Lily still craned her neck, watching to get her first glimpse of the man Arsinöe hated so much. There was quite a commotion at the back of the room, and she couldn’t see.
Arsinöe hissed a breath out. “Let him come to me. Maybe he wishes to surrender preemptively.”
There was a ripple of nervous laughter as the crowd parted. Lily watched, fascinated, as the most reviled vampire leader strode toward them. With his name, she’d expected the movie cliché: dark widow’s peak, slashing brows, maybe a bow tie and a cape. Instead, what she saw walking toward them was a tall, fit man with pale blond hair and ice-blue eyes she could see glowing all the way from where she stood. He wore an expensive-looking suit, charcoal gray, with a dark plum tie over a black shirt. The severe colors set off his fair looks beautifully, which she was sure he knew.
His features were fine, dashingly aristocratic, with a slightly stubborn chin and large, deep-set eyes that betrayed no emotion as he ascended the platform. He glanced at Lily, then fixed his attention on Arsinöe.
“I don’t recall inviting you, Vlad. The only animals allowed here are servants.”
He gave her a thin smile. “How amusing. I see I’ve interrupted you trying to pin your dynasty’s troubles on my people.”
Arsinöe stepped toward Vlad, and when she did, Lily stepped back. Whatever this was going to be, she was pretty sure she ought to get out of the line of fire. She took another step back as Arsinöe glared up into the face of her nemesis.
“In fact, you’re a little late. The Seer has just described a house I know very well. It was mine, after all, before you bought it and then let it fall into disrepair. There, the corpse of the Mulo rests. A Gypsy curse only your kind knows, hidden in a house you own. If there were any question you were responsible, and there was little, there’s none now. You chose a poor battle to fight, Vlad Dracul.”
Lily felt something brush against her ankle as she took another step back, toward the curtains that hid a small stage.
“Please,” Vlad snapped, his voice resonating through the room. “You may hate me, Arsinöe, but I’m not a fool. How fascinating that a Mulo sits in an abandoned house of mine, just waiting for you to discover it. How lucky that it’s a curse everyone associates with my people. If you’d received a poorly typed confession note with something that looked like my signature on it, would you take that as proof as well? You would use any excuse to get rid of us!”
Something brushed her ankle again, harder this time, and Lily looked down. It was hard to contain her gasp as she took in the sight of a huge black cat, winding around her legs. It could have been any of them, she told herself. Anyone.
But the silver eyes that looked up at her were Ty’s.
It was all she could do not to throw her arms around him. He shook his head very clearly, back and forth once. No. She looked away from him only with great effort, but she understood. Exhilaration mingled with fear as she glanced around, looking for signs of other Cait Sith, other Dracul… other anyone. Surely these two couldn’t have come alone!
Arsinöe was shouting furiously up into Vlad’s face, and the crowd moved restlessly as they strained to hear, discussing amongst themselves whether it would matter if they just killed the leader of the Dracul tonight.
“You slaughter my people!” she cried, and Lily noted that she seemed truly anguished over it. She certainly had feeling for her own blood. It was everyone else’s that was the problem for her, Lily supposed.
“Lies! I have come tonight because I have proof that your people are slaughtered by one of your own. Stop this madness before one more drop of innocent blood is shed. Hear me out, Arsinöe.”
That shut her up. Arsinöe gaped at Vlad for a moment while the crowd erupted in furious disbelief.
“Bastard,” Lily heard her say softly. “Whatever sick game you’re trying to play, I want no part of it. Get out of here. None of my people have the power, nor the sickness of mind it would take to do such a thing.”
Vlad sighed, and for a moment, his features softened, making a sharp and handsome face into that of an angel. His words surprised Lily, but she didn’t harbor the same prejudices as Arsinöe toward him, and the idea of an inside job made as much sense as anything. In fact… she wondered….
Her eyes sought Nero, who had been hovering near the platform, but he had vanished. It gave her a very bad feeling about all of this.
“I have the Shade who was hired to kill Tynan MacGillivray and Lily Quinn,” Vlad said. “Come here, Damien.”
A cat leaped out of nowhere to land on the stage, prompting hisses and filthy insults. The cat, for his part, looked unconcerned. He glared at the crowd for a moment, then stood and became, with a shift of movement and light, a man.
It was Lily’s turn to gasp. She hadn’t ever wanted to see Damien again. The memories brought back by seeing him were nothing she wanted to be reminded of. But she felt Ty pressing reassuringly into her leg, and she stilled, trying to focus on his warmth, the comfort he was trying to provide.
“Damien Tremaine, Your Majesty,” Damien said, sweeping a mocking bow at her feet. “Hired by Nero of the Ptolemy to destroy the Seer before she ever got here, along with the hunter who brought her.” He paused with a mocking little smile. “Obviously, I had some difficulties.”
Arsinöe didn’t look convinced—she looked outraged. “How dare you bring this creature into my court and pay it to spout its lies!” she shrieked at Vlad. “I will never trust the word of a Cait over my own blood! Where is Nero? I demand he come up here and defend himself!”
There was an awkward moment of shuffling and muttering among those gathered. Damien raised one well-arched brow. “Hmm. Seems to have found something better to do all of a sudden.”
The queen curled her lip at Damien, who looked equally disgusted to be in her presence.
“You impugn Nero’s honor and the honor of my house.”
Very clearly, so that everyone could hear, Damien said, “Spare me. He’s probably filling the room with poison gas as we speak. Then he’ll take all our heads and wear them as accessories. He killed a Gypsy girl for the curse and then threw her away like so much garbage. And she was far from the first. He’d even decided to keep your Seer as a pet instead of killing her, hiding her from you so he could do Gods-know-what. You have no idea what he is.”
“If he’s tried to run, he won’t get far,” Vlad said, then inclined his head toward Lily. “And you, Arsinöe, are holding the heir to an ancient dynasty against her will. You’ll need to let her go now. She needs to be presented to the council.”
Arsinöe began to laugh, a throaty roll that would have been beautiful except for the edge of madness to it. “The little human? She’s nothing. She needed my guidance for a simple vision. You’re mistaken, Vlad. And if you have been foolish enough to surround this house with your soldiers, then you’ll have war no matter who is responsible for the Mulo—this I promise you!”
“Arsinöe. He’s right.”
That voice was the most beautiful thing Lily had ever heard. Then he was beside her, tall and lanky and dark. He didn’t look at her—not yet—but kept focused on the queen. She stared at him as though he had just stabbed her in the heart, and Lily saw then that she did care for him. Not in a healthy way, certainly, but the sort of hurt written on her face was a good indicator that when it came to Ty, Arsinöe was not made of stone.
“You… you brought the Dracul here?” she asked hoarsely.
Ty looked at her a long moment and then nodded. “I did.”
“But… why?”
“Because I don’t want to see this destroy you,” Ty said. “And because I’m in love with the woman you’ve locked in here with you. Listen to the Dracul, please, Arsinöe. They are not your enemy.”
Lily couldn’t have moved if she’d wanted to. She felt glued to the spot, and all she could hear was that he was in love with her. Had he actually said that? She wanted to hear it again. And again after that.
“Tynan,” Arsinöe said softly. “You went to Vlad? You profess to be in love with this insignificant slip of a thing? A human? You betray me,” she said, her voice growing steadier as she looked at Ty accusingly, though no less full of pain. “You betray us all.”
“No,” Lily said. She stepped forward again. “You betrayed Lilith. And I am hers.”
Unafraid now, she bared her mark to Arsinöe, who went sheet-white. “Demon child,” she muttered, and incredibly, began to back away. “Seed of the demon, abomination!” she shouted, lifting her hand to point at Lily in horror.
It was eerily like watching her berate Lilith in her visions.
A column of smoke appeared by Lily then, slowly taking the form of a woman. A beautiful, dark-haired woman with luminous eyes as ancient as the stars.
“Hear me now, all of you,” Anura cried, and the cacophony of the crowd fell to silence at her rich voice. “Lilith, the Mother, was no demon, and neither was her child! It’s true, Lilith enlisted the aid of the demon to conceive,” Anura said. “But there is no demonic taint in her line. Those were lies told to destroy her, and all who followed her.”
Arsinöe looked aghast at Anura’s appearance.
“Have we been invaded by every gutterblood in the area?” she asked, sounding shell-shocked. “Anura, you’re a traitor to your own dynasty. You willingly tainted your blood with that of a man who was little better than an animal. And yet you expect me to believe this nonsense!”
“I do,” Anura said calmly. “Because I was there. I delivered the child that Lilith conceived by a human man, aided by her demon love, for a price she will pay for eternity. It may not have been a path many would have chosen, but it was her choice. And this is the descendant of that daughter, the child of her blood. She is no demon seed. She is half human, half vampire. The ritual saw to that.”
