Raising Innocence: A Rylee Adamson Novel(49)

“I’ll be buggered,” I said, putting my hands on my hips. Faris wanted me to see a ball and some dressed up vampires? Was he trying to prove how civilized he could be?
My feet didn’t move, but the view shifted and I was now across the room standing next to Faris. Not the Faris I knew, but one that was dressed up in a puffy shirt with long drooping lace sleeves, knee high boots with pants tucked in the top and several over the top bling-bling rings on his fingers. How very Lestat of him. Seeing him like this, I could imagine how easy it would be for him to find his victims. If he wasn’t a vampire, I could have acknowledged how good looking he was. No, that was too tame. Even in his ridiculous clothes, the vamp had “Fuck me, baby” written all over him. His hair was longer, trailing past his shoulders, but tied back with a leather thong. Icy blue eyes took in everything, softening here and there. That took me aback. Then he, Faris the vampire that had been trying to play some twisted wicked game with me, winked at one of the serving ladies. She was quite a bit older, dowdy, and obviously not used to attention from the vamps. She blushed and he gave her a smile.
Well, I’ll be buggered, he was being . . . nice. I didn’t like it. I didn’t need my view of him challenged. A hazy feel of lips on mine, and my hand on a hard piece of decidedly male anatomy filtered through me. What was going on with my real body? Shit, this memory had better hurry up.
The music faded and the crowd parted for a matched pair of vampires, a perfect set, thin circlets set on their heads. My guess was these were the previous leaders, the ones who’d been killed by none other than Faris. Emperor and Empress. They drew close to Faris, and so, of course, just as close to me. Even knowing they couldn’t see me, I stepped back.
Red hair the color of dried blood flowed down their backs, and dark, almost black eyes regarded Faris with a cool detachment. They were beautiful, stunning, but in a sharp, cruel way that made me want to cringe.
Faris went to one knee, inclining his head ever so slightly. A subtle gasp went around the room. How was I not surprised he would give them offence?
“Faris,” the Emperor intoned, his voice rippling out over the crowd amplified right to the point of making you want to cover your ears. “You are being difficult again.”
“My liege, never have I been difficult.”
The Empress laughed and leaned forward, giving me an ample view down the front of her shirt. Small bite marks marred her creamy skin as far as I could see.
“Nasty,” I mumbled and her head snapped up . . . as if she could hear me. I froze in place. Had Faris somehow transported me here? Fuck, I was so dead.
“What is it?” The Emperor asked.
She shook her head, eyes searching where I stood.
“I felt someone, as if they were here, but not. A shadow of a soul.” She laughed, soft enough that her lips moved only fractionally. “It feels like the kiss of a lost one.”
She might as well have grabbed me around the throat and squeezed. That was what Giselle had called me. Sort of. She’d said I had the Blood of the Lost ones in me. I took a breath, held it, and then let it out slowly. No, they couldn’t see me; I wasn’t really here. Was I?
The Empress shook her head again, and then looked back to Faris.
“You know the rules, Faris, and you know we have changed them.”
“To favor your so-called child.”
Again, the gasp went up around the room. I got the feeling no one took on the vampire royalty. Again, how did it not surprise me that Faris was doing just that?
“Yes,” the Emperor said, smiling down on the still kneeling Faris. “We would favor her. She is the one the Empress saw, the one who will bring the world to its knees, and put our kind where they belong. Ruling the humans.”
I grit my teeth. I didn’t like this, not one bit. But I had to admit, at least to myself, that it was fascinating to watch this little drama play out. The tension was building and I knew from experience that something big was coming.
“That is a fool’s way,” Faris snapped, lifting his head to glare up at his leaders. “We would decimate the population; our kind is not meant to live that way.”
There was a subtle shift in the room, a collective stepping back. Everyone was getting out of the way.
Faris straightened his legs and stood, facing the redheaded vampires. “You would go against the very creed?”
The Empress tipped her head and once more looked at me; I squirmed where I stood.
“I believe you are challenging our right to rule. Is that correct, Faris of the muddied blood?”
The vampire I stood beside shivered, his blue eyes going glacial.
“You have no right to dictate.” He acted as if she hadn’t insulted him. “The Old One is to be asked and then the challenge given. That is the way. That is how we have survived each passing of our liege to the next.”