Why had I wanted to teach again?
“You’re stressing her out,” Kimmie told the other two.
“What?We are not,” Jen began indignantly, before I held up a hand.
“Cyrus is ordering pizza for all of us,” I told the trio.“I’ll be back by the time it gets here, and we’ll all eat together, okay?”
“Yes, fine, but what are you going towear?”Sophie demanded.
“It doesn’t seem worth it to dress up, as I’ll be right back,” I pointed out.Not to mention the fact that I wasn’t going to rip off more hide trying to put my battered body into something that no one was going to care about right now anyway.“Bathrobe sounds good.”
“That’s… badass,” Jen said, looking faintly shocked.
“It’s late, that’s what we are!”Ulmer, who I guessed had been fuming outside, interjected.“Are you twittering birdiesdone?”
“We’re done,” I agreed.
“But you can’t—you have blood in yourhair,” Sophie moaned.She’d apparently taken the clan’s pride personally.
“As long as it’s someone else’s,” Ulmer said, and pulled me out of the bathroom.
I managed to grab the robe off the back of the door on the way out and shrug into it while dropping the nice towel along the way.The big, white terrycloth robe was huge as well, and plush enough to spare my modesty, whatever I had left.The only problem was my bare feet because Sebastian’s suite had suffered somedamage.
It looked a lot like the ballroom, minus the big hole in the wall and the claw marks on the wallpaper.The walls in here were intact, if stained, as it appeared that dinner had been a casualty of Sebastian’s temper.Along with a lot of other things.
But Ulmer solved the problem by the simple expediency of grabbing me up and carrying me across a field of glass from a shattered coffee table, some more from a destroyed mirror, and a minefield of shards from what might have been a vase, but it was currently hard to tell.To where a furious Sebastian was laying down the law to some startled-looking clan leaders.I was startled, too, as he was usually the more reserved, calm, and thoughtful of the brothers, the kind who would prefer to talk rather than fight.
That man was noticeably absent tonight.
And then he saw me, and his expression changed.“Lia.”He strode over and kissed me softly, on both cheeks.“Sister.You are well?”
“Of course she’s well,” Ulmer said, before I could get a word out, his voice booming around the room.“She was ordering pizza for the clan just now, and planning a movie night!And looking over clothes that the girlies got her with your credit card.”
“Yours?”I said, as Ulmer deposited me on a sofa.Well, thank God!
“The least I could do,” Sebastian said, bending over my hand.“You saved me.”
“I—the leastIcould do,” I said, because the room had gone almost completely quiet, which, considering how loud even a small group of Weres could be, was impressive.
And this was not a small group of Weres.This looked like half the ones who had been at the party, arrayed around the large main room of the suite on whatever perches they could find, or in many cases standing because there was no more room.And then it struck me: it was almostexactlyhalf.
I felt a cold finger trace its way up my spine.
“On the contrary,” Sebastian said grimly.“You could have stood aside as many did.You could have protected yoursmallclan and left me to fend for myself.”I assumed there was a message in the emphasis on small, maybe because a lot of the clans here weren’t.Yet they hadn’t done much.“But you stood by our alliance, and it will not be forgotten.”
The dark blue eyes, one of the main ways his looks differed from his brother’s, swept the room, and they were clear and cold tonight.Whatever fury had been exhibited before I showed up was gone, along with the genial bonhomie Sebastian usually cultivated.He was as urbane as a vamp typically, but it was not on display at the moment, and his words were abrupt and blunt.
“It is time for everyone to do as much,” he told the assemblage.“You saw what happened tonight, who fought for us, who stood aside, and who fought with ourenemies.The ones allied with the Black Circle, the same group determined to distract and destroy us, to prevent us from playing any part in this war—the one which will define this age and our place in it.
“We have no reason to take the part of the humans, they say.We have always been Other, separate, apart.And they are right.And we always will be if we fail to take a side.
“Too long have we straddled the middle, knowing what the other side stands for, the chaos and destruction they would wreak, but being unwilling to move against them.Too afraid to upend our comfortable lives and do anything but talk.But as was demonstrated a month ago, when a slaughter took place at our most sacred grounds, and tonight, when I was almost taken, and our clans left leaderless at a crucial juncture, this is already our fight.
“Or do we cede the right to govern ourselves, to choose our destinies, to protect our own to those in bed with the dark?To those who have already assaulted us, spilled our blood, and threatened our very existence?Yes, us and our kin!
“We may have differences,” Sebastian said.“And likely always will.But tonight, you need to choose.Stand with me for a freer, better future, one where we can discuss those differences, come to a consensus, and where everyone has a say.Or stay in the blood-drenched chains of the past, allied with those who have hunted us and our children—and will do so again once they finish using us to win their war.
“Choose!Now!Stand with me or stand with them.But as of tonight, we are at war!”
