the freestanding tags will still live.”
“Do any of them have designs like the one we just destroyed?” I said, and at a glance to his face knew the answer. “Oh, damnit, you little fool.”
“I’m sorry, Miss Frost,” he said nervously. He glanced around. “But-but I knows these tunnels, I thinks. I wasn’t lying about that. We can get out if we follows this one.”
“No,” I said. “Actually, I think I know a shorter way out. If we backtrack a little and go one level up, there’s a passage that comes out at Cabbagetown, right near Grant Park.”
“That’s… that’s the lair of the lich,” Cinnamon said. “No, Mom… ”
“No way,” Tully said, jerking back. “No way am I going back there.”
“You’re right, no way,” I said. “Not after all we just went through to get you out of their hands. First, we get you safe. Then, I go deal with the lich.”
“Mom! You can’t go back there,” Cinnamon said. “Your-your vines are gone. Those were your shield! The vamps will be able to-”
“Darkrose is in a cage!” I said. “Delancaster and Saffron are prisoners. And no matter how tough Vlad the Destroyer is, I don’t think he’ll stick his neck out to save them.”
“Don’t you understands,” Tully said. “ They’re going to kill you. ”
I stared off into the distance a moment. Then I drew out my cell phone.
“Maybe if I play their game,” I said, “but not if I play my game by their rules.”
Storming the Fortress
“The deal is the same,” Nyissa said, eyes wide, fingers gripping the poker so hard her knuckles had turned white. “You can have my protection for a drop of blood and a quarter.”
I was back in the limo again, asking a favor of the House Beyond Sleep. But this time, the tables were turned. I was calm and Nyissa was terrified.
Nyissa didn’t want to help at all. As Philip had predicted, Transomnia had skipped town shortly after Philip had called him. The Stone Rose Sanctuary was once again hers. But Arcturus had convinced her she had to do her part in the larger battle-to help free Saffron and Darkrose.
“It is a token of the, of the traditional toll of blood and money,” Nyissa said thickly, “an amount of blood too small to object to, and an amount of money too small to count as consideration under the laws of Georgia.”
“I’m not sure you’ve got the law right on that last one,” I said wryly.
“There is a thin line between vampire dominatrix and outright whore,” Nyissa said, “but I like to keep it drawn. So a token toll is all I demand for my clients to claim protection.”
I stared at her, twisting the poker in her hands. She was scared out of her wits. Then I reached forward and put my hand on her knee to comfort her, as she had on mine… when we were last in the limo headed towards a confrontation. This was getting to be a habit.
“You don’t have to do this,” I said. “And I’m not asking you to physically defend me.”
“You’re asking me to walk between the Gentry and Vlad the Destroyer,” she said. “The Gentry is unpredictable. You don’t know what they’re capable of. The Destroyer is all too predictable. You have no idea how powerful he is. He’s slain entire armies.”
“He’s not so bad, he’s… ” Cinnamon’s math teacher. But could I say that? Was that betraying the privacy of a man who could slay armies? “He’s, well, he’s not so bad, but that’s not the point. I’m not asking you to fight for me. I’m asking you to give me legitimacy. Weapons won’t save Darkrose. I want to walk into that room with something far more powerful: an idea. The idea that someone not in that room, an unknown quantity in power and capabilities, cares about the outcome. The idea that a fellow vampire lord has authorized me to speak for him.”
“But,” Nyissa said, “Transomnia is not here.”
“They don’t need to know Transomnia has skipped town,” I said. “And we’re not going to tell them the House Beyond Sleep is three vampires in rural Georgia missing their lord. You are the second of a great house, their emissary, and have every right to take this stand.”
Nyissa stared at me. Then she said, “Take out a quarter.”
I dug in my pocket, found one, held it up.
“Lick it clean,” she commanded.
“Ew,” I said. “That’s gross, it’s money, you don’t know whose hands-”
Her mouth quirked up. “Do it,” she commanded. While I did, she pulled out an ornate finger ring spike and slipped it on. “Now hold out the quarter, and extend your other hand.”
I held the quarter out in my right palm, then extended my left. She pricked my left index finger with her metal claw, then guided the welling drop of blood atop the quarter. Then she gripped my right hand softly, took the quarter from my palm, and slipped it into her mouth.
I disliked that image, a twisted communion. That was a bit much, even for a lapsed churchgoer like me. But, for the purposes of the magic, my religious discomfort didn’t matter. When the blood touched her tongue I felt a tingle shiver up my whole body, and then Nyissa released my hand, falling back into the seat in bliss. After a moment, she sat up, took the quarter, and slid it into her bosom.
“I have tasted your blood, felt your aura.”
“Yeah, yeah, you’ll know if anyone spoils me,” I said.
“More importantly, an experienced vampire will know we are linked,” she said. “When I present you, I may touch you to emphasize that. That may be a bit gauche since you just lost your boyfriend, but it will help sell it. Please don’t be offended.”
“It’s all right,” I said distantly, as the limo started to slow down.
“We’re almost here. Damnit. If they try to sway your mind, squint, like down to slits,” Nyissa said. “It sounds cheesy, but your retinas are part of your brain. Vampires hypnotize people through their eyes by extending their aura, establishing a brain-to-brain link… ”
“I love it when you talk science to me,” I said, and the limo stopped. We were in one of the oldest neighborhoods in Atlanta: Grant Park, not a stone’s throw from the Park proper, a tree-lined valley that held Zoo Atlanta and the Cyclorama. Here, one side of the street was lined with houses over a century old; the other was dominated by a looming fortlike building built after Sherman took Atlanta. “Grant Park was a guess on my part. You’re sure this is it?”
“Based on what you saw, and what I know of the Gentry, this is where you were taken,” Nyissa said, peering out the window. “Besides, did not your lover in the DEI confirm it?”
“Philip is my friend, not my lover. Hell, I’m not even certain he’s my friend,” I said, “and just because the other end of my call to Vladimir ended up in this area it doesn’t mean anything. It wouldn’t surprise me to find an empty room with a signal repeater.”
“No,” Nyissa said. She was trembling. “I have not taken you to an abandoned warehouse. This is the Gentry’s stronghold. We shouldn’t even be here; the Gentry does not like to be approached. In the olden days vampires were staked for merely showing up uninvited.”
“And this is their stronghold, guarded by Scara,” I said. I stared off into the distance, thinking. Then something on the other side of the street drew my attention. At first I couldn’t put my finger on it
… and then it hit me: one of the old mansions was a bit too shuttered, and had several black vans parked in front of it. Something was tickling my brain, a bit of Civil War trivia I’d learned from Michael Bell. “But maybe there’s another way. Vladimir gained entry, somehow, through a point relatively undefended-and I think I know just where that is.”
Nyissa followed my glance. “What are you suggesting?”
“Some of the generals who moved into Atlanta after the Civil War built houses with underground passages, crossing the street,” I said, struggling to remember what Michael had told me, years ago. “Vladimir came in from a side entrance. I’m betting he used that as his entrance to the stronghold. When we left, he was still standing there-it was his exit. If we enter that way, we can avoid fighting our way through armed guards just to deliver my report.”
“You really think there’s a back entrance over here?” she asked dubiously.
“Worst case scenario,” I said, “it’s not, and we apologize for waking someone up early.”
“Or late,” Nyissa said, drawing up the hood of her cloak. “It’s almost dawn.”
“I take it you’re not on the Saffron diet,” I said. “Oh, hell. Let’s do this.”
We got out of the limo and approached the house. The black vans looked all too familiar, but I’d had enough
