I look down at my phone and see a new message from scheduling. “Buckle up, Vittoria, we have an event tonight.”
“Not interested.”
“You will when you see who it is.”
She crowds me, even though she could read it on her own phone. “It’s just some mafia family we don’t deal with, one who keeps out of our way. They have other cities. I know Tenebris is?—”
“No. Not them,” I say as she goes still, her gaze locking on another name. “Raleigh.”
Her mouth twists in disgust. “Rogues.”
I don’t point out the hate-fueled years-long affair she and Raleigh had. We might not like his misfit gang of newly turned vampires, calling for our kind to step into the light and live among humans as equals, and they might not like our reclusive ways, but we’re all still vampires.
We supposedly get along now, if you call constantly circling and policing each other a partnership. The Rogues have only gained more numbers in the last few years, but not enough to overwhelm us. They’re being closely watched to make sure they don’t expose us all because that would result in the immediate wipe out of their little group.
So yes, not enemies but not exactly friendly, either.
“Not just them,” I say. “Look again.”
She does.
Then she sees the name of the person hosting this little engagement party for a mafia don’s daughter and the son of a billionaire.
“Santiago.” She frowns. “What the fuck is he doing here?”
Good question.
“I doubt it’s just to be host to a human couple,” I say.
She glances up at me. “What are you going to do?”
Another good question. If Santiago’s in town, trouble’s bound to follow.
“Strap in,” I say. “Things just got more complicated.”
Elliot is the most predictable unpredictable person I’ve met. She’s the antithesis to Nell in so many ways, apart from her heart.
Or, I should say, that’s how it was.
Now, she’s a vampire, and Vittoria’s words ring through my veins.
Elliot jumps when I enter the study, and a drawer closes. Of course she was snooping. It’s in her nature.
“We’re going out, Monty,” I say.
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” she says.
I close my eyes for a moment. “Your games keep you locked up longer. Get dressed and be ready in twenty. There are cocktails first.”
“Cocktails? You aren’t serious.”
I cross to her and close my computer. “Did you find what you were looking for?”
She hesitates, but then holds up a faded picture of a beautiful woman on the beach. It takes me a moment to realize what this is.
She found a picture of Nell, the one she had given me after I had revealed to her what I was. It had been a gesture of assurance that she wouldn’t leave me, even knowing the truth. I had been terrified it would scare her away, but Nell never seemed to be scared of anything.
Not even death.
