“Oh!” chortled Roberto. “So I’m guilty if I admit it, and I’m guilty of controlling someone if they deny it all! How convenient!” Some of the other vampires laughed with him, the noise cold and cruel.
Antoine smiled thinly, letting them have their moment. “Of course, despite Tobias’s assertion to the contrary, we do have witnesses.”
“Your lackey Gabriel, huh?” Roberto said, but his eyes had tightened. “I wondered when you’d call on him, with your hand so far up his ass it’s amazing he can stand by himself.”
“What a curious turn of phrase,” Antoine said pointedly, then continued before Roberto could be certain of his jab. “You are correct. Gabriel did witness Tobias’s compelled behavior. But he wasn’t the only one.”
“Let me guess. Your witch?” Roberto scoffed. “This charade has gone on long enough.”
“I quite agree.” Belle spoke for the first time. “Your guilt is evident, for I, too, witnessed Tobias acting under your direct control. Everything Antoine has stated is true.” This time, there were no murmurings. Instead, the room had fallen silent. “The only question remaining is how the vampires of Boston choose to deal with you.”
“Entomb him,” Anastasia said into the quiet.
Lena twitched beside her. “I dissent.”
Gabe scoffed at her, then gave Roberto a dismissive shake of his head. “Entomb him.”
“Entomb him.”
“Entomb him.” The call was taken up, vampire after vampire adding their voices in unison.
“I am aCuriamember!” Roberto shouted, rising to his feet. “You think you can treat me like the kind of scumyouare?”
“Entomb him,” Antoine replied coldly, holding his gaze.
Roberto had gone red in the face. He leaned on the table, eyes narrowed, and bit off every word. “I challenge you.”
“Curia members do not challenge territory owners,” Belle said in a bored tone. “Didn’t Leonard remind you of that, just a few weeks ago?”
“Do not, not cannot.” Roberto didn’t take his eyes off Antoine. “It is my right to challenge him, and nothing can stop me enacting it.”
“It won’t change the outcome,” Belle said. “The vampires of Boston have decreed you will be entombed.”
Roberto smirked. “At least I’ll have the comfort of knowinghewill be dead.”
Fifty-One
“We’ve already won,” Cally whispered, pushing her hand into his and squeezing tight. “Why can’t you just not fight him?”
They made their way through Roberto’s house toward the basement, the heels she’d borrowed from Belle loud against the polished wooden floor. Tall windows either side framed nothing but night, the glass throwing back reflections of the vampires that walked with them. However quiet she was, they would hear. But she had to ask.
This was a nightmare. An insane risk to take.
“Because Roberto knows how to play the game,” Antoine said grimly. “If I refuse, I look weak, and then I open myself to challenges from every quarter.”
“From vampires less strong than him,” Cally pressed, trying to ignore those nearby who were clearly eavesdropping.
“A vampire does not refuse a challenge,ma chérie.”
“That’s ego talking,” she muttered.
He stopped and turned toward her, making her stop too, then leaned in close until his lips brushed her ear. “I called this assembly by the Code. If I flinch from the same Code when it’s thrown back at me, I make myself the hypocrite.”
“He’ll kill you,” she breathed back, the words catching in her throat. “You’re going todie, just to prove you’re not a hypocrite?”
“If I refuse, Roberto will use that to undermine everything we’ve fought for tonight.”
“The vote was clear!” she hissed. “‘Entomb him,’ they chanted.”
