Blood Sacrifice

by Maria Lima

  She shook her head. “Not now, Keira. Later.”

  I glanced around, seeing no one. Angharad was at least twenty paces ahead of us, but that didn’t preclude her being able to hear. Well, that, and I knew the very walls—or the illusions of walls—had ears here. Anything said within the realm of the Fair Kingdom could easily come to the notice of its queen. “Very well, but you’ve got a ton of ’splaining to do.”

  “I know.”

  A few minutes later, we’d arrived at the end of the hall. A set of intricately carved double doors opened into a large round room. In the center, a round table, made to seat ten. The walls were of a light wooden paneling, sections of the wall sported beautifully embroidered tapestries, much grander than those in the Great Hall. A roaring fire filled the enormous fireplace opposite the doorway. Funny, I’d neither felt hot nor cold since I’d arrived Below. I remember my childhood being filled with icy walls, chill stone floors. The fire seemed to give off no heat, just light and dancing flames, moving to the beat of some unseen musician, a sprightly reel instead of a staid pavane.

  With a flourish, Angharad settled into a high-backed chair, nearly a twin in style to her elaborate throne, only this one was smaller, narrower, more suited to sitting at table. The rest of us chose chairs across from her, me directly in front, Gigi to my left, Adam to my right. Tucker next to Gigi, Niko next to Adam. Good, they weren’t going to play silent guardian in here, but equal family members, which they were.

  The queen took a moment to settle into her chair, an affectation, I was sure, as no one who had that innate sense of grace and fluidity could have sat with anything less than perfection. She was playing a role—one that suited her ill. No need to get all fluttery now, I thought. We all knew the kind of brazen steel backbone she had, what sort of perfectly practical sense of majesty and rule. She remained silent as she studied each of us in turn. Galadriel preparing to read hearts and mind before handing out gifts? Hardly. This was more the focused inspection of a polite antagonist.

  “Cut the bullshit,” I finally said. “We’re here, so deal with it. You know the reason we came. I’m sure it’s the same reason Minerva has been here with you. We want to rein in Gideon.”

  “As I said before, you are direct.” Her steel-hard eyes narrowed. “He is my new heir—through the child,” she said. “As such, he has the freedom to Challenge.”

  “Why, Angharad?” Adam lost his flowery words, but still retained his cultured tones.

  “He wanted to reclaim the land. It belonged to Minerva’s clan, now owned by vampire, not Kelly. The land must be fertile.”

  “I hate to burst your bubble,” I said, “but I’m sure you already know that the land in question, the Wild Moon ranch, never belonged to my family—at least in the human sense of coin exchange and paperwork. We simply used it as hunting ground. The ranch is ours insofar as we rule the area, but I’m positive my chieftain has already told you these specifics. However, you still persist in allowing Gideon to continue with this farce. Do you want to take over Above? Rule Kelly, as well as the Seelie Court?”

  She smoothed a pale hand over a strand of hair, seemingly unaffected. “I have little wish to rule Above,” she said. “If Gideon wishes to do so, I will not stand in his way. The Challenge is valid and you must prove your claim in order to remain.”

  I couldn’t believe this. We’d come here and all she could say was “so sorry, it sucks to be you”? I turned my head to catch Gigi’s eye.

  “Now you know why I’ve been here so long,” Gigi said with a rueful smile. “We’ve been dancing this same pas de deux since I arrived.”

  “I have no intention of changing my position,” Angharad informed us. “You may argue, cajole, and beg all you wish. I gave Gideon free rein to deal with his affairs Above as he sees fit. Your coming here will not alter that.”

  “If we can’t alter the terms,” Tucker put in, “then would you perhaps tell us how we keep Gideon from harming any more of our people or our property? The Challenge is not yet failed on our side, nor proved on his, yet he continues to beleaguer us with petty and not-so-petty runespells and traps.”

  One of Angharad’s perfectly formed brows rose in a delicate arch. “Traps?”

  “He placed a series of warding and trigger spells on an old cemetery,” I explained. “Tucker was nearly bitten to death by ants and a fire destroyed our town’s center.” I was being a bit vague here, but I didn’t know how to explain a retail strip center to a Faery queen… not that she’d actually care. Gigi suppressed an outcry. Her hand gripped my thigh, initially, she’d just rested it on there, no doubt to show solidarity, but now, her fingers dug into muscle. I slid my own hand under the table and pried her hand loose. I’d forgotten she didn’t know about any of this.

  “Of what use would either of those things be to my son,” Angharad asked. “A cemetery? This is a place of the dead, correct?”

  Okay, then, I guess I was going to have to step back to the grade one version. I hadn’t realized she wouldn’t know the term. “Yes, it is a sacred place where mortals bury and revere their dead. Cemeteries, no matter where they exist physically, are considered to be taboo, off limits. Gideon’s little games resulted in the place being desecrated, vandalized.”

  “My son did that?” She relaxed her posture a little, just enough to make her seem—not more human, but less of an automaton. Was she pleased at what Gideon—her “son”—had done or was she perturbed? I couldn’t tell from her lack of expression.

  “We believe so,” Adam said.

  Angharad bared her lovely teeth. “You do not know?”

  “We are under Truce,” Adam explained. “The local law sent us pictures of the sigils. I recognized some of them.”

  “Truce? You have broken Truce and yet you come here to ask to have me interfere with a legitimate Challenge?” Her eyes fired sparks now, anger in every line of her body. That moment of slight relaxation vanished, as if only a wisp of a dream. “Be wary, Aeddan, Prince. Even you must obey Sidhe laws.”

  “We broke nothing that was not already broken,” Niko’s hard voice answered the queen. He’d sat there so quietly, almost too quiet. With every fiber of his vampire self, Niko hated the Sidhe. They had come in the night and stolen his only friend, long ago, when he was a young boy in an orphan’s home. That Adam, one of the dreaded Dark Ones, had later become vampire and saved Niko’s life went a long way to repairing his grief, though he’d never forgotten his child self’s terror. “Whether Gideon, whom you now call ‘son,’ was himself there in body, he deliberately and with malice destroyed part of the land that he wishes to claim within Challenge,” Niko continued, his own demeanor as fiery as that of the queen’s. “Truce is not just pretty words meant to be danced around with guile and cunning. It is a binding law, broken by spirit as well as flesh. Gideon broke Truce first. Therefore, we, bonded to Kelly and Walker, were within our fair rights to return to our land to mend what was damaged.”

  I sat back in both shock and no small measure of glee. I had to fight the wide-ass grin that wanted to plaster itself across my startled face. Niko, the arrogant puppy turned Protector now Champion—with words instead of sword, but Champion nonetheless. Adam lowered his gaze, his face, too, twitching in a smile. Gigi hid nothing, her own face beaming as she regarded Niko. Tucker, ditto. White teeth flashed a proud grin.

  “You speak well for a Nightwalker, young Nicholas,” Angharad said. “I will grant you the truth of your statement. Since this land of the dead is part of the claimed land, it indeed falls within the Truce and as such, breaks it. Truce is no longer in effect.” Her words rang, echoing throughout the room, the wood and stone itself vibrating in response. Her magick surrounded us and sealed the proclamation. At last, I thought, as I let my muscles relax.

  “So now what?” I ventured, my tone more friendly than before. “Do we get to go back home?”

  Angharad exchanged a look with Gigi, her eyes shuttered. Gigi gave a barely perceptible nod. I cocked my head a
nd looked at my great-great-grandmother, who ignored me. “Now, you may return to your home,” the queen finally said. “However, this does not negate the initial Challenge. That remains, but you may stay at your heart’s home.”

  So this was it? We get to go back to the ranch, but if we still couldn’t prove our claim in whatever fashion required by the Challenge, we’d have to leave? This wasn’t right. “Ang… Lady,” I said. “I’m afraid I don’t quite understand. Gideon broke Truce and that’s it. We ignore it and still go on with this Challenge?”

  “The rites of Challenge are even more ancient than I, Keira Kelly,” Angharad intoned. “I can no more prevent a Challenge that has begun than I can animate clay into life.”

  “So Truce was nothing more than a way to get us away from home?” I was trying to be calm here, to not sound like a whiny child. “What purpose does that serve?”

  “Truce is a method by which both parties remain on neutral territory,” she answered. “You have the advantage now, of residing on the land. Though that is no guarantee of your winning the Challenge. The claim must result from the land. It must recognize you and yours. The magick will know when that occurs.”

  “So no more waiting until Lughnasa?”

  “No. If you can claim it now, then so be it.” She stood. “Now, go. Return to your home. You have wearied me.”

  With a languid wave of an elegant hand, light flashed, an actinic glare that blinded me. In the next breath, we were standing in front of the Wild Moon gate.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  “Là où il y a le désespoir, que je mette l’espérance.” (Where there is despair, let me sow hope.)

  —Prayer of St. Francis

  Home. We were finally home. Yet. Wait. “Where’s Gigi?” No sign of our petite matriarch. Just me, Adam, Tucker, and Niko.

  I strode down the entrance road, Adam beside me, as I dialed.

  “What are you doing?” Adam asked.

  “Calling that son-of-a-royal-bitch,” I muttered, listening to the rings on the other end. Four rings, then switch to voice mail. Instead of leaving a message, I ended the call. “She kept Gigi, Adam. I can’t bloody well phone a Faery queen, but I can call Gideon and have him deliver a message to his new ‘mother.’” I stuffed the phone into my pocket. “He didn’t answer.”

  “I see that.” Adam’s voice was soothing and calm. “Keira, having seen Minerva, she didn’t look as if she were a prisoner,” he reminded me. “Perhaps she wished to stay.”

  “Or maybe, Angharad magicked her back to the enclave.” Tucker supplied a guess. “I’ll phone there. Let’s get to Adam’s house, though before we call. I’d rather do it indoors, not in the open.”

  Was he afraid of something? “You expecting a problem?”

  “Not expecting,” he said. “Just being cautious. Truce may be over, but that doesn’t preclude Gideon from playing more tricks.”

  “Quite the opposite, I would think,” Niko piped up. “Now that Truce is null and void, what’s to stop him from overtly attacking?”

  “Fuck.” We hurried down the road, past the Inn and down to the small cul-de-sac where Adam’s house sat, undisturbed and looking just like we left it, so few days ago. We hurried inside, shutting the door. I threw up a few warn-me spells, along with some extra wards and shields, just in case. “There’s still some food in the deep freeze,” I said to Tucker. “Could you round us up some steaks or something? We can broil them. I think there’s a loaf of two of bread in there, too.”

  “Sure thing.” Niko and Tucker disappeared into the kitchen and I flopped onto the couch, every bone and muscle in my body aching.

  “I hurt all over,” I said as Adam picked up my feet, then set them on his lap as he sat down.

  He undid the laces on my Docs, and pulled them off, along with my socks. “Foot rub?”

  I nodded. “Yes, please.”

  We sat that way for a little while, him massaging my feet while I tried to relax and not think about everything that had just happened. I could hear Tucker and Niko canoodling a little in the kitchen. Before I reminded Tucker to call the enclave, I’d give them some time. We’d all gone through so much. We needed to reconnect, feed the bond, as it were.

  I woke to the smell of something that wasn’t steak. Garlic, cheese, something else. Adam was no longer on the couch, but he and Niko sat at the small dining table. Tucker was just exiting the kitchen with a serving platter. Pizza, that’s what it was.

  “No steak,” I mumbled as I got up and joined them.

  “We figured it would take too long to defrost and cook,” Tucker said as he served me a piece of the extra large pie. “This is one of those gourmet ones you like.”

  I chomped down on the steaming hot slice with a grin. “Thanks,” I mumbled. “’S good.”

  Tucker smiled back at me. “You’re welcome. I talked to Dad, by the way.”

  My mouth was full so I gave him a quizzical look.

  “Gigi’s not at the enclave, but a message did arrive from her,” he continued. “Seems Drystan sent up a messenger via the door in Vancouver.”

  “My father seems to be meeting with Angharad and Minerva now,” Adam said.

  “Your father?” I managed to swallow the pizza so I could talk. “Seriously?”

  “Evidently so,” he said. “The message didn’t say much more than that the three of them were meeting to discuss long-term plans and to not worry.”

  I sat back in my seat and took a big gulp from the water glass that Tucker put in front of me. “Thanks, bro.” Why couldn’t I help but think this was not a good thing? “The three top leaders of the three major supernatural clans in a summit meeting? Look how well the last one turned out.”

  “It got me you,” Adam said, unhelpfully.

  “It also got Gideon.”

  “Well, true. Though perhaps he may soon be in our past.”

  “Why do you say that?” I asked. “We still have to prove our claim to be able to stay here and keep the Wild Moon. And we still don’t know how to do that.”

  “No, but since we are no longer under Truce, I’ve put out a Call.”

  “Call?”

  “To our kith and kin. Everyone who is blooded to us or beholden to us in any way.”

  “And you did this why, exactly?”

  “Because more heads are better than the four of us,” Tucker added. “Eat up, there’s another pizza in the oven.”

  I quickly grabbed the last slice of the one on the table as my brother got up to retrieve the second pizza. Good thing he knew my ability to eat. Even though Niko and Adam didn’t particularly care for pizza and these days, preferred getting their food the old-fashioned way, I’d halfway expected to have to share with them. “More brains will be a good thing,” I said.

  “I also phoned Antonio,” Niko said. “Told him where we were and gave him the gate code. He should be here shortly.”

  “Was he at Bea’s? What time is it anyway?” I turned to look at the clock on the fireplace mantel in the living room but from where I sat, I couldn’t see it.

  “Believe it or not, it’s barely nine-thirty,” Adam said.

  “The same day?” I held out my glass to Tucker who refilled it. “Or is it tomorrow?” Or even later?

  “The same day,” Adam said. “We not only lost no time in Faery, but came back to about five minutes after we left.”

  “That’s rather handy,” I said. “So what now?”

  “I’ve called John and his family to return,” Adam said. “They’ll be here within a couple of hours—seems our other Protectors anticipated trouble—either that or just wanted to flout our authority.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Remember I said I’d spoken with Raine?”

  I nodded around a last bite of pizza.

  “Soon as we’d ended our conversation, she told Liz and the twins. They convinced her to head back along with all our vampires. They arrived in Vancouver and are just now finishing up in customs. Your dad and oth
er family are meeting them in town. Once they’ve refueled, it’s only a matter of a few hours’ flight here.”

  I wiped my mouth with my napkin and grinned. “I love them, my brothers and sister-in-law. Remind me to tell them that.” I almost wriggled in my glee. My family coming home again. Vancouver and the enclave may be another home, but this place here in Texas, this was my heart home, at least for now.

  Adam smiled. “I will. In the meantime, Niko and Tucker are going to go out and check the water tanks, see if we can fill them. If the well’s dry, we’ll have to make some calls, get some emergency backup water.”

  “What are you and I going to do?”

  Adam’s mouth slid into a grin, the spark of humor that had been missing now returned. Sure, we still had a Challenge to face, but we were home, on our own turf. “I, for one, am going to take a shower. Care to join me?”

  “Do you even have to ask?” I rose and took his hand. “See you later, boys.” I waved as Adam and I descended the stairs to our bedroom.

  “Where’s the priest?” I asked as I exited the bedroom some hours later, seeing no sign of the old man. “You know, this is getting rather annoying. He keeps disappearing. I wanted to ask him some questions.”

  “He wanted to go to the library,” Tucker said from his lazy position on the couch. He was reading a book, Niko lying down with his head in Tucker’s lap. “It’s too late tonight but I sent him over to the Inn library. He asked if he could go there and just come back here later. I think he’d rather not be a bother and not get in our way.”

  “Now that he’s done his job?” I shrugged and braided my hair. “Not a bad idea. One less person to worry about. Adam, what do you think?”

  Adam emerged, fully dressed but for his shoes. I loved him in bare feet. “Does he still have his phone?”

  “Yes, I made sure that he has all our numbers, including Carlton’s.”

  “Good. Then he’s better off,” I said. “Any sign of arrivals?”

  Niko nodded from his supine position. “A few water sprites from across the lake. They’re hanging out at the swimming hole,” he said. “We filled that up when we got water to the tanks. North one was bone dry, but the well was fine. Filled up the tank and the swimming hole, and made sure there’s enough feed and water for the stock in both sections. We also received nymphs, some dryads, and a few were-deer from up north.”