“Ah, Lucian!” a voice cried at my elbow, pleased. “I do hope you saved a place on your dance card for me.”
I flinched as Helena came to an abrupt stop, stepping away as I turned to regard Raven in a fuchsia dress with black lace. She smiled coyly. “Oh, come now. When have you ever shied away from a good time? You don’t want all of your friends to die now, do you?”
I grit my teeth and held a hand out to her. She beamed as she accepted, placing her cold, dead hand in mine, and allowing me to sweep her across the floor. I searched for Helena in the crowd and found her watching from beside Flora, speaking softly into the duchess’s ear.
“It’s just like old times,” Raven said, voice full of nostalgia as I held her stiffly. “I mean, you’re usually the one threatening me, but it’s always this sort of battle of wills, isn’t it? It makes the years fly by. After missing my chance to kill you on Old Mill Road, I reflected that if you’d died, my greatest enemy would be gone, and then what would I do to entertain myself?” She sent me a sharp look. “But you aren’t just my greatest enemy, Lucian. No, you’re also my greatest friend, as dreadful as that sounds.”
I smiled thinly. “And you were my confidante, my student, my … sister.”
She frowned. “You abhorred the idea of family. You never allowed it for me.”
“I know.” I hesitated. “Raven, I know that—”
“Here we are, in one of the greatest ballrooms in all of England,” she interrupted. “I remember a time when you forced me to kill my friend and leave his body in a gutter. Funny that your friends are now at my mercy.” She tilted her head. “Should I give you the same choice you gave me all those years ago?”
I swallowed hard. “You already told me you want to me to live on, to suffer.”
“That’s true. I could make you choose between your friends, I suppose. Or should we make it a grand game? I do love party games, and I haven’t had the opportunity in ages. Whoever lasts longest on the dance floor shall live. How does that sound? We would have to find a fast-paced number though. Can’t have this dragging on until dawn, you know.”
I hated to admit I was impressed by what she’d been able to accomplish in so little time. I gathered from the grin spreading across Raven’s face that she had read my response. “How many have you turned?”
Raven shrugged. “I couldn’t change all of them. Some had to keep running the place.” She sighed. “But I must say, I’ve grown quite fond of Hemlock Manor. It will make for the perfect home.”
“Home?” I echoed.
She nodded. “Just picture it: coffins in that cute little vampire hunter room beneath the house. You, chained like a dog, eating scraps.” She sniffed. “This is much more agreeable than that dreadful castle. If you ask me, they did us a favor by driving us out. Of course, I can’t let the vampire hunters live. I think Vrykolakas will agree. The others, however, could be the family you’ve always denied me.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You expect to live here? Undetected by humans?” I laughed. “Raven, I thought I’d taught you better than that.”
She frowned and shrugged my hands from her. She clapped sharply, and abruptly, the room went still and silent, dancers freezing in place, the last note of the piano hanging in the air, as if suspended in time.
“You don’t think I can pull this off?” Raven crossed her arms. “Look at all I’ve already accomplished, and right under your nose. Once we’ve eliminated the hunters and set some ground rules, we’ll get along.”
“Yes, but there are vampire hunters around the country. There are neighbors nearby. There’s a reason we lived in an out-of-the-way castle in the mountains. You truly believed this half-baked scheme would impress me?”
She flinched, hanging on my every word, still seeking approval from the man I used to be. While she was paying attention to my barbs, I backed into a table, giving it a rough shove. The heavy candelabra fell over, a flame blooming immediately where it landed.
Nancy gasped from beside Melbourne, and the vampires all seemed to shrink from the flame, instinct whispering at its ability to end their immortal lives. Even Raven took a step back, gesturing to Percival to put the fire out.
I didn’t let him get close enough to snuff out the flames, but rather grabbed the tablecloth, sending the burning article at the dancers, who scattered like rats. Amid the chaos, I kicked at the table leg hard, earning a crack as a long stem of wood broke free. It wasn’t a perfect spear, its edge splintered and only vaguely sharp, but it was a deadly weapon in the right hands. And I’d had years of practice stabbing people with precision.
Percival had thrown water over the tablecloth and was now stalking toward me, but he stopped dead in his tracks when I held up the spear.
“That is definitely not coming out of the carpet,” Nancy observed as she eyed the spilled glasses of sheep’s blood, tutting beside a visibly enraged Raven.
“Raven,” I said, gritting my teeth. “Just stop for a moment and listen to me. I understand what you’re trying to do here. I get it. I denied you the family you’ve wanted since I turned you. But you can’t just forcibly turn people to suit your needs.”
“You mean, like you did? The choice you gave me was no choice at all. You forced it on me, and then you shaped me exactly how you wanted me to be,” she said, voice low. “You taught me everything I know.”
“I taught you to be cruel,” I said, my heart dropping into my stomach. “I failed you, Raven. I’ve failed … everyone.” I shook my head. “I should have listened to you then, but I was so lost in how I thought everything should be, what I was taught. But we have an opportunity to break that chain, Raven. With you. You saw what I didn’t in the humans. You saw more than meals. You saw the potential for camaraderie, for family.” I took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, Raven. I’m sorry for what I took from you, and what I didn’t allow you to have. I thought I knew better, and I was wrong.”
Raven watched me warily. “I never thought I’d live to see the day when Count Lucian Cross apologized for anything.”
I tossed the wooden spear aside. “I won’t fight you, Raven. I understand now what it means to have people around you whom you care about. I always thought such attachments unnecessary, but that only made for an empty existence. And that was all I was allowing you to have.”
Raven considered me, eyes shrewd, indecisive.
My eyes slipped beyond Raven, where a figure blurred into position, with the wooden spear I’d discarded in hand. I stiffened, then stumbled forward, shoving Raven aside as the spear plunged downward. It nicked my shoulder, and I grunted as I pressed a hand to the stinging pain. I was lucky it hadn’t gutted me.
