"Non. . ."
"Oui,"Sebastiansaid, his smile widening as he set down his goblet."All for you,mon ami . When I raise her, that will be the condition of her council seat-she's yours."
"Speechless, Fallon?Cat got your tongue?" Lilith teased. "Normally with such a gift presented, a man says thank you."
"Merci . . ."Nuit whispered inDananu , still stunned."First daylight . . . thenLucrezia? How can this be-she died ahuman. "
Sebastian stood and opened his arms wide. "I am the master of master necromancers. Respect me for my talents, Nuit! This is why you and I have unnecessarily been at odds. I respect your statesmanship and strategy . . . now look upon my special skills with due awe."
Instantly, a hole opened in the air above Sebastian's outstretched palms, and grains of what appeared to be dark sand, gravel, and ash overran them, flowing through his fingers as he laughed madly. He balled his hands into fists around the silt, catching as much of it as possible until his hands could hold no more. Then he threw his head back as gale-force winds blew the council doors open. Black lightning arced in his palms, and he flung the dirt toward an empty throne. Just as suddenly as it smoldered, lava from theSeaofPerpetual Agony belched up a hot tendril of screaming ooze that slithered along the black marble floor like a wailing serpent to meet the dirt-splattered throne.
"Comeback, bring forth your treachery and your wiles. Come back filled with lusts and deceit-I call you Lucrezia . . . from the House of Borgia, I call you to Vampire Council to do its bidding!"
Black lightning hit the throne, igniting an inferno within the seat of it. An awful woman's scream echoed as bits of bone dust and body ash, graveyard gravel, and Sebastian's own blend of sorcery drew it together. Her form rose slowly from the flames, her skin blackened from the pyre. As she screamed and screeched, the cord of ooze from theSeaofPerpetual Agony leapt up her body and drove itself down her throat.
Fallon Nuit was on his feet as the fire died away. Yonnie remained immobile, watching and wary, as Lilith clapped and screeched. Black, crusted skin dropped away from the woman's body as she slumped in the throne, leaving the stench of charred flesh in its wake.
Dewey, pinkish, porcelain skin remained where there had been burned earth. A pair of startled green eyes opened suddenly and she took a gasp, clutching the chair. Thick waves of red hair covered her full br**sts, but as she coughed and sputtered to life, her voluptuous form left nothing to the imagination.
"And you say she is for me . . ." Nuit murmured, looking at Sebastian.
"If you elect to do the honors," Sebastian said with a gracious bow. "She is still human, just reanimated without a soul."
Nuit pressed his fist to his mouth for a moment."Virgin to the bite?"
Sebastian nodded. But Nuit looked to Lilith for confirmation.
"You accept his generous gift with no objections?" Lilith said, smiling a dangerous smile.
"What's the catch?" Nuit said. "What is the soul price for such an amazing feat?"
Lilith laughed. "Oh, Fallon, you are so suspicious. Why can't you just accept a gesture of respect among councilmen?"
Nuit gave her a half smile. "Because that is not how it works in Hell, my dear."
"All right," she said with a sigh. "If you turn her and install her-and you know you want to, just look at your pants . . . there will be no factions in council, and you will respect Sebastian's choice of mate with no poaching." She looked to Sebastian. "Did I get those terms right?"
Sebastian nodded.
Nuit chuckled low in his throat. "Mon ami,I knew you had performance anxiety, but had I known it was this bad, I would have exploited it long ago."
"Do you accept or not? She will not last long in this half-state!" Sebastian yelled. "Eithermake her a vampire now before her breathing expires, or you will have missed your opportunity! The spell only lasts so long!" He looked at Lilith for support.
"In a throne, in council, Fallon . . . think of it. Lucrezia Borgia . . . and you will not only have a taste of someone so corrupt, who managed to remain virgin to our bites . . . but you will be able to give her the daylight infusion."
"You would allow that-even though the heir is only supposed to give that?" Nuit's startled gaze held Lilith's.
"Lu said that I could pass it to my councilmen. You can't give it to anyone else, but giving it to a fellow member of council at an installation with me watching isn't going against his intent to contain it to just us. I'm just bending the rules for you, darling, not breaking them." She blew Nuit a kiss from where she sat and it knocked his head back, causing his fangs to instantly lower from arousal. "There.All yours. Now please accept the offer with no more bullshit."
"Offer formally accepted," Nuit breathed, and swept to Lucrezia's throne.
Lifting her slumped body to sit upright, he listened to her expiring breaths as her slender fingers scrabbled at her throat. Tiny gurgling sounds drew him to hold her delicate chin in his palm and turn her head as she strangled on her own saliva.
"I know,ch�rie, death by natural causes is awful," he murmured, sliding a fang up her jugular as he inhaled her raw scent. "I will be your savior from said tragedy again. You were designed for pleasure," he whispered, sliding his other palm against the small of her back. "And you have come to be made at a most auspicious time in the empire. . . . Your radiance will know daylight, but the power I'm about to confer upon you is beyond what your ruthless mind could have ever envisioned. You will owe me dying loyalty to ash, but love every moment of it."
In a serpent-quick strike, his fangs sank into her rose-petal-soft skin. Her body convulsed, but his firm grip at the small of her back and at the nape of her neck kept her welded to him as he heaved in each siphon of blood. He dredged her until she was limp, arms dangling at her sides.But soon, her flaccid arms responded-first clutching the arms of the throne, then his shoulders. As he drained her completely, whitening her skin, she cried out, but not from pain.
"Damn, I love to watch that man work," Lilith murmured appreciatively to Sebastian. "Now do you see why I was concerned that you might get cuckolded after all?" She shook her head when Sebastian angrily glanced away. "Yolando, watch and learn . . . it takes centuries of practice to want something so badly but to negotiate your terms up-front . . . and to do so with a quickly expiring opportunity. Had she died, he would have been unmercifully teased with no resolution in store."