Almost Everything (3 page)

Thank
the Goddess for Elias. He swept in, took coats, and made everyone take places around the table. He pulled out my chair for me, which was nice, but it made me feel especially grubby. If I’d known visiting dignitaries would be dropping by, I’d at least have put on a better shirt. Or pants! At least no one would see my naked legs under the table.

We now sat in the stuffy, dusty room staring silently at one another.

I should probably have said something dignified and welcoming here, but all I could think of was that most of my “gilty pleasure” bronze nail polish was half-chipped and missing. So I took the opportunity to look around at anything other than Prince Luis and his looming goons.

The room, at least, suited the prince. It was expansive, with oak flooring and pressed tin on the high ceiling. Unlike the rest of the house, this room was sparsely decorated and neat. It was like that because we almost never used it. Mom and I had inherited our house from my grandparents, and it was much too large for the two of us. Before the tea ritual with Elias started, we kept this room shuttered. It still had lace doilies and pale blue painted dishes on the plate rails that were vestiges of my grandparents’ lives. Odder still, there were no books anywhere in the room, not even a half-finished paperback tucked into the windowsill or resting open, spine-bent on a coffee table. That was damn near unnatural for a house with two word nerds like Mom and me. I always felt like a guest in this part of my own house.

Having
made their tour, my eyes returned to Luis, who was smiling patiently at me. Expensive cologne hung in the air, and I had to hold back the urge to sniff my underarms. I couldn’t even exchange glances with Elias since he refused to leave my side, even to sit. He stood behind my chair like a sentry. Though my back was to him, I could picture the formidable image Elias presented. Even in his simple black T-shirt and jeans, he was lean, hard, and infinitely dangerous—even among his own kind. If he was angry or spoiling for a fight, his eyes would turn yellow and catlike, and his fangs would drop. Otherwise, he’d measure them with ice-cold, utterly ruthless gray eyes. His black hair was cropped short, his face clean shaven, and everything about him was perfectly crisp and precise.

The Samuel L. Jackson clone and red-haired guy likewise stood at attention behind Luis. Their eyes watched for any movement from Elias. The tension was thick.

Mom, meanwhile, paced around like a caged animal, ostensibly setting cups and forks in front of the new guests’ places.

I desperately wanted to know what Luis expected from me, but we seemed to be following some kind of protocol I didn’t know. Perhaps we would start talking when Mom finished fussing. Not knowing what else to do, I folded my hands in my lap and tried to think princesslike thoughts.

That was hard since I was sweating in a very unladylike fashion. My hair had stuck to my face again, despite the fan’s humming from its perch on the windowsill. Occasionally, I’d feel a bit of night air on my forehead, but it disappeared too quickly to offer much relief.

“Who are you, again?” Mom asked bluntly, plunking an extra plate down in front of the vampire prince and glaring at the two goons standing in her way. Mom, like me, wore as little as possible because of the heat. She had on a white spaghetti-strap top and cutoff jeans. “And why are you in my house?”

“You invited
them in,” Elias said quietly, though unnecessarily.

Mom cast him a dark, angry look. “Well, I didn’t know they were out there, did I?”

Luis raised his hand with a gentle smile. “It’s quite all right. The Queen Mother has every right to be properly introduced. My name is Luis Montezuma, and I am the prince of the Southern Region. I’ve come seeking restitution for a grave loss.” At this, Luis turned to stare pointedly at me, as if I should have some clue as to what he meant.

Only I didn’t.

Plus, I found myself struck dumb by the sudden revelation, in the low glow of the electric lamplight, that Luis had one green eye and one brown.

He had two differently colored eyes.

Just like me.

Did that mean we were the same in other ways? I’d never met another half vampire. Were his differently colored eyes accidental or an indication that he was a dhampyr too?

Luis cocked his eyebrow at my confusion. “Did you not release Khan from her betrothal, Your Highness?”

Oh,
um, who? Had I? I shook away my questions about Luis’s eye color and tried to remember. A vague memory surfaced of a vampire sneaking into my school last year and asking me to cancel her betrothness or whatever, and Elias and my dad telling me there’d be serious fallout for what seemed like such a common-sense decision. Come to think of it, her name
was
Khan. “Uh, yeah,” I admitted hurriedly; I had a bigger question on my mind. “Hey, like, are you a dhampyr?”

Everyone on Luis’s side of the table looked shocked, as if maybe I’d used some kind of racist slur. Luis’s cheeks colored. Since I couldn’t catch Elias’s eye, I shot a look at Mom. She shrugged. “Dhampyr” was the only word we knew for what I was: half vampire/half witch.

“About Khan …,” Luis prompted quietly. It was clear I was supposed to drop the subject.

So I did. I guessed being a dhampyr wasn’t something to be proud of in the Southern Region, if, in fact, that was what he was. I could feel myself blushing now too, but I managed to stammer out something I remembered about Khan. “She was in love with some other guy. What else was I supposed to say?”

Luis gave me a highly skeptical look. “What does love have to do with confarreatio?”

“I don’t know what that is.”

Everyone on that side of the table looked completely stunned. Even the two otherwise immobile guards actually exchanged a look. I tried to look at Elias, but his gaze and expression remained unchanged.

“What do you think betrothal ends in?” Luis asked.

“Marriage?” Didn’t that seem like the obvious answer?

“Oh, I see why you released Khan. You’re one of the modernists.”

My mom
snorted and started cutting the cheesecake. “We’re full of those up here. After our confarreatio, I made Ramses marry me in front of a judge.” She handed me the biggest slice with a wink.

Luis shook his head, frowning deeply at my mother for a moment. Then he shook his head as if dismissing her from his thoughts. To me, he said, “Your foolishly romantic action has caused a great deal of strife for my captain here.” He indicated the mean-looking vampire—Captain Creepy, apparently. I suddenly understood Khan’s hesitation at the idea of hooking up with this guy. “The dissolution of the contract leaves the fate of our empires unresolved. Without the bond, peace cannot be guaranteed, you understand.”

“Not really,” I admitted.

Luis blinked at me. I don’t think he was used to someone admitting this much stupidity in one meeting, but, seriously, I still had no real idea what he was talking about.

“Let me put it simply,” he said. “There needs to be a marriage treaty, a confarreatio. You must provide a replacement suitor or there will be war.”

“Marriage treaties are archaic, misogynist crap,” Mom said, plopping a very slender bit of cheesecake in front of Luis. “My daughter was right to deny you.”

I rolled my eyes. Way to bring up the “patriarchy,” Mom. Goddess, sometimes it was so embarrassing having a women’s studies professor for a mother. More to the point, the only reason I existed was because Mom had agreed to an arranged marriage, though I’d never heard it described as a “confarreatio” before.

Mom put her
hands on her ample hips and stared down at the prince over the bridge of her nose. The look was ruined only a bit by the sheen of sweat on her forehead. I thought Mom seemed especially defensive, as if maybe she was attacking him to make up for the embarrassment of my potential gaff with the whole dhampyr thing. I could feel her magic swelling, like an undercurrent tugging at the edges of my consciousness. She was gearing up for a fight—possibly even a magical attack.

I had to stop it.

The only thing to do was blurt. “Why is this my problem, anyway? Why aren’t you down in the underground kingdom talking to Dad? He’s the regional ruler and, like, he probably totally agrees with you. Plus, he knows all the vampires in town.” I gave Captain Scary Pants a glance. “The only person I could recommend is Elias.” I gestured where Elias still stood ramrod straight behind me.

“Elias Constantine? You would offer your captain of the guard?” Luis looked at Elias, as if for the first time, and as if he suddenly realized he was in the presence of a celebrity. “Yes, this is more than acceptable.” Luis stood up and held out his hand for me to shake. “I didn’t expect to come to an agreement so quickly, or that you would be so generous with your military assets. The papers will be drawn. Congratulations.”

“Wait, what?”

I stared
at his hand, still extended across the table.

He smiled, gesturing for me to seal the deal. “You offer. I accept. That’s how negotiations usually work, Princess.”

“But—but, Elias is a guy.” My mouth hung so far open, I was having trouble forming words.

“Indeed,” Luis said with a little chuckle. “In fact, if his reputation is even half deserved, he’s quite the man.”

“No, that’s just … wrong. What I mean is … your captain is a guy too.”

“We are vampires, Your Highness; not men. I would think you would already know that some of the greatest alliances in history have been between male vampires.” Luis finally withdrew his hand. “Given what happened with Khan, I’m afraid I must insist that the ceremony be performed before we return to Mississippi. We can do something simple here, now, or you can send your captain off with style. But we leave within the fortnight.”

“No … this isn’t happening. I didn’t agree to this,” I sputtered, finally finding my feet.

“Are you stupid?” Mom asked belligerently. “She was obviously joking.”

“She had better not have been,” Luis said sharply to Mom. As he turned to me, I noticed how captivatingly strange his intense gaze was. Did people look at me like that, wondering which eye to focus on? “Do I need to remind you that this is a matter of regional security? If you renege, the war resumes here. Now.”

Elias looked at the three of them with the confidence of a man who felt he was evenly matched. “Your army is at hand?”

A smile
cracked Luis’s hard look. “You are certainly bold, Captain Constantine. But, yes, we camp in Hudson, awaiting my word that all is well.”

I turned to Elias and grabbed his hand. He didn’t look at me; in fact, he stared straight ahead, over my head, his expression completely blank. “You don’t want this, do you?”

“We may not have much choice.” With a sigh, he dropped his eyes to our hands. His voice was low. “Of course not. I was once happily betrothed to you.”

But did that still mean what I thought it did? Didn’t Luis just imply that all betrothals ended in this cold, political contract they called confarreatio?

Not that it mattered anymore; my stupid father had dissolved our bond in a fit of pique—which reminded me that we were supposedly in exile from Dad’s court. “Hey,” I said, dropping Elias’s hand and turning toward Luis, who seemed to be getting ready to leave. “Wait. What if Elias weren’t the captain of the guard anymore, huh? I mean, I probably don’t even have the authority to make a treaty or whatever. We’re banished.”

Luis, who had been slapping the back of Captain Creepy, stopped dead. He turned around slowly. Standing in the foyer, he looked between Elias and me for several beats. The humidity stuck in my throat. “Is this the truth?”

“Check with my dad if you don’t believe me,” I said.

“Are you calling my daughter a liar?” Mom added, waving the pie slicer menacingly. I shot her a you’re-not-helping glare.

Luis looked around me to Elias, who nodded and said, “Yes, Your Highness. It’s true.”

“I see,” Luis said slowly. His eyes roamed up and down Elias, as if looking for hidden solutions in every angle of his form. “I must consult my advisers,” he said at last. Finally, as he looked at me, his eyes were dark with disappointment. “Your offer honors me, and I wish to accept it with all my heart. But, if Constantine is truly rogue and has no allegiance, there is little value in such an alliance. I came to make a treaty with the Northern Region, not with one man, a prize though he may be.”

In that
dramatic way that only vampires seem to pull off, the entourage swept out the door and was gone.

When the door shut, Mom let out a loud sigh. “Can we have a normal tea now?”

I snorted. When were they ever normal? The freezer cheesecake continued to melt where it sat on the table. Mom moved to sit, but Elias frowned at the door, his eyes darkly intense. I brushed the back of his hand with my fingertips. “Are you okay?”

He shrugged, pulling away from me. The fan clicked as it swiveled from side to side, punctuating his silence.

“I didn’t mean to offer you up like that, you know,” I said desperately, following him as he made his way to the table to take his customary seat. “I had no idea Luis would just pounce. That was totally creepy, right? I mean, yikes. He acted as if you were some kind of prime steak or something.”

“I didn’t like him,” Mom agreed, taking a big bite of the dessert. “Any of them.”

“It would have been an acceptable pairing,” Elias said, picking up his fork.

“Seriously?” I asked. “Did you not see Captain Creepy?”

He glanced
up briefly, catching me with those silver smoke eyes. He quickly turned his attention to pushing around bits of the cake. “Captain Valois has a formidable reputation, it’s true. But then, so do I.” He took a small taste. “Or at least I did.”

Oh, not this again. Ever since my dad exiled Elias, he’d been moping around, acting all man-without-a-country. I could guess now why he was all gloomy. “If I hadn’t brought the exile up, you could be married to some dude right now. Would you really prefer that?”

“You shouldn’t confuse vampire confarreatio for modern marriage or even the ancient Roman version,” Mom said, her voice taking on that professorial tone she used when she lectured. “I’m pretty sure the whole idea of a wedding cake came from this practice, but we’re talking about a property exchange, the building of a household—or a kingdom. …”