The Devil's Wolf

"Your message," Ashlynn had been thinking furiously. "You are trying to place the blame for the vampire military on the human governments."

"I am trying," he replied gently. "To prevent Others from becoming slave owners. We need to believe that the humans will not rise against us again, and to do that, we need the humans to believe that our military action is justified. We need to be seen as victims of their violence defending ourselves."

"That was why you wanted the building to blow up," she met his eyes, a frown pulling her eyebrows together. "I don't know whether to be impressed or scared of the depth of your political maneuverings, Elior."

"I have been alive a very long time," he said calmly. "And I have learnt to quickly turn a situation to my advantage."

Elior had probably been alive when politics had been invented, she thought with amusement. He had probably nursed on it as a babe, studied it as a youth, practised it as an adult, working his way up the vampire hierarchy one scheme at a... Oh, shit, she realized.

"Did you let Lucian build power?" She asked him abruptly, straightening and turning to face him. "Did you let him build power and plot his overtaking of the vampire hierarchy, so that you could defeat him and take the power yourself?" Elior's lip curled slightly in the corner. "If I did, I would be a very devious man."

"My mother threw a hurdle in your plans, didn't she?" Ashlynn sat on the bed and pulled off her boots, feeling the realization sink into her bones like a chill. Her very clever mate had missed nothing, had been taken by surprise by nothing that had occurred. "When her blood gave Lucian greater strength and speed than you possessed. You almost lost, as a result." She stopped horrified by how her thoughts had unraveled. "Oh, my god."

Cael pushed himself up into a crouch. "Ashlynn?" He murmured picking up on her tone.

"Elior's the bad guy," her jaw dropped. "He has planned this, all along."

"I resent being called a bad guy," Elior shrugged out of his suit jacket and hung it over the back of a chair. "In politics there is no black and white, no angel and devil. There are just different game plans, and different outcomes." "Do you want to be a king, Elior?" She edged across the bed to Cael, seeking the winged man's protection about the danger that the vampire suddenly presented to her.

"No," the vampire sat in the chair and removed his shoes. "No, I don't want to be a king, Ashlynn. And stop crawling across the bed to Cael as if you fear that I will suddenly turn violent against you. That is just insulting. I would never," he lifted his eyes to hers. "Never harm you.

"Twenty-four years ago, the vampires were stagnating under a hierarchy reluctant to embrace change," he loosened his tie. "It is a side effect of our long lives. Many hold on to the ways and attitudes of their youths. There were different movements forming within the vampire population, all aiming to overthrow the hierarchy.

"I assessed the potential of all and feared that many of the movements would do more harm than good. It became obvious that I needed to control the outcome. And so, I cleared the path for Lucian, a vampire I knew to be weaker than I, to build a following, amass power, and gain access to the hierarchy.

"My intention was to allow him to be the villain, focusing the vampire population on his crimes, and then step in and remove him, allowing the hierarchy to be replaced by younger and more flexible vampires without opposition. "Your mother's involvement caused a number of issues. It cost me my family, and an arm and a leg quite literally," his expression was grim. "And, whilst I was disabled and unable to control him, Lucian's greed and ambition took him beyond the hierarchy of vampires, into conquering the world.

"I take responsibility for the vampire's exposure to the human world," he began to unbutton his shirt. "Whilst I could not predict that the font would suddenly appear in my pawn's harem, it was my machinations that placed that pawn in the position to do great harm. As a result, I have spent the last two decades trying to make amends and repair the harm caused.

"As you have said yourself, the time has come for the Other world to drop their glamours, to free the vampires from standing between them and the humans. I could see, early on, the humans plot to rise against us, as I could see Caleb Roth's plans to rise against me.

"I did not intend for it to unfold in quite this way. That is the risk of these types of political movements. There is a saying - the devil fools with the best laid plans. I have had to adjust with the changing situation.

"My plan had been to create a situation where we had no apparent choice but to use the military, and too apparently reluctantly do so. Once I had control over the humans, and had eliminated Caleb Roth, I would encourage the Other world to reveal themselves, and then push for them to gradually forgive the humans their violence against vampires, creating an equal society.

"But this way, thanks to your social media appeal, works even better, with the Other world voluntarily revealing itself to the human beings and the human beings supporting both Other world and the vampires. Equality between the species will be attained much faster as a result.

"My aim has always been to repair the damage done by Lucian. We can't go back, and we can't hide vampires from the humans now that they know about us. But we can expose the Other world and shift the focus off of vampires, creating equality for all. "If that makes you see me as a villain," he stood and removed his shirt. "I am sorry for it. My motivation has always been for the greater good of my people, not my own personal gain. Some might see that as heroic." "How many have died because of this plan, Elior?" She challenged him.

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"Far fewer than would have died had I not seen the plans of the humans and Caleb Roth and taken action," he replied. "Sometimes there is no path which does not carry with it some death, Ashlynn. I see my job to be keeping those deaths to the minimal."

"He is a very clever blood sucker," Cael had relaxed and slid off the bed. He began to undress. "A very manipulative, scheming, but clever blood sucker," his smile was predatory but indifferent to the complexities presented by Elior's scheming. They did not matter to the devil.

Ashlynn pressed her fingertips into the corner of her eyes. "If my father ever knew," she said. "He would kill you Elior. His sister died in the battle against Lucian and he carries that wound to this day."

"As did my family," Elior replied softly. "Die. All of them."

"If this gets out Elior," she met his eyes. "The whole world will tear you apart."

"Everyone has to die sometime," he smiled, the weariness shadowing his eyes. "I must admit, finding my mates during this process was not part of the plan. Perhaps when this began, I was a little suicidal. It has been a long and lonely life. Not everything I have done during it, have I been proud of.

"There was always a risk that I would be discovered and that discovery would result in my death. At the beginning, I was willing to risk it, because I had ceased to value my life. Now, I hope that only my clever mate works it out, so that I might live the rest of this suddenly very valuable life with my mates, watching our children grow."

"Oh, Elior," she sighed heavily, feeling the weight of his explanation and his fragile hope. "Who else knows? Your children? Is that all?"

"You and Cael. That is all. My children do not know. They suspect, perhaps, but they will be loyal."

She nodded, feeling very tired and world weary. "This plan was why you were in the embassy. You were securing yourself a possible font."

"As I have said before, I was preventing my enemies from doing so." He smiled slightly but his eyes were grieving. "I did not know that you were my mate."

"Would it have changed your plans?" She saw the answer on his face and nodded. "This puts me in a very uncomfortable situation, Elior. I don't know what is the right thing to do. What will happen from this point on, according to your plans?"

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"My military is positioned to take back control," Elior removed his trousers and hung them on the chair.

Both her men were in their skin, and she couldn't enjoy it, she thought as Cael walked by naked, into the bathroom. She heard the hiss of water in the shower as he started it.

"Nate will dispose of Caleb and his followers. By tomorrow morning, order will be restored. There will be elections to replace the deposed governments, and I will encourage Others to put themselves forward. The Other world and the human world will merge." Elior held out his hand, the offering an olive branch, and a vulnerability. "Will you shower with us, Ashlynn?"

"You have lied, all along, even when it was just us," her heart hurt. She was angry and sad, the two emotions at war within her. "You lied to me. It's all been a big act. You played me. You used me. I haven't even thought of all the ways I have been manipulated by you."

"Your anger is justified," his hand dropped to his side, its rejection loud between them. "I am so very sorry, Ashlynn."

He turned and went into the bathroom, and she heard Cael greet him cheerfully, totally undisturbed by the conversation. She continued to put away the items from the bed, her motions jerky, and her mind whirling.

Both of her men were villains, she realized.

Cael had manipulated, kidnapped, and had tried both to rape and kill her mother, and yet Ashlynn had overlooked his actions, justified them in her head as being acts of grief, even, when she looked at the timing impartially, much of his crimes against her mother had predated his loss of his family.

Elior's political machinations had caused the riots that many called Armageddon. No wonder he disliked the name. What a terrible thing, she thought, to have on his conscience. An unpredictable result of his actions, and he had worked tirelessly ever since for his people. But did that make it okay?

She pushed the tears that tracked down her cheeks away irritably. He hadn't learnt from Armageddon. Yet again he had used politics to start a war. Was he right, that his actions saved more lives than they cost? How would she ever know the answer to that?

She remembered her conversation with Cael on the roof of the police station. Sometimes the lines of right and wrong were so close together, it was impossible to tell them apart.

She had forgiven Cael. Why did she find it so hard to forgive Elior? Because she answered herself, she had grown up with Elior as the heroic icon of goodness on TV. She held him to a different standard than she did the devil. With Cael, she expected his morals to be grey at the best, and she embraced the wickedness of him.

She blew out a breath and went to the bathroom door.