My gut twisted and grief flowed up as I saw him, swamping the anger. Throat tight, I gently arranged Nash’s hair from his eyes and took that damned necklace off, shoving it into a pocket to maybe choke Constance with. Constance had taken everything, not just from him, but from everyone his life would have touched.
“Rachel, slow down and think,” David said as I touched Nash’s face before rising with that scrap of lilac.
“I am thinking,” I said as I dropped the sprig on the snoring vampire. “You. Wake up,” I demanded, but nothing changed. It wasn’t the charm that had him out now. It was the whiskey.
“Easy, Rache,” Jenks cautioned, and I shoved the vampire’s feet off the ottoman.
They hit a box and slid to the floor with a thump, and finally the slumbering man woke, his rheumy eyes darting over the room to find David and me standing over him. My breath shook as I exhaled, hands becoming fists as he awkwardly pulled himself up in the chair until the flower slipped to land in his lap. “She said you’d come,” he said, voice rough and ugly as he fingered the lilac.
“She was right,” I said, then gave in and slapped his face with my open hand. Hard.
His head rocked back, and when his eyes met mine again, there was hatred in them. That was okay. I was going to do hateful things.
“He’s not worth it,” David cautioned as I stood before him, my hand fisted and the power of the ley line cramping all the way up my arm.
“No, but Nash is,” I said, jerking back when Jenks flew too close, dusting an unreal green and red, his face tight in anger. “Relax, I’m not going to kill him,” I said, and David’s pinched expression eased. “I’m just going to hit some more.”
The vampire’s eyes widened, but I was faster, and my open hand hit his other cheek with a startling pop of sound. Pain throbbed in my palm, and I shook it away, not caring that it probably had hurt me more than him.
“I’m glad I’m a pixy,” Jenks said. “No one cares if we kill someone.”
Expression sullen, the vampire touched his face. Clearly he was low in his camarilla’s hierarchy and he knew better than to complain. “Zack, Zack, tied to a rack,” he bitterly half sang, infuriating me. “Say you’ll behave, or Nash will lack. Where is that flower hiding?”
My God. He’s goading me, I thought, wanting to give in. “Where is Zack!” I demanded, shaking David’s sudden grip off me. “Did she touch him? Did she?!” I shouted, but the drunk vampire only giggled, high-pitched and ugly.
“He’s scared,” the vampire said. “He should be. He’s so young.” His grin widened. “Skin so smooth, and so close to being of age that it doesn’t matter if he gets a little nicked.”
“Did she touch him!” I screamed, my throat going raw.
Jenks’s wings clattered by my ear, and the drunk vampire looked at David, then me. “One of them was going to die,” he almost slurred. “She’s so pissed. She finally got a city of her own, and you forced her to sleep in the I.S.? Oh, that was sweet, so sweet.” He smiled to show a chipped fang. “Someone had to die for that. The big guy volunteered.”
I turned away, wanting to throttle the man. If I killed him, I’d be brought up on wrongful death charges. Probably end up paying for his undead living expenses for the next fifty years.
“She told me to tell you som’thin’,” he said, words slurring as the alcohol took hold again, and I spun to him. “You have until sunset tomorrow to publicly announce your fealty to her, or Zack will be next.” His eyes went to Nash on the couch. “Then you will have a matched pair.” He tittered, the sound raking over me to make me shudder. “And if you still don’t come to heel, you will have three. Three pretty elves, all in a row. Six feet under the rain and snow.”
Trent? My fisted hands ached as I shoved the ley line power back into the ground. Slowly I unclenched my jaw, and Jenks’s wings clattered nervously. “I’m fine. I’m fine!” I said when David leaned close. Constance had found my soft spot and jammed her knife to the hilt. But I smiled as I stood over the vampire, leaning down until I could smell the week-old blood on his breath. “I have a job for you,” I said as I put a hand to either side of him on the chair’s arms. “Think you can do it?”
The man’s expression went ashen, thinking he saw his death in my eyes. But it wasn’t his death he saw, but rather the death of who I wanted to be. The sun was a luxury. Ignorance was too expensive for me to afford, and peace too far for me to travel to. I couldn’t be the friendly neighborhood witch living in a church rescuing familiars. Hell, I couldn’t even pretend that was what I was, or everyone I cared about was going to die.
“Tell her . . .” I hesitated. “Tell her I’m going to let her live.”
“Live?” the vampire said, confused.
“Live,” I said again, enunciating it carefully. “She’s going to live with the knowledge that she was given Cincinnati and failed to keep it because I said no. You think a stinky flower is the limit of my abilities? This is my city,” I said, feeling ugly, angry, powerful, and vindictive. “Not hers. I gave her both a warning and a chance, and she chose to ignore them. I’m the effing demon subrosa, and if she doesn’t know what that is, she can look it up. I’m in charge, not her. If she wants to stay, it’s by my rules.”
“Uh, Rache?” Jenks questioned, eyes wide as I mentally cringed at the enormity of what I’d taken on. But it was inevitable and Al was right. I might not be that good at it, but when something bad happened, I was the one who stepped up. If I wasn’t going to get paid for it, I might as well have a shiny title.
God help me. How am I going to do this?
“Wait!” the vampire shrieked as I reached for him, but I was going for the scrap of lilac, and with a sigh, his eyes closed and he fell asleep.
One day, one crisis at a time. And right now, it’s Constance. Taking a deep breath, I dropped the lilac on the floor and pulled myself straight, shaking as I glanced over the room. It looked like I felt, the familiar gone and the boxes of the new open and scattered in a chaotic, unusable mess. I was cold and wanted to put myself in the single patch of sunlight coming in the open door. “My city, my rules,” I said softly, an odd, unexpected strength pulling me straight. It was born in a hard-won decision. Nash had paid for it with his life. But it was the right one.
“Rache?” His eyes pinched in worry, Jenks hovered so close I had no option but to look at him. “We gotta go. What do you want to do with Nash’s body?”
I turned, throat closing as I saw him there, peaceful and unmoving. I hate the smell of lily.
“Bring him,” I said, and David paced slowly to the couch. “We’ll bury him in the graveyard.” I made a laughing cough, but it sounded more like a sob. “What’s the point of having a graveyard if you don’t use it?”