Carnal Magic: The Wraith Accords, Book 1

by Lila Dubois

  Isabel squeezed his hands. “It’s just a theory.”

  “Either my king is dying or one of my people was condemned to a slow death stranded in a strange world. Maybe both.”

  “Bad options, I know.” Isabel’s heart hurt for him. If this was love, feeling another’s pain as your own, Isabel wasn’t sure she liked it. “There’s more.”

  “More?” Aed looked like he’d had just about all he could take, but the plane would land eventually, so he needed to hear it all.

  “I think I know who the human woman in Fae is—or was.”

  “You do? How?”

  “I’m the Sage of the most powerful Vampire cabal. Information is what I do.” She smiled to lighten the mood. “Based on what she said and her accent, I had a time and place to start the search. I was lucky and found an old picture of a woman who went missing from London in 1914. It’s the same woman I saw in Tara.”

  “You did this all since we came to the mortal realm? I did not realize the extent of your power.”

  “Thank you.” It was stupid, but she felt exceptionally pleased by his praise. “We’re going to London to get a look at the original records. There might be things that aren’t digitized yet. Information I couldn’t get in Bucharest.”

  “Isabel…if the human you saw is a changeling, that means that the Tuath changeling might be there, in London. We could save her.”

  “Aed, that was a hundred years ago. Humans do not live that long. The Tuath changeling would long dead.”

  “But the servant you met was still human, correct?”

  “Definitely.”

  “Perhaps the changeling spells were not successful or were only partially completed. If the servant were a true changeling, she would not have seemed human to you.”

  Isabel considered that. “Well, it must have worked to some degree, otherwise the woman would have died. She looked about forty, meaning that even though a hundred years passed she only aged fifteen or twenty years since she disappeared. Maybe you’re right, and instead of having the true lifespan of one of the Tuatha de Danaan she’s merely aging very slowly.”

  “Could you find the Tuath changeling, the person who was taken out of Fae?” Aed stared down at his clenched fists. “Even if she is no longer living, could you find her so that we might bury her?”

  Isabel wished she could simply say yes. “I don’t know.” Isabel frowned as she considered. “When humans disappear, there are often records. A seemingly human woman simply appearing wouldn’t necessarily be news—humans travel and move around a lot. A new arrival would be assumed to have come from somewhere else—as in another human country.”

  “But you will look?”

  “I will. I promise.”

  “Thank you.”

  The flight attendant cleared away dishes and stowed the table, then asked them to take their seats because they were beginning their descent. Isabel checked the window. Dawn was somewhere behind them, but once they landed they wouldn’t have long before the sun was up.

  “You won’t like this part.” Isabel sat beside Aed and helped him fasten his seat belt.

  “Talk to me,” he begged. “When you talk to me I forget that we’re going to die.”

  “We’re not going to die, but maybe now you understand why we needed the portals. Human travel is dangerous for Vampire.”

  “It feels dangerous for Tuatha de Danaan, too.”

  Isabel laughed and took his hands, letting him squeeze hers as the plane dipped into a descent.

  “Have I told you about my human life?” she asked, hoping to distract him.

  “No.” He bit off the word.

  Isabel settled back in the seat. It had been a few decades since she’d told this story. “I was born to peasants in Andalusia but spent my life as a concubine in Granada, just before the Ottoman Empire retreated from what is now Spain.”

  “Concubine?”

  “A pleasure slave, but a very skilled one.” Isabel felt his start of surprise. “I was taken when I was only a child and trained in music, art, conversation and, of course, how to pleasure a man.”

  “As a child? That’s…”

  “The human world was a brutal place then—and now. But today they hide the basest part of their nature. I was actually fortunate. I would have lived and died in the mud of a farm without ever learning more than a few hundred words, and certainly I wouldn’t have been able to read or write if I hadn’t been sold to a slaver.”

  “Your family?”

  “I never saw them again.”

  “Did you suffer?”

  “Suffer? No. It was not an easy life, but I was a favorite of the sultan, who liked my pale skin and dark hair. His first wife always found excuses to have me whipped when he was gone, but when the sultan was in residence I helped him entertain important guests, made sure he always got the better end of any bargain. He taught me how to see the secrets in someone’s eyes, how to negotiate and play games of power.” She rubbed Aed’s arm. “Though it has been a long time since the harem, I still use the skills I learned there. It wasn’t fair of me to get so angry when you said that the way I acted toward Cairbe made you think I was going to sleep with him. There was a time when I would have—either by my own choice or by order.”

  Aed groaned. “The insult was more grave than I imagined.”

  “I’ll forgive you, since I love you.”

  “I love you, and I am sorry for the life you had.”

  “I do not regret it, except that sometimes I use my sexuality when I don’t really need to. In all these centuries old habits still die hard.”

  “Was the sultan a vampire?”

  “No. But one day a powerful man came to visit—a warlord from the north. I was given to him for the night and told to learn his secrets. That warlord was Duke Drakul. I tried every trick I knew, and for a while he played along, pretending to succumb. But he was testing me. He said later that he saw something in me that called to his monster—his vampire nature—and after a night with me he knew I would make a powerful political asset.”

  “Political asset?”

  “A modern term for an old idea. Women couldn’t hold power in human society until only recently, but women often played the role I did for the sultan—that of spy and negotiator. You see, Drakul had a son, a son who was very good at war and battle and very bad at politics.”

  “Drake.”

  Isabel nodded. “Drakul asked for me as part of the deal he struck with the sultan. I was so scared.” Even now she could still remembered that feeling—the horror that had filled her as she stood to the side draped in veils while two men bargained for land and trade, ownership of her being tossed back and forth as negotiations went on, her life merely a small piece of a larger puzzle. She’d always known she was a slave, but until that moment it had never occurred to her that the sultan would give her away, forcing her to leave the only home she remembered.

  “Once we reached Drakul’s stronghold, he turned me. Drake had not turned anyone successfully and so his father did it, then gave me to Drake.”

  “Drakul made you Vampire so you could wed his son.”

  “Exactly. I was made to be the wife of the future Vampire king.” Isabel rolled her eyes. “For the first year I didn’t understand what the change meant. I still thought of myself as a concubine and tried to be the perfect wife to Drake. He hated that his father had picked a woman for him, especially when he knew the reason for it was that Drakul didn’t think he was a capable leader on his own. He hated when I tried to please him. Everything I did—everything I’d been trained to do—just frustrated or disgusted him. He was ahead of his time, by hundreds of years, because he didn’t want a wife who had no choice in the matter.”

  Aed grunted.

  “What does that noise mean?”

  “I find myself liking Drake.” Aed sounded disgrun
tled.

  Isabel laughed at his reluctant admiration for Drake, then continued her story. “About a year after I’d been changed, we were attacked. They came in the daylight and overwhelmed the human soldiers outside. When they made their way in, the men went to battle. I hid in a corner, terrified. A few of the attackers found me. They started hurting me. I looked up and there was Drake, covered in blood, swords swinging. I expected him to save me. Instead he yelled ‘Fight!’

  “With that one word, all my reservations fell away. I let myself be powerful. Every moment of fear or pain I’d been though rose up.” Isabel squeezed Aed’s hands. “They called it the Spanish massacre. I killed a hundred humans that day. Toward the end Drake ordered everyone else to step back. The vampire warriors locked the doors so our enemies couldn’t run from me. I killed them all with nothing but my hands and teeth.”

  Aed regarded her solemnly. There was no disgust or judgment in his eyes.

  “After that…well, I sometimes wonder if maybe Drake and I could have been husband and wife then. I remember him grinning at me as I killed. But I left. For two centuries I was on my own. I needed to learn who I was—I’d been a slave and I’d been a prize. I didn’t really know Isabel Santiago.”

  “I know Isabel Santiago. She is the most beautiful, intelligent woman I’ve ever had the honor to meet.” Aed kissed her knuckles.

  “Thank you. When I was tired of being alone, I went back to Drakul, who welcomed me, even when I said that I was not Drake’s wife. Drakul treated me as a daughter, teaching me how to rule and protect the Vampire.”

  “And Drake?”

  “We fought. All the time. Like siblings. More than once Drakul chained us together back to back in an effort to make us get along. Instead we’d slam each other into walls.”

  Aed snorted out a laugh. “I should not find it funny, but after watching you throw a chair at him, I can imagine the scenario.”

  “Much to the Duke’s despair we have not matured much. Drake likes to remind me that I was made Vampire to be his wife, simply to irritate me.”

  “I am ashamed to admit that I am glad.”

  “Glad?”

  “That you never chose him as your husband. He is a powerful vampire, a good match for you. If you loved him once you might love him again, and that would mean you’d never love me.”

  “I already love you.”

  The plane hopped once as they set down on the runway. Aed peered out the window, then breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you for distracting me.”

  “You’re more than welcome, my knight.” Isabel unbuckled her belt and went to a small cupboard where they kept a store of forged travel papers. “We have a long day ahead of us.”

  “I have faith.”

  Isabel looked up, a sheaf of documents in her hand. “Faith?”

  “In you. In us.” Aed’s solemn words were marred by the fact that he was struggling with the seat belt.

  “Faith.” Isabel went to help him so he wouldn’t ruin another seat. “It’s been a long time since anyone had faith in me.”

  Aed stood and stretched, only to smack his hands into the low ceiling. “I have more faith in you than I do in this plane. Couldn’t we have taken a portal to Fae and then back to Bucharest?”

  “Considering how I left Fae, I don’t want to risk returning until I’m ready to confront the issues hiding in Tara.”

  Aed sighed and grumbled under his breath, which was adorable. Isabel was still smiling when they disembarked an hour later, just as the sun rose over England.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Aed now understood why Isabel said Bucharest was not a large human city. London was all noise and people and colors. Aed stuck close to Isabel’s side, finding it easier to deal with his surroundings by focusing on her.

  It had taken them a few hours to get off the plane, and apparently he had “diplomatic papers”, whatever that meant. A car with tinted windows had brought them to a building in the center of this gray-stone city, where Isabel had a residence. Aed had heard about London, especially in the days before they’d retreated to Fae, and it was interesting to see it for himself—and easier to deal with from the controlled safety of the car.

  Much to Aed’s horror, they’d left the “flat” on foot though it was early morning. Isabel had changed clothing before they got off the plane and now wore gray pants, a smooth top the color of ripe berries and a long black coat. She had an umbrella in her hand and was wearing a hat. He’d even watched her apply special make-up that she said protected her exposed skin.

  Still, as they waited to cross a street Aed glanced nervously at the sky. He was ready to yank her into the shadows of a doorway should a stray ray of sunlight penetrate the clouds. He hadn’t forgotten what happened when he’d been tricked into exposing her to the sun. The way the light had cut through her skin, revealing muscle and tendon, was not something he would easily forget.

  Isabel took his arm as they crossed the street. “What are you thinking about?”

  “Things happened in Tara that we do not yet understand.”

  “Which things?”

  “The morning I almost killed you.”

  “Hmm, I’d almost forgotten about that.”

  “Then I wish I hadn’t raised the issue.”

  “Whoever cast a spell on you would have to be powerful?”

  “Very.”

  “Who could do it?”

  “The High King or Queen, the heads of some of the High Houses, maybe Cairbe or Oisin.”

  “A short list, but that doesn’t really help us. We’ll discuss it on the train.”

  “Train?”

  “Yep. This way, we have twenty minutes to get to Waterloo Station.”

  Aed stood at Isabel’s shoulder as she bought tickets from a human who stood behind a glass wall. He then followed her along a platform to a massive metal machine. Aed crouched to examine the tracks and wheels, fascinated.

  “Boys and their trains—come on, Aed.”

  They had two plush seats with a table between them, much like on the plane, but unlike the plane when the train started moving they rocked pleasantly side to side instead of lurching into the air.

  Aed peered out the window, then smiled. “I think I like trains.”

  Isabel laughed, and though he didn’t know why that was funny, he was happy she was smiling.

  “It’s only a twenty-minute ride out to the National Archives.” She took his hands. “Well, my love, shall we discuss the time you tried to kill me?”

  Aed frowned. “In all my life I have never treated a woman as ill as I have treated you. I don’t know what blessing I received that you saw past my mistakes to love me.”

  “I only love you for your body.” Isabel’s head was tipped slightly to the side, her lips pursed.

  Aed’s stomach clenched. She only loved the sex? Though it was the best sex he’d ever had, for Aed it was more than that, and he’d thought she felt the same.

  Isabel’s lips twitched slightly. She coughed and covered her mouth with her hand, then resumed her serious expression.

  Aed narrowed his eyes. “You’re lying.” She’d been smiling behind her hand while she coughed.

  Isabel grinned. “Absolutely. It’s terribly fun to tease you.”

  “I don’t like it.”

  “Too bad. I do.”

  They snipped and teased each other as the train barreled to Richmond and the National Archives.

  Aed paced the aisle between two bookshelves filled with binders. “This is what you do?”

  Isabel was seated on a stool in front of a “microfiche” machine, peering into the eyepiece. “Uh huh.”

  Aed looked at the printouts she’d gotten from the humans upstairs. He was supposed to be reading them.

  “How much more do you have to read?” They were underground, and it fe
lt like they’d been there for days.

  Isabel sighed and looked up. “Aed, if you’re bored, why don’t you go outside and run around?”

  He slouched into a chair. “No, I will not leave you alone.”

  Isabel smiled, but it was not a kind expression and her fangs were down slightly. “You’re distracting me. Go away.”

  Aed crossed his arms. “No.”

  Isabel rolled her eyes and went back to the machine. “I watched you stand motionless for hours while we were in Tara. Why are you so twitchy now?”

  He shrugged. “Normally I run through battle scenarios in my head while on guard.”

  “Why don’t you do that now?”

  “I don’t have my sword. If anyone were to attack us, I’d have to push over one of these shelves. I estimate they weigh close to six hundred pounds—enough to keep a human attacker on the ground, and maybe enough to crush their skull. Battle over.”

  “So you’re bored because it would be too easy to win a fight in here?”

  “Yes.”

  Isabel giggled. “As annoying as you are right now, I like seeing the real Aed.”

  “I’m always the real Aed.” Sometimes she made no sense.

  “No, sometimes you’re locked away inside that warrior-guard persona you wear the same way you wear your armor.”

  Aed blinked in surprise. Was she right? Did he hide his true self under the label of Fenian? His place in the Fianna defined him—it always had. But he felt different when he was with Isabel.

  “When I am with you, I feel…freer.” Aed wasn’t sure if that was the right way to say it.

  “Then I’m glad, because—” Isabel stopped mid-sentence. Her finger moved slightly on the dial of the microfiche. “Aed, listen to this. It’s an old church bulletin.” There was excitement in her voice.

  She cleared her throat and then started reading. “‘Edith Jameson, a member of the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve, vanished in a most peculiar manner on the twenty-fifth day of September 23, 1914.’ Late September in the human calendar is around the autumnal equinox.”