League of Vampires Box Set 3

by Rye Brewer

  “Oh, my goodness.” She smoothed the baby’s hair. “What about you? How do you feel?”

  “I thought I hated him for so long. It’s almost difficult to separate what I believed from the truth. I…” I shook my head, waving my hands. “I need to know for sure that he wasn’t merely speaking in panic, or in delirium. That he wasn’t lying.”

  “Why would he have lied?”

  “Because he was dying,” I hissed. “A guilty conscience can make a person say any number of things.”

  “Do you really believe that?” she asked with a knowing look. “Or are you only telling yourself what you think you want? Does the thought that he’s loved you all this time frighten you somehow?”

  She made the skin on the back of my neck crawl with her questions. “This is very uncomfortable for me.”

  “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t pry.”

  I shook my head again. “No, this is good. I’ve kept myself closed-off for a long time. Ever since he left, in fact. I wouldn’t allow anyone to hurt me again.”

  “I don’t think anyone could blame you for that.”

  “Now? Now that it would appear that I was so easily fooled?” I almost wished Dracan were still alive so I could kill him. “I’m angry.”

  “You have every right to be.”

  “And sad, for we lost so much time together.”

  “Also understandable,” she murmured, frowning. “I’m so sorry. But now you know the truth.”

  “If it is the truth.” I chewed my lip.

  “I think we both know it is. People are their most honest when death is knocking at the door. They won’t take the trouble to make up lies to spare somebody’s feelings. They want to unburden themselves and make things right. I think that’s what he was trying to do.”

  What stood out most was how badly I wanted to believe her. I wanted this to be true.

  I wanted him to love me.

  The door opened and Sirene emerged. The expression on my face made her laugh, even if she tried to hide it. “You can go in now. He’s in rare spirits.”

  “What does that mean?” Anissa asked.

  “It means he’s going mad, lying in bed with nothing to do. He threatened to encase me in ice.”

  I hoped he wouldn’t threaten me the same way as I stepped into the room, where Sirene had left the balcony doors open to allow a fresh breeze inside. He was in bed, propped up against a mountain of pillows, and he did look miserable.

  Until he turned his head to find who’d entered. A wide smile spread across his face. I could believe it at last. He was telling the truth during those harrowing moments in the tunnel, when I was so certain he would die in my arms.

  “It took you long enough to get here,” he accused not a moment later, the smile now a memory.

  I folded my arms and marched across the room to his bed. “Oh? As if I had a choice? As if Sirene would let me in when she was uncertain if you had the strength to accept company? Not to mention the condition I was in on our return, which I notice you did not deign to inquire about.”

  “Have I had the chance, woman?”

  “No, because you chose to complain the moment you saw me. Why should I be surprised? Why should anything have changed?”

  We glared at each other for a beat before bursting out into laughter. What else was there to do but laugh? It seemed we were destined to remain at each other’s throats.

  “Forgive me,” he urged, patting the bed.

  I sat, feeling a bit awkward. This was as intimate as we’d been in decades.

  “You’re right. How are you? I should’ve asked. It’s the least I can do after you used your skills to save me.”

  “Sirene told you?”

  “She told me you sealed the wound, so I wouldn’t bleed to death. I vaguely remembered that. Along with the tunnel collapse. A stroke of genius, that.”

  “Thank you. I wanted to do worse, but that seemed the most effective way to go.” I looked him over. One would never know he’d suffered so. “How are you feeling now?”

  “I wish I could tell you I’m fit and energetic and prepared to take on the world.”

  “No one expects you to.” I took a chance and patted the back of his hand, where it rested on his leg. “I, of all people, would never expect it. You need time to get your strength back.”

  “I only wish it didn’t take so much time.”

  “Who doesn’t when bedridden?” I asked, chuckling softly. “But you will be fine. Is there anything I can get for you?”

  He looked me up and down. “Anyone would think to hear you talk that you actually cared about me.”

  If he tried for a hundred years, he couldn’t possibly have said anything to hurt me more. My heart sank. I withdrew my hand.

  “Silly me,” I choked out, turning my face away before tears filled my eyes. “I’ll leave you be now.”

  “Wait. Wait!” he called out when I started to flee. “I don’t know why I said it. I don’t know why I insist on making a fool of myself.”

  I paused. “It could be because you’re a fool,” I murmured over one shoulder.

  “I deserve that,” he admitted with a grim chuckle. “Please, come back. I do want to talk to you, honestly. No attempt at humor, no argument. It’s been driving me mad, being unable to see you these last days.”

  I wiped my eyes before turning around. “I felt the same way, so long as we’re being honest.”

  He looked at me straight-on, with an intensity that turned my skin to gooseflesh. “I remember what I said in the tunnel.”

  My heart skipped a beat. “You do? I had wondered if you would. You don’t have to—”

  “Stop. Please.”

  I stopped.

  He drew a deep breath, the longest breath I had ever witnessed. Couldn’t he get on with it? Didn’t he know he held my life in his hands?

  “I don’t need you to give me a way out of it,” he began. “I’m not looking for that. I stand by every word of it. What I said was true. Dracan threatened Sirene’s life, and she was extremely angry with me for not having told her so.”

  When I found my voice, I said, “Ah. I had wondered if she would speak of it.”

  “Oh, she did. And how.” His handsome features twisted in a grimace. “I deserved it. While my intention was always to protect her—and you, when I could—I should have told her of his threats. At least after he was killed, when there was no longer any danger.”

  “Why didn’t you?” I crept one step closer, then another.

  “I was ashamed.” He grimaced again. “This isn’t easy. You know you happen to be one of two people I would admit this to.”

  “I suppose that’s an honor,” I muttered.

  His laughter warmed me and seemed to brighten the room. “In a strange way, I suppose it is. I understand if you don’t see it that way.”

  “What were you ashamed of?”

  “Being so easily used. Hurting you, naturally. That was the last thing I ever wanted.” He leaned forward, his eyes searching mine. “You must believe that. If you believe nothing else, please, believe that I never wanted to hurt you. I wished so many times that I could tell all, but I couldn’t risk Sirene’s life. I told myself you would get over it in time, that I could spare my sister and you would carry on without me.”

  “I did—in my own fashion,” I assured him, closing the distance between myself and the bed, sitting again.

  “I was a fool to let him keep us apart.”

  “No, you weren’t. You did what you felt needed to be done.”

  “I hated doing it.” This time, his hand found mine. “I’ve hated it every day since. I tried to forget you, I did, but nothing was the same. No one could ever take your place. I need you to believe that.”

  “I think I do,” I managed to breathe over the pounding of my heart. I had dreamed of this moment for so long, dreamed of the day he would come back to me and tell me it was all a mistake. That he still loved me.

  Now that the moment was upon me,
I hardly knew what to think. Or how to breathe.

  “I still love you,” he whispered, clutching my hand. “I’ve always loved you. Only you. Anyone else would pale before you. And I’m sorry for the pain you suffered. I would do anything to take it back.”

  He blurred before me as tears filled my eyes. “There is one thing you can do,” I suggested.

  “What’s that?”

  “You can kiss me. Please.”

  “If only everything were so easily managed.” He pulled me closer, taking my face in his hands once I was near enough.

  I was certain my heart would burst free. Blood raced in my ears, deafening me to everything but the sound of what his love did to me.

  In some ways, it was as if no time had passed.

  Yet it had never been so sweet, because it hadn’t been hard-won before this moment.

  I closed my eyes just before his lips brushed against mine, willing myself to hold onto the moment, to memorize every part of it. Their softness, their sweetness. The racing rhythm of his heart beneath my palm. The salt of my joyful tears as they coursed down my cheeks, wetting us both and seasoning our kisses.

  “I do love you, Branwen,” he murmured, kissing my cheeks and chin and forehead, never letting go of my face. As if he feared I would disappear if he didn’t hold on tight.

  “I love you,” I replied, and my heart cried out for joy. I’d waited so long. We both had.

  “I want you with me always.”

  I opened my eyes, smiling down at him as he smiled up at me. “It just so happens that’s the only place I want to be.”

  34

  Cari

  We didn’t stop running until we reached what looked like an abandoned building at least a half-mile from the estate.

  Well, they didn’t stop running. I was over the shoulder of Gage’s father, who hadn’t bothered to put me down even after we’d escaped. I could only keep my eyes closed to stop myself from getting nauseated.

  Not like it helped. Not like I wasn’t already nauseated after what I had just witnessed. I could still smell the men, their burning bodies. I could see them shaking, jittering, jumping. I could hear their screams.

  We were free, but would I ever really be free after seeing something like that? Was it possible?

  We ducked into the old building—it might have been a warehouse or something, big and empty except for rodents who scurried away when we entered. The stink of animal feces wasn’t exactly a welcome one, but I’d smelled worse—recently, in fact.

  It was cold, too, but that might have been the shock I was still suffering. I was clear enough to know what a mess I was, but not enough to know much else.

  Except for one more thing: my father was dead. Really and truly, not just in spirit but for real. He was dead, and he had probably suffered a lot before he got that way.

  When my feet were on the floor, Gage pulled me into his arms.

  “I’m so sorry,” he murmured, over and over, holding me tight. “I’m so sorry you had to see that.”

  “He’s gone.” No matter how many times I thought it or said it, I couldn’t make myself believe it was true. “I shouldn’t care, should I?”

  “If you didn’t care, you wouldn’t be the woman I love,” he whispered, and I clung to him like he was a life raft and I had just gone overboard.

  “Are you all right? All of you?” His father touched my back. “Were you injured?”

  I looked up at him. “What’s your name?”

  He looked surprised for a second before offering a half-smile. “Fane.”

  I stood facing him, looking up into a face that reminded me a lot of his son. “Fane, thank you. You saved our lives. We never would’ve made it out of there if you hadn’t come for us.”

  “Fane?” Raze asked, skepticism in his voice. He watched us from over the top of Naomi’s head—she was glued to him, her face against his chest. “I thought you were Dommik Bourke. I remember you.”

  He nodded in acknowledgment. “Let us refer to that as a past life. Dommik Bourke had to cease to exist if his children were to survive.”

  I looked up at Gage.

  “I’ll explain it all some other time,” he promised.

  “Thank you, no matter what your name is,” Naomi mumbled. “Thank you for saving our lives.”

  Fane looked to Gage. “I couldn’t allow them to…”

  “I know.” It seemed like there was nothing they needed to say to each other. They understood without speaking.

  I wondered what it would be like to have a supportive father, even if that father had the powers of a warlock. How did a warlock even have a vampire son? Why hadn’t I heard about any of this ages ago?

  I clearly had a lot to learn, but preferably at some other time when my brain functioned properly.

  “What are we going to do now?” I asked. Even in shock, I knew we had to go someplace, and soon. No way were we going to survive in this warehouse, with no blood and no way to get any.

  “You’ll have to leave Italy—that much is clear,” Fane explained. “What happened back there is bound to attract a lot of attention.” Sure enough, the wail of sirens echoed in the air as emergency vehicles raced to the site of the explosion.

  I almost laughed. They didn’t need to hurry. Everybody there was dead.

  Instead, I burst into tears.

  Gage held onto me until I rode it out to nothing more than a few sniffles. I wondered how long I’d have to wait until that stopped happening—fine one second, weeping the next.

  “If we can make it to the train station, we could get to Paris and to my apartment,” Raze suggested.

  “How?” Naomi asked. “We don’t have cash for tickets.”

  “I can arrange that,” Fane promised. “Wait here.”

  “What? Why?” Gage asked, but not fast enough. I jumped when Fane waved his hands and what looked like a colorful vortex of light appeared in front of him. He stepped through it and… disappeared. He flat-out disappeared.

  Now I knew how Sara had suddenly shown up at the estate.

  “Where did he go?” Raze asked.

  “I haven’t the foggiest,” Gage muttered. “He has a tendency to pop in and out of places.”

  “At least he used that tendency in our favor tonight.” Naomi seemed to be pulling herself together, which I took as a good sign. “Without him being able to show up in one of those… light things he just put together…”

  “Portal,” Gage whispered.

  Naomi continued, “Without that, we would’ve been underground in that compound when it came down.”

  “I don’t even want to think about it,” I whispered, shaking my head until it hurt. No way. I hadn’t considered just how close a call we’d had until she said it. Sara wouldn’t have known we were there.

  My father would’ve gotten his way. We would’ve died. Four fewer vampires in the world.

  A minute later, the same swirling vortex grew in the center of the warehouse floor, sending rats running and squealing in all directions. Fane stepped through it, then closed it behind him. In one hand was a stack of paper.

  “What’s this?” Gage asked as he handed it over.

  “Four train tickets and enough Euros to make certain you can get around. A cab to the station and the like. You’re all too weak to course, and you need to get going before the sun rises.”

  “That’s the truth,” Raze muttered. “But where did you get it?”

  “Is that really important?” he asked before looking us all over. “You’re a bit rough around the edges, but you’ll do. Just keep to yourselves.”

  “I don’t think that will be a problem,” I assured him with a shaky laugh.

  “You’d better get moving, then. The train leaves in a half-hour, at eight o’clock.”

  “It’s that early?” I gasped. “I would never have known.”

  “Yes, and you should arrive in Paris roughly around four in the morning, which will give you little more than an hour to find shelter before
dawn.” He reached into one of the pockets of his long coat and withdrew a phone. “Here. Use this to reach me if you run into trouble.”

  Gage took it with a suspicious smile. “Where did you get this?”

  “I have my ways.” Fane pulled his son in for a brief, tight hug. “Take care. I’ll reach out to you on the phone if anything changes and you’re able to come home.”

  “I’ve given up hope on that,” Gage said, sounding downcast.

  “I wouldn’t give up all hope. If you could escape that nightmare of a compound, anything is possible.” Fane led us out into the street and hailed a taxi from further down the block. “This is where I have to leave you.”

  “Thank you so much.” I gave him an awkward hug. “We owe you everything.”

  “Just be good to each other,” he replied, sounding sort of gruff.

  We piled into the car and waved one more time to Fane before riding off to the train station.

  Gage was next to me, and it was heaven to rest my head on his shoulder. We were close to being safe again. It was something like a miracle—no less so than the miracle of stepping onto a train and handing a ticket to a conductor before settling back into a padded seat where I could finally draw a deep breath and slowly release it. My tension melted away.

  Until I remembered those twitching, burning men and my father. I squeezed my eyes shut, like it would do anything to help.

  Gage’s hand closed over mine. “We’re safe now. Nobody can hurt us.”

  “That’s not true,” I whispered, turning my head so I could look at him. “You know it isn’t. I mean, I couldn’t even trust my own father.”

  “That was another story. You didn’t know he was more than just your father.”

  “It’s enough to make me wonder if I really know anybody. If he’s capable of that, what are the rest of the people around me capable of?”

  He frowned. “I hope I’m not included in that assessment, because I would never—”

  “No, I don’t mean you. You’re the only thing I’m truly sure of, and I couldn’t live without you now. I hope you know you’re stuck with me.”