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Chapter 8
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The Vampire Lord's Permission Came Too Late Chapter 12
It rained the night Nora had been gone for a full year. I wore my mother's ceremonial gown. My father laid white flowers beside the stone, and Maeve carried a memorial lamp. We stayed there a long time without trying to pretend the grief was behind us.My wound had healed. Some mornings, waking up, I still put a hand over my belly before I remembered. I hadn't thrown out the little empty stool in my house.Lucien arrived last, alone, holding the lamp I'd first given him permission to leave. This time, I didn't make him stay outside the cemetery gate. My father took Maeve to wait under the porch while Lucien crouched in front of Nora's stone and wiped the rain from the edges of her name. He didn't mention another child or promise to rebuild the winter garden. "Nora. Daddy got here too late."Tears slipped down my face. He looked up without reaching for me, so I placed my hand in his. He held it gently.When the rain stopped, we walked home along the canal. Water from the lamp's glass co
The Vampire Lord's Permission Came Too Late Chapter 11
Four months later, the shop had a new sign: Vale Blood-Seal Audits. Maeve moved her testing bench in and became our first employee. She warned me that being the boss didn't mean I could work until dawn. Whoever broke the rule would sort the sample vials the following night.I agreed to it. Clients called me Ms. Vale when they paid. I signed my own invoices, and our closing hours were posted on the door. Checking for news of Lucien was no longer part of every night.Nora's compensation went into a patient assistance fund, managed by two trustees with no connection to the Ashbournes. Hurst brought me its first report. A young vampire had received the vein repair she needed in time. I kept that page on the right side of my workbench.Her survival didn't make Nora's death mean something. It meant someone else wouldn't have to live through the night I had.Doctors could now draw directly on the emergency reserves at St. Raven's. Lucien had surrendered the family's approval rights, hadn't us
The Vampire Lord's Permission Came Too Late Chapter 10
Lucien called to me from the rear corridor as I left the opera house. Old fire damage darkened the vaulted ceiling. He stood beneath it with painfully red eyes. "The Thornwood treaty was finished earlier than expected. That night, I still had time." His voice broke. "I could have gone to the vault myself."I closed my eyes. People leaving the hearing walked across the wooden floor, all of them able to go back where they belonged. We couldn't go back to what we'd had."She said you were stable, so I went to the ceremonial hall. I thought I'd bring you home eventually, and you wouldn't leave.""I was still waiting for you then."He sank to his knees, black hair falling over his eyes. "I'm sorry."I'd waited for those words at Blackthorn, on the frozen footbridge, through every night I'd had to ask someone else for what I needed. Now they'd come, and I couldn't tell him it was all right. "I hear you. But that won't bring Nora back."My father stayed at the exit without hurrying me. I walk
The Vampire Lord's Permission Came Too Late Chapter 9
The Night Court replaced its winter blood banquet with a public hearing. My invitation was addressed to Evelyn Vale. There was no mention of the vampire lord's lover.My father altered my mother's ceremonial gown to fit me, leaving her old stitches at the cuffs. Before going to the opera house, I wore it to Nora's grave. "People are going to talk about you tonight. I won't let them call you a misunderstanding."Lucien waited at the other end of the path with a memorial lamp. Only when I stood did he ask if he could leave it beside her stone. I nodded. As he crouched to set it down, his shoulders shook. "The first time I felt her answer us was in the winter garden. You put my hand on your belly and laughed because I looked so serious.""I know you wanted her. But she was still there when I begged you."He looked up and, at last, accepted it. "I know. That was my fault."Black silk hung beneath the old opera house dome. Blue lamps lit the nobles' seats. This time, I sat in the witness se
The Vampire Lord's Permission Came Too Late Chapter 8
Three nights later, Blackthorn announced Celeste's suspension. Almost immediately, she sent me a letter warning that making more of this would damage Lucien's reputation.My father put it away intact. "Now she's teaching you how to protect everyone else's good name."That night, I went to the Night Court's bond registry. The little building stood between a bank and a funeral home, with sun-blocking boards fixed over the windows. The clerk asked for my registration number, not for Lucien's permission. "The final hearing will be in thirty nights. Until then, his family has no right to interfere with where you live, what you eat, or where you work. Would you like the bond temporarily blocked?"A ceramic ring slipped onto my finger. For the first time, someone else's feelings stopped tugging at my chest.Lucien waited outside. His eyes went straight to the dull gray ring. "The family lawyers wanted to request a delay on medical grounds. I told them no.""Will you contest the severing?""I
The Vampire Lord's Permission Came Too Late Chapter 7
The frame of the mirror creaked in Lucien's hand. "When?""Thursday, seventeen minutes after midnight. The paternal heartblood reached us at one-oh-nine. By then, Evelyn's veins were collapsing. All we could do was save her."I'd heard those times in the recovery room, signed my name beneath them in the medical register, and repeated them to myself whenever I closed my eyes. Lucien hadn't known a single one.He looked at me, barely able to get the words out. "I told you to tell me when you came back.""I did."He opened his mouth, then noticed the black crust of blood on my sleeve. When I'd come home that night, the dressing had soaked through. I'd sat beside him with a hand pressed against the wound. He'd thought the doctors had frightened me and told me to go change my clothes."She was already…""Already gone."His gaze dropped to my belly, finally registering the bandages beneath my work clothes. He turned to Celeste. "You told me the mother and baby were safe."She lowered the cra
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