Brutal Asset, page 12
Her eyes were filled with tears, which started leaking down her perfect cheeks. He smiled at her, gently, then suddenly looked up in annoyance.
“I’ve said too much and am being called to task,” he said.
“We didn’t mean to get you in trouble!” I said.
“Pahh! Sometimes they think they can do my job better than I from afar. I have news for them….I will do this as I think right!” he said with a smile and a gleam in his eye, then he was gone. It seemed my uncertain angel was growing more comfortable with his job.
I turned to Tanya just in time to get wrapped in a vise-like embrace as she sobbed into my shoulder. I’ve only seen her cry a very few times and never like this, so I just held her…as long as she needed to be held.
***
When we got back to Citadel, Tanya was swarmed with administrators, all festering with Coven business. I decided to touch base with Chet.
“Nothing new, dude. The defense network is really quiet about the attack. News media is all over it, but the official word is a gang shootout. That’s got people really upset, as that part of Brooklyn is generally very peaceful and removed from that sort of thing,” he said.
“Change of topic. Talk to me about Pitcairn?” I asked.
“Yeah, he called me after your class. Said you two got off to a rocky start.”
“Funny how it went. Once I mentioned your name he got all curious and acted like he knew something about me. Weird, because, I mean, how could he?” I asked, giving him my hard stare.
“Yeah, about that! See I mighta let on that you’ve had an experience or two in his area of expertise, you know, just to tweak his interest and make sure he treats you right!” he said, spinning it to look like he had done it all for me. Yeah right!
“Chester….Chet…you understand that you gotta keep all this on the down low, right? I mean, I would get mad at you, but there are others that would take it further, if you get my drift?”
His dark skin paled noticeably as he realized that the vampires might see it as a breach of faith regarding their existence. His gaze shifted to look across the cavernous communications room where several of Arkady’s security team were lounging about. Odd, they were some of the guys that had gone with Tanya and I to the church. I hadn’t noticed them on the way to visit Chet.
“Like them?” he asked.
“Well, not them exactly but you get the idea,” I answered.
“Chris, can I ask a question?”
“Sure,” I said.
“How do you deal with it?” His expression was curious.
“With what?”
“You know….all the Chosen and Queen and that sorta thing?” he asked.
“Well to be honest, I only just noticed it. How long have they been calling her ‘the Queen’?”
“Pretty much all summer. Young Queen just sorta segued into Queen. They’ve been referring to you as the Chosen or the Queen’s Chosen almost as long. Lots of whispering that stops when I’m near,” he said with a sigh.
“How are you doing Chet? Dealing with this as a job?” I waved my hand to take in the whole concept of the Coven.
He frowned in thought. “It’s a little surreal. Sometimes kinda creepy, but I don’t honestly feel too scared by the rank and file. They all treat me with kid gloves ‘cause they know we’re –“ he waved back and forth between us,”- buds. And the pay is great and the tech is ridiculous! Stuff I’ve never even heard of falls into my lap for testing. And they really value my opinion about this stuff,” he said. “But the way they act around you and Tanya is like religious cult or something. I’ll tell you right now, Mr. Chris ‘Jim’ Jones – I ain’t drinking no kool aid!”
That made me laugh, although I was troubled to hear about the quasi cult feel that it had for him.
“They treat you okay, then? No threats?” I asked.
“I won’t kid ya, it can be scary sometimes! ‘specially with new vamps that I haven’t met before. They sometimes look at me like I’m a snack pack or sumpthin. But then they see the tat on my neck and it’s like I’m lunch gone bad! If I get introduced it’s usually as the ‘Queens tekkie dude’ or ‘the Chosen’s friend’, then it’s all different! I go from human scum to important person in seconds flat.”
“I didn’t realize I had any impact like that,” I said. He looked at me like I was nuts.
“You’re messing with me right? You gotta be!” he studied my face for a moment, then swore under his breath. “Dude, I swear you are clueless sometimes!” His voice got louder and several heads turned our way, including the three security vamps.
“Easy Chet….so I’m an idiot. That’s not hardly news,” I said, making palm down ‘lower your voice’ motions with my hands.
He leaned over and turned up a speaker, flooding his area with white noise that might help block vampire hearing. We were far enough away with enough noise pollution from the rest of the room’s electronics that it would probably do the job. If I couldn’t hear the vamps on the other side of the room, than they couldn’t hear me.
“Listen,” he said, just above a whisper, “in case it’s completely slipped your attention you have a real reputation.”
I nodded to acknowledge that I knew that.
“I don’t mean as just a fighter, either,” he said, then went on at my frown. “There is all the stuff about you killing an Elder, fighting demons, and killing hundreds of Loki’s. There’s also the part where they refer to you as the one who sees vampire souls, as the bear-god’s companion and the confidant of angels.”
I must have gone wide eyed at that because he started to laugh.
“Ha, you should see your face right now! Honestly, dude, did you think they were looking at you sideways just cause you kick ass? Oooh, I see, you did think it was ‘cause of the ass kicking. Well, you should also know that the Coven went nuts last night after you got attacked. They don’t talk to me much, but they forget I wield some mean electronics,” he said, turning his head and tapping a tiny hearing device in his ear that I hadn’t noticed before.
“They’re really edgy about anything that threatens their Queen or her Chosen. Those dudes over there are watching you, like the Secret Service watches the Prez.”
I had to find out more about this. It seemed a lot had changed while I had been spending my summer hunting Spawn. I said goodbye and went looking for the best source of information I knew of….Lydia.
Chapter 19
I found her in the business center, running a conference call with vampires in Australia, China and Canada. I helped myself to coffee (who knew vampires liked Columbian bean) and waited for her to finish up her call. Lydia seemed to be directing the acquisition of a copper mining company down under, getting updated on oil sand operations in the far North, while discussing something about housing in the Middle Kingdom. Since part of her conversation was in Chinese I couldn’t follow it. She ignored me till the final connection (China) was cut.
“Yo demon spanker! What’s up? You feeling okay?” she asked.
“Yeah, I’m healing, just a few twinges. Listen, I wanted to ask you some questions,” I said, looking around and noticing how many ears were present. The business center is huge, a veritable beehive of activity, but a lot of attention had swung my way as soon as I entered the room.
‘Sounds serious,” she said, watching me watch the room.
“Kinda sorta. Mostly just curious about some things,” I said, noting the presence of my security shadows. She nodded, pulling me into a little glass walled office that smelled of her.
“Okay, speak to me. What’s on your mind?” she asked.
“I think I need to know about politics….vampire politics,” I said.
“Whoa, this is serious!” she smirked.
‘Yeah, kinda a sign of the apocalypse. Chris Gordon interested in politics and the seventh seal found broken! Film at eleven,” I intoned in my best newscaster voice.
She chuckled, then hopped up to sit on the desk, legs crossed.
“What do you want to know?”
“Okay, first of all, what’s with all this ‘Queen and Chosen’ stuff?”
She looked at levelly as she considered her answer.
“Finally noticed all that, huh?” she asked. I nodded.
“Well, it goes like this….when Tanya was born it was a monumental event in our world. Almost religious, you could say,” she said. “After all, vampires are made, not born, right?”
I nodded again, not wanting to interrupt the flow.
“Also, vampires have no souls, right?” she asked, but held her hand up to forestall my answer.
“But here is this actual birth of a baby vampire, more advanced at birth than a hundred year old. The implications were enormous. All kind of predictions were made, pseudo-prophecies. But the one that seemed to catch hold and sink in to our society was that a Queen vampire had been born. A leader who would grow up and guide us – bring us all to Heaven or something, you get the drift. A savior type deal. And she grew fast, smart as a whip, strong and lightning quick. Then came the death of Belina and her silence. But even then, she learned fast. Then you come along, saving our savior, giving her back her voice and transforming into….what you are.”
Lydia paused to see how well I was following. I nodded and waved her on.
“The years of silence had disappointed and disillusioned a great many Darkkin. When she chose you and ‘reawakened’ they started to regain their belief in the idea. Then Arkady, who has always been the biggest of believers, started the Young Queen talk. It spread like wildfire and now it’s shortened to just Queen.”
“So it’s universal among Darkkin?” I asked.
“Ah, there’s the rub!” she said with a sardonic smile. “It was never universal and really fell out of favor during the silent years. Now covens around the world are trying to balance themselves between those who believe in the fable and those who don’t. That’s why there’s been this stream of visitors. Vampire politics are fractious at best and change with the wind. Darkkin prefer to follow strong leaders, the stronger the better. Our Elders are obviously that, but the world is a big place. With Fedor dead, there are only two to do the work of three. Reining in ambitious upstarts has become a full time job for them.”
“Well, I won’t say I’m sorry he’s gone,” I said.
She laughed. “Me either! But this is why Illarion is visiting. He’s popular among the Russian and Eastern European vampires. He’s also been one of the most vocal against Tanya.”
I raised my eyebrows at that. “But he’s her uncle!”
“Yeah, not an advantage in this case. He sees her as a kid niece. That’s part of the reason she felt compelled to sic Arkady on you and let you demonstrate your abilities. But now I’m hearing that Illarion is passing it off as a scripted setup. No more real than professional wrestling.”
“He was there! He didn’t believe it?” I asked, incredulous.
“I didn’t say he didn’t believe it…I said he was ‘saying’ it was fake,” she explained.
“Oh,” was all I could come up with as the realization hit. I had pretty much ignored the groups of visitors, wrapped up in my Loki hunting. I had been on hand to meet and greet many of them, but I hadn’t expended any brainpower wondering why they were there.
“I guess I should have paid more attention,” I said.
“What with all the Loki hunting and the random demon exorcisms, not to mention adjusting to your own changes, all while trying to stay clear of the government, well, I'm personally amazed you noticed now,” she said, smiling.
“So how does it look, supporter wise?” I asked.
“Most of North America is enthralled with her. Western Europe and much of Asia. South America and Africa are mixed. Austrailia loves her for the most part. Central America, Russia and Eastern Europe are big hold outs. There are small groups everywhere that are uncertain.”
“Russia?” I asked.
“Yeah, go figure. Seeing as how she's born of Russian vampires you'd think it was a given, but Fedor was against her,” Lydia said.
“So what's the upshot? Is she in danger? Is there a civil war brewing?” I asked.
“Not so much a civil war, the number of supporters way outweigh the anti-Tanyas. But she's always in danger, much like any celebrity, but more so, as Darkkin are creatures of extremes. Also, different factions will always seek to sway her by whatever means to their side.”
“Anti-Tanya?” I didn't much care for the sound of that.
“Easy tiger!” she said, reading my expression. “This is why we haven't gone over this kinda stuff before. We don't need the Queen's Chosen on a blood hunt!”
“Queen's Chosen? Not you too?” I groaned.
She laughed, her tone high and musical. “Hey, I adapt and go with the flow. But, seriously, don't do anything, all right? I mean it! You don't know the effect you could have on the whole situation.”
“But Lyd..” I started but she pressed both palms at me to stop.
“Look out at my business center,” she directed. I turned and looked out at the twenty or so cubicles.
A small sea of faces was looking in our direction.
“I guarantee you that most of the web cams on their computers are focused on you right now,” she said.
“Why?” I couldn't fathom it.
“Because most of the people on the other end have never seen you, but they've heard all about you!” she said, watching my face. “The Queen's Chosen has saved her many times, awoke her from her silence, and transformed into something new. You're the man who took on three hundred weres and the entire U.S. Government to protect their Queen.”
“I don't even have a red cape yet,” I joked, trying to cover my horror at what she was saying.
“You're also the man who sees vampire souls and talks with angels,” she added softly.
“How the hell do they know that?” I asked.
She shrugged. “Darkkin love secrets and gossip, but only if it's juicy. Nothing is juicier than you and Tanya! Stories spread. Like, for instance, I'm already hearing rumors of your church trip a few hours ago.”
“And what do those rumors say?” I asked.
“That you saw an angel about your wound,” she said with a knowing smile.
“Arkady's men have big mouths!” I said, angry.
“Listen, Chris, the Coven is wired and widespread. Darkkin were sure to see you two and your entourage moving through Citadel and the streets above. We aren't a stupid race, at least not the ones who survive more than forty years or so.”
“Lydia, I'm kinda lost here...I don't do politics. Never have. Actually, I never belonged to any group that had any politics,” I said.
She gave me a little smile, almost wistful. “Hey, that's old life stuff. This is your new life as we Darkkin say.”
“Lyd, I'm not Darkkin,” I reminded her.
“Correction,” she held up one finger. “You're not vampire! But you are Coven, and Coven is Darkkin! So don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Now, what you need to do is...not much different than you've been doing. Let me and the Elders worry about politics. You've got school later today right?”
I glanced at the string of world clocks on the wall. The one that had 'New York' under it showed we were well into the early hours of Thursday.
“Yeah, I probably outta get some sleep,” I said, my brain still reeling from the bombs she had dropped inside it.
“Yes, you should – and get some of that disgusting human food into you before you sleep. You're still healing!”
“Yes Mother,” I grinned and headed out. But as I turned toward the door, I saw her reflection in the glass (yes – vampires do cast reflections) and so, caught her nod to the security dudes loafing by the entryway. I left with a head full of unfamiliar thoughts and a shadowy cloud of bodyguards.
Chapter 20
It was past noon when I awoke. Tanya had her arms wrapped tightly around me and I had difficulty breaking her steel hold as I didn't want to disturb her. Tickling her side did nothing, but a soft kiss on her neck caused a sigh and shift that let me slide free. It was unusual for her to hold me that tight in her sleep and it told me a great deal about her level of concern.
Citadel is a very quiet place in the daytime. Mostly just the human security force, some of whom man computer terminals programmed to give alarm for ilicit entry, fire, or even a precipitous decline in the stock markets. A very few conscious vampires were scattered about the place, only those over about a hundred and fifty years. Even these were mostly immobile, slowed by the weight of the day.
