Chapter 35

Chapter

Thirty-Five

When I got to the living room, it was empty. The welcoming committee had apparently already assembled outside to confront our visitor. To my surprise, I didn't hear fighting, though I wasn't sure if that was good or bad.

I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror near the stairs and winced. Not that I was particularly vain, but my hair had come loose from its braid, my eyes appeared almost bruised because of deep shadows, and chalk dusted my wrinkled clothes. I looked about as good as could be expected for a woman whose day started with an exorcism and hadn't gotten much better from there. Oh, well. Anyone who showed up at the house uninvited on a day like today got what they got—even the newly minted head of the Vampire Court of the Western United States.

I couldn't help my clothes or my shadowed eyes, but I unbraided my hair on the way to the patio door and combed it with my fingers so it hopefully looked casually tousled and less like I'd stepped out of a wind tunnel, or just rolled out of bed after a desperate but unsuccessful attempt to nap .

Out on the deck, Sean stood at the railing facing the trees. Matthias and Arkady had taken up positions to the right and left of him on the far sides of the deck. Arkady had blades in both hands and spun them reflexively, ready to throw.

I joined Sean at the railing. Bryan stood in the grass about ten feet from the deck, a white handkerchief in his hand. Judging by the expressions on my companions' faces, they didn't find a signal of truce reassuring whatsoever, but they hadn't attacked yet.

Belatedly, I realized Bryan was still human and not a dhampir—not yet, anyway.

I scanned the trees. "Where is he?" I asked, without bothering with a greeting.

Instead of answering my question, Bryan said, "On behalf of Charles Vaughan, I request a parley, under the rules set by the Were Ruling Council."

Were Ruling Council rules and not Vampire Court rules? Why? To play games with us? Or for the same reason Charles had answered my call last night in less than two rings?

Or maybe because meeting under the Council's parley rules meant we couldn't attack our visitors unless they became an immediate threat. And with the Council breathing down our necks right now about so many potentially deadly problems, violating one of its longest-standing sets of rules wasn't an option, even more than usual.

No one was more aware of that fact than Sean. A muscle moved in his jaw. "Parley granted," he said finally. "Show your face, Vaughan."

Charles stepped clear of the tree line. He also carried a white handkerchief with something embroidered in crimson thread in one corner. Probably his initials.

As always, the slim, dark-haired vampire wore a tailored suit with a crimson tie and pocket square as a nod to the official color of his Court.

I hadn't really expected him to look any different, but maybe I'd thought he would have adopted some sign of his new position, like a sash. Or a cape. Despite the tension, the mental image of Charles dressed like a movie vampire caused a bubble of laughter to rise. I squashed it just in time and bit my lips to keep from smiling.

Damn it, I was so tired, and the vampire who'd betrayed me so badly so many times was in my fucking. Back. Yard.

"I apologize for the intrusion," Charles said, his softly glowing eyes focused on Sean. "And I thank you for accepting our request for a parley."

"For a head of a Vampire Court, you don't travel like we'd expect," Sean said. "Sneaking through the woods instead of arriving with an entourage in luxury vehicles."

The corners of Charles's mouth turned up, as if he knew Sean had used the word "sneaking" deliberately. "I cannot pretend to be here on official business, as you might have guessed."

"If you're not here on official business, there's no reason for us to parley. We don't have any personal business with you." Sean studied him. "You can leave the way you came. Back through the woods, to wherever you've parked your car."

Utterly unperturbed by the dismissal, Charles pointed at the trees to his left. "Are you aware there is a sizable cache of odd household items in a hollow tree stump about fifteen feet in that direction?"

Oh, blast it—Esme's stash of stolen stuff. I'd forgotten to ask Sean to look for it in the woods.

"Thank you for that information." Sean flexed his hands. "Now, with all due respect, leave our property."

"I acknowledge your demand that I leave," Charles said smoothly. "And I will before long, but before I do, I beg your leave to speak privately to Alice. I have information for her, and answers to the questions she asked of me a few nights ago."

"No way in hell are you speaking to Alice alone," Sean stated. "Parley rules or not, you've run out of chances to have that privilege. "

"You speak for her?" Charles raised his elegant brows. "Or is that Alice's decision?"

I sighed. "Charles, don't play that game with us again. You know damn well Sean doesn't speak for me, just like you know damn well we didn't help Valas during your takeover or after it."

"Perhaps I do know these things," he said, which floored me because he'd denied it so vehemently just a day ago. "Perhaps the time has come to settle those matters, in light of…certain questions."

"What certain questions?" I demanded. "Stop talking in riddles. I am so not in the mood for games. What's changed between last night and tonight?"

He took a step toward us and ignored Sean's growl. "I woke well before sundown today," he said. "And I do not know why. I thought perhaps you might."

When my wards had alerted me to his presence, my immediate thought had been that it was too early for him to be awake, much less arrive here, but I'd figured he'd gotten his hands on some kind of magic or strong blood that had allowed him to wake early.

"You're lying," Sean said.

I studied Charles's expression and body language. Just beneath the fa?ade of cool detachment, I saw real uncertainty and disquiet.

"I actually don't think he's lying about this," I said. "When did you wake?"

"Well over an hour ago." He glanced at the western horizon. "And I stand in the fading sunlight even now without burning."

"Is this your witches' doing?" Sean demanded. "Would they have done it without your knowledge?"

"This is no witchcraft." Charles shook his head. "The witches of the Silver Thorn Coven do not have this power."

"How many vamps woke early?" I asked.

"Our information indicates the phenomenon has affected all the vampires within a radius of more than a hundred miles."

"In a radius?" I asked. "A radius with what in the center? "

His expression gave me the answer before he said the words. "Northbourne Manor," Charles said.

Of freaking course Northbourne was the center. We had no idea what artifacts and magic practitioners the vamps had on its grounds—and apparently even Charles didn't know either. I squeezed my fists until my nails bit into my palms.

"What do the witches say?" Sean asked. He still didn't believe Morgan Clark and her coven weren't somehow involved. I couldn't blame him.

"They say something is stirring, but they cannot see what it is," Charles told us. "Those who have looked see nothing but darkness, my consort tells me. And the powers and energies they use are growing. Even the High Priestesses of the black witch covens worry."

Katy's words to Carly popped into my head: Something woke up .

Charles's glowing gaze locked on me. Either his intuition was in fine form tonight or something had shown on my face. "You know of this," he said, his expression fierce. "Speak, Alice."

"Information isn't free," I said.

He hissed. Sean stiffened and Matthias took a few steps forward, his eyes glowing amber.

"You came here to make a deal, didn't you?" I asked calmly. "So let's deal."

"It is not that simple," Charles ground out. "I have already told you I do not answer only to myself."

"From where I'm standing, it's super simple," I countered. "You have something I want, I have something you want. In fact, you need more from me than answers about why you woke up unusually early today, don't you?"

"Perhaps." His eyes silvered. "This is a dangerous game you play, Alice Worth."

Every fiber of my being rang like church bells when he said that. I had him. For the first time since we'd met, I really, truly had him.

"Dangerous games? I don't know if you've heard, but I live for that shit," I said. "Now, I am expecting guests soon, so we have about an hour to make a deal." I gestured at the broken patio door. "Come inside and have a seat at my table, Charles."

I didn't know what it was I had that he was so desperate to get, but I had every intention of extracting the absolute maximum amount of payoff in return.

Sean's expression was like granite. He knew as well as I did we had the best chance right now to deal with the Court's indictments because we—or I—had Charles on the ropes. That didn't mean he liked anything about having Charles in our house, much less sitting next to me, but it wasn't like I could leave the head of the Vampire Court standing in the open in my backyard. That would just be courting trouble for everyone.

Without a word, his expression cold, Charles climbed the steps to our deck, followed by Bryan. I met them halfway to the patio door. Sean, Arkady, and Matthias watched Charles and I study each other.

Try as I might, it was no use pretending Charles and I didn't have six years of history and a lot of intimate moments between us. We'd never slept together—not for lack of trying on his part—but intimacy took many forms. We had revealed parts of ourselves and secrets to each other that we'd shared with very few others.

When I'd discovered a few months ago the depths of Charles's betrayal, I had asked Sean how I could know which of my thoughts and emotions about Charles were real and which weren't. At the time I'd thought everything about my interactions with Charles was false. With some distance, however, I'd reconsidered. Many of our interactions were completely engineered by him to manipulate me, but my heart told me some were real.

Charles had loved me and maybe still did, in his own way. He thought because he loved me that gave him carte blanche to do whatever he felt was necessary to make me his, and whatever was necessary for me to be safe—or as safe as anyone could be with all the threats that surrounded me. And he himself would always be a threat to me, no matter how much he loved me, because his love was a kind of possession. It was destructive and lacked morality. When it came to people and things he wanted, the ends would forever justify the means.

He didn't just want my heart and my body; he wanted my magic and skill, too, very much like Moses did. Charles wanted me to want power the same way he did, to want to rule at his side as if we were of the same mind, but we weren't and we never would be. He'd told me once that he'd give me the world. Then and now I knew it wouldn't be worth the price I'd have to pay. And I didn't want the world anyway.

During his confession, he'd revealed he wanted me at his side for another reason: because I made him feel more human. He wanted to recapture the feeling of being alive after more than two hundred years of existing as a vampire. As much as I wanted that for him, I didn't want the burden of being his conscience or making him feel human. I didn't want love to be a burden on me. I didn't want to love someone I couldn't trust with all my heart and soul.

At the same time, Charles's love for me was just real enough that it had probably prevented him from doing what most vampires would have done in his designer shoes: break up my relationship with Sean by any means necessary, even if it meant killing him. I didn't think Charles deserved a medal for doing the right thing, but I had to imagine he'd entertained the thought and must have decided against it. Surrounded as he was by ruthless vampires who knew he wanted me, that had to have been a difficult decision to make and live by as he watched Sean and me fall in love, buy a house together, and get engaged.

He'd never have those things, ever, and that did hurt my heart. Despite everything he'd done to me, even the betrayals that were unforgivable, I didn't want him to have no hope of having the love and family I had. I didn't hate anyone that much except Moses.

Sean didn't need me to be his moral compass, or to make him feel human. His love was selfless and good. Charles's love was conditional and full of dangers, and I couldn't love him back. No, it wasn't that I couldn't—I wouldn't . Because that wasn't the kind of love I really wanted, and not the kind I'd come to realize I deserved.

Maybe Charles had come to that conclusion too, because when our gazes met I read sadness there, along with anger and a lot of other emotions. Despite everything, I didn't like that I was the cause of that sadness. Some part of my heart still hurt for him.

Bryan spoke. "Since we are here under parley rules, I would like a word with Matthias alone."

"Why?" Sean asked.

"It's a private matter."

Matthias exchanged a glance with Sean. "I'll speak to him," he rumbled in response to Sean's silent question, then turned back to Bryan. "But I reserve the right to share what you say with my alpha."

"I accept that," Bryan said.

At Charles's nod, the two men went down the steps to the backyard and disappeared around the corner of the house. I wondered what the hell Bryan had to say to Matthias that was so secret.

I led Charles to the patio door and ran my fingers along the doorframe to grant him onetime passage through my wards. I'd certainly never anticipated letting Charles into my house, much less watching him unbutton his suit jacket and sit at my humble dining table.

Sean and Arkady stayed close by, just in case Charles decided to violate the rules of parley. I didn't think he would, but I'd been wrong about him before.

"Coffee?" I offered, heading to the kitchen to reheat the mug I'd abandoned to go upstairs with Sean. "A beer? I might have some wine." Call me petty, but I wasn't going to offer him my good scotch. He didn't deserve it.

I expected him to decline. Instead, he surprised me by saying, "A beer, please, Alice." At my expression, he added blandly, "When in Rome."

Once my coffee was ready, I got him a bottle of local craft beer, uncapped it, and brought our drinks to the table. Sean took the seat next to me and we faced Charles together. Arkady stood with her back to the wall and kept a wary eye on both our guest and the open patio door.

"Okay, Charles," I said, my hands wrapped around my mug. "Before you start talking, I really have one big question for you. What the actual hell? "