Fallon sat back, somewhat mollified, his fangs slowly retracting to normal feed length.
"Anticipation strums through me,"Elizabeth said in her heavy, exotic tone. "Please, release us."
Yonnie smiled. Sebastian would just have to be angry. He was no threat. His wife was the one to watch, so he had to humor her.
"Just like the late and revered Vlad taught us . . . one must study a victim to lure them into an open trap. This is what I did to my feathered friend." He took a sip from his goblet and then winced, and chose his words carefully, never calling Val an angel and leaving her status a question mark. "She trusts me."
"How?"Lilith breathed, leaning forward, eyes burning with passion.
"After I fatigued her in battle and she thought I would attack her, I didn't." Yonnie looked atElizabeth . "If you want to infiltrate an enemy or inspire their deepest fear, always let one live to escape and return to tell the others." He returned his gaze to Lilith. "I asked her to smell me, I had no blood in my system-but I was hungry as hell. Then I asked her to sit with me and minister to me while I ate my first meal as a daywalker . . . because having seen the Light, I wanted to experience just one sun, one meal, not as a vampire," he said, passion trembling in his voice as he made a fist and pounded the arm of his throne. "And she bought it."
Lilith leapt up from her chair and came to him, held his face with both hands, and kissed him. "What then?"
"I fed her strawberry pancakes and began talking to her about the pleasures of this earth plane . . . telling her about things she never experienced."
Lilith pressed one hand to her heart and the other against her belly. "You were attempting an angel seduction . . ." She backed away until her butt hit the council table. "Only a few have ever tried something so dangerous."
"We are in the end of days," Yonnie said, allowing his fangs to go to battle length for drama. His made his eyes glow red."By any means necessary."
"Show me," Lilith murmured and then swept her arm around to the others. "Show them how it's done!"
"I told her of my special bond with the male Neteru from our old days running the streets at night together. I shared that I knew Fallon had attacked a child and an old woman, and there would be more to come. I asked her to redeem me by trusting me . . . said I had learned from over two hundred years of this incarcerated life that I wanted to change . . ." Yonnie stood, adding power to his speech, holding the council chambers for ransom. "And I begged her to warn Rivera-yes, I gave her a warning message that I knew would arrive late and useless. She was so far away," he added with a sinister chuckle. "But to get my message, she had to allow me to come in close and mind-lock her. As long as I have an invitation, I can go anywhere. Isn't that how it's done?"
Lilith swooned but remained upright. She licked her bottom lip and nodded. Lucrezia took up Fallon's hand and squeezed it tightly.Elizabeth clutched a fist against her stomach.
"Even I concede," Fallon breathed. "Might, in the interest of war strategy, you consider sharing that image,monami? "
"Because we are all family," Yonnie said with a sly smile. "I'll more than share it . . . I'll let you feel it . . . hear it, and smell it. Fair?"
"More than fair," Sebastian rasped.
Yonnie dampened the torch lights, infusing the chambers with what seemed like a late-afternoon sunset. Soon the brisk, salty tang of ocean air filled the room and every vampire closed their eyes for a moment and inhaled as Yonnie layered in the sound of waves and gulls on a breeze that rippled through their hair.
"Yolando . . ." Fallon crooned. "You are indeed an artist."
"I learned from you, man," Yonnie replied quietly.
"Michelangelo and da Vinci together, you and Fallon," Lucrezia breathed.
"Her wings are so soft . . ." Yonnie said, not having to cover that truth with a lie. "Just like her flawless, ebony skin . . ." He sent Val's shudder through the members of chamber, causingElizabeth to gasp out loud.
"Could you tell us what it felt like to go inside her head?" Sebastian asked, practically panting.
"Yeah . . ." Yonnie murmured, becoming arousedhimself as the memory played out in stereo. "I pleasure-packed themessage like this."
"Damn, Yolando," Nuit whispered. "You have learned much. I shall never challenge you on this topic again."
As a finale, he copied Val's last shudder and then allowed it to die off. Then he suddenly restored the lights and turned off all sensation access to his mind.
Stunned faces greeted him and he began to angrily pace. "But I was so damned close! I almost had her!" he said, pounding his fist on the table and splashing blood. "That was what I was doing when you all called me back here to argue about bullshit! I could have compromised her fully and had a mole like you wouldn't believe in there." He walked back and forth so agitated that it wasn't an act. "I came back here so horny that I didn't want to hear shit!"
"Understood," Nuit said, frustrated enough at the interrupted vision that he bore fangs when he spoke to Sebastian. "The timing, as I told you before, Councilman, wastres mal ."
"Then, Yolando," the Countess said with stilted breathing. "I so wish you would have taken out that frustration in chambers."
Yonnie nodded at her, despite Sebastian's hiss. "It would have been my pleasure . . . but with all due respect to the legend, you know?"
"At times, the past must be laid to rest," she said, eyes beginning to glow. "But that you are also a gentleman, like that of the old world, is beyond refreshing."