“We’ve picked up several, Lydia dear,” Jacque replied. “With vampires outed to the world, some of our main lines of business, like identity replacement, are becoming rapidly irrelevant.”
“I’m speaking of your recent foray into human brokerage,” I said.
Both men froze into the stillness of old vampires. I wasn’t certain, but I think Carmine was about two hundred and twenty or so. Jacque was into the early part of his fourth century, if Chris’s gift for gauging Darkkin ages was accurate.
“That is a new and very promising venture,” Carmine said, his smile long gone.
“No. It’s not,” I said. “In fact, it’s extremely unpromising.”
“In what way—exactly?” Jacque asked, drawing out the last word.
“Well, the first shipment has been intercepted, the suppliers have just gone out of the business this very night, and the initial buyer in Europe is… no longer buying… anything.”
Both old vampires brought their hardest stares down on little old me. I came close to a shudder, as it was an order of magnitude more disturbing than the Russian guy’s attempt. But I deal with Elders almost nightly now, so the chill in the back of my head never made it to my neck, let alone down my spine.
“You dabble in our business?” Jacque asked.
“We, and by that I mean Tanya and Chris, with the blessing of the Elders, are cleaning up some of the more negative tradelines,” I said.
“You don’t have enough on your hands?” Carmine asked.
“That’s just it. We’re about to go to war. We need to cleanse the air a bit, reduce the negative energies around us.”
“So you pick on us?” Jacque asked.
“You should know better than to engage in the trafficking of young humans for sex,” I said.
“If not us then someone else,” Carmine said.
“Well, you’re welcome to ignore my words,” I said with a sad smile and a shrug. “This will be my only time delivering them.”
Carmine’s right eyebrow went up, while Jacque’s frown became a blank mask.
“If not you, then who?” Carmine asked.
“Katrina.”
Both vampires sat up straight. “We are Darkkin in good standing with the Coven. Why would our young queen threaten us so?”
“Because it needs to end—immediately. It’s not just you, it’s all trafficking everywhere that is being shut down. You just happen to be here, in our backyard, and I was able to pull rank for this meeting.”
“Why? Humans have traded their own kind since they learned to walk upright,” Jacque said. “Why this obsession with their well-being when they don’t even have it for themselves?”
“That young queen you mentioned? She’s from older stock than you know, as is her God Touched Chosen. What seems like weakness to some people is, in fact, an inborn set of morals and principals from their lives before. Then we have a certain witch on our side. Do you know his story?”
Jacque waved one hand limply. “An unlikely freak of nature,” he said.
“Funny, he says that about himself too. He’s very young, somewhat geeky, a little idealistic, and absurdly powerful. Like unbelievably, incomprehensively, shit-your-pants-when-you-understand-it powerful. His mom and aunt were raped. He has a pretty one-sided view about sex trafficking. He found your operation. Our operatives intercepted the boat at sea and rescued the girls. But the buyers? He took care of them personally. Sat on his girlfriend’s yoga mat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and concentrated for exactly fourteen minutes and seventeen seconds. I know because I was there and timed it. At the end of that time, he opened his eyes and halfway across the world, a private island off the coast of Africa sank beneath the ocean. Everybody on that island died with the exception of eleven girls, all under the age of eighteen. Somehow, they were found in a small dinghy, floating amid the flotsam of the four-acre island. It seems that a very localized sub-marine quake happened right under the island. The quake did something very strange—it boomeranged back on itself, something the geologists call a back-propagating super shear rupture. This all occurred”—I looked at my wristwatch—“about three hours and forty-four minutes ago. We decided to warn some players ourselves. The rest are finding their assets missing or frozen, evidence of their crimes showing up in police computers all over the world. But I like you guys, so I came myself.”
The Aunties sat frozen, eyes locked on me, completely and utterly motionless, not even breathing.
“And the threat of Katrina?” Carmine finally asked.
“A gift from your young queen. Declan has volunteered to help us, but we’re trying to… contain his involvement. The island was good practice for him, but we really need to save him for the aliens. Katrina has an odd attachment to him and his equally young friends. Calls them her college buds. She’s volunteered to help with the cleansing. Tanya thought she would be the gentler choice.”
The two Chosen turned and looked at each other, communicating in that silent way that paired vampires do. I stood, unmoving, contemplating that I had used the word gentler in the same sentence as Katrina’s name. After a slow count to fifty-one, the Aunties suddenly both turned my way.
“Lydia, darling,” Carmine began. “You have previously expressed interest in this little property of ours a time or two.”
“And we find ourselves in need of a buyer,” Jacque finished for him. “Our business lines have just changed, and we feel a need to… relocate back to the Continent.”
“I’m sure we can work something out,” I said with a smile.
“One question, dearie,” Jacque said.
“Yes?”
“Does not sinking an island count as bad karma for your, ah, practitioner?”
“I asked the same question myself. His answer was that he simply asked
