Vampire Queen 8 - Bound by the Vampire Queen - Joey W Hill

by Bound by the Vampire Queen (v2. 0) (mobi)

  “All the whispers… Reghan’s daughter, Reghan’s daughter. They can see Reghan’s daughter any day, any moment of their choosing. I am the daughter of his Fae blood, of pure Fae blood. And you… if it was not obvious before, it is undeniable now. Your Fae blood is not what holds sway in you. It is the vampire. You don’t belong here. You may be from his loins, but you are not of his blood. You are not one of us.”

  She drew herself up, and Lyssa noted there was a slight tremor to the hands at her sides. “Here I am known as Magwel’s daughter, my mother’s daughter.

  The mother who loved me so little and loved herself so much that she tried to deny me a father. But he loved me. He made me love him, more than anyone I’ve ever loved. And then, in the end, he chose you.

  He chose a daughter he never met, and a woman who was not a Fae, who was a vile, inferior blood drinker. He died and left me alone, alone with a mother capable of loving no one. In a thousand years, it should mean nothing to me. Nothing. The fact that it does, that all this continues to raise its poisonous, ugly head, over and over again, is what makes me hate you, him and her all the more.” Lyssa glanced toward Cayden. There was pain in his face for her, and tension. Jacob was alert but quiet, waiting to see where this would go.

  A smooth mask fell into place over Rhoswen’s countenance, her tone an abrupt, chilling monotone.

  “I wish he’d been the cold and unfeeling person my mother tried to make me believe he was. Instead, she left me with the knowledge of what it is to have someone love you, only not love you enough.” Jacob knew he should have anticipated that still ness, the freezing menace, but desert sand, too much stress and trauma made his reflexes slow.

  With an animal sound of rage, Rhoswen leaped forward.

  Bolting forward, Jacob saw she gripped a wooden dagger, runes embedded in the blade and hilt. But he couldn’t have matched her speed as a vampire.

  As a human servant, he knew he was already too late.

  He caught his lady’s body as she was knocked backward. The next moment was nothing more than a blink, but like Fae time, that blink was an eternity in his mind before he realized the dagger wasn’t buried in his lady’s chest. Rhoswen hadn’t reached Lyssa at all, because there was someone in the room just as swift as the angry queen.

  Cayden stood toe-to-toe with her, his large gauntleted hand gripping her wrist, face grim as his arm became coated with ice. Rhoswen screamed at him, incoherent Fae words. He caught her to him with the other arm, controlling her movements and refusing to let her yank back as he used a warrior’s training to break her grip on the weapon and send it clattering to the floor.

  “No, Your Majesty. Please, cease… Damn it, that’s enough.”

  The thunderous roar was probably one he used on the practice field. It served its purpose, bringing her up short, shock gripping her features.

  The moment he realized he’d distracted her from her purpose, Cayden released her, backed up two steps and dropped to his knees. He kept himself between her and Lyssa, however. Jacob was in a half kneel by his lady’s side, ready to move forward to defend her if needed. She probably had better fighting skill's than Rhoswen, but despite her apparent vitality, she still hadn’t fed or rested enough to stand against a normal vampire, let alone a powerful Fae.

  “Forgive me, my lady.” Cayden spoke. “But you are far better than this.”

  “You would turn against me, too?” Her eyes were wild, her body trembling.

  When he lifted his head, his face showed his anguish. Pulling out his short sword, he offered it to her. “If you believe that, my lady, take my life. I will not exist in a world where you don’t believe that every beat of my heart, every drop of blood in my veins, serves you. But serving you is not following you blindly. It’s helping you be everything you’ve ever wanted to be, for your people… and for yourself. So please, my lady. Kill me now or stop torturing yourself… and those who do not deserve your wrath.”

  Rhoswen stared at him, nostrils flared. Letting out a furious cry, she yanked the blade from his grasp and swung it downward. Jacob and Lyssa both leaped toward them, but before they could reach the captain’s side, she drove it into the tile before him, cracking the stone and embedding the blade to nearly half its length. Letting go, she stepped back, breathing hard. “Go back to the doorway. Do your job. Guard.”

  Cayden bowed his head, his great fists clenching, then he rose and obeyed. Rhoswen pivoted on her heel. She stood still for several moments. Then, with precise steps, as if she were walking on ice in truth, she returned to the fountain, folding herself down onto its stone ledge.

  Jacob glanced at Lyssa. That was unexpected.

  But useful. Join Cayden again, Sir Vagabond. I’ll be all right.

  She squeezed his arm, telling him she knew what she was doing. Though he didn’t like it, he obeyed.

  Before he moved to the doorway, though, he pul ed the sword from the floor with a grunt and shower of rock. It was a sign of how upset Cayden was that he’d left it there. Of course, even if the man was stripped naked, he wouldn’t be defenseless by a long shot. Still, a warrior didn’t leave a blade behind, unless he just didn’t care if he was skewered with it.

  As Jacob reached the door, he extended the sword hilt first, much as he had on that first day.

  Cayden took it from him with a stilted expression.

  Despite the flogging, Cayden was wearing full mail.

  Jacob expected Rhoswen had ordered it to increase the pain and discomfort, and to remind him of his place.

  “Sorry,” he muttered. “I didn’t say it was safe advice.”

  Cayden gave him a sidelong glance. Though he said nothing, Jacob caught a curl of the taut mouth, almost a grim smile.

  Lyssa moved back to the fountain. “You know, before I came here, Keldwyn said everything else can change, but you can’t change someone’s fundamental nature, who they are. It doesn’t matter whether they’re human, vampire or Fae.”

  “Sounds like his usual cryptic cynicism.” Lyssa lifted a shoulder. “I’ve been vampire all my life, but I also carry Fae blood. Neither changes who I am, above and beyond both. Like my servant.” She glanced at Jacob. “I’m a vampire queen, a fate and destiny that sometimes has been difficult, but it has always been who I am. The moment I felt the strength of it return to my blood, it felt… right. Even as I know the Fae part of me is fated to play a role. You say I don’t belong here, but you won’t let me go, so I think you know it as well.”

  Cautiously, she moved closer. “Lord Reghan did not choose one daughter over another. He chose honor. As either one of us would have done.” She sank down on the edge of the fountain, despite the fact it was like sitting on an ice block. “I watched you cry for that old man, a mere human, the night in the cemetery. Grief and loss is something we all understand. It binds us. My former servant was there that night, and he told me that…” She paused, steadying herself. “Thomas told me that Rex, my husband, weeps over what he did to me. I have forgiven him, but it was very, very hard.” Rhoswen lifted her head, and though it was almost as difficult, Lyssa no more disposed to show weakness than the Fae queen, she let her see the vulnerability, the raw pain that thinking of Rex could still summon. She was glad for the comforting, nonintrusive touch of Jacob’s mind. “He did the things he did to me out of ill ness, but also out of a weakness in character, an innate cruelty.” She took another breath before she continued.

  “Our father… it appears he was an honorable, brave male who did his best to love his family, all of us, and do what he thought was right. If I can forgive a male like Rex, who was so much less in character, then Lord Reghan is worthy of your forgiveness. I expect he would want your forgiveness, not just for his own sake, but as your loyal captain just showed, for yours. He wouldn’t want to be an open wound in his daughter’s heart.”

  As a queen herself, she saw Rhoswen as a peer, so Lyssa had no qualms about reaching out and laying her hand on hers. When the Fae’s gaze went to that contact, Lyssa
wondered how long it had been since someone had touched her without calculated design or permission. She suspected it had been quite a while.

  “I know what it is to rule from isolation. To not trust anyone because of betrayal. But if you are brave enough to love, you will be a great queen. And there are already those in your life who bear you great love, no matter how sorely you test it.” Lyssa tilted her head toward the doorway. “My Irish wolfhound, Bran, is the only creature I’ve met as singlemindedly devoted as your captain. Though Bran smells less gamey.”

  That won a brief flash in the queen’s expression that might have been humor. “Tabor would be an extremely strong ally to you in whatever way you need,” Lyssa persisted. “And I do not know your history when Keldwyn was your Regent, but I still sense loyalty to you in him, though it is on his own difficult terms.”

  Rhoswen’s lip curled. “I do not trust him.”

  “It doesn’t mean he’s not loyal. He was close to our father, right?”

  Rhoswen’s jaw tightened over the “our,” but she let it stand. Looked up at the statue. “Though he had it commissioned, you can see the love there, how every chip of the sculptor’s blade was supervised.

  They were best friends, close as brothers. Perhaps more. There are those who said Keldwyn and he were lovers, off and on. While Keldwyn has never said, I do not doubt he loved Reghan. I was there the day he presented this statue. He was much younger then, of course. But the way his eyes flashed, his expression of utter defiance and grieving rage… I’d never seen him exhibit such emotion.”

  “Then it stands to reason, he would feel a strong compunction to protect and serve Reghan’s offspring. Either one of us.” Lyssa moved her fingers over the cool hand, drawing her gaze again. “I am your sister, Rhoswen, royalty in my own world, whether or not that world or my position in it has any of your respect. Tabor is offering us a chance to make this a better world on both sides. Let me give you that, and maybe, in time, we can build together what neither of us has. A trusted blood relative.” Rhoswen had lifted her face to stare at the statue again. As Lyssa watched her, her blue eyes glistened, then a tear rolled down out of her eye, freezing on her cheek like single diamond. Lyssa brushed it off with one light finger. Rhoswen didn’t move, but when Lyssa touched her hand again, there was a linking of fingers, a tentative gesture that was somehow permissible because Rhoswen kept her gaze averted from it, not acknowledging what her body was doing.

  “You don’t want to harm his soul,” Lyssa realized.

  “You wanted a part of him back.”

  “I thought I could put the soul essence into the statue. It would make it a place of power, of strong energy.”

  “A place for a queen to go and meditate for guidance. This queen, or any of those who succeed her.”

  “You know I’m barren. Keldwyn told you, of course.” Rhoswen’s lips curved, bittersweet. “A Fae queen of ice and water, unable to have a child. But there are others who would be suitable heirs to my throne. I shall name one in the coming years, when she is worthy.”

  At Lyssa’s mental prompting, Jacob moved forward again. Cayden came with him of course.

  When Jacob stopped at Lyssa’s elbow, she reached into the pack he brought, withdrew the pouch and the red gemstone.

  Rhoswen blinked. “You were bluffing. How did you… ?”

  “A bit of sorcery I learned a long time ago to protect the location of my underground bedroom at home. Fae magic, of course. I used it then without directly acknowledging it as such, out of stubbornness. We are similar in that regard.” Rhoswen’s fingers had closed into a ball. When Lyssa extended the gemstone, she turned her half sister’s hand over, loosened the fingers and placed the stone in it. The red stone was held between their palms, their fingers interlaced. The Fae queen closed her eyes. “It’s warm. And I feel him. So faint, but I remember him… do you feel it?”

  “I do. I never had the chance to know him, but to feel his soul essence… it’s like the cemetery.

  Painful joy.”

  Rhoswen kept her eyes closed, but nodded. When Lyssa at last drew her hand back, the queen opened her eyes to see her lifting the pouch for her inspection. “I ask, respectfully, that you let me take the ashes of the bush home with me. The roses I planted in Atlanta were started from the rose Reghan gave my mother. I think he would like it if he were scattered over those roses, so in some way they can be together again.”

  “I will think on it.” After a moment, Rhoswen spoke, with studied indifference. “So Tabor feels you would be a good liaison between our courts.”

  “He spoke of that, yes. Is he well ?”

  Rhoswen gave her that faintly scornful smile, though it had less heat. “He makes a good impression, doesn’t he? He elicits care from total strangers. It is the type of male he is. Yes, he is well.” Shifting on the fountain, she looked down at the glistening red stone. “I expect, since your vampire and Fae abilities appear to be more balanced, and your relationship with your servant is restored to something the council understands a bit better, a liaison is not a bad idea.”

  She paused.

  “To agree with

  Tabor’s recommendation is an acknowledgment that a relationship between our worlds can be beneficial to us, and I’m still not so sure of that. But I am willing to defer to his judgment, wait and see. I appoint you as liaison to the Vampire Council, Lady Lyssa, in addition to whatever other role you will eventually serve for them. My scribes will prepare a formal correspondence from me for you to carry to them. I think that serves both of us, just as it has served Tabor and me to have Keldwyn fulfill more than one role in our respective courts. However, you will come back here three months out of the year. The months that contain Beltane, Samhain and Yule. All Fae court members are required to participate in the rites to honor the Lord and Lady, our blessed Danu and her Consort, and all they represent in our world.” Lyssa pursed her lips. “You issue this as an edict, but by your own laws, by completing this third quest, I have some direction over my own will , my own decisions. I will come for part of Yule, but there are others I honor at Christmas as well. I will want time with them. However, I will give you two weeks of that month. I support the establishment of the liaison role and will champion it with Council. I will hope it benefits both our worlds, and heals some old wounds.”

  Rhoswen didn’t respond, but she did not disagree, either. She took her hand away from the pouch, a tacit acceptance of Lyssa’s wishes with respect to it.

  But as she did, she gazed back down at the roses floating past her in the water. “The old man… you are right, that I felt his grief and understood it. But you are wrong if you think I don’t understand our similarities. Humans are not so different from Fae, for all that they need their structure. Their structure only hides how truly capricious they are. They vacillate between hate and love, joy and despair, not like a pendulum clock, which is predictable, but like the chaos of shrapnel exploding from a bomb. Much as we do.”

  She looked at Lyssa now with bright, harsh eyes. “I hate you… yet I do not, as well. What I feel toward you… it has no order. But I do know… I have a desire to see you again, sister. If you would consider coming for a few days in February… winters are long here. Your company, the company of your son, my nephew, might be welcome.” Now she straightened, speaking as one royal to another. “I swear to you, my oath, that as a child he will never come to any harm here, no matter the tenor of our own relationship.”

  “I will think on it.”

  Rhoswen gave her a tight-lipped smile as Lyssa repeated her own haughty words. The Fae queen rose, a dismissal, but she gave Jacob an openly appraising look. “I like you better as human, former vampire. On future visits, I might very well exercise a queen’s prerogative to have you share my bed again.”

  Jacob cleared his throat, sketched a respectful bow. “I’m ever at the disposal of my lady’s will , your Majesty.”

  “Then I shall just have to see what I can do to compel that will .”
>
  “You better be capable of making Hell freeze over,” Lyssa said politely.

  Rhoswen gave her that humorless smile, but it held no more than a shadow of her earlier malice.

  “My scribes will prepare the correspondence and we will review it tomorrow, so I anticipate you will be able to return home shortly after that. Our dawn will align with your dusk for the next several days. Wait until then to protect your fair vampire skin, sister.

  Particularly since it needs some time to heal as it is.” As she turned away, bringing the audience to an end, Lyssa rose. “I’d like to ask you a question, sister. About the doll and the child’s tea set.” Rhoswen stopped, but she didn’t turn back, speaking instead to the sheets of water silently sliding down the wall before her. “He gave it to me, shortly after you were conceived. I have no idea how he knew his child would have dark hair and green eyes, but he was a powerful magic user, gifted with visions of different things. Sadly, his own fate was not one of them. However, perhaps he knew enough, because when he gave me the doll, he told me if I became sad, afraid or lonely, I could talk to her. She would listen, and that would help.”

  “Did it?”

  “Not always. Sometimes I needed her to talk back.” Rhoswen looked over her shoulder, gave her a tight smile. “Return to your room with your servant and have the staff care for you as needed. I have some further business to handle here. Captain, please remain.”

  Understanding that the doll admission was a difficult one, that the whole discussion had been draining for them both, Lyssa was willing to overlook being summarily dismissed.

  Acknowledging

  Rhoswen with a nod, she moved toward the doorway with Jacob. Cayden could have been made of stone, his face expressionless.

  As they slid out, the double doors closed behind them. Jacob hesitated. My lady, he defied her on my advice. He’s already been whipped. I don’t want to leave him in peril.

  “I don’t think that’s her intent,” Lyssa said. “And though your advice may have prompted him, Captain Cayden is very much his own man.” At Jacob’s look, she sighed, jerked her head to the left. “Come this way. I'll show you something I learned, wandering about while you were sleeping your days away.