Chapter 49
Forty-Nine
A thrall opened the door almost as soon as they knocked. He gave them a swift once-over, then peered out at the street, his hand under his shirt at the small of his back.
Efficient and scary. Exactly Belle’s style.
He stepped back to make room for them, conspicuously lacking a Marcel-style greeting. Antoine took Cally’s hand and led her in.
Inside, the house was perfectly normal. Functional, modern, largely open-plan. It didn’t suit Belle at all. Another thrall waited in the kitchen, in jeans and an untucked black button-down, no doubt armed too. He leaned against the island and watched them with the steady gaze of a predator.
Belle sat in a chair in the living area, wearing slacks and a cream blouse under a cropped camel jacket, casual but chic. Gabe stood by the window in a white silk shirt and black suit, tailored so it wouldn’t split when he flexed. He nodded to Antoine and winked at Cally.
“Ah! Mon amour.” Belle rose, then gestured, taking in the plain gray sofa facing the television, the low coffee table, the dining table pushed against the wall to make room. “Hardly the opulence I’m used to, but welcome to my home.”
Antoine pulled off his leather coat and threw it over the back of the couch. “Where is Tobias?”
“Straight to business, as usual.” Belle rolled her eyes, then smiled at Cally. “How are you, ma fillette?”
It was somewhat incongruous to be greeted with such polite interest, then to be addressed in Belle’s preferred pejorative, as a small girl. Especially when she was taller than Belle, and they were approximately the same age—by appearance, at least. Give or take half a millennium.
Cally gave her a cool stare and said nothing. She was damned if she was going to be polite to the vampire who had killed her mother. And anyway, Belle wasn’t in the least bit interested in her reply; this was all for Antoine’s benefit. As was everything she did.
“Tobias?” Antoine pressed.
“In the basement,” Belle said, her tone carrying a touch of resignation at his refusal to engage.
They followed her through to the kitchen, and Cally made sure to hang back near Gabe. “How’s Eve?”
“She’s fine,” he said, distracted, his attention fixed on Antoine in that steady, assessing way he had. “She’s safest at my place. Three of my best thralls are guarding her.”
“Thank you for healing her.”
“Of course.” He glanced her way only briefly, the bare minimum of courtesy, before his eyes drifted right back to Antoine. And unless Cally was imagining it, they were absolutely on Antoine’s ass. It was a nice ass; she enjoyed looking at it herself. But… Gabe? Really?
She checked his expression, expecting something playful. Not the quiet, unguarded yearning she’d seen in Eve’s eyes too many times.
So that’s why they were allies, why he had poured all he had into getting Antoine back. Was that why he always called him ‘our boy’? She’d thought it was just his easy familiarity.
Noah had said Gabe was bi. Did Antoine know?
But Belle opened the door to the basement and took them down, and Cally shoved the thought aside. If Gabe had feelings, they weren’t hers to untangle.
Belle showed them into a large empty space with a concrete floor and a few boxes shoved aside, bare bulbs throwing harsh light overhead.
They’d shackled Tobias to a load-bearing column with a steel chain around his neck, the links sturdy and thick, hinting at their strength. A third thrall stood nearby, keeping watch. They probably made excellent guards, never getting bored or losing their focus.
“Such exalted company,” Tobias drawled. “I’d get up if I could.”
Gabe crossed his arms, observing in silence.
“Has his back healed?” Antoine addressed the question to Belle.
“Perhaps not completely, but I suspect more than he’s willing to admit.”
Tobias only shrugged, like he’d been caught out and didn’t care.
Antoine took a few slow steps toward him, regarding him like a curiosity at the zoo. “You entombed me.”
“Technically, that was Roberto,” Tobias replied warily. “But yes, I don’t deny I was there.”
“You enjoyed it.”
“Of course I did. You smashed half my face off.”
“Is there a reason I shouldn’t do it again?”
“Because I’ve agreed to help,” Tobias said.
“And why would you do that?”
“Do you think I like being compelled by Roberto?”
Cally stepped forward. “You carry the same bloodline he does. You expect us to believe he doesn’t have your loyalty?”
Tobias curled his lip. “You let your chattel talk for you?”
Antoine moved in a blur, his fist clenching in Tobias’s hair, pressing his head to the column he was chained to.
“Yes, I do,” he said coldly. “And now you’ll answer her, and anything else she might ask you.
If I catch so much as a hint of disrespect, my thumb will explore the inner workings of your eye socket. ”
Tobias sullenly looked away. “No, he doesn’t have my loyalty.
I don’t even have any spawns, and I don’t want any either.
So what use is my bloodline, other than to make me Roberto’s plaything?
” He met Cally’s gaze, anger flashing in his eyes.
“You have no idea what it means to—” He broke off and swallowed hard.
“Nico didn’t care—he likes boys. I don’t. ”
Antoine released him with a muffled curse and stepped back, a flicker of sympathy in his stare, curdled by the disgust he couldn’t disguise.
A frown marred Gabe’s brow, his gaze not on Tobias, but on Antoine.
A small, tight shadow crossed his face, something thoughtful…
maybe even wounded, though he masked it quickly.
Whatever had unsettled him, it wasn’t Tobias’s confession.
Tobias appeared so wretched that Cally felt nothing but pity for him. But Belle stared at him intently, eyes bright and lips slightly parted, like she was picturing… Cally didn’t want to finish the thought.
“Why do you stay, if he treats you like that?”
Tobias shot her a glare. “You don’t get it, do you?
He can control me. I take a pickup, drive out of the state, and then I find myself pulling a one-eighty on the highway.
I don’t have a choice. I know what he’s doing.
I know it’s him. I’m aware—I’m always aware, damn it—but I can’t do anything about it.
” His jaw tightened. “That wasn’t the first time I’ve tried, but it was the last. He punished me. I haven’t attempted to leave since.”
Cally swallowed bile. “Are there others?”
“Other what?”
“Does Roberto have other spawn in Boston? Besides you and Nico?”
“Minh was his. And Lena. That’s it.”
Antoine jerked back in surprise, catching Gabe’s eye, the name clearly meaning something to both of them.
“How do you know it’s just them?” Cally pressed. “Roberto could have others, right?”
“Sure he could,” Tobias said dismissively. “But if he did, why wouldn’t he use them like he uses the rest of us?”
Cally didn’t have any further questions. Whatever Antoine was planning, Tobias had been painfully open.
Antoine exchanged a look with her, then turned on his heel and walked out of the basement.
She followed quickly, not wishing to stay any longer than she had to.
Belle was slower to leave, still staring hungrily at the chained vampire.
Maybe she liked the idea of the control Roberto could exert; she’d tried to manipulate Antoine for long enough.
What would she be like if she had Roberto’s bloodline?
Cally hated to think, but odds were, Antoine would never have left France.
Her mother would still be alive. And she wouldn’t be a witch.
How different that life would’ve been.
Antoine waited before the living room window, his grim expression mirrored in the glass.
“What do you think?” he asked, addressing no one in particular, but Cally knew he was talking to her.
“If it was all an act, it was a very convincing one.”
“You realize Roberto could be controlling him even now,” Gabe said. “Making him say whatever he wants.”
“Then why would he say that?” Cally asked. She considered it, then shook her head. “I don’t think so. Not with that much pain in his eyes.”
Gabe rolled his shoulders. “I don’t disagree. He convinced me too. Antoine?”
Antoine turned to face them. “I think we’ve suffered Roberto long enough. I say we call every vampire in Boston and go there tonight.”
“He has broken the Code,” Gabe said thoughtfully. “And in a way that all of us would find abhorrent.” He stroked his chin. “What about Lena?”
“Yes, that was a shock,” Antoine admitted. “In the club, wasn’t she swift to deny that Minh could control spawns?”
“She was indeed,” Gabe confirmed. “Covering for Roberto, no doubt. Or herself, for that matter.”
“And she’s close to Anastasia,” Antoine said, “who is the oldest vampire north of the river. If anything is to happen, we need her support.”
“I wonder if she knows?” Gabe mused.
Belle laughed. “Of course she doesn’t. Would either of you ally with a vampire you knew was under another’s control?”
“True,” Gabe said. “Then that’s powerful information to win her over.”
“If you can tell her without Lena catching on,” Antoine pointed out.
“Remember that night when you didn’t want to network?” Gabe asked, pulling out his phone. “Some of us stayed and did what was necessary.”
“I already have her number,” Antoine replied mildly. “Had it for years.”
“Sure you did.” Gabe grinned. “So, are we doing this? Am I calling everyone, and are we going to Roberto’s?”
“Yes,” Antoine said, looking to Belle. “I think we are.”
“And I’m warning Anastasia, right?” Gabe swiped up on his phone, beginning to scroll through contacts. “She should know.”
“Absolutely,” Antoine replied. “Whether or not she comes, she should know.”
“Will he just let us all walk in there?” Cally asked.
“Probably not, if we didn’t have Belle,” Antoine said, his gaze still on his sire. “As the oldest Curia member in Boston, you’re critical to this. Are you going to come?”
“Oh yes, I’ll come, for the same reason everyone else will.” She bared the briefest hint of fangs. “Good entertainment is so hard to find these days.”