chapter 13
The mansion was large.
Perhaps large was a bit of an understatement.
Sitting atop a walled off property that seemed to be at least five acres, it rose from the white grounds like a dark, skulking thing, the snow failing to soften any of its sharp angles, failing to soften any of the harsh, unrelenting dark gray paint of the mansion.
It was with some surprise I noted the large amount of cars parked in front of the double doors that did not look unlike the casino we had just left.
Most of the cars were imported racecars, although a few working class sedans showed like gaps in a line of teeth.
Ryder cut the ignition. “Look, before we go, I really have to give you some advice.”
Jason straightened, put his shoulders back. “Advice? I thought you wanted me here? Am I wrong in assuming this gathering is for me?”
Shannon snorted. “No, you’re not. I see you still haven’t lost your way of sounding like you belong in some BBC period drama.”
“I thought you liked it.”
A corner of her lips quirked up. “I did.”
“Advice,” I said, clearing my throat. “What is this advice you have?”
“Don’t say a thing,” he replied. “Let Shannon and me do the talking. Trust me, this is kind of like those rights the cops always tell the perps. You know, what you say can be used against you? Only it won’t be in court, it’ll be just another strike as to why we shouldn’t keep you alive.”
Jason looked vaguely stunned. “Is this my execution then? Maybe I would’ve had better luck with Vincent.”
“Not quite,” said Ryder. “At least here you have people who will speak on your behalf. With Vincent, it’ll be over quicker than you could blink. Come on. We should go. They’re waiting.”
They’re waiting.
He couldn’t possibly sound any more ominous. “Then we would be fools to keep them waiting, wouldn’t we? Especially since I must now beg them for my Master’s life.”
And through all this, I needed to keep my ultimate goal in mind.
Infiltrate the vampiric circle.
Kill Noir.
And I needed Jason.
He couldn’t die.
I would not let it happen.
Getting out of the car took longer when Jason had a difficult time trying to undo the lever that would push the car seat forward and that only solidified my suspicion that two-door cars were merely death traps.
His fingers shook as he finally pushed the car seat forward. Did anyone else notice? Probably not, as Ryder and Shannon stood waiting for us on the front steps, Ryder with his arms crossed and Shannon with her hands shoved deep into her coat pockets.
I touched Jason on the shoulder and he flinched. Visibly. “Will you be...okay?”
He let out a shaky breath and shook his head. “I can’t have things end here. I have to know.”
“About Shannon?”
His eyes narrowed. “About everything.” His glance slid to me standing by his side. “But don’t worry. I’ll help you achieve your goal. I never go back on a promise. I swear it.”
“I never worried about that for one moment,” I said and meant every word.
Surprisingly.
I had never trusted anyone this much.
Not even Adrian.
Not even the Fellowship.
Best not to think about it. “We should go.”
He nodded. “Let’s go.”
Dressed as though black was going out of style the next night, two vampires stood sentry before the engraved, gilded double doors, arms crossed over their chests as though they were some sort of genies. “Your business.”
A low, sibilant voice whispered past their lower-face mask. Which one had spoken, this I could not discern. Male or woman, who knew. Although, I supposed it did not matter much.
Ryder waited for us to join him on the top stair and then positioned himself in front. Was it to protect us?
Or perhaps I was seeing benevolence where it did not belong.
He popped the collar of his peacoat and gave them a brilliant smile, teeth startling white under the light of the full moon. “Name’s Ryder. This here’s Shannon. We’ve brought the two that will needed to be interrogated by the Committee. They’re expected.”
The Committee?
The one on the left nodded at me. “She carries a weapon. We cannot allow passage until the sword is relinquished. There will be no weapons at the meeting.”
I felt my mouth dry. “That seems rather unfair. I’m sure most, if not all, is fully capable of tearing off my head with their own two hands. Do you mean to tell me that all vampires have been handcuffed?”
Ryder snorted, which then rapidly turned into a fit of coughing.
Shannon sighed. “For f*ck’s sake, just give them your weapon. Ryder’ll probably keep your safe. He’s been wanting to get into your pants for God knows how long.”
I chose to ignore the last sentence. “I don’t like how you use the word “probably”, vampire. I would like to be certain of my safety.”
Jason cleared his throat. “Don’t worry, Ran. You’re not the one they want, anyways.”
“No, you are,” I replied. “But they’ll have to get past me to get to you. Only my death would bring about such an outcome.”
Ryder held up his hands, still a bit out of breath. “Whoa, whoa. Why are you guys already talking about dying and stuff? I’m telling you, as long as you keep your mouth shut, things are going to be okay. They’re just curious about you, that’s all. Just...just let us do all the talking, okay? Besides, it’s not like Shannon doesn’t have anything to lose either.”
It’s not like Shannon doesn’t have anything to lose...
What was that supposed to mean?
Shannon cut in. “Look, can we just go in now? It’s f*cking freezing.”
And indeed, it had grown cold, so cold that I was shivering underneath the thick sportscoat, my neck unprotected by the sudden gale that tossed the hair into my eyes.
“Give them your sword,” said Jason.
As my Master, I could only obey him.
I did so, although it was with the most extreme reluctance I let a vampire take hold of the leather shoulder strap. “This is priceless to me.”
The vampire nodded. “As well it should be.”
Ryder put a hand on my arm. I let him. “We should go. It’s never a good idea to keep them waiting.”
Shannon followed his lead and put a hand on Jason’s shoulder. “I’ll lead.”
One of the guards pulled open a door, and I stared at the dark, gaping maw that couldn’t have been any less uninviting. “May you find luck this night.”
Ryder flashed them a blinding smile. “Of course, we will. After all, I’ve got my victory goddess with me.”
As if to prove his point, he lifted his hand, and mine with it.
A victory goddess.
Me.
If I hadn’t been so sick of fear of the darkness, I might have preened, even just a little bit.
Vampire or no, being called by such lofty titles was a luxury ill-afforded to me and I would have been a spiteful fool not to respond. “You flatter me.”
Or perhaps I was just stalling for time.
“Shall we?”
I felt Jason’s eyes on my back, my neck before I nodded, mutely.
For now, I would follow the vampires.
How the Fellowship would stare if they could only see the situation I had fallen into. To protect a vampire, to be protected by a vampire...I have never once thought of myself as mighty, but I really could not think of another saying except for How the mighty have fallen.
It wasn’t that much warmer in the foyer and I watched the moonlight play over the double staircases that extended up on both sides of the main entranceway, two hallways spreading out on both sides on both floors, but we would not be using the stairs nor the hallway.
Before us, stood another vampire, this one dressed in much the same way as the ones at the front, and he snapped to attention, his muscular structure marking him as very much a male. “They are waiting for you.”
Taking a step to the right, he exposed a narrow staircase leading down to the lower levels and I felt my heart leap up to my throat, almost choking me.
Ryder felt my arm stiffen and he looked at me, a curious expression on his handsome face. “You okay?”
I tried to swallow a painfully throat. “I’ll live. Let’s go.”
It seemed colder down that narrow passageway and I shivered in my overcoat. “Don’t you vampires feel the winter at all?”
Ryder smiled. “Perhaps. Maybe we like it. Fools us into thinking we’re still alive.”
“I thought you didn’t want to be human?”
The smile faded away until it seemed as though it had never been there from the very beginning. “As you can see, that’s not always the case.”
The stairs were uneven and had it not been for Ryder’s steadying grasp, I would have fallen and broken my neck countless times.
Finally, finally, my foot hit the solid ground, the stone feeling slightly unsteady underneath my boots and I heard Jason do the same from behind us.
Here it was not so dark as torches were lit every ten feet or so, casting macabre, dancing shadows over the stone walls. There was a slight incline going deeper into the interior of the mansion and I counted myself lucky to merely be afraid of the dark, not close spaces. This was not exactly the kind of place a claustrophobic individual could hope to survive.
Ryder hummed something under his breath, something soft and slow, something that sounded almost familiar, but not quite. “What is that?”
“Hm?”
“What you’re humming.”
He seemed vaguely surprised to be caught. “Oh. That. Damn, I don’t know. Guess it’s just one of those things you pick up from TV.”
I didn’t think so. I hadn’t even known TV existed until I was thirteen and I knew that lullaby for far longer. “I don’t think –.”
“Shut up!” hissed Shannon as we came to an end to the wall.
I had wondered about how to progress as clearly there were three walls and then the way we had come back. “Is this it then?”
Jason cleared his throat. “I suppose you’re going to tell me this wall goes back into some kind of hidden passageway. Otherwise, things might get a little...uncomfortable.”
Ryder put a hand on the wall and Jason’s theory proved to be desperately wrong when the wall did absolutely nothing.
“Um.” Ryder splayed both hands on the wall and ran his fingertips over the wall. If I stretched out, I thought I could brush the ceiling with my hands. “Wow. Well, this is kind of interesting.”
“You don’t say,” said Jason dryly. “Are they just going to kill us, then?”
“Took you all long enough. I’d just about given up on waiting.”
Shannon let out an expletive and whirled on her heel at the long, empty passageway.
No. Not empty.
Not anywhere.
Someone stood at the mouth of the hallway where we had come in from, arms crossed over a chest full to bursting. Was it just genetics or steroids? Did steroids even work on the undead? An interesting question and one I intended on asking Ryder.
If we ever did come out alive. “Is he supposed to be there?”
The man walked towards us, a strange expression on his wan, lean face and I felt Ryder stiffen next to me. “No. He’s not. Hell, we’re not supposed to be here.”
I heard Shannon swallow. “Actually, f*ckwits, we’re exactly where we should be. They want us dead. Seems like this is the best place to get this done. Four people walk in, no one comes out.”
Of course we had walked into this far too easily, far too willing.
Then again, the choice had been made for us.
Either die right away or die later.
And like cowards, we had taken the harder way out. Or perhaps it was the easier way out.
Ryder shucked off his coat and rolled up the sleeves of his casual white shirt, his intention clear on his handsome face. “There’s only one of him. There’s four of us. If three vamps and Ran can’t take him, we deserve to die like rats in a dog house.”
“A pleasant image,” said Jason dryly. “I suppose you couldn’t have worded that any differently?”
Ryder put an arm out, stopping me from moving forward. “Don’t.”
I looked at him. He no longer seemed like the happy go lucky dimwitted idiot, no longer seemed like the hormone driven vampire I had encountered back at Vincent’s club.
So, which was the real Ryder? “Why not?”
He smiled. “You should give me a chance.”
“To?”
Shannon snorted. “For f*ck’s sake. We’re five minutes away from turning into splotches on the wall and you’re still playing the hero card, Ryder. Are you ever going to grow the f*ck up?”
He ignored her and touched my cheek. I fought not to flinch, feeling the chill of his fingers for one moment before he drew away. “Give me a chance to show you I’m different.”
I felt Jason’s eyes bore into the back of my head. “You’re a vampire. How different can you get?”
He winked. Where did he get such bravado? “Watch.”
I did.
For now.
I took a step back, shielding Jason’s body with mine because despite Ryder’s confidence, I am not afraid to say I wasn’t nearly quite as sure of the outcome. “Stand back, Jason.”
Shannon smelled like blood and perfume, something heavy and heady that made my nose twitch and she pushed past my arms roughly. “You’re got to be kidding me. I’m not going to be protected by someone like you.”
Jason’s breath was warm on my ear as we stood against the wall and I was just that much of a spiteful bitch to let her see the close proximity between her ex-lover and myself. “I didn’t say your name, now did I?”
Yes, I am a bitch. I couldn’t help it, not when I saw how badly my comment had disturbed her. “If it wasn’t for my Master, you would’ve been dead a long time ago, meatbag.”
Meatbag. Ah, yes, how that particular insult burned.
Jason put a hand on my shoulder. “Do you think he has a plan?”
“Ryder?” scoffed Shannon. “That idiot can’t even find his ass with his two hands if there wasn’t someone else around.”
Ryder held up his hands and I wondered what sort of expression he would have on his face. “Hey, man. I thought we were supposed to be leading these guys to their deliberation. What’s going on? You guys just going to shove us into some closed off hallway?”
The vampire came closer. He couldn’t be human, not with that impressive sense of aura that seemed to darken the hallway, flickering the torches into near death. “We have deliberated. And we have decided. That vampire behind you is no longer worth keeping.”
That I was going to die completely weaponless made me feel ill. “Doesn’t seem quite fair when the individual himself isn’t even around to defend himself.”
“Come on, Lazaro,” said Ryder. “Man, you’ve known me for, what, ten years now? I thought we were friends, dude. Is this really how you’re going to repay me back? How many times have I helped you out, hm?”
In what sort of way a vampire needed help...was something I simply did not want to know.
Lazaro sighed and brushed dark strands away from his lined face. He had been turned when he was older, but that certainly didn’t make him any weaker.
“I’m sorry,” he said finally. “I really am.” The look on his face said he clearly wanted to be anywhere else but there. Or maybe he was just a very good actor. Most vampires were. Maybe it had something to do with having centuries to perfect one’s poker face. “I don’t want to do this, don’t think I do. But I don’t have a choice. Not anymore. The Committee said he’s to die. Just...just step aside, Ryder. Just turn him over and when tomorrow comes, everything will be the way it was.”
I still had the bi-su. So, I wasn’t completely defenseless. But that’s like being hidden in a small RV while there’s a tornado in the area. “Four against one. Seems as though they ought to be sent more of you.”
Ryder shot me a panicked glance over his shoulder. “Uh...Ran? Lazaro doesn’t need to have any buddies. He’s plenty strong all on his own damn self.”
Jason touched my shoulder. “If worse comes to worse, I suppose I could just eat him.”
I stared at him. “Is that a joke?”
A corner of his crimson lips kicked up. “Maybe? Maybe not.”
Shannon pulled her hands out of her coat, crouching low on the balls of her feet. “We have to get out. Ryder, if you’re going to tear off his head, just do it. All this talking is just a pointless waste of time.”
That was the first time I ever agreed with her, and I was willing to bet it would be the last.
Ryder let out a slow breath and cracked his neck, rolling back his formidable shoulders. “Well...I guess this is where it ends, Lazaro. Man, it was nice knowing you.”
The dark haired vampire smiled. It was not a nice one. “Likewise, Ryder. Likewise.”
No movement, for just the briefest moment.
And then Ryder leaped forward.
So did Lazaro.
They met in a clash of limbs, elegant and yet utterly dangerous as their shadows played over the jagged stone corridor.
Most vampires I had met were strong, very much so, but they were strong in the way a bear is dangerous. Strength wise they were strong and most counted on the element of surprise, the element of speed to take the head right off one’s shoulders.
Watching two vampires fight was, for the lack of a different or better word to say, an education.
Ryder was fast. So damn fast I could barely see him move.
But so was Lazaro.
And therein proved the problem at hand.
Shannon let out a breath and I watched her hands open, close, and then open again. “This is pointless. F*cking idiot. This is never going to work.”
Ryder ducked as a fist plowed by his ear, clipping the unrestrained blond hair that had probably never seen the sunlight in a very, very long time.
With a grace that belied his size, his strength, he ducked under Lazaro’s outstretched arm and pulled his elbow back, throwing it between his opponent’s shoulder blades.
With an audible thunk, Lazaro staggered forward, his mouth set in a silent o, but even his surprise did not last long.
I felt useless, no, worse than useless, pinned down in the corridor that I could’ve touched with both arms outstretched. Fingernails dug into my palms, as I watched my enemy fight for our lives.
Jason tapped me on the shoulder, his lips close to my ear. I shivered, attributing it t the mind-numbing cold. “There must be something we can do.”
Shannon whirled on one heel, lips turned down at the corners, light brows furrowed down over a small, pointed nose. “Oh yeah? Is there? Christ, Jason, you’re as stupid as you were alive as you are now.”
I blinked. Did that even make any sense? “He is doing more than you.”
“Hush, Ran,” he said softly in an admonishing tone. “I do not need you to fight my battles for me.” And despite the circumstance, I thought I heard a smile in his voice. “At least not my verbal ones.”
Ryder reared back as Lazaro smashed him across the throat with the back of his hand and I felt my own neck twinge in sympathy. On a human, it would’ve crushed the windpipe, but there again was the advantage of being a vampire, of being a monster.
That was right
Vampire equaled monster.
Why was I starting to forget that fact so easily?
“Would you like to help him?” asked Jason.
I flicked the small bi-su into the palm of my hand, relishing the feel of the braided handle sitting so comfortably among all the calluses and scars. “I don’t know what else I can do.”
“Is that the only thing you are good at?” How could he sound so damn amused when it seemed as though we were only minutes away from getting slaughtered like mice caught in a trap? “Fighting? Killing?”
I bit my lip, bit it hard enough to taste copper on my tongue. “It is the only thing I have any confidence in.”
He tsked. “You do tend to underestimate yourself, don’t you?”
I looked at him. “Will you let me?”
“Let you?”
I watched Lazaro raise his foot and plant it squarely on Ryder’s solar plexus, watched Ryder’s face contort as all the air left his body, watched his body fold in on itself like a crumbled up jigsaw puzzle. We were beginning to run out of time, it seemed. “Let me save you.”
At the corner of my eye, I saw him smile. No teeth, just a lifting of his beautiful lips.
“My Ailward, save me,” he said.
And really, that was all that needed to be said, to be heard.
Shannon spat on the ground. “F*ck that. I’ll do what I was told to do and that’s to protect your stupid, precious bodyguard.”
And now a second vampire fighting for me.
My, how the world was changing.
And in a way, it was frightening, positively frightening. “You were told to protect me?”
She glared at me. “As if I cared about your stupid life. But you’re with Jason now. To protect him, I’ve got to protect you.”
Jason made a small sound in the back of his throat. “Shannon…”
She sighed and then turned her back to us, just in time to watch Ryder get his face smashed into the wall, the masonry crumbling around the shape of his head.
He let out a slow moan and slid down the wall to hit the floor with a very definite thump.
He did not move.
Shannon threw off her trench coat and the torchlights played down the tightly laced leather jacket and pants that could’ve been painted on. With her thin legs encased in dark leather knee high low-heeled boots, I had to admit to a certain curiosity as to how she could possibly move in such a restricting attire that seemed hell bent on keeping her movement as minimal as possible.
She sent a glance at Jason over one shoulder.
“I didn’t have a choice, Jason.”
Was that sorrow in her eyes?
And what sort of choice was she speaking of?
Jason’s lips narrowed and he turned away, almost as though he couldn’t bear to look at her any longer.
Was that pain in his eyes?
When no answer came forthwith, she let out a deep breath as Lazaro straightened up to his full height and then gestured to her in a singularly vulgar finger movement that made me wish I could break his fingers. And perhaps even his wrist. And his arms, while I was at it.
And perhaps even his neck, but really, I wasn’t that greedy.
Nor optimistic.
Not when I saw Lazaro move like an invisible shadow down the passageway and flick his hand upwards.
The blow sent Shannon careening into the low ceiling and I watched the joy of the battle fill Lazaro’s eyes, fill his eyes so completely there were no whites in his eyes, only a overwhelming darkness that promised nothing but death.
But not while I still stood.
And, it seemed, not while life still beat within Shannon’s body.
He stared down at her small hand clenched down around his ankle and laughed, a high, shrill sound that made my stomach jolt.
“Oh?” he said, joyous, ridiculously so. “Is that how it is then? Is that how you want to play this game?”
She lifted her head off the floor and a thin stream of crimson dripped off her chin to splatter on the concrete.
Next to me, Jason made out a small sound.
It worried me.
Was it because she was his ex-lover, the woman he had loved enough to conceive a child, a woman he had loved enough to pursue all these years, a woman he would have gladly laid down his life?
Or was it because he was just hungry?
“I’m not done yet,” she coughed, spraying blood from her lips.
Lazaro’s lips curled with disdain.
“I need to help her,” I said. “She can’t do this alone.”
And it wasn’t that I particularly liked her.
“No!” she screamed. “Stay there. I’ll kill the bastard. Let me do it!”
Lazaro’s laughter filled the corridor. “Is that the truth? Well, then, shall we dance?”
She pulled herself up, using his leg as a crutch and he let her. It must have been confidence that kept the smile on his darkly tanned face, confidence that made him put his hands under her arms and bring her back up to her feet.
But she stood and managed to take a step away from him, bringing her hands in front of her face protectively. Already, a massive bruise was forming on her brow and her right eye had swollen to magnificent proportions.
I felt my admiration for her grow. I did not like her, but I was beginning to understand her.
And that in itself was somewhat frightening.
“Here,” he said, opening his arms out wide. “I am not such a cruel man. In fact, it is lucky they sent me. I will allow you one blow. Anywhere you would like.” He winked, as though this was all one big joke. It was enough to put my teeth on edge. “But just one blow, you understand. I am not cruel, nor am I an idiot.”
She let out a soft sound, somewhere between a mew and a sigh and Jason cursed quietly next to me.
I wanted to ask if he still loved her, if he still sheltered feelings for her, but knew there couldn’t have been a worse time to ask.
She turned her large amber eyes up at him, looking up at him through lashes heavy with tears. “You hurt me.”
Lazaro clucked his tongue. “I did not have a choice. But here, I am allowing you one blow. Go on and do it before I lose my patience, little one. You won’t have a chance like this ever again.”
Her eyes flashed, and I realized her hurt voice, that little, pathetic voice was nothing but an act.
Ah, but what an act it was.
With a flick of her wrist, something fell into her hand and she rushed forward, quicker than my human eyes could follow.
The other vampire could not react, didn’t even have a chance to move.
She held him, as close as a lover, one hand twined around his neck, one hand forcing the small blade deeper and deeper up under his rib cage.
Eyes wide, Lazaro coughed blood, just like Shannon, but unlike her, he was dying.
I knew she had punched through his other side when his body shuddered and he gagged as a river of red flowed from his mouth over her shoulder like a silken ponytail.
Jason shuddered and I caught him as his knees crumbled, nearly bringing us to the ground.
His laughter was shaky. “Thank you, Ran. I didn’t...I didn’t expect that.”
“Didn’t expect her to win or didn’t expect all the blood?”
He paused. “Both.”
With a hiss of disgust, she let go of Lazaro, wrenching the small dagger out of his body.
“Bastard. Underestimated me,” she spat out, standing over him as though she meant to do further harm to a corpse that was, even now, already starting to wither away. “Shouldn’t have given me that chance.”
“Shouldn’t you be thanking him?” I adjusted Jason so his shoulder didn’t ground so painfully into my collar bone. “Were it not for him saying you could hit him once, you would be dead right now.”
Her fangs flashed in the flickering torchlight and for one moment, with her body drenched in blood, I felt my breath come short and quick.
Male vampires were scary.
But female vampires were outright terrifying.
“He said he wasn’t an idiot,” she said and tossed her hair with a laugh. “What a stupid motherf*cker. That’s why I hate men.”
Jason cleared his throat and slowly got to his feet with no help from me. “You’ve changed.”
That feral light faded if but a little bit and for a moment, just one moment, I saw her shoulders hunch defensively.
Was this bluster just an act as well?
“We all do,” she replied. “Even you.”
He smiled, although it was not one of happiness. “What I am is because of you.”
“Then you’re also a dumb ass.”
The complete shutdown in his eyes spoke volumes.
Watching them from the sidelines was not something I wanted to do. “Enough. I would rather we get out of this death trap.”
Jason opened his mouth as if to say something, but then closed it with a shake of his head.
Shannon shrugged. “I’m not complaining. Let’s get the hell out of here before those sons of bitches send someone else. Fighting here feels like a f*cking death trap.”
I knelt by Ryder. This was new for me, this offering assistance to something I had done nothing but decimate for the past ten years. “Ryder?”
He did not answer and I rolled him onto his back. Except for a thin stream of blood trickling down his face, there did not appear to be lasting harm. Then again, doing lasting harm to vampire was just about impossible. They were either perfect or just dead. All or nothing for the so-called masters of the night.
“Ryder.”
He groaned and opened one eye, one brilliantly blue eye that looked at me and then crinkled at the corners. “Did we win?”
I didn’t like the way he said “we” as though it was already decided we were some sort of team. “Lazaro is dead.”
He laughed and then immediately winced, one hand going over his chest, the other going to his temple. “Sorry. Shouldn’t have been so damn confident. I probably could’ve taken him. If I tried harder, that is.”
Keeping my face straight, I helped him onto his feet. “Of course, Ryder.”
“Why does it feel like you’re telling me to go f*ck myself?”
He laughed low under his breath. He smelled like stargazer lilies, my favorite flower. I couldn’t stop myself from taking in a deep breath, remembering the way they looked at my mother’s funeral.
His face was close to me, so close I could have fallen into the startling blue, the sky in his eyes. “Do you like it?”
I refused to feel shame. “I like lilies.”
He moved closer, so close if he puckered up his lips, we probably could have kissed. “Then maybe I should wear it more often.”
Abruptly, he was pulled away from me as Shannon tugged on the collar of his shirt.
“For f*ck’s sake, Ryder. Keep it in your pants, at least until we’re not in immediate danger of getting our heads taken off.”
Behind her, Jason’s face was immobile and he shrugged when I didn’t stop looking at him.
“Do you not approve?”
It was a silly question, but one I felt compelled to ask. It wasn’t as though I was trying to make him jealous, but still, it would have been interesting to see what sort of reaction, what sort of emotions he would have.
“It doesn’t matter,” he said quietly. “As long as it does not interfere with your duties, why should I care?”
How carefully worded.
But playing with the enemy, aka Vincent’s underling, certainly seemed as though it would indeed interfere with my duty to protect the one man the Vampire Lord was seeking to destroy.
I watched Ryder dust off the seat of his blue jeans. “Did you hear that, vampire?”
He raised his head. “What?”
“We are at opposite sides. Your Master wants mine killed.”
His blue eyes narrowed. “Yeah. No kidding.”
“So?”
“So what?”
Shannon let out a slow breath, putting her hands on her slim hips. “Idiot, she’s asking if she can trust you.”
He slanted a gaze at her. “What about you?”
“I’m supposed to be protecting her, dumb ass. Matthias owes Vincent nothing. If he wants the woman to survive, then I’ll do whatever it takes to keep her alive.”
How interesting. A bodyguard for a bodyguard. I’d certainly never had someone to watch my back before. Would I survive long enough to reap the rewards?
Or was it consequences?
Ryder was silent for a moment and then bent down again to pick up his coat, shaking it by the back to get rid of all the white dust disturbed from the fight. “I don’t know. I don’t know.”
“That doesn’t sound promising,” I said.
He sighed. “I know. Look, I promised I’d get you out of here. So we’ll do that. Let’s get out of here and then I’ll decide what to do.”
Leaving the corridor was quick, mercifully, but if I had expected some sort of army to meet us at the mouth, I would be sorely disappointed.
For there was only one.
Hair glistening like freshly spilled blood, the Vampire Lord of Centennial City stood before us.
Ryder swallowed audibly.
“Um, wow. Didn’t expect you here.”
Vincent turned his green eyes to him. There was absolutely no emotion in those eyes that were as bright as polished glass bottles. “I expected you here. I’m pleased to see you’ve survived.”
Ryder laughed nervously. “Well, you know, I guess I’m kind of like a bad penny.”
A corner of Vincent’s lips relaxed. Or so I thought. “Funny. That’s what Eve always says.” He turned to us and I felt Shannon tense next to me. “You have my most profound apologies. This was not how I wanted events to progress.”
Jason held up his head high. For some reason, it was surprising to see they were evenly matched in height. For whatever reason, Vincent had seemed almost god-like, but as far as height went, he and Jason were the same height. “I regret leaving before I could fully explain my situation. Perhaps I have complicated matters.”
Vincent tilted his head to one side, a strange look in his cat eyes. “Complicated matters...what an interesting way of wording this political fiasco you have put my city, my people in. I have killed for less.”
“Much less,” Ryder said weakly.
His gaze fell on me. “You.”
I was glad I was not asked to assassinate Vincent. For I knew in that instant, even three hundred years would not have been enough to put him under.
“Ran...” he said, voice trailing away. He picked up something from the ground and held it out to me, hilt first. “I believe this belongs to you.”
I took my sword, still in its bag, gratefully and slung it over one shoulder. “Thank you.”
His eyes grew hooded. “That is a weapon with a history.”
I nodded, but said nothing.
“Much blood,” he continued, voice emotionless as though he was simply reading from a book. “A great deal of pain. A cursed blade.”
I matched him, gaze for gaze. With my weapon, I felt almost foolishly brave. “I have always considered myself lucky.”
“You would have to be, to be own such a sword,” he said and then took a step back, motioning up the great staircase, the wood varnished and shining in the faint moonlight from the skylight and french windows. “I believe the Committee will now discuss the matters of you and your Master.”
Shannon sucked in a breath. “They just tried to kill us.”
It was unnerving to see how calm Vincent remained. “And this was a mistake that I have apologized for. We were wrong for not hearing your side, and you were wrong to run away before proper judgement could be passed.”
Jason moved past me, put a foot on the first step, put a hand on the varnished handrail. “Then we must go. We shouldn’t keep the Council waiting, should we?”
Vincent nodded. “No, of course we musn’t.”
Shannon followed Jason as did Ryder and I stood at the foot of the stairs, watching the three vampires wind their way up the stairs that seemed much too grandiose, almost gaudy.
“Will you not go?”
Standing within arms reach of me, I swallowed the initial rush of discomfort of standing so close to a Vampire Lord. His power wafted from his skin like the scent of a flower and I felt the hair on my arms rise. “What would you have done if we had died in the passageway?”
He was quiet for a moment. “Honestly?”
“Honestly.”
“I don’t think I would have cared,” he said. “But you didn’t die. And so you are a mistake that we must now rectify. It’s like hanging someone, you know. If someone survives, they are considered strong. We vampires understand the strong.”
I couldn’t stop shaking. “Do you think I’m strong?”
He looked away.
“I don’t know, Ran. I don’t know.”
At that, I lost my nerve and ran up the stairs like the proper, cowed human I was.