhythmia, then decide I can talk to her about it later.

When I glance back toward the table, I see Paul's eyes linger on her for just a moment too long, and the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. But nobody else seemed to notice it, so I just scooted a little closer to her.

"I'm glad you invited me here today," Paul says, his eyes returning to Aris. "Because I am so tired of this old fight between shifters and vampires. We just want peace, like you, and I'm sure we can actually be quite prosperous, if we work together."

"Right," Aris says, running a hand over his face. After a moment, he nods, and I get the feeling he and Bigby are communicating about something. "I got the feeling that might be your sentiment," Aris continues, "so I took the liberty of bringing in a mage."

From the other end of the hall, as though she was waiting for a cue, a tall woman with white hair and a billowing robe walks into the room, looking very important. She has her head held high, and doesn't look at any of us, addressing Aris only.

"Sir," she says, when she reaches him. Paul looks nervously between the mage and Aris.

"I thought," Aris says, pushing up his sleeve to his elbow, "that we could put together a little life-pact on it. To show our seriousness and commitment to the peace between our people."

"Right," Paul says, eyeing the wand in the mage's left hand. Every mage I've ever seen wears normal street clothes, like the rest of us, and I imagine Aris asked her to put on a show for the vampire.

"You are serious about it, right?" Aris asks, cocking his head and looking in the vampire's direction.

"Of course," Paul says, coughing a bit and rolling up his sleeve. I see Rafael and Veronica sharing a look again, and I don't like it. I squeeze her thigh, and she squeezes my hand back, but doesn't look at me. Instead, I catch Paul glancing at her, and I don't like it.

We all watch in rapt silence as Aris and Paul hold their forearms out, side by side, and the mage casts her spell. As she speaks, the words foreign to me, black lines appear on their arms, moving and twining around one another, until they have matching and linking marks on their skin that would look to anyone on the outside like tattoos.

"It is complete," the mage says, still with her nose tipped up to the rest of the room. "Should either of you break this vow purposefully or accidentally, the cost is your life."

Linnea stiffens next to Aris, but he doesn't glance at her. He holds the gaze of the vampire, who offers him another wide, white-toothed smile in response.

"To the continued prosperity of our people," he says, raising his plastic water cup, "and to our future successes as allies."

Everyone raises their water cups in response, but it feels empty. When I look around the table, I realize, suddenly that Byron isn't present, despite Aris calling the entire team in for this one.

It's not until Aris walks Paul, and a few of his golf buddy-looking followers, out of the room that we all let out a collective breath.

"What the fuck was that?" I finally say, after we've been sitting in silence, looking at once another for a full minute.

The entire table breaks out into laughter, and we launch into our observations and opinions on Paul Smith, leader of the Midwest vampires. It's absurd, and hilarious, and I'm so drawn into the conversation that I don't notice for at least five minutes that Veronica is in the corner of the room, talking to Rafael in a hushed voice, their heads so close together, their lips would touch if a strong wind blew.

What the fuck?

I stand, intending to cross over to them and ask Veronica what she's doing—how she could be talking so intimately with someone she assumed was her stalker just days before, but Aris intercepts me.

"Hey," he says, "what was your read on that guy?"

"Super fucking weird," I say, "and probably lying through his teeth."

I look past Aris, trying to get a glimpse of Veronica and Rafael, but Rafael is gone, and Veronica is just standing in the corner alone, her arms wrapped tightly around herself.

"How's it going with her?" Aris asks, his tone light. "Have you convinced her to stay?"

"Or come to an agreement on how to work it out if she wants more?" Bigby asks, stepping into the conversation like he was there the whole time.

"No," I sigh, "she was really stressed out last night, and this morning, or today, I mean—she's so anxious I can hear her heart beating in doubles."

"You mean double-time?" Bigby jokes.

"No, like, it's beating and beating again," I shake my head, realizing that's not a good description of the sound. "Like one heartbeat and an echo."

Aris stares at me, his mouth slightly open.

"I could hear Linnea's…" he leans forward, dropping his voice so just the three of us can hear. "It was just like that when Linnea was pregnant. I was told I could hear the baby's heartbeat because I'm an alpha."

"Oh," I say, heat rising to my cheeks. "Maybe I'm just imagining it."

"No, man," Aris says, shaking his head. "Don't write it off—strong team members are an asset. Own that shit. And tell me about that stuff when you discover it. I want to be able to use you and all your talents."

"Rosa said she thought you might notice some changes from the long-term exposure," Bigby mutters, "but I didn't know you were gonna be more badass than Aris."

"Nobody said that," I mutter, as Aris punches Bigby in the arm, and Bigby doubles over, groaning, only to straighten up and ask Aris if that made him feel like a man. I laugh, but when I glance at Veronica again, I realize it's time to go.

Especially if I need to ask her about this double heartbeat.