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Finch found himself gritting his teeth. He wanted to confront this damned Marielle beast and and demand to know what had happened to Zezi. She had to have something to do with it. It was a wild conclusion, but Finch seemed unable to make his mind think logically. He wanted to tear the vampire apart until she told him everything she knew.
Finch forced himself to stay sat where he was. She was a goddamn vampire. She would be the one tearing him apart, and probably Diana too if Finch did anything stupid. Finch clenched his fists and sat on them, and everybody else in the room continued to pay him no attention at all.
Diana had risen from her seat to greet Marielle with a naturally smile, but Marielle’s tone had made her eyebrows rise enquiringly. Finch didn’t look at Marielle’s face directly but he could tell from her body language that she was glaring at Diana, trying to mesmerize her, and growing angry when Diana seemed completely unaffected.
Marielle’s stance was that of a predator’s, her legs slightly spread apart as if she was about to pounce forward. Finch was sure that if she had been a big cat with a tail, it would be slashing back and forth.
She had called the male vampire ‘darling’, which meant he had to be her husband Rodrigge.
Diana smiled and looked Rodrigge and Marielle right in the eyes as if taunting them with her immunity to their mesmerism. She watched them carefully as she said, “I’m here because Steffane ask me to come. He wanted me to look into his case. He insists that he is innocent, and he’s got me convinced. I thought the best place to start was by talking with his family, naturally.”
“Steffane?” said Roddrigge in a quiet angry voice.
The vampire rose swiftly to his feet. His anger seemed to radiate off him and for a moment Finch thought that the vampire was going to attack Diana. Finch moved forward swiftly, intending to put himself between Diana and the vampire, almost without thinking because otherwise he probably would not have risked his life for a stranger. But Diana flung out an arm and stopped him. She glowered at him in a way that made it clear that he was to stay out of this.
Just then a maid arrived in the room carefully carrying with a tray loaded with beverages. The glasses trembled and tinkled against the tray as she approached. “Be gone!” Marielle snarled at her.
The maid hesitated, looking to Rodrigge for confirmation. Marielle slashed her face too fast for anyone to stop her, leaving deep bleeding claw gouges on the maid’s cheek. By some miracle the tray remained upright. Sobbing, the maid rushed from the room.
“There was no need for that!” Diana snapped, looking as outraged as Finch felt.
“Steffane? Innocent? Ha!” said Marielle in a ringing voice. “Don’t tell me he has you fooled?”
“I’m not easy to fool,” said Diana calmly.
Her equanimity astonished Finch. Why wasn’t the girl shaking in her boots? There was no way she thought she would be able to take on to vampires, and yet she seemed intent on goading them. Finch had seen a lot of things in his life, but he had never seen anything like this. He wasn’t sure if it was madness or something else. Perhaps the girl Diana had strong magic. Perhaps there was more to her than met the eye. There had better be, because otherwise she was likely to get them both killed.
Fuming, Finch sat back down. When the hell was Diana going to get around to asking about Zezi?
“I think,” Diana continued, “that if Steffane really did not kill Leonie Ashbeck, it had to be one of you. One of his family.” She watched the two vampires intensely as she spok
e, as if trying to catch something in the minute details of their expressions.
The vampires had taken a swift glance at each other. When they did not respond, Diana continued. “I mean, he’s a dhampir. And you vampires hate dhampirs. So maybe someone in this family conspired to set him up? Is it true? Do you hate dhampirs?”
“How dare you!” Marielle said, her voice gone quiet and cold and deadly. “How dare you speak of this family, outsider? How dare you presume to know us? How dare you come to our home and demand answers of us?”
Finch’s whole body stiffened. The way Marielle was staring at Diana told him that Marielle was furious and maybe even a little afraid. Finch wasn’t sure quite what happened next. It happened so fast and so unexpectedly that he had no time to react. One moment Marielle had been standing several meters away from the couch, and the next moment she had shoved Finch aside to get to Diana.
As if in slow motion Finch saw Marielle’s face contorting in a snarl, her fangs emerging from her mouth. To fast fo Finch to stop her. She threw her body at Diana, her mouth arcing towards Diana’s neck. And then Marielle was screeching, her body on the ground, and clutching her side in shock. And there was a sword in Diana’s hand. A long thin black sword with a wicked gleam.
Finch was horrified, sure something awful would happen now, but neither of the vampires moved. They were staring at the sword. Finch had not seen Diana carrying it earlier. He had no idea where it had come from. But clearly Diana had just stabbed Marielle with it, and Marielle looked aghast.
Diana looked as stunned by what had just happened as Marielle and Rodrigge. She was looking at the sword in her hand as if she couldn’t believe that she had used it. But she swiftly seemed to come to terms with the dangers of the current situation, because when Marielle pushed herself up from the ground to come towards Diana again, Diana extended the sword until its tip sank into Marielle’s chest. Marielle flinched back, hissing in pain. Her eyes had widened, and she was watching the sword warily.
Finch realized that he was looking at both the vampire’s in the eye, but fortunately for him neither vampire seemed aware of his presence, let alone being interested in mesmerizing him. Rodrigge was clearly furious about what had just happened, but he was also watching the sword warily. He took several steps back from it, and yanked his wife away from Diana.
“Marielle!” he said coldly. “Apologize to our guest at once!”
“I will not!” Marielle hissed.
Rodrigge demanded for her to leave the room and she did so angrily. Rodrigge said stiffly to Diana, his face cold and hard and ugly, “My wife was not herself. We do not treat our guests in such a manner. However, you made a mistake coming into this house with a sword. You made a mistake thinking you could come here at the behest of my murdering brother. You will leave here at once!”
He glowered at the sword but Finch noticed that he made no move to come any closer to it. Finch had never heard of a sword that could affect a vampire like that. Its merest touch had made Marielle’s skin sizzle, the pain enough to frighten her off. Finch had never seen a vampire look as fearfully at a thing as Rodrigge was looking at Diana’s sword.
This had not escaped Diana’s notice. “I don’t think so,” she said glibly. “I’m not done with this family yet, and since you and your wife are going to clearly be so unhelpful, I think I’d much rather speak to your parents. Perhaps they care about the innocence of their poor imprisoned son!”
Rodrigge hissed in anger, his face becoming ugly and bestial for the briefest of moments before transforming back into its smooth human visage. “There is nothing you can do to help my brother, girl. You will get out of this house or I will have you thrown out!”
