“You will switch to day classes,” Lucian announced.
“What?” she asked with disbelief.
Lucian considered her briefly and then said, “At Jess and Raffaele’s wedding your old captain, Vasco Villaverde, told me you were a trouble magnet, but had a good heart.”
Ildaria sighed inwardly over the fact that the man had tattled on her about her tendency to get herself into scrapes. She’dbeen in trouble several times in Punta Cana. In fact, if it weren’t for Vasco, she probably would have been executed longago. He’d saved her hide repeatedly, and Ildaria would be forever grateful for that. She just wished he hadn’t felt the needto mention it to Lucian.
“It seems obvious to me that Vasco was right,” Lucian continued now. “If there is trouble around, you will find it. So, toensure I do not have to execute you, it would behoove me to ensure you avoid situations where trouble might occur. That meansno more night classes. You will switch to days. Immediately. You will never again be on campus at night,” he ordered imperiously.
Ildaria stared at him nonplussed for a moment, anger building slowly inside her, and then she burst out, “Are you kiddingme? First you pulled me out of school in Montana and dragged me up here to Canada, making me miss my finals there and haveto take those classes over again, and now you’re going to drag me out of my night courses and make me take day classes?” Scowling,she informed him, “I won’t be able to get into day courses now. The summer term will be lost and I’ll have to start againin the fall. Which means paying for them all over again, again. Do you know how expensive these courses are? Not to mention the extra blood I’ll need to consume if I attend day classes. I’m trying to save money to get my own place and stop being a burden to Marguerite and Julius. I’ll never be able to swing that if I keep having to pay for courses I don’t get to finish and extra blood to attend day classes . . . which with my luck, I again probably won’t get to finish anyway. I need those courses to get my degree.”
Lucian’s eyes narrowed. “I pulled you from university in Montana because you were playing vigilante down there,” he remindedher icily. “You were utilizing your abilities in front of mortals and drawing attention to yourself, and by extension, ourpeople. Which is against our laws. My choice was to either move you or execute you. Would you have preferred execution?”
“Of course not, but . . .” Ildaria hesitated and then slumped in her seat with defeat. She supposed the setback to her educationwas probably nothing more than she deserved. She’d known she was playing with fire when she’d donned her leathers and goneout to kick some mortal bad-guy butt back in Montana. And she knew she was lucky that Lucian Argeneau had given her a secondchance rather than have her executed. He wasn’t known for being soft on people who stepped out of line, and she had steppedout of line. Her only excuse was emotional distress, but she hadn’t explained that to Lucian when she’d been brought beforehim. She hadn’t had to, though. No doubt he’d read it from her mind and it was the only reason she was still breathing.
Letting her breath out slowly now, she nodded in acceptance and simply said, “Thank you.”
Lucian grunted at the soft words, his body relaxing. “You may go. I believe Sam is waiting for you in the kitchen . . . with hot chocolate and brownies.”
Ildaria couldn’t tell if he was annoyed that Sam was waiting to give her treats to soothe her after she’d got herself in troubleagain, or amused. His mouth was definitely twitching though.
Supposing it didn’t matter, Ildaria stood and headed for the door, aware that Tybo and Valerian had also stood to follow her.They had to take her back to the university to fetch her car, she recalled then, and probably wouldn’t want to wait for herto enjoy those treats. That or they’d gobble them all up on her. She’d seen Tybo eat. He’d inhale the brownies before shegot her hand on one if she didn’t run ahead of them.
But in the next moment, she realized that wouldn’t be necessary because Lucian barked, “Not you two. I am not finished withyou yet.”
Ildaria glanced back to see Tybo and Valerian reluctantly returning to their chairs and had to smother the smile that wantedto claim her lips. Tybo had been so annoying with his nonsense about having the sense not to be caught on video that she didn’tfeel at all bad he was in trouble now.
Leaving the men to be raked over the coals by Lucian, she hurried out into the hall, headed for the kitchen and the promised brownies and cocoa awaiting her. There was nothing likechocolate to make you feel better after a stressful event. Between that and a chat with Sam, she hoped to be feeling at leasta little better before the men rejoined her.
Two
Ildaria pushed through the red door of the Night Club the next day and then paused, blinking rapidly. The early afternoonsunlight was bright still, but in this room there was only the one small window in the door to allow the sun’s rays in. Mostof the interior lights were off—only a set of five or six pot lights over the bar at the back of the room were on and theydidn’t illuminate much other than the bar itself. Her eyes needed a second to adjust to the darkness before she could properlysee the rich dark wood and leather interior of the establishment she’d entered.
It was impressive, Ildaria decided as she finally started toward the bar. There were no clients in the place at the moment.The Night Club wouldn’t officially be open until sunset. Without clients cluttering up the place and blocking her view, shecould see everything
