Christine Warren - Huntress

“It’s the blood whores, come to feed the court,” he said in response to my silent inquiry.

I opened the window and leaned out, counting the carriages between ours and the front door. There had to be at least ten. Flinging open the door, I bounded out and began to walk. I passed carriage after carriage filled with giggling girls and handsome young men, eager for the money and the pleasures that awaited them.

Two vampires, almost as tall and broad as Devlin, attempted to stop me at the door. Before I could even voice an objection, one of them noticed Grady, who had followed swiftly at my heels with Devlin and Justine.

“Good evening, Warden,” the vampire said respectfully.

“Good evening to you, Ben. These are my guests,” Grady announced.

“Of course, sir,” Ben replied and opened the doors.

I entered a house filled with more vampires and humans than one generally saw together. There were people lounging about in every open room, but the blood whores who had arrived before me were being escorted up the grand staircase, so I followed them. Wherever the blood was going, that’s where I would find Sebastian.

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Grady hissed in my ear. “If all of this ends badly it will be my head, quite literally, that rolls for it.”

I paused at the top of the stairs and turned to him. “And if it goes as I plan, you could end up as Regent.”

I smiled at his shocked expression and proceeded through the doors of the second-floor ballroom. I had expected a pit of debauchery, but that’s not what I found. There was an orchestra playing, and people were laughing and dancing, like so many balls I had gone to in my youth, when I was human. I don’t know why I was surprised. Sebastian was a son of the aristocracy. Here, he would be in his element.

“Your name, miss?” a well-dressed man at my elbow asked.

For a moment I stared at him, not comprehending why he was asking. Then I realized that he was one of the Regent’s servants and it was his duty to announce the arrivals. Good lord, had it really been that many years since I’d been to a proper ball?

Then again, as I looked out over the crowd I realized that it wasn’t an exact imitation of a society ball. The dresses were quite risqué, and there didn’t seem to be a gentleman in the room who hadn’t lost several buttons on his shirt. The humans were easy to identify by the smudges of dried blood at their necks, or breasts, or wrists. It was like some sort of macabre Cyprians’ ball. I turned to the gentleman waiting for my name and almost laughed at the incongruity of it all. It was exactly the sort of thing I would expect of Sebastian.

“Cin Craven,” I finally replied.

He nodded, and turned to make the announcement.

“Cin Craven,” his voice rang out.

A hush fell over the ballroom as all eyes turned to me. Slowly and disjointedly, the orchestra ground to a halt. I took a step into the room as the servant called out Devlin and Justine’s names, and the throng of vampires and humans parted like the Red Sea. In a few brief moments I found myself standing not fifty feet from the man responsible for taking my lover from me.

Sebastian sat on a raised dais surrounded by a group of women. Though he had probably begun the evening impeccably dressed, his coat had been discarded and his vest and shirt were open to the waist. He looked much as he had the last time I’d seen him, though his curly black hair was longer, and he now sported a neatly trimmed beard. The beard detracted somewhat from his handsome, aristocratic features, but it lent him a slightly dangerous look. His brown eyes glittered when he saw me and he sat up straighter, watching me expectantly.

Four of Sebastian’s lieutenants stepped up on the dais, forming a semicircle around his throne-like chair. The women instinctively retreated, all save one. My eyes flicked over the men, dismissing them each in turn. They were bodyguards or lackeys, nothing more. It was the woman who intrigued me.

She was a vampire, and her position at his right hand declared her to be someone of importance, though I didn’t understand why. She had long, dark-blonde hair that hung in a messy tangle of curls down her back. Her face was so thickly painted with cosmetics that it almost looked like a mask. Never taking his eyes off me, Sebastian motioned to her and she leaned down as he whispered something. Glancing up at me, she pushed her mass of unkempt hair from her small, dark eyes. There was something in that look—excitement, perhaps—that I didn’t like.

She had been a lot older than most when she’d been turned. Her human years showed in the lines around her eyes and the creases at the corners of her wide, full lips. I wondered what value she had to Sebastian. I didn’t believe she was his consort. The Sebastian I knew was entirely too vain to tie himself to someone who looked like nothing more than a cheap prostitute.

At that moment, though, all thoughts of her fled as Sebastian’s gaze flicked over me, then Devlin, then Justine. With the three of us together, Michael’s absence was glaringly obvious. And Sebastian smiled victoriously. He knew … and my temper snapped. I crossed the expanse of the ballroom with a menacing stride, my eyes locked on Sebastian’s. As I reached the bottom step of the dais, the sliding metal sound of a sword being unsheathed snapped my attention to one of Sebastian’s lieutenants. I paused.

“Cin, how nice to see you again,” Sebastian said, his voice dripping with honeyed sweetness. “You are even more beautiful than I remembered.”

I glared at him. “And you’re still an evil son of a bitch.”

The lieutenant with the sword took a step forward, but Devlin and Justine pulled their own blades and flanked me.

“You might want to watch your tone,” Sebastian replied smugly. “Jonas has sworn his fealty to me and he is quite the best swordsman in the country.”

Devlin snorted in derision.

Sebastian glanced at him and then inclined his head to me. “With the exception of your husband, of course,” he said in a gracious tone. “But he doesn’t seem to be here, does he?”

Justine growled and started toward the dais, but I reached out and grabbed her sword arm, stopping her. I didn’t want this to degenerate into a brawl. Jonas moved to stand between Sebastian and me, his sword at the ready.

“My Regent has done nothing to warrant retribution by The Righteous,” Jonas said loudly, so that all the court could hear. “Unless you come bearing proof, you have no grounds on which to offer him violence.” His gaze flicked over Justine and me dismissively, perhaps because we were women, and settled on Devlin. “And if you intend him harm, you’re going to have to come through me.”

Devlin laughed. “Step up then, boy, if you think you can take me.”

Jonas was a well-built young man with auburn hair and eager green eyes. Whether or not he could back up Sebastian’s boast, he certainly looked prepared to try. Proving him wrong would take time I didn’t want to waste. I reached inside my coat and the other three lieutenants drew their swords, assuming that I was going for mine. Instead, I pulled the Smith & Wesson from the waistband of my breeches and in one smooth motion leveled it at Jonas and put a bullet through his heart.

He dropped like a stone, clutching his chest and screaming. Sebastian rose belligerently to his feet, his harlot shrank back against the wall, and his lieutenants stood dumbfounded just long enough for Devlin and Justine to advance on them and push them back. I leapt onto the dais, landing just in front of Sebastian and forcing him to fall backward into his chair. Bracing my hands on the arms of the throne, I leaned over until my face was mere inches from his.