by Heather Long
Fuck.
Me.
Maybe there was something to this vampire schtick.
Chapter 7
“‘I don’t believe in magic,’ the young boy said. The old man smiled. ‘You will when you see her.’” - Atticus
Fin
“Droch chrích ort.” Fin glared at the gaping hole in the wall through which Rogue vanished with their prize.
Maddox kicked a body away from him as he followed Fin’s stare, then scowled at Fin.
“It’s not my fault,” Fin argued.
“No?” Maddox half-growled, half-rumbled. “Whose idea was it to bring him into the middle of this?”
“I stand by that idea.” With a wave of his hand to the stacks of bodies around him, Fin paused, then pulled a handkerchief out of his inner pocket and began to clean the blood from his fingers as they made their way out. “It worked, didn’t it?”
For his part, the surly dragon just grunted. “Where did he take her?”
Concentrating, Fin focused on the feel of his brother and where he might have gone. At the moment, there was a blankness to his presence. Out there, but just beyond perception. Rogue didn’t want to be found immediately.
Probably protecting their prize. They’d only waited a few hundred years for her to be found, and the first word they get of her, she’s trapped in a prison with a shadow demon feeding on her.
Not ideal.
Still…
The white square turned crimson as he continued cleaning his hands. They met no resistance as they made their way down the mountain. Finding vulnerable access points to the prison warded by magic and layered with the power of far too many dimensions to sit in just one had required all of Maddox’s skills. Dragons kept their hoards in similar pockets, so he’d at least had a starting point.
Fin had been the one to confirm the vulnerability after Maddox located it. Maddox wasn’t in a rush, if Fin didn’t know better, he would suspect him of wanting the warden and his guards to pursue them here.
The prison might very well restore some of them. If they decided to follow, they wouldn’t recover so easily if at all.
“Well?” Maddox demanded.
“He’s blocking me at the moment.” As much as he didn’t want to admit it.
“Of course, he is. I made that woman a promise.” The last came out through gritted teeth.
“How do you think I feel?” Fin turned it back on him. “She was supposed to sleep with me tonight.” That, and she was hurting from lack of sustenance. The shadow addiction needed to be dealt with as well. Though Fin didn’t doubt for an instant that Rogue couldn’t handle her need to feed.
Conversation, on the other hand? Yeah, he wouldn’t place any bets on that.
“He’d take her to the keep.”
“No one goes to the keep anymore,” Maddox argued. “We abandoned it fifty years after I turned.”
“Which is why he would take her there.”
Maddox understood hunting others, but he’d never had to hunt the rest of them. Why would he? They’d been friends, allies, and occasionally competitors for centuries. Time wore away the harsher edge of their disagreements, and they learned to seek each other out when they wanted the company and to ignore each other when they didn’t. “Rogue always liked the keep. It’s defensible. High in the mountains. We still own all of the land and the territory. It’s never been developed. Urban expansionism won’t reach there. The villages on the other side of the mountain are well tended and looked after. They have no reason to come looking for us.”
There was another reason Rogue would have taken her there. If Maddox put away his rage for a few minutes, that would hit him, too.
“That’s halfway around the world,” he argued. “She was already weak.”
“And craving,” Fin confirmed. They were nearly a mile down the mountainside, and there was no sign of pursuit. A fact Maddox had obviously noticed as his agitation increased. “Rogue can feed her, deartháir. Even he understands how important it would be for a baby vamp to eat. His blood is older than ours.”
“Not by much,” Maddox snarled, but some of the heat drained from his tone, and the scorching air around them cooled. “If he took her there...”
“He did.” Of that much, Fin was certain.
“You think he’s going to try and wake Alfred.”
“I would,” Fin admitted, and Maddox glared at him. “Look, Alfred went to sleep because the world had worn him out. He’d tired of waiting. We were as safe as we could be, and we didn’t need him to look after us. But when he went to ground, Rogue...” Rogue turned away from them.
Even when Fin would try to lure him out, Rogue never stayed. He always came. He’d never let them down, not once. But when he finished his task, he vanished again. Try as he might, Fin hadn’t been able to keep him with them. Maddox no longer bothered and acted like it was a crime to even try and lure Rogue out of his self-imposed exile.
“She isn’t ready for Alfred.”
“I doubt she’s ready for any of us,” Fin said with a shrug. “It’s our job to protect her and make her ready. Besides, she’s got spunk. You’re already a little crazy about her, aren’t you?”
Never had he been so jealous of and thrilled for the dragon in equal measure. Fiona MacRieve was the answer to so much. All they had to do was save her from the insanity of vampire politics, keep the shadow demon away, and show her that being a hybrid was destiny.
“She’s a stubborn wench,” Maddox grunted. “Fierce, too. I could live without her need to fuck the stupid out of people.”
Eyebrows raised, Fin eyed him. “She needed to feed, and I don’t think she planned to hop on and ride the guys.”
“The shadow demon’s been fucking her.”
“Well, that was before she met us.” Fin kept it philosophical. They’d hardly been monks. Well, Maddox might have been, there was no telling with him. He didn’t share much, and Alfred probably wouldn’t know a date if it woke up and bit him. Rogue? Yeah, Fin wouldn’t place money there either.
Fine, Fin hadn’t been a monk.
Course, if the warden had been paying her visits, that would explain the shadow addiction. They could keep her away until they cleansed her system.
“You up for transporting two of us?” Maddox asked abruptly, and Fin didn’t bother to hide his smirk.
“Already eager to see her again?”
“I made her a deal,” Maddox gritted out. “She’d listen to the whole story, then she was free to go if she wanted.”
“That’s a terrible deal, why would you offer her that?” Fin stared at him.
“Because she wants nothing to do with us, and she’s still fighting the fact she was turned. She needs a sense of control.” Then Maddox gave him a firm look. “I plan on honoring my word.”
Of course, he did.
Dragons had honor for miles. Sometimes for days.
Why had the species begun to die out? Oh right, they honored their treaties when so many others didn’t.
“Well, good for us, I made no such promises.” He clapped Maddox’s shoulder and then focused. Inside him, the magic unlocked. Portal magic wasn’t difficult. If anything, it was one of the first mysteries he’d trained in as a young druid. Trees linked the world, their root systems tangling deep beneath the earth and creating routes that those who developed the art could slip along.
Even when a tree had been uprooted, the memory of its pathways remained, which meant even wooden structures couldn’t keep him out if he could find the right one. It was knowing how to read the myriad of pathways and follow them. Taking passengers along was slightly more difficult.
But only slightly.
Maddox didn’t block him out as he wrapped his power around him. If anything, the dragon allowed Fin access to his own strength, not that this simple transport required it. The world whooshed past them as he found the route they needed and followed it home.
Coinnigh an Rí, King’s Keep, had been the center of Alfred’s
domain for years beyond counting. They’d all called it home at one point or another. Granted, it was a monolith built almost completely from cut stones hauled miles from their natural habitat and put together.
Magic infused some of the stones, but the rest of it? They’d held it with strength, skill, and wit. When that wasn’t enough, a few good slaughters had at least been entertaining. The factions left them alone. But they’d begun to fade from common memory. A choice, really, if the majority didn’t think about them, they didn’t have to fend off the occasional glory seeker.
The problem, however, was the reckoning Fiona faced. The turning of other species besides human into a vampire was considered impossible, improbable, and socially unacceptable. The legends around so-called hybrids had painted them as monsters.
Well, at least they got that part right.
While rare, hybrids existed in a delicate balance. One Fin, Maddox, Rogue, and Alfred maintained. They were all hybrids. Some of the first.
Currently, the only ones beyond Fiona.
They’d waited a long time for her.
Too long.
Whisking along the paths, he slowed them as they neared the ancient oaks bordering the fields nearest the keep’s location. With a pop, he stepped out and yanked Maddox with him. The dragon looked vaguely green, and Fin chuckled as he patted him once and left him to catch his breath. It was a testament to how much Maddox wanted to see her again that he’d not objected to transporting on the ancient pathways.
He preferred to fly, but the keep was halfway around the world from where they’d penetrated Nightmare Penitentiary’s defenses. It would have taken him a while to get there, and that meant leaving the beautiful Fiona to Fin and Rogue.
Huh. Maybe he should have let Maddox fly on his own.
The sight of smoke curling toward the sky from one of the chimney flues had Fin smirking. He smacked Maddox’s arm again. “See, I told you he would bring her here.”
The defenses were still active, but they had nothing to worry about. They passed harmlessly through the magical field that would send up an alarm to them no matter where they were of possible invasion. Once inside, Fin took a cleansing breath.
It had been a long time since he’d come home. The air was cool and damp, but the clouds had already parted to let watery sunshine reach the wet earth. They’d just missed the rain. While it had been night where they made their escape, it was nearly midday here.
The wood smoke was almost an invitation to a fire roaring in one of the man-sized hearths that decorated the halls. In the old days, there would be casks of ale and pots of honeyed mead. The food and drink would be free flowing. Artists and musicians often brought in from far and wide would provide the entertainment before Fin left them with pleasant memories and they were sent on their way, purses laden with coin.
The good old days.
Course, now they had internet and access to all types of entertainment at the press of a button. But there wasn’t wi-fi up here.
He’d have to fix that if they settled in for the next few decades while Fiona adjusted. The main doors groaned as Maddox got ahead of him and pushed them open. Heavy steal doors needed a winch for most to open, but they weren’t so similarly burdened. Inside, he gave Maddox a hand in shutting them both.
Memories echoed against the walls, filling the silence with images from other times. How many times had Alfred shoved these great doors open to allow his men to enter? How often had Rogue followed right in his shadow, a silent sentinel? At times, Fin and Maddox had also been there, always welcome. A brotherhood formed out of necessity, unity, and transition. They were the only ones of their kind to survive.
“The baths.” Maddox’s words seemed to hang in the air as he vanished. The disturbed dust marked his passage. Fin followed at a more sedate pace. Like Maddox, he was also eager to see Fiona again. He’d only gotten to hold her for a brief time. Clouding her mind to ease her compliance for their flight had backfired when the shadow demon arrived.
In the future, Fin wouldn’t make that mistake again.
Ascending the stairs, he followed the sound of the water. The old boilers and piping through the walls used a system of cisterns and aqueducts built through the mountain itself to bring fresh water in, heat it, and then fill the pools in the bathing chamber. That, along with fires laid at each end, made it the warmest and steamiest room in the keep.
It had been the height of convenience hundreds of years earlier, and he couldn’t say he would mind a bath himself. Blood had dried on his skin and left him itchy.
Maddox’s aggravated voice tickled at his ears as Fin followed the long hall toward the bathing rooms. The bedrooms were all on the floor above, and while hot baths could be pulled there, the old bathhouse idea had still been popular when Alfred settled the keep.
Stripping off his coat, Fin let himself into the oversized chamber. Five pools placed strategically around the room with varying levels to each pool afforded bathers with a place to wash, a place to soak, and a place to steam by ascending the levels.
Unsurprisingly, Fiona was sprawled in a soaker pool, her arms hooked against the sides as she half-floated. Her eyes were closed and expression blissful. Across from her, Rogue sat, naked and cleaned. His dirty blond hair had been recently washed and hung halfway down his back. He flicked his gaze at Fin as he approached the pool.
Like Rogue, Fiona was also naked, but she didn’t seem remotely aware of them. Flushed with color, her gorgeous red hair clung to her skin, though in places, it had begun to curl away. The tips of her breasts were just barely visible. While Fin looked forward to exploring her with great detail, he focused on the necessities for the moment.
The vicious bite in her shoulder was almost closed, the angry black lines radiating out from it the last bits of venom being decimated by her body.
“Why the fuck did you just take her?” Maddox demanded. Not waiting for Rogue to answer, he continued, “I had a deal with her. She would hear us out, then if she chose to go, I wouldn’t stop her.”
Lifting a flask, Rogue took a long drink, then held it out to Maddox wordlessly. The dragon scowled and accepted it.
“Fin shouldn’t have dragged you into it, we had it covered.” He took a long pull from the flask himself, then passed it back before he stripped off his own clothes and sank down into the lower pool. The water went crimson and streaked as the blood, dust, and soot worked free of his skin. “The point,” he persisted. “You weren’t aware of the rest of the plan, and you just kidnapped her. That completely contravenes my word. Now I have to make up for that lost honor.”
Fin met Rogue’s bemused gaze, and the other just shrugged. Unfortunately for Maddox, neither Fin nor Rogue shared his honor system.
Nor had they made her any promises. Well, Fin had more or less suggested his word in getting her out.
“You fed her?” he checked with Rogue. The blond nodded once, then motioned to his throat. There was a fading wound there, likely inflicted by himself. Breaking his skin was damn hard and many had tried.
Crouching, Fin used careful fingers to tilt her head to look at her throat. No other bite marks marred her skin saved for the one faded scar that would likely always remain. The mark of her maker. Lashes lifting, she stared up at him with ruby colored eyes, though they weren’t as blood-red as they’d been when he found her and Maddox in the hall. The barest hint of green surrounded them.
“Hmm, getting better at that astral projection,” she murmured.
He chuckled. “Rest, Beautiful.” He punched just a bit of compulsion into the command, and she let out a sigh, head tipped back and throat vulnerable as she sank under again. Yeah, that wouldn’t hold.
Maddox growled at him. “Don’t take advantage.”
“Actually, I’m just making sure she’s in one piece and doesn’t try to escape on us before I’ve had a bath. Just because you need to chain women up to get them to stick around, doesn’t mean I have to.”
Rogue snorted, but the weight o
f Maddox’s cold stare was even more impressive than his growls. Tossing a glance toward him, Fin gave him a little chin dip. Some lines weren’t worth crossing.
Hardly mollified, the dragon went back to his bath, and Fin finally stepped down to shed his own blood-marked and shredded clothing. The fight had been impressive. They’d mustered their defenses, but it was hard to take on a druid and a dragon individually, much less together. Throw in a warrior, and they were really outmatched.
When the king awoke…
Fin paused, eyes closing for a moment as he searched the keep mentally. Alfred hadn’t stirred yet. There was no mistaking his influence once he left his sleep. It was a crackle of energy in the air, a weight that draped everything, his power and his protection. The absence of it was just as keen.
They had so much to show him when he did rouse. The world would fascinate him. At least it had gotten interesting since the last time he was awake, anyway.
The water stung Fin’s skin as he slid into it. The temperature higher than the air around them, Maddox had already moved up to sit in the soaking pool. Fin ducked himself into the water, then scrubbed the last flakes of blood and debris off. Having spent hours tucked under a stone floor, he could use the scrub.
Finished, he ascended and settled into the hotter water. Rogue turned a bland eye on him, then nodded toward Fiona.
Her closed eyes and serene expression were not something Fin wanted to disturb. “It can wait,” he said quietly.
Maddox scowled.
“She’s exhausted. All of our intelligence says she was dumped there within hours of her first waking. I can’t imagine transitioning in there was very easy.”
“No,” Maddox admitted as he wrapped an arm around her and pulled her against his side. She let out a little sound that Fin swore was a purr. Her lashes moved faintly, and then she seemed to recognize Maddox and curled right up against him.
Jealousy painted bloody stripes through him, especially when Maddox’s expression turned smug. Yeah, she was probably sleeping with Maddox again that night.
