by Lora Edwards
Quinn stopped outside the door and took a deep breath. When Victoria opened it, he strode in, cloaked in his usual arrogance, completely ignoring her, as usual.
“Madame, you look ravishing.” He bowed low for the countess, presenting her with the velvet boxes.
She giggled like a girl at her first season and batted her eyelashes at the man.
Victoria gathered up her things and left the room as Quinn showered the countess with compliments and she continued to giggle and flirt. He was the same arrogant servant as usual, always complimenting and fawning over her. Victoria shrugged off his odd behavior. He could have just been toying with her; it was like him to do so.
She put away her things and curled up in the chair in her room. The countess may have been holding her prisoner, but she always provided Victoria with luxurious rooms not far from her own. Victoria chose to believe this was so she could cater to the woman’s every whim and not out of some kind of guilt for keeping her there.
She opened her new book and lost herself in the story. She would be needed later when the countess returned from the opera, but for the moment, her time was her own. She would try to enjoy it and not think of Armand or her friends at the institute.
Chapter 53
Victoria was fully lost in the story when there was a soft knock at her door. Looking at the clock, she knew there was no way the countess had returned from the opera at such an early hour.
Curious, she crossed the room and saw Quinn standing there, a twinkle in his eye and a roguish grin on his face.
“Quinn, how can I help you,” Victoria asked him in a cool voice.
“The countess requires you to accompany me to the opera. She has had—what do they call it in modern times? A wardrobe malfunction.”
Victoria sighed. This was not uncommon and had happened before. At least this time she hadn’t been pulled from one of her rare sleeping episodes to go attend to the countess.
“All right, let me just gather my things and I will be ready.” She sighed, turning around to get her emergency sewing kit and pull a garment bag out of the closet.
She always had a spare ensemble with accessories ready and waiting for such an occasion.
She handed Quinn the bag, carrying the jewels and sewing kit herself. Quinn was one of the few the countess would trust to bring Victoria to her. She knew he did not sympathize with her plight and would not allow her to get away—not that she would get far with the necklace she wore. With a thought, the countess could use the spell attached to it to give her the true death, not to mention the ball she had to harm others.
“She also asked for one other piece I need to stop by her rooms for.” Victoria merely nodded, waiting outside the door as Quinn entered the countess’s suite and came out clutching something wrapped in white fabric.
Victoria followed him out to the car and slipped into the passenger side of the black town car. Quinn jumped in and revved the engine then drove quickly down the long driveway and into the night.
“Quinn, what is the hurry? Is she in dire need?” Victoria asked, frowning when the man didn’t answer her questions and just kept driving.
Victoria rolled her eyes. He was probably in a mood because she’d rebuffed his advances earlier.
After another few minutes of driving in silence, he suddenly made a turn, speeding down a dirt road, the car swerving as the tires bit into the gravel road to find purchase.
Victoria held on tight and frowned again. “Quinn, this is not the way to the opera. Where are you taking me?”
“You will see. Just sit tight.”
Sit tight? That was not an expression the eloquent Quinn would use. Before she could question him further, the road opened up and an old abandoned manor house came into view. He pulled the car up and stopped, jumping out.
Victoria cautiously exited her side of the car and stomped her foot.
“Quinn, you know this isn’t funny. If the countess finds out about this little detour, she will be furious. I don’t know what you are into, but this is ridiculous.”
“Ma chérie, you will not have to worry about the countess anymore.”
The sound of that voice made her knees weak. She was afraid to turn around, afraid to hope.
“Ma cher, are you not happy to see me?” She heard the amusement in his voice and made herself turn.
There in the moonlight stood Armand. She ran to him, jumping into his arms and wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist before her lips slammed onto his.
He held her tight as he greeted his mate and felt whole for the first time since they’d parted.
“All right, enough of that. We need to get out of here before the opera ends.”
“Where is Quinn,” she asked, looking around.
Flynn bowed. “At your service, madame.”
Victoria laugh, delighted, but then the emotion faded. “I can’t go with you—I am still bound to her with this.” Victoria held up the necklace that connected her to the countess. “And there is more you do not know—the spelled ball…” Her voice drifted away as Flynn held up the object.
“It’s what I stopped at the countess’s rooms for.”
Victoria laughed again as Delphine came out of the shadows. “It is so good to hear your voice. I came along to make sure everyone was safe. Now let’s get that necklace off of you.”
Delphine uttered the spell Teagan had given her and the clasp broke, the necklace falling into Victoria’s waiting hand.
She threw it as far as she could, the jewels winking in the moonlight.
“Let’s get out of here,” she suggested. Grabbing Armand’s hand as the others did the same, Victoria closed her eyes, and when she opened them, she was once again standing in the library of the institute.
Chapter 54
“Where is she!” the countess demanded. “I am ready to get out of this gown and into something more comfortable, and I am hungry.” She growled and was secretly pleased at how the maid cowered in her presence.
“I am not sure, my lady. Her room is empty.”
“And where is Quinn? He needs to take possession of these jewels.”
The maid looked as if she may begin to cry at any moment. “I do not know, my lady. We thought he went to the opera with you. We have not seen him since he left to escort Miss Victoria to the opera.”
The countess’s eyes narrowed and she felt her control slip as the maid’s heart beat faster, like that of a frightened bird.
“What do you mean escorted her to the opera?”
“Q-Q-Quinn came and told Miss Victoria you needed help with your gown, and possibly another gown. They left to go assist you at the opera and did not return.”
The countess reached out, grabbing the maid by the throat. Her fangs shined in the light as she plunged them into the girl’s neck, ripping out her throat. She drank her fill and threw the carcass to the side, the body hitting a small table.
The countess wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, the crimson blood bright against her pale skin. She stalked to the table and let out a screech that woke the entire nest.
“Where is it,” she screamed, upending the table, glass shattering as it hit the stone floor.
“My lady, what is it?” A frightened member of the nest stood timidly at the door.
The countess turned her rage on the man. “Where is Quinn? He will take the final death for betraying me.”
“He is not here, my lady. We assumed he was with you at the opera.”
“Does it look like he was with me? Would I be asking for him if he was with me,” she screeched as the man cowered in the door. “Get rid of that”—she pointed to the body on the floor—“and I want everyone out looking for Quinn and Amora.”
The vampire timidly slunk into the room, picked up the body of the dead maid, and hurried out the door. He had been with the countess for a century, always careful to not anger her. She had given him eternal life and he was grateful, but he was not as bloodthirsty as the
rest. She’d changed him as he was a whiz with numbers, and in exchange for his services, as long as she required them, she’d made him what he was.
He would find Quinn and warn him. The other vampire was arrogant and had the proclivities the countess did, but he didn’t deserve to be ripped to pieces.
The vampire woke the rest of the nest and they fanned out over the adjoining countryside, looking for clues to the whereabouts of their missing members.
Quinn was found unconscious in a ditch and brought back to the manor house. The car and clothing found in the drive of an abandoned manor home were brought to the countess.
Quinn was laid out on the bed in her room, the countess peering over him.
“Someone wake him—he has been given a sleeping draught.”
The others scurried to find an antidote, which was then administered.
“Countess, what am I doing here?” The vampire sat up, rubbing the sore spot on his neck, and looked into the wide angry eyes of his sire.
“Tell me the last things you remember. If I don’t like what I hear, it will be the true death for you.”
Quinn blanched, his skin almost translucent. “I was going to get your jewels, as you requested, and there was a tasty bit stranded by the side of the road. She looked like your type, and I planned to…acquire her for you. I approached her under the guise of helping her with her car trouble…and that is the last thing I remember before waking up here before you.”
The countess paced. “You didn’t talk with Victoria and try to bring her to the opera to assist me?”
Quinn frowned. “No, Countess, I do not remember anything past that point.”
“Armand,” she snarled. “He has shifters at his little institute.” One of them had harmed a member of her nest and stolen from her, had stolen her servant and her property. They would pay for this. Oh yes, Victoria would pay—they would all pay. She would slaughter the lot of them.
She began to laugh and laugh, the sound becoming more and more maniacal as the plan formed in her mind, grisly and bloody. She would have her revenge and then she would turn his little institute. She would twist and use it for her own purposes, and those not willing to cooperate would die.
She would watch and wait.
“Quinn, you are forgiven. Get everyone together and packed. We go to the castle.”
Quinn nodded, glad to be away from the countess when she was in such a mood. She wanted to plot and plan, and he was frightened by the idea of her going against the institute as they had powerful members, but he knew now was not the time to try to reason with her. They would go to Transylvania, and maybe there in the place she felt most at home, he could talk some sense into her.
Chapter 55
“Victoria, you are safe. Wake up, love, you are safe.” Armand shook her, trying to wake her from the deep sleep she had fallen into after returning to the institute. Finally her eyelids fluttered and she looked up at him in confusion.
“Chérie, you were screaming.”
“I am so afraid, Armand. She will be so angry, and she will come. She will try to harm not only us but the children.”
“Do not worry, my love. We have spirited them away. They have all gone to stay with Teagan’s parents in the land of the fae, and the portal to Faery has been sealed for the time being. The countess will not be able to reach the children, but you are correct—we need to find her before she finds us, as she will be deeply angry.”
Victoria nodded and threw the blankets off of her. It was time to plan and plot.
“She would never let me know the location of the castle. It is her safe place, and I know it is in a time before electric lights because there are none there. The villagers dress in the clothing of the 1200s.”
“She is smarter than to have it be the same castle where she reigned. She would have bought somewhere she feels safe, but not in her home country…somewhere close by?” Armand speculated aloud.
“I don’t know. This is so frustrating.” She grabbed her hair and pulled as if she could force the information to come to her brain.
“She never made mention of it?”
“No, and we always jumped into the castle. I was secluded when we were there, not allowed to interact with the staff, and the windows in my room were covered with boards nailed in with silver. She made sure I would not be able to share its location. I think she always believed one day I would run from her, and she took precautions.”
Armand cursed. “Teagan is looking to see if she can find it in the historical record, looking for any hint of where it may be.”
Victoria nodded. “I will go help. It is better than sitting here without anything to do.”
Armand nodded.
Victoria walked into the library and saw Teagan already hard at work poring over old estate records from the time when the countess was “killed” and would have had to find another home.
“Any luck?”
Teagan sighed. “None. After her death, there is absolutely no record of her, and it appears she didn’t buy any property before her death in preparation for this moment.” Teagan stood up straighter. “I have a few questions. What language did the servants speak? This may give us a clue to her location.”
Victoria frowned and spread her hands helplessly. “I wasn’t allowed to interact with them. They came to my room to feed me but they never spoke. Their clothing was nondescript and could have been on anyone of that class and that time. There was nothing distinct about them.”
“Her sire?”
“That is a secret she holds most closely to the vest. I am not sure if anyone knows who sired her,” Victoria responded exasperatedly.
Teagan smiled. “It’s okay, Victoria. She is a very cunning woman, but she had to have made a mistake at some point. We just have to find it.”
Victoria nodded and sat to help Teagan. They spent the next few days examining records for any mention of the countess or of missing women but came up empty.
“Teagan, we will never find her this way.” Victoria shoved the book to the floor.
“Temper, temper.” She looked over as Victor strolled into the library.
“This is pointless, no one knows the first thing about her early years as a vampire. It’s as if she just came on the scene fully formed, as if Lilith herself turned her.”
Victor chuckled. “I didn’t know you wanted to know who sired her.”
Victoria and Teagan looked at Victor, a spark of hope in their eyes.
“You know?” they asked in unison.
“Yes. The countess was sometimes a bit free with her pillow talk and it was an honor she desperately wanted to brag about, but she had been sworn to secrecy. She told no one, but it slipped out one night, and I vowed to her to never share the story.”
“So you can’t tell us.” Victoria frowned, the light leaving her eyes.
“Oh, my sweet, I can definitely tell you—I don’t owe that viper anything. I just don’t see how it will help.”
“Any information we gather could be of help,” Teagan said primly.
“All right then, she was sired by the one and only Vlad the Impaler. He was not in the habit of making others by this time, but she seduced him with her ferocity, her beauty, and her charm.”
Teagan and Victoria looked at each other, aghast. “We have been looking in the wrong place altogether.”
Teagan left, quickly returning with many ledgers and records from Transylvania at the appropriate time. Victoria rubbed her eyes and sighed at the mountain of work before them.
Chapter 56
“Teagan, go be with your family, get some decent food, and rest. I can go through these to see if we can find any holdings that link her to Vlad.”
Teagan made a weak protest but then was persuaded to leave the library.
Victoria scoured books and papers long into the night. Just when she believed it was hopeless, she turned a page and found an interesting tidbit.
There was a painting done by a vampire artist Vlad favored, a
nd the institute had recorded that the artist was not known to humans. The scene was a foreboding castle, and it wasn’t Vlad’s.
Victoria felt her heart start to beat as she looked at the letter that accompanied the painting: Vlad asked me to paint this while we were visiting the countess, the castle having been a gift to her upon her turning.
Victoria could not believe her eyes. She had found it, the proof she needed.
Victoria hurried out of the library and down the corridor to Armand’s room. She wanted to tell him in person what she had found.
She opened the door and called for him. “Armand, are you here?”
The door slammed shut behind her and the countess grabbed her. “No, but I am.” They jumped before Victoria could get her wits about her.
Chapter 57
“Victoria, are you here?” Teagan called out, stifling a yawn. The few hours she had been away had refreshed her, and she was ready to get back to work.
“Teagan, have you seen Victoria?” Armand strode into the library, a worried look on his face.
“No, I was just looking for her. I assumed she was with you.”
“No, I…” Armand trailed off.
“Darling, she has come for me. Look at the picture in the library and come—” Victoria’s voice cut off abruptly and there was a searing pain in the mark on his arm.
“She is with the countess,” he said, his voice grave. “And she is hurt. She says look at the picture in the library.”
Teagan frowned and went over to the table, the frown disappearing and a smile lighting up her face. “Look here! She found it,” as Teagan continued. “It says this is the castle Vlad bought for her when he turned her. She was supposed to be dead and was hiding in Transylvania.”
“We must go now.”
Teagan nodded in agreement, grabbed Armand’s hand, and called to Bran in her mind to tell him to follow and bring reinforcements.
