Sebastian blinked at him a moment, processing everything, trying to decipher Tristan’s words as if they held a deeper meaning. “Mon seigneur, if I may, I can seduce any woman or man of your choosing and bring them here.”
Tristan raised his brows, surprised at the man’s confidence. It was nice to have good self-esteem, but… really?
“I may not be a vampire, but I do have my own wiles. I am careful and calculating. You can trust in me.” He paused for a moment and then added. “I, if you have trouble with a living…”
Tristan cringed, it was a little too close to the truth.
“I believe finding the blood already separated from the body will be more difficult than finding a live human but it can be done. I have no doubts in my abilities.”
“Listen,” Tristan said as he stepped up to the man, letting the guy get a big eyeful of his height and athletic build. “I don’t kno—” He stopped, raising an eyebrow at the man before him. “Holy shit, you’re awfully short for a butler, aren’t you?” Ash was taller than this guy—without her shoes—and that was saying a lot considering Sebastian was tall for his race.
Sure Sebastian didn’t even bat an eye but one twitched. It was a sore spot with the man but he’d dealt with it his whole life. Short stature was the bane of his kind. “Petite, mon signeur. I prefer petite.”
“Sure you do.” Tristan’s smile vanished. “I don’t know you, but you seem like a professional.”
“Mon seigneur,” Sebastian confirmed with a nod.
“Right. Then as a professional you should be able to read a situation. Know when to question.” He took another step into the man so that he was looming over him. “And know when to shut the fuck up and do your job.”
Sebastian’s jaw tightened but he managed to keep his chagrin from crinkling the corners of those grass-green eyes. “Mon seigneur,” he answered with a small nod.
“Great, now if you don’t mind, Mommy and Daddy would like some alone time, son.”
The lean Frenchmen looked started for a moment and then blushed, bowing his head as he realized what Tristan meant. Even hiding his face, he couldn’t mask the smile in his words. “Yes, of course. My apologies. Is there anything else, mon seigneur?”
Tristan almost said no, but then remembered he was hungry—hungry for more than just sexy little vampire. From the sounds coming from the other room, Ash had decided to take a bath so he knew he had time to eat; the woman took the longest damn baths. So much for having a lot to do when they landed. Maybe they’d just take the night off and start fresh tomorrow.
“Actually, some dinner would be great.”
The man feigning modesty bent forward into a deep bow, an arm across his waist. “Of course. How dense of me to not think of such a thing after your long trip. I will have something for you very shortly.”
“Thanks,” Tristan answered, turning away. “Anything’s fine.”
Behind him the double bedroom doors shut and he gave a soft sigh as he padded towards the open bathroom door. Still, Tristan couldn’t shake the tightness in his shoulders, the feeling of someone behind him, watching. For some reason, the guy made him a little uncomfortable—guess overly polite people always made him nervous. In his experience, they usually had the most secrets.
When he reached the bath, he came to a dead stop, staring at the image before him. The bathroom was nearly the size of his whole apartment back in Japan. It was all grey and white, modern fixtures and sharp lines. On each side wall was a sink, but the one on the right had a large window overlooking the night city instead of the wide mirror the other had. The shower took up the back wall with a door on both ends and a huge round tub sat in front of the glass.
But the simplistic contemporary beauty of the space wasn’t what brought him to a halt. It was that gorgeous sculpture of smooth alabaster skin and long silken hair perched on the edge of the tub with her back to him. In the two or so months they’d been together, he’d only seen her naked three times and two were just in the past two days. Something was changing in their relationship. Maybe Ash was starting to let some of her guard down with him. Maybe they’d start acting like a couple now.
“Hey,” he said softly even though she knew he was there. He didn’t want her to think he was just a peeping Tom.
“A poor one at that.” She glanced back, smirked and then looked away again, fingers twirling along the top of the water as the large tub continued to fill.
“Soooo… That was fun. Unexpected, but fun.”
Ash stiffened but said nothing. Tristan sighed, realizing she was going to treat it like she always did, by pretending it didn’t happen. Was that how she eased her conscious? Tristan could understand wanting to live with fewer regrets, but her tactic still pissed him off.
“What’s going on?”
“It is expected for Yukihime to send a servant.” What she didn’t want to admit was that she was so focused on Tristan that she never even sensed Sebastian until it was too late. That was beyond carelessness. It was a human folly.
Tristan scoffed and crossed his arms over his chest. It helped him to hold onto his anger. Because if he didn’t he would take the six steps it would take to cross the room and grab her, continuing what they’d started in the other room. Something he was sure wasn’t going to happen again anytime soon now that all her mental safeguards were well fortified again.
“That’s not what I meant and you know it.”
Ash sighed, the tension in her slender shoulders visibly releasing. “I apologize for that. I had not intended to follow through and it was cruel of me to let you think otherwise.”
“That’s bullshit,” he snapped, stomping forward a step. Ash flinched and turned to look at him enough that he got a glimpse of breast. Dammit, he had a hard time arguing with her like this. “I can’t read your mind, but I can still read your body. You wanted me. You wanted me badly enough that you let all of your inhibitions slip. You weren’t going to stop that time. Question is, why? What made you disregard something so important to you?”
Damn. He was right. She knew he was right. There were just so many factors, what was the wholest truth without giving up something she didn’t want him to know about her? Something to hate about her. If she told him the biggest reason for her slipping, he just might leave, fearing his life. “The small confines of the plane for so long...,” she whispered, “being so close to you. Wanting your blood, your body so badly. I lost myself, my control.”
He scowled. He wasn’t sure that was the real reason. But it was reason enough he supposed. He really wasn’t in the mood for this, not today. Hell, he wasn’t even in the mood to finish what they’d started in the other room anymore. He was having doubts again about her and the validity of their relationship. What sort of partnership could a man and his natural enemy have? Not to mention the lies by omission and physical barrier put up by Ash.
Ash cleared her throat softly. She’d heard everything Tristan was thinking, all of his doubts, his fears, his overwhelming need for her and the pain that caused. It was too soon. She wanted to tell him everything, but she was afraid if she did she would only drive him away. That he would flee and then maybe he’d come back as a true Uruwashi and dispatch one of his rules upon her. She had been terribly naughty after all, three hundred and forty years’ worth.
“After I have freshened up we will go out in search of Lucien.”
Not that there was really anything to freshen up. Tristan suspected it was more to gather her thoughts.
He turned away with a huff. Guess the conversation was over. He was just retrieving his shirt from the bedroom floor when there was a small knock. He wanted to deck Sebastian right between those bright, smiling green eyes when he opened the door, but then the man saved himself without even knowing it. “Pardon, but your meal has arrived.”
With another huff of annoyance, Tristan went out into the main area and had his second standstill of the night. Sebastian was fussing over a cart loaded with food. There were at leas
t three different bottles of wine—two red, one white—various plates of meats, vegetables and foods he didn’t even know the name of. Hell, it looked like Sebastian had ordered everything on the menu, including dessert.
“I… You’re kidding, right?” he asked as he slipped into his shirt.
Sebastian smiled and Tristan saw the youth in the man. “I have a good relationship with this establishment. Everyone is especially fond of me as I bring guests regularly. The chef is a very good friend indeed.” The man’s eyes twinkled and Tristan wondered what sort of fondness the guy had with this chef. “I do realize this is a bit much, but I did not know what you preferred. I opted on the side of overabundance, rather than ordering the wrong item.”
Professional indeed.
“How the shit does anyone even make this much food that fast?” The cart had to have been here already, that was the only possible explanation.
Sebastian’s smile stretched into a grin, a hint of teeth. “I trust you can find something to your liking, mon seigneur?”
As if to answer the question, Tristan’s stomach growled loudly.
“Tres bien.” Sebastian made a sweeping motion with his hand in the direction of the quant dining room through in the living space, his upper body bowing slightly with the movement. “When you are ready, mon seigneur.”
“Uh... Yeah, thanks,” he said, feeling overwhelmed and a little weirded out about being waited on hand and foot. That, and there was still something about the guy that bothered Tristan.
Smiling and silent, Sebastian set out each plate before Tristan and rotated them, making sure the angle was just right. He did the same with the utensils, lining them up just so, and the wine he chose, one of the reds, making sure the glass was filled exactly halfway. Tristan was starting to suspect that he was OCD.
“Thanks,” Tristan muttered as he eyed which plate to grab first. The steak caught his attention. He reached for it but then was intercepted by Sebastian. The butler, or whatever he was, positioned the plate in front of him and held out a sharp steak knife. The guy’d probably cut it up and chew it for him if Tristan asked.
Sebastian was just about to turn away when Tristan asked, “So what’s your thing, by the way?”
The small man stopped and turned to face him fully. “Beg your pardon, mon seigneur?”
“You know, you vampires are all elemental and shit. What’s yours?” He knew the guy wasn’t a vampire, but he didn’t know what else he might be if not human. This was the only way he could ask to look the least stupid.
The man bristled and then tried to hide it under a fake smile. “I am no vampire, mon seigneur. However, there is one thing I can do…”
Tristan lifted a brow as the man reached for the wilting flower in the vase set in the middle of the table. The tango? he wondered.
Sebastian took the knife right from Tristan’s hand without so much as an apology and before Tristan could stop the man, Sebastian cut deep into his own palm. Tristan stumbled to his feet, nearly knocking the chair over in his rush. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Don’t worry about me, mon signeur, just watch.” Sebastian pressed the cut stem of the rose from the vase to the open wound. Whatever he was doing, Tristan didn’t even feel the slightest anything from it. Must really not have been vampire. Indeed, when the rose suddenly started to perk up and then grow, forming new offshoots and an extensive root system that overtook Sebastian’s hand, Tristan knew for sure the man couldn’t have been dead. A dead person couldn’t give life and that’s exactly what he just did to that rose.
Tristan tried not to let on that he was impressed as he slipped back into his seat. “Not very useful in a fight, is it?”
“No, mon signeur,” Sebastian answered with a bit of a laugh. “Which is why my kind usually ends up in service of your kind.”
Tristan wanted to ask even more now just what Sebastian’s kind was, and what he thought Tristan’s kind was, but didn’t want to look the fool in front of the stranger. He could do that just fine on his own without asking silly questions about things he should have already known the answer to.
Sebastian, seeming to understand his master wasn’t in the know, smiled devilishly and handed the knife back to Tristan. He took the bloody knife with a huff and tossed it to the nearest empty spot on the table before reaching for a plate of food that didn’t require cutting. The other man smiled and wandered off to tend to the newly created, lush rose bush and his hand.
Tristan harrumphed, wondering where on earth Yuki found these people. He ate a little bit of everything, feeling he owed it to extravagant display to at least taste each. When he was full and a little more than tired, he sat back in his seat, crossing one ankle over the other and rested his hands on his stomach. The room was silent in a soothing sort of way. He must have shut his eyes longer than he realized and suddenly snapped to attention when a soft finger brushed over his cheek. He jumped, grabbing the wrist of the hand touching him, his free hand automatically going for the gun he wasn’t wearing and nearly falling out of his chair.
Over him, Ash was fighting back a smirk. She’d seen him eat a multitude of times now, but never looking so sated. Then again, he was more tired than he let on. Having a fully belly always exasperated that—vampires too.
“Enjoy your meal?”
“Yeah.” He smiled and patted his full stomach. “The French can cook.”
“Merci.”
Tristan turned in his seat to look at Sebastian. The dude was smiling happily as if he had complimented him personally. The man went about the room, tidying up a space that was already as tidy as it was going to get. OCD indeed. Tristan stretched before climbing to his feet.
“What now?”
Ash held out Tristan’s shoulder holster with the single Berretta. The gun was too small for him, but with firearms at such a premium in Japan, being illegal n’ all, he was going to have to make due until they left for the U.S. “Moreau gave you something?”
“Huh?” he asked and then remembered. “Oh right, before you jumped me.” He meant it in a lighthearted way but Ash’s scowl said she didn’t take it as such. God, she was just so serious all the time. He’d only heard her laugh, really laugh a few times since he met her. What he would give to hear that again. He dug the envelope from his pocket and gave it to Ash in exchange for his gun.
In one clean movement she slipped her fingers into the flap, pulled out the note and unfolded it so that it appeared like magic. From envelope to hand, the note just appeared.
Show off.
Ash shot him the barest of smirks before turning her attention to the paper. It only took her a few seconds to read it all with her vampiric skills. She said a few words of Greek under her breath, dropping her arms to her side.
“That good, huh?” he asked, struggling into his holster.
“There is a Paris Master vampire who would be the equivalent of Yukihime.”
There was another ancient nut job like Yuki running around?
“Audric,” Ash said, reading the note again as if she didn’t believe it either. “He is her senior by three hundred years.”
Tristan stopped fumbling with the tight leather straps to give her a pained look. A thirteen hundred year old vampire? “I…” He had to clear his throat to speak. “I thought Yuki was the oldest alive.”
Ash looked up slowly and met his eyes, her own filled with worry. “I had believed so, yes. I did not know of Master Audric’s existence until just now.” In fact, there were many of her kind worldwide she knew nothing of. At first it was by design, Malik’s. After that it was simply just unimportant to her. In time, the need to know never grew, but perhaps it was prudent to start keeping a mental log of all of Tristan’s possible enemies. The older, the more deadly.
“And his House of power?” Tristan mindlessly took the dress jacket Sebastian was handing him and put it on. He didn’t even notice the small man.
Ash bit her lip, shaking her head. “It does not say.”
Tristan stopped for a moment to process the idea and screwed his face up, hands deep in his pockets. “You’re taking the news rather well.”
She gave a soft laugh looking tired. “How am I supposed to react?”
“Never mind,” he answered with a sigh.
“Audric and Guinevere were allies. When Yukihime and Malik moved on the House of Fire, she made a deal with Audric to keep him from interfering. Later, Master Audric made his regret known in betraying his old ally. Because of this, Yukihime believes he may have given Lucien refuge now. She says that we may have to beg Lucien from him.”
Something tickled up Tristan’s spine and he shifted his shoulders to hide the shiver under the guise of adjusting the harness. “I don’t like the way that sounds.”
“As well you should not.”
“Why can’t you vampires ever play nice? Seriously.”
Sebastian let out a small chuckle and Tristan shot him a dirty look, not happy the strange man was listening in. “My apologies,” he said. “Is there anything further I may be of assistance with before you go?”
Tristan opened his mouth to tell the man off and to give him and Ash some privacy when she touched his arm and stepped around him. “Has our trunk been delivered yet?” she asked.
Sebastian looked startled for a moment, but quickly regained his composure. “Non.”
Ash opened her mouth again to speak, but it came out in French, accent spot on. Flabbergasted, Tristan stared at her while the two of them had their conversation. He knew he shouldn’t have been surprised. Ash had said before that she knew many languages. He just didn’t know the extent of her collection. And she spoke them all with such fluidity and ease. He hoped that one day she’d tell him about her past and how she came to learn so many languages, and teach maybe him a little.
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