Page 99 of Fallen Court

“You.” Vulnerability twined his voice, and he glanced over at me. “Meeting you showed me that I need to know my city better—to be part of it.”

“And that’s it?”

“Isn’t that enough?” But his smile didn’t reach his eyes.

Or was it that he’d given up on returning to the Otherworld? A cold wave of fear doused my mood at the thought. I forced my eyes ahead but only far enough to see the next house. We’d worry about the future tomorrow.

A change of subject was in order.

“Look at that one.” I pointed to a house where spectral vines crept up the walls, moving and writhing like a living thing. Lach chuckled, his beastly guise momentarily softening. But a cloaked figure, the hand on his hip resting on what I worried was an actual fucking sword, stepped into our path. I took a step closer to Lach as the man’s midnight-dark eyes landed on me. The stranger drew his hand off the sword and bowed deeply at the waist.

“You’ve always had a flair for grandeur,” Lach said to him, an undercurrent of guarded warmth in his tone. His glamoured talons caught the moonlight as he gestured toward me. “Étienne, allow me to introduce my…Cate.”

Étienne rose and lowered his hood. His black hair brushed his shoulders, slightly tousled from the cloak but not unkempt. The sharpness of his jaw and the hard-hewn lines of his face mesmerized me as he extended a hand covered in a leather glove that fastened neatly at his wrist.

Lach’s hesitation to call out our relatively new relationship status was adorable. I pried myself away from him, my initial wariness evaporating as I accepted the vampire’s hand, the leather glove buttery soft as I shook it. “I’m Lach’s…lover.”

For an uncomfortable moment, Étienne seemed to be calculating something. His nostrils flared, and he looked back and forth between Lach and me—almost pointedly. “Charmed,” Étienne said, lifting my hand to kiss it. Lach’s hand tightened ever so slightly around mine, a claim against the flirtation. The vampire withdrew and looked at him. “I thought there was something different about you. Apart from the horns.”

“What are you doing in Second Parish?” Lach asked casually. “Or are you lost?”

I tensed, sensing what he was hinting at, but Étienne didn’t even blink.

“Who could resist such a night?” He glanced at me for confirmation, and I nodded awkwardly, put on the spot. He lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “To tell the truth, I like the decorations, and I’m on my way to visit a friend.”

I’d thought the various covens hated each other. There was another reason he might have come, though. Maybe he thought it bad manners to admit that it was the sheer amount of human blood available that brought him here. An icy tendril of dread traced my neck at the idea that other vampires might be out for the same reason. Not that I knew much about their…eating habits. I made a mental note to ask roughly a million questions about vampires later.

Lach didn’t hide his incredulity. “A friend in Second Parish?”

“Indeed.” Étienne dipped his chin, giving Lach a rather wise look for someone who appeared only a few years older than me. “I’ve walked this earth too long to worry about political boundaries and what others think. True friendship transcends such petty differences.”

“Or maybe you’re getting soft,” Lach said with a slight smile.

Étienne’s own widened, proof that he meant what he said.

How old was he? Lach had been around for a couple of centuries, and he was still stuck maneuvering the delicate relationships with the covens.

Étienne turned to me. “And how did you talk him into actually going out and doing something?”

“He responds well to threats,” I said without missing a beat.

For a minute, the vampire only stared, but then he burst into laughter. “Fate chose well for you, Lachlan.” His attention returned to me. “Have you talked him into attending the Danse Macabre in the Quartier Enchanté tonight?”

Only about half those words meant something to me. I shot Lach a puzzled look.

But the question seemed to pierce through Lach’s beastly exterior, tension tightening his jaw despite the glamour. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

“I don’t need to remind you that you are always welcome in my parish,” Étienne said softly. “It would also send an important message.”

Lach remained silent as if he was considering what that message might be. “We’ll think about it.”

It was enough to appease Étienne. He inclined his head in my direction. “It was a pleasure to meet you, Cate. Keep him in line.”

I bit back a smile. “Will do.”

“And I hope to see both of you later,” he added meaningfully.

Lach jerked his head in farewell, not bothering to pretend he was even considering the invitation.