by Lisa Olsen
“That’s one way of putting it,” Bishop snorted.
Oblivious to the meaning, Carys gave me a dazzling smile. “I knew I could rely upon you for help, sister dear. This shall be the grandest ball the world has seen.”
All I could do was smile in return. Yep, Carys and me, the best of friends. Cool beans on toast.
Poor Maggie set to taking notes as Carys led her around the hall, throwing out ideas for the party, each more outlandish than the last. Aubrey trailed behind, trying to be kept in the loop, I suspected, rather than from any actual interest in the planning process. I didn’t envy Maggie the headache she’d inherited, but I knew she’d be able to pull it off with her organizational skills.
Bishop stepped up behind me, scrolling through something on his phone. “I think you’ve created a monster. You know she’s going to take this costume party theme way over the top, right?”
“Me? She was a monster way before I met her,” I muttered, earning me a chuckle. “Can she seriously do that? Declare herself Elder, like that?” I snapped my fingers.
“Pretty much,” he shrugged. “There’s no council like there is in the West. Anyone who’s strong enough can take over a territory or one of the Houses. Most people don’t try because the Elders are usually pretty tough in their own right. Carys lucked into it because Aubrey’s in power and she knew he’d step aside without any bloodshed.”
“That’s crazy. What kind of basis for government is that?”
“Vampire law has always been based on survival of the fittest.”
“Which means you could end up with a total tyrant jerkwad that nobody can kill off.”
“It’s been known to happen. The legend behind Vlad the Impaler wasn’t all Victorian romance, you know. But that’s not the sole domain of vampires, all sorts of human dickweeds have risen to power over the years.”
“That’s true, I guess,” I allowed. “So anyone could kill Aubrey and take over as Elder?”
“Not anymore, they’d have to take Carys down, which means they’d have to come through me first to get her,” he grinned. Jeez Louise, it almost looked like he’d welcome the chance to defend her honor or whatever, and I hoped like anything her big mouth didn’t land him in more hot water than he could handle. Maybe he noticed my less than favorable reaction to that, or maybe he was still trying to get rid of me when he asked, “Are you sure you want to stick around for the party? You don’t have to come just because she asked you to, you know.”
“Oh, I know. Of all the people in the world, I’m one of the few she can’t make do her bidding.” Something made me want to stick around a while longer though, at least through the party. While Vetis was a powerful house, it’d be good for her to see how she fit into the rest of the world. “I don’t mind, I think I’d rather be there when she meets the other biggies in vampire society. If I can help prevent World War III, so much the better, you know?”
I expected him to laugh, but he considered my words. “Actually, I think she’ll be pretty well suited for this. She’s used to rubbing elbows with the big wigs, the intrigues of court, all that stuff. Carys was always pretty cutthroat at that world.”
“I’ll bet she was. Things have changed though, and it might be good for her to have a modern perspective on things. Not that I’m a big expert at it by any means though.”
“You seem to do just fine,” he smiled. “I just thought I’d give you an out in case you didn’t want to stick around. I know she’s not your favorite person.”
“I can tough it out.”
“And I know better than most how unpleasant she can be when she singles someone out,” he added, lowering his voice. “I wouldn’t overlook the possibility that she’s looking for a way to trip you up in public. An easy way to cement her position in society is to tumble you from yours.”
“And this is the person you love?” I hadn’t meant to criticize his choice, but he was the one who started talking smack about her, not me. I couldn’t understand how he could love someone like her and someone like me.
I expected him to get all defensive, but instead his brow crumpled in confusion, as if trying to come up with an answer to the question. “She’s not all bad,” he mumbled.
It was hard to suppress the snort at that measly recommendation. Was that the best he could come up with? “Wow, don’t get all gushy with the lovefest.”
“I only meant that I know first hand that she can be… difficult sometimes,” he said, a touch stronger. “But she has many other fine qualities.”
“Yeah, she’s a real peach,” I smiled tightly, changing the subject to keep him from listing her supposed fine qualities. “Did you put it into her head to take up a hobby so you could go back to work?”
“Nope, she came up with it all on her own. She’s trying, Anja. It’d be nice if you gave her the benefit of the doubt.”
I held up my hands. “Hey, I’m all kinds of benefitty, you’re the one who said she might be setting me up for a knife in the back.”
“I know,” he frowned. “I wanted to make sure you weren’t walking into anything blind. Your track record for parties here isn’t the greatest.” His frown turned into a smirk and I smiled back at him.
“I’ll have to keep that in mind. Maybe I can find a costume that comes with full body armor.”
“I can lend you all the body armor you want, courtesy of the Order.”
“Hmm, somehow I think me dressing up as a member of the Order after I helped get them banned from Vetis might be in poor taste.”
“You can rest easier about that. I’m working on deploying a permanent team here as we speak.”
“Ah, well then, I’d better let you get to it while Carys is distracted by her new project. Hey, what are you going to dress up as, by the way?”
“I have no idea. I’ll figure it out, I guess,” he shrugged.
“I’m thinking Carys might have a few ideas in mind if you don’t give it some thought,” I ventured. I didn’t want him getting blindsided by her either. Bishop must’ve come to the same conclusion as I did, as he blanched.
“Maybe I’d better pick something out after all.”
“Great, I can’t wait to see it,” I laughed on my way to go check on Rob and see if he was ready to go out hunting yet. If we were going to be staying on for another week or so, we might as well test his self control to feed again.
* * *
Rob was awake, sitting up on the couch with an unlit cigarette between his lips when I got to the room. He instantly tossed it into the fireplace as soon as he saw me. “Hullo,” he yawned. “Did I miss anything?”
“Not really,” I replied, keeping my voice light on purpose. “Oh, except Carys declared herself Elder of Vetis. And there’s going to be a costume party on Halloween.”
“Is that all,” he said with a shake of the head. “Makes me think I should get my hands on more of those stims.”
“Don’t you dare!”
His lips curved into a half smile at my outrage. “Easy, luv, I was only joking. I don’t like to think of what I’m missing out on, is all.”
“You’re not missing out. Carys is just… ugh, you know what? I don’t want to talk about Carys. Let’s go out and hunt. Or do you need something to tide you over until we get there?” He’d only fed the one time the night before, and that was before the ritual.
“No, I’m fine.” His hands came up to cut me off when I was about to question it. “Lord strike me, it’s the truth.”
I felt his arm and he was right, cool as a cucumber. “Wow, so you are. I could get used to this.”
“Me too,” he smiled, picking up my hand to press a kiss to the back of it. “Thinking back on the past months, I’ve been so obsessed with blood, I’ve not had time to think of anything else. Now, it’s like the world’s stretched out at my feet. I can do anything… as long as I have you by my side.”
A flutter of unease went through me. Could I make him that kind of a promise yet? I wanted to be by his side, I was
just so leery of being hurt again. Apparently I could remove the anger and hurt from his betrayal, but not the fear. “Let’s start with hunting. That’s great you’ve got your self control back, but I’m actually kind of hungry.”
He tugged my hand closer, lips brushing across my wrist in a sensuous slide. “We could always stay in and I could see to that for you.”
This time the flutter that went through me was definitely the good kind, but I held back, not ready to step into that kind of intimacy yet. “No, I think I’d rather get away from here before we get caught up in the next bout of Carys craziness.” I could tell he was disappointed, but he agreed easily enough.
“As you wish.”
Rob came through like a champ. I didn’t have to tell him when to quit feeding, he stopped all on his own and healed the guy without a peep from me. He didn’t even bat an eye when I chose to feed on my own, giving me a spot of privacy, even though I picked a guy big enough to share, in case he decided he wanted more.
I think maybe he sensed that I needed the space, or maybe I wasn’t as subtle as I thought I was being. Either way, Rob gave me all the room I needed to get used to our new routine and find my way back to him.
His need to feed only once a night did free up a ton of time. Once I was sure I didn’t need to watch him like a hawk anymore, I was fine with letting him go off on his own, or taking advantage of one of the house feeders. That gave me some time to focus on work and meeting with some of the other Elders who started to drift into town for the upcoming party.
It also gave me enough breathing room to notice how much time Maggie and Tucker were spending together, and I tried to free her up as much as possible to let them have some privacy. Now that Tucker wasn’t under Brody’s oppressive thumb anymore, he seemed more confident, more playful, which was exactly what Maggie needed to combat the steady barrage of changes Carys hit her with about the party. I swore to make it up to Maggie once we got home, but for the moment, all we could do was try to ride out Carys’ whims and hope for the best.
Jakob improved steadily, and though he wasn’t his usual god-like self, he was up and around in a couple of days with Nelleke by his side, doing her best impression of a mama bear protecting her cub.
I was on my way back from visiting him when a petite hurricane landed on my doorstep. Rob immediately had an elsewhere he had to be when Riona and Briony, my favorite seamstress sisters, arrived with a flurry of bickering chatter. One was dark where the other was light, and they both barely came up to my collarbone, their hair springy with shiny curls and their eyes bright.
“We’re here!” Riona declared with a brilliant smile, only to have her blonde sister elbow her in the ribs.
“She can see that, Ree.”
“I know, I was just being friendly. Honey fetches more flies than vinegar, you know.”
“Who wants a bunch of nasty flies?” Briony muttered irritably.
“It’s nice to see you, ladies,” I said after I’d recovered from my surprise. I’d known Maggie had contacted them, but hadn’t expected them to fly all the way here. And I sure hadn’t expected them to worry about making anything for me, I was sure they had their hands full with Carys. “I’m assuming you’ve met with Carys and found out what she wants?”
“Oh yes, we met with her straight away,” Briony nodded. “She doesn’t fill a bodice out the way you can, but not all of us are that lucky.” She looked down at her own chest in dismay.
“Someone needs to stop fixating,” Riona said in a singsong voice, and her sister’s eyes narrowed dangerously.
“I’m just saying she has a nice set on her. And I’m not the only one fixating.” Briony poked a finger at Ree’s chest. “You have more stuffing in there than a Christmas goose!” Riona immediately crossed her arms over her chest with a scowl and the tiny blonde smiled with triumph. “Thank you for the recommendation, by the way.”
“Maybe it wasn’t her that did the recommending?”
“Of course it was, she’s here, isn’t she?” Briony rolled her eyes before giving me an expectant smile. “You did recommend us, didn’t you?”
Technically it was Maggie, but I smiled and nodded, not wanting to start off another argument.
“Now we’ve already got your measurements, but we thought we’d talk designs. Are you looking to steal the spotlight?”
“I wouldn’t say…”
Riona cut me off with a shake of the head. “Of course she’s not here to do that, this is Carys’ party, isn’t it?”
“So?” Briony shrugged. “There’s nothing wrong with a little friendly competition.”
“They’re sisters.”
“So? We’re sisters and you completely tried to upstage me at my birthday fete.”
“I did not!”
“Then why else did you wear red? Red is my signature color!”
“Ladies… please,” I interrupted before I had to worry about taking away their scissors. “Can we maybe get back to the party? I know it’s short notice and all…”
“See how she doubts us?” Briony said with a shake of the head.
“They never learn.”
“No, I don’t doubt you,” I insisted quickly before they turned on me. “It’s just, I know you’ll be designing something for Carys too.”
“And half the party,” Riona nodded.
“Oh, then I definitely don’t need anything too fancy,” I decided. There went my idea of something Elvish. Ah well, it wouldn’t have been fun without bullying Carter into playing Legolas with me.
“What did you have in mind?”
“Something to break all of the hearts in the room?”
“No, not all of the hearts,” I replied, my imagination kicking in. “But maybe just one.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
There’s just something about a ball that brings out the girly in a girl. Maggie’s Red Riding Hood costume was adorably paired with Tucker’s Wolf. Lee wore old school lawman Wyatt Earp’s tin star with panache. Gunnar surprised me by showing up as a New Wave Raver from the 80’s, complete with a streak of purple in his hair, at least three different colors of blush on his chiseled cheekbones, and more eyeliner than I had on.
Everybody got into the festive spirit, even Rob, who wore his old 40’s army dress uniform. I think maybe he secretly liked the idea of dressing up from another era for one night, and I was sad he hadn’t told me what he’d planned on wearing so I could come up with something to match, like a slinky 40’s chanteuse.
I still didn’t know what Bishop was going as, and I deliberately didn’t ask about what Carys would be wearing, except to make sure I wouldn’t accidentally copy anything she had in mind. Jakob had mumbled about dressing in something appropriate to his roots, and I figured he’d either show up dressed like Dracula or a caveman.
I was more fortunate than most to have some super nice dresses, courtesy of FF Fashions, but considering the tight timeframe they had to work with, the fae sisters completely blew me away with my gown for the party. I went back and forth with them on ideas, everything from whimsical to geeky chic before I settled on something beautifully classic, and one of my favorites for a while – Christine from Phantom of the Opera.
I’d always loved the musical, but when the movie came out, I’d wanted to be Christine. Plucked out of obscurity and thrust into the limelight, where she found success and love – all the while stalked by a man who was equal parts sexy and psycho, who ultimately only wanted to possess her. It seemed fitting, in a way.
When I asked them to come up with a dress that was Christine-inspired, I never thought they’d have the time or energy to duplicate anything as fancy as the movie, but come the night of the ball, they delivered a miracle. Maggie helped me with the hair and make-up, and I couldn’t have gotten into the corset and dress without assistance. Wearing a dress like that changes everything about the way you stand, the way you move, the way you hold your head. The first time I got a look at myself in the mirror, decked out from head to to
e in finery, I was Christine.
“That’s a very pretty necklace.” Rob came up behind me to press a kiss to my bare shoulder and my hand immediately flew to my throat. Bishop’s necklace went perfectly with the dress, the garnet drop settling just above the bodice.
I probably should’ve told him where it came from, but all I said was, “Thanks.” Besides, I wasn’t wearing it as some kind of a message, it was just a pretty necklace, like he said. I’d be lucky if Bishop looked once in my direction all night.
“You look fantastic,” I smiled, reaching up to straighten his tie. “This look definitely suits you. After this is over, maybe we can go to your friend’s bar and share a private dance or two?”
“Pandora’s Cross? Might could manage that,” he considered aloud. “On one condition.”
“What’s that?”
“Will you sing for me?”
Such a change from the last time we’d been there and he’d been angry when I singled him out. “I’d love to,” I agreed easily enough. Now that it didn’t bother me to sing in public, I didn’t mind at all.
“You nervous about tonight?” he asked, his hands settling on my hips and my head tilted in confusion.
“No… Why, should I be?”
“I know you was worried about a repeat of the last ball we went to here.”
“Oh that. No, not especially. I mean, I’m pretty sure if Carys wanted to have me murdered she’d have done it by now. Not that I’m particularly looking forward to playing nice with her, but I am happy about the chance to talk to some of the other Elders again.”
“I suppose I should ask now, before you’re swarmed with admirers. Would you save a dance for me?”
That made me smile from ear to ear. “Absolutely I will. You’ll get the very first dance, in fact.”
“I’ll hold you to that,” he said, his voice stern.