I sat down at the desk and put my head in my hands. Life couldn't get much more complicated if it tried. I really hoped it didn't try.
I looked up as a thin ribbon of sound curled through the still air of the warm afternoon and felt my heart give a little leap as I realised my wolves were in the woods behind the Château. They came and went as they pleased, and I never knew when I'd see them again but they often seemed to appear when I was at a low ebb, as though they knew I needed the comfort of their presence. I'd never been able to explain why it was that they had such an effect on my mood. It was just like they were family and it's always comforting to have your family around you. Well ... sometimes.
I ran out of the Château and into the sunshine, relishing the feeling of the warmth on my face. It occurred to me that it had been a very long time since I had ventured outside just for the pleasure of it, and I suddenly realised how much the landscape had changed over the past weeks. The meadows were alive with flowers, the birds and frogs singing like mad, as though they were all competing to make the most noise, though the effect was joyous and vibrant rather than raucous.
I ran over the gravel, hearing it scrunch beneath my feet and had just reached the lawn when they broke from the edge of the woods and ran towards me. They yipped and howled and leaped up in excitement, each of them clamouring for my attention and pushing me over in their exuberance. The biggest wolf, the alpha, was a massive grey beast, and he snuffled his wet nose into the little hollow beneath my ear. I squealed and laughed pushing him away and then reached over to pull him back for a hug, ruffling the thick fur on his head.
“Oh I am so pleased to see you,” I said, kissing his wiry coat and pressing my face to his for a moment. There was a throaty huff which I took for a pleased response. I looked into the warmth of his eyes and felt his name flicker through my thoughts. It was so close I could almost sense the shape of it on my tongue, yet try as I might, I couldn't bring it to mind. I looked around and realised their numbers had grown. There were five of them now. I remembered the vision I had once been granted of myself in the Underworld. There had been many wolves at my feet, including the three that had first come to me last year. I looked around at each of them in turn and felt a pang of recognition with every face, the same sensation of their names being just beyond my grasp. The harder I tried, the further they slid from my mind.
“Bleedin' 'ell, luv!” exclaimed an unmistakable voice behind me. “Those are your wolves then?”
I turned to Rodney and nodded, gesturing for him to come closer. “Come and say hello.”
He grimaced and shook his head. “Nah, yer all right. I'll stay over 'ere.”
I laughed at him, shaking my head. “They won't bite, Rodney.” I grinned. “Not unless I tell them to,” I added, winking at him. I realised as I said it that this was true. They would protect or defend me if it was required ... or if I ordered it.
There was a snort of amusement but he didn't budge and a blur of colour exploded behind him as Kai came tearing out of the Château with a shout of excitement and bounded towards the wolves like an overgrown puppy. A moment later, and he was wrestling with the alpha, laughing his head off while the big wolf played good-naturedly with him. Kai sat up and beamed at me, and I sighed as I saw he had changed and was now wearing one of my favourite T-shirts. And my earrings. And from the blue glitter sparkling on his eyelids it looked like he'd discovered my make-up too. I was really going to have to take him shopping for his own things soon.
“OK, I'm going for a walk. Anyone coming?” I asked.
The wolves and Kai bounded to their feet, but Rodney shrugged and gave me a wave. “See yer later, luv. I'm goin' to get some kip.”
We waved at him and walked out into the grounds of the Château with the wolves running ahead of us. As we walked, just quietly enjoying the sunny afternoon, I noticed that Kai would occasionally pick something up, a stone, a feather, an empty shell, and hold it to his ear with an expression of concentration on his face.
“What are you doing?” I asked, too curious to let it go any longer as he reached for a pine cone. He looked at me astonishment.
“Listening to the magic,” he replied, as though it was obvious.
I frowned at him, intrigued. “What?”
His eyebrows shot up as he realised I didn't know what he was talking about. “Magic in all things, Jéhenne,” he said, giving me a curious look.
I nodded. This wasn't news to me, in fact it had been something that Corin had taught me last year. The memory stirred a surge of affection for him, and I realised that I missed him. I wondered where he was now. I stopped in my tracks, totally bewildered. Where had that come from? I hated him. I ...
“Listen, Jéhenne.”
I looked up, torn from my thoughts just as a headache began to cluster at my temples. Thinking of Corin always made my head ache. I figured it was stress.
I took the pine cone that Kai offered me and held it to my ear, feeling only slightly idiotic. I shook my head and laughed at him.
“Nope.”
Kai snatched it back with a frown and held it to his own ear, as though to reassure himself. He sighed with relief as whatever it was he heard became apparent to him.
“What can you hear?” I asked, disappointed that it hadn't worked for me.
He closed his eyes. “The wind through branches, birds calling, sap rising, spring moving through the trees.”
“You can hear all that?” I exclaimed, impressed.
“Much more than that.” He nodded, his face solemn. “It is all life. Is magic.”
I looked at him with new respect and wondered once again if I had underestimated him. The magic he had performed in the cage for Corvus was complicated, like nothing I had seen before. I wondered just what else he could do.
I figured now was as good a time as any to broach the delicate subject that I'd been avoiding. I really didn't want to but ...
“You really like Rodney then?” I asked, with an enquiring lift of my eyebrows.
His face, usually open and easily readable became wary, and he avoided my eyes becoming very interested in a small stream that was burbling beside us as we left the Château gardens and headed towards the meadow that led to the lake.
“He is ... nice,” he said after a pause, apparently choosing his words with care.
“Yes,” I agreed, watching the wolves disappear into the long meadow grass. “Amelia thinks so too.”
A frown flickered across his face, and I pulled on his arm, forcing him to stop.
“I know how you feel about him, Kai, but he loves her. They've been through a lot.”
He shrugged, not looking at me, and I stood in front of him, forcing him to look me in the eyes.
“Kai?”
He blinked rapidly, and I could see his eyes were too bright as he turned to look at me. “She has family, thousands of her kind. She has you and many friends and Rodney,” he said, and I was taken aback by the defiance of his words. “I ... I have no one,” he said and I heard the catch in his voice before he turned and ran away from me.
“Crap,” I said with feeling as I watched him disappear into the woods. I really, really sucked at the touchy feely stuff. I sighed as the wolves bounded back to me to see what was going on. “Well congratulations, Jéhenne,” I muttered. “Another successful conversation achieved today.” With a sense of gloom, I carried on in the direction of the lake and wondered who I'd get to piss off next.
As it turned out I didn't have long to wait.
***
I looked at the large chocolate cake Inés had dropped off earlier and sat on my hands hoping that this might put me off reaching for a second piece. I snorted and reached for the cake slice. Who was I trying to kid? I was too depressed to care. The cake was halfway to my mouth when Cain walked in with Lucas behind him. His usually gruff expression was presently downright scary, and I put the cake down, appetite gone, and looked to Lucas in alarm.
“What ... What is it?” I stam
mered, getting to my feet. “Is Corvus ...” Cain waved me back into my seat with a shake of his head. I thought my heart might have started beating again. Possibly.
“It isn't Corvus, Jéhenne. Something has happened and we need to speak to you.”
My stomach dropped at his tone of voice. Whatever it was, it wasn't good.
“Then speak,” I said, hearing the tremor in my voice. I had a bad feeling I really wasn't going to like this.
Cain sat down and cleared his throat. “The vampire Senate is presently in Europe, Greece to be exact and then they'll be moving onto Italy.”
“So?” I frowned at him and looked at Lucas, curious as to why he was looking so anxious. “What has this got to do with me?”
Cain sighed and ran his hand through his hair making it stick up in all directions. “Lucas has not informed the Senate of the change in circumstances to the family here.”
I glanced at Lucas again who had his arms folded. “It was what Corvus instructed me to do in the letter he left.” I frowned at him, wondering why he was on the defensive.
“Yes I know, we agreed it was best to keep it quiet for as long as possible. So ...?” I prompted.
“Corvus did this to give you time to adjust, to get used to your position as Master with no opposition,” Cain continued. “And in usual circumstances you would have had at least a year until the next Senate meeting that Corvus was due to attend. Then you would have been well-established and had time to understand a great deal more of everything that being Master requires.”
The tremor of unease had moved on, and I now felt like someone had slid a block of ice into my stomach. None of this sounded remotely like a good thing.
“Right,” I said. “So the Senate meeting was moved up, and I have to be there.” My voice shook with the words which was nothing compared to how I was feeling. The idea of having to present myself to the most powerful vampires on the planet and explain what had happened to Corvus ... Not my idea of a fun night. “So when is it?” I demanded, expecting the worst.
“Last night,” Cain said, his expression grim.
“What?” I was torn between relief at having missed it and terror at the look in Cain's eyes. Somehow I didn't think an apology note was going to fix things.
“You were just leaving for Tartarus when I got the summons, Jéhenne,” Lucas said. “I knew you wouldn't go, and I didn't want to give you something else to worry about.”
I nodded and smiled at him, I figured this was why he was so on edge. “It's OK, Lucas, I understand. You did the right thing.”
“The point is,” Cain carried on. “Corvus will have been missed. They'll have no idea why they've had no contact from him and their suspicions are bound to have been raised.”
I just waited. Cain never gave me all the bad news in one go. The real shit was yet to come.
“They're going to come here, Jéhenne. It's inevitable.”
OK, well, maybe that wasn't so bad. I mean if I had to explain myself perhaps it would be better to do it on home ground. “Right, so they come, we explain and they go away again,” I said hopefully. The expressions from both men were not encouraging.
“Jéhenne,” Cain said, and the gentleness in his voice made every alarm bell ring on full alert. “You are not truly a vampire. You will have to prove yourself. There are tests, there is a vast amount of knowledge you must possess about their ways, their laws. The responsibilities of a Master are many and numerous, and I think ... they will be especially harsh on you in the circumstances.”
“I'll fail,” I said, finally understanding what he was trying to tell me.
He didn't say anything but he didn't disagree either. I looked at Lucas.
“I will help you, Jéhenne,” he said. “If you work hard it is ... possible.”
“Possible but not likely?” I clarified and swallowed as I saw him pause and then give a slight nod. I felt pain in the palms of my hands and realised my fists were clenched. I forced my fingers to straighten and took a breath. “And if I fail, what then?”
Lucas hesitated.
“What then?” I demanded.
“Then the Mastership of the Albinus family will be open to all-comers. There will be many who vie for the position.”
“And what about the family?” I said, my voice becoming strident as I got closer to the edge of losing my temper. Flames flickered at my wrists, and I stood up to try and avoid doing too much damage while I fought to keep my temper under control. “Don't the family get any say in this?”
Lucas shook his head. “None.”
“We need Corvus back,” I said, my desperation for him only too evident in my voice. I saw the glance that was exchanged between them and slammed my fist on the table sending sparks showering in all directions. “We need him back!” I screamed. I refused to let them write him off.
“Jéhenne, we have weeks, maybe a couple of months if we're lucky before they get here. You've seen Corvus now, the chances of him being back to himself in time are simply not worth considering,” Cain said, his voice calm and emotionless. I wanted to slap him. “You must do everything you can to be ready but we must also prepare for the worst. If you fail you will be rejected, removed from the family and Corvus ...”
He stopped talking and it felt as if my heart stopped with his words.
“No!” I shouted in fury. “Never!” I turned on both of them. “Hear me now and listen very carefully because I mean every word. I will personally execute every fucking vampire in the Senate and escort them to the depths of Tartarus to rot before I let anyone lay a hand on Corvus.” There was a rumble through the Château at the power of my words, and I suddenly felt every vampire in the family on edge, as though waiting for me to give the word to attack something ... anything. They wanted to kill for me. I could even see it in Lucas' eyes, that and a growing awe at power that even he had never guessed at. Cain met my gaze, and I could see he understood. I wouldn't be moved on this. There would be no discussion. I would do my best to pass their tests but if I failed ... If I failed I would send the family to war against the Senate before I let anyone else take Corvus' family from him ... from me.
Chapter 16
The atmosphere in the kitchen was now tense to say the least, but something else bothered me. I glared at Cain.
“Why are you telling me all this?” I demanded, willing my suspicions to be wrong because I was so far from feeling tolerant right now that pissing me off was a seriously bad idea. I leaned forward, my arms braced on the table top, my eyes on his. “This is vampire business, why am I hearing it from you?”
Cain’s eyes slid to Lucas and Lucas looked shifty as hell. He let out a breath and leaned back in his chair, those cold green eyes regarding me with apparent indifference. I wished I could perfect a poker face as impenetrable as his.
“Because Lucas spoke to me about it earlier,” he said. I could tell from the tone of his voice that he knew how I was going to react.
Sometimes there is a moment of calm before a really seriously powerful thunderstorm. You can feel it in the air, as though every atom is holding its breath, waiting for the world to explode. My words sounded very calm as I spoke.
“Because Lucas spoke to you about it earlier,” I repeated.
He nodded, and I thought I saw the tinniest twitch of his lips before I turned my attention to the vampire to his right. Lucas adjusted his stance, and I wondered if he knew he'd done it. I looked at him and watched as he readied himself for the tirade he must know was coming.
“Who is Master of this family, Lucas?” I asked, making a Herculean effort to keep my voice even despite the blue flames licking around my wrists.
He avoided eye contact as he replied. “You are.” I could hear the resignation in his voice. This was why he'd been nervous.
“Then why,” I asked, anger giving a tremor to my voice that I could no longer disguise, “did you discuss it with Cain before me?”
He folded his arms, his eyes defiant. “I ...”
&
nbsp; “Shut up!” I snapped. I made it a command, and I could see the fury and frustration in his eyes as he was forced to keep quiet. “I'll tell you why, shall I? You went to Cain because he's a man and because he's older than me,” I said in disgust. “You thought that he'd deal with it better than me - that he'd make me behave myself. Didn't you?” I demanded.
I saw his jaw tighten but he nodded, and I laughed, stopping myself abruptly before the laughter turned to tears, and I gave him some reason to suppose he'd been right, that I was a weak little girl who needed others to deal with the big, grown-up problems for her.
I walked away from him for a moment, trying to calm my temper. By the time I turned back to him I could just about speak without shouting. “Don't you see what you've done?” I said, holding onto my composure by a thread. “You're my second. You are supposed to be the one I can trust above all others, the one I can rely on.” I paused as I realised why this hurt so very much. “I had started to trust you, Lucas. But you've just done exactly as the Senate will expect someone to react to me - you didn't trust me. You've run to someone who appears to have more authority than I do. You spoke to my brother first instead of me, your supposed Master. If you of all people can't believe in me ... Why the fuck should they?” He flinched at my words, and I turned away before I lost it completely, heading for the door.
I heard him call out, “Jéhenne, wait ...”
I shook my head shouting, “Get lost!” as I slammed the door behind me.
I ran, needing to get well away from them both, before I said or did something I would regret. Hopefully Cain would stop him from following me, if either of them had any sense at all. It wasn't Cain's fault, though, and in truth I could understand why Lucas had done it. But he'd undermined my authority and damaged the fragile thread of trust that had begun to grow between us. Any confidence that I might have clung to that I could get through the Senate's tests fled in the light of his obvious lack of faith in my abilities to lead the family and now I was really frightened. Not that I hadn't been before. I'd have had to be pretty bloody stupid not to be. But at least then I'd felt like everyone was on my side. I'd had Lucas and Cain and the family at my back, believing in me. But what if this was how they all felt? Were they all watching me, questioning me - waiting for me to make a mistake?
The Fires of Tartarus Page 12