Immortal Confessions

by Tara Fox Hall

I jumped out of the carriage and ran inside the burning house, yelling for Anna. The smoke was choking and the heat blistered my skin, but I kept looking for her.

  She was not in the bedroom or the library. I looked next in the safe room, my eyes tearing, and found L’Amour cowering beneath a chair. I grabbed hold of the cat, even as it hissed and raked my face with its claws, and ran upstairs with it. I grabbed up the bearskin and wrapped the cat in it quickly, swearing as it fought me. When it was wrapped enough to stop it clawing me, I grabbed the yowling bundle in my arms, and ran into what had been our living room.

  Fire was everywhere, consuming all of our furniture. The curtains were waving in the heat, even as they glowed orange and turned to ashes. My hair was on fire now, and I could feel my skin burning. I had to get out, or I’d die. But I had to find Anna! I couldn’t leave her here to die!

  “Devlin!” a voice shouted.

  Eva’s voice. I turned to see her silhouette.

  “Come quickly!” she called, choking. “Anna is safe!”

  I stumbled to her. She propped me up and together, we made it outside as the building collapsed behind me with a roar. She pushed me roughly in the snow, trying to put out the fires on my body. I dropped the smoking bearskin, and a terrified L’Amour ran out into the darkness. Eva rolled me back and forth until the flames were out, and then she dragged me into a sitting position.

  “You are badly injured,” she said, offering her wrist. “Take some of my blood.”

  I took her wrist, and drank greedily. Her blood was wereblood, potent, and it healed my burns, even as I savored the taste. When I finished, she took her wrist back.

  “Where is Anna?”

  “With Uther,” she said, getting to her feet and helping me up. “Many vampires came, with a wereman in charge. They set fire to the house. Anna grabbed what she could, and Rip teleported her to safety. Levi fought the wereman, but he lost.”

  Her voice faltered. I looked up at her, hoping to God what she said wasn’t true.

  “He’s dead, yes,” she said in a cracked voice. “The wereman killed him easily.”

  I grabbed hold of her. “Then why are you not dead?” I hissed at her. “How is it you were left here, untouched?”

  She glared defiantly back at me, her eyes red with anguish. “By my marks I’m oathed to you. They did nothing to me, save remove me from the house before they burned it, tying me to a tree. The wereman said he was honoring the law.”

  What she was saying sank into me like poison, because it was apparent who had done this.

  “It was Anthony,” she sniffled. “He said his name was Anthony, and to tell you that the next time he saw me, he’d have me on my back in the next minute, because I’d be fair game, you being dead.”

  Anthony. Louis’s man, the fifth ranked.

  There was a roar as the mansion’s roof fell in. Then I heard the first scream of bells, and the trampling from the horse-drawn wagons of the fire brigade. They would be here in a minute or less.

  “Come,” I said, taking her hand. “We must not been seen.”

  “Hold on,” she called, and ran into the darkness. She was back a second later holding a frantic L’Amour.

  I grabbed the bearskin and her hand. Together we melted into the darkness.

  * * * *

  When I got to Uther’s caves just before dawn, Anna almost tackled me, she was so happy to see me, and L’Amour. Quentin was also relieved, and effusive.

  Uther was not. “What did you do in Brittany?” he rasped angrily. “This is payback for something, Devlin.”

  “I killed some people, and set fire to a few buildings,” I said dejectedly. “I have brought this upon us.”

  “It would have been something, sooner or later,” Quentin said bitterly. “Louis was not going to leave us alone, no matter what Samuel may have said. What we did hurt his pride. We are going to have to flee the country.”

  “For where?” I said bitingly. “Wherever I go, there will be another vampire who does not want me there, and I’ll have to fight again! Better to fight now, and get it over with—”

  “You fight Louis man to man, and you might win,” Uther rasped loudly. “You’ve had enough goblin blood recently to overpower him. But he knows that, and he’ll not make the mistake of coming himself. He’ll send that tigerman Anthony to do his fighting for him. You might be old and powerful, Dev, but you are no fighter.”

  I debated mentioning the goblin battle two nights ago, but I hadn’t fared that well, in retrospect. “Could I not hire someone to fight in my stead?” I offered. “Where is Rip? Could he not fight for me?”

  “With what?” Quentin said, throwing some paper at me. “You do not have enough money now to pay a ranked assassin. Even if you somehow kill Anthony, you are not going to be able to take on all of Louis’s men. He will not fight you one on one, he’s too smart for that.”

  “Rip was taken by his brother Titus,” Uther rasped. “He put a hold of some kind on him, and took him. He is still your demon, Devlin, but he no longer answers to you. He will be of no help to us.”

  I was furious by now, that so much had gone wrong so fast. “What should I do? Cower, and grovel at Louis’s feet? Go back to the rural areas, and hide a few more centuries? Tell me!”

  “Your duty is to Anna, vampire,” Eva growled, and to have her speak as if she was our equal at our own table of war was enough to get everyone’s attention. “She is your Oathed One, as am I, even if I am in name only. You owe it to us to protect us. Stop thinking of your damned pride!”

  “It is Dev’s decision,” Anna said softly. “It is not his fault, but mine. It was my weakness, my actions that caused him to wreak havoc in Brittany.”

  “Be that as it may,” Uther rasped gently. “What’s done is done. Quentin is right; we cannot fight Louis and Anthony. Our only choice is to flee.”

  I was aghast. “Leave? After all we’ve worked for? Everything we built is here.”

  Uther narrowed his eyes, and curled his lip at me. “What is left, vampire? Your grand house is ashes. Your bodyguard is dead. The batmen that you had hired are all dead, their mates widows. The vampires who praised you these last five years will not lift a finger to save you from Louis. And Anthony will come here tomorrow at dawn, to cleanse my caves of my people with fire and guns.”

  Every word hit me like a bullet. I sank down on my haunches under the weight of his words. “Then what should we do?” I said, pulling Anna into my arms. “What can we do?”

  “We must go to Rene,” Uther said, rubbing his eyes. “We must go to her, and ask her what to do.”

  Quentin looked at him with raised brows. “She going to look into her crystal and see our future, Bat?”

  “She has gifts,” Uther said respectfully. “She found Devlin’s brother.”

  “Yes, and that turned out great,” Quentin snarled back. “We do not need any more assistance from her that leads to burned homes and dead men!”

  “What else is there to try?” I said wearily, getting to my feet. “Lead on, Uther.”

  * * * *

  Rene was waiting for us in her cloak, as she had been every time I’d ever been to see her. But this time, she let Uther and me into her cottage and began putting bags into our hands.

  “We must go tonight,” she said, piling books and bags in our arms. “Uther, your men must fly us there.”

  “What?” he rasped in shock. “You are coming with us?”

  “Yes,” she said, not pausing in her piling. “I have foreseen it. Much has to be done if we are to make it out of France alive. Go now, Uther, and send back two more of your men. Your people must be ready to leave within the hour.”

  Uther flew back with her supplies, and an hour later, his son Ember arrived with another werebat to transport Rene and me. By the time I returned, half of Uther’s people were packed.

  “The rest will join other colonies nearby,” Uther said sadly. “But it’s their right, not to want to leave the land they were born in.
If all my family is gone, Louis won’t care enough to punish others of my band.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said, putting my hand on his shoulder. “I’ve brought this upon you.”

  “You did,” he said, and then sighed. “I knew it might come to this when I joined you, Dev. My eyes have always been open. My people had a few years where they weren’t persecuted or staked as vampires.”

  “Come,” Rene said, interrupting. “We must leave tonight. Anthony will be here at first dark tomorrow with enough vampires to kill us all.”

  “We cannot bring all that we need to, not and bring the vampires and the women too,” one of the werebats said irritably.

  “Bring only yourselves, and your things,” Rene replied. “I will teleport the vampires.”

  “You can’t, you are not demon,” Eva said, scenting the air. “And what about Anna and me?”

  “That is my job,” a man’s clear voice said. A cloaked man walked into the light. “I am Ravel, Rene’s brother. I am going as well.”

  “Now wait, this is too much!” Quentin said hysterically. “Why should we trust you? We’ve never met you, or even heard of you! Why would you help us?”

  “Rene has foreseen the future,” Ravel intoned. “She tells me my future lies in America, with Devlin.”

  Now everyone was talking and loudly. This time, it was I who shouted them down. “Shut up, everyone!”

  To my satisfaction, everyone did.

  I turned to Rene. “Rene, show us yourself. You want me to trust you, show me your face, so that I can look you in the eyes and know you are telling the truth.”

  “I cannot,” she replied evenly. “Ravel may, if he likes.”

  Ravel pushed back his hood. He nodded to me, and then to the rest in turn.

  He looked like a normal human to me, fairly young, with dark eyes and brown hair that was long, so long it was in a ponytail.

  “You are faerie, like your sister,” Uther rasped out finally. “Your scent reveals you—”

  “Yes,” Ravel said, nodding. “But that is not important. We must leave, and now. Is everyone ready?”

  We all nodded.

  Ravel turned to Rene. “What is the plan?”

  “Devlin, you and Anna go with Ravel. Take a ship out of Loire-Inferieure, one leaves tomorrow evening. Quentin, you and Eva will go with me, and we’ll take a ship out of Morbihan. Uther, take your people and fly down the coast. Do what you can to make it seem as if the vampires are still with you, or will be on the ships you are going to take. Split up, if you sense any eyes on you. We will meet in Plymouth, on the Massachusetts coast. Anyone who gets there first is to wait there until the others arrive.”

  “What about blood?” Quentin asked.

  “Eva will be with you for that,” Rene replied. “Both you and Dalcon should be careful to take as little as possible. Invoke no suspicion, as sailors are a suspicious bunch. Be seen every night in the company of the woman with you, and make sure they are seen in the daytime.”

  Quentin and I nodded. Anna and Eva also nodded.

  “Any more questions?”

  There were none.

  “Good. Let’s go.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  We bid each other farewell, and a half hour later, I was renting a room in Nantes, Anna at my side. Ravel had gone to make arrangements with the ship we would take tomorrow night.

  Once we were in our room, Anna and I sat clinging to one another, L’Amour purring in between us.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered again and again.

  I told her to hush a few times, and then gave up. She was clearly overwrought, and it was again time for holding and not talking. I would not add to her fears with false words, to tell her that all would be well when I had no guarantee it would be. I hoped she would take comfort from my nearness, as I took comfort from holding her close.

  Ravel returned before dawn, and sat down in a chair before our fire, wrapping his cloak around him.

  “Sleep,” he said, not looking at us. “I will stay awake, and guard you.”

  “Why are you doing this?” Anna asked, as she discreetly took off her elaborative satin and lace dress, and put on a plain cotton nightdress.

  “Rene told me I must.”

  “Do you always do what your sister tells you?” I said, a little mockingly.

  “Most times,” he said, shooting me a grin. “Or she gets bitchy, and zaps me with a little lightning.”

  I looked at him in shock, and then I laughed. And soon, we were all laughing, even though his comment hadn’t been that funny.

  * * * *

  Sunset saw us checking out of our rooms. We no sooner walked out of the hotel then we ran into Louis, who stood in the street, ten vampires at his back.

  “Did you think to slink away, after setting fire to my city?” he hissed at me, advancing.

  Anna let out a cry, and I pushed her behind me.

  “Kill him,” Louis said with a grin. “But do not harm the woman. I want her alive.”

  He took a step, and a moment later he was hit by a lightning bolt that arced down from the sky, knocking him off his feet. Anna shrieked, and I turned to see Ravel advancing.

  “Run to the ship!” he shouted. “Run!”

  I picked up Anna and ran. Cries of pain sounded from behind me, along with the crackling of lightning. Several of the vampires followed me, and I ran through the streets, hoping to lose them. For an hour I ducked, hid, and ran. We made it to the ship just as they were pulling anchor.

  Anna sobbed, as we’d left behind L’Amour, and she was heartbroken. I comforted her as best I could, but my heart was broken too. We’d treated the little cat as our child, and to lose it now after all we’d gone through was agony.

  An hour later, Ravel appeared out of thin air.

  “I killed most of the vampires,” he said, exhausted. “Louis is outraged, but he’s hurt enough he won’t follow, at least for a while.”

  “Thank you,” I said gratefully. “You saved us.”

  “That I did,” he said with a grin. “And that’s not all.” He took from his cloak a small cage, and handed it to Anna. Inside was a distraught and wailing L’Amour.

  Anna gave a sob, opened the cage, and clutched the little cat so tightly it let out a hiss of irritation.

  “Thank you,” she said through her tears. “Thank you, Ravel.”

  “You’re welcome, Ma’am,” he said seriously. “May I speak to you, Dalcon?”

  I nodded, and followed him outside. “What is it?”

  “You have a choice,” he said, looking out over the waves. “I need an answer tonight.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Louis came for you, Dalcon. Other vampires went for Uther and his people, no doubt. They will not go beyond France. But Anthony will follow, if just to make good on his word to take Eva for his own. After Louis’s injury at my hands tonight, he might be ordered to do it anyway. He will likely be waiting for us with more vampires in America, teleported there by Titus. Demons are not bound by oceans any more than they are bound by any other obstacle.” He looked at me. “Quentin looks like you, Devlin. I can arrange it so that Anthony finds him and Eva, and that he is mistaken for you.”

  My eyes could not have been larger. “How?”

  “Never mind how. Do you want it done? Say the word, and it will be so. Because if he thinks he’s killed you, and taken the woman he wants, Anthony will curtail his pursuit and Anna and you will be free to start a new life. Anthony can be made to think she drowned at sea.”

  I looked out at the ocean, and thought about it. What he was offering did have merit. I’d learned enough from Quentin to manage my own money now, and it was true that in a fight, that coward was going to run if he had an opportunity, goblin blood or no goblin blood. Whatever use he’d been in the beginning to me had long since expired.

  But Eva…she’d been loyal. And she was oathed to me, even though we weren’t lovers. I couldn’t condemn her to death, even if I could Q
uentin.

  “No,” I said slowly. “This is between me and Louis. I can’t hide; I must face him, or his man, if he finds me.”

  Ravel looked at me for a long moment. Then he looked back out over the waves. “She said you would say that.” He rolled his eyes and grinned. “I’m out fifty American dollars.”

  I glared at him. “You are betting on my willingness to kill my friends to save my own skin?”

  “Not at all,” he said, looking away again. “I was betting the future Rene saw wasn’t true. But it appears I was wrong.”

  He sounded morose. I didn’t want to hear anymore, especially if what waited before me was not only terrible, but also unavoidable.

  * * * *

  We arrived at Plymouth roughly four months later. The seas had been calm, and for days we’d made no progress. Then there had been sickness, and when we’d landed, we’d been off course, our navigator having died in a card-related brawl two weeks before. Ravel said the weather was Titus’s fault, but the rest was ill luck, and there was nothing for it.

  When we got there, we found no one waiting, only a message from Uther. His men had left word, having arrived a good two months before us, their ship having made good time. They were living on some land of mine that Quentin had purchased in New York, again on Rene’s advice.

  “We should leave for there,” Ravel said over dinner that night in our room. “Tomorrow night at full dark. It will take a few weeks to reach.”

  “Should we not wait for Rene and the others?” Anna asked nervously, petting L’Amour. “She told us to wait for each other.”

  “She came to me in my dreams, and told me to leave as soon as possible,” Ravel said grumpily. “No reason given.”

  Nice. “What is it with her?” I asked grumpily. “Why all the mystery? Isn’t it enough that we’ll likely do anything she advises?”

  “No,” Rene said, appearing in our midst, cloaked as always. “It is not.”

  Ravel gave a start, Anna cried out, and L’Amour shot straight up in the air, and came down to screech her way under the bed, claws scrabbling.

  “Good going, sister,” Ravel grumbled.

  “We should leave tonight,” Rene said, as if he’d not spoken. “Come. Quentin and Eva are outside waiting. Another carriage is there for you. Ravel will drive one, and I the other.”