Althea shook her head. Moonlight glinted on her large eyes. “I do not think that is true, my husband,” she whispered. “Why was Ravenhunt sent to take her power?”
“Jade wants it.”
“True,” Althea answered. “And she has forced Ravenhunt to return to her. I have conversed with Guidon, and he has explained the rules of this transfer of power. Ravenhunt needs love to survive when he gives the power to Jade. I think Jade was in love with Ravenhunt.”
Ophelia gasped, but it made sense. They had been lovers once. “You mean Jade wants him back. Could
“Not if he does not return it,” Althea said. “He needs true, unconditional love. Both received and given. That is why she cannot hurt you.”
“Because he would hate her if she did, do you mean?” Ophelia asked.
Suddenly she saw the truth. She had survived giving up her power. What a fool she had been. The very fact she survived must mean he loved her.
“She may need you to save him,” Althea answered softly.
Ophelia suddenly understood. “Then she will take him for herself. But until he gives the power and survives it, she does need me.”
“That is exactly what I am thinking,” Sebastian de Wynter said. “She will not hurt you.”
But she had no idea how to attack a vampire queen or how to break into a house. Though she had experience in breaking out. “I could be a distraction,” she said. “I could demand to see Ravenhunt. Just knock on the door and say I have come for him. They might let me in and they might take me to him.”
“It is very dangerous,” Althea warned.
“The risk is too high,” Harry said gruffly. “I won’t allow it.”
De Wynter looked to Althea. “What do you think, my dear?
Althea let out a fierce breath. “I think it would work. I would go with you. They would not see me as a threat. I could easily convince a queen that we females decided to do this alone, and we snuck away from the men to come.”
“No, as head of my household, I forbid this—”
“I promise you, Darlington, I will not let your sister be hurt,” de Wynter vowed. “And it would give us a good opportunity to get in. If Lady Ophelia, Ravenhunt’s beloved, is on Jade’s doorstep, I guarantee she will be distracted.”
Ravenhunt’s beloved. She had realized she might truly be loved by him. Althea had been right. She didn’t believe in herself, and she must.
“I think it will work,” Althea declared.
“I am not happy about it, either,” Brookshire protested. “I know, however, my worries won’t stop my wife. All right.”
Althea linked her arm. “Have courage.” Together they hurried down the street. It didn’t matter if they were seen, since they wanted to be a distraction. Ophelia was first up the steps and she put out her hand to halt Althea. “Wait at the bottom, please. I don’t want you to be in danger.”
“No, we are in this together.”
She had never had a friend. It was a heart-warming, wonderful thing. Ophelia grasped the knocker, and slammed it hard against the door. She would believe in herself. Believe there could be a happy ending and she would make it happen.
The door slowly creaked open. Yet she didn’t lose her nerve. Ravenhunt was in there and she must get to him.
She expected a footman, not a young blond man with long hair tied back with a velvet ribbon—hair that reached his hips. He wore no shirt, but he was dressed in black trousers and boots. Straps of leather wrapped around his bare biceps.
“I think,” Althea whispered, “we can guess exactly what sort of woman Jade is.”
Ophelia could not comment. Her mouth gaped open. Another young man stood inside the foyer, in the stance of a servant, and he was equally scantily dressed.
“We wish an audience with the queen,” Althea said.
“Yes.” Ophelia found her voice. After going to that naughty club with Ravenhunt, she couldn’t be shocked. Certainly not at the very moment she had to be brave.
“Her Highness is not receiving,” the young man said. The door began to close.
Ophelia stuck her booted foot in it. No, she was not going to be beaten by a shirtless footman and a door. “She will see me. I am the
His eyes seemed to roll back into his head. The blue irises vanished, replaced by whites. He jerked and trembled. Then he stopped twitching, and his eyes became normal again. He bowed briefly to her and Althea. “You may come with me.”
Eight doors led off the octagon-shaped foyer. The servant strode to the one directly opposite the front door. She and Althea went through the door, held open by the blond, and Ophelia gave a cry of surprise.
Two men waited in the corridor on the other side. They wore only loincloths slung low on their hips. They were hewn of solid muscle, and their hair flowed long over their shoulders and down their backs. The ends of their hair brushed the firm, rounded shape of their rumps beneath the cloths.
“Take the two ladies to Her Highness,” the blond instructed.
Althea clapped her hand to her mouth as they walked down the corridor. It was dimly lit, and other muscular, handsome men stood in a line along its length. Two at the very end, flanking a door of gold, were utterly naked.
Could a woman surrounded by these men, who obviously had her own harem, care so much about Ravenhunt, she would let Ophelia carry out her plan?
The doors opened, and Ophelia rushed through.
Jade’s drawing room looked like a Drury Lane stage set. A raised dais ran along the opposite wall of the rectangular room, and it was made of polished ebony. Upon it sat a throne of gilt and red velvet, and a slender woman lounged elegantly on the large chair. She wore a gown of gold lace, and her black hair spilled over her. A heavy gold necklace set with rubies encircled her throat. At her sides, two brawny men in loincloths fanned her with palm fronds. Another young man sat at her bare feet, massaging oil into the sole of her right foot.
She looked like a queen of Egypt, or something fanciful like that. Queen Jade gazed at her and Althea scornfully, then she kicked lightly at the lad at her feet, so he quickly jumped to attention. Jade waved him to the door. Her fingernails were inches long, like talons.
“Bring him,” she commanded to the lad.
Ravenhunt was not here. Ophelia whispered to Althea, “If he is not here, and he is still alive, it means she hasn’t tried to take his power yet.”
“I think she has been afraid to,” Althea murmured. “She is afraid to lose him.”
Althea must be correct. Queen Jade loved Ravenhunt. It meant her plan would work, but first she had to make sure.
Ophelia stepped forward and curtsied. “I hope this is the correct way to approach a vampire queen. I’ve never been presented at court, so I am not sure.”
Jade’s dark, arched brow lifted. “It will do, mortal. You may address me.”
“I wish to know, Your Highness, if you love Ravenhunt. I must know this.”
“You make demands of me?”
“Is he special to you? Is he the one man who has captured your heart?”
“You are impertinent!”
“I must know,” Ophelia insisted. “I cannot surrender him to a woman who does not love him completely.”
“Surrender him?”
Now she had the queen’s interest.
Jade pushed up from her throne, in a shimmer of gold lace. “You will give him to me.”
“I will save his life and then I will give him to you. If you promise that you will not hurt him, and you will give
