Kidnapped by the Gentleman

by Drake LaMarque

  Gabriel snapped to attention, Marco had come in the other doors with the others, they were now circling around the other side.

  Beside him, Dante hissed, and Gabriel knew from experience that he was baring his sharp fangs, ready to feed. Gabriel felt no pity for any who would feel the pierce of Dante’s fangs tonight.

  The cultists closest to Gabriel drew daggers and knives and turned to face them. “No mercy!” Gabriel cried. “Rescue Cedric!”

  He rushed at the nearest two cultists, swinging his cutlass.

  Chapter 27

  In which a battle is lost and won

  There was something wrong.

  I knew a little then, what was supposed to be happening. It was the thing on my back. The chanting was waking it up.

  The chanting was delightfully discordant, hurting my ears like the ringing of an incessant bell while a child banged on a drum at random. But the discordant pain was correct, somehow.

  Something had interrupted it, and the pain was at the edge of my consciousness, waiting to strike again. I thought perhaps if the chant was more constant the pain would stay away.

  The chanting was accentuated by some other voices. They were cutting through the discordance. I inhaled as deeply as I could through my nose. There was something in my mouth, and my jaw ached from clenching down on it, so much that I couldn’t let go of it.

  I gave up on that, and tried to open my eyes instead.

  The room was bright, glaring, and my eyelids fluttered.

  A voice cut through my blurry mind. It was a voice I knew. A voice I really liked. Who was that?

  “Cut him free!”

  I saw the flash of a blade, and the tension on my left wrist eased. Gratefully, I curled my arm towards me. My back ached still, but something didn’t seem as directly dangerous as it had been.

  In a moment my right wrist was released as well, and then my legs. I curled on my side and sighed with relief, the thing in my mouth fell out as well and I smiled a little at the relief that washed over me.

  “All right, Cedric?” I opened my eyes to see Gabriel. In his glorious, impressive garb as Captain Lucifer. I wasn’t at all sure he was really there, but I was happy to see him all the same.

  “Hello?” I said, and my voice sounded very far away indeed.

  “Get back, Captain Lucifer, you foul dog!” That was Harrow’s voice. I tried to sit up but my head spun and something behind my eyes throbbed, I crumpled back onto my elbows and watched helplessly as Harrow went for Gabriel with a dagger raised overhead.

  Gabriel brought his cutlass up with a swift movement that my blurry eyes could hardly follow. There was the ringing sound of steel on steel and it stuck in my ears like a whining gnat that wouldn’t fade away.

  “Some cheek you have, calling me foul, when you were about to sacrifice this boy for your own means,” Gabriel hissed, and wrenched Harrow’s weapon from his hand.

  “He chose it,” Harrow said, his voice going deeper in tone. “He came to us and begged for deliverance.”

  My mind was clouded, but even still I was relatively sure that wasn’t the case. “Don’t think so…” I managed to grate out.

  They ignored me.

  Harrow backed away from Gabriel and his cutlass, and they were still arguing but I couldn’t exactly follow the words they were saying. I had to get my head back together, somehow. I wondered if anyone had any coffee.

  I turned my head slowly, looking around the room. There were hooded figures, battling pirates. The pirates were cutting people down, one of the candles had been knocked over.

  My stomach lurched, nausea surged and my back stung as if whipped with a birch rod. I cried out as loudly as I could manage without vomiting.

  I heard a cry, which felt like it was responding to my cry of agony. Then strong hands seized my hips and pulled me off the table.

  “There now, I’ve got you Cedric, you’re quite safe,” a deep and familiar voice murmured.

  My vision had gone blurry from the intensity of the pain but it cleared as the strong hands bore me up. I blinked until I could see Dante’s face, his fangs were out and there was a drop of blood in the corner of his mouth.

  “You came for me,” I whispered.

  “Of course I did.”

  “My back…” my words died in my throat, explaining it all seemed beyond me.

  He wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me close against him, drew his sword with his other hand and skewered one of the cultists. Blood sprayed impressively into the air, and I got quite distracted watching the scarlet sheet of viscous fluid. The way the candlelight caught the colour was really quite beautiful.

  Dante tensed and inhaled the scent, then, shoving me behind him he fell on the body and fed.

  It was, I thought vaguely, rather horrifying to watch him like this.

  I directed my eyes elsewhere in the room. Gabriel had Harrow backed against the table, the point of his cutlass under his chin. Harrow still seemed to be talking, which beggared belief.

  Marco and Kaito were fighting together, side by side and cutting through hooded figures with ease. It certainly seemed as if the pirates were winning, and easily too, which was definitely a relief.

  They came to rescue me. Gabriel cares, Dante cares. They all want me to be safe! I let myself feel a little thrill of excitement.

  A hand gripped my wrist, which was sore from the ropes and I winced.

  “That’s it, Chosen One, come with me now and we can still salvage the ritual,” a woman’s voice said. I turned to look at Natalia. She drew me back, away from Dante, which wasn’t what I wanted at all.

  “No, not that.” I pulled against her hold on me but I didn’t feel as strong as normal.

  “It’s all right, pretty, lets go.”

  Had they drugged me somehow? Was there something in the oil perhaps? Or maybe it was simply the magic and my tattoo.

  I bit my tongue in the hopes that the pain would clear my mind, and then I sucked in the biggest breath I could manage.

  “Cedric!” That was Dante. Natalia pulled me close against her chest and brought her knife to my throat. My back stung everywhere it touched her and I whimpered with the pain of it.

  I blinked, feeling my senses return at this sudden and very immediate threat to my life.

  “Don’t you harm him,” Dante said. He leaned forward, his shoulders forward, his sword raised and his other hand before him in a quelling gesture. “If you cut his skin I swear I will make you suffer.”

  “Oh, you’re a vampire,” Natalia said, she was moving, pulling me back towards the door. “How fascinating. We could offer you so much, you know. The Unknowable Way would treat you like a king. You could have the boy, even, as long as you let us do the ritual. You could have everything you wanted.”

  I lifted my leg to try and stamp on her foot but she’d pulled me off balance enough that I couldn’t get any traction, and stumbled forward, grazing my throat on the knife. Just another thread of pain through my body. I whimpered louder.

  Dante’s eyes fixed on my neck and his pupils expanded, slitting in the middle like a cat’s eyes. His mouth dropped open and his sword hand wavered.

  “That’s right,” Natalia hauled me upright again. “You want him? You want his blood? You can have it, just come with me.”

  We were almost at the door now.

  “Sister!” I heard Harrow call from the table. “What are you-”

  The voice cut off into a gurgle, and I imagined Gabriel had cut his throat but I didn’t dare look away from Dante. In my ear I heard Natalia whisper “Rupert,” in a pained way. Her grip on me tightened.

  “Dante, focus,” I rasped. “It’s me, you said you wouldn't… you said I was safe with you, remember?”

  Dante’s eyes flicked to my eyes and seemed to become a little more human.

  He snarled and lunged forward, thrusting with his rapier. Natalia pulled the knife away from my throat and wrapped her arm around my neck instead, still trying to get away. B
ut Dante’s aim had been true and she collapsed, with me on top of her.

  She was gasping and twitching and her grip on me had loosened so I rolled away, cursing as the robe got caught under her.

  “Fucking, fuck…” I yanked at the robe and it tore, revealing more of my legs. Dante offered me his hand and pulled me to my feet.

  He exhaled slowly and nodded once at me. “Are you all right?”

  “No,” I said. My hands found his chest and I leaned my weight on him. “I am most distinctly not all right and I’d like to go back to the ship now, please.”

  A body fell nearby and Gabriel appeared beside Dante. “All right?”

  “More or less,” Dante said. “He’s asking to go back to the ship.”

  “I think that’s a fine idea.” Gabriel ruffled my hair and then looked around the room. “A few ran for it. I think the wall is on fire judging from the smoke. Anything worth stealing in this place?”

  I shook my head. “No idea, Harrow must have money but…”

  Gabriel nodded. “Back to the horses! Grab anything that looks valuable!”

  “What happened to Harrow?” I asked, suddenly needing to know for sure that he was gone from the world.

  “The leader? Dead,” Gabriel said. He nodded at me. “You don’t have to fear him anymore.”

  Dante wrapped his arm around me and took some of my weight. I glanced behind to see Natalia’s body but there was nothing there but a pool of blood. “Natalia? She’s gone...”

  Dante glanced over and huffed his breath out. “Never mind, let’s get you out of here before the smoke fills the room.”

  I didn’t argue with that.

  Chapter 28

  In which there is a deeply uncomfortable horse ride

  The ride back to the ship was deeply unpleasant. Once we were out in the cool night air, I realised how little protection from the elements the thin linen robe offered. I shivered against Dante’s side.

  One good thing was that the tattoo on my back seemed to have stopped moving. Whether it was the chanting, or enough of the oil had been rubbed off in the scuffle with Natalia, I had no idea.

  The crew slowly assembled out the front, where there were a flock of horses milling about eating the rose bushes. There were people leaving the house who I didn’t recognise, but guessed from their garb that they were servants. Marco walked out, in conversation with a chambermaid. She had an armful of fine silk dresses, and the two of them were laughing.

  “It appears there’s no loyalty to the cult among the servants,” Marco said, as he ambled over to Gabriel, a handful of gold jewellery in his fist. “Andrea there assures me that there were never any pirates here, and their master died hosting a wild party that got out of hand.”

  “Excellent news.”

  I shuddered extra hard against Dante’s side.

  Gabriel took one look at me shivering, shrugged off his black coat and draped it around my shoulders as Dante let go of me. It was an instant relief. I had assumed that the fabric hitting my abused back would smart but it simply felt warm and soft. I slipped my arms into the sleeves and wrapped it around me. At least three sizes too big, but it smelled like Gabriel. Gunpowder, sweat and the salt of the sea.

  “Come on, Cedric, you can ride with me,” he said. Dante shot him a look, and Gabriel waved his hand.

  “There’s blood on his throat, I don’t want you getting distracted, Dante. The house is burning and we need to be well clear before anyone else turns up.” Gabriel offered his hand to me and I took it, glancing at Dante apologetically.

  “There is unfinished business,” Dante said.

  “We’ll talk in my cabin,” Gabriel said, his tone becoming impatient. He lifted me by the waist and I had to scramble to get my leg over the horse. Damned uncomfortable it was too, as I had nothing like riding gear on.

  Gabriel held me with one arm as he led the pirates back to the ship. They were not all natural equestrians.

  But I was largely distracted from the amusing sight of Marco trying to stay in the saddle because I was in so damned much physical distress. I had to try and wad up the remaining bits of torn robe between my legs, which offered some protection at least, but that left my bare legs rubbing against the side of the horse, which wasn’t at all downy and soft.

  Then there was the sting in my ankles and wrists from the harsh ropes that had lashed me to the table, and actually, now that I had the time to think about it, all my pre-bath aches in my shoulders and back had returned as well.

  On top of all of that my throat had literally been cut. Not enough to endanger my life and, when I felt gingerly at it with my fingertips, I could tell it had stopped bleeding, but it still bloody well hurt. I could have died!

  Gabriel’s strong arm kept me pressed against his chest and his warmth and solidarity behind me was a comfort, at least.

  Finally the docks came into view and I felt a certain amount of tension leave my chest. I began to shake again and pulled Gabriel’s coat closer around me.

  Gabriel pulled his horse up near to the ship.

  “Can you get down all right?” He murmured in my ear. In all truth, I probably could have tried, but I was feeling far too sorry for myself to admit it. I liked the way he’d been holding me too much. I shook my head.

  “I don’t think so.”

  “All right, hold on and I’ll lift you down,” he said.

  I gripped the saddlehorn and steadied myself as Gabriel swung down elegantly off the horse. I really had to ask him about his past one of these days, as it seemed he’d had a lot of practise in the saddle.

  He lifted me down as if I weighed nothing, and set me on my feet. “All right?”

  I had half been pretending I couldn’t manage, but after the horse ride my legs were quite sore, and my body felt very tired indeed.

  I gripped his arm. “Not quite as steady as I could be.”

  “Hmm.” He bent and scooped me up in his arms. I gratefully put my arms around his neck.

  “I’ll make sure the horses are returned to the stable,” Kaito said, and took the reins of Gabriel’s horse.

  “Thank you, Kaito. Everyone else, back to the ship and cast off. I want to be well clear of Casablanca in the next hour. Dante, a word in my cabin.”

  With that, Gabriel carried me onto the ship, into his cabin and laid me down gently on his bed. Dante was close behind us, and closed the door behind him, then went around the room lighting the lamps.

  Outside I could hear the shouts of preparation to leave, unfurling the sails and so on. It was a funny time of night to be leaving but I did agree with Gabriel that it would be good to leave as soon as possible. I settled myself on the bed, tugging at the skirt of the robe, which was determined to ride up scandalously. I had no reason at all to feel shy, except that Gabriel was looking me over, scrutinising me. I felt rather exposed.

  He sat on the bed beside me and he picked up my hand to examine my wrist, frowning deeply at the abrasion there.

  “Dante, if you wouldn’t mind, there’s a salve in the third drawer by the door. Brown clay pot, would you bring it here?”

  “Of course.” Dante brought the small clay pot to him, and Gabriel opened it, dipped his finger in and then spread the salve over the marks on my wrist. It numbed it a little, and then warmed gently. I sighed in relief as one of the pains in my body vanished.

  To my own surprise, I felt tears well up in my chest. I swallowed the lump in my throat, and then swallowed again.

  Dante took a little salve, sat on the other side of me and started rubbing it into my other wrist.

  The simple fact of the two of them looking after me, of being gentle and kind, it brought home just how much danger I had been in. I’m not at all sure why, since I was safe now, I knew that, but I was overcome with emotion.

  I nearly died.

  My breath caught in my chest and tears slipped out of my eyes. I tugged my hand back from Gabriel and dabbed at my eyes with the sleeve of his coat.

  “It’
s all right,” Dante said. “You’re safe.”

  I looked at Gabriel, biting my lip.

  The ship moved, a swelling under us, and I knew we’d cast off from Casablanca and had truly left the cult behind. The cult who had been largely killed, anyway. The cult the pirates had saved me from.

  Gabriel’s lips turned into a frown and his eyebrows pulled together, the picture of sympathy. “I’m so sorry, Cedric,” he said. “I should have been more careful. You shouldn’t have had to go through any of that.”

  I started blubbering. The fear and the relief overwhelmed me. I covered my face with my hands and curled in on myself.

  I felt Dante move behind me, getting closer, putting his arms around me. “It’s all right. We won’t let them anywhere near you again.”

  The sobbing lasted perhaps a minute before I felt a little less dreadful. Pressing myself against Dante’s chest helped, and I felt Gabriel’s hand on my thigh, his thumb rubbing gentle circles into my skin.

  Finally, I thought I could speak without crying, so I dropped my hands from my face and sniffed. Gabriel smiled softly at me and reached for my foot. I pulled them up onto the bed and he gently and quietly rubbed salve on the marks on my ankles.

  It was incredibly sweet of him.

  “Thank you,” I said, my voice a little watery.

  “Of course.”

  “Is there something, uh, that could clean the oil off my back?” I asked.

  Dante found a rag, pulled the coat off my shoulders and gently wiped at my skin. Nothing had moved on there since the Manor house but it felt better to know the oil was cleaned. He pulled the coat back on, presumably because I was still shivering a little. And then his arms were around me again and I felt almost content.

  Gabriel finished gently rubbing my ankles, and left one hand on my leg as he straightened up to look at me, wrapped in his coat and then in his quartermaster.

  “I suppose we ought to talk about what happens next,” Dante said, slowly. His grip tightened on me, just a bit.