Cheung’s face lost some of its color. “You are saying that there are two fey royal houses involved in this?”
“And at least three Senates. The rune’s the hottest item in town, only nobody knows where it is. And we can’t ask Jókell because he’s dead.”
“Yes. We found the body but not the stone. It had been taken.”
“By Elyas, of the European Senate,” Louis-Cesare informed him.
“Elyas.” Cheung’s hand clenched on the handkerchief. “He will pay for the losses he has caused me this night.”
“That is doubtful.”
Cheung bristled. “You believe that lightweight to be my equal? I would have challenged him years ago if I thought he would fight his own battles!”
“I believe only that it is difficult to revenge oneself on a corpse.”
Cheung looked confused.
“Elyas is dead,” I said bluntly. “Someone killed him tonight and took the stone, and no, we don’t know who.”
“You are one of the chief suspects,” Louis-Cesare added helpfully.
Cheung stared at him for a moment. “I beg your pardon.”
“Not anymore,” I objected. “He was here waiting for me while Elyas was being killed. And so were his men.”
“That is not an alibi,” Louis-Cesare argued. “He could have followed us to Elyas’s, murdered him and been here in time to intercept you on your return.”
“If he knew Elyas had the stone. But he didn’t. He wasn’t even in New York when Jókell was killed.”
“Perhaps, perhaps not. We have only his word for it that he arrived in New York when he said he did. But let us assume that he was telling the truth. He could nonetheless have surmised that Elyas was the thief. He had been plagued by telephone calls from the man all day; Elyas told me so himself. When the rune turned up missing, it would not have been difficult to infer that Cheung might be responsible.”
Cheung’s face had been getting progressively redder as Louis-Cesare talked. “You are accusing me?”
“You had an excellent motive,” Louis-Cesare said, as calmly as if he weren’t outnumbered eight to one. “Probably the best of anyone. The other interested parties merely want the stone. You need it, to avoid the wrath of your mistress.”
“But he was here all night,” I insisted, “from shortly after we escaped him at the Club.”
“And how do you know this? The man would say anything.” Louis-Cesare waved a hand, fortunately not the one with the sword in it. “He is clearly desperate.”
“He doesn’t look desperate.” Cheung looked somewhere between confused and pissed.
“Of course he is desperate. He is facing execution!”
“Execution?” Cheung said sharply, his eyes darting back and forth between the two of us.
“It is a death penalty to break the Senate’s truce. It is also death to murder another senator outside of a duel. And Elyas was slaughtered like an animal,” Louis-Cesare informed him. Cheung lost the rest of his color very quickly.
“But he was here,” I insisted. “We have a witness.”
“One of his men?” Louis-Cesare sneered. “They would say anything for him.”
“No. One of ours. He kidnapped Radu to find out who I was and to try to get me to talk. He’s around here somewhere….”
“You kidnapped my Sire?” Louis-Cesare demanded, rounding on Cheung, who was starting to look a little beleaguered.
“He has not been harmed.”
“That is irrelevant. Kidnapping him alone was a violent act and a clear violation of the truce!”
“She kidnapped my servant,” Cheung said, pointing at me.
“She is not vampire. The truce does not affect her.”
“She was sent by a vampire!”
“She was sent by the Senate, who I am sure will be receiving a formal complaint from Lord Radu very shortly.” He looked pointedly at me.
“Yes,” I said, hoping I knew where he was going with this. “And I might have mentioned that you were here, when I called to let them know I have Raymond.”
“They already have men on the way,” Louis-Cesare added confidently. “Can you not feel them approach?”
I thought that was a risky strategy, but it seemed to work. Cheung began to look a little nervous. Of course, that wasn’t necessarily good for us; he might decide to kill the witnesses and blame it on the fey.
“I didn’t mention the kidnapping,” I said quickly. “I thought there was a chance Radu might want to forget the whole thing.”
“Why would he choose to do that?” Louis- Cesare demanded. “At the very least, he could have the man formally chastised.”
I didn’t know what the Senate’s idea of “chastisement” entailed, but judging from Cheung’s expression, it wasn’t anything good. “Well, technically, no harm was done,” I pointed out. “And we are on the same side in the war….”
Cheung grabbed at the thought. “Yes, we are allies,” he reminded Louis-Cesare.
“You have a strange way of showing loyalty!”
“It was a… misunderstanding. I had been robbed. I merely requested Lord Radu to accompany me to this house to retrieve my property.”
“And is that what he will say before the Senate?”
Every time Louis-Cesare said “Senate,” Cheung flinched slightly. “There is no reason for them to learn of this.”
“Radu may feel otherwise. I do not like to speak ill of my Sire, but he can be somewhat… vindictive.”
“You could talk to him,” Cheung pointed out.
“Why would I do that?”
“We fought for you!”
“Not knowingly,” Louis-Cesare said.
“But the result was the same. You would not have carried the field without us. And therefore the debt is the same. And your family has a reputation for honoring your debts.”
“As does yours.”
Cheung’s eyes narrowed. “What do you want?” “Protection for this house for the next few days, until I can make other arrangements.”
I started to say something, then stopped. There were worse things than having Claire pissed off at me about vampire security. Assuming I could even figure out where she was.
“Agreed. And it is to be made clear to the Blarestri that I had no knowledge of their connection to the stone when I arranged to handle the sale.”
“Okay, but we get Ray,” I countered. “I promised to bring him in.”
Cheung rolled his eyes. “I have no further use for him. I wish I had never heard of him or that accursed stone!” He looked at Louis-Cesare. “We have an agreement, then?”
Louis-Cesare nodded. “I will do what I can with Lord Radu. But it would perhaps be best if you were not here when we have that discussion. Your presence might… inflame him further.”
Cheung didn’t go so far as to say “thank you,” but he nodded. He pulled a sheath off the fallen fey and handed it to a servant, who carefully enclosed the unusual sword. Then Cheung and half his boys slipped silently out the back door.
The rest lingered behind, looking awkward. “Would you… happen to have some tea?” one of them asked me, after a moment.
“Uh, yeah. I think so.” Claire had mentioned seeing some. “I’m not sure I know how to make it, though.”
“If you show me to your kitchen, I can manage.”
I pointed. “It’s through there. What’s left of it.” He nodded and the guys filed out, except for Scarface, who continued to watch us from above.
I let out a breath I didn’t know I’d been holding, and sagged against the wall. Damn. That could have gone… well, a whole lot worse.
Louis-Cesare looked at me and smiled. “Lord Cheung is an honorable man.”
Lord Cheung had been in deep shit and just dug himself out, I didn’t say. Because pissing off Scarface wasn’t my idea of a good time. Not when I felt like I might fall over any minute.
And not when I still had a mess to deal with. I pushed myself off the wall.
“Where are your friends?” Louis-Cesare asked me, as if he’d been reading my mind.
“I don’t know.” I looked at the missing stairs. A few planks still clung to the walls here and there, and the top three steps remained in place. But that wouldn’t have helped me much, even if I hadn’t had one hand out of commission. “Maybe upstairs.”