She scoffed. “Lucian. Don’t be coy, you cheeky bastard.”
And then I knew. Only one person dared speak to me like that. My former human assistant, Helena. I felt the tension melt from my body at once as I shook my head in disbelief. “You’re still alive, you old bird. The devil must not want your soul.”
“Then you two have something in common.”
I winced as I took her in, her deep-set wrinkles, her milky, staring eyes. She had been beautiful once, when I’d first taken her under my wing. “Helena … I know what I promised you—”
“None of that now,” Helena interrupted with a sigh. “I was angry that you didn’t grant me immortality, once upon a time. But now that I’ve had time to grow, away from that damnable castle, I’ve seen that it was a mercy.” She shook her head. “But there’ll be time enough to discuss that. For now, let’s go inside. Don’t want the servants gossiping now, do we?”
We were several yards up the drive from a large manor. I reached out to thread my arm through hers, to help guide her, but she slapped my hand away.
“I do just fine on my own,” she told me, beginning to walk toward the doors. “I may be old and blind, but I’m capable.”
“You have always been capable,” I said, a wistful smile crossing my lips. The scent of gardenia greeted my nostrils, and I relished the floral notes of her favorite perfume, still the same after all these years. Her being here almost felt like a homecoming. I didn’t feel quite so alone in this endeavor. “One of the most capable people I’ve ever known.”
“I can see you still know how to flatter. Losing your immortality didn’t rob you of that, at least.”
“Then, you know.”
“Of course, I know. It was all explained to me in the letter I received from your master. In braille, no less. Would have been hard to explain if someone had read that aloud to me.”
I paused, sucking in a breath. “My …master?”
She shrugged. “That’s what he claimed.”
“I have no master.” I scowled as we slowly climbed a set of stairs to the front door.
“No, you killed him long ago, didn’t you?”
I shivered. Helena knew so much about me. That was what happened when one spent decades in the company of someone else. Even if she had been human while I’d been of a superior species. Until my protégée Raven had come along, I’d had no one to confide in. Helena had filled that role for me as she’d served me, my most faithful subject. I’d been loath to lose her, but once she’d reached her fifties, I hadn’t been able to put off replacing her with a younger, healthier attendant any longer. Vampires were superior to humans in nearly every way, but we required someone reliable to watch over our coffins during the daylight hours. That was the only reason a human servant was necessary at all. I could retrieve my own meals, but that damnable sun kept me from complete self-sufficiency.
Helena paused as we reached the short staircase that led up to the door and turned back toward me. “The story is that you’re my great-nephew. You lost your family in a fire, and inherited an admirable estate last year in wake of the tragedy.”
“Oooh. Very dramatic. I like a touch of the grisly.”
“It will also keep people from probing too deeply. It’s distasteful.”
As Helena began to make her way carefully up the stairs with the aid of her cane, the door opened, and a man stepped outside, squinting into the dark. He was old and wiry with wisps of black hair atop his head and a pencil-thin mustache. “Pardon, my lady. I didn’t hear the carriage until it was pulling away.”
“Just as I’d planned,” she said softly enough that only I could hear. Helena cleared her throat and raised her voice. “It’s just as well, Percival. No need to bother you at such a late hour.”
“Is this the great-nephew then?” a rotund woman asked from behind the butler, squinting at me through spectacles. She smiled kindly and gestured to me. “Come in, then. Don’t want you to catch cold.”
Percival held the door open for us, watching me from the corner of his beady eyes as I paused on the threshold. Of course, I no longer needed an invitation, but it was difficult to ignore the rules I had been so accustomed to. I stepped through an imagined barrier, gliding through unimpeded, and smiled at Percival triumphantly, as if he could fathom my inner machinations. I imagined suspicion in the butler’s gaze. This was a rather unconventional manner to enter a house, especially one as grand as this one. Yet I met his stare with a challenge. How dare he question me. I was Count Lucian Cross. If I had half a mind, I could rip out his throat with my teeth and … I took a breath to calm myself. No, I couldn’t do any such thing. I was human now, and humans exhibited strength through restraint and decorum.
Restraint.Ugh.
“That will be all, Percival,” Helena dismissed the man. “We can take it from here.”
“Very good.” Percival bowed before retreating, sending one last questioning look my way.
“Is it very late?” I asked.
“Just past midnight,” the maid answered. “Of course, the duke’s family will greet you in the morning.”
“Of course.”
“Is the fire still going in the library?” Helena asked as we began to walk deeper into the room.
