Chapter 5

The sun was going down when someone knocked on Zia"s door. She had showered and was curling her hair for the party that night. She felt better after a few hours by herself, but there was no rest for the wicked.

"Open the door!" Emilia shouted through the wood.

Zia opened the door and had a garment bag thrust at her.

"Here, put this on. We have to leave soon," Emilia said, sailing into the apartment.

"Um, okay? Are we... Are we cool?" Zia asked. She wasn"t stupid enough to turn her back on the young dhampir for a second. Emilia brushed her long hair back over her slender shoulder.

"We are cool if you apologize about that slut Cleo having a better account than me," she replied.

Zia fought not to laugh in her face. Instead, she accepted the peace offering. "I"m sorry. She"s nowhere near as good as you or as pretty. I only said that in self-defense. I really would like for us to get along. We are family, after all."

Emilia sniffed. "Yeah, we are. The others will baby you, but I won"t. People in this family have died, and my bet is it was one of the siblings. We aren"t nice people. You are, and you don"t belong here."

Truth. Well, no surprise there.

"I know, but I still want to be here," Zia replied. She took the garment bag into the bedroom and unzipped it. She was relieved it wasn"t skintight latex like Emilia was wearing.

Instead, it was a dark purple velvet dress that came to her knees. It had a sweetheart neckline that was edged in a trim of black lace. Zia noted that it made her tits look great and accentuated her hourglass shape perfectly. She walked out to where Emilia was pouring herself a drink.

"This is actually really beautiful," Zia admitted.

"Why are you so surprised? I knew your shape and what would complement you best," Emilia replied with a slight shrug of her shoulders.

"You made this? In an afternoon? That"s incredible!"

"It"s nothing. I can sew quickly, and this is a basic design." Emilia was being blasé about it, but Zia could see she was pleased. That was her in.

"You shouldn"t be fucking about with influencing, Emilia. You should be in design school."

"Oh, my gods, shut up. Really, it"s not a big deal. It"s a hobby," Emilia replied, tapping her long nails against the counter. "Besides, I don"t think I"m good enough to get into a school on my designs alone. I won"t pay for my position, and I don"t want the person making the decisions to be too scared to say no to my application if I don"t have the talent."

Truth.

"You should submit under a fake name, and once you"re in, you can reveal who you are."

Emilia sighed. "Are you always this positive and relentless?"

"Only about stuff that matters. I won"t shut up about it until I can convince you."

"Subject change. What are you going to do about your face?" Emilia asked and followed Zia into the bathroom. And just like that, Zia knew she had won her over.

Now, she just had to figure out the others.

Erik"s villawas six blocks away and was a gaudy white and gold. It reminded Zia of a brothel trying to be a Greek villa. Doric columns that should have been elegant were cheapened by the gold tiles at their base and by the mock mosaic on the floor of Erik dressed as Bacchus.

"Wow. This is..." Zia didn"t have the right words.

"Yeah, Erik has money but not a lot of class. These people are all here to mooch off him, so watch your purse," Emilia said from beside her.

Zia followed her inside, stepping out of the way of girls and boys in see-through togas and covered in gold body paint. She really should have asked Erik what kind of party it was going to be. It didn"t matter. The more shit-faced their host was, the more she could snoop, unnoticed, through his stuff.

"Emi! Zia!" Erik called from a doorway. "Come to the gardens!"

Zia could barely hear him over the dance music that was thumping heavily. She pushed past two girls, making out for the amusement of their boyfriends, and stepped outside. There was a long pool with people frolicking in it and on the sunbeds around it.

"So happy you could make it, Zia. Where did Emi go?" Erik asked.

She turned and cursed. Emilia had given her the slip. She was hoping to use her as a buffer to keep Erik busy while she went hunting for secrets.

"She went to get some drinks. I see you"ve been at it a while?" she replied. He gave her a sloppy kiss on the cheek.

"You smell good," he slurred. She gently pushed him away. "I was so bored at that auction today that I had to be drinking. Cami"s stuff is sooo tedious."

"She seems to enjoy it," Zia said. Something angry buzzed past her ear, and she threw her hands, trying to protect herself. "Fucking bugs."

"All mosquitos are attracted to your sweet blood, darling," Erik said, sounding too suggestive. Fucking creep. He drained his bloody cocktail. "Don"t tell Cami, but Regina and Clark on her board for that disaster are laundering money through it for a werewolf family." He laughed loudly. "Cami is meant to be so clever, but she has no idea how the darker parts of this city run. It"s easy to steal when people aren"t expecting to see money missing. They don"t even question the figures."

Truth. Zia laughed with him so he would stay relaxed, though by the way his pupils were blown out, he was already fuck eyed.

"Erriikkkk, catch me!" a girl in a toga cried before launching herself at him. He caught her and smacked her ass, making her laugh. His fangs flashed when he smiled at Zia. Oh, dear god.

"Cousin? Where"s your bathroom?" Zia asked.

"In the house, that way," he gestured vaguely, his mouth already lowering to the girl"s throat.

"Thanks!" Zia left them to it. It wasn"t taboo for dhampir to feed on blood, but it was like fucking in public. Erik didn"t seem to care about either as Zia tried not to notice what the people were doing in all the shadowy nooks and rooms of the villa.

She kept a wonky smile on her face as she explored the first two floors without finding Erik"s office. She went up to the third and final floor and started to find the locked doors. They were definitely more promising.

She went through her purse and took the lock picks out from where she had them hidden in the lining. The first room was a bedroom with a bed that was big enough for an orgy and a cluttered wardrobe that had no safe in it. Zia carefully locked the door behind her before trying the next room.

Zia peaked in and saw bookshelves, a leather couch, and a desk. Bingo.

She shut the door behind her and went to the desk. There were the usual stationary and files with nothing interesting except for invoices. She pulled the drawers out and laughed.

"You"re so fucking cliché," she muttered and pulled out the small notebook that had been taped onto the back of one of the drawers. She tore it free and tittered softly.

Erik was stealing money from the company. Zia had suspected as much when he boasted how easy it was. From what she could tell, most of the money went to paying off his gambling debts.

Most of the debts were with a club she knew belonged to a sorcerer. Not any sorcerer either but Galen fucking Murphey. There were rumors that he was the bastard of one of the powerful fae lords. But then, the rumors also said that he had fucked up a summoning spell and had been possessed by a Duke of Hell.

Rumors were only rumors until Zia got any proof. It did pay to keep track of them, and if Erik owed Galen, then it meant the sorcerer had something to bribe him with. Zia took some photos of the book"s pages and recognized another name.

"Fuck, Erik, if I really were a Volso, I"d fucking kill you myself," she growled.

He owed half a million to Thorfinn Halfdansson. He was another Blood Lord in the city, and his house was famous for its Viking vampire berserkers. Unlike most of the vampires of the council, Thor didn"t have a drop of aristo blood in him. He had fought and drained his way to the top, and he was one of the few vampires that Corven gave respect to and stayed the fuck away from.

"I should"ve charged Corven so much more for this fucking job," she muttered.

Zia put everything back the way she found it. She slipped out of the room and made for the stairs when she crashed directly into Ares Volso.

Zia groaned. Fuck my life.