Wynn gnashed his fangs at me. "All of our lives are at stake—Piper's in particular—and you make jokes about how I got the information? You should be kissing my feet for taking one for the team. We could all be dead in our beds tomorrow."
"And what a burden that would have been," I quipped, unable to help myself. I dodged Wynn's fist again before Marcus stepped between us.
"Enough."
"Marcus is right," Antoine announced, stroking his fingers across his chin. "This is not the time to be fighting amongst ourselves. We have much greater threats to deal with. Now, if you can keep your mouth shut long enough for Wynn to tell us what he knows, maybe we'll all get out of this place alive. If not in one piece."
Wynn and I stared at each other for a long, hard minute before I conceded with a nod. "Fine. I'll knock off the jokes."
"Thank you." Antoine turned to Wynn and gestured with a hand. "If you would continue?"
Wynn crossed his arms over his chest and stared at the ground. "Apparently, Valentine had a little more to say about us from his visit than just about Piper." Piper's breathing increased and her pulse raced at the mention of Valentine. I didn't blame her. The guy was a freak. "Our master believes we have strayed too far from the ways he has taught us. That we are becoming too mainstream."
Rayne laughed bitterly, leaning forward on his knees as he propped his face on his hands. "That's a bit hypocritical. He's the one who made sure no one could tell he's from Russia, but didn't do shit about his face."
Scattered chuckles spread across the room. I stepped forward into the middle of the group. "So, that's it? He wants us to be more monster-like?"
Wynn blew out a hard breath. "I wish. Not only is he going to be looking to see if we have forgotten the old ways, but he is going to be testing our feelings toward..." He trailed off as his eyes moved over to Piper.
Piper shifted on the bed, her arms wrapping around herself. "Don't hold back on my account. I'm part of this too, you know. No going back now."
"She's right," Allister interjected, smiling at her. The cheeky bastard. "Piper's immortal now. If we keep things like this from her then we might as well sign her death certificate ourselves." He jerked his chin toward Wynn. "Tell her. Let's get it all out there so we can figure out how to leave here alive."
Wynn hesitated for a moment, shooting a look at Antoine. Our head of house nodded, though he didn't look happy about it. Tucking his hands into his pockets, Wynn shifted his stance toward Piper. "Valentine wants you. We all know he already called Antoine and tried to buy you. He's got to pissed that you're a human servant now, but don't think that's going to stop him. In fact, it might just make him even more adamant to have you."
Piper stood abruptly. "Wait, I thought this was supposed to keep me safe? Why'd I go through all that crap if Valentine can still get to me?"
Antoine shot her a look. "You went through that crap so that he couldn't snatch you out of your bed in the middle of the night without a word."
"Oh, gee, thanks. So what now, he has to what? Ask permission?" she snapped back, her hands on her hips and her eyes glowing with fire. God, she was beautiful and she didn't give two shits about who Antoine was. If God made a perfect woman, it was Piper Billings.
"More or less," Wynn answered for Antoine with a sigh. He closed the few between them and placed his hands on her shoulders. "We won't let him touch you. I promise. We are doing all of this to protect you. Valentine and our master can play their games, but you belong with us. Don't let it worry you."
Piper touched one of his hands tenderly and jealousy flared in me. I wanted to be that guy. I'd never been in a position where I wanted to be Wynn in my entire existence, except for this very moment. She peered up at him lovingly, with those big doe eyes, and smiled softly. "I know you will. But I'm going to worry regardless."
"Can you get on with the rest?" Rayne complained, his face tight with irritation. I wasn't the only one annoyed by Wynn getting all the attention. "We have a dinner to go to in a few minutes and I, for one, don't want our master to send someone to look for us."
"Rayne has a point," Allister noted and stood. "We should prepare for whatever they are going to through at us tonight."
"Why do you think they will start tonight?" I turned to my brother with a frown. "Wouldn't they be more subtle about it?"
My brother laughed. "You should know as well as I, that subtlety has never been our master's style. He'll want to get his intentions out as soon as possible."
"Meaning dinner tonight will be the first test." Antoine moved away from the wardrobe and dropped his arms to his sides, his eyes scanning all of us. "Every action you make will be studied. Every word you say will be scrutinized. We made it perfectly clear during Valentine's visit that Piper is ours, so there is no need to hold back our affection. But we must all be in agreement." His eyes settled on each of us, but stopped on Marcus and hardened. "We must show a combined force. They will be less likely to try to take Piper if we show them that they'd have to take us all out to have her."
I watched the silent exchange between Antoine and Marcus, while Antoine talked to the rest of the room. It was clear that out of the six vampires in the room, Marcus was the weak link in it all. He had made it clear that he didn't want Piper here and didn't agree to having her become a servant. If our master could get to anyone, it would be through him.
"And the rest of it?" I questioned, stepping closer to Piper and Wynn. "What about the tests? Should we act the way we normally would or pretend we have not conformed to the masses?"
Antoine stared off into the distance for a second, before closing his eyes briefly. When he opened them, his gaze had the same look in them they had all those years ago, holding a tortured but feral hunger that curled his lips into a cruel smile. "Let us give the master what he wants. And let the rest follow."