Logic said the bond they had formed was instant and intense, the kind that happened during wars and disasters. Perhaps there was something supernatural to it, too—the result of the room, or his new body, or her vampire nature.
None of that mattered. He knew one thing with conviction, something that no sorcery could ever change. He wasn’t letting Constance Moore slip out of his life. In the most unlikely place of all, he’d found a forever kind of woman.
Chapter 16
“You did what to my sister?” It was the closest Holly had ever come to a shriek.
Alessandro was fairly sure he’d made a tactical blunder. “She’ll like it in the Castle. There’s lots there to kill.”
“When did you put her there?”
“Right after she tried to stake me. And bit me.”
Holly’s angry eyes seemed to fill her face. “What. Time. Did. It. Happen.”
Alessandro balked. The housekeeping spell Holly had laid on the vacuum cleaner suddenly wound down. The motor died with a sickly wheeze.
“Um. This afternoon.”
Holly clenched her teeth. “She’s only human, Alessandro. She doesn’t even have her witch’s powers anymore. She’s my big sister. She used to read me stories.”
He sighed, but it was an angry sound. “What should I have done, Holly? She tried to kill me in my bed. She damned near succeeded.”
Holly dropped into the nearest chair, covering her face with her hands for a moment. He knelt in front of her, sorry that he’d snapped, and captured her hands, one by one, and drew them from her cheeks.
Her eyes were moist, catching the lamplight like stars. “She’s my sister. How could you do that?”
Oh, no. He’d made her cry. It was the first time. A heavy, bleak feeling threatened to crush him to the carpet. “I’m so sorry.”
He could have torn out his own heart then and there. How could I be so stupid? Vampire logic isn’t human logic.
“I don’t know what you should’ve done,” Holly said, her voice thick with tears. “I don’t blame you. You had to do something, and I don’t have any answers. I could kill her myself.”
Confusion washed over him. How could he fix this? “I can go look for her. Bring her home. Right now.”
“No!” She squeezed his hands. “If she doesn’t get you, the guardsmen will!”
Alessandro blinked, his male pride flattened to road kill. “I can look after myself,” he said gently. “I was the queen’s champion swordsman. I’m still pretty good with a blade.”
“Of course you are.”
“I’m in and out of there all the time.” Long enough to toss someone in, at least.
“I know.” Holly closed her eyes, and fell silent.
The house was silent but for the ticking clock. A car whooshed by outside. From the kitchen, the cat was crunching kibble. They were home sounds. Sounds Alessandro had begun to treasure.
Holly swallowed. “I can’t bear to risk you right now.”
“But Ashe . . .”
She shook her head. “I don’t know what to do about her. She’s not the same person I remember, the one I want her to be so badly. It’s like I keep trying to fix her in my mind, fit the old Ashe over the new one, but it doesn’t work.”
“Do you think the sister you remember is inside her somewhere?”
“Goddess knows. I think an awful lot has happened to her over the years, and I know she blames herself for our parents’ deaths.”
“I think she’s angry,” he offered. Was the stake the first clue?
“Whatever. I don’t want her back in this house. Who knows what she’d do next.” Holly let go of his hands and wiped her face dry with her fingers, clearly exhausted. “But we can’t leave her there. Sweet Hecate, I can’t believe my family is fighting like this.”
Alessandro put his hand to her cheek. As always, she felt warm to him, hot and vital. “I’m part of your family?”
She looked at him, her brows drawn together. “Absolutely. The most important part.”
“Thank you.” Then are you really afraid to introduce me at the reunion? Does it bother you that I can’t give you children? Will you still love me when you realize the cost of living with a man who is so different? Who has no family of his own?
He knew some of his doubts were Ashe’s poison at work. Alessandro forced himself to let them go. “What do you want me to do?”
“Just—let Mac deal with it.”
“Mac?” That was the last thing he expected her to say. “What can he do that I can’t?”
Holly shrugged, trying to look casual and missing by a mile. “Finding a missing person is kind of, y’know, cop stuff. He’s trained to talk to crazy people, and Lore said Mac’s going into the Castle, anyway. Plus, Mac owes me.”
“And he’s expendable if Ashe decides to take him out?”
“Of course not!”
“Then why is it okay to risk him?”
“Have you talked to Lore today?”
“No.” He intended to tear the alpha a new one about the hounds’ poor guard duty performance. He had a feeling the hound, like any smart dog with a mess to its name, was making himself scarce.
Holly seemed to slump even more. “Mac’s . . . well, from the sound of it, the demon caught up with him in this other weird way.”
Alessandro’s eyes narrowed. “How weird? In what way?”
“Physically.” Holly told him what Lore had told her.
Unable to sit still any longer, Alessandro got to his feet and started to pace. “I was just beginning to trust Mac. It seems I was wrong.”
“I’m not sure about that. He didn’t sound, y’know, evil.”
For how long? If the demon taint was on a roll, who knew what else might change? “I should have asked this before. Is there any way you can reverse what’s happening to him? Your magic made him half human before.”
Holly shook her head. “That was a complete accident. The only thing I know how to do with demons is fry them to cinders. Pure blunt force. I’d kill him.”
“Then is he powerful enough to deal with your sister? She’s a good fighter.”
“Sounds like he is.”
Alessandro wasn’t sure he liked that answer. He took a few more steps, then stopped. “It isn’t that I want Ashe dead. I hoped putting her in the Castle would teach her a lesson. Show her there are worse things than a vampire trying to keep the town safe. That we’re not . . .” He trailed off, unable to find the right words.
Holly’s expression was sad. “You’re not all evil.”
“Not as long as I have options.”
Alessandro reached down, rubbing away a stray tear from her chin. He was so grateful for her. She made him, if not human, much less of a monster. “You’re sure you don’t want me to handle your sister?”
“No, I’m sure Mac will help, and Ashe doesn’t have a beef with him. It’ll be easier this way.”
“But . . .”
“I’m right about this.”
Alessandro wasn’t so sure. On the positive side, if Ashe and Mac kill each other, that’s two of my problems solved. But he didn’t mean it.
He should have been happy to wash his hands of an annoying situation. He should have liked the blade-clean logic of two dangerous individuals annihilating each other. He didn’t.
He wanted it all to work out, for everyone’s sake. Bloodshed wasn’t the answer.
Novel thought, for a vampire.
Maybe Mac isn’t the only one changing.
Mac ran through the corridors of the Castle at an easy, gliding pace, sword drawn. Dusting through the maze was faster, but that only worked if he knew where he was going. Connie had given him some useful information, but to conduct a search he needed solid contact with his surroundings.
He’d left Connie asleep. After she’d told him what she knew about the guardsmen’s lair, they’d made love again. Twice.
It had sated them both and exhausted her, sending her into a deep, comalike slumber.
He’d held Connie for a long time, studying the soft curves of her face and body. There was no inch of her skin that he hadn’t touched that night, and he knew without doubt he would touch, taste, and claim it again.
His inner caveman beat his chest and roared with jubilation. Today it was good to be Mac the Barbarian.
He stopped at a crossing of corridors. The wavering torchlight showed one hallway curved away to the right. To the left, the stonework had crumbled like a giant fist had punched through the wall. A vast cavern loomed beyond.
Connie had mentioned this place. He hopped up the rubble, using the fallen stones as a stairway to the gaping hole a dozen feet above. The section of missing wall was more than man-height, the thickness of the stones uneven and treacherous. He balanced there, looking into the darkness. A hot, sour wind seemed to rise from below, flowing up the chimneylike cavern. His hair floated away from his face, caught by the breeze. There were fires far, far below, flickering like the stars of an upside-down sky. They called to him, blinking like mysterious eyes. No one, Connie’d said, had ever ventured into those depths.
Maybe he would someday, just to find out what or who lived there. Maybe dragons? A tingle of excitement rippled through him. That would be cool.
He could almost feel the Castle agree. It wanted to be explored. Everything about it spoke of neglect, but who was to say it had to be that way?
Connie had told him Reynard’s tales of collapsing corridors and disappearing rooms. Was there a specific cause, Mac wondered, or was the magic that made the place simply winding down? Were the rumors true at all? He knew how fast a lie could travel around a lockup. Who was to say the Castle was any different?
Still, it was a good reminder to stay alert.
Mac jumped down, landing easily, and kept on walking, following the left-hand corridor. Truth be told, he was enjoying this new body’s stamina. The more he used it, the better it felt. Plus, it seemed to be settling down. His clothes were too tight again, but the change was not as dramatic as before.
Just as well. There was a limit to how much size was actually useful.
He started to run, covering ground in a relaxed lope. The punched-out-wall phenomenon repeated itself a few more times, and then the wall between him and the cavern gave up altogether. Mac ran for about another half hour, barely breathing hard.
In the distance, he could hear the sound of voices. Probably one of the settlements that drifted around the Castle, moving as the warlords claimed and lost territory, established their courts and then surrendered to rivals. Politics in the Castle was an endless chess game, one Mac had been too insignificant to play. Not that he’d wanted to. He’d just wanted out.
The noise grew more distinct, coming from his left across a vast, wild space of crumbled granite. Curiosity tempted him to look. He climbed up an easy slope of rock, pushing higher and higher until he could see the source of the babble.
Not a town, but an encampment. Campfires glimmered, backlighting figures who moved through a forest of tents. Most inhabitants of the Castle lived in its rooms, but a few preferred the open places, living like nomads. By their size and the way they moved, these were werecats. Lions or one of the more exotic species.
Cats tended to roam on the fringes of the main populations, which meant the town proper would be just beyond what he could see. And it can stay there. He’d flown beneath the radar so far. He meant to keep things that way. If this Prince Miru-kai was setting up shop in the area, he had to be careful not to attract attention.
So far he hadn’t run into any other wandering goblins or changelings. The area leading from the Summer Room was as deserted and secret as Connie had claimed. Still, he worried about leaving her alone. He added home security to his mental to-do list. Maybe once she had her son back, she would want to leave the Castle altogether.
Mac resumed his course. Eventually, the Castle grew darker, the torches farther apart, the slope in the floor descending. At the same time, across the floor of the cavern to his right, he saw a honeycomb of caves emerge from the black rock. Scatters of torches appeared here and there, showing signs of habitation.
Mac slowed to a walk. The air was warmer here, drying the light sweat on his body. There were no corridors to his left now, and the path he was on narrowed to a mere walkway, an iron rail guarding against the sheer drop into the cavern. The pit was still deep, but he could see the cavern floor clearly now. This arrangement went on for another fifteen minutes of brisk walking. The light below steadily increased, the torches supplemented with fire pits. Up where he was, there were no torches at all, providing him with a wash of convenient shadow.
A good thing. This part of the cavern was inhabited. Most of the figures walking below were guardsmen, recognizable by their weapons, their size, and the blue tattoos painting their bodies.
Mac allowed himself a wolfish grin. He’d found their headquarters, or at least their clubhouse. The large area directly below was scattered with tables and benches where guards lounged, read, diced, or talked. Rooms opened onto the area, guards coming and going. One in the far corner looked larger and had more traffic, as if it served an official purpose.
Mac finished scanning the scene below, and began examining the rocky expanse higher up. Above the rooms, caves dotted the raw stone face of the wall. Some had bars or gates. Were those cages? Storerooms? From where he was, it was impossible to tell, but either explanation would make sense. Now that he looked closely, networks of open stairways were chipped into the rock, zigzagging up from the floor.
And that was as much as he was going to find out from his present vantage point. He had to get closer.
Mac picked an empty-looking cave that overlooked the busy room below. He took a deep breath and melted to dust, flowing through the shadows and down, down to land in the heart of the enemy’s home.
What have I done? Constance wondered.
It was a simple question. There should have been an easy answer, but like the lady in the song, her demon lover had carried her away with fine promises. The difference was, Mac used a bed rather than a ship.
When they reached the shore again
On the far side of the sea,
Then she spied his cloven hoof
And wept most plaintively.
“What is that mountain yon,” she cried,
“With fire and ice and snow?”
“It is the peaks of hell,” he cried,
“Where you and I must go.”
Mac, however, didn’t seem the seafaring type, and he definitely didn’t have cloven hooves. They were already in hell. The only question that remained was whether he was a trickster.
She had awakened alone, and that worried her. He had asked how to find the guardsmen, but how could she be sure he had gone to keep his promise to bring back her son?
Candles bathed the room in a topaz glow. Constance stared at the ceiling, curling into the warmth left by Mac’s body. He could not have been gone long. His heat still bathed the sheets, and she nestled down like a chick in the nest. She was utterly, thoroughly satisfied in ways she hadn’t known existed. But being awake meant facing the future. Emotions crowded in like street hawkers, all shouting for attention. What should I feel?
During her life, she would have known fear. Girls who gambled their maidenheads away on love risked losing everything: their good name, their employment, their futures. No work meant no food. An unwanted baby all too often meant utter ruin. But that wouldn’t happen now. For one thing, she was Undead, already about as fallen as a woman could get.
He’s a demon. Yes, but she was a vampire, more or less. They were on even footing there.
He’s a stranger. That had more meaning. Some might accuse her of naïveté, of falling prey to temptations of the Summer Room. Her appetites had been muted for far too long, only to burst forth like some unseasonal hothouse blossom.
It was true, she had been quick to surrender, but it had felt perfect. It had been the right combination of gentleness and need, wild
demon dominance and pleasure. Conall Macmillan suited her through and through, better than any romantic fantasy she had spun for her own amusement.
But would he keep his promise to find Sylvius? Constance dangled one hand over the edge to pick up the Castle key tangled in the mess of garments she had tossed to the floor. It felt cold, hard-edged, the opposite of the fine, soft sheets that still bore Mac’s imprint. She turned it over and over, watching the glint of gold in her palm.
She could tell he was in trouble. His demon had taken hold, and there was no telling where that transformation would lead. What had been a mere streak of danger was now barely in check. He needed an anchor, a home. Something to tip the balance between beast and man. Someone with a claim on him.
In the course of their lovemaking, she had made up her mind about one thing. Love was far more important than innocence. The bonds to her dear ones meant more than anything else.
She prayed Mac felt the same. She’d surrendered to their mutual pleasures that night, falling under the spell of his expert caresses. In the most primal ways, he’d made a gift of the womanhood so long denied her. My demon lover.
And yet, as much as she wanted to drown in the languorous haze of lust, her next thoughts had to be of her boy. Whatever Lore said, abandoning Sylvius would make her more of a monster than any blood hunger. If Mac failed her, she would have to find the courage to save her son all on her own. She wasn’t a servant anymore. She didn’t have the luxury of someone else’s protection, nor could she wait for someone to tell her what to do. It was up to her.
She rolled onto her back, holding the key up to the candlelight. If she left the Castle, would she truly become the ravening beast Lore feared? She could not wait long to put her fate to the test.
Please, oh, please, keep your promise.
When Mac rematerialized, he whipped around, sword ready, but saw the cave he was standing in was a storeroom. He was alone.
The first thing he noticed was that it was noisy, sound pouring up from the plateau below. After the silence of Connie’s corner of the Castle, the clamor felt like a physical blow. Most of it was male voices, booming and loud, and the occasional clank of weapons and armor. The context was different, but the mood was a lot like a busy squad room.
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