The Last Guardian Rises (The Last Keeper's Daughter)

by Rebecca Trogner

  No one else had expressed what Mathers said, but he could see it in some of the Others’ eyes. Their doubt, mistrust, and suspicion about how he would use the power, or how the power would use him.

  “When did the Brotherhood approach you?” Hunter asked.

  “Insane is what you are.” Mathers sounded less angry.

  “What I am is the king’s advisor.” Hunter paused to steady his thoughts. “Now who would you rather talk to about this, me or the king? He just got back from one of his hunting raids tonight. I’m sure he’d love to hear that the doorman has been less than honest with him.”

  Having Merlin’s knowledge and his own detective skills made the task of confronting Mathers strategically less daunting, but it did not lessen the emotional toll this would take on him. He felt like his humanity was slowly slipping away. “I know you set Merlin up the night he came to you asking about the dryad. That was all part of a plan, wasn’t it? To push Merlin to use the dark magic, to push him past the edge, so to speak.”

  Mathers’ deep set eyes narrowed into slits. “A trading of information is what we did.”

  Hunter clapped his hands. “I applaud the plan, so clever and so conveniently plausible. Your love of the ladies is legendary. It wouldn’t be unthinkable that you’d fall in love with someone who might not feel so inclined towards you. If Merlin hadn’t come to you, how long would you have waited to speak with him regarding Glenda? Or was that just something you thought of in the moment?”

  Mathers’ jaw was clenched tight like a dog refusing to give up a bone.

  “It bugged me.” Hunter picked at his fingernail. “Or I should say it bugged Merlin that you gave her up so easily. All those tears for a lover you could not have, and then when Merlin erased the spell you didn’t blink an eye.”

  “She’s was a lousy lay,” Mathers shot back.

  “I doubt that. Who’s your contact at the Brotherhood?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Tell me what you know.”

  “Or what?”

  “If you don’t work with me, I’ll be forced to hand you over to the king. Now, we both know how much he loves Lily. How do you think he’d react to hearing that you are working with the Brotherhood to take her from him? That you in fact helped in her disappearance?”

  “That’s a lie.” Hunter saw Mathers’ hands shake as he reached for the counter. “You have no proof.”

  “I found the books you hid. The ones Lily sensed and that you stole from the archives. Nina had one in my, Merlin’s, tower. Tsk,tsk,tsk.” He wagged his forefinger at Mathers. “Very sloppy of you to let Nina take that ledger.” Before Hunter finished the sentence he saw the blood drain from Mathers’ face.

  In his rolling gait, he walked to the small stepstool next to the bed and sat. “I did what I had to do for my family. I had nothing to do with Lily’s disappearance.”

  Hunter reached out to Merlin. Did you know he had family?

  The reply came back. His family is dead. He is the last of his kind.

  “Good try, but your family is dead.”

  Mathers’ attention drifted towards a table where an ornate ceramic pot was prominently centered. It was the only surface that wasn’t cluttered with the flotsam of Mathers’ life. How odd that he would put a barren twig in such a beautiful vessel.

  “I was told to keep my mouth shut. To do whatever it took to make Merlin use his dark magic and to destroy the books you found.” Mathers used the stepstool he’d been sitting on to climb in the bed. “Couldn’t kill my babies. Your next question will be who? I tell you I don’t know. It was in London at a whore’s place I used to visit. She had the biggest—”

  “Stick to the Brotherhood.”

  “I was pumping her good and a voice spoke out to me. Behind a screen, he was. Told me what to do and what my reward would be.”

  Hunter had to work at not getting annoyed. “You said this had to do with your family.”

  Mathers looked over at the table again. “That’s my family. That’s my reward.”

  “That twig?” Hunter asked.

  Not a twig, but a cutting from the woods of his people, Merlin said.

  “He gave it to me. Said after I accomplished my task, he’d take me to the tree it came from.” Mathers swiped his hand over his mouth. “I’m woodfolk without my woods. It seemed a small price to pay.”

  “Driving Merlin into the darkness was a small price?” Hunter stood. “Treason against the king.”

  “Fuck you. Fuck Merlin. Him acting all high and mighty, while sleeping with that whore. Nina offered herself to me. Didn’t know that, did ye? That’s how she got one of my babies.”

  Did you know? Hunter asked Merlin.

  No, I was a fool, Merlin replied.

  “The bleeding lot of you can go straight to hell. I did what I had to do to save my family. What would you do?”

  He ignored the question. “Do you know who the man is? Would you recognize the voice?”

  “No and no.” Mathers stretched out on the bed. “You can end me now, you can.”

  Push him; there is something more he isn’t telling, Merlin urged

  “Why didn’t you come to us?”

  “Us?” Mathers grunted. “Why would I? Nothing is what all of you know. The Elder knew. He left me. Left us all is what he did. He was afraid. Doomed, is what we are.”

  “Why are we doomed?” Hunter felt his detective instincts tingling.

  “Why? Why? Why?” Mathers rolled off his bed and grabbed the bottle of whiskey, drinking a healthy amount. “The gall to ask me why I didn’t come to you. You know nothing.”

  “Then tell me and I’ll do all I can for you.” There was nothing Hunter could do for him but speed his death.

  “As you will.” Mathers dropped the bottle, it rolled over the floor leaving behind a golden stream. “Tell, don’t tell, it doesn’t matter.”

  Patience, Merlin counseled.

  “Lily is why we are all doomed.” Hunter turned the Elder’s ring waiting for Mathers to continue. “I’ve been watching over my babies for centuries. They hold no secrets from me. A caged canary is what we are.”

  What the hell?

  Merlin explained, the canaries were used in the mines. They were the harbinger of poison gas.

  “You’re saying she is going to die?” Hunter wanted to shake the information out of the doorman.

  “No, not her. She’s here and now the darkness.” Mathers climbed into bed and stared up at the ceiling. “Sleep is what I need.”

  Before Hunter could censor the words, Merlin’s voice spoke from his mouth. “There’ll be no rest for the Doorman.”

  Krieger

  “Where have you been?” Krieger whispered as he sat on the bed next to Lily. Careful not to wake her, he rolled an errant curl between his fingers, needing the tactile feel of her to prove to himself that she was real. His forefinger traced along her jawline and gently turned her face away from him so he could look at her neck. Nothing. The mark he’d placed there was no more, as was the blood bond they’d shared.

  For days after she’d vanished, he could still feel her through the bond. He clung, like a drowning man, to the diaphanous connection, even though in his heart he knew she was too distant for even him to find. Then, inexplicably, the tenuous bond had snapped, and he’d been consumed in fire and rage and hate. His will knew no bounds, and he’d slaughtered whoever got in his way while looking for clues to her disappearance. Those he didn’t slaughter he terrorized, determined to bring her back, even if it meant from the dead.

  Then tonight, when he’d lost all hope of seeing his beloved again, the call came, and here she was, his Lily and not his Lily. I could slice my wrist and reestablish the bond. She need never know it was gone. Unless she was the one who’d instigated the severing of their bond. How or why she would do that, he had no idea.

  Lily murmured something he couldn’t understand. Leaning closer, her breath caressing his ear, he waited
for her speak again. How is it possible that this tiny being can calm me so? He rested his head against her chest and closed his eyes. Ba bum ba bum, went her steady heartbeat which was the only music he needed.

  “What do you want?” she asked in her sleep.

  He lifted his head to see her eyes closed and her hands clutching the bedcovers.

  “Lily, it’s me, it’s Krieger.” Helplessly he watched her fight an unknown opponent in her dreams. “Lily, you’re safe.” He gently subdued her hands as they thrashed about.

  “No!” She sat upright, eyes wild, futilely trying to free her arms from his grasp.

  “You’re safe, you’re safe.” He kept repeating until Lily finally saw him. She gulped in air, blinked, swallowed, looked around the room, and finally settled on him.

  “Krieger.” She reached out and pressed her hand against his chest. “Are you real?” She looked into his eyes. “Is it really you?” She spoke between sobs, “I thought… it was just a nightmare, a terrible dream and now I’m awake and home.”

  “Yes.” He wrapped his arms around her. “Safe.” Her small body shuddered against his as he gently brushed his hand across her back. “Shhh, everything is fine.” He wanted to know where she’d been. Who’d taken her? Why didn’t she have the mark? His questions were endless, but he held his tongue and continued to comfort her.

  She pushed back from him, wiping the tears from her cheeks. “I was so afraid I’d never see you again.”

  “I never stopped looking for you.” He ran his finger along her jawline.

  She reached up and touched his face, a deep furrow creasing her brow. “Your hair,” she whispered. “It’s so long. How?”

  He pressed her to his chest. “Just let me hold you. I’ve been in hell without you.”

  “I’m so sorry about that stupid fight, and then getting sick. Did I ruin your ceremony? I told Liam not to call you.”

  He’d forgotten they’d been arguing the night she vanished. “What happened to you?” He relaxed his arms around her, enough to bask in the beauty of her face, but kept his hands resting on her arms. Never again would he let her out of his reach.

  “I don’t know. I must have eaten something dodgy. I’ve never felt so sick.” She leaned back in his arms. “I had this horrible dream. I was trapped with my father.”

  Without their blood bond, he was adrift in the sea of her emotions with only her words and body language to rely on. It was excruciating for him to not balm her fears through the bond.

  “Apryini.” With two fingers he lifted her chin and waited until her eyes met his. “How long have you been gone?”

  Hesitant and perhaps a little scared, she answered. “Gone? I wasn’t gone. I was only asleep a few hours, I guess.”

  Krieger’s jaw muscle clenched.

  “Why are you looking at me like that?” Lily tried to scoot back from him but he wouldn’t allow it. “Why do we…” Lily hugged herself. “Why can’t I feel you?”

  She didn’t know their bond was severed. Relief and wrath flooded his being. Right now he wouldn’t think of the punishment he’d inflict upon the person who’d separated him from his Lily and destroyed his vampire blood that had flowed through her veins.

  “I’m right here.” He cupped her face with his hand. “Do you know where you were?”

  “In my dream?” He nodded. Her fingers played with one of the buttons on the shirt she was wearing. “It was just a bad dream, nightmare.” She seemed nervous suddenly. “Can we talk about something else?”

  “No.” He stilled her hand with his. “You disappeared, vanished. I’ve scorched the earth thrice over searching for you.”

  “That’s not possible,” she said slowly.

  Was she speaking to her disappearance or his searching for her? He didn’t know, and really didn’t want her to know the extent of his efforts, so he ran his thumbs back and forth across her palm. “You’ve been gone for over six months.”

  “Six months,” she repeated. “No, it was just a few minutes.” Lily’s face showed disbelief. “Just a dream, like my other dreams except he was talking to me, and…”

  “He?”

  “Six months,” she whispered. “Oh God, does Martha think I’m dead?”

  “I kept it from her and Jo. I told them we were traveling. They think we’re in Italy and France.”

  “I’ve never been.”

  He watched her, unwilling to take his eyes away from her, afraid that she’d disappear again. Not here, he thought, it can’t happen here inside a room of iron and steel. Unbidden, Henry’s words came to him. “I’d chain her to my side.” Now that their bond was gone, would she still want him? “Tell me what happened.”

  Her large eyes met his. He could see the terror in them, and cursed again that he could not offer her comfort through the bond.

  “My father was there.”

  “Azazel?”

  “I think he just gave that name, but it’s not his true name.”

  “I see. What did he look like?”

  “I don’t know.” She looked down at her hands. “He could look like anyone, I think. He was the man in my dreams. He said he sent them to me somehow.”

  “But you thought Grigori was that man. Did he look like Grigori?”

  “In a way, for a while, but his appearance changed when mad to something harsh, and then he glowed with a light that I thought would kill me.”

  “You and Grigori both spoke of sensing a being, of it awakening? Was it him?” Could it be the darkness they all felt?

  “No.” She bit her lip, thinking. “My father,” her voice faltered. “God I hate to think of him that way. He felt like nothing. I mean, he did something to me. I didn’t have all my senses there.” She grabbed his shirt. “I never want to go back.”

  This was maddening but he didn’t want to press her too hard. “Where were you?”

  A hard line formed across her brow; how he wanted to kiss and ease away her tension, her fears.

  “The man.” She closed her eyes. “My father, he said that he was imprisoned within the eighth ring. It was strange there, like in my dreams, haunting and beautiful, alien, and so lonely, so quiet, like we were the only things living there.”

  He wanted to feed from her, to wrap his body around hers, to protect her and comfort her and take away her fears. “How did you escape?”

  “Is there any wine?”

  The bond is no more, trance her. “No,” he said out loud to his thoughts. “Tell me how you escaped first.”

  “I didn’t.” She gave him a sideways glance. “He seemed to weaken and then I woke up on the ground.” Even without the bond, he knew she wasn’t telling him everything. “I need to clean up.”

  “The bath.”

  “No.” She swung her legs off the side of the bed. He bent to lift her, but she pushed his hand away. “No, I’m fine. I need a shower.”

  Krieger took her small hand in his; she took a few steps, stopped and emotionally crumbled before him.

  “My mother was there.”

  He scooped her up and into the bed in one swift motion and cradled her in his lap, kissing the salty tears running down her face. “Apryini, your mother is dead.”

  “I know,” she wept against his chest. “She was there, though, and she hugged me and I want to see her again.” Her body shook with grief.

  There was nothing for Krieger to do but gently rock and stroke her back until she’d cried out her grief.

  “You can’t go back.” I won’t let you go back.

  She wiped her face and stared into his eyes like she was trying to see through to his soul. “My mother’s spirit may be trapped inside.”

  “There is no such thing as spirits. The dead are gone to us, all of us.” His hand cupped her face. “He is deceiving you. Manipulating you with his games. Don’t believe his lies.”

  She sawed her lip between her teeth. “The blood bond.” Lily ran her hand over his chest. “It’s gone, isn’t it?”

  Krieger groa
ned inwardly. “Two months ago I felt my blood boil.” He cupped her chin, tilting it up. “I felt my blood inside your body destroyed. I thought—” He reined in his anger. “I thought I’d lost you. I never gave up hope. Never.” He covered her lips with his, needing to reclaim her. When she struggled slightly, he kissed her neck.

  “And the mark?” she asked, her voice breathy.

  “No more,” he answered.

  “He said I wasn’t a slave.”

  “You were never and will never be a slave.” Krieger worked hard to keep his anger from her. I will kill him an inch at a time.

  “He said he was getting stronger.” She shook her head. “None of it makes any sense.”

  The shock of Lily being alive was ebbing and the desire to reclaim her was causing his nature to rear its bestial head. “A shower,” he said huskily.

  “I’m free now.” Lily must have seen the look in his eyes. She leaned back a fraction. “Of your mark.” She reached up and ran her hand around his neck pulling him towards her. “Months, has it really been months?”

  “Yes.” Six long months.

  “It’s only been hours for me.” She kissed him deeply, passionately. “I need you.”

  He carried her to the shower, placed her on the counter, turned on the water, unbuttoned his jeans and stepped out of them. He stood as her eyes roamed over his naked body.

  “You’re taking a shower with me?” she teased.

  “I am,” he said matter-of-factly.

  “You aren’t going to let me out of your sight, are you?”

  He lifted one eyebrow and growled.

  Lily was flustered. “I love you.” She slipped off the counter. “This feels different.” She laid her hand over her heart. “You aren’t the same.”

  Krieger reached for the hem of her shirt. She back up. His fangs dropped down and he threw his head back and roared with frustration. Her eyes widened. He wanted to tell her not to fight him, instead he moved at vampire speed and lifted the shirt fast at first, and then slowly up her body. “I am the same. My love for you is unchanged.”

  “I never got my wine.” She backed into the steam, wary, not taking her eyes from his, as he followed and closed the door.