Page 73 of The Assassin and the Libertine
I unclasped the thick black cord from my neck that would serve as my garrote, but before I could pounce on the man, I heard a high-pitched whistling, followed by a soft thump, and then a groaning wheeze. Sade collapsed forward on top of me and we crashed to the ground. I shoved the marquis off me and swallowed a scream—protruding from his chest was a long, thin arrow shaft. Blood seeped out from the wound, staining his brown velvet waistcoat.
Panicked, I ducked down behind one of the bushes and cast my gaze around wildly.Where did the arrow come from? Who else is here? Who else wants Sade dead?
I waited long minutes for any other sound but heard nothing. Satisfied that I probably wasn’t in any danger—the arrow could have hit us both, but it hadn’t—I crawled forward to check Sade’s pulse. The arrow, it seemed, had pierced his heart.He is dead.
Suddenly, I heard a crashing noise behind me. Before I could escape, a man tumbled out of the bushes and stood over me, a crossbow raised to my chest. A long, black cloak obscured his face and his form, giving him an air of menace.
“Do not move, boy,” came a voice from beneath the hood. “Or I shall kill you, as well.”
Irrational anger replaced my fear. I stood, throwing my shoulders back and finding my haughtiest aristocratic tone.
“Who the Hell do you think you are?” I snarled. “Do you realize what you’ve just done?”
The man threw back his hood and glared at me. My jaw dropped open. He was the most beautiful man I’d ever seen. He didn’t have the dark, seductive beauty of Étienne, but rather a rugged self-possession that bordered on dangerous. Waves of chestnut hair fell across his face, mussed from wearing his hood. Dark slashes of brows and long, gossamer lashes set off vibrant green eyes. His strong jaw hadn’t seen a shave in several days, his nose had been broken and reset at least once, and he carried a thin, crescent-shaped scar from his brow to his cheek. I felt my knees wobble a bit when the man sneered at me, his full lips drawing back to reveal a set of perfect white teeth.
“Ungrateful fop,” he hissed. “I just saved your life. Don’t you know who this man is? He eats young lads like you for breakfast.”
Finally coming to my senses, I remembered my disguise and pitched my voice low again, growling at him in fury. “He wasmine.You have no idea what you’ve done.”
Disgust twisted the man’s face. “Yours? Well, I’m certain you’ll be able to find another demon to entertain your desires.Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be off. I don’t want to be around when the guards find his body.”
I couldn’t help it; I snickered at the man’s choice of words—a demon to entertain—oh, if he only knew. My irritation returned, however, when the man turned to leave out the back gate.
“So, you’re just going to leave me here to clean up your mess? I don’t think so! I had my own plans for dispensing with the body, but since you were so insistent that he beyourkill, you deal with it.”
The man cocked his head in confusion. “Dispensing with the body? Wait—are you… You were not his lover?”
I threw my head back and laughed. “Certainly not! I was here to see that he pays for his crimes. I had everything worked out untilyouarrived and mucked it all up. How am I supposed to explain an arrow to the chest, then? I can’t, you idiot! If only you’d let me finish my job and strangle him properly, it would have been easily made to look like an accident. But no! Typical man, running into a situation without thinking it through and then leaving me to clean up. Well, not this time, Monsieur!”
“Wait—your job? ‘Made to look like an accident?’ What are you talking about, boy? Are you well?” He looked at me like I was mad.
“Yes, yes, and yes. Don’t you know? He was particularly fond of throttling during sex. We have numerous statements testifying to that. One small slip and, oops!Quel terrible accident!No one would be the wiser.”
I glared at the man, beyond irritated that he’d ruined my assignment and my evening, and had so unsettled me that I’d muttered on about my plot to kill the marquis.Hopefully he’s too thick-headed to pay much attention to me. Still, it’s probably best to make use of this disguise and let him think I’m some mad dandy.
I took in the man’s impressive stature and form—purely to see what I was dealing with, of course, and not because I enjoyed looking at him—and reasoned he must be the man that Daphne and Étienne had gotten wind of, but that begged a much bigger question.
Who was he?
THE MAN
I continued to stare,trying to make sense of the lad’s mutterings. Who was this fop? In the gloom of the hedge maze, all I could see was a small, lean figure clad in some kind of ridiculous Roman costume; a pleated silk toga, small, feathered wings, and a bow with a quiver of arrows. A wreath of golden flowers and hearts sat atop a queue of short brown hair. The lad had a sweet enough face—big brown eyes, mink-like lashes, rosy cheeks, and a cupid’s bow smile—but that could have been the beauty of youth. Was he a bit off in the head? What was he doing out here? Was the boy a guest of the masquerade? Was he one of Sade’s men?
I shuddered at the thought. If he was with Sade, he would need protection. I started to say so when we heard the crunch of footsteps along the gravel path.
Someone else is coming!
We could not be discovered here with the dead marquis—especially with the young man and his quiver of arrows. I swallowed an oath. I should have been more careful. If I didn’tact now, the boy would likely be blamed for the marquis’s death.I cannot have another death on my hands.I did the only thing I could think to do. I whacked the boy on the back of the head with my crossbow, knocking him out. I slung the boy’s body over my shoulder—quite a sturdy young thing—and snuck back through the bushes to the drainage grate in the wall. Once I was through the wall, I picked up my pace, not bothering to stop when I heard the pair of voices discover the body of the dead marquis.
“Mon Dieu, Étienne!An arrow? It’s not one of hers, is it? Where is she? What do you think happened?”
“I don’t know, Daphne, but I smell someone else here. I think—I think she’s been taken.”
To be continued in book two of theVampires in Versaillesseries,The Agent and the Outlaw
FEMME BRÛLÉE
A VAMPIRES IN VERSAILLES STORY
