Page 27 of The Vampire Court

I don’t understand why he brought a strange woman to see me, or what she has to do with Elise. Then, slowly, she raises her eyes to meet mine. A thin red line encircles her gray irises. She is a vampire.

I gape, having difficulty comprehending what I am seeing. She is so different from the girl I used to know.

“Elise?” I ask.

Elise is human… Shewashuman. Who would have turned her, and when?

She breaks out in a wide grin. “It’s good to see you again, Alaric.”

My name sounds strange coming from her mouth.

“I-I don’t understand.”

Her smile turns sheepish, which makes me frown, though this explains how she made it inside Nightwich alive.

Lawrence clears his throat. “I will leave you two alone. You have a lot to catch up on.”

Elise turns to him, tilting her head. “No,” she says. “These are your rooms. I wouldn’t dream of kicking you out.”

She is different from the meek girl I knew, more confident.

“Elise… How?”

Her attention returns to me. “The same as anyone else here. It’s the winter solstice. All vampires are welcome here this month. You know that.”

“You know what I mean,” I snap.

“I’m leaving to feed,” Lawrence murmurs.

Neither of us pays him any attention as he slips out. The soft click of the door seems loud in the silence that hangs between us.

“How did this happen?” I ask more softly this time. My heart aches at what her mother would think if she were still alive. I feel responsible for this. If only I hadn’t dismissed her like I had… I cut off that line of thought.

“Alaric, please,” she says tiredly, as if this is just another banal conversation about some trivial matter. “Let’s not talk of the past. We are both here now.”

The fool acts as if this is some small matter, something to be dismissed.

I close the distance between us in two strides and grip her by the shoulders, giving her a light shake. “Who turned you?”

Elise smiles uneasily. “Does it matter?”

“Yes, it does. If your mother were still alive, she would be heartbroken to know you turned intothis.” I motion with my hand.

Elise jerks back as if I’d slapped her, pulling free. “She worked for you almost her entire life. She would have wanted this for me,” she snaps. For the first time, the calm, demure facade falls away.

That she believes what she says makes my heart ache for her because she does not remember her mother. Charlotte hated what Rosalie and I were, but she respected our philosophies.

“Anyway, I didn’t come here to talk about that. I’ve come so we could make amends.”

“Who turned—”

“It doesn’t matter who my sire is,” she shrugs one shoulder. “He was a means to an end.” Her hands ball into fists at her side. Her skin becomes blotchy with anger.

“What end, Elise?” I narrow my eyes.

Her chest heaves with her breathing. After a strained moment, she pulls in a deep breath and releases it as she smoothes nonexistent wrinkles from her dress. “If you didn’t want this fate for me,” she says with deadly calm, “then you should have treated me better and not dismissed me in favor of someone who hates your very essence. That human would gladly kill you. No matter what she says or does, she will always hate you.”

The words are cold. Cruel. They echo doubts I’ve had in my mind since the day I claimed Clara. Despite what Elise did to her, it was easier to let Elise live when the heat of the moment had dissipated, and I knew Clara was safe.