Let Them Eat Cake by Ravyn Wilde Page B

didn’t look as sullen and angry as he appeared before. In fact, he just smiled at her. Oh, great.

Chapter Six
     
    Luke looked over the theater, amazed at the large gathering and what Maria had managed to accomplish during her time as Sentinel. The side trip through Justin’s mind left him reeling over the discovery that he’d been very wrong about her despotic past. Irritation at his lack of insight, his ready belief in the scuttlebutt of eighteenth-century France, permeated his thoughts.
    Hell—he hadn’t even used his vampire skills to verify her protested innocence back then. She’d been born into royalty, the youngest daughter of Austria’s Emperor and married to the King of France at a very early age. It made sense that she would be spoiled and only interested in her own pleasures. But it seems he’d been wrong. He remembered arguing with her about needing to take a stronger interest in the needs of the common people of France, sanctimoniously lecturing her about spending so much time and money on frivolous pursuits.
    She told him he didn’t know what he was talking about. Luke remembered now how she looked at the end of their last conversation. Sad. Hurt. She’d walked away from him saying he should have known better.
    Personalities didn’t change with vampirism. If you were spoiled and selfish as a human, those traits would grow, not lessen, with the power and time of immortality. Luke wouldn’t have believed the woman he thought he knew could tolerate blood-only servants, or spend the time creating emergency plans for a Vampire Council.
    Those activities would be more work than she would have wanted. Justin’s memories pointed out how wrong Luke could be about someone.
    She seemed to have a very close relationship with her HS’s. One not manufactured through blood and sex, but friendship. The crowd of paranormals before him attested to her management abilities.
    Right now he didn’t have time to mentally review his shortsightedness.
    Luke spent his entire time on earth protecting and serving its population. This Vampire Council needed his knowledge, his vast experience in dealing with the monsters of the world. He only hoped they’d listen and heed his warnings—immortals often ignored his cautions, thinking they would be strong enough…smart enough to outwit anything. And they ended up dead.
    With a heavy sigh he started to speak. “Tonight you have been presented with information on a new threat. This incredibly accurate information has allowed me to identify what you are dealing with. In fact, I have been chasing this demon’s seed across Europe. She somehow switched continents, and over the last several years I’ve followed her from city to city in the United States. The creature that killed this woman is called the Empousai.”
    He waited for murmurs to die down. Evidently there were those in the room who had heard of these creatures.
    Not surprising.
     
    Justin was stunned. Outwardly he knew he looked calm, his military training and experience dealing with unexpected circumstances helping him to control the urge to let his mouth drop open and his eyes bug out. The information Luke shared with them couldn’t be true. He’d said they were dealing with cannibalistic female monsters sometimes confused with the Laimia, another form of demon. What the holy hell?
    They were supposed to be looking for a Greek monster that used to be the companion of Hekate, the goddess of ghosts and witchcraft, and who are the ancient equivalent of vampyrs or Succubi. He felt like he’d fallen down the rabbit hole. Jesus, he needed to go back to school and take a crash course in demonology and Greek gods.
    Surely Luke was wrong. How did he know that this creature was what they were looking for? He tuned back into Luke’s lecture.
    Luke handed Brian and Matt flyers to pass out as he continued. “In the form of beautiful women, they lure young men to their beds in order to devour their life force, flesh and