Read Online Burnt Offerings (ab-7) by Laurell Hamilton - Free Book Online Page B

petite
."
    I smiled. "Funny, I think the same thing about you sometimes."
    He nodded his head, making a small bow. "Touché,
ma petite
, touché." He stared off past my shoulder and stiffened. The smile didn't fade from his face. It was wiped clean. His face was its blank unreadable mask. And I knew without turning around that someone was behind me, someone he feared.
    I managed to drop my napkin, and picked it up with my left hand. With my right hand I drew the Firestar. When I sat back up, the gun was in my hand in my lap. Though shooting up Demiche's seemed like a bad idea. But hey, it wouldn't be the first bad idea I'd had.
    I turned to see a couple walking towards us through the tables and crystal. The woman looked tall until you got a glimpse of the heels she was wearing. Stiletto, four inches. I'd have broken my ankle trying to walk in them. The dress was white, square necked, form-fitting, and more expensive than my entire outfit, even if you threw in the gun. Her hair was a white-blond so pale it matched the dress and the simple white mink stole curled around her shoulders. The hair was piled in a mound atop her head with a sparkle of silver and the crystal fire of diamonds to frame the hair like a crown. She was chalk-white, and despite the expert makeup I knew she hadn't fed yet tonight.
    The man was human, though there was a thrumming energy to him that made me want to take back the human part. He was tanned that wonderful rich brown that olive skin can manage. His hair was a luxuriant curling brown, shaved short on the sides, but done so it fell in curls near his eyes. The eyes were pure brown and watched Jean-Claude steadily, joyously, but it was a dark joy. He was dressed in a white linen suit, complete with silk tie.
    They stopped at our table like I knew they would. The man's handsome face was all for Jean-Claude. I might as well have not been there. He had very strong features, from high cheekbones to an almost-hooked nose. An inch either direction and his face would have been homely. Instead, it was striking, compelling, handsome in an utterly masculine way.
    Jean-Claude stood, hands loose at his side, face beautiful and empty. "Yvette, it has been a long time."
    She smiled wonderfully. "A very long time, Jean-Claude. You remember Balthasar?" She touched the man's arm, and he obligingly slid it around her waist. He planted a chaste kiss on her pale cheek. He looked at me then for the first time. It wasn't a look I'd ever gotten from a man. If it had been a woman, I'd have said she was jealous. The vampire's English was perfect. Her accent was pure French.
    "Of course, I remember him," Jean-Claude said. "Time spent with Balthasar was always memorable."
    The man turned back to Jean-Claude then. "But not memorable enough to keep you with us." He, too, sounded French, but there was an undercurrent of some other language. It was like mixing blue and red and getting purple.
    "I am master of my own territory. It is what everyone dreams of, is it not?"
    "Some dream of a seat on the council," Yvette said. Her voice was still mildly amused, but there was an undercurrent now, like swimming in dark water when you know there are sharks.
    "I do not aspire to such lofty heights," Jean-Claude said.
    "Really?" Yvette said.
    "Truly," Jean-Claude said.
    She smiled, but her eyes stayed distant and empty. "We shall see."
    "There is nothing to see, Yvette. I am content where I am."
    "If that is so, you have nothing to fear from us."
    "We have nothing to fear regardless," I said. I smiled when I said it.
    Both of them looked at me as if I was a dog that had done an interesting trick. I was really beginning not to like either of them.
    "Yvette and Balthasar are envoys of the council,
ma petite
."
    "Bully for them," I said.
    "She doesn't seem very impressed with us," Yvette said. She turned full-face to me. Her eyes were greyish-green, with tiny flecks of amber dancing round the pupils. I felt her try to suck me under with those