After the agreement was made, it was time to disperse and bring their respective covens into play. Helena considered her numbers and found them better than expected. The fledglings would mostly have to be moved out of the city, but that was standard. Combat with humans usually involved a lot of human blood, and no one wanted to risk a full-scale frenzy in the middle of the city.

Still, her coven might not be as big as some of the others, but they were well-connected to the Other community in their territory.

The river split the city, and running water always attracted Others. Her side, the west side, also contained a good bit of seafront, and a sprawling public market.

The perfect place to find allies.

“Am I crazy, or did that actually go well?” Owen asked as they slowly walked towards her limo and waiting driver. “I mean, it did, right?”

“I told you, this is not the first time we’ve put old grudges aside to focus on a threat,” Helena reminded him, and checked her watch. It was getting on towards one in the morning, and she could smell dawn, hours off yet, but coming. “No one wants to risk our city for one Hunter, no matter who that hunter is.”

He opened his mouth to answer, when suddenly there was a blur, and he was pinned to a wall.

“Yvanna!” Helena’s voice cracked like a whip as she stalked towards the snarling Elder. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Chao-Fe and Ekaterina tense. Yvanna was Ekatarina’s closest friend and ruled North-Port Coven to Ekatarina’s South-Port. “Release him, now.”

“He murdered Henri!” Yvanna hissed, and squeezed Owen’s throat tighter as her eyes flashed red. “An Elder. One of our own!”

And her sire. Helena cursed herself a fool for not remembering her relationship with Henri. She should have planned this better.

Owen’s heart was fast, and his breathing was raspy. There was nothing for it.

Helena pushed forward, calling on gifts that she rarely used but kept sharp, just in case. She hit the other Elder hard enough to send her flying, and caught Owen before he could fall.

“Thanks,” he coughed, and she stepped between him and Yvanna even as the Russian vampire got to her feet, hissing. “Uh-“

“Stay behind me,” Helena told him, and shrugged off her blazer. “And hold this.”

She didn’t look back, but he took the white silk without another word.

“You dare,” Yvanna snarled and stalked nearer. Helena let her claws slip free, and hoped she wouldn’t have to kill her fellow Elder here and now. With a threat bearing down on them, the loss of leadership could be devastating. “My claim is true, and his life is mine!”

“He is under my protection,” Helena said mildly, and got ready for a fight. Yvanna was older than her, but had never been much of a fighter. “You know that when I called this meeting. You knew that during this meeting. If your claim was true, you would have voiced it there, not here, like a fledgling with no decorum.”

“Yvanna, she is right,” Ekaterina said from the sidelines. At over seven hundred years old, she was the second oldest vampire in the city, and had often played the judge in disputes. Her fairness was beyond question. “And you did not target the human before now, despite his presence in our city.”

“I killed him for murdering my best friend,” Owen found his voice but wisely didn’t move from behind Helena. That was good. She didn’t want to risk him while he was still useful. “One of his massacres led to a handful of fledglings being turned and abandoned. One of them was my best friend. I killed Henri to stop the massacres, and to get revenge for my friend.”

“We were aware of Henri’s regrettable choice of amusements,” Chao-Fe said, backing up Ekaterina with a disinterest air that was mostly a ruse. Plenty of challengers took that disinterest for real, and did not live to regret it. “Yvanna, you know our laws. If you had claimed Vendetta before now-“

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“He is human,” Yvanna spat, and dropped her claws. They glittered silver with metal caps and Helena sighed.

This was not going to be fun, and the timing couldn’t be worse.

“Ekaterina, you witness my claim on this human?” she asked, and nudged Owen out of her way. Yvanna was going to try for him any moment, and Helena would probably have to kill her. The other Elder was close to Frenzy, and unless she backed down, she was a danger to them all. “I called this meeting in good faith for our laws, and I remain lawful in my actions here, including the defense of my property.”

“You do.”

“Traitor!” Yvanna accused Ekaterina, who pursed her lips in faint disapproval. “How can you take the side of prey!”

“Another Elder has claimed him,” Ekaterina told her mildly. “You know our laws. If you had spoken before she did, his life would be yours, but you did not, and so it is not. Stand down, sister. This is not the time.”

“I am no sister of yours, traitor!” Yvanna screamed at her, and lunged forward, so fast that even Helena could barely follow her. “Die!”

She might be fast, but Helena had, sadly, been expecting something of the sort. Yvanna’s temper was legendary, and once began, the Frenzy would not cease. They all feared the madness for good reason. It was a shame to have one of their highest fall to it.

“I am sorry,” she murmured as her fingers sank through Yvanna’s silk blouse and skin and curled around her heart. “This was not how I hoped to settle this matter.”

With a single twisting wrench, she pulled Yvanna’s heart out of her chest. The other Elder only had time for a single, horrified gasp before she crumbled into ashes.

Helena brushed vampire dust off her sleeve and turned to reclaim her jacket from Owen, who was mute with shock.

“I trust,” she said as she pulled her coat on over her shoulders, “That this will not be considered a crime against one of our own?”

“Your claim was clear,” Ekatarina said sadly, and regarded the pile of ashes on the dirty pavement. She reached into the back of her own limo and retrieved an elegant urn, and knelt to gather Yvanna’s remains into it. “She attacked, in violation. Your kill was clean.”

“So it was witnessed,” Chao-Fe agreed, and sighed. “Who was her Second?”

“Ilari,” Helena said, and ignored the dust and blood that still stained her hand. “He is reasonable and capable, but he is young.”

“I will take the territory until after this crisis,” Ekaterina said, and looked at Owen. “This death was unfortunate. Be glad you were under protection this night, or it would be your blood here, and not hers.”

With that she turned and slid into the limo, Yvanna’s ashes cradled in her hands. Chao-Fe nodded shortly and followed her lead. Helena waited until they were both gone to pull out her handkerchief. It was dark with dirty blood by the time she balled it up and put it back in her pocket.

“Are you okay?”

The concern was surprising, and Helena considered the question ash she nodded to her unflappable driver. It was not the first vampire fight he had seen, and would not be the last.

“No,” she decided after a while. “the loss of an Elder in a time of crisis is always bad, and Yvanna was one of our oldest. Her Second is untried. Ekaterina is able to rule both covens, but that is not sustainable for long.”

“I’m sorry.”

That was real sincerity, and Helena examined her human with new curiosity. He shrugged uncomfortably when she didn’t say anything more.

“Why?” she asked at last, genuinely interested. “I did not particularly like Yvanna. She was acceptable, but Henri instilled a number of poor habits in her that she refused to give up when she became an Elder. In fact, she might have been there when you killed him, if she had not already been Elder of North-Port Coven.”

“The other lady-vamp seemed upset.”

“Yvanna was her dearest friend. They were young together in Bucharest where the hunting is good, and came to this country together just after the American Civil War.”

There was a lot of shared history among the Elders, but few were closer than Yvanna and Ekaterina. Helena only hoped she hadn’t just ended her friendship with Ekaterina by killing her old friend. It would complicate things if she had, although Ekaterina was old enough to keep personal feelings out of it until the crisis was past.

The thought of Yvanna reminded Helena of a task left undone, and she turned to Owen even as the limo purred towards her Coven-Hold, and safety.

“What-“ Owen said as she caught his chin firmly and tilted his head up. His heartbeat began to pound and Helena ignored it in favor of examining the new bruises on his skin and the faint, bleeding marks of Yvanna’s claws. “What are we doing here?”

“Tell me if you have any trouble breathing,” Helena ignored his question and prodded gently at the darkening skin. He hissed, but there didn’t seem to be deeper damage underneath. “Throat damage is nothing to ignore. I have several very talented doctors in my pay. If you need attention, tell me.”

“You’re taking this protection thing pretty seriously,” Owen said as his heartbeat slowed. Helena was surprised, considering her fingers were still on his throat, but she supposed he had good reason to trust her intentions at this point. “Thank you.”

“It is my duty to protect this city and my coven.” Helena told him, and leaned back into her seat. “I only wish Yvanna had felt the same.”