Rises the Night

out of your room if I wished to speak with you than to attempt to breach it myself. I had a feeling your hospitality might be a bit… chilly.' His smile shone in the moonlight. 'And yet… here I am. Exactly where I planned to be. And it is not so very cold at all.'

'On the contrary. I find the temperature rather brisk.' A very light breeze brushed the tips of his tousled hair and skimmed over Victoria's cheeks. It was indeed a lovely night. The roses and lilies that grew in the garden below scented the balcony. She breathed deeply and smelled fresh country and night air, tangy and dark; so different from the mosaic of artificial smells of London and Society.

The silvery moonlight only enhanced Sebastian's appearance, a factor she presumed had prompted his suggestion to withdraw to the balcony, the proximity of a bed notwithstanding. His arms extended, hands propped on the top of the rail, he watched her with an easiness that irked her. The pale illumination from the celestial bodies tipped the edges of his curls silver, and helped to keep his expression partially hidden.

Victoria waited for him to speak, but he did not; so she said, 'Now that you have gone through such great pains to draw me from my bed, surely you will keep me in suspense no longer.'

'So you have left London.' He looked at her as though searching for something. 'How are you, Victoria?'

She looked away. There were bountiful layers of meaning in his simple question; whether he intended every one that she read there, she did not know. 'Why do you ask? Perhaps because your plan to deliver me to Lilith's vampires didn't work? Because you are ashamed that you ran from the Silver Chalice last year and left Max and Phillip to face the vampires on their own?' Though she kept it steady, surely he could not mistake the anger in her voice.

He stood angled so that his eyes were shadowed, and she could not read what was truly there. 'Ah. Then I have the answer to one of my questions. You still think the worst of me—that I would be so despicable as to make love to you in a carriage as I was delivering you to the vampires. Despite the fact that I warned you when your husband came to the Silver Chalice. Despite the fact that without my assistance with the Book of Antwartha, Maximilian would be dead and Lilith would most likely have it in her possession.' Cool and unruffled he spoke, but there was an underlying emotion that Victoria could not identify. She wasn't sure that she wanted to.

'As I recall, you would have stood by and watched Max perish when he tried to take the book. But regardless of that small point, what else was I to think?'

'That perhaps I simply got carried away by your beautiful mouth, and wanted to distract you from the pain that was so obvious in your eyes—and that the arrival of vampires was no more a part of my plan than to get you undressed.'

Now she could see his eyes, and the look there sent a little shiver over her shoulders. 'According to Max, you would always take the opportunity to undress a woman, particularly in a carriage.'

'I have no wish to hear Maximilian's opinions, for that is what they are, merely opinions—and most likely indicative only of his own inclinations, were he not so bound and determined to be a Venator and nothing more. A hunter, a killer… a man of violence with little left for anything—or anyone—else. I, Victoria… I am not a man of violence.'

'A fact supported by your cowardly escape from the Silver Chalice last summer.'

'Grief has made you harsh. I am sorry for it. I am truly sorry for your husband's death. If it is any consolation to you, I believed he and Maximilian 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 in order to show off how well you look in the moonlight.'

'You think I look well in the moonlight? What a serendipitous happenstance!'

'I am finished with this conversation, and I am past ready for you to leave.' She turned and started toward the doors, preparing to lock them behind her if he did not 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 that 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 have 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?'

She realized he was 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 that 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 league.' He reached for her again, slowly and easily, and closed his fingers around her wrist. 'What is it that you have been clutching 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?'