Darkness Bound

by Stella Cameron

  “I like crows,” Leigh said hollowly. “They’re intelligent.”

  A sudden crashing coming from the direction of the cottage startled her.

  Innes, his hair wild and his face streaked with soot, broke through to them. He saw John Valley and halted. His arms fell to his sides and his face became rigid.

  “Tell us,” Leigh said, as gently as she could. She liked Innes’s ebullient personality. “What happened?”

  Slowly Innes raised his head and looked from one to the other of them. “I chased him off. That’s it. Some crazy little fae in purple satin rushed down to your place, Niles. I was leaving something for you and Leigh. He stood on my shoulder and hissed in my ear. He said you two were his protectors.”

  Innes’s audience didn’t have anything to say.

  “He said—the fae, that is—he said some guy was on Leigh’s roof doing something to her chimney and wanted me to deal with it. And the guy was there, just like the fae said. I scared him off—almost all the way up here—then went back to see what he’d done to the cottage, if anything.”

  Innes noticed the disapproving look on Niles’s face. “Stop looking at me like that, dammit. I dragged him off the roof and gave him some shoves. I didn’t”—his attention returned to Valley—“hell, look at that. I didn’t do it. We left all that behind.”

  “Where’s Percy?” Leigh said. “The fae?”

  “How should I know? There’s a pile of soot in your living room and some dead crows. Like those only dirtier.” He pointed at the birds on the ground.

  Niles grabbed her hand and went rapidly downhill toward the cottage with the other two men trailing behind.

  “We need to call the police,” Leigh said, the cold air snatching her breath away.

  “Let’s get the whole picture first,” he said. “No one can help John Valley now.”

  “Look,” Innes said, loping along easily despite the mess underfoot. “I didn’t do—”

  “We know you didn’t,” Niles said. “But who did?”

  “Whoever it was wanted it to look like us,” Sean said.

  “What good would that do?” Niles said. “No one around knows… aw, shit. If a word gets dropped in the right place and the authorities make some inquiries, we could be unlucky enough for them to hit some big-mouth paper pusher willing to talk about special ops and a contract operation no one is supposed to know much about.”

  Leigh’s heart beat faster and harder. At the cottage, Niles put her into Innes’s hands and opened the unlocked door.

  “I’m going in,” she told Innes and Sean. She held up her hand, showing the seal, and they took a respectful step backward.

  Niles would have to learn to accept what their union meant. He was not the boss where she was concerned.

  She ran into him as he was coming back out of the cottage. “I’m going to take a look,” she said, and evidently he heard the edge to her voice, because he didn’t try to stop her.

  Apart from a putrid smell of soot and two more dead crows spilling from the fireplace onto the floor, there was nothing to see.

  Outside again, Niles took a leap, gripped the edge of the roof, and landed on it lightly. He disappeared for what felt like a long time before he slithered down again with two black plastic bags.

  He held up one. “More sacrificed birds.” The other he set down carefully. “We’d better give Percy a medal. That’s what Mr. Valley intended to use to start his chimney fire. You were supposed to get home, Leigh, go inside, and get scared out of your mind by birds and flames shooting out of your fireplace. Call 911.”

  Leigh realized she was shaky. Everything that happened to her now carried some horrible risk. What would happen next?

  She searched for her phone. “I don’t know what I did with it. Someone better call me or I’ll never find it.”

  Niles used his own phone to call her. “I might as well make the call to the cops, too.”

  A phone rang in the cottage. Leigh ran inside and found it on the floor. “I’ll make the call. It’s my house and I should do it.”

  The phone rang again before she could dial. “Leigh, this is Gib,” came her brother-in-law’s voice.

  She slowly rejoined the others. “Hi Gib. Is Jan okay? It’s pretty early.”

  “You know that’s not why I’m calling. How are you? Not hurt? Please say you’re not hurt. Jan and I are on our way over.”

  Leigh switched her phone to speaker. “I’m not hurt.” She felt three men watching her closely but didn’t look at them. “What made you think I was?”

  “The fire, of course. It’s a good thing the fire department could notify us as next of kin. Where are you now? What kind of sicko would do a thing like that?”

  She looked at the others then, at their serious and disgusted faces.

  “I’m at the cottage,” Leigh said.

  “How badly was it damaged?” Gib asked. “Wait until I’ve finished, Jan. She’s worried about you, Leigh.”

  “She’s a good sister.”

  “I expect the fire trucks are in the drive,” Gib said. “I’ll park at the top and walk down. Can you believe it? Setting birds on fire and stuffing them down your chimney? Just to try to frighten you into selling.”

  Leigh sat down on the snowy porch, not caring how wet or cold she was. “And the fire department called to tell you this?” She grappled with what this call meant.

  After a short silence Gib said, “They were pretty muddled up when I talked to them, but that was the gist of it. I don’t blame them for having difficulty believing what happened. The cops will have to track down whoever did this. We want you out of there, Leigh. Jan won’t sleep again with you on your own there.”

  “You want me to sell and move in with you?”

  “You know we do. You need us. Hell, we need you, too. You’re all the family we’ve got.”

  She looked out over the water, toward Camano Island. “I couldn’t live on your kindness, Gib.” The word “kindness” stuck in her throat.

  “We’ll work all that out. You let me take care of your finances. They’ll need managing and you don’t need the stress of that.”

  chapter THIRTY-FIVE

  DR. SAUL VANDOREN’S CLINIC, located in a rambling three-story house at the end of Gulliver Lane, was not what Leigh expected. If she had gone in to find a gaslight atmosphere complete with buttoned leather examination couches she wouldn’t have been surprised.

  Instead, the VanDoren Clinic and Lab was a modern, streamlined series of rooms, most with closed doors. The one open examination room she passed sparkled with immaculate stainless steel equipment and a whole lot of white.

  “Come through to my quarters,” Saul said. He still wore the heavy, hooded coat he had had on when he caught up with them at the bookshop, where they had gone to check up on Phoebe.

  After a couple of hours with Langley’s Police Department, tough men who wore baseball caps with POLICE emblazoned across the front in white, Leigh and Niles had been allowed to leave and take Jan with them. Gib chose to take off without a word about his plans, and without his wife. There was no solid evidence against him, and unfortunately, knowing more than he should about a fire that hadn’t happened wasn’t a reason to hold him.

  Leigh made repeated requests for Jan to stay with her, but Jan wouldn’t agree. Leigh feared her twin somehow felt partly to blame for her husband’s actions.

  Sean had learned from his buddies at the volunteer fire department that no one recalled talking to Gib. In fact, there had been no call about a fire at Two Chimneys at all. Still, none of his weird behavior put Gib under police suspicion of murder since he had plenty of alibis to confirm he hadn’t been anywhere near Whidbey until he arrived after calling Leigh.

  Leigh agreed with Niles and Sean that Gib seemed to know a whole lot about the efforts to get her to sell her property, and that money had to be at the bottom of whatever had gone on between him and John Valley. They had ideas about a possible plot between the two men, but no evide
nce.

  Right now, Sean was over at Read It Again to keep an eye on Phoebe. Jan was with them.

  “I shouldn’t leave Jan very long,” Leigh said. “She’s got to be even more upset than the rest of us.”

  “Sean will take care of her,” Niles insisted. “She’s a lot better off with Phoebe than with Gib.”

  “Don’t worry,” Leigh said. “I agree with you.”

  Sally and Phoebe had shown up at the police station offering to take Leigh and look after her. That offer had been gently refused, but battered Phoebe had zeroed in on Jan—with help from Sally, who gave the whole “help in the bookstore” spiel. And to Leigh’s amazement, Jan agreed to stay and work with Phoebe for at least a few days.

  The police let them go with warnings that they’d be hearing from the Sheriff’s Department as John Valley’s death was investigated. The theory that he had been crushed by a falling tree didn’t seem to be off the table.

  Leigh and Niles followed Saul down a flight of stairs to the lower level of the house and into a room furnished sparingly with outrageous Biedermeier pieces. Saul waved them to a lime green couch with roll pillows at either end and gilt-encrusted legs that rested on the gleaming ebony floor. The cartoonish, early-nineteenth-century splendor suited the elegant Saul.

  “I saw your hand,” Saul told Niles and glanced at Leigh. “Would I find the matching mark on you?”

  She held up her palm and he nodded, smiling slightly. “Times can only get more interesting,” he said.

  “You’ve got a reason for wanting us here?” Niles said. “Other than to congratulate us on our match.”

  Saul inclined his head. “But I do congratulate you. You, Leigh, are Deseron?”

  She nodded. “How do you know?”

  “A friend told me, but you’ve no need to worry. Your secret is safe,” Saul said. “Truly, I find your kind fascinating. The ones who got away. Slipped through the fingers of the paranormal community to become supposedly extinct. I don’t think we shall see more than artificial periods of calm while the forces who are bound to hate you decide how much harm you can bring to them.”

  “Leigh is not alone. She never will be,” Niles said brusquely. He held Leigh’s hand.

  “Of course not,” Saul said. “And if I can be of any help, you only have to call. Use her.”

  For an instant Leigh didn’t know what he meant. Then she became aware of Skillywidden on her shoulder, pressed against her neck while she looked at Saul.

  “Use her?” Leigh said. “The cat?”

  “Not just any cat, I assure you.” He tilted his head to listen to drops of yellow crystal pinging together around an unlit hurricane lamp. When the sound stopped he continued, “Sally has given Skillywidden to you for a purpose. The little one is of the Communicator Class of fae and she is a shapeshifter. Don’t be fooled by her charming, restrained demeanor. She has fire in her.”

  Leigh put a hand up to the cat, who licked her fingers.

  Saul laughed at that, then quickly sobered. “I brought you here because I have disturbing news. My tests have taken longer than I hoped but now I have some answers. Unfortunately, they are very bad. They spell a difficult future until we find a way to neutralize your werewolf friends, Niles.”

  “They are no friends of mine,” Niles said sharply.

  Leigh placed her hand on Niles’s knee, hoping to calm him and avoid an angry outburst. Whatever Saul had learned, they needed to hear. And Leigh also needed to hear Saul’s answer to a question that had been plaguing her.

  “Saul,” she began, “you are not an average vampire, are you?”

  For a long moment Saul stared into space. “I go my own way,” he said at last.

  Leigh looked at his smiling mouth where no glittering fangs showed. “But are you… like that terrible Colin?” she asked in a hushed voice. “Do you drink from… ”

  “No, not like him. I exist on whole blood intended for transfusion but past pull date. After all, a man must guard his honor. I am a maverick vampire, a loner with no slaves or interest in the world I never wanted to enter. I am not a danger to you, Leigh. I promise you that. Now. Let’s discuss what I’ve found out about Rose.”

  Niles shifted to the edge of the couch. “I was pretty sure it was you who carried her away that night.”

  “Yes. She was already dead but there was no point in arousing panic among the humans. I dealt with her disposal—after collecting specimens.” He shook his head slowly. “The wolves will retreat when they find out what we know. But only temporarily, until they feel safe continuing.”

  “Rose is in Alaska,” Leigh said.

  “I’m sorry, but no.” Niles shook his head. “I couldn’t tell you until I knew why they were covering up the death.”

  Leigh wished the bad news would stop coming.

  “Explain your findings,” Niles said to Saul.

  “Rose’s blood had me intrigued at first. I knew there was something that shouldn’t be there but nothing was immediately clear.”

  Niles let out an impatient growl. “Just tell us.”

  “I am telling you. What was introduced into Rose was animal blood—werewolf, I believe—although there hasn’t been an opportunity to get the specimens I need to be sure.”

  Looking from one man to the other, Leigh jumped up. “How did she die?”

  “The animal blood killed her. It caused a general infection of the blood allowing for clots to develop. One clot to the brain could easily have killed her. There were many. And there may still be something even more sinister to be found.”

  “Is Violet like her?” Niles asked. “What if the others who were taken are walking around like time bombs? Waiting for a clot to hit the brain?”

  “Then they are in serious danger,” Saul answered. “But we can’t know without investigation and we can’t investigate without explaining why we want to. What would you say if someone asked to test your blood to see if—” Saul paused and raised his arched brows. “Your situation is different, but with a full human, a question like that would make them call the police. They would say you were mad.”

  “So what do we do?” Leigh said.

  “Nothing until the ones who left most recently show up again, dead or alive.”

  Leigh felt sick to her stomach. “What if we’re wrong? What if the others really have just left town? That’s possible, isn’t it?” Even as she said the words, Leigh held little hope there was any truth to them.

  “This is how it is in our world, Leigh—your world, too, now,” Saul said. “And I believe all of this is an experiment in progress. So far some of the human guinea pigs seem to have passed their tests with flying colors, walking among other humans with no sign of being different.”

  “Molly,” Niles said. “Molly was missing for a while, too. And she’s gone again now.”

  “I have other thoughts about Molly,” Saul said. “And I hope to have a chance to prove myself right or wrong.” He poured white wine into two glasses. “For my guests,” he said. “I can’t risk scaring them off with glasses of red wine.”

  Leigh took the glass he gave her and went to stand behind the cerise velvet slipper chair he had used. “Where do the fae creatures fit in?”

  “Are they being used?” Niles said, all of his focus on Saul’s knowing face. “Cover for the wolves who know the fae would never consider them capable of misleading them? Would that be possible?”

  The pupils of Saul’s eyes were opaque, with a reddish hue. “If the werewolves have pulled that off—even by accident—this world of ours is heading for a violent war of revenge. The underworld has its pecking order. No one makes fools of the fae—or whomever the fae answer to. There is always a higher force.”

  “Why would the wolves introduce their blood into humans in potentially lethal doses?” Niles said.

  “Hard to know,” Saul said. “This pack hates humans, and if they can use them to destroy themselves, so much the better. Perhaps the plan is to create a Trojan Horse to graduall
y undermine humanity—at least in this place—from the inside.”

  “Humans they can use as puppets later?” Circling the windowless room, Niles fell into deep thought.

  “And it won’t matter to them how long it takes to make enough puppets,” Leigh said quietly. “They have plenty of time.”

  “Unless they don’t have plenty of time anymore,” Niles said. “Unless they used to but now they don’t.”

  Saul nodded.

  “Because of me?” Leigh said. “And the Deseron? I see both sides of the veil and pure humans can’t. And I am not an experiment. I am compatible with the werehound. There must be others like me, you know.” She thought fleetingly of Jan. “Deseron will help the hounds bond with humans, integrate with them. Your strength and numbers will grow while the wolves are still trying to get control.”

  “They have never wanted to be human,” Niles said. “We have, or most of us. There is always a rogue. But these werewolves have always used, then destroyed, humans.”

  “You will win,” Leigh said. “You and Sean and the others—and Saul. You will.”

  “I love your confidence,” Niles said without a shred of humor. “We have a lot of enemies to contend with.”

  “But perhaps Leigh’s confidence is all we need,” Saul told him. He had grown almost transparently pale. “I must ask you to go now. Please, Niles, watch this woman carefully.”

  “I intend to,” Niles said.

  “And pray the wolves make a mistake,” Saul added, stretching out on the green sofa and pulling a black satin coverlet over him. “I am on your side, hound. And I’m ready to fight.” He pulled the coverlet over his head. From beneath it he said, “The ultimate answer may be to win the humans’ trust. Together, forces for good overcome all the odds.”

  chapter THIRTY-SIX

  READ IT AGAIN WAS IRRESISTIBLE. Floor-to-ceiling book stacks, cozy if threadbare chairs, a big potbellied stove hissing and popping in the center of the room, and hot cider and chocolate standing ready with home-baked cookies. Niles saw the moment of pleasure on Leigh’s face and wished he could make sure she always smiled.