Bitten (Book 1 - Book 4) novel Chapter 118

‘Is this good or bad?’ Natalia said.

Kate shrugged.

‘Oh, my word. I think this is good,’ Natalia said with emphasis.

‘It’s what the Council wanted,’ Kate said. ‘That is bad.’

‘But Uri doesn’t have to do what the Council says.’

‘Not openly.’

Natalia remembered the Drivers Guild attack. While it hadn’t come from the Council directly, it had come from Sherri’s daughter. The Drivers Guild was governed by the Council. She had visions of the Council making their life miserable.

‘I see. This is bad. He won’t recommend Sophie as President because the Council won’t like that. This is so damn confusing.’

‘This was an unexpected result,’ Kate said. ‘We have to wait and see how it plays out. Hopefully, someone is thinking.’

‘We still have the Challenge,’ Bonnie said. ‘However, Kareen didn’t sound too worried. She didn’t even mention it.’

‘Challenges aren’t shared. No one will say anything about it.’

‘I’m a Council member. She should have said something to me,’ Natalia said.

‘They only need you if they think they need another member for the majority count. If they have enough, they don’t need a full Council.’

‘Dinner,’ Zena said.

While Zena’s dinner was tasty, everyone’s appetite seemed lacking. A lot went into the refrigerator as leftovers. As soon as the table was cleared, the cards were dealt out.

Natalia focused on the game, trying not to think too hard about everything else.

At eight pm, all the phones buzzed.

Natalia noted that everyone cringed.

‘What is it?’

However, she picked up her own phone to look. It was a Viperian broadcast message. It consisted of a Council reprimand about attending Wednesday meetings. It declared that the next Wednesday meeting was mandatory.

‘That’s not going over well,’ Kate said.

‘Hell, no,’ Zena said. ‘Someone’s pissed. Now, they want to piss everyone else off.’

An hour later, Natalia received a text. It was from Uri telling her to step away for a private conversation.

‘Excuse me a moment.’

She went into the bathroom in her bedroom.

She text back that he could call. Hardly a second later, her phone rang.

‘Hello. How are you doing?’ she said.

‘Still breathing. Did you see the news?’

She thought his voice was rather quiet, like he needed a drink. It was rough.

‘Yes. Is this good or bad?’

‘Good,’ he said.

‘But this is what the Council wanted.’

‘Things are changing.’

‘What’s going on? I heard a Challenge was sent.’

‘Yes. The Council set the presentation time for eight pm on Thursday. You need to be there.’

‘Okay. I can be there,’ she said.

‘How is your leg?’

‘Good. I’m just missing both you and Victoria.’

‘I think we are all missing each other. I have to go. Take care. Love you.’

‘Love you.’

The call ended.

Natalia felt like crying. She sat there for awhile, wanting the quiet. Tail came in and sat on her lap. The warmth of her had a calming effect. Finally, she rose and walked back to the living room.

Everyone was watching her.

‘The Challenge is set for Thursday, eight pm,’ she said to them.

Kate lifted her phone.

‘We know. We just heard.’

‘I’m supposed to be there.’

‘We’ll get you there,’ Kate said.

Natalia sat back down to play cards. Everyone seemed preoccupied. They finally decided it was pointless to play when no one was paying attention.

‘Good night,’ Natalia said, rising.

Natalia woke at dawn. She could hear that someone was already up. When she rose, her leg muscles reminded her of her activities the day before. She took a good look at her wound. It was healing over and had gone from the width of a nickel to that of a dime.

‘Gone in a few more days.’

She wondered if rubbing sanguine tea on it would help, but since she hadn’t heard that from anyone, decided it worked better from the inside.

She rose and dressed. Tail ran in front of her out to the kitchen. Kate was making hot tea.

‘You’re up early,’ she said to Kate.

‘Edgy. Can’t sleep. I think everyone is. Zena, Mag, and Bonnie went to the house to check on things.’

‘I take it I’m to stay inside and be invisible.’

‘Yes. How is the leg?’

‘Almost healed.’

Kate poured her some sanguine tea.

‘There is nothing more on the news, but everyone is keeping watch.’

Natalia nodded and settled on the sofa.

‘I do wish I knew what is going on at my bank.’

‘I’ll have Grazie come up and give you a briefing,’ Kate said. ‘Don’t you call him.’

Natalia wondered why. Everyone knew she was out of the hospital which meant she was capable of using a phone. She looked around.

‘Where is my phone?’

‘We don’t want you using it.’

‘They know I’m in Hell.’

Kate just gave her a look.

Natalia felt this was going to be a long boring day.

‘Breakfast will be in a moment.’

‘Thanks, Kate.’

It was almost ten when Grazie showed up with Fenni.

‘We’re ready to loan out about four and a half million,’ Fenni said. ‘We need your signature on these checks.’

He placed them on the table.

‘Wow.’

He shrugged.

‘That’s only three customers,’ Fenni said.

‘Only? That means we’re earning… what? Five to nine percent?’

‘Business loans at the best credit rating are at eight percent at A’ppollo Bank. We’re following their lead. The highest percentage loan is fifteen percent, but no one would loan to them. Viperian company. They’re good. It’s a short-term loan of three years,’ Fenni said. ‘We have a dozen or so more applications that we are reviewing.’

‘Do I need to run more checks to the bank?’

‘No, Ravi said any one of us can deposit checks. He did recommend that you assign more than one person to sign them.’

Natalia took the offered pen and signed the checks. One was for the Imperial Hotel.

‘I’ll get more people authorized soon,’ she said. ‘I’m a little overwhelmed with some Council business at the moment.’

‘No problem,’ he said. ‘This is a fabulous beginning.’

Fenni left. Grazie remained.

‘It’s almost ten thirty. We have to get you out of here.’

‘What?’ Kate said.

‘You stay. I just need Nattie out.’

‘Why?’ Kate said.

Grazie shrugged.

‘Let’s go.’

‘Do I need my phone?’

‘No.’

Grazie now seemed to be in a hurry. She followed him out. Tail was right along with them.

They walked out of the alley to his car parked in the street. He drove out the main gates.

‘How long until no more vehicles?’

Grazie shrugged.

‘It’s complicated. If it wasn’t for Yiggy’s people we would be hard pressed to find workers.’

‘Why do I have to leave?’

‘We need you to disappear again to make sure you make it to the Challenge tonight.’

‘Does the Challenge have a chance?’

Grazie nodded.

‘This may change Viperia forever.’

‘Where are we going?’

‘I’m going home. I’ll drop you off at Moralis’s. Neither he nor Francie are home. Stacia is home babysitting Tazie.’

‘And this is better than being surrounded by my maids who are better trained than Stacia?’

‘Moralis has upped his security since becoming Mayor.’

‘And I have no phone if I need to call for help.’

‘Glove box.’

She opened it to find a phone.

‘All the numbers you need are programmed into it. No one knows you have it. Use it judiciously.’

Natalia could tell he was driving as direct to Moralis’s as he could. He pulled into the laneway and up close to the house. One garage door was open.

‘Stacia knows you’re coming.’

They both left the car. She saw him pick up a box and leave, while she and Tail continued on into the house.

‘Hi,’ Stacia said, hitting the button to close the garage door. ‘Come on downstairs.’

In the basement, there were monitors showing the cameras around the house.

The next couple of hours were pleasant. She played with Tazia and Tail. Then a buzzer went off.

Stacia’s eyes got big with fear. Natalia looked. There was a boat at the dock and three cars in the laneway.

‘No one should be here. Follow me. You have to leave.’

She ran into a room that wasn’t finished. There was a large foundation block. It was fake. She moved it easily aside to reveal a pipe.

‘You’ll hit water in ten feet. Then you will get to air in twenty feet after that. Go.’

‘Tail.’

‘Go,’ Stacia said with force.

There were sounds of people overhead.

Natalia shoved Tail into the pipe and then dove in. She had three feet of width to work with. Then it turned pitch black when Stacia shut the door.

Meep.

‘We’ll figure this out. We have water ahead.’

She reached the water. It was cold.

‘There better not be any catfish in here,’ she mouthed.