Key to Redemption

by Talia Gryphon

  Finian returned with a small assortment of Sidhe, both Seelie and Unseelie; there was even the tentacled Sluagh that had been with Trocar the night of the orgy. Seems it had some sort of strong healing abilities built into its slimy body. Who knew?

  “Thanks, Finian. I have an idea on how to pull all of our talents together,” Gillian said gratefully.

  “You are welcome, Kynzare, we are allied, and it is our pleasure to help one another.”

  “As it is ours.” That was from Gunnolf Crosswind, who stood in the entry with his sister, Aisling. She was looking at Trocar with undisguised desire in her face. The Dark Elf went to her and kissed her fingertips. Gunnolf rolled his eyes but said nothing.

  “Thank you, Gunnolf, Aisling. I know from experience how powerful the healing skill of the First People are,” Gillian said politely, giving the Grael gesture of respect that she’d learned from Trocar long ago. Gunnolf’s eyebrows rose but he said nothing, nodding and returning the movement. Aisling was too busy staring into Trocar’s iridescent eyes to notice.

  Just then Pavel and another Wolf came in carrying the piano from Perrin’s guesthouse. One of them could have managed it alone easily but it was less awkward since they didn’t want to scratch it. Gillian indicated they should put it down in the foyer, facing the Great Hall.

  Perrin watched as they angled it and raised the lid, propping it up with its shiny brass arm. “I am to play, while people are lying here, hurt and possibly dying?” Perrin’s voice was lovely but held a rough edge that it got when he was in the beginnings of anger.

  Gillian turned to look at him. The amazing eyes were determined yet held a thread of fear. “Perrin, you’re not going to throw up again, if that’s what you’re worried about. You’ll be in here while they’re all in there so you won’t have to look at any of it. And yes, I would like you to play, use your talent and enhance the healers in this room. That seems to be part of your magic, at least the way that we’ve interpreted it.”

  Taking his arm, she patted his hand. “But I would like it if you waited in the library until we’re all ready in here. Once we get everyone situated and inside, I want to try something which I hope will work with the addition of your skill.”

  Looking down at her, so earnest and intent in her need to help everyone, he smiled. She was so lovely, so clever and sweet. He could refuse her nothing. “All right, ma chérie, I will wait until you call for me. My talents are at your disposal.”

  “Thanks, Perrin. You’re a prince.” She impulsively squeezed his hand, then she was gone, off to open the door and wait outside with Pavel, Trocar and the Wood Elves with her.

  “Only a prince without his lily-pad kingdom,” the masked genius murmured softly before turning to wait in the library.

  “Aleksei’s almost here,” Gillian announced, feeling his presence growing stronger.

  Trocar took the hint and called to everyone to come out and help with the wounded. Almost immediately the yard was full of the returning fighters. The strong helped the wounded; races that weren’t supposed to get along were helping each other, stanching wounds, offering comfort.

  Kimber, Trocar and Gillian directed traffic, forming a makeshift triage. The worst of the wounded were settled nearest to the front of the Great Hall and the less-seriously injured farther toward the back. Blood of all different shades and varieties trailed over the yard and in the foyer. The Great Hall soon resembled a slaughterhouse in smell and appearance.

  Vampires wounded with wooden weapons lay convulsing and bleeding. Lycanthropes pierced and slashed with silver whimpered and fought not to shift back into their Human form to die, knowing they had a better chance in animal form to heal the terrible damage. Sidhe injured from even a glancing blow of a cold iron weapon huddled together in groups.

  Aleksei misted in and appeared next to Gillian, sweeping her under the shelter of his shoulder and kissing her when she looked up at him. “Thank you, dolcezza. I do not know if we can save them all, but I would like to try.”

  “I have an idea, Aleksei. Don’t give up on them yet. I’m going to need your help. You’re a Lord; can you focus the talents of everyone who is capable of healing here?”

  At his puzzled look, she explained, “I think I have an idea about how to help everyone, but I need your mind to direct the others.”

  Nodding, he crowded her with his body, nudging her inside. It was a purely alpha thing to do, but Gillian realized she was getting less reactionary about it. He didn’t mean it as an insult. It was just him. A four-hundred-year-old Vampire who was going to help keep her safe and out of harm’s way. Hell, if she had his powers, she’d do the same thing to him.

  She allowed him to guide her into the foyer and to the Great Hall, where they witnessed the carnage, he for the second time that night, she in the artificial light of the castle’s huge room. She missed Perrin’s gaze following them as Aleksei maneuvered her protectively across the rooms in front of him. The masked man had come out of the library, watching the upcoming drama get under way.

  Seating himself at the piano, where he could be unobtrusive but still watch everything, he realized this was his final night at the Institute. He hoped he would have time to say good-bye to Gillian privately, cursing himself for being selfish while there were so many injured.

  From his vantage point, he could hear every word she spoke in a clear, strong voice to the assembled and watched how all of them relaxed, trusting her. She was such an admirable woman.

  “Everyone, please listen for a moment. We have healers who are going to place themselves at various positions among you. Our maestro”—she half turned to motion toward Perrin—“will play the piano. He has the capability through his music to enhance the natural thought processes, feelings and abilities of anyone. What we are hoping is that with Perrin’s help we will be able to heal all of you collectively. So please clear your minds if you can and listen to him play.”

  Winking at Perrin and nodding encouragement, she went on, “Aleksei will explain his role.”

  “If the collective of the Vampires, those who are mine, those who are not, will allow it, along with my Wolves and the other Shifters, I will be the conduit to link all of you with Gillian.

  “The Sidhe, Brownies and Elves are welcome to use their own manner of communication, but please focus on Gillian and myself. She has a plan that may help you all.” Aleksei’s magical voice rolled over all of them, seductive, warm, inviting them to merge with him.

  Those that were not his wished that they were. This was a Lord that they could believe in. He was one of the reasons they had risked their lives tonight, the reason they now lay in his Hall bleeding from difficult-to-heal, nearly lethal wounds.

  Aleksei and his Human female had already proven themselves worthy of trust and respect; rumors about them were already spreading far and wide. All eyes turned to him, then closed to focus their abilities.

  Gillian watched them listening to the Romanian Lord. Aleksei was honest, powerful, spectacularly lovely and had a certain noble charisma, an elite quality which inspired allegiance. They wanted to be by his side. They had supported him during the conflict and would do so again.

  “Okay, Aleksei, bring me in first, then gather the rest of them,” she whispered softly then signaled Perrin to begin.

  Haunting, heartrendingly beautiful, yet joyous music flowed into the room. Perrin looked enraptured as his elegant, aristocratic hands danced over the keys and he played one of his compositions. Focusing on his former pain and loneliness; thinking about how his attitude had changed because he felt healed. He worked the thoughts over and over. Remembering what he felt like after he’d kept company with Gillian; healed and whole.

  He had it then. He could call it up at will. The music swelled somehow, got bigger within itself. Perrin wasn’t playing loudly; the magic he was bringing to the table was significantly more powerful than more than a third of the beings there.

  Some of the Sidhe gasped in shock or stared at him openmouthed as
he played. He was one of their own. They could hear their magic in his song.

  Gillian dropped her shields and felt Aleksei ghosting in her mind. “Show me what you want to do, piccola,” came his wordless command.

  She showed him. Focusing, drawing on the astonishing level of power he had recently acquired, Aleksei drew in the ones he could reach. Following the pattern Gillian was imagining, he took the single threads of thought and wove them together in a gleaming, shining net of healing light. A net fueled by the power of Perrin’s music and glamour, the healing abilities of Trocar, the Sluagh, the Elves, the Brownies and the Sidhe; the innate ability to rapidly heal that all the Paramortals possessed.

  Allowing Perrin’s music to consume her, Gillian let it flare her empathy to a glowing orb around her body, completely open to him and his power. As it pulsed through her, her hand inadvertently strayed to the open top of the piano, fingertips brushing the vibrating strings. In indirect contact through his hands on the keys and her hand on the lacquered wood, his glamour and her empathy merged fully.

  Aleksei felt the surge through their own link and reached for her free hand, putting his other on the piano beside hers, and completing the circuit. Mentally he reached for Perrin, drawing the masked man’s phenomenally brilliant mind to him. He couldn’t waver his concentration from the vast array of life forms whose thoughts and abilities he kept. There was no way for him to shield either Gillian or himself or warn her away from what she was gathering her strength to do.

  Around his waist, he felt powerful arms enclose him as Luis dropped into rapport with the rest. Oscar was behind Gillian, adding his own cool strength to the mix, pulling her close and bracing her against him. Aleksei didn’t think, he simply wove them into the threads that made up the enormous net of light that pulsed, thrummed, surged and sang over all their heads.

  There were Brownies everywhere, the gods only knew when they’d come in, scattered among the wounded, around their feet and the legs of the piano, the tiny strands of their inherent magic anchoring the entire array. Those he couldn’t have brought in on his own, like Kimber and Daed, reached into the general feeling and added their considerable will and intent.

  Gillian illustrated the thought of her intention to Aleksei a heartbeat before she acted on it. Fueled by Perrin’s unparalleled ability, with the full concentration and power of the Vampire Lord behind her, all the strands and threads Aleksei had gathered to make the metaphysical mesh joined back through them. She waited until the precise moment of a powerful surge when its light was brightest and Perrin’s music crescendoed, then flared the net and dropped it over all of them.

  A blinding flash seared through the Great Hall as the web of light whiplashed through everyone in a titanic burst of power. Simultaneous cries and screams echoed through the ancient stones of Castle Rachlav as the two hundred or more occupants jerked and rebounded in a cataclysmic paroxysm of absolute ecstasy and warm bliss.

  For those who were touching, it was beyond orgasmic but without the body fluids and sweating. Those who were without benefit of touch still shuddered through the aftershocks and waves of energy that cranked through them as though they were individual conduits for the power.

  When Gillian opened her eyes, she realized that she and Aleksei still held hands. Everyone was on the flagstone floor of the castle. The only reason she wasn’t flat on her back was because she was sitting on Oscar’s lap and he was leaning, seemingly boneless, against the leg of the piano. There was a deep, throbbing warmth between her legs that she couldn’t explain.

  Aleksei was on one knee in front of her, braced with one hand on the piano, the other arm across his thigh, holding her hand; he was the only being in the castle who hadn’t been nearly flattened by the event. A virtually comatose Luis’s arms were still around his waist, his body half sprawled out behind him.

  Turning her head, she strained to see around the piano to where Perrin was. She tried to stand, but her legs wouldn’t hold her and her bottom molded to Oscar’s lap again. From what she could tell, he had one hell of an erection under her butt.

  “Please, darling, have mercy and do not shift your weight again or we will both be embarrassed.”

  The richly cultured English accent brought her back to the present. “Oh, sorry, Oscar.”

  “No worries, love, but the slightest movement from you and I will explode, so give me a moment.”

  “All of us are similarly affected.” Aleksei’s molten silver eyes took her in. Gillian glanced down, yup, the long thick outline of his erection showed in bas relief, straining against his thigh in the laced-up black velvet pants he wore. She realized she was rather . . . damp. Hooray for Perrin and his magical musical world of wonder.

  Apparently everyone was “similarly affected.” There were gasps, bitten-back screams and deep moans from those who had tried to move too soon and found a secondary enjoyment out of their experience. Gillian and Aleksei were staring at each other, pure heat coursing between their linked hands. The deep warmth in her groin grew more intense and insistent. Shit and double shit, how were they going to get out of this?

  Grinning lazily, Aleksei arched a brow at her and nodded.

  “No,” Gill said in a breathless whisper, her eyes wide.

  “Yes,” Aleksei countered and yanked her off Oscar’s lap, fitting her against his own body. His mouth covered hers and she instantly forgot about Oscar, who arched upward as she brushed over him and was now convulsing behind her. Luis, who had let go of Aleksei’s waist, was now writhing on the floor in perfect sync with his lover.

  Other than the kiss, there was no sexual touching, but Gillian jackknifed in Aleksei’s arms, the warmth within her becoming a pulsing heat. He joined her in delight, the force of their passion fed from the afterglow of the healing net.

  Both of them were still in contact with the piano and heard Perrin’s answering gasp. He was draped over the keys, suffused with satisfaction and unable to move.

  Gillian broke the kiss simply to breathe and let Aleksei hold her tightly as she rested her head on his shoulder. That brought her eyes in line with the scene in the Great Hall. Abruptly, she started to laugh. Aleksei turned her a little in his arms, rising from the ground to look at what she saw, then started to chuckle.

  All of them, every creature who was coming out of the throes of the healing pleasure they’d all experienced, were moving, shifting or getting shakily to their feet. All except a pile of bodies in the archway to the Hall. Trocar, Aisling, Gunnolf and the squid Sluagh all lay as if piled together. Specifically, Trocar and Aisling were one pile, right next to the Sluagh and Gunnolf. The Sluagh had a tentacle on Trocar and Aisling but its massive bulk was wrapped around Gunnolf as it had been around Trocar.

  “Sweet mother, that is a big sucker,” Gill quipped, still giggling. She was rewarded by an offended glare from Gunnolf, who said nothing but slowly extricated himself from the Sluagh’s clutches. He was rather shaky on his feet and backpedaled into the wall, sliding down it, where he rested wearily.

  “It was good for him apparently,” Trocar muttered from his vantage point on top of Aisling, who giggled, making the Grael shudder in a rather sensual way.

  “And for you,” Aisling managed around the snickering.

  “And for me,” Aleksei murmured into Gillian’s neck as he held her tightly, sending a quivering shimmer down her spine.

  Before she could answer, there was a deep moan from Perrin, “Gillian . . . please . . . it hurts . . .”

  Hurts? Nothing should hurt. Gillian and Aleksei staggered to their feet as best they could and stumbling, holding each other up, made it back to Perrin. He was holding his hands tightly against his mask, rocking on the piano bench in obvious agony.

  “Healer!” Gill bellowed as she reached him. Aleksei brushed her out of the way and scooped Perrin up off the bench like a child, cradling him in powerful arms, then knelt so Gill could get to him.

  “Perrin, talk to me.” Gently she placed her hands over his own; her
voice was tight with worry. What the hell had happened? He shouldn’t be in pain; it shouldn’t have affected him at all.

  “Un cher Dieu qu’il blesse!” Perrin gasped.

  Trocar was suddenly there, bringing with him a female Sidhe warrior with curly lavender hair, light blue skin and soft pink eyes. “Gillian, please move aside.”

  When she didn’t respond right away, he touched her arm gently. “Captain, let us help him.”

  She moved, but kept her hand on Perrin’s shoulder. The Dark Elf and Fey ran their hands lightly over Perrin’s. The female touched his hands, which still clutched at his mask.

  “Allow me to look. We can help.” Her voice was light and gentle as a spring day.

  Reluctantly Perrin moved his hands away, then reached back for Gillian, who took his hand and held it to her chest. Trocar stroked his hair as the Sidhe removed the mask. There was a collective intake of breath. Most of the living stone on Perrin’s face, which the mask had covered, was rapidly being enclosed by raw muscle and encroaching skin. It looked like pure scar tissue, very pink, shiny and tough.

  Seeing what was happening, Aleksei intervened. “Perrin, look at me, my friend. Let me have your mind for a moment.”

  Perrin’s eyes opened and were riveted to Aleksei’s. The Vampire Lord waited for no other invitation but brushed aside Perrin’s normal defenses and took over, shielding the other man from the agony he was experiencing and helping him relax for the healers to be able to do their job. It was abrupt and sent a shudder through the man in his arms, but he had no choice; the pain and fear were paralyzing him from any rational thought.

  As she watched Aleksei, Gillian smiled. It was comforting somehow to see his acceptance and kindness toward Perrin, considering what his attitude had been at the first. Perrin’s return of that trust was equally heartwarming. He lay in the arms of the most powerful being in the region, letting a Grael Elf and a Sidhe work on him, completely accepting of whatever they were about to do.