Roger kept his gaze on the manuscript Ezra had placed on the end table. He couldn’t pretend to be angry that Ezra had found a new way to lash out. Ever since Seamus and Anton had butchered Ezra’s family in 1755, Ezra had clung to a shield of rage. Usually, when his anger became too great to ignore, Roger would arrange for him to return to England and to take up his role as a nobleman and continue to reap the benefits of position.
But in the last thirty years, Ezra had finally abandoned aristocracy and used his time away from the coven to launch a career writing erotica based on his fellow vampires.
“I take it HT Moss strikes again?” Roger asked. “Do I get a happily ever after?”
“This is a brand-new series,” Ezra said. “I need to write anotherFrom the Grave, and I will! But this was a mystery I’d been brewing for a while, and I decided to go for it. Seriously, Roger, I would have thought you would be over the moon.”
Roger frowned at him. “Why on earth would I be happy?”
“Because of the debut party next week,” Ezra replied. “That’s why you’re here, isn’t it? To talk over the details with her? Where are Zack and Takashi? I would’ve assumed they would want to be part of the preparations.”
Roger slid to the edge of his seat and held on to the rage in his heart with white knuckles. Ezra’s tone was completely blithe likehis words weren’t laced with holy water. “What thefuckare you on about?”
Confusion clouded Ezra, and he frowned. “I know I saw the invitation. ‘An intimate debut for two wonderful new fledglings of the Great Lakes Coven. Zackery and Kathleen.’”
Roger stood. Somehow, in doing so, he knocked Ezra’s manuscript over, and the pages fluttered. Swearing, he knelt and started to collect them, but his hands were shaking. No, the pages were shaking.What the hell?
Ezra gasped and hurried over to gather his book. They worked together, though Roger could hardly see his hands from the red starting to swarm his vision.Fledgling.Zackery. Intimate debut. That meant … that meant he’d been a vampire for a little while. That meant …I’ll tell you where Zack and Takashi are, Anton had offered smugly. Roger had sensed the trap in those words, had assumed that it meant Zack and Takashi were someplace hard to reach.Nowhere is farther than the grave. Was Takashi in a grave? Had he been killed? And Zack. Zack. Zack had sworn he’d never want to become a vampire. But he was a sireling. He had to beSeamus’ssireling.
It had to be a move of desperation, hadn’t it? A last moment’s choice. What sick game was Seamus playing to have some sort of debut party like Zack was any other vampire? Who the fuck was Kathleen?
Why the hell was Ezra acting like he should be glad?
Ezra stopped picking up his pages. He set them aside and started to reach for Roger but hesitated. Softly, he said, “I … I feel as though I may have missed some events of the past few weeks.”
“Weeks?”
“It’s been part of the process. Candide locks me up in a room with a typewriter—don’t worry about these pages, I’ve had a laptop without internet to work on this draft—and I focus.I don’t spendallmy time in there, but she leaves the outside world very outside while I work. I only know about the invitation because I saw it on her desk when I went looking for her just now.” Ezra retreated a bit. “The last bit of news I have was the closing of the Winter’s Grand Ball.”
“She’s told younothing?” Roger demanded. He slammed his fist against the floor. Once wasn’t enough, but twice would only break his bones, and he didn’t need that pain. It wasn’t conducive. He needed to rip and shove and tear something apart.
No. No, he wouldn’t be like Seamus. He would release this rage some other way. When the time was right. Not at Ezra, who was proud of himself for good reason and only trying to be a good friend.
“Kit hasn’t mentioned anything?” Roger continued.
“What would they have to mention?” Ezra asked.
Roger clenched his fists tighter, but he held them to the floor. The invitation that Ezra saw must have been opened by Candide’s hand, mustn’t it? She knew Zack was a vampire, that he belonged toSeamus, and she had saidnothing.
The sound of a heartbeat, a breath, and light footsteps drew Roger’s attention. Kit had arrived with a pair of Ezra’s pants, and they remained at the doorway. Their shoulders were tight, their lips a thin line, and they clutched Ezra’s pants tightly between their hands.
“You haven’t told him?” Roger rasped. A rustling noise began.
“Do not become cross at Kit!” Ezra dashed in front of Roger, blocking off view of Kit. “You know that Candide turns her homes into sanctuaries.”
“Heaven forbid reality set in,” Roger growled.
“Kit, leave the pants, and take the others to the bedroom,” Ezra said. A slight thump of fabric and then the running of feetmarked Kit’s departure. He locked his gaze with Roger. “I can’t believe I, of all people, need to say this to you. You have to calm down.”
“Calm. Down.” Roger stood, and Ezra mirrored him. But Ezra was short like Zack.And Zack is a vampire like him. Only I didn’t make him. Roger towered over Ezra and kept their staring contest going. “You have no right to say that to me. Anton murdered your lover, and you nearly staked me for my cowardice. Seamus has changed my beautiful Zack into one of us. He has bound Zack to him, and our ‘beloved’ Candide has known without saying a damn word to me.”
There was a whip of movement in the corners of Roger’s eyes. A breeze was moving through him. The waves of his mind were rolling, but he was sailing those waves. The wind, the water, it washis, and it was angry with him.
Ezra grabbed Roger’s wrists tightly. Roger had ignored his vampiric abilities since sitting on the couch. With bare skin contact, Ezra’s compassion was clear. That desire to help was painful to behold.
Roger didn’t want help. He wanted to hurt the world as he was hurting. Wanted to scream. Wanted to let it out.
“Roger!” Ezra shouted. Fear for himself, for Roger, and for the penthouse tarnished his compassionate desire. “Please! You have to stop!”
