The Emperor

by N. M. Brown

  The Emperor

  THE DARKSET DESIRES SERIES

  Contents

  The Emperor

  Copyright

  THE EMPEROR

  I

  II

  III

  IV

  V

  VI

  VII

  VIII

  IX

  X

  WANDS OF NINE

  XI

  XII

  XIII

  XIV

  XV

  XVI

  XVII

  XVIII

  XIX

  XX

  SEVEN OF SWORDS

  XXI

  XXII

  XXIII

  XXIV

  XXV

  XXVI

  XXVII

  XXVIII

  XXIX

  PENTACLES OF FOUR

  XXXI

  XXXII

  XXXIII

  XXXIV

  XXXV

  EPILOGUE

  Dedicated my family,

  who despite the fact I ‘can’t spell,’

  have supported me.

  ‘THE EMPEROR’ Copyright © 2017 by N. M. Brown. All Rights Reserved.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

  Cover designed by Celin Graphics

  @celingraphics

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  N. M. Brown

  Visit my website at www. nmbrown2017. wixsite. com/nmbrown2017

  Printed in the United Kingdom

  First Printing: August 2019

  Kindle Direct Publishing’s

  All Tarot Card meanings and descriptions based on the Rider Waite cards; available at Biddytarort. com.

  THE EMPEROR

  Adopting a fatherly role, supporting your family, protecting and defending your loved ones. You may be the bread winner or the ‘rock’ for those who rely on your stability and security.

  Authority, Establishment, Structure, a Father Figure.

  CUPS OF EIGHT

  (Reversed)

  Adrift and suck at a fork in the road.

  I

  "M .s Headly I really must recommend against this. You’ve only been with us for a few weeks. You need time to rest. You need to-".

  "If you tell me what I 'need' one more time I'll make you regret it.” Echo growled at the nurse, looking up through her tangled curtain of hair. The sterile hospital room was dappled in morning rays and bent over the plastic covered bed, Echo breathed heavily, one hand clutching her side. Brain and gunshot wound protested with every movement, but her stubbornness could out-sprint them both. It always did.

  "Instead, listen to me closely. You and your merry band of cutthroats shredded my clothes. You even slashed my underwear like savages. Therefore, your only job is to get me something to wear that isn't this ugly paper bag. Your only job, is to collect what little you didn’t destroy and bring it to me.” Echo hissed as pain zipped up her spine. She didn’t let it show on her face despite her dying to knees buck and her eyelids drooping heavily. She only grasped the bed sheets tighter.

  "Ms. Headly, you are in no condition to leave here-"

  "What did I tell you about telling me what I can and can't do?" Echo’s voice was deadly. She was getting out of here if it killed her.

  "Very well.” And the nurse curtly walked out the room, her nose pointed high in the air. Echo just glared at the bouncy blonde bob as it retreated and only when the door closed did she allow her forehead to fall to the mattress; her side in agony.

  She'd only been shot three weeks ago. Her wound had healed and only the blood loss had concerned the doctors, but she’d pulled through. The bastards wanted her to stay for another three weeks until her muscles and bowels had fully healed but Echo was having none of that. Fuck them. She had better things to do than sit in bed being poked and prodded. The only thing that had stopped her all this time, the great Saint McQueen.

  Though his first visits had been brief McQueen had continued to visit Echo on a regular basis, asking her questions about Sydney, about Mrs. Badal and her bussiness in teh House. He was a very nosy mouse trying to find some cheese, but Echo also suspected his visits were more to do with meeting his budding love, the preppy Nurse Willows. However, it was good to know his Sainthood still forced him to put aside his distaste for her and visit. Her lamb was still out to pasture.

  Then, but a week ago he appeared informing her with a stiff upper lip that finding Sydney Summers was now a low priority and until new evidence came to light, it would be put on the back-burner. Too many men pulling to many hours searching for a woman who was considered by some to be a hero, killing a serial killer.

  "Of course, should you supply the Police with any new - or old - information regarding Syndey Summers, the case would reopen." He'd told her, though his eyes couldn't meet hers. Instead he looked at the ugly painting abover her head, talking to the wide sillouette of London.

  "I've already told you dear Detective, I have nothing to say regarding Sydney Summers. Her Sins are most grave, but im sure justice will prevail." She'd waved him off.

  She had no doubt that the decision to cut Syndey loose came from someone high up in the food chain, someone she suspected was in Archer's pocket. If her family had told McQueen to heel, it was because they had saved the kill for her. A get-well present of sorts and the first reason Echo had to leave this aweful Hospital sooner rather than later.

  Echo had just about collected her thoughts, when with a sudden gust, her door swung open and her snobby Nurse came back. Echo straightened quickly hiding any pain on her face as she regarded what the woman held. "Fresh scrubs. It's all we have.” The placed the folded stack on teh bed with a fake smile.

  Eyeing the thin, pink cotton patterned with happy hearts and perfectly symmetrical creases, Echo ground her teeth together. Ugly and a fashion disaster, Echo wouldn’t normally be caught dead in such monstrosity, but dead girls walking couldn’t be choosers.

  "They'll do.” She answered through trembling lips. Twisting to the door had hurt more than she dare let on; pulling at stitches that didn’t want to be pulled.

  “We did have your shoes, but they seem to have been misplaced. Unfortunately, all we have are these crocs from Lost & Found.” There was mant to be an apology in her smile, but the bitchy Nurse didn't sound it and like fuck had Echo’s boots gone walk-about.

  They were a grand’s worth of designer labels and imported leather. More than likely, they were tucked in someone’s cupboard ready to be covered in vomit and booze on a night out.

  "I'll have the doctor draw up you an A.M.A form and he will be along shortly.” The nurse breezed on and with a swoosh of arrogant sass, she left again.

  "Bitch.” Echo hissed before looking at the scrubs she grasped in her hands.

  Why anyone would willingly wear this obnoxious attire was beyond her, but with no other choice - other than going naked, which wasn't off the table - Echo slowly and painstakingly dragged on the elasticised pants and baggy top. Seeing as she'd arrived in all black, and dress like a sex goddess, the joke wasn't lost on her. Let them laugh though. She would soon be out of here… as soon as she could straighten her back again.

  Once more, as Echo doubled over in pain the door opened and as she turned to see who it was she almost wished for the Nurse back.

  "I see that you look as da
shing in our scrubs as the nurses do, Ms. Headly.” Doctor Chuckles chuckled.

  He was reason number two she was so desperate to leave; overly cheerful Doctors gave her the creeps. People who killed daily should be lurking in the shadows and behind bushes. Not smiling over her in a small, sterile room, making promises they couldn’t keep and playing God. The bastard above fucked with life well enough on His own without help from people in lab coats.

  "Now, Nurse Benton tells me you would like to leave. Is that right?" He looked down at her with his big, bushy white eyebrows and clean shaven, face and Echo just knew he was picturing her as a three-year-old child. No one spoke to grown adults like that. Her doctor was screwy; reason number three.

  "There's no 'like to' about it. I'm leaving. Whether you get your forms signed or not is your problem. Not mine.” Echo didn't bother smiling pleasantly. Reason four: everyone here smiled enough she needn't bother and reason five: she was sick of everyone doing it.

  "Yes.” He chuckled again, setting Echo’s teeth on edge. “Nurse Benton made that quite clear.” With an exasperated sigh, he pulled a clipboard from behind his back and held them out to her gingerly, like she would change her mind any minute. "Here you are Ms. Headly. I really do wish you would reconsider. Staying here for the run up to Christmas isn't ideal, I know, but we try to make it jolly here. You know, my mother would say-"

  "Give me the fucking paper.” Echo snarled. Reason six: she knew more about this guy's fucking mother than the Pope knew God. Scrawling her name on the dotted line she shoved past the Doctor, ignoring any and all pain, darting from the room before he coudl offer her a lollipop.

  Fuck, she needed a drink.

  ◆◆◆

  Echo scowled at the Christmas lights in shop windows as Jacob - ever faithful Jacob - pulled around the cobbled streets of Rippling. She never liked Christmas. Her family had never celebrated it, so she and her brother Adin followed suit.

  It had taken them five yearsto figure something was going on every winter: the themed lights, the bustling crowds, the smell of roasting nuts. No tree ever went up in the House, no gifts were exchanged, or large dinners cooked and yet Echo never felt she missed out on anything. The only thing they did partake in was the Nativity story around they roaring fire: the bastard child, a lying mother and the baked shamans that followed a firefly into the deadly desert. Echo, in school, had heard the PG versions, but she knew which one she preferred.

  “It’s nice to know you’ll be home again, Ms. Echo.” Jacobs soft, light voice spoke from the front of the car as once again he drove her home. To say he was around so much, ready to pick her up, they rarely spoke. “Sandi and I were wondering when you’d make it back.”

  “I’d have been home a lot sooner if I’d had it my way.” She grumbled, sneering at an inflatable snowman that waved in the wind. Another tradition that made no sense: when did the festive holiday become so plastic? “I’m assuming the place hasn’t fallen down without me?” She asked. In truth, she was more than a bit curious about how things had been going since the dead serial killer had been drag from their basement.

  “The House has been much the same.” Jacob answered slowly, turning into their drive.

  Echo waited for more, but nothing was said. “That’s it, just ‘the same’?” Echo told herself her heart didn’t drop at the thought of her family doing fine without her, but Jacob didn’t elaborate.

  Pulling up to the House, all he did do was smile at her through the rear-view mirror as she threw open the door and exited.

  The front of the House looked the same; the same warm glow from the windows, the same low hum of conversation from the Drawing room and Library and the same line of expensive cars lined up to the right. Gone were the police, gone were the dead bodies and gone was any sense of humanity. Only the demons were left to play, and it was still home despite a little extra blood and guts.

  She hadn’t told anyone she was coming so she wasn’t surprised to find no one waiting for her in the entrance hall. A few guests gave her disgusted looks - her outfit an insult to the eyes - but she was otherwise ignored, and she moved to her kitchen and then the back staircase, happy to hide and rest for the nigt. She made it up one floor but stopped, surprised to see her secret bookcase ajar. Guests never used her stairway; it wasn’t grand or luxurious like the main stairway so it was unusual to be open.

  Poking her head out she glanced out to see the door for The Summer Annex, the Midnight Room and the Winter Wing, all closed with nothing else amiss. She stepped closerdown the hall, her ears pricked for any noise, but strangely found none. It wasn’t like the Sins not to be entertaining at this time, but then again, she hadn’t been here for weeks. They might have left for heinous Sins aroudn the world. Shrugging, she brushed off the thought, moving back to the bookcase when a sudden deep voice startled her.

  "Good. It's about time you were back girl.”

  Spinning to face him, it took Echo an extra second to smile as Archer appeared directly behind her. He was sporting a new look today and Echo was taken a back. Inspired by Archer's United Arab Emirates contacts, he was wearing a traditional cream Kandura coat infused with exquisite gold thread. His beard was trimmed, his pale skin slightly tanned and in the weeks gone, he’d lost the cane; instead, holding his hands lightly behind his back.

  Echo kept her smile plastered in place, but suddenly felt adrift. Archers eyes were on her but she could tell they went right on through. “Good evening Archer. How's business?"

  The Sin of Greed smiled. It was a smile Echo had only ever seen him give to her and she felt her body relax at the sight of it. "Ah, you always know what questions to ask? Come. Join us.” He beckoned and walked back towards the Winter Wing; the door suddenly open.

  Instantly, Echo was self-conscious of what she was wearing; baggy, ugly pink scrubs were not flattering but it wasn’t like she could ask for a sec’ to change. Instead, she continued into the Winter Wing and her heart pulsed with pleasure as she saw all the Sins sat around the table. Despite the drama of a few weeks ago, every one of them had remained.

  Walking with confidence, Archer took his seat at the head of the table, his six other siblings either side leaving one solitary seat at the other end. Echo felt caress of each Sin ripple across her skin as she lowered herself into it, each giving his a stroke of greeting.

  “Hello sweet girl?” Twilight cried with a dazzling smile that showed all his teeth. His hair was swept back lightly and curled shimmering with gold, while glitter coating his cheeks. Dark purple eyeshadow made his almond eyes pop against his blue gown and his gaze narrowed with a coy smile. “Where have you been darling? We’ve missed you.”

  Echo suppressed a glowing blush of pride but had no doubt Bris felt it. “I was slowly dying of course.” She joked, “But what can’t kill me will only make me stronger.”

  Twilight threw back his head and laughed, giving her a wink. “We can only hope darling.”

  Settling, Echo looked to everyone else and pleasantly noted they hadn't changed. Nic dozed in his chair while Gala sat to his left swirling an expensive red wine around a glass. To Echo’s left, Twilight held a compact mirror and was checking his hair, while Samantha was speaking in hushed toneswith Archer, naked of course. Mara watched everyone with a predatory gaze, leaving only Bris, who hadn’t taken her wide purple eyes off Echo since she’d entered to room.

  “How do you feel?” The little girl asked, her hands folded neatly in her lap.

  “As good as new.” Echo said curtly, lying. Her stomach throbbed and her vision was going slightly blurry with the pain.

  "Well, thats good." Bris respond but before she could say more, like a well-oiled machine all the Sins turned to face Archer.

  Echo had seen them move like a hive-mind before, but it never failed to take her breath away. Sat tall at the end of the table, Archer looked to each of his siblings in turn. His eyes only drifted over Echo, which stung just a tad, but she said nothing and quickly suppressed such a silly emotion
s like jealousy.

  “We are once again, a family. We are whole again.” Archer spoke to them all.

  Echo repressed a smile, but his words were music to her ears: family, whole. She was one with them and her was her confirmation.

  “But we can be more. In a few days, we will be stronger then ever, should all go to plan.” Archer’s eyes moved to Echo who absently rubbed her wound. Yes, she wasn’t at full strength yet, but soon she would be. She would be ready for this plan.