When Twilight Burns (2 page)

People had been mauled, mutilated, killed—and Vioget had done nothing to help them.

Until Victoria came along.

And, as far as he was concerned, it was Vioget's fault Max had had to carry a bloody, unconscious Victoria from Beauregard's bedchamber. If the bastard hadn't been balancing both sides of his loyalty—to the Venators and his grandfather—for years, Victoria would never have been caught between him and Beauregard.

The other man elected to ignore Max's comment, focusing his attention on Wayren. “The two
vis bullae
seem to have saved her from being turned.”

“A miraculous occurrence,” she replied. “Completely unexpected. But, since I've never known of a Venator to wear two, there was no way to predict such a recovery. And who's to say another such event would have the same result. At least some of her recovery must be attributed to her own strength and determination. Who she is. And perhaps some other intervention.”

“Yes. But how did she come to have two of them? I'm fully aware of their rarity—that each
vis
is cast of precious silver from the Holy Land, created and then blessed only for its recipient,” Vioget continued. “Victoria's was lost during the battle with Nedas last November, and I was able to retrieve Eustacia's and send it to Victoria to replace hers…But where did the second one come from?”

Max settled back in his chair and bared his teeth in a condescending smile. “It's mine.”

He was irritated it had taken him so long to figure it out, for, after all, it was imperially logical. He'd given his
vis bulla
to Victoria after the battle with Nedas, when he thought he was leaving the Venators for good. The irony was that, unbeknownst to Victoria, he had recovered the
vis bulla
she'd lost when Nedas's creatures had torn it from her navel.

And it was her amulet that hung, now useless to him, from his areola. Max's moment of satisfaction evaporated.

“I see.” Vioget's jaw shifted, and he turned once again to Wayren. “Then may I assume you've already discussed the situation? Is it possible it's merely a residual effect?”

Wayren looked at him with a slight frown. “Situation? I'm not certain what you mean, Sebastian.”

“When Victoria awoke, she didn't react to the holy water splashed on her face, as any vampire would. She seems completely normal. Except…” Vioget looked at Max. “Don't you feel it? The vampire chill at the back of your neck, or however you sense the presence of the undead?”

Vioget didn't know about his change? Max shrugged off the shock in order to focus on Sebastian's disturbing question. “What are you saying?”

“I still feel cold at the back of my neck in Victoria's presence.” Venators could sense the presence of the undead by a chill that prickled the napes of their necks.

For the first time since he'd seen her sprawled on Beauregard's bed, blood trickling from her lips, Max was unable to breathe. Yet he kept his reply cool. “No. I don't feel anything.”

Vioget looked relieved. “Well, that's promising. Perhaps it's only because Beauregard attempted to turn her, and I knew him so well, that I continue to sense his presence. After all, she did ingest his blood. It must be some residual effect.” He looked as though he was ready to leave the room.

“You misunderstand me,” Max was compelled to say. He would have rather let Sebastian go, let everything go, and accept the simple explanation. But. “I cannot feel anything. Any longer.”

Vioget turned, his hand on the door. “Did you ever, Pesaro? Feel anything?”

Max's jaw tightened, but he plunged on. It had to be said. “I am no longer a Venator.”

He was damned if he'd give Vioget the whole story, the reasons and the trials and the burdens. The fact that he'd had no choice but to give up his powers—not in order to be freed from Lilith; no, he would have continued to bear that burden as long as necessary. But because, in order to kill the demon Akvan, who'd threatened to take over the city of Roma, he'd had to become merely a man once again.

“When did this happen?”

“Yesterday.”

Vioget's gaze sharpened with calculation. “That was why you were leaving the Consilium when I came to ask you for help with Victoria.” Max inclined his head, and Vioget looked startled—then grudgingly impressed. “You came with us unprotected by the
vis bulla
.”

“I did what had to be done,” Max replied.
Unlike you.
He left the words unspoken, but from the tightening of Vioget's expression, he knew they were understood.

In clear dismissal, the blond man turned his attention to Wayren, who'd remained silent throughout their exchange. Her smooth brow was furrowed and her eyes worried as he asked, “What do you think? Can it merely be a residual effect of the near turning?”

She lifted her shoulders gracefully. “I do not know. As you're aware, I cannot sense the presence of an undead as you can, nor could Ylito or Hannever, as they aren't Venators themselves. There was no one else in the room with us, and…methinks it would accomplish no good at this time if the other Venators were to be told what happened. Perhaps”—she glanced at Max— “the effect will subside as she grows stronger.”

“Thus, the most prudent thing,” Vioget said, his voice smooth, “would be to stay very close to Victoria and keep her under observation. And protected.”

Max smothered a snort. Victoria, protected? She'd sooner cut off her hands and give up the
vis bulla
than allow someone else to protect her.

“And apparently, that task is going to fall to me,” Vioget continued in his rich tone. “Never fear, Wayren…I will make certain to stick very close to her. Day and night.”

+ Two +

Wherein the Stench of Sewage is Preferred to Lily of the Valley

Victoria hadn't missed
London in the least.

It held too many memories. Beyond the sewage-lined streets and odiferous air, the swell of carriages and their nonstop clatter, there simmered the rest of it: Regents Park, where she'd ridden with Phillip, the Marquess of Rockley, and where he'd first kissed her. The grand residences, where she'd danced with him, fallen in love with him. The theater near Covent Garden, into which she'd sent him to fetch her supposedly lost shawl—so she could secretly stake a vampire.

The Silver Chalice, a pub patronized by the undead and owned by Sebastian, into which Phillip had followed her. And where, after they'd married, he had been captured by vampires.

St. Heath's Row, the grand London Town estate of the Marquess and Marchioness of Rockley, where she and Phillip had lived in marital harmony for little more than four weeks before he made that fateful visit to The Silver Chalice.

And where, in her bedchamber, she'd slain the vampire he'd become.

No. Victoria had not missed London at all.

Yet she was back at St. Heath's Row after more than six months spent in Rome, for it was time for her to remove all of her belongings from the residence. The Rockley heir had been found at last, in a place called Kentucky, and he would soon take over the properties, leaving Victoria to return permanently to Rome—or wherever else the Venators needed her.

Thus, eighteen months after Phillip's death, here she sat: surrounded by his essence, stifled by the memories—and awash in thick, cream-colored, engraved invitations that she cared not a blasted fig for.

“But what do you expect, Victoria dear? You hadn't even come fully out of mourning for Rockley when you left for Venice,” said her mother, Lady Melisande Grantworth. There was clear reproach in her voice even as the calculating gleam in her eyes boded no good for Victoria's solitude. She'd been rifling through the invitations as if they were her own, and her daughter still an unwed miss ready to debut into Society. “The
ton
is holding its collective breath, waiting to see who will be the first to host the Marchioness of Rockley in a year and a half. After the romantic tragedy of your short-lived marriage and Rockley dying at sea—”

“Stop it,” Victoria said sharply. She caught herself, pulled back on the deep-seated anger that always seemed to be with her now, and closed her eyes. “Mother, I am not here to reenter Society in any manner. Except for Gwendolyn's wedding, I intend to make as few appearances as possible.”

“But—”

“Please,” she said between gritted teeth. Her head pounded and her fingers ached from being curled so tightly. “I've only just arrived yesterday.”

“And look how quickly all of the invitations have begun to pour in.”

Victoria opened her eyes to see Lady Melly looking at her. The gleam had ebbed from her gaze, yet she didn't appear affronted by her daughter's edgy voice.

“I know Winnie would dearly love to be the one to introduce you back into Society before Miss Starcasset's wedding. Please do think about how happy it would make her if you were to attend her fete on Friday.”

“I'll consider it, Mama.”

Barely a week later, Victoria found herself slogging through ankle-deep sewage deep beneath London. Stake in hand, she ducked to keep from scraping her head on a low dip of the tunnel ceiling. What had once been a small river tributary flowing south to the Thames had been enclosed by the City's construction during the last six centuries. The sluggish water now oozed with sewage, and only God and the toshermen knew what else.

She considered herself quite hardened to repugnant images by now, but even she didn't particularly relish the thought of what her boots were crushing as she stepped through the muck.

Victoria knew that she could have been dancing at the Bridgertons' soiree, in a less damp—but just as odiferous—environment if she'd listened to her mother instead of Sebastian. (Lady Bridgerton was known for her exceedingly strong lily of the valley eau de toilette.) She hadn't yet concluded which was the better choice, although despite the obvious drawbacks, she was leaning toward vampire hunting in the sewers.

At least here she could eliminate any creature that accosted her with the slam of a stake. It wouldn't be quite that easy to dissuade the gossipmongers and fortune-hunting bachelors of the
ton
.

“I don't sense any undead,” she told Sebastian as she stepped on something horribly squishy. A rank odor squelched afresh into the air, and with her next step she felt something hard and cylindrical roll beneath her boot. A bone. Hopefully a canine one.

“Do you not?” he asked, his voice smooth and echoing over the quiet splashing made by their stout leather boots. “Perhaps there are no vampires about, then. Only the harmless toshermen, which we may come upon if they venture this far.”

“Or perhaps you lured me down here for another reason.”

She could see the wickedness of his smile in the torch's uneasy light. “Why should I ruin a perfectly good pair of breeches—not to mention boots—by coaxing you here, when I'd much prefer to have you…elsewhere.”

His frank words caused a sudden swirl of pleasure in her belly, and Victoria gave an unladylike snort to diffuse the warm feeling—which had the added result of filling her nostrils with putrid stench. She wondered how the toshers could make a living, working down here day after day, collecting copper, bones, rags, and anything else of value to sell on the streets above. And how vampires could stand to live among the odor when the mere smell of garlic took them aback.

“Of course,” Sebastian continued, “it's not as if you'll be clutching at me and crying for protection, even in a place as revolting as this. Much to my great regret.” He brandished a torch that cast sporadic shadows to break the darkness, but Victoria found that she could see surprisingly well even outside the glow.

She was just about to make a wry rejoinder when she became aware of a new sound—that of rushing or falling water. Then she felt a faint prickle at the back of her neck. Her disgust with the dark, viscous environment slid away, replaced by the familiar rush of readiness and a cold smile.

“Ah,” he said, cocking his head as if to hear better. “At last. Just when I thought we were well and truly lost.”

“We're not alone,” Victoria murmured, the prickle flushing into a full-blown chill.

“Undead?” His voice dropped to match hers.

She looked up at him. “Do you not sense them?”

“I do now that you say it,” he said. “And it's no surprise, as we're near the place I was looking for.”

A sudden splash behind them had Victoria spinning to meet the red-eyed vampire who'd come from nowhere. Presumably, he'd been expecting a slow-moving, malnourished tosherman, for the half demon had taken a moment to roll up the sleeves of his dull shirt, and that attention to grooming was his undoing.

“You should have worn cuff links,” Victoria said conversationally the instant before she staked him into undead dust. She blew off the tip of her stake and turned back to Sebastian, who was watching her with an odd sort of smile.

But before she could wonder what it meant, his expression smoothed and he lifted the torch higher. “Take care,” he said, gesturing ahead of them.

When she stepped further in the sloshing damp, she saw why. The filthy water fell away only a few paces ahead of them, cascading into nothingness. A wall loomed beyond the falls, a clear dead end. “What now?”

“There.” He gestured with the torch, and she saw a crude ledge slanting up from the sludge.

Carved into the wall, it was easily wide enough for a man to ascend into…“Is that an entrance?” Victoria peered up at the dark wall rising in front of them.

“You can see it from here?” Sebastian raised the torch, illuminating it more clearly.

“What's up there?” Victoria had already started to hike up the inclining ledge, keeping her stake at the ready. Water dripped from her boots at every step, splattering quietly on the rock beneath.