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Hunter's posture and could feel it raising the hair on her neck, not exactly
sure why.
A very, very old Vampire stood slowly from his seat at the bench with
seemingly great effort. The hall went still. Blue veins crisscrossed his bald
scalp beneath paper-thin, death-gray skin, and he took his time adjusting the
black velvet robes around his slight frame. With one finger he opened the
carved box that sat at the front of the U-bend in the table, then stood back.
A heavy onyx-and-marble gavel with strange markings on it flipped out of the
enclosure and smashed itself against the wood. The cracking sound that echoed
through the hall was like a strike of lightning, and then the enchanted gavel
threw its head back and began shouting.
"Hear ye, hear ye, welcome all to the ten-thousandth, two-hundredth and
eighty-eighth year of the United Coun-cil of Entities. Vlad Temps is again
this year's presiding elder. Are there any challenges before the crier reads
the minutes?"
Silence echoed in the great hall behind the gavel's voice. Sasha watched the
old Vampire's face, noting the very subtle smirk it now held. The venom that
threaded through her as she watched his arrogant confidence al-most foolishly
made her stand. It was hard not to wonder how long the Vamps had the UCE on
lock with then ruth-less power paradigms. She glimpsed their box, and they
were strangely the most handsome group of entities she'd laid eyes on...
genteel even. They were as politically correct as one could be, all
nationalities represented, everyone wearing understated, very expensive
designer tuxedos and gowns women dripping hundreds of thou-sands of dollars in
jewels or more, perhaps enough to make Hollywood's best and most beautiful
gag.
Baron Geoff Montague, who'd been her informant in South Korea just before
Shogun had pulled her from his mental clutches, gave her a pleasant nod and a
knowing smile. Handsome rat bastard. Sasha's gaze shot around the room. Others
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felt like she did, she could tell. But no one was going to put their neck,
literally, on the line. Maybe it didn't matter who presided over the
Confer-ence, but something about Vampires consistently winning that coveted
role didn't seem right, especially when they'd just been involved in some very
foul and under-handed events.
Sasha sat back, allowing momentary defeat to claim her. Hunter squeezed her
hand tightly and then let it go to grip his armrests. It wasn't her place to
disrupt things. The fact that the thought had even crossed her mind made her
want to slap her own face was she trippin'? Disgust filled many eyes, but
clearly no one was going to chal-lenge the old bastard.
Complete silence answered the gavel's question. A coal-black mermaid with
glistening, opalescent scales, long aqua hair, and emerald eyes was brought
down the center aisle in the arms of a tanned, very nude and very buff male
nautilus water sprite. Her huge fan tail was the only thing that shielded his
pride and his expression was ut-terly zombified. The siren lifted a large
nautilus shell to her lips and drew in a deep breath, closing her eyes until
her pale pink lashes dusted her regal cheeks.
"No!" Hunter stood so quickly he toppled his chair.
The Titan almost dropped the crier when he snapped out of his daze, seeming
bewildered as to what to do. Vampires stood slowly in their boxes and
leisurely took off their gloves. Hunter's retinue was on their feet, but the
expressions on their faces were very unsure. Sasha stood too, completely at a
loss.
One thing she did notice was Dragons had moved into place like huge bouncers,
and the Fae had sent several archers up the side aisles. They'd drawn like
lightning; silver arrows were in quivers. She so badly wanted to ask Hunter,
Baby, do you know what you 're doing?
"Your complaint, sir?" the old Vampire said in a pa-tronizingly patient tone.
"Due to the duplicitous nature of the species and re-cent events that could
have cost catastrophic losses of the wolf clans, and have as well as caused
human collateral damage, thus outings into the general human knowledge
base the North American Federation of Clans chal-lenges the Vampire Cartel's
leadership at this conference this year."
"Due to our duplicitous nature?" a smooth, lilting voice said from the Vampire
box. "But, man ami... du-plicity .. . well... that is part of our culture."
Subdued laughter created a low, charming resonance within the Vampire box.
"Mr. Hunter... you are aware that you must have evidence?" The elderly Vampire
smiled a tight, toothy smile, but his eyes burned black with rage from the
affront. "I suggest you throw down that particular gauntlet when you have
proof or a good attorney." He looked at the Vampire box. "How many attorneys
do we have present tonight a show of hands?" Half the box responded and then
laughed.
"We'll lend you one of ours," someone called out from the Vampire box.
"You could always try to get pictures of us caught in wrongdoing, however,"
another threw in.
The elderly Vampire sat down chuckling, drawing the other Vampires into
satisfied snickers, dismissing Hunter with a wave of his hand. "But now that
you mention it, there was a disturbance that could have your species brought
up on "
"Let's do this the old-fashioned way," Hunter growled.
Even Silver Hawk landed a hand on Hunter's shoulder, but he shrugged it off.
"Not fifteen minutes past midnight and you already have a death wish?" The old
Vampire stood slowly, his black gaze narrowed. "We try to have these meetings
af-ter peak full moon phase so you dogs can at least main-tain some of your
human composure."
"He's got proof," Sasha said, not sure when her brain had fled her skull.
"Oh ... this should be very interesting," the presiding elder said as murmurs
now filled the great hall. "But I'm sorry, mates are "
"I'm not his mate I'm his enforcer."
The older Vampire hissed, causing silence to cloak the hall. "Same clan,
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therefore not allowed."
"You said pictures," Sasha spat back. "I've got 'em. U.S. Military, Special
Forces, Paranormal Containment Unit, sir!" Sarcasm had a stranglehold on her
and she saluted him like he was a five-star general and stepped forward. If
she'd been armed, she would have shot him, just because. "That's right, even
though you undead bas-tards don't photograph, the lack of photo image is what
nails you. I can prove through military surveillance that 'nothing' opened a
lab vault with infected Werewolf toxin in it and removed it from our labs."
The Fae peacekeeping forces turned their arrows to-ward the Vampire box now,
and she also saw they had vials of liquid that she was sure had to be holy
water, locked and loaded and ready to go.
"But that "
"And," Sasha said, practically leaning over the edge of her box as she cut off
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