by E. A. Copen
They started to wheel me away, but I grabbed for Sal again, this time slipping a hand under his arm to get his attention. He put a hand over mine and nodded. My head was pounding too hard and if I kept my eyes open any longer, I’d throw up. I closed my eyes and let my hand drop.
Sleep didn’t come. Just darkness and the typical sounds of an emergency room. I tried not to open my eyes again unless the doctors or nurses came to tell me to do so. When I did, they shined a light at my pupils, and I saw green behind my eyelids for the next fifteen minutes or so. The pain lessened, but that probably had something to do with whatever they were giving me intravenously. Whatever it was, it was a warm, happy kind of drug that dulled my senses enough that I started humming.
I didn’t realize I was doing anything more than that until another voice chimed in at the chorus. My eyes snapped open against my better judgement and I winced at the pain the light caused. At least Marcus didn’t have a terrible singing voice. He finished out the chorus of “Take Me Home Country Roads” and paused at the end to chuckle. “Oh, you didn’t have to stop on my account. Granted, I was making you look bad, but you can almost carry the harmony.”
My nose twitched, a poor attempt at a scowl. “Oh, sure. Make fun of me while I’m on my back and with God knows what in my system. Bastard.”
I cracked open an eye to see him sitting in a chair beside me. Marcus looked odd in a plain, white t-shirt, and a pair of powder blue scrubs. He’d also tied back his hair which made him look thinner as he leaned on the IV stand he’d wheeled in there with him.
“You look pretty good for a dead guy,” I said, blinking and opening my other eye. I had to try to get back on my feet as soon as possible.
“I’m a vampire,” he said with a shrug. “A little blood and a little something pleasant and my body mostly repairs itself.”
“Hard to believe that you retain any sex appeal at all under an insulin overdose. I might have lied a little when I said you looked pretty good.”
Marcus chuckled again, his voice as smooth as velvet. “I’ll let you in on a little secret, Judah. Succubine is a BSI label and it’s probably more misguided than correct. There are more avenues to pleasure than those of the flesh. Sometimes, a gourmet meal or a passionate performance on stage are enough. Sometimes, the memory of a kiss is better than the real thing.” When he spoke the last line, he closed his eyes and took in a deep breath through his nose.
“I know you don’t want to talk with me about Emiko, Marcus, but I need to know what happened to her.”
He closed his eyes even tighter and turned away.
“Someone summoned her for a reason, and it wasn’t to hurt Mia. Mia’s been the victim of a sort of bloodline curse, one that was meant for you. Now there’s been another attempt on your life. I’ve seen Emiko three times now, and the ghost causing the sickness might as well be a carbon copy of that painting of Emiko in your study.”
“Someone meant to use her against me?” His shoulders heaved with another deep breath. “And Mia bore the attack instead. Cynthia.” He turned around, lips drawn into a tight line as he regarded me. “How did you know?”
“That she was an assassin?” I tried to shrug. My arm wiggled a little. That was good. “Partly her aura. It felt fake. I knew she was hiding something. I just didn’t know what. And let’s face it, Marcus. The only reason you’ve been alive for so long is that you’re paranoid. I’ve seen the security you keep around. Plus, the Kings are on your payroll. A guy like that doesn’t hire a woman whose last name he doesn’t even know and invite her into his home, leaving her alone with a fed when she’s a new hire.”
Marcus’ jaw fell open and then closed quickly. Something like anger but more curious flashed behind his eyes. “I didn’t realize I didn’t know her last name,” he said, eyes widening. His expression of surprise quickly grew into an enraged snarl. “Magick?”
“Fae magick, I think, which would explain why you’re so susceptible to it. Really powerful fae magick can be subtle.”
His face blanked again, back to that smug, businesslike mask he always wore. He crossed one leg over the other and folded his hands, lowering his gaze in thought. Marcus was connecting the dots, putting everything together as I’d already done.
I could have walked him through what I knew, but then, I was trying to focus all my energy on making my muscles work. Already, I’d moved my arm and wiggled a few toes. The cloudy numbness in my head lessened with every passing minute as I pulled in a little magick out of the air, pumping it into my tired limbs. It was dangerous and would result in me being flat on my back again later for longer, but I had more immediate problems to deal with.
“There’s only one thing Emiko and the fae have in common, and I was under the impression that Crux Continelli had been dealt with.” Marcus gave me a look that might have made children cry and dogs whimper if he’d cast it at them. Me, I was still too stoned on whatever they were giving me to know better.
“I would have loved to have killed that sniveling vampire, but there was a fae necromancer who had a bone to pick with him. Seeing as how Creven told me he was one of the major players in Faerie, I figured I didn’t stand a chance of going head to head with him.”
Marcus flashed his fangs and hissed a name through clenched teeth. “Seamus.”
“Yeah,” I said, tilting my head to one side. Awesome. I had control over my head again. “How do you know him? Kim tell you about him?”
Marcus was too involved in his rant to give me a definite answer right away. “I should have known he’d stoop so low. I knew the fae could be petty and vengeful, but this is a new low. To summon the ghost of my dead wife to destroy her own family through a curse? That’s cowardice, cowardice I would have expected from someone like Crux and not a formidable enemy like Seamus.”
“Wait... Seamus is your enemy?”
Marcus huffed. “Do you think I’m stupid? I’d sooner be open enemies with my own shadow than with one of the Kings of Faerie.”
“Kings of Faerie,” I repeated. Creven had neglected to mention that much.
Folklore largely only remembers the queens of Faerie thanks to great literary minds like Spenser and Shakespeare, both of whom drew similarities between Queen Elizabeth I, and what they thought fae queens might be like. Most experts agreed that neither Spenser or Shakespeare had probably ever met a fae and known about it, which meant that true accounts of who ruled Faerie came from further back and were largely contested.
A lot of old Irish sources spoke of a King Finvarra, the last Faerie King and husband to an elven Faerie Queen, Elphame. Supposedly, he was a badass underworld figure and the guy who negotiated the treaty that sealed the realm of Faerie from Earth. It probably wasn’t all true, especially with what BSI now knew about the social standing of elves. They were fae half-breeds, barely considered above animals in Faerie. One would never be allowed to sit on the throne and rule.
Marcus had called Seamus a Faerie King and Creven had called him a necromancer, which lined up well enough with the Finvarra myth. I swallowed. “No way,” I said. “No way that’s him.”
“He’s not someone to make an enemy of,” Marcus said, his tone still fierce. “My father was an immigrant from Ireland. I know the stories they tell. I also know that civil war in Faerie does no one on Earth any good. Regardless of who he was in the days of myth, Seamus is a monster now, and I have a vested interest in maintaining political stability in Faerie for as long as possible. Seamus seeks to overthrow his brother, Oberon, from the throne of Faerie and would have cut a deal with me to get something he badly needs to do so.”
I shook my head. “What would you have that someone like him would want?”
Marcus crossed his arms. “Now, that I can’t say.”
“Can’t or won’t?”
He pressed his lips together.
I sighed. “It’s not the immediate issue. Seamus had Crux. If I had to bet, I’d say he tortured him and got some information that he could use to blackmail yo
u.”
“Get back at me more like,” Marcus scoffed. “I initially agreed to give him what he wanted but reneged on the deal after my daughter revealed he was also taking money from the Stryx to finance his Earth operations. I do not deal with anyone who engages in business practices with those... animals.”
I started to point out that his daughter, Kim, had taken Stryx funds to finance her night club along with the hobgoblin, Robbie Fellows. Marcus must have guessed what I was going to say and cut me off in the middle of my sentence.
“My darling daughter has and will continue to pay the price for her treachery. You needn’t concern yourself with that. When money blinds us to purpose, our true purpose, it can do nothing but corrupt.” He unfolded his arms and stood, pulling himself up by using the IV stand.
“I suppose I shouldn’t complain so long as there aren’t any bodies,” I muttered. “What is it between the Kelleys and the Stryx, anyway? Does this all go back to your duel with Crux?”
Marcus raised his chin. “The Stryx believe themselves to be the only true vampires, the keepers of our race. Ha! As if that gives them the right to police what the rest of us do with our private lives!”
“I know they disapproved of you and Emiko having children.”
Marcus’ eyes flared, and he squeezed his hand around the metal stand holding the IV bag up until it bent and made the bag of clear fluids droop. He regarded it coolly, then unhooked the bag from where it hung and slipped it onto the hanger next to mine. “My children should not have had to bear the brunt of their intolerance. Emiko was a loving, beautiful person, an attentive mother, and a better woman than I ever deserved. Because she was Jiangshi, an auric vampire, and nobility, because they thought her too pure for the likes of me to taint, she was given an ultimatum.”
The tubing attached to his arm stretched as he reached for the chair and pulled it closer to plop down on it. “Kill her children and me, or she would be killed herself and Alto Continelli’s sons would finish the job of wiping my family from the face of the Earth.” He closed his eyes and flinched as if he’d been struck. “I didn’t know. She didn’t even tell me. I believed I was defending her honor, that if I won, they would finally leave us alone and let us live out our lives in peace. It was a lie. The choice was never mine. They gave it to Emiko. They gave a mother an impossible choice because they weren’t vampire enough to face me. Cowards.”
I couldn’t help but agree. I’d had the unfortunate luck of meeting Crux, and if his father and brother were anything like him, they were the lowest of the low. Slimy cowards in every sense of the word.
“I would have lost,” Marcus continued looking down at his hands. “Crux is considerably older than me and more skilled with a blade.”
I could back that up, too. Just a few weeks ago, I’d watched Crux duel Abe and make short work of him and Abe was damn good. “That’s why he chose the challenge,” I said. “Because he knew he could win. How’d you get out of it alive?”
Marcus smirked up at me. “Crux forgot something very important about me. I am an American. I never play fair. He chose the challenge. I chose the terrain, and I chose one I knew well. You see, if I’d killed Crux, I would have incurred a blood debt against me. The Stryx would have had no choice but to avenge his death by killing me and mine. They thought it was a win-win situation. I never had any intention of winning. I was smart enough to coat my sword in the one weapon that is the bane of all vampires. Fae blood. A few cuts and he would be reeling and stupid.”
I chuckled at that. “And he’d be high out of his mind, unable to fight. I have to admit it was a good plan.”
“Yes,” he said and then his smile faded. “Except that it didn’t work. I had already cut into him twice with my dagger and gotten one good draw cut against his arm. He pinned me against a wall and drove his sword into my chest. To this day, I have no idea how he could withstand such a high exposure. That dose should have made him unable to stand. Instead, he staked me to the wall. But they didn’t kill me. Emiko stopped them. She...” He trailed off and had to try twice to continue, his voice thick with sorrow. “She traded herself for the rest of us. I had to watch, helpless, and staked to a wall.”
Marcus lowered his head and touched his fingers to the center of his chest. Two strands of auburn hair loosened from where he had them tied behind his head and fell to hide his face from me. “So, you see, Emiko would never willingly harm a child, nor would she ever return as a ghost or otherwise. She gave her life willingly so that I might live. To bring her back is to spit on her sacrifice.”
My throat had grown tight as Marcus recounted his tale. I didn’t even bother fighting the sympathy. He deserved it. No one should have had to watch that. Whatever Seamus had done to Crux in Faerie, the bastard deserved it and more. Now I had answers. There were enough breadcrumbs that I could put everything back together. “Cynthia must work for Seamus.”
Marcus nodded in agreement.
“And it was her who made the first strike that Sunday when she was at your house. I’d be willing to bet she’d laced your cup with whatever she used to get the Ghost Sickness started.”
“That’d be corpse powder,” said Sal from the doorway.
Neither of us had heard him come in, and Marcus jerked his head toward the door. The two of them glared at each other for a minute and my heart skipped a beat as I remembered what I’d done. I wondered if Marcus knew. When he gave Sal a wary smirk and tipped his head, I thought he must have, though neither of them spoke about it.
“He would have needed access to your wife’s remains,” Sal continued once their non-verbal exchange was over. “Even something small that you would have kept, but definitely a literal part of her body. Ashes, bones, blood, any of it would do.”
All the amusement went out of Marcus’ face. “Why does it matter what he used? If you know the cause, can’t it be undone?”
“Not easily, no.” Sal pushed off the doorway with a hip. He strode into the room with his arms crossed and refused to look at me. “I need to recreate the same powder, mix it with a few other ingredients, and then...” He gave me a hesitant glance. “Someone has to intentionally take the sickness into their body. I think I know a way to keep it from being fatal... mostly. At least permanently. Whoever takes the powder will be, for all intents and purposes, dead. We’d be counting on a mix of medical science and my magick know-how to bring them back.”
“That’s an insane risk,” Marcus said, shaking his head. “What kind of fool would do that?”
I pushed myself up away from the pillow behind my head. The room spun and there were flashes of light in my vision, but I managed it without throwing up. “I will,” I said.
“No.” Marcus rose, pointing at me. “I won’t let you. You’re too valuable.”
“I’m the ideal candidate,” I argued. “As far as I know, I’m the only one who can see the ghost. She knows me and we’ve fought before. I seem to be the only one who can do anything about her, and I’m the only one in this room who isn’t already at risk of being killed. Not to mention someone with magick will have a better chance of success. Am I right, Sal?”
Sal set his jaw and glared at the floor.
Marcus gestured to Sal. “He can do it. Or someone else. Judah, there is no shortage of magick practitioners here.”
Sal glared at Marcus. “I can’t do it, because I have to be on the outside to monitor her progress. If I go in, there’s absolutely no chance of me coming back, and no offense, but I’ve got a little girl to come back to.”
“Judah has a son,” Marcus growled.
I was stunned to see him jumping to my defense, although it hurt a little that Sal was so willing to risk my life. At least I deserved it.
“It’s all right, Marcus,” I said quietly. “It has to be me. It’s my fault Mia came to you in the first place. I’m the one that let Seamus take Crux. Indirectly, I’m responsible for everything. Sal will take care of Hunter if things don’t work out and I don’t come back. I ca
n trust him to the pack.”
Sal turned his head away from me.
“This is madness. There must be something else we can do. Given more time, I can find another willing participant.”
“We’re out of time.” I turned to Marcus. “The doctors were able to bring Mia back this time but there’s no guarantee it will work next time. Next time, she could slip away for good. I won’t let that happen, not on my watch.”
I threw the blanket aside and used the energy I’d gathered to swing my legs over the side of the bed. My legs were still too weak to hold me when I tried to stand. I would have fallen over if Sal hadn’t darted forward to catch me. “Thanks,” I mumbled and tried to brace myself against his arm to stand. He didn’t let me.
“I need for you to arrange her discharge,” Sal said to Marcus and scooped me up in both arms. “I know you have enough pull to make that happen.”
Marcus showed Sal his fangs and clicked them together once. “Do not presume to order me around, wolf.”
“And don’t you presume I won’t kill you where you stand. You had my daughter. I don’t even want to know what you were planning to do with her. Whatever it was, you can forget it. If I hear you’ve been within twenty feet of her, you won’t have to worry about the fae killing you.”
It was a bold threat, one he shouldn’t have made. Marcus still held a lot of power in Concho County. If Sal so much as looked at him wrong, I was certain the vampire could arrange for Sal to die and not lose any sleep over it.
Marcus didn’t take him seriously. He gave another velvety chuckle that turned into a roaring belly laugh as he threw his head back. “Oh, wolf,” he said, wiping tears from his eyes when he was finished. “You’ve caught me in a nostalgic mood, one of few. Lucky for you, I am also a father to a daughter. One father to another, I understand your anger. I’m not sure I would have yesterday or that I will tomorrow. But, for now, I do.”
