“A what?” Jacob shrugged.

“I believe she means, the gala,” Cates laughed, with the others joining in.

“You city folk have so much to learn,” I shook my head and lifted the bottom of my hoop and headed out of the dank area. “Tanda, watch over my husband and I will take care of yours.”

“Not so much as a kiss,” Martin called out.

“You heard him, Cates, that’s an order,” I called back, snickering because I knew Cates would do it. “Love you, sweet pea!”

“Is this your torture? Be gone, you old fool.”

Echoes of Cates’ laughter filled the halls of the house as we made our way into the kitchen. Tanda came back up with instructions on how to lock the sliding door when she went back down. She insisted on making sure our make-up and clothing were in order before we left. While she worked on Tammy and then myself, the boys readied the unmarked coaches for our trip to Angelica’s gala.

Chapter Twenty Seven

  I would be lying if I said I was confident on our ride over to the gala, because I could taste my own fear. The beating of my dead heart was locked into the base of my ears. Martin had his own normals that ran his grounds as well as took care of his boats and such. So we had two of them driving our coaches. It seemed the rest were by the coastline and that’s why we hadn’t seen them. They were left to ready his ship in case that he needed to head back out in search of me. Jacob, Derek, Sydney, and I were in one coach while Cates, Garvin, Tammy, and Fala were in the other. I knew Derek and Sydney felt as stupid as I did by the way they kept pulling at the garments they were wearing. As for the others, they didn’t seem to be as bothered. I gave that thought over to them being breeders much longer and forced to do ridiculous things. “We are almost there,” Jacob said, leaning his head out the coach window. I tried to put my head through the window, but my wig was too big and I growled. “What can you see? How do you know how close we are?” “You will give yourself one of those heart attacks if you do not slow down. First, I know the distance. Second, if you could put that thing on your head out of that window you would be able to see the lights at Angelica’s gates.”

“We are so going to have to have one of our talks when this night is over, Jacob,” I complained as I readjusted my wig.

“Are you ready for this?” he asked.

“Not even a little. I’m actually more nervous about this than I was anything we’ve done to date. It’s just so different from anything that we’ve ever done.”

“I know you will not like hearing me say this, but you must refrain from losing your temper, at least until we have time to make our way to the front of the room where Angelica will make her entrance.”

“You know I would never agree with anyone that said something to you that made you have a look like that on your face,” Derek said with a smirk, “but on this one I have to agree with Jacob. And if you don’t stop looking like that, with that crap on your face, I’m gonna lose it by laughing my ass off.”

“Oh, and getting down on your knee was a real show of who was boss…my ass,” I rolled my heavily made-up eyes at the both of them, causing all three, including me, to start snickering. The coach came to a stop and we all became silent. The driver spoke softly to the gatekeeper and we moved slowly through. “What exactly did the normal say?” I whispered.

“Avior ce nuit. In your tongue it would mean, ‘to have this night’. It is the passwords to enter this gala and what was written in the note that came from Inara as she had said it would. Something that also came while you were occupied with other things.”

“I completely forgot that she had given her word about that note. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because you, yourself, just said it, you had completely forgotten and I would say due to having far too much on your mind, as it were. Now, if you are finished asking your questions, the doormen are walking out to meet our coach.”

“If you want me to be on my best behavior, then you best stop pushing my buttons.” I closed my mouth and crossed my arms. I got a hard stare from Jacob and uncrossed them and very childishly slapped my white gloved palms down on the thighs of my legs.

“Very good, they come.”

“Strawberry,” I hissed under my breath as Jacob’s coach door opened.

  ***

Standing in front of those wide, extremely high, double doors and wearing that ridiculous ball gown, made me feel just like I did back in Cuba; not when they first opened the door that I was walked through and introduced as Martin’s whore, but when I stood in front of the room on the stage and shown as a piece of cattle to a group of sick bastards who would pay a price so they could do whatever they pleased. At that very moment, I went from being scared to death to being so pissed that all I wanted to do was kick those doors in and start killing the depraved beings on the other side. The laughter that I could hear was making the rolling waves of blood in my stomach form an eruption just waiting to spew up my throat and out of my mouth.

“I think I may be sick,” I spoke to no one in particular.

Tammy took my hand and squeezed. “Take in a deep breath, you can do this.”

“No, I mean, I think I may really be sick, as in throw-up.”

“She does look a bit green,” Cates said, taking my other hand.

“It is too late. They come to open the doors.” Jacob was saying, as two men in black suits opened the doors wide and my people escorted me in.

The music was loud and nothing that I had ever heard. There were so many breeders that it was hard to see the decoration on the tables that lined the walls and all looked very much like we did. My senses were on overload. I didn’t smell anything but bloodbreeders. Had there been normals anywhere, I wouldn’t have been able to track them with the amount of blood drinkers that filled the large room. I now knew why Martin had been so afraid for us. He was right. There was no way in hell that we were going to fight our way out of this. There was no other choice but to take down the head of the house.

“I should have brought my club,” Sydney whispered, getting as close to me as he could.

“You didn’t have anywhere to put it. I want you to stick as close to your maker as you can tonight. Keep him safe, Sydney. I’m depending on you,” I grabbed his hand and leaned in to his ear. “I need that from you for the rest of Garvin’s life.”

He stepped back and smiled, showing a beautiful set of fangs then kissed me on the cheek saying ‘thank you’, and went happily back to his maker. Garvin glanced over at me and mouthed the words thank you. I simply winked back. Cates came up behind me putting his hand on my shoulder and his nub on Tammy’s. Jacob stepped up beside Tammy and Derek stepped in closer to my left side. We started making our way down through the middle of the crowd of demented breeders.

Jacob had explained that some owners brought their favorite slaves to these events, using Bernard and Alex as examples. That’s when I understood why there would be so many when I had heard so much about there being few heads, and even fewer ancients. It made sense about the ancients, with so many like Yvette, trying to knock them off for a power base. Now, here I was, doing the same thing; Different reasons, same form of tactics. However, I’m more than sure that few, if any, before me had much care of whom they put in harm’s way.

Growls of some sort of a beast reverberated through the room and none of the party goers seemed to take notice…other than our group. It rang out again, only this time louder and it was apparent there was more than one. I reached back and touched the human flesh of Fala’s arm wishing he were in his other form. And I wanted nothing more than to ask him what it was that I was hearing. As if reading my mind, he slid in between Derek and Cates.