“He is a handsome one,” Seamus mused. He folded the parchment and put it back into its envelope.
“Training him was one reason I delayed,” Roger admitted. “I had to make certain he was tame.”
“I could’ve helped with that,” Seamus said.
“I wanted to ensure my skills hadn’t gotten rusty.”
“You wouldn’t have taken months if you’d brought him to my garden,” another voice said.
Roger had ignored the crowd in favor of appealing to Seamus, but there were at least a dozen other vampires in the room. He knew most of them, including the one rising to his feet.
Marcus had been dressed in a lieutenant’s uniform the first time Roger had laid eyes on him. Despite loathing Quinn for his betrayal, Roger had been tasked with raising his sireling. Roughly a year had passed, and Quinn claimed to have trouble containing his impulses. When he spotted Marcus in the crowd, Quinn declared he was going to turn him.
Roger had warned Quinn not to do it. But Quinn had been upset that Roger refused to sleep with him. So he’d seduced Marcus, eventually turning an affair of a few weeks into an immortal drama. As fiercely as they could be in love, Marcus and Quinn would also delve into sabotaging behavior to ruin the other’s good standing in the coven.
Seamus had confessed to Roger in 1939 that he found the whole thing rather amusing.
In the present, Marcus cruised between the other patrons and went to Seamus’s abandoned chair. He’d grown his brown hair out to be shoulder length, and he’d used eyeshadow to encourage his hazel eyes to seem greener. His pants and vest were of the same black leather, molded to fit his body. The stark color was Marcus’s attempt to make his skin seem more ethereally pale, but he remained the same pasty white he’d been the night he’d risen from the grave. Quinn hadn’t had muchpower to bestow on him, and Marcus had never gained the strength other vampires his age should have.
That hadn’t stopped him from becoming cocky and overcompensating with his bravado.
He took Seamus’s chair and spun it around so the back was facing Seamus and Roger. Without breaking eye contact with Roger, he straddled the seat. “Candide’s built a fancy house, but Steward’s Garden is where the real fun is had. We could’ve had your boy broken in like that.” He snapped his fingers.
“You know I admire your approach,” Seamus said as he left Roger’s side to drift toward Marcus. Then, he caught Marcus by the hair. “But you are a sledgehammer.”
For his part, Marcus grinned.
Seamus smiled back at him, the predator gleam in his eye.
And they’re fucking.Roger made a subtle motion to Zack, one they’d established as a “follow me” during training. He claimed Takashi’s place on the couch, and the person beside him was good enough to scoot their pet off the couch so that Takashi could sit with him. Zack sat at Roger’s feet.
“I prefer my pets’ will intact.” Roger threaded his hand through Zack’s hair.
“Howmortal,” Marcus said with a sneer.
Seamus chuckled and released Marcus. He shook his head and motioned for the vampire on Roger’s other side to move. Once the seat was empty, he sat. “You’d think being a vampire for two hundred years would give him some appreciation for the finer art of manipulation.”
“Perhaps I just want a chance to wreck the brat that killed my sire,” Marcus snapped.
Seamus shot him a warning glare.
Roger eased his arm around Takashi and sighed dramatically. “Quinn had a vendetta that was going to get himkilled sooner or later. At least he didn’t manage to start a war with the Wrights.”
“And keeping your brat won’t do that?” Marcus asked.
“Hasn’t so far,” Roger mused.
“Enough posturing,” Seamus declared. “Roger has come home. Candide, you must have a few delicious ones you’ve been holding back for a special occasion. Pipe some sort of music in here. Let the celebration begin!”
Candide clapped her hands, and a dozen white-collared donors came into the room.
The worst of the tests was over, and Roger and Zack and the others weren’t dead. Roger relaxed into the couch.Now we just have to grin and pretend that we aren’t sickened by whatever he decides to do tonight.
CHAPTER 16
Zack had been prepared for the worst night of his life. He’d steadied his nerves for the disdainful and monstrous. Sitting by while vampires drank from donors was something he’d expected. Listening to them talk as if humans weren’t in the room didn’t surprise him in the least, even if some of the stories were about brutal murders told in a callous tone.
Watching Roger schmooze with Seamus was the gut punch. It shouldn’t have been, but everything Roger did seemed to say that helikedSeamus.
