Roux

"Thank you all for coming," Ysanne said, and Roux blinked in surprise. Usually Ysanne issued orders and expected them to be obeyed. She didn't think to thank anyone for obeying them, or imply that they that a choice in the matter.

Roux leaned forward in her seat, studying Ysanne more closely. Vampires didn't get bags under their eyes, or any other overt signs of exhaustion, but now that Roux was really looking, she could see that something was...off about the vampire Lady. Her shoulders, usually ramrod straight, looked ever so slightly slumped, as if she was carrying a great weight. It would be imperceptible to anyone who didn't know her, but Roux had come to know her, and she noticed it.

"These have been difficult times for us all, and I'm afraid the storm is not yet over," Ysanne said.

A couple of vampires shifted in their seats but no one looked surprised, not even the humans. None of them were stupid; they all knew that there was no way life could just go back to normal, not after everything that had happened. Bridges needed to be rebuilt, alliances reformed, and none of that came easily.

Ysanne opened her mouth to continue, then stopped, her eyes fixed on something at the far end of the room. Roux looked over her shoulder.

Isabeau stood in the dining hall entryway, looking as nervous as a vampire could. Her eyes darted around the room, settling on every face, before moving back to Ysanne.

For a split-second, Roux glimpsed a crack in Ysanne's icy mask, and then it was gone.

"We're all glad you could join us," Ysanne said to her former lover.

Isabeau silently slipped into a chair at the end of the table. She didn't meet anyone's eyes.

"This is where things currently stand for us," Ysanne said. "Our prisoners, both vampire and human, are still down in the cells. I know many of you are unhappy about sharing a roof with traitors, but for the time being I feel it is better to have them where I can keep an eye on them. At least until we know exactly what their future entails."

Anger flickered in her eyes at the mention of the people who had betrayed her, and Roux thought Ysanne would probably be happiest just executing the lot of them.

"I have been in contact with a number of Houses overseas, and they are arranging support for us. I expect European delegations to be arriving shortly," Ysanne went on. "They will help us pick up the pieces that Jemima and Etienne have left, but I must be honest with you all." She waited a beat, looking at everyone assembled in front of her. "Our future is uncertain. I have spent the last few days liaising with the Prime Minister, and two days ago she issued a press release, telling the human public exactly what happened here. Except for one detail."

Roux's ears pricked up.

"As you are all aware, some of Etienne and Jemima's newly turned vampires escaped the mansion the night of that final battle. They are still at large. The Prime Minister has decided that the best course of action is to keep quiet about this."

"Why?" Renie asked, and Roux silently echoed the question.

Surely the vampires had learned by now that lying and keeping secrets really wasn't a good idea. Then again, this latest lie obviously wasn't Ysanne's choice.

"When the Prime Minister first advised the press release, I was under the impression that we would provide full disclosure – including admitting that there are five enemy vampires still unaccounted for. Prime Minister McGellan had other ideas."

Roux wasn't much into politics, but even she knew that Jenny McGellan, currently serving her second term as PM, had a reputation for getting exactly what she wanted. In a weird way, Roux wished she'd been in the room when McGellan went up against Ysanne. That would have been worth seeing.

She smiled at the thought, but quickly sobered when she remembered how precarious the vampires' situation currently was. Ysanne's word was law inside her House, and Roux had always been under the impression that she carried similar clout in the outside world. But maybe she didn't have a leg to stand on anymore. None of this was her fault, but it had all happened in her House, and it was the donors under her protection who had been killed. In a political sense, Ysanne would shoulder the blame for that, regardless of the fact that it hadn't been her fault.

"McGellan thinks that, at this point, we need to do some damage control. The general public is already reeling from what's happened, and the last thing we want is to cause further panic by admitting there is anything we still do not have full control over," Ysanne said.

There was something stiff about her words, as if they didn't feel right in her mouth, and Roux guessed that McGellan had told her to say all this. That must grate at Ysanne – having to take orders from a higher authority. It wasn't something she was used to, but even if the donor system recovered in one form or another, Ysanne would have to get used to it. No matter what else happened, the vampires Houses couldn't stay so isolated in the future, and they couldn't be allowed to handle their own affairs without any outside contact.

"Do you really think that's a good idea?" Renie asked, and Ysanne looked at her for a long moment.

There had been a time when this would have been the start of an argument between the pair, but those days were past. Renie and Ysanne had got off to a very bad start, but over the weeks they had spent together – both under this roof and in the few days that made up their escape from an overrun Belle Morte – they had come to understand each other. Roux still wasn't sure they were exactly friends, but they certainly weren't enemies anymore, either, and they had long since moved past the point of snapping at each other at every turn.

"Truthfully, I'm not at all sure. Before I met with McGellan you told me that the time had come for us to be fully honest with the human world about what had happened here, and I agreed with you," Ysanne said.

Renie nodded.

"But McGellan raised some...interesting points. The balance that we have always maintained between humans and vampires is not solely for our benefit. Our existence brings in a huge amount of tourism for the United Kingdom, which in turns brings in a huge amount of revenue. People are panicked enough, and the last thing we want is to make it worse."

"Hold on," Roux said, sitting up straighter. If Edmond wasn't sure she was even supposed to be at this meeting, then she was almost certain she wasn't supposed to be chipping in with her two cents, but she was going to do it anyway. "You're telling us that the Prime Minister is happy to let these escaped vampires roam free so it doesn't affect tourism?"

"Not exactly," Ysanne said, and Roux noticed that the vampire Lady didn't say a word about her and Jason's presence here. "What we must remember is that this catastrophe does not just affect our country. There are vampire Houses across the world, and the fallout of this will affect them, too. It might not have been their donors who died, but people globally have caught a real glimpse at our dark side, and it's not something they're going to forget in a hurry. We don't want them to lose what shred of faith they might have left in us by admitting that we don't have full control of the situation."

Roux mulled it over. She knew how it important it was for humans and vampires to maintain good relationships, and she knew the danger that vampires faced now that the balance had been disrupted. With that in mind, it was hardly surprising that neither Ysanne nor McGellan wanted to make anything worse. But lies had created this mess, and it left a bad taste in Roux's mouth that the House of Belle Morte was going to continue lying to people.

But what choice did they have?

Things were already bad enough, and letting the public know that there were five potentially dangerous vampires running wild really would make everything worse.

"But surely we have to do something. Those vampires can't just be left," Roux protested.

Ysanne lifted her eyebrow the tiniest fraction, and Roux wondered if it was her use of 'we' that had done it. She hadn't had much interaction with Ysanne throughout this whole thing, and there was a good chance that Ysanne didn't consider her and Jason to be that integral to the continuing struggle. But Roux and Jason were as much a part of this as anyone, and she wasn't backing down over it. She locked eyes with Ysanne, and after a moment Ysanne looked away.

"For the time being, our future in the human world is on hold. McGellan will not entertain further discussion until those vampires are caught. I know you all hoped that today I would give you the answers we need, but I'm afraid I do not have them. I do not know where Belle Morte will go from here. As things currently stand, nothing will move forward until we have tied up this rather significant loose end."

She paused again, giving everyone a chance to absorb that.

"Prime Minister McGellan wanted to send an armed specialist unit after our escapees, but I have persuaded her otherwise," Ysanne said. "These vampires must be caught, but I do not believe that sending such a unit after them is the best way to do it."

"Why not?" Seamus asked, scratching his thick thatch of hair.

"Because it's exactly the kind of thing that people will notice. If we're trying to keep this all as quiet as possible, then the last thing we want is to send armed units out onto the streets of England. That will not possibly go unnoticed, and the second it is, explanations will be demanded."

Roux huffed out a sigh. It made sense, she knew it did, but she didn't like it. She was loyal to everyone who lived in Belle Morte, but she was also loyal to all the humans who lived outside the mansion's walls. Every second that those vampires were out there, the general public was in danger, and that was not okay.

"It's more than that, though," Ludovic spoke up, and Roux swivelled in her chair to look at him.

He was staring down at the table, his hands folded in his lap.

"How do you mean?" Ysanne asked.

"This is a vampire mess, and it'll take a vampire to sort it out." Ludovic lifted his gaze to Ysanne's. "Even if the humans arm themselves with guns, they'll still be at risk. Vampires can heal from bullet wounds."

Not if they were blasted into tiny little pieces, but Roux didn't point that out. It wasn't like everyone didn't already know it, and Ludovic had a point. Vampires could be killed by rapid gunfire – assuming the shooter could actually get a bead on them. Considering how fast vampires were, and how strong, there was a good chance they'd get to any shooters before the shooters could get to them.

"There are parents out there who want justice for their dead children, people who want justice for their murdered friends. They're angry and grieving, and adding dead policemen and women to that will only make things that much worse. It'll make us seem even more like monsters."

There was something desolate in the way Ludovic said the last word, and it tugged at Roux's heart. Renie had confided in her that, when she'd become a vampire, she had called herself a monster. She didn't really believe that about herself, but she had once – however briefly – and her gut reaction of fear and anger had devastated Edmond. Roux had assumed Edmond was hurt because he'd thought Renie blamed him for what happened to her, but it hadn't occurred to her that it was that word – monster – that had really hurt him.

In the past that was how vampires had been seen. Myth and legend, tales of folklore – so many of them were soaked in blood and shadow, painting vampires as lethal, bloodthirsty beasts, good for nothing but killing. Roux had been a vampire fan ever since they revealed themselves ten years ago, and in all that time she hadn't given much thought to the fact that this talk of monsters might actually be quite upsetting to the vampire population.

Was that the cause of the bleak look in Ludovic's eyes? Was he afraid that, thanks to Jemima and Etienne, the world now saw them as monsters? Or was he afraid that they really were monsters?

"Ludovic is correct," Ysanne said, and Roux tore her eyes back to the vampire Lady. "These new vampires are likely to be scared and hungry, and that makes them dangerous. The best person to deal with unpredictable new vampires is a seasoned vampire." She let that sink in, and Roux realised what she was going to say before she even opened her mouth again. "That is why I shall be going after them myself."

Roux rarely saw vampires surprised, but a murmur ran through the room, and several faces blanched with shock. Ysanne was more than capable of getting her hands dirty – something she had more than proved firsthand during the fight to reclaim Belle Morte – but wading into the fray wasn't usually her style, at least not when she had someone to do it for her, and there were plenty of strong, healthy vampires sitting around the table.

"You can't do that," Renie said, her voice ringing out over the murmurs.

Ysanne's eyes narrowed, but it was speculative rather than combative. She and Renie might still disagree with each other, but they were capable of discussing their differences of opinion without resorting to verbal sparring matches.

"Why not?" she asked.

"You're needed here." Renie indicated the assembled vampires and guards. "Your House needs you, your people need you."

"And I shall be helping them."

Renie shook her head. "You're needed here," she said again.

Ysanne looked again at her people, all of whom stared back with expectant faces.

"You've worked so hard to maintain positive vampire/human relations, and now that Jemima and Etienne have royally fucked that up for everyone, your House needs you to start repairing everything. I know that you think the best way to do that is to go after these vampires yourself, but let's be honest; there are plenty of people at this table who can tackle that. Only you can lead your House."

Silence followed Renie's words, and Roux struggled to suppress a smile. She loved her friend, but Renie had a temper and she hadn't always handled things diplomatically. She'd learned a lot since coming to Belle Morte.

Ysanne's eyes briefly flicked to the papers in front of her as she digested Renie's words. She was a woman who liked to be in control, and it couldn't be easy for her to take a step back. But Renie had a point. Most of the vampires in this room could go after the escapees, but Ysanne Moreau was the Lady of Belle Morte, and her people needed her to lead them – to be here, where they could see her, talk to her. They had all lived lifetimes, and so many of them must have seen and experienced things that Roux couldn't imagine, but even centuries-old vampires needed reassurance sometimes. If this wasn't one of those times, Roux didn't know what was.

"I'll do it," Ludovic said.

Edmond's head snapped in his friend's direction. His mouth moved as if he was about to say something, and Roux saw a distinct flash of worry pass through his eyes.

It surprised her.

Admittedly she didn't know much about Ludovic, except that he was Edmond's best friend, but his strength and speed heavily suggested he wasn't a young vampire. Roux had always just assumed he was about Edmond's age – somewhere in the region of three to four hundred years old. It wasn't as if he couldn't take care of himself, so why did Edmond look so worried?

Roux didn't normally feel the urge to pry into other people's lives, but this intrigued her, and even when she told herself it was none of her business, she couldn't help studying Ludovic's face. The stiffness of his jaw suggested he was clenching his teeth. He didn't look scared exactly, but he did look like he was gearing up for something he really, really didn't want to do. Which didn't make sense as he was the one who'd just volunteered.

Ysanne scrutinised Ludovic, her lips slightly pursed.

Roux knew that Ludovic had been trusted enough to help with June Mayfield, when she was a rabid and trapped in the west wing, and Ysanne didn't trust people with her secrets lightly. Surely Ludovic was the perfect choice for this job.

Except...now that Roux thought about it, he was one vampire who really avoided technology. Generally speaking, vampires were uncomfortable with many aspects of the modern world, but, from what she'd seen, he was worse than most. On the nights when balls had been thrown, and vampires and donors were expected to slowly descend the staircase so photographers and/or TV crews could get a good look at them, Ludovic had never seemed even remotely at ease.

Maybe it had been having all that attention focused on him, or maybe it had been the cameras themselves.

"Are you sure that's wise?" Edmond asked, and Ludovic gave him a look that Roux couldn't interpret. He slowly nodded, but Edmond didn't relax.

"You realise that these vampires are out in the human world, far beyond the reach of this House," Ysanne said.

"I do," Ludovic said.

"And you still think you're the best man for the job?"

Ludovic sat up a little straighter, lifting his chin. Light from the wrought-iron chandelier played over his blond ponytail.

"I would not have offered if I did not think I could do it."

There was conviction in his voice, but Roux couldn't forget the look in his eyes when he had volunteered – something that wasn't quite panic, but wasn't a mile away from it, either.

It suddenly struck her that Ludovic, as someone who avoided technology, even by vampire standards, and someone who had spent the last ten years sealed up in this mansion, was almost completely clueless to the changing world outside his door. He might not actually know what he was letting himself in for. There were no computers or TVs inside Belle Morte so Ludovic had no idea how human society had shifted and evolved over the last decade. He had no idea how the city outside the walls of Belle Morte might have changed. He probably had no idea how to conduct himself among everyday humans.

And, right now, that was a pretty serious problem.

Ysanne might be keeping quiet about the escaped vampires, but the press release had admitted everything else – June and Renie being turned, the attacks on the House and everyone who had died, Jemima and Etienne's plots. Without access to a computer, Roux didn't know how much the tide of human favour had turned against vampires, but she could guess. There were enough people camped outside the walls, protesting the vampires' very existence for her to understand that things were bad right now.

Ludovic was strong and fast and brave, but he didn't know the human world. He would be completely out of his element, in a way that the newly turned vampires wouldn't be. That might be all the advantage that an anti-vampire fanatic needed.

Roux had seen Ludovic fight and it seemed almost ridiculous to imagine that he had anything to worry about from a bunch of angry, frightened humans – except that people were at their most dangerous when they were angry and frightened.

And just like that she realised that there was a part for her to play in this after all.

"You need someone to go with you," she blurted out.

Every face in the room turned towards her.

Ysanne cocked an eyebrow. Ludovic's face was a blank mask. When he was like this, Roux could study