“And what makes ye think we’d trust ye to go with her and that ye’d not expose what she’s about?”
“I could have exposed you already,” Morina said. “And yet, all of you are still here, unmolested and unharmed. Dracule or no, Epiphany, you’re somewhat smaller than the rest of us and easy pickings for someone more dominant. You may not be very fond of my idea,” she gave a toothy and predatory smile, “but if I take you as someone that belongs to me, you’re less likely to be a target for someone more dominant.”
“If you haven’t been working with Damokles all this time, what makes you assume he’ll trust you?”
“I have my ways,” she said. “Damokles knows of my hatred for Iliaria, and more than likely he has heard from his spies that I was being held prisoner in the castle. He will believe that I seduced you, one of her followers, into rescuing me and that I turned you against Iliaria and her vampires. He doesn’t know that I know her side of the story.”
“Why the sudden change of heart?” I asked. When I had tried to show her Iliaria’s side of things, she still hadn’t believed them.
“I have my reasons,” she said and again, her voice was cryptic. The expression she wore, however, intrigued me now. Dark knowledge lingered behind her eye. Images of her hand pulsing at her groin, of her lips half-parted and her back arched against the frame of the door swam to the surface of my mind and I looked away.
“I will help you save your queen, Epiphany. Is that not enough to gain me some of your favor?”
My mind raced as I tried to understand what she meant. I raised my head. “And what favor, my lady, do you seek from me?”
“You know what I want.”
“I thought I did,” I said. “Now I’m not so sure.”
The air grew tense between us. I had bargained with my body before, and fortunately, it had not turned out to be so terrible a thing. I had gained Iliaria’s love and protection in the bargain. And though there was no love between Morina and me, there’s no question I was curious about her in many ways.
She was quiet long enough that I was sure she wanted it, that I was certain she would request me to repay her by warming her bed. I felt queasy. I wasn’t certain if it was from nerves, apprehension, or excitement, or a combination of all those things.
“Your promise,” she said, finally. “I want you to keep it. That is what I want.”
“That’s all,” I said. “If the others agree to it, we will do it your way.”
Morina didn’t say another word. As she had so many times since the day she had taken me as her captive, she walked off when she was done talking to me.
“You’re playing with fire, Piph.” Cuinn brought my attention back to him as he settled down against my thigh again.
“Why do you say that, Cuinn?”
He snorted. “I’m no idiot, ye know. It’d take an idiot to have missed what just happened. Ye’ve already got two women in your bed,” he said. “Do ye really want to add a third? Especially that one?”
I placed my index finger beneath his chin. “Don’t give me that look.”
“Don’t tell me ye were seriously considering it. Lugh’s bollocks, woman. Taking a tumble with that one’s about as good for you as rolling around naked in brambles.”
“You think she’s that bad, do you?” I playfully ruffled his ears.
“You’re too quick to let your groin do the thinking,” Cuinn said. “If there’s anything I know about women, it’s that that one has thorns and you’re beginning to seem a little too eager to be pricked by them. I say again, Piph, you’re playing with fire.”
When it came down to it, didn’t I already play with fire? Neither one of my lovers was particularly meek or mild, though a streak of unexpected tenderness flowed through them both. He made a disgruntled sound low in his chest and rolled his eyes. “Of course, you’re gonna play with it anyway, whether I advise you to or not. Like a cat to curiosity.” Cuinn grumbled, “Bleedin’ masochists, always courting danger.”
“I never said I would take her to my bed.”
The look he gave me told me plainly he doubted I wouldn’t do just that.
I shrugged. Morina hadn’t asked for my body in the bargain, and since she hadn’t asked, I wouldn’t give it. On the other hand, if she did ask, I wasn’t sure what I would do.
Cuinn and I decided to go downstairs and found Emilio keeping himself busy in the kitchen. He raised his head when we entered and gestured toward a porcelain teapot. “There’s tea if you’d like any,” he said.
I grabbed a white mug and made myself a cup. Iliaria hadn’t said anything about tea, and if there was one thing I wanted to try before I became a vampire again, if I survived to become a vampire again, it was tea.
Sadly, I took Iliaria’s advice and did not add milk. I raised the brim of the cup to my mouth and took a small sip to test it.
Emilio must’ve caught something in my expression. “Do you like it?” he asked.
I took another sip more slowly, letting the hot beverage sit on my tongue. I tasted cinnamon and a hint of orange, licorice, and clove, and something sweet like vanilla.
I swallowed and finally said, “It’s not terrible.”
“English?” he asked.
I nodded.
“Ah,” he said, as if that explained everything. “What generation? Your accent is easy to place but your vocabulary…”
He wiped his hands on a towel after setting some dishes out to dry.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Aye?”
I motioned toward Cuinn. “That’s his doing.”
“Aye,” Cuinn said with a mischievous twinkle.
Emilio continued to make idle conversation with me as night fell. I offered to help him prepare dinner, and when he declined, I took a seat to watch him while he worked. He moved around the kitchen as if it was a place he was comfortable in, and I began to understand why he didn’t mind making food for us so often. For whatever reason, he really did seem to enjoy it. He hummed quietly while he worked, adjusting dials and pressing buttons, seeming undisturbed by an audience or by the modern human technology. But then, he lived in the mortal world. I was the one out of touch with it.
Iliaria and the others came down just after nightfall. Iliaria was in her human form again, with a pair of tight-fitting black trousers and a silk top that left one of her shoulders bare.
One of the round tables from the ballroom was brought in, and all of us sat around it while we dined.
Dominique, who had mostly kept to himself since our arrival, finally spoke to me. “I’d rather go with you, piccolo.”
I smiled at the nickname. Vasco had once explained that technically, it was piccola, a term of endearment for little girl, but I much rather preferred the sound of piccolo and being compared to the small woodwind instrument. Dominique must have discerned as much for he never tried piccola on me.
“I’m sorry, Dominique. They would recognize you as her guardsman.”
He knew it, of course. I was stating the obvious, but still, I knew it didn’t eradicate his wish to go with me.
“We’ll find a way to keep our hands busy here, brother,” Vito said as he tossed an arm over Dominique’s shoulders.
“We can only hope she is successful,” Vittoria added as she lowered her glass.
“It is not that I do not believe in you, piccolo, but this thing you undertake is a dangerous mission to run into all on your own,” Dominique said. “If something were to happen to you, our queen would have our hides.”
I laid my fork on my plate. The chicken Emilio had made was nice, but my appetite for it waned with the conversation.
“Actually,” I said at some length, “there’s a matter I wish to speak with all of you about.”
And so I did. I explained to them Morina’s plan, though she had not come down to dine with us and reinforce my words. Iliaria surprised me by not immediately protesting as I had feared she would. She appeared thoughtful, her brows slightly pin
ched.
“If she’s true to her word, it’s not a terrible plan. But if she’s not true to her word, it’s a large risk. Are you willing to take it?” Iliaria asked.
“It seems safer than walking in alone, doesn’t it?”
At that, even Vasco agreed. “It does. Yet, I fear you have forgotten that this is the Dracule that kidnapped you to begin with, colombina.”
“I do not forget, Vasco. Shouldn’t I give her the chance to redeem herself if that’s what she seeks?”
Iliaria looked skeptical. “You really believe Morina is trying to redeem herself?”
“No, I think she has her own agenda. In fact, I’m certain she does, but I do believe she was being honest when she offered to help. If I go in under the guise of being her pet and Damokles knows her abhorrence of you, it’s a far more believable story.”
“If she sticks to it,” she said.
“If I don’t,” Morina said from the doorway, “Epiphany wouldn’t be around to keep her word to me, would she? I’d very much like to see that promise upheld.”
“Technically, the others have offered to aid you in my stead if something were to happen to me. I hadn’t thought about it up till now, but if we don’t succeed, you still have your promise.”
“You,” she said to Emilio and pointed a finger at him, “if something were to happen to the girl, would you still aid me?”
Emilio shook his head. “No.”
She stuffed her hands in the pockets of her coat and lifted her chin. “And you?” she asked Vasco.
“No,” Vasco said, his eyes narrowing.
“So you see,” she said, “I have nothing to gain by harming you.”
Iliaria pushed her chair back to rise with a daunting expression. “If this is a trick, Morina—”
“I’ll give you my blood oath if that makes you feel any better,” Morina said, not sounding thrilled about it.
“Do it.”
Morina bit her wrist and flung her hand outward, droplets of her blood staining the tile at Iliaria’s feet. “You have my oath that I will not let any harm befall her at my hands or another’s.”
The droplets of her blood sizzled as if from some unseen flame before they dispersed, leaving no trace behind.
“Epiphany,” Iliaria said at last. “You will go with Morina.”
“A little blood and you suddenly trust her?” Nirena asked.
“A little blood and a little magic,” Iliaria said. “Morina knows the consequences of her actions if she attempts to break the oath now. She has bound herself to it.”
“Terrific,” Morina said but not like she meant it. “Now that you’re satisfied, we’d best be on our way soon. I’ll let you say your good-byes.”
She motioned for Emilio to follow her and they left the room. So many expressions surrounded the table, pity, curiosity, sadness, and fear.
“Well,” I said, “I suppose this is it.”
Chapter Eighteen
Iliaria’s kiss still lingered on my lips. I had said my farewells, mostly to Cuinn, Vasco, and Iliaria, but to the others as well, though our parting did not inspire such sweet sorrow as leaving those I loved behind. It was a strange thing to leave without Vasco and Iliaria by my side, and even stranger to leave without Cuinn, who had been part of me for so long.
I didn’t cry when I bid them farewell. I wouldn’t let myself, though my stomach was twisted into knots and the thread of anxiety wound tight within me. I trusted that Emilio had told Morina what she needed to know about Damokles’s whereabouts. Her arm rested at the base of my spine as we stood in the ballroom.
“You should change now,” she said.
I focused my will when I felt Morina summon the mists of her magic around us. Before I could change my mind, I found myself untethered from the ground I had been standing on while the world drifted away in a sheet of fog.
Morina’s arm tightened around my waist to help me keep my balance. The ground was solid beneath my feet as her power fell away to reveal the landscape around us.
The sky stretched above us, a faded cerulean that peeked through melancholic gray clouds. Fiery strokes of sunlight penetrated through the places between the clouds, illuminating a sparkling veil of mist and casting imposing shadows across the terrain. I stepped away from Morina and she caught my arm as I tried to navigate the rocky, uneven ground.
“Thisss isss Drahalia?”
“Yes,” she said, her speech clear, as she had remained in human form. “This is the wildlands of Drahalia.”
As far as I could see, it was nothing but rocks. The land consisted solely of dark boulders, some larger than others. Most of the boulders were jagged, only a few created smooth slabs of stone to walk on. Dark mountains jutted sharply above the rocky wasteland to serrate the sky, their façades imposing and so uneven they appeared impossible to climb. A few of their peaks disappeared into misty clouds.
“The sssun sssetsss in the eassst?” I asked.
Morina released me and started making her way carefully across the uneven landscape. I followed and slipped on jagged stones.
“Yes,” she turned back to watch me as I tried to find a way, albeit precariously, over the rocks. “You don’t intend to walk the entire way like that, do you?” Something close to amusement flashed across her face.
I slid and shifted my weight to my other foot as I nearly fell into a crevice between two larger stones. “Do you have a better idea?”
“Try all fours. It’s really not as difficult as you’re making it to be. At the rate you’re pussyfooting, we’re not likely to be there for days.”
I sank to all fours and found that she was right; it was much easier to crawl and climb through the rocks than to continue the uncertain dance I had been doing. I used my tail as Iliaria had taught me to do to maintain balance when I leapt from one boulder to another. The force of the leap threatened to send me skittering through the rocks, but I managed to catch myself.
Morina had no trouble whatsoever with the treacherous terrain, even in her human form. She moved without hesitation, as if she instinctively knew where to step. Stones crunched beneath her boots as she swung a leg over a short wall of boulders, and I followed, pouncing from rock to rock when I encountered ones that were too big to leap from.
After we had walked for some time, the landscape began to smooth out and I was able to walk beside her. The ground was still uneven beneath my clawed hands and feet, but the rocks were smaller and less complicated. We walked for what seemed ages. The night sky was a bright cloak of moonlight and stars.
“We’ve been wandering for hoursss,” I hissed. “You didn’t think to drop us sssomewhere clossser…why?”
“Impatience is not a virtue, Epiphany. You’ll get us there no sooner complaining.”
Irritated at the chastisement, I closed my mouth and decided to walk the rest of the way in silence. Some hours after nightfall, we reached an edge where the terrain sloped down into a valley. Morina came to a halt and pointed to the darkness below. “There,” she said.
The area she indicated looked like a large gathering of rocks. Once my head made sense of it, I realized it was a building composed of the same rocky material we traversed. It was well camouflaged in the dark. With so many mountains and rocks, it was easy to mistake the pile as part of the mountain range from a distance.
Morina led the way down the hill. No torches marked the entry, but Morina found it, a small door of gray wood nestled between jutting stones. She placed three solid knocks upon it, and that queasy feeling returned to churn at the pit of my stomach.
*
The Dracule that admitted us was by far larger than any of the Dracule I’d ever seen. He had to be a good nine feet tall, if not taller. He opened the door and Morina pushed past him, obviously not unsettled in the least by his stature.
“Where is he?” she asked.
The Dracule’s ears swiveled. His voice, when it came, was a low, hissing grumble. “Thisss way.” He strode forward and started down th
e darkened hall.
Apparently, he recognized Morina. Why else wouldn’t he attack us on sight?
He kept his imposing back to us as he led us down the lengthy hallway. Here and there, torches flickered to provide substantial light to see by. I stayed on all fours, deciding in that moment that I’d simply follow Morina’s lead. I kept my head low as we walked around a sharp corner and down another hall.
“I can find my way from here, Bastaille.”
The Dracule sank away from the doors ahead of us. “Sssuit yourssself, Morina.”
Morina flung open both doors and stepped inside. Inside the room, we found ourselves surrounded by a dozen Dracule that were suddenly armed and on their feet. Morina strode between them with a swagger in her step, her tail flicking behind her with dangerous confidence.
She strode toward a tall figure slouched in a throne at the far end of the room. A woman moved up beside the figure, as if to protect him, but not quite. Her dark hair framed a round face. Her green eyes narrowed as she raised a hand. She didn’t have wings, and she was very much human. The figure on the throne touched her wrist and the woman lowered her arm.
“Morina,” Damokles hissed.
“Hello, cousin,” Morina addressed him in Dracule.
The tension in the air built like a tsunami threatening to break over us. I stayed close to Morina’s heels, not quite on them, but close enough that no one in the room would think I wasn’t with her.
Though, I wondered if such a bold statement of association was in my best interest.
“Come to join usss at lassst?” Damokles asked, idly twirling a chain that hung from his neck around his clawed fingers.
“As a matter of fact, I have.”
Damokles made a noise low in his throat, a Draculian chuckle of sorts. He leaned forward, and the intensity in his ominous gaze seemed as though it’d burn a hole through Morina.
“I told you that you couldn’t do it on your own. Lassst I heard, the vampiresss had reclaimed what you’d ssstolen and imprisssoned you, cousssin.”
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