Page 26 of Vamp CEO Bit You Where?

"I'm not careless." I hold his gaze. "I'm not here to out anyone. Whatever I've learned, stays with me. I can assure you I'm not about jeopardize what I currently have."

The silence makes me notice that everyone heard the conversation. Then Gregory gives me the smallest courtly dip of his chin.

"Sebastian," he says, "she's steadier than I expected. Mind that they notice too." He spins his finger indicating he means everyone here.

"He likes you," Sebastian says, low, near my ear. There's wonder in it.

"He's deciding whether I'll be a problem."

I'd let myself enjoy that — the warmth of his pride, the way his thumb moves once against my spine — if a voice didn't slice through the gathering.

"So this is policy now."

He's tall, severe, and built out of old money's worst instincts. I recognize him before he finishes crossing the room. Not from a photo. Not from one of Sebastian's careful explanations. From blood on a woman's throat. My fingers curl once at my side. He doesn't introduce himself. He leaves the silence to do it for him.

"Cyrus," Sebastian says, and the name turns the air colder.

"I mean it's a bold reading of the law." Cyrus sets his focus on me like a blade laid on velvet. "A man brings his lover to a council house and calls it a mate. Convenient, when affection and authority wear the same coat."

"Choose the next word with discipline," Sebastian says.

"That is wasted on me." Cyrus smirks at me with courtly poison. "Humans are the delicate ones. No offense, of course. You're very brave, standing somewhere you could not possibly escape if manners failed."

The room goes thin around the edges. He knows I know. Or worse, he hopes I remember.

"I follow the room fine," I say. "You're hoping I embarrass him so you don't have to."

The two vampires behind him go still. Cyrus' smile narrows into something older and uglier, then he bows too deeply to be respectful and withdraws.

Sebastian's hand flattens against my back. He says something under his breath, too low for me to catch. Tomas is suddenly at my other side, and another guard I hadn't noticed closes in behind us. We're moving before I agree to move.

"We're leaving?" I ask.

"Yes."

"You decided that in about a second."

"I decide most things quickly. It's why you're safe."

He offers it like the house has chosen sides. It is a kindness. That's the bruise of it. In the car, his fingers lace through mine. Tomas sits in the front seat. Another vehicle follows behind us, black and patient, keeping the exact distance someone chose for it.

"You're quiet," Sebastian says.

"I'm recalculating."

His thumb traces one silent question over my knuckles. "What part?"

"Cyrus." I keep my eyes on the city blurring past the window. "He's the one from the event."

Sebastian goes utterly still. Not visibly, not to anyone who doesn't know how to read him. But his thumb dies against my knuckles. The air beside me loses warmth. Even Tomas looks once in the rearview mirror, then looks away fast.

Sebastian's voice changes. "What did you say?"

"The man I saw feeding." I turn to him now. "The one with the woman in the corridor. The reason I know any of this exists. That was him."

For a second, he is not polished. He is not patient. Something ancient and murderous looks out through the man in the suit.

"Jasmine." He says my name so softly it scares me. "Are you certain?"