"Won't you keep it here, Aunt Eustacia?" asked Victoria, surprise lighting her face.

Max did little to disguise his snort of disgust. "Eustacia's home, or mine, would be the first place Lilith would look for it. Or yours." He was not disappointed; a jolt of enlightenment changed her face. Ah, perhaps she did understand the severity of the situation. That the game was not quite over yet… and, in fact, would not be over until Lilith was annihilated. "She knows who foiled her plan, and I can only imagine her fury with us." Actually, he could imagine it quite well. Better, in fact, than he wished.

"Wherever it is kept, you must place it out of direct sunlight, especially while transporting it," Wayren said, "or it will crumble into dust. It is an evil book, and therefore it thrives in the dark… and disintegrates in the light. And before you take it, I would like to reverse the protection on it as well, in order to give us additional security."

"Reverse the protection?" asked Victoria. "You can do that?"

"That is part of Wayren's charm," Max interjected. "No pun intended."

Wayren tinkled a laugh at his jest, and he was partially mollified when Victoria narrowed her eyes as if not sure what to believe. He felt a perverse pleasure in keeping himself one step ahead of her.

"I would like to destroy the book," Wayren added, "and then we need not fear Lilith finding it and retrieving it, but before we do that I want to do a bit more investigation in order to make sure there will be no adverse effects if we do. Or whether there is anything in the book that we might find advantageous. So if there is a place that it can be kept safely for a bit longer…"

"I have come to the conclusion," Eustacia interrupted pointedly, "that the best place is to hide it away in a church or holy place of some sort. She can't go there if it is protected enough, and she cannot send her minions."

"If you do not have a place in mind, I have a suggestion," Victoria spoke. "There is a small chapel on the grounds at St. Heath's Row—Rockley's estate," she added, looking pointedly at Max. "I could hide the book there, and make certain that there are enough holy relics and images to keep them away, even if they were to determine it was there. I will be becoming quite familiar with the entire chapel, including its decor, as that is where we are to be married."

The way her lips curved in a mocking smile made Max's blood pressure rise. He gave no indication, however; just picked up his black stake and slapped it against his palm. It was time to leave.

He stood. "Well, then, since we have settled that, I must be on my way. Lilith will have sent her people out to gather victims for her feeding, and I've a mind to put her on a restricted diet."

He expected Victoria to leap up and insist upon going with him, and he had a rigidly polite response ready to sally off to her… but she didn't. She just looked up at him with those clear hazel eyes in a delicate, creamy face that should not belong to a woman who'd killed eight vampires two nights earlier.

"Take care, Max," she said, surprising him again this evening.

"I will." And he left, glad to be out in the night doing what he was bora to do. At least he would have no distractions.

Victoria wanted to make another visit to the Silver Chalice, but that was easier conceived than actually realized.

Her retrieval of the Book of Antwartha had happened six days ago, and since then she had been balancing the requirements of being the future Marchioness of Rockley, duties to her mother, who was milking her new status for all she could, and meetings with Aunt Eustacia, Kritanu, the waiflike Wayren, and, of course, Max.

As promised, she had taken the book and hidden it under the altar at the chapel at St. Heath's Row, which was the extensive Rockley estate that sat on the very edge of town. Wayren had been given leave to visit the chapel at any time so that she could study it in safety; Phillip had been told that she was a distant relative of Victoria's who was offering a novena in her name for the success of their marriage, and wished to spend time in the chapel.

Max was not so easily managed. He had tried several times to bring up the fact that she'd mentioned Sebastian's name during the events at Redfield Manor, but Victoria had been stubbornly closemouthed. She was furious with herself for such a blunder, but as long as she continued to sidestep Max's inquisition, she could keep the damage to a minimum. In fact, she found it a pleasure to see the annoyance on his face when she sweetly dodged his queries.

It was when Aunt Eustacia began to ask questions that Victoria had more difficulty.

"Max tells me you have met Sebastian Vioget," her aunt commented one afternoon when Victoria had managed to slip away from Grantworth House before Melly dragged her off to another tea. It wasn't that she didn't like sharing biscuits and gossip with her peers; it was that she'd done so much of it in the last week that Victoria felt ill at the thought of more lemon curd and clotted cream slathered on various baked goods. Not to mention the fact that her stays were feeling uncomfortably tight.

And how was she going to fit into a wedding gown if she kept eating five or six rounds of tea during daily visits?

"What makes Max think I've met him?" countered Victoria innocently.

Aunt Eustacia gave her an indulgent look that told her she would allow her to play the game of splitting hairs. "You recognized him at Rudolph Caulfield's home, so Max assumed you knew him."

"I did recognize him, but that doesn't mean that I have met him. What do you think he was doing there?"

Her aunt clasped lace-edged hands in her lap and looked directly at Victoria. "I thought perhaps you would have the answer to that." The indulgent look had vanished.

"I truly don't know why he was there. I was as surprised as Max must have been. Unless Max had expected him… ?"

Her aunt watched her for a moment as if to gauge the veracity of her statement, then seemed to make a decision—obviously in Victoria's favor, for she said, "Sebastian Vioget is very powerful and he could be a valuable ally to our cause. If we could trust him." Aunt Eustacia was looking at her with such scrutiny that Victoria felt her face grow warm. She felt as though her aunt was waiting for her to say something, but Victoria did not know what… and she knew that anything she said at that point would be inadvisable.

But Victoria, at least, had no reason not to trust Sebastian. The information he had given her had been correct—as far as she could ascertain.

It wasn't that she did trust him. It was that she didn't not trust him. That splitting-hairs problem.

"Why don't you trust him? He's not a vampire."

Eustacia swept at her a look that reminded her of the sharp swipe that Max had used to behead the Imperials. "No, he is not a vampire. But the mere fact that he was at Rudolph Caulfield's home, in the midst of this transferal of the Book of Antwartha, has given both Max and myself reason to wonder at his involvement. Victoria, what do you know about Sebastian Vioget? Have you had any interaction with him?"

Victoria opened her mouth to speak, then closed it. Sebastian had warned her about divulging where she'd gotten her information… but how could she keep such information from Aunt Eustacia? Especially when asked so directly?

She struggled, knowing that her aunt was watching her, and knowing that the fact that she'd delayed answering her question had already given her aunt the information she sought. So she made the decision.

"I visited the Silver Chalice to try to find information about the Book of Antwartha, and I met him at that time. He made it clear to me that I was not to tell anyone we'd spoken, so I did not."

Aunt Eustacia nodded once. To Victoria's relief, she asked for no further details. Instead she commented, "If you should have occasion to meet him again, it would not be remiss if you were to attempt to establish some level of cooperation. It could be to our benefit."

With that, Victoria knew she needn't put off visiting the Silver Chalice any longer.

She would go tonight.

Chapter Fifteen

Miss Grantworth Acquires the Headache

It wasn't quite as easy getting to the Silver Chalice as Victoria had envisioned it.She'd forgotten that her fiance was taking her to the theater that evening. And she'd rather been looking forward to seeing the latest rendition of Master Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew.

She told herself that the odd squirming feeling in her middle had nothing to do with the fact that she would see Sebastian again… it was because she hoped Phillip wouldn't question her when she claimed the headache immediately at the end of the play.

That way she could see the program, but then be required to return home immediately instead of arriving late at a posttheater ball or taking a stroll through Covent Gardens. The curtain rose at seven thirty and the theater normally let out by eleven.

If Barth were there with his hackney by midnight, that would give Victoria plenty of opportunity to pay a visit to the Silver Chalice and return home in time to get several hours of sleep before her wedding gown fitting.

Perfect.

And it actually worked according to plan. There weren't even any vampires at the Drury Lane Theatre, nor did even the slightest chill skitter across Victoria's neck during the trip there and back. In fact, there had been a dearth of vampires since the fights at Redfield Manor, and Victoria began to wonder if she and Max had fairly cleared out a good portion of Lilith's army. Perhaps the vampire queen had gone into hiding and was licking her wounds, or, better yet, perhaps she'd left the country.

"Are you certain there is nothing I can do for you?" asked Phillip as he led her up the walk to Grantworth House. He was clearly disappointed at having their evening cut short, but he'd handled it with grace and concern, as she'd known he would.

"Thank you, darling, but a bit of rest and Verbena's peppermint tea is all I need. I am sure to be fresh as a daisy tomorrow," she told him. "And I had best be so, for Madame LeClaire is attending me for a gown fitting."