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“If I might…” She started to speak then let her words drift. This called my attention back to her, and for a moment we simply stared at each other.
“What?”
“This situation is unorthodox to say the least. The elders need to know if the rumors are true, because you’ve done nothing as of yet to deny them.” A few of the other vampires around her murmured their agreement with her request.
“I do not deny it.”
This brought the whispering up a few octaves. The tone in the room became more excited and not necessarily in a good way.
“Then you willfully hid facts about yourself from the council,” Rebecca said.
Now Juan Carlos was the one beaming like the cat that caught the canary.
“No. I never hid it. I just chose to limit the number of people I entrusted with the truth. And for good reason if his reaction is any indication.”
“T
hen you claim there are those among us who knew, prior to the rumors from Europe?”
“It’s not a claim, it’s a fact.”
“I knew,” Holden announced, coming to stand next to me. He met his maker’s stern gaze and didn’t blink. “And if you doubt it, compel me to tell the truth.”
She sighed. “One sentry does not matter in the grand scheme of things. Especially not one who was sharing her bed.”
“What about me?” a small, female voice cut in.
Juan Carlos dropped back into his chair, the red in his cheeks suddenly gone ashy white. The rest of the elders, too, looked as though they were staring into the face of death itself.
The little girl who came into the center of the room, with her warm brown skin and curly hair still done up in pigtails, was not what one would think a room of vampires would fear. Yet they cowered before her, and her wide, pearl-white eyes seemed to see everything and nothing all at once.
I don’t think Monica had ever left her room before. As far as I knew, she waited until people were brought to her and otherwise stayed away from the rest of the vampires. Yet now here she was, standing on the edge of the circle and waiting for someone to answer her question.
“What about me?” she asked again, and this time her voice was cold with annoyance. “Does my approval stand for nothing anymore? If that’s the case, why do you insist on bringing your sniveling, disgraceful wretches before me, hmm? Why am I made to taste the blood of the dishonorable and wicked? If you trust me when I call your brothers and sisters liars, why do you not trust me when I tell you she has earned her place on that seat?”
“We don’t question you,” a male vampire said, his head bowed in a simpering display of obedience. “But she lied to us.”
“She did not lie to me,” Monica snapped. “I cannot be lied to. The truth is always in the blood, and she did nothing to hide herself from me. How dare you question what I have already ruled on? Who are you to decide one man’s bitterness and jealousy bears more weight than my objective declaration?” Her head pivoted towards Juan Carlos, and he flinched. “You should shudder from me, Spaniard. I can smell your sins from here, and they will not make you any friends in this room. All of you should fear what I know. There is not a single innocent soul among you.” She pointed at each of them in turn, and no one dared to speak out against her now.
For such a small creature, she was formidable, and her childlike voice echoed with authority.
I looked at Clementine briefly, and she appeared awed by Monica more than afraid of her. It was the kind of wide-eyed adoration I imagined seeing from a true believer in a church, not from someone who was fearful of her sins being revealed.
“Secret McQueen,” Monica said, crooking her fingers to call me forward.
I glanced to Sig for help, but he shook his head and gave me a slight push in her direction. Apparently I was on my own here.
I moved across the circle and crouched beside her so we were at an equal height.
“Are you still true to this council?” She was staring right into my eyes, and though she had no pupils, I no longer believed she was blind.
“I am.”
“Give me your hand.”
I wanted to refuse, not because I had anything to hide, but because like the others I was afraid of her down to my very core. So much had happened to me since the last time she’d tasted my blood. The kind of things that left dark, incurable stains on the soul. But if I wanted her to tell the council Arturo was the true villain here, I would need to offer my own obedience first. I held my hand out for her.
She took one finger and pierced the skin with a tiny, delicate fang so my blood beaded to the surface, then she licked the wound clean and closed her eyes.
