“I heard you,” Ares says, his tone hard. His hold on my hand tightens. He does not agree to Augustus’ terms, though, I don’t miss that.
“Let’s begin then,” Augustus moves on. “I’d like to introduce you all to my son, Ares Hunt. We’ve recently been reunited. While he might be a bit emotion driven, he’s an impressive businessman and knows this city. Ares, let me introduce you to the New York City Barons.”
Shit. This sounds so formal, so sinister. Vampiric Barons who run the city.
“Giovanni Bosco,” Augustus introduces the ugly man who spoke up earlier. “Cliff Morgan,” he indicates the next man. He’s younger, probably around Ares’ age. His hair is blond and done in the most anal way. He’s handsome in a nerdy, uptight way. Preppy, rich boy vibes radiate off him without him saying a word. “Sysco Sullivan.” The man sports a buzz cut. His thin mustache and the all black clothing he wears make him look like he should run in Ares’ crowd if we were going by looks alone. I wouldn’t want to mess with Sysco. “And Harry Kim.” The man who came in after us. He looks around thirty. Black hair and clear skin, he wears a clean, crisp suit. He looks too innocent and normal to be in this room with this crowd.
“Nice to meet you all,” Ares says with the dip of his head. “This is my fiancée, Lana.”
“I can tell you all you don’t have anything to worry about with me here,” I say, trying to establish my own presence. To assume my character. “This isn’t the first time my life has been threatened by a rich bully.”
I look over at Augustus, crooking a little smile at the memory of the noise he made when I nearly brought him to his knees.
This brings a little snigger of entertainment from Sysco and Giovanni. “You’ll have your hands full with this one as your daughter-in-law, Augustus,” Sysco says.
“Let’s all hope she doesn’t go the way of Natalia,” said father-in-law says darkly.
And I can’t help but wonder what happened to Natalia because Sysco immediately shuts up.
“Are we here to talk shit or to bring in another Baron?” Harry speaks up, breaking up the constant banter and snark. He folds his hands over his lap, his expression collected and cool. “If you trust your son to come into the circle, Augustus, then you ought to trust his fiancée. The line of trust is a trickle effect. If this is personal, handle it when you don’t have to waste everyone else’s time.”
I think I just might like Harry Kim.
“The Barons organized twenty-one years ago,” Augustus says, finally getting to something useful instead of giving Ares and me shit. “New York used to be run by the Steele family, but after their demise, it left a hole, a void to be filled.”
“I’ve never heard of this Steele family,” Ares says, though he doesn’t sound desperate for the information. He’s playing it extremely cool and collected.
“There were four brothers,” Sysco speaks up. “They ran this city for two damn centuries.”
Now we’re talking. I hear these vampires are supposed to be immortal, but no one has seemed to be older than fifty or so years. Two centuries… that sounds more like what I expected.
“They had a lot of children,” Cliff speaks for the first time. “Overall, there was something like forty cousins. And they kept New York in check.”
“Most of them were arrogant assholes,” Sysco takes the conversation back over. “But they kept the city out of trouble. But then one of the uncles went crazy. Slaughtered the whole family in one night.”
“Went crazy?” Ares says, his tone questioning. My brows furrow because it couldn’t have been so simple.
Giovanni nods. “No one knows what really happened, but yes. The man just started working his way through the city, killing his family members one at a time. I think he must have taken himself out in the process, because he was found in the slaughter a day later.”
“Crazy,” Sysco punctuates, raising his eyebrows and tilting his head a little.
“The sudden elimination of the Steele family left a void,” Augustus says, trying to reign back in the story. “Large numbers of vampires left unchecked leave all of us in danger. But some of us, we had a vision for… more.”
And here it is. What the reason for all of this is. What Augustus wants.
“New York has always been full of opportunity,” Augustus continues. “As the city that never sleeps, it’s the perfect place for a strong vampiric hold. Yet our numbers are not high.Nothing like Seattle. Nothing like Chicago. And it’s not just about numbers.”
“Influence is power,” Giovanni says. He leans back in his seat, rubbing his hands together. “The nation believes the government has the most influence on the general population. Yet there is influence from all kinds of different organizations, different families, different systems.”
“The Barons have been acquiring significant land holdings in New York for the past twenty years,” Augustus takes the conversation once more. “When you own such a significant portion, you have… sway.”
“I’ll own twenty percent of Harlem in the next ten years,” Sysco says with a barely surpassed smirk. “Not to mention how many of the docks I’ve already acquired.”
Shit. That’s wild. Looking at him, one would never guess Sysco had that kind of money, or drive. But as I’ve learned from Ares, never judge a book by its cover.
“My family already owned ten percent of Morningside Heights,” Cliff speaks up. And, of course, he’s old money. Even his stupid haircut screams it. “I’ve already acquired another five percent in the past two years. My next focus is in the Clinton area.”
So. Much. Damn. Wealth.
