Matthias nodded.
We paused the conversation when our server returned to our table. She poured each of us a glass and left the bottle, asking if we needed anything else before Matthias dismissed her. I caught her give him a longing look over her shoulder before stepping back behind the bar.
I smirked into my glass.
“Want to share with the class, Lady Vaughn?”
I shook my head. I couldn’t blame the girl. Matthias was a handsome man. There was no denying that. With his athletic build, strong shoulders and jawline, and the deep green eyes, he was a visual feast. None of the so-called suitors my father had presented were ugly. I knew it wasn’t some curtesy to me. He’d straight up hitch my wagon to Quasimodo himself if he had the chance, just to spite me. But, luckily for me, attractiveness was a prized trait. A handsome man would be more revered and admired by the Court.
Matthias though, was definitely the most attractive of the bunch.
Not that it mattered.
Right, Lacey?
Right.
“Should we have a toast?” I asked, holding up my glass.
“Sure,” Matthias agreed, lifting his own. “To …?”
“The future,” I declared.
He lifted a brow but met my glass in a soft clank. “To the future.”
“Time for the million-dollar question.”
We were on our third glass apiece and the liquor was more potent than I’d anticipated, leaving me feeling light and giggly.
Matthias laughed, the sound a little rummy. “You have it in cash? Cause I’m not sure how I feel about taking a personal check.”
“I’m good for it, all right?” I replied, grinning widely. “You claim that your mother is hounding you to get married and you’re a first bornling. How did you wind up in this ridiculous competition? Seems to me, you should have settled down a while ago!”
Something shifted in Matthias’s eyes. A sudden seriousness taking away the glittering light that had been there only a blink ago.
“I don’t mean to pry,” I hurried to add. “It just seems that you’re not super into this whole bashing-skulls thing, so why not settle down with someone? Make your mother happy and save your own skin.”
I hitched a thumb over my shoulder at the bar. “Heck, there are at least two bartenders over there who want to rip my face off for just sitting here with you.”
He didn’t follow my gesture and though his glass was still halfway filled, he pushed it aside. “For starters, all of those bartenders are turned vampires. My mother would never allow me to marry anyone less than a bornling, first born if possible.” He paused, the muscles at his temples flexing as though he were grinding his teeth. “I could recite you her whole speech, if you’d like to hear it? It’s practically branded into my skin at this point.”
The banter and play had vanished, lost behind the hooded look to his hard eyes.
Gently, I set my own glass down, keeping my fingers on the delicate stem. “It was just a question. Stars, Matthias. You don’t have to get so uptight about it.”
“It’s not a topic I want to get into,” he snapped.
“Fine. Keep your secrets.” I held up my free hand. “As for me, well, you’ve already seen all my dirty laundry. The entire Court got front row seats to that particular show and tell.”
He stared at me. “You mean the Lord Gowan thing?”
I laughed. “That’s just the tip of the iceberg. The only reason I even wound up engaged to that buffoon was because of Melanie’s scandal.”
Matthias’s shoulders rolled back as he leaned against the seat, his posture knocked down a peg from attack dog mode. “To be honest, I don’t know the whole story. I wasn’t active in the Court when it all happened and by the time I got dragged back in, I think everyone assumed I knew the gory details, so no one told me and, to be frank, I didn’t care enough to ask. All I needed to know was that Melanie Vaughn was gone, thrown out of the Court and that you were gone following a broken engagement.”
I narrowed my eyes. Was it really possible he didn’t know what happened to Melanie? How could he have insulated himself from the truth all these years? Wouldn’t his own mother have given him the rundown? How was it possible to be a member of the Court and be that detached?
He shrugged under my stare. “I told you, I’ve never been interested in politics or the Court gossip. I meant it.”
“So, what is it you think happened to my sister?”
“I was told she disgraced herself by getting involved with a human man. When the affair was discovered, she refused to give him up or turn him into one of us, and was kicked out of the Court. Does that about sum it up?”
“She wasn’t given the chance to turn him,” I replied quietly, my words getting lost in the music. “Besides, even if she had, it’s not like that would have made it acceptable for them to be together. What would have been the point?”
He didn’t answer.
“And, as for the part about being kicked out, that wasn’t quite the case either. She ran. Left in the middle of the night. Our father sent guards after her—almost all of them. But it was too late.”
He tilted his head and considered the remnants of his drink. Without looking up, he asked, “How do you think she managed that?”
Something sparked inside my chest. A familiar bubble of panic that arose whenever talking about the night Melanie left the mansion.
“Lacey?”
I met Matthias’s gaze. “I have no idea.”
His eyes flickered.
“Everyone says I helped her get out,” I said, studying him closely.
“Did you?”
“No.”
The lie was so familiar that it felt like the truth after all these years.
Matthias looked ready to ask another question, when across the room, past the bar, a shouting match rose above the music. The patrons on the dance floor stilled and watched the two vampires who were, quite literally, at each other’s throats.
Matthias swore and jumped up from the table. “I’ll be right back.”
A couple of the bartenders started toward the clash, but Matthias waved them back and continued on alone. I couldn’t see his face, but from the set of his shoulders, I had a pretty good idea what it must have looked like. The two vampires were brawling on the floor. The stockier of the two had the upper hand and was raining punches down on the other. The crowd was cheering as if they’d paid admission to a prize fight.
Matthias reached them and things moved so quickly it was hard to keep my sight tracked on him. He jerked the stocky vampire up to his feet and when the vamp took a swing at Matthias, he dodged it at the last second. The vamp’s inertia carried him off kilter when his fist found air instead of a jaw or nose. He was off balance and Matthias didn’t waste time. He grabbed him by the shoulders and shoved him down hard, sending the man to his knees.
Meanwhile, the second vampire pushed himself up from the floor and stood to the side, debating whether or not to reengage. His nose was bleeding, and from the look in his eyes, he was a little dazed from the beating. Matthias grabbed the stocky vampire by the back of the neck and dragged him back up by the scruff, like he weighed nothing. He said something that I couldn’t hear and the crowd burst into taunting cheers.
They wanted more.
My stomach rolled, thinking about the impending fight that would take place. Matthias clearly had a handle on how to fight, but I still didn’t want to see him go into a ring to fight for me.
There had to be a way out.
Matthias ignored the crowd and kept his grip on the man who appeared to have been the instigator. The taller vampire wasn’t rejoining the fight. He exchanged a few words with Matthias and the vampire in his grip, and then headed for the exit, wiping blood from his lips as he went.