Bete Noire Read Free

a virgin Uruwashi at that. While he could feel Yukihime, she was at the fringe of his ability, making her presence just a tiny little spark in his middle. And the other one… 
    It was Tristan’s turn to frown. “Why wouldn’t I be able to feel a vampire?” That’s what it had to be right? Too bad it really didn’t feel like one. The other was... more alive, warmer. Thicker and heavier.
    “The other one is not a vampire, Tristan.” Very much the opposite. 
    His frown deepened, not liking where this was going. “Well, I feel something.”
    Ash licked her lips, expression guarded. “It is Lilith.”
    He gave a start. “ The pythia ? Why the hell do I feel her?” He didn’t feel her the one time they met before… did he? Then again, he was on the complete opposite side of the lawn from her and half dead.
    Ash shook her head. “I cannot say.”
    “Can’t or won’t?” he asked, narrowing his eyes at her. He trusted her, but didn’t entirely believe everything she said. She had this way with the truth and not telling it so clearly.
    “I truly do not know.”
    He shut his eyes and groaned, thinking he didn’t like the idea of feeling the pythia. That he was changing.
    “Perhaps Shish ō knows why.” Why else would she bring the girl?
    “Great,” Tristan sighed. He really wasn’t having a good night and it’d only just started. “Listen, Ash about what I said before…”
    “We should go out there. I do not trust her alone.”
    He screwed up his mouth for a moment and then nodded. “Yeah, yeah okay. I’d rather she didn’t do something weird like make a hat out of what’s left of my sofa cushions.” Besides, he wanted to officially meet the pythia, even if he was completely weirded out by being able to sense her.
    Ash’s expression went dark. It bothered her just as much, if not more than him, that he could sense her. She had a close, personal understanding of the pythia and knew such a thing was, in a word, impossible. Without speaking any of her concerns aloud, Ash pushed open the panel separating the main living space from the bedroom. Tristan heaved a sigh, grabbed a shirt and followed after her.
    The main room of the apartment was simple and way too small for four people to be in. The place was barely big enough for him, let alone two vampires, even if one was the size of a kid, and the pythia, who was a child herself. Though, despite the small city he lived in, the apartment was considered a palace at almost 320 square feet. Being a gaijin, foreigner, he was lucky they even rented to him. Having money helped in the smaller towns.
    Back in October, the place had been trashed when Malik’s people—read: vampires—had come looking for him. They went batshit and tore the place apart, wrecking just about everything he owned including his laptop and iPod. The only thing that survived was a one-cushion sofa, the other cushion having found its miserable end at the hands of a mad vampire; a small computer desk with no computer and the room divider. The rest of the furniture consisted of a few cheap lamps he picked up to replace the ones they broke and a new bed mat. What was the point of buying more furniture if they were leaving soon? Well, he hoped it was soon. Apparently not soon enough to avoid a special visit from the thousand-year-old Master vampire, Mizu no Yukihime.
    The old vamp had found herself a spot lounging on the remaining sofa cushion, arms laid out across the back like she owned the place. One thin leg was crossed over the other, exposing all of the bright white paleness of her skin from toes to hip. And Tristan could confirm that she did in fact remember her panties tonight. Hurray for everyone.
    She was perfectly at home, watching him with her eerie, crystalline eyes as he entered the room behind Ash. Tristan flinched, almost stopped in his tracks when his gaze found the pythia. Lilith stood in the corner, wrapped head to toe in a thick black velvet cape. Her face was masked in