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“What’s with the clothes?” I asked Lucian quietly as we moved through the room.
“Status symbols. Old clothes mean an old vampire. Old means powerful.”
Lucian seemed to know where he was going. He took us past the bar, where more and more of the other vampires seemed to be noticing him. They were turning in their stools, standing from their tables, or stopping mid-dance to stare. I saw some of them muttering angrily to their neighbors and others staring in a state almost like awe.
“You’re either super popular with these guys, or super unpopular. Which is it?”
“That depends which end of my work they’ve wound up on, I suppose.” Lucian muttered.
I chuckled. “Watch out. We’ve got a badass over here.” I was teasing him, but the looks on the faces of a room full of what I assumed were very powerful, very scary vampires said he really wasn’t just an ordinary vampire.
“Yes,” Lucian said. “We do. Now come on.” He pulled open a door at the side of the large room and led us into a private area with a sleek, glossy black table and leather chairs. A beautiful woman and extremely handsome man were waiting at the table inside. They both got to their feet and went to Lucian, hugging him like they’d been worried.
It wasn’t long before their attention turned to me.
With the discomfort of knowing I was being studied, I sat down. Lucian took the seat beside me and cleared his throat. “Alaric, Seraphina, you remember Cara.”
The man had a smooth forehead and slicked back dirty blond hair. His features were sharp and wolf-like, but the overall effect made me think of some long-gone roguish gentleman from a dead era. He showed a crooked smile that mostly confirmed my suspicion about his character. “We didn’t get a chance to properly thank you,” Alaric said. “So let me formally say thank you for being a klutz and crashing down the wall that had us so detained.”
“Don’t be rude, brother,” Seraphina said. She had the kind of face I imagined most women would come up with if they got to go into a computer program and had years to personally design every feature. Perfectly bold eyebrows. Slightly slanted and narrowed eyes that gave her an effortless edge of seduction. Lips like puffy pillows, and sleek black hair that she wore just above her shoulders in a silky curtain. “For all we know, she is a conspirator who was trying to set us free.”
“Well,” I said. My voice caught and I had to clear it a few times. “Actually, I really am just a klutz. I had to pee really bad and there was this key on that shelf. I knocked it over trying to get to it.”
Alaric laughed, clapping his hands together once with a loud pop. Seraphina dipped her chin, showing the faintest hint of amusement. I jumped when Lucian put his hand on my thigh beneath the table. He seemed to realize what he’d done a moment later and jerked it back, but it wasn’t before all the constantly erotic visions of him in the back of my mind raced up to focus.
“Wonderful,” Alaric said. “The nefarious plans of our rival were undone by a full bladder. I love it.”
Lucian didn’t appear to be in any hurry to fill the silence that followed. He leaned back in his chair and folded his arms.
“Am I allowed to ask what I’m in the middle of?”
The three of them all silently exchanged looks, then Alaric and Seraphina nodded to Lucian.
“You’ve unintentionally brought yourself into the middle of a centuries long feud. Bennigan is one of the most powerful vampires in the area. He has a strong effect on women, even other vampires.”
Alaric jumped in. “He basically has a harem of sex slaves who will claw and bite anything he tells them to. Honestly, I’ve always kind of been jealous of that gift.”
Lucian nodded. “Yes. He and I have crossed paths many times because of his outrageous goals for more power. But a certain incident about a hundred years ago ramped up tensions.”
“Because?” I prodded.
Lucian hesitated, and Alaric jumped in again for him. “Because doofus over here killed his wife.”
“You killed somebody’s wife?” I asked, voice full of incredulity.
“That somebody’s wife was in the middle of trying to tear apart an innocent human with her bare hands. So, yes. I intervened.”
Alaric leaned in, grinning. “He didn’t just intervene. He killed Bennigan’s favorite. And he did it to save a human.”
I took a steadying breath. “Okay, hold on. I’d like to think I’m doing a pretty good job of absorbing all this vampire stuff in stride. But I wasn’t ready for the killer part.”
Lucian turned a ring over on his pinky finger, eyes distant. “You don’t need to approve of it, Cara. We both just need to outlast the bond.”
