Tatius nodded. See, that wasn’t so hard.
Says him. “I thought you wanted me to keep a low profile,” I whispered.
Questioning me already? he asked inside my head, and I dropped my gaze. I didn’t want to put Nathanial or myself in danger over one stupid question. Tatius’s hand flexed on my hip. Other master’s companions are not important enough to acknowledge with more than feigned interest, particularly when they are displaying an overt amount of affection for their masters. It would be rude. Now, work on that affection.
Rude? I looked around and realized none of the vampires present were staring anymore. In fact, now that they had gotten over the surprise of seeing me enter on Tatius’s arm, they were very pointedly not looking. I have a lot to learn about vampire politics. And I had the feeling I’d be getting a crash course soon. Goody.
Aloud Tatius said, “I’ve sent for the Collector.”
The atmosphere in the room, which had been thick with curiosity, turned restless at his words. Boots scuffed the ground as the vampires along the wall shuffled, and Nuri, who sat to Tatius’s side, smoothed her small hands along her pleated skirt.
Tatius propped a booted foot on the table and held up a hand. The vampires stilled, silence engulfing the room. I wanted to stand, or at least squirm, but Tatius’s hand around my waist kept me still.
I waited. We all waited.
The doors swung open, revealing the dark hallway beyond.
The air rushed out of the room as every undead creature in the room sucked in one anticipatory breath.
A man stepped into the doorway. Actually, he ducked under the door frame—and it wasn’t a low threshold. I blinked as he straightened, his head nearly brushing the nine foot ceiling. The giant Nathanial had spoken to earlier still wore the maroon frock coat, frilly lace spilling from his cuffs and collar, but he’d discarded his masquerade mask, and his shoulder length auburn hair now hung loose around his blocky face. Elizabeth, the vampire the Collector had called on to ‘assist’ Nuri, walked in at the giant’s side. She’d also abandoned her mask, leaving her face as stark and pale as a porcelain figurine with dashes of color brushed on her eyes and cheeks.
The giant’s strides were tight, not like he was making an effort to walk slowly, but like it was habit for him to match his steps to hers. He inclined his head when he reached the center of the room, and Elizabeth curtseyed deeply, spreading her dress in a display of white lace. From the corner of my eye, I saw Tatius nod to them, then they turned, their gazes going back to the door.
Two men entered next. They faced slightly away from each other, and from us, so that their shoulders were turned toward the corners of the room and the back of their hips touched. Their blond hair glowed slightly orange in the flickering candlelight as they walked in a strange synchronized manner, their sides still pressed together. No, not pressed, joined. Conjoined twins? I stared, I couldn’t help it, as they approached the council table and spun slightly so first one and then the other could bow to Tatius. Then they joined the giant and Elizabeth, and all eyes migrated to the doorway.
A lone woman entered next. The Collector. Her face was full of severe lines, as if smiling would have made her crumble. She’d removed every trace of her festive masquerade costume. Her hair was pulled back in a tight, nononsense bun, and her gold-trimmed gown had been traded for a dress made of thick gray material which neither accentuated nor hid her figure. I thought at first she was in her late forties—or had been when she’d been turned—but as she drew closer, I realized her smooth hands, loosely clasped in front of her body, and her wrinkle-less face belonged to a younger woman, maybe someone closer to my age. Her eyes though, brown with no warmth, were old. Very old.
As she walked across the room, her steps slow but assured, several other people slipped into the room. They moved quickly, heads down as they gathered along the opposite wall from the non-council Haven vampires.
The Collector stopped before the council table, her back straight, her chin firm. Tatius was the one to move first. Just the slightest inclination of his head, smaller even than the giant had made.
“I bid you welcome, Collector,” he said, his foot still propped on the polished wood table.
“I confess to feeling less than welcomed, Puppet Master.”
Her eyes traveled over the council, me in Tatius’s lap, his booted foot, and then moved on. “It has been several hours since the body of a member of my entourage was found, and I have seen no results, no recompense.”
“I assure you my people have done everything in our power to discover how your woman came to lose her head. We have found no fault among those we’ve questioned, including this child “—he jostled me—“who discovered the body. But, as requested, I have brought her for you to examine.”
I tried not to flinch at the word ‘examine’, really I did, but a twitch jumped through my hands anyway, made my shoulders jerk. I could almost feel the Collector’s gaze drawn to me, but it flickered away as quickly as it landed.
“Bring our guest a comfortable seat,” Tatius commanded, and one of the vampires along the wall slipped out of the room.
He returned immediately, balancing an unadorned chair over his shoulder. It must have been on hand. Was it hospitality that Tatius offered her the chair… or a power play that he’d made her wait for it?
The vampire set the chair in the center of the room, his gaze never lifting higher than the floor. Then he scurried back to his spot on the wall, leaning against the draped stone like he could sap strength from the rock.
The Collector lowered herself onto the chair as if it were a gilded throne. The giant moved to her side, but even his massive height didn’t dwarf the plain-looking vampire’s presence. She drew all attention while appearing perfectly drab, unassuming. Elizabeth knelt beside the giant, her small head leaning against his leg, and the twins moved behind the chair. The arrangement could have been posed by a photographer. A strange family portrait, with all members gathered around their matriarch.
Tatius lifted his foot from the table and gave my hip a gentle squeeze before he started to stand. I jumped to my feet.
“At the time your human’s body was found,” he said to the Collector, “every vampire in this room was present, but only one was close enough to touch.” He nodded in my direction.
“I have examined her and determined her without fault. It is only because I guaranteed your people safe passage and my hospitality that I grant you the opportunity to examine her.”
He held his hand out to me. I seriously didn’t want to take it. Turning around and running out of the room sounded like a much better idea. Not that I’d get far. My legs stiffened with dread, but I laid my fingers against his palm.
I think my lack of resistance surprised him, because an honest smile peeked out behind his smirk. It probably wouldn’t have been a bad smile under different circumstances. Even under these, the smile made something inside me flutter, a fluttering that streamed down from the bite in my throat.
Vampire tricks. I hated vamp tricks.
Whatever he saw in my face changed his expression, and he turned back toward the Collector. “On the condition that no harm comes to her during your investigation, I present to you my companion.”
The Collector considered me from her seat as Tatius escorted me around the table, his arm sliding around my waist. It was possessive, but with the Collector’s cold gaze tracking my steps, I found myself glad I didn’t have to make the short walk alone.
As we moved, two vampires left the wall where the Collector’s people had gathered. They approached the group without a word, standing slightly off to one side like sentinels.
Both had hard eyes, their gazes assessing and constantly moving. Guards, I’d bet my tail on it. Hired muscle had a look, and loyal muscle an even stronger one.
We were two yards from the group when I ground to a halt. Tatius’s smirk never slipped, but he turned, the eyebrow the Collector couldn’t see arched, his eyes burning with warning. I swallowed and sucked down another breath. The taste of the air sliding down my throat was familiar and unmistakable. After all, how many bodies had I found tonight? It wasn’t like I’d forget the victim’s scent.
Walk, Tatius’s voice demanded inside my head.
I frowned at him. Could he read my thoughts as well as yell in my mind? I recognize the scent, I thought at him.
His expression didn’t change, didn’t reveal he’d heard.
Walk, or I move you.
Crap. I really didn’t want to be a puppet. Not again. But the scent… I glanced back at Nathanial. His face was blank, unhelpful, but his fingers swept through the air as if he were shooing a fly—or urging me to keep moving.
I shuffled forward, three steps that equaled only one, and sucked down another lungful of air. My nose hadn’t been as good since I became a vampire, and the scent was already growing faint, my olfactory glands exhausting.
“Is there an issue?” The Collector asked, looking at Tatius, not me.
“She’s shy.” Tatius made the last short word suggestive, his voice reaching across the space between us, playing on the open bite on my throat. A shiver ran over my skin, exploded as heat in my middle. My breath tumbled out. Not a gasp, at least, not quite.
I stumbled back a step.
I hated vampires.
I jerked my hand out of his, curling it in a fist by my side.
“One of her people fed from the victim tonight.” I forced the words through my clenched teeth. They came out without a hitch.
Tatius’s mocking expression froze, and the air in the room vanished.
The Collector shoved up from her chair.
“What?” The word was a whisper that crackled around the room like a firework fuse, ready to blow.
Rude or not in vampire society, everyone was staring now, the weight of their gazes smothering me. I sucked down another lungful of the explosive air.
“The headless woman. One of them fed from her. Tonight.”
I nodded at the cluster of vampires in front of me.
I wasn’t close enough to know which vamp had sucked on the victim, and with my nose giving out, I’d probably have to draw the scent right off their skin to tell. I took a step forward.