Page 123 of A Vow of Blood and Tears

“An excuse, Lady Cirrien. I’m looking for an excuse.” Auré adjusted Erik’s lapel, the vampire male looking between the two of us nervously. “One day you’ll slip up, and you won’t see me in the shadows, waiting for my moment.”

Save the hard talk for someone who cares. By the Light, I was damn tired of this woman, with her accusations and petty games.

Auré’s violet eyes hardened, almost glowing in the candlelight. “I smelled your scent in the library,” she said softly, ever smiling, giving Wyn no reason to come save me. “I smelled Kajarin with you. What plans have you two wrought together?”

I started shaking my head before she even finished speaking. It was galling to have to defend myself against her, though I’d done nothing wrong.Plans? Right now my only plan is to worry about your obsession with me. I can’t stop Kajarin from usingthe library, no matter how much I’d like her gone from the keep entirely.

“Using the library for her little assignations,” Auré sneered. “Do you keep watch for her?”

I can see we’re going to make no progress with each other. I kept my gaze level despite the fury licking at my veins.You’ll keep accusing me of being a whore, and I’ll keep accusing you of being an idiot. Why don’t we call a truce for the night and go our separate ways? I’d hate to ruin Wyn’s hard work.

The beautiful vampire touched Erik’s hand and whispered to him, and to my relief, he made a sharp retreat to the vampires clustered by the window. Yuli welcomed him back with open arms.

“There can be no truces,” Auré murmured to me. “My sole purpose is to protect the Lords of Veladar against their enemies—be they wargs, or women.”

I am no loyalist, I told her.

“So she’s told you what she is?” Auré watched Kajarin flirt, expressionless, but her pupils had contracted into fine lines—a vampire on the verge of hunting. “I’m sure she’s tried to recruit you to the cause.”

Tried andfailed, I emphasized.I grew up in Argent. The few loyalists there are treated like scum, and rightfully so. I know what we owe to your kind.

“In Argent, under theSilver Sisters’ protection.” Auré made her own emphasis quite clear. “One of our most ancient enemies, and if you don’t believe the loyalists have infiltrated their ranks, you’re wrong.”

I was never a Sister proper. I was their indentured servant, and have no loyalty to their beliefs. I half wished for Wyn to save me now.I’m sure you could take every piece of evidence and twist it to suit your convictions, Lady fel Seren. All I will tell you is that I’m not, and never will be, a loyalist, and I’mperfectly happy with Bane. All you’re doing is interfering and making an enemy of me.

Auré met my gaze levelly. “In another life, I think I would’ve liked you. But I’ve been wrong about so many things. I helped the human Lords create the first draft of the Accords, despite all the restrictions it placed on us. I helped choose Kajarin. I lost Andrus’s first wife to the wargs. I made their lives hell. But every time I wanted to do things my way, I was told I was overthinking, overreacting, overplanning. So I went with everyone else’s ideas, and every time they failed. Never again. I trust only myself now.”

I’d had no idea Auré had been that deeply involved with every aspect of the negotiations between our kinds. With that much bad luck and failure under her belt, no wonder she was wary of me.

I still didn’t like her. But she was one of them, and I would be in the wrong for not trying.

I’m not asking you to like me,I signed slowly, choosing my words with care.But I know you are one of Bane’s oldest friends, and you have his best interests at heart. Any hostility between us will only hurt him in the end. So no, I’m not asking you to treat me as a close friend. I’m asking you to give me a chance before you make me your enemy, for his sake.

Her pupils widened, her head tipping to the side.

I can live with us hating each other. He is the one who will be hurt if forced to choose between allegiances. It’s better for him if you and I can come to an agreement—let’s loathe each other in a way that doesn’t impose on his ability to rule. Or his willingness to contact his brothers. These tests of yours are only going to alienate you from him.

“This is an argument I can understand, even if I don’t like it.” Auré searched my eyes. “Very well—I’ll agree to that. But I will be keeping an eye on you. You were part of the Silver Sisterhood, and Kajarin has openly tried to bring you into hercircle. Perhaps, in ten years or so, if Lord Bane is still happy… then we will reconsider our feelings towards each other.”

Agreed. Have a good night, Lady fel Seren.

“Bloodrain tidings, Lady lai Darran,” she murmured. Her gaze moved over my shoulder, and then she was gone with a rustle of silk.

I exhaled in relief. Having achieved a tentative truce of my own with a hostile vampire was… well, stressful and slightly terrifying. But I had achieved it, without anyone else’s help, and that made me feel a little better about this night. Bane would not have to choose between me and his oldest, strongest allies, not if I had anything to do with it.

A rough hand took my arm, spinning me around, and I was hit first with the scent of wine and whisky-soaked breath, and then with Miro’s huge smile. “Well, are we going to dance or not, Lady Silence? To hell with Bloodrain, I’ve got my own success to celebrate. Come now!”

His voice, at the volume drunks get when they’re a bottle or more in but not too inebriated to walk, carried through the room. His fingers dug into my arms, and I realized Miro fully intended for me to be his dancing partner.

The scent on his breath made my stomach turn, and his hand was tight around my waist as he dragged me forward and spun me around carelessly.

This was the worst Bloodrain I’d ever lived through.

“I finished your commission,” he told me, pulling me into another wide sweep. He was slurring hiss’s into mush, voice thick. “Would I call it a masterpiece? Possibly, but I think I have greater works in me still.”

I moved a hand to sign and he grabbed it, crushing my fingers with drunken strength.

“Let’s not ruin this with your hand-wavey gibberish, if you please, I’m finally having some fun.” Miro laughed in my ear ashe clutched me close, unheeding of the hands I braced against his chest, his voice lowered to a conspiratorial volume. “Have you ever gotten all you wanted and more? Oh, yes—you did, didn’t you, when you married Bane the savior. Must’ve been nice, right, to have it all dropped in your lap on a silver platter?”

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