Love and Blood (Evening Bower Book 2)

by Sherry Rentschler

  Annual Riviere Halloween Gala

  Friday, October 31, 1997

  Theme: Woodland Dreams

  Prepare to meet the King and Queen of the Fairies,

  and all manner of folk and creatures

  who live in a magic woods.

  Costumes mandatory.

  9 p.m. to 1 a.m.

  RSVP

  “King and Queen of the Fairies?” Victoria said, surprised. “I thought we were worried about them. Is it a good idea to want to be them?”

  “I am not worried, exactly,” Rhea explained. “The Prince lost three children in the battle. Undoubtedly, he mourns their deaths and may harbor some ill will. However, I do not know him and have not invited him to our gathering. But here is the list Am and I suggest for all of you based on your wishes and available costumes. Have a look?” She offered a sheet with copious notes about hats, shoes, and jewelry along with the main costumes. “These match up with all those boxes we received. I gave a similar list to your friends at the club based on what Dra said.”

  “Lemme see,” Keta said and read down the list of offerings.

  “Did the guys agree to this?” A surprised Sondra pointed to the list.

  “They did,” Rhea grinned. “I think it will be interesting.”

  “That’s one word for it,” Victoria muttered. “Can’t wait to see the costumes. Dra can wear her wedding dress, right?” The girls giggled over her character and Dra’s possible reaction.

  “All right everyone. We have less than three weeks. The decorators will start building the forest in the ballroom this weekend. It will take them quite a while since it will also include the dining room, drawing room, and the hallway. The upstairs will be off-limits for our guests, and there will be fairy guards on both sides of the stairs plus one in the library on the spiral stairs. I suggest you meet up with your friends and make whatever costume additions you need because everything downtown is either sold out or getting very expensive. Feel free to use one of the empty rooms upstairs for your work.”

  “So Dra will be here for Halloween,” Keta said. It was really a question.

  “That’s what she said,” Rhea nodded.

  They were about to leave when Cooke approached the table and asked to speak to Victoria. They stepped into the hallway.

  “Miss, I do apologize for taking so long, miss. You asked me about the markings at the fire.”

  “Did you find something?” Victoria whispered anxiously.

  “I don’t know, lass. I managed to find a few references to one of the runes, and I think I have one of the messages.” She handed over a diagram with a translation. “See that mark? It was on your sidewalk. I believe it is a warning that says, ‘comes the goblin king’ or it could be ‘becomes the goblin king.’” Cooke frowned.

  “Who is that?”

  “I can’t say, lass. The Goblin King is part of the shadowlands and could be anyone.”

  “Great,” Victoria dropped her arms in resignation. “We don’t know anything new.”

  “I think we know a great deal. You forget goblins hide in the woods.”

  Victoria blinked. “The party. Goddess! I have to tell Rhea,” she whispered. Her tarot card reading clarified as she replayed the deal in her mind. The tower. Destruction and deception. The Moon is new and completely dark.

  Victoria caught up with Rhea in the upstairs library, and they discussed Cooke’s findings as well as revisiting the tarot cards. Despite the warnings, the implied threats, the possible danger, Rhea refused to cancel the gala.

  “It is impossible, my dear. There will be a great many people there. Who could do anything magical in front of an entire room of New Orleans’ society? Besides, is it not possible that there are enough of us that we can stop anyone who might harm us? I think we should still wear your amulets because we must de-ward the chimes. We shall have to sneak one into Dra’s dress.” They laughed conspiratorily. “Then between Am, Destin, Dra, Reaper, your magic, the local police and myself, we should be well prepared. Try not to worry—oh!”

  Rhea’s hands went to her abdomen.

  “What’s wrong?” Victoria whispered, shaking.

  “Nothing.” Rhea beamed. “The baby moved.” Her tone was reverent and filled with surprise. “I never felt this with Destin. Suddenly she feels real.”

  “All the more reason to take the rune and the cards seriously, Rhea,” Victoria urged.

  “I promise you, I am. I would give my life to protect my children,” she said, “and all of you, too. You are all my family. Now enough gloom. I need to finish unpacking and get The Great Book into its locked case.”

  “I want to see, as does everyone else, but I have to get downtown and pick up my shoes before it gets too late. After dinner?”

  “That sounds wonderful. You go on, and I will see you later.”

  Rhea sat down at her desk, her hands on her abdomen, still amazed at her body and her miracle baby. I wonder who you will look like. Blonde like me or darker like your father. Green eyes? I know you will be beautiful. We love you already. I think I will name you after Am’s mother, Thérèse because I think if she were here, she would love you too.

  THE GIRLS WASTED no time piling into Victoria’s car after lunch. Catarina asked to join them after Rhea encouraged her to go shopping. The debate raged whether they should add vintage shoes or jewelry or whether to go barefoot since the theme was the woods.

  “Let’s stop at the club. I need to know that the guys are up for Sherwood Forest and being merry men.” Sondra said. “And if I am Maid Marian, Tyler better not back out. I hope Rhea got his approval.”

  “I would trade places with you if you do not wish to be the Maid,” Catarina offered softly. “I like Tyler.”

  Keta made kissing noises, and Sondra whacked her on the arm.

  “Hey,” Keta groused, “just kidding. Sorta. Why can’t I be Friar Tuck or something like that?”

  The girls laughed at the blue haired girl playing the overweight holy man as in the movie.

  “Yeah, okay, I get it. Say, did you see Dra’s character? Queen of Demons, the phantom queen of Fate, War, and Death. But who is that?”

  “What did you do, memorize the list?” said Victoria said as she crossed the bridge into the city.

  “Yeah, sorta. Reaper is a hellhound,” she snorted. “No big costume change there.”

  More giggling. “But it does explain how he looks to the ordinary folk,” Sondra offered.

  “The Queen of Demons is also known as The Morrigan. She is a shapeshifter and usually changes into a crow. Some say she comes for people when they die,” explained Cady.

  “More like she kills them. Well, it is for Halloween. Her wedding dress will be perfect,” Keta assured them.

  “Wasn’t her dress bizarre? I never saw anything like it,” Sondra said and described it to Cady.

  “Here we are. Close as I can get to the club. Let’s beat feet and check in with the guys.” Victoria said as she parked.

  All the guys were in and after a little discussion, they finally agreed to their characters and shared the girls’ excitement. Tyler most of all because he was to be Robin Hood.

  “Maid Marian,” he said to Catarina with a bow.

  “No, that’d be me. Sorry,” Sondra interrupted with a blush.

  “Maybe you two could change? Who are you gonna be, Catarina?” Keta asked as she climbed up on a barstool.

  “Rhea asked me to take the role of Queen Mab, the winter queen to her summer. Mab was also the fae midwife. That’s me.”

  “Oh, I can’t do that,” Sondra shook her head. “Sorry Tye, you’ll have to do with me.”

  “I am honored no matter who is my Maid.” He turned to Catarina with a smile, “You’ll save me a dance? I never danced with a queen before.”

  Seth appeared from the kitchen and Keta hopped down from her stool to give him a big hug.

  “Hi ya, bluebell, I missed you, too. Where is the hound?”

  “We didn’t bring him t
his time. He doesn’t like Sondra.”

  “Too bad. I saved him a bone. I’ll wrap it up for him. So tell me everything. When is boss lady coming home?”

  The conversation turned again to the wedding, and then slowly back to costumes. Everyone was clear about their role and what they would wear. The girls made lists, and the guys promised to get to the bower soon and pick up their clothes. Despite Victoria’s misgivings, she couldn’t hide her eagerness.

  “So who are you? Are you part of the merry men too?” Steel asked, slipping an arm around Victoria’s waist.

  “No, I’m going as a banshee.”

  “But that’s a ghost,” Seth said.

  “No, it’s a fairy spirit who warms people when someone is going to die. I think Rhea is messing with me because of the tarot cards,” Victoria shrugged.

  “A spirit is a ghost,” Seth protested again.

  “Okay, not like you think of a ghost. She never appears unless there is danger to a family member and disappears when the death is over.”

  “Man, that’s gruesome,” Keta shivered. “I’ll be happy with my pixie. Do I get wings? If I don’t get fangs, then I have to have wings.”

  The conversation shifted again, much to Victoria’s relief. But she wondered if destiny hadn’t planned for her to act as an actual banshee at the party.

  BY DINNERTIME, THE girls and the club staff returned to the bower. The guys opted not to wait and followed the girls to the bayou. By the time they arrived, Rhea had finished installing the new glass case in the library. Now she could show the book, as she promised, but would wait until after Dra’s staff left. This peek was for family only.

  First, everyone gathered in the library where the boxes of costumes waited. Then as each unpacked an outfit, he or she went upstairs to the center bedroom where they tried on the clothes. There were exclamations of joy and dismay. The merry men did not want to wear tights and opted for brown and green leather breeches and boots. Bows and arrows meant practicing archery before the party, and Sondra said she would teach anyone who needed lessons. Turned out Sondra was a Master Archer. Rhea even agreed to their having a tournament during the party just like in the Robin Hood stories.

  The hour was late when Cooke set out a monstrous repast, and the dining room finally fulfilled its purpose. Seth, Steel, Tyler, Keta, Victoria, Cady, Sondra, and Rhea settled at the massive dining table, and the room rocked with several conversations at once. Rhea had to smile. This was her kind of gathering. Cooke fussed the entire time, but that was her way of showing happiness as she refilled plates and Franklin managed the libations, all non-alcoholic.

  Cooke served dessert when Amor-el joined them. He nodded to everyone and bid them keep eating, before kissing Rhea and running off to the kitchen for his particular libation. Cooke told him what she decoded from the runes. As far as Am could tell, there was no connection to Sondra, and that eased his mind a little, but the mysteries continued.

  “Where is the lad? I thought he would show up with you. He tends to eat food first and then do his hunting later with you,” Cooke said.

  “He hasn’t come down yet? Strange. I’ll check on him. Don’t worry, mother hen,” Am winked at the woman who was fast becoming a surrogate mother for him as well as the rest of the house.

  When Rhea walked into the kitchen, she made a beeline for Am and put his hand on her stomach. “I felt her move today,” she said.

  Amor-el waited but didn’t feel anything. He shook his head and was about to pull away when his eyes opened wide. “Do you hear her heartbeat? I can and, wait, oh my, there she is.”

  Under his hand, movement fluttered and when he focused he could make out the heartbeat, healthy and vibrant. Real.

  “We never experienced this with Destin,” Rhea said, “and I love how I feel when she flits around inside. Like holding a butterfly.”

  “A very loud one,” Am laughed with his head against Rhea. “Do you, can you, hear her?”

  “Not really. I sense the heartbeat more than I hear it,” Rhea shook her head. “It is enough.”

  “We’re going to have a little girl,” Amor-el’s voice trembled with awe as he gathered his rose to him in a hug. Cooke grinned like a fool and wiped the tears from her eyes.

  “I want to call her Thérèse, after your mother. Is that all right?” Rhea eyes lifted to his green ones and begged.

  “My mamma would be delighted. Of course, chérie, I approve. And I will spoil her and call her Tessa.

  “Oh joy and ecstasy,” Destin whispered from the back stairs before he snuck out and left them to enjoy a happiness that did not include him. No one noticed. No one heard.

  “Come with me, m’ange. There is something I need to do,” Am tugged her hand, and they went out the back, across the lawn toward the private bower where white flowers bloomed with Rhea’s blue roses. “Sit here, with me?” He patted a stone bench.

  “You are very mysterious, Am. Why am I suddenly nervous?”

  Amor-el got down on one knee and offered her a black velvet box about three inches long and an inch wide.

  “I should have offered you this long ago. I am sorry for waiting. Destin reminded me that you are different from him and me in ways that separate us beyond time and blood. I want you to know that my love is unending, undying, unyielding. This gift proves that beyond any doubt and proclaims my intentions to the supernatural community. Go ahead, my rose, open the box.”

  Gingerly, Rhea’s nervous fingers snapped open the lid. Inside on a bed of pitch black velvet rested a long shiny black skeleton key. It wasn’t a standard skeleton style but ornate with extraordinary scrollwork. The key had no sharp edges but felt rounded. Something about it gave off a shimmer, a silver glow that was ghostly and yet compelling.

  “How beautiful,” Rhea breathed, “but what is it? Does this unlock a new private room?”

  Amor-el smiled though an odd sadness filled his eyes. “I suppose one might call it a metaphoric room. No, Rhea, this is The Aglyre. In every vampire family, before one becomes a vampire, the family first makes a “gift” of this key, as a promise that one night that person will join them in their perpetual shadow. I give you this Aglyre as my promise to you that we will not suffer the fear that we knew when Destin was born. There may come a time when your immortality fails you. If that time comes, this key will remind you to have faith in the next kind of immortality, the kind that will bond you to me in darkness.”

  He rose to his feet and then sat next to her on the bench.

  “This Aglyre is from the Riviere family in Normandy. It is over five hundred years old, and I have only one. I choose you, my rose.”

  Rhea fingered the key, noting the constant cold in the obsidian metal. When she looked up at Am, her eyes spilled over with happy tears.

  “How did you know I wanted to be with you?” she whispered.

  “Destin gave me the insight. He has been nothing but jealous, but he let me know that you may be feeling alone now that he doesn’t, as he said, need you any longer.” Am took her hands in his. “In truth, he may think that he does not need you, but you must never doubt me or my love. Destin thinks he only needs me now, but you are our eternity, Rhea. Believe that if nothing else.”

  She nodded, letting the tears fall unhindered. “I never doubted it, though maybe I was a bit jealous at first. There were nights I wanted to join you on your hunt and share the shadows by your side. My guilt kept me silent. I am surprised Destin noticed.”

  “I am more surprised that I did not.” Sorrow darkened his eyes. “What matters now is that you understand my promise to you and my hope that you will wear this Aglyre openly with acceptance. The vampires we know will immediately understand, and my family will know I chose you. Any other creatures will not dare approach you with harmful intentions or face my lineage in retribution.”

  Rhea nodded again as Am took the box and removed the key. Only then did she notice the beautiful thin platinum chain. He slipped it over her head, and it fell past her breasts to
swing above her protruding stomach.

  “What happens when it is time to, well, you know, use this?” Rhea picked up the key.

  “When the moment comes when you decide that you will surrender your humanity for my night, then you can give me the key. Together we will determine when it must happen. I will never take you against your will or if you are unprepared. There may come a day when I won’t be able to stop myself, so significantly do you tempt me. But unless you return the key to me, I will never do this to you without your full desire.

  “But Rhea, I wonder if you understand the horror of this promise. How one day I will be unable not to do this thing. This may be the only answer for what lies ahead for us. I saw it, as you did, in the tarot. I do not know if this is right, but it is what I will do. And may whatever God there forgive me for my selfishness, my hunger, and my greed, for I shall never let you go. Soon, I won’t be able to prevent what must come for us. And on that day I won’t try to stop the coming.”

  Am gathered her in his arms and fervently kissed her forehead, her eyes, her cheeks and finally her mouth. “Forever,” he whispered between kisses.

  “Eternally yours,” she sighed and let her fire dance between them.

  CATARINA BORROWED VICTORIA’S car and decided to follow Seth back into town on the pretext of getting something for her costume. Playing Queen Mab necessitated dark stockings and a pair of black shoes that she did not own. Clothes in this country were much more constricting and puritanical than her usual clothes.

  When they got back to NOLA, Seth pulled over and gave her a map. He marked the “must see” places and some of the touristy one before he left her.

  “Which way is this new club that everyone is so anxious about?” She asked before he drove off.

  “Don’t know yet. Zephyr won’t tell us. Said we’ll find out when it opens.” He shrugged. “Good luck. Call me if you get lost.” He waved as he drove away.

  Cady parked and decided to stroll around the local shops and restaurants. She crossed her fingers and hoped to discover the bar by accident but wasn’t having any luck. After about an hour’s search, Cady turned and found Zephyr studying her from across the street. Determined to get some answers, she walked purposely over to the dark-haired beauty.