Bloodspell (35 page)

Victoria shivered in delicious response dragging her eyes away. She was just about to reprimand him for staring at her in such a suggestive manner when the door opened and an attractive dark-haired man walked in.

He introduced himself as Enhard and embraced Christian warmly. Christian then introduced Victoria. When he said pointedly that her name was Tori, Victoria noticed that Enhard started visibly, his eyes snapping to Christian's who nodded imperceptibly. Enhard smiled with genuine pleasure, engulfing Victoria's hands in his own and telling her that he was honored to meet her. Victoria was taken aback by his effusive greeting but when she looked at Christian, he just smiled.

What's that about
?
she asked silently.

Nothing really, I just told him a little about this wonderful girl I had met.

She was staring dreamily at his face when she realized that Enhard had asked her a question, a smile on his own face at her diverted expression.

"Sorry?" she said, turning red. Christian pretended to study his fingernails but she knew that he was laughing inside at her embarrassment. She glared at him.

"Did you have a pleasant trip?" Enhard asked, his voice mellow like butterscotch. Victoria felt like she was going to melt from the tone of his voice. What was
with
these vampires and their ability to charm the senses!

"Yes, it was fine, thank you," she responded with a winsome smile. She felt the gentle brush of his mind on hers that was undoubtedly intended to have been unnoticed, and responded with an answering touch of her own, leaving him in no doubt of what she was. Enhard's eyes widened as he whirled to face Christian.

"She's ... a witch!" he accused.

Victoria tensed in response to the almost angry tone of his voice.

"Yes," Christian agreed, his face implacable.

The reproach in Enhard's expression was obvious. If she had simply been a human, it would have been acceptable. But Victoria was a witch. Their shared history was far too dark, and centuries of hate meant that no relationship between witches and vampires would be tolerated.

Victoria could feel the palpable change in the air as Enhard regarded her in stunned silence. She stared back just as fiercely until Enhard looked away, noticing that Christian had moved to stand behind her. She leaned into the length of his body and absorbed the strength he offered. His hand caressed her lower back in slow soothing circles.

"The meeting will start shortly in the main conference room," Enhard said, the warmth gone from his voice. "The High Priestess is already here." He left the room without a backward glance. Victoria was stung by his frigid manner, but Christian squeezed her hand reassuringly.

"Don't worry, it's about me, not you," he said, leading her across to the Council room where Enhard was waiting near the doorway.

"Christian, do you have a minute?" Enhard asked.

"Not right—"

"It's okay, Christian. I'll wait for you inside," Victoria said.

"Christian," Enhard began the minute the door swung shut behind Victoria. "I can't even begin to guess at what the Council will say to this. You are flouting ancient laws and this little flirtation—"

"It's not a flirtation. And if you think I give a damn about what the Council thinks, then you really don't know me at all," he said.

Enhard was quick to back down from the veiled fury in Christian's voice, and he sighed. The Council would not tolerate it should they realize Victoria was a witch, and despite Christian's considerable power, he would not be able to save himself. Or her.

"Does anyone know?" Enhard asked.

"Lucian does, I imagine."

Enhard gasped, his eyes flying to Christian's. His face was whiter than Christian had ever seen it.

"Then today will be even worse than I imagined. You know your brother has long craved your complete exile from your House and coveted your birthright. My fear is that he has called this meeting to discredit you with the Council ... because of her. He will use this to destroy you," Enhard said.

Christian didn't bat an eye. He had guessed that Lucian had had some sort of ulterior motive but now, everything fell into place like missing pieces of the puzzle. Lucian had
known
that Christian would not leave Victoria behind, and something he intended to do or say in that room had something to do with her.

He regretted that Victoria was already inside but there was little he could do at this point to remove her without drawing more attention to them both. He would have to deal with Lucian—and the Council—if Enhard's speculations proved correct.

Christian met Victoria's eyes reassuringly where she was sitting near the back of the room as he walked in with Enhard. Victoria noticed his eyes narrow as he stared at her, sensing that something was different about her, and it was her turn to smile reassuringly at him.

It's a non-detection spell.
If it works so well for you,
then it should work for anyone looking for Le Sang Noir.

Christian shot her a puzzled look.
This space is warded against magic.

Yes,
I can sense the wards.
She frowned in concentration.
But my spell is fine.

The meeting was called to order interrupting their silent exchange, and Victoria looked around the room. It was as beautifully decorated and furnished as the other room had been, with spectacular floor to ceiling windows looking out onto the city of La Défense.

There was a long glossy cherry-wood panel table at the end of the room that curved in a semi-circle, where twenty people were seated, obviously the Council. Enhard sat at the same table. The Council members ran the gamut of age, but they all had two things in common, their fierce mysterious beauty and pale white skin. It was difficult not to stare.

The rest of the room was divided into two sections, similar to a courtroom set-up with two other rectangular tables at the head of each of the sections. She recognized Lucian at one of the tables talking to a tall woman whose face she could not see, but who seemed vaguely familiar. Victoria remembered their last encounter with unease. As if he had felt her discomfort, he turned toward her, a disturbing, triumphant smile playing on the corner of his lips. His cold stare made her flesh crawl.

She looked away, distracted by two new attendees who had been ushered in by the helpful receptionist: a petite pretty woman and another older man. They were not vampires, which she could sense immediately and her breathing quickened as she guessed who they were. They were introduced as the delegates from the witch clan, Grande Prêtresse Aliya and Monseigneur Fardon. Aliya had soft blond hair and looked surprisingly young. The older man had a lined face and white hair. They both sat after bowing respectfully toward the Council.

With their entrance, the tension in the room became almost solid. Despite the fact that they were invited guests, the mutual enmity was, at best, thinly veiled. It was Victoria's first taste of the hostility that Christian and Leto had often spoken about, and it shook her.

She was surprised to see Christian sitting just to the right of the Council panel on a raised dais with two other empty chairs. Despite how young he looked, he radiated authority and everyone around him treated him with deference. It disconcerted her a bit because she had never seen Christian in this light. He was the leader of a House after all, she told herself, but still the thought niggled in her head, it wasn't just that he was treated with deference by his own House, he was treated like that by
everyone,
including the Council members. She tucked the thought away as Enhard, Council speaker, called the meeting to order.

Christian sat tensely in his chair waiting for the moment when Lucian would make his end-game clear. The minute the meeting began, Lucian's body language changed and he became alert, ready, and predatory. This farce of a grievance was only for show and Christian knew it the instant he saw his twin brother's calculating expression. This had been a pretense to get Christian here along with the representative factions of the witch clans, just as Enhard had feared.

He glanced at Victoria, realizing even more that her presence may have been Lucian's main focus. Her face was pale but composed, and she'd never looked more beautiful or fragile. He took a breath and nodded to Enhard to commence.

Lucian stood, his bearing arrogant as he faced the Council. He barely looked at the witch and wizard sitting to his right, his distaste for them evident, even to Victoria. He addressed the Council.

"My Lords, you have threatened me countless times with your contempt for my actions when I only seek to better our future. Yes, I concede that people have died, but that is the price of power." Lucian's voice echoed into the room and Victoria could see the clenched fingers of the petite witch on the arms of her chair. He turned to address Aliya and Fardon, his voice carelessly insolent. "But let's get to the point. You got what you wanted, your traitor died. By another witch's hand no less."

Victoria suddenly felt the world tilt at Lucian's words and her gaze locked on Christian. His jaw was clenched, and she could sense that he was furious. Lucian, now performing for a suddenly captive audience, turned to face her, his face twisted with an evil cunning smile.

"There's your killer right there." And he pointed straight to her.

Victoria felt all eyes in the room boring into her. Now it was her turn to grasp the arms of her chair with bloodless fingers. Through the haze, she felt Christian gently brush her mind giving her strength even as she could feel his restrained wrath beneath it. The amulet stung the skin of her chest as the stares converged upon her and she fought the urge to flee.

Enhard cleared his throat. "Lord Devereux, what is this about?"

Lucian faced him, his face a mask of cold rage. "My point,
my lord,
" he said, "is that you censure me for seeking a better future when
he
seeks to destroy us all." Lucian spat the last words viciously staring at his brother with venomous eyes. Christian remained unmoved, his face chiseled from granite. The Council members muttered among themselves staring from Lucian to Christian and back again. The witch and wizard remained silent though their attention was clearly centered on the two brothers.

"Ask him," Lucian jeered. He indicated the woman sitting beside him. "Lena has seen his disgrace with her own eyes."

As Victoria heard the name, her eyes snapped to the woman who turned in slow motion, her eyes connecting with Victoria's. The malice in their ice blue depths was obvious, and Victoria recognized her as the woman who had attacked her as well as the one from Christian's memories. She felt her blood surge.

"My Lord Devereux is correct," Lena said. "His Grace brings dishonor to both our worlds by his ... affiliation with this witch."

The whispers in the room became deafening. Victoria could feel the heavy weight of the stares of the witch and the wizard boring into her on top of the dozens of eyes already locked onto her. She sat coolly, her head high even though her skin was flushed.

"Lord Devereux, this is a grave accusation!" cried a Council member, supported by vocal affirmations from several others. Lucian's ferocious scowl silenced the Council member who had spoken and the vampire shrank back, cowed. Lucian's lip curled in ominous fury as if daring any of them to speak again. They did not look at him. The tension in the room thickened like quicksand.

Suddenly Christian stood and the room became still. "Cease," he commanded. "Lord Devereux is correct in his statement." Dead silence followed his statement amidst shaken looks. Enhard seemed physically pained. Christian continued. "She is under my protection as Lord Devereux's companion has attacked her twice now. Given the strained relationship between our societies, I thought it best to take her under my protection. Our laws do not forbid this."

"If by
protection,
you mean something else entirely, then I will say she is surely well
protected,
" Lucian said, his insinuation clear. The room twittered in response. Christian's hands clenched at his side, and Victoria knew that it was time. He couldn't do this alone, not without her help. She stood, walking to the middle of the room and commanding everyone's attention.

"My Lords," she said, addressing the Council, "I confirm that I have been attacked twice by this woman and threatened once by Lucian Devereux himself. In fact, the
protection
of His Grace," she said, echoing Lucian's sarcastic emphasis as well as Lena's strange formal address to Christian, "is the only reason I stand here before you today."

Victoria didn't mean to consciously do it, but her sincerity was delicately and cleverly amplified by her magic. The Council nodded in unison, some even sitting forward in their seats at the unexpected power of her simple words. She heard the soft gasp of the blond witch sitting behind her, and could feel their startled glances. Compulsion on one person was not something easily done—it took immense skill and concentration to magically sway conscious thought. Compulsion on a roomful of vampires in a space warded against magic was another thing entirely.

"But I saw him with her!" Lena said. "He wants her!" Christian turned but Victoria beat him to the punch.

"Of course he does, he
wants
me to be safe from you," Victoria said, deliberately misunderstanding her words and diffusing Lena's poisonous exclamation. Lena opened her mouth to argue but Christian's crisp command pierced the room.

"Leave us, please," he said quietly. Victoria was amazed that everyone left without so much as a whisper in deference to his command, and the room emptied until it was just Lucian, Lena, Enhard, herself, and Christian. Lucian had told Lena to stay which seemed to anger Christian. He turned to him. "You forget your place, brother," Christian said.

"And you forget your duty!" Lucian said. "She is a witch!"

"That didn't stop you from wanting her, did it?" Christian's retort was just as quick. Victoria noticed the stunned look that flashed across Lena's face. "And why is
she
here?" Christian said, indicating Lena. Lucian looked at him coldly, spitefully.