"She takes care of what is hers, Marsilia. You should learn from her," Stefan said silkily.
"Are you trying to get me killed?" I asked him coolly, as Marsilia hissed. "We were actually almost having a conversation before you stepped in to help."
He laughed, sounding a lot more like himself. "Is that what you thought you were doing? I heard Marsilia trying to take your new wolf from you."
Asil smiled again, with teeth, but he didn't say anything.
"No," I told Stefan. "She wasn't. She just thought she was."
Marsilia shook her head - and changed before my eyes. Not physically, not a change of shape, but a change of personality. Gone was the sex goddess, the vicious woman who hated and despised me. Instead, she looked - ordinary, tired, and ... and maybe a little scared.
"You are right, Stefan," she said. "I am sorry, Mercedes. Tonight, we need to be allies."
Marsilia had just apologized to me. Hell must have been experiencing some climate change.
"So," I said, "are you going to tell me what you know? Or are we going to spend another hour on drama and one-upmanship?"
Chapter Eleven
"Come on inside, then," Marsilia said, though she didn't sound angry. "Come inside, and we will talk."
I followed her, and everyone else followed me. If Stefan hadn't been there, I wouldn't have let Hao trail behind. I didn't really have a lot of confidence in Honey, and I didn't entirely trust Asil, though I liked him. But Stefan I trusted to watch my back against the strange vampire.
Marsilia walked to the edge of the burnt-out shell of the winery and stepped up until she stood on the rim of the foundation, then jumped the ten feet or so to the floor of what had been the basement. I jumped after her and landed with loose knees and ankles to take up the strain of landing. The hard floor still made my feet sting. I was macho, though, and didn't whine about it. Posturing like a werewolf, I thought with some amusement. Probably I wouldn't have yelped in front of Marsilia even without the wolf pack's reputation to worry about. Honey hopped down like the ten-foot leap was nothing, and Asil, Asil didn't make a sound when he landed.
Marsilia continued across the floor toward the center. Above us, twin steel I-beams loomed dark and menacing. I didn't like them because something could stand on them and attack us from above when we weren't looking. The vampires, the night, and the ghosts were making me paranoid. The moon had disappeared behind clouds, and only a few stars peeped out at us.
I could tell from the way the floor felt under my feet that we walked across tiles, but there was a good inch or more of black ash on top. My toe caught an uneven spot, and I realized that debris was scattered across the floor, large and small, hidden by the soot and the shadows. Unburnable bits of the building had fallen into the basement. I watched my footing and followed Marsilia, who had no more trouble than if she'd been walking across a ballroom floor. I could see in the dark, but maybe vampires could see better. Asil stumbled over something, which made me feel less clumsy.
Somehow, I expected there to be more vampires in the building, but, except for us, it was empty. In my experience, Marsilia did everything with an audience. But the only vampires here were Marsilia, Hao, and Stefan.
In the semi-enclosed basement, the acrid smell of the fire was much worse than it had been in the parking lot. The stink of it burned my sinuses, clogged my throat, and made me impatient. "Is there a reason we can't talk outside?"
"Yes." It was Hao who answered. "But it needn't concern you yet."
I didn't like the sound of that "yet," nor the subtle, patronizing feel, so I stopped where I was.
"It seems to me that it might concern me very much." I turned to look at him even though it left Marsilia behind me. Asil and Honey were keeping an eye on her - and it was a coup to have the guts to turn my back to the Mistress of the City. "Who is it that has Marsilia running scared? Who is it that keeps the dead from moving on?" Accusing her of being scared while my back was to her wasn't the smartest move I'd ever made - but smart coyotes don't fall in love with werewolves or go to meetings with vampires.
"You've met him." Stefan could smile and keep his voice totally serious. He wouldn't have smiled if Marsilia was coming up behind me, so I relaxed that little bit more. "Do you remember the vampire who was pulling Estelle's strings, who talked Bernard into rebellion?" When Stefan had been driven from the seethe with unpardonable brutality so that he could be an impartial witness.
"Gauntlet Boy?"
Marsilia laughed. One of those horrible not happy laughs. Like the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland. And on that thought I had to turn around so I could keep an eye on her. I noticed as I moved around that Honey's ruff was up, and Asil had stiffened.
"Gauntlet Boy?" She knew she'd creeped me out. I could read the pleasure of it in her expression. "Gauntlet Boy. Yes, Mercedes, Gauntlet Boy. He started amassing power five years ago, taking over one city after another. He sees himself as the vampire's version of Bran."
"Bran is not a bad thing." He might rule with sharp fangs, but life was better for everyone, werewolf and human alike, because he did so.
"A vampire's version of Bran is not Bran." Stefan spoke from right behind me. I hadn't heard him approach.
I moved casually so that I had my back to empty space, with Honey on my left and Asil on my right - and all of the bloody scary vampires (Stefan included) in front. I knew they saw me do it - but they were willing to let me get away with it without commenting. Maybe Marsilia was serious about working together.
"Not Bran," agreed Hao. "He goes by the name of William Frost. We do not know how old he is or where he came from. I first heard of him when the Master of Portland disappeared. For three weeks his seethe searched for him. As you know, Ms. Hauptman, because I am told that you do, vampires who are not powerful cannot live without feeding upon a vampire strong enough to maintain them. This is the most powerful hold that the master or mistress of a seethe has over their fledglings. The vampires of Portland were dying without their master, and so they called upon me. When I got there, though, they had already been ... saved." He said the word with a twist of his lips. "William Frost had them in hand, he said. Then he invited me to join him. He was quite forceful. I did not, however, wish to join his seethe. I refused, but because I also did not want to command a seethe, I left him unharmed. Mostly."
Hao was not one of Marsilia's minions. He'd told me that she'd sent him to get me, but if he went, it had been because he wanted to. Both of them were acting as though he was her equal.