Night's Honor

THREE

Most of Marin Headlands on the Northern Peninsula was federally protected land, given over to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, but for two major exceptions.

The first was Evenfall, the Nightkind Palace that lay just north of Rodeo Beach, along with a small city of shops and services that clustered around the castle’s stone walls.

The second exception was Xavier del Torro’s estate. According to the directions, the property lay roughly twenty minutes’ drive north of the Nightkind Palace.

After such a sullen start to the day, the sunset turned the sky and ocean into a fiery blaze of color, a canopy of gold, orange and rose arching over water that was almost purple. The last strong strands of sunlight pierced through tall redwood trees that bordered the narrow, winding road, causing blinding patches of dark and light that strobed through her windshield and made driving a challenge.

Light-headed from hunger and the lack of proper rest, she drove carefully, tense from wrists to shoulders. Xavier had not been exaggerating. Once she left the highway, the road had no safety railings and almost no shoulder.

After an intensely uncomfortable trip through the dense forest, the road broke out of the tree line and followed the curving, rocky edge of the coast. The last part of the drive was startlingly beautiful, with the ocean to her left and the forest on her right.

Due to the position of the road as it followed the coastline she saw the estate a few minutes before she came to it. A large, Spanish-style mansion graced the shoreline, with a pigmented stucco facade that was a warm yellow-gold color that seemed to glow in the blaze of the sunset.

The house lay behind a matching wall that barricaded the property from the road for several acres, but even from a distance, she could see glimpses of gracious arches, tile roofing, and large, black-metal framed windows, along with the rooftops of other buildings.

Finally she pulled off the road and onto the short drive, and almost immediately came to a halt by an intercom box in front of huge arched metal gates. As she rolled down her window, a pleasant male voice came over the intercom.

“Good evening. How may I help you?”

“My name is Tess Graham,” she told the unseen man. “Mr. del Torro asked me to come this evening.”

“Of course. We are expecting you. Please follow the drive around the main house and park in the small lot at the side. I will come out to meet you.” With a well-oiled hum, the gates opened.

“Here goes nuthin’, kid,” she muttered. She drove in, and the gates swung smoothly shut behind her, blocking out the world.

That could almost be a comfort, except, well, it wasn’t.

Inside the walls, she got her first real sense of the size of the estate. Several acres of well-tended, emerald green lawn stretched around the main house, which despite its size was gracious rather than ostentatious. Well-placed trees dotted the expanse, along with a variety of bushes and flowers.

She didn’t know the names of the various kinds of foliage, but she could see how everything had been designed to keep the eye flowing from one area to another, like the composition in a painting. Other, smaller buildings were tucked discreetly off to the sides. In her tired mind, details melted into a whirl of jumbled impressions as she followed instructions and drove carefully along the immaculate asphalt drive to the parking lot at the side.

Even as her car rolled to a stop, a man walked out of the house toward her. He was dressed casually in a polo shirt, jeans and dark shoes. While a sprinkle of gray lightened the temples of his short blond hair and his lean, tanned face bore lines at the corners of eyes and mouth, he moved with athletic grace, power and assurance.

She climbed out of the car and turned to face him as he drew closer. As he offered a large, broad hand, she took it, and strong, careful fingers closed briefly over hers.

“Good evening, Ms. Graham. I’m Raoul.”

Xavier had said that Raoul was head of his security. While he wore no visible sign of weaponry, she realized that she looked into the smiling gaze of another dangerous man. “Call me Tess.”

“Sounds good, Tess.” He gestured to her car. “Now, please put your hands on the roof of your car and spread your legs.”

“What?” Her tired mind ground to a halt, and she gaped at him.

He looked polite and entirely relentless. “I’ll need to pat you down. It’s nothing personal, of course. It’s just routine.”

“No problem,” she muttered. “I think.”

Was this okay? What kind of person needed to conduct body searches and car searches, just because you drove onto their property? It wasn’t like Xavier was the president, or even the Nightkind King. But then, what kind of person needed to have a head of security in the first place?

Reluctantly, she turned, put her hands on the roof of the car and widened her stance. While she scowled at him, Raoul patted her down. Despite her discomfort, she couldn’t find fault with anything he did. While the search was thorough, his touch was quite impersonal, and he never crossed the boundary into anything inappropriate.

When he was finished, he stepped back. “Thank you.”

Relieved that it was over, she straightened away from the car. “Sure.”

“May I have your car keys?”

Caught off guard again, she stared, and her hands clenched into fists. Why on earth would he want her keys? She said between her teeth, “This doesn’t feel good. I don’t know any of you, and that car is my freedom.”

“I understand this might cause you some initial discomfort,” he said calmly. “But I don’t know you either. Chances are, you’re exactly who you say you are, and you don’t have bombs, drugs or weapons hidden anywhere inside your vehicle. But I’m not in the business of taking chances, Tess. Think of it like airport security. You have to go through the process to get on the plane. Here, you have two choices. We can search your car and verify that you’re safe to have in close proximity to Xavier and ten other people who live here, or you can leave.”

While he said it with an easygoing smile, she had no doubt he meant it. Her jaw clenched, but she couldn’t find fault with anything he had said, and she didn’t have the money to go anywhere else. Slowly she pulled out her keys and held them out to him, watching his expression closely. “And this is all still routine, is it?”

He didn’t appear discomfited by her scrutiny, as he tilted his head in acknowledgment, took the keys and placed them on the hood of her car. “After Diego has had a look, your keys will be returned to you, and we can get you unpacked. For now, please follow me. How was your drive?”

If he wanted small talk, she would oblige. Looking at her car one last time, she fell into step beside him and tried to get her muscles to unclench. “It was good, thanks. The last part, especially along the coast, was gorgeous.”

“That stretch of road is one of my favorites in all of the world,” Raoul said.

She gave him a quick glance. His accent was indefinable, but something in the way he spoke lent weight to his words, as if he had seen many beautiful sites from all over, which, if he had been working for Xavier del Torro for any length of time, he probably had.

As they entered the main house through the side door, he asked, “Have you eaten dinner yet?”

Hunger had turned into a sharp, unrelenting spike that drove through her abdomen, but her stomach was also tied into knots. She said cautiously, “No, I haven’t.”

Raoul gave her a smile. While their initial encounter had turned her into a mass of nerves, he appeared entirely at ease. “I am to give you a quick tour, and we’ll take your things to your room. Then you will be speaking with Xavier again. When he’s done with you, you can take the rest of the evening to get settled. Jordan will make up a supper tray that can be brought to your room later. We had roast chicken for supper, and there were plenty of leftovers, unless you’re a vegetarian?”

So the tour was their chance to search her car. At least they would get it over with quickly enough and feed her supper. She told him, “Roast chicken sounds great, thanks.”

“Good. I’ll let Jordan know.” He led the way through the house with a purposeful stride. “The main house here has almost twelve thousand square feet. There are also four other buildings—including a garage, a guesthouse, a gym with a pool, a steam room and a dry sauna, and the house where most of Xavier’s attendants live.”

Now that she had truly committed to this course of action, she focused on what he was saying as she looked around. The kind of wealth needed to support such a property, especially a beachfront estate in California, was mind-boggling.

She tried not to gawk too much, but the house had a restrained elegance that was utterly beautiful, with an understated use of simple, high quality furniture in lots of space. “How many attendants does he have?”

“Counting you, right now he has twenty,” he said. “Eight stay in his house in the city, including Russell, who manages both properties. Eventually you’ll get the chance to meet them. Here, several attendants keep the grounds and pool, or they work with me. Jordan is the cook. Angelica is in charge of maintaining the main house, along with the guesthouse. Both Jordan and Angelica have assistants. In the attendants’ house, we divvy up the chores to keep the house clean. You’ll be expected to pitch in.”

She rubbed the back of her neck and nodded. “Makes sense.”

Xavier had said that he kept a small household by most standards—if that was so, she could only imagine what an extravagant Vampyre household might look like.

The setup was almost like a modern American version of Downton Abbey. Except with Vampyres.

There was so much to take in, many of the details blurred on her again. Even then, Raoul didn’t take her through the entire house, although he did tell her facts just as though she were a guest—the main house had six bedrooms, seven bathrooms, formal reception rooms, a study with an extensive library filled with original editions, a gourmet kitchen that was mostly used when they had guests, a terrace off the master suite, and an extensive wine cellar. It even had a small ballroom.

They paused at the arched doorway of the ballroom, which was an extension off the main floor. Forgetting the last of her discomfort, she gave up trying not to gawk, for it was simply exquisite, with a vaulted ceiling and three walls comprised of floor-to-ceiling Palladian-style windows that were framed with the same elegant black iron as the rest of the house.

Immaculate parquet floors glowed a warm golden brown in the dying light, and the ballroom offered an unobstructed view of the lawn that fell away to a rocky beach and the ocean. Aside from a black baby grand piano strategically positioned in one corner, the gleaming room was empty.

Raoul waited while she took in the scene. When she turned to look at him with wide eyes, he gave her a small smile. “Others might say differently, but I think this is the jewel of the place.”

“It’s breathtaking.”

“Yes.” He turned and led the way back to her car. “The house has metal shutters with an automatic electronic sensor system. As soon as the sensors detect direct sunlight, the shutters close. The system is very well built and almost soundless, but I did want to let you know in case you’re around when it happens.”

“It doesn’t close up the entire house when the sun rises?”

“No, some Vampyres prefer complete enclosure and have systems that instigate a total house shutdown, but Xavier likes the views and the fresh air, and it’s safe enough as long as the direct sunlight is blocked. As the sun moves from east to west, the appropriate shutters close while others open. It’s quite efficient, and as elegant as the rest of the house.”

And as elegant as its master.

Whatever else might be said about del Torro, she thought reluctantly, he had superb taste and a certain self-assurance.

As they stepped outside again, the last of the daylight was fading from the sky and well-positioned lights had turned on, dotting the outside grounds with bright illumination.

When they reached her car again, her keys lay on the roof. She gave Raoul a quick look. At his nod, she scooped them up and tucked them into her pocket. The doors were unlocked, which was the only sign that her car had been searched. Everything else looked the way she had left it.

She had two suitcases in the trunk and pulled out one, while he took the second. They walked together along the path to the attendants’ house, which was an attractive building in the same style of architecture as the main house and lay tucked into one corner near the protective wall that surrounded most of the property.

“You’ll have your own room for privacy, but everything else—kitchen, living room, dining room, TV room, etc.—is communal,” Raoul told her. “You’ll share a bathroom with a few others. I’ll show you the gym tomorrow, and you’ll get the chance to meet everyone.”

“Having my own room is great,” she said faintly.

Over the last several minutes, a sense of unreality had begun to coat everything in a thick, cloudy film, distancing her even further from her surroundings. On the one hand, she couldn’t believe her luck, but on the other, sometime soon Xavier was going to want to take blood from her for the first time.

He might even want to drink from her that evening. The thought of forcing herself to let him sink his fangs into her made her stomach clench all over again.

Stepping inside, Raoul led her through the attendants’ house, up to the second floor and down one hall. They didn’t meet anyone else along the way, although she heard a TV going in another room downstairs, and voices sounded from the direction of the kitchen.

Opening the last door down the hall, Raoul stood back to let her enter. As the room was located at the corner of the house, the windows at two walls gave it an airy feeling, and during the day it would be flooded with natural light. The dimensions were on the smaller side, but still, with a hardwood floor, a double bed covered with a bright, thick duvet and an armchair positioned close to one window, the room looked attractive and quite comfortable.

She glanced into the empty closet as she set her suitcase on the bed, and Raoul put the other one at the foot of the bed. While not spacious, the closet space was entirely adequate. There was even a small sink in one corner, so she could do simple things like wash her face and brush her teeth without ever leaving the room.

The walls were bare of any decoration, and they appeared to be freshly painted. “You can decorate it however you like,” Raoul said. “The nearest bathroom is across the hall and two doors back toward the stairs.”

One window faced the main house. She looked out the other window at a cluster of sheltering pines. To the right, she could just see the edge of the property wall as it ended at the top of the bluff, and beyond the pines, she caught a silvery glimmer of water.

She had been living with such a sense of desperation for the last week, but here, she caught a glimpse of the possibility of another life, one where she might be able to find a sense of peace in this quiet place.

That had to be as much of an illusion as the impression of safety in the false daylight created by the lights in the city.

But if it was an illusion, she was too tired to resist it. For a moment, simple wonder overcame all other concerns. The setup was so idyllic she almost expected fat, happy bunnies to hop across the rich, thick carpet of lawn.

Touching the corner of the bright, soft duvet, she muttered, “This is amazing.”

Raoul regarded her for a moment, his expression inscrutable. “I’m glad you approve,” he said. “Now it’s time for your meeting with Xavier. Do you need a moment before we head back to the main house?”

It took her a few heartbeats to realize he was asking, in the politest way possible, if she needed to use the bathroom. She shook her head. “No, thanks.”

“Very well, come with me.”

They fell silent as they walked back to the main house. Full night had fallen, soft as a black feather, and the temperature had plummeted again. A breeze blew steadily off the ocean, feeling wet and icy. Raoul didn’t appear to be uncomfortable in his shirtsleeves, but she shivered and wrapped her arms around her middle, and tried not to think about what might happen in the next fifteen minutes.

A muscle in her jaw was tired from being clenched so much over the last couple of days.

This is my choice, she thought. Nobody is going to be taking anything away from me that I haven’t willingly bargained for, and it’s even an excellent bargain. After all, what’s a little bloodletting between friends?

As Raoul opened the back door, she asked, “How long have you been with Xavier?”

“Forty-eight years.”

Her head snapped up, and she stared at him. He looked like he was approaching fifty, but that couldn’t be accurate.

He gave her a faint smile. “In case you were wondering, I’m seventy-five.”

“So, you must like it. Working for him, I mean.” Arms clamped tighter around her middle, she stepped inside, and he followed.

“I wouldn’t be anywhere else. Xavier is not just my patron, he’s my friend.”

She took a moment to mull that over. “But you’re still human.”

“Yes. He’s offered to turn me several times, but I like being human. I enjoy food, and the warmth of the sun, and I’m not afraid of dying. That’s going to be hard on him.”

Raoul said the words so simply, even with compassion, and the picture they painted threw Xavier into an entirely new light. He might be one of the deadliest monsters she had ever met, but the property and his house showed that he had exquisite taste, and apparently he also had feelings.

Her back stiffened. She didn’t want to know that about him, nor did she want for it to affect how she thought or felt.

They walked to the study, where a crack of light shone underneath the door. Raoul raised his hand to knock.

Stop, wait, Tess wanted to say. Don’t let him know we’re here.

But it was a foolish impulse, and she swallowed the words. Xavier already knew they were there. He had probably tracked them from the moment they had stepped outside the attendants’ house.

Raoul’s fist fell. He rapped lightly on the door panel.

The last two weeks had been filled with a series of decisions and choices. She had betrayed Malphas to save a spoiled, ungrateful boy, and then she had run away, as hard and fast as she could go.

Even though she knew everything had happened as a continuous stream of events, somehow, as she watched Raoul knock on Xavier’s door, she felt that this was the defining moment.

The door would open, and her life would become categorized by everything that either came before this moment, or after it.

From within the room, the Vampyre said quietly, “Come in.”

Just the sound of his voice caused her heart rate to accelerate, and her hands to shake. Raoul opened the door, pushed it wide and beckoned her forward.

She made her trembling legs move, and she stepped over the threshold and into her future.

There were so many books. Feeling dazed, her gaze swept around the large space. The room was located on the opposite side of the house from the ballroom, and the outside three walls were covered with floor to ceiling bookcases interspersed with tall windows, except for an elegant fireplace that dominated one end.

Aside from two doors, one of which she had just walked through, the interior wall was completely covered in bookcases that were filled with leather-bound books that looked old. They looked like they could be first editions.

Opposite that, between the windows, the bookcase was filled with modern paperbacks, both fiction and nonfiction. At one end of the room near the fireplace, aged leather couches and chairs had been grouped together to make a sitting area, while a large antique desk with a top-of-the-line computer took pride of place at the other end.

The study was on the north side of the house, she realized, and as such, it wouldn’t get any direct sunlight throughout the year.

Nearest the fireplace where a bright fire blazed, Xavier sat in one of the leather armchairs, reading. Dressed simply in black slacks and a white shirt, he wore the cuffs of his sleeves rolled to midway up his forearms. His chestnut hair was neatly combed back and tied at the nape of his neck.

As she stepped into the room, he set his book aside on a polished end table and rose to his feet, his erect, slim form as elegant as his surroundings.

At his simple, lithe movement, her mouth dried out and her heart started pounding.

He cocked his head as he regarded her, looking much as he had the night before, with his face expressionless and gray-green eyes intent. “You can’t do this in half measures, Ms. Graham. Come all the way in and shut the door behind you.”