“Yes, I did,” Ruby said in a breath. “That night…that night, something inside of me let loose. All my anger, all my resentment, all my hatred, and all the shame I felt for allowing that bastard to fuck me night after night after night overflowed. Once I started stabbing him, I couldn’t stop until there wasn’t enough flesh left to stab.”

“Jesus.”

“I left for France before anyone got wind of what I had done and ran headlong into the start of the French Wars of Religion.”

“If memory serves, those lasted for almost thirty years.”

“And it was thirty years of crazy. Catholics and Protestants fighting and massacring and rioting like deranged lunatics, and there was no safe place for someone like me. I was a vampire. I was a woman traveling alone, and I was a stranger, and strangers were no longer trusted. Because of that, I settled in Paris, where I could become part of the crowd. I laid low for most of those years. After all, I was in a city with an ample food supply, and there were more than enough nobles roaming about to rob, so it was the safest place for me. Plus, it gave me time to build up my fortune, map out my plans, and take the next step.”

“Which was finding Napoleon?”

“Yep, except that prick never stayed in one place for very long, and by the time I left Paris in 1599, he had all but disappeared. I spent years retracing my steps, years looking for him in every country in Europe, but I could never find him. And I couldn’t risk joining another coven for fear someone had figured out that I was the one who killed Diego.”

“But they didn’t.”

“I know, except I didn’t know that at the time,” Ruby said, giving Bennett a side-eyed look. “So, I wandered around Europe for over a hundred years, rubbing elbows with the rich and hiring tutors to further, what at the time, was my limited education. I also learned how to speak English, Spanish, and German, which enabled me to pass myself off as anyone I’d like, and I eliminated my accent in the process. My goal was to become a chameleon, so when I found Napoleon, I’d have a better chance of getting close enough to kill him. But it wasn’t until I was traveling through Germany one night when I realized good things do come to those who wait.”

“Why? What happened?”