Immortal Devices (Steampunk Scarlett Novel #2)

by Kailin Gow

  Scarlett shook her head. She loved Tavian, but that did not mean Cruces meant nothing. He was their friend, if nothing else, not to mention their only way home given that he was the one who possessed the ring to walk between worlds. They had to save him, even if it meant danger. Though Scarlett still let out a small sound of fear as the huge vampire struck Tavian, knocking him back.

  Scarlett rushed in then, determined to help. She drew her dagger, slashing at the creature, forcing it to turn towards her. That gave Cruces the opportunity to leap onto the larger vampire’s back, gripping it in a hold that would have immobilized a smaller creature. The big vampire just threw him off as though he weighed nothing.

  Tavian came back at it with a series of punches. Each one seemed thunderous, but the vampire merely shrugged them off before driving forward into the young man, smashing him into the nearest wall hard enough for stone dust to rise up as he struck. For a moment, just a moment, that left Scarlett dangerously vulnerable, a mere mortal faced with the full might of the vampire before her.

  It seemed to recognize that, grinning in a way that bared its fangs as it tensed to leap at her. Somehow, Scarlett knew that her dagger would not be enough. The thing would trap her arm so easily, and that would leave her helpless before those fangs. What would it feel like as they tore into her? Would she even know it when they ripped out her throat?

  Something swooped down, tearing into the vampire. It took Scarlett a moment to recognize the harpy that did it for what it was, but by then, there were already other immortals there. The other harpies swooped at the vampire, rending it with their claws, while young men and women with that faint glow that marked them for what they were struck at it. The vampire tried to fight back, but faced with so many foes, there was little even it could do.

  It tried to run instead, turning and trying to leap up to safety on the nearest rooftop. The harpies knocked the back mid leap. Then the minotaur grabbed it, seizing the vampire in a crushing bear hug from behind that left even its great strength useless for the moment.

  Scarlett looked around, trying to make sense of the sudden aid from the immortals. She saw Hecate walk into the alley, her expression suggesting that she was faintly amused by the whole thing.

  “There you are. Now, what good did you think running away was going to do, girl?”

  Scarlett didn’t know what to say to that. “You saved my friends and me,” she pointed out.

  “Oh, we cannot have vampires causing trouble in our home,” Hecate said. She walked over to where the minotaur still held the muscular vampire. “Hold him higher, child of the labyrinth, so that I might see him.”

  Hecate looked at the vampire closely, even going so far as to trace the mark of the Order with her fingers. Scarlett noted that the creature did not die from that touch, but then, in a very real sense, it was dead already.

  “I do not know this one,” Hecate said. She looked over to where Cruces stood, dusting down his clothes. “That one, yes. I know him and his of old, when he was merely immortal and not one of the blood drinkers. This one, however, is new.”

  Scarlett struggled to make sense of that. Cruces had been one of the immortals before he was a vampire? The Greek immortals had known him as one of their own? She wanted so badly to know more about that, but she did not get the chance. One of the immortals from before, the woman whose face was covered, and around whose head snakes writhed, had grabbed Scarlett’s arm.

  “You still have not told us which immortals sent you after Cupid’s bow,” the woman said. Her voice was surprisingly pleasant. “Why do you want to know about it so badly? Who sent you? Who?”

  Scarlett might have answered, but Cruces stepped into the way. “That is not your business, gorgon. Which sister are you, anyway?”

  “Why don’t you look at my face and find out?” the gorgon countered.

  “I could sing to them,” a siren suggested. “They would tell us which immortals put them up to this if I sang.”

  “And what good would that do you?” Cruces demanded.

  Hecate smiled a grim smile. “Then we would know who is going to get into trouble for trying to circumvent Zeus’ will. It is always amusing to watch when Zeus becomes angry. Of course, he might choose to do something most interesting to the three of you, too. Zeus does love to punish people.”

  Scarlett wasn’t sure what to say to that, but there wasn’t a chance to say anything anyway. The large vampire from the Order chose that moment to slam its elbow back into the stomach of the minotaur holding it, then wrenched free of the bull creature’s grip. It lunged forward at Scarlett, moving almost too quickly to follow.

  Then it stopped, toppling to its knees. Its skin took on a greyish cast, and it opened its mouth as if to scream, but it was too late. In under a second, it was nothing but stone.

  “Close your eyes, Scarlett,” Cruces said, but Scarlett had already done it, realizing the danger of the gorgon next to her.

  “What about Tavian?”

  Cruces sighed, his hand clamping on Scarlett’s arm. “I have him. Now come on while they’re still working out whether it’s safe to look or not.”

  Scarlett did not need telling twice. With Cruces leading her, Scarlett hurried away, hoping that this time they would be able to leave the immortals behind.

  Chapter 9

  They ran again, but this time it wasn’t a blind flight through alleys and across rooftops. This time, Cruces led the way with the surety of someone who knew every inch of the city. They ran swiftly, but without panic, following behind the vampire in the knowledge that he would see them all to safety.

  When had she come to trust Cruces like that, Scarlett wondered. Particularly since she knew just how little she really ought to trust a vampire like him, one who clearly had no respect for any of the conventions of society, and who was rumored to treat women as mere playthings. Though he had not with her. In fact, he had specifically sworn that he never would.

  There was no time to think about that now, though, so Scarlett simply ran as Cruces led them from the alley, dashing with her and Tavian away from the collected immortals. By the time the sounds of pursuit had started up again, he had taken them down a flight of steps towards what appeared at first glance to be an old cellar, hidden behind a bolted door.

  Only once they got past that door, Scarlett found not a cellar, but a tunnel, walled with rough rock and sloping down into the earth. It was dimly lit, but even by that light, she could make out images of creatures carved into the rock. They looked a lot like the ones that had only recently been chasing them. Scarlett had been running fast enough that she had to pause to catch her breath, but even so she wanted to know what was going on.

  “What is this place?” she asked, crouching down in the semi darkness of the tunnel so that she could recover a little. Tavian sat beside her, while Cruces remained standing.

  “The city has tunnels beneath that are sometimes used for what they call the mysteries,” Cruces said. “It is the one place for people to come and actually see the immortal. They are prepared for it, so they do not shut it out in the way that they normally would do.”

  “So it is a place for the mortal and immortal to meet?” Scarlett asked. “Like the night market back home?”

  Cruces nodded with a faint smile. “It seemed nicely ironic for us to use these tunnels to avoid meeting a bunch of immortals. Now we just have to stay down here long enough that they all lose interest.”

  Scarlett couldn’t help smiling, especially as she heard the sounds of pursuit go past. Yet there were more things to worry about than even a collection of immortals determined to catch up with them.

  “Cruces, that vampire before… he had the mark of the Order tattooed on his skin.”

  Cruces nodded . “The Order knows that we are here. I sensed the vampire, Brutus, while you were retrieving the walking stick. I thought I could lead him away from you.”

  “How old was he?” Scarlett asked, remembering back to the fight Cruces had had with th
e creature. “He seemed so strong, even compared with you.”

  “He was one of the Order’s enforcers. Their assassins. He was very old, but more than that, his kind devote their whole beings to violence. He became far stronger and more dangerous than a normal vampire his age should have been.”

  That made sense. The vampire had seemed utterly inhuman, more animal than a thinking being. Perhaps that would make it stronger. Still, its very presence raised some worrying questions. It seemed too big a coincidence that the Order should have sent a vampire like that after them the moment they tried to follow Rothschild and Cecilia. Scarlett knew she had to ask.

  “Do you think that Rothschild sent him?”

  “Perhaps,” Cruces answered. “That would explain how he was able to show up here. To get here, into ancient immortal Greece, any non-immortal would need a ring like my own.” Cruces raised his hand to emphasize the golden ring on his finger. Scarlett could remember Rothschild’s identical one all too easily. “Unless our sister Lydia has decided to become involved, or unless one of the other two rings has been recovered, neither of which seems likely, then Rothschild is the most likely way for Brutus to travel here.”

  “I still don’t understand why you felt the need to draw him off, though,” Scarlett said. “If you had only said something-”

  “Cruces did not want to endanger you,” Tavian said. He sounded approving, though Scarlett had a hard time believing that Tavian would ever approve of something Cruces did.

  “Why not?” Scarlett demanded. “I can fight. I fought, when we ran into Cruces and this Brutus.”

  Cruces shook his head. “I did not want to risk it, Scarlett. Particularly since I believe that Brutus was sent across to this world specifically with your death in mind.”

  “Why would he be sent for that?” Scarlett demanded.

  Cruces shrugged. “It surprised me too. I was under the impression that Rothschild needed you alive. That he wanted you alive, and planned to take you for his own. Perhaps that is it though, perhaps he decided that if he could not have you, then no one would. It would certainly be a good way to cause me pain.”

  Scarlett did not know what to say to that. Once again, Cruces was reminding her all too forcefully of how he felt, even though he knew that Scarlett did not feel the same. Could not feel the same.

  Tavian spoke up again then. “Perhaps it was not he who sent the assassin. The Order does not just consist of Rothschild, after all.”

  “That is possible,” Cruces said, “though then there is the question of how they would be able to send the assassin over.”

  “They would find a way,” Tavian insisted. “Rothschild is not the only one of them with an interest here. I can think of several others in the Order who would think that if they couldn’t have Scarlett, they would be better off killing her.”

  Scarlett leaned over to kiss Tavian. It was a sweet kiss, and as they broke from it, Scarlett saw Cruces looking away. That did not bother her as much as it might have done, though she knew she still had to ask Tavian the obvious question.

  “How do you know who is in the Order, and what they might want?”

  Tavian raise his hand to gently stroke Scarlett’s cheek. “Unfortunately Scarlett, I know a lot more than I care to about the Order.”

  “Is that because of Cecilia?” Scarlett asked, thinking of the way Tavian’s sister had gotten caught up with them.

  “No,” Tavian said, looking away, “that is down to me. I knew of the Order before she did. In fact, she only learned of the Order through me. I’m not proud of it, but she made her choice, while I stepped away.”

  Scarlett involuntarily moved back, away from Tavian, despite Aphrodite’s spell on her. Tavian had links to the Order? How could he have? How could he not have said something before? Scarlett found herself looking over at Cruces, expecting to see the vampire looking amused by the revelation, or even reveling in the pain it caused Tavian, yet he just stood there impassively.

  Tavian, meanwhile, seemed to be almost frantic to explain. “I didn’t know better, when I first learned of the Order,” Tavian said. “I was like Cecilia is now. I thought I could learn more about the fey from them, and I was so caught up in that I did not realize what they were for a time. They seemed so all knowing when it came to worlds beyond the human one, and that seemed so… so incredible to me.”

  Scarlett forced herself to look at him, trying to disguise the hurt she felt. Tavian lifted her hand to his lips. “Don’t be alarmed, Scarlett. I’m not of the Order. I never was. I promise you that.”

  Scarlett glanced over at Cruces then. She knew she shouldn’t. She knew that she ought to simply take the word of her beloved. Yet there was part of her, despite Aphrodite’s spell, that wanted Cruces’ confirmation.

  Cruces’ smile was wry, but Scarlett thought she could detect a hint of sympathy there. “If he were from the Order, I would have known it.”

  “How would you have known?” Scarlett asked. She knew that Cruces had been involved with the Order once, but how could he possibly know now?

  It was Cruces’ turn to look away then. “Some of us are not as pure and innocent as you would have us be, Scarlett.” He looked at Tavian then, before bringing his gaze back to Scarlett. “In this case though, Tavian is telling the truth. As for me… well, I have lived so long, and seen too much. I have had my dark days. I am a vampire, after all. One of the first. There are reasons why we have been feared through so much of history, and there have been times when I was one of those reasons. Do not ask me for details. I will not share them. Some things are better left unsaid.”

  He reached out to take Scarlett’s hand, drawing her to her feet. Scarlett resisted the urge to shiver at his touch. He was still Cruces, despite what he had just said. He would not hurt her.

  “With any luck, our immortal pursuers will be gone by now,” Cruces said. “They are dangerous, but they are also easily distracted.”

  “They are not the only ones,” Tavian pointed out. “From what I hear, you still flit through life without ever taking anything seriously.”

  “I take some things very seriously,” Cruces shot back. He began to walk quickly, taking Scarlett along the underground passage with him. He walked quickly enough that for a moment or two, Tavian was left behind. That seemed to be exactly Cruces’ intention though. “You should know that Aphrodite’s spell on me makes no difference to me,” he whispered.

  “You have managed to shake it off?” Scarlett asked, a tinge of hope in her voice. She had no wish to hurt Cruces with unrequited love, and if he could only get over what the goddess had made him feel for her, that had to be the best solution for all of them. It would certainly make things much simpler.

  Sadly Cruces shook his head. “What I mean is that I loved you before that, so what she did makes no difference. With or without Aphrodite’s curse, I will love you.”

  “Please, Cruces,” Scarlett begged, “do not continue like this. I cannot respond the way you want. I cannot love you back.”

  “I know that,” Cruces replied, “but I hope to make you see that whatever else is true, you need me near to you. You are the Seeker, and I am the Keeper. We need one another, and whatever you think you feel for the fey boy cannot get in the way of that.”

  Chapter 10

  With the horde of following immortals gone for the time being, they were able to leave the tunnels, and Cruces suggested that they should head for one of his old homes to get their bearings. Scarlett would have preferred to search for the location of the bow directly, but she could see how that search might potentially be a long one, and knew that having a place from which to conduct that search made sense.

  As such, Scarlett allowed Cruces to lead her and Tavian out of the main city and over to a spot in the Athenian hills, where a large building of white stone stood. It was built in a roughly square configuration, and Scarlett knew enough about the ruins of Greece to know it would be focused around a single open living area, where the majority of the bu
siness of the house, or rather palace, would take place.

  Yes, Scarlett decided, it was definitely a palace. The building was too big to think of in any other way, stretching up for three stories above ground level, with stonework and statuary that pointed to a fortune having been spent on its construction. Even the gates leading to the courtyard before the house were higher than two men put together. Even here, it seemed, Cruces’ wealth was abundant.

  Cruces swung open those gates, and as he did so, Scarlett noticed just how tense he appeared.

  “Is something wrong?” she asked.

  “Not wrong so much as… difficult,” Cruces said. He sighed. “Remember what Aphrodite said before about her previous curse.”

  Scarlett thought back, and her eyes widened slightly as she thought of the curse that would mean any woman who saw Cruces would want him. “It still applies?”

  “Aphrodite said as much herself, if you recall.”

  Beside them, Tavian laughed. “And you’re really trying to tell me that you do not love being the object of that much attention, vampire?”

  Cruces shook his head. “Not when it ends up like this. I need to warn you, what you see inside might be… difficult.”

  Scarlett tried to think what that might mean, but whatever her imagination came up with, it wasn’t the sight that greeted them as they stepped inside. The palace was full. Full almost to the brim with women. Some were beautiful, while others were plain. Some were dressed in the greatest finery known to Greece, while others wore so little that Scarlett found herself blushing on reflex. Some had jewels in their hair, others flowers, and a few simply had their hair braided into intricate patterns that had clearly taken hours.

  They turned almost as one to stare at Cruces as the vampire stepped into the palace. Cruces led Scarlett and Tavian through to the central area of the house, where marble couches surrounded much of the space, the floor and walls were covered in mosaics, and columns surrounded a central square of open space where light streamed in.