“Me,” she murmured.
“Yes.”
“And that was what it would take for you to rise up against her?”
He nodded.
“Then let’s do it,” she said hoarsely.
Antoine laughed. “You are crazy.”
“Maybe so. Is crazy that terrible of a thing? We live in a crazy world.”
“Fair enough.” He hesitated. “I won’t be able to conceal what you’re planning for long. The queen knows me. She’ll be able to tell that I am hiding something. I will have to tell her then.”
“Maybe so but will you have to tell her the truth?”
“There are ways to magically force a person to tell the truth.”
“And some vampires can enchant a mortal with a look. Want me to test it out on you to see if it works on witches too?”
“Not a chance,” he retorted.
“Coward.”
“Seraphine, be careful and be smart. If word gets out to the wrong person, you will die.”
“I’m touched by your concern.” She laid a hand on her chest. “If you must tell the queen about it, leave Marwin out of the picture.”
He tilted his head. “You really do have compassion.”
“I care for my friends.”
“He’s right. You do keep strange company.”
“At least I am free to decide who I spend my time with. If I don’t do something, I’m afraid all freedoms will be stripped of vampires. I refuse to allow that to happen.”
“It might not be your call.”
“I will make it so it is.”
“Do you actually hope for all of this to come to pass?”
“Honestly,” she said softly, “I don’t expect to see it. I expect to die for it. If I have to be a martyr so others can awaken and take up my mantle, so be it. Just wait until people might have had their eyes opened first before you swing your axe.”
“Seraphine—”
“Please.”
She was back to begging again, and she had no shame.
He nodded. “I’ll see what I can do.”
“Thank you.” After a slight hesitation, she held out her hand.
He shook it and then squeezed hard. “Watch your back and be mindful who you tell about your plans. Some are two-faced.”
“Is that a warning? Or are you speaking about yourself?”
Antoine’s face looked stricken.
They still clasped hands, but now she was the one to squeeze hard.
“I know this won’t be easy for you. I know you’ll side with the queen every time. Your nightmare was only a dream. It wasn’t real. I never wanted you to find out about all of this.”
“Not until you and your army stormed the castle,” he said. His words and posture were stiff as he tried to pull his hand free.
Seraphine used great strength to maintain her grip. “I would never allow anyone to harm you.”
“You would have to be a dictator to control vampires against me,” he said dryly. “I’m a dead man, regardless. If I stand by the queen and your uprising has any merit, I’ll be killed. If I help you and the queen finds out, I’ll be killed. You’ve doomed me either way.”
“What would life be like in Ville de Liberté if it weren’t for a little bit of gloom?” To prove her point, she closed her eyes and lifted her face toward the pouring rain.
When she opened her eyes and met his gaze, she was shocked. Antoine was staring at her with something like… No. It couldn’t be admiration.
“You look like a drowned cat,” he said with a chuckle.
“A cat?” she asked, confused.
He laughed even louder. “I can’t believe you don’t know that a cat is a small animal, about this big. Very solitary. Very cranky. Doesn’t like people much.”
Interesting. She had never seen such an animal. Supposedly, a lot more animals had lived before the Rift. With the extreme weather in the division, there were few left except the bulls. Some sheep, pigs, rats, snakes, and a variety of insects survived, but that was about it. Oh, cockroaches too, of course.
“And beautiful when soaking wet?” she asked.
“Not in the least,” he retorted.
She released his hand and retreated. “You should go.”
“You will make a beautiful corpse one day.”
“She rolled her eyes. “Even without my head?”
“Even without,” he assured her.
“That’s disgusting. And just because I think I will die soon doesn’t mean I actually want to die. Contrary to popular belief, I don’t have a death wish.”
“You could’ve fooled me.”
Rain soaked Seraphine as she watched Antoine leave. Their meeting had gone both better and worse than she’d expected. She hadn’t anticipated his showing up at all.
With a sigh, she returned to her dwelling. She and Marwin had talked about a lot of things, but they had so much more to plan and decide. Marwin was only supposed to put out feelers. Maybe they could talk more about who to possibly bring into the fold.
Although she was so thirsty she could hardly think of anything else, she denied herself the pleasure. Franz had reminded her of the failings of the division. Right now, she was not certain she could correct them in her lifetime.
Most vampires slept during the day. After all, the moon was their time, and the sun could harm or even kill them.
But Seraphine was too restless to sleep. Due to the storm clouds, she could walk in the daylight. Although she did not need the protective cloak Noella had spelled for her, she wore it anyway.
As she strolled toward the clearing, a large crowd had already formed. It was early in the day for an execution, but there was the queen, standing near a vampire victim.
Wait. No. That wasn’t a vampire after all. It was a human!
Despite her instinct to remain concealed, Seraphine pushed her way through the crowd closer to the raised platform. People parted. Even if they couldn’t see her face, most would have recognized her for what she was.
The accused stared straight ahead, unmoved, indifferent, silent.
Pierrette Lyon was her loud, angry, haughty self. The scent of her beer wafted to where Seraphine stood five rows away.
“This human has admitted she killed the bull. My bull,” the queen declared. She threw up her arms wildly, and her eyes glinted with madness.
Seraphine gasped. What? No! Why? Why would this stranger offer her life in her stead?
Again, she pressed forward, but someone grabbed her arm.
Marwin.
He shook his head and pressed a finger to his lips.
Dejected, distraught, anxious, and ashamed, Seraphine watched as the queen threatened and ridiculed the woman. The crowned villainess humiliated the prisoner.
Seraphine glanced around wildly. Antoine wasn’t near the queen, so he must be, ah, yes. By his terrible axe.
The people moved aside more readily for Seraphine as she cut over to the smaller platform. They all wanted to get a better look at the victim.
She had never thought the blade would be used for anyone other than a vampire. How could she have been so wrong?
“I have to stop this,” she muttered to herself.
The group of people nearby gave her strange looks, but she ignored them. If she could just get to Antoine, she could explain her role. Even if it meant her death right now, she would do it. No one would die for her crime.
Antoine stood by the glint of the blade. The reflection of the rain off the sharp edge gave it an eerie shine. The black as sin hood covered his face, but Seraphine noticed him stiffening when he turned her direction.
She nodded, gave a slight wave, and pointed at herself.
Then she held her breath and waited. Would he recognize her meaning? Would he think she was there for her plan of uprising?
Antoine simply held up his axe even though the human female had not been brought to him yet. A shiver of fear ran down Seraphine’s back. He was going to raise a hue that a vam
pire was in their midst. The crowd would turn on her, and she would be ripped to shreds.
But he said nothing, did nothing.
Only one guard brought the human to the death platform. Seraphine refused to have another being fall for her. She opened her mouth, but a hand clamped over it. Instinctively, she lowered her jaw to bite the palm with her fangs, but she held back just in time.
“Allow her this,” Marwin murmured.
Seraphine tried to speak despite his hand, but her words came out too muffled to be understood.
“She killed a shopkeeper. Her life may have been forfeit anyhow. This gives her death extra purpose.”
Seraphine turned to glance at her friend, tears of grief in her eyes. His hand still covered her mouth.
“Yes, I recruited her. She told me the whole story. I’ll tell you later, but know this. She suggested this herself.”
Seraphine’s eyes widened in shock.
“Yes, I told her about you and…”
She could not say a word. Perhaps Marwin realized this because he lowered his hand.
She stared at the human in wonder. That someone she had never met would be willing to sacrifice her life for… That the someone was a human meant even more.
Before the guard could lower her into position, the human female cleared her throat. “I would like to say a few words if I may.”
“You may not!” the queen roared. “You forfeited your life the moment you killed my bull. An attack against one of my loyal subjects is an affront against me. And, yes, my bulls are included in this!”
Marwin stiffened, but Seraphine relaxed. If the female wanted to tell the truth, Seraphine would be fine with it. If she was scared or having doubts, she deserved to have her life back. Seraphine would even lie and say she’d used her vampire powers to coerce the female into confessing.
“I am a human. I’m not a vampire,” the female said harshly. “I deserve to have the final say.”
Her voice was bitter, full of scorn. Seraphine recognized the anger and frustration. It drove her every morning and night since Hernando had been executed.
“Lay her down,” the queen said. “Face up.”
The crowd gasped, and the witch beside Seraphine startled. Even the guard gawked at the queen in surprise.
Seraphine’s stomach twisted with disgust and dismay. To force the female to watch the blade of her impending death come down was especially cruel.
The guard glanced at Antoine. The hooded witch nodded.
Seraphine sighed with disappointment. If Antoine believed he had a choice in the matter, would he give the human a moment to have her say?
It was difficult for Seraphine to feel anger toward the vampire executioner. Although she knew he was conflicted, she could not blame him. His position was a difficult one. At least he gave her hope in one regard. He and Noella both. Not all witches were blind to the queen and her ways. Not all of them relegated vampires to evil.
If they could see the truth and accept it, even with Antoine’s hands being tied, maybe others could too. Without witches on their side, and a horde of them at that, they would never stand a chance against the queen.
It’s a dark hunt to find the ones willing to align against the evil monarch. If we trust even one wrong person, we will all face her wrath and the blade.
The guard laid the female down. She did not resist.
“Tie her hands and feet,” the queen called out. “I will not have her execution blotched.”
The guard did so quickly and then stepped back.
Queen Pierrette Lyon raised her hand, a signal for Antoine to precede and kill her.
Seraphine held her breath. Anxiety and guilt, but mostly anger, coursed through her.
If the female wished to die in her stead, Seraphine would allow it. The woman asking to be heard, though, gave Seraphine concern.
Another female, a human, pushed through the crowd. Her eyes were red, and she was breathing heavily. Sorrow and grief surrounded her like a second skin.
“Let her speak,” this woman said. “Your Highness, please, I beg of you. She killed your bull, yes, and that alone is a crime worthy of execution, but that is not all she has killed. She murdered my husband! Let her explain herself. Let her plead for mercy. Let it not be shown. Please. I beg of you, Your Highness. Allow me this one small kindness.”
The queen said nothing, although her disgusted scowl spoke for itself.
A few of the widow’s friends took up the mantra, “Let her plead. Deny her mercy. Let her plead. Deny her mercy.”
Others joined in the shout too until the voices echoed in the wide-open space.
“Silence,” the queen bellowed. She must have magically amplified her voice to be heard over the din. “I said no. That is my final answer.”
Antoine raised his axe.
Seraphine shut her eyes.
A hush fell over the crowd except for the wife’s stunted sobs.
When no cheers sounded, and there was no whoosh in the air, Seraphine’s eyes opened.
Antoine held his axe above his head, but he did not swing it. Instead, he spoke through his hood, his voice as loud as the queen’s, not muffled in the silence.
“Your Highness, any words she has to say have no weight. Her words hold no power. Allow her to speak or disallow it, but you never have anything to fear.”
“Of course, I have nothing to fear!” the queen snapped. “My people, my citizens, I will grant you the choice. Can the condemned have her say? Or should she be shown no mercy from the start?”
Most in the crowd remained quiet, but the widow and her friends spurred the others on. Soon, a large group took up the cry.
“Very well. Fiend of the Ville de Liberté, Madeleine Leclair, you may say your piece.” The queen waved her hand in an overly dramatic flourish, acting as though the leniency had been her idea all along.
Seraphine clapped her hands. From her position on the ground, the widow shouted and thanked the queen. The crowd rejoined as well.
The crowned witch was not impressed. “Silence. Let her have her say and be done with it. Executioner, if she speaks more than a moment, cut her off. Cut off her head!”
Antoine nodded.
The female did not sit up. She did not move at all as the crowd had fought for her right to speak. Curious. None of the vampires executed had ever said a word as far as Seraphine knew. Likely, none had ever asked.
“Yes, I killed another human. Had I not killed him, he would continue to cheat others like me. His scale had been tampered with in his favor. I know because I have a witch’s charm that alerts when magic is nearby.”
The female paused. In the silence, Seraphine overheard her swallow. Some of the humans might have heard it too. The quiet was that absolute.
“When the queen was alerted to his illegal activities, did she charge him with a crime? Did she give him a fine? Did she even scold him? No. Nothing was done. So, yes, I took matters into my own hands. Because he was hurting us. He was hurting humans. And the queen did not care.”
The queen’s face twisted with rage. She grabbed her stein from a protector and chugged it.
She wants Antoine to just axe her and be done with it, but she cannot risk saying so. The crowd will not be pleased if Madeleine does not have her final say.
“The queen would not have even killed me if I had not confessed to killing the bull,” the victim added.
Seraphine held her breath again. Here it comes.
“I did. I did it. I killed the bull, and I killed that rat of a human. My only regret is that I did not kill more!” she cried.
The queen screeched. The crowd shouted.
So did Madeleine.
Seraphine, and perhaps no one else, heard the woman’s final words.
“Go ahead and kill me. I have done my part.”
Antoine swung his axe. The blade came down.
It was over.
Seraphine had no cause to worry about being found out. Her plans for the uprising were st
ill moving forward.
And, yes, she did possess that wicked and wondrous hope again.
She should have known better than to risk feeling it.
11
This had been the worst execution of all.
So far.
Antoine’s lips twisted into a grimace. “Done my part,” she had said. For the uprising, he assumed. He had noted Seraphine in the crowd, had witnessed her dash to approach him.
To stop him? Why? If this was for the uprising, shouldn’t she be all for it?
For a human to kill a bull made no sense. The culprit must have been a vampire. Why would a human ever dare do such a thing?
Unless the human had not been acting on their own accord.
Unless a vampire compelled them to.
Could that vampire have been Seraphine? Was she feeling guilty over the matter?
Antoine was feeling plenty guilty himself. When he first saw the human, he immediately recognized her as the one he’d tried to save from the corrupt shopkeeper.
He had failed her, so she had taken matters into her own hands.
And also back into his.
The crowd slowly dissipated, the widow and her friends last of all. Seraphine and her human ally had slipped away as soon as the axe had fallen.
Pierrette Lyon would be aggravated with him. She might even strip him of his duty as vampire executioner, which suited him just fine. He did not relish the position, not as he had at first.
The more he thought about it, the more he believed Seraphine had played a role in the bull’s death. In fact, he soon convinced himself she had killed the bull.
He had executed an innocent.
Guilt weighed heavily on him as he carried Madeleine’s body and head to the ceremonial pit for the Inferno Fires. If Seraphine had killed the bull, the act aligned perfectly with her ultimate goal for the uprising. Perhaps her anger had sparked it. Perhaps it had been unintended. Maybe the bull had speared her, although he had never heard of a vampire being able to escape a bull. Most likely, she would have had to surprise the beast to have had a chance at killing it.
Why only the one? Because she lacked the numbers to attack more?
Antoine sighed and carefully laid Madeleine’s head onto a small, black stone pillar. Her body rested on the white oval one nearby. Scorch marks would mar them for a moment as he carved the runes into the stones. Once the fires burned out, the stones would be reforged, whole and perfect, with every aspect of the vampire gone.
Dark Hunt: Division 4: The Berkano Vampire Collection Page 9
