Page 44 of Blood and Bone
“I’m sure the I.S.R. is eager to helpallvampires. It is what you do, is it not?” a different man asked. “It’s your mandate.”
“We offer help to all clans and all reservations who ask,” Eoghan said. Ari noticed that his tone was tinged with icy cold, something he’d only heard once or twice. He was pretty sure both times had happened when he’d been addressing the space faeries. “If your clan was under attack, I think you’d hope we would be there for you as well, sir.”
“These I.S.R. marshals were very helpful to us,” Joe said.
“With what?” one of the other elders asked, looking at Two Trees.
“With this,” Joe said, reaching into his pocket and pulling a plastic evidence bag out of it before holding up Riversong’s diary.
Ari’s eyes widened. He hadn’t known the chief brought it along and he sure as hell hadn’t expected him to play the ColtWilkins card with the council or in front of strangers. He bit his lower lip to keep from smiling as Blackwood took the diary from Joe’s hand and stared down at it. He turned it over in his hands several times before handing it back.
“What is it?”
“It’s Riversong Wilkins personal diary. It details how her brother, Colt Wilkins—a member of this council—has been sexually abusing her since she was eleven years old. It also details how Colt had to be the one who colluded with a data input clerk in my office to establish her mate’s criminal record.”
Ari exchanged a wide-eyed glance with Eoghan. The diary hadn’t actually said anything about the clerk but Joe was on a roll, so he just kept his mouth shut as the chief continued.
“We sent Jack Vandross to prison on a three-year sentence for grand larceny after he supposedly broke into a safe in the treasurer’s office in thisverymunicipal building when he was here doing routine janitorial work. You all know Jack, right?”
All the men at the table nodded but only Blackwood spoke up. “We all knew him but that makes no difference. The man broke into a safe and stole money and jewels to run away with his children. The I.S.R. was called in to retrieve the fugitive.”
“We all know this,” Two Trees said. “Deputy Marshal Eoghan Sapphire is the one who brought him, Riversong, and their three children in.” He pointed at Eoghan. “That’s Marshal Eoghan Sapphire, the man who was introducing himself when you rudely interrupted him.”
“Uh, oh,” Eoghan muttered so low Ari was sure only he could overhear even in a room full of shifters.
“I—I—” Blackwood began.
“In any case, since you know Jack Vandross, the janitor, let me ask you this,” Joe went on. “Did he strike you asbeing such a clever criminal that he somehow figured out how to break into a locked safe for which he didn’t have the combination?”
“Well, no, but I—”
“No, in fact, Jack is kind of a simple man.” Joe held up the diary. “Riversong writes that her boyfriend, Jack Vandross, was forced to drop out of high school and forgo his dreams of becoming a nurse and working at the medical center here on the rez. Why, you ask? Because he learned that his girlfriend, Riversong—who he’dneverhad sex with—was pregnant and that it was her brother, Colt Wilkins who’d fathered her child. He’d been raping her since she was a kid!” Two Trees was practically shouting by now.
“So, Jack goes to prison, Riversong gets convicted by this very same table of tribal council members on aiding and abetting a fugitive and gets sent to jail on a six-month sentence to be served out here on tribal lands at Colt Wilkins’ insistence. If I recall correctly, he argued that she was an innocent because she was just a ‘stupid little girl’ who was led astray by a master criminal.Pfft,” Joe scoffed. “Master criminal my ass.”
He pointed his finger at Blackwood. “And by the way, that same man—Jack Vandross—kept Riversong’s secret all these years so that no one would find out that it was Colt who’d fathered her oldest child. Oh, and if you’re wondering, I arrested him this morning. He’s going to prison for a very long time and I’m gonna get Jack released with the help of this evidence and her testimony. Now, are you going to listen to these marshals as to why it’s a danger to our clan’s very existencenotto help a deposed vampire king get his throne back?”
Ari exchanged a glance with Eoghan as every man at the table began speaking over each other at once. In a few secondsBlackwood had shut his rude mouth and was sitting back in his chair, running both hands through his dark locks.
“Well, all righty then,” Eoghan said with a massive grin as he stared at Joe and Alo.
Ari noticed for the first time since their shift how both had glowing, violet eyes which were dancing with mirth.
Chapter Twelve
Eoghan and Ari spent the next half hour talking to the council about King John and the Flagstaff vampire clan which had once been his. They explained how his entire family had been slaughtered along with most, if not all, of his allies within his clan including anyone he considered to be a councilor. As well as Bradshaw’s ties to the drug business, how he’d been newly made, and his ties to the outlaw biker gang. Finally, Eoghan told them how they’d had been ordered to turn Townsend over to the new king, leaving out the part about having a traitor within the Agency.
Before leaving the barbeque restaurant with Joe and Alo, they’d decided that the fewer people who knew about their suspicions, the better. Not to mention the fact that neither of them fully trusted the councilors. Bringing the tribal council into this was risky on its face but Joe said no one on the rez would be willing to help the I.S.R. without their backing. They knew going into the conversation with the council that they were walking a tightrope, but Eoghan and Ari didn’t think they had any choice.
“Just so that we’re clear, you think this vampire, Tillis Bradshaw, is running a dangerous methamphetamine business using a Phoenix based outlaw motorcycle club?” Blackwood asked.
“The Phoenix Pagans, yes,” Eoghan replied. “Bradshaw was a member of the gang when he was human.”
“We suspect he’s made several of the higher ranked members into vampires,” Ari added. “They’ve also taken over the synthetic blood business in the area and are usingestablished distribution routes to spread drugs around as well, piggybacking on them. If you think about it, synthetic blood plants exist all over the U.S. If the Pagans have taken over one—”
“They’ll take over all of them,” Blackwood said, thoughtfully.
Ari nodded. “Yes, sir. It’s just a matter of time.”