Oops. Had that thought escaped? Mary widened her eyes innocently and refocused her efforts to tracing the marble map. Swallowing the anger and bitterness crawling up her throat, she re-routed the feelings to her fists. She was human, weaker, but she would beat Svetlana if it killed her. This was just another test and she wouldn’t fail. She wouldn’t break in front of them.
Sebastian leaned forward, his power and authority on full display. “Mary has a right to some privacy. We will not strip her of every defense without just cause. Where is your proof of disloyalty?”
“We heard the pet bitch’s fevered dreams when she was brought in,” Svetlana’s lip curled as she looked Mary head to toe and back up rather scathingly. “If she has been unfaithful to you, our King, then her disloyalty puts us and all our secrets at risk.”
Sebastian growled and snapped his jaws in chastisement. If she ignored his subtle corrections, she would face more obvious ones. “Show respect when you refer to anything of mine.”
Despite his rebuke, Sebastian had an oddly satisfied look to him. Did he really think Mary wouldn’t understand why he’d initiated this test? That she would need Svetlana, of all vampires, to explain it to her? Mary pressed her lips tighter and squeezed her hands until her nails were firmly imbedded in her palms.
His gaze narrowed on her and she knew he realized her ire was only rising. When puzzlement ever so slightly creased his brow, she became more enraged. He didn’t have a clue why she was so pissed off, but as furious as that made her, she wasn’t about to enlighten him in front of them.
Beside her, Lucas quivered and growled low in his throat, no doubt sensing and smelling her anger. She’d put a restraining hand on his wrist, but that would only further inflame the situation. She could only try harder to bind and gag her emotions.
Sebastian eyed the few feet between her and Lucas, then looked over his people. There was a long moment of silence, the one that meant the vampires and werewolves were speaking too low for her to hear. She hated when they did that.
No lips moved, no bodies shifted. All were as still as corpses. The only sound Mary could hear, especially if she strained, was her own blood pulsing through her veins. Thump, rush, thump in never ending cycles of branching red rivers.
“Mary,” Sebastian snapped. “Really? In a room full of impassioned vampires where you are the only human present?”
Mary froze, but her blood still rushed straight to her cheeks and her face grew hotter with each second. Damn it. She’d slipped again.
His face stayed the same, but his eyes overflowed with laughter. An amusement apparently shared by everyone as the mood of the room shifted, lightened for ever so brief a time. He shook his head and looked beyond her again. “We will adjourn to my chambers. All questions will be answered there, in relative privacy.”
Sebastian descended the steps of his throne and turned, his leather duster snapping into place behind him. “Lucas! Mary!”
Mary followed, Lucas at her side. A small part of her was relieved, even slightly appeased, but her previous embarrassment only served to spark her anger once again. Yes, by all means, let them have relative privacy so she could answer his questions as fully as she burned to do. If he were wise, he’d take that as the kind warning it was.
His shoulders tensed and she knew he’d received the message.
Chapter Eight
In silence, they marched to the double doors of Sebastian’s chambers and crossed the threshold. Sebastian faced the fireplace and sitting area for a brief moment then turned to face them both. Lucas closed and barred the doors behind them, coming to stand to the side and slightly behind Mary. The two most trusted people in his life, his bodyguard and his lover. Daily, he placed his life in the hands of one and his occasionally beating heart in the hands of the other.
This wasn’t fun for him. It wasn’t done on a whim. If there was even the tiniest crack in their loyalty to him, it could be infiltrated and exploited by his enemies. They both knew and understood this. Which made Mary’s fury so confusing. She stood facing him with her jaw squared and her chin up. The woman had the most obstinate chin he’d ever seen. It had amused him when she was a child. Now, adding her clenched fists and the bowstring taut vibrations of her body, he was frustrated.
Burning bricks had filled her mind since her parting message as they left the council room. He was still fully blocked from her and he really did not like that fact. He was a vampire. King of the Murder. He controlled an army of powerful, supernatural creatures and the only thing that kept him from proving his strength over this slender little human was his abhorrence at the thought of hurting her.
Sebastian scowled. “You can drop the wall now.”
Her eyes narrowed. Her lips pressed tight. Then she did drop the wall and he nearly staggered at the weight of emotions, the confusion of thoughts. It took a moment for them to clear enough for him to read.
It’s one thing to test, which I fully expected, but did you want me to fail?
Sebastian’s head snapped back at the mental and emotional slap. Had she failed?
You don’t even know, do you? You didn’t doubt me before, but you do now.
Mary’s lips twisted bitterly. This is all your fault, she threw at him. The test was fine, the type and breadth and scope, but why did you have to use Lucas, of all people?
Sebastian paled and Lucas growled, no doubt hating the silent debate. Only feeling her fury, without understanding why, no wonder. But really, she’d held her thoughts back this long, saving them for Sebastian, her mind-reading vampire was going to get them now.
Lucas is gorgeous. He had wolf-man eyes that glowed with all the greens and browns of nature. His size and forceful presence was so full of the power of life. She’d had the biggest crush on him as a teenager and all those feelings had come rushing back over the last day. The pounding heart and sweaty palms of a girl. The aroused needs of a woman.
Sebastian grunted, a low pained sound to match the expression in his eyes. Of course, he’d thought about whom to send to test her, who he could trust not to go too far and take advantage of the situation. But he hadn’t considered the permanent consequences of his choice.
His choice and her mother’s hatred.
For the first time in years, I've seen a fork in my future path. She could go either way. Where she’d only focused on living in the moonlight and dancing around the many intrigues and potential disasters of Sebastian’s court, he’d forced her to give lengthy consideration to an alternative.
She could be a wolf, running the forests at Lucas’ side. Making love in piles of leaves and beams of sunlight. Bearing children, a desire she’d buried as lost to her if she was with a vampire, but had never truly grieved the loss of. As a teenager, the thought of having children hadn't seemed important. But there were many of her friends at school who had children and holding them was sweet. Imagining holding a cub of Lucas' in her arms reminded her of what she'd been ready to give up.
Sebastian paled visibly, his eyes burning red.
But those were the joys of living. She could achieve them with anyone. Anyone but a vampire.
Sebastian choked on a cough, sorrow filling his face.
Instead of anyone, though, you sent Lucas. His personal guard. Both of them had trained Mary over the years, physically, mentally, emotionally. Lucas had been the disciplinarian when Sebastian was busy. Where Sebastian was often indulgent, Lucas was exacting, demanding, perfectionistic. Nothing less than the best was allowed. She’d longed for his approval most of her life and for him to stare at her like she finally met all his standards…
The red in Sebastian’s eyes darkened, filling with blood.
Lucas’ silent acceptance had been heady stuff, indeed. Combined with impassioned touches and kisses, he’d been nearly impossible to resist. Combine passion, a need for approval and the vision of a lovely future full of possibilities, what had Sebastian expected? This hadn’t just been a test of her fidelity. Nothing had been as simple as trust, lust and sex.
The king lowered his head, squeezing his eyes shut. One dark-red tear slid from the corner of his eye and along his nose.
Lucas growled and put a hand on her wrist. “Enough.”
And there she felt it. The heat of his touch. The vibration of his power brushing along his skin. The demand in his voice that evoked her need for his approval. She hadn’t wanted to feel any of this. Wasn’t simply seeking Sebastian’s pain. It was all truth.
Sebastian’s shoulders shook as he shuddered and wiped his face with a rough hand.
“Yes, it is quite enough.”
Mary jerked her gaze to the woman who slid between Lucas and her, placing her smooth, cold hand over both of theirs.
Rosamunde was rare among the vampires. Her skill thankfully not a common gift. She could touch someone and search their memories at will. She would know beyond a doubt whether Mary or Lucas had been unfaithful. And they would all know, see and hear the memories of another. All Mary had wished to keep just between her and Sebastian would now be known.
Chapter Nine
“We await you, my king.” Rosamunde lifted cool blue eyes to Sebastian, calmly focused.
He hesitated. The Murder demanded answers beyond all doubt. But to do this would expose her further and either he wanted to protect her from that or maybe he wanted to protect himself.
They would both just have to be brave. Mary set her shoulders and nodded.
Sebastian strode forward and placed his palm over the back of Rosamunde’s hand, so the four of them were connected.
The first memories came from Lucas. It was during a large battle between wolves and rogue vampires. He was held down by several rogues, bleeding from gashes and tears all along his body. Fourteen years old, it had been his first sighting of vampires, though lore had been handed down through his lineage for years. When Sebastian had entered his periphery, his first thought was that another rogue wanted to join the fun. Instead, the king had saved the boy wolf and, together, they built the Murder to what it was today.
For over a century, they’d fought side by side, their loyalty to each other unquestioned, until the moment Sebastian had taken a small child home with him and Lucas had seen the king’s attachment to her. It was too easy for them to look to the future when she would be grown, to see the kind of person she would become, and to love her for it. It was a love they both felt, though Lucas had tried to alter his.
When Mary had made her choice between them, Lucas had put his attraction aside permanently. Then Sebastian had asked him to tempt her, to test her, never realizing he’d be testing them both.
The next memory was Mary’s, hot with arousal and full of thoughts of Sebastian, opening the door to Lucas and watching his nostrils flare and passion kindle in his eyes. More followed, pictures of Lucas leaning over her after the rogue had knocked her from the tree, chained to cavern walls with a silver bolt stealing his strength, eyes warming with concern and tenderness, hesitance and attraction. His embrace, his lips, his kiss and her unabashed response.
Sebastian’s hand trembled and nearly broke away. Both Mary and Lucas slammed their free hands on top, Lucas’s providing the downward pressure to keep them tightly linked. Sebastian opened his mouth then snapped it shut and tightened it into a grim line.
Every moment of closeness was relived in detail, the feelings, the intimacies. Nothing and no one was spared, especially once the conclusion was shown. Before Mary had succumbed to the fever, when she realized the virus had been released. She had rejected further exposure because being a werewolf really wasn’t in her plans.
But the day hadn’t stopped there. Lucas supplied the missing pieces. Once Mary had removed the bolt, he’d begun healing and regained his strength. Which he’d then used to pull a bolt from Travis. Then Travis had yanked out Ben’s. Once free, they’d fought the other vamps. When Sarah escaped, they could have searched more for her, but Mary was battling the change with everything she had in her and needed help. Lucas had ridden beside her the whole way back, restraining her when she thrashed, drying her eyes when she cried for Sebastian.
She’d begged his forgiveness for what she’d done, knowing she risked her life by taking only enough of the virus for it to be toxic, but too afraid to go further, take more and hope Sebastian would understand. With her voice still ringing in their ears, the vision went dark.
Sebastian jerked straight and swallowed thickly.
The next memory was Mary’s, from a month and a half ago when she’d lain naked in Sebastian’s arms, happy to be there.
“Are you sure being with me is worth the manipulations and tests you’ll face?”
Mary stared up into his eyes, her cheek against his heart. With one hand smoothing over his whiskered cheeks, she’d assured him, “I am positive being with you is worth anything.”
As that memory dimmed, Mary’s residual anger drifted away with it. I still believe that.
Sebastian met her gaze and, this time, it was Rosamunde who forced them to hold the link. “There is one more thing that must be known.”
Mary stiffened as soft fingers brushed like a cold wind through her mind. Like a filing cabinet being searched, Rosamunde rifled through her memories and Mary actually knew which one the vampire wanted. Briefly considering a mutiny, Mary growled and uneasily subsided as the scene blossomed in their minds.
The council sanctuary was shrouded in darkness, only a few lit candles to brighten the room. The windows to the outside were open, allowing moonlight to enter, but the double rows of pillars leading from the entrance to the throne were large and thick, perfect for her to hide behind. She’d learned stealth at the knee of masters and she used it now.
A party of Crows had gone out after a call late the night before. Among them had been her best buddy, Jordan, a wolf decades older than her. He’d never quite lost his youthful sense of adventure and had been the perfect playmate for a young human growing up among vampires and werewolves. Now she realized he’d likely been set to guard her, but there had never been so much as a hint of that in the way he’d treated her.
Jordan hadn’t come back with the party and Mary had listened as they reported his death to their king. Refusing to give herself away with sniffles or allowing tears that would destroy her vision, afraid she'd be discovered and would never hear the full truth of what happened, she’d frozen dry-eyed behind a pillar. The Crows left and only Sebastian and Lucas stood there, both appearing devastated by the news. Jordan had been loved.
“I will inform his parents.” Lucas stood at Sebastian’s side in this instance, the formal mediator between the king and the wolves.
Sebastian chuckled humorlessly. “You offered that quickly. Are you sure you aren’t running from the duty of telling Mary?”
Lucas scoffed. “If there’s anything a wolf knows well, it’s how to survive.”
With that ill-placed comment, any attempts at lightening their horror fell flat. Jordan hadn’t survived. Lucas had stepped off the dais, nodded at Sebastian and walked away. Alone in the darkened room, only a single candle to shine on his black hair, Sebastian had slumped back against his throne, his hand hiding his face from any who approached suddenly. A move anyone could see through instantly.
In that moment, alone and grieving, her all-powerful king had seemed overburdened. His loneliness absolute and eternal. In her own grief, Mary knew he needed support every bit as much as she did. Not just then, but for always. Finally, she allowed tears to slide in sheets down her cheeks as she walked toward him, purposefully scuffing her shoe against the slate floor.
Sebastian lowered his hand, his gaze noting everything about her. “You heard?”
She nodded and, before he could stop her, she dove into his arms and wrapped hers around him. He pulled her securely into his lap and held her tight as she cried great racking sobs. It was only undisturbed hours later, while washing the blood of his tears out of her hair, that she knew her idea had worked. In comforting her, he’d had a shield for his own grief to be
released. And no one knew but her.
And now, Rosamunde and Lucas. Mary blinked, her mind blank as their hands drew away from hers. It was like having the lights go up after a movie. She could only blink at the bright light and wait for everything to start flowing again.
The room held silent, only she and Lucas so much as breathing. Mary didn’t want to look at any of them. She couldn’t live forever without thinking. An intense craving for the solitude of her dorm nearly buckled her knees. She needed time to process.
After spending so much time today facing the mother she thought dead, the old attraction she’d considered as equally dead, and hearing the revision of her history, she needed to consider her own point of view. She’d manipulated her mother and it had required manipulating her own dreams and fantasies to the point even Mary believed them. It was the only way to avoid lying.
Rosamunde cleared her throat. “Is the matter clear, my king?”
Mary looked up in time to see Sebastian nod. He still appeared dazed. Just as confused as she was, in a way. But also at peace. His voice came low, but confident. “The actions of today have brought to light mistakes and assumptions and the wisdom not to repeat them. But there was no disloyalty. No betrayal.”
“It felt like betrayal,” Mary couldn’t help but add.
Lucas nodded his agreement.
Sebastian shook his head. “We all bear a share of guilt.”
“Shall I tell them, my lord?” Rosamunde waited calmly. She’d been the window through which they could all look. Clear, unbiased and without judgment.
“No.” Sebastian shook his head. “That should be done by me.”
He started for the door. Lucas fell in behind him.
Mary hesitated, staring longingly at the bed. She didn’t have enough energy or mental strength left to protect herself from them. She was exhausted and weak, any strength she’d had upon waking from the fever drained from her toes and the tips of her fingers until she doubted even her ability to stand.
The Murder King's Summons Page 5