“I’ve known about Vlad’s efforts in the Underworld for quite some time. I’ve watched, quietly. He doesn’t understand it like Durant does. Or like Durant will. He certainly doesn’t understand it like I do. If he’d made it through, he would’ve been captured and brought to the castle immediately. Maybe he would’ve sought it out himself. And then he would’ve woken you out of your comfortable sleep, told Lucifer things he had no business knowing, and everything would’ve gotten incredibly messy. But thanks to the distraction created by Ms. Bristol and Lucifer’s haste to close everything down, I didn’t have to hunt Vlad down within the Underworld and kill him to ensure his silence.”
Holy crap. Usually vampires didn’t gun down other vampires. Not elders, anyway. This lady was like a cowboy in the Wild West of vampires, and suddenly I really wished Darius was here to handle her. Or even Cahal. Anyone but me.
“Still, how did you fool Lucifer?”
“I went to Vlad’s chief contact, killed everyone loyal to him, bribed those I could to create false truths—”
“Those are called lies…”
“—and disappeared into the Underworld. Lucifer has been chasing a phantom. A loose end. Now he realizes foul play, of course, and will likely wipe out the sect loyal to Vlad. It’s better that way. They weren’t well organized. Vlad has been playing them for fools.”
I couldn’t do much more than stare. She was terrifying.
She studied me within the silence. “I am here because Darius assured me that you would be on the winning side.”
“The winning side of what?”
“Playing dumb just eats time.” She had me there. “I agree with him. I used to think Penny Bristol was at the center of this. Or maybe I just really like her, I can’t tell. I would like to taste her.”
“Good luck with that.”
“Thank you. But she is not the leading point in the pyramid of power. You are. You are more than just the heir of the Underworld. You’re much more, aren’t you?”
She paused, looking me over, and I checked the imaginary watch on my wrist and then tapped the skin to make sure she got the point. I could just walk out and go about my business, I supposed, but she’d likely get annoyed and sound an alarm. Or do some other crazy thing I would never expect. I certainly hadn’t expected her to be in here. Or in the Underworld.
“You know a bit about me,” she continued.
“A bit, though I had no idea it typically took you so long to get to the point…”
“You know something of my history with your kind. The demon kind, I mean.”
“I just know that it is mostly gross, what you get up to—banging and bonding the ickier versions of demons…”
“We all have our tastes.” Penny wouldn’t like to hear that she was valued on the same level as gross demon sex. Or maybe she would, that dirty little birdie. “I have many allies in the Underworld. I have extensive networks from all my dealings here. I was able to hide easily. Much more easily than Darius Durant, who has been found out.”
She paused once again, this time to get my reaction. She was about to get nothing for her efforts.
Her flat smile said she’d just clued into that. “You knew.”
“I suspected.”
“And that is why you are suddenly shifting into action after frittering away weeks?”
“You have spies in the castle, then?”
“I have spies everywhere.”
“I needed training.”
It was my turn to study her. What the hell was her game? If my battle of wits down here had been against her, I was pretty sure I’d have lost.
“Your training has raised quite a few eyes.” I didn’t bother telling her that she’d gotten the saying wrong. She uncrossed her leg and entwined her fingers in her lap. “Your ideas have made people nervous, especially because they have excited Lucifer. Many don’t want change, even though he has always welcomed new information. New knowledge. He is one of the few good rulers, in my opinion. It is a shame he was locked down here, mostly cut off from magical society. He’d do well to move in the elite circles again. It would make the Underworld stronger.”
“Ja, honestly, you need to chat with Darius about all this stuff. I can get myself out of a pinch, but I can’t plan…whatever it is you are talking about. I’m not that smart. Or bored.”
“Simply put, the vampires belong in the Underworld. We should never have been left in the control of the elves. I want what Durant wants. What you now want. I want the treaty with the elves broken. The current regime must be toppled. I am fine with those silly little fae running around with their swords, promising…rules or order or whatever it is they howl about. If that is your cause, and you will be on the winning side, then we all will win.”