Frost Burned (Mercy Thompson #7)(79)

When Ben came up to tell me that there was a messenger from Marsilia for me at the front door, I was in one of the upstairs bedrooms reading James and the Giant Peach to the youngest three Sandovals. Kyle's stash of emergency family-in-need supplies included a big box of books designed to appeal to a wide range of age groups.

"It's just getting to the good part," said Sofia. "We're almost to the giant bugs."

"Can you keep reading?" I asked Sylvia.

"Who is Marsilia?" she asked, taking the book from me.

"The woman who owns the car I've been driving around," I told her.

She winced - she'd seen the car.

"Is that the vampire, Mercy?" asked Sissy, who was nearly seven going on thirty.

"Vampires?" Sylvia asked. "There are vampires, too?" And then she said, "You stole a vampire's car and trashed it?"

I winced, too. "Officially, there are no vampires. If you don't believe in them, they will leave you alone. So it's best if you don't believe in them."

Maia nodded solemnly. "My best friend Penny asked me if there were vampires, and I told her, no. I did tell her I rode a werewolf, and her mama told me that lying wasn't good. I wasn't lying that time, but sometimes lying is good, right? Mercy, will you come to my house when they come over again and tell them I'm not lying?"

Maia was either going to grow up to rule the world or loose a planetwide plague upon the land. Maybe both. She had started kindergarten this year, or should have anyway, so we had a little time before we had to look for a place to hide from her.

"You stole a vampire's car?" Sylvia said again.

"Stole is a strong word," I told Sylvia. "It was at my shop for an oil change when trouble hit, and I needed a car that no one could track. It'll be okay, trust me - as long as you don't talk about vampires. They take their secrecy very seriously."

"Mercy," said Maia.

"Okay," Sylvia said. "I'll make sure the children understand."

"Mercy." Maia's eyebrows lowered, and her voice rose. "You need to tell Penny's mama so she won't think I'm a liar."

"I will speak to Penny's mama," said Sylvia. "Now hush so I can read about big bugs and rotten fruit."

They hushed.

Ben followed me down the stairs. Asil and Honey, in her wolf form, were waiting at the base of the stairs. Ben must have told them before he'd gone upstairs to get me. That was okay, it saved me time.

I pointed to Honey, and said, "Stay out of sight, please. Too many guards says I'm scared of her - which I am - but I don't have to advertise that. It would reflect badly on the pack. Ben and Asil can come to the door with me, because no guards says I don't respect her." Which was also true but not useful.

I patted the lamb necklace around my neck to make sure it was still there. Objects of faith worked against vampires, and for me the lamb worked as well as a cross. Adam had given me a gold-with-emerald-eyes replacement for my silver lamb because wearing silver is problematical when you are the mate of a werewolf. It was just the right size to stay around my neck when I changed, and it was sturdy enough to stay on when I ran. On the same chain I wore one of Adam's army dog tags. Wedding rings are dangerous for a mechanic. I took a breath and centered myself as if I were about to enter a match at a dojo.

The man waiting on the porch step was a complete stranger, though my nose told me he was a vampire. I didn't know all of Marsilia's vampires by name, but there weren't that many, and most of them I knew by sight.

Marsilia was low on powerful vampires. Maybe she'd been recruiting. Though I had no way of telling which vampires were more or less powerful than others, this one did not seem like a new vampire. They had less control of themselves.

He was Asian - Chinese, if I wasn't mistaken - with a lean build. He wore black jeans and a gold silk shirt with a mandarin collar. With the porch light shining directly on him, I could see that it was embroidered with dragons in a gold just slightly darker than the cloth of his shirt. The temperature had fallen with the sun, and if he'd been human, he'd have been shivering in the cold.

He'd been changed young - not as young as Wulfe, who still looked like a half-grown teenager, and had since the Middle Ages. But if the vampire on Kyle's porch had been over twenty when he'd been turned, it hadn't been by much.

He bowed his head in greeting - the kind of bow I made before beginning a karate match, with head up and eyes on your opponent rather than the way some of the older European vampires and werewolves do it. I returned his bow the same way he gave it.

"I am Thomas Hao, Ms. Hauptman," he said without inflection of accent or emotion. "It is my great pleasure to issue you and your mate an invitation to meet with Marsilia, Mistress of the Tri-Cities' seethe. You may, of course, refuse. I am asked also to inform you that if you come tonight, certain matters may be quickly resolved. She has some information regarding the recent regrettable incidents that she believes would be interesting to you."

"Oh, that's too easy," said Ben, looking at me. "What does she want?" He spoke quietly, and both he and Asil had stayed a step farther back in the foyer than I was, so Hao didn't have a clear view of them. That didn't mean he couldn't hear them clearly.

"Do the wolves speak for you, mate of the Alpha of the Columbia Basin Pack?" Hao asked, his voice exquisitely polite. No, this was not a new vampire.