Chapter 48
CHAPTER 48
Zack lost interest in keeping track of names after Candide introduced him to a seventh visiting vampire because he noticed that Takashi was nowhere to be seen. He wasn’t sure exactly when Takashi had ducked out, and that bothered him more. Were things bad enough that Takashi was going to run away? Flat out leave him and Katie with Seamus and Anton?
He had to find a way to distract himself so he wouldn’t think too intently and alert Seamus. His attention wandered to the mortals in the room. There were over two dozen of them, most cozying up to the vampires who’d brought them or the others they knew. Each had a heartbeat, and as he keyed in to that frequency, he heard multiple pulses. Every draw of breath and scratch of fabric was suddenly right in his fucking ears.
The lights had seemed perfectly fine, but as the pain started in his head, they were brighter than a hot summer sun. And the smell was gag worthy. The humans reeked of sweat and copper and bodily fluids, and the vampires stank of dirt, and the flowers were nothing but pollen.
“Pull it together,” Seamus said in his ear. He put his hand on Zack’s back. “You’re fine.”
With a glare, Zack tried to send his pain along the bond to Seamus.
Seamus blinked twice and grimaced before recovering.
“Oh, there you are, my mistress!” Ezra said as he approached Candide.
A murmur went across the room about that. Vampires called their superiors master, so it was not completely weird for Ezra to say that to Candide. However, he was wearing a collar, and that was something not really done. Some probably wore them behind closed doors, but in public, collars were for mortals. They were signs of being owned, and that was a weakness. The rest of us only pretend we don’t share that weakness. Seamus owns us .
Candide lightly kissed Ezra. “How are you finding the evening?”
“It is a lovely party, but I can’t help being restless,” Ezra replied. “I see our guests of honor have arrived. You must be Kathleen. I’m quite honored to meet you.”
“This is Ezra,” Candide said.
“Nice to meet you,” Katie said.
“Zack! You look astonishing!” Ezra moved to embrace Zack.
The mere thought of being touched compounded the headache shoving its way into Zack. He stepped back, putting a hand to his temple. When Ezra looked wounded, Zack said, “Forgive me. Suddenly, everything’s … a lot.”
“Sensory overload?” Ezra asked sympathetically.
Zack nodded.
“Uff, I used to get the most dismal headaches,” Ezra murmured. “A bit of quiet will set you right. Come along with me.”
Escaping from the endless parade of greetings sounded amazing. Zack started to follow Ezra.
Seamus caught his arm. He leaned in close to whisper in his ear, “Not more than ten minutes. You are meant to be down here meeting people. Understood?”
Narrowing his eyes, Zack focused on the screaming pain ramping up. I’ll take as long as it takes .
With another wince, Seamus let him go. “Perhaps twenty, if necessary.”
Ezra ushered Zack from the room. The noise and light weren’t any better in the hallway, but before he could comment on that, Ezra whisked him up the staircase. Though the floor was open to guests, the floor was blessedly empty. Echoes were still chasing them, but Zack was able to ignore that better.
Ezra opened a door, cursed, and then closed it. He opened the next and did the same. And again with the third.
However, Zack hadn’t heard anyone in those rooms. No smells of blood or sex lingered on the air either. “What are you looking for?”
“A surprise,” Ezra grumbled. “Which I should have designated a better where. Unless we’re the first ones up here. Fuck, I’m an idiot.”
“What sort of—” Zack’s sense of smell was still on overload, but he thought he caught a whiff of Takashi’s scent. As far as he knew, Takashi had never been up to the third floor of the Chateau. He followed his nose to a door and opened it.
The room looked like a modern office, complete with filing cabinets. In the center, Takashi was hugging a tall, blond man. The man was holding on to him just as tightly. They were comfortable with each other, familiar in a way that made Zack ache with jealousy.
“Here we go,” Ezra said. “Good find.”
“Good find?” Zack hissed.
“Well, yes. You found the surprise.”
At the sound of the voices, Takashi and the man broke apart. Takashi brushed bloody tears from his cheeks.
“What the hell?—”
“Zack,” the man said. Only he said it exactly how Roger should. While Zack’s brain attempted to come back online after that startling realization, the man took off a necklace.
The illusion vanished, and before him was Roger. His hair was horrible, overall short and in some places brownish, and he was wearing the sort of black tactical gear that hunters tended to wear on bigger missions. But otherwise, he was Roger. Tall, handsome, warm smile, and big-hearted Roger.
He opened his arms wide.
Zack flew into them, and their hug was one of the top three in Zack’s entire life. The wash of relief soothed away his headache, and he clutched to Roger. He was barely aware that Ezra stayed out of the room and shut the door for him.
Takashi’s crying made sense. A sob was in Zack’s throat, too, and he wasn’t sure where it was coming from. It didn’t feel happy. He should have been nothing but blissful that Roger was here, was with them, and was safe. Instead, sadness overwhelmed him. I don’t deserve this .
He latched onto Roger’s emotions, seeking something happy in him. Trailing his mind along Roger’s inner journal page, he ran across shapes that held no meaning and a firm feeling that Roger wanted everything to be good.
“Someone has some natural talents, I see,” Roger said gently.
Slowly, the inner journal closed, not leaving behind a pop-up or anything else for Zack to read. Roger just closed his mind off as if it was just that easy.
“You have to teach me how to do that,” Zack said.
“I will.” Roger kissed his forehead.
His touch was reassuring, and that broke the storming clouds of sadness. With Roger here, everything would be okay. That was what Roger did. Zack researched, Takashi schemed, and Roger made things okay. I want everything to be okay .
You are the one that makes things difficult , Seamus said in his mind.
The echo of Seamus’s voice startled Zack back from the brink of his joy, and he pushed away from Roger. One stray thought might alert Seamus, and then they’d all be in danger. The three of them might be able to fight him and win, except a couple hundred other powerful vampires were partying downstairs. Killing Seamus would mean claiming the throne of the GLC, but how many others would immediately leap at the chance to kill the new master and take it for themselves? If it became a free-for-all fight, then there was no telling how many threats were downstairs.
“I can’t be here,” Zack said. “I-I-I just can’t.”
“Zack, wait,” Roger said.
Zack took a step back toward the door. Doing so brought Takashi into view. All the regret he’d swallowed since he spoke to Seamus at the mansion rose, and he wouldn’t choke it back down. “I’m sorry, Takashi. I am so fucking sorry.”
The coldness that Takashi had had in his blue eyes melted, and that would have to be enough because Zack couldn’t stay and risk the two people he loved most. Using his amazing speed, he rushed for the door. He had it open and was about to step through the opening.
With an invisible force, the door started to close. Caught off guard, it was far stronger than him, and he barely danced back from it to keep it from slamming into him. When he tried to open it again, it remained shut. Alarmed, he turned back to tell his lovers about the weird occurrence.
Roger had his hand outstretched like he was holding on to the door handle. Instead of brown or red, his eyes were a blue so pale they were a silvery white.
That wasn’t a color that Roger’s eyes had ever turned before.
Some supernatural entities could take on the appearances of others. Nell would have no trouble hiring an assassin, and taking Roger’s form would be the perfect way to get through their guards. We’ve been tricked . Zack reached for the hilt of his dagger. “Whoever you are, you’re going to wish you’d picked a different face to steal.”
Roger frowned at him, his brow pinched with confusion.
Takashi ran forward and put his hand on Zack’s shoulder. “It’s our Roger.”
A brief warning flared in Zack’s mind, claiming that Takashi could be in on the assassination attempt. But as Zack met his gaze, he knew that was far from the truth. However Takashi was certain that this was Roger, he was right. He had never wavered in his love for either of them. Never betrayed them.
Zack was the traitor.
And he might accidentally be so again.
He sucked in a deep breath and said, “Roger, you have to let me go. You both do.”