"You could always ask your Aedh if he's heard anything," Tao said.
"His name is Lucian, and he's not my anything." Not yet, anyway. "And all I really know about my father is his first name—Hieu. That's probably not helpful."
"But you can describe him," Ilianna said. "And you have his necklace. Your mom gave you that much, at least."
"True." I drank my Coke in several long gulps, then placed the empty glass on the table and glanced at the clock. "I need to go to bed, or I'll screw up the accounts tomorrow."
Tao rose, then offered me a hand and hauled me up with ease. He dropped a kiss on my cheek and said, "Stane's hunting up the nanowires. He said they'll be expensive, but I told him cost was no object. We just need the best."
"You really think Hunter would try to invade our thoughts?" Ilianna said, doubt in her voice and expression. "She's Directorate. They have all sorts of checks and balances in place—"
"The trouble," I cut in, "is not the fact that she's Directorate, but that she's also vampire high council. Those bastards are a law unto themselves, no matter what appearances suggest. And I got the distinct feeling she was here just as much as their representative as the Directorate's."
"Meaning the vampire council wants to get control of the gates?" Tao said, voice incredulous. "Why on earth would they want a power like that?"
"I don't know," I said grimly. "But Hunter said the Directorate was interested in using the gates—and hell—as an alternative to killing. Maybe the council is thinking along the same lines."
After all, the council didn't exactly sit on their hands and let the Directorate catch all the bad guys. They had the Cazadors—their very own, highly specialized squad of hit men. But the little of them I knew from Uncle Quinn suggested they were an extremely small unit. I guess hell provided an easier option—as long as you weren't worried about the whole human-race-becoming-vegetables scenario.
Ilianna snorted. "Yeah, like them controlling the gates wouldn't end up spewing trouble over the rest of us."
I glanced at her. "I did point out that playing with hell wasn't really a good idea, but I don't think she believed me."
"She's a vampire," Tao muttered. "They always think they know better than the rest of us."
He had a point. Ilianna frowned and said, "But why come to you? They'd have to know your dad hasn't contacted you."
"I think my father was merely an excuse." My voice was grim. "No one on the council or in the Directorate can walk the gray fields. If you can't walk the fields, you can't see the gates."