Any minute now she would see her daughter again for the first time in five years. Excitement bubbled in her chest. Would she be able to hug her? Talk to her? However, worry nudged the questions aside to sit in Sable’s heart instead.
What if Cheyenne still hates me? How can I make it all up to her?
“The past is no more,” Emerald called back to her. “Cheyenne harbors no ill will toward you.”
“What the hell’s she yammering about?” Hal whispered.
Stunned, Sable started to reply, but the woman turned to the right, then to the left, and another large room opened up. Suspended from the ceiling, white icicle lights illuminated the chamber. Floor-to-ceiling bookshelves lined two walls, and thick oriental rugs covered the floor. A desk the size of three normal ones put together sat near a round freestanding fireplace with a smoke pipe disappearing into the dirt ceiling.
A large, circular sofa took up the center of the room, and on it, Cheyenne sat waiting.
“Mother.” She smiled and held out her hands.
Sable couldn’t believe her eyes. After all this time, was her daughter really sitting there in front of her, smiling at her, holding out her hands to her? A sob escaped Sable. She rushed across the chamber and clasped her daughter’s fingers. That simple touch unbound the pain in Sable’s soul, and tears splashed upon her cheeks.
With a grimace, Cheyenne pointed. “Your wrap.”
Sable plucked it from her head and dropped it to the carpet. She pulled Cheyenne into her arms, hugging her tightly. Tears of relief and happiness poured out of her heart.
Gently pushing her mother back into a kneeling position, Cheyenne cupped her face in her hands. “Don’t cry, Mother,” she whispered.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Dirt
S able looked into her daughter’s blue eyes. They held no hatred or accusations. Cheyenne no longer wore the dark, Gothic makeup or clothing. Although very pale, her skin seemed flawless. Her blonde hair hung in two shiny sheaves of gold over each shoulder, and a deep-blue dress with yards of flowing skirt heightened her ashen coloring. Two servants, each one about twelve years old, stood at either side of the round sofa. They straightened Cheyenne’s gown, fanning it out so it covered most of the makeshift couch to pour in glimmering folds over her feet.
“I’m so happy to find you!” Sable cried. “I’ve searched for you every day. I’ve never given up.” She couldn’t believe she finally had her child in front of her, touching her, talking to her. She stared at Cheyenne, frightened she’d disappear before her eyes. After countless prayers and hundreds of sleepless nights, she had her daughter in her arms again. Overwhelmed, Sable could no longer fight the sobs that racked her.
Cheyenne drew her close and stroked her hair. “It’s all right, Mother. I was wrong. I was a messed-up, confused kid who wouldn’t listen. It’s all in the past now. I don’t blame you or Dad for anything.”
Sable sat on the carpet next to her. “I’m so sorry—for everything.”
“So am I.” Cheyenne gazed past her and smiled. “Hello, Daddy.” She held out one hand.
Hal crossed the bright carpet to her and put her fingers to his lips. “I can’t believe I’m actually looking at you,” he said. Tears shimmered in his eyes, surprising Sable. “How’s my little girl?”
“I’m fine. Emerald took me in, so this is my home now.”
“What?” He shot Sable a perplexed expression and glanced around the room. “Here? In these catacombs? No, Cheyenne, you have to come home with your mother or me.”
“I’m afraid she can’t do that,” Emerald said as she walked across the chamber.
“Why not?” Confusion descended upon Sable. Cheyenne looked well, and although the people Sable had seen so far were odd, they didn’t seem like drug runners or smugglers. “She belongs at home with one of us.”
“You don’t understand,” Emerald said. “This is Cheyenne’s home now. I’ve taken care of her for four years. When she first came to me, she was volatile, vicious, but now she’s finally learned to cope with her…uh…new life.”
“Mother,” Cheyenne said, “Emerald is teaching me the way of the Glais. I made a horrible mistake, and now I’m paying the price.”
“What are you talking about?” Irritation mixed with confusion crossed Hal’s features. “You’re not making any sense—none of this makes any sense. These people live in a system of catacombs, in the dark, beneath a cemetery, for God’s sake! How can this be your home, Cheyenne?”
“Hal,” Goldie said, a warning note in her tone. “Let her explain.”
“Stay out of this,” he snapped back.
“Show respect, or I will have you removed,” Emerald snapped.
“Hal!” Sable said.
“Enough!” Cheyenne’s voice startled Hal into silence.
Her powerful tone stunned Sable. Unease jabbed its steely fingers into her spine. She straightened and took one step back from her daughter.
“Daddy, when I ran away, I met a group of Goths and traveled from town to town with them for a while. I settled in Georgia—”
“The apartment that you’d rented,” he said. “That’s where your trail went cold.”
She nodded. “There, my friends introduced me to another ring of Goths, but they were…different. I succumbed to one of them.” She stood and nodded to the two young attendants, who both grabbed the hem of her dress and drew the skirt up and over to one side. “I paid the price for it, too. I am now one of the Glais, a Glaistig.”
Sable blinked, her mouth ajar. She’d witnessed so many bizarre things over the past three days, things she feared were illusions, things unfathomable and otherworldly. What she now saw had to be paranormal, too, only it didn’t appear it would go away.
This isn’t real. She can’t be…she’s not…
“Half goat?” Emerald said, finishing Sable’s thought. She leaned against the desk, her ankles crossed. “Yes, she is. Cheyenne was bitten by a Glaistig, made one with the blood-sucking Fae, a race of Vampyr few know exist. Luckily, she’s learned to control her vicious side.”
One of the young girls moved to a refrigerated cabinet, took out a plastic gallon jug, and returned to Cheyenne’s side. She handed it to her.
“Milk?” Sable glanced at Emerald and back to her daughter.
Cheyenne’s lips peeled back, and two long, shiny fangs lengthened in her mouth.
“What the hell?” Hal barked.
She bit into the bottle. Sucking hard, she drained it in seconds and handed it back to the girl who threw it away.
Reaching out, his hand shaking, Hal touched his daughter where the waist of a human woman gradually transformed into the shoulder of a goat. He looked at Sable, his eyes huge. “It’s real. She’s…I mean…it’s…”
Cheyenne’s human torso flowed into the form of a golden goat down to the four legs, the cloven hooves, and a tail.
Disbelief slammed into Sable’s brain. “This…this can’t be happening!”
She couldn’t wrap her mind around the image before her or that it had happened to her daughter, the little girl she’d given birth to, raised, loved, and nurtured. Who had done this to her and why? Rage and denial suffocated Sable, rising into her mouth, its taste bitter.
“Mistress!” A man burst into the chamber. “We found an intruder.”
Behind him, another guard entered the room. He held a chain in one hand and yanked on it, dragging a black man along behind him.
Surprise visited Sable again. “Thomas?”
“I followed you,” Thomas said, his voice rumbling in the chamber. “I had to make sure you were okay.”
Emerald’s painted lips slid back to reveal two long, pointed canines. The hiss that escaped her, angry and cat-like, startled Sable. “Valimar! How dare you infiltrate my den!”
“Shit!” Hal said. He grabbed Sable, pulling her to him.
Fear blasted every nerve ending in Sable’s body. She pleaded with her eyes. “He means no harm.”
&nbs
p; “Goldie, I favor you and respect Isa,” Emerald said, “which is why I granted you an audience with Cheyenne and permitted you to bring not only her mother here but also her father. But this marshal?” She gestured at Thomas. “He puts our home and our lives in jeopardy. If he found us so easily, so will others.”
“Please, Emerald,” Isa said. “The dark one oversees Sable’s affairs and protects her. He is only doing his duty. He merely followed his ward.”
“This is insane!” Hal looked from person to person in the chamber. “This is nothing more than a den of vampires. You’re all fucking nuts! There’s no way that I’m staying here another minute, not with a pack of fucking monsters.” He spun on his heel.
In a blur, Emerald appeared in front of Hal.
Gasping, Sable fell back, her legs threatening to spill her to the oriental rugs.
Hal stumbled away from the vampyress. Terror swept over his features. “What the fu—?”
The woman’s eyes flashed like two emeralds in sunshine. She closed the distance between them. “Shut. Up.” She poked his forehead with a long index finger.
Hal’s eyes rolled back in his head, and he crumpled to the floor.
“Hal!” Sable gaped at him and knelt, feeling for a pulse, which throbbed gently against her fingertips.
“Cheyenne, say goodbye to your mother,” Emerald continued. She motioned at the guards. “Take the humans to a holding cell until I decide what to do with them.” She nudged Hal’s thigh with the toe of her shoe. “If I had any sense, I’d go ahead and give this one to the others for breakfast.”
Holding her hands out in a plea, Cheyenne cried, “No, Emerald—”
“But…” The vampyress held up one hand, instantly silencing Cheyenne. “For Cheyenne’s sake, I will spare him…for now.” Emerald turned to Sable and said, “Sever all ties with your daughter. She’s lost to you now, a member of a new and altogether alien world. The New Order can’t allow all Neo Paranorms to mix with humans. Although assimilated, Cheyenne is still somewhat unpredictable.” She motioned at Sable. “Cheyenne, say goodbye to your mother.”
Tears slipped down Cheyenne’s cheeks. “Goodbye, Mother.” Defeated, she turned to the doorway, her dress swishing around her cloven feet. “I love you.”
Isa and Goldie departed down another tunnel with Emerald, who escorted Cheyenne from the chamber. The clip-clop of hooves echoed in the catacombs, reinforcing the surrealism of the situation.
“NO! Please, Cheyenne, come back!” Sable’s voice echoed in the tunnels, the agony of her heart magnified a thousand times.
How could she give up her daughter after only just finding her? Would she really never see Cheyenne again? The young attendants took Sable’s wrap and Hal’s scarf and tossed them into the fireplace. The guards led Sable and Thomas along a series of passageways lit by bare forty-watt bulbs anchored to the ceiling every fifteen feet or so. More and more crumbling skeletons rested in the ledges and holes carved into the walls. The man with the coal-black hair carried Hal slung over one shoulder as if he held nothing more than a bag of dirty laundry.
Sable wiped tears and snot away with the heel of one hand and eyed Hal’s dangling form. His arms hung, hands lax.
I should’ve told Emerald to feed him to the vampires—the jerk!
But maybe she was being too harsh toward her ex? Although Emerald had no idea Thomas had followed them, she’d been royally pissed over him finding their hideout. And what about the fact that these people were vampires? The thought was ludicrous, but so was the idea that her daughter was half goat—one who lusted for blood—and how the hell did milk come into the picture? The way Cheyenne’s fangs had bitten into the plastic, and the speed in which she’d drained the jug… Sable shivered. She’d seen everything with her own eyes, and although she wanted to, she couldn’t deny any of it.
It was easier to take comfort in the thought that she might have lost her sanity than it was to face the incredible truth.
The guards stopped at a barred door and opened it. The metal squealed, the sound deafening in the narrow corridor. A lone bulb lit the tiny cell.
“Get in there,” one of the guards ordered.
The black-haired man stepped inside and dumped Hal on the floor. He exited and waited in the passageway as the other guard unlocked the cuffs chained to Thomas’s wrists. The door shut with a resounding clang, sealing their doom.
“Hey, you can’t just leave us here!” Sable pressed her body to the bars. “Please let us go!”
Laughter greeted her plea.
Once the guards had left, Thomas drew her to the back wall and pulled her close, hugging her tightly. “You scared the hell out of me, baby girl,” he said. “I had to follow you. I couldn’t stand the thought of you walking into something dangerous.”
“I’m sorry.” She leaned back and looked at him. “It’s just that…well, Cheyenne’s my daughter, and I’ll do whatever it takes to save her.”
He kissed her, drawing her closer, wrapping his arms around her body. Sable relished the sensation and marveled at how his embrace seemed desperate, protective.
She broke the kiss, pushing back slightly. “What did the vampire woman mean when she called you a marshal?”
Confusion filled his eyes, followed by a stricken expression that urged unease into Sable’s mind.
“Thomas?”
He sighed and propped himself on the wall, raking one hand over his cornrows. “I don’t really know where to start or how to tell you, baby girl. You’ll probably hate me because I’ve lied to you—not by choice, though. The lies have been out of necessity. They’ve been tools to keep you safe.”
Another man full of lies and manipulation! I can’t… Sable closed her eyes briefly. I need to listen to him first, give him a chance. Isn’t that what I always wanted Hal to do for me?
“You’ve been lying to me?” she said.
He nodded, his face a mask of agony.
“Talk. Tell me everything.” She stepped away from him and leaned against the wall.
“I’m a Parnorm Marshal,” he said. Upon uttering the words, he drew in a deep breath and released it quickly as if he’d just sent tons of worry and stress out to the ether.
Studying his body language and expression, Sable realized it had taken a lot for him to say that one simple sentence. But he’d still lied to her.
“And?” she said.
Perspiration broke out on his forehead, and he closed his eyes. “I truly am an agent. My agency and clients are all real, and I’m good at my profession, but my real job is protecting wards who possess some sort of magic that the New Order finds threatening, or worse, useful.”
Sable shook her head. His explanation sounded weird and ludicrous, but at the same time it hinted at logic. She felt as if she stood on the brink of a deep, dark chasm, about to leap into the unknown. If he continued telling her the truth, she perceived her life would never be the same again.
“You’re not making any sense, Thomas.”
“After that thing that posed as Cheyenne on the hotel balcony showed up, you admitted that there is a paranormal side to this world.”
She nodded, urging him to continue.
Thomas looked at her with such pain in his eyes Sable nearly cried “There’s more to the paranormal side of things than you know, baby girl. Not only are there ghosts and goblins, but there are all forms of magical creatures, people and beings that coexist with us. There are hundreds of races of faeries, shape-shifters—”
“Vampires.”
“Yes.”
She suddenly understood what he was telling her. “I get that you work for this paranormal world.” She crossed her arms over her breasts in hopes it would keep her heart from smashing through her ribs. “And that’s why the giant scared me in the hotel garden. He warned me to stop looking for Cheyenne. It was all part of this, wasn’t it?” She gulped and willed her pulse to slow.
“I’m afraid so.”
“Did you know my daughter is a—”<
br />
“A Glaistig?” He faced Sable, pressing his shoulder to the rock. “No, I didn’t know what she’d become, but I knew she was in the Paranorm realm. I may work for the Old World—and they know every aspect of both realms—but they only give me information on a need-to-know basis.”
Her head throbbed. Sable slowly slid to the floor. She piled her braid in her lap, wrapped her arms around her knees, and hugged them as if doing so would hold her together. “The entire time I’ve been searching for my daughter…” Emotion choked her. She struggled with the hurt and finally managed to swallow enough of it to finish. “You knew the entire time, Thomas, and just stood by and watched. You saw how she worried me, how not knowing what had happened to Cheyenne ate me from the inside out—and yet you said nothing!” She glared up at him, wanting to slug him and yet needing his arms around her.
He drew in a deep breath, held it, and slowly exhaled. His dark eyes brimmed with uncertainty and questions. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I really am. The Judges oversee all in the Old World. They are who I work for, and they forbade me from interfering. My job was—and is—to protect you.”
Sable stretched her legs out in front of her. How could she get past the fact that Thomas had known Cheyenne’s whereabouts for all these years? At this point, what does it matter anymore? She wondered how much longer they had to live. Would the vampires drain them or convert them?
“I realize you’re struggling to absorb everything,” Thomas said, “but it’s all real, and that’s why I was assigned to protect you. The Judges say an ancient force wants your magical ability.”
“I just can’t believe you’ve known about Cheyenne and yet said nothing.” The pain in her chest radiated out along her arms and up into her skull, forcing her headache to throb harder.
He touched the crown of her head and stroked her hair. “Don’t you think that hasn’t ripped me apart?”
She looked up at him. His expression spoke volumes about his feelings for her. A tear squeezed from the corner of one of her eyes. He reached down to wipe it away, but she turned her head from him.
The Darkness of Sable Page 24