Chapter 37

Houses of Glass and Spectacle

Lit only by a circle of streetlights and pale moonlight, the manor at Iriy Hills Estates looked exactly like I pictured, and somehow completely different. It sat solid and regal in the middle of an open, paved area, the trees pushed off in the distance. The solid frame, large windows, and curving architecture looked like an English country house and an old cathedral had gotten up to some illegitimate shenanigans. Had I drawn a picture of what I thought the manor would look like, I wouldn’t have come up with anything like this, but seeing if for myself it looked exactly right.

I had been given a quick primer on the specifics of the Primus, and I got that he was some kind of quasi-spiritual leader. Like the pope, I guess, but more up-front about the sex thing. The building where he kept residence and court looking a little like a church helped reinforce that image, I’m sure.

Ira drove us to it on a dirt road leading away from his cabin. We passed several buildings that I didn’t see clearly through the trees with only headlights for guidance, and I remembered from research that Iriy Hills was a compound. Some of them looked like warehouses, some like normal homes. I was surprised at the number of them. For a second a trickle of paranoia swept around in my brain. Ira had said humans were the minority in this House. How many vampires were there? There’s no good way for a hunter to ask that question, so I didn’t.

Before we got out of the car, Ira asked me, “You ready for this?”

I looked down at the bite mark on my arm, but it was other wounds I was seeing. I met his eyes. “You damn betcha.”

He nodded, and we got out. I was a wearing a fitted black button-down shirt over my silvery armor, the sleeves of the shirt rolled up to expose my forearms for obvious reasons. Apparently there was a no-weapons rule in the House, and I felt naked without the familiar weight of boot-knife at my ankle. Ira was looking pretty good himself in dress slacks, and a blue button-down with the top few buttons undone.

“We’ll go around to the front,” he said as we walked. “Bringing you in through the back door wouldn’t look right.”

Barely listening, I nodded. I was on high-alert, scanning the surroundings. The trees being so far away was probably for security, but it was making me paranoid again. I didn’t see any of Zo’s cronies, or the bitch herself, but that didn’t mean they weren’t lurking about somewhere. They had the advantage of supernatural eye-sight, after all, and could have been in the trees without me knowing. Ira didn’t seem too concerned, but that didn’t make me feel better. It had been proven he wasn’t exactly top notch when it came to observational skills.

There was a thin flow of people heading inside as we rounded the building, a few of them tried to snag Ira’s attention, but he begged off.

“Sorry, I’ll catch you later,” he said, not pausing as he led me up the steps. “Got stuff to do.”

I saw eyes flicker to me and then away, and I knew the whispers would start as soon as the heavy doors were closed. At the tops of the stairs was a pair of doors leading into the building. On them was a strange figure, a man’s face with a long beard and cow horns, his serpentine body curling all around him. Ira grabbed a loop of the snake, which stuck out three-dimensionally, and pulled open the doors, ushering me in before him.

“Who were those people?” I asked.

Ira shrugged. “Just members of the House. Those that want to stay on top of the comings and goings around here spend as much time in the House itself as they can.”

“Gotta be closest to the gossip?”

“Something like that.”

“Why not keep them out?”

“Can’t,” Ira said. “The House is a sanctuary at all times for its human members. No human blood can be spilled inside it, unless part of proper House proceedings.”

“Good to know,” I murmured. “Will that put a dent in things?”

“No, bringing a suit of combat against another member counts as House proceedings.”

I smiled a dark, grim little smile. “Good.”

As we walked into the foyer, an honest-to-God foyer, I got an eye-full of the place. Inside it wasn’t at all what I expected. There were mirrors everywhere, held to the wall in golden frames with curling vine motifs. Everything was very aged and classy, and not very gothic at all. My days as an undercover vamp tramp had not prepared me for vampires with taste.

There was a pair of golden couches just inside the foyer, with a few people sitting on them. Ira gave them smiles and nods, and I edged closer to him, ducking my head shyly.

Once past them, I said, “It’s so well lit in here. I didn’t expect that.”

He gave me an amused look. “What were you expecting, black lights?”

“Hey, my only real experience with vampire groups is in nightclubs,” I reminded him.

He rolled his eyes and shook his head. We took a hallway that led us toward another set of doors, but a voice from behind stopped us.

“Ira, didn’t think I’d see you here to tonight.”

We turned around to see a tall—but not as tall as Ira—guy coming towards us. His sandy hair was a wild mass of geek-curls, but he managed to be okay-looking in spite of them. I pegged him as a vampire almost instantly. He was wearing a nice polo and some black jeans, dressy without being dressed up. His eyes fell on me, and he grinned.

“And who is this?”

“Hey, Fitch,” Ira said. “This is Regan.”

I smiled and nodded at, very carefully keeping my head straight up and down.

Continuing the introduction, Ira went on, “Regan, this is Fitch, a friend of mine.”

“Nice to meet you,” I said, leaning slightly closer to Ira.

Laughing, Fitch said, “Oh, he is a cutie, isn’t he?”

“He’s my cutie,” Ira said, slinging an arm around my shoulders. I wanted desperately to roll my eyes, but resisted somehow.

“Hey, man, I don’t poach,” Fitch said, holding up his hands. But I noticed his eyes slid to down to my bite mark. “So what are you up to?”

“Need to talk to Rurik,” Ira replied. “Has assembly started yet?”

Fitch gave him a weird look. “Rurik’s out of town, you know that.”

For a second, it felt like my heart stopped beating, but I could hear my blood pumping loudly in my ears.

“He’s supposed to be back today,” Ira said slowly.

The other shook his head. “Nope, Sybele started up assembly just a few seconds ago.”

Ira and I shared a quick glance.

“Uh, excuse us a second,” he said to Fitch, who nodded.

We went a few more paces down the hall, not that it mattered to vampiric hearing, but whatever.

“You still want to do this?” Ira asked me.

Seeing Fitch out of the corner of my eye, I carefully said, “Yes. I’d rather just do it tonight.”

Swearing, Ira paced away, rubbing his hand over his forehead. We had been banking on his tie to the Primus, without it our case might not hold water.

“Not to eavesdrop,” Fitch said loud enough to carry, “but Sybele can recognize a Beloved as well as Rurik can.”

Ira stilled and forced a wry smile on his face. “I know, but I wanted to do it right.”

“Then you can wait for the Primus to come back, I guess,” Fitch said. “But who knows when that will be.”

I touched Ira’s hand to draw his attention to me. “I want to do it tonight,” I said softly.

A dopey smile crossed Fitch’s face as he watched us, but he didn’t say anything.

“You’re right,” Ira sighed. “It has to be tonight.”

Confusion wrinkled the other vampire’s brow, and I gave Ira a warning with my eyes.

“Damn,” Ira said.

“It’s not that big a deal, man,” Fitch said, but he backed off pretty quickly at the look Ira shot him. “I’ll, uh, just go head into the assembly room.”

He beat a hasty retreat towards the doors in front of us. When he was gone, I turned around and kicked the wall.

“Shit!” I hissed. Taking a deep breath, I rolled my shoulders. “Look, it doesn’t matter. We have to do this tonight, there’s no way to tell what Zo will get up to if we wait. She’s already hurt somebody close to me, I can’t take any more chances.”

“You’re right.” Ira came up behind me, and rubbed the flat of his hands down toward my wrists. He squeezed my wound gently. “We have to get back in the game, Regan.”

I let my head fall back against his shoulders, and summoned up the mask of harmless me.

“I’m ready,” I breathed.

“Me too,” he finally said. “Let’s go do this, come what may.”

And with that, he took my hand, and led me into the assembly room.