"They keep trying to wiggle their way into that ten-mile buffer," I grumbled.
Aurelius smiled. "Forbidden fruit," he agreed and led me to my seat.
"We need more wall patrols," an Alliance vampire stood to make his request after the other business was concluded. "We have at least twenty a day, if not more, Casino City visitors attempting to scale the wall and get inside Lissia. If they could find vehicles, there would be more attempting to find their way into the other cities. As it is, we arrest them and hand them to the city guard, but we can't keep up with the growing number of wall climbers."
"What is their excuse?" I asked.
"They want to mingle with vampires. As if the vampires working in or visiting Casino City aren't enough for them to gawk at. I have no idea what the fools think they will find, once they get inside a vampire city."
"They love the feel of danger," Flavio said, standing. "Many still think we kill with the bite. They want to feel the thrill, I think, of associating with creatures stronger and wilder than themselves."
"Perhaps we should have a few High Demons run through the streets, then," I muttered. If a High Demon went Full Thifilathi, you sure as hell didn't want to stand in their way.
"Lissa, that, of course, would be highly unlikely and extremely dangerous," Aurelius brought me back to the present.
"You're right," I nodded to him. "I have some with experience in the field of security who have expressed an interest in working for the crown. I will entertain applications for additional city guards. Send them to me in the next two days and we'll get this sorted out."
"Thank you, Raona," the Alliance vampire sat down.
* * *
"That only took three hours longer than it should have," Aurelius noted as we made our way toward the kitchen and a much-needed meal. There'd been no debate on the executions, but they'd still taken longer than expected. Every remaining Council member voted guilty, and Trevor and Gavin took turns beheading guilty vampires.
We'd worked right past dinner, with blood substitute passed among the vampires to keep us going. Our late dinner was quiet, with hardly anyone speaking. Drake and Drew tried to take me to my suite afterward, but I fended them off and Aurelius and I went to my private study instead.
Once there, I sent mindspeech to Radomir, asking him to bring Lisster and Rush, two of his co-mates. Lisster was a shapeshifting leopard and Rush was a black lion; both were members of the Saa Thalarr and mates to Devin and Grace. Lisster, Radomir and Rush arrived moments after I’d sent mindspeech to Radomir.
"We're having security problems with fence-climbers," I said, once they were seated and comfortable. "The city Councils are supposed to be in charge of that, but they're overwhelmed with people sneaking in from Casino City and trying to hobnob with vampires. Would you three like to take that problem on? I'll be hiring vampires from the cities as guards, but I need somebody to oversee them and make sure they don't kill anybody. We've been in the media too much already."
"I can knock heads," Radomir grinned.
"Sounds like fun," Rush offered a perfect smile. He was tall, dark-skinned and had muscles that impressed even vampires. Most people (vampires included) would be foolish to take on the black lion.
"Love to," Lisster snickered. Honestly, I wouldn't want to be any vampire that pissed Lisster off. He was a shapeshifter by birth—a leopard. He even had spots on his back, legs and neck while in humanoid form. Yeah, I wouldn't want to get in his way, either.
"Come to me; I will parcel out assignments," Aurelius said. "You will be working closely with Gavin, Anthony, Drake and Drew." We offered our three new Crown Investigators a drink, and they accepted.
Chapter 3
We’d hired our new guards and Crown Investigators just in time, it seemed. Three wall climbers stood before me inside my study. They'd not only climbed over the wall, they'd managed somehow to paint insults on the wall and a few nearby businesses before Lisster and Rush hauled them in. Drake and Drew took them into custody at that point and brought them to me. They all looked to be in their twenties or early thirties—two men, one woman. From Rorda.
"You signed the agreement to honor the laws of Le-Ath Veronis before you came, did you not?" I gave them an angry gaze.
"Yes, Raona." They were contrite. Now.
"And you did this anyway, even though you knew you could be caught, sent off-planet and never allowed back?" I was pacing, now. Something about these three bothered me. Drake and Drew didn't normally bring me fence-climbers. They must have thought something was up with these, only they couldn't use their Looking abilities to interfere. Those were the rules they had to abide by, being Spawn Hunters for the Saa Thalarr. My head jerked around after I'd passed them. "Grant, check their bank accounts. See if they've gotten any large deposits lately, or whether their recent spending is supported by the jobs they have."
Grant, standing behind me, started tapping on his handheld computer. He already had their records pulled up. "No deposits, but they've been throwing Alliance credits around like they were among the wealthy, and I see that all three work in prison detail on Rorda."
"Find out if any Solar Red suspects are imprisoned there." The three that stood before me began to sweat. I'd hit the proverbial nail on the head with these. The Solar Red f**kers, now trying to come back to power, wanted me dead since I'd brought them down last time. Three vampires in my Council had failed to exact revenge.
These three, playing at being pranksters, were trying to scope out a way to get to me. Well, they were going to be mind-wiped by compulsion and sent home. The Rordans were also going to be notified, and that notification was going to be copied to the Alliance. Aryn had come to the palace to help; he was with us, watching our prisoners carefully.
"I will be happy to place compulsion, Raona," he said. Aryn always dressed impeccably, like many of the older vampires. He was old, too, I could tell by the scent.
"Go ahead. Before you do, though, find out if they've gathered or sent any information off world. Drake and Drew are already searching their rooms at the casino." They'd had the temerity to stay at the Chessman.
"Is this going to hurt?" The female asked timidly.
"Why are you worried about that now?" I wasn't pleased with any of them and I think they knew it. "You risked your life doing this. Why weren't you worried about it before you signed up?"
"Ari, shhh," one of the males tried to hush her.