“Not to mention the fact that his entire household has been upended,” Giordan replied with a faint tinge of malice. “For the foreseeable future. I cannot say I blame him.”
Woodmore continued to look at him with cool challenge and the faintest of complacence. If the vampire hunter hadn’t known before, he knew now at least something of the history between him and Narcise. But if he was under the impression that Giordan would be competition for him, he was sadly mistaken.
“Indeed, and my sisters are just as disrupted. Thus, the first thing to appease everyone—including me—is to find Voss and take care of him. I don’t want him anywhere near my sister. Then we can leave London.” He looked at Narcise. “And go somewhere where you’ll be safe.”
Corvindale returned at that moment. “Are you leaving now? Excellent. Good night.” His expression and tone left no room for further conversation, and giving Giordan a wry look, Woodmore gestured for Narcise to start down the corridor.
“We are gone, then,” he said. “Dawn is almost here. I’ll see what sign I can find of Voss while the sun is up. Look for word from me in the afternoon. If luck is with me, I’ll find the bastard and stake him in his sleep.”
“By the Fates, you look as if you need a drink,” Dimitri said to Giordan as soon as they were gone. “The devil knows I do. Bloody damned women.”
By Luce’s dark soul, it wasn’t a drink he needed. “No,” Giordan said. “I’ll take my leave before the sun is up.”
And he followed Woodmore and Narcise’s path down the hall, inhaling her essence in his wake.
No, indeed. It wasn’t a damn drink he craved.
_______
“You aren’t truly going.”
Chas paused in his packing to look up at the tone of accusation in Narcise’s voice.
“Of course I’m going,” he replied firmly, shoving a trio of stakes into his leather sack. “She’s mysister, Narcise. Do you think I would leave her safety up to chance? Especially with Voss?”
Two weeks after their gathering in Dimitri’s study, Angelica had been abducted by Belial. According to Voss—who’d seemed unaccountably concerned—she was being taken to Paris to be delivered to Cezar.
The other vampire had been convincing in his argument thathe,Voss, should be the one to go after her and bring her home, despite the fact that Angelica’s own brother was avampir hunter. And though even Dimitri’s stubborn opinion had been swayed by Voss’s points, Chas wasn’t about to sit on his hands while his sister’s fate was in the hands of a bloody damned vampire.
Especially one who’d already attacked her once. And who’d sneaked into her chamber and done knew God what else while she was under his thrall.
He shoved a clean shirt into the pack with more violence than necessary. The only reason Voss wasn’t dead right now was because he’d been wearing protective armor when Chas had seen him last; when he’d come to White’s club to deliver the news that Angelica was on her way to Paris. And because the damned man was right—hecouldgain access to Cezar.
“But Voss is smart enough, and Cezar likes him because he always has information he wants,” Narcise argued the same points that had been made previously. “For sale, of course. He won’t be suspicious of him, so Voss will have no problem getting in. And with those smoke-cloud packets you gave him, he’ll have an easy way to escape.”
Chas stopped and gave her a hard look. “I don’t want him anywhere near my sister. Not only do I not trust him, not only have I heard legend upon legend of him ruining women, but he is also a Dracule.”
The moment those words slipped from his mouth, Chas regretted them. Not the sentiment of course, but the way he’d expressed it, for Narcise’s beautiful face blanched.
“And so you can commingle with we Dracule, we damned and damaged demons…but not your sister.”
Her words were bitter, and Chas felt a wave of self-disgust—for the memory of himself panting beneath her, blind with need, ensorcelled by her texture, taste, and scent…and begging for her to tear into him with her fangs…burned tauntingly in his mind.
And yet…it was no mere lust that drove him. There was something much deeper in his heart. If only he could reconcile it with who she was: immortal, damaged, and bound to a demon.
“Blast it, no, Narcise.” He shoved his fingers through his hair and resisted the urge to throw something. “It’s different for her than for me. I understand what I—I understand what it’s like.” He’d been hunting the creatures for years. He knew their faults, their weaknesses. Their pure center ofself.
He fully comprehended what he was doing to himself by being with one. Unlike his naive sister.
“Well, Chas, I suggest you begin to help her understand. Because from the way she was acting that night in Dimitri’s study, I wouldn’t be surprised if Angelica was in love with Voss. And she doesn’t know what to do about it. She probably doesn’t even realize it.”
Over my bloody damned dead body.
“Never,” he snapped, yanking up his satchel. By God, he’dneverwish such a thing on his sister: to be in love with one of these warped-souled beings. It was an untenable hell of its own. “And even if she fancies herself in love with him, I won’t permit it. I’ll kill him first.”
“I’ll come with you, Chas,” she said, standing in a swirl of dark hair and smooth slide of her pale gown.
“Don’t be a fool,” he said, his voice softening. “You can’t allow yourself anywhere near Cezar. Paris might be a big city, but you know as well as I do that he has spies and makes everywhere. I won’t risk you, Narcise.”
