Rising Son (The Juliana Lucio Series) by L.C. DeCarlo Page A

William half joking.
    “There are no coups or uprising within the Council, there are no resignations, only a silver stake in the heart for trying it,” he told me seriously.
    “Got it,” I replied solemnly, “and you are sure these are the good guys?”
    I silently wondered what my own fate would be at the end of this meeting. I could understand what the Council was working for, and that they were trying to prevent a vampire-human war, but the measures they went to to keep their soldiers in line was a little extreme for my liking.
    Ana spent the next few days dressing me at various desi gner shops; I swear she was in h eaven. We went to the Magnificent Mile in downtown Chicago and spent most of our time looking through the racks to find something suitable to meet the head of the entire vampire community.
    “I hate shopping off the rack,” Ana told me as she was pushing her way through various dresses and skirts at Michael Kors. “I guess we don’t have much time before we have to leave though, so it leaves us no other choice.” She threw a few dresses in my direction without looking to see if I was still there.
    “Hey, where’s the rest of it?” I asked her while holding up a very small, off the shoulder charcoal colored dress.
    “That is all of it. You’ll look great in it.”
    “Yeah, but what’s going to cover the bottom half of me? I can’t wear something like this.”
    “Sure you can , you have the legs for it, and besides it’ll be perfect for fighting if it comes to that. You can kick, run and move it in.”
    “Yeah, while flashing everyone within eyeshot,” I replied incredulously trying to hand it back to her.
    “If it comes down to that it won’t really matter will it? Besides nothing will happen while we’re there, William and I are just being paranoid. Try it on , I’m sure it will look great.”
    Realizing I wasn’t getting out of there until I at least tried the thing on, I left her to find a dressing room. She was right, it fit like a glove. The sequin-like look to the material made the light hit in all the right places really showing off my curves, the short cut made my legs look long and lean. It would look even better with some heels on.
    “You were right, I’ll get it. Do you want to look at some shoes before we go?”
    “No you can wear some of my silver heeled ones at home. I even have some Michael Kors black stilettos that will look great with it.” Ana had an entire shelf of shoes in the weapons room that she had taken the heel out of and replaced with a silver stake. She was always armed, even if you couldn’t see it.
    “Nothing like fashion in the name of weaponry,” I said wryly.
    We made it back to the house in no time and I went upstairs to put my bags away. Even though this wasn’t a trip any of us were looking forward to, it was going to be a nice change in scenery. I hadn’t really been out at all really since I was turned. If we could avoid any violence this could actually be fun. Who was I kidding, with William still giving me the cold shoulder, and Ana flipping back and forth between being a Pyscho Sire one minute and infatuated with me the next; this was going to be a tense weekend at best, even without dealing with the Council.
    I came downstairs to find Ana waiting for me.
    “What’s going on?”
    “I need to show you something in the basement,” she said turning to head downstairs.
    “Why? What’s going on?”
    I hadn’t budged, I knew something was up. I could also tell I wasn’t going to like it from the tension she was radiating.
    “Ana, where’s William?” I yelled after her.
    “Come down here and see.”
    “Dammit, I hate going into the basement. Nothing good ever comes out of going into the basement,” I was mumbling to myself as I, of course, was on my way down into the basement.
    I got there to find Ana standing near a man and woman, a human man and woman.
    “Ana? What’s going on? I thought you said William was down