'That you are a Venator, of course. Don't try to deny it, my lovely,' he said, pulling the door closed behind them, allowing the pistol to drop away as he did. 'We'd had suspicions for a while, but since Lilith left London and took all of her people with her, how could we be certain?'
It was lucky for her that he had been three sheets to the wind that night of the vampire attack at Claythorne; he'd slept through the whole flurry of events. She wondered if he'd been mortified that he'd had to report to the Tutela that he was unable to determine whether she was a Venator because he'd been too foxed to observe her. The thought made a smile tickle her lips. It would have served him right.
'Lilith? Of course she would have known. How amusing that you had to trick me all the way to Italy in order to find out.' She turned slightly so that she was half facing him in the small passageway, and noticed that he was carrying a satchel over his shoulder.
'Perhaps she did, but there is no love lost between her and her son Nedas, so why would she tell him something that could protect him? They would as soon see the other sent to Hell than to help each other. This way, my dear.' He pointed the gun and directed her off to the right. 'They will be pleased you have arrived already.'
Victoria strained to listen; the longer they were alone, the better. The back of her neck had turned cold and prickly. There were many vampires nearby. Somewhere.
Her fingers itched for her stakes because they were the most familiar weapon to her, but of course they would do no good against George. And besides… she could kill a vampire without qualm, but there was still that pesky detail of what to do with a mortal being who stood in her way. Especially one who was her best friend's brother, regardless of his own potential violent tendencies. She would have to find a bloodless way to stop him.
It was fortunate that she was still wearing her cloak, with the small bow slung over her shoulder under it, or he might have relieved her of that. As it was, it was apparent George Starcasset was not the most experienced person when it came to holding one at gunpoint and forcing him or her to do his will. The gun slipped and dropped haphazardly, and he tended to use the hand holding it to gesture when he talked.
'In here,' he said, gesturing to a small door. 'We have some time before we must be down below.' The smile he gave her would have sent shivers down her spine if someone more threatening had offered it to her.
Inside the small room, he pushed her away so that she was standing a few paces from him, keeping the gun trained on her as he locked the door. 'Now, I don't want you to scream, or I'll be forced to use this. And I would hate to do that, for that would bring the vampires running as soon as they smell the blood. Take off your cloak.'
Victoria slipped the bow off when she removed the cloak, and tucked it inside the bundle when she dropped it on the floor. There was only a chair in the room; whatever he had in mind—and she rather thought she knew —would not be comfortable in more than one way.
'Were you really that foxed when you came into my room at Claythorne?' she asked.
To her surprise, he appeared to flush slightly. The gun waved as he brushed off the experience. 'I did not realize what he was up to until Vioget had induced me to drink nearly a bottle of brandy… but he suggested that you would welcome a visit from me, and I was not averse to following the suggestion once he led me up to your room and urged me on.'
Victoria felt a spurt of annoyance. So Sebastian had actually brought George to her room? He'd led her to believe it was George's own idea, with a bit of encouragement from himself!
'Well, he was not so far off with that suggestion,' she told George, wondering if he were as gullible when he wasn't pickled but was carrying a weapon that gave him a sense of control. She waited to see his reaction to her statement.
The gun drooped a bit lower, and his mouth relaxed. 'I thought I had read the signs, but one can't be too sure when dealing with demure Society ladies. That was the other reason I invited you to Claythorne, you know. I had noticed the way you looked at me whenever we were at the same party or dinner. Even when you were married.'
Victoria had to hold back the bark of a laugh that statement provoked. When she and Phillip were married— the brief time they were—she had had eyes only for him. And certainly not for this young, flimsy man before her. 'When you invited me to Claythorne I was newly out of mourning, so I did not feel it appropriate to be… obvious.' She gave him that smile… the one she'd learned from being married, and had used successfully on Sebastian little more than a week ago. 'But the fact is, you would not have needed to get foxed to sneak into my room.'
His expression turned hungry, and he stepped toward her. She held firm, even when he bumped the metal- scented gun barrel into the soft underside of her chin, pressing it there as he lowered his face for a kiss.
She expected it to be as inexperienced and uncouth as he appeared to be in other things, but the kiss wasn't. If she hadn't been thoroughly disgusted by him, and distracted by the other things she had to tend to, she might have possibly enjoyed it. Possibly, but by no means certainly.
And therein lay the difference between him and Sebastian. Even when she was angry with Sebastian, she still enjoyed his kiss.
As it was, she kissed George back with some enthusiasm in hopes of disarming him. When his free hand began to get a bit friendly, she pulled away from his mouth and asked, 'Are you part of the Tutela, then?'
'I am, of course! I have attained the Third Level,' he replied, sliding his hand over the front of her tunic and tracing her breast through the cloth. Any lower and he'd find her stakes… She didn't want anything to throw him off his stride and remind him that she wasn't an average Society woman.
'I would love to see your mark,' she asked coyly, making it clear that that wasn't the only thing she wished to see.
'Would you now? And I would be most happy to show it to you. But first…' He reached into the satchel he was carrying and pulled out a coil of rope. 'I hate to do this to you, my lovely, but I mustn't take any chances.'
That was her opportunity. Victoria moved, quick as a flash, bending then rising up with a great twisting force to slam her head into his chin and her elbow into his abdomen.
The great, loud snap of his teeth coming together, followed by the whoosh of air from his lungs, were the only noises before he tumbled to the ground like a bag of stones: heathen hips.
Victoria pocketed the pistol he'd dropped, then set about tying him up. She bound him tightly; then, instead of leaving him on the floor in the room, where he might make noise and draw attention to himself, thus alerting the vampires to her presence, she slung his inert body over her shoulder and quickly made her way back down the narrow passageway and out the door. She dumped him unceremoniously in the bushes next to the small door by the hillock, hidden from view on all sides, and safely outside of the theater.
He would not gain consciousness in the near future; and if someone found him ahead of time, they would make no connection to her being in the opera theater.
George safely incapacitated, she hurried back inside to the room where she'd left her cloak and bow, knowing that it was past four o'clock and the time was drawing near. The sun would set in two hours.
The only clue she had to where she must go had been George's statement regarding going 'down below.' But which direction and where and how… she had no better idea than she had when she first arrived.
The creak of the door through which she'd just come, from the outside, snagged her attention, and Victoria peered out from behind the cracked door into the passageway.
A tall, golden-haired man walked casually down the hall toward her. Sebastian.
At last… the opportunity to take a page from his book and appear when he didn't expect it. Victoria stepped out of the room in front of him. 'Why, Sebastian, I thought you'd still be searching the streets of Rome for me.'
'I regret to inform you, my dear, that if you anticipated sending my heart into fast paces by jumping out in front of me, you sadly mistake my skill. I saw you moments ago, when you brought your… parcel… outside the theater and left it in the bushes. Incidentally, I sent the erstwhile Mr. Starcasset off with my coachman in an effort to keep his interference to a minimum. After that, it was rather convenient to find you so easily.'
'I hope you aren't here to stop me. You know how it ended last time you attempted it.'
He looked at her steadily, and she was surprised to see acceptance in his gaze. 'It is against my better judgment, but I will not attempt to stop you. I will, however, accompany you, if you are certain you wish to do this.
