Dark Ages Clan Novel Brujah: Book 8 of the Dark Ages Clan Novel Saga by Myranda Kalis

Author:Myranda Kalis [Kalis, Myranda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: vampire the masquerade
Publisher: Crossroad Press
Published: 2019-08-13T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Jean-Battiste de Montrond genuinely couldn’t get enough of the isle and its society. He did, after all, make all his best money there among the high-blooded elite of both Cainite and kine, pandering to the vices of the thoroughly depraved among each species. His clientele tended to be a perversely inventive lot and the sheer imagination they were willing to pour into the process of satisfying their basest lusts never failed to entertain as well as enrich him. The previous summer had, indeed, been a windfall in that regard, and he wasn’t bored once while providing the jaded and the innocent alike with the tools necessary to gratify their hysteria-driven urges. Winter had, as always, brought a certain abeyance to his activities and a slowing of his business, but now that winter was over, he could count on the explosion of spring madness to refill his coffers and provide him with all the amusement he could possibly desire.

It was therefore with considerable personal satisfaction that he received the first of what he knew would be an increasing flood of correspondence from his regular clients. Bishop de Navarre craved his presence on Ile de la Cité to discuss a matter of some importance—which meant, Jean-Battiste knew, that the good bishop required his procuring services yet again, and less than three months after his last such request. The man certainly did use up his playthings quickly. An exchange of notes set the time and place—two nights hence at the bishop’s residence—and gave Jean-Battiste the opportunity to take a quick inventory of the merchandise he had in stock and consult his records regarding de Navarre’s past purchases. The man had a marked predilection for youth.

Jean-Battiste arrived precisely one-quarter hour before the stipulated meeting time and was shown in immediately. He expected, nonetheless, to wait for a considerable interval beyond that time. De Navarre invariably let him sit for a while—it was, Jean-Battiste supposed, a way for the Lasombra to remind him where the power really lay in their relationship, no matter how often de Navarre called on his services. Jean-Battiste found that more than a little amusing.

Much to his surprise, he wasn’t guided into the customary antechamber where he would while away an hour or so mentally undressing the women of the house. Instead, he was taken directly to de Navarre’s office, a long, windowless room completely devoid of anything resembling human cheer, where the bishop preferred to do all his business. De Navarre was already there.

And he wasn’t alone.

Jean-Battiste stopped dead in the doorway, and only continued forward because there was a large, unfriendly young man with a sword at his back and no obvious way to get past him. The door slammed behind him and he heard, distinctly, the sound of a bar being set in place outside.

The Countess Saviarre, seated in what had to be the most comfortable chair in de Navarre’s house, smiled genteelly at him, and gestured him forward. “Jean-Battiste de Montrond, I presume?”

Jean-Battiste darted a glance

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