Masquerade (Vampires Realm Romance Series Book 10) (25 page)

The lake part wasn’t a lie. Sophis had seen Deshal by the lake on moonlit nights, standing watching the white light playing on the rippling black water. The part about him leaving the masquerade so he could help the guard seemed implausible though. Deshal had openly declared he would do no such thing and that he was determined to enjoy the ball and dance the night away. He was a frivolous man with a heart set on enjoying his life to the maximum, so she highly doubted that he had gone out into the grounds to speak with the guards.

Had he gone out to be alone with a woman? That would suit him and she could understand why he would lie to cover it up. He might have been with a woman of another bloodline at the time and known it. If he confessed such a thing, would the Law Keepers punish him?

“You will have to speak with the Law Keepers and the truth will come out then,” Lord Timur said on a snarl and rose from his seat. “We are getting nowhere. I think it best that we allow the Law Keepers to question the guests and then retire for the day.”

“I believe the day might just be our biggest problem.” Lord Hyperion waved a hand around him at the room. “If it was only a test attack, the hunters will likely return before nightfall to finish the mission.”

Sophis swallowed the dry tacky lump in her throat. They would attack in daylight? They had the werewolves to protect them, but only a small number. With the sun shining, the vampires would have to remain in the mansion. It had anti-UV glass in all the windows, but the hunters could easily break them to allow sunlight into the building. What would happen then?

“In any case, I will not allow this incident to affect the ball. It will go ahead tonight if the hunters do not attack us in the day. Are we all in agreement?” Lord Timur said and Sophis stared at him, and then at the other lords and ladies when they all responded positively.

Madness. It was insane to allow the ball to continue after what had happened.

All eyes were suddenly on her. Sophis’s eyes widened. Had she said that aloud?

“You have a point, young miss, but whatever happens, we will handle it. We cannot dishonour the creator by bowing to the hunters. It will not happen. There is still time before dawn.” Lord Hyperion stood. “I will have all the Watchmen I can spare brought to us.”

He raised a hand and Commander Winter stepped forwards. “Yes, my lord?”

“Take the car and bring half the Watchmen back with you. Ensure the mansion is left secure. I will not allow a hunter to set foot on my land.”

Commander Winter bowed his head and pressed his hand to his chest. “As you wish. I will leave a contingent at the mansion and bring the rest with me.” He raised his head and looked across the antique rug to Commander Tynan. “Is there a covered entrance to the mansion that my men can use?”

Dawn was coming and the Validus mansion was outside Saint Petersburg in the countryside. Commander Winter wouldn’t make it back to the Venia mansion before the sun rose and while the vehicles were probably all fitted with blacked-out anti-UV glass, the Watchmen would still have to make it from the cars to the house.

“The rear entrance remains in shadow for most of the day,” Tynan said. “We will set up a marquee to provide cover for you and your men.”

“Thank you.” Commander Winter bowed his head and then went to leave, but halted and turned back to his lord. Hyperion looked into his eyes for long seconds and then nodded, his expression solemn. Winter nodded in return. “As you wish, my lord. I will see to it personally.”

What was that all about?

Sophis stared at Hyperion, her eyes widening. He had said that they would continue with the ball regardless and nothing would stop it, but she had the feeling that a couple of guests would be missing from the Validus party. It confirmed her suspicions. Ineru had attended with a man who was her lover. Hyperion was sending her home to safety. He had talked about how they could handle the hunters, making it sound as though they weren’t a threat at all, yet he was sending his sister away to somewhere safe. Did he have his doubts that they could survive a battle against the enhanced hunters?

That certainly did nothing to ease Sophis’s own fears. It wouldn’t stop her from fighting though. She would be there on the front line so she could find Izabella and Aleksis and make them pay.

The Law Keepers spoke about questioning everyone and asked the lords and ladies to have their parties brought down in order, and Commander Tynan and Lord Hyperion spoke to the werewolf Dmitri, asking the immense dark male to coordinate with the Venia guard and the Watchmen when they arrived.

Sophis’s gaze roamed to Vivek. He was leaving. She stared at his back, the tight feeling in her stomach returning worse than before as she replayed what she had said to him tonight and how wounded he had looked.

She had to speak with him.

Commander Tynan caught her arm.

“The Law Keepers wish to question you first.”

S
ophis couldn’t sleep. She had tried after returning from her interrogation but she was even more on edge now than she had been after the attack. She was glad that the Vehemens Law Keeper had interviewed her rather than the Tenebrae. If she’d had the dark haired male, she probably would have come out of it feeling traumatised. The Law Keepers had split the attendees between them and started with those who admitted to being outside at the time of the attack, followed by the youngest vampires who were likely to fall asleep with the sunrise, and then the rest.

When she had emerged from the small office where the Vehemens had set himself up, she had seen Vivek entering the one the Tenebrae had chosen. Vivek hadn’t looked at her. She had hoped that he would because it would have given her the strength to tell him that she was sorry about Nikolaus. He had closed the door and she had taken to scanning the faces of those waiting in the elegant cream hallway outside the reception rooms, searching for the man from the maze. All of the guests had been unmasked and she couldn’t recognise the man amongst them. There were men that almost matched him but they weren’t of her bloodline.

The mansion was growing quieter now but Sophis still couldn’t relax. She couldn’t get her mind off the man or Vivek, and thinking about what she was going to do was turning her stomach acidic. There had to be a way she could find some sort of inner peace and release her tension.

She glanced across the wide expanse of black silk sheets to her sire. He lay on top of the covers, fast asleep, his dark hair ruffled and wild and his body nude from the waist up. He had insisted she go with him to his rooms when he had found her standing in the hall looking lost. She had thought to refuse him, but had decided she might be able to question him about their family and see if he knew anyone of rank who matched the description of her man. It was possible that he didn’t live in the mansion and had come in for the ball, just as her sire had.

Her sire hadn’t been very forthcoming on the topic and had seemed displeased that she was asking about the man who had stolen her from him during the waltz. When he had pressed her into saying why she was so interested in the man, she had lied and said that it was only curiosity behind her desire to know who the man was. It was better her sire didn’t know what had happened after the dance, although the darkness in the look he had given her before changing the topic had made it clear that he knew she had done something she felt was wrong.

Why did she feel it was wrong?

Vivek flashed across her mind, his hurt expression cutting her as deeply and painfully as a holy wood stake.

Sophis hugged her knees to her chest and rested her chin on them, her back against the thick carved mahogany column in one corner of the four-poster bed.

Why did she feel as though she was hiding from him in this room?

She had thought about returning to her own small room several times but she couldn’t bring herself to go through with it. Each time she went to leave, she paused at the door and returned to the bed, using the excuse that her sire would be angry if she left the room while he was sleeping. She was the reason he was here after all. He hadn’t returned to the mansion for the ball. He had come to speak with her about everything she had mentioned in her letters and offer her support, even going as far as holding her while she let it all pour out in some dire hope it would ease the pain in her heart. Speaking to him hadn’t made her feel better. It had only made her feel worse about what she had done tonight. It had only made her want to see Vivek even more than she already had, increasing that need from a minor desire to a full-blown urge to find him and confront him about everything.

She wanted to know if he still felt something for her.

She needed to know if she had made a terrible mistake tonight and there was still some small sliver of a chance for them. Her feelings for him hadn’t changed in all the years they had been at war with each other. She had buried them deep, trying to crush them out of existence, knowing that Vivek’s actions would only hurt her more if she still felt something beyond friendship for him. They had refused to die, had burned as embers in her heart, flaring back into life whenever her control slipped.

Could he still feel something for her?

When he had given his boots to her, she had seen a glimmer of the man he used to be, the one she had felt sure would become something more than just a friend to her someday.

She needed to see him again and see whether she had just imagined that fleeting glimpse of the old Vivek or whether she had been right all along and he was still that man inside.

The darkness of the walls and furnishings around her looked gloomy in the slender light from the single bedside lamp and did nothing to warm her mood and soothe her. The room felt more depressing than her own grey and uncomfortable one. Most of the guards in the family didn’t know anything better than their lumpy hard bed and tiny cramped rooms. She did. When she had been with her sire as a youngling, they had lived in a room like the one she was in now, lushly furnished and with two beds with mattresses and covers as soft as clouds. Sophis had thought she would gain a better room with the rank of captain, and she supposed she had in a way. At least she didn’t have to sleep in the basement with the other guards, sharing rooms.

She stared at the curtains drawn across the windows and then at her sire. He shifted on the bed, smacking his lips together and rubbing his hair. At least someone could sleep. She blew out her breath, swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood. She had to get out of his depressing room and do something or she was going to go crazy.

Sophis snuck to the door and then out into the hall. People were still coming and going, moving between the rooms, and the floor below still felt busy. She hurried along the hall and up the stairs to the second floor, and along the corridor to her room. The moment she entered, her gaze slid across to her dressing table and the red ball gown draped over the top of it. Her stomach tightened again, a knot forming in her chest. She pressed her hand there, trying to ignore the urge to find the man she had slept with, and opened the drawers, pulling out her dark grey sweatpants and a black tank.

Perhaps some time in the training room would ease her and wear her out enough to sleep. Any activity during the day drained a vampire. For the first time in her immortal life, she might be thankful for that.

She changed out of her uniform and into her training gear, tied her long hair up into a ponytail, and then headed out of her room and down through the house. It was strange to find the mansion so full of activity during the day. The sun had risen over two hours ago and the Law Keepers were still questioning people, but most of those awake on the first floor or relaxing on the ground floor were vampires who had already spoken with them.

Sophis reached the entrance hall. She bowed her head and waited at the top of the stairs when she spotted Lincoln. He nodded in return and continued to ascend, carrying a sleeping Lady Lilith in his arms, cradling her to him with such tender care. Both of them still wore their ball attire, Lincoln’s arm beneath Lilith’s knees lost in the black waterfall of the skirt of her dress. He smiled when he reached the top step, a look that Sophis felt was supposed to convey his amusement that his mate had fallen asleep with the rising of the sun. Lady Lilith was still very young, practically a newly turned vampire, so it wasn’t surprising that she hadn’t been able to resist the lure of sleep. Sophis smiled politely at Lincoln and he continued down the hall, lowering his head and pressing a kiss to Lilith’s brow as he walked.

Another image of Vivek flashed across Sophis’s mind and her insides squirmed again, her chest tightening with her turbulent emotions. He had carried her like that over a week ago when she had been poisoned, holding her so carefully in his arms, looking always ahead, only there hadn’t been love in his eyes as Lincoln had. There had been intense pain.

Fear.

It was clearer than ever now.

He had feared for her.

The feeling inside her worsened until she felt sick.

Part of her said to ignore it and find the man, to see if there was a chance of something more happening between them, but she couldn’t get Vivek out of her head or her heart.

She had to find him because thinking about what she had done last night and the horrible feeling that had twisted her gut when she had said that Vivek was less of a man than the one she had slept with, had her confused and she wasn’t sure how she felt anymore. If she could only find Vivek and speak to him, then she was sure that she would know her heart and his.

She turned around, intent on heading back up to the second floor and seeing if Vivek was in his room. No. She had come down here to train and she was going to do just that. It would clear her head and she would get some much needed sleep, and then she would speak to Vivek when she felt refreshed and was thinking straight.

Sophis strode across the entrance hall and down the stone steps to the basement. She didn’t break her stride until she reached the training room and felt someone was already in there. She paused near the open door.