"All members are present, my Queen." Garde, who'd arrived early to tick off names, nodded formally to me. Remember this meeting is being fed live to the Alliance, he cautioned mentally. We do not wish to alarm the Alliance if they see you turn to mist. Do you recall our security meeting, Avilepha? We've had to explain some of your actions as swift movement by a vampire. We have no desire to explain away other anomalies.
He was right—we'd had a security meeting shortly after we'd allowed Bryan's cameras inside the Council meetings—they not only fed images of the meetings to the local vampire population but to the Reth Alliance as a whole. Everybody was allowed to see vampires in action. The only meetings that weren't fed to the general population were executions, and it was better that nobody was allowed to see those. Only the Council and any involved parties invited by the Council viewed executions. Le-Ath Veronis was one of the few worlds belonging to the Alliance that executed certain offenders. The difference was that Le-Ath Veronis' justice was swift, as any vampire was more than aware.
I won't turn to mist or do anything else unbecoming, I promised Garde. He breathed an audible sigh of relief.
"What is the first item on the agenda?" I called out. Heathe, who'd come to do the agenda, made the announcement.
"The unlawful placement of compulsion against a mate," Heathe called out. Kyler would normally have made the announcement, but Flavio asked Kyler to stay home. I didn't blame him—the prospect of forcing a female vampire to stay with her mate upset her as much as it did me. Heathe volunteered to make announcements; Grant and Davan wanted no part of it, either.
Honestly, I'd have stayed in bed with Winkler if I could have. This wasn't going to be pretty, no matter how you looked at it. We were about to find out how many female vampires had unfair compulsion placed, just so a male could have a (potentially unwilling) trophy wife. "Bring in our guests," I said, working to keep the worried sigh from escaping. My uneasiness was growing, even with a Council full of vampires with me.
Twenty-seven vampires and their female mates were led inside the Chamber. Chairs had been set out for all of them, and I watched the women as they followed their male mates inside. All of them. All of them had some sort of compulsion placed. I didn't take time to sort through it—it could have been anything from you can't go shopping, to you will give me blowjobs until the end of time. It no longer mattered—all compulsion would be removed before they left the Council chamber.
If the women needed a place to stay afterward, I'd already made arrangements for them at a halfway house. The youngest female before me was more than four hundred years old, so it was possible they hadn't been outside or on their own in a very long time.
"My Queen, I wish to make a statement," one of the male vampires stepped forward. Yes, I probably should have seen it coming. I didn't. All twenty-seven males had claws out and all twenty-seven females had their throats cut before the war inside the Council chamber commenced.
Chapter 2
We were only able to save eleven of the twenty-seven females. We might have saved more if forty-three members of the Council hadn't joined the male vampires who'd just committed murder or attempted murder against their mates. Someday, somebody was going to have to explain this to me—why some men feel obligated to kill their wives if they refuse to stay in an unhealthy relationship. Somehow, these vampires had managed to get together with forty-three members of the Council, devise a plan and then make their murderous statements.
* * *
"Lissa, if you will hold still, I will heal this gash." Karzac was at his grumpy best as he worked to heal the wound on my thigh. That's all my attacker had been able to touch before Gavin sliced him to shreds. He'd only reached me to begin with because I'd tried to get to one of the women before she died.
"How's Roff," I asked, instead of grumbling back at Karzac. Roff, Flavio and Radomir had been surrounded by rogue Council members. Flavio and Radomir had no trouble fending off attackers, but Roff had been knocked down and deeply clawed. Without even thinking about it, Radomir had dropped to his knees, given permission and then offered Roff blood. Roff was now sleeping the eight hours it would take for Radomir's Saa Thalarr blood to bring the changes to his vampire body. I'd wanted to offer blood to Roff if he ever returned to me. Radomir had done it instead. I sighed.
"Roff is very well. I believe Franklin is with him, checking for additional wounds."
"Do you think Radomir's blood will bring back his memories?"
"Lissa, you are wounded, sixty-four vampires are dead including sixteen females, your Council chambers are in shambles and you're worrying about Roff's memories?"
"Thanks for the wake up, honey," I muttered sarcastically. "I was trying not to think of what the media is going to make of this. This makes the riot on Serendaan look like a schoolyard brawl."
"Serendaan's King deserved the blow he took. And the fight that came after." Light formed around Karzac's fingers as he touched my thigh. I didn't want to look while he worked—I'd done it once and the flaps of skin hanging from the wound made me want to blow chunks. "I trust you've canceled Council meetings until tempers are calmed and the chambers can be repaired?"
"I'll take care of it," I sighed. "I want to take a look at our prisoners, too. We'll move the trials up to the next Council meeting. Gavin, Aryn and Aurelius are questioning all of them now."
"Your Falchani and your wolf are also in the dungeons, and your wolf is, well, a wolf. I believe he's growling at the prisoners, too."
"You don't think he should?"
"As long as he removes no vital body parts until judgment is passed, I think I can live with it," Karzac replied. He knew, as did I, that Winkler had taken down at least two vampires inside my Council chamber. As a Spawn Hunter, he no longer had to undress to become wolf. He'd gone to his wolf and that wolf had snapped heads off two vampires who'd just murdered their wives.
"I can't believe they all went crazy like that," I tossed up a hand.
"Lissa, please stop moving about. It makes it difficult to heal shredded skin."
"Fine," I mumbled. "Did I take you away from something? You don't usually dress in a suit." I focused on what Karzac was wearing for a moment.
"Devin, Grace and I took Kevis to Refizan for his naming ceremony."
"Oh, Karzac, why didn't you stay there? Somebody else could patch me up." I reached out to touch his cheek—his head was bent over my wound as I lay on the bed inside my suite.