Lucien needed a drink. Something to distract him from what he and Blaise had done.
As he made his way to the refreshment table to grab a glass of champagne for himself, he ran into a group of young ladies. They giggled and flirted, their eyes bright with excitement. He pretended to flirt back a little, to none of the girls in particular, though. As the girls laughed at a dumb quip he'd made, Lucien's gaze shifted towards a figure that caught his attention—a man unlike anyone he had seen before in the ballroom.
The stranger possessed an unsettling energy to him. His pale complexion -a deathly shade of white- stood out in the sea of rosy, healthy faces. His sharp features were accentuated by a neatly trimmed beard and thick black hair, and his piercing dark eyes seemed to bore into the depths of one's soul. He wore a tailored black suit, its fabric as dark as the shadows that seemed to envelop him. Lucien wasn't sure he liked the look of this guy.
