“Have I? Or have you done it yourself, by years of abuse and neglect? Years of oppression? Were they everwith youto begin with?”
“It’s the right of the strong to dominate those below them!”
“It is the right of every ruler to reach out to those sorely oppressed and save his people. You had twenty years to change your tune. Now we will have a new way.” Kendrick feinted for Laurent, who skipped backward.
He could end this here and now, but he wanted to see if Laurent would actually turn and fight.
“The truth is, Laurent,” Kendrick said, gesturing to the room, “even if by some chance you managed to strike me down, there are plenty here who would step in to end you. Your vision of darkness and tyranny has no place here. It never will again.”
Laurent’s face twisted in a mask of rage. “Then if I am to die, I’ll take all of you with me!” He lunged for the drapes in front of the windows and ripped them away.
And then, as Genevieve screamed, all Kendrick saw was light.
ChapterForty-Three
The instant Laurent had reached for the curtains, all the vampires by the door recoiled. When he pulled the fabric down to admit dawn’s light to the ballroom, Genevieve screamed, “NO!” She threw herself—threw every bit of her being—forward to try to get to Kendrick, even as hands seized her to pull her back.
Light flashed. She squinted against the bright light. “Kendrick!”
Her voice was lost in Laurent screaming. He flailed in the beam of sunlight. Flames erupted from him in hot, angry tongues of fire. He ran out of the sunbeam, but nothing could stop the blaze. He fell to the ground and twitched, a blackened husk, before finally falling to ashes.
“Let go of me!” Genevieve commanded, fighting the hands holding her. “Kendrick!” Where was he? Where had he gone? He could not have burned before Laurent!
“We can’t do anything about the drapes until nightfall,” someone warned. “Not unless one of the humans tacks it back up. Genevieve, come away…”
“No! Where is he?” Genevieve demanded, her eyes streaming from the light.
“She’s right,” Elspeth insisted. “Where did he go?”
“I vow,” a wondering voice said from across the room. “I have not stood in the sun in more than a thousand years.” Footfalls moved across the floor towards Genevieve. “Don’t cry, Genevieve. Not when you’re the heroine of the hour.” A warm hand encircled hers. “You might drop your veil of protection, though. It is mighty unnerving for a man not to see his own hands.”
Genevieve sucked in a hard breath.
Kendrick flickered into view in front of her, holding her hand to his cheek. His face glowed. “You’re a marvel, Genevieve.”
She threw her arms around his neck. “What happened?!”
“Don’t you know?” He laughed. “You saved my life.”
Laurent had forced his way through the front door and badly wounded Jeremy, the footman. But he was alive, and Joseph had been summoned. The ballroom had been closed off until they could deal with Laurent’s remains after dark.
As all the vampires still awake filed into the library, demanding to know what had happened, Genevieve threw her arms around Fletcher. “You ran like the wind, Fletcher! But you shouldn’t have taken the chance to strike him. It was too risky!”
“I had to! L’go,” he wheezed. “Y’r squishin’ me.”
“How did you come to be there?” Genevieve demanded.
“I was going to practice with my sword before breakfast, but I heard him talking to you and knew that was the bad cove. I couldn’t leave him with you, mum!”
Genevieve gazed down into the boy’s earnest face. The logical remonstrations that she was a vampire, and an adult, flew through her mind. She dismissed them. “Thank you for being so brave.”
He flushed but looked pleased when she kissed his cheek.
“It was a good strike,” Kendrick said, setting his hand on Fletcher’s head. “I’m proud of you.”
Fletcher beamed. “He went off like a ruddy roman candle, didn’t he, guv?”
Kendrick laughed. “Yes, very like.”
