Page 70 of Born Chaos

And it feels good that he cracks just a hint of a smile. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen Roman De Luca smile.

But it’s just temporary because our world just got a hell of a lot more complicated.

Roman lets out a sigh, his eyes shifting back to the window. “What are we going to do now, Juliet?”

I look to the broken window as well. Hard. Life is just so damn hard. It was hard as an orphan growing up, and it’s damn hard as a vampire.

But we keep going. Because what other choice is there?

“We do whatever it takes to make everything right,” I answer.

CHAPTERNINETEEN

“Any luck today?”I ask as Roman walks through the doors of The Nocturne. I’m sitting at the table in the ballroom. Jon is pacing throughout the room, taking it all in, adjusting to this strange new life that I’ve barely gotten used to myself. Sigrid sits at the table to my left, going through all of the paperwork I brought with me, all of Sebastian’s research. Mason stands behind his chair, his hands braced on it. The expression on his face is bleak.

“No,” Roman says. “And I have every single vampire on duty. We’ve swept the entire perimeter. Sebastian Vincent is no longer in Chicago. I’m confident of it.”

“He’s on the run,” I say, my stomach forming a knot.

“As he should be,” Mason says, an unfamiliar hard edge to his voice. “After everything he’s done, he deserves to be drawn and quartered, medieval style.”

Shit. I don’t think Mason Godfrey has ever said anything so unkind about anyone in his entire life. But his twin sister is lying in a coma in her penthouse.

“Any ideas where he might go to hide?” Roman asks me.

I shrug and shake my head. “He’s been in Chicago for a long time. He’s from Virginia, so there’s a possibility, but there isn’t anyone still alive there that he cares about. He also has ties to Brooklyn, but that was a long time ago. So, he could honestly be anywhere.”

“I hereby move that Dr. Sebastian Vincent be banished from the city of Chicago, save he is captured and returned to be punished for his crimes,” Sigrid says. “All in favor, say yea.”

“Yea,” Roman and Mason both call at the same time without hesitation.

Goosebumps flash over my arms. Roman asked me once if what Sebastian had done was bad enough that I wanted him taken out permanantly. I’d said no.

But things are different now.

He’s hurt dozens.

He killed Roman.

We’ve made Sigrid privy to this new information, but for now, it has stayed between the three of us.

I’m going to confess to everything. I don’t want any more secrets in my life. But I am waiting for Elena to wake up before I tell her and Mason.

Despite everything he’s done, I don’t know how to feel about Sebastian’s death sentence. I hate him. I do. But there are still those memories in the back of my mind, of the times when we were so happy. When I looked at him in wonder and couldn’t believe how well he understood my own darkness.

Sebastian must be punished. But do I really want to see him die?

“I pose a new motion with the verdict,” Sigrid says. She sits straight in her seat, looking every bit the regal, Norwegian shieldmaiden she is. “With the sentencing of Sebastian Vincent, a hole is left in the council. With full confidence and with the perfect training, I nominate Juliet Doe to take his seat on the council.”

Electricity shoots through my entire body, and my eyes whip over to Sigrid’s. She wears a small, coy smile, but the look in her eyes is one hundred percent confident.

“Are you serious?” I gape.

“All those who approve, say yea,” she says without breaking eye contact.

“Yea,” Mason says, and I look over to see a smile on his lips, a twinkle in his eye.

“Yea,” Roman says. And the way he looks at me, I don’t know that anyone has ever had so much confidence in me, least of all myself.

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