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"She's theonlyone who makes exchanging bodily fluids madly appealing," I speak as I look down at her red stained cheeks. There's also some blue residue from the paint on my face, but I'm not about to point that out.

Instead, I caress her face softly as I remove all traces of the paint. I wouldn't want her getting mad at me for getting her dirty, too.

"Can westoptalking about exchanging bodily fluids," Marcello interferes in a loud voice, "especially sincethatis my sister. And I really don't want to imagine…" he trails off, a loud sigh escaping him.

"I'll end up putting a bullet through his brain," Marcello mutters, with Catalina by his side trying to calm him.

"What can I say, 'Cello. I have that effect on people," I add smugly.

At this point, getting people to want to kill me seems to be a skill.

38. VLAD

We spend some more time catching up with what everyone's been up to, and since Sisi is asking me nicely, I make a marked effort not to get on anyone's nerves—again. It's not as easy as it seems, because I have to bite my tongue from blurting out anything that might be misconstrued as offensive. After all, we might be all gathered together here, but I know most don't have any lost love for me.

If anything, I'm just a necessary evil.

My hand on hers, since I need to have her near to function, I just put on my most charming smile as I try toplay along.

A while later, the door bursts open and Nero barges in, his face devoid of any expression. Draped over his shoulder is who I expect to be Meester's daughter, her entire body tied in a potato sack. There are muffled noises coming from inside, but he doesn't seem to mind it.

With a glance at the room, he gives a quick nod before he settles his prisoner on a chair, making quick work of removing the sack, while preserving her bounds.

"Salome Meester." He nods to her as he pulls the cloth from her head.

Salome Meester isn't a bad looking woman, at least I guess so. My senses are skewed when it comes to that sort of thing, because I only have one golden standard, and she's sitting next to me.

Black hair and pale skin, Salome has dark-blue eyes framed by dark lashes. Together, they give her an almost doll-like appearance, and definitely inoffensive. You wouldn't think that someone looking that innocent would have gone through at least three husbands by now.

But as she turns her eyes to Nero, her stare deadly, I can see that there is some fire under that innocuous appearance.

"Remove?" he asks, pointing at her gag. When everyone agrees, he does so, lowering it down her face.

"You fucking bastard. I'm going to fucking kill you! I'm going to strap you in my menagerie and have my wild animals feed on you!" she spits at him, thrusting her body forward as she continues to curse Nero out.

"Or not." He belatedly nods, firmly placing the gag back in place.

His hand lingers a little too long on her face, her eyes widening slightly.

Interesting.

"I guess we can finally call Meester?" Marcello asks, and I can see he cannot wait for us all to leave his house.

Why, he shouldn't have been the host if he's going to be so grouchy about it.

"I'll do the honors," I rise from my chair, slowly heading to where Nero and Salome are.

"You…" Salome mumbles behind her gag. She narrows her eyes at me and I can see a hint of recognition.

"It's been what? Eight years?" I ask, amused.

She'd been underage when Meester had to ask me to marry her, and when I'd refused, he'd promptly married her off tosomeone else. I'm not even sure she was legal when that happened.

"Why am I here?" She asks when I finally decide to let her speak.

"I'm sure Nero must have told you why," I add and her eyes skitters to Nero.

"Him?" she asks, "until a while ago I was pretty sure he was a mute." She smirks at him but he doesn't react at all. A bored expression on his face, he just stares at her. When she sees her taunt doesn't work, she huffs, turning to me.