She dropped onto all fours, crawling toward me, but I held up a hand.
“As touching as your welcome gift is, Celia was in the middle of telling me why the fuck I’m awake.”
“Allow me to share the good news,” Sebastian told Celia, who tipped her head in agreement. But while Sebastian’s grin remained, her lips formed a grim slash.
Anything that amused my brother and worried Celia was likely to piss me off.
“I’ll check in with the airfield to make sure we’re on track.” She hurried out.
I’d never seen her avoid anything with such utter anxiety. I didn’t understand it. Unless there had been a financial catastrophe, the Rousseaux family name still meant open doors and swiftly snipped red tape. The jet would be ready to take me to whatever private residence my mother currently occupied as soon as I summoned it. Our family had over fifty properties spread throughout the world, the results of a real estate portfolio that stretched back several centuries. We employed private pilots, owned multiple airplanes, and could buy whatever we wanted by simply snapping our fingers. So Celia didn’t need to check with the airfield. She was putting a safe distance between us before my brother dropped a bomb.
This was going to be bad fucking news.
“What does mother want now?” I asked him as soon as Celia had left. The blonde girl lay down at the foot of the bed and fell asleep, looking a bit like a house cat. He must have fed her a fair bit of vampire venom before bringing her here. She was stoned out of her mind.
“Always straight to business.” Sebastian dropped into a linen chair by the bank of windows. “Not even a little interested in what I’ve been up to?”
“Women and drugs, I assume.” Probably a few men, for that matter. But I didn’t bother to say it aloud. Sebastian’s appetite was always open to new experiences, as was his bed.
“I had another band for a bit.” Sebastian tilted his head thoughtfully. “Mostly because of the women and drugs. Then again, everyone had a band in the nineties. It was like the sixties all over again.”
“I’m sorry I missed it,” I bit out. I was not, in fact, sorry. Immortality hadn’t gifted Sebastian with musical talent. Thanks to his obsession with the art, I’d sat through a couple of failed symphonies and one horrible opera. Punk had been okay for him since it mostly involved screaming.
“Oh, and these are big now.” He tossed a small black object toward me.
I caught it in my right hand and studied it for a second. When I turned it over, an image lit up along with a display of the time and neat rows of small icons. “What is it?”
“Phone,” he explained.
“This is a phone?” I shook my head. “That’s what humanity has been up to? Tell me that they at least cured cancer.”
“It’s also a camera,” Sebastian continued, sprawling in the chair. “And the internet. Wait, fuck, was that even a thing when you took your little nap?”
It must be show-and-tell hour. I dropped the phone on the bed. It felt fragile, but I doubted it was too complicated to figure out. Later, I’d get a less narcissistic rundown of the major political, technological, and cultural events I’d missed from Celia. For now, I needed to steer Sebastian’s ego in the right direction.
“So, why are you here?” I asked.
His mouth curved into a feline smirk. “Mother wants to catch up.”
“I better not be awake because mommy had a bout of sentimentality.” Those never ended well. The last time the entire Rousseaux clan was in the same city, we’d drawn local attention. By the time we’d realized it, it was too late.
“Oh no, it is an official summons.” The smile grew wider, displaying a dazzling set of white teeth that could disarm and dismember within seconds. “I’ll give you a hint. It’s been about fifty years since the last one.”
I picked up the phone again and looked at the screen again. Under the time was a date. I groaned when I read October. Fifty years. October. It was all adding up. I didn’t know why I thought I would get out of it. Nothing could stop it.
I’d gone to sleep expecting humanity to put the final nail in Earth’s coffin while I was out. They’d been heading toward total devastation at a breakneck speed back then. I couldn’t stand watching it any longer. But now that I was here, not dead, facing the looming threat of the vampire social season instead, I wished they had. Armageddon would have been more fun.
“Fuck,” I groaned. “Just stake me. I’ll write you a note that says I asked you to.”
“Cheer up, brother.” His eyes glinted, which only made me dread what he was about to say more. “It’s not just any season this year. The Rites are being revived. You know what that means.”
Now I understood my brother’s smugness. It wasn’t just any social season. Not for the Rousseaux family. Not for me. The Rites changed everything. While vampires held a social season every fifty years to catch up and show off the wealth and numbers they’d accumulated since the last season, the Rites were more like an archaic mating ritual. Traditionally, they were held every couple of centuries. During the Rites, vampires dined with–and on–familiars, the descendants of once-powerful witches. Both groups came seeking matches that might produce new pureblood vampires, encourage alliances, and pad already swelling egos. It had fallen out of fashion by the twentieth century. It appeared something had changed while I was asleep.
“Don’t look so pleased with yourself,” I warned him. “Someday, it will be your turn.”
“I figure I’ve got a couple hundred years unless you fuck this up.”
I overlooked the barb, but ignoring the summons from our mother would be impossible. We both knew that.
“A Rousseaux answers when duty calls,” I reminded him, even as I reached for the blonde, suddenly interested in a distraction.
“Still better you than me. I’ll leave you two alone.” Sebastian stood and walked toward the open door. He stopped just short of it. “Try not to drain her. I promised her I wouldn’t kill her. See you at home.”
He left as she climbed onto my lap. I didn’t know if I was going to bite her or fuck her. Judging by the way the woman craned her head, she was ready for anything. She was pretty, in an artificial way. But there was altogether too much of, well, everything. Maybe Sebastian was still chasing the excess of the eighties, or perhaps he thought it might bridge the gap between when I had gone to sleep and the current year. Either way, I didn’t care. She was willing, and her blood was warm.
I barely processed as she sank onto me and began to moan. I had other problems to worry about, and even a pretty blonde riding my cock wasn’t enough to take my mind off them. They had enacted the Rites. That meant it was worse than tedious parties and pissing contests. There were strings attached. It had been at least two hundred years since the last time that had been necessary. Our older sister had been alive then, and the duty had fallen on her to attend the balls and orgies and all the general mayhem the elite of vampire society could concoct in the name of matchmaking. Now it was my fucking turn.
I, Julian Rousseaux, had to take a wife.
CHAPTER TWO
THEA
Someday I would be on time.
Today was not that day.
The sun had already set by the time I raced through the back entrance of the Herbst Theatre. I was in such a hurry that I accidentally banged into a catering cart with my cello case. I squeaked, stopping to check that I had not destroyed any of the dishes. Thankfully, the chocolate tarts looked sinfully perfect still. A familiar pair of brown eyes peeked around the three-tiered dish of pastries, and I heard a sigh.
