Mason shook his head. “I’m sorry, I can’t do that. As long as my curse stands, I would be an ineffective leader.”
Leighna nodded. “Fair enough.”
“But please, tell me what has been done about Polina,” Mason said. “Has Hub found her? Did she try to leave the city?”
Merrow stepped forward to answer. “Hub has not been looking for her. You forget that I was witness to events last night. From my perspective, the lady Polina is a victim in this as much as the rest of us. More perhaps.”
“So that’s it?” I said. “You’re just going to let her go? She tried to kill her own child.”
“Of that, we have only your word. And even if it’s true, I’m quite sure that we can’t prosecute a three-hundred-year-old crime.” She turned to Mason. “And you should be grateful for that, since by your own admission, Mr. Mason, you are the one who imprisoned her in that stone.”
“So they win,” Mason said. “Gerard goes free and Polina too. She’s quite mad, you know. She won’t just disappear. And she has no skills to assimilate into our world. It’s not like she’ll get a job as a waitress and raise a family.”
“Then perhaps we should be trying to help her instead of hunting her.” Merrow glared at Mason, and he glared back. Then his shoulders sagged just a fraction. He shook his head.
“Fine.” He headed for the door. “You do what you have to do, and I’ll do what I have to do.”
Leighna, Merrow and Tremblay were already ignoring us as they made plans to fill the void on the council with a new alchemist leader. Mason stopped at the door to meet my eye.
I love you, I mouthed the words silently. From across the room, Mason gave me a small smile, and my heart seized. I should have told him sooner. I should have told him the night he opened up to me and showed me his family. Now it was too late. France was a long way off.
He said a silent goodbye. Then he was gone.
Epilogue
Gita created a shrine for Jacoby. He lay on a cushion of folded blankets on the ottoman in my living room, his bear backpack tucked under his arm. Each morning she replaced the garlands of fresh flowers and herbs that surrounded his unresponsive body. Errol kept vigil at his side, watching the slow rise and fall of Jacoby’s chest with a grim expression.
I kept telling myself that some small ember of life still burned in Jacoby, and he would wake up soon. Every day that passed made it harder to keep believing.
Gita and Gabe conspired to let me rest. Gabe postponed all my jobs to give my hand time to heal. Gita fed the critters so I could sleep in. Even Hunter behaved. They were trying to take care of me the only way they knew how. But nothing would mend my heart until Jacoby woke.
Despite their efforts, I didn’t sleep well. Something about the whole encounter with Pierre, Polina and Susanna nagged at me. And Friday morning, three days after the explosion in the lab, certain knowledge woke me like a spike in my gut.
Still in my pajamas, I hurried to the living room and fired up my computer. It was old and took a few minutes to boot. I could hear Gabe talking on his widget through the office door, assuring customers that I would return to work soon.
Gita brought me a steaming cup of coffee just as my computer blinked on.
“You should not be working today,” she said. Her face was a mess of tears. Nearly losing Jacoby had finally jarred her back to her normal banshee mindset.
“I’m not working. I just need to check something.” I called up my blog and scanned the comments on posts going back a year. Where was it?
“There!” I stared at the post I’d written last spring about the shushers. Someone named Daddysgirl had made the five-by-five reference. It was an expression made famous by a character on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a show that was old even when I was a teen. It was such an odd saying that it had stuck with me.
And Susanna had said the same thing as she left the lab that night.
I stared at the screen, unbelieving. Not wanting to believe. Then I frantically scrolled through my posts. Daddysgirl had commented on every one of them going back to…
Going back to my original post about gargoyles when I’d first met Mason.
Dear gods.
“This is my fault.” Even to my ears, my voice sounded hollow and tinny.
“What’s this?” Gabe said as he came into the living room. I swiveled the screen so he could see.
“Susanna is Daddysgirl. She’s been stalking me online for two years. I’m the reason they came for the bloodstone in the first place! I’m the reason that Jacoby is gone!”
“Hey, hey!” Gabe knelt by my side and pushed the computer away. I covered my face in my shaking hands. It was all my fault.
“Look at me.” He pulled my hands away, careful not to rattle the bandaged one. I looked into his sweet face, with eyes darkened by worry. “First off, Jacoby isn’t gone. We’ll find a way to wake him.”
“You don’t understand! Susanna is Joran’s sister. She’s been here for at least two years, learning about Mason, and I led her right to him.”
Gabe scowled. “That doesn’t mean—”
“But it does! Look. The first time she posted was when I wrote about the Guardians. That’s what brought Joran to Montreal. I did that! And now Cyril is dead and Jacoby is…” I choked off a sob. Gabe gathered me in like a small child with a big hurt.
He patted my back for a moment, then forced me to sit up. He wiped my tears with the cuff of his sleeve then tipped my chin up so I looked him right in the eye.
“Listen to me. You are not responsible for the evil that other people do. Your blog helps people to help animals. Every day, I get messages asking about one critter or another. Some days I spend more time fielding those emails than actual work calls. You created a community from a fractured world, and you should be proud of it.”
I sniffled and nodded, wanting to believe, but I wondered if Mason would agree. I was responsible for all the problems in the last year, and for the death of one of his Guardians. If I were him, I’d never speak to me again.
“It will turn out all right,” Gabe said. “You’ll see. But you might want to get dressed. There’s a sheepish looking vampire waiting in the office to see you.”
Emil lounged in my chair with man-spreading legs. He leaned his elbows on his knees and hung his head as if contemplating the linoleum.
“Were you following me Friday night? Is that why you were waiting outside Stewart Hall?” I crossed my arms and leaned against the door frame. His curls and innocent charm wouldn’t fool me. I’d made that mistake with Susanna.
“Yes.” He spread his hands wide. “But only to apologize for my bad behavior when I…”
He couldn’t seem to find the words, so I supplied them. “When you broke into my home, stole my sword, and spilled your blood all over my floor?”
Emil shook his head and rose. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come.” Before he made it to the door, I stopped him.
“No, I’m sorry.” I rubbed my tired eyes. “You helped me, probably saved my life. And I appreciate it. Really.”
Emil hesitated, ready to leave, then nodded.
“I don’t think that woman—she is a witch?”
I nodded.
“I don’t think she wanted to kill you. Not yet, anyway.”
“Yeah, I got that feeling too.” Polina had other plans. Or maybe, despite her impressive display of magic, her power was rusty. Before she’d run off, she’d seemed weary. But now, thanks to Susanna’s intervention, she’d have the chance to regroup and re-energize. I really didn’t want to meet her when she was at full strength.
“Can I offer you some coffee? Or blood? I think I have some left.”
“No. I just came to apologize properly. I am trying to control the blood lust.” His eyes sparked with gold for a moment. “But it’s not easy. I’m thinking of traveling
the Inbetween for a while.”
“That’s not a good idea. The opji hunt outside the ward. They won’t take kindly to another vampire in their territory.”
He shrugged.
“I have a better idea.” I rifled through the drawer of my desk and found the spell that Leighna had given me. I handed it to Emil, and he held it delicately, like he’d never seen real paper before.
“What’s this?”
“A spell that Queen Leighna gave me to put my sword into stasis. It may take some practice, but I think it would work for your blood lust too.”
He read the ingredients and instructions with a frown.
“But I have no magic to enact spells.”
I tapped his chest, feeling the magic course through him.
“Of course you do. You just have to learn to tap into it.”
He looked down at my hand, his expression sad.
“Could you teach me?”
“No. But I happen to know a bodach who is a great teacher.” And Errol could use the distraction.
“Then I will learn.” He smiled and his face regained his boyish charm.
Once he controlled that pesky blood lust, he was going to be a lady killer, but not in the literal sense.
I thought of Leighna’s warning.
“One last thing. If you decide to use the spell, a kiss will break it.”
Emil ran a thumb down the side of my face. “Well, it’s a good thing then, I have no one to kiss.”
Dear Reader,
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What to Read Next
Critter wrangler rule #7: Some monsters just have to die.
The Guardians patrol neighborhoods that the police don’t care about. But when one Guardian is accused of murder, they are no longer the heroes. Someone wants all the gargoyles dead or in jail. And with Mason missing, Kyra has no backup as she tries to solve the murder and face off against new and terrifying monsters while taking care of her growing menagerie of extraordinary beings.
Hell Hounds Don’t Heel is the third book in the Valkyrie Bestiary Series, and will be available February, 2021. Pre-order it now.
About the Author
If Kim McDougall could have one magical superpower, it would be to talk to animals. Or maybe to shift into animal form. Definitely, fantastical critters and magic often feature in her stories. So until she can change into a griffin and fly away, she writes dark paranormal action and romance tales, from her home in Central Ontario. Visit Kim online at www.KimMcDougall.com
Contents
Books by Kim McDougall
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Epilogue
Want to find out more about Kyra’s world?
What to Read Next
About the Author
Dervishes Don't Dance: A Paranormal Suspense Novel with a Touch of Romance (Valkyrie Bestiary Book 2) Page 25