I rolled my eyes with annoyance. Shut up, already.
Thierry’s attention moved to Veronique. “Sarah knew when you did not. She knew without my having to tell her anything at all.”
Veronique’s expression grew confused, but she stayed quiet, since she currently had no other choice. Definitely the best spell on the evening’s program as far as I was concerned.
“Don’t—” I began, finding it impossible to stop the word that bubbled up in my throat.
Thierry looked at me. “Don’t? Don’t what?”
I shook my head.
“Tell me who you are,” Gideon said evenly. “And maybe I’ll let you live tonight.”
Thierry said nothing for a long moment of silence.
I felt Gideon behind me then and the press of a knife’s blade at my throat. I drew in an unneeded breath.
“Remove your mask,” Gideon said.
“Gideon—” I gasped.
Thierry smiled thinly. “With pleasure.”
And, without further delay, Thierry peeled off the heavy mask he wore to reveal who he was underneath. He let it fall to the ground.
My heart sank. How many years had this been a secret? And he’d give it up just to save my sorry ass?
Gideon removed the blade from my throat and brushed his lips against my cheek as if that was his quick version of an apology for using me as bait. I gave him a dirty look, and then glanced at Veronique.
Her eyes were so wide I swear they were about ready to drop out of her head and roll over by my feet.
Gideon laughed then, still a bit weakly, but with great amusement. “Thierry de
Bennicoeur, the cowardly master vampire who has hidden himself away for all of these years, is actually the Red Devil himself?”
He’s not a coward, my inner cheerleader growled. He’ll break your neck, you son of a bitch.
“I’m sorry for what I had to do, Sarah.” Gideon leaned into me.
“You mean pressing a knife against my throat?”
“Yes, that. And I forgive you for keeping this rather large secret from me.”
I managed a tight smile. “We’re even, then.”
Gideon’s gaze tracked up and down Thierry as if he was gauging the competition and finding him unworthy and vaguely disappointing. “So what are we going to do with you?”
“A very good question.” Thierry hauled back and struck Gideon so hard across his now completely scar-free face that the hunter flew across the cemetery and hit his head against a marble gravestone, knocking him unconscious.
Damn showoff.
“I’ll give you one more chance,” Thierry said to me.
I glared at him. “No. It’s over. One way or the other, it ends tonight, Thierry. I’m different now. And I like being like this.”
“You’re not a nightwalker.”
“I am. I don’t need the sunshine. I don’t need to worry about who I might hurt. I don’t need to be nice all the time.” My eyes narrowed. “And I don’t need you.”
His chest moved in and out with labored breathing. “I don’t want you to need me, Sarah. I want you to want me.”
“No references to catchy seventies tunes, please. This is so not the time.”
I grabbed his shirt and pulled him closer. I could use a quick drink of master vampire blood. Gideon hadn’t taken more than a deep sip, but I did feel a bit parched now.
“Unhand me,” Thierry growled.
“So bossy.” I licked a line across his throat. “Never really cared for that much.”
“That’s too bad.”
“It is, isn’t it.”
He pushed me roughly back from him. It would have knocked the breath out of me if I still needed to breathe.
I backhanded him hard across his face. It was strong enough to snap his head to the side.
When he looked at me again his eyes were black and there was blood at the corner of his mouth.
“Manners, Sarah,” he warned. “The fact that you’ve given in to your darkness doesn’t mean you have to be a bitch about it.”
My gaze moved back down to that stake he held. “Got something there for me, big boy?”
His knuckles whitened on the weapon. “Maybe.”
“You know, I kept having this recurring dream about you staking me. But lately it’s shifted so I’m the one staking you.”
“Prophetic?”
I shrugged. “I guess we’ll find out sooner or later, won’t we?”
“Probably sooner than later.”
“Right.” I placed a hand on his chest and felt his heart beating beneath my touch. Faster than it should be for a master vampire, but much slower than a human. I held up my still-
bleeding arm to him. “Sure you don’t want a taste? I know how much you enjoy that.”