A woman sat on the single bunk in the cell. She was human, I was pretty certain of that, and she was about seven months gone by the size of her belly. She was wearing a tattered dress, very loose, and she was staring at the floor, with a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. I felt incredibly sorry for her, even though I never had understood the desire to be some vampire’s bloodwhore. As much as I loved Aegis, the thought of anybody drinking my blood still gave me the creeps.
Speaking of creepy, Ruby was standing at my back. She took a long whiff and I quickly shifted to one side, not running, but putting another step between us. I knew she was smelling my witch’s blood. I hoped to hell she’d remember that Essie had said “hands off.”
Ruby’s fangs were down, but after a moment, she seemed to regain her composure and gave a little shrug, as though she didn’t care. “Anyway, that’s her. She’s carrying Thornton’s spawn. I have no clue what Essie has planned for them.”
Right now, I wasn’t so sure I wanted to know, either. To keep a pregnant woman down in conditions like these seemed appalling, but vampires weren’t the best of hosts even when they were in a good mood. Piss one off and you got what you asked for. I wondered why Ruby had brought me here, but when she steered me toward one of the cells, I thought she was about to lock me in.
“Oh no, I’m claustrophobic!” I didn’t want to be stuck in a cell. Chances were she’d lock me in an anti-magic zone.
“Oh, stop whining. I’m not locking you up, so don’t get your panties in a wad. Not yet.” And with that, she pushed me through to the door beyond.
I HADN’T NOTICED the door on the end before, but now Ruby stepped through it, dragging me behind her. I glanced around. We were in a good-size chamber and by my best calculation, we were underground, well away from Essie’s house. In fact, I’d bet we were somewhere in the woods. Which meant that if I escaped down here, I’d have to race all the way back to the staircase, then up the next staircase, and somehow make it to the front door without being caught.
The room into which we had entered was set up as a throne room, which made sense, given Essie was a vampire queen. I guess I had never thought before about whether the vamp royalty actually held any sort of court. Apparently, they did.
The throne against the back wall was upholstered in a rich gold velvet, and to either side, tapestries covered the walls. Here, the light was brighter, coming from a huge crystal chandelier overhead, and I squinted at the wall behind the throne. Beneath one tapestry, I thought I could make out the outline of the bottom of a door.
In front of the throne was a low bench with railings on both sides. “That’s where you kneel in front of the queen,” Ruby said.
“I don’t kneel in front of anybody,” I grumbled.
“You will if I say you do.”
To either side of the chamber was the gallery, with rows of chairs behind thick red velvet ropes. The ropes were attached to brass poles, like at a movie premiere, and the chairs were set at a kitty-corner angle to have full view of the throne. Tapestries covered most of the walls. They were old, but well taken care of, but all in all, the throne room felt sparse—not at all like Essie.
Ruby hauled me front and center toward the bench and I was prepared to protest, but then she dragged me beyond it, toward the throne. I tripped over a fold in the carpet and fell against her, knocking both of us down. As we faceplanted on the red velvet that covered the concrete floor, I was grateful for the cushion of carpet. Still, I reached for my nose, which felt bruised.
Ruby sputtered. “You’re really pathetic, aren’t you?” She dragged me back up on my feet. “If I untie your arms, will you stop being such a klutz?”
“I’ll do my best. It’s not easy walking with my hands behind my back.” I glared back at her.
“You try any funny stuff and I’ll hogtie you and carry you over my shoulder. Got it?”
I nodded. I’d behave, at least until I had a good opportunity to escape.
Ruby started to poke me in the chest, then stopped. I was wearing my silver pentacle. She frowned at it. “You witches and your silver.”
“I like it.” I smiled a big old smile at her.
Sputtering, Ruby unlocked the handcuffs.
I behaved. I wasn’t quite ready to run yet—I had to get my bearings first. She motioned for me to bypass the bench and we headed toward the throne itself, veering off to the left. I now had a good view and the chandelier showered enough light in the room that I could definitely see the outline of a door.
Wherever it went, we appeared to be heading there. If it went further into the underground labyrinth, escape was going to be a problem.
“Straighten up.” Ruby prodded me in the back as we approached the tapestry. From close proximity I could see the cloth was hanging from the ceiling, not against the wall, and there was a wide-enough space behind it to allow easy access to the door.
Ruby cleared her throat as she opened the door. “Kneel before the Queen of the Pacific Northwest Vampire Nation!” She went down on one knee, dragging me with her, as we entered the room.
WE WERE IN a private chamber, in front of a wide table. There were chairs around the table, and standing behind one of them was Essie, with a spindly vampire on one side of her and a dark stranger on the other. I realized he was a vampire as well, but there was something different about him. Spindly vamp reminded me of a tall, thin Charlie Chaplin—sans the humor. The other man was dressed in a black suit, and he carried a bowler hat. His look could freeze hot water.
Essie was in her champagne dress still, but now she wore a crown, and carried a large fan that matched her dress. She motioned for us to stand and enter. “Sit.”
Ruby pushed me toward a chair and I hesitantly sat down as I kept my eyes on the vampires across from me. Ruby was seeming safer by the moment. But as I caught Essie’s gaze, she gave me a long warning look. What the hell was going on? There was definitely something rumbling below the surface.
The strange vampire’s gaze fixated on Essie. He looked haughty, far more than I knew Essie would allow from her subjects. He was about average height, with jet black hair plaited in a braid down to his lower back, and when he spoke, his words held some sort of a faded accent though I couldn’t place it.
“I trust we will get to the bottom of this matter now?”
A veiled look of anger flashed through her eyes, but she nodded. “Now that Maudlin has the energy to join us, yes, we will. She’s sorry it took her so long, but she’s been laid up with some sort of malady.”
What the hell? I stared at Essie, getting ready to say that I wasn’t exactly here under my own volition, but beside me, Ruby tensed. She still had her hand on my shoulder and now she dug in her nails and I swear, she drew blood. I tried to shrug her hand off, but she ignored the attempt.
“Good,” the vamp said. “Because, if we don’t, you do realize I will be forced to drag the both of you in front of…” His voice trailed off, but the warning in it was all too apparent.
What was this? So Essie really was in trouble? And whatever it was, I was apparently her comrade in arms.
“For now, Kayo, I expect you to accord me the privilege of holding this meeting in the manner in which I see fit. In the process, I trust you will see that I’ve told you everything that both Maudlin and I know about the matter.” Essie’s cool demeanor vanished, and she lowered her voice. “I will brook no threats in my own kingdom, do you understand?”
Kayo, whoever he was, let out a soft chuckle. “Very well. Carry on.”
And with that, Essie Vanderbilt nodded at me. “Maudlin can fill in the blanks. She’ll verify that not only did Thornton deceive her, but that he was in possession of the journal you seek, and that he, not I, was the one who stole it.”
And with that, my stomach hit the ground and I promptly vomited onto the table.
Chapter 17
KAYO LET OUT a grunt of disgust. Ruby jumped up and, in a blur, was back with a cloth
to wash up the table, as well as a glass of water for me, and a mint.
Essie smiled softly. I was surprised she wasn’t upset but then she said, “See, I told you Maudlin was feeling under the weather.”
Not sure whether to laugh at her ability to turn on a dime, or to cry because I knew what was going on and who Kayo was, I let Ruby clean me up and then drank the water and ate the mint. The last of the sedative—or whatever it was they had used to knock me out—felt like it was trying to work its way out of my system.
Kayo rolled his eyes. “Whatever the case, let’s get on with it.”
I cleared my throat, then finished off the water. Essie was up shit creek without a paddle, and so was I, if he decided he didn’t believe us.
“Very well. Maudlin, will you verify that you hired Thornton, and when?”
Apparently, the ball was in my court. I thought fast. “I hired him, yes. It was on October eleventh, I believe. I had no clue he was part of your stable at the time. He answered my advertisement for a housekeeper.” I tried to choose my words carefully. If this was what I thought it was, I could easily slide the noose around both our necks.
Essie paused, then nodded. “Did he ever tell you he had been part of my entourage?”
I snorted. “I don’t keep track of your love life, nor of your comings and goings, Essie. Thornton never mentioned it to me.” I figured I had to make my answers realistic, even if I was trying to lie through my teeth.
Essie arched her eyebrows. “Yes, well…perhaps you’ll tell us what happened when he arrived. I assume you helped him unpack?” She put a stress on the words and I hoped to hell I was reading her correctly.
“Um, yeah, I did.” At her nod, I continued. “He only had a couple suitcases with him.” I paused, then decided to run with my intuition. “Well, he mostly unpacked. But he had one box that he set to the side, and he asked if I owned a safe. I don’t, so he said he’d find someplace else to keep it. I don’t know what was in the box, but he seemed to be protective of it.”
“Did he ever tell you what was in the box?”
Kayo stiffened, focused on me. I tried to remain unreadable. Luckily I could see both of them because I knew that if I so much as flickered over to Essie to look for a cue, he’d be on me. She shifted, just slightly enough to tell me that this was a make-or-break point.
“No. I didn’t ask, either. I don’t pry into people’s personal affairs.”
One beat. Two, and Kayo leaned back just enough to indicate that he was buying it.
Essie paused, then asked, “After he died, when you packed up his things to return them to me, was that box still in the room?” Her gaze was unnerving.
I froze, scrambling over the potential responses. Both Kayo and Essie were poised, waiting for my answer. I shook my head.
“No, I didn’t see it anywhere. But then, I didn’t expect to.”
“Oh?” Kayo asked.
“No, because the day he died, he went out to run some errands and he was carrying the box with him. I assumed that he either gave it to someone or that it was destroyed during the crash that ended his life.”
Essie visibly relaxed, deflating as a relieved look flashed through her eyes. “When did you find out he had been working for me?”
I licked my lips. “Shortly before he died. I swear, if I knew he was still in your employ, I never would have hired him.” And that was the truth.
Essie turned to the strange vamp. “You see? It’s as I told you. Thornton accompanied me to the castle the weekend before he ran off. Your records will show that. During the day, he must have broken into your study and relieved you of the journal. We had so much luggage that I never noticed it and when we arrived home, he unpacked. The next evening, I woke to find he was gone. I thought he was out running errands. It didn’t occur to me that he had run off till the next night, when he didn’t appear and we found his closet cleaned out.”
This went against everything Ruby had told me about Thornton being stuck in a cell, but I wasn’t about to bring that little fact up just now.
Kayo leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms. “So the man is dead and no longer available to answer my questions. I thought you would have already started the process of turning him into a vampire? Favorites are usually accorded the status.”
Essie frowned, but inclined her head. “As I did, but he turned while in the morgue. He escaped, showed up at Maudlin’s house in search of witch’s blood, and she staked him.”
“That’s true. I had just returned from the Ostara ritual and I had my dagger with me. He attacked me and I dusted him.” I shrugged. “If you want his ashes, they’re in my trashcan. You can probably do some sort of spell to figure out it was him.”
Kayo rubbed his temples, looking pained. “I see. Then I suppose I’ll have to take your word for it that he left your house with the journal?”
I bit my lip and played a bold move. “You can come over and search for it if you like. I very much doubt you’ll find anything.”
Apparently, that was a good-enough play to put it to rest.
“No, I trust that you’re telling me the truth when you say it’s no longer in your house.” He regarded me closely, then turned to Essie. “As for you, the next time you’re asked to one of my affairs, you’ll kindly leave your bloodwhores and sex slaves at home. I have more than enough to share. Very well,” he said, suddenly straightening up and sounding all official. “We’re done. For now. But both of you, watch yourselves.”
And with that, he swept out of the room without saying good-bye.
Essie leaned back against her chair, shaken. I had never seen her look anything but pulled together and the fact that he could send her into such a spiral of fear worried me. I decided I’d have to look him up later on.
“Ruby, Joseph, please leave us until I summon you.”
The skinny vamp and Ruby left the room. Essie reached into the folds of her skirt and brought out what I immediately recognized as a mandrake root. I had one at home. Any witch worth her salt did. She set it on the table and ran her fingers over it, chanting:
Silence be, silence will be.
No ears to hear, no eyes to see.
Another moment and it felt like a dampening field had closed down over us. She was skilled, all right. She regarded me quietly for a moment.
“You have saved our lives…for now.”
“You stole that book from him. I can’t believe you’d pull something like that on the Arcānus Nocturni. Don’t you realize just how dangerous they are?” Before I realized what I was doing, I had launched into her. “How did Thornton escape? Ruby showed me your prison block and pointed out his baby mama, whom you have locked up in there.”
Essie waited until I finished. “Are you quite done?”
“Well…yes, for the moment. No, actually, I’m not. You kidnapped me off the street for this? Why didn’t you just come ask me yourself?”
“First, it was a time-sensitive matter. I had no notice Kayo was arriving until I woke up and found the note. I didn’t have time to go round and round with you, so I sent someone over to the meeting, where I knew you would be. Consider that my official invitation.”
“Your official invitation could get your minions staked.” I rubbed my head. “I’m really pissed at you about this, but for now, we’ll let it go. You stole that book from the Arcānus Nocturni? What the hell were you going to do with it? Go gallivanting around in the daylight and make yourself the target of every wannabe Buffy in town?”
Essie tsked away my concern. “Why would I worry about them when I have the real hunter under my nose? You’re far more dangerous than any two-bit vampire hunter out there. I know your past, I know what you did to my kind.” She leaned forward, her eyes glowing. “But the fact is, no, I did not intend to use those spells for myself. I was planning on destroying it.”
I froze. Had she just said what I thought she said? “You were going to destroy it? Why?”
> “For precisely the reasons you mention. If vampires gain a foothold during the day, we’ll be hunted down and exterminated. At least the human world has some feeling of superiority, given our inability to walk under the sun. But if vampires start showing up in daylight, then we’re suddenly a much bigger threat than we were before. I’ve heard rumors, girl. I’ve heard rumors that several members of the Arcānus Nocturni were planning to use the magic on a number of vampires, to bring them into the fold. Usually, it takes thousands of years to reach the state of walking in the sun and few vamps ever get to that point. And by then, most of them keep to the shadows and themselves. But the society wants to expand the control we have over the world.”
I pressed my lips together. So Essie wasn’t all that thrilled with them either. I tried to reason it out. She was on point about becoming greater targets, but there was something more. She seemed almost…afraid.
“What are you afraid of, Essie? What’s out there that I don’t know about?”
Essie held up one finger. “A moment.” She crossed to a bookshelf on the other side of the room and sorted through the books until she found what she was looking for. When she returned, she opened the book and slid it across the table.
I pulled it over. The book looked to be a who’s who of the vampire world. I was staring at the sketch of a woman, tall and thin, with an angular face so sharp it could have cut diamond. She was holding two leashes, and on the end of those leashes were what looked like twin boys, around three years old. They were on all fours, with crazed expressions on their faces. The entry was in a language I didn’t recognize.
“It’s heresy for me to show you this. You are, after all, a mortal enemy of my people, even though you claim to love one of them—”
“I do love him. He’s taught me not all vampires are—”
“Are what…deadly? Oh, he’s deadly. Dangerous? Trust me, Aegis is plenty dangerous.”
Maudlin's Mayhem (Bewitching Bedlam Book 2) Page 19