“To gain my own power. Mortals will do a lot of favours and help someone who knows more than they should about their private lives. I worked for small households and large ones, although I told Virginie I was only working for the gentry. I collected information, little titbits.”
“Extortion,” said Amidei grimly.
“Precisely.” She showed no remorse.
“Did you enchant the Duc de Clermont-Ferand?”
“Yes. I needed someone important for my daughter, and the aristocracy we worked for resisted. They would use her, but they would not have her for wife, however beautiful she was. So I tried something different, and it worked. I can set a passion on men, make them love me or mine, and I did that to the duc. He was not difficult. He succumbed and he took Virginie away to her new life. In time I would have killed him, but she did the job. Few people can resist Venus at her most seductive for long. But I kept Virginie pure for him.”
Virginie glanced at Harry, and he sent her an unspoken message of warmth. Then he turned his attention back to his mother-in-law, the Titan Dione. “Did you kill Rhea Simpson?”
“Yes.” She shrugged. “She became inconvenient. I used her to trap the Duke of Lyndhurst. When I met him I knew immediately who he was. Rhea was my creature. She was lonely and a little stupid. Plenty to work with. I told her she could have a duke, if she played her cards right. But she failed. And then her children turned out mortal. But she knew too much.” She shrugged. “Rhea had to go. But then in London I saw my opportunity. What better than to attach my daughter to Mars, her natural counterpart? Then in time I would have him too. I will still have him.”
Proudly, she gazed around, her stature nothing short of queenly. “A shame, but I never depend on just one plan. So I looked to Vulcan and he did not disappoint me.” She flicked a glance at her daughter. “You are mine, and so is he. Boscobel is destroyed, but his ideals were sound enough. I will have what he failed to achieve. Power.”
“You won’t,” Blaize said. His pale grey eyes remained steady and determined. So far, he showed none of the madness that he could use so effectively. He did not have to be mad himself to drive others so.
She didn’t appear daunted, despite the net that enclosed her. “Do you think this toy will confine me, when all I have to do is ask you to remove it?” She shrugged. “No matter.”
She moved forward and the net glowed, soon moving to red. Annoyed, she pushed at it, but it had wrapped around her now, and she couldn’t shift it. She turned, carefully lifting her skirts out of the way, and confronted her captor.
“It burns,” she said mildly.
Harry bestowed a bland smile on her. “Yes, do you like the effect? It will continue to burn, and turn white hot if you don’t keep still.”
“Where did you get your potions?” Blaize asked.
Her face distorted, eyes bulging, and the net glowed red, then white-hot. She screamed, but she didn’t answer Blaize’s question. He waved his hand. “No matter.”
The heat lowered so the net turned its normal dull grey colour.
Blaize addressed the others, while she recovered. “I think someone lies behind this. Someone is providing the Titans with powerful potions. While Dione could have made her own, some of the ingredients are rare and hard to come by. This is not the first case recently where witch’s spells have taken a part. I think Hecate is in our midst.”
“Damn,” Harry said softly. Hecate was never part of one side or the other. But if she had cast her lot in with the Titans, the struggle ahead was compounded.
Dione interrupted them. “I’d like you to take this thing away now.”
Harry shook his head. “No.”
“What if I threaten to kill your wife?”
“How?” Although he remained outwardly calm, Virginie sensed his heightened tension. Anything that threatened her would have that effect.
With one quick movement that made the net glow red once more, Deirdre gestured in Virginie’s direction.
Virginie clapped a hand to her throat. It was as if someone had stoppered it, stuffed a cork down it like closing a bottle. She couldn’t breathe. Even gods needed to breathe. The more she tried, the fuller the stoppage grew.
Harry rushed to her side, catching her as she fell.
“I always have another plan in case the first one fails. Did you think the obsession spell was the only one I could cast? This has been with her for too long for her to resist. Since the year of her birth, in fact. I can order her not to breathe.”
Black spots danced before her eyes.
“Release her,” Blaize said. He touched Harry’s shoulder, but Harry shook him off. His face was frantic. “Release her,” Blaize repeated. “Harry, do it now, let her go!”
Reluctantly releasing Virginie, he got to his feet and turned to face the Titan. Carefully, he lifted the base of the net and swept it up, over her head and off. It melted away at his touch until it became nothing but a tangled mass of delicate wires.
Without another glance, he returned to Virginie.
Amidei held her, but allowed Harry to take her. She could breathe now, slowly sucking in more air, recovering quickly.
“As long as I remain alive, so will she,” Harry said.
“What happens at your death?” Blaize asked carefully.
She shrugged. “I will not die.”
“No. You will not.”
As Harry lifted Virginie to sit with her on the sofa, draping her across his lap, Blaize stood and faced their adversary.
“I will leave now,” Deirdre said.
Blaize showed no sign of unlocking the door. The key was not evident, so Deirdre could not get out unless he allowed it. “No,” he said again. “You will not.” He lifted his hand, twirling his fingers.
A whirlwind erupted from the floor, exactly where Deirdre stood. It lifted her up, spun her around until she fought to escape, screaming. Every time she rotated they saw her open mouth, but the sound of it was whipped away, only for her to return again.
Wind snapped around the room, making Virginie shiver, despite the warmth of the day. Harry hugged her close and wrapped as much of his coat around her as he could. She curled in closer, held onto him, but they were not in danger as Deirdre was.
Blaize smiled broadly. “I could leave her there, but I will not. It would take too much energy. But she may stay there for a time. It will addle her brains, and if that isn’t enough, I’ll repeat it. I only started it. It will wind down.”
“Take your wife out of here,” he said to Harry.
He glanced at Harry’s mother, who shook her head vigorously. “I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s positively inspiring.”
“Let her go,” Harry said quietly. “The net is hers, meant for her. It will find her again.”
“After her mind is completely addled?” Blaize said. “Can I reach her when she is trapped?”
“Yes. It only restrains her. You must do the rest, as we always planned.” Harry sounded calm, but triumph was nowhere in his tones.
The column of whirling air in the centre of the room slowed, then stilled. Blaize made a chopping motion and it disappeared completely. After all, it was only air.
The dowager gazed up at the gap in the ceiling. “I never did like that chandelier.”
Her voice dropped into the sudden silence. Harry spluttered into laughter, his big body vibrating under Virginie. Recovered now, she went to get to her feet, but he held her firmly on his lap.
Deirdre collapsed on the floor, and as she did so the net moved. It covered her again as if she was a magnet to the iron. This time she didn’t move. Her clothes were in complete disarray, her skirts barely covering her. Her fichu, knotted neatly at the front, had turned around and ripped. Drool trickled from a corner of her mouth. She stared at her daughter, but Virginie saw no intelligence in her mother’s eyes.
Blaize stood over her, his eyes flaming with steely intent. He said nothing, but it was clear he was working, his mind in hers, sifting and stirring.
When Harry saw Virginie clawing at her throat, fighting for breath, he would have done anything to save her. Nothing else mattered. He released the Titan with barely a thought, only allowing the net to fall where it could find her again, if it found the chance. But he would not risk his wife’s life. If that meant that Dione lived, then so be it.
Virginie was shivering. In their room he stripped her, and then himself, and slid into bed, holding her close, warming her back to life.
She slept for two hours. Harry didn’t move. He’d heard from Blaize, a voice in his head dryly informing him that he had the situation in hand. Dione was irreparably insane, and he would make the arrangements to house her somewhere comfortable, but with guards that would not allow her to escape.
Harry replied that he didn’t care how comfortable she was, and that eventually the net would become part of her. Nobody would be able to see it, but it would confine her and keep her wherever he ordered her to be. But she must keep breathing until they found a way to break the threat to Virginie. After that, he cared not what happened to Deirdre.
A Titan. She had kept herself hidden, considering herself a rival to Kronos, or Boscobel as the world knew him. But now she shared his fate, and while the body she occupied held her essence, she would be no further threat to them.
When Virginie stirred, he smiled down at her. “She’s gone,” he said.
“Dead?”
“No. But she won’t bother us any more.”
She leaned up on one elbow, smiling back at him. “Bother?” But the smile quavered and melted away. “I can scarcely believe I didn’t notice anything that made her different. I was sure she was mortal.”
“Because she wanted you to see her that way. You loved her, at least in your childhood, and you didn’t want to see. Had she been innocent, she would have told the truth and we could have released her.”
She nodded. “I hoped for it.”
He stroked her shoulders, admiring their perfect form. “We don’t always get everything we want.”
“I have it all,” she murmured, going back into his arms. “I have you and now we have a baby arriving. I would that my mother had not been as she was, but she brought her fate upon herself. I’ve known Titans content not to join the struggle. One, anyway.”
“Interesting. Who?”
“Kentmere’s fatherin-law. Eros, you know.”
“Yes I do, but I wasn’t aware he was a Titan. Is he safe?”
“Completely.” She stroked his chest. “I feel safe with you, for all your size and ferocity.”
“So you should. You are more than safe with me.”
“Not always.” She bent her head and kissed him.
He returned the kiss. How could he resist Venus? Even more, how could he resist Virginie?
Already he understood her. She wanted reassurance and confirmation of their love as much as she wanted passion, and he would give it to her. He would never fail her, not all the years of their lives, he vowed.
He urged her down and came over her, still kissing her. He kept the kiss soft and undemanding, just absorbing, trying to convey everything he could in the melding of their mouths.
His shaft found its way home as she curled her legs around him, holding him into her, pressing her heels against his backside. He made love to her sweetly, steadily, building their orgasms so they grew as naturally as breathing.
Their trust was rich enough for them to let it happen. Together their arousal grew and swelled. Together they blossomed, giving themselves up to love.
She might not be completely cured or completely content, but they would cope with what life threw at them. Together they would conquer it.
This time they both slept, but he woke a few minutes before she did. That gave him the chance to leave their bed and fetch a box from his room. When he returned, she was awake, blinking away the sleep.
“My love? How do you feel?”
“Better. More settled.” Her voice had returned to its usually soft tones, the huskiness from her near throttling gone.
“Blaize has gone. He took Dione with him.”
She nodded.
“I have something for you.”
He placed the box on her lap when she sat up. Wondering, she unlatched the mahogany container and opened it, revealing his gift to her. She lifted the delicate object, holding it against the light.
“It’s your own net,” he said, as the links twisted in the light from the window. The jewels he’d embedded in the soft gold mesh twinkled. He’d used all the most beautiful stones he could find, rubies, sapphires, diamonds, emeralds, pearls and others, so the object glittered with colour. “It’s a belt,” he said.
Laughing, she held it between her hands, elegantly draped. “Women don’t wear belts these days. But I certainly will. It’s so lovely.”
“You can break it with your two hands, if you wish. It’s gold, and completely without spells or enchantments.”
She turned her attention to him. “I wouldn’t say that,” she said. “After all, you made it, my love.”
They would work together now, and until the end of their lives.
About the Author
Lynne Connolly has the best job in the world. She writes historical, paranormal and contemporary romance and she doesn’t seem to be able to stop. She has won a number of awards, including two EPPIES, and she lives in damp, rainy England with her family and her mews.
Once a year she crosses the ocean to visit friends, attend conventions and other shindigs, and promote her books, so watch her blog if you want to meet her. She loves travelling and meeting people who she will then use in her books, but then, authors are like that.
Her website is at www.lynneconnolly.com
You can email her at [email protected] or [email protected]
She tweets @lynneconnolly
Her Facebook is at www.facebook.com/lynneconnollyuk
And her blog is here: http://lynneconnolly.blogspot.co.uk/
One day she’ll grow up and get a proper job, but not just yet!
Look for these titles by Lynne Connolly
Now Available:
It All Started at Waterloo
Triple Countess
Last Chance, My Love
A Chance to Dream
Met by Chance
A Betting Chance
Secrets
Seductive Secrets
Alluring Secrets
Tantalizing Secrets
Richard and Rose
Yorkshire
Devonshire
Venice
Harley Street
Eyton
Hareton Hall
Maiden Lane
Lisbon
Even Gods Fall in Love
Lightning Unbound
Mad for Love
Arrows of Desire
Coming Soon:
Even Gods Fall in Love
War Chest
Don’t miss the other titles in Lynne Connolly’s Even Gods Fall in Love series!
When the God of Love falls for a nymph, all seven hells break loose.
Even Gods Fall in Love, Book 3
Finished with the tutoring that taught him how to be an immortal, Edmund, otherwise known as Eros, steps off the packet onto English shores, and stumbles head over heels in love.
There’s something different about Perdita Seaton and her secretive family, but for now a bigger dilemma looms. Revealing he’s the Duke of Kentmere could cut their courtship short. Yet abandoning his heritage means leaving his beloved sister at the mercy of the Titans.
Even as Edmund steals Perdita’s breath with the speed at which he sweeps her down the aisle, she feels safe in the irresistible tide of passion. Her father, head of a smuggling empire, is Oceanus—and she is a nymph.
Disaster strikes when Edmund races to London to rescue his sister, and doesn’t return
. Desperate, Perdita follows him, only to find no light of recognition in his eyes.
Now she must choose. Admit defeat, or fight to break the enchantment keeping Edmund’s heart prisoner—and risk the wrath of a jealous goddess who’d be all too happy to snuff her out.
Warning: Contains a wedding night that transcends heaven, a mother-in-law from hell, and one Titanic case of amnesia.
What the heart wants, it finds a way to take.
Even Gods Fall in Love, Book 1
When Gerard Sterling, Earl of Ellesmere, races to Bethlehem Hospital—also known as Bedlam—to rescue a wrongly committed friend, he’s astonished to hear a voice in his head that doesn’t belong to his sister, with whom he shares a mind link.
Fascinated and enchanted by Lady Faith Bradley, inspired by her dedication saving her brother from the horrors of the Incurables ward, he includes them both in his rescue mission. But woo her he cannot—not with a fatal disease that saps more of his strength every day.
Faith would slay dragons to keep her brother safe from her father’s scheme to set his simpleminded heir aside. But it’s Gerard, who feels the hot breath of death down his neck, who wins her heart.
Then it is revealed that Gerard is none other than the reincarnation of Zeus, and they face a far more dangerous enemy—Kronos, whose plan to regain power includes Gerard’s death. To foil his plan, Gerard and Faith must hold firm to the power of love…and defy Fate itself.
Warning: Be careful—beautiful clothes, perfect manners and heat between the sheets are bound to keep you awake at night!
The fight for their love will be a battle of Olympian proportions.
Even Gods Fall In Love, Book 2
Wherever he goes, Blaize, Marquess of Stretton, hears the jingle of keys as society mothers lock up their daughters. No wonder: he is secretly the embodiment of Bacchus, god of wine and madness.
Yet his melancholic heart is lonely. Until he enters a ballroom, hunting for the Titans who destroyed his father. One look at Lady Ariane Wells and he is consumed with an instant, almost violent compulsion to protect her from the attentions of another man who smells of Titan—Marcus, Duke of Lyndhurst.
Ariane is no shy debutante. She knows what she wants, and it is the stunningly handsome Blaize, even if it means defying her powerful mother. When Blaize disappears, Ariane embarks on a treacherous cross-country chase to find him, knowing that if she fails, she must marry her mother’s choice: Marcus.
Forged by Love: Even Gods Fall in Love, Book 4 Page 25
