A slight growl rose from his throat through closed lips, which remained pressed together between consternation and pleasure. She forced him to move close enough to press her cheek to his. At the moment of contact, she felt what Jill must have, as though she connected to his mind, and saw the pathways to creating desire.
Daisy held her cheek to his, and her skin secreted moisture at the point of contact. As her blood’s power weakened, she chose her words for simplicity. "Release me," she ordered, and with some difficulty, released the young man from her hold upon him until he could move of his own accord. Instead of fighting her, he followed her instructions, a look of placid acceptance turned his previous malevolence slack.
Her hands freed, she touched his face with her palm, and once more reengaged with him. "Tell me the truth," she said to him. "Why harm Jared?"
"It's fun," he replied, "and the Queen ordered it."
"Why torture Jared? She could have sent someone to verify Valerie's death?" She held the command in her mind as they connected; beads of poison seeped from her skin into his, forcing his compliance.
The man didn’t fail her. "She did. The house was empty, and several bodies were found burned in the basement. Valerie is believed to be among them."
Then why torture him? Anger rose above Daisy's fear, as she realized this whole violent event could have been avoided. She nearly lost control of the torturer, though, and held fast to her connection.
"How long before Nikola returns?" she asked.
"At least two hours," he answered.
She puzzled over this. "How can you be certain?"
"The Basque is Her Majesty's favorite. She will keep him enthralled for hours," he said, but he resisted her control.
Daisy summoned her will and pushed herself hard.
"Tell me the truth," she said, emphasizing the last word, "Tell me all of it."
The spotted gray eyes turned to hers. "Nikola does not have the stomach for my work. He finds it distasteful. He will stay away until ordered to return."
Why then did he fore my eyes to see it?
This gave her more to ponder, but even if they only had a couple of hours, she needed to figure out what to do with them. Jared suffered needlessly on his metal rack where his body had been opened up and put on display, a nightmarish anatomy lesson. She nodded in Jared's direction, and ordered, "Help heal him."
The command went against some part of the man's natural desires, and it was a greater struggle to get him to comply as it countered the core of his being. Daisy's strength flagged, and she realized if she lost control of the man, her life, Jared's, and Perdy's would be forfeit. Only absently did she remember that somewhere within the walls Nathaniel might also be held.
The scent of blood filling the air told her what she needed to do. Sinking her teeth into his arm, she found a source of sustenance that both strengthened her hold upon him, and weakened his resolve to resist.
I must not kill him, she realized. As she assisted in returning Jared's body to wholeness, she formulated a plan.
With painstaking care, the butcher placed the strung intestines back into Jared's abdominal cavity, and replaced each organ one by one. Daisy noticed how many organs appeared hard and polished, semiprecious stones no longer serving a true purpose within a body. He had no need for a liver or spleen, after all. Only the heart moved, making a sucking sound, desperate for blood. It was one of the few organs left inside him during his ordeal, his heart and his stomach.
Organs returned to his torso, the torturer moved Jared's muscles back into their original positions, and covered the skin back over. The butcher bit his own finger, and ran a trickle of blood down the seam, causing it to speed up the re-knitting of skin. Daisy kept her hand touching the man throughout it all, continuing their connection so it wouldn’t slip. Though Jill had managed to maintain control without physical contact once it was established, Daisy couldn’t be certain how long she would retain the dead vampire’s powers.
Surprisingly, the limbs were easier; they seemed to want to return to the body, which fed them with blood to sustain their continued survival. Removing Jared from the pedestal, though, wasn’t as easy. The torturer had skewered him on a pike through his perineum, and as his body was lifted from it. It came away with a sucking sound drowned partially out by Jared's scream.
Patched loosely together with thin threads of blood, and a will to continue living, Jared lay on the floor, his eyes stared out glassy and dazed. There was no way, Daisy knew, for Jared to recover enough before Nikola's return. Not without blood.
Daisy's exertion didn’t overwhelm her as it might have; the power of the blood of three vampires sustained her well enough, but how long she could continue to use their powers remained a mystery. She acted under the assumption they would fade at any moment.
Jared would need to feed immediately if she was to get them out. Once more, she focused on the man before her and commanded him. "Feed him."
Reopening the wound she had made on his arm, the man fed his own blood to Jared, who latched on with a ferocious determination. Hatred pierced the air between them as he stared up at his torturer.
Daisy monitored the butcher, sensing how close he grew to a final death. She told Jared, "Stop now," but either he didn’t hear her, or didn’t wish to obey. Reaching for him, she wrenched Jared's mouth away from the man who looked drained of life, yet continued standing. Jared turned his head away, and rolled to his side, his limbs now responding to his action and rejoined well enough to move.
As a final act, she touched the man on his cheek. "We proved to you Valerie is dead. Tell them we provided you proof, and you returned us to our cells. Understood?"
"Yes," said the man, his eyes no longer holding any resistance toward her will. There was nothing left within him to fight back, Daisy only hoped his weakness would last long enough for them to make an escape.
"Good," she said. "Remember. Valerie is dead. You returned us to our cells. Now, where do we find Perdita and Nathaniel?"
The Child in Arms
With Jared’s arm slung over her shoulder, Daisy walked through the corridor, determined to put as much space between herself and the torture chamber as fast as possible. Unfortunately, Jared’s wounds weren’t healing swiftly enough for him to keep even an elderly woman’s pace. She leaned him against a wall around the corner where the corridors connected. "Stay here a moment. I need to get Perdy and find Nathaniel before this whole plan goes cattywampus."
"What plan?" he asked, with a coughing laugh.
Daisy remained grim, and shook her head. She didn't have a plan. She made up her moves as she went along, and hoped if she worked fast enough and hid her scent, she could find a way to escape. How, Daisy Margaret Shaw, do you intend to get past the throne room and into the elevator?
She shook her head at her internal question, and scraped the doors, sniffing the air in hopes of picking up Nathaniel’s scent. At one point, she slowed, thinking she smelled him. "Nathaniel?" she asked, but no answer came from any of the surrounding cells. A least two dozen tunnels networked beneath the mansion above, and no time to search them all.
A sense of urgency brought her back around to Perdita’s door, but she found herself facing an empty cell with the door left wide open. No!
Without thought for her own safety, or how she might save Jared and Nathaniel, she ran after the sweet fragrance of the girl. The trail led her into the throne room where she came to a halt behind Nikola’s back. His ringlets bounced with each step. He paused. Perdita lay in his arms, bare legs dangling over his arm. Daisy couldn’t see if she slept or ...
Nikola turned.
Daisy saw the child, awake and serene, as she clutched his lapel.
"Mrs. Shaw," he said with a reproachful stare. "You ought not to be out here."
"Give the girl to me," she said, her voice shaky but determined. When he made no move to accept her command, desperation welled up in her. "Please."
"I cannot," he replied. "I am bound
to serve our Queen, and she wishes to feed her new pet."
Daisy glanced around the room, realizing they stood alone together.
"Where is she?"
He said nothing, and turned away from her, heading to the right of the grand throne. The fire continued to warm the room, but no one enjoyed its heat. She raced ahead of him to block him.
"Perdita. Perdy," she said. "Would you like to come with me?"
The child seemed unable to hear. Nikola kept walking toward a heavy, black door with a mother of pearl handle. She pressed into them both, her hands on his. "Stop!" she yelled.
He ceased walking, and frowned at her in consternation. "What have you done?"
Her hold on him grew weaker the longer she extended her abilities, but held for the moment. Daisy pulled Perdita free and raced for the exit to the rickety elevator leading up to the surface. Nikola made distressed noises, as though struggling against tight ropes. She neared the doorway in half a second, but collided with a wall, which appeared before her.
The impact sent Daisy sprawling backwards, though she held tight to the child in her arms. She saw no wall, but the tiny frame of the Queen, her lips whiter than her pearlescent teeth. Camilla cried out, and the sound once more lacerated their minds. Daisy fought against it, working the child’s hands over her ears, and setting her down. She crawled forward, against waves of agony flooding the room.
Though the cacophony shook the ideas from her head, she needed to do anything—anything—to silence the noise. She tore herself across the floor on her belly, clawing her way on broken fingernails and bony knees, attempting to reach the Queen’s bare feet. She’d claw her way up the small body if she must to rip out her throat.
Daisy's fingers came an inch from the Queen's toes, when hands grabbed onto her own ankles. They yanked her away from the screaming, white monster and pulled her up backwards by her arms.
"No! I have to make it stop. Have to—"
She wrenched herself hard, pulling her shoulder loose in its socket trying to be free of the hands gripping her forearms tight. Her slack skin allowed her a little leeway to turn, and she shoved the top of her head as hard into the neck of the person holding her.
Nikola spat a curse and veered a step or two back, stumbling, but he refused to relinquish his hold upon her. Daisy thrashed, and kicked back. "Cease," he commanded her, but his blood continued to inoculate her against his powers. She refused. Then the screaming stopped.
The Queen stepped forward, taking small, slow steps toward Perdita. Camilla’s hair stood out in wild disarray, wisps of white gold hair sticking out at all ends, and Perdy no longer appeared serene, but had scuttled to a corner and wrapped herself in her arms, trying to cover her ears. She whimpered softly as the Queen approached, cooing at her.
Daisy gave her own screech of despair, and slumped in Nikola’s arms. She recited from Psalms. "I will obey your decrees; do not utterly forsake me."
The Queen paused, her attempts to win the child over momentarily halted.
"My soul is weary with sorrow," Daisy said, "strengthen me according to your word."
Camilla righted herself from her crouch before Perdita and smiled beatifically at Daisy, who ceased struggling in Nikola’s grasp. She kept her eyes staring at Perdita, letting what she recalled of the prayer roll off her tongue, her mind working to find some method of escape.
"Keep me from deceitful ways, and be gracious to me. Teach me your law," Daisy said, the Queen growing ever closer.
"I will teach you," she said, her scent blooming on the air, but Daisy didn't swoon as she first had in the Queen’s presence. She felt no desire to sink down into the layers of her voice. Her head continued to quake from the recent scream of her slender throat. She would not forget it so easily.
Daisy continued the passage from Psalms, "I have chosen the way of faithfulness; I have set my heart on your laws."
The Queen stood a hand span shorter than Daisy; her face shone bright in the firelight. She reached up to stroke Daisy’s cheek, her throat full of gentling hums and trills.
Before the hand could reach her, Daisy gripped the Queen’s wrist, and commanded, "Silence!"
Camilla sputtered and coughed, a flash of fear passing in her eyes. Her smooth forehead wrinkled in confusion. Nikola understood well enough what happened, and tried to pry Daisy away from his Queen, but he stumbled backwards.
Jared thrust himself onto Nikola’s back, pulling him away from both women. Despite Nikola’s superior strength and age, Jared held on tight, groaning with each jerk. He sunk his fangs fast into the closest flesh. Nikola roared.
Daisy used the sudden distraction and stepped forward. "You’re a spoiled child," she said gripping the Queen’s wrist. Camilla didn’t budge, but she also couldn’t speak. "I won’t let you hurt Perdita. You can’t have her. Let us go!"
The Queen blinked, dazed at the impertinence of the old woman holding fast to her wrist. "No!" she called out, and it knocked all of them to the floor.
Daisy, having lost her advantage, scrambled to her feet away from both of the older vampires. Jared lay sprawled in a corner, looking the worse for his efforts fighting Nikola.
"Enough," Camilla said, firm yet quiet. "You caused enough disruption in my court. Nikola, end this."
The Basque stumbled as he stood, his eyes gaunt and mouth several shades lighter than before. Jared had drained him well, yet still he sought to carry out the Queen’s command. He glanced between the Queen and Daisy and moved toward the center point between them. Daisy watched him hesitate, though she couldn’t fathom why. Even weakened as he was, he ought to prove far stronger than her. The stolen powers waned in her, and certainly couldn’t hold anyone so strong willed again.
He made eye contact. Daisy saw a nameless weariness staring back at her. He straightened, firming his resolve. Why does he hesitate?
A large, dark body collided with his. Jared rolled him over. The cold, ancient blood of the Basque fueled his recovery, and he pinned his elder to the ground. Jared leapt away, and charged for the mantle, where he freed the sabers from their decorative hold.
Camilla jumped away, climbing up the chains on the wall to the ceiling. She stood perched on an iron bar, pressing her back into the curvature of the tunneled ceiling. "You dare assault me in my own court?"
Jared approached her, sabers held out at either side, ready to attack. Daisy recognized the heady strength in him she had experienced when drinking from the Basque. He stood before Camilla, staring up at the angelic form on the ceiling, eyes filled with hate. She leapt over his head and landed. He spun around, but she moved faster than either of them could track with ease.
Once more, he spun, and the moment he saw her, she froze. Her limbs seized. "Daisy," he said. "Drain her, or I won’t be able to end this."
The remnant humanity in her balked. She’d committed enough horrors for one evening, but she could see no other recourse and the temptation proved too great. She stood next to the Queen, smoothing her long, white hair from her slender arm. The gesture reminded her of tending to Perdita, though Camilla was older. She hesitated.
Perdita hid herself in the corner where she’d first run to, and remained there, but her eyes peeked out. Nikola, still wounded on the floor, whispered, "Please, do not harm her. Please."
He sounded close to tears.
The muscles in Camilla’s arms twitched. Jared was losing control over her. If she lives, she will kill us all. If I help in killing her, I lose all that I am.
She glanced once more at Perdita, whose eyes glistened with tears. Anything to save her, she thought, and her teeth sunk deep into the child-Queen’s arm.
Lord, forgive me my trespasses. I am only the monster you made me. I forgive those who trespass against me. The sweetest darkness filled her mouth. It coated her tongue.
Lead me not into temptation, and deliver me from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power ...
A gentle, cold cloud filled her veins, causing her strawberry scent to
permeate the chamber. Her body grew lighter, her heart quickened, and she felt more alive, than she did even in her youth.
... and the glory. Forever and ever.
Camilla sunk slowly to her knees. Daisy followed her to the floor. "Momma?" Camilla asked, her throat weak and wanting for tears.
Amen.
Jared sliced once with his right hand, then again with his left. Camilla’s head fell to the polished floor, and tilted on its side, her mass of white gold hair preventing her from rolling.
Daisy released Camilla’s arm, and the beheaded body slumped backwards. The Queen’s eyes scanned the room, not dead, yet unable to comprehend the horror of her own undeath.
Daisy Margaret Shaw stood unsteadily, though the stolen grace of the child-Queen made her steps appear deliberate. She stepped toward the fire, and wretched in the corner nearest. Black blood flowed from her, and her heart twisted in its loss.
She cleaned her mouth roughly with her dress, and walked to Perdita. The child flinched at first, but then wrapped tiny arms around Daisy’s neck. She buried her face in her chest and cried harder.
Nikola brushed his hand across her foot. "Why?" he whispered, his throat sounding ready to weep.
"She would have killed us all. She would have hurt Perdita," Daisy answered, her reply soft and worn.
"You were meant to love her," he said. Daisy pulled away from his touch. "Do not leave."
She felt compelled to stop, though his power held no sway over her. Daisy stared down at his sculpted face, now wretched with sorrow and loss. "I must see the girl finds a safe home." She couldn’t fathom why she gave him any excuse; she owed him nothing.
Before she could leave, she had one more task. "Where is Nathaniel?"
Nikola turned his face away. "I do not know."
"Don’t lie to me," Daisy said, and his eyes returned to hers.
He laughed mirthlessly, "I do not lie to you. He disappeared from our trackers."
The news shook Daisy. Where could Nathaniel have gone? Why did he abandon me? She turned her back on the Basque, and walked through the doorway toward the elevator.
Daisy After Life (Book 1): Perdition Page 20
