Moon's Rite

Alistair

Cliodhna shuffled through the papers, eyes flicking across the information with practiced ease. "I'm afraid whoever put out the hit on Sonya did so under a pseudonym. Unless the name Noble means something to you?"

Tony shook her head. She absently wondered if that name was indicative of a goal, a perceived state of being, a legitimate title, or some combination thereof. Really, any of the choices could be bad. Even just as a terrible annoyance could create bigger problems than absolutely necessary.

"Any other contracts? Clues as to this 'Noble's identity?"

Cliodhna shifted through the paperwork again and pulled a page loose, sliding it across the desk to Tony. She reached for it and quickly read over the list of names. Everyone on the list had three things in common. Tony knew them, in most cases personally. They were female. And they were less than ten steps to the Vampire throne.

Obviously, someone was staging a coup and making sure no one would be in position to contest the move. The three names at the top of the list were the ones that really got her hackles up. Actually four, but her own name concerned her less than the names of her mother and two sisters. If she got killed, she wouldn't be capable of being worried about it for long. Her mother and sisters would leave a lasting wound she didn't want to think about.

Tony folded up the page with a sigh and shoved it into her pocket. A quick call would put in motion the necessary precautions to keep everyone on the list safe. She needed to focus on finding this Noble and dissolving the threat in its entirety.

"How many of these names have been contracted out?"

Cliodhna thumbed through the file. "Not many. Only the truly stupid have taken on any of the Vampire aristocracy. No one has dared touch the Royal Family."

Tony smirked. "Oh, I don't know. You tried, didn't you? Does that make you truly stupid or moronically cocky."

Cliodhna looked Tony straight in the eye, mouth in a serious line. "I was protecting myself. In the unlikely event that we had actually managed to kill you, I would have disposed of your body as discretely as possible to a location no one but I would have known about in the end, and then prayed to every known deity of Heaven and Hell that no one found out you had been here." Her gaze dropped back to the file as she hissed unhappily. "No amount of money is worth what your family can do to the ones that piss them off."

There was a pregnant silence where Tony grinned. The guards in the room shifted uncomfortably. Cliodhna finally shivered and uncrossed her legs, swiveling her chair to face her desk and dropping the file on its surface. She leaned on her elbows and folded her hands.

"With that being said, any assistance I can offer you is freely given. I can't stop the idiots from taking on the contracts on your family, but I've certainly been advising against it. And as you've apparently noticed, your name, and those of your mother and sisters are not on my boards. This is a risky business but I'm not suicidal. Nor do I want my employees slaughtered. Should Noble contact me again, I'll do my best to gather information and report it to you."

"Very kind of you."

Cliodhna huffed, sitting back in her chair again and crossing her legs. "Not at all. I just happen to like living. Your family, or more accurately your sister, has never made a secret of the fact that she supports the Vampires staying to the shadows. Her intentions to avoid all out war with the Were's and Fae or the enslavement of Humans. She's got my full support on that decision. A supernatural war would be devastating for everyone. So, I support you to support her and make sure this Noble doesn't go mucking up the good thing we've got going."

"Logical." Tony got to her feet, finding a pen on Cliodhna's desk and tugging the file towards her. Across the inner cover, she wrote in her number, then her elder sister's for good measure. "Keep in touch. And if you come up with something time sensitive but can't get ahold of me, call Katty directly. She's got agents she can send to deal with anything you might find."