"I won't make the same mistake again!" She struggled to a sitting position, trying not to show the effort it cost her. The problem-again-was that she wasn't a vampire. She couldn't recover as quickly from loss of blood... but Morgead didn't know that.
Not that he'd care, anyway.
Part of her winced at that, tried to argue, but Jez brushed it aside. She needed all her strength and every wall she could build if she was going to get past what had happened.
It shouldn't have happened, whatever it had been. It had been some horrible mistake, and she was lucky to have gotten away with her life. And from now on, the only thing to do was try to forget it.
"I probably should tell you why I'm here," she said, and got to her feet without a discernable wobble. 'I
forgot to mention it before."
"Why you came back? I don't even want to know." He only wanted her to leave; she could tell that from his posture, from the tense way he was pacing.
"You will when I tell you." She didn't have the energy to yell at him the way she wanted. She couldn't afford the luxury of going with her emotions.
"Why do you always think you know what I want?" he snapped, his back to her.
"Okay. Be like that. You probably wouldn't appreciate the chance anyway."
Morgead whirled. He glared at her in a way that meant he could think of too many nasty things to say to settle on one. Finally he just said almost inaudibly, "What chance?"
"I didn't come back just to take over the gang. I want to do things with it. I want to make us more powerful."
In the old days the idea would have made him grin, put a wicked sparkle in his eyes. They'd always agreed on power, if nothing else.
Now he just stood there. He stared at her. His expression changed slowly from cold fury to suspicion to dawning insight. His green eyes narrowed, then widened. He let out his breath.
And then he threw back his head and laughed and laughed and laughed.
Jez said nothing, just watched him, inconspicuously testing her balance and feeling relieved that she could stand without fainting. At last, though, she couldn't stand the sound of that laughing anymore. There was very little humor in it.
"Want to share the joke?"
'It's just ... of course. I should have known. Maybe I did know, underneath." He was still chuckling, but it was a vicious noise, and his eyes were distant and full of something like hatred. Maybe self-hatred.
Certainly bitterness.
Jez felt a chill.
"There's only one thing that could have brought you back. And I should have realized that from the instant you turned up. It wasn't concern for anybody here; it's got nothing to do with the gang." He looked her straight in the face, his lips curved in a perfect, malevolent smile. He had never been more handsome, or more cold.
"I know what it is, Jez Redfern. I know exactly why you're here today."
Chapter 10
Jez held herself perfectly still, keeping her face expressionless. Her mind was clicking through strategies.
Two exits-but to go out the window meant a three-story drop, and she probably wouldn't survive that in her condition. Although, of course, she couldn't leave anyway without doing something to silence Morgead-and she wouldn't survive a fight, either....
She suppressed any feeling, returned Morgead's gaze, and said calmly, "And why is that?"
Triumph flashed in his eyes. "Jez Redfern. That's the key, isn't it? Your family."
Ill have to kill him somehow, she thought, but he was going on.
"Your family sent you. Hunter Redfern. He knows that I've really found the Wild Power, and he expects you to get it out of me."
Relief spread slowly through Jez, and her stomach muscles relaxed. She didn't let it show. "You idiot! Of course not. I don't run errands for the Council."
Morgead's lip lifted. "I didn't say the Council. I said Hunter Redfern. He's trying to steal a march on the Council, isn't he? He wants the Wild Power himself. To restore the Redferns to the glory of old. You're running errands for him."
Jez choked on exasperation. Then she listened to the part of her mind that was telling her to keep her temper and think clearly.
Strategy, that part was saying. He's just handed you the answer and you're trying to smack it away.
"All right; what if that is true?" she said at last, her voice curt. "What if I do come from Hunter?"
"Then you can tell him to get bent. I told the Council my terms. I'm not settling for anything less."
"And what were your terms?"
He sneered. "As if you didn't know." When she just stared at him, he shrugged and stopped pacing. "a seat on the Council," he said coolly, arms folded.
Jez burst out laughing. "You," she said, "are out of your mind."
"I know they won't give it to me." He smiled, not a nice smile. "I expect them to offer something like control of San Francisco. And some position after the millennium."
After the millennium. Meaning after the apocalypse, after the human race had been killed or subjugated or eaten or whatever else Hunter Redfern had in mind.
"You want to be a prince in the new world order," Jez said slowly, and she was surprised at how bitterly it came out. She was surprised at how surprised she was. Wasn't it just what she expected of Morgead?
"I want what's coming to me. All my Life I've had to stand around and watch humans get everything.
After the millennium things will be different." He glared at her broodingly.
Jez still felt sick. But she knew what to say now.
"And what makes you think the Council is going to be around after the millennium?" She shook her head.
"You're better off going with Hunter. I'd bet on him against the Council any day."
Morgead blinked once, lizardlike. "He's planning on getting rid of the Council?"
Jez held his gaze. "What would you do in his place?"
Morgead's expression didn't get any sweeter. But she could see from his eyes that she had him.
He turned away sharply and went to glower out the window. Jez could practically see the wheels turning in his head. Finally he looked back.
"All right," he said coldly. "Ill join Hunter's team-but only on my terms. After the millennium-"
"After the millennium you'll get what you deserve." Jez couldn't help glaring back at him. Morgead brought out all her worst traits, all the things she tried to control in herself.