by Alyssa Day
No. Foolish. What was she, an idiot with Stockholm Syndrome?
“You’ve threatened me in order to get me to help you,” she said. “Don’t pretend I’m here voluntarily, or that you respect me or want us to be buddies.”
He raised an eyebrow, and the cold, sneering haughtiness returned to his expression. “I haven’t had a buddy in over three hundred years. Why should that change now?”
“Tell me about the painting in the ceiling, then,” she said, desperate for a new topic, before she actually started to feel sorry for him. “What did you see? What does it mean?”
“I have no idea. I can guess, but my guesses are pretty wild. I’ll need you to confirm that anything I think might be possible, actually is.”
“Of course. And if I blow a brain aneurysm trying to channel that damn stone, oh, well, you can always replace me,” she said bitterly.
Ian stirred on the cot and opened his eyes, probably because she’d raised her voice, and Nicholas walked away.
“I’m not so sure about that anymore,” he said as he left, and she turned to watch him just as he glanced back at her.
The look burning in his eyes terrified her more than anything else that had happened over the past few days. It was hunger. She was sure of it.
And she didn’t think it had anything to do with her blood.
* * *
Nicholas edged as close to the entrance of the cave as he could get without stepping into the sunlight and bursting into flames. Although flames might be a relief, compared to the confusion churning in his gut. He wanted to rule the vampires of North America. Consolidate his power. Take over the primator position. A little invulnerability to go with his near-immortality wouldn’t hurt.
The last thing he needed was to allow a temporary weakness over one lovely witch and her courageous son to interfere with any of his goals. He heard the boy walking across the cave toward him but ignored him.
Unfortunately, teenage boys weren’t all that great about being ignored.
“What’s the painting about? Did you figure it out after Mom made me take a nap?”
“Are you ever silent when you’re awake?”
Ian laughed, and Nicholas caught himself smiling at the sound.
No, no, no, no, no.
“Not too often. When I’m eating, mostly.”
“So go eat something.”
“Did you?” Ian challenged him. “Eat somebody?”
Unfortunately not. He’d had an unexpected change of heart about the terrified human his minions had abducted for him, and he’d compelled her to sleep and then wake up with no memory of the encounter. She was safely home now, unaware of how close she’d come to being lunch.
“Yes,” he lied. “Several people. Drained them dry and picked my teeth with their bones.”
Ian gasped. Finally. Fear: a sensible reaction.
“Hey! You made that up. Picked your teeth with their bones? Come on. I don’t see any bones around here.”
“Ian!” Ivy’s tone was unmistakable, and Ian scuffed one shoe on the ground.
“Aw, Mom—”
“No. Do you really want to banter with a vampire you saw eviscerate a human being only hours ago?”
The light drained from Ian’s eyes, and true fear replaced it. He slowly backed away from Nicholas, who felt a strangely empty feeling in his gut. Almost like loss, although that was ridiculous.
Ridiculous.
“Yes, I think I know what the painting means.” He pulled out his phone and showed them the picture he’d taken. “I think I know what the gem’s name is, too.”
“It has a name? Like the Hope Diamond?” Ian stared at the photo, fascination outweighing his momentary fear. Nicholas was inexplicably glad of that.
“I believe it does. Objects of power are often named,” Nicholas said. “Do you see how it’s glowing with purple light? It must be our stone. See how the people are all bowing to it? And the symbol etched below the stone, I have seen similar symbols before. I believe the gem is called the Ruler, or the King.”
“Cool. Also, vampires have smart phones?”
“What did you expect? Carrier pigeons?”
Ivy raised an eyebrow “You get all that from this primitive painting? You’re kidding, right? What does that glowing purple skeleton mean, then? The amethyst makes bones dance?”
“Bone Dance would be an excellent name for a rock band,” Ian said.
Nicholas and Ivy both looked at him, and his ears turned pink.
“Sorry. Totally random.”
“What about the city under the water?” Ivy pointed to the tiny shape in the upper left corner. “What is that?”
“That must be Atlantis.”
Ivy started laughing. “Atlantis. Right.”
Nicholas shoved the phone in his pocket, caught Ivy around the waist, and soared up to the hole in the ceiling so she could see it herself. This time he brought the lantern with him, although it was much lighter in the cave now since it was midday.
He turned her so her back was to his chest and leaned down to speak close to her ear. “There. Do you see it? A city under the sea, and those shapes you couldn’t make out in the tiny photo on the phone are leaping dolphins and possibly the sea god carrying his trident. What else could it be?”
Her heart rate sped up significantly, and he didn’t know if it was from fear or something else. Something that was too dangerous to even consider, because if the witch was attracted to him, too, he had a bigger problem than he’d feared.
“I don’t know. Maybe. But Atlantis?” she finally said, and her voice shook a little.
“You’re a witch, and I’m a vampire,” he said, tightening his arm around her waist, just a fraction, just enough to feel the length of her soft, warm, curvy body against his. “Is Atlantis truly so impossible?”
“Yes. No. Whatever. Please put me down,” she said, but he could feel that she was trembling, and he had to clamp down with every ounce of self-control he possessed to keep from sinking his teeth into her neck or sinking another part of his body into her elsewhere.
“Mom! What do you see?” Ian’s voice had the exact same effect as a blast of cold water. It wasn’t exactly good to have wicked thoughts about the boy’s mother when he was standing right beneath them.
He floated them back down to the ground and was obscurely pleased to see the flush in Ivy’s cheeks when he released her.
“I don’t know. It might be about Atlantis. Maybe not. I’m not sure what that means to you, though,” she told Nicholas. “What about that dark woman floating in the air above the guy with the trident?”
Nicholas repressed a shudder at the thought of what that dark figure might truly mean. If Anubisa were to claim ownership of the gem, she wouldn’t look kindly on any who stole it. And when the goddess of Chaos and Night was unhappy, people and vampires died in horrible ways. None of that was anything he could share with Ivy, however.
“The least that the gem, the King if you will, does is find me enough treasure to gain the power to win the primator job. The most it might do is make me invulnerable to attack. I need for you to explore the full range of its powers.”
Ivy narrowed her eyes and clenched her hands into fists at her sides. “I tried, and it nearly killed me. It’s not worth my life to try again, unless you let my son go and take him exactly where I tell you.”
“I can make a difference,” he found himself saying. Telling the truth after so long a time of lies and misdirection. “I can stop the worst abuses that are being perpetrated by so many power-mad vampires out there now. I just need the chance to try. We were better off remaining in the shadows, afraid of discovery and retribution.”
“You can’t unspill the milk. You can’t make people forget vampires exist,” Ian said.
“And kidnapping my son? That’s not an abuse of power? Or do you believe that the ends justify the means, no matter how horrible, in which case I don’t see much difference between you and the ones you want to stop,” s
he said, getting right up in his face.
He lost part of what she said, caught in her golden-brown eyes, and was actually leaning down to kiss her when he caught himself.
“I will have my people take Ian wherever you want him to go, as soon as it turns full dark,” he said, stepping back. “If he gives me his word he won’t send the cavalry after us.”
“More like the army,” Ian muttered. “You hurt my mom, and I’m going to go all Call of Duty on your ass.”
Ivy’s lips quirked up as if she were fighting a smile. “Ian, don’t say ass, and don’t threaten the scary vampire,” she said, and then she blinked. “I just fell down the rabbit hole, didn’t I?”
Nicholas wondered if he were getting his first headache in a couple of hundred years. “What is a call of duty in this context, and what rabbit hole?”
Mother and son looked at him in unison, then at each other, and they both burst out into laughter that was tinged with hysteria.
“Humans,” Nicholas said, throwing his hands into the air.
“I’m not going anywhere, Mom,” Ian said. “I won’t promise to be quiet. I’m staying right here with you until we both leave together.”
“I need one more thing from you, and then you are free to go,” Nicholas said. “But you shouldn’t attempt it alone. I have sent for one of your coven to attend and assist you. I don’t want you to be harmed.”
Ivy shook her head. “No. Absolutely not. You can’t put another of my people in danger. I know that your . . . ex-partner lied about Aretha. She wouldn’t have just up and left for Aruba without telling me. She’s dead, isn’t she?”
Nicholas stared at her for a long moment, wanting to spare her the truth but knowing he could not. “Yes, but not at my hand or even his. The power surge from the amethyst that rendered you unconscious killed her.”
Ivy stumbled back a step. “It’s my fault, then. I killed her.”
Ian put his arms around her. “No, Mom. You heard what he said. How could you know what the King stone would do? You’re lucky it didn’t kill you, too.”
“The boy is right,” Nicholas said. “If anyone is to blame, it’s me for using you and your apprentice like pawns. Yet another bad decision in a long line of them.”
“You want me to help you gain even more power, when you admit you make bad decisions right and left? Hurt people? Get them killed?” Ivy patted her son’s shoulder and then stepped toward Nicholas. “Why would I possibly do that?”
Nicholas considered mentioning her own use of the dark arts, but decided against it. After hearing about her husband, he knew why she’d turned to the black. Instead, he told her the simplest truth.
“I am the lesser of many evils, and sometimes that’s the best you can do.”
Chapter 28
Atlantis, the maidens’ temple
High Princess Riley, surrounded by the three women she trusted as much as she did her own sister, stared down into the crystal stasis pod, at the dark-haired woman sleeping serenely inside. The story of Sleeping Beauty come to life, right here in front of her. Of course, she was standing in a temple, under a dome, underneath the ocean, in Atlantis, so everyday reality had taken a left turn quite some time ago.
“It’s not your fault,” Erin said, putting a hand on Riley’s arm. “You tried to set them free. Everybody has been working on it.”
“Maybe. Maybe I didn’t try hard enough,” Riley said. “Maybe I didn’t really want to meet Serai, the woman my husband was supposed to marry. Hard to measure up to a princess with ancient magic and, oh, yeah, who happens to be the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”
“Yeah, if I were a guy, I’d do her,” Keely said.
Riley jerked her head up to stare at the archaeologist in disbelief, only to see that she was grinning.
“Sorry, Riley, but somebody needed to lighten the mood,” Keely said, unrepentant. “You aren’t doing anybody any good feeling sorry for yourself.”
“I think you’ve been spending too much time with Lord Justice. You are losing your sense of tact,” Marie, the head of the temple devoted to childbirth, said gently. Marie, the only native Atlantean of the four of them, was a classical beauty like Serai, and wore her dark hair up in its usual intricate braid. “Shouldn’t you be with him, after he was caught in that spell?”
“He’s fine. Just sleeping off the after-effects and bad mood. Speaking of men, though, how’s your kitty cat doing?” Keely replied. “Still smoking hot?”
Marie’s mouth fell open, and Erin laughed out loud. Marie was very much in love with the alpha of a panther pride in the southeast United States. Unfortunately, their respective duties didn’t allow them very much time together. Riley hoped they could work something out soon. Marie too often looked tired and sad these days.
“Perhaps we could remember why we’re here,” Riley admonished them. “One of us can surely figure out something. Erin, with your magic and Marie’s healing, isn’t there something—”
“We have tried, Princess,” Marie said. “You know that.”
“Tried and tried, and tried some more,” Erin added. “My gem-singing magic is growing stronger every day, but the Emperor doesn’t respond to it, the maidens don’t respond to it—it’s useless. I’m useless.”
Marie chided her. “You are far from useless. Just this morning you saved that woman’s baby, and we’d thought he was far too sick to live.”
Erin shrugged. “Sometimes I get lucky. So much of this is a wish and a prayer, after all.”
“We’ve all been praying for them,” Riley said. “The maidens. Why do we call them that? They have names. Serai is gone. Delia is dead. Merlina, Helena, Brandacea, and Guen remain. We have to save them. We have to.”
Keely touched the crystal over Brandacea’s face. “She looks worse,” she said grimly. “I don’t know how much longer they can take this.”
Horace approached them and bowed to Riley. “Princess, I wondered if you will be here for very long. My attendants haven’t had any rest or food in quite a while, and—”
“Of course, please send them out. You, too, Horace. And call me Riley, please.”
“Thank you, Princess,” Horace said, bowing again. “I’ll remain here. I’ve eaten and am rested enough.”
She studied his pale face and the dark circles under his eyes. “I doubt it, but I understand. I don’t want to leave them, either.”
“I wondered—” He broke off and bowed again. It seemed to be a nervous habit.
“Wondered what?” Keely said. “If you have an idea, now would be a great time to quit bowing and tell us.”
Horace shot her an unhappy look before turning toward Riley. “I would like to try to release one of them. We are accomplishing nothing by trying to shore up the Emperor’s fluctuating magic. Serai clearly survived leaving stasis. What if—”
“What if we could save them by taking them out of the pods? Let’s do it,” Erin said. Her eyes lit up as she surveyed the four remaining women in their crystal pods. “We have to at least try with one, Riley.”
It didn’t take Riley long to decide, since she’d been thinking along exactly those lines for a couple of days by then.
“Yes. Yes, let’s do it. Who is having the hardest time now?”
Horace turned pale, as he realized that she’d agreed to his idea. “I don’t—I shouldn’t—”
Keely put her hands on her hips. “Spit it out, Horace. Which one is closest to being lost if we don’t rescue her now?”
He gulped and then pointed to Brandacea. “She is so weak; her life force is barely flickering now.”
Erin nodded. “It’s true. I can feel it, too. If we’re going to do this, we should try with her first. She’s in the most danger if we do nothing.”
“Should we call the high prince?” Horace asked. “This decision is—”
“The decision is mine,” Riley said firmly. “Conlan is finally catching a nap after being out all night searching for the Emperor and spending all morning se
tting up his plans for going back with a contingent of warriors to find Serai, Daniel, and the Emperor.”
“What do we do?” Marie asked.
“It’s deceptively simple, actually,” Horace said. “We just open the lid.”
Riley and Erin exchanged a glance. “Why haven’t we tried it before, then?”
“We have, Princess. Within minutes, the maiden—it was Delia—was choking for air, almost as if she had lost the ability to breathe. We had to return her to the pod, or she would have died, I’m almost sure of it. She almost did, anyway, but a surge of magic from the Emperor restored her.”
“What makes you think now will be different?” Keely shook her head. “We don’t even have Alaric here to help, and nobody is a better healer than he is.”
“No, but Marie and I together come pretty close,” Erin said. “What choice do we have? We try again to release them, or they die anyway, at least Brandacea will. Look at her. She’s barely holding on, as it is. Does she have another night, while Conlan and Ven try again to find the Emperor?”
“In addition to that, she may not have time to wait while we figure out how to use the Emperor, even if they can find it immediately,” Riley said.
She looked around at each of them in turn: Erin, Marie, Keely, and Horace. “We can do this. It would be criminal not to even try.”
“And if we’re wrong?” Marie’s face was pale. “I am no stranger to death, Riley, but if we do this, and we fail, we will have brought this woman’s death upon her.”
“Or we can stand here and do nothing, and kill her just as quickly,” Erin said. “I know this isn’t a democracy, but I vote we try.”
“Me, too,” Keely said. “I don’t want to live with the regret of having stood by and done nothing.”
“I am with you, as well, Princess,” Horace said.
Riley looked at Marie. “It’s up to you, which is fitting, since she’s your ancestor. I’ll make the final decision—the burden will be on me—but I won’t consider it unless we’re unanimous.”