“What an ass,” I said under my breath.
“Careful,” Stellan replied. “He can hear you.”
“Good,” I said as he nudged me through the door.
“We’ll go to my home until it’s time. I’ve got some provisions there you can likely use.”
Stellan whistled and the hellhound appeared a few seconds later.
“Is this the only way you can travel?” I asked. The hellhound still scared the crap out of me and if we could walk, I’d rather do just that.
“No, but it’s the safest way for you to travel around the city. Trust me on that.”
“You can’t vamp-speed us there? Liam could do it.”
“Yes, well, the king has many abilities, but no, I cannot vamp-speed us there. Not at the moment, anyway,” he said and glanced down at his forearm before helping me onto Cyrus’s back.
“Care to elaborate on that?” I asked. Though different abilities presented in vampires, speed was something I’d been taught that all vampires possessed.
“No,” he said matter-of-factly. “It’s enough for you to know that I can’t do it.”
I didn’t press him any further. Instead I turned my focus on what I would say or do to convince the council that the vampires should join me in retrieving their king. It seemed simple enough, but Lucien certainly hadn’t jumped on board like I hoped he would.
I began to fear the council meeting would be nothing more than show to make it appear that he was considering doing the right thing. And if it were nothing more than show, then it meant I’d failed.
It meant I’d lost Liam for good.
15
Delia
“Are they going to be as difficult as Lucien,” I asked Stellan as we prepared to return to the palace after we’d spent several hours in his home. He’d been gracious enough to allow me the use of his shower and to share a can of Spaghetti-o’s he’d had in a cupboard, which was more substantial than the nuts and crackers I’d grabbed from Theodosia’s pantry. I was surprised to see he had food fit for human consumption. I didn’t think vampires normally ate human food, but Stellan had said it helped to curb his cravings and didn’t elaborate further.
“They’ll likely follow his lead, but he may change his mind. Lucien isn’t quite the arrogant prick he portrays in front of the others.”
“Really? Because he seemed pretty good at it to me.”
“We served together protecting the king. He truly was like a brother to me at one time, but he’s let the power and the image that goes along with it get to his head. If you can penetrate his ego, you may win him over.”
“How does one go about penetrating an ego that size?”
“If I knew, I’d have done it already,” he said with a smirk.
“Thank you, by the way,” I said. “For everything you’ve done to help me in this strange land.”
“Strange? Careful… You may be calling it home if things go as you hope.”
That thought slammed into me. Sure, I’d thought about sitting at Liam’s side, but to think of actually leaving my own realm not just to live in this one, but to rule it, shook me. It would mean I’d have to give up my life and become a vampire, possibly never setting foot into my world again. It was obvious to me that my people, or the people formerly known as my people, wouldn’t stop pursuing me, especially as long as Harmon had any say in the matter. They’d never stop trying to kill me or Liam. Velum Mortis was probably the safest place for me.
The vampires would be mine to protect if I were successful in bringing Liam back to them. That is, if he really wanted me to be his queen and hadn’t been playing me like a toy he’d cast aside when he got tired of me. The whole thing had happened fast. Too fast. Questions I’d already asked myself and had an answer for began to churn again, sending me down a spiral of doubt. Was it possible I’d been fooled into believing I had feelings for him or that maybe the curse had altered how I should have felt? I’d been led to believe I was the key to waking him, and maybe that was true, but did it also say I was now destined to fall in love with him, too? Or was it some sort of agreement between Liam and the witch? Whomever should wake him would be given to him as a consolation prize for going along with some diabolical plan to hurt the slayers. I should’ve listened to Theodosia when she said I was his mate and that magic couldn’t create love, but had he compelled me to feel the way I did?
My thoughts began to turn my stomach. Did I make the right choice?
“You shouldn’t think so loudly,” he said. “The curse was placed on him, not you.”
“I don’t think I see it that way.”
“You were always meant to be his queen… A witch doesn’t dictate that sort of thing.”
“How do you know I was the one meant for him? I know what Theodosia told me, that our auras are identical, but isn’t it possible someone else at some other point in time has had the same aura?”
“Doubtful, but even if there were someone out there who matched him, you woke him, and there’s only one reason for that. You’re his mate. If he hadn’t been asleep for so long, he would’ve sought you out himself. From what I’ve heard, the desire to be with a mate will pull you to them no matter where in the world they may be. It’s been said it feels like death has you just within his grasp if you ignore it.”
“Yeah,” I said. “That’s exactly how it feels. I visited the tomb where he was so many times over the years, but I didn’t know he was there or why I kept going back. That feeling like I might die if I didn’t go there started sometime between my eighteenth and nineteenth birthday. Before too long, I was trekking out there every free chance I got.”
“See, you were connected even before you woke him. He couldn’t come to you, so you went to him.”
“I still can’t believe I kissed him. I was sent there to kill him, but I fucking kissed him instead. Do you understand how crazy that is for a slayer?”
“I do. It likely cost you everything you knew of your life before that moment.”
“It did. They want to kill me now, like I was never one of them. It’s why I can’t go alone to get him back if I can help it. They’ll kill me for sure this time. With no one to keep me from the flames, I’ll burn.”
“Well… let’s make sure that doesn’t happen,” he said and lifted me onto Cyrus’ back.
I stood before the vampire council, much like the one I’d stood before when I was officially a slayer and had been given what I thought was my first assignment.
Lucien sat in the center with three others on either side of him.
“I fear we got off to a bad start earlier,” he said. His tone much lighter than it had been in front of the large gathering of vampires before. Maybe Stellan was right. Maybe he wasn’t such a hard-ass after all. “It’s not that I don’t want William to return to his full glory. It’s that I’m not sure he would want us to risk our lives, or yours for that matter, to rescue him.”
“If not us, then who?” I asked. “Who will come to his aid? The witches? Doubtful. The wolves? Not if their lives depended on it. So, if not his own people, then who?” I asked sternly.
“Perhaps his time has passed,” a male vampire sitting to Lucien’s right said. “We’ve weathered the storm without him. Things have settled quite nicely.”
The others nodded in agreement.
“Why did you invite me here if you’ve already made up your minds?”
“Out of respect for our king,” one of them said.
“Oh, you mean the king you can’t be bothered to assist?”
“I know it must be hard for you to hear. You’re obviously smitten with him, but we won’t risk it. You say you believe he’s been taken to Mallory Falls, correct?” Lucien asked.
“Yes. They may not have found him in the cottage where I left him. We’d been given a cloaking spell, but they most certainly knew we were close. I can only assume they took him.”
“You’re saying you yourself left him in his time of need? And now you expect us to go i
nto a town full of those trained to kill us in order to correct your mistake?”
“I did leave him,” I said and nipped at my lip, trying to find the courage to keep going. Leaving him behind hadn’t been an easy thing to do. “I had no other choice. I tried to wake him but couldn’t. I swear I could hear his voice in my head telling me to go, to save myself,” I said, a tear forming in the corner of my eye, but I managed to keep it from falling. I doubted a sign of weakness would help my case.
“If he had already returned to the long slumber and you could not wake him, what is it you hope we can do?”
“Bring him home until we can figure it out. At least he’d be protected here. I know when he was cursed before, I was supposedly the only one who could kill him. It was that or wake him, but this time… I don’t know how vulnerable he is,” I said, shaking my head. “It’s possible any one of them could end his life this time.”
“The girl has a point,” a female vampire sitting to the far left said. “We shouldn’t give them the satisfaction of killing him if they can.”
Lucien shot her a terrible look with a glint of contempt in his eye as she settled back into her chair, casting her gaze away.
“They won’t kill him,” he said, turning his attention back to me. “The decision is final. We won’t be assisting you, but we do wish you luck should you decide to pursue this mission on your own. Out of respect for King William, you may spend the night in our city if you wish, but I urge you to leave as soon as you’re rested. Though it’s still faint, your natural scent is beginning to return, and there are those who dwell in this realm who aren’t as civilized as we are.”
“No,” I said, stepping forward. “I don’t accept that.”
“Hades fucking hell… Come on,” Stellan said and pulled me toward the door. “You’ll get nowhere with them.”
“Good boy,” Lucien called out.
Stellan turned to him and stared him dead in the eye, the hand not holding onto me balled at his side.
“Fuck you,” Stellan said, grabbing my arm and stomping out of the room.
And he didn’t stop until we were outside the gates.
“Now what?” I asked, mostly to myself. I wasn’t sure I’d even said it out loud until Stellan answered.
“We get ready, and we get my fucking king back.”
16
Liam
“She’ll come for him,” I heard Harmon say. “No way she’ll let us take him without trying to save him. She’s in love,” he said mockingly.
I hoped she wouldn’t. Not that I didn’t believe in her or her abilities, but they’d be ready for her and there would be too many of them. And without knowing the specifics of the curse that currently had me out of commission, I wasn’t sure there was a point to it anyway. I could only hope that she had heard my voice in her thoughts and heeded my words.
At least last time I’d known I’d be revived in twenty years. I’d gotten a front row seat for the berating the witch had given to Delia’s father. Though I couldn’t move, and I gave the appearance of sleep, I could still hear everything going on around me.
“You were supposed to help me kill him,” Delia’s father had said.
“And you were supposed to love me,” the witch had replied. “But instead, you used me to get what you wanted.”
“But she’s my little girl. She doesn’t deserve this. She doesn’t deserve any of this,” he said, desperation coating his words. I understood it, really I did, but I would never have harmed her. Not in a million years. And the life I could give her was a thousand times more magnificent than the one she’d live as a human in a backward town like Mallory Falls.
“She’s his,” the witch spat. “Always has been, always will be. I could see it the first time I saw her, and it serves you right if you ask me. You’ve dedicated your life to killing things you don’t understand instead of trying to live in peace.”
“How were we to live in peace with those things? They came here and preyed upon our town for centuries until we decided to fight back.”
“And the king tried to broker a peace, didn’t he?”
“Lies,” he said. “He came here to destroy everything. If we hadn’t been ready for him, he would have.”
“I thought I’d gotten to you, made you see that just because something is different doesn’t mean it’s inherently evil, but I was wrong, and Liam was foolish to try to work things out with the council. This is what you get. You can’t kill him, only she can, but she won’t. She’ll wake him with a kiss on her twenty-first birthday, and there’s nothing you can do about that. It’ll be her choice to make, but I guarantee she won’t hesitate to kiss him. The compulsion will be too strong. She’ll long for him in ways she couldn’t fathom, and she’ll know kissing him is her true destiny.”
“We’ll see about that. I’ll train her. I’ll teach her every day from now until then to hate his kind. I’ll make sure she finds a man to love long before that. She’ll do as she’s told, and the world will finally be rid of him.”
The acrid smell of magic had tainted my nose and silence befell me for the next twenty years. I had eventually drifted off to sleep just to pass the time.
And here I was once again, cursed. I wondered if Theodora had done the deed again.
“You think he can hear us?” a female voice asked.
“I hope he can,” Harmon said. “Can you hear me?”
Something poked at my arm and I wanted nothing more in that moment than to rip Harmon to bits, despite everything I’d previously tried to work for.
Humans weren’t our enemies. Nourishment? Yes, of course, but there were ways to work around that. Many willing donors had presented themselves to my kind over the years. There was no reason why the vampires couldn’t adopt a policy of not killing humans so that we could all live without the threat of being killed simply because of who we were. We could move freely through the veil and even live permanently in the human world if we chose to do so.
In an attempt to prove to them that I wanted peace, I’d made an example out of one of my best and most trusted friends. Stellan had been my bodyguard and closer to me than my own brother, Lucien. But he was prone to fits of bloodlust, and I’d condemned him for it to show them I was serious about how I expected my subjects to behave.
When Lucien told me the slayers were ready to sit down with me, I’d taken Stellan with me, refusing to let any others tag along for fear that something bad would happen if talks went south. There was no reason, as far as I knew, that I couldn’t defend myself. That is, until I got there and realized almost immediately what was about to go down. The witch had me subdued before I could get away.
I only hoped Stellan had managed to escape after I’d been cursed. That was my greatest regret. If Stellan had died because of me… Well, that would be a mistake I could never correct.
“I know she’ll come looking for him, but do you really think she’ll risk coming all the way down here?”
An earthy smell tickled my nose and by the way the air chilled my skin, I was pretty sure I’d been taken underground again.
“I do, and I’ll be here to take her apart, limb by limb, when she does. I’ll have her wishing she’d burned.”
Rage coursed through my body, building up pressure so great I thought I might explode.
And just when I thought I couldn’t take another minute of being helpless and trapped in my own body, the muscles in my hand began to twitch.
17
Delia
“You’re going to help me?” I asked, suppressing the urge to throw my arms around Stellan’s neck.
“I’m going to help my king and his queen.”
“As will I,” Meredith said and came into the light.
“Lucien will have your head if you abandon your post.”
“If I return my king to his former glory, he won’t be able to,” she said confidently.
“You guys are sure about this?” I asked, now suppressing the urge to throw my arms around bo
th of their necks.
Both nodded as Stellan turned to Cyrus.
“You in?” he asked. The hellhound shook like I’d seen countless dogs do as they wicked away moisture from their coats before he bowed his head and snorted.
“So, let’s take stock… We have a slayer without a weapon, two vampires, and a hellhound…” I said. “Could be worse.”
“A slayer with a weapon,” Stellan replied. “I have plenty for you to choose from at home, but it’ll have to be a quick trip. Lucien will no doubt put spies on us in no time to make sure we haven’t disobeyed.”
“He already has,” Meredith said. “Me.”
Stellan laughed, and said, “Guess he didn’t think that one through, did he?”
“Nope,” Meredith replied.
“Hop on,” Stellan said to me. “You’d better get used to riding him yourself because he’s your best hope of getting the king to safety once we figure out where he is. I’ll wait for you here. Meredith knows where my weapons stash is. You’ll go with her to pick out whatever you need and then you’ll meet me back here so we can all pierce the veil together. I’ll keep an eye on things and make sure no one else follows.”
“Yes, sir,” I said, realizing that there was no point in throwing in my two cents. Stellan had covered everything and I got the sense that this wasn’t his first rodeo. Cautiously, I climbed up onto Cyrus’ back, taking hold of his fur to keep myself in place. “How do I make him go where I want?”
“You heard the noise I made earlier with my mouth? That’s how you get him to go. Just tug on his fur to get him to go in the direction you want if you should need to, but I’ve already told him to take you home and return you here. You’ll find he’s surprisingly good at following directions.”
“You’ll be fine,” Meredith assured her. “I’ll be right behind you should you get off track.”
I took a deep breath and exhaled before making the clicking sound that sent the hellhound bounding down the darkened road with me hanging onto his fur for dear life.
Beyond the Veil (Vampires of Velum Mortis Book 1) Page 12