Lucien didn’t reply; he moved us toward the stairs.
Before we even got close suddenly Lucien was gone from my side.
I knew why. I’d only caught a flash of it but I saw Marcello dart forward, his arm extended toward me. Then there was a blur of bodies and Marcello was against the wall in a poof of broken plaster (boy, Edwina was going to be ticked, she’d just had the damage from the last vampire fight in the foyer repaired).
Lucien held him like he did Katrina, at the throat but his body was close, pressing Marcello against the wall, his face not an inch from the other vampire’s. I could only see their profiles but the expression on Lucien’s was ferocious.
Cristiano got close to their sides as Rudolf circled.
“You’d touch what’s mine?” Lucien ground out in a voice so sinister, a chill raced up my spine.
“Marcello,” Cristiano murmured in soft reprimand and I found his accented voice beautiful even in this tense situation. “You know better, my friend.”
“He made no contact with Leah,” Rudolf pointed out quietly. “Let him go, Lucien.” It was a request, not a demand.
Lucien and Marcello glared at each other. Finally Lucien dropped his hand and stepped back.
He walked to me and again took my hand.
“If The Council wants this to go smoothly, control him,” Lucien warned Rudolf with a jerk of his head toward Marcello and Rudolf nodded.
Then Lucien turned us and guided me up the stairs.
As he did, he issued orders.
The minute I leave, call Stephanie, he told me.
Okay, I agreed promptly.
She’ll come immediately. You can trust her.
Okay, I repeated.
Don’t answer the phone. If it rings, Stephanie deals with it, he went on.
Okay, I repeated again
I don’t want you to be frightened, sweetheart. I’ll handle this.
I wanted to laugh. Not that it was funny just that I was scared out of my ever-loving mind and no order, even from the Mighty Lucien, was going to stop that.
What’s this about? I asked when we made it to the dressing room. Why are they here? Why are they taking you away?
I’ve broken the law, Lucien replied calmly, as if this wasn’t a scary-as-shit announcement. He took off his pajama bottoms and started to dress in one of his suits like he was doing nothing more important than preparing to go to work.
While he did this, I stared at him frozen in shock.
Then, my mind breathed to his, You’ve broken the law?
Yes.
What law?
I’ll explain later.
I didn’t want him to explain later.
What did it mean, he’d broken the law? Did that mean they were going to throw him in vampire jail? Did that mean he was going to have to hire a vampire attorney and stand vampire trial? He’d just admitted to doing it! Was he going to plead guilty?