me, little girl. I warned you that Cole was off-limits to you, and I fucking meant it. Don’t push me tonight. Not tonight, please.”
“Rhys… I…,” he turned, leaving me dumbfounded. I watched him moving back to the crowd, “want you tonight,” I whispered to myself.
Leaning my head back against the wall, I watched him move to a male who turned, eyeing me before they vanished together through the crowd, moving up the stairs silently.
“You and I have some unfinished business, Silversmith,” Laura snapped, strolling toward me, even though she’d sounded like she was directly in front of me. I swallowed, and she smiled coldly, but a petite woman stepped in front of me before Laura could reach me.
“Not tonight, you don’t, Mon Chéri.” The newcomer was barely over five-feet-tall, and yet the power she exuded was immense. She waited for Laura to snarl, baring her fangs before she turned, followed by a male vampire that slipped silently out of the shadows.
I took in Laura’s shadow as he turned violet eyes on me, his silver-colored hair, making him look more fae than vampire. He smirked, and I swallowed hard as he turned to look at Laura with a dark smile playing on his seductive mouth.
“If you cause a scene tonight, Laura, I assure you that it will be your last one upon this earth for the next thousand years.” Laura stepped back, turning on her heel as vampires I hadn’t even noticed standing around her, slithered from their spot, taking her away with them.
The vampire turned his violet gaze on me, smiling, hitting me with the watts of a thousand lights. The tiny female turned, lifting her hand to my temple, sending pain ripping through my head as she whispered softly.
“You feel no pain, my pretty girl. You’re safe, and you feel nothing,” she cooed reassuringly.
“Sure, except for the part where you’re trying to rip through my memories,” I groaned, holding my hand against hers to push it away, immediately pulling from the bloodbath of her memories. “Just ask me what you want to know. I will answer you honestly.”
“People are never honest, sweet, naïve girl,” she chuckled unkindly.
“People are assholes.”
“Your mother, who is she?” the male asked.
“Who are you?” I countered.
“I can try again,” she offered, staring at me.
“Ian Macleod, King of the Vampires.”
“Elizabeth Silversmith.”
“Impossible, as she’s dead.”
“No, she is not. She’s very much alive, or at least she was when I last spoke to her. She escaped through a library within the mansion and lived.”
“Do you intend to start a war?” Ian asked, canting his head to the side, moving to stand in front of me, blocking me from the other partygoers. I leaned over, staring toward my protection detail. I caught sight of the knights behind him, and the vampire turned, smiling as if their presence amused him.
“I do not intend to start a war. I simply want to live without having to hide. I have never wronged anyone. Okay,” I stated, holding up my finger. “I did make weapons to murder vampires, but I only did it so that we could keep them from breaking the laws, which you maintain. I have never actually murdered one, but I also firmly believe that keeping our presence unknown to humans is very important. There’s nothing worse than a horde of humans on a high horse, holding pitchforks, fueled on by panic.”
Ian’s lips twitched while his eyes sparkled with amusement. “Why are you here?”
“Because I am young and foolish,” I swallowed while doing my best to answer honestly. “I witnessed what I thought was going to end with people murdered and stepped in to break up a fight. It turns out that my stupid ass tried to save Rhys Van Helsing from Cole Van Helsing, and now I’m rather stuck here.”
He threw his head back, laughing, which caused me to jerk back in surprise. Ian narrowed his eyes as he extended his elbow toward me.
“Dance with me, Silversmith. I won’t take no for an answer.”
I slipped my arm into his, knowing he probably wouldn’t take no for an answer. For the vampire alpha, Ian was everything that they said he wasn’t. I’d heard the lore about him, listened to horror stories of what he’d done to hunters who had murdered one of his enforcers, or those who held his houses. However, Ian seemed down to earth. But he was still one of the alphas that had stood outside my family’s mansion, watching them burn.