“Oh, yes, I saw a fae woman spit on the ground in front of a troll. I was later told she was over five-hundred-years-old.”
He shook his head, pinching his lips tightly together. He took another drink of tea, the three ridges of his forehead folding into a scowl. “We are not a perfect society. And though being long-lived has a wonderful advantage, it is even harder to rid our world of its deepest prejudices.”
“Like a human dating a vampire?”
He met her gaze and his forehead relaxed, though a solemn light entered his eye. “Especially a vampire, not to mention a mastyr vampire.”
“You would disapprove, then?” She leaned forward and took another sip.
“Thirty years ago, yes. Today, I don’t know. I have come to know your kind and you are not as...well...as ignorant as I had supposed, or as cruel.”
She wasn’t offended. How could she be? “There is great cruelty in our culture.”
“But much goodness as well.”
She met his gaze once more. Because she wanted to understand the position of the castle staff, and especially Gus’s take on the subject, she said, “Gerrod kissed me this evening.”
Gus’s eyes went wide.
She couldn’t help but laugh. She knew his gossipy kind well, but she also knew something else. He was a wise troll and she trusted him, so she added, “I kissed him back.”
His eyes literally moved in a complete circle, as though he was trying to wrap his mind around a certain thought. Or perhaps he was just wondering how the hell he could keep this a secret.
Since he didn’t respond right away, she thought she would be more direct about what she wanted to know. “Do you disapprove? Is this a very bad thing?”
Finally, he set his cup and saucer back on the table, and bid her do the same. “Come with me. There is something I wish you to see.”
She was on her feet and moving swiftly. Trolls were fast, those feet again.
The return walk in the direction of the entrance hall took at least a couple of minutes. The castle, as the dwelling was called, was more like an ancient European church, made of stone, with only one level, but having several extremely tall, and quite beautiful, vaulted ceilings.
Because of the gray stone, however, it definitely had the feel of a castle, especially with several suits of armor, imported from Medieval England, standing like sentinels near several of the doorways.
She thought he meant to take her straight into the entrance hall, where a lot of shouting could be heard. Instead, he turned into a shallow alcove about twenty feet from the doorway. She frowned, wondering what he was doing. But he shoved the small table to the right and slid his hand up the left side wall.
She heard a click, then the wall moved inward a few inches. He pushed and gestured for her to precede him.
The room was pitch black but as had happened in the forest, her vision altered and changed and she could actually see as though the room had a glow. Was this some kind of fae magic, a spell that had been cast over the room? Or was this something she was actually doing?
Ever since she’d come to Merhaine, small things like this had begun happening to her. She wanted to ask Gus about it, but he seemed suddenly tense and waved her to the sofa that faced very strangely toward the wall adjacent to the entrance hall.
She sat down. He fiddled with the drapes that spanned most of the wall, pulling them back slowly. What a surprise when the entire entrance hall came into view as through a soft haze. She could see everyone and when Gus flipped a switch off to the right, she could hear everyone as well.
How was this done?
“Don’t worry. We can’t be heard but I can see your question. How is it done?”
She nodded.
He gestured with a sweep of his arm the length of the viewing window. “You know that big landscape in the entrance hall? It’s painted on a very fine mesh screen.”
“Oh, I see. Do you come here often to observe?”
“No, not often.”
Gerrod had his back to the wall. He turned slowly until he was almost facing the painting. Then he was in her mind. Abigail? Are you in the viewing room?
She was so startled, she jerked in her seat. She also felt as though she was spying on him. Yes, I’m here. How did you know?Not sure, just a feeling. His brow puckered, a familiar sight.
Gus brought me here, she explained. Should I leave? Please say no.
Stay if you like. You’ll learn another reason why I want you to leave.
There was more than one reason?
He turned back into the room but stepped off to the side in a very casual manner so that she had a better view of what was going on. The room was full of notables. She recognized them from having read the various Merhaine newspapers.
But in the middle, beneath a very large round wood chandelier, a fae and an elf, both male, stood almost touching chests. Did she hear growls?
“Humans are vermin,” the elf said.“That’s absurd. There are good humans and bad humans. The baker is quite acceptable. I think she smiles too much, but beyond that her intelligence is sufficient and her cupcakes are quite good, excellent in fact.”
“Here, here,” moved about the room.
But others grumbled.
Abigail wasn’t hearing anything new, perhaps not as vehement as usual, but humans weren’t universally accepted.
The elf continued. “You allowed this. You made a push to pass through all the permits for her bakery and I’ll bet you a bushel of fall apples that she’s the one that brought the Invictus tonight.”
Abigail couldn’t have been more surprised. How on earth did her presence at a fae wedding bring on an attack of the Invictus?
Gus elbowed her. “Don’t listen to that. There’s always some dimwit in the crowd that will cast another as a scapegoat for any bad occurrence. A few thousand years ago, he’d be the sort to throw his own child into a volcano in hopes of getting the gods to stop the neighboring tribe from marauding.”
“What a lovely image.”
Gus laughed. “But true, no?”
It was at this point, however, that the entire assembly of civic leaders started shouting, making their points with flying hands. Several trolls were dancing on their feet, leaping side to side, faces red.
Abigail glanced at Gerrod, ready to offer a telepathic joke, but she was stopped by the fierce look on his face and the way his hands had balled up.
“Enough,” he shouted.
The room fell silent.
“We almost lost a child tonight, but thanks to Mistress Abigail’s courage, the boy lives.
“We need to stay on point that this recent incursion won’t be the last. We have more critical things to resolve than the presence of a bakery in our midst. Please return to your homes and we’ll begin the process of developing strategies and organizing our civic volunteer Guard. I’ve brought out all the Guard to patrol through the night, but with forty dead, the Invictus won’t hurry back, that much I can promise you.”
Abigail knew that the Invictus were more of a deadly gang than a marauding army. She also understood, however, that what happened tonight had never happened before.
The crowd muttered but began to ease toward the large castle door in the southeastern corner of the room, as though the plug to a drain had been pulled.
She glanced back at Gerrod and saw that his left hand twitched. He shook it slightly and even rubbed his hands together. When he released his hand, and the strange shaking continued, he shoved his hand into the deep pocket of his leathers.
“What’s wrong with his hand?” Abigail asked.
“Did you see something?”
“A twitch. A tremor maybe.”
Gus sighed, a deep rush of air. “This isn’t good. I need to contact one of his doneuses.”
Abigail felt light-headed suddenly. She knew what a doneuse was, a polite French expression that meant blood donor in Realm terms. She wanted to protest. She felt strangely protective of Gerrod suddenly. He’d kisse
d her. She didn’t want another woman, no matter the specie, offering up her wrist or her neck or any other vein of her body, to the Mastyr of Merhaine.
That was her job.
That was her job?
What on earth was she thinking?
But certain pieces of this weird puzzle began to fall into place, how drawn she was to Gerrod, that she could communicate telepathically with him, that she could access his personal frequency. She could no longer deny that she had a serious connection to this man, to this vampire. She didn’t know what it was, but the thought that he needed to take blood, reminded her of how sluggish her blood always felt, especially in Merhaine, as though her body had decided all on its own that she needed to be Gerrod’s doneuse.
She sighed. But what did all of this mean? Could she donate her blood? Part of her shouted a resounded yes. But another part was much more sensible and seemed to stand, hands on hips, and say, Vampires? Really?
Gerrod was right. She needed to go home and she really did need to rethink the Hollow Tree bakery, especially with tonight’s horrible turn of events in which, thanks to Gerrod and his Guard, no one at the wedding died.
Her thoughts turned to her sister. Abigail had been Megan’s caregiver for the past nine years. Well, to be fair not exactly nine. After all, Megan had gotten married three years ago to a wonderful man and she’d birthed two children in the process.
But she believed she would always feel a profound sense of responsibility toward Megan. Her sister had been sickly most of her life and when their parents died those nine years ago, Abigail had been able to keep them together as a family because she’d been eighteen. Life insurance had paid off the house, and had given them funds to get through the early years, then later to open the bakery. Of course, Abigail had worked full-time as well, but she had always felt blessed that she and Megan had been able to stay together.
But Megan hadn’t been well those first four years, in and out of the hospital with breathing difficulties, a chronic case of asthma that had taken her to the emergency room numerous times.
Much of that was behind Abigail now and in-between, she and her sister had built the bakery together. The expansion into Merhaine had been because of their extensive troll and elf customers. For the past three years the castle alone had been a major part of their success, which had led Abigail here, staring at Gerrod’s back, at the constant tension in his shoulders, at the fact that he still held his hand deep in the pocket of his battle-leathers.
“He’s always blood-starved, you know.”
She put a hand to her chest, aware of her laden heart all over again. She had developed a strange medical condition in which her body produced too much blood. The doctors still didn’t know what to make of it but she had become a regular and welcome donor to the Flagstaff blood bank.
Abigail turned toward Gus. He rose to his feet and looked down at her. She could barely make out his features. “Why is that? Why is he always blood-starved if he has donors?”
Gus shrugged. “Something about being a mastyr vampire. They’re all blood-starved in the Nine Realms, the mastyr vampires who rule. Although, I don’t know about any of the other Continents. He even has three doneuses, but he hates to use them. They’re all married. He feels like it’s a violation.”
“Okay, so how long has he been blood-starved? I know he’s three-hundred-years-old. Tell me it hasn’t been that long?”
Gus shrugged. “Not sure. I think he reached mastyr status a hundred and fifty years ago, but there had to have been a long transition. I can’t believe he’d just suddenly be starved.”
“So, why doesn’t he just get more doneuses, add to his little harem, and take more blood?”
Gus just stared at her. “Well, you’d probably have to ask him that, but I wouldn’t. There’s more to blood-taking than I think you or I can understand. I think it’s one reason the vampires hate the Invictus wraiths as much as they do.” He turned to close the curtains across the wide landscape at the now empty room and flipped off the switch. “Because the victims are unwilling, I’ve heard them call it a blood-rape.”
“Oh, God.”
“Yes, exactly.”
The door opened and light from the hall formed a rectangle of yellow on the floor behind the couch shaded by Gerrod’s massive shadow. Funny, she always seemed to forget how big he was until he stood in a doorway. He filled it from side to side, the top jamb clearing his head by only a few inches.
He held his left hand in his right now, and rubbed his wrist back and forth. “Everything okay?”
His voice was a deep hole.
“Sure,” she said. But what Gus had told her had knocked her out of stride.
She was about to ask to be taken back to Flagstaff, but Gus was before her. “I’m putting Mistress Abigail in one of the guest rooms.”
Gerrod looked around. “She should go back to Flagstaff.”
“It’s a long trip by car and all the way east. Is there a Guard in that direction? Someone watching the plane access point?”
Gerrod shook his head. “We have never needed guards at the access before.” He scowled, harder now. “Very well. We certainly have enough guest rooms.”
He backed into the hall and Abigail followed him.
He stood aside watching her carefully, very guarded. She wanted to say something to him, to offer some comfort, but no words came. Since he made no move to invite her to chat, even a little, she turned in the direction of the north rooms away from Gerrod. Gus hurried to move in front of her, leading the way.
“I’ll bid you good-night,” Gerrod called out.
Abigail stopped and turned toward him. By now, he stood beside his library door. She lifted a hand, still feeling so strange after having heard about his blood-starvation and why hadn’t she known of it? Although, honestly it explained a helluva lot about his perpetual irritability. Men needed to be fed. She was sure that axiom was as true in the realm world as it was in Flagstaff. Megan’s husband got a lot louder when his blood-sugar bottomed out.
As she turned back to follow Gus, her thoughts started tumbling around until at last she caught up with him and asked, “What does Gerrod usually do now, after a battle like this? Does he go to bed?”
“No, he’ll probably call for a bottle of whiskey, drink about a third of it, and pass out in one of the big chairs in front of the fire in the entrance hall. It’s sort of a ritual.”
“I guess he would deserve at least that much,” she said, but her footsteps grew slower and slower, until she stopped altogether.
Gus turned back to her, his three ridges floating upward, questioning.
Her right shoulder now faced back down the hall. She could see the light from the library flicker as though Gerrod walked back and forth in front of a lamp, pacing.
“Is everything all right?” Gus asked.
“Just give me a sec.” She headed back in the direction of the library. Her heart was slamming in her chest because she had never done anything like this in her life.
When she reached the doorway, she had meant to walk right up to him and ask him a few pointed questions, but she couldn’t. Gerrod now sat in his chair, his elbows on the massive central table, his head in his hands. He rocked slowly, back and forth as if in great pain.
Oh. God.
Something inside her settled very deep, maybe falling into that hole that was his voice, or maybe she was just feeling all his pain on some kind of vampire frequency he was emitting right now, she wasn’t sure.
But a decision came to her, though she felt strongly it had to be just for this night, this one night.
She retraced her steps up the hall, rejoining Gus.
For the past year, she had seen Gerrod in more than a dozen settings, consoling a mother who had lost a son, kissing a grandmother on her cheek, offering stern but solid advice to a younger Guardsman, teasing Augustus. She wondered if this was the true basis for her attraction to him, that on some level she knew the vampire and knew him well. His chara
cter showed in everything he did and all that he was, every word he spoke, every soft touch on a shoulder, every sympathetic gesture.
Abigail blinked. She couldn’t believe she was going to do this, but after seeing Gerrod in a shattered state in the library, she had to. Besides, her blood had that thick feeling again, almost lumpish as she liked to think of it. Though she never really felt in danger of a heart attack or anything, she did feel a pressing need to give some of it away. And right now she might just have a solution that didn’t involve donating to the blood bank.
“Come with me, Gus. I want you to show me to the mastyr’s bedroom.”
Gus’s brows rose almost to his upper ridge. But after staring at her for a long moment, he nodded very firmly, then said, “Yes, mistress. If you will follow me.”
Once in his bedroom, which she knew well from the tour he’d given her many months ago, she said, “And where is the bathroom?”
Gus led her into a side chamber, very deep with a huge copper tub. She drew near, leaned over and pushed the plug in hard. She turned the water on adjusting until the temperature was on the hot side.
“Where are the herbs he bathes in?”
“Herbs, Mistress?”
“Yes, he always—” She felt her cheeks grow warm. That she always smelled Gerrod, and that his scent reminded her of fresh rain in the forest, was not something she intended to reveal to Gus. “That is, where is the soap he would ordinarily use?”
“Ah.” He moved over to the shower and brought a bottle of gel, an amber color.
Abigail took it and sniffed the spout. But it didn’t smell like fresh rain. “Towels?” she asked.
As she watched the steam rise from the copper tub, she laughed. “Gus, there is something more. Do vampires like hot water, I mean hot like this?”Gus smiled and his smile broadened to a grin. “Very much. Ah, mistress, you have gladdened my heart.”
“And now, there is one more thing I should like, then I’m hoping you will send all the staff to bed.”
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