one’s life,” he said and leaned forward on his palms flat on the scarred, wooden table that seemed to weight a thousand pounds. “Did it not occur to any of you to think of the one standing next to him?”
All heads swiveled, as though on command, to Jason, and the person standing to his side.
Me.
So this was what it felt like, to be the snake in the eyes of a mongoose, the mouse in front of the cat, the prey before the hunter.
I felt as though I could choke on the thick, stifling air.
He pushed his seat back and proceeded to walk around the table. Towards me. I prayed he would keep his distance for even from this far away, I could smell his power, could smell the ages drifting from his body like the bouquet of the finest wine.
Even Vincent seemed to pale next to this individual who wore a dark coat buttoned to his chin, who kept his hair tied back mercilessly, not a single strand out of place.
“I find it rather interesting that she could stand there, and stay there for so long.”
Ryder spoke up, although his voice sounded quiet, which seemed unlike him. Was it respect or fear that kept his voice so low? “She lost it in the hallway.”
The stranger smirked. “Just once?”
Vincent stepped closer to me. For my protection? “Just once. What are you proposing, Matthias?”
He turned his head to one side and I saw a thin scar stretching from his temple almost to his jawline. Considering how well vampires healed from injuries, I found it interesting that he carried a scar. What sort of blow, what sort of weapon could have caused such a wound that even a vampire could not heal from?
But mercifully, he stopped behind Annabelle, more than half a table away and I let out a slow breath. Would that he not come any closer...
“We are all strong, aren’t we?” he asked in an almost casual voice, as though conversing about the weather or whatever vampires considered the mundane and ordinary. “Because we are old, because we are strong, we have formed this Committee here in America. I think it would not be a lie to say we are the Elders here, would it?”
Noir peered at him over the turned heads. “What are you getting at?”
He pointed at me and my skin felt as though it would jump off my muscles and scurry down some dark hole where it could possibly hide for the next century or so, however long it took for these monsters to forget about my very existence. “Vincent, I think you know what I’m talking about.”
The vampire in question sighed heavily. “I wish I didn’t. But I do. And I fear it will only mean her death.”
Jason drew in a sharp breath and abruptly stood in front of me, shielding me, hiding me. “What are you talking about?”
Annabelle laughed, a sharp, strident sound that reminded me of a bucket of glass being shook frenetically. “Well, well, well. How astute of you, to point such things out, Matthias. You always were the shadow behind the throne, weren’t you?”
“That she is with a Sanguinate, only make this situation even stranger,” he said mildly.
Vincent looked at me with what seemed to be regret in his bright eyes. “Even if we could have saved your Master, I’m afraid you have doomed yourself.”
“What do you mean?” asked Jason.
Shannon pushed herself away from the wall, arms uncrossing. Her face was hard and yet with a furrow between her eyes. “I didn’t expect this. I don’t think anyone expected this.”
Ryder put a hand a hand on my shoulder and I pulled away from him, unsure and confused. “What have I done?”
Was that sadness in his blue eyes? “Something the vampires have not seen in a very long time.”
“Longer than something like Jason?”
He nodded. “Longer.”
Vincent sighed. “If I’d known you would react in such a manner, perhaps I would have kept you from coming with us.”
I shook my head and tried to look over Jason’s shoulder at those unnerving eyes, still centered on me, as though they tried to look straight through me. “I wouldn’t have allowed it. I am his Ailward. We made a deal. I never go back on a promise.”
Matthias leaned against the wall, one hand on his hip. “Do you know something about a vampire’s aura, hunter?”
It seemed like a silly question to ask. But I couldn’t provoke him, not when I knew just how much power contained in that