When Twilight Burns by Colleen Gleason

Author:Colleen Gleason [Gleason, Colleen]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: *
ISBN: 9781436239042
Goodreads: 7004516
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
Published: 2008-07-31T22:00:00+00:00

Fourteen

Victoria Faces the Music

“I never thought to see you in such a state, Vioget. If there’s one woman who can take care of herself, it’s Victoria,” Pesaro drawled.

Sebastian turned away from the supercilious prick, who lounged long and dark in an armchair, a book open in his lap. Not only was his neck cloth a disgrace, but he looked supremely unconcerned about the fact that Victoria seemed to have disappeared. The hackney driver, Barth, claimed he’d let her off a block away from the house in the early afternoon… but no one had seen or heard from her since.

But what did he expect from Max Pesaro? The man was utterly useless except for slinging insults and veiled comments now that he’d lost his Venator powers.

He was an unfeeling bastard, but he’d made his opinions clear to Sebastian last night, when Victoria left them alone in the carriage.

I’ll be gone soon. You’ll need to stay with Victoria. I know you loved Giulia, and though you may not believe it, so did I.

The sentiment had been implicit: take care of Victoria without overtly taking care of her. It smacked of Pilate, but Sebastian’s annoyance grew from the fact that Pesaro felt it necessary to make it an order. Yet, the fact that Pesaro had felt the conversation a necessity at all made it clear that Sebastian’s warning to Victoria had been accurate: He doesn’t want anyone.

“You’d be better off learning that now,” Pesaro continued, holding a glass of brandy that was as full as it had been when poured. “She doesn’t need to be taken care of. Nor does she desire it.” But take care of her regardless.

Sebastian took a drink of his own liquor instead of replying the way he wanted to. He was better equipped to know Victoria’s desires than Pesaro was, by God. Once he swallowed the burning liquid and leashed his instinctive response, he replied, “That may be the case-which remains to be seen-but since I’ve been in such close proximity to her, I’ve noticed that all is not well. She’s acting differently.”

Pesaro glanced sharply toward the door, and Sebastian stilled for a moment. Had that been a sound in the front entrance? By silent communion, they waited for another beat, but they heard nothing else.

Sebastian sipped again, rolling the brandy over his tongue. Unease tickled when he looked at the clock and saw that it was midnight.

“Differently?” Pesaro sounded bored, but Sebastian noticed that he was resting the glass on the table next to him.

He could barely stand the sight of Pesaro sometimes, for the shape and color of the man’s dark eyes reminded him of Giuilia’s, along with the sharp peaks that formed the dip in his upper lip. On her, the Pesaro eyes had been huge and overwhelming in her pale, delicate face, and her lower lip a lush complement to the well-formed upper one…

Giulia had been a sickly girl, thin and delicate, with a cough that never seemed to ease. Sebastian had fallen completely, foolishly in love with her the first time he laid eyes on her at fifteen.

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