Nerissa’s gaze bounced between Clive and me before she finally nodded, her stance deflating a bit. “Thank you for understanding. I’ll send Champagne to your table.”
“Don’t bother,” Clive bit out. When I rubbed his wrist, he added, “Sam prefers soda or juice.”
I hadn’t realized that Vlad and Cadmael were still flanking us until we started toward the table holding the Guild members. There were only three empty chairs, but rather than getting a fourth, Clive pulled me into his lap and wrapped an arm around me. Resting his free hand on my thigh, he spoke mind-to-mind.
When he cut you and I smelled your blood, it took everything in me not to snap my elf’s neck and jump into your fight.
Look at it this way, I responded, at least he cut the wrist that wasn’t wearing the expensive bracelet. I reached up to touch my necklace and earrings. All good, right?
You’re perfect.
“What did we miss?” Cadmael murmured, knowing everyone at the table would hear but the humans wouldn’t.
I didn’t know what we wanted the other vampires to know, so I kept quiet.
“The fae king sent two assassins to abduct or kill Sam,” Clive said. “We killed them instead.”
“I don’t understand,” Ahmed said. “What was done to us that we didn’t see any of that?”
“Everyone in the club, other than Sam and me, was frozen,” Clive replied.
Nerissa brought over a glass of cranberry juice and placed it on the table in front of me.
“Thanks.” I smiled, hoping she knew I didn’t blame her for the king having it out for me.
She nodded and disappeared back into the depths of the nightclub.
“The fae can do this to us?” Pablo demanded, outraged. “Why were we not told?”
The other vampires ignored him.
“The fae are made of magic,” I responded. “There’s not much they can’t do. Like all of you, though, they have different gifts. As for why you weren’t told, perhaps you don’t have a lot of fae in South America? I don’t know why you wouldn’t know about them. You were a Master before you became Counselor, right?”
I felt Clive’s humor coming through our link. I love you.
A few of the vampires seemed to be fighting a smile while I drank my juice.
Vlad tapped my arm. When I looked over, he opened the flap of his jacket, flashing me the elf’s sword. “You forgot something. You’re quite careless with your weapons. I won’t always be around to pick them up for you.”
“Nice,” I said, noting the glove he was wearing to hold it.
Pablo stared at it with a strange combination of anger and hunger. “I thought you said you killed two.”
I glanced back where we’d fought and then remembered whose lap I was sitting on. “The fae hate vampires. You’re death. They’re life. There was no way an elven sword would switch its allegiance to a vampire, so the second one disappeared with its owner.”
Pablo’s eyes went vamp black, his expression darkening.
“Nothing personal, dude,” I said. “I thought you already knew how the whole vampire thing worked.” I turned to Vlad. “Is he a trainee?”
When he moved to fly over the table at me, he instead fell back in his seat, paralyzed, his eyes brown again and filled with fear.
“Don’t ever threaten to harm my mate,” Clive ground out. “She asked a valid question. Why weren’t you told? How very passive of you. Being Master means looking over all the supernatural beings in your territory. Yes, there are fae in South America. They go by different names than European fae, but you have them, which you should know. Being angry with my wife won’t hide your ignorance.”
I thought it quite telling that none of the other vampires said or did anything to stop Clive.
Glaring at Pablo, Clive ran his hand up and down my arm. “Do you have yourself in control now? Can I release you?” He leaned forward. “Know this: If you ever threaten my wife again, I will hand you your final death in the most drawn out and painful way possible. Do you understand what I’m telling you?”
THIRTY-TWO
