Page 54 of The Mermaid's Bubble Lounge
“Sebastian remained Guild Master longer than was customary,” Cadmael explained. “He stationed himself in the Guild House, which put him in close proximity to the twisted old fae living in the condemned upper floor. We must assume he was compromised. I suggest we go back over the decisions the Guild has made in the last decade to see if we still support them. Leadership throughout the vampire world is changing. We will need to change as well.”
Joao paused his pacing in front of the fireplace. “Why did you keep asking about the missing shifter?”
“Because Russell and Audrey rescued a black jaguar shifter who was being held by a vampire,” Clive told him.
Joao’s eyes turned vamp black. “No. They swore to me they had nothing to do with the little girl’s disappearance. I spoke to the shifter family myself. I assured them it wasn’t a vampire.” He was nothing like the carefree playboy now. Like a bowstring, he was vibrating, barely holding himself back from mass murder. “Who?”
“Russell said he was a vampire who identified himself as John. We can ask Russell to join us and explain,” Clive said.
Joao nodded stiffly. Clive glanced around the table. No one protested, so Clive went to the door and said, “Russell,” knowing Russell would hear.
The Master’s office door opened and Russell walked down the hall. “Yes? May I assist in some way?”
Clive waved him in and closed the door. “I was explaining to the Guild about the jaguar you and Audrey rescued. The group would like to know more about the vampire who was holding her.”
Russell nodded solemnly. “I see. He told us his name was John and that he was a newborn from Texas when he applied for membership to the noctur?—”
“When was this?” Joao interrupted.
“Just a little over a month ago.”
The Guild members glanced at each other, looks of consternation on their faces.
“It was a lie, though,” Russell continued. “I first met him in—I’m not sure which state. It might have been Texas. It was in the mid-1800s in the antebellum South. He was a paddyroller who had?—”
Adaeze gestured to catch Russell’s attention. “I’m not familiar with this term.”
Russell thought a minute, clearly running back what he’d just said to find the unfamiliar term. He nodded. “Paddyrollers or patrollers were armed white men who acted as a kind of militia, chasing down escaped slaves, punishing us for defiance, and making money by selling us back to plantations in need.”
“I see,” Adaeze responded, her eyes turning black.
“They were ignorant and violent men. When I first came into contact with this John, he was one of a group of patrollers who had been made vampires and I was one of the escaped. So, when he walked into my office almost two hundred years later, pretending to be a newborn, I knew he was lying. I’ve only recently become the Master. I had no idea why he was here, but I assumed it was because a Black man in authority—especially this Black man, who’d made him look a fool all those years ago—bothered him. I’m afraid my temper got the best of me, and I handed him his final death before I could question him more thoroughly.”
Adaeze nodded. “Good.”
“Was he the one who stole her?” Joao demanded.
Russell looked at Clive for context.
“He’s asking whether you know if this John was the one who originally stole the jaguar cub in the Amazon or if she had been trafficked.”
Russell shook his head. “I don’t know. We weren’t aware there was an imprisoned shifter at the time. We found her later, her pelt covered in burns and vampire bites, reeking of his scent.”
“What did you do with her?” Joao demanded.
Vampires were masters of subtlety, so when Clive leaned ever so slightly toward Russell, it was tantamount to a declaration that he had Russell’s back and that Joao needed to calm the fuck down.
Russell kept his focus on the Guild members around the table. “One of our dragons is a veterinarian.”
“One of your dragons?” Pablo’s look of boredom didn’t match the tension in his voice.
Ahmed glanced over at Pablo, shaking his head. “How have you not heard about the Battle of Alcatraz?”
Russell nodded. “We didn’t feel we were the right ones to look after an abused shifter, one who had been abused by one of our own kind, so we took her to our veterinary friend.”
“What has she said?” Joao took a step forward. “Was it a vampire who originally stole her?”
She hasn’t shifted and spoken, I told Clive. She’s traumatized, but Alec says she’s getting stronger.
