Someone sitting at the far end of the table held up a hand for attention. He got it, although it took some time. I thought it strange, almost polite his method of wanting the voice and eyes of those who sat at the table. “Fenrir, you are basing everything simply on speculation. Are you merely being dramatic?”
The pirate grinned. “You know me all too well.” Then, the smile faded away, replaced by an empty expression I trusted even less. “But that doesn’t change the fact there is something going on that hasn’t happened in a very long time. When was the last time we had a Sanguinate before us?”
Glasses glinted in the flickering candlelight as he placed folded hands in front of him on the table. I blinked. When was the last time I saw glasses on a vampire? “Almost a hundred years ago. But he was far gone. There was nothing we could do, nothing left in him to reason with. A hundred years ago, we had a monster on our hands. And that is why we have hunted them, haven’t we? For they were nothing but ravaging beasts. We, who have always prided ourselves on our dignity,” at this Annabelle snorted and he ignored, “had a monster that could not be quelled. So we hunted it down. And we killed it. That is the way a Sanguinate has always been. But look at the man standing there. Does he look like a slavering monster?”
All eyes turned to Jason who merely returned it with a tilt of his lips. He held out his arms to his sides and turned a slow circle. “The last time I drooled, I think I was two.”
No one laughed and the one with the glasses stood up. Dressed in a simple white dress shirt and dark pants, he looked the most normal out of everyone there, although his hair, straight and shoulder-length was beautiful as each strand seemed to glimmer like spun gold. “This man is of no threat to us.”
Vincent cleared his throat. “As much as I would like to agree with you, I’m afraid I cannot. He turned Vivienne’s throat into dog food. What he did to her throat...had Ryder and his Ailward not stopped him in time, he would have consumed her whole, Noir.”
Noir.
I felt like someone had slapped me across the face.
Next to me, I felt Jason stiffen.
“Don’t do it,” he whispered. “You’d never make it.”
And indeed, the thought had occurred to me. Conceivably, I could jump upon the table, dash down the long length, and bury my sword into his heart in less than five seconds.
Were he human, perhaps I could have killed him.
But he was not.
Still, I had little doubt this man was the one the Fellowship sought to eliminate. It seemed true, the fact that he seemed more civilized, perhaps even weaker than the other three Lords of the City, but watching him argue with Annabelle for the life of my Master, I realized only a fool could possibly mistake civility for weakness.
Someone sitting at the far end of the table stood up and it was not like how Noir had gained his turn at the conference. This one merely stood up and it was as though all sound had been sucked from the room.
You could have heard flowers bloom in the silence that issued from his acknowledged presence.
And when he spoke, it was with a low twang, an accent that put him south of Illinois, very much south. Perhaps Texas or Louisiana? I admit to a certain lack of knowledge in that area of the world.
“And while we sit here arguing for one’s life,” he said and leaned forward on his palms flat on the scarred, wooden table that seemed to weight a thousand pounds. “Did it not occur to any of you to think of the one standing next to him?”
All heads swiveled, as though on command, to Jason, and the person standing to his side.
Me.
So this was what it felt like, to be the snake in the eyes of a mongoose, the mouse in front of the cat, the prey before the hunter.
I felt as though I could choke on the thick, stifling air.
He pushed his seat back and proceeded to walk around the table. Towards me. I prayed he would keep his distance for even from this far away, I could smell his power, could smell the ages drifting from his body like the bouquet of the finest wine.
Even Vincent seemed to pale next to this individual who wore a dark coat buttoned to his chin, who kept his hair tied back mercilessly, not a single strand out of place.
“I find it rather interesting that she could stand there, and stay there for so long.”
Ryder spoke up, although his voice sounded quiet, which seemed unlike him. Was it respect or fear that kept his voice so low? “She lost it in the hallway.”
The stranger smirked. “Just once?”
Vincent stepped closer to me. For my protection? “Just once. What are you proposing, Matthias?”
He turned his head to one side and I saw a thin scar stretching from his temple almost to his jawline. Considering how well vampires healed from injuries, I found it interesting that he carried a scar. What sort of blow, what sort of weapon could have caused such a wound that even a vampire could not heal from?
But mercifully, he stopped behind Annabelle, more than half a table away and I let out a slow breath. Would that he not come any closer...
“We are all strong, aren’t we?” he asked in an almost casual voice, as though conversing about the weather or whatever vampires considered the mundane and ordinary. “Because we are old, because we are strong, we have formed this Committee here in America. I think it would not be a lie to say we are the Elders here, would it?”
Noir peered at him over the turned heads. “What are you getting at?”
He pointed at me and my skin felt as though it would jump off my muscles and scurry down some dark hole where it could possibly hide for the next century or so, however long it took for these monsters to forget about my very existence. “Vincent, I think you know what I’m talking about.”
The vampire in question sighed heavily. “I wish I didn’t. But I do. And I fear it will only mean her death.”
Jason drew in a sharp breath and abruptly stood in front of me, shielding me, hiding me. “What are you talking about?”
Annabelle laughed, a sharp, strident sound that reminded me of a bucket of glass being shook frenetically. “Well, well, well. How astute of you, to point such things out, Matthias. You always were the shadow behind the throne, weren’t you?”
“That she is with a Sanguinate, only make this situation even stranger,” he said mildly.
Vincent looked at me with what seemed to be regret in his bright eyes. “Even if we could have saved your Master, I’m afraid you have doomed yourself.”
“What do you mean?” asked Jason.
Shannon pushed herself away from the wall, arms uncrossing. Her face was hard and yet with a furrow between her eyes. “I didn’t expect this. I don’t think anyone expected this.”
Ryder put a hand a hand on my shoulder and I pulled away from him, unsure and confused. “What have I done?”
Was that sadness in his blue eyes? “Something the vampires have not seen in a very long time.”
“Longer than something like Jason?”
He nodded. “Longer.”
Vincent sighed. “If I’d known you would react in such a manner, perhaps I would have kept you from coming with us.”
I shook my head and tried to look over Jason’s shoulder at those unnerving eyes, still centered on me, as though they tried to look straight through me. “I wouldn’t have allowed it. I am his Ailward. We made a deal. I never go back on a promise.”
Matthias leaned against the wall, one hand on his hip. “Do you know something about a vampire’s aura, hunter?”
It seemed like a silly question to ask. But I couldn’t provoke him, not when I knew just how much power contained in that slim, tall form. “I do.”
“Then you’ll know that it is similar to magnets. When you have lived for as long as we have, we tend to form a certain...barrier.”
I blinked. “You mean, like magnets pushing each other away.”
He nodded. “Just so. After a while, it gets the point where normal humans cannot stand to be around us. Our aura engulfs
theirs and they become violently sick to be in our presence. Sometimes they even die.”
“I was sick in the hallway,” I pointed out.
“Once,” he said. “You were sick once. By all rights, you should be bleeding from every orifice, dying from the blood willingly leaving your mortal body. To be standing for so long in the presence of so many of the Elders...do you know what that means for us?”
There was a lump in my throat and I felt the walls begin to close in around me. “I’m afraid I don’t.”
“You are not afraid of us.”
I laughed. I couldn’t help it. It was such a preposterous idea. “Not afraid of you? Are you joking? I’m surprised I haven’t pissed my pants yet.”
His eyes, a light brown that reminded me of coffee narrowed. “That’s not what I meant. You have grown used to us. You have, for the lack of a better word, evolved.”
The silence that followed was deafening.
“You have adjusted to our presence, and that is worrying,” he continued. “Were your so-called Fellowship to find out, they would not hesitate to...” he paused. “Incidentally, were you given orders to assassinate someone? Is that why you are here?”
Heart in my throat, I could only shake my head. “I couldn’t possibly slay anyone. Not here.”
Fenrir took his feet off the table, one eye speculative. “And yet you are here. Guarding a vampire. Guarding what you have sworn to destroy? Forgive us if we find this situation highly...unusual.”
Jason put a hand around my shoulder and it seemed awkward, to say the least. I was not used to standing this close to someone. “If you know who I am, you will know I have money. Money enough to persuade a hunter to protect me.”
Vincent pulled away from us, face immobile. “And yet, if one were to inquire into her past, it seems as though she is not the type to be persuaded by just money.”
Someone spoke up, a feminine voice not Annabelle. “If not money, then what about sex?”
I wondered if they could see my face burning in the dim candlelight. If my true purpose were to be ascertained now, the chances of me leaving this room alive was worse than zero.
I ran a hand down Jason’s back, trembling badly, and in his dark eyes, I saw a question. “Not just sex.”
My fingers found his mouth, traced the curve of his plump lower lip and when his tongue licked my thumb, I swallowed a painfully dry throat. That I was doing this when I had never once initiated sexual contact with anyone was...strange.
Jason’s hand slid down to my waist and drew me to him, body pressing against his as if our only thoughts were to meld into one. “As you can see, there are a multitude of reasons why she is mine.”
I prayed my smile did not wobble too much, as I smoothed a lock of hair from his face. “And why you are mine.”
That we could fool anyone with our almost childlike romance seemed almost too much to hope for.
But Ryder spoke up then. “Yeah. They could hardly keep their hands off each other in the car.”
I was glad the Committee could not see my face, could not see the surprise flitting through my eyes.
“It was kind of sweet, actually,” he continued and then sighed deeply. “I mean, even for me, it was sweet. I know you don’t really have to take my word for it, but there’s history between these two lovebirds. Serious history.”
Matthias tapped his chin. “Is there? Vincent? Can you collaborate on his story?”
After a moment of silence, a moment spent in which he looked at us, he nodded once. “I knew of their relationship when they came to Centennial. Reiko seemed worried about it.”
Matthias turned to Shannon. “And what of you? You were with them. What do you say of their...relationship?”
She sneered at me, but nodded all the same. “They seemed quite...friendly. I can think of no other reason why she would protect him, if not for love.”
She flung out “love” as though it were an arrow and I felt her hatred as clear as night and day.
“So if you are not against us, and if you are truly his Ailward...” Matthias smiled. “Quite frankly, I find your ability to be quite useful.”
Vincent made a sound deep in his throat. “She is not your Ailward, Matthias.”
The other vampire nodded. “Indeed she is not. But what a shame she is not. Surely, you can see what an asset she can be to you, to me, to all of us.”
Annabelle looked at me with a scrutinizing expression that scared me even more than her attack on Jason. “We have not had someone like her in such a long time, Matthias. Was Betrand our last champion?”
Champion? Over my dead body.
Fenrir clucked his tongue. “What a shameful way for the man to go. I wouldn’t wish his death on anyone, not even an enemy.”
Image after image played through my mind, none of them appealing in the least. “I am no champion. I only want to protect Jason as is my duty. That I have grown used to your auras is a fluke.”
“But ours would be the greater mistake, if we were ignore such, as you said it, fluke.”
Jason’s arm tightened around my waist, breathing a gasp to my lips. “I will not give her to anyone.”
Noir’s glasses glinted and a strange smile graced his pale lips. “I fail to see how you can stop anyone of us. A Sanguinate you may be, but you are still young.”
“Enough,” said Vincent. “We have come here to discuss their fates. There is little doubt he is a dangerous presence, but surely, we can come to some sort of arrangement.”
Annabelle laughed. “Arrangement? What sort? I thought he was to die. Have we decided otherwise and I am not yet aware of it?”
Fenrir shot a sideways glance at her. “I have yet to see a Sanguinate so...articulate. Weren’t they supposed to be nothing but ghouls? Why does this one looks so normal?”
Noir nodded. “It is interesting, isn’t it?”
“Do you want to study him?” asked Vincent, voice dry.
The object of my most intent attention nudged his glasses up with a slim index finger. “I must admit to a certain curiosity. I have never gotten the chance to observe such a specimen under these circumstances before.”
The breath caught in my throat.
Surely...surely not...
He drew in a quick breath. “Yes, I think I have made up my mind. I will take him under the guidance of my House.”
That my jaw did not bounce on the thin indigo carpet was surprising.
Jason let out a small laugh. “You would be my Dominus? I regret to tell you I already have a Master.”
Noir tilted his head to one side. “Do you know where she is, so that she may vouch for you? Without someone to lay claim to you, you are anyone’s meat. Without someone’s sponsorship, you would not survive a night out there. Not when we have seen your face, not when we know you are the Sanguinate we have been searching for. You would not last another moon.”
And that, regrettably, was the truth, and I did not think I could survive.
After all, I had to protect him every time while his killers only had to succeed once. The odds were not on our side.
Jason’s jaw tightened. “I have one condition.”
Noir nodded magnanimously. “And that is?”
“You are aware of my beginnings,” he said quietly. “I am Jason Eldridge. I had a fiance, a pregnant woman who had turned vampire.”
Not a flicker of emotion ran across Noir’s face. “Go on.”
“The vampire who turned her,” he continued. “I want his head. I don’t care how I get it.”
Shannon froze “Jason. Stop.”
Jason did not stop. “Her name was Shannon.”
Noir raised a brow. “You mean, the female vampire next to you?”
“Jason, please,” whispered Shannon. “Jason, please, don’t. Don’t do this. Please don’t.”
“She was pregnant with my child.” Jason continued as though he couldn’t hear a thing. “She was pregnant with my child and kidnapped one night. I was going to ask h
er to marry me.”
I watched the tears coarse down her cheeks as she fell to her knees. “No, no, no, no. Please don’t. Please stop. No more, Jason. I’m begging you!”
“Who is the one that took my fiance and turned her into a vampire? Who is the one who killed my child?”
Matthias walked a few feet forward. “Are you looking for the one responsible for taking Shannon?”
“Matthias, no!” screeched Shannon and I could only stand and watch as he wrestled a skinny, dark-haired vampire out of a chair. “Stop!”
The vampire tried to claw his way out of taller man’s grasp. “Let me go!”
Matthias forced him down to his knees. “Sanguinate, when you say you wanted the one who turned your fiance, what exactly did you mean?”
Jason’s hands tightened around my waist and I heard him swallow.
“I want him dead.”
“No!”
It seemed like instinct, as simple as scratching an itch, to pull free out of Jason’s embrace, to place myself in front of my Master’s body, to unsheathe my sword in one fluid movement, to meet Shannon’s rushing form.
Everything seemed to move slow, like flies covered in honey.
I saw her eyes large and black, the amber fading away into monochrome. Saw her hands extended towards us, saw the fangs already sticking out of her mouth.
Surprise raced across her pretty face and I knew she had not expected this, had not expected me to take Jason’s place.
But once you jump, you can’t take it back.
“Ran, stop!” Jason screamed, but it was too late, much too late.
I didn’t even have to use my Sight.
Her body crashed into mine, but my footing was sure, steady. I did not stagger, did not move.
Except to twist the hilt deeper under her rib cage.
I was an expert at piercing vampire hearts and Shannon was no exception.
Her hands scrabbled at my shoulders weakly as she let out a small sound.
Hands wrenched me away from her, but the damage had been done and it only did more harm to her as the full two feet of silver composite metal was pulled free from her torso.
Blood, darker than anything I had ever seen, fell in a pool at my feet, soaking into my boots, the bottoms of my jeans and I flicked the sword once, scattering blood everywhere.
Invincible (A Centennial City Novel) Page 18