And locked.
I swallowed, and Lawrence eased up slightly, waiting for my final pleas, I suppose.
He would wait a while.
“I don’t think…that’s a game…for three,” I whispered, and saw his eyes go wide.
Right before he threw me away, trying to get space to turn.
But the boxes that hemmed me in did the same to him, and there was nowhere to go. I hit the ground, but turned in time to see a shining blade slice cleanly through his jugular. He knocked his assailant away, sending her sailing halfway across the length of the warehouse, but I was already moving.
I lunged off the ground, ducked under a fist that disintegrated before it could touch me, as Lawrence’s patented trick rippled inward from the extremities. He was disintegrating, but not as quickly as before, his injuries taking a toll. And the target I needed was still solid. He stumbled back, trying to buy himself another second, even as his legs foamed away into nothingness.
Even as I fell on him, snarling.
And slammed my stake home.
Epilogue
It was amazing what twenty-four hours could do, I thought, gazing out over the now pristine ballroom.
Not that there weren’t still signs of the battle. Tapestries were draped around the walls, hiding missing marble panels and weapons’ fire, and lending the room an odd Gypsy vibe. Potted plants had sprouted here and there, too, covering gaps in the floor where broken tiles had been pried out and not yet replaced. And one of the great chandeliers was missing, obviously too damaged for repair, leaving a strange patch of dimmer light in the center of the floor, where I stood.
That was okay, though. That was actually my only saving grace. Not that a shadow did much to conceal me from the hundreds of sharp vampire eyes scattered around what remained of the ballroom, but it was better than nothing. Especially since I had the vague impression I might be listing slightly to the left.
I straightened up, trying to look nonchalant, and caught an eye roll from Ray in the family box.
He was easy to spot because he was hanging over the side, dressed to kill in a tux so sleek it simply had to be bespoke. I didn’t know where he’d gotten it, but I suspected that Louis-Cesare’s tailor wa
s being taken advantage of. I didn’t know, though, since I hadn’t seen Ray. I hadn’t seen anybody much, since I woke up an hour ago, after apparently being out of it for most of a day.
And I pretty much still was. I’d been woken up, still half asleep and dreaming about little golden footprints leading me out of a long, dark tunnel. And then dressed in a scarlet, bias-cut gown that was far too attention-getting for my taste, only nobody had asked me.
They hadn’t asked me when they dragged me in here, either, surrounded by a bunch of guards I didn’t need except as props to keep me on my feet. Only then, the guards had disappeared, blending back into the crowd and leaving me alone. And facing a balcony stuffed with new faces.
The new senators had been inducted while I slept, I guessed. I recognized the old crew, the ones too wily or too strong or just too damned hard to kill for the war to have removed them. There was Marlowe, looking like a guy on his way to a fancy dress ball, in full-on Elizabethan regalia. Or maybe Stuart era; I always got the styles mixed up. But the velvets and laces didn’t make him look any less deadly, maybe because of the searing look he was sending me.
It wasn’t his usual glare; I didn’t know what it was. I looked blearily back for a minute, then decided I didn’t care. Because right next to him was Louis-Cesare.
He was in a tux as fine as Ray’s, probably because the same guy had made it. It was a break with tradition, assuming he was on the Senate again—which is what it looked like to me, ban or no. He was in one of the crimson-backed chairs everybody was using, the ones that looked more like thrones. There were twelve of them on the balcony, six on either side of the consul’s massive no-doubt-about-it throne.
He was also looking a little…antsy. His hands kept clenching and unclenching on the carved arms of his chair, like he was hyped up on caffeine or something. Only it couldn’t be, because caffeine had no effect on vampires. I didn’t know what did affect vampires, but it looked like a lot of them had had it. Not on the Senate, but in the crowd, which was looking less than perfectly composed. The crowd was actually looking kind of like fans in a football stadium right before the deciding points are scored—jumpy, anxious, breathless.
It would have made me nervous if I hadn’t been about to fall over.
The consul wasn’t on her throne yet, and two of the other chairs were empty. But all the other senators seemed to be in place. And I guessed Cheung and Zheng had made it, because they were both there, and both looking smug as hell.
The former gave me a small nod, which was probably all he could manage in his getup, which I guessed was medieval Chinese pirate chic. Or something. Tooled leathers and bright silks and a gleaming sword, anyway. Zheng, on the other hand, opted for a modern tux. And he was the one to break tradition and shoot me a grin.
Nobody else seemed so inclined. Which was fine, since Jack, the euphemistically named Persuader, creeped me out even with a poker face. He was sitting on Cheung’s left, next to a pretty Asian woman I didn’t know, but who looked like she smelled something bad. Possibly Jack, considering he was wearing some rotting velvet thing that looked like he’d stolen it off one of the corpses he played with. Or possibly me, considering she was giving me a death glare.
I gave a discreet sniff.
Nope, must be Jack.
The other senators were unknown to me—except for Anthony’s diversion: Halcyone, Ray had called her. I guessed they were either new or just lofty types who didn’t talk to dhampirs. But somebody was about to be in serious trouble, because the spare chairs were still empty, and Herself had just walked out onto the balcony.
The already-simmering excitement ramped up a notch, with an audible murmur running through a group that didn’t need to talk aloud. And I had to admit that she was worth it, a glittering column of pleated gold lamé that should have looked tacky as hell but somehow didn’t. But despite the bling, I barely noticed.