Siobhan’s brows furrowed in confusion. “Um. Neither?” she returned. “He had six.”
The room went deathly silent. Jack gaped at her, and Regina’s eyes had gone firm, as if she was trying to stare straight through Siobhan’s soul. “Are you certain?” she asked, still in that same pleasantly curious tone. “I’m sure it was quite an ordeal. It would be understandable if you miscounted.”
“There were six wings,” Siobhan snapped in return, forgetting her manners in her irritation. “I’m sure. When a guy with six golden wings and glowing eyes lands in your backyard, you take note of the details.”
Regina held a hand up in a placating gesture before she returned it to the arm of the chair. “Noted. Jack?”
Jack seemed to have to drag his attention back to the present. “Yeah?”
“Have we had any indication that the seraphim were actually on Earth before this?” Regina asked, turning that penetrating stare toward him.
Jack shook his head slowly. “No. Not so far. We’ve only ever heard about them acting from a distance.”
Regina sighed, her chin dipping toward her chest. “So things are getting more serious, it would seem.”
Jack shifted on his feet, unsure if an actual answer was expected from him. Evidently, the answer was ‘no,’ as Regina carried on speaking. “We’ve met a seraph only once before, and it did not go well for us. Do you know what that means, Jack?”
He sighed, his shoulders slumping. “It means we need the rest of the Lords?” he guessed, one hand lifting to pinch the bridge of his nose.
“Correct,” Regina confirmed pleasantly. “Now, we know that angels are not stupid. Which means they will likely notice fairly quickly if more Vampire Lords begin appearing. Which means we need someone well-versed in angelic activity, don’t we?”
Jack groaned and hid his face in his hands. “You’re making this my job, aren’t you?” he asked, his voice muffled behind his hands.
“Yes,” Regina answered, still just as gentle and pleasant as ever. “I am. While ordinarily, I care a great deal about what you happen to want, this is not one of those moments. If the Lords are going to be awoken, we need someone who has the knowledge to avoid or handle angels. In the meantime, it needs to be you.”
She paused for a moment, looking thoughtfully at Siobhan. Siobhan shifted uncomfortably under the scrutiny.
“She can go with you,” Regina decided after a moment, nodding once.
“What?” Jack squawked, straightening up sharply. “But Regina --”
The Vampire Lord raised a hand, cutting his complaints off before he could make them. “You will need help if you do get attacked,” she reasoned, lowering her hand to fold it over her other arm, her chin still leaning in one palm.
“She’s a fledgling!” he protested, flinging a hand out to gesture at Siobhan as he said it. “She doesn’t even know how to be a vampire yet!”
One of Regina’s eyebrows rose. “I have considered that,” she replied, “and it factored into my decision.”
Jack scowled at her and folded his arms, his weight shifting to one side as he waited expectantly for that reasoning.
“You are her sire,” Regina pointed out. “You know what that entails. You have been through it yourself. Even if she can’t hear it yet, you know she will begin to hear it soon, which means she will need you readily on hand if she hopes to gain control of it.”
Siobhan looked between them warily. “You know I’m right here, right?” she asked. “I can hear you talking about me. What are you even talking about?”
Regina’s focus remained on Jack, with all the intensity of a laser. “Jack, why don’t you go get ready for the trip ahead of you? It’s likely to be a long one.”
“Which part am I supposed to focus on?” he asked glumly. “The Lords or her?”
“You can do both,” Regina informed him primly. “Just as I managed to multitask with you, so too, you can multitask with her. Now, stop being an infant and go pack.” It was about as clear of a dismissal as Siobhan had ever heard.
With a scoff, Jack turned to go, and Siobhan turned to follow him, only to freeze mid-step as Regina said, “Not you, Siobhan. I would like to speak with you.”
Siobhan stayed rooted to the spot until the door opened and closed once again as Jack left, and finally, she turned to face Regina. The Lord laughed gently. Kicking her heels off, she pulled her feet up onto her chair, curling her legs beneath herself. She gestured to the couch in front of her, and Siobhan sat down mechanically.
“I’m simply curious,” Regina assured her, though Siobhan simply found herself wondering what curiosity looked like for one as old and as powerful as she presumed Regina to be.
“About what?” she asked, her hands clenching together in her lap.
“About you,” Regina answered simply. “A new vampire is not made every day, and we’re widespread enough that I rarely get to meet fledglings face-to-face. Why shouldn’t I be curious?”
Siobhan debated apologizing for any offense she might have caused, but Regina hummed something like a laugh. “You really must learn to lighten up. I am sending you off with Jack, after all, and he’s already uptight. Between the two of you, you could cause a neurotic implosion.”
Siobhan covered her mouth with her hands as a startled laugh escaped. “This is all…sort of…new,” she offered lamely, her hands once more falling to her lap.
Regina folded her arms over the arm of the chair so she was lounging on her seat, almost cat-like in her pose. “I would imagine so. I was human once. I imagine I felt much the same when I was a fledgling, as well.”
“Do you remember being human?” Siobhan asked before she could rethink the question and talk herself out of it.
Regina pondered the question for a moment, her expression thoughtful. “Sometimes,” she answered eventually. “In some ways. But it’s rather like remembering a dream you had when you were a child.”
Siobhan knew the feeling. Or at least, she knew the feeling behind it. “Do you miss it?” she wondered. It seemed like something she should know. Her own humanity was only a few days behind her. Was she going to miss it? If so, would she stop missing it?
“Not especially,” Regina answered easily. “I miss the people from time to time. I have been alive for a very long time -- but I have gained more than I’ve lost, and I have made a new family for myself.”
Siobhan relaxed slightly as the mental image of herself as some damned, despairing demon began to ease. As it was, she didn’t have many people to leave behind. It was her slowly growing ease that brought the most important question back to her mind.
“What were you talking about earlier?” Siobhan finally asked. “You said I would start to hear something.”
“That is for Jack to hopefully explain,” Regina answered, one shoulder lifting in a slow, graceful shrug. “If he hasn’t explained things to you by the time you are back here, then I will handle it, but I find that unlikely. Moody, he may be,” she admitted fondly, “but he is good at his core.”
“You’re sure?” Siobhan asked cautiously. Though Regina had said nothing that could be taken as a threat and had made no hostile movements, still, there was something about her that bade Siobhan to move softly, as if she was expecting danger. Perhaps she would grow out of the feeling in time.
“Reasonably so,” Regina answered lightly. She lifted a hand and gestured loosely toward the door. “You may as well go wait at the top of the stairs. Tell Jack you want him to show you the manor. You are, after all, welcome here whenever you feel like showing up.”
Siobhan nodded slowly and got to her feet. Regina didn’t move, content to remain curled in her chair as Siobhan rounded the seating area and headed toward the door. She stepped through and made her way back up the stairs. Once she was through that door as well, she simply waited.
(She felt irritation, slowly ebbing though it was, but it was dim and distant and quiet, as if it wasn’t truly hers. She didn’t pay much attention t
o it. It had been a hell of a day.)
It wasn’t long before Jack was back, though he stumbled to a halt when he saw her, his brows furrowing slightly as he asked, “Were you waiting for me?” His tone gave the impression that he was rethinking the earlier conversation to see if he had forgotten part of it.
“Only for a few minutes,” she replied, derailing his train of thought before it could pick up too much steam. “Regina said I should ask you to show me around? Since I guess I’m an honorary member of the family now.”
Jack snorted out a weak laugh. “Yeah, that sounds about normal,” he agreed, and he motioned for her to follow him.
*
It was a very informal tour. There were no history lessons, largely because Jack didn’t particularly know the history, since the manor was considerably older than he was. It was sedate and more or less quiet, save for the natural sounds of the manor and the surrounding area. Halfway through, there was a noise like rumbling thunder from the basement, and Siobhan thought back to Regina’s room, with its home theater set up.
As Jack led her from room to room, Siobhan realized that the manor wasn’t quite as barren as she had initially assumed. They passed back through the kitchen, where a young woman was washing dishes, and when they strolled into a library, a middle-aged man was dusting the shelves from a ladder.
There were fewer rooms than Siobhan had expected there to be, but all of the rooms that were there were sprawling.
The kitchen had enough counter space for an army to work and still have elbow room, and there were enough cabinets to run a back-alley pet shop. That wasn’t even getting to the refrigerator, the other appliances, the pantry, or the counter island that separated the kitchen from the small dining area.
Even then, there was another, considerably larger dining room through a door on the opposite side of the hallway from the lounge.
There was a parlor that had seating for a dozen and still had space for a grand piano and a soiree, and the library was partially taken over by what looked like a college lounge, strewn with beanbag chairs and desks.
There was a staircase, grand and enormous, in the same hallway as the basement door. It was wide enough that three linebackers could have stood shoulder to shoulder across it with room to spare, and the banister that led along the bottom six stairs before it joined with the wall was an intricate, interlocking conglomerate of geometric shapes, ending in a complicated spiral on the bottom step.
Across from the stairs, there was another door, presumably leading to the actual entryway, which Siobhan hadn’t actually seen yet, other than an unobtrusive back door that led out of the kitchen.
Jack led her up the staircase, which opened up into a hallway that probably could have doubled as a ballroom. The floor was dark wood with a slightly surreal, floral rug that ran the entire length of it, and matching crown- and kick-molding along the tops and bottoms of the walls.
Throughout the entire manor, it seemed, all the rooms were large enough that the dark colors didn’t make them seem small and claustrophobic.
“How many people live here?” Siobhan asked as they stepped onto the next floor and started down a line of bedroom suites. There were six in all, and Siobhan loped forward to peer into the first one. Cautiously, though. If the hallway alone was practically a castle, she wasn’t sure she would be able to handle the actual suites without having a heart attack of some kind.
She found a sitting room, a walk-in closet and dressing room, a full bathroom, a bedroom, and a study. The rooms were open and airy, and the sitting room included a window seat. Presumably, the other six were similarly equipped.
Jack thought for a moment, tapping his chin with two fingers. “Eighteen, on any given day?” he hazarded. “I’m here full-time. So is Regina, obviously. Myrtle and Alistair are here more or less full-time, too. Others are in and out, depending on the time of the year and whatever’s going on, but there’s usually less than two dozen living here at a time.” His voice was pitched to carry as he stayed in the hall.
“Who stays in these rooms?” Siobhan asked, baffled, as she made her way back out into the hallway.
“The full-timers,” he answered. “And the last three rooms go to whomever calls dibs on them first, so it fluctuates. Everyone else winds up upstairs.” He pointed toward the ceiling. “You saw up there already, though, and getting up there is a bit of a hassle. The stairway’s a bit out of the way.” He headed toward the opposite end of the hallway, motioning for her to follow him. “Come on. You have to see the view.”
The hallway broadened into a small, communal sitting area with a sliding glass door that opened onto a balcony, which they stepped onto, leaving the door open behind them. The balcony was lined with a wrought iron railing, the metal making intricate, twining curls and circles, and elegant, sweeping arcs.
The view that spread out from there was incredible. There was a river just a stone’s throw away, with gardens and patches of wildflowers flourishing along it. Trees dotted the riverbanks, and the manor was surrounded on two sides by forest. On the remaining side, there were hills of tall grass and flowers, the driveway hardly even visible as it stretched away into the distance.
Siobhan tipped her head back, appreciating the view of the sky. It was a cloudy night, but even so, it was something to be admired, as the clouds trailed sluggishly across the sky, dark as mercury.
“You live here?” she asked quietly, her hands curling around the top of the railing as she stared in naked admiration, her head craning as if to take in every view at once.
“That I do,” Jack confirmed, leaning against the railing beside her. They stood in contented silence for a few minutes, until at last they headed back inside, closing the door firmly and heading back down the stairs to the ground floor.
They stepped into the main entryway at long last, and Siobhan ground to a halt. There, sleeping on the rug on the hardwood, was Barton, his eyes closed and his long snout resting on his large front paws. Siobhan made a high-pitched squealing noise and clapped her hands over her mouth. Barton’s head snapped up, his ears erect and his eyes bright, awake in less than a heartbeat. In an instant, he hopped to his feet and bounded to Siobhan’s side.
Siobhan dropped to her knees, throwing her arms around Barton’s neck and burying her face in his fur. He squirmed the entire time, his rear end landing on the floor and his tail wagging back and forth so quickly that his entire body swayed with the motion, until he more resembled an enormous, furry caterpillar than he did a dog. He squirmed so close to Siobhan that it seemed like he would try to squirm his way right into her shirt with her, if he could. It wasn’t going to work, but it was the thought that counted, she supposed.
“I missed you, too,” she cooed, her voice muffled against his neck. He whined, high-pitched and pitiful, and for a moment, he sounded more like he was just some miniscule little teacup dog, until he whuffed out a more appropriately large noise, even if he continued trying to burrow against her.
“Do you have any idea how stubborn he is?” Jack asked, planting one of his hands on his hips and gesturing needlessly to the dog with his other hand. “He showed up here yesterday, and he’s refused to go anywhere since then. We let him in so he would stop barking.” There was a beat before he added dryly, “Regina likes him. He’s the newfound bane of the squirrel population. So at least he’s self-sufficient, which I guess is good.”
Siobhan waved a hand at him to shush him and continued clinging to her dog like a limpet. Honestly, at that point Jack could have said that the mutt had floated down from the sky on a cloud made of dog treats, and she wouldn’t have cared.
She hadn’t expected to see him again. Oh, sure, she knew he would probably be fine on his own—like Jack said, he was reasonably self-sufficient, and even though Siobhan fed him every day, he could fend for himself when pressed—but she had expected him to just be forever roaming the woods by the cabin unless someone found him.
“Why do you even have a wolf, anyway?” Jack car
ried on, sounding honestly baffled as he asked. “Why does an average Joe need a wolf? Where does an average Joe even get a wolf?” His confusion only got more and more apparent with each question.
Finally, Siobhan looked up enough to protest, “He’s not a wolf. He’s Barton,” as if that actually explained a lick about the dog. She rested her chin against the hybrid’s neck, and Barton panted contently, his tongue lolling from his mouth and his tail swaying slowly back and forth across the floor. Jack cocked an eyebrow at her, and she sheepishly added, “He’s a mid-content wolf-dog. That’s totally different.” She ducked her face into his fur again and added, flippant and yet utterly unyielding at the same time, “He’s coming with us.”
Jack sighed and dropped his face into his hands. “Sure,” he sighed, already sounding defeated. “Why not?”
*
Jack’s car was not what Siobhan expected. Honestly, she had sort of expected a sports car or a muscle car from some bygone era of automotive history. Instead, she followed him out the front door and along the walkway to a pick-up truck with an extended cab, so there was plenty of space for Barton to sit behind the passenger seat, even with Jack’s bag.
The Vampire's Bond Trilogy: The Complete Vampire Romance Series Page 3
