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“Rousard, stop it! Stop it at once!” Laurent’s mother was suddenly there, holding his father’s arm to stop the blows. But Laurent’s father wasn’t so easily stopped.
“This little fool has ruined us! We’ll never be received in polite society again! I’ll be lucky to keep the title myself, let alone pass it on to anyone else.”
“It isn’t his fault,” Laurent’s mother protested. “He’s mad! Completely insane, darling. There’s no other explanation for such behavior. That dreadful were must have bitten him and given him something. Some kind of mental illness.”
“I don’t care if he’s mad as a hatter, he must pay.” His father clenched his hands into fists and looked up and down the deserted hallway. “Tracker? Where’s the tracker?”
“Here, boss.” The huge made vampire suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
“Whatcha need?”
“Take him and throw him out into the sunlight. The direct sunlight, mind you—not the shade. And see to it he doesn’t get back into the house.”
“Rousard, no!” Laurent’s mother protested. “Laurent is still our son.”
“He renounced the family name and the right to my title. He shamed us all in front of the council. He is no son of mine.” Laurent’s father gave him a final disgusted look and nodded at the tracker. “Do it.”
“Uh…” The immense vampire looked uncomfortable. “I would, boss, but I wasn’t born to the Blood like you. I’m a made vamp and we’re a whole helluva lot more vulnerable to the sun than your kind.”
“Then get someone else to help you,” Laurent’s father snapped. “I don’t care how you do it but I won’t have him under my roof one moment longer.” He turned to Laurent’s mother and held out his arm. “Come, Lisette.”
Laurent’s mother hesitated a moment, looking at him. “But—”
“I said come.” His father’s voice cracked like a whip.
“Go, Mother.” Laurent nodded at her wearily. “It doesn’t matter what happens to me. If Paul is dead, I want to die too.”
For a moment he thought he saw a glimmer of tears in her eyes. Then she shook her head and took his father’s arm. Together they swept down the hallway, doubtless going back to where the council was seated to try to undo the damage Laurent had done. He took scant satisfaction in the knowledge that their task was probably impossible.
Nothing mattered now that Paul was gone from his life. If his father hadn’t ordered him thrown out into the sunlight, he probably would have walked out into it of his own volition. At least it will be a quick death. Even a vampire born to the Blood with a lineage as ancient as his couldn’t survive being out in the open with no protection for long, especially under the brutal Miami sun.
“C’mon, boy, let’s get going.” The tracker took him by the arm and began propelling him along the hallway, in the opposite direction from which his parents had gone. Again, Laurent put up no resistance.
He staggered along in the tracker’s grip, feeling clumsy and weak. The silver bracelets still locked around his wrists sapped his strength and the aching hole inside him where Paul’s half of their bond had been was like a fresh wound, seeping blood.
Weak. I feel so weak. I may expire before I even reach the outside. The thought held no terror for him. Nothing frightened him anymore now that the worst had happened.
“Ah, there you are.” Laurent looked up to see Celeste standing there, blocking their path.
“Yeah, here we are but who the hell are you?” the tracker growled.
“I was sent by my Lady Lisette. She said you needed some help to get rid of the boy?” Celeste arched one delicate eyebrow at the big tracker.
“Thanks but I can manage.” He tried to push past her but Celeste stood her ground.
“I was told by my lady to take over from here. Your master needs you in the formal dining room—apparently there’s some kind of trouble with the other guests.”
“Why the hell didn’t you say so in the first place?” The tracker shoved Laurent at her and ran back the other way. When Rousard Montcrieve said jump, his servants obeyed and with good reason.
“Quickly.” Celeste took Laurent’s arm and pulled him past the master bedroom and into the back part of the house. “We haven’t much time.”
“Where are you taking me?” he mumbled. They weren’t making very good time.
Celeste was strong but he was leaning on her heavily and she was fumbling with his wrists and a small golden key as they walked.
“To the garage. Hurry, that great idiot will be back all too soon when he finds I have lied.”
“You lied? Why?” Laurent stumbled and almost fell but then Celeste got the first silver bracelet off his wrist and he began to feel stronger. She began working on the other at once.
“For your mother’s sake. She doesn’t want you dead—I felt it through our bond.”
