Warren was more wary than I was--no one snuck up on him.
Ever.
The side effect of being hunted by his own kind for most of his century-and-a-half-long life.
He turned, shoving me behind him, and snarled at her--something he wouldn't have normally done.
All the vampires in the room rose to their feet, and their anticipation of blood was palpable.
Marsilia laughed, a beautiful, ringing laugh that stopped a second before I expected it to, making it more unsettling than her sudden appearance.
Her sudden, businesslike appearance.
The only other times I'd seen her, she'd worn clothing designed to attract attention to her beauty.
This time she wore a business suit.
The only concession to femininity was the narrow skirt instead of pants and the rich wine color of the wool.
"Sit," she said--as if she were talking to a poodle--and the roomful of vampires sat.
She never looked away from me.
"How kind of you to make an appearance," she said, her abyss-dark eyes cold with power.
Only Warren's warmth allowed me to answer her with anything approaching calm.
"How kind of you to issue your invitations in advance, so I could be on time," I said.
Perhaps not wisely--but, hey, she already hated me.
I could smell it.
She stared at me a moment.
"It makes a joke," she said.
"It is rude," I returned, taking a step to the side.
If I got her mad enough to attack me, I didn't want Warren to take the hit.
It was only when I stepped around him that I realized I was meeting her gaze.
Stupid.
Even Samuel wasn't proof against the power of her eyes.
But I couldn't look down, not with Adam's power rising to choke me.
I wasn't just a coyote here, I was the Alpha of the Columbia Basin Pack's mate--because he said so, and because I said so.
If I looked down, I was acknowledging her superiority, and I wouldn't do that.
So I met her eyes, and she chose to allow me to do so.
She lowered her eyelids, not so far as to lose our informal staring contest, but to veil her expression.
"I think," she said in a voice so soft that only Warren and I heard her, "I think that had we met at a different place and time, I could have liked you." She smiled, her fangs showing.