by Kresley Cole
"Those are as protected as your chains were," Sebastian said. "The wood, the metal, and the stone surrounding them are all reinforced. You can't possibly--"
Conrad bent them wide, actually breaking the metal.
"My God," Nikolai murmured.
"Need your help to find my Bride!" He yanked the wreckage free. "I'm not mad...but I need you to trace me to every cemetery in New Orleans. Do you know where they are?"
Nikolai gaped. "Your...Bride?"
"His heart beats," Murdoch said.
"Do you know where they are, or not?" Conrad bellowed.
Nikolai nodded slowly. "I know all the cemeteries. Myst and I hunt ghouls there."
"Will you do this?"
"Conrad, just calm--"
"Fuck calm, Nikolai!" Suddenly Conrad sensed great power behind him.
"So this is Conrad Wroth," Kristoff said.
Without turning, Conrad sneered, "The bloody Russian. What do you want?"
"I'd known the Wroths were genetically incapable of fawning to a king, but a modicum of respect..."
Conrad faced the natural-born vampire, surrounded by his king's guard.
"You've taken out my entire castle guard. Something a Horde battalion couldn't do. They didn't tell me you were this strong," Kristoff said in a casual tone. His pale eyes were expressionless, but he was calculating. Conrad could sense it--and he believed he knew what Kristoff wanted.
"But then, you've been blooded."
"I don't have time for this!" Conrad snapped. "I'll kill you just to keep you from speaking."
His guards tensed, hands at their sword hilts. "Kill me? You wouldn't know your Bride if not for me, if not for your brothers. You'd have been dead three hundred years ago."
"I've put that together!"
To Nikolai, Kristoff said, "He took out the guards without killing a single one--almost as if he was making a point. You were right. Conrad isn't lost. He's...quite a few things, but he's not irredeemable. And I can concede when I made a mistake. Though you should have come to me instead of willfully breaking our laws."
Nikolai shrugged. "I couldn't take the risk that you would say no. He's my brother," he said, as if that explained everything.
Kristoff turned back to Conrad. "Swear fealty to me, and all of you leave today as allies. Otherwise we fight."
There wasn't any time left to fight. "I'll vow...that I'll never engage you or your army."
Kristoff studied him, then said, "It will do for now." To the brothers, he added, "Take a week off. And do get your Brides to cease plotting my downfall."
When the king and his men disappeared, Nikolai said, "Conrad, you must tell me what's happened for me to help you. Who is your Bride?"
Conrad hastily said, "Neomi, this beautiful little dancer. Love her. So much it pains me. Have to find her."
"Why do you think you need to go to a cemetery to find her?"
"She was a ghost, the one I told you about. But no longer. She died again tonight and might have been resurrected--or embodied, fuck if I know the difference--but the witch, the werewolf, and I lost her body. One of the bodies. Or else I just can't find it. I'm going to go to every goddamned cemetery in the city and listen for her heartbeat."
Sebastian raised his brows and said, "The ghost thing again," just as Murdoch muttered, "Con's thoroughly lost it."
Conrad snapped his teeth at them. "This happened!"
"I don't know what outcome I'm hoping for," Sebastian said. "Conrad's either irretrievably mad, or his Bride is a spirit from beyond whose corpse is lost. This seems like a lose-lose."
"He always did things differently," Murdoch said, daring to slap Conrad on the back. "I would like to stay, but I have an emergency that's weeks overdue. Good luck, Con." He traced away.
"Nikolai, do you have this one?" Sebastian asked. "I need to make sure the Valkyrie stand down."
Conrad turned to Nikolai, struggling to calm his tone. He wanted to punch his fist into the wall with frustration, to howl to the ceiling with anguish. His little Bride was in the dark...was she frightened? He stifled a shudder.
To get to Neomi, he had to convince them that he hadn't lost his mind. "Know this sounds crazy. But I am...I am asking you to believe me in this. Just...just take me to the cemeteries."
Sebastian said, "I don't think he's ever asked for anything."
Conrad grasped his forehead. "Nikolai, please, she's going to be"--his hoarse voice broke with emotion--"she'll be...afraid."
Nikolai finally said, "Go, Sebastian. Tell Myst I'll return after this."
When Sebastian traced away, Conrad said, "You believe me?"
"I...don't." Nikolai ran his hand over the back of his neck. "I don't know if I can accept everything you said."
"Then why?"
"For whatever reason, you need this badly, and you came to me for it." Nikolai cast him a stern look. "Because I'm still your goddamned brother."
42
St. Louis Cemetery #1,
New Orleans
In the third cemetery they traveled to, the tombs had seen better days. Many were storm-damaged, with crumbling stucco and rusted iron fences. Markings were eroded.
Spates of rain were sporadic; it was well after midnight. And still this haphazard maze of tombs was busy.
Drunken ghost tour patrons laughed raucously as they smoked cheap clove cigarettes and marked Xs on a tall pediment tomb.
Nikolai muttered, "That's not even Marie Laveau's crypt. Though Myst says that the priestess does get a kick out of it."
Conrad roared at the group. "Leave--us!"
After a moment of thunderstruck silence, tourists shoved each other down into the wet gravel as they fled.
Once the place was emptied, Nikolai said, "Conrad, you have to prepare for the possibility that you might not find what you're seeking. Or that you might locate her grave only to find what this woman...what she once was."
Her remains. Conrad shook his head hard. "I understand," he said, then he went still, holding his breath to listen for Neomi, willing his own heart to slow its furious pounding. He strained to hear over the cicadas and distant traffic--
He jerked his head to the left. There. The faintest rhythm. "I hear her!"
"How can you be sure it's her?" Nikolai asked.
"Know her heart." He homed in on the sound, tracking it to a vast, bleached white tomb, standing at least seven tiers high. Dread built like ice in Conrad's veins. Was she truly within this place? In one coffin among so many? How terrified she must be. I'd dreamed her choking on her terror...
No! Can't think about that now, need to keep my mind focused.
He pinpointed the sound to a third-level bay. The marble closure tablet was eroded beyond deciphering.
Swallowing hard, Conrad punched in the marble, crumbling it. Inside the vault was a small black coffin.
He slid it out from the space, easing it to the gravel path.
"Conrad!" Nikolai clamped his shoulder. "Just be prepared."
Conrad nodded, then gripped the lid, wrenching it free....
"Neomi!" he rasped.
Her eyes were closed, her body still as if dead. Remnants of rotting lace and ribbon were scattered over her naked body. Dust marked her pale face and long hair. With a yell, Conrad snatched her out, clenching her to his chest.
"My God," Nikolai breathed. "You weren't...does your female live?"
"Neomi, say something to me!" Nothing. Conrad brushed the backs of his fingers over her face. No response. But why? He held her away from him. She looked perfectly formed. Her skin was warm and pinkened. Jostling her in his arms, he said, "Please, baby, anything--"
Her eyes fluttered open. So blue.
She coughed, gasping, "...knew you'd find me." Then she burst into tears.
With his gaze averted, Nikolai handed Conrad his jacket to wrap around her. Once he had her covered, Conrad cupped the back of her head, pressing her too tight to his chest, but he couldn't let up.
Trembling against him,
she whispered, "I-I knew you'd come for me, Conrad."
"Always, koeri, always," he murmured, gently rocking her. "My brave, brave girl."
Then he met Nikolai's astonished gaze. "My vengeance is no more." His voice broke. "You have my gratitude, brother."
"I'm sorry I doubted you," Nikolai said sincerely. Then he asked, "But did you just call your female bait? That's an endearment for you, Conrad?" At Conrad's annoyed look, he held up his hands. "None of my business." To Neomi, he said, "Welcome to the family." Then he traced away.
Conrad took her from there as well, tracing her directly into their bathroom at Elancourt. Without releasing her for a second, he drew a bath, then lowered her into the steaming water.
As he washed the dust from her skin and hair, she sat with her eyes dazed, still steadily crying.
"Are you warming up?" She gave a nod. "Neomi, are you...hurt?"
"N-non, just shaken. Can't seem to stop crying."
"This is killing me, koeri. Tell me what to do to help you."
"I'm sorry. It's just...even when I knew you'd find me, being in the cof--being there was...difficult."
He tucked her hair behind her ear. "I know it must have been terrifying."
She frowned. "Was that Nikolai with you?" When Conrad nodded, she said, "How did he get free?"
"I...broke them out."
"Did you go alone?"
When he nodded, she gasped. "Were you injured? I haven't even checked you over."
"Not at all," he said, pleased that she'd become more animated at least.
"What were you thinking?"
"I needed Nikolai's help to find you. I would've done anything to get to you."
"He welcomed me to the family. Did you tell him we were getting married?" Her big blue eyes glistened with tears. "Because if the offer still stands..."
Conrad exhaled. "We can speak of this later. When you're feeling better."
"Wh-what do you mean?" Neomi asked, beginning to cry harder.
"Listen to me--shh, love." He sounded like she was tormenting him. "All of this is my fault. The demons will keep coming. If they find out you're alive, they'll never stop."
Relief flooded her, and her tears eased. If that was all he was worried about..."Then keep me safe. I'll never leave here without you. I learned my lesson. I'll stay inside the protection."
"I can't do this. Neomi, I...I love you. Far too much to see you hurt again."
He'd said he loved her. As soon as she realized she didn't have to dread hearing those words, it dawned on her that she'd truly been reborn.
We're going to be together....
"And you could...you could do so much better than me," Conrad continued, having no idea that this was as good as decided. "You have your whole life in front of you--why should I think to be the one to intrude on it?"
"Do better? And precisely what's wrong with the man I love?"
"The man you love," he murmured, obviously enjoying hearing that. But then he seemed to force himself to explain, "I'll never walk in the sun with you or share a meal. The Kapsliga and other enemies will continue to dispatch killers. And I'm still not one hundred percent...right in the head."
She rose up out of the water to her knees and laid her hands on the sides of his face. "I like my pale skin and never share my food anyway. And we'll be ready for the Kapsliga. As for your mind, you'll keep getting better each day just as you had been."
"I took your neck. I could have killed you."
"But you didn't hurt me. Conrad, I loved it."
"Then why were you so angry?"
"Because Nix told me that the day anyone learned how I came back was the day I would die. I couldn't tell you. I wanted to so much! When you took my blood, I thought you might be able to learn of it through my memories. I thought I'd been doomed to die even sooner."
He lowered his forehead to hers. "Neomi, I had no idea."
"Now, let me see your arm." When he frowned, she said, "You vowed that from the instant that mark healed, you'd make me your wife."
He drew back. "But that was before you...died. Again."
"It doesn't matter." She unbuttoned his shirt with trembling fingers. "Don't Wroths always keep their vows?"
When he shrugged from his shirt, she began tugging off the bandage. He swallowed, just before she revealed...smooth, healed skin.
He exhaled, defeated. "Neomi, I'll wed you at the earliest opportunity if you'll take a chance on me. I never want to be apart from you again."
"Even if I'm just a mortal?"
"I want you with me forever. I'll find a way to keep you with me--you have to know that." He pulled the ring from his pants pocket.
She cast him a watery smile to see it. "I do so love that ring." As he slid it on her finger again, she said, "And I love the man attached to it. Do you know how difficult it was to return it to you at the ballet?"
"About as difficult as it was to accept it back?"
"I'm so sorry, mon coeur. I had no choice. How could I promise a future I knew I didn't have? But now I can say how proud I'd be to marry you."
"Neomi, even if there was nothing to divide us, I...I fear I'll only disappoint you. I'll do the wrong thing or hurt your feelings. This won't come overnight--just know that I'll try not to."
"That's all I ask for." She frowned. "Actually, that's not all. I want us to live here, Conrad. Would you ever want to? Can we buy Elancourt from your brother?"
"I'll buy you an estate wherever you wish. Are you sure you want to be here? You were murdered here--how could you not be constantly reminded of it?"
"I've been here for eighty years. I've gotten used to it. Besides, if I hadn't been killed, I wouldn't have you. You told me you would've helped the Russian plunge his sword to be with me--I would've run into Louis's blade for a chance with you."
His brows drew together, the intensity of his emotion seeming to boil over. He kissed her then, a scalding possession. When they broke away, gasping, he rasped, "We'll stay. But only if I get to bring the place back to life for you."
"Why not?" She sighed, stroking his hair from his forehead. "You did with its mistress."
A crash sounded from downstairs, followed by a bellow.
Neomi gasped. "Was that Bowen? They're still here?"
"Oh, Christ, the witch!" Conrad said. "She got entranced."
"Take me to her, Conrad!" He helped her dry off and don a robe, then traced her to the studio.
They found Bowen clutching Mari to his chest. He was covered with blood and gaping wounds all over his body, while Mari was pale and dazed.
"It worked, then?" Bowen asked Conrad, but his attention was focused on the witch in his arms.
"Yes, you have our thanks--"
"I'm takin' the lass home." To Mari, he said, "And then you're on indefinite leave."
Mari nodded weakly. "Never glancing at a mirror again. Never."
As Bowen stood, carrying Mari into the glass, she peeked back from his arms, her expression pensive. Just before they disappeared, Mari put her forefinger over her lips, a warning to Neomi.
What does that mean? Neomi's brows drew together.
And then they were gone, leaving unbroken glass behind. As Neomi peered at the mirror, her reflection flashed to her ghostly visage and back.
43
The weeks that followed her embodying would have been the happiest of Neomi's life.
If not for the fact that I came back wrong, she thought, stroking Conrad's hair from his forehead as he slept....
Shortly after her return, they'd married without fanfare. Initially, she'd been weak from the events of that turbulent night, but as soon as she'd recovered enough, Conrad had gotten a Lore officiate to perform the simple ceremony at Elancourt.
She'd felt guilty marrying Conrad without revealing her misgivings to him. Especially when she'd learned that Bowen had barely managed to pry Mari from the glass. The spell had somehow gone awry.
Neomi could feel it. She was altered.
She
continued her new habit of sleeping during the day, but now she only needed about four hours. She could leave or take food, though Conrad had learned her favorite dishes and tempted her with delicacies from all over the world.
She'd tried to call Mari, but was told that she and Bowen were on an island off the coast of Belize or somewhere fantastic like that.
Though Neomi yearned to confess her new secret to Conrad, she didn't want to worry him--this was the best he'd ever done. He was just so excited, making plans for them, eager to start their life together. He'd already begun restoring Elancourt, and he was happy, genuinely satisfied with what he imagined the future held for them.
Yet when Neomi had healed from a small cut in under an hour, she'd been so confounded that she'd tentatively broached the subject. "I worry, Conrad. Sometimes, I don't think I'm...human," she'd told him.
"Of course, you are," he'd said, gathering her into his arms and spinning her around until she was forced to smile. "What else could you be?"
The morning after her embodying, Neomi had woken to the sound of hammering. Conrad had taken his task of restoring Elancourt very seriously. But once she was well on the road to recovery, his labors were hindered by the fact that she found his sweat-slicked body irresistible.
Whenever she came upon him with his shirt off and his muscles all hot and lathered, she had to have him. "I'm back to normal," she'd informed him. "And normal for me is quite lusty." He'd declared himself "eagerly at your service."
One day she'd found him in the studio, but hadn't thought he'd heard her. She'd gazed at him with pride and a desire so strong it had left her shaken.
As he'd lovingly oiled the mahogany barre, he'd said, "I'll see you dance here." His voice had been husky, as if he was imagining it even then. "I'll watch you for hours, then I'll taste your damp skin."
They hadn't made it even close to getting to the bed....
His care had made her long to dance again, to use this studio as she'd never been able to. Once she'd gotten stronger, she'd begun practicing again, her love for it undimmed by time.
Neomi could never take the stage again, but she'd decided to open a Lore ballet school. There was not a single one in existence, and she'd been heartbroken to learn that many Lore children--with their horns and wings and siren screams--couldn't attend human classes.
When she'd asked Conrad what he thought about the idea of a Neomi Wroth School of Dance, he'd said, "If it makes you happy, then enroll every Lore pup who's willing to wear pink." Scratching his head, he'd added, "Though I'll need to figure out how to expand the studio...."