Free Laws of the Blood 4: Deceptions: Deceptions by Susan Sizemore

were tantrums. Dishes were broken. There werethreats. Gerry got punched out by Gavivi.”
    “That sounds promising.”
    “Well, there was one sane person in the bunch. Roger Bentencourt, he’s Rose’s boy. He was the only one who seemed to understand the necessity of what you want from them. He promised to present the facts rationally to his mistress.”
    “Rose is as sensible as any of us can hope to be,” Olympias answered. “Let’s hope the nest in Alexandria won’t give me any trouble.” She scratched the hellhound’s ears. “Time for us to go for a walk, Bitch.”

Chapter 5
     
    “ I DON’T SEE why you should have to put up with this,” Bentencourt said to Rose. “The so-called Enforcer of the City has no right to dictate to you. You don’t live in her city. She’s high-handed, rude—I cannot believe the contempt and arrogance she showed you of all people in having a slave summon me when she should—”
    “It would hardly have been polite for a slave to summon me,” Rose said reasonably, interrupting his well-rehearsed tirade.
    Fortunately he knew that Rose would read his very real frustration as being for her rather than at her. They were alone in Rose’s large upstairs bedroom. The lovingly polished dark wood Federalist furniture was original, built for Rose when the city of Washington was new. The Audubon bird prints on the teal green walls had been purchased new, as had all the leather-bound books in the tall bookcase. The rugs were hand-braided on the Virginia plantation Rose had owned since before the Civil War. About the only furnishings less than a century old in the nest leader’s private sanctuary were the heavily insulated drapes that covered the tall, narrow windowsthat looked out on the back garden. The mattress on the finely carved bed was new as well. Bentencourt had insisted on a certain amount of creature comforts—though his pretext, as always, had been that Rose deserved to treat herself better.
    He’d almost been surprised to discover the place had plumbing, electricity, and a telephone when he’d moved in. Fortunately Bentencourt’s two predecessors, as Rose’s lovers in the last century, had persuaded her to make a few concessions to the times. Bentencourt wondered what excuses they’d used, since Rose was conservative to the point of stagnation. She actually believed in the ancient laws that forbade strigoi from sharing in the technological advances of the mortal world.
    These days even the Enforcers ignored laws that had been forced on the Council sometime in the Renaissance by a group of religious fanatics who’d still believed they’d been turned into vampires by the wrath of an ancient goddess. This bunch believed vampires existed to punish evil mortals, but didn’t deserve to share in any good thing that came from the still pure and holy daylight world. Bentencourt didn’t know what had become of that particular faction of strigoi, but at least their influence had significantly waned in recent centuries. This didn’t stop some vampires, like Rose, still having a penitential streak in their natures.
    Rose was also shy and demure, unworldly even by underneath world standards—especially strigoi standards. She Hunted no more than once a decade, did not take companions very often, and her only slave was a lawyer who managed her finances. His family had belonged to Rose for generations. She took in only enough nestlings and young vampires to retain her standing as a nest leader. Bentencourt found her useful. Because he’d seduced her into sharing her blood with him, he really couldn’t rouse up the contempt she truly deserved. He loved his Rose even as he used her.
    He took a seat beside where she lounged on the bed,propped up by a pile of tapestry, satin, and floral chintz pillows. He took her long-fingered hands in his and kissed them one at a time. Heavy, jeweled rings gleamed on every finger of her hands, gifts from former lovers. He’d given her the