by Cora Zane
Melted snowflakes glistened in Marguerite’s auburn hair as Eleni guided her into the small parlor, which was lit with a small crystal chandelier that threw a soft light around the room that was both pleasing and easy on a vampire’s eyes. Eleni didn’t often come in here, but the room was warm and comfortable, with heavy black leather furniture and a large fireplace.
Marguerite needed no one to guide her—she walked right over to one of the couches and sat down heavily, blowing out a breath. She stretched her arms along the back of the couch, her crimson smile at once both devious and beguiling. “So, tell me how you’re doing? It has been so boring at home, and I am curious. I want to know everything. Your hearing is only a few months away? Are you looking forward to it?”
Eleni gave her a wide-eyed look that made the sophisticated vampiress laugh. “I suppose not. But you seem to be adjusting. Surely, that will be considered in your favor?”
“I hope so,” Eleni told her warily as she sank down into one of the chairs opposite Marguerite. “I know my way around the house now, and I feel comfortable with Claudette and Henri. I’m trying my best to fit in.”
“And you are doing a fine job of it,” the vampiress said softly. “Yes, I believe you’ll do fine. I will put in a recommendation for you. You’re a scrupulous girl. By the way, Julian is here, yes?”
“He should be in his office still. I visited him earlier tonight—I stayed until he got very busy then thought I’d leave him to his work. You want me to call him for you?”
“Julian and his work…” Marguerite made a moue of disapproval. “I had hoped you’d break him of that habit. Ah, but never mind, I didn’t come over to see him.” Her eyes brightened. “He will be curious that I have befriended you, but I have heard of your line before, you know?”
That surprised her. “You have?”
“Oh, indeed. Julian spoke highly of your sister, Anya. He told me that our cousin Dominic entered into the blood bond with her. That is no small event, you know? All the relatives were informed of the match. A new vampiress is something to celebrate. The Sévigné branch has not had a new vampiress since I was turned…and that has been some time ago.”
“I had no idea.” Eleni swallowed hard. She didn’t mention that she’d been too sick at the time to realize the significance of what went on around her. The uncomfortable realization that she had likely missed many important things that year made her squirm in her seat.
On top of that, she found it hard to imagine a celebration around her sister’s transformation. Anya had been dying when Dominic made the snap decision to turn her. Eleni wondered if Marguerite knew. The transformation had been under very unusual circumstances. As romantic as it was, Eleni didn’t anticipate any man would do something so honorable for her. Not knowing what else to say, she forced a smile. “Dominic and Anya seem happy together. From what I could tell, they are nearly inseparable—very much in love. We should all be so lucky.”
“True…true…” Her voice drifted away, her eyes for a moment distant and dreamy. A smile pulled her back to the here and now. “So, tell me, how do you like the chateau? What have you been doing to pass the time?”
“Marguerite,” Julian’s throaty voice chided her from the doorway. Eleni turned in the chair, glancing back to see him with his hand braced high on the jamb. “You sound like you’re giving an interview. You plan to steal my protégé?”
“Julian.” Marguerite beamed. She rose from her chair as he came into the room. She met him halfway and greeted him with an air-kiss by both cheeks, then she took his hand and drew him into the seating area. At last, she let him go and sat down again, gesturing him toward one of the remaining chairs.
“Of course, he would see an ulterior motive in all this…” Marguerite gave Eleni a flabbergasted look before turning her attention to Julian. “I’ve missed you, you know. You’re always hiding away in this old house.”
“I have no reason to hide,” he said as he flopped down in the chair closest to the fire. He looked at Eleni, and a small thrill passed over her, making her shiver. He looked as though he wanted to lay her out across the couch and eat her alive.
“Gisele,” Marguerite called out suddenly.
Eleni jumped at the sudden change in the vampiress’s voice. It shifted from friendly to authoritative without a shred of warning. A sudden tension filled the room and Eleni’s heart began to race. She hadn’t been aware Gisele’s nearness, but apparently she had been close enough to hear their conversation.
A feeling of unease slithered through her. She’d been too focused on Julian to notice where Gisele had come from. It appeared she had been passing by the in hallway when Marguerite spotted her, perhaps coming from her bedroom, which was located downstairs, at the far end of the east wing.
Gisele looked anything but happy when she came to the doorway. Her brown eyes were narrowed, her chin lifted to a haughty degree. “You called, Madame?”
Marguerite’s face had become a mask of seriousness, yet her state of repose hadn’t changed. Her right arm was propped against the pillows, the other arm was stretched out along the tops of the cushions. But there was no mistaking her change in mood. Her eyes had darkened to the color of onyx. Glossy and fierce, they gleamed like a viper’s. Indeed, she looked like a serpent waiting for the right moment to strike.
She smiled cordially. “Be a good girl. Fetch a tray of wine from the kitchens for us, s’il vous plait.” Despite her civil tone, Eleni could clearly see she’d just delivered an order, not a request.
A strange look came over Gisele’s face, a cross between embarrassment and thinly veiled hate. Rosy color swept into her cheeks in high, bright spots. Her dark eyes flicked briefly toward Eleni before she bowed out of the room with a curt, “Of course.”
Silence hung heavy in the room once she had gone. Marguerite crossed her long legs and tossed back her hair. A smug smile stretched her lips.
“Gita, you really shouldn’t goad her like that.” Julian’s voice rumbled with disapproval.
“I do not goad her.” Marguerite shot a cool glance his direction, clearly challenging him. “Gisele is a servant, so I asked her to serve.”
Eleni didn’t say a word. Clearly, this was an old argument, and she had no desire to get involved.
Marguerite gradually steered the conversation back on track, but the easy camaraderie they’d shared before Gisele’s arrival had been lost. Eleni was glad Julian took up the conversation with his cousin. The brief incident had made Eleni anxious and uncomfortable. She found herself counting the minutes so she could escape to her room, but Marguerite seemed adamant on staying, at least until Gisele returned. Eleni didn’t think it had the first thing to do with the vampiress wanting a drink. The way Marguerite watched the door reminded her of a hungry cat preparing to pounce on a helpless morsel.
In the end, Gisele denied her the satisfaction of a second attack. Claudette brought in the tray of the wine.
Julian said nothing. He seemed to barely notice, but it clearly didn’t escape Marguerite’s attention that Gisele had not returned. Her brows lifted when the elderly woman offered Julian the first glass of wine from the tray, then Marguerite. Marguerite took Eleni’s glass from the tray as well and served Eleni by her own hand.
“À votre santé,” Marguerite said, raising her glass in a toast to Eleni, who lifted her glass as well.
“Santé.”
Julian lifted his glass, but said nothing. He sipped his wine in silence, his eagle eyes sending an uneasy chill through Eleni from across the room.
They spent half the night listening to Marguerite recall amusing family stories. She did most of the talking until around 3:00 AM, when she looked at her diamond wrist watch and hissed. “Mon Dieu, look at the time,” she tittered. “It will be dawn before you know it. Dauphine will be upset with me, for sure.”
She got up and stretched her long legs, and Eleni rose with her.
“I’ll get your coat for you,” she offered.
“Wait, chérie.” She tu
rned to Julian, who still lounged rakishly in the high-backed chair. Marguerite leaned down and gave him a peck on the cheek. “You have a most charming protégé.”
“Agreed…” he said in that dark, cryptic tone that made a chill run down Eleni’s spine.
Marguerite sighed. “I’m sorry I must go. I do miss talking to you like this, cousin, but I’m afraid if I’m not home soon, my harem will think I have left them.”
“Do your ladies truly believe you would leave them so willingly?” he teased.
She cackled merrily. “No, but my premiere, she may think I have left for Paris without her. She is continually begging to go. I tell her I will consider it; that I will ask to use your townhouse for a vacation. And I do consider it…briefly.” Her eyes twinkled with mischief. “You know as well as I do, there is nothing in the city for me.”
“New protégé or two, perhaps?”
“You speak as if I don’t already have enough household drama.” Marguerite tsked and shook her head. “Come, Eleni, walk me out. You will allow her, won’t you, Julian?”
He shrugged, eyes glittering. “But of course.”
The way he sloshed his wine in his glass told Eleni there was more on his mind than what he was saying, but she didn’t have time to try and decipher his body language. Marguerite had started toward the door, so Eleni followed her around the corner into the entryway. It was her duty to entertain guests, and take care of even the smallest courtesies, but when she went to retrieve Marguerite’s coat, the vampiress shooed her away. “No need to fuss. I can manage a closet door by myself,” she chided softly.
She waited while Marguerite pulled on her red coat, and fished in her pocket for the keys. A feeling of nervous anxiety crawled through her at the serious expression on the other woman’s face, when at last Marguerite turned to her and said, “Shall we go?”
“One minute,” Eleni said, and pulled a tan jacket down for herself before following the woman outside to a sleek, red sports car.
She sensed the vampiress wanted to tell her something important, but was wary of doing so within Julian’s house. Anxious to hear what Marguerite had to say, she stepped out into the portico and slipped her arms into the jacket as the cold slammed into her, and her first night’s breath frosted on the air.
The sky was a cloudy, starless black, so dark that the outside light near the front door gleamed gold, like a tiny captured fire within the brass sconce. The soles of her leather riding boots crunched over the gravel. How Marguerite managed to cross the driveway in heels without stumbling, Eleni could only guess. As the vampiress reached for the door of her car, she stopped short and turned her head to look up at the house. A feeling of chill warning flowed through Eleni when she realized Marguerite was looking directly at her bedroom window.
“You see that room there?” The vampiress nodded toward the premiere suite. “The fire that burned Julian started there. It had to be two hundred years ago if it were a day.”
Eleni found herself holding her breath.
Marguerite sighed. Her eyes reflected the dim light, shifting from dark to bright green as she turned her head to look at Eleni. “That was another lifetime, it seems. Julian had a harem then—roughly twelve young women much like yourself, although I dare say none were so personable or lovely. Julian left them to their jealousies, and in my opinion, I believe he thought it to be rather amusing that they fought over him so. He took more than a fair amount of time in choosing a favorite, but even then he refused to declare a woman his premiere protégé. In the end, it was their squabbling over who would be his premiere that ultimately lead to the fire that burned him.”
Eleni was stunned. She shook her head. “I had no idea.”
Shrewd eyes regarded her. “I am not surprised. Julian…he doesn’t like to talk about the past. He was burnt beyond recognition, and it was thought for a time he would not live. We were all very worried for him, not only because we love him so, but because he was an Elder even then, and the last male in our familial bloodline carrying the Sévigné name. The news was the talk of society for many years. Even after all this time, every once in a while, rumors crop up that Julian is dead.”
“That’s awful,” Eleni whispered.
“And sadly, that is not all of it.” Marguerite went on. “It took a great many vampires, including your brother-in-law, to come to his care. It takes a lot of blood, powerful blood, to heal that kind of damage. The Russian side of the family was called in to help with his healing. I was very young then, but I remember it vividly. There were those who felt he should be allowed to die. Dominic fought adamantly against it. It was a horrible tragedy…and Julian was not the only victim. The girl he favored at the time, Chloe, a young protégé who I believe he was considering for his première, died in the blaze, along with six…perhaps seven, others of his household. Their families were most aggrieved, and Julian was made to pay recompense. That it in itself was a great scandal.”
A cold feeling settled in the pit of her stomach as Marguerite looked up at the house again. Eleni had no idea why she was telling her any of this. To upset her? Perhaps even to frighten her? If so, her ploy was working.
“From the look of it now, you can hardly tell it ever burned. The newer stone is slightly a different shade, but then again, weathering could have done the same.” She shrugged. “No one in the village remembers much, I think. Historians, perhaps, but who are they? I supposed the house knows. It’s a shame jealousy led to so much destruction, no?”
Eleni shook her head. “I-I don’t know what to say…”
“There is nothing to say. It simply is, and I thought you needed to know. Now, I should be going.” She reached out and squeezed Eleni’s hand. “I hope you do not take any of this the wrong way. I do like you, Eleni. Very much. You remind me of myself when I was young and worried about my status in life. That’s why I’m going to warn you to watch out for Gisele. She is an ambitious girl, and men, even dear Julian, are not always capable of seeing the dark heart beneath a beautiful surface. I would be very sad to see history repeat itself.”
Without another word, Marguerite got in her car, casting a brief smile at Eleni before she closed the door. Eleni stood frozen, staring as the vampiress cranked the car, turned on her lights, then pulled out of the driveway, the tires crunching over the loose gravel.
Eleni followed the red glow of the taillights until they disappeared from sight.
Chilled by Marguerite’s warning, she wrapped her arms around herself and walked back into the house.
Chapter Ten
Eleni locked the front door and hung up the coat she’d worn to walk Marguerite to her car. The house seemed quiet now, almost empty in her absence. One certainly couldn’t say that Marguerite wasn’t vivacious. Her personality could fill a room.
Even so, Eleni wished Marguerite hadn’t told her about the origin of the fire—about the deaths. Aside from the fact that Julian had been badly burned, she hadn’t known much more than what Dominic had told her, and he hadn’t mentioned there had been so many victims. She had automatically assumed he had been alone in the house when the blaze started. Of course, thinking on it now, that didn’t seem plausible. There would have been at least a dozen staff members to support such a large household, and then there were the Acolytes themselves.
She shivered at the thought of a fire spreading through the premiere suite. How many women had died there, trapped in that room? Eleni gave herself a mental shake. The deaths of Julian’s former protégés were too much to think about. What a terrible tragedy. She prayed silently they had not suffered. It frightened her to think of those poor women being engulfed in flames. No wonder Julian ruled his household as he did. Why he demanded there be no secrets, no locked doors. She understood it now; she couldn’t blame him now that she knew the truth.
She headed back toward the small parlor to meet up with Julian. Earlier, he had talked about spending the early morning hours together in his suite, on the rug in front of the fireplace, just the
two of them. Desperate for a distraction, she sought him out, planning to take him up on his offer. If he would take her, she wanted to go right now.
Tracing her fingers along the polished woodwork as she walked down the hallway, she looked down at her shoes as she rounded the corner into the small parlor where she had last seen him.
“Julian, I—” Eleni froze in the doorway when she realized that he wasn’t in the room. Bent over the coffee table, picking up everyone’s wineglasses and putting them on the tray, Gisele looked up at the sound of her voice. At once, her expression grew cold. She stood straight, her eyes bright and angry.
“What do you want?”
Her tone gave Eleni pause. “Sorry, I thought Julian was still in here.”
“If he was still here, do you think I’d be carrying dishes?” She tossed the rag down on the silver tray and turned to face Eleni then, her hands clenched into fists at her side. “You know something? You’re just like her—Marguerite. So full of yourself…you both make me ill.”
Eleni’s brows shot up. She wasn’t used to dealing with such open hostility. The women in her former harem had been very discreet, even more so with their gossip. Then again, she had to remind herself Gisele wasn’t an Acolyte. “I’ve done nothing to you,” she warned the girl. “If you have a problem with Marguerite, I suggest you take it up with her.”
She turned to leave the room, but Gisele’s loud scoff stopped her.
“You think I don’t see right through you?” Gisele snapped.
Eleni glanced back, and Gisele glared at her in disdain.
“You think I can’t tell that you don’t want me here?” The beautiful face narrowed into a sly expression that dared Eleni to deny it. She couldn’t. Although she had never put it to actual thought before this moment, life would be so much easier if Gisele was not in the house.
Eleni straightened. “You said it, I didn’t.”
“You didn’t have to say it. It’s obvious just by looking at you.”
A smug smile crossed Gisele’s face. Tossing her hair back, she took two steps forward, her hands clenched into fists at her sides. It didn’t take much to see Gisele wanted to hit her. Eleni’s heart rate kicked up a notch. She didn’t know what the girl intended to do, but she braced herself for a possible fight.
