Not even three weeks had passed since her death. I wasn’t ready to see her.
To hear her voice.
My hands shook as I studied her direct topaz gaze, the colour an exact match for mine and my father’s. Her shoulders were relaxed, and she was dressed in her token skirt suit, just like Queen Elizabeth—except her grey hair was long and thick and twisted into an elegant coil at the nape of her neck.
These would be the last words I’d ever hear from her lips.
It just wasn’t an easy thing to come to grips with.
Closing my eyes, I dragged in a breath and slowly released it.
I tapped the play button, dread and determination filling me.
“If you are watching this, I am likely dead,” she announced, her statement sounding like an order. “In fact, it is highly likely I was killed by vampires who call themselves Vissimo and will do anything to protect their race and their cause. At the time of recording this—”
I glanced at the date in the bottom left of the recording.
Three months ago.
“—you are yet unaware of the monsters in our world, and though I sincerely hope to keep it that way, my work against the Vissimo has recently entered a riskier stage than in past years. As such, I must plan for the worst in case I am disposed of.”
She spoke so matter-of-factly about her own death. She’d forecasted her end.
My stomach threatened to revolt.
“There are two vampire clans in Bluff City, granddaughter, totalling around fifteen thousand strong. One is named Clan Sundulus and the other Clan Fyrlia. For one hundred and forty-nine years they have been embroiled in a war, a game of sorts, called Ingenium. The clans will stop at nothing until one of them emerges the victor.”
Her words were drops of water in the desert. I was deathly scared to miss a single one.
She rehashed information I’d already learned the hard way, explaining how the clans worked and how their game appeared to operate.
I leaned in, eyes riveted on her elegant, lined face.
“Though I tried my best not to influence how you saw the world, I was prouder than you realise when you turned away from the ways of our neighbours. It was not an easy lesson for you, but that is when I saw what kind of woman you would one day be—strong like your mother and father. Kind. Aware. Passionate.”
I blinked several times, digging my nails into my palms.
“You deplore games as a result of your upbringing, so what I’m about to ask of you will demand a sacrifice—a left turn from the way I can see you wish to live life. Know that I do not make this request lightly. That I hope to live for many years to come to give you and whatever family you choose to have a full and blissfully ignorant life. I make this recording in case that goal is not realised.”
Kids? A husband? I’d never thought much about having either except for errant fantasies about a runaway wedding.
But if I had children, they’d never meet their great-grandmother. Or their grandparents. That made me really fucking sad.
On the screen, my grandmother paused, clasping her hands atop the desk. She tilted her chin. “I have watched these monsters place cages around the minds of my friends. I have seen them murder and torture and take what they want without care for human life. I will not let them claim Bluff City, Basilia.”
Her furious conviction reeled me in until my nose almost touched the screen. I’d rarely seen her this impassioned.
“What these beasts are not aware of,” Agatha Le Spyre said, a small smile curving her lips, “is that for nearly three decades, there has been a third player on the board.”
I didn’t dare make a sound as I stared into my grandmother’s topaz eyes.
“Do not belittle yourself by seeking revenge on my behalf. Instead, set your thoughts on a more honourable battle. Vampires have sunk their claws into this city, tearing through humans to do so. Now, they must pay that debt. My heart, my dearest granddaughter, it is your turn to play Ingenium. For the Le Spyres.”
9
I sat in my grandmother’s office—the official above-ground one—swirling my wine and staring at the deep red like the crystal ball it was.
Grandmother detailed everything.
The offshore accounts. The illegal aliases her staff bought houses under so the clans wouldn’t come for us. Most of the mega-rich had teams for pretty much everything, and the Le Spyres were no different. Publicists, CEOs, financial advisors, brokers, property management, legal teams—everything. This was no different. Grandmother had a team in Churchill who handled conveyance, research, forecasting, and valuation of Bluff City real estate—including tracking the movements of Live Right Realty and Foremost Realty. They handled all of the leasing of rentals.
In twenty-seven years, Agatha Le Spyre had privately purchased and currently leased thousands of properties here. Only the estate was under our real name. Unlike Clan Sundulus, my grandmother ironically operated under a totally, totally illegal system. Fake identifications, banks, and tax accounts. Money laundering.
“Shit.” I choked on a laugh, taking a sip and tipping back my head so the wine trickled past my taste buds.
In the hours I’d spent gazing at the copy of Tom Hanks’s autobiography, aka the entrance to her mastermind cave, I’d ascertained several things.
One, I’d continue my grandmother’s work without hesitation.
Two, my grandmother hadn’t known the extent of my blood ties to Kyros.
Three, that the major weakness to her plan wasn’t lack of money—not even close—but lack of intel.
She hadn’t known what the clan’s movements and plans were from day-to-day. She’d purchased an average of 325 properties each year for the better part of thirty years, starting slow and gradually accelerating her efforts to thwart the vampires. But she’d had to guess their strategy. Having personally seen how intricate their strategies were, I knew for a fact guessing would be near impossible.
Yet, to win, I wasn’t sure a defensive strategy would work. Surely an offense, to hinder the other player’s movements, was necessary too.
“We aren’t restricted by rules,” I murmured over the rim of my glass. We didn’t need to purchase properties on a certain day or to sign contracts purely on our roll. That opened the board dramatically.
“The number of properties not owned by either us or the clans are dwindling, Basilia. They will dig deeper into privately-owned properties, trying to figure out the puzzle. They cannot be allowed to discover the truth. Trust my inner circle of friends. Trust the butler. But trust few others unless you can be sure they will hold the lives of those around you with equal solemnity. Fight for our legacy, Basilia. Go forth with the courage I have seen in you since birth. Go with my forever love, Basilia, and my sincerest apologies.”
I knocked back the rest of my wine and reached forward to fill it again.
“Pocketful of Sunshine” blared from my back pocket. I put Tommy on speaker. “Awake at last.”
“Where are you?”
“In the office. Sorry I got caught up with business stuff. I’m drinking wine now. Wanna join?”
Her breath caught. “Like the office on the other end of the house?”
She’d have to leave the room sometime. Her behaviour was going to raise difficult questions if she didn’t suck it up. Harsh as that was.