"Claremont," Wlodek addressed the prisoner, "you will answer the questions of the Council truthfully from this point forward." Wlodek was repeating Merrill's compulsion. Intrigue, indeed. Claremont nodded at Wlodek. "Now, what contact did you have with your sire after the initial two years you spent with him?" Wlodek was asking my question for me.
"He contacted me from time to time," Claremont answered. That caused a little stir around the stone table where the Council sat.
"And how did he do this?"
"I was expected to leave an address or some way to get in touch with a third party," Claremont replied.
"And who was this third party? Do you have a name?"
"He calls himself Xenides," Claremont answered.
"So, were you required to stay in contact with your sire through this Xenides? Did he have assignments for you?"
"Yes. Xenides often had assignments for me—he made sure I received these messages from my sire. I delivered things that he ordered I not open. He sent me to kill at times. To steal at other times."
Well, well, well. I wondered if Gavin's cousin, René de la Roque, had ever done anything at Saxom or Xenides' behest. René certainly had the penchant for theft.
"Did you see a pattern in any of these things at the time?"
"I was always told not to question," Claremont answered Wlodek's question, bringing me out of my mental side trip.
"Did any of these assignments have any lasting effects on the political state of affairs?"
Claremont named a few minor nobles and politicians he'd offed over the course of his life. There wasn’t anything done that would raise eyebrows more than a fraction. I wondered if those deaths meant personal gain for Saxom. Perhaps he was picking away at the threads of history, one strand at a time, instead. How could we know? Silently I begged Wlodek to ask if Claremont had killed any vampires. Wlodek did and Claremont answered.
"Reynard in 965, Nikolai in 1277 and Aurelius in 1422," he said. The last name caused Gavin to stiffen but he didn't say anything.
I might have asked about involvements with terrorists and such just to make sure, but Wlodek didn't go in that direction. Wlodek concluded his interrogation and asked the other members if they wanted to question Claremont. "Do you recall what your sire looked like?" A member on the far right asked. I remembered him; he'd voted for my death when I'd first been brought before the Council.
"I was instructed not to say," Claremont replied stiffly. The sire-child bond is a strong one; even Merrill's compulsion couldn't get past that. I didn't think for a minute that Wlodek was going to spell out my ability to smell the taint on Claremont to the entire Council. Charles and Radomir both were under his thumb; Radomir as his own vampire child and Charles as the child of his vampire child Flavio. Did vampires claim grandchildren? If so, that's what Charles was.
"How did you kill Nikolai?" Another Council member asked—a woman this time. She was the female who voted for my death. I wondered if anyone would care to put names with faces and scents for me. I'd never been formally introduced to most of them.
"My sire lured him into a trap where I was waiting," Claremont explained. "I beheaded him with my sword before he knew I was there."
"And the others, how did they die?" The black Council member asked. He'd voted for me in the beginning and I'd appreciated his support. All of them were still on my shit list, though, for having me beaten.
"In a similar fashion, only we lured Aurelius in with the lie that one of his children was dying. That he'd walked into the sun." Gavin stiffened again.
"And that worked?"
"Of course it did. He died easily and unsuspecting."
"Of course," the Council member muttered. His voice held anger and that surprised me. The mask had cracked just a little.
"Are there other questions?" Wlodek asked. He waited for a minute or two and there were none. "Very well, in the matter of Claremont, what say you?" Nine votes of guilty came swiftly, with Wlodek's being the ninth and final vote. "Let the record reflect that the guilty vote was unanimous," Wlodek said and Charles, in his usual efficient manner, tapped it all into his computer.
"I was going to ask Sebastian to perform this task should it prove necessary, but in light of the evidence given, I believe I will offer it to Gavin instead, if he desires it," Wlodek turned his gaze in Gavin's direction.
"I want it," Gavin growled, moving forward swiftly. Claremont was poised to beg for his life when Gavin, faster than a blink, had Claremont's head separated from his body. I knew two things, then. Aurelius was Gavin's sire, and Gavin would want to be alone tonight.
I was correct; Gavin asked Stephan to drop him off at his home, wherever that was. I still didn't really know. Merrill and I made our way out of the cave, Brock remained with us and he was the one to lift me up and carry me to the car.
"What did you understand from all of that, Lissa?" Merrill asked while Brock steered us away from the park.
"Do you really want me to say?" I asked. Normally I was left in the dark and had to keep my musings and discoveries to myself.
"Yes. I do," Merrill nodded. He was in the front seat of the Rolls with Brock and turned to look at me.
"Aurelius was Gavin's sire," I said. "And therefore René's, since Gavin told me they were turned by the same person. I'm disappointed, though, that Wlodek didn't ask if Claremont and his sire had any dealings with terrorists or with banking or anything else that might affect the economy."
"Lissa, you surprise me at times," Merrill said, not bothering to explain. He merely turned away and stared out the windshield.
Franklin and Greg were in bed by the time we got home. Brock was spending the day and accepted a bag of blood from Merrill before retiring around dawn. Huddling into my bed with a book, I reflected on the night's events. I knew Gavin was furious when he took Claremont's head, and that meant Gavin cared deeply for his sire. And Claremont? I didn't have a problem with his death. It was clean and swift and Claremont was an evil if I'd ever seen it.
Chapter 2
"René, I have news," Gavin said after phoning his cousin.
"I never thought to hear from you, Gavin, after the incident." René wasn't giving details—Lissa's injury in René's home still stood between them. René claimed it was a practical joke gone awry, but Gavin knew he'd truly been trying to take Lissa away.