“Your place is with me,” Sinclair snapped.
She whirled on him, suddenly angry. “Where? Locked away on Rose Island while you sail off for months at a time, leaving me alone while your blood whore shares your cabin?”
Blood whore was a derogatory term for a human, male or female, who regularly fed the same vampire.
I couldn’t imagine Bel’s vanity allowing Sinclair to keep one.
“Well, I have to eat, don’t I?” he shouted.
I glanced around and all the men in the room, including Tristan, were looking at Sinclair as if he were the greatest fool alive. Bel shrieked and flew at him, burying the knife in his chest. He looked down in shock and she stepped back, her hand flying to her mouth as if she couldn’t believe what she’d just done.
“You stabbed me, you bloodthirsty shrew!” he yelled.
Her eyes narrowed and she reached out and jerked the curved blade from his chest, twisting it just a bit as she did so. “If I had a stake, I’d drive it through your black heart, you pompous ass,” Bel shot back.
While the two of them argued I tried once more to call my magic. I even reached down into the darkness and attempted to draw on the black magic’s power, but still nothing happened when I tried to free it. I grunted in frustration and pain as the magic fought to push its way through my skin and failed. I turned to Maggie.
“If the binding spell had worked, would I still be able to feel my magic?” I called out to her.
She dragged her gaze from the warring vampires and focused on me. “I—I don’t know,” she replied.
I glanced at Tristan, who was also absorbed in Bel’s quarrel. I’d been certain that Maggie’s spell was responsible but, truthfully, this felt less like a binding and more like something interfering with my power. I wondered if he’d learned how to obstruct my magic since the last time we’d crossed paths. Was he truly that powerful?
“I broke vows I made to God for you!” Sinclair was shouting.
“And you’ve resented me for it ever since,” Bel wailed. “Let me remind you that I never asked you to break them. I didn’t turn you without your consent. You came to me of your own free will!”
Bel stomped across the room and grabbed Maggie’s wrist, jerking her forward. “We’re leaving,” she said, waving the bloody knife in my aunt’s direction. “And if you try to follow us, I’ll kill her.”
A low, inhuman growl filled the room and I nearly shouted for joy as Drummond stormed down the stairs. His eyes were locked on Bel, and I wouldn’t have wanted to be in her place for anything in the world. When I’d first seen Drummond in that warehouse in London, I hadn’t known what he was. Looking at him now, I didn’t know how I’d missed it. Even in human form he looked every inch the wolf protecting his pack.
“Tristan, stop him,” Bel commanded.
Tristan shouted for Drummond to halt, but the werewolf kept coming. Drummond smiled a feral smile, and his teeth looked whiter and sharper than a human’s should.
“I’m not a vampire, boy,” he snarled. “You have no power over me.”
Bel let go of Maggie’s wrist and stepped back, raising the knife in a defensive position. Perhaps she thought that if she released Maggie, he would back down. It was a grave mistake. Maggie ran toward me and Drummond rushed forward, his body shifting as he ran until the man was gone and the wolf moved in for the kill.
Chapter 43
All hell broke loose as Drummond pounced on Bel and the two of them went flying in a shrieking, growling blur of fur and lavender silk. Sinclair was screaming for his wife, and all the vampires in the cell were jostling for a better position to watch the brawl. Tristan had fallen back to one side, clearly wanting to help his benefactor but unsure of what to do. My magic rushed up again, as if it was eager to get out and join in the fray. I let out a grunt of pain and turned to Maggie.
“Take my hand,” I called to her. “I don’t think it’s your spell, I think it’s his necromancy that won’t let my magic work through a dead body.”
I threw back my head as the magic pushed to get free and a strangled laugh escaped my throat. Even to me it sounded frightening, laced with pain and frustration. Maggie stared at my outstretched hand and shook her head.
“Bel!” Tristan cried and then turned to Sinclair. “Captain, kill that wolf!”
My gaze swung to Sinclair as he pulled his sword. Maggie’s eyes grew wide and, unable to do anything else to save Drummond’s life, she thrust her hand through the bars and clasped mine. The moment she touched me my power rushed outward, through her.
Her eyes widened and she stood transfixed as the magic that had been building for so long inside me finally burst free. A rush of power surged through the basement like a thundering explosion. The door of the cell was blown completely off its hinges and everyone on the other side, except Maggie, was caught up in its wake. Bel and Drummond were thrown into the far wall, the impact dazing them both enough to halt the fight. Tristan’s head made a sickening thud as it collided with the stone wall. He lay there, unconscious but alive, as I stepped through the gaping hole that had once been the cell door.
Bel struggled to sit up but the wolf had recovered first, its bloody muzzle hovering mere inches above her throat.
“Drummond,” I said softly. “That’s enough. She’s lost.”
The wolf looked at me, then turned back to Bel, snapping its jaws in her face, then falling back to sit and watch. Somewhere to my right Captain Sinclair was picking himself up off the floor. As soon as he gained his feet he rushed forward to tend to Bel, but I ignored them both. Instead I crossed the room to stand over Tristan’s body. I didn’t need to check for a pulse. I could hear his heartbeat from where I stood. Staring down at the boy, I wondered what we were going to do with him. Hashim stepped forward, pulling the scimitar from its scabbard.
“What are you doing?” Maggie demanded.
He looked down at Tristan and then back to me, as if I would take his side in this matter simply because I was a vampire.
“He cannot be allowed to live,” Hashim said. “He is a danger to us all.”
Maggie turned to me. “Do something!” she exclaimed.
I didn’t know what to say. Certainly I wouldn’t allow Hashim to kill the boy, but he did have a point.
Whatever solution I might have come up with was forestalled as the sound of wood scraping against stone drew our attention. One of the wine shelves swung outward, and we were all surprised (some of us more than others) when the queen emerged from a passageway behind it. MacLeod smiled and went to her.
“My love,” he said, kissing her cheek. “How long have you been there?”
She smiled up at him. “Since they abducted you from our room. I was waiting for an opportunity to help, but you all handled everything nicely. Hashim, put the sword away. We won’t be killing some poor human boy just because he was foolish enough to fall in with Belladonna’s mad scheme.”
Tristan groaned from his prone position on the floor. “Kill me,” he croaked. “Would rather die … than go back there.”
Sinclair came forward with his arm around Bel. She was bloody and her lovely dress and flawless skin were torn, but she would live. Drummond, still in wolf form, trotted along at her heels, waiting for her to give him a reason to sink those sharp teeth into her flesh again.
“His father,” Sinclair volunteered, “is the Reverend Mahone of the isle of Jamaica. Naturally, he thinks his youngest child is an instrument of Satan. He’s kept him locked away his entire life. I’m not excusing what the boy’s done here, but if you’d lived the life he has, you’d have taken whatever means of escape was offered to you.”
“Be that as it may, Sinclair,” MacLeod said, “I cannot allow him to stay on my lands, especially after I’ve seen firsthand the damage he can cause if he wishes.”
“What if he wasn’t on your lands?” Aunt Maggie asked. “What if he was on mine?”
MacLeod looked at her and cocked his head to one side. “I’m listen
ing.”
“What if I take him back to Glen Gregor with me and promise you he’ll not set foot off my land again?”
MacLeod regarded her for a moment, then addressed the boy. “What say you to that, lad?”
Tristan looked up at Aunt Maggie as if she were his savior. “Yes,” he whispered.
“Fine,” Hashim growled, “but I do get to kill her?”
He turned to Bel, and Sinclair stepped in front of her, drawing his own sword.
“Over my dead body,” the captain threatened.
“That can be arranged, too,” Hashim assured him.
Khalid moved to stand with his brother. “Not only has she committed treason against our queen,” he said, “she’s killed over a dozen humans and the vampire Clarissa in the process.”
“I didn’t kill anyone,” Bel protested.
Drake intervened. “Someone killed all those people and made it appear to us as though the queen had done it. If it wasn’t the boy, then it had to be you.”
“It wasn’t us, it was the humans,” Bel said. “None of you knew it, but Tristan and I were in town well before I presented myself on the king’s doorstep. We were staying at the White Hart Inn when I allowed a man to lure me back to his lodgings. I thought I would have a quick taste of his blood and be off, but the bastard tried to kill me! That didn’t work, of course, but when I realized the scheme he and his friends had in place I thought I could use it to my advantage.”
“Do you honestly expect us to believe such tripe?” Devlin sneered.
Beside me Drummond whined and, as I turned to look down at him, his wolf’s body shifted. In the blink of an eye he was human again. Maggie and I were the only ones who averted our eyes and blushed at his nakedness.
“As much as I hate to admit it,” Drummond added, “she’s telling the truth. The culprits’ names are William Burke and William Hare, and I have their address written on a scrap of paper in my coat pocket,” he said, motioning to the pile of clothes that had seemed to melt off of him earlier when he’d changed forms.
“How did you come by such information?” I asked incredulously.
“As you once said, I can go places you cannot. I’ve also never made a vow to protect humans,” he replied with a wolfish grin.
I decided that perhaps I didn’t want to know the particulars.
“She still killed Clarissa,” Khalid argued.
“I did not. He did,” Bel said, pointing to Tristan.
We all looked down at the boy.
“Actually, I didn’t,” he replied with a sheepish glance in her direction. “She’s locked up in the basement next door.”
Bel narrowed her eyes, clearly irritated that he’d gone against her orders, but she wisely kept her mouth shut.
“I searched the ground floor of that house myself,” Devlin said with certainty. “I saw no basement door.”
“I didn’t want you to see it,” Tristan said. “It’s where I hid whenever you came into the house.”
MacLeod nodded. “There is a basement. The layout of the other two houses is exactly the same as this one.”
“There’s still the matter of treason,” Hashim reminded us.
“Let her go,” Marrakesh said softly.
“My queen, you cannot mean that,” Hashim said, aghast.
“Why would you show her mercy, after all she’s done?” Khalid demanded.
Arguments broke out all around. MacLeod, I noticed, was silent on the matter. Perhaps he knew his wife better than her lieutenants did. The bickering continued for several minutes before Marrakesh herself put an end to the matter.
“Her crimes were against me, and it is I who will decide her punishment,” she stated. “I show her mercy because she is what we females fear becoming.” She turned and glanced sadly over her shoulder at Bel. “A woman who loves a man who is no longer in love with her. Take her back to Rose Island, Sinclair, and keep her there this time,” Marrakesh said harshly. “Mark me well, Belladonna, if you ever set foot on my lands again, I will kill you myself.”
“Agreed,” Sinclair said readily. “And you have both of our sincere apologies for the trouble she has caused, don’t they, dear?”
He squeezed her arm until Bel murmured an apology. Sinclair must have decided that this was the best result he could hope for because he started toward the door, pulling Bel along with him. She stopped in front of me, and he paused and turned back.
She smiled sadly. “Despite everything, I rather like you, Cin. You remind me a bit of myself when I was young and the world was fresh and full of promise. Enjoy it while it lasts because one day you’ll look back on these years and know that you’d do anything to have them back. They’ll be the memories that keep you warm at night when he’s grown cold. Don’t be afraid of anything … there will be plenty of time for fear later.”
Sinclair tugged on her arm and she followed him, a look of quiet desperation on her face. I reached out and took Michael’s hand, silently praying that I would never have cause to think back on this day and feel the sting of truth in her words.
Chapter 44
Michael and I were married the following night in the Presence Chamber of the King of the Western Lands. Justine and Devlin stood up with us as we pledged our love and trust to each other for eternity. It was not the church wedding I’d thought I would have when I was human, but the bonding ceremony was more beautiful than anything I had ever dreamed up in a schoolgirl’s fantasies.
Justine had gifted me with a stunning gown for the occasion, a copy of the late Princess Charlotte’s wedding dress. For years she’d had it tucked away in the bottom of one of her many trunks, waiting for this moment. It was fashioned of gold netting and Brussels lace over a cream tissue slip and had a longer train than any woman could reasonably manage. It was perfect.
Aunt Maggie attended the ceremony, though Drummond remained behind at her hotel, to keep an eye on Tristan. Maggie had not apologized for attempting to bind my powers, and I’d not asked her to.
We seemed to have come to an unspoken truce, she and I, and I was content with that.
At the reception I sipped champagne and watched Maggie speaking with Marrakesh. When the queen took Maggie’s hand and patted it I noticed that Marrakesh was not wearing her gloves. She looked over Maggie’s head and her eyes found mine. Perhaps she would tell me later what she’d seen in my aunt’s heart, perhaps she wouldn’t. I was pretty certain that I already knew.
The whole of Edinburgh was abuzz with talk of the arrests of Burke and Hare. After Bel and Sinclair had departed the previous night, MacLeod and Marrakesh had taken a trip into the city, traveling in an open carriage so that Edinburgh’s vampires could see their queen and know that she was once again a force to be reckoned with. Marrakesh had swept into Hare’s lodging house and had impressed upon him and his wife the fact that if the humans didn’t get them, she would if their names were ever breathed on the night air in her lands again. She then told what she knew of the crimes to a constable who was involved with one of her court ladies. Both men and their wives were arrested, and Jacques Aubert informed the queen that a final victim’s body had been discovered in Dr. Knox’s classroom. The good doctor would be lucky if the mob didn’t lynch him along with the men.
Speaking of lynching, I thought as Drake made his way across the room to me.
“I believe I owe you an apology,” he said, somewhat uncomfortably.
“You think?”
He shifted his weight and swirled the champagne around in his glass. It had to be hard for a former king to apologize to one of us lowly peons, but I certainly wasn’t going to make it easier for him.
“Bel made me realize something last night,” he said finally.
“And what was that?” I asked.
“That I was chasing after you because I was envious of what you and Michael have. Elspeth and I … we were in love like that. I will never forgive myself for her death, and it galled me to see you and Michael with the happiness that I’d once
had, and lost.”
“So you thought you’d seduce me and take that happiness from us?”
Drake grimaced. “It wasn’t a conscious thought—I’m not that big a bastard—but yes, on some level perhaps that’s true. At any rate, I’m sorry.”
“Apology accepted,” I said, feeling that I could afford to be magnanimous at my own wedding. “I think that perhaps living in such close proximity to a powerful necromancer made us all a little crazy.”
“I hope there’s truth in that,” Drake said, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “I would apologize to Michael, too, but I believe it’ll be a while before I put myself within striking distance of his right hook again.”
I laughed. “I’ll convey your sentiments,” I assured him.
“Ah, I do believe our fair queen is hailing you,” Drake said.
I nodded to Marrakesh and then turned solemnly back to Drake. “What do you intend to tell the High King about me?” I asked.
“That you are a very dangerous woman,” he said honestly. “And that we are lucky you’re on our side.”
“I will happily come to Castle Tara to make my obeisance and sign my name in the Book of Souls.” I assured him.
Drake regarded me silently for a moment, as if unsure of how to delicately phrase his reply. It was quite obvious from the look on his face that he was thinking of what I’d done in that alley. Perhaps he was even wondering if I could make a successful bid for the High King’s throne, should I choose to do so.
Finally, he said, “I believe it is best to keep you at a safe distance, Cin. At least for now.”
I nodded, extremely uncomfortable with the fact that the High King might believe I was a danger to him. There was little I could do to remedy the situation, however, so I excused myself and made my way to Marrakesh’s side.
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