Chapter 18

Chapter

Eighteen

When in doubt, go for coffee and scones.

Sean wanted to board up the patio door opening and go to our pack land to run as a wolf for a while. Arkady said she had some possible sources of information to track down, so I asked Malcolm to go with her as backup with the promise that I'd summon him if I needed him.

I headed to Carly's coffee shop with Matthias riding shotgun.

"I am sorry for upsetting you," Matthias said about ten minutes into our twenty-minute drive. "And for the pain I would have caused if had Sean killed me."

"Apology accepted," I said. "For the record, I knew Sean wouldn't kill you, no matter how much his wolf might push him to do just that. I don't like to see people I care about inflict pain on each other, even when there's arguably a good reason. It's the aspect of shifter life I struggle most to accept."

"You have a kind heart."

"I haven't always." I hit the brakes to avoid a car that pulled in front of me and muttered a few choice words. "When Malcolm and Sean first met me, I was anything but kind. Just ask them. Malcolm will give you an itemized list of all the rotten things I said and did."

He seemed to be debating what to say next. "Earlier today you said we have a lot in common. I think there's a lot more to your past than what's in your Court dossier. Would that be fair to say?"

I'd promised not to lie to Matthias, but I wasn't ready to reveal my identity. We didn't yet have the level of trust I had with Ben and Nan, who were the only others besides Sean, Malcolm, and Daniel who knew Moses was my grandfather.

"That's in the category of something I can't share with you," I told him. "Not yet."

"I understand." He appeared thoughtful.

I supposed by telling him I couldn't reveal anything, I'd implied he was right.

"I only ask because I think whatever's in your past remains a danger to you," he continued. "My wolf pushes me to find out where the threat may come from."

Dominant wolves did not have a "wait-and-see" attitude. They seemed hard-wired for seek-and-destroy.

Matthias had never overtly referred to his wolf. For most shifters, speaking of their wolves' feelings, instincts, and reactions was as natural as talking about their own. Then again, Matthias probably hadn't felt comfortable revealing anything about himself even before the Court got hold of him. Telling me how his wolf felt might be his most significant step yet toward getting comfortable in his own skin.

"You're not wrong about the danger," I said. "But at the moment, this mess with the Court is much more immediate."

"Thank you for the honesty."

"You're welcome." I turned into Brew a Cup's packed parking lot and found a space near the far end. "Carly might be too swamped to chat," I observed as we headed for the front door. "I'm glad the shop is busy, but I hope they're not out of scones. I might cry."

Matthias bristled before he realized I was kidding. Well, mostly kidding. I made a mental note to not joke about being upset until he got used to my sense of humor. The last thing I needed was for a newly turned shifter to go wolfy because a coffee shop had run out of my favorite pastries.

When we got inside the shop, the line to reach the register was six deep. Carly and three of her employees were working behind the counter.

I craned my neck to see if the top rack of the bakery case still contained scones. "There are four left," Matthias said helpfully. He had no trouble seeing over the heads of everyone else in line.

I debated texting Carly to ask if she could hold two scones back for me. Before I could send the message, however, my phone buzzed.

Carly Reese: Don't fret. I have some in a bag for you.

Me: You're the best.

Carly Reese: Just call me the scone fairy.

Up at the counter, Carly caught my eye and winked as she set her phone down to run a customer's credit card.

As we waited in line, I couldn't help but notice Matthias got a lot of attention. Some of the whispered conversations seemed to focus on his height, while most of the admiring glances probably had more to do with his physique and looks. I thought he was oblivious to all the scrutiny until he took a step toward me and leaned in, as if we were a couple.

"I apologize for standing so close," he murmured. "No offense intended."

"None taken. I get it. But I'm not going to fight anyone who tries to give you their number. That you get to handle on your own."

He appeared genuinely perplexed, either at the thought someone would give him their number or that I'd allow them to do so. I found that unexpectedly adorable and tried not to let my reaction show on my face. Something told me he would not understand.

Someone touched my arm. "Excuse me."

A young man with blond hair who'd just come into the shop rested his fingertips on my forearm. "Can I get past you?" he asked, nodding in the direction of the bathrooms .

I stepped back to make room for him to cut through the line. "Thanks," he said, and brushed my arm again as he passed. I moved further away and scowled. I sensed no magic from him, and Carly's spell detector amulet in my pocket didn't tingle, but I didn't like the way he'd managed to touch me twice.

"Very presumptuous of him to touch you without your permission," Matthias observed as the young man wove between the tables.

"Very."

"Val—" Matthias caught himself. "My former employer would have killed him for the insult."

"Unfortunately, out here we can't kill people for getting in our personal space. Usually I just accidentally step on their foot."

He leveled an amber stare in the direction the man had gone. "Does this sort of thing happen to you regularly?"

"Not regularly, but sometimes." I lifted one shoulder in a half shrug. "Some men think it's okay to touch a woman they don't know."

"Inadvisable and unacceptable."

"I couldn't agree more."

At the counter, Carly took our order. I requested my usual: a large coffee with room for milk and sugar. Matthias surprised me by ordering an iced tea, lightly sweetened. "A rare treat at the Court," he said at my quizzical look. He accepted the cup from Carly with an almost reverent air.

I'd never given much thought to the dining habits of the humans who lived at Northbourne, but Matthias's comment about not having easy access to something as simple as iced tea started me wondering. Did they also refuse to serve their human employees coffee? Vampires are the literal worst , I thought.

As Carly handed me a small paper bag of scones and totaled our order, Matthias moved aside to let two women pass and drank his iced tea.

"How is he doing?" Carly ran my card and turned the screen for me to tip and sign. "He seems less shrouded in darkness than when I saw him last."

"We're making strides." I put the scones in my shoulder bag and picked up my cup. "Thanks for keeping those set aside for us. I won't ask how you knew we were coming by."

"I just had a feeling." She lowered her voice. "Katy has agreed to help you get information about the necromancer. She's taking today and tomorrow off from work to prepare. The rest of our coven will provide protection for us. We hope to be ready by tomorrow night. A new moon would be the best night for this kind of work, but we'll make do."

"Thank you." I exhaled. "What do I need to do to prepare myself?"

"I'll text you. You'll prepare your way, with your magic, training, and strengths." She smiled in a way that would have made Malcolm flit. "We'll do what witches do in situations like this: coven up, circle the brooms, and bring the thunder."

Well, how could I not feel a little better after hearing that?

The line had gotten longer while we talked, so I moved aside to let the next customer order.

Matthias watched our surroundings rather aggressively while I stirred milk and sugar into my coffee at the little side counter. Many of the admiring stares turned wary.

"Try to look less like a bodyguard," I muttered. "It draws the wrong kind of attention."

"I'm sorry." He tried to look less serious and intimidating, but not very successfully.

"Just smile a little," I suggested. When his face didn't change, I asked, "Why can't you hear a pterodactyl going to the bathroom?"

"What?"

I repeated the question.

He looked bemused. "I have no idea."

"Because the ‘p' is silent. "

Still nothing. I put my hands on my hips. "Don't tell me you've forgotten what a joke is."

"Was that a joke?"

He was so deadpan that it took me a minute to realize he was kidding. I laughed and put the lid on my coffee cup. "Well played, Matthias. I'll let Malcolm know you don't think much of his ghost jokes."

"Ghost jokes?"

"Yeah. They're like dad jokes, but?—"

"But because he's dead, they're ghost jokes. I get it." He followed me to the door. I gave Carly a wave on our way out to the parking lot.

"You know, something occurred to me," I said as we headed for my SUV. "If Northbourne is locked down, how are the vamps who live there getting enough blood to drink? I'm assuming there are only a finite number of humans on the premises. They can't just be drinking from the same ten people."

"You are correct." He appeared thoughtful. "They must have a way of bringing in new food sources despite the lockdown."

"Can we use that somehow?" I wondered aloud. "If blood donors are going in and out, maybe we can get some information, either from them or whoever's handling the donors."

"Perhaps."

I sighed. "You're not going to tell me how and where the Court vamps get their donors, are you?"

He glanced at me. "I doubt the answer to that is the same as when I served the Court. Many procedures have probably changed."

"I guess that's?—"

Matthias stepped in front of me so abruptly that I bumped into him and nearly spilled my coffee. The young man who'd brushed against me twice in the shop stood talking on his phone near my SUV. Mr. Touchy didn't seem to notice us, but Matthias clearly thought something was up.

"Take it easy," I murmured. "He's just a guy with boundary issues until we know different. "

Matthias put himself between me and Mr. Touchy as we passed. I noticed my self-appointed bodyguard give him a good long wolfy sniff. Despite the tension, I loved to see him doing unabashedly shifter things.

"What's the verdict?" I asked when we were in the SUV. "Did he pass the sniff test?"

Matthias frowned. "He smelled very clean. Maybe too clean. His clothing smelled new."

I eyed Mr. Touchy in the rearview mirror as he went to a very nondescript gray car that was several spots closer to the door. If that was his car, why had been close to my vehicle? "Can you see the license plate?" I asked. "I have a friend at the DMV."

Matthias found a small notepad and wrote down the plate number.

"I'm going to summon Malcolm," I said so he didn't come unglued when my ghost showed up. I tugged on Malcolm's trace.

A few moments later, my sidekick appeared in my back seat. "What's up? Have you heard from you-know-who? Are Carly and Katy ready to try to get a peek at our necromancer and their pet spirit?"

"Not yet and not yet. We've got a different problem at the moment." I explained about Mr. Touchy. "Can you double-check to make sure he didn't put anything on me or the car?"

"No prob." As a ghost, Malcolm was sensitive to both magic and electronic signals, making him ideal for the task.

While he checked me over for hidden spells, I dug my prepaid phone out the glove compartment and texted the license plate number to Zola, my contact at the DMV. "It might take her a few to get back to us," I told Matthias. "We don't know if this guy is anything to be concerned about, but better safe than sorry."

"We could ask Malcolm to follow him," Matthias said. "A ghost is an ideal partner for a private investigator."

"I've always thought so." I hummed. "Malcolm, what do you think? "

"I think if you're worried about the dude, I'd better find out why you both think he's fishy." Malcolm floated behind me. "Nothing on the car or you that I can see or sense. Arkady's fine for a bit. I'll see what I can find out about Mr. Touchy." He zipped away.

I hadn't even had a chance to put the SUV in reverse before my ghost sidekick returned. "Red flag," he said from the back seat. "The car's a rental and Mr. Touchy's been around some bad magic. He can shower and put on new clothes, but he can't get all the funky trace out of his aura with Irish Spring."

"What kind of bad magic?" I asked.

"Not sure. Definitely dark, but I'm only getting traces. I don't think he's a practitioner himself, but he must hang around someone who is. What do you want me to do?"

"Can you follow him from a distance and see where he goes?" Matthias asked. "This may be important."

"From a safe distance," I said. "I don't like the sound of bad magic, even if it's not him who's slinging it."

"Hey, safety is my middle name," Malcolm said. "Let me tell Arkady what's going on and then I'll follow Mr. Touchy. Stay frosty, you two." He zipped away.

"Stay frosty?" Matthias asked.

"He saw it in a movie," I explained. "It means stay on your toes." I backed out of my parking spot. Mr. Touchy stayed put and didn't follow us out of the lot.

"Where are we going?" Matthias asked as I turned out on the street in the opposite direction of going home.

"Somewhere I probably shouldn't go, but I have to see for myself."

He figured out where we were headed a few minutes later. "Is this wise?" he asked, his eyes glowing amber.

"Maybe, maybe not. I'll let you know in about ten minutes."

I hadn't gone near Northbourne Manor since the night I'd returned from the Broken World via a mirror in Valas's chambers. I'd sworn never to darken its doorstep again. And yet I found myself turning onto the county road that ran past its imposing gate, drawn by morbid curiosity and anger in equal amounts.

When we were a mile from the gate, Matthias said, "We are now being watched. Surveillance of all passing vehicles begins here."

I'd actually figured the perimeter was farther out. I glanced at him. "That doesn't fall under the geas? "

"It was an observation. The cameras are difficult to spot, but not impossible."

The massive estate had long been surrounded on all sides by an enormous wall that cut through a dense forest. When we reached the wall's perimeter, I was startled to see the forest had recently been cut back to leave about twenty feet cleared on both sides of the wall. Charles must have thought having trees and branches so close to the wall was a security risk.

Less surprising were the many additional layers of wards that buzzed and sizzled along the wall. Almost all were deadly black wards I recognized as witch magic. I sensed mage wards as well, including illegal razor wards.

The gate had been upgraded as well, or at least I thought so from a distance. The retractable barricades in front of the gate looked much larger. Four Vampire Court armored SUVs were stationed near the gate: one on either side of the driveway and two across the road facing the gate. That was new too. Prior to the coup, guards on foot had manned the gate house just inside the rolling gate.

"What's the goal?" Matthias asked. "Even if Charles Vaughan would meet with you, he sleeps during the day."

"I'm not going in." I slowed and turned into the drive. "This is just recon. Keep an eye out for trouble."

It was difficult to describe how different Northbourne felt now compared to when Valas was in charge. In addition to the physical changes and additional wards, even the air crackled with danger and tension. That feeling alone told me a lot about conditions at the manor.

I stopped well short of the barricades and put the vehicle in reverse in case we had to make a quick getaway. Two men in Court uniforms emerged from their SUV on my side. I recognized the taller man as Carlos, one of Charles's longtime human enforcers. We'd interacted numerous times over the years.

As my window rolled down, Carlos stopped about ten feet from my SUV. Both enforcers had their hands on their weapons but left them in their holsters for now.

"State your business here." Carlos's voice was flat, his expression even colder. I might as well have been a complete stranger. He didn't acknowledge Matthias in any way.

"Hi, Carlos." I made a show of peering through the gate—not that I could see anything but forest on the other side. Northbourne Manor was a good third of a mile from here and not visible through the thick trees. "Just wondering who Charles's daytime representative is these days."

"What use is that information to you?" Carlos's companion asked.

"The names of daytime representatives are not privileged information," I pointed out. "No one expects Charles to check the mail or answer the phone, but I got a message from him the other day and I need to know who to contact with my reply."

Neither man spoke for several seconds. I figured they were receiving instructions via their earpieces from someone at the manor. "You may contact Christine Foreman," Carlos said. He rattled off a phone number, which Matthias jotted on the notepad next to Mr. Touchy's license plate.

I'd met Christine Foreman several times. She'd been a lawyer before a rogue vampire attacked and turned her about five years ago. Once Amira, a member of the Court, brought her into her line, Christine had opted to serve the Court as its first human-turned-vamp attorney. I was surprised to hear that Charles had named her his daytime representative. She was very young in both human and vampire years for that position. Hmm .

"You should be on your way," Carlos said. For the first time, his gaze went to Matthias. "Traitors are not welcome here."

"It doesn't look like anyone is welcome here these days," I said. He didn't reply to that.

I took one last look at the Northbourne gate. At this moment, somewhere not far from here, Charles slept in some kind of secure chamber guarded by his most loyal people. I'd seen Charles's bedchamber at his old house only once, when I'd gone there to save him from a deadly vampire object of power that turned against him. He'd had a beautiful sunrise painted on the ceiling above his bed. What did Charles have above his bed now?

"Well, see you later, Carlos." I rolled up my window and backed out onto the empty road. Both enforcers moved to the center of the drive to watch me make a U-turn and drive back in the direction we'd come. Their hands stayed on their weapons until we were well away from the gate.

"What did we achieve?" Matthias asked.

"This probably doesn't make any sense to you." I gripped the wheel. "But I needed to see it and feel it to make it real."

"I do understand." He tapped the notepad on his knee. "And now having seen it for myself, I believe Arkady is right."

"She usually is, which is extremely annoying," I said. "But what in particular do you think she's right about?"

"Valas understood what it takes to maintain stability. For all her cruelty, she was a forceful and capable ruler. The Vampire Court would have stayed strong and secure for many more centuries under her. Charles Vaughan doesn't have her experience or her wisdom."

I couldn't argue either of those points. "With Valas still weakened from Mira?'s curses, I think Charles saw a chance and took it, maybe without a good plan in place for keeping his power once he got it."

"Authority requires more than brute strength." He hesitated, then added, "I think this will end with Charles Vaughan's death. Who will rule at Northbourne when the bloodshed is over, I have no idea."

"Whatever happens, I have a feeling we'll have a front-row seat to it," I said, my voice grim.

Matthias's next words left me stunned. "I think you should attempt to speak to Charles Vaughan directly."

"What? Why?"

"He brought you into the trouble at Northbourne. He's the only one who can free you from it."

There were few things I wanted less than to speak to Charles, but Matthias was right. If these indictments and demands were Charles trying to open a dialogue, then we needed to hear what was on his mind.

Come sunset, I'd have to make a call to the newly self-appointed head of the Vampire Court, with my fate and quite possibly the lives of everyone in my pack dependent on what I said and how I said it.