SECURITY CONCERNS AT SANCTUS ESTATE
An inside source at Sanctus informs us that on the eve of the Midnight Garden sculpture party, where un-Thralled humans were invited onto the estate to mingle with Upyr residents, the security system broke down for several minutes. We cannot confirm if anyone entered the property without detection, and no security breaches have been reported, but Upyr should be concerned that Gideon Blake’s security is not as impenetrable as he would have you believe.
This is particularly alarming given the husker is still on the loose. Humans and vampires should not be socialising freely without regard for our rules. We should not stand for these threats to our safety and secrecy.
Yet another lie fed to innocent Upyr by a man who wants to steal your money!
The Conclave
1255 Dig This 122 Resurrections
27
Gideon
Then
Gideon, I hope this letter finds you well. I do not know your residence so I left this missive with Claude in the hopes he will get it to you. I’ve had to flee the city. It has become dangerous for me to hang around La Petite Mort. I wish I could tell you why, but you are not yet ready to know. Hopefully, you’ll never need know the truth.
I write to you as a friend, with some less-than-friendly advice. You must break off your affair with Arabella. I fear it will be the death of you.
I know the idea of losing her seems as unthinkable as losing your left thumb. I say this as a man who’s had more than his fair share of affairs. A woman may occupy your thoughts, wholly and completely, for a time. You cannot paint, you cannot think, you cannot breathe. They are beneath your skin, and you cannot imagine excising them without cutting out pieces of yourself.
But when it’s over, it is like crossing the border into another country. They become distant memories – languages you no longer speak, landmarks you remember only as flowery sentences in your diary.
You can learn to live and paint again without a thumb. But you cannot live without a heart, and she will surely take yours.
Please don’t look for me, but know I wish you well.
Édouard
ARABELLA’S HEAD LOLLS AGAINST MY SHOULDER, her lips parting slightly.
She’s asleep.
I know from watching her when she was sick that she’s a proper mistress of the night. The moment the sun peeks over the horizon, she falls into a dead slumber. Not even Sarah singing show tunes would wake her.
Now’s my chance.
I slide my arm out from beneath Arabella and gaze down at a goddess in her golden chemise, the only blemish on her skin a tiny, perfect mole on her inner thigh. I drown myself in her beauty one final time before I roll away from her. I rise from her bed and search for my clothes, popping a button from my shirt in my haste. I gingerly touch the claw marks on my back.
Sex with Arabella is even more wanton and dangerous than I could have imagined, and I have a vast and graphic imagination.
She is no mere woman. She is agoddess.
And I’m about to steal from her.
To save her life. To save my brother.
The necklace rests on top of the velvet box on her dresser. Now that it’s separated from her neck, the stones appear dull, the gold tarnished. I pick it up, amazed at how light it feels.
All this fuss over such a tiny, breakable thing? I find it hard to believe it was ever magical.
I wanted to wait for the perfect moment when I could make it look like someone else had stolen it, but I’m out of time. I have to hope that once I pay my debt to Lucien and we’re free, I can explain things to Arabella. She’ll hate me, but I’ll happily be hated by her as long as she’s alive.
I stuff the jewels down my trousers, wince as I tug my jacket over the wounds across my shoulders, and make a run for it.
At her door, I pause, my heart in my throat. I look back at her sleeping. She hasn’t stirred. Her chest doesn’t even look as though it’s rising. She’s so beautiful like this, all her walls crumbled to dust.
