Ellowyn Found: An MM Vampire Trilogy Omnibus Edition Books 1 - 3

by Kayleigh Sky

  Mal stepped closer. “May I have it?”

  He stood. He carried it in an envelope to protect it and slipped it out before handing it to Mal.

  She turned to Clara, who waited with her book and stretched her hand out. “It won’t take me long.”

  She returned to the study.

  “Let me see the first piece,” Rune said.

  Mal sighed and unfolded it. “Let them have the treasure.”

  Rune stared at her in silence. She rolled her eyes and turned the map over.

  “We can’t let them have it,” said Rune. “We don’t know what it is.”

  Isaac focused on Mal as she studied Rune’s expression. You don’t believe he doesn’t know. “You’ve always gone your own way,” she said.

  “This is the only way.”

  “I just hope it has a return route.”

  His gaze shot up, face tightening for a moment. “Which is why it’s best if only I go.”

  “No!”

  Isaac, Camiel, and Uriah had spoken in unison, but it was Isaac Rune stared at. His blank stares were the worst, because Isaac had no idea what went on behind those glowing eyes.

  Yair looked between them. “What about me?”

  Uriah snorted. “You’re not going anywhere.”

  Mal smiled at Yair after throwing a glare at Uriah. “You can stay with us.”

  “We’ll bring in some of Zev’s enforcers to escort you to the manor,” said Rune. “You’ll stay there until we return for you. You were at risk the minute fate saw fit to match you with Uriah.”

  Rune’s gaze lingered a moment longer on Isaac’s before he dropped it to the map.

  “What about the symbols?”

  “Those are more obscure,” said Mal. “Without context, they’re harder to decipher.”

  “They seem to be place markers.”

  “The one by the mountain means portal as near as Clara can tell.”

  “That isn’t a cactus?”

  She laughed. “No. It’s a prong. Shaped like a tuning fork. It’s two directions joined together. Joined at a portal.”

  “No idea which portal?”

  “No.”

  Isaac stood, glancing in the study at Clara bent over her book at the desk, before continuing into the kitchen. After opening several cans of corn, he emptied them into a bowl and sat at the table with a potato masher. The sky was the last shade of gray before dark now, but he hadn’t turned on the light when he came in. The white bowl and pale corn took on a luminous glow. He pulverized it until there was no give to the mash anymore. When the light snapped on, the corn was pale and frothy. Camiel flashed him a smile.

  “Any more booze in the pantry?”

  “I think so.”

  “Living out in the boonies as the humans say is bad for my sobriety.”

  Isaac laughed and stood. “I didn’t know you had any sobriety.”

  “Every other Monday.” Camiel returned with a bottle of Tanqueray gin. “I insist on it. It’s my penance for all the rest of the days.”

  Isaac poured the corn into a pot and turned the burner on low, filled a bigger pot with water and set that on high.

  When he turned, Clara stood in the door, resembling a wood sprite in the shadow behind her. Like something that might disappear into the mist… with Rune. She gave him a tentative smile. “You can have your map back now.”

  “You translated it?”

  She nodded and stretched her hand to him. He pulled his envelope from his pocket and took the piece of parchment.

  Her smile widened for a second. “Are you coming to hear?”

  “Yeah, sure.”

  It was his piece of the map, Rune be damned. Though he didn’t really think that because he reverberated inside with a strange heartbeat and echoes of pain that weren’t his. He was in tuned to Rune, and Rune was sure he wasn’t coming back. When all hope is lost…

  I will find you in the dark, Isaac thought. I won’t leave you alone.

  And if you have no choice?

  I won’t leave you.

  Rune’s laughter rumbled through him like a clap of thunder.

  He followed Clara and returned to his place on the couch. Clara perched on the arm of the chair this time, Mal on the cushion.

  Rune glanced up from the map. “Go ahead.”

  “This is the first one,” Clara said. “I believe they build on each other, so you should solve them in order, though I can’t be sure. But this one says, ‘Perils and jewels surround the gate you wish…’ or hope, I think. Hope to enter. ‘You will find it where the grit shines and heat reforms the coarse.’ I think that’s what it says. I picked grit instead of dirt because of coarse. It finishes with ‘Push on until darkness resides with light. Keep your steps true or plummet to your death.’”

  Camiel, mumbling “And fun was had by all,” grabbed his glass of gin off the coffee table and drank it down.

  “Why isn’t this the last one?” Yair asked. “Jewels sound like treasure. Isn’t that where the map should end?”

  “No,” said Rune. “It’s telling us where the portal is.”

  “You know?” Mal asked.

  Isaac stared hard at Rune’s face. His expression hadn’t changed, but his eyes looked dead.

  “It’s the Alta portal.”

  Mal gasped, and Camiel stared into his empty glass. “King Qudim died near there, didn’t he?”

  Rune shook his head. “Not near. That’s exactly where I killed him.”

  34

  Stumbling Block

  Zev strode across the study and took the card from Rune’s fingers. The scents of sleep and human blood clung to his skin. Rune turned away and went to the window.

  Zev’s voice followed him. “Abadi?”

  “Yes. It’s in a deck she gave Camiel.”

  Their reflections moved on the glass. Outside, nothing stirred. His eyes amplified the starlight and pulled shapes from the dark, all still, either nothing or sentinel. Waiting and watching.

  “Do you trust him?” Zev asked.

  “I think so, but he’s hiding something.”

  “Leave him behind.”

  Rune gazed back into the room. “You accept this, then? Our going?”

  “Does it matter?”

  Rune hissed, the sound loud, startling even to him. “How dare you ask me that?”

  Zev groaned, the hand holding the card falling to his side as he strode over. “I dare, Rune. I dare, my king. I dare because after all this time—”

  “It has come,” Rune finished for him. “The time is here.”

  Zev’s face twisted, his mouth torn in a grimace. “All I want is peace.”

  “Strange, isn’t it?” Rune murmured. “Strange that peace is always bloody.”

  “I don’t believe in the treasure.”

  “The Adi ’el Lumi do.”

  “And if there is none?”

  “Everything is leading us to it.”

  “To something, Rune.”

  He nodded. “Running from it isn’t the answer.”

  “Leaving it alone might be. And how do you know it’s the Alta portal on the map?”

  He took the card from Zev’s fingers and looked down at Abadi’s face. It was like looking at Mal’s. Or his own. “‘Heat reforms the coarse.’ The mines near my castle eventually lead to the portal. Not originally, but one of the earthquakes opened a passage. It’s not surprising that the mines provided silica. So did the Alta portal. It was part of another mine that tapped out hundreds of years ago. One that we used. For glass. ‘You will find it where the grit shines, and heat reforms the coarse.’ Sand for glass. The Alta portal is the first point on the map.”

  Zev dropped into a chair and scrubbed his face. “I don’t like it. Not the Alta portal. Rune…” He sat forward and braced his elbows on his knees. “Is there any chance you’re being led there?”

  “By somebody smarter than Solomon? I suppose. But why the subterfuge? If they’re following me to get to the treasure, why not
make it easier than a treasure map written in a dead language? Why murder one of our only chances of getting it translated?”

  “They left the girl.”

  “If they knew about her. If they didn’t, we got lucky.”

  “You don’t believe in luck, remember?”

  Rune grinned. “True.”

  “They are strong, Rune. Everywhere.”

  Rune sat across from him and raised his palms. Zev clasped his hands. “I believe in us, Zev. It’s always been the two of us.”

  “You are my king. I gave you—I give you—my obedience.”

  “Carry on for me.”

  Zev’s fingers tightened on his, drawing their hands down, forcing Rune to lean closer. “Listen to me, Rune. I don’t care how tired you are. You owe nothing. You bear no guilt for Qudim’s blood thirst. I was with you. A moment will come. I fear it.” He lay hard on the words. “I hate it. Don’t give in to the shame inside you. Do not let them win. The treasure is nothing, and you are more. When the moment comes—” I will find you in the dark. Rune closed his eyes. “Save. Your. Life. For me. For all of us. Let the Adi go back to the rocks they crawled out from under.”

  Rune opened his eyes, a wry smile on his mouth. “We crawled out from under those rocks too.”

  “Into the light.”

  Rune pulled his hands free and stood. He said nothing, gazing into Zev’s eyes, until Zev sighed and stood too.

  “Meet me in the hall off the foyer.”

  Rune nodded. He’d spent summers here with Zev as a boy, back in the days when he’d never had to hide. But even then… Even then he’d dreaded his future. When the door closed again, he let his body fade and slipped into the hall. An enforcer stood against the opposite wall, startling when a misty shape took form in the dark. But when Rune swept over him, he went still again. Zev turned at the end of the hall, took another short passage into the foyer, and crossed the empty room to another hall. This one was lined with portraits on either side.

  At Zev’s side again, Rune returned to his body, a smile tugging at his lips.

  Zev stood in front of a painting Rune had made of him a dozen years ago. One he’d done from memory of Zev as a boy. Before Qudim’s death. Before the Upheaval. Before he’d lost hope.

  “This painting brought me back to life,” he said.

  Zev cocked his head. “Why?”

  “Certain things remind me of what we fight for. Jessa. You.” He chuckled. “A day by the pool doing nothing.”

  “It’s special to me,” Zev said. He lifted it off its hooks.

  Rune stared at the wall, expecting a safe, a hidden panel, not the wispy string of a single cobweb.

  Zev lowered the painting to the floor, then turned it around, and leaned it against the wall. He crouched and loosened the latches on the frame. Behind the backing was a silk bag resting on the bottom of the frame. Zev glanced up at him, a quirky smile dancing on his lips.

  Rune chuckled. “A false-bottomed painting.”

  “So to speak.”

  Zev picked up the silk bag and tossed it to Rune.

  “Not very safe.”

  “It’s here,” Zev pointed out. “I worried about Asa since he was the one Adalyn insisted be put on cobweb duty, but the bag was secure and not heavy. And it was in plain sight. Not the first place anyone would look.”

  “I never took you for devious, Zev.”

  “I’ve pretended to be a king for a long time. Too long,” he added.

  “Soon, it will be over.”

  Zev stood. “Don’t leave me.”

  Rune went into his friend’s arms and held him close. He said nothing of the dreams that had begun to haunt him or the darkness lapping at the edges of his soul. The drumming of Zev’s heart soothed him for a moment, but the faint gray tinge of dawn in the hall stirred him again.

  He squeezed Zev’s shoulders and stepped back.

  “Wish me luck.”

  “You don’t believe in luck.”

  “Too bad,” he murmured.

  He pressed the bag to his chest and turned into a fog that carried him back to the woods outside the professor’s house.

  The roofline etched the sky as it lightened. He stood still until Uriah appeared at his side.

  “Sire.”

  “The king’s enforcers will be here soon. Be ready to leave.”

  Uriah nodded and returned to his circuit of the property. Rune waited in the dark of the trees until the first lights appeared in the house.

  35

  Screw Rune

  Pan, one of Zev’s enforcers, glided into the kitchen, and Isaac’s heart jumped. The bastard hadn’t made a sound. The guy flashed his fangs. Of all the people to send, Isaac probably wouldn’t have thought of Pan. But maybe that was why he wouldn’t make a good king, because Pan was precisely the kind of vampire he wouldn’t want to meet alone in the woods.

  Isaac shoved the pot he’d dried into the cupboard and gazed out of the window over the sink. Pan walked into the space between the trees as though a door had been there, swallowing him into darkness. The others had fanned out the moment they’d jumped from the two SUVs they’d arrived in. Now they were in the woods, “Pushing out,” as Pan had told Rune after he’d risen from his knees. Driving the enemy back.

  Isaac had only one more meal to cook before they left in the morning.

  His nerves tickled his skin, and he held his breath in the quiet, half expecting the house to exhale.

  Seconds passed before he gasped and dug his nails into his palms.

  Something bad was going to happen. Why had he ever left Comity House? He’d had his room, his books, clients he’d even liked. Extra money for coffee or burgers. Jessa.

  Except he didn’t have Jessa anymore, and that was the problem. Life had to be more than comfort and pleasant ways to ease his boredom. He needed a reason for things, and Rune had cried out in his head, so he’d followed him.

  Swiping his hands on his pants, he took another breath then headed from the kitchen.

  Camiel wasn’t in his usual place on the couch, but Yair stood at the window, leaning his shoulder against the frame, his arms crossed over his chest. A frown twisted his pretty face, but it smoothed away when he glanced at Isaac. A small smile took its place. “Hey.”

  “Anything going on out there?”

  “Probably a million things nobody’s going to tell me about.” He narrowed his stare on Isaac, who perched on the back of the couch. “You aren’t really going, you know.”

  Isaac bristled. “Yes I am.”

  He stopped himself snapping that he wasn’t a helpless baby people needed to take care of when he remembered Yair was returning to the manor with Mal and Clara. Which was where Isaac would be going if he didn’t fight Rune on it.

  Yair gave him a stricken look before he gazed outside again, and Isaac winced. “Uriah wants you to be safe.”

  Yair’s laugh surprised him. It was strangely bitter. “Do you even know why I’m here?”

  “You’re his fated.”

  “And Moss’s, but Moss sent me to him because he thought Uriah would want me if he spent time with me, but he doesn’t want me, he’s sending me away. And if he doesn’t come back, it’s just me and Moss, and I won’t ever know my other fated. Why do I even have him if he doesn’t love me? I made one mistake.”

  Trying to kill the king was a pretty big mistake, but Isaac bit his lip before he said that. “I’m not wanted either.”

  “You slept with him.”

  Isaac snorted. “That’s not love.” God knows it wasn’t. Too many times, sex was scary and hurt for days after.

  “I see the way he looks at you.”

  Isaac stood and stepped closer. “I see the way Uriah looks at you. I have a ticket into this. You don’t. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be going either.”

  “You’re not going.”

  He spun. Rune stood in the doorway, expression tense and eyes smoldering, but not with passion. No, this was the look he got whenever he plan
ned to shut Isaac out. “I’m leaving in half an hour. With Cammy, Anin, and Uriah, not you. I want that map, Isaac. This isn’t a game.”

  Isaac gritted his teeth so tight his ears rang. A half hour. What happened to the morning? What was he going to do? He still had the map. It was in his pocket. “Are you going to beat me up to get it?”

  “Don’t be an idiot.”

  “Then I’m not giving it to you. I don’t have to, and you didn’t take it for a reason. I’m supposed to go.”

  Rune’s face clouded, confusion passing through his eyes. “You weren’t supposed to get it. It was an accident you were there.”

  “I was supposed to be there. I was sent there.”

  Worry grew in Rune’s eyes, but he shook his head and repeated himself. “You aren’t going. I promise you, the map wasn’t meant for you.”

  “You can’t promise that. I know you’re a king, but I’m human.”

  “You live by our laws.”

  “All our laws. You do too. Otto told me you can’t break the law either, and he’s gonna arrest you.”

  Now Rune laughed. “He can try.”

  He turned and headed upstairs.

  “Goddamnit,” Isaac muttered.

  I hear you.

  The map is mine.

  A scrap of paper he wasn’t letting go.

  I memorized it.

  Panic raced through his body for a moment. Then he frowned and followed Rune up the stairs. The door to his room was open, the curtains blowing in and out of the window. He burst into the studio where Rune sat staring at his sketch of Isaac. Except it wasn’t a sketch anymore, and Isaac was buck-assed naked in it. Still standing against the wall, feet crossed at the ankles, and sullen-eyed. But it was in color now, a faint pastel color, like watercolors maybe. Clara’s? She looked like somebody who’d paint in watercolors. Somebody who’d read poetry. Where was her painting? Was she naked too?

  “Is that how you see me? Pissed off?”

  “You are pissed off.”

  “You piss me off.”

  “My. Aren’t you the conversationalist. Don’t you like it?”

  “I’m naked.”

  “You have a beautiful body.”