by Janet Jones
He was definitely crazy. “Not that I wouldn't like the chance, but you're the only one who can do it."
"He cannot die by my hand. I am oath-bound."
Talisen stumbled over his words. “You promised someone you won't kill Dylan? Who?"
"The one who made him."
This was getting way too confusing. She rubbed her temples with both hands. “That would be Aloisia. You knew her?"
"Knew her?” His eyes gleamed warm. “I created her."
Talisen sucked her lower lip between her teeth. “You?"
"And her sister as well.” The Alchemist ran his index finger along the rough wood of the table. “I eventually brought them here and helped them establish their own domains. But Aloisia's sister always resented me for stealing her humanity from her. She became a queen of incredible cunning among us, doubtless to empower herself to take her revenge on me. But in her hour of need, I was there for her ... as ever I shall be."
A powerful queen. The idea took root in Talisen's mind. “Freya? Freya is Aloisia's sister?"
The Alchemist nodded. “And now, Dylan's crimes against both Freya and Aloisia has caught up with him."
His crimes. Yes, Sartori's. “What did he do to Aloisia?"
The Alchemist's eyes blazed. “Aloisia chose to end her own existence. Her hunger was too much of a torment. She sent Dylan to me for something to ease her passing at sunrise. I gave him a euthanasia drug I've made for years."
Talisen felt her stomach clench. “What does a vampire need with a euthanasia drug that works on other vampires?"
The Alchemist replied as though he were speaking to a child. “Too often my experiments end in the mutation of the subject. I never allow them to suffer."
He obviously thought he was being merciful. She looked away, overcome by his ruthlessness. “So, Dylan gave her the drug, but what? He gave her too much?"
"No. He gave her too little. He gave her enough to paralyze her, but not enough to taint her blood. While she lay helpless, he drank her dry. And because he gave her so small a dose, she had no protection from the pain of sunrise. He left her to face that agony as punishment for choosing Benedikt over him. Dylan came after Benedikt and his first family, and though he destroyed Benedikt's children, Freya protected Benedikt. So Dylan added Freya herself to his list of targets."
Talisen nodded. “He nearly got her at Sartori's."
A crackling and shimmering of sparks in the corner caught her attention. Meical materialized and joined them.
"What are you doing back here?” Talisen demanded.
Meical didn't answer, but deferred to the Alchemist with a wave of his hand and an elegant frown.
The Alchemist's face was once more inscrutable. “I told him to return."
"Told him?"
She looked up at Meical. The look of resignation in his eyes was enough to tell her who the Alchemist's new “specimen” was. “Oh, Meical...."
He lost his usual hauteur, but his voice was full of conviction. “I don't regret my decision. But only you can see that it isn't wasted."
Tears stung her eyes at the thought of the suffering he had resigned himself to.
He touched her cheek. “Nothing matters but helping you defeat Dylan. Let us think only of the weapons you can wield against him. Neshi? What can you give her?"
Neshi's mouth curled in a slow smile as he returned Talisen's questioning gaze. “Give Ms. Davies a moment, Grabian, and she'll think of the very thing she needs."
Talisen stared at him, then let her gaze fall. “It has to be something Dylan can't take away from me and use against us."
"Yes,” murmured Meical thoughtfully. “He'll overpower you, unless you get him first, so it has to be something as strong as Neshi himself."
"No. Stronger.” Talisen cast a glance at Neshi, whose eyes shone with excitement. “It has to be something even the Alchemist is afraid of."
Neshi nodded slowly. “Name it."
Talisen's mouth parted. It was simple. Horribly simple. “The sun. It's the one thing that can kill any vampire, no matter how powerful he is."
"But that means you'll have to be strong enough to keep Dylan from going below-ground when the sun comes up,” Meical pointed out, “and I fail to see how any human can do that, let alone survive his attack. Think of it. Dylan will be desperate to get to safety. He'll hit you with everything he has. You won't last ten seconds."
"Precisely,” said Neshi. “Even with the help of the chant I'll teach you, Talisen, to bind Dylan to the earth, you can't face him-as a human."
That was what he'd meant, a moment ago, when he'd said she had to make a sacrifice.
Meical leaned on the table and stared down Neshi. “You can't turn her, Neshi. You absolutely will not. What good would it do? She'd be as susceptible to the sun as we are and die with Dylan. If that's what you're thinking, forget it."
No, that wasn't what Neshi was suggesting. What he meant, Talisen realized in a flash of regret, fear and resolve, was a plan so simple and obvious that the only reason she hadn't already thought of it was because Ellory would hate her forever.
Talisen caught Meical's sleeve. “What Neshi is saying is I need the power of a vampire, without a vampire's weakness to the sun, so I can detain Dylan long enough for the sun to kill him."
"Neither human nor vampire can do such a thing."
"That's right,” Talisen murmured. “Neither human nor vampire—but something in-between.
Meical's voice was soft with realization. “A revenant."
The Alchemist snorted. “Of course, that's what she means, you thickheaded nit. It's pure logic."
Meical was slack-jawed. “Not for all God's love, Talisen. Ellory will never forgive you."
She looked up at him pleadingly. “He can hate me for it after we get through this."
"Hate you? My dear, he'll be within his right to kill you for it. I won't let you."
The Alchemist pushed back his chair and rose. “You, Grabian, are not in a position to influence the situation in any way whatsoever. Talisen, I will help you do this thing, and we will have Benedikt's cooperation in spite of himself, but you must do exactly as I say."
She clutched the table with both hands and nodded. “Fine. May I have a moment alone with Meical now?"
The Alchemist looked from her to the big blond and nodded hesitantly. He turned and strode into the shadows. “I need to check on Freya. I'll return in a moment or two."
When he'd gone, she searched Meical's face. “Why? Why did you offer yourself to Neshi like a damn lab rat? Ellory needs you. The fledglings need you. I need you."
His eyes grew fervent. The lines of strain on his face made him look very human. “We needed this haven to come to while we figure out a way to destroy Dylan. But since Ellory turned down the Alchemist's first offer of asylum, I knew there would be no second offer unless it was a lucrative exchange for him. This way, Neshi won't be getting any ideas about commandeering the fledglings, and we've gained a shelter long enough to form our plans.” He lifted her hand to his mouth and kissed it. “Ellory has taken care of me from the moment I was turned. This is one way I can repay him. Besides, if I survive the Alchemist's experiment long enough to feel the sun on my face again, it will be worth everything."
She couldn't argue with that. If the Alchemist could do for Ellory what he hoped to do for Meical, and if it would work for the fledglings, too, then they would see the day when none of them would fear the sun. Ellory could watch it rise and set, with her at his side, and no longer live in darkness.
She put her arms around Meical. For a moment, he stiffened. When was the last time anyone had hugged him? He relaxed and then eased his arms around her, more and more firmly, until he was clinging to her.
Suddenly he held her away from her and kissed her forehead. “Stiff upper lip, m'dear. You'll need it. What you're about to go through isn't going to be a Sunday outing."
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Chapter Seventeen
/> Ellory materialized in the soft black shadows of Talisen's chamber, cursing Blazek and the rest. Cowards. They were like hyenas circling two fighting lions, waiting to make a meal off the loser. And where the devil had Meical gone? One minute he'd been right behind Ellory, and the next, he was gone.
Talisen had doused all the light in the room, save for a single lantern. She stood in its golden embrace like a little queen waiting for the return of her vanquished warrior. He smiled, feeling weary, and approached her with his arms out.
"Alas, madam, I have nothing to show for my foray."
He was nearly within arm's reach of her when he felt it. The walls closed in around him, and a heaviness overtook his muscles and bones. He shuddered and reached out to Talisen. She was crying. She looked so sad and frightened.
When he tried to speak, his vocal chords froze, and the sound came out in an unintelligible growl, as though he were naught but an animal. He cried out to her telepathically. His words fractured in the silence inside his mind. What was happening? Where was Meical when he needed him? He couldn't get through to him, either.
Dread filled Ellory's heart. What about the children?
He reached for them, calling each by name. No answer. Only silence, deep and dead. He'd heard that silence before.
No. This couldn't be happening again. Not again. They couldn't be gone. He sent his senses in all directions to root out his enemy, but struck an invisible barrier. The Alchemist.
He'd put them all under an enthrallment of some kind, surely—Meical and Talisen, too.
Ellory's body went limp, and he poured out his rage in a strangled roar.
Someone caught him from behind as his knees buckled. “Easy, Ellory."
Meical! Finally! Ellory tried to turn his head to look up at him, but all he could move was his eyes.
The Alchemist glided out of a wall. The beast didn't even look at him. “Benedikt, behave yourself, and all will go well. Lay him on the bed, Grabian. Talisen, well done."
Meical's voice sounded soft and pleading. “Forgive me, Ellory. Try to understand. It has to be this way."
Ellory struggled with the words. Meical's apology didn't make sense. Those who were under a vampire's enthrallment felt neither shame nor remorse. Meical's apology could only mean....
No. Impossible. Meical would never willingly betray him.
His friend dragged him to the bed and laid him down on his back, but Ellory kept his gaze on Talisen. He watched fresh tears glitter in her eyes. Tears of guilt.
When she turned away again and moved closer to the Alchemist, suspicion gnawed into his frozen sinews. No. She, his heart, his life, his love, would never betray him.
Her voice wobbled. “I can't do this to him while he's so helpless. I just can't."
Do what? Ellory fought the compulsion that held him down.
The Alchemist sounded surprised at her. “He'll try to dissuade you. I thought it might be less painful for you this way, but you may do as you please. You're in control of him, now. I've warded the room so that you can manage him, but only temporarily. There may be complications. By forcing him into this, we're manhandling the process of revenant creation."
Revenant, WHAT? No! Ellory snarled and tried to twist himself off the bed. His body defied him and lay like deadwood, unmoving. He growled and bared his teeth. They ignored him.
The Alchemist went on. “Normally, it would be he who is the master, and you the slave, not visa versa. It's a powerful thing to tamper with. And as you get further into your transformation, the ward I've placed in this room may not be enough to protect you from a natural tendency to yield to him."
Talisen sounded so frightened. “That's my problem."
"When you've finished here, I will give you some of my blood to make you stronger and teach you the binding spell that will help you detain Dylan."
Ellory struggled to make an intelligible protest, but it came out as a roar. The thought of Talisen playing right into Neshi's hands ripped away his sanity. Couldn't she see? Didn't Meical realize? Neshi had duped them both.
The Alchemist called to Meical, but Meical hesitated, bent close to Ellory, and whispered, “Forgive us."
Ellory looked deep into his friend's eyes. There was no trace of the Alchemist's enthrallment. This was no vampiric compulsion. They had betrayed him.
His bewilderment gave way to anguish, and he bared his teeth at Meical and snarled again. If he got out of this, oh, how he'd make him pay for handing his young ones over to a madman. It tore at him, the thought of the torture they faced, the pain, the terror. He'd promised always to protect them. If there was justice, Meical would answer for every moment they suffered at the Alchemist's hand.
Meical withdrew, leaving him alone with Talisen. When she turned to face him, he fixed a scathing gaze on her and screamed inside his silence, Not you!
She glanced at the bedside table, and he followed her gaze. A long silver dagger lay there. He closed his eyes, sick with disappointment. How could this be happening?
Talisen had no way of knowing that what she was about to attempt was as impossible as it was deadly. Never in all his years had he heard of such a thing as forcing a vampire to create a revenant. It would kill them both. Of course, that was what Neshi was counting on.
Ellory burned with anger. He was not weaponless. Timing. The timing had to be perfect, or neither of them would survive.
She approached him slowly, white-faced with resolve. So beautiful and strong. He felt the pain of her betrayal, a wave of pity; then, like a backlash, fury ignited inside of him again from his head to his toes. How could she agree to such a thing?
She stood over him, but didn't reach for the dagger.
"Before I let you talk to me, I want you to know, if there was another way to protect you from Dylan, I wouldn't be doing this. Dylan cannibalized Aloisia to get her power. That's how he was powerful enough to do what he did at Sartori's. I'm not going to let him get you. Okay, you can talk to me."
Now, when he wanted to speak, he was speechless. Dylan cannibalized Aloisia? Then Talisen was right. There was no way he could defeat Dylan. No way.
But this treasonous, suicidal scheme of Talisen's wasn't the answer. Even if they survived what she was about to attempt, nothing would be the same for them again. She could not fathom the control he'd have over her if she did this, she, who valued her freedom so dearly. Somehow he had to reach her, make her see what this would cost them.
Ellory hid his rage, cleared his throat to make his vocal chords work, and tried to keep his voice as neutral as possible. “My love, you cannot do this thing. Not like this."
She reached for the dagger. “We knew you wouldn't agree to make me your revenant. And before you start denigrating Meical for his part in it, he's paid his dues. The Alchemist let us come here because Meical agreed to be his next guinea pig."
Waves of sorrow thrummed inside Ellory's soul. So, that was how the Alchemist had gained Meical's cooperation. “What?"
"Meical is probably going to die for our two nights of safety here, so I'm not the only one who's making a sacrifice. Be gracious enough to cooperate and let us help you."
"Talisen, wait. Just listen to me. Please."
She shook her head, stretched his arm out, and pinned it beneath her knee.
Why wouldn't she listen to him? Damn her Rudyard obstinacy. He had to make her see, before it was too late. His anger topped the surface of his emotions, but he pressed it down. A show of temper wouldn't work with Talisen. “Did the Alchemist mention that halfway through this, you'll be too overcome to finish it without my help? At that point, you'll have only minutes before the death in me claims your life."
She hesitated, but only for a moment. She unbuttoned his sleeve. “You're trying to talk me out of it."
So the infernal sorcerer hadn't explained everything to her properly. Her unknowing was Ellory's weapon. He wouldn't even have to lie to her. “Did he tell you that by that time, I'll be so weak from blood-loss that I w
on't be able to save you? You won't be able to free me from the restraint you've put on me, so I won't be able to stop my own bleeding. All I'll be able to do is bleed to death while I watch you die. Is that how you want us to end all of this, Talisen? Fine. You make the decision for both of us. Do we live or die?"
That got her attention. She looked down at him. Caution glinted in her eyes like the gleam of the lantern light along the dagger at his wrist. Ellory held his breath.
She didn't let go of his arm, but she sat down on the bed beside him. “I'm listening."
He expelled a sigh. “Just as there are laws that govern the processes of the natural world, there are those that govern the processes in mine. What you are attempting to do is like trying to make the earth spin backwards. There are reasons why a vampire remains in complete control during the creation of a revenant. Both could be lost."
"He said there might be complications."
"A tidy reference to our end, if ever I heard one."
The cost of her own deceit showed on her face, and she turned her gaze away. Her eyes glistened with tears. “I have to do something. You can't face Dylan, and the Alchemist can't kill him, because he promised Aloisia, because he made her, just like he made Freya—"
"Hold on. Say again?"
"The Alchemist made Aloisia and Freya. They were sisters. Aloisia made the Alchemist promise he'd never lift a hand against any of her fledglings, so he can't hurt Dylan himself. He won't break his oath to her."
Ellory cast his gaze at the stony ceiling above. If the Alchemist was oath-bound not to strike at Aloisia's fledglings, that went for him, too. Had the fiend put Talisen up to this scheme to avoid the necessity of dealing him a direct blow?
Or did the Alchemist actually want to help them?
Regardless, if they did survive, their survival would carry a cost beyond measure. He studied Talisen's face. Once again, pity washed through him—pity for her. In her innocence, she believed that being his revenant would be the same as being his consort. She didn't know about the complete loss of her will, or how she'd be utterly dependent on his life force and hunger for him in ways she had never felt before. She didn't know about the regret she was bound to face every day for the rest of her life, because she had to become the most despised creature in his world.