“Bernard, love, please don’t do this. Everything is going to be alright, you’ll see,” Alex’s pleaded, pulling on his restraints.

“He’s right Bernard. I’m not here to hurt you,” I said in the softest voice I could muster. “I just want to ask you both a few questions.”

“I want to go home. We have done nothing to you and your people. We are owners of no slaves…I swear it!” he yelled out the last, sparking my anger just a little.

“No, but you indulged in their torment, Bernard,” I spoke firmly getting his attention. “And that is, in some ways, just as bad, if not worse, than being the owner, wouldn’t you say?”

“Please, Mistress,” Alex said, “It’s just the way that we have known for as long as we have been slaves ourselves.”

“First, never call me that again. Second, you could have made a choice to die or kill. You chose to bring harm to others to keep harm from happening to yourselves, which makes you as weak in the eyes of my people as the ones that you tormented.”

“So, you are going to kill us for the things we have done,” Alex replied, bringing his brows together as another line of crimson tears rolled down his cheeks.

“That depends on how willing you two are when it comes to helping us stop the madness that is going on here in London.”

“We’ll do anything,” Bernard cried out. “Anything you ask.”

“I want you to tell me everything that you’ve heard from your master when you weren’t supposed to be listening. The first thing I want to know is the information that you’ve heard…” I added, squatting down in front of Bernard who was chained, but able to sit comfortably on a mattress Jacob had Cates carried in due to his badly broken leg, “about my maker and I want every last detail that you have. And do not lie to me Bernard, I have taken the lives of ancients and will know if you do. I have a great deal of anger stored waiting to explode.” I ran my hand across his hair as he blinked wildly. “Martin is not just my maker, he is my husband whom I love dearly.” Of course, I lied about being able to tell if someone was lying to me and the small fact about killing ancients, because I had only killed those who had killed them. But, the way Bernard’s eyes turned and froze in a dead stare when I told him that Martin was my husband, was all I needed to see to know he’d tell me anything from his master’s bed sheet colors to his mother’s secret peach cobbler recipe.

“How did they get the information from Martin about me being his seed, as you call me?” I asked, standing up and crossing my arms for emphasis.

“You will be angry if I tell you,” his face contorting in sheer fear of my reprisal.

I held my stare, willing my features to change. They didn’t, but the stare worked.

“They tortured him,” he cried, raising his arm waiting for me to strike.

“You can free him,” Alex claimed, getting to his feet from across the room where he had been sitting on the cold tile floor. “The gala, many will go, and you can take the tunnels and free him.”

“I thought the gala was to show she controlled the seed of Martin. Wouldn’t that mean she would have to have him close by to prove it?” I asked, turning my head, but not leaving Bernard’s side.

“The galas are much like a masquerade ball. She insists that everyone dress in costume, regalia, if you will,” Alex added when he saw me turning back to his companion.  “Angelica will bring your maker out, not only to flaunt him in front of the other masters of England, but to show her authority over our master, her sister.”

He now had my attention and I was crossing the room when Jacob and Cates burst through the door. Poor Bernard screamed out like he was seeing his life come to an abrupt end and once again passed out. I was beginning to wonder why it wasn’t him that was dressed like a woman instead of Alex. By the look on my boy’s faces, I knew they thought I came up here to do damage to the very sick minded captives that we had. I raised one brow, tilting my head slightly. “Is there something you wish to say?” I asked, hoping they would figure out that I was just trying to find out more information.

“We need you downstairs right away,” Jacob replied, then he and Cates hurried back out the door, leaving it open for me to join them.

“I will be back, Alex. I really don’t want to get ugly to find out something that I know you would never tell concerning your master,” I turned, looking back at Bernard who lay slumped over the side of the mattress. “But, I will do anything to get my master back.” Then I looked back as my body turned for the door, closing it as I leaned my head back to look at him as I pulled it closed.

I followed Jacob and Cates to the staircase, thinking we were going to go down, when they turned and simultaneously started whispering questions about what I was doing going in there alone. The first thing that I told the two of them was that it wasn’t anyone’s business where I went alone, and that I happened to be getting some pretty important information. I told them about the dress-up party that Angelica would be having but that they came in too soon for me to find out when, and that Alex knows about a secret passage to the underground levels of Angelica’s castle. I slipped in that I lied about being able to read a lie, since I found out that it was a possible gift, spreading a smile across both of their faces.

“I believe we are teaching her well, Cates,” Jacob smiled, nodding his head and crossing his arms.

“You were telling me the truth when you said you could tell when you were being lied to, weren’t ya?” I asked, thinking now I had had the wool pulled over my eyes.

“It was true. Though I must say that I never thought it would be used as a tactic to apply when asking a prisoner questions.”

“Would you mind, My Lady,” Cates bowed at the waist, “if we joined you in your pursuit?”

“Oh, give me a break you big ox,” I laughed, slapping him in the shoulder. “It’s probably better if y’all are in there anyway. I don’t know that I could get the directions right when it comes to finding the way into Angelica’s anyway.”

“If it is a dress-up, as you say, then we may be able to go in with the rest of the guests,” Jacob said, getting a look on his face that I wasn’t all too sure I was glad to see.

We heard Alex consoling Bernard, who was weeping loudly, saying he didn’t want me to hurt him, and Alex telling him to not cry, that all would be fine. It was Bernard’s next statement that made Jacob and Cates both turn and look at me. “You didn’t see the red glow flash in her eyes. She has the same death stare of Mistress Yvette.” I shrugged my shoulders and opened the door, with Jacob taking the knob and pulling it closed. He stepped across the hall and wiggled his finger at me, then waved his hand at Cates to enter the room.

“What?” I said with a slight amount of irritation in my voice.

“You can be so…master-like,” he frowned. “Hearing Bernard mention Yvette’s name brought back a memory. She was once considered the highest mistress in London and feared by every master in England. Her greed took her to Cuba, where she killed its only master, because she wanted to rule her own country, not share it with four houses given rule by the elders a thousand years ago, before what you see now was even here.”

“And your point?”

“The mere mention of her name can put fear in them, but to remind them of your strength and the blood which runs through your veins, may work much better than you being able to read them when telling a lie,” he smiled, leaning back against the wall.

“Good point, Jacob. I remember Martin telling me that Yvette used him until she had everything that his father owned, and then made him a slave when she was finished with him.”

“One more thing before we go in. How did you make your eyes glow red?”

“I don’t know,” I blushed a bit embarrassed. “I was trying, thinking as hard as I could to make my face change like you do.”