Page 2 of Lured

The look was brief, however, and he was soon in his own position. He didn’t sit but stood in front of his own throne and addressed the hall.

“Thank you all for making the trip,” he said, pausing to look around. “I apologize for interrupting your busy lives but have called this gathering because there is news.”

The way he said news had some of the Fondatori glancing between each other, even if they were trying to be surreptitious about it.

“Two nights ago, Heinrich Rainier was dispatched to his final death. Leon Miller and his seethe have assumed power of Berlin.” He gestured to the man he’d given the cold stare to earlier. He looked like an oversized gorilla in a much too expensive suit. The man looked more than a little smug and leaned in his chair. “By the laws of the Fondatori, when the Rainier clan was ended and Miller and his seethe took possession of the tiger’s eye dagger, he assumed control of the Berlin seat.”

Chaos broke loose as Fondatori threw accusations and questioned all sorts. I closed my eyes for a moment ans zoned it all out. This was exactly the sort of thing that I had wanted to avoid. Vampire politics. It was always death and destruction and plotting to kill. While I could kill, I saw no pleasure in killing for the sake of greed. I would kill when it gained me something more important. Something I actually wanted. And I wanted little to do with these idiots.

Eventually Ashikaga called for quiet and reminded everyone of the laws. It didn’t matter that Miller was a half-blood vampire. One turned and not created. This wasn’t a true blood, but they had a dagger.

I carefully took in the scene around the room. The diamond dagger king, I couldn’t remember his name, was showing signs of being the angriest, although he hid it well. I was sure they had been friends a long time.

“Do we have proof of death?” a voice called out.

I didn’t see who it was, but Miller reacted, grinning just enough the tips of his fangs showed through.

“I thought you’d never ask.” Miller lifted two fingers and signaled his second. The brute behind him, barely fitting into his suit any better, lifted a remote and pointed it at the table. In front of each king a viewing monitor flicked on and a video started playing.

It was worse than a home made horror film if you were a vampire. The entire family, including all four adult children were beheaded and their bodies dragged to a window to be left in the sun. I gulped, knowing something similar would have happened to me had my uncle not been there to stop it.

Most of the Fondatori tried not to react or show concern, but not all of them managed and even the ones who were experts in keeping their countenance schooled showed the subtlest of hints that they weren’t okay.

“Proof of death provided.” Miller smirked again before leaning back. “I assume that settles the matter?”

Some of the Fondatori leaned toward their seconds and squires, not wanting to respond without discussing it first. Adlo glanced back at me and I could see the concern on his face. This had a lot of ramifications and not just for the Brethren. It was going to put every true-blood in danger.

Ashikaga motioned for quiet again, still on his feet. “May I remind you all of the tenets we live by. Miller is Fondatori now by right.”

“He cannot be Fondatori, we are true-blood and not tainted-”

“If a Fondatori King wasn’t strong enough to hold his position against my pathetic ‘outlier seethe’ the honor of ruling that city shouldn’t have been his to begin with,” Miller gloated, cutting off the critic.

“Complacency is not the same as weakness,” another Fondatori, the same one who had been friends with the deceased replied. “And rest assured that after realizing someone of your ilk would challenge someone of ours, this will not happen again.”

Miller shrugged as if it was nothing to him. “Hindsight can really bite you in the jugular, can’t it? Doesn’t matter. My sights have only ever been on the Berlin operations. There will be no threat from me or mine to any of you.”

I knew what Adlo and every other vampire in the room would now be thinking but not daring to say. He had set a precedent. It didn’t matter if Miller was happy to be a vampire king and a don of Berlin, but he would encourage other half-blood to try and take on the Brethren.

“With that unfortunate business taken care of, does anyone else have something they wish to discuss?” Ashikaga said, taking the sting out of the conversation and refusing to let anyone else weigh into it.

There were only a few matters that were brought up but Adlo turned to me and motioned for us to leave as soon as it was clear we weren’t going to discuss the main matter anymore.

Although I didn’t think my uncle had been aware of this situation before we’d got here, it made more sense why he had invited me along with him and gave me an idea that he might have had knowledge of what was coming.

We walked out in silence, however. I knew better than to say a word while we had to travel within the earshot of other vampires.

Many wanted to leave swiftly and the first launch back to the mainland was crowded. Still, I hung to one side, grateful the barrier on the way back was far less taxing.

It took several more minutes for us to be alone in my uncles car, his squire driving us back to his waiting private jet.

“Is this why you asked me to accompany you today?” I asked as soon as it was safe to talk.

“Not exactly,” my uncle admitted. “I knew that the half-bloods were becoming restless and suspected someone might try something rash, but not that they had already done so and succeeded. Many of the half-bloods think you are younger than you are still, do they not?”

I nodded, already knowing where this was going. If it wasn’t clearly such a serious threat I would have been refusing and walking out, but I knew I couldn’t walk away from this one or I might lose the only family member I had left. While I had seen my uncle be ruthless more than once, he was still my uncle. And I didn’t want to be a target either. Not that many of the clan knew I existed.

We had kept it to the Brethren. Of course, with Miller at the meeting as well as me, he might have picked up on who I was, but I couldn’t only hope that he assumed I was a lucky half-blood. I hadn’t ever noticed Miller paying me any attention whatsoever, nor the muscle with him.

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