“What are you doing?” I demanded, shoving him aside.
“I’m quite capable,” Maxwell protested, elbowing me back. He wielded the branch I had thrown at Raven, holding it aloft like a fencing sword. I stared at his back, his chin lifted in defiance. He was glorious. I commended his bravery, my heart soaring in response to how easily it came to him to put his own life in danger to protect me. But his was a foolish courage.
I sidestepped Maxwell, disarming him with a few flicks of my wrist, before bracing myself to face Raven once more.
Maxwell made a sound of protest at my back, but I ignored it, standing my ground before the vampire and ensuring that she would have to face me before she had any chance of harming Maxwell.
Raven’s eyes were calculating, flickering between me and Maxwell. Branches snapped behind us as Isabel continued her escape, drawing Raven’s attention once more. She looked back in that direction.
“It’s me you want,” I told her. “I’m right here.”
Raven seemed to smile in response. That had been the wrong thing to say. It conveyed my regard for these humans.
“No!” I shouted, rushing at the wolf as she leapt into the sky and gracefully transformed into a vampire bat in a fluid motion even I was impressed with. I reached out a hand, but the bat easily dodged my clumsy attempts.
With a chattering noise that seemed a combination of triumph and taunt, the bat slipped into the night in pursuit of Isabel.
“Lucian,” Maxwell gasped.
“Stay here,” I barked, launching myself back toward the house, hoping I could reach Isabel in time to save her from Raven. Maxwell clearly didn’t heed my warning, as I heard him rush down a parallel path. The route I’d chosen was full of obstacles. I ran around a row of hedges, leapt over inconvenient bushes, and circumvented stone walls and shrubs. I was taking far too long. If Isabel could stay quiet and hidden, then perhaps she stood a chance, but the human instinct to bolt to safety was hard to overcome.
Isabel screamed again, the sound a pleading that rang through my ears. I had to be faster.
I stumbled into a shrub in my haste, wasting precious seconds disentangling myself before the house came into view, the golden glow of the ballroom sending a warm promise of safety cutting through the inky night.
My chest heaved as I gazed around, trying to hear over the sound of my labored breathing. Where were they? Had Isabel made it to safety?
“Lucian! Are you hurt?”
I glanced back to find Ambrose jogging toward me. Sweat clung to his forehead, as if he too had been running, following the sound of Isabel’s distress.
“No. It’s Isabel. The vampire from Hale’s Corner is here.”
“Vampire,” Ambrose echoed, eyes hardening as he glared into the night.
“Over here!” Maxwell’s voice called.
I cursed him for disobeying my orders, but charged toward his voice, Ambrose at my heels.
At the bottom of the stairs leading up to the patio, Maxwell was kneeling in the dark. He crouched over a form, listless and still.
I came to a halt and drew in a sharp breath as I made out Isabel crumpled awkwardly beneath him.
Ambrose met my eyes, swallowing hard, before he approached, bending down for a closer look. I glimpsed her over his shoulder, slim arms outstretched as if pleading with some unseen force, still seeking the sanctuary of the ballroom, just at the top of the staircase, where the sound of laughter and music spilled into the dark of night.
Her neck was bloody, two gouges in her pale flesh implicating a vampire.
Her eyes stared up at the stars, unseeing.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“I’ve never had a knack for fashion,” Violetta told me, sitting up in bed with a faraway look on her face. “I know, difficult to imagine. I was awkward, especially at a young age. The other girls refused to play with me even when I was dolled up by Mother.” She shrugged. “That all changed when Isabel’s family arrived in town. The other girls fawned over her, because, well, she was the most beautiful girl they’d ever seen.”
I glanced out the window of her room at Foxglove Abbey as the curtains billowed inward on a breeze, lazily reaching toward us before deflating. The Harclay family was attending Isabel’s funeral right now. They’d stayed the week to allow for Isabel’s family to arrive, then traveled north to where she would be interned into the family crypt. Most of my friends and their families had made the trip as well, but I remained behind with Violetta, who’d been so overcome that she’d collapsed when confronted with the news and had been inconsolable ever since. I hadn’t felt right attending the funeral of a girl I’d hardly known, not when her lover wasn’t in a state to attend.
“But Isabel didn’t take to them,” Violetta continued. “She saw through their flattery. One New Year’s, when the others shunned me as usual, she kept me company. When the other girls asked why she bothered, she replied ‘I like her much better than the likes of you.’”
I smiled. “That does sound like Isabel. I believe I misjudged her in the beginning.”
