Page 30 of Even Vampires Bleed
Cassiopé
It takes another two days for all hell to rain down on us.
It arrives in the form of a power couple at the door of Notre Dame.
Demanding entry and a meeting with Elhyor.
They’ve been at the front door, on theparvisfor the past twenty minutes, and everyone is gathered in Elhyor’s office. By everyone, I mean me, Elhyor, Angie, Léandre and—sadly—Pierre.
The latter being of the advice that we should let them in and see what they have to say. He says that it might be possible that they want a new beginning and are just here to set a healthy basis.
I call bullshit.
Shoot.
I call bullshoot, I mean.
I wonder if the couple came just for show—knowing the previous Michaël died on our front step and that it was, like everything else, mediatized—or if they have ulterior motives.
I don’t know either of them, and even if I would love to give them the benefit of the doubt, the way Angie and Léandre painted them doesn’t give me high hopes.
I just hope it’s just for show because I don’t think I could deal with any additional drama right now. Not with my father still not waking up.
Not with him still looking like he’s peacefully sleeping now that all of his wounds and cuts have started healing correctly.
“It’s just the two of them,” Elhyor chimes in. “What bad could happen with just the two of them?”
I’m partial to them starting the apocalypse, but I shut up this time.
I know that my dad would side with Elhyor on that question, but he would also accompany him to that meeting, and I don’t know if that privilege extends to me.
“You should accept that meeting. Not inside, though. I would post people on the roof because there might be only two of them on theparvis,but who says they don’t have warriors hiding in the streets just out of sight? Luc can double check, but we know how to bypass their cameras. So, it stands to reason that they know how to do it, too. If you haven’t forgotten how they overtook all screens two days ago for their announcement, you can’t even rule out that they’re running their own videos directly on our feeds. So, yes, meet them outside, post guards on the roof and send some in the streets around Notre Dame to patrol.”
When I’m done explaining my point of view, four pairs of eyes are staring at me.
“What? I don’t read only smut,” I say with a shrug.
That seems to relax everyone, and in the end, everyone agrees to my proposition.
Elhyor goes with Pierre, though, not me.
Instead, I’m right behind the tall double doors near theparvis,eavesdropping.
“What took you so long?” Ambrose says—maybe I should start calling him Michaël, though.
Elhyor doesn’t seem bothered by the tone the dove-shifter just used.
“I deal with my house the way I deem it necessary,” Elhyor answers with a calm and even voice.
Angie is next to me, and I can see in the way her jaw is contracting that she doesn’t like one bit how her brother is talking to her husband. But she’s not there with them, so she has to keep her displeasure to herself if we want to hear whatever is about to go down.
I find Elhyor’s voice soothing, but to my surprise, it seems to have the opposite effect on Ambrose, who is contracting his fists at his sides until Gabrielle cups his hand with her own and makes it stop. Or at least make one hand stop.
“I want my father’s remains, and the head of whoever killed him.”
Ambrose doesn’t even pretend to be nice. He starts directly with the heart of what he came here for, it seems.
I hear Angie exhale heavily, and when I turn my face in her direction, I can see that she’s twisting her hands together. It almost looks like she’s imagining strangling him with her bare hands.
