The meeting ended when it became clear we had run out of business to discuss. Boaz made noises about getting back to work, and Linus and I did too. Professional interactions with Boaz were no longer uncomfortable. I had gotten used to bumping into him around the Lyceum. But when he touched my shoulder to get my attention on my way out the door, I jumped at the unexpected contact.
“Sorry.” Emotion clouded his expression, regret the easiest to identify. “I just wanted to thank you for the wedding invitation. I haven’t seen Addie this excited in a long time.”
I shouldn’t have said anything, but it popped out anyway. “How are your wedding plans coming along?”
“Addie has pointed out to me on many occasions that she agreed to marry me, but she never specified when.”
Smart girl, thinking with her head instead of her heart with him. “You’re okay with that?”
“I…care about her.” He rolled a shoulder like the raw admission didn’t mean a thing, when it meant everything for a guy like him. “She’s worth waiting for.”
“She’s good people.” I scuffed my shoe. “I’m glad you guys are taking it slow.”
As much as I worried for Adelaide’s obvious attachment to Boaz, I was still processing the slim chance he felt the same. Maybe not love, but stronger than like. Was it enough to build a future on? Was it enough to make them happy? I didn’t know, and I bet they didn’t either. So, yeah. Slow was good for them. She might be better than he deserved, but I could see he was trying. For her. That was more than he had done for any other woman he had ever dated, me included.
“I’ll update you if we find out anything else relevant. Otherwise, see you on the big day.”
A nod got me out the door, and I found Linus waiting for me in the hall. He leaned around my left side and then my right. “What are you doing?”
“Checking to be sure Boaz didn’t convince you to pack your bags and run away with him.”
“Ha ha.” I punched him in the shoulder, happy he could joke about it. “Do you want to visit your mom while we’re here?”
Their relationship was complex, but his mom was alive and kicking. I would give a lot to spend another second with mine, so it fell to me to nudge him at times. Even if I had to force the words out between clenched teeth.
“That’s cruel.” Aware of how much effort it cost me to make the offer, he pretended to consider me. “I’m seeing a whole new side of you.”
“Wait until after we’re married.” I rested my head on his shoulder. “Then you’ll see the real me.”
“Oh?”
“I’ll stop shaving my legs, start eating cookies in bed, and never wear pants.”
“The horror.”
“That’s just the start. I have big plans. Think cereal in bed, popcorn in bed, hamburgers in bed.”
“It sounds like the real you enjoys numerous activities in bed.”
“Oh, she does.”
I got a laugh out of him that banished the specter of Boaz, and that made me feel like I was getting the hang of this relationship thing.
We rode the elevator up and stepped out onto Bull Street in time to admire the sun sparking color on the horizon.
“Let’s go home.” I tossed the keys in the air and caught them on my palm. “Maybe, if you’re a good boy, I’ll let you drive.”
A shadowy hand snatched the keys on my third toss and flung them to Linus.
“Cletus.” I tugged on his tattered cowl. “That’s cheating.” I spun on Linus. “Did you put him up to that?”
A low moan chastised me, and I harrumphed at the wraith. He was definitely sassier these days.
Linus’s eyes twinkled when he said, “I would never.”
I let them get away with double-teaming me, all to see that happiness brighten his smile.
* * *
Woolly threw on lights when she spotted us, her fixtures dialed up as high as they would go, and the frantic swish of her curtains hurried us into the house. The old girl was worried, and her anxiety was spilling over into me. Her wards sang when we crossed them, snug and secure, but my heart pounded all the same.
Something was wrong. Something had happened. Something…
Eva stood in the living room wearing one of her recital costumes, a glittery leotard and a sequined tutu from her last Silver Belles recital. A familiar clutch I never thought I would see again was tucked under one arm, and silver kitten heels too big for her feet made her wobble in place.
The oxygen punched out of my lungs, and I couldn’t get it back.
“By accepting my gifts, you have given me the pleasure of caring for you. I wish to show you that it can always be this way between us.” He delivered the line with enough sincerity to impress the orator in me. “Tonight I will be the most envied man in the room.” His smile grew sharp. “I can hardly wait.”
Volkov had told me that on the night I was reinstated as the Woolworth heiress.
And now Eva wore those shoes and carried that clutch. All that was missing was the gown.
I wanted to rush over, scoop her out of those heels and toss them and the bag in the trash where they belonged, but I couldn’t get my arms or legs to move. I couldn’t unglue my tongue from the roof of my mouth. I couldn’t do more than stand and stare and force myself to push oxygen in and out of my lungs.
“What do you think?” She turned a careful circle so she didn’t fall. “I’m a frost princess.”
Caught in a tug of war between her physical and mental ages, Eva was easily convinced to play dress-up with her mother and me whenever we prepared for social events. That included revisiting old costumes.
“Where did you get the purse?” Linus admired her ensemble, stepping in when it became obvious I was experiencing technical difficulties. “It’s lovely.”
“I found a box on the front porch with my name on it.” She beamed up at him. “Do you like it?” She stuck out one foot. “It came with matching shoes.”
The flush on her cheeks painted her crush on Linus for all to see.
I had been wrong about her not being interested in the opposite sex. The problem was she already had a crush. That’s why she didn’t pay boys her age any attention.
Goddess help us.
“You look beautiful.” He approached her when it became obvious my legs still were made of Jell-O. “Did you keep the box? Or the note?”
“They’re in my room.” A flicker of hesitation dimmed her exuberance. “Did I…?” She looked to me now. “Did I do something wrong?”
“No,” Linus was quick to reassure her. “Of course not.”
Woolly gave me a mental nudge, a hard one, and I finally snapped out of it.
Leaving Linus with Eva, I jogged into the kitchen for gallon freezer bags to collect evidence in.
“Let’s walk you home, Eva-Diva.” I put a hand on her shoulder. “We’ll explain everything there, okay?”
“Okay.” She glued herself to Linus’s side. “Mom won’t be mad, will she?”
“None of this is your fault.” I nudged them out the door ahead of me. “Be there in a sec.”
After they hit the lawn, I gazed up at the foyer chandelier. “Did you notice anyone on the grounds?”
The front doorknob clicked out a quick no.
“Did we receive any more deliveries?”
Again, no.
“Eva showed up on her own, dressed like this, and waited on us?”
The door opened and then shut in an affirmative. Woolly wasn’t great with telling time, but she pushed a series of images at me that left me certain Eva hadn’t been there more than fifteen or twenty minutes.
“Help us keep an eye on her?”
The door cracked open then shut firmer this time.
“We’ll be back in a few.” I patted the doorframe on my way out. “Hold down the fort.”
Jogging across the lawn, I caught up to Linus, who carried a barefoot Eva piggyback.
We filled the walk with chatter about her next dance recital, and sh
e offered to show me some of her new grappling moves. By the time we reached the Kinase den, she had wormed off his back to run in the grass.
Hood and Lethe met us on the lawn, their expressions tight, and Eva shrank in Linus’s shadow.
In her excitement, she must have forgotten to ask permission before visiting us.
“You,” Lethe snapped. “Go to your room.”
“Mom, I—”
“The pack is on lockdown.” Lethe held firm. “That means you don’t leave these grounds without my say so, and you don’t cross the property line without an escort.”
“I just wanted to show Linus my pretty shoes,” she screamed. “He’s my best friend.”
An arrow through the heart would have hurt me less than hearing her admit that, and from the expression on Hood’s face, he was bleeding out too. Lethe, however, kept her pain masked.
“Go to your room,” she repeated. “I’ll be up to talk to you shortly.”
Red-faced, Eva flew into the house with sobs ringing behind her.
Lethe jolted when the door slammed, and buried her face in her hands. That didn’t stop me from seeing the tear roll off her chin, and I was glad when Hood folded her into his arms to give her a moment to regain her composure.
Peering over his mate’s shoulder, Hood asked me, “What’s with the bags?”
“Evidence.” I explained to them how we found Eva, then hit them with the scariest part of the news. “The shoes and purse are identical to the ones Volkov had made to match a dress he bought for me.”
Lethe jerked away from Hood, her eyes red and cheeks damp. “What?”
The front door swung open, and a kid around thirteen ambled toward us holding a box in his hands.
“I’ll take that.” I tucked the bagged items under my arm to free up my hands. “Thanks.”
Sensing the violence in the air, the kid was happy to fork it over and scram.
I dug out the card with her name on it and turned it front to back, but I didn’t recognize the handwriting.
“I’ll have Bishop run a handwriting analysis.” Linus snapped pictures and sent them. “I doubt we’ll find useable fingerprints.”
Taking that as permission to further tamper with evidence, I rustled through the tissue paper lining the bottom, but there were no other clues to be found.
“You’re right about what you said before.” I flipped the whole thing over in my hands to be sure there wasn’t some hidden message on the bottom. “I need to establish a team of specialists in Savannah. We can’t keep borrowing Hadley’s resources.” I winced. “Sorry. Your resources?”
“She’s the acting potentate. Assuming she aces her trials, and I can’t imagine she won’t, she’ll be sworn in officially. You’re right. They’re her resources now.”
“You’re sure you’re okay with that?” I had to ask. I couldn’t help myself. “It’s not too late to change your mind.”
“I love you for asking.” He took the plastic baggies from under my arm and placed them in the box before setting the lid on top and relieving me of its weight. “I love you, period. That’s why I’m here. I have no regrets. This is where I want to be, with you.”
Okay, fine. So maybe he wasn’t the only one suffering doubts that spread like kudzu during the long weeks we had spent apart while Hadley and I trained. Maybe he and I ought to just sit at the kitchen table nose to nose and say I love you until we ran out of breath or both believed it, whichever happened first. Screamed it, more like, since we were obviously both hard of hearing when it came to that department.
“I’ll have a courier deliver these to the cleaners.” He juggled the armful of evidence. “I’ll send the ring too.” He removed it from his pocket to add on the pile. “They’ll be able to determine if they’re yours or copies.”
“I threw them out,” I said for Hood and Lethe’s benefit. “As soon as I got home, I tossed everything that Volkov had given me or touched, except for the avowal, which I gave to Linus.”
“So,” Hood said, thinking it over, “someone could have fished them out of the trash.”
“Goddess.” I rubbed my hands up my arms. “That was years ago.”
“Vampires play a long game.” Linus frowned over his collection. “This might have been a contingency plan if Volkov failed.”
He didn’t come right out and accuse my grandfather, but he didn’t have to for me to be thinking along the same lines. Talk about a long game. He had played me since before I was born. Mom and Dad too. It didn’t help his posthumous case that he was the one who promised me to Volkov in the first place. I could see him ordering one of his lackeys to collect these glittery bits and pieces in case they might come in handy as leverage against me, or him.
“We’ll let you get back to Eva,” I said when Lethe’s gaze kept drifting in that direction. “We’ll update you when we know more.”
“Thanks.”
She started toward the house, but Hood stayed behind, giving Lethe and Eva time alone to talk.
“There’s a chance the shoes and clutch are new then.” He mulled over the implications. “Reproductions.”
“It’s possible, but we just don’t know yet, and it worries me they were left for her.” I hated admitting it to him, but he deserved to hear the truth. “Not much of what’s happening adds up. It’s enough like Volkov to point a finger in his direction, but not enough like him to convince me he’s directly involved. It’s possible one of his clansmen is acting on his orders or has taken initiative to return his bride to him now that he’s free.”
The ring was unfamiliar, but it must have been the one Volkov had selected for me or a duplicate.
“I should get in there.” Hood’s lips thinned like he would rather suck a lemon than do just that. “Those two butt heads on whether grass is green. It’s a miracle they haven’t knocked themselves unconscious, as stubborn as they both are.”
“Just keep an eye on Eva, okay?” I stared up at her window, the hug Lethe gave her shadowed against the curtains. “I don’t like how involved she is in this.”
“Neither do I.” Hood followed my gaze. “But she’s your goddessdaughter, and that makes her a target.”
As the adoptive daughter of Maud Woolworth, I had firsthand experience in being the chink in someone else’s armor, and Eva was worth twice as many points for anyone taking aim at me. Not only was she my goddessdaughter, but her mother was my best friend.
“Her medical condition also makes her a hot topic,” Hood continued. “Both of those things make her an ideal conduit to you.”
I cringed at medical condition, but that was more polite than the truth and accurate for the most part.
“We’ll touch base at dusk,” I promised, and then Linus and I set off for Woolly. “Do we have a location for Volkov?”
“Bishop says he’s gone to ground.” Linus furrowed his brow. “Whether that’s because he’s behind this or simply doesn’t want to be recaptured, we won’t know until he’s found.”
Last Seeds were rare and precious resources. Their immortality enabled them to run a clan with seamless efficiency rather than swapping out masters every five hundred years or so as the made vampires in charge died a death even we couldn’t reverse. The problem with that system was a clan could end up with a just and fair master who expanded their clan and its holdings, or they could be stuck with an egomaniacal warmonger like my grandfather as a figurehead.
Clanned vampires don’t kill Last Seeds, no matter how insane age turned them. That didn’t mean they were above hiring a rogue to do the job for them. But Volkov was young, a baby compared to his contemporaries. They would coddle him and indulge him as he rose to power. By that point, they would have either raised a true leader or a true monster, but it would be too late to stop him either way.
“Did he really have to wait until a week before the wedding to start this?”
“The timing is suspicious, I’ll admit.”
Two years and change. That’s how long I had been engag
ed to Linus. That’s how long Volkov had to make his move. Choosing to wreck my wedding? That was just him being spiteful. What else could it be?
“The final food tasting is tomorrow,” I reminded Linus. “Do you think it’s safe to move forward?”
The order had been placed months ago, but that didn’t stop Lethe from adding to it each time. Maybe I should have hired magical cooks and bakers to make their lives easier with a matron of honorzilla on the loose.
“We’ll post sentinels in the bakery and in the caterer’s kitchen. We have too many high-profile guests to risk them coming to harm from whoever is targeting you.”
A sad thought occurred to me, that I might end up issuing sigils to guests as they entered the garden for the ceremony. I hoped it didn’t come to that, but I would rather be safe than sorry. We could protect the guests from poisoning, but the risk was too high for me to employ the impervious sigil. That many people would talk, and they would bring it home with them as a souvenir too. It was far too dangerous to chance it falling into the wrong hands.
As much as I wished our wedding was a family-and-friends-only event, we had checked off all the boxes his mother gave us to ensure the event was politically airtight. Expectations came with the title of Dame Woolworth and Scion Lawson, as well as my newest title of potentate. We had to get the mix just right to avoid calls of favoritism. We were already battling that, given my pardon and release from Atramentous, plus my elevation to potentate of a city who had never required one. The Woolworth/Lawson alliance, and yes, that’s how the Society viewed our impending nuptials, made a lot of people nervous.
“Are you going to join us this time?” The groom had excused himself from all tastings, leaving food in the hands of the experts. “The filet mignon melts in your mouth, and the garlic mashed potatoes are insane. Don’t get me started on the pillowy deliciousness of the yeast rolls. And the honey butter to dip them in? Yum.”
“You sound sold on the caterer. Are you certain you need another tasting?”
This made our third time around, actually. Maybe it was a good thing he wasn’t counting.
How to Kiss an Undead Bride Page 9