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Evrard Verkist relinquished his job as Patriarch and attempted to flee Directorate justice, but after eight months he was located and quietly terminated.
As for Drago’s original alliance, the Frenchman, Ricard De Chaux, remained the only surviving member. Nikolena tried for two years to convince him to accept the post of Patriarch he had actively sought more than sixty-five years earlier, but Doctor Death would have none of it. Ric’s answer was always the same. “What I seek isn’t rule over many, but the power over one.”
Of Philippe’s new alliance, only the Scots-Irish bastard, Revelin Scott, survived. And survive he did. Within two years he was promoted to Directorate status, making him the youngest vampire ever to be among the chosen few. In five years he became the new enforcier, and it was rumored that Nikolena had a fondness for Scott that almost, but not quite, matched her affection for the legendary Russian who had preceded him.
Certainly Revelin was privileged to enter Nikolena’s sacred domain more often than any of her other enforcers. It was only Revelin Scott, though, who could truly appreciate the new painting that hung in Nikolena’s grand office.
Titled “The Secret,” it was a full-sheet watercolor depicting a young woman with long, flowing sable hair and expressive dark eyes. Regally perched on her lap was a black cat with haughty blue eyes that wore a narrow rhinestone collar the way a king wears a crown. And if one gazed very, very hard at the painting, the faintest of Mona Lisa smiles could be seen on both woman and beast.
The secret was love.
L’ amour. After all, it was what made Eternity bearable.
The End