by Lucy Lyons
“But we’ve killed two already. How would she be able to get their blood back from whence they came?” I asked, and glanced at the professor.
“It’s a story, not a prophecy, Caroline. When you killed Caius and Delius, you changed how the story would end.”
“But, if she can’t get that blood that’s in the story, then she can’t rise, so nothing we do can hurt,” I pointed out.
“It certainly seems that way, but again…” Eldritch paused.
“It’s just a story, so she could rise to something else completely,” I finished.
I watched Colette pore over the papers for a few more minutes without interrupting her. Even Dominique stopped lounging and dragged a chair over, way beyond her faux disinterest.
“Professor, everything on this scroll pertains to killing her children to raise her. And blood spilt on the Mother’s resting place seems to be the only other option. Colette grabbed another scroll and kept reading. “I can’t find anything here that says whether she can be raised with only some of the blood of her children spilled, or all of it, but it does go into detail what powers she gave up. Colette let out a soft whistle. “Night Mother was not her first name,” she said in a soft voice, and the professor leaned over her as though he’d be able to translate the millennia-dead language.
“Are you going to share?” Dom pressed, and Colette met my eyes.
“I don’t know that this is as exciting as it is really, deeply troubling,” Colette replied. “Apparently, one of the powers she gave up, and more’s the pity, was the ability to face the sun. She was known as the Light Queen, of the Unseelie court.”
Secretly I rejoiced before I thought further to what it meant. The entire room went quiet and we all thought about the ramifications of that. After all, for our clan, that would be great. For our enemies, not so much. Then again, I finally had proof that the vampires were fairy creatures, not demonic. Being fey didn’t stop some from being killers, but somehow, knowing they had souls made me feel better anyway.
“Okay, let’s have the complete list then,” Eldritch directed, and I gestured for Colette to continue.
“Um, okay. Rotting touch, check. We downed that bugger already. Ah, day walking, check. Fey glamor, now that could be frightening.”
“Why?” I leaned forward further.
“Because the fey didn’t just make you feel wiggly, or make something invisible to you. The fey can create an entire reality and make you believe it. Beautiful or terrifying, they can glamor you to death, or slavery.”
“Yes, scary. Thank you. Please go on.” I exhaled slowly, grateful that it was a talent unheard of in our modern world.
“Um, oh, last, but certainly not least, the touch of death. I’m a vampire, and I’m not going to sleep well after this. I thought the council was old and ugly, not godlike and all powerful.” She pushed the scrolls away and rubbed her temples like she had a migraine. “Just reading this made me feel a little crazy again. But, before I forget, good news at the end of the second scroll. The Night Mother is also known as the Mother of Magic”
“Boom,” I said, pushing my chair back. “What did I tell you, Dom? Vampires aren’t demonic, and are therefore not the church’s business.”
Eldritch scoffed and Dom pursed her lips silently and shook her head.
“I know, easier said than accomplished. But, I’m getting married and I was hoping that I could prove to the world, or at least to my friends, that I was the one who knew him, better than anyone. I knew he wasn’t evil, and I knew he wasn’t a monster. None of my family are.”
I placed my hands on the scrolls and felt the living power in them. The watchers who had written them hadn’t had titles or a society with secrets and rules to follow. They’d simply had the forethought to write down important things they saw, before humans took over the world and language began anew.
“Who do you think wrote these, Professor?” I asked. “Because they’re a hell of a lot older than human writings.”
“Probably lesser fey,” he replied. “The magic has preserved them well, and they are written by someone who wasn’t going for flourish.” He tapped the table and the papyrus rolled up neatly into two tight cylinders. “Don’t forget that lesser fey aren’t really ‘less’ of anything. The high courts, Day and Night courts both used the word lesser to describe anything that didn’t look like them. But those same fey were always the most dangerous to travelers.”
“So, the consensus is that we’re going to England and having the wedding as soon as we complete the spell?” I asked, my stomach so tied up on itself, I could barely breathe.
“If you all agree that the scroll suggests safe passage and a successful rite, then I see no reason why we can’t make our travel arrangements,” Nick said as he approached the table. “Your thoughts got so frenetic, I lost the thread for a bit. What did the scrolls say about vampires and fairies?”
“That you’re related. How cool is that?” Nick laughed and scratched his jaw.
“You’ve been saying that ever since you read my first edition Tales of the Brothers Grimm.”
“And now I have an ancient scroll to hold up in front of the Vatican and say ‘nyah nyah nyah’ to them for allowing such a barbaric practice as labelling vampires as demonic.”
“You seem to be awfully quick to forget how terrifying the fey can be, my love.”
“Fey have the option to be good or evil. Demons do not. Therefore, the open hunting season on vampires would have to be called off,” I demanded. “Okay. That sounded petulant, even to me. But promise we’ll work on it?”
“I promise. Now, how about you and Rachel make sleep accommodation arrangements for say, ten, including Lady De Borgia and Jeremy, as well as at least one wolf.
I glanced at Dom, then back at Nick. Why Dominique? I silently asked.
Because I don’t want her going back to the Venatores and telling them I’m gone. Rachel has her cell phone, don’t lend her yours.
A smile slid across my face and I saluted him. Good idea. I’m so lucky you’re brilliant. His arm snaked around my waist and he kissed me on the mouth, and I felt Dominique’s frustration. She wants what we have, Nick. I’d keep her away from your vampires too.
Nick winked at me and released me. “Everyone in this room is welcome to join Caroline and I as we join in holy, apparently, matrimony. Professor, I understand you have a prior engagement, so I wish you safe travels and an enjoyable holiday. Of course, when we all return home, we will need to speak again.” With that, he strode off, and I found myself staring after him like he’d been taken over by aliens.
“Was it just me, or…” I began to Colette, and she shook her head.
“Nope. I think you just made his day, and he’s going to refuse to admit it,” she smirked. “I for one, do not care. I am who I am, and no man and no church will tell me anything different.” Her voice was as rough and sarcastic as always, but her hand reached out and touched the scrolls without her noticing.
It looked like the trip to England was going to be eventful in more ways than one. I made a short list in my head of wolves I would accept going, which was in reality, a list of one, I texted Clay and told him we were on for England and asked him to talk to his alpha about coming with.
I was getting married. Not in a year, in some stuffy convention hall surrounded by politically motivated strangers, but in just one week, on the summer solstice in a field surrounded by the oldest magic in the western world, and the people who mattered to me most.
Chapter 10
Rachel made arrangements with a vampire-friendly hotel in London, then Amesbury. Only she, Colette, and Nick’s most trusted guards were going. Jeremy would take Fin and a rat named Anya I’d been training with. She was a former yogi, who liked to balance my chi every chance she got.
Clay had sent us a text asking for a plus one and gotten permission, but I didn’t know who it was yet. Colette packed my bags for me, which should have made me feel special, but it just gave me anxie
ty that I wouldn’t have the one item I wanted once we were overseas.
I’d never been anywhere outside my own country before. I thought about my first plane ride to California, and how that had turned out. I’d been kidnapped and given to Nicholas as a gift. I looked inside the velvet box I’d been carrying around for weeks. The band was simple, not expensive, but unique. The inset was carbon that looked like a woven basket, and the outer band was tungsten, black and so shiny it looked like it glowed from within.
The spell was going to cross the Atlantic with us too. I still couldn’t make it work, but once we got to Stonehenge, all research pointed to a successful shielding and a happier marriage for it. Nicholas set the flight to leave before sunset, so we loaded the vampires into the plane under the cover of the hangar, and closed all the blinds at every window to keep the sun out.
Clay showed up with his plus one just before take-off, and I was both surprised and irritated beyond words to see Ashlynn step out of the car next to him.
“I thought we had an understanding about earning one’s place, Ashlynn,” I rounded on her the second the car door closed.
“Maybe, but Clay says you’re going to the birthplace of magic, where the first vampire is rumored to be sealed away in a deep underground tomb or something,” she replied. “There is no way that I’m sending one of my own and not ensuring our pack is treated fairly.”
I glared at Clay and curled my lip, and he shrugged and mouthed “I’m sorry” to me.
“We’re not here on some mystical magic-grab to increase our power, Ashlynn.” I paused and tried again. “We’re not here for personal gain, Ashlynn. We came because our sanity and the health and wellness of our clan demands we do everything in our power, even risk our lives.”
“Fine, Caroline. But we’re coming too. After all, some of your clan are now wolves. This is what we do. We stick together.” She sighed and preened at her perceived victory as I let her board the plane.
“Oh, you can come, Ashlynn. But, you know who we’re feeding to the vampires first in the event of a water landing.” I smiled and scrunched up my nose at her as I spoke, saccharine dripping from my tongue. She snapped her mouth shut and boarded, and with a small sigh of self-pity that no one heard but me, I climbed the steps behind her.
Once we were all in our seats and being served by the gracious human attendants, I felt the excitement of the adventure start to kick in. Colette had brought the scrolls with her and promised to go over them with me and look for any other pertinent information. I nodded off despite myself in the oversized soft leather chairs, and when I came to again, we were at Newark airport refueling for the jump across the Atlantic. The night sky was a thing of beauty, so many stars that I felt they would swallow us up. As the sun appeared before us as we near the European shores, I felt something else, as well. A tug at my magic that demanded we hurry, and I found myself clenching my teeth together to avoid demanding we go straight to Stonehenge.
The pull of the Night Mother was so strong, even in the air, I mused about how we stayed in the sky without her pulling us to the ground. The jet hit a pocket of air and jerked as dropped and shuddered a little before it leveled out and the ride became smooth again. My heart pounded as I glanced over at Nick, suddenly superstitious and nervous about the prospect of getting any closer to the birthplace of western magic.
I stopped tempting fate, and without any further incident, we landed at a small airstrip adjacent to Heathrow, and taxied into a hangar to offload our belongings in the dark safety of shelter. I was setting bags next to one of the rented cars that showed up, when I felt a new presence sizing me up, testing my boundaries. I glanced around, but no one was there. I made my way to Dominique and quietly asked her if she felt anything. She nodded, but shrugged when I asked her if she could tell what it was, or where it came from.
It was cool, like Nick’s power, not Clay’s, and yet again I wished he had made the trip with us alone, so I could talk to him about what I was feeling. Someone was expecting us, and I didn’t think it was the human servant who ran the bed and breakfast at the edge of Amesbury.
The vampires huddled under the provided covers in the backseat of the car as I sat up front with the hired driver and scanned the beautiful countryside, once we got away from the city. Another time, I would’ve wanted to stay in London and go on every tour, wander every street until sunrise. But I could feel the strength of the pull egging me on, and I scanned our horizon for the raw edge of it, as though I’d be able to see it in a mist or wisps twinkling and lighting our way.
That was the funny thing about being so close to unadulterated magic, I thought finally sharing what I was sensing with Nick in his blacked-out hideaway in the backseat. I can taste it, how anything is possible. For the first time, I understood how fairytales could be real, and any kind of magic possible.
The magic that filled the earth somewhere ahead of me wasn’t just death magic. It called to me with a strength I’d never known was possible, a magnet that was polarized to what I was, not by fluke, but because magic like mine was intentional, bred into humans to make us more powerful, more equal to the vampires that had hunted here before my country was even an idea in someone’s head.
I gasped aloud and reached out for Dom, but she had her mind shut tight, as I should have. Nick, the Night Mother killed humans, right? I pressed my thoughts against him, ignoring the anxiety the sun gave him and forcing him to focus, for my sake.
Right. The council locked her away to save humanity. But the scrolls had already suggested that story wasn’t true.
My love, what if they locked her away for giving people power? What if the first vampire, the mother of all your kind, was the Prometheus of vampire kind? It made sense to me as I thought more about it. What if the Night Mother was sealed away because she stole power from vampires and gave it to humans?”
It went against everything we’d ever been taught about vampires and their origins. But I’d also been taught they were purely evil, monsters who had escaped from hell and wandered the globe, desperate to hold dominion over man, who was only safe behind the protective arm of the hunters.
“Ooh. I hate it when I realize I’ve been duped,” I hissed to myself. I glanced over at the driver, Shelly, who shot me a smile then turned back to the road.
“Had an epiphany about where you come from, eh?” she said conversationally, and I nodded and kept my mouth shut. “Not surprising. It’s par for the course to come here and question everything you know as the magic rushes through your system for the first time,” she offered. “Just make sure you’ve got that shielding up. It can be overwhelming for others to feel that through you. Like when a person shouts even though it’s inappropriate for the conversation, but they’re wearing headphones. They know you can feel the magic, but that doesn’t mean everyone can.” She glanced at me again. “Speaking from experience.”
I chuckled and relaxed in my seat. She was right. I didn’t need to be shouting at everyone because of the amplification, I simply needed to sit back and enjoy the new sensations as they poured over me. Anyone else who was with me would feel it for themselves in their own time and their own way.
It seemed like we were on the road forever, but we finally reached the pretty, postcard village we’d be staying near. Our driver explained that the village was home to less than ten thousand people, most of whom lived in the city proper, but there were plenty of farms around, and the forest was teeming with deer, foxes, and other wildlife. I took it to mean we were being warned not to hunt the locals, but I’d planned ahead by bringing cold packed blood, and already knew I wouldn’t be a problem.
The car we were in pulled into a garage with large doors on both ends, but no windows. Shelly lowered the door and everyone piled out, rumpled from travel but none the worse for wear. She opened a man door that led straight down a set of stairs and directed us to just follow them until we reached the covered entrance and could be signed in.
I brought up the rear for my group
, and watched as Shelly pulled forward and the next car in our caravan rolled slowly into the garage behind her. When the doors came down, Colette, Ashlynn and Clay climbed out, my lieutenant wearing a scowl as the alpha werewolf tried to plie her for information about the scrolls and the Night Mother.
“Ashlynn. Leave my second alone. Her loyalty is to me, and our master only.” I winked at Colette, and she mimed strangling someone. I scoffed and shook my head, and she pouted as she went down the stairs. “In fact, stay far away from her. You’ve rubbed her the wrong way, and I never know when she’s going to snap.
I held the door for group two, and waited for car number three to pull into the garage. With all my people safely underground or in the small boutique hotel for vampires, I waved my thanks to the last driver and followed Germain into the passageway. The stairs were steep and the tunnel between the garage and the building was long enough that I began to imagine a double cross at the other end, with my people in chains and nefarious bad guys laughing at us while they twirled well-manicured beards.
I knew it was silly, but the imagery was so real in my mind that the sight of the elderly woman behind the desk, handing out keys, actually startled me. Stonehenge was only a couple of miles away now, and I was itching to get my sun-fearing vampire-types safely squared away so I could go for a walk in the pretty green fields that surrounded the mystical stones.
