Forty-Six
W ithin an hour, a bag was packed for me, sent to the driver waiting outside.
Sundown was coming, the bright blue of the afternoon fading into a watercolor of hues. In the time Vince and I spent upstairs, the servants had begun stringing up decorations, setting up a huge buffet-like feast in the center of the ballroom. Enough food to feed an army.
Entertainers shuffled in, the newcomers staring up in awe at the swirling demons and angels, the ones who’d been here before moving on without a glance. Even without any guests, the house still buzzed with energy; so many people milling about and working in anticipation of the thousands we expected this evening .
I let Vince usher me outside without a fight. Pressed my lips to his in a lingering kiss, not wanting to pull away. That beast was pacing, waiting to snap.
And when the driver pulled up in front of Flora’s house, the sun nearly below the horizon, I told him to wait there. His eyes widened in confusion for a moment, but he couldn’t refuse, couldn’t make his way back to the manor just yet.
Vince had said his servants were mine to command.
Flora opened the door before I had a chance to knock, golden light spilling onto the street. Dressed in her evening gown, a soft rosy dress, with her evening robe and slippers. The smell of dinner wafted onto the doorstep.
She gave me a skeptical look. “You know I am always open to you coming over,” she said. “You will always be welcome here, but—are you sure you’re okay?”
I stepped past the threshold, shooting one last glance at the driver to make sure he didn’t leave.
“I’m perfectly fine.”
Over the phone, I had told her everything she needed to know—that Vince was throwing a huge party, and though I knew she would want to come, seeing that invitations were posted everywhere, I needed her to stay home, where she was safe. That Vince thought maybe some dangerous people would show up at an open invite, and he didn’t even want me there. So I needed to stay the night.
I set my overnight bag down after she shut the door.
Flora’s eyes narrowed. “You look suspicious.”
“Because I’m not staying. ”
The clink of cutlery, her parents dining, twinkled down the hall, the soft murmur of voices.
Flora, hands on her hips, raised a brow. But it took only a moment for a grin to pull at her lips.
“Will you help me get ready?”
“Is that a question?” She grabbed me, pulling me toward the stairs, up to her bedroom. The same childhood bedroom we gossiped over boys, the same bedroom we cried over things that now seemed so frivolous.
“Let’s make you so stunning that he won’t think twice about jumping on you,” she said, a sparkle in her eyes.
We were never very good at listening to what our men told us to do.
How I managed to sneak one of the sequined evening dresses into my overnight bag without anyone noticing, I don’t know. But as I donned the dress, the fabric a midnight black, the skirt barely reaching my thighs, exhilaration coursed through me.
Knowing what I was about to do. Knowing who was going to be there.
Flora whistled as I turned in front of the mirror.
“I think he’ll forgive you,” she said.
“I hope so,” I grumbled. The dress fit like a glove, the beads scintillating in the lamplight of her room as I turned. It hardly covered my curves. “Maybe I need stockings. ”
“Less is better.” She grinned. “We should’ve been wearing dresses like this the whole time.”
“If my mother ever found a dress like this in my wardrobe, I’d be forbidden from ever leaving,” I said, smoothing my hands down my front, feeling the ridges of the beads under my fingers.
“You were,” she deadpanned, patting the seat in front of her vanity.
In a few moments, she was applying all sorts of makeup to my face, lining my eyes darker than she ever had before, accentuating the rich, dark color of my irises. Penciling in my brows. Setting my hair in waves.
“I still can’t believe I can’t go,” Flora grumbled after she finished applying rouge to my lips. She took a step back to admire her handiwork, fingers at my chin, moving me this way and that.
“Dixon would kill me,” I said.
She rolled her eyes. “Yes, he’s been quite stuffy lately,” she huffed, capping the tube of lipstick she’d used. She quirked her lips before grabbing some powder and a brush. “Maybe if I dress sexy enough, he’ll forgive me.”
“ I wouldn’t forgive myself if something happened to you,” I said.
“Well, why do you get to go? Why can’t we say ‘screw their party’ and have our girls’ night?”
“Because,” I frowned. “It’s my house now, too.”
She sighed, shaking her head. “I can’t believe I’ve been banned from my best friend’s house.”
I stood and wrapped my arms around her. “Just for tonight,” I said. “Besides, I need someone to corroborate.”
The drive back to the manor took longer than I was expecting, the traffic over the bridges doubled this evening. The sky above us sparkled with a thousand stars, flickering like electric bulbs about to go out, their brightness only increasing the further from the city we drove.
“Drop me off here,” I said once we pulled into the drive.
I couldn’t even count the amount of people on the lawn. Even this close to the gates, groups of partygoers crowded the long gravel drive, all adorned in costumes, their best dresses, faces obscured by elaborate masks. Some in costume, red queens and jesters and a few even in gowns harkening eras long ago. There were a few faces who’d already lost their masks, their cheeks red from the alcohol they’d consumed, eyes shining.
The driver looked displeased as he stopped the car, worry bunching in his brows. Perhaps the most emotion I’d ever seen from one of the servants—Made vampires—in Vince’s employ. Though, I suppose he was going against direct orders Vince had given him.
Without a mask of my own, I felt naked on the lawn of the house. I couldn’t deny the fear that was creeping up, that Marcel Brancato was here and would find me before I could even see him, or one of his goons, if he had any.
That was the frightening part—we just didn’t know what to expect tonight. It’s what had Vince so on edge. What had me glancing over my shoulder, over and over again.
I weaved my way through the crowd, heels crunching in the gravel. I felt their eyes—following me as they always did, but this time, it seemed I couldn’t escape anyone’s attention, being maskless, and almost as unclothed as the entertainers up in the house. My identity fully on show.
A few men tried to catch my eye, grinning, their eyes shadowed by their masks. Every single one of them could be with Marcel. Could be waiting for the right moment to—
“Hey.”
The voice came from right beside me. I nearly jumped from my skin as a lithe hand grabbed my arm, whirling me around.
Veronica eyed my dress, frowning at the way the beads skimmed the tops of my thighs. “Not so subtle, huh?”
I rolled my eyes, wrenching my arm away. “I thought I was bait.”
She sighed and motioned for me to follow. “You’ll certainly catch his attention.”
Him .
Not Vince.
We continued on, pushing through the crowd as we neared the house. It stood bright against the pitch dark sky, the stars hardly even visible once within the glow of the lights. The drive was packed, luxury cars of every brand parked in a line all the way to the gates. Servants were already making their rounds, even this far down the lawn, their trays filled with champagne glasses, stacked in perfect pyramids, not a drop spilled on the grass.
The only thing I could think of, seeing all these people, was Dixon’s warning. There’s always collateral damage .
“Is he here yet?” I whispered .
She glanced at me out of the corner of her eyes, a line of concentration between her brows. “Not yet,” she said.
She carried a handbag and pulled a black mask out from within, reaching up and tying the ribbon at the back of my head. It only obscured half my face, my painted lips still exposed to the air. Decorated like a Venetian mask, with a lacy applique over the velvety material.
“Where’s Vince?”
“Inside. Brooding.”
She was the only one—besides Flora, now—that knew I was here. After I had told everyone my idea, she seemed the most on board. So when Vince insisted I hide elsewhere for the evening, I went to her. I told her how I knew Marcel, and that I thought I could draw him in, help corner him somewhere. All she would have to do was make sure Vince, Dixon, and the rest of them were there to finish the job.
“He’s a right prick,” she sneered. “He deserves what’s coming to him.” And then she agreed to my plan.
Her ferocity frightened me; the calm, cool exterior holding her true self back was all I had seen yet. But with the coming of Brancato, I got a sense she was amused, eager to see this play out. I knew she would get it done, would get the men where they needed to be.
Tonight she was wearing a deep blue dress, cut off right above the knee. Not as flashy as mine, but stylishly devastating all the same. A deep V at her chest, her long limbs on full display. Her makeup looked like she’d just walked off a stage.
“Sinclair? Séra?”
Her eyes slid to me. “Partying. ”
There was a blood party this evening, if anything, so that Vince’s Made vampires were close by—newly Made, and other vampires in the area here just to get a taste. Back up, should we need it.
There’s always collateral damage .
“We’re going through the front door?” We were approaching the colonnade, strings of lights leading to the gardens, almost like the stripes of a circus tent. Music spilled out onto the lawn from inside, the massive front doors propped open. Even the servers wore masks, simple, single-toned eye masks, that helped them blend in.
“ You are going through the front door,” she said, stopping at the bottom of the steps. “I’m staying out here.”
“But—” I glanced at the doors, at the crowd within, knowing the Vince and the others were inside, and if they saw me before Brancato came—
“Don’t be so scared.” Veronica glanced me up and down once more. “It doesn’t suit you.”
I straightened my shoulders at that.
She gave me a nod, satisfied at what she saw in me. “We’ve got you,” she said over her shoulder, a bit softer this time, as she turned to go. The first time I’d seen any softness from her.
And with her words, I steeled myself, and stepped foot once more into the manor. Ready to bait a vampire who lusted for my blood.