“Grief has made you harsh. I am sorry for it. I am truly sorry for your husband’s death. If it’s any consolation to you, I believed he and Pesaro would follow me when I sneaked out the back entrance of the pub.”
“This is all very enlightening, reliving the events of last summer with you in the middle of the night on my balcony, but I am having a difficult time believing you went through the trouble to trick Mr. Starcasset into entering my bedchamber merely to show off how well you look in the moonlight.”
“You think I look well in the moonlight? How delightful.”
“I’m finished with this conversation, and I’m past ready for you to leave.” She turned and started toward the doors, preparing to lock them behind her if he didn’t follow. Surely if he could escape from a group of vampires, he could find a way off the balcony on his own.
When his hand closed around her arm, she whirled and whipped off his strong grip with a snap of her wrist and a whisk of silken skirts. It felt good to release some of the tension that had been building inside her. Between them. Let him know she was still in control.
“You still wear your vis bulla?”He stepped closer to her, his boot-clad feet grinding on the brick-and-mortar terrace.
“Does that surprise you?” She felt the knob of the door behind her, but other than closing her fingers over its cool brass, made no move to turn it. He was very, very close, but she was not unsettled. After all, she’d faced down numerous vampires, and a demon. And even the Queen of the Vampires. A mere man was no danger to her.
“I assumed since you’d left London you’d also left your Venator days behind you. Or perhaps you wear the vis bulla in order to protect yourself from overly amorous suitors like Mr. Starcasset.”
“George” —she used his given name deliberately— “was not overly amorous until you poked your elegant fingers into the mess.”
“You consider my fingers elegant, then?” Sebastian’s smile flashed. “Two compliments in one evening…how completely unexpected.”
“I’ve not left my Venator days behind me. Why would I do that?”
His shoulders moved in a nonchalant shrug. “I thought perhaps after what transpired with Rockley, you might have decided to walk away. After all, you’d done your duty, and look at the result. You lost the love of your life.”
“Walk away? The question would not be whether I would, but how could I shirk my duty? After seeing firsthand the evil of vampires, how could I?”
He’d moved closer. She could see the brush of long eyelashes and the slender line of the dimple that barely showed when he was not smiling, as now. “There’s always a choice, Victoria.”
“I made mine. I would not walk away. Nothing would make me walk away now. Phillip is gone.”
“Nothing?” The word hung on the air between them, as though Sebastian saw the truth in her eyes and hoped to discern it. She held his gaze defiantly.
“Nothing.”
His shoulders moved as he heaved in a long breath, then exhaled as though savoring it. “You are quite an admirable woman, my dear. Perhaps even out of my reach.” He reached for her again, slowly and easily, and closed his fingers around her wrist. “What is it you’ve been cl
utching here this whole time?”
Again she pulled away, but not so harshly. His fingers were surprisingly strong; it was an effort to break his grip. And then she opened her hand so that he could see the amulet shining in her palm. “I am quite glad you asked. I believe this is yours?”
Taking it, he needed only a glance and then turned his eyes back to her, still standing close enough that she could smell cloves, see the sprinkling of golden-brown hair beyond the cuff of his shirt. “Do you know what this is?”
She shook her head, and his expression eased a bit.
“Ah. So why do you attribute it to me, if you do not know what it is?”
“I found one at The Silver Chalice, and then one here tonight. You are the only common factor in both places.”
“Thus and so you came to the conclusion that this was mine. In that case, perhaps I’ll choose not to be offended. You found one at The Silver Chalice you say? When? Where?”
She explained, and included the fact that she’d met and beheaded a demon.
“A demon? With a vampire?” He turned away, moving from her side and breaking the intimacy his proximity had given. “Nedas has taken no chances.”
“Are you going to tell me what it is, or are you going to mumble to yourself about things I don’t understand—and thus can’t help with?”
“Ever the impatient one, aren’t you?” A quick smile brought the dimple into relief; then it disappeared as his expression sobered. “This amulet belongs to a member of the Tutela. Do you know anything about the Tutela?”
“No.”