by Cate Corvin
“They’re here,” she said, and we all made our way back towards the kitchen. It was oddly dark, and I realized what was different as soon as we walked in: the Paladin, as a protector of Shadowed Worlders, had installed sliding doors over the large glass windows, blocking out the sun for the comfort of his vampiric guests.
Rhianwen and Morgrainne sat at the island, each with a dainty china cup of blood in front of them. Rhianwen had abandoned her pretty silk dresses in favor of jeans, a flannel shirt, and a neat trench coat, while Morgrainne had ditched her traditional armor for running pants and a hoodie. She’d washed off the blue woad spirals that usually coated her skin.
For any of the humans who might have met them in the night, they looked almost like mortals, except for their inherent stillness and the uncanny-to-humans perfection of their features.
Arko was laying out more places at the island: blood for Victoria and me, and real food for Will. Suraziel was clearly gleaming with restored health.
Before she even acknowledged the blood, Victoria threw herself into Rhianwen’s arms. My sister folded my singer into her embrace, murmuring soft words into her ear.
Like the incessant pull I felt for my Maker, Victoria would feel that warm glow from Rhianwen, a pull that promised safety and refuge. She was one of those lucky vampires who would actually find those things in the arms of her Maker.
Morgrainne raised her cup to us, one pinky sticking out in a mockery of etiquette. “Nice digs here,” she said in her rasping voice. “We need to divert some of our cash flow to fix up our dump.”
“It’s not a dump,” Rhianwen chided, still holding Victoria. “It’s the queen’s court.”
Barely in the door for five minutes, and already arguing. It felt like being home.
“The queen deserves a better court.” Morgrainne raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t that what we came here to build?”
Rhianwen finally released Victoria. “That’s her call.”
“Good thing she’s my sister, too,” Morgrainne grumbled. “What sort of sister would deny me fancy little teacups for my blood?”
“I thought we were supposed to be keeping this a secret,” Victoria interjected.
Rhianwen smiled at her, perfectly at ease as the Paladin plodded in behind everyone. “Good morning, everyone,” he announced, looking completely thrilled at the mass company in his kitchen. “Make yourselves at home! I’ve got blood, coffee, tea, ichor, sparkling water, wine. If you need anything, Arko is here for you.”
“Thank you, Paladin,” Rhianwen said politely, and Morgrainne raised her cup as Christian’s bound Legionnaire made a face.
“Should I wear a little French maid dress?” the demon asked. “Carry around a duster in a saucy manner?”
“You’ve watched Beauty and the Beast far too many times now, Arkomoch,” the Paladin said, pouring himself a cup of tea.
Rhianwen stood up to offer Victoria her seat, who was clearly about to refuse, if the set of her shoulders said anything. “I’m not taking your chair, Rhianwen,” she said with exasperation, but my sister was insistent.
“My queen, it’s not appropriate for me to sit while you stand.”
Victoria scowled up at her, and Rhianwen finally softened, taking my singer in for another embrace. I was staying out of this. Their relationship would be complicated enough without my interference, and Victoria wouldn’t appreciate my making decisions for her, even though I too wanted her ass firmly in that seat, since she couldn’t have her rightful throne for us to guard. “My daughter. You’re going to have to accept-”
“Daughter?”
The voice was small, but it was like an axe had fallen across all conversation in the room. The Paladin looked up cheerfully, but Morgrainne spun in her seat, Rhianwen looked stricken, and Suraziel chewed his lower lip, eyes fixed on the doorway behind me.
I turned slowly to take in Constance Holmwood, no bigger than a sylph, blonde hair still in disarray from her restless sleep. Her wide blue eyes were fixed on Victoria, in the embrace of another woman who called her ‘daughter’.
Victoria disentangled herself from Rhianwen, who smoothed her coat, looking more discomposed than I’d ever seen her.
“Mom, there’s a lot we need to talk about,” she said softly, holding out her hands, but Connie backed up a step.
“Why is she calling you daughter?” she asked, fixated on one thing. “Who is this? Why are you here with- with demons and vampires, Tori baby?”
Victoria lowered her hands, lips turned down. “Mom… I am one. Don’t you see?” She opened her mouth a little, revealing the flash of fangs. “I’m still me.”
“I can’t. I can’t look.” Connie took a small, shuddering breath, spun on her heel, and vanished.
My singer looked like she’d been punched in the gut. Rhianwen rested a hand on her shoulder. “Being Made is never easy,” she said softly, but I couldn’t stand seeing my singer on the verge of tears.
“Drink your blood,” I ordered, taking matters into my own hands. “Tea, Arko.” I remembered his gripe. “Please.”
“That’s more like it.” The Legionnaire prepared a little service on a tray, including two slices of buttered toast.
“You can wear the sexy little maid dress another time,” I told him when I took the tray, and left Victoria to the comfort of her Maker and other singers.
Following Connie’s scent was easy; she smelled of sleep, tears, and faint perfume. I followed the trail up a set of winding stairs, down a hall of tapestries, and eventually smelled a fresh trail outside a set of huge wooden doors.
They creaked open, revealing an enormous library. Slayers really had a fetish for libraries, I’d discovered. Give me a good fight over a book any day.
Connie was curled in a velvet settee, and she made herself even smaller as I approached. It was hard to believe Victoria had been borne of this frightened slayer.
“Constance Holmwood.” I knelt in front of the settee and slid the tray onto a coffee table. “You need to eat.”
She sniffed, clutching an embroidered handkerchief to her face. “You’re a vampire. What are you doing with my daughter? Why do… this?” She gestured to the tea tray.
I slid myself into the chair next to her, not too close, but not too far that I couldn’t grab her if she tried to run. I had complete faith that she wouldn’t have the balls to try to stake me in the heart. “You’re my singer’s mother. This is the part where I show you what a good son-in-law a vampire can be. Now eat your toast.”
She eyed me, eyes still leaking tears, but her hand tentatively crept out and snatched up a slice of toast.
“Yes, good,” I said encouragingly. “You’ve had a long night, Constance. Starving yourself won’t help Victoria.”
She chewed and swallowed, but didn’t speak until she was halfway through the first slice. “This is good,” she mumbled. “Percival cut my carbs down. I haven’t had bread in weeks.”
Then her eyes rounded again. “Where is my husband?”
Fuck. Of course she’d ask while I was trying to make myself not seem like a monster.
But the time for lies was over. I needed this sniveling slayer to develop some cast-iron balls, and soon. Victoria wouldn’t survive long if she was always distracted by her mother’s plight.
“He’s dead,” I said bluntly. “I killed him.”
Ripping off his head had been far more satisfying than I’d anticipated. It’d been a long time since I’d gone for a good old-fashioned beheading.
Connie stopped chewing, staring at me over the toast. Then it was her turn to surprise me.
She threw back her head and laughed.
And laughed, and laughed, and laughed.
I leaned forward and handed her the teacup when she started choking, and she downed half the scalding tea in one gulp. Connie devoured the rest of the toast, then started in on the second slice with the savagery of a feral animal.
“He’s dead,” she finally said, still red-faced from laughing so h
ard. “You killed him, and now you’re bringing me breakfast. Life is such a comedy at times, isn’t it?”
“Very much so. There’s more bread where that came from. Nobody here will stop you from eating till you burst, but the demon is picky about manners.” She was practically licking her fingers.
“I’m going to eat a whole loaf and a stick of butter with it,” she said fervently, but she sipped her tea now, eyeballing me up and down. “Who are you to my Tori, and who is that woman with her?”
“That woman is my sister.” I settled back in my chair, satisfied with her appetite. She’d live, and she was displaying none of the symptoms of a dusthead: no tremors, clear eyes, quick movements. “And Victoria’s Maker. You don’t need to feel threatened, Constance. She’s thought of nothing but you since Will informed us of Percival’s deception. You are still her mother; Rhianwen was the one who brought her into her second life, when she might’ve died otherwise.”
“You didn’t tell me what you are,” Connie said, far shrewder than I’d anticipated her to be. Victoria had made her sound like she was practically catatonic most of the time. Under her husband’s influence, she likely had been.
“I’m her bloodsinger, and she is mine. The First Maker has decreed we are to love and protect each other for all time.”
Connie rubbed the back of her hand over her mouth, looking far more settled now than she had ten minutes ago. “My head feels clear.”
It was such a rapid change of subject, especially after I’d prepared to handle her with kid gloves, that I had a moment where my own mental gears spun out. “Does it usually not?”
“No.” Victoria’s mother frowned into her teacup. “I haven’t had my pills in… three days. Percival was so distracted that he forgot to bring them to me.”
Ah, of course. Victoria had already told me of her mother’s medications, and how worried she was that Percival wasn’t watching her mother closely enough.
Turned out the opposite was true. Percival was watching her pills a little too closely, and maybe adding in a few of his own. He must’ve been distracted by his preparation for the sacrifice. After three days without them, Connie would be waking up, so to speak.
Thank Lilith it wasn’t the pixie dust. Victoria would be wrecked if she’d thought her mother might die without it.
“Did you know what he was?” I asked softly.
When Connie looked back up at me, there was a spark of something fiery in her blue eyes. “No. Not at first. When I met him, I thought he’d come in to sweep me away from it all, and that he’d do good for Tori’s life. I couldn’t have sent her to Libra Academy on my own. She’d have a mansion to call home, money, good food… with Percival, she didn’t need to keep killing moonspawn to pay rent. His arrival seemed like the best stroke of fortune we could’ve had.”
She shook her head and put the empty cup aside. “I was on medication for depression when I met him. It wasn’t as bad as it was when… when James’s death was fresh in my mind, but it was enough to make me weak. I wasn’t the mother I should’ve been to her.”
“I don’t think she blames you.” If anything, Victoria was overprotective of her mother, like their roles were reversed.
“I hope not. I still have some years left in me now that Percival’s dead, and I don’t want to spend them dying slowly.” She blinked rapidly, but no tears spilled over. “I want to be the mother I should’ve been and be proud of the child I still have.”
“A good ambition to have.” I chanced reaching out to pat her hand. “But there are things you will hear in this house that must go nowhere. Victoria isn’t safe yet.”
Connie gripped my hand. “What do you mean? What happened to her?”
I heard soft footsteps outside the door. She was deliberately making enough noise for me to hear her, letting me know she was eavesdropping.
“That would be a story she’d rather tell herself,” I said, and Victoria took the hint to open the door. “It’s best to hear it straight from the lips of the One Crowned in Blood.”
“The One Crowned-” Connie went silent with shock. She was much quicker on the uptake than I’d hoped for. Thank fuck, because it was much easier than coddling her like a lamb.
“Hi, Mom.” Victoria’s quiet voice cut through the silence.
Constance released my hand and stood on shaky legs. She’d need to eat her own bodyweight in food to bring her wasted muscles back to their full potential, but she wasn’t the cowering thing we’d rescued last night. She held out her arms, and Victoria rushed into them, letting out a sigh of relief.
“I’m here, baby,” Connie said, rubbing Victoria’s back. “I’m here, and I’m not leaving you again.”
Thirteen
Tori
She wasn’t without flaw, but she wasn’t broken. Percival had failed to shatter Constance Holmwood.
She’s back, James whispered in my head, sharing my relief. If he couldn’t break her, no one can.
So I didn’t hold back on telling her anything.
When I was done, she looked a little more drawn than she had when I came in, but she still clutched my hands. I didn’t move a muscle, still afraid she’d pull away when she came to her senses and realized what I was now.
“A queen,” she repeated, stroking the back of my hand absently. “My baby is the queen of a vampire court.”
I held my breath and tried on a reassuring smile. “I guess you didn’t expect that when you sent me to school.” It might be another century before I stopped freaking out about it.
Mom shook her head. “No. I just expected you’d have a place to heal and find a foothold in the world.”
I didn’t need to ask her what I was supposed to be healing from. I’d gone to Libra with one mission in mind.
And it had been weeks since I’d thought of it. James’s voice in my head grew a little quieter every day, until it was a murmur in the back of my skull, reassuring me, prodding me to action, but no longer pounding with a thirst for revenge.
I knew that one day I’d take down the Sathanas demon, but it was no longer the primary force in my life. I’d finally found my own place in the world, one where I wasn’t a slayer driven by nothing but thoughts of vengeance.
“I definitely found a foothold. It just wasn’t the one I expected.” I felt oddly calm as I basked in Mom’s presence. She hadn’t been this clear-headed in years. I’d feared her breaking down, but she seemed more stalwart than I’d ever seen her. “Honestly, Mom… I was scared for you to see me like this.”
She compounded this feeling by smiling back at me. She didn’t even flinch at the sight of my fangs. “When you come that close to dying with unfinished business, things become a little more clear, Tori. I lost Farrell and James, but I won’t die without letting you know how proud I am of you.”
I blinked hard. She was putting herself back together, but she didn’t need to see my blood-tinged tears. “I mean, really, all I did was accidentally win myself an entire court. No big deal.”
Càel chose that moment to bring in another tray of food. Mom was making up for her months under Percival’s thumb by eating like a horse. She freed one hand from my grip to grab a cookie.
“Thank you, Càel,” she said, and raised her eyebrows at me when he nodded and left. “Such a nice boy you chose, Tori.”
Oof. Boy was the last word I’d use to describe a 1300-year-old serial murderer, but I wasn’t going to correct her. Part of me kinda wanted to see Càel’s face if he heard her.
“Well, the thing is… Will and Suraziel are with me, too.” God, what an awkward conversation. “They’re all my bloodsingers, so… expect to see them around. A lot.”
She barely took the time to actually chew the cookie. It was a little unnerving how fast she ate. “After what they did to you… I don’t know that I could be so forgiving.”
“I wasn’t, at first,” I said with a little laugh. “I tried to kill Suraziel at one point. But they’ve changed, Mom, and I truly believe that. Will woul
d’ve killed his father to help you, and Suraziel was willing to defy a Prince of Hell.” I swallowed hard. “He took a blessed iron bolt for me the other night. I can count on one hand the number of demons who’d do that for a vampire.”
I tossed the word out there experimentally, but she didn’t so much as flinch. Score.
On the other hand, that might’ve been because she was doing her best to stuff an entire blueberry muffin in her face.
“Want some, baby?” she asked, holding out the mutilated dessert. I shook my head, wrinkling my nose.
“Doesn’t sound so good anymore.”
Then I realized she was joking. My mom had just made a joke.
For the first time, I let myself really hope that everything would be okay.
“Mom, the thing is, the bad stuff isn’t over yet.” She wiped her mouth daintily with a napkin, belying the fact that she’d just savaged that poor muffin. What had the blueberries ever done to her? “Being the queen doesn’t do much to protect me. I’ll always be in danger as long as Thraustila is alive. I’m the only threat left to him.”
Mom abandoned her food to clasp my hands again, looking up at me intently. “Tori, you know I’d ask for you to stay here in safety and let those boys handle it.”
“But…”
“But I won’t. I know my breath would be wasted. You always had to be on the front lines of everything, going alone into moonspawn dens and following demons. I know that you and I are made of different stuff, and I couldn’t ask you to sit back and let someone else handle something you’re fighting for.” She touched my face, all Mom, no sign of the broken slayer she’d been for so long. “With that being said, don’t you dare die again. I can live the rest of my life happy knowing you’re alive and well, and I’m done wasting what time I have. If there’s anything I can do, I’m here for you, baby.”
Part of me wondered when I’d have to pinch myself and wake up from this dream. It’d been so long since she’d seemed this capable, and it’d happened so quickly… who knew what might tip her back into that deep well of sadness she’d been unable to climb out of?
