Imperial vampires were the oldest of the half-demon race, often having been created more than a millennium ago. Their eyes burned red-violet, and they were faster and stronger than even the Guardians. They carried swords, and had the ability to glide through the air. Some of them could also shape-shift or pull the life force from a person with their mere gaze.
Victoria had fought Imperials only twice, and only with help. They were horrible, fearsome creatures.
“When will I be ready to start
qinggong
?”
she asked.
She'd seen Max's graceful, gliding movements through the air, swooping and leaping as though he was bewinged. As a novice Venator, she'd observed him use these skills in a battle he'd fought against an Imperial vampire two years ago. Max's strength and skill were well matched to the vampire's, and the battle had been almost beautiful to behold as they matched blade to wooden pike, feet brushing the ground then rising again, swirling and sliding in great arcs through the night air.
Kritanu gave her a fatherly smile. “If you wish, we can begin tomorrow. But, I must warn you, it will take years, perhaps decades, for you to master it. Unlike other combat skills,
qinggong
is not enhanced by the
vis bulla.
It is mostly the strength and power of your mind that will make you successful with
qinggong.
”
But Max had mastered it, and he couldn't have been doing so for more than a decade himself. Victoria knew she could learn it as well.
“I see you are skeptical.” Kritanu tipped his head in a gentle nod. “
Qinggong
is an art from China, not of the Venators. And you will begin, tomorrow if you wish, in the same manner of all who study
qinggong
.”
Victoria had visions of leaping off chairs or tables, stake in hand, and her lips twitched at the thought of her mother witnessing such a sight. Of course, Lady Melly would faint dead away if she saw the manner in which her daughter already kicked and spun and rolled during her other combat.
“We will fill a large woven basket with rocks,” Kritanu explained. There was a glint of humor in his eyes as if he knew what she'd been thinking. “You'll walk around the rim of the basket, balancing on its narrow edge. Every day you'll do this until you can do it perfectly. Then we'll remove one stone. And you'll do it again until you can do it perfectly.
“And then,” he said, raising a finger as if to forestall any question about leaping off the sofa, “we'll remove another stone. And again you'll walk around it. We'll continue to do this until the basket is empty, and you can still walk around its rim.”
Victoria stared at him as the force of his description sunk in. “That is how you trained Max?” How could one walk around the rim of an empty woven basket without collapsing it, or tipping it?
His blue-black hair gleamed. “Indeed. As I said, Victoria, it's the power of your mindâ¦not your muscle or speed.”
She gave a spare nod. “I'll do it.”
Light broke into the small room as the door opened. They both turned to see Sebastian standing at the other end of the aisle. Sunbeams shone over his golden hair from behind, and then he stepped into the darker room and closed the door.
“I wondered where you'd gone off to,” he said. “It was only a bit of luck I looked out one of the windows and saw the flutter of your skirt as you slipped in here.”
“Never say my mother allowed you to slip from her clutches.” As Victoria watched him walk up the chapel aisle, she was struck by the memory of doing the same thing herself: to meet Phillip at the altar.
Her throat burned. She swallowed hard, and found herself needing to blink rapidly. Meeting her at the altar. Taking Phillip's place? He'd made it clear he'd like to. At least, in the bedchamber.
She realized with a start that Sebastian had reached her side. But unlike a meeting of his bride, he didn't reach for her hand and close warm fingers around it. Instead, he replied, “It was quite a feat, getting away from herâbut not because she was suddenly overcome with fondness for me. Rather, it was because she was determined to undermine me, and keep me from your side. She sent Rockley off in search of you.”
“Hm. I was rather hoping for a bit more torture,” she replied, shaking off the discomfiting thoughts. “It's only fair, after that little performance you gave.”
He settled his smile on her. “Torture? But,
ma chère,
you needn't leave that to your mother. You have the skill well in hand.” There was a gleam in his gaze that unsettled herâ¦and made her stomach squeeze pleasantly. She still could not repress her physical attraction to Sebastian.
Victoria felt her cheeks warm and she shifted her attention toward Kritanu. As if her acknowledgement gave him the impetus to speak, he looked at Sebastian. “You and Victoria have more in common than simply being Venators born.”
“But of course. The Gardella blood runs deeply through us bothâbut as I've told you before, my dear”â Sebastian bowed briefly to Victoriaâ “it's from my mother's side of the family. The Gardella name is so far back in my family tree that you and I needn't worry about our branches crossing. We aren't closely related at all.” His face lit with joviality, but his eyesâ¦they were sharp with apprehension.
“But that is not what I meant,” Kritanu said in his precise tones. “I am speaking of Giulia.”
Silence.
Victoria looked at Sebastian, whose face had settled into an odd expression of chagrin and annoyance. When he didn't speak, she turned to Kritanu. He, too, remained silent, watching Sebastian with an expectant look.
She folded her arms over her middle. “Another secret, Sebastian? Aren't you through with them?”
He was silent for a moment, then he spoke at last, in a low, tight voice. “Max was a member of the Tutela, years ago.”
“That's no secret to me.” Although Max had shown Victoria the marking on his skin from his days with the Tutela, he'd told her little else. She had had to get more information from Wayren, when Max left the Venators after executing Aunt Eustacia.
“He exposed his father and sister to the Tutela,” said Sebastian.
“I know about thatâ¦it was a terrible mistake, but he was trying to protect themâthey were sick, and his father was old, and dying,” Victoria replied evenly. “Max was young, and the Tutela was smartâ”
“Then you must know the Tutela killed his fatherâ¦and allowed the vampires to turn Giulia to an undead.”
“Giulia?” Victoria felt as though the bottom of her stomach had opened and her insides were tumbling out.
“Giulia,” he continued in that tight voice, “was the first vampire I slew after receiving my
vis bulla.
She was myâ¦I loved her. Max's sister.”
Then he looked steadily at her with empty golden eyes, his mouth angled into a humorless smile. “So you see, Victoria, Kritanu is right. You and I have much in common. We've both had to send the one we loved most to Hell.”
+ Eight +
Wherein the Delights of a British Chef Are Discussed
Victoria forced her lips
into a polite smile and nodded to Lord Bentworth as he and his triple chins extolled the virtues of his new chef in comparison to the one here at the Hungreath residence.
“Don't skimp on the salt, either,” he said, emphasizing his pleasure with the slice of pheasant skewered on the tines of his fork. “Told him not to, and listened from the first day. And the sauces. None of that Frenchy stuffâlike this hereâtold him that. Don't need the beef swimming in it, said.” He slipped the fowl in his mouth, and his jaw ground furiously as he chewed, cheeks bulging.
Her mind distracted by other matters more pressing than an appropriate level of seasoning or the cultural influence thereof, Victoria glanced down the table. Sara Regalado was indeed watching her, sharp brown eyes and mysterious smirk all aimed in her direction. Victoria firmed her lips to let the other woman know she wasn't intimidated, then turned back to her own roast pheasant.
Although she could have manufactured an excuse for staying home tonight, Victoria had decided to attend the dinner party at the Hungreaths' for a variety of reasons. First, because Lady Hungreath was Gwendolyn's godmother and was giving the party in honor of the happily affianced couple, and Gwen had extracted Victoria's promise to attend. Secondly, because George Starcasset and Sara were to be in attendance, and Victoria felt it might be prudent to keep an eye on them. And finally, because it gave her a bit of space from Sebastian and his shocking revelations.
It was no wonder he and Max could barely stand to be in the same room.
“Don't like green food, either,” Bentworth said. He pushed away a bowl of soggy spinach in favor of stabbing a boiled potato bursting from its skin. He plopped it on his plate and beckoned the footman to bring the butter. Apparently Bentworth was a frequent guest at the Hungreaths', as the servant seemed well aware of the man's delight with the dairy confection, and apportioned a generous pale yellow slab onto the potato. “Don't care for the sweets, and told him too. M'wife has a sweet tooth, loves sugar biscuits, but don't care for 'em myself. Just meat and potatoes and bread. Stewed carrots, beets, onions. Can't abide hard or crunchy.”
“He must be a versatile chef in order to prepare those items in an agreeable way,” Victoria commented in a voice as bland as the food she was eating. Perhaps the Hungreaths ought to speak with Lord Bentworth about hiring a better chef. But she wasn't all that hungry, and, unlike in Italy, the food here was pale in color and mostly the same texture. And thankfully, as long as she kept nodding every so often and adding a comment once in a while, she could try to comb through her tangled thoughts.
It was no news to her that Max had been involved with the Tutela when he was younger. She'd seen the secret society's mark on the back of his shoulder: a whiplike, sinuous dog curved in a writhing circle. As abhorrent as the society it represented, the tattoo was symbolic of the mortals who acted, as Kritanu had once said, like subservient bitches and whores for the undead.
The Tutela coaxed and lured people of all ages into their alliance, preying on the mortal fear of death by promising a chance for immortality and protection from the undead. Max had been one of them for a time, but now she knew without a doubt that the experience, and his early, naive choices, had given him an unflinching and deeply rooted hatred of the undead and the Tutela.
Victoria realized with a start the people around her seemed to be looking at her, waiting for something. “Pardon me,” she said with a little smile, “I seem to have been woolgathering. What was it you asked, Mrs. Cranwrathe?”
The woman across the table cleared her throat in a grating, rough manner that sent Victoria reaching for her own wine. “I was saying, Lady Rockley, how delightful it was for you to encourage the new marquess to join us this evening.” There was a sparkle in her light eyes that made Victoria straighten up in her chair. “I understand you are still in residence at St. Heath's Row? And he arrived yesterday?”
She glanced down the table and saw that James, who'd been seated clear at the other end near his hostess, was buffeted on both sides by eager mamas. The poor man. “I'm afraid you're mistaken, Mrs. Cranwrathe. I'm no longer in residence at St. Heath's Row, but have taken over the home of my mother's deceased aunt.”
The footman slipped in between her and Lord Bentworth and removed their rose-patterned dishes: the man's fairly gleaming in its emptiness, and Victoria's roses still obliterated by blobs of potatoes, carrots, and a bit of stringy pheasant. Frivolous confections towering on small plates replaced them, and everyone's dessert was dispatched with great enthusiasm, except for Bentworth's.
“Shall we ladies repair to the parlor for sherry?” said Lady Hungreath from her position further down the table. “There are sugar biscuits as well.”
Victoria made her way between the other guests, slipping her arm around Gwendolyn, who'd just returned from refreshing herself. As they walked to the parlor, she glanced out at the gardens behind the house. It was barely eight o'clock, so the sun had slipped near the horizon but was still at just the top of the trees in the distance. She would stay for another hour, perhaps ninety minutes, and then would make her excuses.
Once the flurry of skirts and crocheted wraps and reticules were settled, along with their owners, in the parlor, Victoria realized Sara Regalado was missing. Drat and blast! She should have hung back and waited to enter the room until she was sure the other woman had joined them.
That faintly supercilious smile during the soup course had implied the Italian chit was up to no good. But now Victoria was in a fix. The men were in the study, enjoying their cigars and brandy, and until they came in to join the women in the parlor, she was going to be stuck here, playing whist or listening to wedding plans or gossip about who was fornicating with whom.
Or at least, if she weren't Victoria Gardella Grantworth de Lacy, she would be stuck in this green and gold parlor, playing the polite Society matron. But being
Summa
Gardella, and having other matters to deal with besides gossip and fashion, she would take matters into her own hands.
Victoria stood, excusing herself to freshen up.
And, as luck would have it, as she started out of the room, she glanced toward one of the hip-level square windows that faced the Hungreaths' enthusiastic gardens of pergolas flanked by clusters of lilies and hyacinth bushes, decorated with climbing roses. She saw the flutter of a rose-colored fabric as it passed behind the statue of a water-spouting cupid.
Sara had been wearing a rose-colored frock.
Moments later, Victoria was hurrying along the slate pathway, staying out of sight of the house windows as much as possible. Although she had to enter from the other side of the garden, she found the cupid fountain and started off in the direction in which the fluttering skirt had disappeared.