was he doing? Seeking to revenge the vampire lord. What had become of his initial, and real, attraction to the vampiress?
Those whimsical blue eyes had captivated him. Too bright, too bold. And that mouth. So red, so soft. And that imperious command of independence he had found refreshing. The woman might well be a libertine.
And that teasing curve at the side of her mouth. Like a delicate petal, it begged plucking.
“And what is wrong if I wish to pursue fine things?” To take them, hold them in his hands and crush them against his skin.
What was wrong was he had veered off course. He’d come to Paris on a mission for the Council. And still, no word from William Montfalcon, which was beginning to disturb him.
Rhys had been suspicious of Montfalcon’s unlocked door upon arrival. It was as if the man had left for the day and intended to return—yet had not. So he and Orlando were staying in the man’s home with hopes he was merely away on holiday. Rhys knew Montfalcon would not mind, and if foul play had occurred, he felt sure Montfalcon would appreciate someone looking over his home.
He had not taken time to question any in the salon after the distraction named LaMourette had turned his head.
“Don’t allow her to change your course,” he muttered.
Yet his course had altered to include revenge against Salignac. That bit of side play he would enjoy.
Later that evening, Rhys tracked the vampiress’s carriage through the tight, dark streets until it pulled up at a stable behind a town house hung with red shutters. An oil lamp flickered above the front doorway, leaving the stables shrouded in shadow.
The maid stepped from the carriage and wandered into the stable, her heels clicking abruptly.
A cloaked figure emerged from the stables behind the maid, a man, perhaps a stable hand. He stepped into the carriage. Closing the door behind him, the maid tugged up her hood and loitered outside.
“The vampiress is out on the prowl.”
Vacillating whether or not to approach, Rhys decided he must attend his own neglected hungers, or meet the full moon with a raging madness he could not abide.
“Time to find a donor,” he muttered, hating the act as much as he needed it.
CHAPTER SIX
CONSTANTINE DE SALIGNAC settled onto the tattered velvet divan, hastily untying the jabot at his neck. He was eager to slip into oblivion. But it was difficult to concentrate after what his man Richard had reported.
“That bastard is in town,” he muttered.
He swiped his palms over his face, and scratched the small patch of dark stubble on his chin.
Richard had reported seeing Hawkes lurking about, sneaking through the salon as if to spy.
“Rhys Hawkes, will I never be free from you? Do you walk this earth only to torment me? To show me what others must never know?”
Richard popped his head into the study. “She’s on her way, Salignac.”
“Properly spiced, I hope,” he snapped.
“Drank the whole bowl of opium,” Richard offered with his usual lascivious glee. “She can barely walk.”
Constantine’s fangs descended in anticipation. Normally Richard waited until he’d been directed to prepare the evening’s repast, but for some reason Sabine had gotten into the opium early. She’d cast him a stabbing glance when he had greeted Mademoiselle LaMourette.
Sabine had no right to jealousy, and yet rarely did his glossy-eyed kin ever show signs of fight over him. Pity.
Sabine was his oldest and favorite. He had a few dozen female kin that he blooded regularly in hopes of eventually getting them with child. A mortal woman-made vampire required five to ten years of blooding from her patron before she could accept his seed and grow fruitful. Sabine had been carrying his child for five months now.
Finally, some success.
If she could give him a male heir, a bloodborn vampire to carry on his name, the tribe would be most pleased. His position as leader was tenuous. The ailing tribe needed new blood to grow stronger. Constantine had been named leader two decades earlier, and he’d expressed the dire need for the male members to gather as many female kin as they could in hopes of producing viable male bloodborn vampires. Yet nothing had come of it.
His greatest hope rested upon securing Viviane LaMourette as kin. She was the diamond amongst the rubies. The only bloodborn vampiress in Paris, she was the key to his remaining leader of tribe Nava. Finally!
Yet she asked him to give up his kin? A bold request.
A petite blonde, wearing a gossamer night rail that revealed her tumescent belly, stumbled against the door frame. She grinned drunkenly at Constantine and brushed the loose hair from her face.
He gestured for her to come to him. Candle glow exposed the road map of blue veins beneath her pale skin. She was growing more delicate as her stomach expanded. He made a note to find her a proper maid who would tend only her. He must not risk his child’s life.
She collapsed on him more than sat. Though she was his favorite, he’d gone beyond desire for sex now that she was expanding. Still, her blood was the finest vintage.
“You could not wait for me?” he wondered as he stroked the hair from her neck.
“I thought I was your favorite,” she pouted. “I saw you leaning so close to that wolf slayer.”
So she was jealous. “You are my favorite, Sabine.” For now.
He kissed her neck, grazing a fang along the vein. No passion required, only hunger for solace. Ever polite, only a small cry from her. She clutched his jabot and cooed as he extracted the hot blood from her vein. Laced with opium, it relaxed him and dizzied his world. Made him forget things.
He sucked the sweet wine of oblivion, yet she began to struggle. Normally she slipped into a weak reverie.
Constantine caught Sabine’s wrist. “Settle. I am not finished.”
“Oh!” Such a shriek could not be because of his ministrations. Sabine squirmed on his lap and slid off, landing on the floor, her head tucked. “It is like knives!”
Licking the blood from his fingers, Constantine stopped and noted what he was doing. He was never so messy. Where had it come from …?
A smear of blood across his lap trailed over the chaise longue. He startled. On the parquet floor, writhing in pain, Sabine bled from her loins.
“Richard!”
Jumping off the chaise and over his kin, Constantine wobbled to catch his balance. The opium hazed his perception. He wanted to recline and drift away, to annihilate the nasty foreboding Rhys Hawkes’s presence had embedded.
“Hell, she’s losing it,” Richard hissed. He plunged to the floor and lifted Sabine
