Ascension

by A. S. Fenichel

  His anger was justified. The hunters had failed in their foremost mission. Their main purpose was a complete loss. The goal was to keep the master from getting into their world.

  Yet when Gabriel had grabbed her, the master was already ascending. In the smoke, she’d seen his perfect face.

  His desire for her burned in the vortex. It was that craving, which had kept her alive so long. The master had made an error in judgment. If he had used her only as a vehicle for his ascent, the hunters would have been too late. She would be dead and he would be whole. His greed in wanting her sexually cost him and saved her.

  It was in those seconds that Gabriel was able to cut her down and pull her away.

  She would never be able to wipe the horrifying hatred she’d seen in the master’s eyes from her mind. His desire transformed to pure evil as he’d looked at her husband. His beauty had waned in the way it often did in the sick. His mouth opened and emitted the terrible cry they all heard.

  Cullum turned to her again. “You are sure the master is in our world?”

  “He is weak, but I saw him ascend. He is here, but he will need time to recover because he was vulnerable when I was rescued and the priests killed.”

  “How much time?”

  “I do not know. They do not measure time as we do. To the master, our lifetime is an instant. It could take him years to heal or perhaps hours. I just do not know.” Her voice began to take on a panicked crescendo.

  Gabriel’s hand tightened on her shoulder.

  Drake Cullum’s façade fell. The deep lines of his frown eased and his shoulders slumped. “I am glad you were saved, countess. I know you have been through an ordeal. We shall expect a full report as soon as you are able.”

  Her throat tightened and she gave one quick nod.

  Jamie rushed into the room and approached Cullum. “A message was left at the door.”

  “Who brought it?”

  “A boy, one of us,” Jamie said.

  He opened the parchment and looked up at Gabriel. “I think this is meant for you, my lord.”

  Gabriel took the note. Belinda rose from her chair and read the swirled writing. A chill ran up her spine. The parchment was old and browned around the edges.

  It read, Capio meus vengeance in vestri cruor.

  “I take my vengeance in your blood,” Gabriel translated.

  “What does it mean?” Lillian asked.

  Gabriel looked at Cullum. He narrowed his eyes “What makes you think this is for me?”

  “From what we know, it makes sense. You stole Lady Tullering from the master. He considered her his property. Whom else would he seek vengeance on?”

  “So he is going to come after me?” Gabriel’s voice rose and his shoulders pulled back. He welcomed that idea.

  Belinda’s chest tightened as the meaning of the message dawned on her. She grabbed his hand. “No. We have to go, Gabriel. We have to get to your house.”

  His eyes widened as the horror hit him. “Thor.” The name echoed off the walls.

  “Let’s go.” The driver already ran toward the door.

  They were up the steps and running down the alley in seconds. Belinda, Gabriel and Lillian were still in motion when the carriage was in motion.

  “I have been the same fool your father was, Bella. I have put my family in danger.”

  There was truth to what he said, but overall there was little comparison between Gabriel and her father. “My father perpetuated a lie for years. I would guess he still keeps secrets from us. You have had little time to consider the consequences. This is my fault. I dragged you into this and now your mother and Serena are in danger.”

  “You are both jumping to conclusions. Let’s get to the house and see what we find before we make any judgments. Besides, if we find the worst, we shall have other obligations. Blame will not be one of them.” Lillian gave them both a stern look.

  She was right, of course. There would be plenty of time for blame and remorse.

  Belinda gripped the window frame and the bench seat to keep her place while Thor tore through the streets of Southwark, crossed the bridge and rounded corners at dangerous speeds.

  Gabriel pulled his watch from the small pocket of his waistcoat. “They should be preparing for the evening by now. I have not the faintest idea where they were going tonight.”

  “It is Wednesday, perhaps Almack’s.” They would likely be preparing for a ball or dinner party. Almack’s was a likely destination. Many socialites enjoyed the formality of the weekly event.

  She held Gabriel’s hand as they approached the large townhouse. As soon as the carriage stopped, they jumped down and ran up the steps.

  Gabriel pounded on the door until the stunned butler pulled it open.

  “My lord?”

  “Shelby, where are my mother and sister?”

  The butler opened his mouth, but his words were cut off by the sharp tone of Gabriel’s mother’s voice from the landing. “I am here, Gabriel. What is the meaning of this?”

  The now-dowager countess made her way down the steps in a burgundy gown.

  “Mother, you are all right.”

  “Of course I am.” She turned to Belinda. “Lady Tullering, you look pale. Are you unwell, my dear?”

  It took Belinda a moment to recognize that Gabriel’s mother was addressing her. She was now the Countess of Tullering and his mother the dowager. “I am fine, countess. Is Lady Serena at home?”

  Gabriel’s mother looked at Lillian and Thor standing in the doorway. “I do not believe I know your friend or this man.” She looked down her nose at the pair standing in the front doorway.

  “Where is Serena, mother?” Gabriel’s voice rose above a polite tone. He fisted his hands and the muscle on the side of his jaw ticked. He climbed the stairs toward his mother.

  “What is the meaning of this?”

  “Mother.”

  “She is up in her room getting dressed. Where else would she be?”

  Lillian said, “Go and check. We will wait here.”

  Gabriel took the steps two at a time.

  Belinda followed him, equaling his pace.

  The countess gasped, but Belinda didn’t know if it was because Lillian had issued an order or because she was running up the steps as if she was a hoyden rather than a lady. Gabriel’s mother’s questions and concerns would need a response, but later.

  He turned to the right at the landing, rushed down the hallway and knocked on the third door. They waited for a long second with no answer from within. He turned the knob and pushed through.

  A mousy blond maid lay face down on the floor in a puddle of blood. The large mirror was cracked and tilted in its stand. The dressing table was broken to pieces that were scattered on the rug. The drapes blew in the open window. Serena was not in sight.

  The roar that fell from Gabriel’s lips was not human. He sounded as if he was a beast in mortal pain.

  Belinda knelt down next to the maid and rolled the girl over.

  The maid’s eyes were wide in a deathly stare and she had a vicious bite taken out of her neck.

  The pounding of footfall on the steps and in the hallway announced the arrival of Thor and Lillian followed closely by Shelby and her ladyship.

  “Where is Serena? What has happened to Mary?” Hysteria laced the countess’s normally staid tone.

  Lillian nudged the dowager from the room, shielding her from the sight of the dead maid.

  Belinda stood up and crossed to Gabriel.

  His face was taut with pain. He’d been through a lot. She knew he blamed himself for her capture. His hands were clutched in fists.

  “Gabriel, look at me. It is not your fault. You have to focus so that we can get her back. Do you understand?”

  He grasped her head between his hands and pulled her close.

  She gasped, surprised by the sudden movement.

  His gaze burned into hers. “I’m sorry. I
should have said it earlier.”

  “It was not your fault, nor is this.”

  He took a deep breath and kissed her forehead.

  “Take your mother downstairs and explain things to her. Lillian and I will search the room while Thor goes around to the garden and checks for tracks.”

  “See if you can call for Tubbs. He is a fine tracker,” Gabriel said.

  “I will send for him directly.” She was happy to hear him making sense and thinking rationally. They would need him sound if they were going to rescue his sister.

  Gabriel walked from the room and put his arm around his mother’s shoulder.

  “What is happening, Gabriel? Who are those people with your wife?”

  “Come, Mother. I will explain everything.”

  Thor did not need direction. He left immediately to go and find the tracks in the garden if they existed.

  “Shelby.” Belinda said.

  “Yes, Lady Tullering?”

  “Send a footman over to Clayton House and have my footman, Tubbs, brought back here.”

  The butler was wide-eyed. He bit his nails and looked from Mary’s bloody body back to Belinda. “Yes, my lady.”

  “And Shelby?”

  “Yes, my lady.”

  “It would be best to keep this as quiet as possible. Only speak to servants who can be trusted. We shall have Lady Serena back in short order. No need to inform the neighbors of our troubles.”

  The butler nodded. “What about Mr. Douglass?”

  “Who is that?”

  “He is about to request Lady Serena’s hand. He has been waiting for his lordship to be at home and has been on the doorstep daily. I believe he was expected as the ladies’ escort tonight at Almack’s.”

  Another complication. If this Mr. Douglass planned to join the family, he would need to know the truth as well. “Contact Mr. Douglass and ask him to come directly. Do not tell him why.”

  “Yes, my lady.”

  The butler’s footfall faded and Lillian stood with Belinda in the ruined room. The damask draped bed was the only piece of furniture in the room not destroyed.

  “What do you think, Lilly?”

  Lillian knelt down next to Mary’s body. “This looks as if it is the same kind of bite that Reece sustained, though the wound itself likely caused this girl’s death. It would appear there was a struggle yet I see no human blood trail to the window. I think we can assume that she was alive when she was taken from here.”

  Belinda went to the window. The light of Thor’s lantern moved in a back and forth pattern at the bottom of the two-story drop.

  Thor looked up. “It appears they climbed up the rose trellis.”

  Lillian said, “It would have been a tough climb down with a girl fighting them.”

  “Perhaps she was not conscious. Serena is a spirited woman. She may have had to be subdued in order to carry out their plans.”

  “I suppose we can assume that.”

  Belinda walked to the glass. It was cracked in the center and a spot of black blood streaked down from the middle of the break. “The women managed to injure one of them.”

  Lillian knelt by the window. “There is more demon blood on the sill.”

  The two hunters looked over the entire room inch by inch, before making their way down the steps and searching out Gabriel. They found him in his study. The room had not changed since Gabriel’s father had been the Earl of Tullering. Nothing about the place gave an impression of the current earl. Several paintings of horses and ships hung on dark wood paneling. Law books lined the shelves. The dark carpet and heavy drapes still carried the stale odor of cigars. Gabriel never indulged in that manly habit. The ornate desk took up the center of the room. Several hard benches lined one wall. Besides the large seat behind the desk, two overstuffed chairs sat before it. Everything in the room was some shade of brown.

  “Where is your mother?” Belinda asked.

  “She was hysterical. I sent for her maid and she has gone above stairs.”

  “Did she believe you?” Lillian asked.

  He shrugged and gave a disgusted look toward the door. “I have no idea.”

  “It is a lot to grasp, Gabriel—”

  She wanted to say more, to tell him his mother needed his patience, but Shelby cleared his throat in the open door.

  “Mr. Thaddeus Douglass has arrived, my lord.”

  Gabriel’s eyes widened and his fists clenched. His jaw ticked in anger.

  “I sent for him. If he wants to marry into this family, he will have to understand.”

  “What must I understand?” Thaddeus Douglass was uncommonly tall. He stood several inches over Gabriel’s head. His red hair hung loose around his shoulders and his cravat was untied, exposing his throat. Though he was in evening dress, he appeared to have stopped in the middle of dressing to answer the urgent call. He spoke with a hint of a Scottish brogue.

  Gabriel looked Thaddeus up and down. His eyes narrowed on the Scot before his expression turned to resignation. “You had better come in. Serena is missing and we will need all the help we can get to find her.”

  “Missing,” Thaddeus’s voice shook the study walls. “How is that possible?”

  Lillian sat down in an overstuffed chair. She had a soothing voice that cut through the tension in the room. “Mr. Douglass, you should take a seat and let his lordship explain the situation. We do not have much time for questions, but there are things you need to know.”

  “Who are you?” His voice was strained but not unkind as he looked from one woman to the other.

  Gabriel answered. “This is my wife, Lady Belinda Thurston, the Countess of Tullering and this is Lillian Dellacourt, our good friend.”

  Thaddeus bowed quickly and sat in the other chair near the desk.

  Gabriel ran his hand through his hair. Dark rings around his eyes marked his exhaustion.

  Belinda was sure she looked about to drop herself. She settled on a bench and listened as her husband told the young man in as few words as possible what was happening. He even went as far as to describe the type of creatures who had captured his would-be fiancée.

  The Scot did not react as she expected. He did not call them all crazy and stomp from the room. He paid close attention and when Gabriel was finished, he gave one nod. “How do we find her?”

  “I think we can help with that,” Thor said from the door.

  “What did you find?” Gabriel came around the desk.

  “Tubbs is several blocks away. We found a blood trail.”

  Thaddeus jumped from the chair. “Serena is bleeding.”

  Thor looked from the tall Scot to his employer. “My sister’s suitor.”

  The driver nodded. “No. Not as far as we can tell. Likely unconscious or restrained, but not bleeding. The blood is demon’s and is heading toward the river. I took the liberty of changing to fresh horses, my lord.”

  “Good thinking. Let’s go.”

  An enormous black stallion clomped his front hooves on the street just behind Thor’s carriage. The beast pawed the ground and threw his head ready to bolt at any second.

  “I will follow on horseback, if you do not mind, my lord.” Thaddeus pointed to his steed.

  “As you wish.” Gabriel did not stop, but vaulted up into the carriage as soon as the two women were inside.

  They moved in the direction of the river more slowly than she would have liked. She understood that they were following a trail, but the idea of what Serena might be enduring had her praying to make speed.

  Gabriel pounded on the carriage’s interior wall, his frustration and fear uncontained.

  Belinda put her hand on his forearm.

  He looked at her in the darkened carriage. “Serena is not like you, Bella. She will not fare as well under the circumstances.”

  “She will have to be strong. When we bring her home, we will help her deal with what she has endured. First we must find her.�
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  The conversation was a private one, but they were not alone in the carriage.

  Lillian stared out the window. “We are heading toward Westminster.”

  Outside, Belinda confirmed for herself that they were indeed rolling closer to the Palace of Westminster. The building where the Houses of Parliament met had been recently altered with a gothic façade. The Thames River’s filth stifled the confines of the carriage. They approached a less populated area of the city and at night and the streets were empty.

  Thaddeus rode forward passed them as the carriage stopped.

  The hunters stepped onto the street and walked to where Tubbs knelt near the riverbank.

  “The blood trail ends here, my lady,” Tubbs said.

  Thaddeus jumped down from the monstrous horse. “Have they drowned her in the river?”

  The young man’s voice searched the water for Serena. He gripped the low stone wall.

  She put her hand on his sleeve. “Serena is not in the river, Mr. Douglass. Please do not jump. We don’t have time to save you as well.”

  “Where is she?” His eyes narrowed and he pointed a finger at Belinda’s face.

  The large man might have intimidated someone her size, but she merely gave him a sympathetic look and went to help search the area.

  Gabriel walked along the wall that dropped to the river.

  “There,” Gabriel said. He pointed along the walled embankment to a bit of white disappearing seemingly into sheer stone.

  “What is that?” Thaddeus asked.

  “Serena.” The name was not out of Gabriel’s mouth before ran toward where they had seen the girl’s skirts disappear.

  The space in the wall was narrow. Belinda and Lillian would have no problems getting through, but the men would find it more difficult.

  Thor put the force of his heel to the problem and chunks of rock fell away. He repeated the action.

  “Let Belinda and I go through. You can follow. If we lose her…” Lillian didn’t finish the thought.

  They all knew the consequences.

  Thor stopped kicking.

  Gabriel grabbed her by the shoulders. “I do not like this.”

  She touched his cheek. “I know, but there is no help for it. I will be fine and you will be right behind me.”