“Very good. Please escort Miss Montgomery to the dawn room.” He squeezes my hand. “I won’t be long if you want to wait. . . .” His gaze drops to the leatherette and I imagine he’s as curious as I am. He can also sense that I’m dreading what might be inside.
I just nod. I haven’t decided yet if I want to be alone with the secrets.
He looks over at Richard. “I want you with me.”
“Yes, my liege.” He gives a little bow.
“Funny. Just come with me.”
As he and Richard walk off down the hallway, Faith murmurs, “This is all so hard on Victor.”
“You love him.”
She jerks back. “What? No, vampires can’t love. I’ve told you that. But I’m observant. I can see how he’s aging.”
“Would it be so awful if you could love?”
“Love is a weakness.”
“I thought after our talk on the Night Train that you were going to give it a chance.”
“Uh . . . no.” She turns for the sweeping staircase. “I can imagine what drab things you might have packed. I’ll see if I can find something a bit more fashionable for you.”
She’s taller than I am. More voluptuous. And she wears six-inch spiked heels that are better suited for use as a weapon than walking, but I just say, “Thanks.”
She wiggles her fingers at me as she starts up the stairs.
I turn to the butler. “I can find my way to the dawn room.”
“Still, please allow me to take you there.”
I follow him down the hallway. He doesn’t seem to be as stiff and formal as he was when I came here as a delegate. “Are things better under the new Lord Valentine?” I ask.
“He is more tolerant of imperfections,” he says tightly.
He leads me into the dawn room, then backs out, closing the door behind him. My breath catches. I’ve only been here in the dreams that I shared with Victor. It’s exactly as it was there. I saw this. I was truly here with him. How is it possible?
Faith told me that he redecorated the room after his father died. All the paintings on the walls represent sunrises. I set the leatherette full of documents on the coffee table and walk around the room, studying each work of art. Faith also said they were a tribute to me.
I give a little start when the door opens. Eustace walks in carrying a silver tray with a flowered tea set on it.
“I thought you might like some tea while you are waiting for the master,” he says, setting the tray on the coffee table.
“Oh, yes, thank you.” I amble over as he pours the tea into the delicate china cup.
“Would you care for sugar?”
“Yes, please. Three teaspoons.”
“Ah, you like a little tea with your sugar.”
“Sorry. Sweet tooth.” I shrug. “And hot tea’s not really my thing.”
“Oh, my.” The china rattles as he quickly picks up the tray. “My apologies. I should have asked what your preference was before I assumed—”
“No, it’s fine.” I hold out my hand, trying to reassure him.
“It’s not fine. My responsibility is to see to your comfort. Instead, I’ve managed to put us both in a very awkward spot.”
“Maybe I’ll like your tea.”
He shakes his head. “No, I’ve made quite the blunder.”
“Truly, it’s not—”
Victor strolls in. Thank God. He studies us both. “Is everything all right?”
“My apologies, my lord. I have not adequately seen to her comfort. She does not favor hot tea.”
Helplessly I look at Victor. I don’t know how to console Eustace. Victor’s lips twitch as he gives his head a small shake.
“It’s all right, Eustace. I appreciate your attempt to make her feel welcome.”
Eustace straightens his shoulders. “Who does not favor hot tea?”
“I know. It’s quite impossible to comprehend.”
“What shall I bring?”
“Nothing. We’ll be leaving shortly.”
“Very good, my lord.” He begins walking toward the door.
“Eustace?” I call out.
He freezes, his back stiff. “Yes, miss?”
“Thank you very much for your kindness.”
“It is my job.”
With that he walks out, closing the door behind him.
“My father would have lashed him for bringing the wrong thing,” Victor says. “Sadly, he hasn’t gotten used to the fact that I never would.”
“Your father got angry over tea?”
“He got angry over everything.”
I realize he looks tired.
“Did everything go okay?” I ask.
“We have adequate blood for now. It’ll keep the Lessers content until we return, but after that”—he shakes his head—“I’ll deal with it when I get back.”
He glances over at the pouch. “Did you open it?”
“No.”
“It frightens you. Why? What is it that you think your father was talking about?”
“Not frighten exactly.” I can see the earnestness and worry in his eyes. I feel like I’m treading water, on the verge of drowning.
“That ancient vampire in the mountain—” I begin. “His family name was Montgomery.”
Victor grows still, processing the information, and I’m not even sure he’s breathing. I force out the words—
“Victor . . . I’m a vampire.”
I don’t know what sort of reaction I expected, but it certainly isn’t a smile followed by a quick laugh.
“That’s not possible, Dawn. I would know.”
“Okay, maybe not a vampire, but a dhampir.”
“They’re a myth. Like leprechauns, faeries, and werewolves.”
“You thought Day Walkers were a myth, too.”
That sobers him a bit.
“Think about it, Victor, think about my blood. If it contained vampire, it would explain why for a time you had a craving for it after you tasted it.” Once vampires taste the blood of their kind, they risk becoming addicted to it until they are infected with the Thirst.
That totally wipes the smile from his face.
“And our ability to share dreams,” I continue, pressing my point. “Faith said that only happens with Old Family.”
I can tell that I’ve left him speechless. I’ve never seen him like this—he seems lost, whereas he usually takes command of any situation. Which means he’s as confused and unsettled by all of this as I am.
He turns his back on me and takes a couple of steps away. Can he hear the thudding of my heart? Vampires have such keen senses that he must be aware of my anxiousness. Finally he faces me.
“What exactly did that old vampire say?”
I take a deep breath, not even sure where to begin. “That symbol in my dreams, the one on the document that my father discovered, the one you said was written in ancient vampiric—it’s the name of the fifteenth Old Family—Montgomery. What legend referred to as the lost family. Apparently they had the ability to produce offspring with humans. The document was a death warrant against the Montgomerys, signed by the other fourteen families.”
“Why exterminate them?”
“Why does Old Family do anything?”
He sighs. “Fear of change. Fear of things becoming different. Fear of anything they don’t understand. It’s why they hated Sin.”
He walks back over, pushes my hair behind my ear, and trails his finger along the crucifix tattoo on my neck. “You always hated the thought of becoming a vampire.”
I force a smile. I imagine it looks pretty pitiful. “Ironic, huh?”
“Did Sin know about your heritage?”
I nod, swallow past the lump in my throat. “He shares it. His mother was a Montgomery. Esmerelda. I think that’s why he—and your father—were obsessed with my family.”
“Jesus, Dawn.”
“I know. I—” I’m so overwhelmed with emotions that I can barely think. I wanted him to find a reason that my being a vampire was impossible. Victor cradles my face between his powerful hands. “This changes nothing,” he says. “And it doesn’t change what I feel for you.”