Leonides reached out to steady me, but I waved him off. Just as had happened when Nigellus dragged me through space with his demonic teleportation abilities, I was someplace entirely new. This was obviously the City, though even here, the choking plant life was taking over. What parts of the nearby buildings were still exposed reminded me of gothic architecture from photos of old European cities.
Mostly, though, the details were obscured by vines dripping with giant leaves, and blooms so large a child could have crawled inside to play hide and seek. Except for a couple of guards standing by the doors to the nearest building, the area around us seemed deserted and out of the way—presumably the back entrance to the place, as the cat-sidhe had said.
The two guards looked at us warily as the sidhe’s magic portal snapped closed behind us. Our escort walked up to them fearlessly.
“They are expected,” said the shape-shifter.
The guard on the right gave us another hostile look, but after a moment he dipped his head to the cat-sidhe and opened the door.
“Follow,” the sidhe ordered, glancing at us with large green eyes.
We followed, my skin prickling as I sidled past the scowling guards. Unlike the little cottage where we’d stayed last night, the inside of this massive building had not been spared from the encroaching jungle. What I had briefly taken for an incredibly gaudy carpet was, in fact, moss dotted with tiny white flowers amongst the soft blue-green. Vines hung from the ceiling, and had completely taken over the banister of a massive staircase dominating the central atrium.
I stared, openmouthed, trying to take in the bizarre surroundings. For the first time, I really started to feel like I was enmeshed in a fairy tale. I could picture some medieval bard trying to describe this place—a towering cathedral devoured by Dhuinne’s hungry life. Nervously, I strengthened the whirlwind of earthly magic surrounding me.
The sidhe led us to a pair of massive, intricately carved double doors flanked by more guards. Again, the other Fae deferred to the little shape-shifter after exchanging a few words, dipping their chins in acknowledgement and opening the way for us.
The space beyond was echoing. My first rushed impression was that a church and a courtroom had a baby together, and that baby got eaten by a jungle. The sidhe led us along a central aisle, with overgrown bench seating on either side. Through the vines and leaves, I caught glimpses of people seated there. The room didn’t appear to be packed, but there were a significant number of spectators present.
At the front, a raised dais that was separated into two sections dominated the space. Each half held the sort of long wooden desk and seating that judges used, back on Earth. A dozen or so regal-looking women sat on the right side, and a dozen or so haughty men sat on the left. All of them looked down on us as we approached.
“Honored Court, I bring the vampire and the human adept before you, as agreed,” said our escort.
The woman in the centermost seat on the female side rose. She was stunningly beautiful, with a riot of red curls pinned artfully in place and held up with an emerald tiara. Her pale features were simultaneously delicate and haughty as she examined us.
“Thank you, citizen,” she said. “Your task is complete.”
The cat-sidhe gave an abbreviated little half bow and shifted form, the cat trotting away to find a seat amongst the flora. I turned back to the Court, trying to get a feel for the individuals comprising it. From what I’d been able to piece together, the men made up the Unseelie Court, and the women, the Seelie Court. Collectively, the two sides formed the Fae Court.
I had no clue if this was all of them, or if only some of the members showed up on any given day to do their Courtly duties—whatever those were. Under the circumstances, it seemed unlikely I’d be learning the answer. It wasn’t the sort of question I felt comfortable blurting out, and in the end, it probably wasn’t important to what I was here for.
I had no idea what the protocol was in a place like this. Were we supposed to speak first? It seemed safer to wait for them to go first, and apparently Leonides agreed with that assessment. We stood silently under the regard of two dozen pairs of arrogant eyes until beads of nervous sweat began to form on my brow.
Eventually, the woman spoke, sounding resigned.
“So, it is true, then.”
One of the Unseelie shifted in his seat, meeting the woman’s eyes. “Of course it’s true,” he said waspishly. “Have we not shared the reports from Earth that the last vampire has been... reproducing?” He spat the last word out as though it tasted bad.
“Indeed,” said the woman, eyeing the spreading dead patch of plants around Leonides. “Still, one always likes to have independent confirmation. So, vampire, we have allowed you here today that we might discuss the future.”
I ground my teeth, not pleased at having been immediately relegated to the status of nameless sidekick. Still, I’d known on some level that getting here might require subterfuge about our true motives. If they were more interested in Leonides, I would hang back for now and see what direction the conversation took.
“As long as we also have the opportunity to discuss the present, I’m amenable to that,” Leonides said. “What, exactly, did you want to talk about?”
The female Fae seated herself, folding her hands in front of her. “As you are no doubt aware, your existence poses somewhat of a conundrum, given the treaty between the Fae and the demons. We would like to address that conundrum, to prevent... shall we say, misunderstandings in the future.”
Leonides looked irked. “Misunderstandings? Was there, or was there not a specific provision in the treaty regarding the creation of new vampires?”
The woman raised a gracefully arched brow. “There was not—hence the conundrum. It’s clear now that this lack was an oversight on our part. At the time, the presumption was that the last surviving vampire would not care to risk his future offspring to our weapon.”
It was odd—maybe even a bit creepy—to think of Leonides as being Rans’ offspring. But I supposed, for vampires, you could look at it like that. Knowing that Rans had only turned Leonides in a last ditch attempt to save his friend’s life, I could imagine how conflicted he must have been. Watch Leonides die? Or make him a vampire, knowing that he wouldn’t want it, and knowing the Fae had a weapon that could kill him anyway, like it apparently killed all the other vampires?
“For what it’s worth,” Leonides said. “It’s not as though I asked for this. I’ve got no interest in your war, or your treaty. And now that I’ve managed to neutralize the demon who bound my soul, I’ve got no interest in Hell, either.”
Good one, I thought. Way to sneak the demon-slaying into the conversation.
The Fae regarded him with more interest, and I could make out murmuring from the spectators.
The Seelie woman tilted her head, assessing. “In that case,” she said, “you should have no problem agreeing to our terms.”
I felt Leonides tense beside me. “That depends an awful lot on what those terms are.”
“You will not fight against the Fae for Hell, or raise more vampires for the demons' army,” she said, still watching him closely.
There was a beat of silence, and I held my breath.
“I’m willing to agree to that,” he replied. “And in return?”
“We won’t kill you where you stand,” said the male Fae—the same one who’d spoken earlier.
A shiver ran through me, as I began to appreciate the true degree of danger Leonides had faced, coming here. I also started to worry how I might be able to bring up Jace—the real reason I was here.
“How generous,” Leonides said, not hiding the irony in his tone.
“We will, of course, require your agreement to be magically bound,” said the woman. “Elfryda will see to that now.”
I looked between Leonides and the Fae on the platform, alarmed. Leonides’ jaw was clenched tight, a tendon ticking at the corner. Another Seelie woman stood—this one gray-haired, though sti
ll regal.
“Wait!” I said, the word jerked from me. “Why is he the only one getting ‘bound’? What about your side of the bargain?”
And what did being bound even mean in this context?
The Unseelie Fae sneered at me. “Fae do not lie, human—unlike nightcrawling scum.”
I glared right back at him. “Yeah, and you agreed not to kill him where he stands! I notice you didn’t say a thing about what happens after he leaves!”
Leonides’ hand closed around my wrist, a quelling gesture. “Leave it, Vonnie,” he said under his breath.
TWENTY-SEVEN
THE FEMALE FAE laughed, the sound both light and unexpected. “Oh, dear. This one has a degree of perspicacity, Oren. Fear not, child. If I intended to see your companion staked through the heart with silver, I would not bother with the binding. My honorable colleagues have a different use for him than death, it seems.”
And that was... pretty much the opposite of reassuring. But Leonides’ still gripped my wrist in warning, and I supposed if the Fae really wanted him dead at this juncture, they wouldn’t have put us up for the night and invited us here to their seat of power. He gave a final squeeze and let me go, straightening his shoulders.
“Go ahead and do it, then,” he said.
The Seelie Fae nodded. “Thank you. Elfryda?”
With that, the older woman closed her eyes and started murmuring words I couldn’t understand. I could feel them, though—twisting through the air, gaining power from Dhuinne itself before they wrapped around Leonides’ body and sunk beneath his skin. He let out a sharp breath, but did not react otherwise.
“It is done,” said the red-haired Seelie.
“Fine,” Leonides replied tightly. “Now, there’s another matter we need to discuss.”
“Indeed there is,” said Oren. “You claim to have overcome a demon. As everyone here knows, there is only one way to accomplish such a feat.”
“Dismemberment and encasement in salt to slow their regenerative powers, yes,” Leonides said, like that wasn’t a completely horrific concept.
“Quite,” said Oren. “You will tell us where the body parts of the demon Myrial are hidden.”
“I will,” Leonides said, “if you agree to answer this human’s questions about missing children on Earth in return, and if you vow not to use the knowledge I give you to in any way speed Myrial’s recovery.”
“Speed the demon’s recovery? Rather the opposite, I should think,” the Seelie leader said dryly. “And that seems a reasonable accommodation. The successful removal of even a single demon from the field of play is quite an impressive accomplishment indeed.”
My heart sped up at the realization that I might finally be getting answers to my questions. Fae can’t lie, I reminded myself.
“Very well,” said Leonides. “Parts of Myrial are packed in bags of salt in the following locations, scattered around the Earth...”
It was all I could do not to hold my breath as he rattled off places located across the globe, as desperate as I was to get to the part about Jace and the other children. One of the Unseelie jotted down notes on what looked like a piece of honest-to-god parchment while Leonides spoke. When he was finally finished, the Court members murmured amongst themselves for several moments.
“Your information is useful,” said the Seelie leader. “You may have your human ask her questions.”
I swallowed my instinctive reaction to the ‘your human’ comment. This was my chance.
“My son has been taken by the Unseelie,” I said, schooling my voice not to shake. “Along with a bunch of other children from Earth. I want him back. We want all of them back.”
And damn it, my voice was trembling, despite my best efforts.
The Fae woman frowned, looking at Leonides. “Does she speak of the Tithe? Perhaps something can be arranged regarding her offspring, though not for the others. There is precedence for it when a human parent has magic, though not often, and not recently.”
“No, I’m not talking about the Tithe!” I flared. “Though that’s horrible enough! My son is fourteen years old, and the other children are older, as well. What do you know about this? I need answers!”
If anything, the Seelie appeared confused. “I know nothing of such a thing, adept. The Tithe takes only infants. Your courage in coming here to seek your lost son does you credit, but I fear I cannot help you.”
They can’t lie. My heart sank as I prodded around the edges of her answer, looking for chinks and finding none. Then I caught my breath, my gaze flying to the sneering Unseelie, Oren.
“You!” I said. “Where is my son? Where are the other children?”
But he only stared down at me like I was dirt on his shoe. “The Seelie have answered you already. The Unseelie do not acknowledge interrogation by humans or nightwalkers.”
I gaped at him. “But you agreed to answer my questions in exchange for information about the demon!”
“My counterpart agreed,” he replied in a bored tone. “Besides, I requested all of the locations of the demon’s remains. I received only some of them. Given the degree of hatred the vampire clearly holds for this demon, there would have been considerably more pieces than described.”
I turned my expression of disbelief on Leonides. The vampire’s face didn’t so much as twitch, but his lack of an immediate disavowal was telling.
“We are done here,” Oren said, gesturing in the direction of the cat-sidhe. “Remove them.”
The cat hopped down from a bench and trotted up to us, tail twitching expectantly. But... that couldn’t be it. Had I really just risked my sanity and Leonides’ life for this? Sorry, we don’t know anything about it. Bye, now!
I was too shell-shocked to immediately protest, and then Leonides had me by the arm. I drew breath to say something unwise—something that would probably get us both into trouble.
He squeezed sharply. “Not in here,” he said, the words pitched for my ears alone. “Let’s get outside. Then we’ll regroup. We’re not finished yet.”
In my distraction and emotional upheaval, Dhuinne’s magic was howling at the edges of my barriers. That was probably what allowed Leonides to hustle me out of the Court, following the twitching black tail of the Fae cat trotting ahead of us. By the time I’d managed to strengthen my shields enough to banish the howling madness around me, we were exiting the building by a different set of doors than the ones we’d come in earlier.
Outside was a much larger plaza area, and unlike the sheltered back entrance, I could see Fae walking here and there on the main road beyond. Much of the plaza had minimal plant life compared to most of what I’d seen of Dhuinne—perhaps because it was paved in stone and routinely trampled by the passage of many feet. There was, however, a particularly gnarly looking tangle of thorny plants near the center of the open space. A statue, perhaps. Or a fountain, with plant life taking advantage of the water supply.
The cat-sidhe led us in that direction, and I took a moment to wonder why we were leaving by the main door, when it had allegedly been so important to enter from the back so we wouldn’t freak out the citizens. Mostly, though, I was focused on running through possible next steps to get the answers that had just been denied to me.
Between that and keeping my shields from collapsing due to my own distraction, I was taken by surprise when Leonides came to an abrupt halt as the cat led us past the overgrown fountain or statue or whatever it was.
“Oh, hell, no,” he breathed, the tightly restrained rage in his tone prickling the hair on the back of my neck.
I whirled to see what was wrong, only to stagger back a step as my adrenaline spiked at the same time my gorge rose. I gasped, my vision wavering for a moment as I locked my knees—barely remembering to hold my barriers steady at the same time.
There was a man—or rather, a Fae—trapped in the tangle of plant life covering the raised stone plinth I’d taken for public art.
His body hung limp, naked from the waist up. He
had the look of all the male Fae I’d seen so far, with exquisite bone structure and long hair—though his was lank and matted, bleached almost to whiteness. Tattoos snaked up his chest, spreading from a single point above his navel like upside-down tree roots.
He’d been... crucified. A crown of rusty, spiked metal circled his forehead, trails of dried blood dripping down from it. A thin iron collar, also spiked, hung around his neck. But the most horrible part—the most sickening, mind-twisting part—was the way he was suspended. Giant, living thorns pierced his arms, torso, and legs like pins holding a butterfly. There were dozens of them, many as long as my arm. More blood dripped from the places he’d been pierced.
I looked around wildly, struck by the sudden notion that the cat-sidhe must have led us this way specifically so we would see the tortured Fae as we passed. But our escort had disappeared without a trace, leaving not so much as a stray whisker behind.
None of the other Fae in my field of view seemed to be giving the grisly tableau much notice, beyond casting occasional curious glances in our direction. No one else was nearby—we’d been abandoned here alone with the sad, suspended body. Alone in the Fae City, with no way to get back to the gate, and to Earth.
“What...” I croaked, only to shake my head and try again. “Why...? Why would they do this?”
Was this man some kind of criminal? Was this the equivalent of sticking someone in the stocks in the middle of the town square? Good god... these same creatures had my son—
Leonides had stood frozen while these thoughts rushed through my head. Now, he lunged forward, ignoring the thorns tearing at clothing and flesh as he leapt onto the raised plinth.
“Goddamn it!” He reached out a hand, closing it around the tortured Fae’s shoulder. “Albigard!”
Vampire Bound: Book Two Page 20