Bitten (The Graced Series Book 2)

by Amanda Pillar

  Chapter 57

  Hannah’s skin tingled with nerves. She hadn’t seen Tatiana in around five years. It wasn’t because she was being ignored by her mother, it was just that Tatiana sometimes forgot how time travelled. When you were as old as her, days blended into years, and years into centuries.

  Hannah didn’t know what had happened when Byrne froze on the corner of Pittbrough Street, but she knew his heartbeat had accelerated, and he had given off this strange scent, almost like a predator warning people away from his territory. But Byrne hadn’t been to Pinton for over a hundred years, so she had no idea what territory he could have here.

  Fin had ducked inside the Rutherford Hotel to see if her mother was there, and now Hannah could smell him approaching, even before the wagon cover was swished aside. “She’s here, although reception is refusing to give us her room number. I thought you might have some luck?”

  Nodding, Hannah scooted forward and climbed out the back of the cart, careful of Rena. As the thick leather soles of her boots came into contact with the cobbles, she was glad that her footwear protected her from picking up inadvertent memories. Imagine how many thousands of people had walked this street before.

  Leaving Byrne in the wagon, Hannah stepped up onto the sidewalk and dodged a couple of humans who rushed by, then climbed the small set of stairs to the hotel. Tatiana would be able to smell Hannah the moment she entered the building; if she was here, she’d come to investigate.

  The foyer was resplendent in creams, blues and golds. Looking around, Hannah’s eyes widened at the ostentatious display of wealth. A steel desk lined one wall, with large gilt-framed paintings hanging behind it. On the opposite wall a fireplace stood empty, with cream and blue upholstered chairs set around it. Small metal tables dotted the space, topped with vases of lush flowers. Through the center of the room a rug carpeted the walkway, leading to a flight of large marble stairs.

  It was exactly the kind of place her mother would stay.

  Walking over to the reception area, Hannah met the gaze of a Brown-eyed human. He was dressed in a blue and black uniform, and had a sneer of disinterest on his unremarkable face. Careful to not come too close to the desk, Hannah patted Rena on the back — the baby was in her normal sling — like she was an excuse to keep her distance. “I would like the room number of the Duchess Tatiana Romanov.”

  The receptionist’s sneer grew. “As I told your companion, we do not hand out the room numbers of our guests.”

  Hannah frowned; she didn’t like the way he spoke about Fin, who stood at her side, protectively. “Excuse me?”

  “We do not hand out the room numbers of our guests.”

  Not typically a violent person, Hannah itched to wipe the expression from the idiot’s face. “And if that is the case, then why are you unable to let one of your guests know that they have visitors?”

  “Visitors?” The man let out a bark of laughter.

  “Visitors,” Hannah repeated.

  Incredulity laced the man’s words. “You two are visitors for the duchess?”

  “I am her daughter, Lady Hannah Romanov. And this is my esteemed friend, Mr. Fin...uh—”

  “Castle,” Fin supplied.

  Funny how she hadn’t even known his surname. But it suited him. Fin Castle. She rolled the words around in her mind.

  “You are the duchess’ daughter? You aren’t a vampire.”

  Hannah blinked. She was getting cheek from a hotel worker? About her race?

  “If you can’t tell a vampire when you see one, maybe you should pick a different line of work,” Fin suggested.

  And then a new voice entered the mix. “Hannah?”

  “Mother?”

  In her peripheral vision, Hannah saw the human blanch, but her attention was all on Tatiana, who was there, at the top of the marble staircase. She was wearing a pair of black pants, shiny knee-high boots, and white shirt, her long hair unbound down her back. Ever since Hannah had been little, her mother’s hair had been a dark red, but Montrose said it used to be auburn. The older Tatiana got, the more bloody her hair grew in hue.

  Tatiana came down the stairs and cupped Hannah’s cheeks in her cool hands, her eyes roving over her daughter’s face. “Hannah, what are you doing here?”

  Then she registered the presence of Fin and Rena, and lowered her voice. “I think you had better come upstairs.”

  “Another traveling companion is out the front with our wagon and animals. Is it possible for one of your hotel staff to see to it while we visit the duchess?” Fin’s voice was smooth and oily. Hannah bit back a grin.

  The receptionist opened his mouth to protest, but Tatiana waved a hand through the air. “See to it. And give the other one my room number so they can meet us there.”

  Then she grabbed Hannah’s arm and towed her up the staircase and down a long hallway. Fin followed behind.

  Soon, they arrived at her mother’s suite. Tatiana shut the door and then turned to the two of them. Tatiana ran a hand quickly across her brow, and then sat down on one of the chairs within the sitting area of the suite. She looked almost...fragile. Through a half-open door, Hannah could see an elaborate bedroom. “How long has it been since I last saw you?” Her bright gaze was locked on Rena.

  “Five years.”

  “Five years? I’m sorry, Hannah. I hadn’t thought it was that long. It is terribly remiss of me not to have seen you sooner,” she said sadly.

  Hannah didn’t know what to say — she hadn’t expected this. “That’s okay, Mother.”

  “But...why did you not send me word of you having a child?” Wide violet eyes held Hannah’s gaze, bewildered.

  Mother thinks that Rena is mine.

  “I do not mind that you have had a baby with a...human,” Tatiana went on. “I am happy that you found someone you could...”

  She thinks that Rena is mine and Fin’s.

  It shocked Hannah to discover that her mother’s misconception didn’t make her panic at all. She liked the idea of her and Fin as a family.

  “Mother, Rena is not my baby.”

  “Then she is yours?” Tatiana addressed Fin, who was hovering near the door. He looked quite uncomfortable, which was unusual for him.

  “No, not mine. Well, not by birth, anyway.” Fin was babbling. “She’s ours now.”

  Tatiana shook her head. “I’m afraid you’ve lost me.”

  “I found Rena abandoned on the slopes of the Old Mother. She was left on a blanket, naked.”

  Frowning, Tatiana leaned forward. “By the Trsetti?”

  Hannah nodded, then turned Rena within the sling, so her mother could see the baby’s face and eye color.

  “Huh. I forgot they were superstitious about people with colored eyes. Any color. They tolerate me because I’ve been visiting that mountain for longer than their culture can remember. Anyone else, well, they’re not too welcome.”

  “Tell me about it,” Fin muttered.

  Tatiana ignored him. “So you found the baby?”

  “But I didn’t really know what to do,” Hannah confessed. “Luckily the blanket she was lying on gave me some hints and tips about feeding a baby without a mother, but that was about it. So I started traveling to Skarva.”

  “With the human?”

  “No,” Hannah admitted. “I found him and his friend on the slopes of the Old Mother. The Trsetti had also taken exception to Fin.”

  Tatiana nodded, as if the puzzle pieces were slowly fitting together. “Hence the bruises. But his Hazel eyes shouldn’t have bothered them too much.”

  “His eye color wasn’t the problem,” Hannah said.

  Fin glared at her. “What happened in the village has nothing to do with you finding Rena.”

  “You slept with someone, didn’t you?” Tatiana asked, shaking her head.

  “Why does everyone assume that about me?” Fin glowered.

  Hannah wanted to blurt, ‘because it’s true’, but it w
ould hurt Fin’s feelings. And she didn’t want to do that. “Either way, I bumped into Fin and Byrne and they helped me get to Skarva.”

  “And you arrived there to find me gone.”

  Fin snickered. “Well, we arrived there to have someone touch Hannah and then kidnap her, but sure.” He yelped when Hannah punched him in the arm. He rubbed his bicep. “I’m human, Hannah! And I’ve just been beaten up twice in two weeks; go easy.”

  “Humans are fragile, Hannah. Be nicer to your...lover.”

  Hannah shifted uncomfortably and Fin’s jaw dropped.

  Their surprise amused Tatiana. “Please. You both smell like each other far too much to just be friends. Now, what is this about you getting kidnapped and touched?”

  And so Hannah told the story of Randall and how he had planned on using her to secure his place in Skarvan society. By the end, Tatiana was prowling the room, and her expression made even Hannah uneasy. Rena had started to wail, picking up on the tension. That, or she was hungry.

  The crying gave Tatiana pause. The ancient vampire then came over and gently lifted the babe from Hannah’s arms. “Sshh.” Within moments, Rena settled.

  Homicidal one moment, babysitter the next.

  “How’d you do that?” Fin peered at Rena over Tatiana’s shoulder, like this woman hadn’t been ready to seek out Randall’s corpse and rip off its head a few seconds ago.

  “It’s all in the hold,” Tatiana replied. “This is not the first time I’ve held a baby.”

  “Well, I gathered that since you have Hannah and her brother.”

  Silence.

  Tatiana turned sad eyes on Hannah. “You know about Dante?”

  “Randall mentioned it.” She tried to be casual, but she couldn't keep the hurt from her face. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  Tatiana sighed. “Tell me the rest of your story first.”

  Chapter 58

  Throughout Hannah’s tale of what had happened in Skarva, Tatiana sat still as a stone, except for occasionally rubbing Rena’s back. Hannah had stood for the whole story, because where could she sit without exposing herself to the memories of those who’d used the chairs before?

  Fin studied Tatiana, the Deadly Duchess, legend and all-around terror for people young and old. She was as beautiful as her daughter, but in different ways. Hannah was tall and lithe, while her mother was statuesque and curvy. They had the same face shape, but Tatiana’s chin was a little more pointed, and her eyes a bit larger.

  At first, he hadn’t been sure that letting the duchess hold the baby was a good idea — what with her visibly swapping from enraged to calm in a heartbeat. But while he’d only been in the room about thirty minutes, Tatiana had worked wonders with the infant. Maybe being about a million years old made you an expert with kids.

  Who knew?

  “So Randall is dead?” Tatiana asked rhetorically.

  Fin nodded. “She ripped his heart out; it was pretty gross.”

  Tatiana snorted. “You picked the wrong family to get involved in if you think a little heart extraction is disturbing.”

  Fin forced a smile, like the woman was joking, but he knew she wasn’t.

  “Mother.”

  “What? Better he knows what he’s in for early on. Humans don’t live forever, and if he wants to spend the time he has with you, then he should know that we are a little...different to modern vampires. That’s all.”

  “I think he’s gathered that I am different.”

  Tatiana looked at him. “So you know?”

  “He knows. And he has a mental shield.”

  Deciding that he needed to rest his legs, Fin sat in one of the expensive chairs. Funny how getting beaten up ruined your stamina.

  “Interesting.”

  So Tatiana Romanov thought he was interesting. Fin wasn’t sure he liked that.

  Thankfully, a knock sounded on the door to the suite. “Enter!”

  Byrne stepped inside, shutting the door behind him. Fin didn’t know what had been up with the were on the roadway near the City Guard building, but it was something significant. Maybe it had something to do with his special mate-detecting nose? He would have to try and pry the information out of the huge man later. Now they had other issues.

  It was Tatiana’s turn to look surprised now. “Trace?”

  Byrne met her gaze with his yellow eyes. “Name’s Byrne.”

  Succinct, as always.

  “Didn’t you have a relative called Trace?” Fin asked. One night, early after Fin had hauled Byrne’s ass out of the prison, they’d talked about their families. Byrne had told him about his two sisters, Gina and Ruby, and Fin had rattled off about the four pains-in-the-butt he called his siblings. Byrne’s parents hadn’t been too involved in his upbringing, at least not as a cub. He’d been raised in a clan, with his great-great-great (and so on) grandfather overseeing his early years.

  Byrne shot Fin an undecipherable look. “My grandpa, yeah.”

  “Your grandfather?”

  “Yeah. Well, there’s a few ‘greats’ in there.”

  Tatiana looked pensive for a moment, and Fin wondered what it would be like to have lived for so long that you had to physically sort through your memories. At least, that’s what he assumed she was doing. Then she clicked her fingers. “I knew that bastard wasn’t dead!”

  “You know Byrne’s grandpa?” Hannah asked.

  “Knew. Was at war with. Had my neck broken by. Much the same,” Tatiana said, but there was an almost dreamy quality to her expression. Weird. And a bit creepy, considering the were apparently broke her neck.

  “It was a very long time ago.” Something wicked flashed in her over-sized violet eyes. “When you next see your grandfather, please pass on my greetings. And that I would dearly love to see him again.”

  Byrne shifted on his feet. “Sure, as long as you don’t plan on snapping his neck if you do manage to catch up with him.”

  Fin held his breath; would Tatiana take offense? But she trilled a laugh. “It was so long ago. I’ve let that grudge go.”

  That just made Fin wonder what other grudges she still held.

  “Mother,” Hannah said a little uncomfortably, “you said once I had told you about what happened at your estate that you would talk about my brother.”

  Tatiana’s face grew curiously blank and then she heaved out a sigh. “I assume both your friends know about your special...talent?”

  Fin and Byrne nodded.

  “Dante was born with violet eyes. He was older than you by a few minutes, but he seemed like a normal vampire baby. You, on the other hand, had Black eyes from the moment you were born. I couldn’t take the risk that your father would see them and realize you were different. I kept you and Dante with me for two months, before I handed your brother over. Luckily, your father wasn’t interested in seeing his second daughter, just the long-awaited boy child.

  “I didn’t entirely trust your father with Dante, but I didn’t have much of a choice. We had signed a breeding contract, where if we had a son, your father would get custody. I had planned on staying in Pinton while your brother was a youngster, but I didn’t know what abilities your eyes gave you. Even my memory holds no knowledge of a Black-eyed Graced.

  “I knew that if your father discovered you had abilities, whatever they might be, he would use you. And so I moved back to Skarva. I didn’t tell you about Dante because I thought it would keep you safe — keep you home. I didn’t want you rushing off to your father and your brother, where who knows what could‘ve happened.”

  “But you could have told me about him!”

  “Would you have been willing not to meet him?” Tatiana asked.

  Hannah didn’t respond. And they all knew why. She might be a loner, but that wasn’t by choice. If she could have had more people in her life, she would have. Look at how she embraced him and Byrne, Fin thought.

  “And your father, well, he is just as bad as I suspected,”
Tatiana continued. “He recently sold your brother off in marriage — even though Dante had reached his majority in Pinton law. Your brother also recently Chose someone and your father ordered that she be cremated before she had a chance to wake up from the transformation. The man is a liability, with no concern for the wellbeing of his children.

  “Do you know, I was there the other day when his other daughter arrived home to tell him that the countess — his mate — had been murdered. And all he cared about was the social scandal!”

  “Other daughter?” Hannah asked.

  Tatiana nodded. “His oldest child.”

  “That would make her your sister, too,” Fin said.

  Hannah’s father sounded like a dick. If Tatiana Romanov disliked him — this being the woman who admitted that heart extraction by hand wasn’t abnormal in their family — that didn’t instill a great deal of confidence in him. The guy must be a total asshole.

  “Can I meet him?” Hannah asked.

  Tatiana frowned. “Your father? I would prefer not.”

  “No, Dante.”

  Tatiana sighed. “I guess it can be arranged. You’re here, after all.”

  “I’m here,” Hannah said with a slow smile. It made Fin’s insides feel all warm and gooey. Man, he was pathetic.

  Chapter 59

  Dante had invited the coroner over to dinner. She’d stammered a list of excuses why she couldn’t possibly come, of course, but he’d simply ignored them. He’d told her to bring her friend — the one he suspected was dating Misty — and that he would see them at the Greystoke townhouse at ten that night. He’d send a carriage for them.

  Then he’d gone home to tell Anton and his mother-in-law, Lady Beatrice, about their dinner plans. The countess had flown into a bit of a flap, but she excelled at these kinds of things. And she was surprisingly happy that Dante had actually bothered to invite someone over.

  Anton, on the other hand, was stunned. “You invited the city’s coroner over for dinner?”

  Dante nodded. They were in the Rose room; the various pink and red hues of the parlor had somehow become comfortingly familiar to him. Normally you’d find at least Darla — Anton’s sister — here, but she was apparently out visiting a friend and the room was unusually quiet. Elle was at work, and Clay was sleeping in the backyard, still in his furry coat. He was annoyed at Dante, but hadn’t explained why. The vampire figured it was hard to talk when you had a wolf jaw, so he’d wait. If Elle was here she could have just asked him, but she always worked at the most inconvenient times.