Page 11 of The Maestro's Mates
“Are you Lillian?”
She nodded curtly but did not speak. Okay. He tried again.
“Are we, uh, going to see the coven master?”
Lillian did not even deign to nod in response this time, instead standing there and staring at the elevator door as they ascended.
Sebastian hated vampires sometimes. They were always so fucking self-serious.
The doors opened on a large space spanning the whole length of the floor. It was filled with antique furniture and furnishings. Honestly, the effect was odd. It was giving warehouse more than anything else, the ottomans and tapestries and side tables contrasting strangely with the glass, steel, and concrete of the modern building around them. It was also far more like an unusually decorated college dorm common area than the medieval-esque throne room he’d expected.
At the far end, a muscular redhead sat in an upholstered armchair with a tall back. Sebastian recognized him as Frederick Grosvenor. Next to him sat Anthony Bianchi. Sebastian didn’t know Anthony, other than the fact he was Oscar and Trent’s voice teacher.
Seeing him here, it was obvious Anthony must be Frederick’s mate. Voice teachers tended to be both fundamentally compassionate and essentially meddlesome, two qualities that usually were also found in the coven master’s mate.
There were seven or eight other vampires scattered about, a couple playing a video game on a large television,others reading or chatting. A few of them had goblets of blood in their hands, which they treated as casually as if they were cans of soda.
Oscar and Trent were nowhere to be found, but Justin was lounging on a chaise, typing away on his phone. Maybe texting a friend? Sebastian hoped he wasn’t on a hookup app. He wasn’t sure how vampires recognized their mates, so he didn’t know if Justin understood what they were to each other.
As Lillian led him forward, all the sound in the room died down to a murmur. Justin looked up from his phone, his eyes going wide with confusion as he noticed Sebastian.
Sebastian felt the eyes of the vampires on him, but he pushed down any anxiety or nervousness as he approached the coven master and his mate. Sebastian had nothing to fear. Frederick had a reputation for fairness, and he knew several other members of the coven. In a pinch, Oscar or Trent would vouch for him.
He reached deep inside of himself, connecting to the core that was the source of his powers. It was a strange thing: both an essential part of him and somehow separate. Anxiety or any kind of complex thought could cause him to lose touch with it. He had to guard against that. It was the center of who he was as a witch.
A creature of chaos.
It wasn’t the coven master who spoke first, but Anthony. Sebastian had met the voice teacher a few times before, mostly at functions for Manhattan Lyric. He was dressed in a casual pair of black joggers and a gray hoodie.
“Sebastian!” Anthony stood and smiled widely, gesturing to a nearby chair. “This is quite a surprise. I didn’t realize you had knowledge of us at all.”
“You aren’t supernatural.” The coven master’s voice was low, and he didn’t get up. There was no malice in his voice, and his eyes were more evaluative than suspicious.
Sebastian plopped down in an armchair, slinging a leg over one arm. Lillian’s eyes narrowed from where she was watching off to the side, but neither Frederick nor Anthony was phased at all.
“I’m a witch,” Sebastian said, wiggling his fingers out in front of him like a storybook wizard. “Supernatural-adjacent. Fully human, just with a bit of knowledge.”
Behind him, he heard the vampires in the room jump to their feet, but Anthony held up his hand to stop them.
“Nope. Sebastian is a friend of Oscar and Trent.”
Sebastian didn’t turn to look behind him, but he assumed no one was going to attack him. Even if they did, he’d come wearing enough protection to fend off most vamps.
“Why are you here?” Frederick asked, his face unreadable. The coven master’s bulky body was still as stone.
“First off, to introduce myself.”
Anthony’s brow furrowed. “We’ve known you for more than a year.”
Sebastian smirked. “Yes, but until this morning, none of your vampires knew I was a witch. It’s my fault. I outed myself in front of Justin and Oscar. So I came here to officially introduce myself. It had to happen anyway. My mother’s been bugging me about it for more than a year now.”
The coven master cocked his head. “Your mother is Eldest of your Circle?”
Sebastian nodded, but he didn’t add anything. Caution was needed, at least until the relationship between the Grosvenor Coven and the Bayonne Circle was moreestablished. The coven was young. They could benefit from the kind of spellwork he and his Circle could provide. Hopefully that would be enough.
“She desires something from us. No?’
Sebastian nodded again, then looked around the room at the rest of the vampires, all of whom were standing with their claws extended, glaring protectively.
