Page 35 of Desperately Seeking Vampire
Ivo patted him on the arm, appreciating the fact that Finch had his best interests at heart. “You’re right, of course.”
“I should hope so.”
They followed after Minerva and Christian.
“A rhyme isn’t at all necessary. Blank verse is entirely suitable for an ode to her vagina. I’m thinking of calling it ‘Midnight in the Lady Garden of Good and Even Better.’ Minerva will appreciate the care I took with the title.”
Finch choked, and it took several minutes of patting him on the back before they could enter the upper gallery that led to the balcony.
EIGHT
“Wow. I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen an angry, torch-toting mob before,” I said when Christian and I stood on the stone balcony that sat above the big double doors leading into his castle.
“Unfortunately, I cannot say the same.” He turned back, looking for Ivo and Finch, who arrived a minute later, the latter with a face that was beet red, his eyes and nose streaming. “Problems, Finch?”
“No.” He slid Ivo a glance, then said softly, “I’ll tell you later.”
I wondered what that was about, but before I could ask Ivo, someone in the crowd had evidently heard us, because a few people backed up, craned their heads to see us, then started shouting and waving their torches.
The crowd roared and started calling too many things for me to understand.
“Whoa! Can just one person at a time speak?” I yelled, moving to the front of the balcony, figuring that since it was my blood they were evidently after, I would speak for Team Vampire.
I’d reckoned without Mr. Protective, however. Ivo moved to my side, and with a glare that took in the whole of the thirty or so people gathered outside Christian’s front door, he wrapped an arm around me in a clearly possessive move. “You heard Minerva. Pick a spokesperson,” he said with a voice that dripped with authority.
I had been about to protest both his gesture and what I assumed would be his attempt to take over control of the situation, but he did neither.
Immediately, the people began to squabble amongst themselves as to who was going to speak for them.
“You’re not going to lay down some misguided archaic line about me standing back and letting you handle this?” I asked Ivo.
He looked genuinely surprised, his eyebrows rising, then falling back to their normal position. “No. Did you wish for me to do so? I am happy to oblige you, but I assumed that since this concerns your cards and your employer, you would wish to be the one leading the proceedings.”
I licked the tip of his nose. “If I wasn’t already in love with you, that would have done the trick.”
“You love me?” A variety of emotions passed over his face: astonishment, gratitude, a smug male cockiness, and, finally, a look so steamy, I wanted to tear off his clothes and molest him on the spot.
I see nothing wrong with this plan.
“Ivo! I heard you!” I said on a gasp, clutching his shirt with both hands.
“I heard him, too, which is a miracle considering just how loud those people are being,” Finch said, peering down at them. “You’d think they could pick a spokesperson without resorting to beating each other over the head with the torches.”
I ignored the fact that three men who were wearing what I thought of as LARP-standard wizard wear, with long gowns, leather gauntlets, and wooden staves, were now rolling around on the ground beating up one another, while the others stood in a circle around them, egging them on.
Only the two thief takers, who stood in the back, their massive arms crossed over their beefy chests, ignored the hullabaloo to stare at the balcony where we stood.
“You love me? You really love me?” Ivo asked, his gaze searching mine.
“Yes, but I—”
“Minerva, cartomancer, come forward!” a woman’s voice called from below.
“Later,” I told Ivo, giving him a swift kiss. “We’ll talk about this later.”
“As well as physical forms of demonstration. Don’t forget about those,” he said.
I stepped up to the edge of the balcony, the stone balustrade cold beneath my fingers. “I am Minerva. Who speaks?”
