Chapter 21
RAFE
With Aulus dead, Enzo forcibly removes me from his guest bedchamber and tells me to go home to my pledge whilst he sees what he can learn from Bianca. He is right to make me go, of course. I need to speak to Nate and I cannot continue to keep away from Elizabeth, although I now burn with shame at the thought of all that I have done since I last saw her.
The bodies I have drained. The vampire dripping from the ceiling of Enzo’s basement.
The thought that Lizzie might judge me for all of it is one that lingers. Ridiculous, considering she is just a human whose only purpose is to keep me alive. Why should I care what she thinks?
The house feels cooler than usual when I arrive back. It is deathly quiet, too. There are no signs of my brother or Seraphina. And although I did not care for the chap, I wonder what Wentworth’s fate has been now that Juliette is gone.
I find Lizzie in the drawing room, her nose in a book.
She looks up when she sees me enter, snapping it closed. “My lord.” She stands and curtsies. “Are you well?”
“Better. Thank you.” I step towards her, then stop awkwardly. My fingers twitch with the need to reach out and touch her. “I am sorry to have left you for so long. I was not in my right mind after the Court’s assembly. It was best that I kept away.”
She nods, but does not retake her seat. “It was a tragic thing that happened. You could not be expected to recover quickly from it. I am glad to see you are yourself once more.”
“Yes. Quite recovered.” There is a heaviness between us, a quivering tension that makes it hard to look at her. I clear my throat. “It is a relief to be back.”
Lizzie’s cheeks flush pink. “I suppose you have preparations to make for the Tournament that would see you return.”
“No, I…” The words jam in my throat. I left her in the darkness, sent her back to the house, and did not send word to her I was alive. The glamour will have made it difficult for her, I know. “I need to speak with my brother.”
“Of course.” Lizzie looks at her feet. “There has been no sign of him these past nights, I’m afraid.”
I frown. “He has not returned since the Court’s assembly?”
“He and Sera looked through Juliette’s things. Nate wanted answers.”
My ribs tighten. “Do you know what they found?”
“No, Sera has not shared with me what they uncovered.”
I clear my throat. I need to speak to Nate, but if he has a lead, then he will follow it to whatever end necessary. “If my brother is not here, then we will not see him until he has answers. We should use the time to discuss the ball.”
Lizzie drags her eyes off the floor. “Yes, my lord?”
“You will need to be familiar with the steps.” I edge a little closer to her. “They will be dances you are not accustomed to. I thought…” I straighten up and smile, shaking off my hesitations and putting on my old persona like a favourite jacket. Lizzie does not need to see me bumbling like Wentworth whenever he is in Sera’s company. “It will not take us long.” I extend my hand towards her. “Shall we?”
Lizzie frowns and looks around the room as if someone will object. But it is just the two of us.
“I am not sure this is necessary,” she grumbles, her cheeks colouring a deeper shade of rose. “I danced well enough in Mayfair to be chosen over all those glittering debutantes.”
“Ah, but the Tournament ball will be nothing like Mayfair. And it is my duty to ensure that you do not embarrass yourself — or me — on the dance floor.”
She steps closer, but does not take my hand. “A drawing room is hardly a fit place for such a thing. We have no music, for one.”
I beam at her, watching her face soften. “No, but we are alone. And at least this way no one will bear witness to the amount of times you swoon in my company.”
Lizzie scowls, then laughs. “I am glad to see you are back to yourself. Even if you can be an ass.”
“An ass? Miss Fairfax, you wound me.”
“Has no one ever told you that?”
“Oh, more times than you could possibly imagine.” I grin. “But it is this ass that will teach you the steps.”
She crosses her arms over her chest, fighting the amused smirk that plays at the corners of her mouth. “Enlighten me, then. What makes the ball different from the Blood Rose in Mayfair?”
I step closer, enjoying the way her breath hitches slightly at my proximity. “It is a vampire ball, for one. There will be no humans there save for the four of you. Each vampire that takes to the dance floor at the ball will be competing in the Tournament. It is the opportunity for the matriarchs of each noble house to cast their judgements and place their bets as to who might succeed in the trials. My family should be in a strong position, but without Juliette…” I pause, chewing the inside of my lip. “Charlotte is heir now, and with Nate’s indiscretion and Benjamin’s descent into madness, we have been knocked down the pecking order somewhat.”
“And you believe having me on your arm will help your cause?”
“My family has led the way by taking the first pledges this Season. It is a considerable advantage. One I wish to show off.” I hold out my hand again.
Lizzie hesitates for a moment, then places her hand in mine. The fact she is uncertain about such a thing as a dance is almost laughable. She has faced much worse than this in the time she has been in my family’s acquaintance.
I place one hand on her waist and feel her stiffen beneath me. I pull her close — a little closer than strictly necessary — and guide her into the first movements. “The dance we open the ball with is all about connection and intensity. When we move, it is not just a series of steps. It is a conversation, a seduction.”
Lizzie scoffs. “Is everything a seduction to you?”
“Only when I’m with a beautiful woman.” I wink at her and she stumbles, her feet tangling with mine. I force myself to suppress the laugh that blooms in my chest at the adorable furrow of concentration that has formed on her brow.
She pouts at her feet, frustrated.
“You are overthinking matters,” I murmur, my hand pressing gently at the base of her spine. “Let your body follow mine.”
“What else should I expect at the ball other than dancing?” Lizzie has stiffened in my arms, her movements mechanical, but I keep the pace slow, holding her close until her body moulds to mine.
“All eligible vampires will pledge to the House of their choice; then the first trials will be announced.”
“And you will pledge for House Blackwood, despite what happened with your sister?”
“Yes. Grandmother cannot know anything is amiss.”
“But it is?” She looks up at me.
“There are plots and schemes aplenty. My sister died for something, after all. And there was an attempt on my brother’s life. All such matters I am looking into.” I feel my own body grow tense. I want to tell Lizzie, but it would mean speaking of things I am not sure I yet fully understand myself. And if it involves Nate, then Sera is affected, too.
“What of the Tournament itself? Will there be jousting?”
“Nothing quite so old-fashioned,” I laugh. “Though the rounds are always different. Ordinarily there will be duels and blood trials — whichever games might best exhibit our skills of strength, speed and stamina to the highest effect.”
Lizzie nods. “And each vampire competes in all trials?”
“No, only the winners from each round will move through to the next. It prevents the weaker vampires suffering unnecessarily.”
“But might a vampire be eliminated in the first round for, let’s say, a lack of speed, when they would flourish in another trial? Surely not everyone holds such primal qualities in high regard.”
“You sound like Benjamin,” I mutter, irritated she has reminded me of him. “He always said he valued cleverness and cunning over brute strength. It is admirable, but look at Gregor. All the cleverness in the world didn’t stop him being killed, did it.” I shake my head. “Our world is brutal. Only the strongest survive it.”
“So you would take a wife that was quick on her feet, but dim-witted?” There is a challenge in Lizzie’s eyes. I rise to it.
“No, I would not take a wife at all if I had my way. But a dim-witted bride might be more inclined to overlook my many failings.”
“Perhaps. Or your failings would be too obvious to turn a blind eye to. And then you’d be married to someone with the strength to kill you.”
I chuckle. “Indeed. Love and hate are two very similar emotions. I intend to provoke neither in my spouse.”
“Is there anyone…” Lizzie looks away from me and down at her feet. “Anyone you might be considering for marriage? A House you wish to join with or hope does well at the Tournament?”
My laughter stops. “I have the good fortune of never having to worry about becoming an heir to my grandmother’s poisoned throne. But she will want me to marry well.”
“If Charlotte was to be killed?—”
“Then my grandmother would name her surviving daughter Eleanor, or one of her three daughters. Whilst there are females in the family, the titles will always pass to them.”
“I don’t understand why male vampires are sired at all. Surely each House wants to be filled with powerful females that might take the matriarch’s place?”
I shake my head. “Quite the opposite. There would be too many plays for the titles — too many betrayals and quarrels. As we are so difficult to kill, there is not much concern over an heir dying. We will not be taken by some fever, only an act of deliberate violence.”
“Like with Ambrose.”
“Yes. And my sister.” I spin Lizzie out and back into my embrace. She moves effortlessly.
“You still believe Valeria was behind her death?”
I take a deep breath. “Yes. If Juliette was no longer willing to do what she was asked unquestioningly, then she was no use to my grandmother. She has always needed a loyal lapdog who would blindly do her bidding.”
“That doesn’t sound like your sister.”
“No, indeed. And I believe she was a disappointment, in the end. Grandmother needed her gone.”
“But Juliette did it herself…”
“Yes. Because she knew if she did not, Nate would be executed that night and then she would be staked in her sleep in the coming days. This way, she did the honourable thing. She protected her brother.”
“She could not protect us from Charlotte, though.”
I scoff. “Charlotte is all bark. And her commands will come from Valeria. My grandmother is the puppet master, you remember. Charlotte is merely the marionette.”
Lizzie looks past me and I feel another slight change in her posture. “I know it is no concern to you what happens to the other pledges, but Charlotte has Agnes. I hate the thought of her being in that house without any of us to protect her.”
“Charlotte did not harm Ridgefield, you must remember.”
“It was the change in her when we got to Bath that concerns me. She knew things about the attack on your brother that she had no right to know. It made me think Charlotte was telling her things; poisoning her against us. And when I went to call on her yesterday, there was no answer.” She shakes her head. “With Charles at House Azarov…”
My head spins. “What did you say?”
“Charles has been taken as a pledge for Lord Nikolai,” Lizzie says, studying my reaction.
“Shit.” I pause, holding Lizzie close. “Forgive me.”
“What is it?”
“Nikolai was the one who orchestrated the hunter attack.” I move again, turning Lizzie in dizzying circles. “He sent the hunters to kill my brother.”
“Why would he do such a thing? Surely Valeria will be furious?”
“One would think, but there is no telling what she is truly up to.” I mull over Lizzie’s suggestion that Agnes knew things she oughtn’t to have done about the attack. Was Charlotte somehow in on it, too, as we first suspected? “I will tell Enzo your concerns about Charlotte. He is an old friend of mine. And with his sister on the Court, he is seeing what he might learn from her.” We turn, Lizzie now mastering the steps. “See? It is not so different from the dances, you know.” I pull her closer again. “Just a touch more intimate.”
Lizzie looks up at me with those dazzling emerald eyes that haunt my dreams. “Intimate? That is what you call it?”
“What would you call it, then?” I dip her low, my face hovering just inches above hers.
“Improper,” she breathes, but there’s no real admonishment in her tone. “Scandalous, even to be so close.”
I chuckle, pulling her back up and into a series of quick, turning steps. “Scandal is my middle name, Miss Fairfax. You will learn to love it.”
She laughs then, a genuine, unguarded sound that makes my dead heart skip a beat. She opens her mouth to retort, but I choose that moment to execute a move that has her clinging to me for balance. Her body is flush against mine, her face tilted up towards me, her lips parted in surprise.
For a moment, we just stare at each other, the air between us crackling with tension. She looks up at me with such vulnerability, her lips full and quivering, that it takes all of my willpower to hold her there without kissing her; without tasting her and claiming her as mine.
The desire to kiss rather than feed, to embrace rather than fuck, does not occur often. And as much as I ache to be close to her, I cannot let such emotions fester beyond flirtation.
“I think you’ve got the hang of it,” I say, my voice rougher than I intend as I release her. “We might survive the ball after all.”