Dear God, she hoped it wasn’t Max on the other side, she thought as Sebastian quickly buttoned her.
But when she opened the door, it was to find Ilias there. “The sun is up,” he said. To his credit, he barely glanced at Sebastian and his dishabille. “You are needed, Illa Gardella. ”
“I must go,” Sebastian said, standing and swiftly pulling his shirt back on.
“Wait,” she said, noticing the mark on the back of his shoulder. “What is that?” It was a small black mark, intricate and circular. It looked like the tattoo Max wore, signifying his membership in the Tutela. But the symbol on Sebastian’s golden skin was much different, and smaller.
“Beauregard’s mark. ”
He looked at her steadily, and she understood. Her stomach soured, sending a nasty taste into the back of her mouth. He might wear the amulet of the Venators, but he also wore the mark of the vampires. And he would not choose between them.
Before she could stop him, he pushed past Ilias and strode down the passageway, leaving Victoria to gather up her shoes.
“Why didn’t you send for me?” Max growled, trying to shake off the grogginess. “And what in the bloody hell did you give me last night?” He hadn’t slept so hard and dreamlessly for more than a year. Wayren, as quiet and calm as she always was, merely looked at him. Her face was a bit more drawn than usual, and instead of flowing in long strands over her shoulders, her pale blond hair was pulled back into a wrist-thick braid.
Max didn’t ache as much as he’d suspected he would, after two bullet wounds and innumerable punches and cuts. Perhaps whatever she’d given him to help him sleep had also leached away the pain. Regardless, as a Venator, he’d be completely healed within a matter of days.
Still. “I should have been there. So close to Santo Quirinus? And the Consilium? You could have sent Myza for me. ”
“She’s a pigeon, Max. Myza wouldn’t have been able to wake you, even by tapping her beak on the window. ”
“You made damned certain of that. ” He sat up and gulped down a mug of watered wine. “You said there was something else. ”
Wayren didn’t blink. “Sebastian Vioget was in the Consilium with Victoria. ”
Max stopped the mental barrage of thoughts and questions that image brought and focused on the important one. “Beauregard?”
She shook her head. “No, he didn’t bring him. He—”
But Max didn’t want to hear her platitudes about Vioget. “If he betrayed us, I’ll kill him. ”
“He’s a Venator—”
“Then I need say no more. ”
Wayren pursed her lips in a sign of annoyance, but didn’t comment further on his interruption. Instead she continued, “He had Eustacia’s armband, Max. We have the last key to the Door of Alchemy. ”
“Bloody nice of him to return it. ”
“He could have given it to Beauregard,” she replied with just a bit of archness in her tone.
Max gritted his teeth but said nothing.
“Victoria will want you to go with them to attempt to open the door, most likely later tonight, when it’s still dark but nearing dawn. You’ll be less noticeable, and the undead will be seeking shelter from the sun. ”
Ah, yes, he’d be one of the contingency: Zavier, Vioget, Michalas, Ylito, himself. Was that what Victoria thought?
Max realized he must have grimaced when Wayren asked, “Do her bites pain you?”
“Of course they do. You know that. ” His hand went involuntarily to the never-healing scars on his neck. There were new ones, too, only a month old, on the tender part of his shoulder.
“How often do you feel her pull, Max? Tell me the truth. ”
Unreasoning rage bubbled in him. “I don’t want to discuss it. ”
“I’m not asking, Max. I’m demanding to know. We have to rid you of it. ” Now she was beginning to sound like Eustacia.
“She doesn’t control me. She’d like to; she finds it amusing to play at it. ” Bitterness sat in his mouth. “She’s not made me do anything against my will. ” At least, not to anyone else’s knowledge.