Master of the Night

by Angela Knight

  "The nasty thing about Geirolf is, he probably would," Erin said. "He'd want to enjoy your suffering."

  "But if you will not deal with him, what of Janieda?" asked one of the advisers, a delicate brunette woman in an elaborate iridescent court gown. She looked about forty, which given Sidhe aging rates would make her very old indeed. "You dare not let him sacrifice her. You do not know what spell he would work."

  "I wouldn't do that in any case," Llyr said. "The question is, how to rescue her?"

  "The obvious thing is to set a trap," Reece pointed out.

  Erin nodded as she met the king's eyes grimly. "And we all know what the bait must be."

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  « ^ »

  "Out of the question," Llyr snapped.

  "If you appear to comply in turning us over," Erin pointed out, "you can stage a rescue."

  The king shot her a dark look. "And risk getting you killed in the process? I think not."

  "Be not so hasty," the brunette woman said. The surrounding advisers gave her a scandalized look at her contradiction of the king, but Llyr's expression was tolerant. "Perhaps we could put a spell on them which would kill this creature without placing them in danger."

  Reece nodded slowly, interested. "Like a booby trap."

  The woman shrugged. "Perhaps. I am not familiar with the term."

  Llyr frowned. "Do you have a particular spell in mind, Grandmother?"

  "Not at the moment," she admitted. "But perhaps if we had more knowledge of this creature and its weaknesses, I could think of one. I remember the battle we fought with Geirolf and his kind, of course, but that was sixteen hundred years ago." Her mouth drew into a grimace. "My memory is not what it once was."

  "I suspect we'd find the answers we need in Merlin's Grimoire," Reece said. "Grim would know about Geirolf's people and where they came from. Hell, if they have any weaknesses, he can probably list them alphabetically."

  Llyr lifted a brow. "But to gain access to this book of yours, you would need to return to Avalon."

  Erin stiffened.

  Reece shrugged. "I need to do that anyway. I still have to alert the High Council to the threat Actually, I should have done that when I woke, but I was distracted." He threw her a dark look.

  "But what if—?" She stopped. What if they turned on him? What if they killed him? The idea filled her with pure terror.

  "I've got my duty, Erin," he told her.

  The Sidhe king studied him, then nodded slowly. "So you do. Very well, then. I'll transport you."

  "And me," Erin said firmly.

  "Absolutely not," Reece said in a rough chorus with Llyr's flat. "No."

  She glowered at both of them stubbornly. "If you have to cast a spell on both of us, I'll need to be there."

  Reece glowered back. "And what if the Majae's Court decides the simplest solution to the problem is to kill you?"

  "Triggering Janieda's murder? I don't think so. Besides, if it comes down to that, I can make my own gate to Avalon."

  Llyr bared his teeth. "Geirolf isn't the only one who can create a spell of containment, Erin."

  "Enough!" his grandmother snapped. "The child has a point about being needed for the spell, and you know it. Take her with you."

  The king turned a regal frown on the old Sidhe. She glowered back at him as Erin tensed. Finally he gave a bad-tempered grunt. "I suppose I can protect her, if it comes to that."

  "It won't," Reece said coolly. "I can give her whatever protection she needs. But don't you think you need to divert Geirolf first? The deadline he gave you is almost up."

  Erin frowned. "What are you going to tell him? He doesn't exactly strike me as trusting."

  Llyr smiled, a chilling stretch of the lips. "The thing about dealing with a creature who specializes in betrayal is that he always expects to be betrayed. All you have to do is suggest you're betraying someone else, and he'll happily swallow the lie whole."

  Erin looked at him for an admiring beat. "Oh, you're good."

  Maybe a little too good, a wary voice whispered in the back of her mind.

  Janieda lay at the bottom of her cage, her mind working frantically as she tried to come up with a way to escape the trap she'd sprung around herself. As she plotted, she held her drooping wings close around her body, trying to present the picture of a thoroughly beaten victim. Everyone always wanted to believe her less than she was. This time she was going to make their poor opinion work to her advantage.

  Behind the fragile barrier of her wings, she listened closely as the demon spoke to his mortal henchman.

  "The last of the acolytes have drunk from the potion," the human said. He had developed a faint lisp along with the new fangs that would have been amusing, if not for the hungry way he looked at Janieda. She found herself grateful for her cage. "They're ready to move whenever you give the word." He licked his bloodless lips. "In fact, they're eager for it."

  Geirolf grinned. "Oh, I'll wager they are. But if they demonstrate a little patience, soon they'll bathe in Maja blood."

  "But now that the Majae have freed the Grimoire…"

  The demon made a dismissive gesture. "Don't trouble yourself. It's far too late to do them any good."

  Beneath her wings, Janieda shivered. Horrific creatures. How was she to escape from this place without ending up a meal for one of them? She didn't even know where she was.

  Suddenly she heard a familiar, beloved voice. "I have considered your offer…"

  Llyr! Instinctively she opened her wings and leaped up.

  "… and I agree to your bargain," the king announced.

  Janieda gaped at him in a combination of hope and fear—hope that she might escape after all, and fear for her lover and her people. Oh, don't trust this creature, she thought desperately.

  Geirolf made a humming sound of anticipation that made her blood chill. "Then send them on, and I'll transport your consort to you."

  "It's not that simple," Llyr said. "The Maja is surprisingly powerful. I doubt even I could send her anywhere she doesn't want to go. I'll have to strip her of her powers first."

  Geirolf gave him a hungry smile. "Let me into your palace. I'll take care of her."

  Llyr lifted a haughty brow. "I think not. No, there's a better way. She and the vampire have volunteered to set a trap for you. I have told her I'll cast a spell on her that will strip you of your power when you trigger it."

  "But in reality she's the one who'll lose her powers," Geirolf said. "Clever." He laughed, the sound rolling over Janieda like a wave of maggots. "Very clever."

  "Of course. I will, however, need time to work the spell."

  The demon sighed. "These things are always time consuming. How long?"

  "Let's say five hours or so."

  Geirolf nodded crisply. "Done."

  Oh, Llyr, Janieda thought in despair as her lover's image disappeared, what are you doing?

  Erin and Reece looked up as Llyr stepped back into the room.

  "Did he buy it?" she asked.

  The king smiled darkly. "Of course." Rubbing his hands together briskly, he turned toward Reece. "Now. Where will we find this Grimoire of yours?"

  "Wherever it's needed, actually," Reece said. "It literally has a will of its own."

  "Very well. Think of the substance of it, and I'll use that as an anchor."

  Reece had worked with enough Majae to understand how the process worked, so he obediently began building an image in his mind. For a moment he felt the touch of the Sidhe's thoughts.

  The next instant they stood in the ruins of the cell as Grace, Lance, and Arthur gaped at them. Morgana, holding the Grimoire in both hands, glanced up in surprise.

  "Reece!" Lance began. "Where the hell have you—?" He broke off, his gaze narrowing as he saw Erin standing by Reece's side.

  "King Llyr." Arthur gave a small, civil half-bow, which the Sidhe returned. "I see you've found our prodigal."

  "Indeed," Morgana drawled, looking at Erin in a way that made
the hair raise on the back of Reece's neck. "Apparently more than one of them. I don't believe I know you, child. And I should."

  Hoping to forestall any unpleasantness, Reece launched into introductions. No sooner had he gotten Erin's name out of his mouth than Grace interrupted. "This is the woman I saw in my vision, Grandmother," she said.

  Llyr glowered at Reece. "Is there anyone who hasn't had a vision involving you?"

  Erin frowned. "That's right, Janieda said something about some kind of vision, too, didn't she?"

  "That's not a good sign," Arthur said, leaning against the wall as he studied them.

  Correctly interpreting Erin's questioning look, Grace explained, "When a lot of seers start having independent visions about the same situation, we're in trouble."

  "More so than usual, anyway," Reece put in.

  Erin studied her. "So what exactly did you see in this vision, anyway?"

  The blond grimaced. "You and Reece, naked and bound on some kind of altar. A big, demonic-looking horned creature was about to plunge a pair of knives into you."

  Erin winced. "You're right—that's not good at all."

  "Do you know who this creature is?" Morgana demanded.

  "His name's Geirolf," Erin said, rubbing absently at a knot of tension gathering in the base of her neck. "He's some kind of demon or alien or something. You know all those Death Cults springing up in the U.S. over the past few months? His work."

  Morgana nodded as she moved to put the massive Grimoire down on the table. "We suspected as much. We knew whoever it was has a great deal of power, but was definitely not Magekind or Sidhe. The creature from Grace's vision seemed a logical suspect."

  Merlin's Grimoire spoke up in a sonorous rumble. "It sounded like Geirolf, based on her description. But for once, I would not have minded being wrong. Of all the Dark Kind, Geirolf was the worst." Muttering to itself, it added, "And if Merlin had listened to me and killed him sixteen hundred years ago, we wouldn't be in this situation now."

  "I assume," Morgan said, her eyes narrowing as she looked at Reece, "this Geirolf has something to do with why you made this girl a Maja without the Council's permission."

  Reece knew damn well he'd better make this good. "I was trying to avoid being used in Geirolf's death spell, the one Grace saw in her vision. He plans to sacrifice Erin and me as part of some kind of ritual designed to wipe out the Magekind." Quickly he explained.

  When he finished, there was an appalled silence for several minutes as everyone tried to digest the sequence of events. "You should have come to us at once, Lord Reece," Morgana growled at last.

  Grace snorted. "Really, Grandma, are you that surprised he didn't? The Council isn't exactly known for its tolerance of illegal transformations."

  "Cases like this are why we wait to hear from the couple before passing judgment," Arthur said. "Sometimes there are good reasons for making a Maja without permission." He met Reece's eyes. "This was one of them."

  Reece relaxed fractionally. If Arthur gave them his stamp of approval, no one else would quibble. Beside him, he could feel the tension drain from Erin as she, too, realized they were safe. "So what do we do now?"

  "Now we get the information to work that spell," Llyr said, then looked at the Grimoire. "What can you tell us about the demon?"

  "First, he's not a demon," the book said, projecting an image of a floating planet over its pages. The world's thick red cloud cover appeared to seethe, putting Reece in mind of Jupiter. "He and his kind are from another planet in the Mageverse around a star hundreds of light-years away. They are empathic parasites, feeding on violent emotion as well as the very force of life itself."

  "Which is why they like to kill people," Erin said.

  "Preferably in the most violent manner possible," the Grimoire agreed. "They first arrived on mortal Earth thousands of years ago, when humankind was ripe for the kind of tricks the Dark Kind love to play." The planet faded away, replaced by the image of an altar and what looked like an Egyptian priest, his hands lifted in a gesture of prayer. "Some of them were worshiped as gods, while others were feared as demons. Love or terror—it didn't matter which—as long as the humans felt something. That was enough to feed the Dark Kind."

  "Until Merlin came along and stuck a stick in their spokes," Erin said.

  "Oh, it wasn't Merlin alone," the Grimoire said. "No, not even he had that much power. Many Fae came with him to rid Earth of its dark gods. Given the infestation, they knew it would take them all."

  "My people played a role as well," Llyr told them. "My own father died in that battle."

  "And a good thing they did. It took Fae and Sidhe both to defeat Geirolf and the Dark Kind," Grim agreed.

  "Normally we stayed out of human affairs, but my father told me this time we had to intervene," Llyr said, his expression brooding. "The Dark Kind would have eventually turned their attention to us. But it was only when Merlin and the Fae arrived that we were able to rid ourselves of them."

  "Even so, it was not an easy fight," the Grimoire said. The image shifted, revealing ghostly, glowing figures locked in battle over the planet as lightning flashes danced around them. "Eventually, the allies drove the Dark Kind away from Earth and into the Mageverse. Only one managed to hang on, too powerful and stubborn to be banished: Geirolf. It was all Merlin could do to lock him in this cell."

  "Why didn't he just kill him?" Erin asked. "It would have simplified things considerably."

  "That's not how Merlin operated," Morgana said. "He didn't believe in killing." Judging from her tone of voice, she didn't agree with that particular stance any more than Erin did.

  "I wonder how Geirolf got out?" Arthur said.

  Grace shrugged. "He'd had sixteen hundred years to dig at the walls. It would have been surprising if he hadn't created a chink or two."

  "Enough of one to reach into the dreams of a mortal serial killer, anyway," Erin said. "Once the killer had murdered a few sacrifices for him—"

  "Necromancers." Morgana curled her lip in disgust. "Filthy creatures."

  "The question is, what do we do about this particular filthy creature?" Llyr asked the Grimoire. "Do you know of a spell that would do the job?"

  "Naturally," the book said. "But it's not without its dangers."

  "When are these things not dangerous?" Morgana said dryly.

  "Just so," the Grimoire agreed. "This spell, however, is going to need a great deal of power. And that's likely to be quite…"

  A female voice gasped, a raw, deep sound of pain. At the same instant Lance gasped, "Grace?" Reece whirled to see his friend catch his wife as her knees buckled. "Grace, what is it?"

  The Maja was staring at Erin, her eyes chillingly blank. "The price you'll pay to save us all will be high," she said in a dreamy voice.

  "She's having a vision," Morgana said, then added to Grace, "What price, Grace?"

  Grace stared at Erin without blinking. "Her sanity."

  Dread clutched at Erin's heart. "Wait a minute. Is she saying I'll go insane if I do this?"

  "No, forget it," Reece said. "We'll have to—"

  "Silence!" Morgana snapped. To Grace she said, "Can the madness be averted?"

  But the Maja slumped as if all the strength had run from her body. "Damn," she moaned as the dreamlike blankness was replaced by a grimace. "I hate that."

  "What did you see?" Reece demanded.

  Grace reeled to a chair and sat down in it. "Not a lot. Myself, King Llyr, and Morgana, pouring magic into Erin." She frowned. "I think Llyr and I were the donors, with Grandma working the spell. It was a hell of a lot of power, anyway. For a minute there, I felt what Erin was feeling." The Maja made a gesture with her hands, tike something bowing under the strain. "I could feel her beginning to give. But somebody was there, strengthening her." She looked at Reece. "You. You're going to have to Truebond with her, Reece, or she's not going to have a prayer."

  "Truebond?" Erin said. "What's a Truebond?"

  Reece was frowning. "It
's a kind of deep psychic link, a sharing of minds."

  "It's marriage without the possibility of divorce, is what it is," Lance said, his expression doubtful. "How well do you two know each other?"

  "Marriage?" Erin turned to stare at Reece in shock..

  He gave her a sardonic smile that held a tinge of pain. "Hey, you were ready to marry the king a couple of hours ago. One marriage of convenience is as good as another."

  "There's nothing 'convenient' about a Truebond, Reece," Arthur said. "Assuming you can forge the link, which you may not even be able to do."

  "Arthur has a point," Lance said. "If you don't have a strong bond now, it's not going to work." And the skepticism on his face seemed to suggest he doubted they did.

  Reece shrugged. "Grace's vision suggests otherwise."

  Erin turned to the two Majae. "The question is, will the spell work? Will it allow us to kill Geirolf ?"

  "I didn't see that far," Grace said. "But it was a hell of a lot of power. As booby traps go, it would make a good one."

  Arthur folded his arms and stared down at his feet, a deep frown on his face. "If you can only find out where he is and break his wards, the rest of us could attack in force. However much power he has, he's not a match for all of us."

  "He's close," Llyr said. "He's very, very close. When I spoke to him, I could feel his power." He grimaced. "His followers have been gorging him with murders."

  Erin looked at him. "If he's so powerful he's a match for both kingdoms, how are the three of us supposed to kill him?"

  "It's not going to be a direct attack," Morgana explained. "You're right—if he's as strong as Llyr claims, that won't work. What you're going to do is reflect his own death spell back on him."

  Erin scratched a spot between her brows. "I don't think I like the sound of this. If Grace and Llyr pump that much power into me, what's it going to do to them?"

  "It will leave us vulnerable," Llyr told her. "That must have been what Janieda had her vision about. She said she saw me lying unconscious with my power drained away to Erin as Geirolf laughed."