Marguerite saw the betrayal on her son's face as he stared at the woman leaning on a sword in the doorway, and reached out tentatively to take his hand in hers. She squeezed in sympathy, but when she tried to release him right away as he had done earlier, Christian clutched her hand and tugged her slowly closer and a little behind him.

It was a protective gesture and while it touched her, Marguerite was the parent here. If there was any protecting to be done, she would do it. She'd done little enough for him prior to this. Pulling her hand free, she stepped around him, placing herself squarely in front of Christian as she demanded, "What's going on, Vita?"

"Yes. What's going on?" he echoed, dragging Marguerite abruptly behind his shielding body.

"Christian," Marguerite said with exasperation, hurrying around to stand in front of him again. "I am your mother. Let me handle this."

"Mother?" he muttered with not a little exasperation of his own. Pulling her back around, he placed himself between the two women and turned to take her by the arms. "I know Vita, you don't, and I am the man."

The last word ended on a gasp as he suddenly stiffened, his eyes going wide. Marguerite grabbed his arms, her own eyes wide with horror as she saw the end of a sword sticking out of his chest.

Christian cried out as the blade suddenly disappeared, and then he began to fall. Marguerite tried to catch him, but he was heavy and all she managed to do was twist him around so that she was between him and Vita. Marguerite lost her balance at the end, landing on her bottom, but did manage to cushion his head.

"That settles the argument nicely, doesn't it?" Vita commented, and Marguerite glanced over her shoulder to see that she was holding up the sword, peering with interest at the blood staining the blade. She glanced at Marguerite now and said, "I do hate the 'I'm the man' argument. So sexist."

Marguerite glanced down to Christian and saw his eyes briefly flicker open. He peered at her silently, gave his head a very tiny shake, and closed them again. Aware that her upper body hid his face from Vita's view and that she had no idea he was conscious, Marguerite eased her hand out from under his head and stood up.

"Will you tell me what this is all about now?" she asked, the chain on her ankle jangling as she moved slowly away from Christian. "I presume you're the one behind the failed attacks in London and York?"

She was hoping that the "failed" part would prick the woman's pride and get her attention. Much to her relief, it worked. Vita ignored Christian and glanced at her sharply, fury flickering in her eyes.

"I planned them, and if I'd carried them out myself, they wouldn't have failed," Vita snapped, her mouth twisting with displeasure. "The saying really is true that if you want something done right you should do it yourself."

"The man in England worked for you," she said.

"Did work for me," Vita corrected. "I put him in charge of keeping your family distracted and away from you, but he failed that too."

"My family?" Marguerite asked her eyes narrowing.

"Your nephew Thomas arrived in London several days ago looking for you. Fortunately, he went haring off to Amsterdam. I had another one of my men follow him around and try to keep him from returning, however, he too failed." She grimaced and said, "Men can be so useless at times."

When Marguerite didn't comment, she shrugged and continued, "Your dear nephew returned to England and caught a train to York. I was afraid he might pick up your trail and follow you here to Italy, and I definitely didn't want the Argeneau clan interfering so I put my man in York onto Thomas and told him to keep him chasing his tail, or kill him if he had to but not to let him find you."

"What did he do to Thomas?" Marguerite demanded, fear clutching at her chest. She'd raised the boy. He was like a fourth son to her, or fifth, she corrected herself with a glance toward Christian.

"Nothing," Vita said with disgust. "Once again he failed, only this time he got himself caught as well. Your sons and nephew handed him over to a council escort. I had to send men over to kill him before they managed to get information out of him."

Marguerite felt her muscles unclench as she realized Thomas was safe, and then frowned. Julius and Marcus had nearly convinced her that she was not easily read and controlled as she feared, that only whoever had been in on the three-on-one could do it, but if the man in York had done so...

"Was it your man in York who controlled me?" she asked reluctantly.

"Oh, God no!" Vita laughed at the suggestion. "That was me. After he failed to kill you in the restaurant, I hopped on one of the company planes and flew to England to handle you myself. And I would have too if that mortal hadn't interfered." Her lips quirked with amusement as she added, "I was sitting in a townhouse across the street when Julius called me on my cell and asked me to arrange for the pilot to take you all back to Italy. I did, of course. I also flew home at once."

"So you were one of the three who took my memory when Christian was born?"

"Yes, I and Jean Claude and Morgan."

"Morgan?" Marguerite's eyebrows shot up at the name of Jean Claude's best friend. "I should have known."

"We wiped those years, your child, and your true lifemate from your memory like so much dust brushed off a table top," she said with a smile and then shrugged. "But you weren't the one I wanted to hurt. Julius was. I took away everything you loved to hurt him... and now..." She smiled widely. "I get to take you away from him all over again."

"Why do you hate him so?" Marguerite asked with bewilderment. She just couldn't imagine Julius doing anything to deserve this much malice. She had seen him with his sister and he always treated her with respect, but Vita Notte hated her brother with a passion.

"Do you know what it's like to be the eldest Notte daughter?" Vita asked, mouth compressing with displeasure as she moved forward and began to circle her.

Marguerite turned warily, afraid Vita was approaching Christian and would hurt him again, but Vita just kept walking, circling her like a shark. "I'm one thousand years older than Julius. I'm as old as Lucian, but while he holds power and position and the respect of his family and others of our kind, I do not. I'm just a woman." She veered off to pace the room now as she went on, "Oh, it was all fine at first. Those first thousand years, I was feted and trained to accept responsibility and position. I am the one my sisters looked up to, I am the one they turned to in times of crisis, I was the one expected to take over the reins of the family... but then Julius was born."

Her mouth was twisted bitterly as she turned to pace back.

"Julius," she growled. "The great male heir my father had really always wanted. "He would carry on the family name. I was smart, but he must be smarter, after all he was the feted male. Suddenly, I was nothing.

"You'll never know how much I hated him. I tried to kill him as a baby. I sent his nursemaid off to fetch something and set his room on fire," she admitted. "Cutting off his head would have been obvious murder and I couldn't risk that."

"Unfortunately, his nursemaid returned sooner than I expected and ran in to save him. It was all very heroic. She died the next day from her burns. Of course, he was terribly burned too, but he was immortal and lived. If the woman had been delayed by just a couple more minutes, that wouldn't have been the case, but..."

She drew in a slow deep breath, and then released it, her expression grim. "My father visited her before she died. I think she must have told him I'm the one who sent her away and promised to watch the boy. I can't be sure, of course, but she told him something that made him suspicious of me. He grilled me endlessly about what had happened and I admitted that I had sent her on the task, but insisted I hadn't bothered to stay to watch Julius because he was sleeping. That I thought he would be fine for the few minutes." She grimaced, and then sighed and said, "He let me off the hook, but I soon came to realize he hadn't believed a word I'd said. After that, I wasn't allowed anywhere near Julius. I was suddenly persona non grata in the family home, forever being sent here or there, always far away to tend to this or that."

"And he was constantly guarded by at least two immortals after that. They guarded him openly as a boy. Once he reached adulthood, Julius chafed at having guards and they were removed. At least he thinks so, but the truth is he still has them. They simply watch from more of a distance now."

"He knows what you tried to do?" Marguerite asked with confusion.

"No, of course not. Father never mentioned it to anyone. Julius just thought Father was overprotective because he was the only male."

Vita paused by the wall and scraped her nails angrily down the dirt-covered stone. "I couldn't kill him after that. The little prince survived to manhood and took his place on the family throne. He led his charmed little life, having everything given to him that should have been mine, and laughing his way through life as happy and jovial as an adult as he had been as a baby."

"Vita?" Julius asked, a frown drawing his eyebrows together. "But she has never acted cruelly to me, never been mean or shown this jealousy you speak of."

"Your sister is a master at hiding her feelings. So much so that I often wonder if she has any at all... besides her own interests, that is," Nicodemus said quietly. "I should have tended to her back then, but I couldn't prove anything, so I just had to watch you, and keep her as far away from you as possible." He sighed. "As the centuries passed and there was no more trouble, I allowed myself to be convinced that all was well, that she had got over her jealousy and accepted your presence."

"Not completely or you wouldn't be bringing it up now," Julius pointed out.

He nodded acknowledgment. "When Jean Claude reappeared and Marguerite left, Vita came to your side immediately. At first I thought she was just being a good sister. But more than once, while she was comforting you I thought I saw a flicker of unholy glee on her face, as if she was enjoying your suffering. However, it would be gone so quickly I thought I must have imagined it." He sighed. "But I have seen that same glee flicker on her face since you went to England and this trouble began."

"Maybe she is just happy that I have found Marguerite again," Julius said with a frown.

"Maybe," he allowed. "But this was when Dante and Tommaso returned and were giving an accounting of what they knew of the attack on Marguerite in the hotel. They were saying that you were terribly upset and obviously loved the woman. I would swear her happiness was over your upset. And I saw it again today when I arrived and found you confronting and being held by these men. She was standing back, watching with apparent delight. I was troubled too when you said it was Vita who told you that Marguerite was at the townhouse just before you found the dead maid. No one mentioned this to me before." He allowed Julius to absorb that and then added, "But it was Tiny's suggestion that it was someone who could not attack you personally for fear of revealing themselves that convinced me. Had you been found murdered at any time after that attack on you as a child, I would have looked to her at once."

Julius frowned. He didn't want to believe it could be his sister, but this was the only lead they'd had. Surely it wouldn't hurt to talk to her and see if he got a sense that something was wrong? Glancing around he asked, "Where is Vita? She was here earlier."

"She was leaving as we came in," Marcus announced. "She gave me the tray to bring in and said she had to go home to get more clothes, she may be needed here for a while."

Aware that the Argeneaus were all now looking at him, Julius frowned. He found it hard to believe that his big sister could be behind all of this, and could wish to hurt him like this. She'd always been fond of Christian, he'd thought. But it was the only lead they had at the moment and if his father was right...

Heading for the door, he muttered, "I'll go to her place and talk to her now."

"Not without me," Lucian declared, standing to follow even as Tiny and Marcus fell into step on either side of Julius.

"We're all coming," Bastien announced as Lucian and Vincent stood up. "We rented a passenger van at the airport. We should all fit in it for the ride."

When Julius paused and turned around to argue that he'd rather go alone, Vincent slapped a hand to his shoulder and grinned, "Give in gracefully. This family takes no prisoners. Welcome to the family, by the way... Uncle."

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