Circle of the Moon (Soulwood #4)

“I’m good. Probie nerves,” I lied and Occam knew it.

The front door was open, throwing a wedge of light into the darker yard. A familiar form stood there, slight, Asian. Composed as if he had gunfights on his property all the time. Cai, Ming’s primo. He was wearing a headset and he bowed to us. It was a slight bow, but it was there just the same. I faltered, and followed Occam’s return bow, my head not dipping quite as low as Cai’s had.

“The council chambers of Ming of Glass, Master of the City of Knoxville, are secured,” Cai said. “We have taken two living enemy Mithrans captive to learn what they know, but the human SWAT team will not allow us to interrogate the parasites.”

“Not a problem,” Occam said. “Does PsyLED have permission from the Master of the City to enter and to parley with the SWAT team? This must not construed as opening diplomatic relations, as I don’t have the authority for that.”

Cai tilted his head slightly. “Your words negate permanent contact and communication between sovereign countries, parley that your Congress has not agreed upon between the United States of America and Mithrans. This is parley for emergency circumstances. Is this correct?”

“Correct,” Rick said into my earbud.

Into the same earbud, FireWind said, “Let me speak to him.”

“Call me on my cell,” I said to my up-line bosses. To Cai, I said, “Ayatas FireWind, PsyLED special agent in charge of the eastern seaboard, is calling you on my cell phone. He is able to parley with you.” My cell rang and I answered, “Ingram here.”

“No,” Cai said. “We will not speak to this wind of fire. Ming will parley at this time only with humans and creatures we know.”

I felt Occam stiffen. In my earbud, Rick muttered. I figured he was talking to FireWind on a private channel. Silence stretched and I was pretty sure that Cai’s face tightened, as if he was ready to hit us or to bolt. We needed him. And we couldn’t wait on an off-site political decision.

“Fine,” I said, speaking into my mic. “Everything is unofficial, then, to be handled only on a local level, with nothing of national or international consequence.”

FireWind said, “Ingram!” He didn’t sound happy. But he wasn’t here, watching Cai.

“Such is acceptable to Ming of Glass and those who serve her,” Cai said instantly.

“Does that put us in charge?” Occam asked.

“Yes. In the future,” FireWind said, his words clipped, “probationary agents are to be seen, not heard.”

I started to tell FireWind that he sounded like a churchman talking to one of his womenfolk, but Occam put a hand on my arm and mouthed, Later.

“Fine,” I said to the boss’s boss. To Cai I said, “We’ll talk to SWAT and to Ming. I mean, my senior partner will talk.”

Occam chuckled silently, cat chuffing. I narrowed my eyes at him and he smothered the soundless laughter. I ended the call without saying good-bye, holstered my weapon, and we followed Cai inside, into the light and frozen air of an overworked air-conditioning system. My sweat chilled and I shivered.

There were three bodies and pools of blood in the foyer. All human. All dead. Weapons at their sides. They had died fighting. I followed Occam past without looking. Much. Not seeing the difference between the blood of a threat and the blood of a victim, my land wanted the bodies. Wanted the blood.

No, I thought. No.

My stomach churned. I clenched my teeth and said nothing as we entered the main room. Medic raced in and started attending to the humans on the floor, checking for vitals. In a corner, two vampires were secured with silver cuffs, back to back. The reek of burning vampire flesh soured the air, coming from the silver wire wrapped around them. Both were bleeding and vamped out, struggling, burning. I wanted to draw my weapon and shoot them, I wanted to take their blood for the land, but I resisted. Everyone had vest cams.

I heard a soft pop of sound and flinched. Lincoln was standing beside me. Once again, he had moved with vamp speed, displacing air. Shaddock was long legged, a little rough around the edges, his shoulder-length dark hair swinging around his craggy face. He was wearing work boots, jeans, and a cotton button-down shirt splattered with a fine spray of blood. And he was carrying a single-bladed ax. Not what I expected in a vampire rescuer. More like a lumberjack on holiday. The tall, spare man nodded at me and at Occam and Cai, three small bobs of his head, in what felt like an old-timey greeting. Cai bowed back, a deep obeisance, before leading the way to the captive vampires and the SWAT team leader. Gonzales was standing in front of the prisoners, his weapon at the ready.

I stared around the room as the three men and Occam chatted about what was going to happen next, the administrative transfer of the premises, the occupants, and a lot of other legal stuff I needed to hear and would have found fascinating, if I hadn’t been holding down my bloodlust. It wanted to feed the land. It needed …

When they had everything settled to their respective satisfactions, Cai knelt in front of the captive vamps, holding the gaze of the female. She was the older of the two, her fangs a good three inches long, curved, and thicker than most. And … she had upper and lower fangs, which I’d heard was common in one bloodline of European vampires. Cai held her gaze. I knew how hard that was. Nearly impossible for a human.

Occam touched my arm and we stepped to the side. Ming of Glass appeared and took our place. Her power filled the room and ached on my bare skin. I wanted to claw it off me, but that might be construed as an insult.

Shaddock dropped his head a bit lower to Ming than he had to the rest of us. “My old friend. I wish we had been here sooner. We will stay and heal your people.”

Ming dropped her head, equally low, to Shaddock. “You are the balm of Gilead to me, my old friend. My companion in arms.”

I blinked at the balm of Gilead comment. The balm was a medicinal perfume mentioned in the Bible, maybe from a camphor-smelling plant or the terebinth tree. That Ming would mention it was unexpected and jarring. Maybe for vampires, the balm was blood, or loyalty, or a combination of the two.

“We will fight together,” Shaddock said, his voice soft and leisurely, an almost-familiar hill country accent. “I offer you my strength and my power to determine our mutual enemies.”

Shaddock held out a hand and Ming took it. Holding it, she turned to the female captive. “The name of your master,” she said softly, “or I shall drink you down and claim you as my own.”

“You do not have the power to claim me,” the female vampire said. “Even with the help of that bumpkin.” The female had a foreign accent, one I couldn’t place except that it wasn’t from around here. Maybe someplace in Europe.

“I have far more power than your pitiful master ever imagined,” Ming said. “Together, the Master of the City of Asheville and I are a force to be reckoned with.” She lunged at the vampire. Grabbed her behind the head. Sank her teeth in at the female’s neck.

I flinched, taking two steps back before I could stop myself. Ming lifted the other vamp and they settled to an ottoman. At her side, still holding her free hand, Lincoln withdrew a small blade from his boot and pricked Ming’s pinkie finger. He put it in his mouth and sucked.

I frowned in confusion. Occam was watching the vampires, his attention on the bound male. “Don’t try it,” Occam advised. He raised his service weapon, aimed at the vampire. “I got silver rounds and no mores against using them to shoot out your knees. You’ll limp forever.”

Weapons ratcheted behind us. Occam turned slightly and raised his voice. “PsyLED! We got this.”

“Don’t look like you got shit, dude. Fangheads sucking on each other? You should let us take them in.”

“You have jails that’ll hold them?” Occam asked. “Lined in silver and secured from daylight? Something to feed them so they stay sane? No? Then let us do our job.”

I heard feet shuffle away.

Occam said, “Ming of Glass, we are under local rules of parley. I surely do hope you plan to share whatever you learn. Oh. And don’t kill the li’l vampire lady, okay? That might get my butt in a heap of trouble.”

Her teeth still buried in the vampire’s flesh, Ming shifted her eyes to him and smiled.

? ? ?

Twenty minutes later, Ming of Glass pushed away from the vampires she had been drinking down. She was flushed, full of blood, and healthy. Lincoln dropped her pinkie finger and hauled her to her feet, an arm around her waist. There was something sexual and passionate in the action and I felt my body react. Cai guided them both to a sofa, where the two master vampires sank down gracefully. I pretended not to notice that Ming ended up in Shaddock’s lap and his arms closed about her. If I had to guess, the two had been lovers in the past. Maybe still were.