Copyright © 2024 by GroveltoHEA
***TW for mentions of abuse***
Heroux still held the gavel, so he pounded it for order.
Just as everyone in the courtroom quieted down, Queen's Another One Bites the Dust blared out of the purse next to me, setting the gallery to laughing behind their hands.
"Turn that off," I hissed at Aullana. I was beginning to understand what Heroux had meant about me babysitting her.
"I have no idea how it happened? Honest," she whispered. "At this rate, I'm going to be adjudicating the trial. We're already down three of the Twelve families and we're less than a minute into it."
We both looked back at where the Twelve were seated, and Lord Petit, who stood just behind Heroux, was glaring at his wife. She wiggled her fingers at him and blew him a kiss. Lord Petit glared harder at her and shook his head slightly.
Heroux pointed the gavel at my father. "Are you making a formal charge against the Heroux, Lord Vautour?"
"I am. I have proof that the Heroux approached my brother, the Vautour, to hire our family to plan and execute the kidnapping of Yves and Priscilla Lâche."
My husband's face was tight.
"Very well. The Heroux will recuse himself and the Bellamy will adjudicate the trials."
"Lord Alarie," the Bellamy interjected, "my apologies, but I feel I must recuse myself as well, given my family's less than amiable history with the Vautours."
"Four down," Aullana said loudly.
Heroux's mouth was pinched. "Lord Jacques, do you have any issues with adjudicating this trial?"
"No, Lord Alarie," the middle-aged vampire said somberly. "I would be honored to."
Heroux handed the gavel to Lord Petit, who carried it over to the Jacques. He banged the gavel and everyone settled down.
"We will begin with the the matter of the Alarie versus the Vautours in the matter of the beating of Lady Alarie. The first witness will be Hugo Vertueux."
I quickly patted Hugo's hand as he stood up and adjusted his suitcoat before walking to the witness stand. After they got his vow to tell the truth, Hugo took the witness seat.
Heroux's lawyer began. "Mr. Vertueux, could you tell us where you were and what you heard on the night of September fifteenth?"
Hugo launched into his narrative, starting with me arriving at the Vautour's house and ending with Hugo carrying me out to the car.
"And can you walk us through the pictures you took of Lady Alarie?" the lawyer asked as the first picture of me popped up on the large screen TV. Vampires were a brutal lot, but I heard some gasps throughout the gallery as the lawyer cycled through the pictures with Hugo narrating them.
"And why did you decide to intervene?"
"I was trying to think of a way to stop the six Vautours. I was desperate and when I heard the Vautour order Basse to heat up the poker, I lied to them that Lord Petit was outside, organizing offerings for the family from the Alarie. When they all left to change, I snuck into the study and found Lady Alarie in such a state I could scarcely believe she was still alive. I carried her to her car, which was parked down the street from the Vautour's house. After I put her in the backseat, she begged me to drive her to Wyoming to rescue the Lâches. I drove us two hours that night before I had to stop because she was in such pain."
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The Vampires #2: Heroux and Odette
RomanceMy father blackmailed Heroux Alarie into marrying me, with the promise he would tell the Alarie where the woman he loved was at the end of three years. He called her name out every night after he fed and released with me. He made it clear he was wit...
