“So, does any of the stuff we were talking about affect our plan or chances?” I asked after a minute or two of silence.
She glanced over at me. “Not really. Being housekeeper, I’ll be out in the library or in the kitchen tonight, so just follow my example. Ash, I know Sebastian’s going to be watching you more closely now but if the situation calls for it…”
“I’ll do what I can,” he promised.
“Thanks, I knew we could count on you. If, on the other hand, he—”
Ash stood, saying, “What the hell…?”
I noticed that Sebastian had risen and appeared to be shouting at Iago while the others watched, looking much more attentive.
Ash jogged over to a monitor on the other side of me and I followed his gaze to see a view of the great hall where two guards dragged a young woman between them toward the council chamber. Even as Ash zoomed the camera in to confirm the woman’s identity, I felt my heart sink.
“He gave Iago the chance to resign his judicatus in the ‘best interests of The Order’ and, naturally, Iago refused. So, now he’s accusing Iago of spurning his hospitality by not attending his social salons and undercutting his authority with his staff,” Caroline told us, trying to keep up with Sebastian’s verbal torrent.
Even from behind, I could tell that the soldiers’ prisoner was the girl Iago had fed upon. The girl Ash and I had arranged to free the night before. “That’s why Wilkes went to Plum Island,” Ash spat. “Must have spotted something in my logs, hidden her down in the wine cellar.”
Caroline wasn’t listening. “Oh, he’s got to be kidding! He’s claiming Iago forced you both to let that girl loose, despite orders to the contrary and that her release constitutes a potential threat to our secrecy! Bastard!” She smacked her palm down onto the counter.
“But that’s bullshit,” I said. “I watched him hypnotize her so she couldn’t remember anything. I’ll swear to it!”
On screen, Sebastian threw open the council chamber’s double-door in a grand, theatrical gesture and dragged the sobbing girl in by her hair.
“Uninitiated Pupils and Dhampirs can’t testify against their Vampyr,” Caroline said through clenched teeth.
Ash glanced over at Caroline. “Can’t the Judicis compel testimony from anyone in an investigation?”
She nodded, swallowing. “Yes but tradition demands that you both be tortured to ensure your honesty. It’s from the old Roman slave laws, no doubt one of Julia’s contributions to our justice system.”
“Why does everything in this place have to be so fucking insane?”
“Iago claims innocence and now Julia’s demanding that a provisional Judicis be installed for the duration of his trial—No! Dammit! She’s nominated Draco and everyone’s going along with it!”
“Why is that bad?” I asked.
She hung her head, closing her eyes. “Because Draco will consider it a matter of honor to perform his duties to the letter of the law. It also means he can’t vote or voice support for Iago the way he would have as a Hegemon. They’ve changed the game on us.”
Just as the meeting seemed to be wrapping up, we saw Sebastian yank the woman up level with him and clamp his mouth onto her neck. In one savage motion, he tore the girl’s throat wide open and heaved her body up above his head! As if drinking from a waterfall, he stood beneath the pulsing flow of her blood with his head back and jaws wide. We watched in shock as he gulped down her life for almost a full thirty seconds. When the flow slowed to a drizzle, he flung her body into one of the marble columns.
His face a dripping, bloody nightmare, Hegemon Sebastian Blackwood looked around the room at everyone. He said something in his clear, cultured baritone before spinning on his heel and striding out, followed by his guards.
The others just sat for another moment, speechless, before Julia rose and followed Sebastian as if this had all been completely normal. The others joined her, except for Iago.
Me, Caroline and Ash continued to watch as we recovered.
“What did he say?” I asked.
Caroline pulled the microphone from her ear and let it drop. “He said, ‘Behold the future of the Vampyr’ ”
* * * * *
Sebastian and Julia were still over in a secluded corner next to the stage, as they had been since Julia’s arrival a half-hour before. Julia treated him to a quiet tongue-lashing while Sebastian waited for her to finish. Nobody even considered approaching them.
Unlike the parlor, there isn’t any weird theme to the library. Think of the classic English library, double or triple in size, add in a performance stage at one end, a flowing fountain beside it sculpted to look like a Greek god and then decorate with some of the elaborate gifts Sebastian received over the years and you’ll have the basic idea.
I wandered the room with a tray of drinks in hand. The orchestra played smaller scale classical pieces or chamber music or whatever it’s called. It didn’t sound like the classical music Caroline listened to. Maybe it was more authentic, the way the pieces sounded when they were first composed.
The lack of windows kept the sounds of the thunderstorm outside to a minimum, though the music was occasionally accompanied by the pounding of thunder.
Wilkes now occupied the security office because Sebastian had Ash sent out into the weather to supervise the exterior. This gave us no cover from the omnipresent cameras, so I had to be careful about doing anything suspicious. I’d been trying to work my way over to where Iago and Draco conferred near one of the fireplaces but another footman beat me to them a few minutes before, so I had no legitimate excuse to approach them. I’d served Geoffrey, where he sat alone at a large grouping across from Iago, when he first came in but he’d been on the phone nonstop and had barely touched his drink.
That left only Valmont and Jade Tiger.
They’d gotten together on the large sofa in the center of the room, Valmont with his sex slave Dhampirs and Jade Tiger with Flea. They seemed determined to finish off Sebastian’s entire supply of blood and alcohol.
As I approached, Valmont’s sex slaves were fucking on the coffee table. Both had their outfits unzipped enough to permit the girl to straddle the guy who, arms outstretched, wore a pair of nipple-clips in addition to his multitude of piercings. Valmont held one of those arms and bit the meaty part of the hand. The man shuddered with pleasure and thrust up into the girl.
The girl’s clothes hung from her body, which was pale and tattooed in just such a way as to accentuate all the parts of her anatomy that tightened and flexed during sex. I’d never seen anyone fuck so enthusiastically outside of a porn movie. She would have been louder except for the leash around her neck. Valmont held the end of it and would, almost absently, pull on it to cut off the girl’s air supply whenever she was about to reach a moment of particular intensity.
Valmont transferred the guy’s bleeding hand to Jade Tiger, who took to it like a cat to cream.
“Ah, there you are, my little parvenu,” he said to me. He seemed languid, almost mellow and I wasn’t sure whether to relax or be more wary of him. “Have you got Everclear on that tray? I’ve discovered that Jade Tiger’s never tried it and I’m dying to see how she responds.”
Everclear? How many college campuses had he been on lately?
“No, Your Majesty,” I answered, being as professional as I could manage. “I’ll see that some is brought out to you.”
“Oh, no you don’t. That will wait. I’d rather you stay here with us and watch my pets perform,” he said.
Goddammit. “I really shouldn’t, Your Majesty, there are others guests to serve—”
“And other servants to see to them. You watch—that’s a command. It took me years to find such fine material and train them to the degree of artistry you see now.”
Torn between my own prurient curiosity and my instinct to resist anything Valmont encouraged, my nobler self lost. What can I say? The girl was smoking hot and once I started watching, it was hard to stop. I think she was wo
rking up to orgasm two or three by that point.
Valmont continued in his silken connoisseur’s tone. “She is exquisite, isn’t she? Such perfect skin—not a single blemish to be found, I assure you—see how the sweat runs in perfect rivulets along her sculpted curves? Delicately boned, even petite, yet no angularity arrests the eye.”
He tugged the leash tight again and she stopped at the top of her partner’s manhood at the very crest of her orgasm. The tendons in her neck stood out, her entire body quivered and her eyes began to glaze—just a little longer and she’d turn blue—and still she held.
“Would you like to fuck her?” he asked, his voice husky. I found him leaning close to me, his tongue flicking out to taste the air around me like a snake. I noticed Jade Tiger also leaning toward me with interest but Valmont’s honeyed words held me. “I’m offering her to you, entre nous. There’s no need to worry about decorum here, this is a place above that bourgeois priggishness you hail from and shame to he who thinks evil of it.”
He loosened the girl’s leash and her triumphant cry brought my eyes back to her. Rocking atop the man, she gasped out the most delighted noises a woman is capable of.
“She loves Vampyrs like no others. Imagine licking the sweat from those delicious breasts … sinking your teeth into them and drinking that nectar coursing through her. Plunge that rigid prick of yours into any hole you like—she’ll encourage you most happily, I guarantee. She had a little popper before we started, so she’s feeling things very intensely. Ram your stick up into that velvety moistness there and you’ll get the most extraordinary massage of your life—she’s had Tantric training—or park yourself between those tight, firm peaches around back and double her pleasure.”
I’d gone stiff, both literally and figuratively, as Valmont’s words flowed through me like heat in a sauna, flushing out every last particle of lust I’d ever felt for his Dhampir and setting them in motion.
I was both disgusted and turned on by the images he poured into my mind. In the end though, I think it was my good old-fashioned, middle-class American Puritanism that saved me. I didn’t revolt at the idea of doing all those things. I revolted at the idea of other people knowing I’d done them.
On the heels of that came thoughts of Caroline and what she would think of me, how hurt she would be.
Again, Valmont seemed to feel the change in my emotion before I expressed it. Out of nowhere, his hand swung down and knocked the drink tray in my hands to the floor. “There, now you have something to do besides gawk!” He sounded wounded and Jade Tiger fell back to her earlier position with a wistful sigh.
Too stunned to be angry, I knelt down to pick up the broken glass and set it on the tray. Valmont’s Dhampirs climbed off the coffee table and crawled over to their master’s feet to try distracting him from his displeasure. The girl wasted no time nuzzling at his gold satin crotch, he was done up in gold and black that night, while the guy licked and sucked at the blood and alcohol spattered fingers of his right hand.
“A shame,” Jade Tiger murmured. “There was such energy there. Are all new Creations so?”
Valmont ignored his Dhampirs’ effort and ran his unoccupied fingers through Jade Tiger’s luxurious hair. “Not always. The energy of a Creation’s first year is wonderful but his youth and nature also play a part. This one resists because he still believes escape is possible but that’s also what makes him so appetizing. Therefore, we shall have to take him swiftly upon the snuffing of his hope.”
When one of the maids took over cleaning, I returned to my cart, telling one of the other footmen in passing that Valmont and Jade Tiger wanted a bottle of Everclear.
I took my time at my cart, located next to an ivory statue of Abraham Lincoln. After a few minutes, the music stopped and I noticed Valmont talking to Sebastian. Julia, meanwhile, had made her way over to Geoffrey, who’d gotten off the phone.
Sebastian stepped up onto the front of the platform, drawing everyone’s attention. After all, who knew what this wild and crazy guy would do for an encore to his council routine? Disembowel the flute player, perhaps.
“Fellow Hegemons,” he said. “I most sincerely hope that these modest entertainments of mine do find thou well content thus far. However, for our pleasure, Hegemon Valmont has offered a performance of his own authorship. Thus, in gratitude, I interrupt my own offerings to present this rare and valuable gift.”
He stepped aside and indicated Valmont, who took Sebastian’s place as everyone applauded. He gave a nod to the orchestra and they played a slow, simple opening.
About that time, Caroline came in through the reception room along with the footman who’d been sent to fetch her. She glanced around, smiled at me and headed for where Sebastian stood.
“I call this a passion play but not in the medieval sense,” Valmont explained as additional instruments joined the first few at regular intervals. “In the modern vernacular, it might be called performance art and I think that is the better description. Ah, there you are, dear,” he said, crossing to intercept Caroline. “Now we can begin.”
Caroline, of course, had no idea what he was talking about and tried to get out of his way, waiting for Sebastian to speak up. A cold feeling hit my gut as I remembered all the warnings we’d been given about something happening. By the time Valmont grabbed Caroline’s wrists, I was moving toward them from across the room.
“I have given leave for his employment of my Pupil for this performance only,” Sebastian announced, sounding uncertain and somewhat rehearsed. “But, pray, use her gently, Valmont, for she is dear to me.”
“Sebastian!” Caroline cried.
Valmont lifted her arms and spun her like a dancer, stopping so that he held her arms outstretched in a crucifixion pose. The music increased in tempo and sounded a little like a tango but only if the tango were meant to be performed at a funeral. “Hush now and fear not for etiquette’s sake, ma chere. You have heard your master’s words.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I think I saw Iago reach his arm out to try to bar my way or warn me off but I slipped around him without a second thought. They could do whatever they wanted with me afterwards but a good uppercut that knocked Frenchie back into the band ought to be enough to close this little show down.
Sebastian saw me but Caroline and Valmont were both in his way. Valmont was busy giving his recitation and fighting Caroline’s attempts to squirm out of his grasp, so I had one clear shot. Running the last few steps, I grabbed Valmont’s shoulder with one hand while I cocked my fist back—
His hand shot out, smacking my chest and knocking me back against the bookcases. I was stunned. Even without my fat, I had at least forty pounds on the asshole but he batted me aside like a child! Where the hell did he get that kind of strength?
“Avery, no!”
Then Sebastian dragged me to my feet, gripping my arms tight. “Now thou’ll see!”
Valmont remained all smiles. “Your passion is welcome, boy but you have over-stepped your role! I will see him punished, Monsieur.”
“I shall see to it,” Sebastian growled.
“But not yet. Now, you must both stay and play your parts!”
I don’t know if I can continue.
* * * * *
Usually, when I torture myself by watching the recording, I watch the footage from the camera that was focused on a medium shot of Valmont and Caroline the entire time. Thanks to Wilkes’s lechery, I get to see and hear it all as if I’d been right there.
Valmont sways his hips in time as the tempo of the music increases and forces Caroline to do likewise. Her gaze darts to the others in the room, with the exception of the struggling boy Sebastian holds.
“Why this resistance, mademoiselle?” His mouth is only an inch from her ear. “I’m not hurting you, am I? Dancing is a pleasant thing, non? So dance and be gay.”
They sway and Valmont brings his hands back, stroking the underside of her arms as he does. Sliding down, he brushes the outer edge of her breasts
and traces her body with his hands until both rest on her hips. The sway becomes a grind and Caroline turns to Sebastian and pleads with her eyes but the French Vampyr holds her firmly in place.
“You fancy yourself a student of human behavior, yet you repress your own strongest desires. Should you not seek to relieve this contradiction?” He whispers something in French which I’ve never been able to catch but it makes Caroline close her eyes and swallow.
That’s when he takes a moment to give an air kiss and a wink to the shouting, impotent little creature struggling in Sebastian’s grip. He thinks he’s suffering the worst torment imaginable but he has no idea what real suffering is yet.
Valmont’s hands cross over Caroline’s belly, caressing her through the fabric of her dress. In the footage, there’s a slight ripple in the air, like heat from a highway, around his hands. It could be just a glitch in the camera except that it appears nowhere else but his hands and it moves with them.
“Sexuality is power,” he tells her as their grind dissolves into an undulation that travels up and down their bodies. The music is hypnotic, insidious and sexual. “This is most true for women and you know it. She who is desired by all, has power over all. It is in the nature of our souls to seek out and enjoy things which give us pleasure.”
His hands drift—one to her breasts and one to her thigh—and her attempts to brush them away are so weak they could be mistaken for encouragement. She keeps her face expressionless but breathes in quick, shallow gasps. Her eyes remain closed as the first tear slides out from beneath her right lid.
Ancient Blood: A Novel of the Hegemony (The Order Saga Book 1) Page 19
