He was just glad that everyone was observing the house rule not to look into anyone else's personal auras or business without consent. But sooner or later, it would be obvious to anybody with a normal pair of eyes. Then what? Panic on a team fighting the kinds of entities that had now surfaced from the pit was an extremely dangerous thing.
Fallon Nuit paused for a moment to admire his newly reconstructed Los Angeles high-rise. Human bodies milled about in the landscaped courtyard, casting a succulent array of flavors onto his palate. He inhaled slowly as he entered the building through the huge revolving glass doors, enjoying the fragrance of pulsing life that had been baked to warm perfection by the sun's rays.Cattle.Some grain-fed beef, some garbage-fed meat on the hoof-what did it matter as long as they bled in the end?
Blood Music International would reign again, now more so than just a lucrative hip-hop label, but renamed and transformed into a multimedia empire-Council Group Entertainment. His gallantry in battle, as well as his shrewd observation of a potential double cross by the Neterus, had been rewarded. He'd been the only Vampire councilman who knew that Yolando had been a fraud from the start, thus his territory had been expanded to control all of topside communications for the Dark Lord. In addition to his considerable holdings, he now owned everything that Yolando had once had principality over. Nuit smiled as he surveyed his expanded territory. Death was good.Tres bon.
Black-and-white marble and clean chrome lines stared back at him under the gleaming sun that poured through the massive open atrium, much to his satisfaction. The entire building was made of huge plates of glass inviting in the sun. The irony of it all made him heady. To stand in the sun as a daywalker while retaining all of his vampire powers had been a fantasy for centuries; now he was living it.
Flanked by several patient human bodyguards, he chuckled privately as his gaze roved over the jarring signature splash of scarlet color in the middle of the floor that was supposed to resemble royal embossing wax . . . but for those who truly understood, it was spilled blood.And plenty of it. Right in plain sight-the same way he'd corrupt the minds of the cattle all around him, feeding them propaganda, polluting their minds, and driving them in the direction the underworld needed to herd them. Perhaps he and the council had been going about it all wrong. Rather than attack the Neterus directly, attack humankind and watch the Neterus twist in the wind.That would draw them out.
They would pay for what they'd done to Lucrezia and Elizabeth, two gorgeous councilwomen wives who were now injured so badly that if they came out by day, they couldn't retain their illusion of beauty. Nuit lifted his chin, throttling back the unproductive rage beginning to surface within him, and pulled down on his monogrammed cuffs so that just the right corporate length showed beneath his custom-tailored Armani suit.
Although his mate, Lucrezia, was trapped again by the night, where her beauty still flourished, she'd survived the heinous attempt at silver poisoning. Sebastian's wife, Elizabeth, fared no better. It was a horrific crime against his vampire family. However, time was on his side to settle the score. That was the one thing he and Sebastian could seem to agree on. The tragedy that had befallen their wives oddly quelled their incessant rivalry. Joining forces was the only way to best the Neterus, especially since Sebastian had also been maimed. And when he finally found Yonnie . . .
As Nuit brushed invisible lint off his lapels he sent his gaze around the lobby one last time. Another bit of irony lifted the corner of his mouth into a sinister half smile; Carlos and Damali's aggressive move on the chessboard of war actually put him in position to be the strongest vampire on the council.
Lilith was indisposed, feverishly working to heal the Dark Lord's heir. The Dark Lord was walking the planet, creating topside chaos to keep the angel corps frenetically working to save humanity, thereby effectively thinning their resources to hunt for his injured son. The other members of the Vampire Council had been exterminated, discredited, injured, or hijacked by the Light. That left him as the only legitimate holdover from the old regime of Dante.
Nuit straightened his already perfect posture, finding an additional millimeter of height to add to his six-foot-two, aristocratic bearing. What made