Page 125 of Red Masquerade

Those gray eyes studied me. Leaning forward, tracing his nose along my jaw, wrapping his arms around my waist, bringing me close. “You make me want to be violent,” he murmured. “You make me want to hurt everyone that dares put a hand on you.”

“Then do it,” I said.

A spark ignited in his eyes. “What a savage woman you are.” Inhaling deep, he pulled away just enough to bring some clarity. “We will ask the others. But I cannot promise that I won’t hide you away somewhere.”

“This could go one of two ways,” Séra said, brows furrowed as she thought the proposition over. We had found the three of them in the intimate dining room where I’d first met them. “Either he remains out in the open, or he sneaks around,” she continued, then turning to Vince. “Would Brancato want to hide?”

Vince stood with his arm around me, as though if he let go, I’d vanish. “He would want us to know he’s here. That is, if he even shows up.”

That was always a possibility.

“Okay, and once he’s here, then what?” Sinclair spoke through the ever-present cigarette between his lips. “We corner him and beat him up? Send a message? They want you back, Vince. He’s not going to come just to politely say hello and remind you of their demands.”

Vince’s glare was like a knife. “I’m aware.”

The room sat in silence for a few moments. If Vince refused, I wasn’t sure what else to do, but I didn’t want us to be sitting ducks, either.

Brancato would come, but not to bring Vince back, just for Vince to take his position as heir. No, that door was closed. His Sire wanted him back, and not to keep him close, I feared. Vince’s time was running out—Brancato’s words were a threat.

Vince’s thread was about to be cut.

He shook his head as he stared at a point on the floor. His mind was running through all these thoughts, too.

“He’ll make an offer I can’t refuse,” he murmured, unmoving. He didn’t blink. “The Sire means it when he says he wants me to return. Brancato is just the messenger. He’ll have my hands tied.”With an ocean between Vince and the Sire, there was really only one way to get him back to the coven in Europe.

And now Brancato had leverage.

Vince’s eyes bore into me. “It’s too much of a risk.”

“I think it could work,” Veronica said, and we all turned to her in surprise. “Brancato will come, but there’s no reason for him to sneak onto the grounds. He’s too arrogant for that. But if he can’t see us…”

Séra’s lips pulled back in a grin. “A masquerade!”

“It will, at the very least, slow him down,” Veronica acquiesced. “Andwewill be able to seehim.”

“There are too many factors at play.” Vince shook his head again.

“So we distract him.” Séra shrugged. “Sinclair and I can draw him in one direction or another.”

“This will only end in murder.” Vince gritted his teeth. “This can’t be resolved without spilling blood.”

“Good.” Veronica’s eyes shined like a cat’s. “Just make sure it’s his.”

Forty-Three

Ihad never before felt I could reach out and touch what was to come. The future was tangible, a weight that pressed on us at all sides: the impending visit from Brancato, the Sire’s summons, and the choice Vince was going to have to make. It wasright there, before me, waiting for something to trigger it into motion. We were on the precipice of what came next, but none of us knew what waited for us on the other side.

Would Brancato even come? Sinclair seemed to think not, but Vince knew he would—knew the vampire wouldn’t miss an opportunity to cause trouble.

“What are you going to do?”

I sat on the bed, watching Vince pace.

He hadn’t sat still in over a day, distracted.

He paused and said the most troubling thing: “I don’t know.” His two worlds were clashing, two sides of himself he had keptseparate until now: the part of him that was a vampire against his will, heir to a den across the ocean, and the part of him that relished in his new existence here in New York.

“But he will be dead,” he vowed.