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Now, that was interesting.
“I want the obsidian triad broken before it has a chance to gain its real power. You are the only one who can do this, Casimir, but I need to know if somehow the night’s failure has destroyed your confidence, plucked your oversized balls out of your snug trousers? Hm?”
Casimir’s chest tightened as he stared at Greaves. “No,” he said.
Greaves returned his stare, no doubt taking his measure. “This one thing I have always known about you, my friend, your hedonism is not your greatest flaw. Vanity holds you in thrall. In this moment, you cannot believe that you actually failed tonight. You had thought your plan infallible and now you can hardly bear the thought that a young female vampire, not even two centuries old, has bested you. Am I right?”
Casimir refused to answer him.
“Do not look so glum. It spoils your beauty. After all, we are not so very different. Imagine what I felt having to ask for your help in the first place.”
It disturbed Caz that the bastard was making so much sense. He had all but decided to make Greaves’s demise his object rather than continue in his efforts to take down Endelle’s administration. Now Greaves was giving him reason to keep up the fight.
“I shall leave you to it, then.” Greaves started to lift his arm then lowered it. “I am curious about one thing. Did you actually penetrate Julianna during the performance tonight?”
“I never f**k and tell.”
Greaves chuckled. “I think you did, not because I know you that well, but rather because I know Julianna, the lusty creature that she is.”
Casimir held his gaze. “Julianna would never have agreed to perform without a measure of … compensation.”
At that, Greaves laughed again. “No. She would not.”
“You miss her.”
“I will not deny that we were well suited.” The arm rose. The bastard disappeared.
Casimir gained his feet. As pep talks went, Greaves had a knack for it.
Time to return to Paris.
Having lived for over three millennia, I no longer think that variety is the spice of life. In more recent centuries, I’ve become fond of the unexpected.
—Memoirs, Beatrice of Fourth
Chapter 24
Endelle stood in the defendant’s box, high above the proceedings, cameras trained on her. She wore one of her fav outfits, a silvery gray snakeskin jumpsuit. Marcus had wanted her to don a formal black robe, the one she wore to perform the ascension ceremonies, but she just wasn’t feelin’ it. She kept sending little zaps of power to her arches since being forced to stand during this little committee hearing for over three hours in her stilettos was one motherfucker of a pain in the ass.
Whatever.
But Marcus kept the proceedings hopping. She’d never been more proud of her longtime friend. He was running circles around these bozos, half of whom were taking dying blood on the sly but keeping the telltale effects at bay by making use of Greaves’s famous and not-so-secret antidote.
Although Daniel Harding, chairman of these bullshit proceedings, was looking prettier every day. He’d always been a vain if ugly bastard. Because he was homely by virtue of having the ugliest parents in the world, he couldn’t seem to help experimenting by holding off on Greaves’s antidote. Even waiting half an hour to take the serum would initiate some physical changes. In time, therefore, Harding’s pug-dog features had started to smooth out. The trouble was, he now had a faint bluish line forming in an arc just in front of his ears. Maybe he forgot his Revlon concealer.
“High Administrator Amargi,” Harding called out, his cheeks reddening. “You dishonor this assemblage by not owning up to the truth of what occurred the night of the Las Vegas Two explosion. Did you, or did you not, hear Madame Endelle violate COPASS orders by giving permission to Warrior Jean-Pierre and Warrior Thorne to enter the Superstition Mountain Seers Fortress?”
“And I tell you again, I did not,” Marcus said, holding Harding’s gaze. “But I should remind you that the night was a mass confusion because we were aiding over twenty thousand refugees from around the globe to return to each of over forty allied Territories. You can’t expect me to recall everything that happened that night.”
He shifted his gaze to the thirty or so cameras and film crews off to the side and smiled. “But I don’t need to remind the good people of Second Earth what was found in the Seers Fortress, the devastating truth that the High Administrator had been abusing his Seers, that many were pregnant and malnourished, that there were children without proper care, that the facility itself was condemned by the Health and Safety Board of Southwest Desert Two.”
“High Administrator Amargi—”
He continued to address the cameras. “I am fully persuaded that only the most dire of situations would have caused two of our most worthy duhuro warriors, elite Warriors of the Blood, men with the highest caliber of integrity, vampires who have served in this war against a growing army of death vampires for hundreds of years, without complaint—yes, only the worst kind of treachery and depravity would have forced Warriors Jean-Pierre and Thorne to violate one of COPASS’s most sacred laws. For those who wish more information about this ongoing story of Seer violation, we have extensive footage of the crime on www.madameendelle.com.”
“Warrior Marcus, this conduct is outrageous!” Harding shouted. “You are seeking to enflame public opinion.”
“Yes, Chairman Harding, I am. I want transparency. I want the good people of Second Earth to know all that is going on in high places around this world.”
Harding’s red cheeks paled.
“And now at this time, we are providing the most esteemed committee copies of over two thousand requests Madame Endelle submitted to COPASS during the past five years, begging repeatedly for a thorough inspection of a Fortress that had not allowed any person within its walls for over fifteen years.”
“That is a falsehood. We have answering reports that once each year a thorough inspection was performed.”
“Then how do you account for twenty-three offspring genetically proven to be the result of Stannett’s repeated rapes?”
The galleries began a serious shout-down of Harding, supported by an answering roar from the hallways beyond.
Endelle crossed her arms over her chest and smiled. She really did like where this was headed. If COPASS even tried to incarcerate Jean-Pierre or Thorne, it would face a revolt.
