by Michele Hauf
“In her hair? Can’t see from here. But don’t you adore how the women cinch their corsets so tightly their bosoms have nowhere to go but—”
“Orlando, watch yourself. Is that how you behave around women you do not know?”
“Yes.”
The boy’s innocence would get him in trouble some day. “You are yet a pup. To win a woman’s regard you must not be so vulgar.”
“And you are the master of wooing a woman? The last time I saw you with a woman—”
“I do not share all my liaisons with you, boy.” Nor did he discuss his affairs.
Rare was it Rhys left the country to seek amorous pleasures. The country women would not think to powder their hair or wrap themselves in ells of expensive fabrics. They appreciated the more rustic male, one whose appetites were fierce and less refined than the city fops.
“I’ve my eye on someone,” Rhys said. “And she will be in my bed soon enough.”
“Oh, yes? Which one?”
“The one with the roses in her hair.”
“Oh, but Rhys…” The werewolf swallowed audibly.
When Lord de Salignac lifted the woman’s hand to kiss, Rhys sucked in a breath. The vampire lord’s eyes closed. He lingered over her hand, inhaling her scent, consuming her in a breath.
Rhys knew that look.
“She is the one,” Orlando said. “Mademoiselle Viviane LaMourette. The one whom Salignac loves.”
Indeed. Rhys closed his eyes. He had chosen incorrectly.
And yet. Was it not his chance for love? Surely Constantine pursued her for one purpose, and that purpose did not require love.
A tendril of spite clutched Rhys’s spine. It was always there, forced up by Salignac. What satisfying vengeance to take away from Salignac the one woman he loved?
Decided, Rhys nodded once and drew up his shoulders. “I want her. I will have her.”
CHAPTER FOUR
Paris, modern day
“WAS IT LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT?” Simon Markson asked Rhys as they walked through Charles de Gaulle Airport.
“Yes,” Rhys said, smirking wistfully as he recalled the foolishness of his youth. And yet at that time every cut to his person had felt like a blade directly to his heart. He had needed revenge. And the opportunity had been too perfect.
“She was beautiful. She was like…a hummingbird,” he muttered absently.
“What’s that?”
“She was a hummingbird—a woman who can never be caged. And should her wings have ceased to flutter she would have died.”
“She had wings?”
Rhys shook his head. Simon’s head was a veritable database of all paranormal creatures; he’d taken it upon himself to research his employer’s world after being hired a decade earlier.
“Why did you never tell me the legend?” Rhys asked his assistant.
“Never thought much of it.”
“But you’ve heard it before?”
“The Vampire Snow White? Once or twice. While on dates, you know.” Simon tapped away on his cell phone with his free hand. “It’s an urban legend for a reason, Rhys. It’s fiction, a story created to titillate and you know how much the women like vampires nowadays.”
“I’ve told you my history. It could be true.”
“Yeah, I remember the day you told me everything.” Simon whistled. He tucked the phone in his breast pocket. The two walked through the sliding doors to the pickup lane outside. “Who would have thought werewolves and vampires were real?”
Rhys had hired the man as an assistant when he’d needed help adjusting to the technology that moved faster than a hyperactive hare. He’d surrendered to the learning curve with the introduction of the laptop and BlackBerry and the iPod. Now he gladly let Simon handle all the technical stuff.
While Rhys could function in this human-dominated realm without having to divulge his true nature, he was not a man to treat friendship lightly, and always revealed himself to his closest friends, even if they were mortal, which were few. Trust came with truth. Never again would he doubt himself or attempt to hide a part of his nature.
Didn’t mean he flashed his fangs to anyone. The rule of discretion applied always.
Simon flagged down his driver three cars back in the queue. He’d contacted the Paris office of Hawkes Associates and made arrangements the moment Rhys had called him about the legend early this morning.
“I still think it’ll be like looking for a needle in a haystack,” Simon said. “There are over five hundred kilometers of tunnels beneath Paris proper. And some of those tunnels go down five, six, even seven layers deep.”
“You made contact with the man who claims to have mapped all those treacherous tunnels?”
“Right,” Simon said. “Guy named Dane Weft claims to have made the ultimate tunnels map. But on his website, he admits the tunnels constantly change. And there are some inaccessible levels. I offered him cash. Didn’t even have to break the bank.”
“Money does not concern me, Simon, but I do appreciate your frugality.”
Raindrops splattered their shoulders. A woman in heels with an immaculate coif stepped back from the curb toward the overhang and bumped into Rhys. “Pardonnezmoi.”
Bright blue eyes held his for a moment and her cherry-red mouth slipped into a smile.
Not the same. He’d never hold her again.
He stepped beside Simon as the car pulled up.
“I don’t know what you expect to find, Rhys. Even if this glass coffin does exist, she could have escaped decades ago, centuries, and may have died—for real—when the glass broke.”
“If someone had a witch bespell her and the coffin, I can assure you it will be fail-safe against natural disaster.”
“I thought the legend said it was a warlock?”
“Witch. Warlock. Same thing, only one is a wanted criminal.”
Rhys sighed. Truly, he was jumping to conclusions. And yet, he couldn’t not investigate. He’d never forgive himself if he ignored what felt so real in his bones.
Could it really be her? Shame on him if it were true.
It hurt him deeply to imagine her locked away, alive and aware, in a confining little box. It had been two and a half centuries!
Simon slid into the Mercedes’s backseat and waited for Rhys to follow. “You okay?”
Rhys slid in and confirmed the driver knew his home address. Pushing fingers through his hair, he massaged his pounding temples. “I won’t be okay until I see her again, and know she is not damaged for my foolishness. Or…find irrefutable proof she died in the eighteenth century.”
If the legend was true, the enormity of the repercussions practically took Rhys’s breath away. He was no man for abandoning her.
Don’t get ahead of yourself. It is merely a legend.
“Is it possible you are reaching for chimeras?” Simon asked. “She’s gone. I thought you saw—”
“I don’t know what I saw now. Was it her? How can I be certain? Just think, Simon, if I have walked away and left her to suffer. Could she still be out there somewhere?”
“It’s longer than a long shot. It’s an infinity shot.”
“I have to pursue this.”
“You didn’t know, man.” Simon slapped a palm on his knee in comradely reassurance. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. But what if we do find her? I mean, you know what the legend says.”
Yes, that she would be mad. Locked away for centuries, aware of the dark, the insects and whatever horrors surrounded, yet unable to utter a scream? Rhys recalled her fear of rats. Her mind must be a macabre store of dread and terror.
Did he want to find the remnants of what had once been the most beautiful woman to ever touch his heart, to know him and accept him, even his dark side? And if he did find her, would he be far more kind if he killed her quickly to put an end to her suffering?
The chance he was merely chasing a phantom legend, a story conjured by firelight to entice and frighten, was great.
“No,”
Rhys muttered. “I will find her. If I must die trying.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Paris, 1785
CONSTANTINE DE SALIGNAC’S voice possessed a soft murmur and felt like warm syrup seeping into her skin. His very presence, taller than she by a head, with broad shoulders and long fingers moving expressively as he spoke, intrigued her.
When he stood near, Viviane could not look away from him.
And yet, she did not feel the necessary spark of passion. His closeness did not provoke desire, twinkle across her flesh, or vibrate throughout her body. Intimacy should be like that. A man’s presence should put a woman out of sorts in the best of ways.
Twice now, Lord de Salignac had kissed Viviane. Once in the garden behind the ballroom during a midnight salon. Last time had been four days ago in the planetarium amongst the squawking blue-and-emerald parrots. The kiss had invited their tongues to dance, and yet too quickly it had turned rough. Possessive. But hardly interesting.
Viviane knew what Constantine wanted. Eventually she must succumb. But if a man wished to keep her interest, she required passion. The man must convince her of his conviction.
Now Constantine coiled one long ringlet of her hair about his forefinger. “I am pleased you’ve attended this evening, Viviane. It is good you’ve not despaired in the wake of Henri’s death.”
She tensed. The man gained no regard with his callous prod at her most intimate memory.
A bird squawked nearby. “You’ve many birds. The peacock in the back courtyard is magnificent.”
“A gift from Marie Antoinette.”
“Does she know you are vampire?”
“The queen does not believe in the occult.”
Viviane recalled Madame du Barry had been ousted from court for her belief in the occult. It was never a good thing when those in power believed, be their beliefs real or superstitious. Always scandal followed. The mortal could be silenced, and usually such reprimand was ordered by the Council.
She strode the hall where earlier she’d met Rhys Hawkes. “Have you hummingbirds?”
“No.”
“I should think not.” She stroked the gathering of roses above her right ear. The pointed beaks on the skulls pricked nicely.
“What are these?” Constantine inspected the flower buds tucked along the side of her coif. “Rat skulls?”
“I abhor rodents. These are replicas of hummingbird skulls carved by a Venetian artisan.”
“Yes, the long beak…”
“I regard hummingbirds as my totem.” Always she felt as if she must stay one step ahead, her wings ever beating, to maintain life. “Pretty, yes?”
“They suit you. But one mustn’t overlook the value of a plump rat.”
“Do not tell me if you drink from them.”
The masterful tribe leader lifted a brow, but instead of proclaiming he did so, and completely horrifying her, he said, “I wonder if you would enjoy a stroll in the north hall where I’ve had the Tiepolo hung? It is a marvelously dark piece.”
“Perhaps a few moments,” she reluctantly agreed, while her eyes scanned the ballroom for the man with the gray-streaked hair. “It is oppressive in here.”
A glance to Portia assured her she would return. Portia liked to wander the salon and figure who was mortal and who was not. The maid was safe from hungry vampires for she wore Henri’s mark. To them Portia appeared used, not worth a taste.
The north hall served as a retreat for a few couples walking arm in arm, admiring the massive fresco paintings, which would normally fill an entire boudoir wall. But on the two-story-high walls they appeared merely portraits, one lined after the other. An ostentatious display of wealth. Three candelabras marked the walls at distances, providing low, hazy light.
Viviane realized Constantine could tend all her needs. Save the most vital—freedom.
Constantine offered his arm, which she accepted. The lace blooming from the end of his sleeve spilled across her wrist. He smelled of lavender, wine and the slightest trace of blood. He must have fed before attending tonight, most likely from one of his kin.
Viviane had never bitten another vampire who was not Henri. The bite was very sexual, which had made her relationship with Henri unique. They’d never had sex. That he had respected her enough to allow her freedom, while both succumbed to the orgasmic swoon of her bite, was tremendous.
She would be bound to no man, vampire or otherwise. Yet she was not stupid. A patron was necessary to survival.
“You stand alone amongst the frippery tonight,” Constantine said. He placed a hand upon hers, which she curled about his forearm.
“I shouldn’t wish to be an oddity,” she said. “You don’t think I blend well?”
“You do, but your beauty blinds one and all to your true nature.” He paused before a velvet settee and Viviane tucked her skirts to sit. “Because I know what wickedness lives in your heart.” He leaned in and whispered aside her ear, “Wolf slayer.”
Spine stiffening, Viviane tightened her jaw. “It is not a title I admire.”
“But you should. The entire salon uses it with respect when you pass.”
“Only because you told them the tale of my encounter.” That it had already become a tale whispered amongst the throngs disturbed her.
“It puts you above all others. A strong, dangerous woman no man shall reckon with. Which reminds me, I have something for you.”
He slipped a ribbon from his sleeve. A curved white talon dangled from the length of blue velvet. Viviane touched it tentatively.
The sudden intrusion of warm metal brushing flesh startled her. Constantine stroked her cheek. One of his rings had sharp edges and she flinched, but it wasn’t from fear of being cut. All vampires felt the shimmer with contact, a glittery vibration coursing through their veins. It was the only way they could recognize their own breed unless they saw fangs or witnessed the other drink blood.
Was Hawkes really vampire? His otherness baffled her.
“From a werewolf,” Constantine said, confirming her suspicions. “One I slayed decades ago. This is the trophy I took. I want you to have it.”
“Oh, Constantine, I could not—”
“You must. It is a symbol of our similar spirits. We are both wolf slayers.”
Viviane sighed and clasped the dead relic. At least she’d the decency to wear facsimiles of hummingbird skulls. Yet she could not deny her macabre curiosity. Inspection found the talon to be like ivory, and the tip pin-sharp.
Yet what troubled her was his talk of werewolves.
“Henri was never cruel to a wolf,” she whispered. “He claimed no enemies.”
She wanted to learn more. Because something did not feel right to her. Who had been the wolf who murdered Henri? Was it a retaliatory move because she had slain the wolf in the country?
“Of course, Henri was kind to all,” Constantine offered quickly. “Too kind.”
“Do you think… Because of what I did?”
“Slaying the wolf? No, mademoiselle, a thousand times no. These things simply happen.”
The banal statement struck at her core. Constantine stroked her cheek again. The touch irritated more than comforted.
“For your reassurance, you must know I have already set my men to track the murderous wolf. Though Henri was not a member of tribe Nava, he was an honorary member. And we protect our own.”
If Nava were so protective of their own, Henri should not be dead, honorary member or not.
“His head will sit upon a spike in the Bois de Boulogne in no time.”
The city park was a sort of haven for Dark Ones after the prostitutes had left with their marks for the night. It was also the place where an example could be made of any who had thought to act against another tribe. Midnight executions were rare but not unheard of.
“Shall I tie it around your neck for you?”
“No.” She nestled the talon beside her breast, tucked behind the corset. “The ribbon doesn’t match my gown. But I promise I w
ill wear it to the next salon.”
“That would please me immensely.”
She stifled a shiver to imagine pleasing this man. At this horrible moment she realized her future was tenuous.
“I wonder after your intentions?” she found herself blurting. Very well, so curiosity would kill this cat, or at the least, maim her. “Regarding your pursuit of me.”
“As I’m sure Henri told you—”
She put up her palm. “It is not something I can consider at the moment.”
Constantine audibly swallowed. “I understand. You and Henri were close. But marriage aside, you must choose a patron quickly. Henri’s blood is established in you,” he continued. “To take a new patron will require some…restructuring. Time to adjust. You must be blooded anew.”
An emptiness eddied at the back of her throat. How much time did she have? She had only needed to drink from Henri twice a year. Yet she had felt his death as if he’d been ripped from her very soul.
“I will consider your proposition if you will show me how willing you are to have me in your life.”
“You’ve to ask me anything.”
“Understand, just because I am considering your proposal does not ensure that I will accept. But I find it would be extremely challenging, if not socially humiliating, to step under your patronage when you’ve already so large a harem. I feel I would become lost amongst the throngs.”
“They mean nothing to me, Viviane. I do not love any of them. My kin are there to serve a purpose.”
“Would I not serve that same purpose?”
“No, it would be different. Viviane, I love you.”
The hairs at the back of her neck prickled. What beasties snuck upon her heart?
She maintained decorum. “Then prove it. Send them away.”
“All of them?”
“Yes. Cease patronage to your entire harem.”
Taken aback, he thumbed the Van Dyke beard on his chin. “They would die without me.”
Viviane shuddered inwardly. She was only promising to consider his proposition.
“It shall be done,” he said.
