Serpent's Hold (The Last Serpent, Book 5)

by Morgan, Tansey

  “Okay, let’s go look for a room that’ll sleep the two of you.”

  “Second floor,” Madeline said, “Third door on the left, I believe that’ll work.”

  “Thank you,” I said, then once the girls had started moving out of the library, I got Aiden, Vik, Liam, and Raph to follow me. I had a thought of asking them to help us all move Caitlyn and Laura’s things there. Not because I was particularly fond of Laura, but because offering to help out was the right thing to do. At this point I didn’t care whether she appreciated the gesture or not. The fact was, she and Caitlyn were going to be rooming together, and with Kyle around to help watch over them, that made me feel a whole lot better.

  CHAPTER SIX

  As per Madeline’s suggestion, we had found the perfect room for Laura and Caitlyn to share. It was on the second floor, and within dashing distance from Vikram’s room, which meant he would be nearby if anything were to happen. The room itself overlooked the Alexandria’s back courtyard, where a tall oak stood proudly, blocking much of the line of sight from the windows across the way. Caitlyn wouldn’t have much in the way of natural light to read with, but at least they’d have privacy.

  I drew the curtains anyway, and stepped away from the window.

  Aiden and Raph had helped reposition the beds in the room to take advantage of the available floorspace. Vik and Liam had been in charge of grabbing a dresser from an empty room and relocating it to its new home. Meanwhile, Laura and Caitlyn had been running back and forth from their old rooms with clothes and possessions in their hands and in bags.

  All in all, it had taken less than two hours to turn a grey, dull, old room into something livable. Even comfortable.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to room with us?” Caitlyn asked as she set some books down on top of her dresser.

  I shook my head. “No thanks,” I said, “I’m rarely in my room anyway.”

  That was a lie. The truth was, I usually had a guy in my room, and sharing with two other girls was apt to mess with my whole situation. I very much enjoyed staying up at night talking to Liam about music, or listening to Raphael tell me about his time traveling with a guitar as his sole possession. I enjoyed talking to Vik about lost mage lore, or just lying in bed with Aiden.

  At the end of each night, I enjoyed ripping their clothes off and tearing into them like an animal. We had an arrangement; one different man for every night. This way, no one would ever be too tired from my energy sapping powers, and we would all get a chance to connect intimately, in a one on one setting.

  There hadn’t been a single instance where I had shared the company and, let’s face it—bodies—, of two men since that day when Aiden and Liam told me they were leaving for Germany, but I had thought about it. A lot. The only problem was, something like that had to be an organic, in the spur of the moment kind of thing, and while Aiden, Liam, and I occasionally shared knowing, secret glances, we hadn’t had a repeat of what happened that day, and a repeat certainly wouldn’t happen if I had decided to room up with two other girls.

  Aiden walked up to me, dusting his hands against each other. “I think we’re done here,” he said, “So, we’re gonna head off.”

  I nodded. “Alright, I’ll catch up with you guys.”

  He gave me a peck on the cheek, and then one by one, Vik, Raph, and Liam followed, each sparing a second to give me a delicate kiss on the cheek as they walked past. I thanked them as they went by, then when they left, I turned to look at Caitlyn.

  “Okay, so, if there’s nothing else, I should probably go too,” I said.

  “No,” Caitlyn said, “Nothing that I can think of… so, what’s that like?”

  “That?”

  “That, them.”

  “Do you really want me to explain to you how my situation with them works… here? Right now?”

  Caitlyn smiled. “Okay, you’re right. Sorry I asked.”

  “I’m happy to do it, just…”

  Caitlyn got the hint. “That sounds good.”

  “Alright, well, I’ll leave you girls to it. If you need anything, just give us a shout.”

  Caitlyn smiled, but Laura didn’t acknowledge what I had said. I turned around and left without making a big deal out of it. I didn’t want to, didn’t have to. As far as I saw things, the ball was in her court now. Kyle had just smacked the girl down in the middle of the library, in front of everyone, so I thought maybe she would need a little time to recover from that before opening up, if she ever did.

  Shrugging the thought away, I headed down the hall, toward my room, and ran into Leo, who quickly took my arm and pulled me into the nearest room, shutting the door as soon as we were through. It was an empty one, with only a bed and an end table in it. Smaller than the one the girls had been put up in, too.

  “Leo,” I said, surprised, “What the hell?”

  “I have a proposition for you,” he said.

  “I’m afraid my rota is fully booked at this moment, but you can apply again next year.” It was supposed to come across as playful, but I could see that Leo wasn’t in a joking mood. “What’s the problem?”

  “You’re always talking about how you don’t feel useful, well, now’s your chance.”

  “Okay, you have my attention, but again, what the hell are you talking about?”

  “I’m talking about taking you and Aiden out on another investigation, only this time it’ll be more than just going to someone’s house and checking through their things. I have a suspicion about something, I want to check it out, but I need you and Aiden with me.”

  He… needs me? “Oh… what’s the suspicion?”

  “I don’t want to go into it right now, but it’s to do with Elroy. Are you in?”

  “Not to sound like the stick in the mud, but if you have to ask me whether I’m in or not I’m thinking it’s because you think Madeline and George will never agree.”

  “They won’t because they think the cult is too big a threat.”

  “And you’re telling me that it isn’t?”

  “I’m telling you that the cult is a threat whether you’re out there or in here, only if you’re out there with me, you’re at least making yourself useful, and we all know how much you hate feeling helpless.” The sarcasm in his voice came through loud and clear.

  “Hey, cut that shit out. You know I don’t like sitting on my hands. I was never the kind of person to feel happy doing nothing at home, and turning into a succubus hasn’t changed that.”

  “Let’s hope you still feel that way tonight.”

  I arched an eyebrow. “You know, you being cryptic isn’t exactly doing much for my confidence in this plan.”

  “The plan isn’t what you need to have confidence in—you need to be confident that, when the time comes, you’re going to do exactly what I ask you to do, exactly when I ask you to do it.”

  “How is this different from any of your training exercises?”

  “I would never ask you to do something that may get you killed during a training exercise. I’m tough on you, but I’m not stupid, or reckless.”

  “Okay, I’m sold.”

  He opened the door and stepped through, then threw me a look across his shoulder. “Come to my room just before midnight tonight.”

  I nodded, but I couldn’t say I wasn’t at least a little hesitant. It wasn’t like Leo to come up out of the blue and do something like this, but then, I’d seen a lot of changes in Leo since the first day we met. Maybe I was starting to get to know the real him, the person behind the mask. Or maybe he was starting to see some kind of potential in me; maybe I even had his respect, now. And if he respected me, then it meant he knew what I was capable of, and thought I could handle whatever he was about to throw at me.

  That, at least, was a comforting thought, if only slightly.

  I waited for Leo to head down the hall and disappear before exiting the room and shutting the door behind me. There were a lot of hours between now and midnight, daylight waning, but still pres
ent on this crisp, British afternoon, but that wasn’t exactly a good thing. Leo had just dropped a mystery on me that would be niggling at my brain the longer I allowed it to fester in my mind without a distraction.

  I needed to do something with myself until midnight, and as much as I tried to think of alternatives, there was only really one thing to do, and that was to go and see Dante. I hadn’t liked the way we had ended our conversation the last time we had spoken. I had let him get away with keeping something from me, something big, but this time I wouldn’t let him get away with it. This time I would push until he gave, because Dante owed me one, and the way I saw it, he could either come clean about whatever was wrong with him, or he could talk to me about us.

  Mustering up as much willpower as I could manage, I walked myself over to Dante’s room unannounced, and simply knocked. He had been with Madeline and Leo earlier, and the thought that he wasn’t in his room had crossed my mind, but I had a suspicion that he wasn’t feeling too great, and would want to be alone.

  There was no answer for a time, but finally Dante opened the door wearing a black t-shirt with a pair of black sweat pants. He looked physically healthy, his body strong, and tall, but his hair was matted and sticking to his forehead and the back of his neck, and even though he was doing his best to make his face appear flush and vital, I knew the truth.

  It was an act, and worse than that, an act that was further depleting his already low energy reserves.

  “Lilith,” Dante said, his eyes narrowing. He scanned the corridor left and right. “What are you doing here?”

  “Came to check on you,” I said, “Wanna let me in?”

  “Not particularly, but I know you won’t take no for an answer.”

  “Damn right I won’t.” Dante stepped aside and let me through. When he shut the door, I turned around and stared at him.

  “So,” he said, “What did you come here for?”

  I brought a hand to rest on my hip, and mirroring Leo’s words, said “I’ve come to offer you a proposition…”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  “A proposition?” Dante asked, “What kind of proposition.”

  “Simple, really,” I said, “Something’s going on with you, and I think I know what it is, but I want to hear it come from your mouth.”

  “Lilith, we’ve been over this.”

  “Only we haven’t. I asked, you dodged. So, my proposition is this: you can either answer that question, or you can tell me why the fuck you climbed out of bed, left, and haven’t talked to me in a week.”

  Dante’s jaw tightened. I could see the conflict brewing in his eyes, like storm clouds on a grey day. I had put all of my cards on the table and knew this gave Dante all the power, but that was the only move I could have made, the only hand to play. Having played more than a few rounds of poker in my life, I knew now it was his turn to either call me, raise me, or fold. Dante Rhodes, however, was not the kind of man to fold.

  “I don’t know what you expect,” Dante said.

  “I expect some kind of answer, Dante,” I said, “It’s simple. You left, and I deserve an explanation. You look like shit, and I want to help. Take your pick as to which one you want to go into.”

  Dante’s jaw tightened, as if the idea of telling the truth was causing him physical discomfort. “I’m sorry I left…”

  “Now we’re getting somewhere. Why did you leave?”

  “It’s more complicated than the answer you think I can give you.”

  I tilted my head to the side. “That… what does that even mean?”

  “It means what I said it means. I didn’t want to leave, but I had to.”

  “Why? I mean, if you’re having trouble diluting the exact reason into something you think I can understand, then let’s start with the reason why you got out of bed the next morning and left your bedroom without looking back?”

  Dante sighed, long and frustrated. “I was called on an urgent recruitment.”

  “Recruitment?”

  “More like discovery. The Keeper had sensed out another potential supernatural, and with Tom no longer in play, it was down to me to locate them and bring them back safely.”

  I paused. “I didn’t see you bring anyone back with you…”

  “That’s because I failed.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean I failed! On top of everything that happened, everything I went through, and everything I put you through, I failed.”

  “Dante…”

  “No. You asked for the reason, so here it is. I wanted to stay, but I wasn’t given a choice in the matter. The situation was similar to yours. The girl was being hunted down, and someone had to step in. She wasn’t like you, though. She didn’t trust me. Thought I was one of them.”

  “Who was after her?”

  “The same type who were after you before you turned; vampires hungry for pure, ripe, supernatural energy.”

  “Jesus, Dante, why didn’t you say something?”

  “Because I couldn’t. I had to leave in a hurry, and then I had to throw myself into the situation fully. I needed to concentrate, and if I had to think about you too, I wouldn’t have been able to.”

  I paused. “And you knew I could deal with it…”

  He nodded. “Because you’re a grown woman, and because you can take care of yourself.”

  I shook my head and looked to the window. “You still should have said something. Anything. Left me a message, a note. Just something to tell me that you had to leave, but that we would pick this up when you got back. Things would have been… better, at least.”

  “You know I couldn’t.”

  “No, Dante, I don’t know that. But you’re right, I have taken care of myself, I have handled this, now what I wanted was an answer, because I felt like shit that morning.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Damn right you are. I thought we’d spent a great night together, and then you left. Taking care of myself isn’t the same as having reassurance that I wasn’t just a lay.”

  “You weren’t.”

  “And how can I know that?”

  Dante fell silent, then moved across to the window to look outside. It had started to rain, and the rain had caused the city lights to haze in the distance. In a moment, raindrops would begin to pop against the window, and the pops would turn into a hiss, that would transform into a roar, soaking every street, car, and rooftop across London.

  “Dante?” I asked.

  He turned to look at me. “Because I’ve been with no one else since you.”

  “You… haven’t?”

  He shook his head. “There is no one I want, Lilith.”

  My heart simultaneously sank, and soared. I had suspected as much, now I had heard it directly from him. I knew he was telling the truth, too; it was evident in the pallor of his face, the dark circles under his eyes, the way his stance seemed a little too slouched. He hadn’t been with anyone since he had been with me, and he was starving as a result. I walked up to him, my mouth slowly opening as worry overtook me like a cold wash.

  “Why, Dante?” I asked, “Why are you starving yourself?”

  “I told you. I don’t want to be with anyone else. I never have, not since the moment I saw you.”

  “But you have to… you and I don’t have a choice in this. You’ll die.”

  “I don’t care.”

  “But I do. You can’t die, Dante. You can’t let this happen to you.”

  Dante didn’t speak then, didn’t look at me either, his eyes still turned toward the window. I took his cheek, his cold cheek, in my hand and turned it toward me. When I looked into his eyes, I saw the same fire, the same passion, same intensity I had always seen, but it was muted, fading, weak. This couldn’t go on.

  “I’ll be fine,” he said, “You don’t need to worry.”

  “And when you can’t go any further? What then?”

  “We’ll deal with that when we come to it. I just need to conserve my energy better.”
/>
  “Putting up a mask to make everyone else think you’re healthier than you actually are isn’t helping you in that goal.”

  “I know.”

  “So, do something about it. What are you afraid of?”

  “I made a promise to myself that night… a promise that I’d never be with another woman again even if it killed me.”

  “Dante, you can’t make that promise. I’ve been with other men, you have to be with other women.”

  “I don’t care about the other men,” he said, “I want you, and only you.”

  I held onto his collar and pulled him close. “I want you too, Dante, but I want you forever, and I need you to be healthy. If you died…”

  “I’m not going to die.”

  “You don’t know that!” I said, my voice rising with the frustration. “I’m telling you, Dante—find someone, feed, you have to. If not for you, then do it for me.”

  He shook his head. “I can’t. I won’t.”

  “God dammit,” I said, letting him go, “You’re a stubborn asshole, you know that?”

  For the first time since I had seen him, his lips curled into a smile. A weak smile, but a smile nonetheless. “I know… frustrating, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, it is. What the hell are we going to do, Dante?”

  He shrugged. “Nothing right now. There’s nothing to do. You do what you have to do, and I’ll do the same. I won’t die from this.”

  “You will eventually. It’s called starving for a reason.”

  “You can’t force me to have sex with someone else, Lilith.”

  “No, but I can get mad at you if you don’t, and I don’t think you want that.”

  “What I want is you. That’s all I want, all I need.”

  “I can’t give you what you need and you know that.”

  “Then I’ll figure it out.”

  I shoved him, hard, then stared at him. I wasn’t sure if it was the fact that he was deliberately starving himself, or his justification for it, but my chest was starting to tighten as two feelings pressed down on it like two hands of a vice. On the one hand, he was likely to kill himself if he didn’t feed soon. On the other hand, he had just confessed that he wanted me and only me, and that was something I almost couldn’t accept, but he’d made it clear I had no choice.