This wasn’t going to work, not walking around someone’s private garden late at night and with no plan.
Sean jumped and took a backward step. A tall figure stood in his path. The cat sat beside this person in the familiar way of an animal with a long acquaintance. Sean started to say something but looked more closely. The figure was stone, a slender angel with folded wings and beautifully carved robes—and an unforgettable face.
He would go toward the light.
The cat, with the scruffy little dog close behind, trotted ahead, looking back from time to time with apparent approval.
Wall lights showed that doors and window frames were painted shiny green and metal stairs rose between floors of the surrounding buildings.
The light came from a fountain where a stone boy angel tipped luminous water from a shell into a much bigger shell. Bubbles frothed, ice white, at the surface. And suddenly the whole area seemed alive with figures. Stone angels sat, knelt, stood, and reclined among the shrubs. The shop and Royal Street were behind him and he saw he was in an enclosed courtyard with several stories of apartments on each side including above the shop.
And getting arrested for trespassing wouldn’t be helpful, even if he could get out of that easily enough.
Elin was here, somewhere here.
The cat was a beautiful marmalade and the little dog wasn’t scruffy, he just had coarse, reddish fur. Back and forth ran the cat, from Sean, toward the rear of the courtyard, and then retracing her steps.
It wouldn’t be the first time he’d followed a cat. He smiled and it felt good. He went after the cat up two flights of metal stairs and a short way along a balcony to a front door flanked by windows. Light glowed through curtains in the room to the right.
“Sean!”
Elin’s voice blasted in his brain. He staggered and braced himself on the wall.
Why hadn’t he tried to connect with her before? “Elin, I’m here. I’m in New Orleans. On Royal Street. On a balcony above a courtyard full of stone angels.” He had just assumed they were too remote from each other.
Scrambled voices bounced around his mind and the door in front of him opened—just a crack.
Two faces, one above the other, peered out. Elin and a golden-haired stranger looked at him with disbelief.
“Is it him?” the stranger asked.
Before Elin could open the door all the way, Sean snatched her from behind the other woman and swung her into his arms. “I am so angry with you,” he said, bringing his face close to hers. “Why would you run away from me like that?”
Elin’s fine dark brows came down in what was supposed to be a ferocious frown. “I’m angry with you, too,” she said, pushing against him and getting nowhere. “Put me down at once. You’re mad at me? Do you have any idea what I went through to get here? Quitus is after you. I’m convinced of it now I’ve spoken with Jude and Dora. And he tried to get at you through me at the cottage, only it wasn’t me who got hurt, it was Cassie. He’ll keep on trying.”
He had no idea who most of these people were that she was gabbling about. “Did you even consider discussing this with me?”
She trembled in his arms and he knew it wasn’t from fear. “You’re freezing again. You’re going to get sick like Leigh.”
“She shouldn’t feel the cold,” the other woman said. “That has to be fixed although she thinks it’s starting to get better already. Bring her inside. I’m Dora. I was Elin’s foster mother before a demon stole her from me before Tarhazian stole her from him.”
He stared at this golden-haired young thing and checked around for other signs of Never-Never Land.
Walking into a little apartment furnished with pretty, comfortable antiques, Sean kept an eye on this Dora person. “Not one word of what you just said makes any sense,” he said. “You might be about the right age to be Elin’s sister, but you aren’t old enough to be anything else. Elin, I hope you haven’t fallen for any of this codswallop. She’s probably in the white slave trade.”
Elin snickered, “Talking of codswallop,” she said, “not that anyone does that anymore as far as I know. What Dora says is true. She’s fae and her mate is a vampire. And I just love her, don’t you? She’s the closest to a real mother I have.”
Sean made a noncommittal noise and slowly set Elin down. She slid into the corner of a gold velvet couch.
“Jude—he’s the man Sally sent me to—he’s hundreds of years old, I think, and he’s Dora’s friend. He was able to get her to his attic. That’s where we met. Then he told us we could rest and talk here in Willow and Ben’s apartment—they’re descendents of Jude and they’re away right now. Other members of the present Millet generation use the other apartments—they’re the people who own the antique shop. Jude said Ben and Willow won’t mind if we use the place. Sean, I’ve found out so much about myself—and about The Island and Quitus—he’s so bad. And I’ve learned a lot about the trouble on Whidbey. That’s going to be our biggest challenge.”
At last Elin took a breath. Dora gave Sean a frown he took to mean that he should go easy on Elin.
“Quitus?” The name had almost gotten lost in Elin’s rapid outpouring.
“That’s the real name of The One. And it’s not an O the red stone makes—it’s called The Bloodstone, by the way—it’s a Q for Quitus. And there’s so much more but we have to be quick and find Quitus’s surrogate on Whidbey before he—or she—can kill anyone else and stir up more mayhem.”
Sean put a finger on her lips and sat beside her. “What do you mean by surrogate?”
“Someone on Whidbey who does the killing and capturing for Quitus. A Trojan horse. This person has no conscience. He could be capable of any horrible behavior. We don’t even know how many times he’s killed already. There could easily be victims we don’t know about.”
“Elin—”
“It’s almost certain the victims are supposed to be taken to Quitus for experiment—and so he can eat, er, parts of them.” She turned decidedly green. “But we already knew he was eating people.”
“Don’t the fae on Whidbey know what’s going on?” Sean said. “It would have been a lot less trouble for both of us to find all this out from one of them.”
Elin jumped up. She lifted her arms and dropped them with a frustrated thump. “Not everyone knows these things just because they’re fae,” she said. “And Sally’s banished, too, remember. She can’t just walk among her own kind. They wouldn’t tell her anything for me, and they wouldn’t tell Sally unless she said who she wanted the information for.”
“Why not for you? You’re harmless enough—I take that back—you seem harmless.”
She looked so startled by the question that Sean took both of her hands in his. Once again he wished Dora weren’t there, but the fae had pulled a chair close and sat down where she could be sure not to miss any of the action.
“Elin,” he said quietly. “What is it?”
“Have you forgotten I’m Deseran,” she said and took a deep breath. “You’re still angry with me for keeping that from you. I can feel it. But honestly, I decided if you thought I was fae and if you fell in love with me, I’d know it wasn’t because I’ve got this universal blood and I might be able to carry your child.”
He breathed deeply through his nose and said, “You lied to me.” He felt more confusion than hurt. “Or you weren’t honest. But neither was I with you.”
“She’s been abandoned once already,” Dora interrupted, with tears in her eyes and voice. “You can’t blame her for being afraid you might not want her for herself.”
“Dora,” Elin said, winding her fingers together. “Sean and I have to talk this through. Sean, I just didn’t tell the truth.”
“What is it when you don’t tell the truth?”
“Doesn’t it depend on the situation?” Elin asked, challenging him. “Like when you fall for someone the instant you set eyes on them and you know you’re probably not at all what they’re looking for.”
&
nbsp; “Go on,” he said, feeling just a little bit guilty for wallowing in being loved by the only woman he wanted.
She settled her hands on his shoulders. “You are…incredible. Not just the most gorgeous male imaginable, but you’ve got a good, kind heart. And you’re so smart. For a long time I felt I wasn’t the one you need. You need someone who matches you. A woman who’s all woman. But I am meant for you. I am your match. I make you all you can be just as you make me all I can be.”
“Uh-huh.” He gave Dora a long look and she tiptoed out of the room. They heard the front door close. “We are perfect together, my love. Without you, I’d be lost. You are perfect to me—except for your shaky judgment about some things. You are my forever mate, ma’am, so we’ll just have to work on it.”
“Yep.” Elin made a sad face. “I need work but I’m willing to learn—as long as you take a look at yourself, too.”
He grinned at that. “Could be fun. You’re going to want to spend time here figuring out what it means to be Deseran, aren’t you?”
“I won’t be the only one. I wonder how many of us there are. Sean, you know I’m as involved in what happens on Whidbey as you, don’t you?”
“Yes. But I don’t like it that you have to be.”
“We have to go back and look for whoever does Quitus’s dirty work.”
The front door slammed very loudly and Dora entered after knocking on the sitting room door. For an instant she was silent, then she spread her arms as if she would burst into song. But she didn’t.
“What is it?” Elin said.
“You’ll have to go back to this nasty Whidbey place with him.” She wrinkled her nose at Sean. “Since he’s your mate. But that’s not the only reason. Well, I suppose it is. You can really help him but you’ve got to promise me you’ll come back to me sometimes.”
“I will,” Elin said.
Sean was edgy to get going but Dora came close and looked up, unblinking, into his eyes. “The story they tell about Deseran is false. They were never given up because they were thought to have no useful paranormal skills. They are the most versatile and superhumanly skilled of all. The combination, always of a superior human and a super talent, produces creatures like Elin. They have been abandoned because it was thought best—by some of the old ones who feared them—to try to hide the truth about them. She is more evolved than any I have seen but she has barely begun to develop. When I took her as a baby, it was my intention to bring her to her full capacity. Now that is your responsibility, Sean—or at least to help her when she asks you, but I will share it with you if you want me to.”
“Who are my parents?” Elin asked softly.
Dora sighed. “I expected that. I don’t know. There is always an intermediary who delivers the child and never returns. That’s all I can tell you. You are more fortunate than your friend, Leigh. She lived for some years without knowing she was different from the humans around her. She will need help to realize her potential. Perhaps she will come here with you one day.” She pressed her hands over her ears and her eyes widened. “It’s Sally. Can you hear her, Elin?”
Sean watched his mate with amazement as she nodded. “We have to go now,” she told him. “Right now. Sally’s calling for us.”
“Something terrible has happened,” Dora said. “I think—” She covered her mouth.
Elin said, “She fears for her life. But her voice is garbled now—I can’t make any more of it out.”
She wrapped her arms around his waist, murmuring words that sounded senseless, and they spun until the room disappeared, until there was no form around them.
Sean held Elin tightly. They were as good as fused together. He felt their joint power propel them into flight.
chapter TWENTY-NINE
Sean? Sean? Help me.”
It was still dark.
He sprang out of calf-deep snow, onto the porch at Two Chimneys, following Elin into the cottage.
Elin knelt on the floor of the living room, holding Gabriel, rocking him. “This is meant to stop us,” she said, looking up at him. “No one is safe. They want to frighten us into not fighting back.”
“My God.” He dropped down beside her. “They’re not going to win. Sally and Cassie are gone?”
“Where can they be?” Elin massaged a bright red Q on the back of unconscious Gabriel’s neck. “He’s still alive. Do you think this just happened?”
“Maybe not. It could be that it’s taking longer to work because he’s strong,” Sean pointed out. “He’s big and athletic. He’s got more to fight back with than the average woman.”
“We haven’t seen this done to another man,” Elin said. She had torn off her parka and the skirt of her dress clung, sodden, to her legs. “It’s happening. The mark is reacting to my touch. I can’t get away from it now.”
“When you drag off the mark, why doesn’t it hurt you? You’re small and light—you ought to be hurt by the thing. Maybe all the power goes out of it with the first strike.”
Her smile wasn’t what he expected. “Or perhaps it’s because of what I am. I must be immune. Or I hope so. The one on Cassie disappeared once I pulled it off. I hope my luck doesn’t change.” Her smile disappeared. “We can be strong together, can’t we?”
Sean nodded, yes, but he had doubts about fighting the forces of evil they confronted now. With one hand he pulled the quilt from the couch and threw it over Gabriel before going to close the door.
“Elin?” He searched around. “What time is it? What day is it? With two of us together we must have at least halved how long it took to get back here.”
“And we were both sure of the way this time,” she said, working on the red Q, starting to lift one side of it from Gabriel’s neck. “We probably made the journey very fast.”
Sean checked his watch. “You left yesterday. I left early last night. It’s three in the morning. We’re in the same twenty-four hours. When I left, Cassie was still in a deep sleep on the couch and Sally was here keeping the fire going.”
“Contact Niles or one of the other hounds,” she said. “Ask if Sally and Cassie are there.”
Niles was already hammering at Sean’s mind, demanding to know where he was. Sean had shut him out until now. “Are Sally and Cassie down there?” he said, prepared for Niles’s wrath.
“Where have you been, dammit? I wouldn’t have tried to help you if I’d thought you’d decide this was any time to run off somewhere private with your mate. You know you’re needed here. I need you here while I’m unsure about Leigh. I told you that.”
Sean winced. “I wish I had been having a cozy time with Elin. Save it, Niles, and answer me. Are Sally and Cassie there?”
“No. Cassie’s brother said she was up at the cottage with Sally and he went up to be with them.”
Where were the clues he needed? “We’re at the cottage and they aren’t here—none of them. We just arrived and found Gabriel. He’s been hit with that damn Bloodstone. That’s what makes the red Q. I told you about it. Thank God these madmen haven’t got the thing right yet. No…no more explanations now. It’ll take too long.”
Elin tapped his arm. Her eyes were huge and horrified and she made a sign that she wanted to talk privately.
“Stay where you are. All of you. I’ll get back to you. It’s important for you not to come until I tell you,” he told Niles and shut down on his alpha. He knew Niles would do as he asked because only a dire crisis would make Sean assume the lead, and he was assuming the Team lead.
“Look,” Elin said, pointing to one of Gabriel’s clenched hands.
“Something he grabbed?” Niles looked closer. “Yellow fibers.”
“Yellow silk fibers. Like the dress Sally was wearing. He must have tried to save her from something.”
“Or to stop her from doing something,” Sean said, looking away from Elin. “Like hitting him with that stone. She was here alone with Cassie—and probably David after he got up here. I know Gabriel wanted to see me and he could have dec
ided I might be here with you. Could be Sally panicked and started taking them out.”
“Killing them? How can you say that? Sally’s my best friend—she’s stuck with me through everything and Tarhazian makes sure she suffers for it. She couldn’t kill anything.”
“Then where is Sally—and the other two? Whoever did this to Gabriel expected him to die before anyone came.”
Rumbling started at the front of the cottage, at the foundation. Elin kept massaging Gabriel’s neck but she reached for Sean and he took her hand.
Neither of them spoke but they both looked around them and the rumbling continued, under the earth, gradually surrounding all of the little building. The lamps rocked. The crystal birds on the bookshelves clinked together. In the kitchen something fell to the floor and broke. The entire cottage shook.
“Is it an earthquake?” Elin asked. “It feels as if it is.”
It wouldn’t be the first Sean had lived through but this was no earthquake. He put a finger to his lips, slid his hand from Elin’s, and bent low to work his way to the front window. He switched off the lights and stood where he could see through the side of the curtain.
And he swore under his breath. “Vampire attack,” he said. “I recognize Colin and his slaves, Fireze and Hubert, but I don’t see any others I know. Brande’s there, and all his pack, including some new candidates. Seven is with them, and Mark—and Booker. I didn’t think he’d recover after the last fight. There are more of them, an army.”
“Is the renegade hound who betrayed all of you there?”
“No. We won’t speak of him.”
Elin shook her head. “What do we do?”
Elin’s calm made him proud. “I think I’ll make sure Niles and the rest don’t try to come up here. There’s not enough of them to wage a fair fight—for the hounds.”
“We need an edge,” Elin said.
He didn’t want to, but Sean pulled out his cell phone and called Saul, praying the vampire would answer. He did. And he listened to what Sean had to say without interruption.
Darkness Bred (Chimney Rock) Page 22
