Page 43 of Silent Stalker
“He specializes in anything that captures his attention. If he did not master those skills himself, he knows of those who have. More importantly, he knows those with the appropriate skills and just cause to dislike your father’s activities. Keep on your toes, Pepper. We now play a complicated game.”
“Not dangerous?”
“Every game a vampire plays is dangerous. We are not sniffers of pretty roses during midnight strolls.”
“That sounds pleasant, actually. Maybe we should be sniffers of pretty roses during midnight strolls.”
“Then I shall have to take you to one of my other properties when the roses are blooming. I do quite appreciate the perfume of a good rose.”
Of course he did. “If no one has told you this before, vampires are weird.”
“We are not weird. We are experienced and wise to the ways of the world.”
“If that’s what you want to call it.” I freed myself from the blanket, dumped it on Emerick’s head, and went to the kitchen in search of chocolatey comfort.
Within twenty minutesof the sun rising, Ben cleared me out of stakes to help deal with a new batch of vampires dumped on Long Island. Unlike the first batch, three perished before anyone could get to them, and the rest were so weak nobody bothered with doing anything more than putting one or two of my stakes in their hands while feeding them blood.
While I wanted to go help, the vaccinations left me a sniffling mess, and Emerick worried I might get them sick with whatever cold had taken advantage of my weakened immune system.
“I understand that this whole thing is to make me stronger afterwards, but this stinks.” I eyed the bottle of Wagyu, debating if I wanted it enough to deal with the upset stomach afterwards. Heaving a sigh, I went to work making it disappear down my throat, where it might do me some good.
“Colds happen even to vampires, and you would have had the cold before you’d been exposed to the first batch of rescues.” Emerick rubbed his hands together and surveyed the bags of groceries a vampire I hadn’t recognized had brought in. “Tonight, we are going to play a game while I make you soup.”
“A game? What sort of game?”
“Clue.”
Well, considering what we needed to put together to make sense of the current situation, his recommendation made sense. “Can we play the actual game before we apply it to our life?”
Emerick turned, grinned, and pointed near where the kitchen led towards the reception. Sure enough, a new copy of Clue waited for us. “Ford and Gerry will be coming to play with us. Ford is one of our hunters, although he’s more reclusive. He’s also one of my best stock investors. He’s going to be handling your personal portfolio and teaching you the tricks of the trade if you’re interested. Gerry is an accountant, and he makes sure I did my taxes properly. I like doing them myself, but he takes what I’ve done, reviews everything, and lectures me whenever I don’t do something as well as I could have. Fortunately for my pride, he forgives me if I missed changes in the tax code. I will do your taxes unless you want to participate in the yearly power struggle between vampire and government. Which leads me to one of my favorite jokes.”
I giggled at one of the common jokes involving vampires and governments. “Is it the one where vampires and governments both suck?”
“It is,” Emerick replied, and with more excitement than any one person needed when faced with groceries, he went to work unpacking everything. “You have a choice of meat. I requested they give me a good selection of everything so you could pick your soup or stew. So, if you aren’t feeling adventurous, I have chicken, duck, beef, goat, and pork.”
He thought duck and goat weren’t adventurous? “Duck can be turned into soup?”
“Anything, with sufficient determination, can be turned into soup or stew. I recommend you ask for duck another day, and we put it in the freezer for our enjoyment later.”
“What counts as adventurous?”
“Moose, a variety of other wildlife, and the consolation Wagyu steaks that arrived this evening from Kobe.”
“No fancy steaks are getting turned into soup or stew.”
“I am glad we are in agreement on this. Perhaps I shall save those steaks for breakfast tomorrow, and we will feast before trouble once again finds us. Or this fugitive brood, as we’re thinking of the group now, finds us. Their choice to dump their latest batch of victims farther afield implies they do not want to dance with us again directly.”
“Except you’re allied with the Long Island broods.”
“Precisely. I suspect several fugitives made offspring, and those offspring are behind our woes. They do not know how broods work, and no sensible brood master would condone this. More importantly, no sane master would risk losing his offspring like this. The makers of these vampires will receive a very unpleasant surprise this evening.”
“How so?”
“Several of the older vampires ready to become masters have volunteered to form broods with these vampires as their core. They are young, untrained, and victims, so while the new masters will start with larger-than-average broods, they will be weak until their vampires learn from the other broods.”
“Are any of these new masters from our brood?”
“No. Kennwick is releasing one of his brood, as are several masters of other local broods. Our brood will be staying out of it, specifically so we cannot be blamed for the unexpected surge of vampires in the area.”
