Page 24 of Haunted Nightmares
Deveroux frowns a touch before sighing again for the umpteenth time. “The VSUST would remain.”
“Which keeps fear firmly in place.”
“No, no it wouldn’t. Not if you also had a say over who joined and how it runs.”
I roll my eyes as I sit up, the raven on my shoulder adjusting its position higher and closer. “But that does nothing if your police officers still see things the same way. We’ve never been given the opportunity to form any sort of unit composed of vampires, only answering to the Great Counsel and its thugs. If all of the sudden the High Elder has input over who makes up the VSUST but nothing else, then there is no change.”
“Which is why I’ll also allow your kind to join the police department, or encourage you to form your own.”
Oh, he is good.
Everything this bastard is saying is comparable to the goals I’ve shared with the Purists from the beginning.
Merging law enforcement, still having separate units that dealt directly with each government but enough overlap that it felt normal. Those governments running side by side independently yet working together when needed. If he proposes a vampire seat on the UN I’ll shite my trousers righthere, and I’ll know for sure this mole not only worked for the Great Counsel but for the human democracy as well.
“This all sounds well and good,” I say with a smirk. “But it will require a great many changes to the current laws on both sides of the playing field.”
The president nods as he hands the documents to one of his men and motions for him to bring them down to me. “It will, and that’s why I’m proposing an entirely new treaty between us. The one devised between Atticus and the idiot running the country at the time is outdated. It’s full of archaic and relatively useless laws and rules and while I can’t change what has happened in the past, I’m taking the death of your late father as a way to make things right for the future. And I hope you’re eager to do the same.”
I’m sure he’ll change his tune when Deveroux finds out just how spot on that statement is.
This has been a long time coming, one I should have fought harder for and well before now, but change is about to happen and I have a funny feeling this moron won’t care much for it from his place on the fence in my sitting room.
“That’s a copy of the original treaty, the one drawn up and signed right after the Species War.” Deveroux stands and I do the same, my eyes scanning the pages now in my hands. “And a copy of what I’m proposing now. I thought you’d want to be able to compare the two and since the Hall of Vampire Affairs is essentially rubble, I assumed you no longer had your own for that.”
Not to mention none of us have seen it in at least fifty years.
Giving him my most sarcastic smile, I nod. “I’ll look it over. How long before you need an answer?”
The president stops buttoning his coat to look up at me. “Answer?”
“You can’t expect me to agree blindly without going over both with a fine tooth comb, yeah?”
“I guess not.” The grin that touches his thin, cracked lips as he extends his hand toward me makes me want to smack it off his face. “But keep in mind this is more or less a courtesy, Wraith. The old treaty is still in place, and High Elder or not, you still have to abide by it. Me deciding to make changes so we’re more equal than before isn’t part of that, it’s something I’m doing because I feel compelled to.”
“Of course.” I smile and grip his hand firmly, narrowing my coal-black eyes to connect with his beady ones. “Just as I feel compelled to remind you…” I squeeze a little tighter as I lean in, his Secret Service rushing us as Declan gets ready to intervene. “I amnothinglike my father before me.”
Snapping my teeth before breaking out into a slight chuckle, I release the man’s hand as his pulse escalates, laughing a little louder as I right myself and step around them.
If I’d have known this was what I was going to be dealing with, I might have come out of hiding sooner.
Deveroux is a ruthless prick who wants to be seen as fearless but he’s still afraid, and I’m going to enjoy toying with him right until the very end.
7
Decoys and Douchebags
Using the new phone Orion made me buy, I call Declan for the tenth time as I lumber down the sidewalk away from his house.
“You better be dead,” I say with a growl as I get his voicemail again. “Death is the only acceptable reason for not answering me and if you haven’t succumbed to it, I’m going to kill you myself. Slowly, painfully, and with so much goddamn glee I might start shooting rainbows out of my arse!”
I hang up and stuff the electronic back into my pocket, right pissed off that the twit not only dumped me in town but made sure to do it without any way of getting back into his home.
It’s one thing to not answer my calls, I only got the blasted thing to appease Orion’s endless nagging about being able to reach me when needed—and because he said it’ll help if Deveroux has a way to contact me—so it was a relatively small concession to make. But I’m not particularly in the mindset of using it again, so I could almost forgive the unanswered calls.
Leaving me stranded is something else entirely.
We’d barely left the human president and his goons when Declan’sotheremployer phoned him, stating he was in the midst of ashite stormwith one of his mates and neededbackupimmediately. And because he doesn’t seem ready to quit working for the stupid musician, Declan dropped me off at my tailor’s to have the rest of what I ordered fitted while other members of our group were strategically placed around the building, and said he’d be back in an hour.
