The Rhiannon Chronicles

by Maggie Shayne

  “Alive,” Lou said, and he lifted his arm. “Type O. Universal donor.”

  I swore my knees gave out in relief. I reached for the wall to support myself and found Roland’s shoulder instead.

  “Thank the gods,” he whispered.

  Then he walked past me, right up to Roxanne’s bedside. Leaning over her, he pressed his palm to her face. “I am so sorry, Roxanne. I will never ever be able to put into words how–”

  “Roland?” Roxy asked weakly.

  “Yes, yes, I’m here.” He leaned closer.

  Roxanne’s hand shot up from the bed, and she gripped the front of Roland’s shirt. “When I’m strong enough....”

  “Yes?”

  “I’m gonna kick your ass.” Then she let go and her hand dropped to the pillows again.

  “This is my second round,” Lou said. “We’re gonna need another donor after that, but she’s gonna be okay.”

  “I am greatly relieved to know that,” I said.

  Roxy looked my way and winked. “Takes more than one antiquated... addle-brained... vampire... to do in Roxanne O’Malley,” she said.

  I smiled. “I’ll come visit you later, Roxanne,” I backed into the hallway again, looking toward the closed door to the guest room where Eric and Tamara had been staying. I got a chill to my soul.

  “Children, go on to your rooms now,” I told them. “I need to focus on my friends. All right?”

  They all nodded, and Gareth looked at his hands, thinned his lips in frustration. “I wish my power worked on vampires,” he said.

  “I wish mine didn’t,” said Blue, her voice soft.

  I frowned and then crouched low to put myself at eye level with the child. “Gareth, how do you know your healing power doesn’t work on vampires?”

  “I’ve always known.”

  “Yes, but how? Have you ever tried?”

  “No, I’ve never tried. Our keepers and Dr. Bouchard always said….” Then his brows lifted. “But they lie, don’t they?”

  “Yes. Yes, they do.” I held out my hand and he took it. Together we walked to the bedroom door, and after a brief knock, I opened it and we went inside.

  Eric sent me an irritated look, but then seeing it was me, the irritation vanished. He noticed the children beside me, nodded, his relief palpable. Then he returned his attention to the woman in the bed.

  Tamara’s face was burned very badly. One side of it looked like melted wax, with bright pink places alongside charred black ones. Thin ribbons of skin hung loose. Wet towels were draped over her head. I didn’t see any hair beneath them.

  “The children shouldn’t be in here,” Eric said.

  I didn’t reply right away, still stunned into speechlessness by the sight of my friend.

  “She’s in so much pain,” Eric went on. “I’ve given her my own blood. It helped somewhat, but…not enough. How many hours till dawn?”

  “We may not have to wait for dawn, Eric.” Turning, I nodded at Gareth.

  He moved up to the opposite side of the bed from Eric. Roland wrapped his arms around my shoulders and held me close. The other children gathered in front of us.

  Gareth held his hands over Tamara’s head. I watched for a long time as nothing happened, but then there was a faint green glow emanating from his palms, so slight that at first I wasn’t certain whether it was real or whether I was conjuring it by wanting it so badly. And then, within seconds, there was no denying it. The glow beamed.

  I remembered the heat of his healing touch from when he’d used it in the barn on that injured lycan girl, and I cringed as I realized more heat on already burned flesh was going to hurt far more than Tamara could bear.

  “It’s cold, Rhiannon,” Ramses said, reading me in that uncanny way of his. “Can’t you feel it? It’s cold this time.”

  Lifting my brows, I stepped out of Roland’s arms and moved closer, holding my hand out toward the glow and feeling for myself the coolness of that energy. Beneath it, the skin began to move, to uncurl, and turn to a soft healthy pink right before my eyes. The charred black bits fell away and the raw, red parts covered themselves in new skin.

  Eric sat up, leaning over her to peel the towels from her head, looking on in amazement as the skin of her nearly bald scalp repaired itself in much the same way.

  Eventually, Gareth’s hands stopped glowing, and he opened his eyes.

  Then he smiled broadly. “It worked!”

  “It did!” Roland boomed. “Gareth, I’m so proud of you!” He hugged the boy impulsively, then held him close and patted his back a moment longer.

  Gareth stepped back, but Roland kept his arm around the boy and beamed at the others. “I am proud of all of you.”

  “Well, I’m not proud of you, Gareth,” Nikki said. “Not until you make her hair come back.”

  Gareth looked back toward the bed. “I don’t think I can.”

  “It will come while she sleeps, by day,” Eric said, running a hand over his bride’s shiny scalp and gazing down at her, his eyes brimming with love. “Thank you, Gareth. I couldn’t have borne losing her. You children…all of you, you’re very special. I hope you know that.”

  “You’re back!” Christian’s voice boomed from somewhere down the hall, and the children turned and ran to greet him. Blue lagged behind, nervous, but Nikki tugged her along by the hand in spite of that, shouting, “And we found our sister, Christian!”

  Roland took my hand, brought it to his lips, kissed it softly. “It’s nearly dawn. We must rest.”

  I nodded, but sadly.

  “Tonight, when we rise, let’s put everything else aside, my love, and spend some time with them. Let’s do nonsense things, like…like carving jack-o-lanterns as we promised we would.”

  “Roxanne has bought a half dozen more pumpkins since they’ve been here,” I said, but my heart was heavy. I knew my Roland’s mind. I knew his soul. My love was convinced that the coming night had to be his final one, and he wanted to spend it with the children. And with me. “Go on down, I’ll join you in a moment,” I said. I leaned up and kissed his soft lips. I knew them by heart, his lips.

  Roland nodded and went after the children, his limp worse than I had ever seen it.

  I moved to the bedside, bending over my friend Tamara. Her eyes were open.

  She smiled at me. “It doesn’t hurt anymore.”

  “I’m very glad. I’m so sorry about what happened to you.”

  “What did happen, Rhiannon?” Eric asked. “Sarah Bouchard, is she…?”

  “She admitted there’s another remote control that can be used to control Roland’s mind. It’s in the desk of her superior, one Colonel Patterson, back at The Sentinel. Not that it matters at this point. She’s quite dead. And before she went, I drank from her, and read all she knows. The device inside Roland will explode if we try to remove it.”

  Eric looked stricken. “But there has to be a way to disarm it!”

  “Not according to Bouchard, and I probed her quite thoroughly. Eric, Tamara, I am aware this is a terrible thing to ask of you, especially considering that Blue just nearly killed you, Tamara.”

  “Blue?”

  I nodded. “Nikki’s sister. Bouchard had her, and she has the power to incinerate at will. But she’s only a child, and she was led to believe you had come there to kill her.”

  “Unbelievable,” Tamara whispered.

  “And amazing,” I agreed. “My friends, I need to know the children will be cared for, in case Roland and I–”

  “Rhiannon!” Eric strode right up to me and gripped my shoulders. “Do not even think that way. We will find a way out of this. We’ll do it together.”

  “Yes, of course we will,” I said. And even to my own ears, my voice sounded lifeless. Hopeless. “But all the same, I need to know—Tamara, you’re a modern woman, you’re half child yourself. They love you. I know they’ll be all right with you. And I know you’ll make them understand why we–”

  “Yes, dammit, yes, we’d see to the
children should something happen to the two of you,” Tamara said. “But nothing is going to.

  “Together,” I said. “They need to be kept together. I promised them.”

  “Together. Of course, but Rhiannon, let’s just talk about this.” She sent a helpless look Eric’s way. Eric only met my eyes and remained silent. I think he understood. “Bouchard is dead. Only one other person in DPI knows what she was doing, and I made her assure him she would return with the children tomorrow, to keep him at bay for the night. I suggest we kill him as soon as is feasible and destroy any records he kept about any of this.”

  “All right,” Eric said. “All right.”

  But he looked at Tamara and as I left the room, I thought she whispered, “Do something.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  The next night, we spent hours making a complete mess of Maxine and Lou’s kitchen as we gutted pumpkins and carved faces into them. Nikki, Ramses, and Gareth actually giggled during the festivities. Roland and I locked eyes, smiling at the sound. It was their first laughter. Their very first. They were going to be all right.

  Blue would learn to laugh, too. She would. But as it was, she took the creation of the Jack-o-lanterns very seriously. I understood that. The concept of fun, of doing something for the sheer pleasure of it, was alien to her. But she would learn. She would learn.

  The children would be happy. They would be loved, and they would be protected. Tamara would be the best mother imaginable for these special children.

  Tamara. She had awakened from the day sleep as good as new, and then she and Eric had taken off somewhere, I thought to give us time alone with the children.

  Our six goblin-pumpkins finally finished, we carried them outside and placed them on either side of the three steps leading to the front door. Maxine had found us some candles to use, and I showed the children how I could blow them alight, except for Blue’s candle. She lit her own, using intense concentration and scrunching up her face quite comically, while the rest of us ducked around a corner, just in case. She seemed pleased when the candle lit without any major wildfires igniting. She would learn to control her power, to use it with care.

  Then we walked down the driveway a bit to get the full effect, so to speak, by gazing at them from a distance.

  Nikki yawned. “I’m tired.” And no wonder. It was well past midnight.

  This was it then. This was goodbye. How could I bear it?

  I took my little girls by their hands, and led them back to the house. Roland did likewise with the boys. Upstairs, we supervised the changing and washing up, escorted them in to say goodnight to Roxanne, who was looking much improved. And then we tucked them into their beds and kissed them goodnight.

  I lingered beside Nikki, stroking her silken hair. “I love you so very much, Nikki,” I whispered. “If ever I should not be with you, you must remember that. I love you.”

  She smiled at me. “I like this life. You were right about that. If only we could stop having to run away from DPI all the time.”

  “That’s the very next thing on our to-do list. To fix things for you. No more running. No more connection between you and DPI. You’re going to have a wonderful life, darling. A wonderful, long life.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I just do.” I hugged her gently, then let her go and she lay down and snuggled into her covers. “I’m very glad to have my sister back,” she said.

  “I’m glad too. Good night, precious Nikki. Never forget who you are.”

  “Who am I?” she asked, crinkling her nose at me, then settling down into her pillow and closing her eyes.

  “Don’t you know?” I asked. “You are the daughter of Rhiannon, born Rhianikki, daughter of pharaoh, princess of Egypt. You will grow to be a goddess among women, adored by men, and feared by all. You are special, Nikki. And you must never ever forget it.”

  She didn’t respond. She had fallen asleep. I looked at her lashes resting upon her cheeks. “Good night my precious child,” I whispered, running my hand over her silken hair one last time.

  Then I got up and left her, and it felt as though the shattered bits of my heart left a glittering trail across the floor behind me.

  * * *

  Roland and I slipped out of Maxine and Lou’s beautiful home in the depths of the night. We walked for a time, relishing the moonlight that spilled down as if to bathe us. The moon was the closest thing to sunlight we had, as vampires. And yet its reflected light was not strong enough to do us harm.

  I wondered if there would be sunshine on the other side for us. When vampires died, did we go to a dark heaven reserved for us alone? Or was it the same bright and beautiful place to which all souls returned?

  We’d been human once. Though, it was so long ago now that I barely remembered. I’d been so young when I was turned.

  It had been a good life. A long one. I had not one single regret.

  Roland slipped his arm around my shoulders, pulling me closer. “I know what you’re thinking,” he said.

  “Of course you do. How could you not, after the centuries we’ve been together?” I shook my head. “How did you keep me from sensing your presence when you came into the woods to lure the children away?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe that device in my head emits a thought barricade as well as toxins and poisons and explosives.”

  I lowered my head. “I believe we know everything about the device. Bouchard created it, after all. She designed it. I explored every bit of knowledge she possessed about it, my love.”

  “I know you did, Rhiannon. I know. If there was a solution, you would’ve found it there.” He turned to look down into my eyes, gently moving my hair back off my face, and bending to kiss my forehead. “I want you to stay, Rhiannon. I want you to stay, to live. For the children.”

  “I want you to make love to me,” I said. “For hours and hours until the dawn comes. I want to fall asleep in your arms, one last time, my love.” My lips trembled, my heart squeezing tight in my chest. “And I want you to stop asking the impossible of me. For I can no more exist in this life without you, than you could without me. And I think you know it.”

  He scooped me right up into his arms then, and he ran as only a vampire can run, taking long, graceful leaps rather than short and choppy steps. And while his gait was uneven and his prosthetic, quite painful, he poured on the speed until we were bounding along the beautiful driveway of the home that I’d hoped would be our haven. Our Serenity. The place where we’d intended to raise our children. He kicked the door open, and carried me up the stairs to our bedroom, dropping me onto the bed, coming down onto it with me.

  Our mouths locked together and we kissed as passionately as we had ever done. More passionately, perhaps, as my love stripped my clothes away, and threw them aside. And as he undressed me, he trailed his mouth down over my chin, and along my jaw. He kissed a trail over my neck, nipping me there, and then lower, to my breast, which he lavished with affection. To my other breast. To my belly. And lower, loving me so thoroughly and with such intimate knowledge of my body that I was shuddering within seconds. I grabbed his head, and unable to get a good enough grip to suit me, I tugged loose the band that held his queue, so I could run my fingers through his long, dark hair. And all the while he pleasured me with his mouth, with his tongue and teeth until I screamed his name and pulled that gorgeous hair of his harder than was kind.

  He climbed up my body again, nude now, though I’d been unaware of him removing his clothes. When he slid inside me, it was like coming home. It had always been this way, making love with him. It was as if one of us was never quite complete until we interlocked in this way. Connected physically to match how very connected we were spiritually, emotionally and in every other way.

  When my Roland made love to me, I was whole. Complete. At peace, and in absolute bliss. And there was nothing, not even the children, that could convince me to let him cross that dark void without me right by his side. It was where I belonged.


  “Stop thinking, my love,” he whispered, his lips moving against my ear, cool breath tickling deliciously. “Just feel.”

  I fought to close my mind down and shifted my attention to the sensations instead. The length of him, moving deeper inside me, sliding back again, a gentle rocking rhythm that took me higher with each repetition. The strength of his palm, sliding beneath me to cup my buttock, tilting me upward to the exact angle that gave me the most pleasure, while his other hand tangled in my hair, holding my head back to give him better access to my neck and breasts. He took turns delighting and tormenting those sensitive places, nipping me now and then, tasting my blood. He made it very easy for me to keep from thinking.

  I returned every bit he was giving to me, arching my hips to meet his thrusts, running my fingertips up and down his spine, nipping his shoulder.

  We knew each other’s bodies. We knew every trick, every secret, every stroke and touch and kiss that would inflame each other beyond reason. The pace of our movements increased as if we were of one mind. And I often thought we were. And soon the orgasm tore through me like a rip current, and I felt the answering tides of his own release. We clung to each other. He held me to him from my hips to my shoulders, those strong arms wrapped around me, making me feel small and delicate within their embrace,

  Love was not a strong enough word to describe what I felt for my Roland.

  There was no word. No description. Nothing could express the feelings rushing through me just then. And I said to my beloved, “I will not let you go without me. Do not ask it of me. And if you try, I’ll follow you anyway, my love. You cannot leave me behind. This is my choice, my life, and I choose to go with you.”

  “But the children…you love them too.”

  “I do. And so does Tamara. They’ll recover. They’ve only been with us for a few weeks. Tamara and Eric will raise them for years to come. Their hearts will heal. Mine will not, Roland. We’ve been together for centuries, my love. I cannot let you leave me behind. I will not.”

  I could not see his face, as we were so tightly entwined, but I felt him move his head, a slight nod, as he whispered, “I know.”