Page 49

“You were not?”

She gave a cough. “Indeed, no. We were not.”

“But you see how I might have thought you were.”

“My dear boy, if relations between our families have deteriorated, the fault is entirely on your side.” Her voice was cold as ice.

“What do you mean? I have kept your end of the bargain now for decades.”

She pursed her lips. “But your brother has not.”

“Simon?”

She looked sharply at me. “He has opened ten clubs in the past three years, most recently a casino complex.”

“But that is outside state lines,” I said.

She shook her head. “No, indeed, it is the other way around. It falls neatly in on the other side, quite within the city boundary.”

I pondered this information, which was new to me.

“How did he get the license?” I asked.

“It appears he has friends in high places,” she said with pursed lips. “Very high places, indeed.”

“You could have come to me,” I said.

“Oh, we tried! Bernard has contacted you several times, only to hear how busy you are,” she said, contemptuously. Bernard was her son and the face of the family, even though she was in charge. I couldn’t pretend I hadn’t received the messages from Bernard; however, I had not returned them as I didn’t think them important enough.

“As you see, our fortune has waned in this new era and the political will has not been on our side,” she said, waving over the grounds.

“You should’ve called me,” I said. If I knew Bee was trying to get hold of me, I would have made the time to talk to her. It was in my interest to keep the peace with the Fitzgeralds, I didn’t want to go back to a time of backstabbing and dirty dealings in the dark.

“Oh, it wouldn’t have made a speck of difference, dear boy,” she said, getting up slowly from her chair. I saw that she moved with difficulty and wondered if something was ailing her after all. She was older than my father, must have been almost four hundred years old.

“What do you mean?”

“There are new forces at play in the world today. We are the least of your worries. My family is on the way out and I have accepted the ruin of my house. You may want to do the same.”

She hobbled to the edge of the garden and stared out at where the river used to be. Now the trees and shrubs had overgrown the hedges, blocking the view.

“Your brother is mixing with some dangerous folk.”

“Speak plainly, madam, I beg you.” I found it easy to slip into the courteous manners of the past, which I knew Bee appreciated. She came from another time and sometimes, I knew, the elegance and courtesy of those times were missed dearly.

She turned to face me and made sure she had my attention.

“Governor Leo de Salle,” she said. “He has become the most powerful man in the country. Wealthier and more powerful than the president even. They say, he controls the White House now. I don’t doubt it.”

“De Salle?”

I didn’t know much about him but I had heard of his growing power. I had wondered if he was one of the Hidden Ones. The vampires who pretended to be human in order to win people’s trust. They would never elect a vampire to office. We were still not trusted. But the Hidden Ones were dangerous, because they drank human blood to become stronger. They could be out in daylight. They even used products to darken their skin, to make it look more human. Even more frightening, their agenda was secret. They saw vampires as superior to human beings and believed they were a master race, who had a duty to manage others and be in control. They sought to bring back power to vampires and to subject human beings, either into slavery and captivity, as in the old days, or into poverty and a miserable existence, as in recent times.

I thought of the homelessness and criminality I’d heard of in the city, the streets lined with tents of people unable to get jobs. People eager to donate at the many blood banks that offered them a pittance.

“Do you think he…”

“Is Hidden?” she guessed my thoughts.