Masquerade (Vampires Realm Romance Series Book 10) (12 page)

A mighty cacophony of growls and snarls broke through the excited chatter of the servants and Vivek sprinted along the corridor towards the noise. He skidded to a halt as he came out on the balcony at the top of the curved staircase in the entrance hall.

Fur.

It filled the foyer below him.

A twisting, gnashing, snarling sea of black, grey, hues of brown, and pale tan through to white.

Someone had let the dogs in.

Several Venia guards had the blades of their spears aimed at the mass of angry werewolves. The pack growled, hackles rising, some of them still sporting shreds of the clothes they had been wearing prior to their transformation into an animal.

“Devil, man, take back what you said before they rip us to pieces,” one of the younger guards at the front of the group of vampires said and prodded forwards with his spear when a large black werewolf made a lunge for him.

Fear swamped the air in the room and several female servants ran up the stairs, lifting the black skirts of their uniform in order to speed their escape. Other male servants remained in place, protecting the arrangements of roses from both werewolves and vampires.

“What the hell is happening here?” Vivek called down to the guards and one by one they looked up at him, the fear in their eyes increasing.

The youngest vampire, the one who had spoken, dropped his spear and saluted.

It clattered to the pale marble floor, the blade grazing the nose of the black werewolf, and Vivek tensed, waiting for all hell to break loose.

The werewolf growled and launched himself at the vampire. The vampire raised his arms to protect his face.

The biggest man Vivek had ever seen appeared from nowhere, plucked the werewolf from mid-air by the scruff of its neck, and shook it hard until it yelped and whimpered.

The entire room went still.

The man growled, revealing partially extended canines, and threw the werewolf into its kin, sending them scattering. Those fast enough to avoid being hit by their less fortunate brethren ran away from the scene with their tails firmly tucked between their legs and their rear quarters low to the ground.

Vivek stared at the man.

The man raised his head and fixed cold hard dark eyes on Vivek.

He had to stand over six-six, and had a build that looked twice as broad as Vivek’s was. The sable fur gathered around his shoulders only added to the imposing sight of him, a vision that would stop even the most powerful vampire in their tracks and make them think twice about challenging this werewolf. His long wavy black hair escaped its tie at the nape of the man’s thick neck, curling around his ears and falling across one side of his rugged face, drawing attention to the ridge of scar tissue that darted diagonally over his right eye.

“You wear the mark of a leader,” the man said, deep bass voice thick with a Russian accent, and nodded towards the collar of Vivek’s black uniform jacket.

Vivek touched the embellishments there. This man knew his bloodline well if he could discern the different ranks from the gold detailing on their jackets, but that didn’t surprise Vivek since this man was the mate of one of his kin.

“Dmitri, I presume,” Vivek said in a slow drawl, not letting the werewolf see that he was having second thoughts about descending the stairs in order to reprimand the Venia guards. They huddled beside the door down to the basement, their backs against the glass windows that covered the front wall of the entrance hall. The werewolves had gathered opposite them, near the doors to the ballroom. Dmitri stood in the middle of the double-height room, his dark gaze pinned on Vivek. “Would you mind telling me just what your... brethren... were doing attacking these guards?”

Dogs. That was the word he had wanted to use for them. Mangy mutts.

He held his tongue and smiled politely at the immense male at the bottom of the staircase. He had more sense than to offend a werewolf the size of Dmitri.

“I did not catch your name, little man. Why do you not come down here and we see who insulted who?”

Vivek’s smile faded. There was no way in Hell that he was going to stand up here and let the man insult him.

He walked calmly to the top of the stairs and then descended, running his hand down the red-roses-laced mahogany banister, taking his time about it and holding the werewolf’s gaze.

When he reached the bottom step, Dmitri closed in on him, not giving him room to step down to the pale marble floor.

The werewolf smirked.

Vivek held his growl inside. He was not going to let the dog keep him on this step. The man was doing it on purpose, showing him that whilst he was on this step, they were eye level, pointing out that he was shorter. A little man.

He was anything but that. At six feet two inches, he was taller than most in his bloodline.

Vivek ignored him. It took every ounce of his willpower to contain his growing anger and need to stand up to the werewolf, but he held it together and stepped to one side. The second Dmitri countered him, he slipped past him the other way, moving so fast that the werewolf didn’t have a chance to block him again.

“I want to know what happened here,” Vivek said to the vampires. None of them looked as though they were going to answer so he singled out the youngest guard.

The man was still trembling. Vivek couldn’t hold that against him. He had almost become dog food after all.

“Tell me or tell Commander Tynan. The choice is yours,” he said and the young man’s eyes widened. He hesitated, glancing at his comrades and blinking a few times when he found no support there, and then somehow found a sliver of bravery.

His back went rod-straight, he pressed his right hand to his chest and looked directly into Vivek’s eyes.

“We were heading out on patrol when the werewolves arrived. One of them whispered something about the compound, their kin, and how they would love to lock us away and see how we liked it.”

Dmitri crossed the room and the young vampire wavered, his focus dancing between Vivek and the werewolf. Vivek snapped his fingers and the vampire’s attention leapt back to him.

“We weren’t going to sit around and let them insult us.”

“So you threw your own barbs to see if they would stick, and the whole situation degenerated into a brawl... in the Venia mansion... when so many important guests are due to arrive at any moment?” Vivek held the young vampire’s gaze, ignoring the voice at the back of his mind that recounted he had done something similar when he had fought Sophis in the library, and watched his strength slowly crumble. He nodded weakly. Vivek waved his hand towards the door to his left that led to the basement. “Report to Commander Tynan immediately. We cannot have this sort of behaviour tainting the name of our bloodline.”

The vampires looked at him as though he had gone insane. Vivek growled. They bolted into action, pushing open the door to the basement and bundling through it. They would thank him later. Tynan wouldn’t punish them, not when the werewolves had started it, but it was better it appeared that way to the male werewolf watching him so closely.

Vivek turned to face him, barely eye level with his jaw, and didn’t flinch. “I trust you will see to it that your men are similarly reprimanded?”

Dmitri regarded him, dark eyes impassive and cold, rough features locked in an expression that gave nothing away.

Vivek was all too aware of his position. Before him stood a man who could probably crush his head with one hand. Behind him were several werewolves slowly transforming back into men. He refused to allow either to fluster him.

What did fluster him was the female voice that broke the tense silence.

“Vivek, where in the Devil’s good name have you been?” Sophis strode out of the entrance to the ballroom beneath the first floor balcony.

Vivek dared to look over his shoulder at her.

She stopped dead the moment she noticed the several nude male werewolves in human form surrounding her.

Dmitri laughed.

The harsh sound boomed around the height of the vestibule, so loud it shook the crystals on the grand chandelier.

Vivek had to admit that the horror on Sophis’s face was funny but he wasn’t about to laugh at her plight. Even in human form, these men were a danger to her. One of them took a step towards her and Vivek was across the length of the pale gold room in a flash, blocking the werewolf’s path.

“Go back into the ballroom, Sophis,” Vivek said.

She didn’t move. “What the Devil have you got yourself into this time?”

It was just like her to think that he had started something. Why couldn’t she give him the benefit of the doubt?

“I trust you will see to things with your men, Dmitri?” He stared across the room at the large werewolf, unwilling to leave until he had his word that he would punish the men now surrounding him and Sophis.

“Da... da.” Dmitri gave a dismissive wave of his hand and then snarled.

Vivek sensed Sophis tense behind him. Whatever the man had said in wolf speak it called off the dogs. The men broke away, snarling at each other and gathering the remnants of what looked to have been their uniforms. Vivek grabbed Sophis’s arm and pulled her away from them. He didn’t think she would dare look at a nude werewolf but he wasn’t going to hang around to find out.

He pushed her into the ballroom ahead of him and closed the double doors behind them.

“You want to explain to me what I just walked in on?” Sophis paced a short distance from him, the sharp click of her boots on the parquet floor echoing around the high ceiling of the ballroom, and then turned to face him.

Vivek looked around them at the servants laying out glasses on the long tables that lined the far wall of the ballroom underneath the balcony that ran around three sides of the pale elegant room, and the people setting up the orchestra on the stage to his left near the entrance. With so many ears in the room, it wasn’t a good place for an argument, especially one with a delicate subject.

“I found some of our guards about to get into a fight with some werewolves and I helped stop it before things got bloody. Satisfied?”

She didn’t look satisfied, or at all like she believed him. He blew out a sigh and told himself to let it go. What did it matter if she believed him or not? He knew what had happened out there and what he had stopped from happening. She could have come out in the middle of a bloodbath and seen him trying to part the two sides and she still would have thought he had started it.

He really had to do something to fix that opinion she had of him.

She was sucking all the fun out of the night before it had even begun.

“How are preparations going?” he said and she gave him an odd look before answering.

“Well. Almost everything on my list is done.”

He waited, and waited, and then realised that she wasn’t going to ask him.

“I have spoken to all the guards who will be on duty inside the mansion, and have relayed orders to those assigned to the grounds,” he said, determined to show her that he had been doing his duty and not shirking his responsibilities. If he didn’t mention everything he had done, she would probably think he had been lounging around in the guards’ rooms or seducing her best friend. Thankfully Ella had avoided him since Sophis had sent her down during their fight. “Only the top guards have been selected for assignment inside the house. The attendees should be safe. I hear there will be Law Keepers in attendance too.”

Sophis frowned. “You’re very congenial tonight.”

Vivek lifted his shoulders in an easy shrug. So what if he was? He had been waiting for tonight since Tynan have given them their orders and had been training hard in between his duties so he was ready for anything.

Including dancing.

“Are you going to dance?” It slipped out before he could consider how she would react to such a question.

She looked more horrified now than she had when faced with naked werewolves. “We’re here on duty... you’re not seriously going to dance are you?”

“Of course I am.” There was no point in denying it now that it was out in the open and it wasn’t as though he would be forgetting his duties by dancing. He could easily dance and keep an eye on Lord Timur, and it would look strange if he didn’t dance at all and someone noticed. “I have never been to a Creator Day masquerade and I am not likely to attend one ever again as a guest.”

“Do I really have to remind you that you’re not here as a guest? You are here as a guard.”

Vivek waved her away. He didn’t care. Guest. Guard. Both. He was going to dance whether she liked it or not.

“You know we can dance with members of another bloodline... we can let ourselves go and not fear the laws that bind us,” he said.

Her look soured further and her tone turned snappish. “Do you often want to break the law?”

This wasn’t going well. All he had wanted to hear was her saying that she might dance and to admit that she was the tiniest bit excited about attending the ball. He searched her dark brown eyes, trying to pick out even a glimmer of excitement. They were as black and menacing as a stormy ocean.

He thought about telling her to loosen up, even lost his mind for a moment and considered asking her to dance with him if she was afraid of dancing with another partner, and then sighed and walked away from her, pretending to scout the ballroom and leaving her to be caustic at someone else.

He was tired of it tonight.

When he had done a lap of the ballroom and was close to Sophis again, he said, “I will finish my final preparations and then I am going to dress.”

She didn’t look at him, just muttered something under her breath that he didn’t listen to. Vivek opened the doors and walked out into the entrance hall, glad to see that the werewolves were gone and everything was back in order. He went down into the basement, heard Tynan shouting at the guards who had fought the werewolves, and then headed down a narrow set of steps to the lower basement and the cells.

The dark stone walls and floor lent a chill to the air and the intermittent ceiling lights did nothing to chase back the gloom.

He stopped outside the cell that contained the dead hunter. He hadn’t turned yet. He lay slumped in a heap on the flagstones, shrouded in darkness. Maybe the man wasn’t enhanced after all or maybe his first estimation had been right and it would take days for the man to turn. Marise had reported that it had been several days between when she had killed the hunter and when he had awoken as a vampire.