Missed portion of Dusty Trouble x 3

I cannot apologise enough!

I've missed a portion of the story.

Please read the story in this order:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

There were shadows flitting between the columns that lined the aisle. Dusty could sense the movements, and sometimes she caught a glimpse of a face as they moved forward towards the altar.

The flitting shadows were getting closer and closer and Dusty was beginning to feel a little worried. Then one of the shadows became more daring and actually touched her arm.

The shadow was unprepared for her reaction, though. Her hand whipped out and grabbed hold of the vampire by the throat, and the flitting shadows stopped in their tracks.

Dusty and Hunter heard a slow clapping sound. It came from somewhere swathed in shadows, beyond the altar. She let go of the struggling vampire and it melted into the dark, along with the other flitting shadows, and at last they were still.

The slow clapping began to increase in speed and soon it was full-blown applause. The voice that accompanied the applause sent chills down Dusty’s spine and she shuddered.

It was a voice so old and ancient that it took on a dry, cracked quality. It was the sound of rusty hinges squealing in protest as a gate is swung open. It was the sound of desiccated leaves skittering over a gravestone, and it was the sound of a howling gale whistling across a chimney top.

The voice was as old as stone but the figure that spoke with that voice was youthful, younger even than Dusty, and she couldn’t stop the gasp of surprise even as she listened to the words.

“Thank you for bringing these two here. I have heard much of the halfbreeds and their escapades and I appreciate your efforts, but it doesn’t alter a thing. Your sister is being hunted and when she is caught, she will be killed. I will not have the good name of my clan sullied by her association with us. She is not worthy – you are not worthy.”

“Sire, may I please speak with you?” Dusty said in a mature and respectful tone.

Hunter was surprised. He didn’t realise that Dusty knew the protocol for speaking with a clan leader, but there she had it.

He could either refuse her request, or allow her to speak. As clan leader, he could, in theory, also allow her to speak and then tear out her throat, but she either didn’t know that or she was hiding the knowledge better than Hunter would have done under the circumstances, he thought.

The clan leader looked at Dusty for a long moment. He flicked his gaze over Hunter and then back to Dusty and the gaze made ice particles form in Hunter’s bloodstream. He felt them sliding down his spine but he dare not shiver.

The clan leader nodded to Dusty that she might speak with him and she bowed her head in a polite nod.

“May I ask your name, sire?”

“Now, why would a halfbreed want to know my name?”

Dusty dared to raise her own gaze, and it was unflinching as her eyes met his. “Sire, I ask in all respect for your name, for then I may speak freely with you and feel more at ease, as a mediator should.”

“Hah, you have been brought here as a mediator, have you?”

“I believe so, sire. I also believe that there are a few facts and possible anomalies that I must clear up for the benefit of everyone concerned.”

The clan leader glared at Dusty for a few seconds, the longest few seconds of her life as far as she was concerned. Then he leaned close to her so that she could smell the tang of not quite fresh blood on his breath and she baulked a little at the odour.

“I believe that the benefit of everyone is none of my concern at all and as such, I care nothing for the fates of the meddling and obsolete pariahs that you seem to have thrown your hand in with.”

“I have not thrown my hand in with anyone, sire. I have agreed to mediate, nothing more. I have heard one side of this story and as we all know, there are three sides to every story.”

“Three?” He had turned away but her confidence interested him and he turned again to face her. “Explain the three.”

“There is one side, the other side, and somewhere in the middle of the two is the truth. I am looking for the truth in this matter. I must admit that I was not looking forward to negotiating with vampires and I have been stretched to my limits to research the traditions of your culture so that I don’t insult or upset anyone by mistake. I realise that if I had insulted or upset anyone by this stage, then there would be no more ‘halfbreed’ for you to worry about.”

Dusty smiled even in the face of the terrible danger she and Hunter were in. The vampires may have made a pact not to kill humans but neither she nor Hunter were, in fact, humans, and so all bets were off. They could be killed and disposed of without even smudging the pact, let alone breaking it.

The clan leader smiled too and if Dusty had baulked at the smell of stale blood on his breath, she mentally recoiled at that smile. It was humourless and full of evil and vicious promise of death, torture and pain – not necessarily in that order.

“I want my son back. I want him back and out from under the glamour that the conniving bitch has put on him.”

Dusty listened to what the clan leader said and she noticed something. The brothers didn’t rail against the comments and insults that he was hurling in their sister’s direction. To Dusty, that meant one of three things: they didn’t care about the name-calling, they were too worried about what he could do to them if they protested, or it was a set-up from beginning to end.

Dusty didn’t imagine that Marid would care about protocol as much as he did about his sister, and so she began to become wary.

She heard the tale coming from the clan leader, but she had also heard what the brothers had told her and their stories were so different that she believed Marid would have had something to say about the differences.

Then she searched her mind for a clue as to what they could possibly be up to. It was becoming clear that there were two agendas here. The clan leader wanted his son back, but what was the other reason?

“Am I being swapped in this negotiation? I believe that I am not here to mediate at all. I think that I am here for another purpose and I would like the common courtesy of being told what it is, if you please.”

Dusty allowed her anger to bubble to the surface and she changed her eyes to her more demonised look. She knew exactly how effective it was when the clan leader took an involuntary step back as she glared at him.

“I think you’ve made a mistake.”

The clan leader recovered his composure but didn’t regain the ground he had lost. He stayed where he was. “I believe that if there was a mistake made, that it was not mine. I asked for a surety that their sister would bring back my son. One wanted to fight it out and the other wanted to negotiate. I should have allowed the battle, for it would seem that the genius of that family is the third of it that is absent from this meeting.”

Part 6

Final Part