The Last of the Red-Hot Vampires

the Court.' I didn't even try to temper the disgust in my voice.

'Everyone here knows the true reason you summoned and destroyed the virtue Hope,' Milo said, his voice ringing clear and loud as he turned to confront me. He gestured toward Theo, whose fingers tightened around mine in warning or anger, I didn't know which. 'You are the only one here who has an ulterior motive, not me.'

'Hey now,' I protested.

He continued before I could say anything more. 'It is an established fact that Theo North has for centuries sought someone who would present the Court with an order of exculpation, thankfully to no avail. Until you agreed to help him by granting him the exculpation the moment you were made a member, his cause was lost.'

'I did not agree to anyth—'

'Do you deny that you intend to ask for a pardon?' Milo shouted, the entire ballroom silent but for the echoes, just as if everyone was holding his or her breath.

Theo's eyes were a light slate grey. His muscles were tight, as if he was poised to spring. I cleared my throat nervously, and looked at the mare. 'I do not deny that I intend to speak to the Court about Theo's situation, but that was not my plan when I came to England, nor did I ever agree to take on the duties of a virtue. I didn't even know why Hope showed up when she did! I thought she was a hallucination at first!'

How distant those days a week ago seemed.

'You lie,' Milo drawled, his face hard. 'You knew exactly what you were doing when you spoke the spells of summoning. Why else would you so conveniently have the spells upon you when you breached the sacred ground?'

'I told you that faery ring was real,' Sarah said in a whisper, nudging the back of my shoulder.

I was about to refute Milo's ridiculous accusations when something occurred to me. 'How did you know that Hope was summoned by a spell?' I asked, wondering if at last a glint of luck was turning our way. 'The only people to whom I explained what happened are my friend Sarah, and Theo, and I'm sure neither of them have spoken about it to anyone here.'

Both of them shook their heads.

'I heard of it from Terrin the scholar,' Milo said, crossing his arms over his chest as he nodded toward Terrin. 'We had a discussion regarding your trials, and he told me the far-fetched tale you'd spun him.'

'I don't believe the method of summoning the virtue was ever broached,' Terrin said thoughtfully. 'All Portia said was that she had inadvertently summoned a virtue, and received the Gift without understanding the importance of the act.'

'How is it you have such insight into the method of summoning Hope if you did not hear the details from the woman herself?' Theo asked, his voice as smooth and rich as milk chocolate.

We have him.

Possibly.

'I…it's only common sense,' Milo sputtered. 'Virtues can only be summoned by spell, thus it was safe to assume that Portia Harding used such a method.'

'That's not true!' Sarah startled me by bouncing forward, apparently ready to battle Milo on our behalf.

'Sarah—'

'Who is this mortal?' Disin asked, giving Sarah a narrow-eyed once-over.

'My name is Sarah Wilson,' she answered, making an incredibly graceful curtsey. 'I am Portia's oldest friend. I also happen to be an author, and am the one who gave Portia the spells. I thought they had a slight chance of working, but Portia was absolutely skeptical, disbelieving there even was such a thing as a faery ring.'

'This is all very interesting, but hardly has relevance—'

Sarah shook her head and interrupted Disin before she could continue. 'It does have relevance. Once we discovered that Portia had inadvertently become a virtue, I did some online research into the history of virtues. One of the things I discovered was that, although virtues are rarely summoned, it can be done, most commonly by means of an invocation.'

There were a few snorts of disbelief, but out of the corner of my eye I saw several people nodding.

'What Portia used was a general summoning spell, not an invocation pleading for a virtue. According to my research, the spell could have summoned anyone in the Court.'

I gaped at my friend. 'Why on earth didn't you mention that to me?'

She shrugged. 'It didn't seem important at the time.'

'It didn't seem…good gravy, woman!'

The mare leaned their heads together.

Theo took advantage of their inattention to drive home the relevant point. 'All of which brings us back to the point whereby you knew that Portia had used a general summoning spell, rather than the more common invocation. How do you explain that?'

'We are curious as to that point as well,' Disin said as the mare sat back in their respective chairs. She pinned Milo back with a look I was thankful wasn't, for once, turned upon me.

'Yeah!' I said.

Disin's gimlet glance descended upon me.

'Sorry,' I murmured, folding my hands and going for a contrite look.

'You will now explain how you knew in detail what method Portia Harding used to summon the virtue Hope.'

Milo looked decidedly nervous. I sent Theo a private smirk, and watched as Milo squirmed under the combined attention of the mare.

'I…that is, we…I…'

Carol leaned into him, whispering furiously. Milo's gaze was shifty, but he nodded a couple of times before straightening up and puffing out his chest. 'By virtue of my role as vessel, and as a member in good standing in the Court of Divine Blood, I demand a renascence!'

There was a collective stunned gasp behind us, then utter silence.

He can't do that, can he? Overthrow the hierarchy like that?

I think he just did.

The mare got to their respective feet, all three standing in a tableau that reminded me, for some inane reason, of the three furies.

'On what grounds do you demand the renascence?' Disin asked, her voice deceptively soft.

Milo pointed at me. 'The Court has been compromised. A non-member mortal holds the title of virtue, which is against the laws to which the hierarchy of the Court is bound.'

'Portia is not yet a virtue,' Theo argued, his arm sliding around my waist. I leaned into him, more than a little sick that everything had spiraled so far out of control. That I could be used as an excuse for the overthrow of the Court was unthinkable…wasn't it? 'She will not claim that title until she completes the seventh trial.'

'Which I am certainly not going to do now,' I added.

Milo smiled. It wasn't a nice smile.

Uh-oh. What's he smiling about?

I have a bad feeling it's about something Terrin was about to tell me when you showed up with Carol in tow.

'You are unfamiliar with our laws, nephilim. When a renascence is called, all scheduled business is completed before the Court is disbanded and remade.'

My stomach tightened into a small wad of unhappiness.

'The seventh and final trial of the mortal Portia Harding is scheduled for today, if I am not mistaken,' Milo continued. 'Once she has completed it, the grounds for renascence will be satisfied, and by the laws that govern the Court, it must be destroyed before reformation.'

'Well then, I simply won't do the seventh trial,' I told him, relief filling me at this easy way out of the situation.

'You cannot stop the trial from commencing,' Milo said. 'As it is scheduled, it must be enacted.'

'Fine. Enact away. I will simply do the opposite of whatever it is. Er…what is the seventh trial?'

'Faith,' Terrin answered, his eyes unreadable. 'It is a trial of your faith.'

I laughed without the slightest shred of mirth. 'Displaying a lack of faith is not going to be difficult for me.' I turned to the mare to explain, wanting to make sure they understood that my feelings were grounded in a lifelong