Page 120 of Taste of Blood
He pauses, his eyes haunted. “It was ugly. We lost six men, but we took out at least that many of theirs and burned down one of their hideouts.”
“Is that where you got the phone?” I ask.
“No, we picked that up off one of the three who tried to jump us in the street. They all had phones on them, but this was the only one with that level of encryption. It’s got to mean it’s used for something important, right?” He looks at Elaine. “Dante’s guy tried to hack it, but he doesn’t know this shit like you do.”
“He could’ve done more harm than good,” she murmurs.
He pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs. “I know. I swear sometimes…never mind.” He leans back in the chair. “This is turning into one big clusterfuck. Dante is on the rampagebecause he’s losing men and money, and the rest of us are scrambling around trying not to become a statistic. We need to catch this Python asshole before it’s too late.”
“What do you mean?” I ask, throwing a sideways glance at Elaine. Does he really want her to hear this?
He seems to remember she’s there and shakes his head. “Nothing.”
Fortunately, Elaine is smart enough to read the room. She stands up and pats him on the shoulder. “I’ll get back to you on this as soon as I have something.”
“Thanks, El,” he says, ignoring her smile at the new nickname.
After she’s gone, I lean forward, forcing Cord to look at me. I can tell something is bothering him beyond the disaster that happened in the bar. “What aren’t you saying?”
He hesitates, like he’s mulling over whether to tell me what’s on his mind. Finally he seems to come to a conclusion.
“This doesn’t go beyond us.”
“Naturally,” I agree.
“One of the guys and I were talking. What if the Python’s goal is to bring in the Black Guild to dismantle Dante’s rule?”
I let that sink in for a minute. I don’t know how long Dante has been the head of New York’s Crimson Guild and how he compares to bosses in other cities so I can’t judge him on that. All I have are my personal feelings toward him, which aren’t flattering in the least.
That being said, the Crimson Guild is the Clan equivalent of the mafia and secret police rolled into one. They mostly deal with the ugly side of our kind, so they can’t be expected to have a lily-white reputation. And while I hate that we have to have them, I’m not so naïve to believe everyone is a law-abiding citizen. Just like with humans, there are good vamps and badvamps, and it’s the job of the Crimson Guild to make sure the bad ones don’t expose all of us.
I know they also run borderline elicit businesses like blood dens and fight and kink clubs, as well as smuggling operations. I have no clue what specifically they smuggle. Does it bleed into the human world? Probably. But I would imagine if they drift too far in that direction to where it would lead to our discovery, the Black Guild would step in to steer them back on course, if not shut them down completely.
As much as I don’t like him for personal reasons, what’s to say a new boss would be any better than Dante? Is that what the Python is gunning for? Why would a man with his wealth and standing in the community want the thankless job of being a mafia boss? Is it boredom? A power trip? A score to settle?
“Why?” I ask Cord.
“Why what?”
“Why would he want to dismantle Dante’s reign? What’s in it for him?”
Cord shrugs. “That’s what I’m wracking my brain to figure out. I’ve been trying to find an angle, to make sense out of this. It’s not like it was down in New Orleans, where a rogue started creating his own Outlier army. Most of the men we’ve captured or killed have been Clan. And they’re not just from around here.”
I did not know that. I just assumed they were all Outliers. “Weren’t the first ones you encountered Outliers?”
“Yeah, but I’m beginning to think they were an anomaly. We’ve got vamps defecting from Dante for the Python.”
“You’re kidding?”
He shakes his head. “I wish I were. That’s what’s got Dante on the warpath. To be honest, I had to get out of there today to get away from him. He’s going to get us all killed just to satisfy his ego.”
That doesn’t make me feel any better. “Cord, maybe it’s time to do what you told me you were considering the other day.”
“I can’t do that right now. Not with this threat hanging over our heads. I owe him that much.”
I hate that he feels he owes Dante anything. He’s the one who’s been taking all the risks the past few years while Dante sits in his office and orders people around. “I don’t want to see you get injured or killed.”
“I’m picking my battles. I tried to talk him out of this last one, but he can be pretty single-minded when he’s backed into a corner.”
