Desire by Blood

by Schroeder, Melissa

  Elizabeth looked at her, and Cordelia smiled. "Good afternoon."

  "I am not sure there is much good about it, but it is nice to have visitors."

  Adelaide patted Elizabeth’s hand. "Oh, but it is good. You are alive. That is more than any woman who was attacked by a Made has had the joy of saying. Do not waste it."

  She glanced at Adelaide. "I have been disowned by my family and now there are whispers that I am tainted."

  "How do you know that?" Cordelia asked, moving to the other side of the bed.

  "That duke thinks he talks softly, but he does not."

  Cordelia snorted and she saw Elizabeth's lips curve. She winced.

  "You should be careful, or your lip will bleed again," Adelaide said in a motherly voice. "I think it is time to eat."

  Elizabeth's face paled. "I am not sure I can."

  Adelaide sat on the edge of the bed beside Elizabeth. "You can and you will. Cordelia, please order her some tea and dry toast. It is very important that you eat."

  Cordelia hurried to do Adelaide's bidding. She assumed she was being dictatorial because it was the best way to deal with a sick person who did not want to heal. And she had a distinct feeling that Elizabeth hoped that she would die. If not, she was going to help it along.

  After speaking to the footman outside of the door, she came back in the room.

  "What do you care what your stupid parents say?" Adelaide asked.

  She rolled her eyes. Cordelia had thought her family was odd until she married. Now she had a vampire husband and a mother-in-law who had no problems speaking her mind.

  "They are my family." Tears pooled in Elizabeth’s eyes.

  "They sound like they are idiots. Now, I must go down and give the cook my healing herbs for your tea. Cordelia, dear, come talk to Elizabeth."

  With that, Adelaide walked out of the room.

  Cordelia took her mother-in-law's place. "I hope that she did not upset you too much."

  "No, it's just...to be completely shut out of my family. I feel as if I am at sea."

  Cordelia shrugged. "The only contact I have with my family is my sister, and there isn't much."

  Elizabeth took Cordelia’s hand. "Your mother, does she approve?"

  "My mother died in childbirth. I did not even know I was a Carrier until after I married Nico."

  Elizabeth sighed. "I have never gotten along with my family very well. I never actually fit in with them."

  Cordelia sighed. "I know how that is. I came here on my own this year."

  "Without your family? What did they say?"

  “I doubt very much Alex knew I was gone for the first couple of weeks." Her brother wasn’t exactly a caring person.

  "Oh, Alex, the Earl of Collingsworth."

  "Yes." Cordelia smiled. "See there are things that can be worse than having your family disown you."

  Elizabeth smiled, then winced.

  “I am sorry. I will try not to be funny." Cordelia didn’t want to cause the poor girl any more pain.

  "No, it is much better than the duke and Dr. Bingam. They are both so dour. They look at me as if I am a puzzle to solve. I do not like it."

  "I do have a question." Cordelia hoped she wasn’t being too personal.

  "Yes?"

  "Did you fight off a Made? All by yourself?"

  Elizabeth grew serious. "Yes. And I would do it again if I had to."

  "When you are feeling better, would you teach me how to fight? I really don't know how to." If she’d learned anything in the last few days, it was how vulnerable she was in this new world.

  "And why would you think you need to now? You are married and mated. Blackburn should take care of you."

  "I am sure he will, but I want to plan for anything." Cordelia had spent too many years on her own to allow herself to rely solely on a man.

  "I will be happy to, but I am not sure I know where I will be when I am better."

  "Why don’t you move into Nico's townhouse?" she said.

  "What?"

  "You can move in with us." It would be nice to have a friend in the house.

  "That is an excellent idea, Cordelia," Adelaide said as she walked in. A footman followed, pushing the teacart. “Now, we will have something to eat and leave you to rest. I would like for you to move in by the end of the week.”

  Elizabeth gave Cordelia a pleading look. “I have learned that it is best to just go along with anyone who has Blackburn as a surname.”

  “But of course. Come, sit up, dear. Cordelia, could you help her?”

  She did Adelaide’s bidding, doing her best to keep from hurting Elizabeth. Still, she could tell it bothered her a bit.

  As the three of them sat there waiting for Elizabeth to eat, Adelaide chattered on about nothing in particular. Cordelia played along, taking her cues from her mother-in-law. By the time Elizabeth had eaten one piece of toast and drank a cup of tea, her eyes were drooping.

  “I think we need to leave Elizabeth to sleep, Cordelia.” Adelaide stood from her chair.

  “I am sorry,” Elizabeth said, her voice slurred.

  “Don’t be, dear. You get your rest, and we will come back tomorrow.”

  As they left the room, Cordelia could already hear Elizabeth’s even breathing.

  She followed her mother-in-law out, and they sat in the carriage. Cordelia knew she was holding in her thoughts until they were in private, and it did not take long for Adelaide to explode.

  “I want to strangle her parents.”

  There was enough anger in her voice to tell Cordelia it was a good thing they were not near Elizabeth’s parents.

  “How can anyone ignore what has happened to her? How can they leave her?”

  Cordelia shrugged. “Not all families are like yours.”

  “Ours,” she said without taking her attention away from the window.

  “What?”

  “It is ours now. You are part of the family.” Adelaide sighed and looked at her. Her anger drained, but now she saw the pain. “I cannot understand leaving a young woman like that to fend for herself. Not with her background. We do not look at virginity the way the rest of society does. A woman does not have to be a virgin when she marries, but because she was ruined by a Made, and worse, survived by her own hands, she has been left out in the cold by her parents. They are reprehensible.”

  “Maybe they will change their minds.”

  “I doubt it. But they will regret it. I will have Nico ensure they do not have a very successful business season.”

  Cordelia was surprised by her mother-in-law’s words. She was always so kind to the people around her. “You would do that?”

  Adelaide looked her in the eye. “She is their daughter, and they have disowned her. And, let’s remember, for something that was not her fault. No, they deserve what they get.”

  “Remind me never to make you mad.”

  She studied Cordelia for a moment then she threw her head back and laughed. “Every day I am reminded that Nico chose very wisely.”

  She opened her mouth to say that Nico did not choose her, but the carriage shuddered to a stop.

  Something tickled at the back of her neck. Something close to panic.

  “Why are we stopping? We could not have made it home so fast.”

  Before her mother-in-law could respond, there was a shout.

  “Oh, that does not sound good,” Adelaide said, leaning toward the window. A sense of foreboding filled Cordelia. She would never be able to explain it to anyone if they asked, but the sense that something was very, very wrong swept through her.

  “No, don’t.” She closed her eyes as a wave of nausea washed over. “You need to stay here.”

  There was a struggle on top of the coach. It jolted from side to side. There was a loud gunshot and the door opened. A nasty looking fellow leaned into the cab.

  “Here she is, fellows!”

  The short, fat little man was dirty, as if he had been rolling around the streets. When he smiled,
yellow teeth took up half his face. His eyes were small and so brown they were almost black. Fear rolled through her as he reached for her, his fingers grasping at her skirt and tugging. She could not do anything but act on instinct. With more force than she thought she had, she raised her foot and kicked the man in the stomach. Her mother-in-law started hitting him with her parasol.

  “Bloody hell,” he screamed, falling back and releasing her skirt.

  Before the door closed, the carriage was taking off into the gloom of a late London afternoon.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Nico and Malik were sitting in his library, enjoying a brandy, when a commotion rose in the hall.

  “We need someone dispatched to get Dr. Bingam right now,” Cordelia said, her voice rather loud and echoing down the hall.

  At the sound of his wife’s voice, Nico was on his feet and hurrying out the door. Sheer terror raced through his blood before he finally saw Cordelia standing in the hall. She was directing the footmen to bring in one of the guards.

  She must have spotted him out of the corner of her eye. Without hesitation, she ran to him, and he wrapped his arms around her.

  “What happened?” Nico looked around at the chaos surrounding him. Obviously, something very bad had happened.

  “We were attacked and John was shot. We need to bring him into the library.”

  He nodded and waved the men into his library.

  He kept his arm around her waist, but he ushered her into the room. John looked okay. He had a bit of blood on his sleeve, but being a Born, he had a strong constitution.

  “What are you doing sitting up? We need Dr. Bingam to look at you,” Cordelia admonished John. She shook off Nico’s arm, and he did not like that. In fact, he almost pulled her back against him, but realized that would not go over well. She was standing over John, her hands on her hips.

  John didn’t know what to do from the look on his face. He wanted to tell her to leave him alone, but because she was the lady of the house, and more importantly, Nico’s wife, he would never tell her that.

  “Cordelia.” He waited until she looked at him. What he saw broke his heart. Fear still darkened her eyes. “John is a vampire. He is not going to die from a flesh wound.”

  She glanced back down at John, and her face flushed. “I am sorry, John.”

  He shook his head. “Do not worry, my lady. It is nice to have you concerned about me.”

  She nodded but said nothing else. Nico could tell she was barely holding on to her emotions. Her embarrassment was easy to see, but he could also sense she was still recovering from the aftereffects of the attack.

  John left, and for the first time, he noticed his mother was being calmed by his father. Not much upset his mother, since she had nerves of steel. For her to be so upset, it must have been bad.

  “Tell me what happened.”

  Stuart, the driver, stepped up. “Sorry for this, sir. We did not even see the problem until it was upon us. They used a ruse to stop the carriage. A false accident,” he said, his voice ripe with self-disgust. “I should have seen it. The gunshot was an accident from what I can tell.”

  “What were they after?” he asked.

  Stuart looked at Cordelia.

  He nodded. “Thank you, Stuart. You can go now.”

  Stuart nodded and closed the door behind him.

  Nico took a few moments to bring his rage under control. He did not want his mother or Cordelia to think that he was mad at them. But, the extra time did not seem to work.

  “What the bloody hell is going on!”

  His mother gave him a withering look. Cordelia’s eyes widened, then narrowed.

  “Do not take that tone with me, Nico. It isn’t our fault. It was starting to get dark, yes, but it wasn’t that dark. And we escaped with no damage.”

  “Except for John.”

  She frowned. “Of course. John.”

  She looked toward the door.

  “Don’t even think about going to check on him again. He’s fine.” He glanced at his mother. “Borns or Mades?”

  Cordelia answered. “These were not vampires.”

  “How would you know?” Malik asked bluntly. Nico had forgotten his friend was still there.

  “Give me some credit. The one man we saw was not a vampire. He was short, probably shorter than I am, and he was dirty.”

  “We are not immune to shortness or filthy in our ranks,” Malik countered. “In fact, Mades could come from any walk of life.”

  “Of course. But his eyes were not green like yours. And he did not have the strength. The man who grabbed my dress was not a man who could have broken down a door,” she retorted, her eyes hot with anger.

  Nico glanced at his friend and noticed his lips twitching.

  “So, they were human. But why?” Nico asked.

  “Could the bad Made have hired him?” Cordelia asked.

  “Possibly, but I don’t think so. He would want someone who is beholden to him for more than some gold pieces,” Malik said.

  Before they could discuss it more, there was a knock at the door.

  “Come,” he said.

  “Lady Diana is here to see her sister, and she is in quite a state,” James said. Before Nico could respond, Cordelia’s sister rushed in to the room.

  “There you are,” she said and ran to Cordelia. For a moment, Nico thought she might hug Cordelia, but at the last moment, she stopped. “You are not harmed.”

  Her voice was filled with relief.

  “What are you talking about Diana?” Cordelia asked. “You look like you ran all the way here.”

  “Alex sent a footman with a note saying you had been abducted.”

  Silence filled the room. He shared a glance with Malik, then he looked at his wife. It took only a moment for her to understand just what had happened. At that moment, he wanted to wipe away the pain he saw shift over her face before she hid it.

  “You say you received a note from your brother? He is in town?” Nico asked.

  Diana nodded, not taking her gaze from Cordelia. “I did not know until his footman showed up with the note. I am just happy that it was all some kind of sick joke.”

  He shared another glance with Malik. This had not been a joke.

  Nico turned to Cordelia. “Why don’t you, mother, and your sister take some tea? Malik and I have some business to discuss with my father.”

  Both his mother and Cordelia gave him knowing looks. “Of course,” his mother said finally, but her tone told him that she knew exactly what was going on. Diana followed his mother, but he grabbed Cordelia and pulled her to stand in front of him.

  She was looking down at the ground. He slipped his finger beneath her chin and raised her head to meet his gaze.

  “Whatever your brother did does not reflect on you.”

  She looked into his eyes, and he had the idea that she was trying to read his thoughts. Then she nodded and followed his mother and her sister.

  As soon as the door shut, Malik asked, “What do you know about your bastard brother-in-law?”

  “That he’s the only one who is the true son of the late earl. And that he owes everyone in town,” Nico said. “Not to mention that he left his sister to her own devices here in London.”

  “If he knew she was here,” Malik commented. “I have a feeling your wife did just about anything she wanted to.”

  “I think we need to pay him a visit.”

  “Do you know where he is staying?” his father asked.

  “More than likely he is in the townhouse now.”

  Malik nodded. “Let’s go take care of him.”

  * * * *

  Cordelia was looking out the window when the tea tray arrived. She knew it was too late to have afternoon tea, and they had already had tea earlier, but Adelaide was of the belief that everything could be solved with a good cup of tea. It had worked on her sister. Diana was the typical British lady, stuffing her emotions down until it was like they did not exist.

&nbs
p; When she burst into the house earlier, it was the first true emotion Cordelia had seen her sister display since she’d been married.

  “Do come and have a little bit to eat, Cordelia,” Adelaide said.

  She wanted to say no and keep pouting. How could you face people who knew the worst about your family? Her brother had sent people to abduct her. For money.

  “Cordelia?”

  She finally turned and did her mother-in-law’s bidding.

  “I do not know what Alex was thinking. He never did have a proper sense of humor,” Diana said.

  A nervous laugh escaped before she could stop it. Diana looked at her as if she had lost her mind.

  “Sorry, but only you would think there is a proper sense of humor.”

  “What do you mean by that?” Diana asked. There was an edge to her voice but Cordelia did not heed it.

  “I mean that there is no proper sense of humor. There is no guidebook that says what is right and what is wrong.”

  Diana sniffed. Cordelia realized she might have hurt her sister’s feelings.

  “I am sorry, Diana. I did not mean to be cruel.”

  Diana shook her head. “No you never do mean it.”

  There was a beat of silence that stretched into awkwardness. Cordelia sat forward and placed her hand on Diana’s knee. “I truly am sorry, Diana.”

  Diana looked down at Cordelia’s hand, and there was a moment where Cordelia almost pulled it back. But Diana laid her hand over Cordelia’s.

  That seemed to give Diana the courage to speak. “You do not truly know how cruel he could be. I know he wasn’t that nice to you, but when we were growing up…” she trailed off, shut her eyes, and shook her head.

  “Go on.” Cordelia had never seen Diana so upset.

  “Alex took delight in scaring me. And father egged him on.”

  “Oh, Diana.”

  She looked up at her. “Do not pity me. Do not. Mother did chastise Alex, when father wasn’t around.”

  Cordelia was truly not surprised by this information. “He is not a nice person.”