A high-pitched whine rent the air. The stallion blew his nostrils in protest, but was too well-trained to make a fuss. The lad looked far more unsettled.
“Don’t start to rub him down until I’ve quietened Sannon,” Kelan said before hurrying to the kennels around the back of the main building. He’d fenced this section off when Lily had moved in with him and, sure enough, he found Greyston slowly retreating from the six-foot fence, staring at the wolfhound as she ran a short, frantic path up and down in front of him on the other side.
There was no more barking, just the intermittent low growls and ear-piercing yelps.
“She won’t calm as long as she has your scent,” Kelan called out.
Greyston turned on him, increasing the pace of his retreat. “It’s my blood, isn’t it?”
“She’s been trained to sniff out demons,” Kelan confirmed, drawing him around the corner and all the way up the front steps to the porch. “We use wolfhounds to patrol the London Dirigible Station, to ensure no demons attempt to board for the cross-Atlantic route.”
“Have you ever caught a demon trying?”
Kelan shook his head. “Not once.”
“Are you sure about that?” Greyston said. “Take the Winterberry demon, Agares. Are any of its victims aware when they’ve lost control over their own minds and actions? And what about other demons with the power of time sifting, as you call it. If a demon rewound time after a failed attempt to board, you’d never know it had happened.”
“You have me there.” He gave Greyston a hard, probing look. Did the man have any idea how unnerving his ability was? He had the power to mess with lives without the owners even being aware.
Has he messed with mine?
He quelled that unease immediately, knowing therein lay the path to madness.
“As for mind control…” He rolled up his sleeve to bare his forearm and turned it outward to show the tattoo inked with a mixture of black dye and blood. “My men all wear the protection rune. It doesn’t prevent physical harm, but is effective at warding off almost everything else. We’re not susceptible to demon influences.”
Greyston took a closer look at the linked loops covering his inner forearm. “Does Lily have one?”
“No.”
“You don’t think she needs protection?” Greyston pulled back with a noise of disgust. “Or is that another special McAllister privilege?”
“I realise you don’t like me very much.” Kelan rolled down his sleeve, noting the anger fisting Greyston’s brow and blackening his scowl. “It would help, though, if you could learn to trust my judgement.”
“If your judgement’s anything like your uncle’s—”
“I never approved of what Duncan did to you and Lily. To any of those children. I never approved of using innocent people in our war. But there it is.” Kelan turned from him, trying to understand his resentment, knowing he hadn’t been much younger than Greyston when he’d finally buried his own.
A beat passed before he put his back to the wall. He folded his arms and raised a brow on Greyston. “I’m happy to shoulder the blame of my kin. That doesn’t mean it won’t save lives, possibly yours, if you’ll trust me where it counts.”
Greyston owed him no loyalty but without it, Greyston would do more harm than good.
“You came back for Lily,” he went on, “but I need you to stay for a whole lot more than her.”
“I’m not one of your noble soldiers.”
“Neither are you as uncaring as you put about.”
“Don’t presume to know my character.”
“If you insist on doubting my every motive and action, then you’d be better off doing it from afar. Hesitancy kills just as quickly as ignorance and you have too much of both. You’re of no use to me if I can’t trust you. And if you can’t trust me, then you’re nothing more than an additional risk to Lily and the rest of us.”
“Softening me up with insults?” Greyston moved along the porch and turned his back on Kelan to lean down with his elbows on the railing, muttering, “Original, I’ll give you that.”
There was more muttering beneath his breath, which Kelan chose to ignore. His gaze went to the stables down the end of the courtyard. Sannon had quietened and the stable boy, Peter, had led Burr inside one of the stalls. A strong wind was chasing a bank of dark clouds inland from the ocean.
He wondered idly, which would come first: Greyston’s decision or the storm? And what would drive that decision? Lily, the McAllisters, or a sense of honour to his fellow man?
“My demon blood doesn’t self-heal,” Greyston called out, slowly straightening.
Kelan watched as he strolled closer. “You’re not limping.”
“Some days are better than others.” He raked his fingers through his hair, avoiding Kelan’s eyes for a long minute. “I time-ran last night to boost my body with demon energy. I thought if anything would work…”
Kelan’s spine stiffened. “When, exactly? What did you rewind?”
“Nothing that involved you.”
And you’d tell me if it had? But Greyston had made his decision; he’d opened the door to trust between them. Kelan realised he also had a decision to make.
Still, he couldn’t refrain from pointing out, “In future, when you sift time in the presence of people who’re aware of your ability, it would be polite to inform them without delay.”
“I’ll bear that in mind.”
An extended silence hung between them, an assessing, judging silence, then Greyston surprised him by saying, “It doesn’t matter how many times I rewind incidents in your life, Kelan. You’re in complete control of what you do and how you live that moment, each time around. I have no power over you just because I can reset an event back half an hour.”
Kelan’s opinion of the rash, reckless twenty-two-year-old reformed as that insight sank in. That was the crux of his unease, after all. Losing the grasp of control on his life. But Greyston was right. The man might have some added advantages second time around, but no one but Kelan could govern his own actions, thoughts, deeds.
He rubbed his forearm, reconsidering only for a moment before sharing his reasoning with Greyston. “The protection rune is very much a demon shield. A barrier to mask the scent of demon, block demon energy, and the like. It would be pure poison to Lily’s demon blood and I’m not sure how her body would react.”
“You think it might be dangerous?”
Kelan nodded. In the name of complete honesty, he added, “I’m equally loathe to have her visions blocked.”
“Naturally.” Greyston’s bark lacked its usual bitter edge.
“Tattoos can be removed by branding over the ink,” Kelan said. “But it’s a painful process and I felt, for the meantime at least, she could be spared that possibility.”
“You have me now.”
“What?” Kelan grinned at the offer. “You’re no longer averse to offering yourself up as a McAllister lab rat?”
“There’s a difference between me offering and me being used without consent.”
“Noted,” Kelan said and left it there, before the offer was rescinded.
He’d barely put foot inside the hallway when Lily tumbled from the library doorway and almost into his arms.
He caught her at the waist before she toppled backward in her haste to avoid the collision. The slender curves beneath his fingers sent a slow awareness heating through his blood. An unfortunate side effect since that kiss, a responsibility he acknowledged and didn’t wholly regret. His gaze dipped to her sensual lips and his hands slid a little lower, a fleeting exploration to the flare of her hips an instant before he stood back and dropped his arms.
“Careful there,” he murmured, dragging his gaze up. His self-indulgent mood crashed when he saw the wild look in her eyes. “What is it?”
“Agares! I was searching— I looked through the demon glass,” she exclaimed, her cheeks flushed with the excitement of whatever she was trying to get out.
“You saw Agares?”
“In London.” She sucked in a couple of deep breaths. “With the queen, Kelan.” Her gaze shot past him. “The demon is in London!”
Alerted to the ruckus, Greyston framed the doorway behind him, leaning a shoulder against the doorjamb. “Queen Victoria and a demon?”
“What were they doing?” Kelan asked.
Her eyes came back to him. “Taking tea!”
“Alone? Where were they?”
“I don’t know. Not in any of the receiving rooms I’ve been admitted to at Buckingham Palace. But it was a sitting room in a residence rather than a public place. And no, they weren’t alone. There were others, groupings of men conversing and servants coming and going. But Agares was seated at a small table with the queen, just the two of them.”
“Red silk hangings on the wall; a dark red, close to maroon,” Kelan said. “Same colour drapes and above the fireplace there’s a tapestry of woods, an elk or something nibbling from a branch.”
Lily nodded. “You’ve been there?”
“It’s the queen’s receiving chambers for official state business at Kensington Palace,” Kelan informed them, shifting slightly to include Greyston. “She holds two morning teas every month, one for the House of Commons and another for the House of Lords.”
“We must leave for London at once,” Lily said, her high state of anxiety pushing out with each flustered breath. “I will not have that demon there with my aunt, with Evelyn… Dear Lord, I can barely think of what might happen. Everyone I know is in mortal danger.”
“No one is in mortal danger. Not yet.” Kelan put a hand on her shoulder, his thumb gently massaging the tension bunched there. “The demon hasn’t gone to the trouble of ingratiating itself in such prestigious, influential company just to decimate the aristocracy.”
Her eyes glazed into his. “We’ve already seen what it can, and will, do.”
“Yes,” he agreed in a calming tone, “and it doesn’t need the queen’s help to do so.” He gave Lily’s shoulder a reassuring squeeze before dropping his hand. “I’ll alert my men in London to the situation.”
“You’ll need to know what Agares looks like now.” Lily started to describe the reed-thin build of a man with ginger whiskers, then cut herself off. “This one’s features are distinctive enough for me to draw.”
She trotted down the passage, leaving the men to stare after her.
Kelan tilted his head, his jaw softening as he watched that elegant bustle bobbing at the small of her back. “She draws?”
“Quite impressively.” Greyston’s grin was undeniably smug. “She hasn’t shown you any of her art?”
“It’s not as if we’ve been engaged in leisurely pursuits while you’ve been gone,” Kelan muttered, irritated at no one other than himself for feeling somewhat excluded. It was one thing to admire the lady’s charms, but this wasn’t a competition and Greyston was welcome to Lily and her intimacies.
“So,” demanded Greyston, “what the blazes is Agares up to?”
“That,” Kelan told him, “is what I intend to find out. Although I’m not convinced the demon is Agares. Up until a few weeks ago, Agares was Winterberry’s wife. That’s not enough time for it to engage a new persona in any pursuits that lead to taking tea with the queen.”
“Perhaps it possessed the body of an existing parliamentary member,” Greyston suggested.
“Demons don’t possess people,” Kelan said. “They claim their human shape when they pass through the tear. It may look and feel human, but that’s nothing more than a shell. A normal human body couldn’t contain the fully-fledged essence of a demon.”
“What about Agares compelling minds to its bidding? It can make everyone believe it is whomever it wishes.”
“In a contained environment, I suppose.”
Just then Lily returned with a large sketchbook tucked under her arm and a hemp purse clutched in the other hand.
“It would need to exert that control across the breadth of England from which the constituency members are drawn and for an extended period,” Kelan continued as they followed her into the library. “That’s highly improbable.”
“What’s highly improbable?” Lily asked, settling herself on the sofa with her sketchpad propped open over her knees. She selected a stick of charcoal from the purse before glancing up.
“We’re discussing the range of Agares’ mind control.” Greyston seated himself beside her.
“You think it could cast a spell over the whole of London?” she exclaimed, her gaze darting between Kelan and Greyston. “Turn everyone into puppets?”
“I’ll raise my ‘highly improbable’ to ‘absolutely impossible,’” Kelan drawled, going to stand behind the sofa so he could peer over Lily’s shoulder. “Panic is never the best course of action.”
“I’m not panicking,” she retorted, her hand flying across the paper as she sketched with light strokes. “I’m worrying.”
Before long, a face took shape beneath the charcoal shading and it was one Kelan recognised. “I’ve seen him in the commons.”
“Who is it?”
“We’re not personally acquainted.” Kelan reached over, collecting the sketchpad from her lap in order to study the image. “I think he is a member of parliament, probably from one of the lesser constituencies. Which would explain his attendance at Queen Victoria’s tea.”
Greyston turned to look at him. “Could it be Agares?”
“Why wouldn’t it be?” Lily said.
“You sure this man you saw…” Kelan walked around the sofa and chose a vacant armchair in front of them. “Are you sure he is a demon?”
“As sure as I was of the Glasgow demons,” she said, frowning. “Blurred around the edges. Oh, and stinky.”
Greyston shouted out a strangled laugh. “Stinky?”
She rolled her eyes, a little smile playing at the corners of her mouth. “It’s not really funny. The smell is rancid and piercing, like a physical presence, and sometimes it feels as if it’s not even coming off the demon, but as if it’s my own insides rotting.” Her fledgling smile faltered. “Rather unpleasant, as you might imagine.”
“Armand mentioned you’d looked ill after the last time,” Kelan said, wondering if he’d dismissed the man’s observation prematurely.
“You could be making yourself seriously sick,” Greyston muttered.
“It’s only while I’m looking through the demon glass and I’m fine within minutes afterwards,” she said quickly. “Now, can we please get back to Agares?”
“This man has been around for the better half of a year.” Kelan glanced at the sketch again, feeling a raw burn churning at own gut. Damnation, each day brought another discovery, each worse than the last. “Which means a demon has been sitting in parliament for six months, right beneath my nose. This—” he tossed the sketchpad onto the table between them “—is not Agares.”
“So, again we have at least two demons running around.” Lily screwed her eyes at him. “Why would a demon want a seat in parliament?”
“The bastards want to take over the running of the country,” Greyston said darkly.
“That’s very ambitious, even for a demon,” Kelan said. “They may just want to get one or two laws passed in their favour. Which is where the demon parlaying with the queen becomes dangerous.”
“The House of Commons can put laws forward,” Greyston said, “but they must be passed by the House of Lords.”
“And Queen Victoria has made herself a mediator between the groups, in particular encouraging those laws she has a vested interest in.”
“With Agares’ mind control,” Lily added, “swaying the queen won’t be difficult.”
Kelan sighed. “Except this is not Agares.”
Lily popped up from the sofa. “I have to warn Evelyn.”
“The Harchings House Signaller isn’t secure,” Kelan said. “How do you think Devon will react when he learns you’re sending messages of demons to his wife?”
/> “I have to do something!”
Kelan stood. “We have this description and we know where to start looking. I’ll have my men locate and put a tail on the demon.”
“Are they not capable of banishing it?” Greyston wanted to know.
“This demon doesn’t know we’re onto it,” Kelan said. “If there’s a greater plan in play, we’ll never have a better opportunity to discover what that is and how to unravel it.”
“And until then?” asked Lily. “We sit here and do nothing?”
“I’m off to London,” Kelan said.
“So am I,” she declared.
“Like hell you are,” barked Greyston, jumping up from the sofa.
She spun about to confront him. “I’m not hiding out here while there’s a demon roaming the streets where my family and friends walk.”
“You forget the trail of your shredded reputation. If you show up in London without a plausible story, you’ll never restore it.”
“I don’t care.”
“Of course you care.”
“And you don’t give a fig about any of that. You’re only interested in keeping me safely hidden until this all goes away.” Her voice pitched and quivered. “It’s not going away, Greyston. Don’t you see? It’s never going away unless we help to make that happen.”
“You can look through your damn demon glass from here and Aether Message the details to London.”
“That’s not always viable. Why the blazes do you think I went to Glasgow in the first place?”
Kelan let the heated conversation go a few more rounds before stepping in.
“There was purpose to my uncle ensuring the children he transfused with demon blood came from influential families. Power. Connections. Freedom. All the ingredients required to be efficient and effective.” He grimaced at Lily. “And negated, unfortunately, if you’re cast out of society.”
“Thank you.” Greyston turned to Lily. “Have you considered Evelyn in this matter? She’d never forsake you, and she’ll end up being tarred with the same brush when she welcomes you with open arms.”
Lily blanched.
“There is a solution,” Kelan said decisively. “Lily must marry.”
The Dark Matters Quartet Page 35