nions standing in the street.
They were in such agony, it was easy—too easy—to take care of them; but Victoria didn't have the energy even to feel grateful for the simple, satisfying ending to a busy night.
Barth's hackney finally stopped next to her on the street, as Victoria wrapped one arm around her blank-faced, uncharacteristically silent mother and the other around the precious bundle of an ancient tome and worked her way up the steps to Grantworth House.
A frightened Lady Melly was just one of several things Victoria would have to deal with in the morning, not to mention what to do now that she had the Book of Antwartha—and the fact that her engagement was to be announced at a ball that evening.
But for now… she wanted the comfort of her feather bed, and a safe place to hide the book.
And the assurance that Max had survived the night.
As it turned out, handling Lady Melly was much easier than Victoria had anticipated. Verbena, who had indeed flung the holy water on the vampires, prepared and administered a sleeping draft for her that dropped her like a stone.
By the time Victoria woke in the morning, Aunt Eustacia had arrived at Grantworth House. She'd been summoned by Max, who had indeed survived his third Imperial in one night and who had arrived at Grantworth House only moments after Victoria hustled her mother off to bed. He'd come for his own assurances, of course; and once notified by the suddenly important Verbena that her mistress was home, unhurt, and in possession of the object of Lilith's desire, Max slipped off into the night, presumably to seek his own feather bed.
Aunt Eustacia had her own ways of dealing with the shock of vampire victims. Holding a small gold disk etched with a spiral design in front of her niece's face, she spun and swung it until Melly's face grew blank and her eyes unfocused.
"Why," asked Victoria when her great-aunt was finished erasing the memory of red-eyed, long-fanged undead from her mother, "must we do that? Would it not be better for those who aren't Venators to know what the risks are? To know that vampires do exist?"
They were sitting in the parlor of Grantworth House; it was nearing noon, and it was the first moment the two women had had alone.
"To have the panic spread, as it surely would? To give Lilith that added benefit of frightened humans, weakened by their fears? Or to give untrained, unprepared would-be heroes the false belief that they could kill and hunt vampires as easily as a Venator? To have unworthy ones call for their own vis bullae? No, Victoria, it is much better to keep the knowledge from those who are helpless to work against it. With the exception of a very few," she added as Verbena bustled into the room.
Then her sharp black eyes focused unwaveringly on Victoria. "But it is no use changing the subject, my dear. I understand you have achieved the goal which we had all been working toward. May I offer you my deepest congratulations, my heartfelt thanks, and—"
"—And my gravest anger. "
Max, of course, standing tall and forbidding in the open door of the parlor. Verbena stood goggle-eyed and spasmic-haired behind him, and behind her was Jimmons, the red-faced butler, who should not have allowed the visitor entrance without warning. Although, knowing Max, Victoria acknowledged that she wasn't terribly surprised that it had happened.
He stepped fully into the room, dressed all in black, including his shirtwaist—Victoria didn't even realize they made black shirtwaists—and shut the door smartly behind him, nearly pinching Verbena's inquisitive nose.
"Just what did you think you were doing, Victoria?" he snapped, stalking toward her.
"Max—" Aunt Eustacia began, but Victoria overruled her.
"Saving your life… or have you so easily forgotten?" She stood too, upturned face to his furious one.
"Saving my… Victoria, if you had shared your information with me prior to the moment when it nearly cost me my life, the saving of it would not have been a factor! In fact, we would have determined the best way—"
"—for you to obtain the book, while I sat home and tended to my fripperies and furbelows, no doubt!"
"Of course not! It would have been a team effort, with a plan—"
"Easy words from the man who did not share his information with me either! What kind of team effort did you have in mind, Max?"
He opened his mouth to respond, but Eustacia had had enough. She shot out of her chair at Victoria's last words and placed herself quite straitly betwixt the two of them, a hand out in either direction. "Sit down, both of you," she ordered in a thunderous voice that Victoria had never heard before.
She sat. And so did Max. But, she noticed, he didn't look the least bit cowed.
"Let me make this clear," she said, spearing each of them with her eyes in turn. "The two of you are our only real hope here in England, and you must learn to work together, or we will find ourselves splintered by dissension. Now, I am not going to discuss further what happened last night… except to congratulate you both. And to breathe a great sigh of relief. We have the Book of Antwartha, and Lilith does not. You executed three Imperial vampires, Max, and that, I believe, is a one-night record. The most I ever did was two in one night," she added with a twitch of a rueful smile. "And numerous other Guardians, I am aware. Thanks in part to your resourceful maid. "
Victoria nodded in agreement; she had expressed the very same gratitude to Verbena, which, must have, in part, caused the maid's newfound officiousness.
"What is to be done with the book now that we have it?" asked Max easily, as if the outburst and scolding had never happened.
Before Aunt Eustacia could respond, a proper knock came at the parlor door and Jimmons opened it to peek in. Victoria nodded, and he widened the opening and said, "It is too early for calls, but the gentleman would not be dissuaded from being announced, Miss Victoria. The Marquess of Rockley. "
Warmth suffused her face before she could catch it, and without looking at Max or Aunt Eustacia, Victoria replied, "Please show the marquess in, Jimmons. I expect this shall not be the first time he calls outside of normal polite hours. "