Impact drove me to the grass. The vampire straddled my hips, clamped his hands around my throat, and squeezed.
I could have pulled the stake, but it was a last-resort kind of weapon. I would have to kill him if I drew it. I wanted my legend constructed on powerful bones, not bloody ones, so I took the modified pen in my hand and…stabbed him in the meat of his thigh.
Okay, so a little blood was required for a necromancer to get the job done.
The vampire howled and reared back as I dove into my genetic memory.
Sigils whirled through my mind, and I discarded each suggestion while searching for a statement piece.
The vampire was doing his best to strangle me while Hood restrained Lethe, whose snarl kept grabbing my attacker’s attention. The distraction gave me all the time I needed to isolate the perfect sigil. Grampa would love this.
Too busy wrapping his hands around my throat to restrain my arms, the vampire made it easy for me to dip a finger in his blood. The poor guy must have thought I was about to dig my nails into his wrists to pry him off me, but I only painted a sigil above his former pulse point.
Before higher reasoning caught up to primal instincts, I closed the design with a satisfied grin.
Power shimmered over him in a rippling cascade that left pebbled skin in its wake. His pallor, a hallmark of vampirism, only highlighted the gray sweeping over him in a second current of magic.
Eyes gone dull, he released me to touch his face. “What…have you…done?”
With him suitably distracted, I planted my left foot and right shoulder on the ground. Snapping my hips to the right as I kicked off with my left foot, I flipped the vampire onto the grass beneath me.
“I’m proving a point that I don’t need anyone to fight my battles for me.” I patted his cheek. “I’m leaving you here as a monument to stupidity that Grandfather can gaze upon as a reminder. Maybe if you play your cards right, he’ll move you into the front gardens. The view is better there, trust me.”
“You…can’t—”
Whatever he thought I couldn’t do, I had already done. His lips froze in a horror movie scream. Eyes wide, hands clawing his face, his pose left something to be desired, but a few perennials planted in the earth around him might brighten his morbid expression.
Dusting myself clean as I climbed off him, I almost smacked face-first into Lethe. “What?”
“You turned him to stone.” She toed him with her shoe. “Are you half gorgon too?”
“I would have to be a third gorgon,” I said in my best Linus-lecture voice. “But no. I’m not.”
“Let’s get out of here.” Hood grabbed us each by the upper arm. “Our hands are tied unless you’re in immediate danger.”
I dug in my heels, turning back for Corbin, but he shot me a lopsided smile and said, “I got this.”
For his sake, I hoped he was right.
Eight
A call from Amelie left me staring at my phone, debating if I wanted to answer. Since I had engaged her, I had no one to blame for this but myself. Raw after the meeting with Lacroix, I felt like his magic had scoured away the topmost layer of skin and left me all sinew and bone.
The worst part was deciding if it was the confrontation or the absence of Linus that wearied me.
I missed him, and I hated that he had put me in the position of doubting him yet again.
Lethe nudged my foot with hers. “Want to talk about it?”
“Can you?” I frowned at her. “You guys have been giving me the silent treatment for miles.”
“You ought to find it comforting,” she said, but her scowl told me she hated the secrecy. “Consider this a live demonstration of how tight our lips can seal.”
“The farther we get from the estate,” Hood added, “the easier it is.”
A jolt of understanding arced through my brain, but I locked down the revelation, scarcely daring to turn the possibilities over in my head. There was no point asking the Kinases. Lethe was right. They had given me a chilling demonstration of what happened when someone tread on their magically enforced NDAs.
They had lost their will. The binding hadn’t forced them to act against their natures, but it was clear that having two clients, former and current, in the same room gave them static. But the location must be a consideration too. They had interacted with Lacroix at the ball, in the Grande Dame’s home, without issue. That must mean…
The true reason they clammed up on the way there, before they were anywhere near Lacroix, wasn’t so much who we met but where our meeting was held.
Hood and Lethe—and I was willing to bet Midas—had worked at the estate, for my grandfather.
Doing what I did best, pushing down those uncomfortable realizations, I called Amelie back to avoid Lethe. “What’s up?”
“Boaz just left.” She hesitated. “I didn’t mention you to him at all, and he didn’t ask.”
Bullet dodged, I relaxed against the seat. “Okay.”
“He told me they found a note taped to Odette’s refrigerator.”
Cletus might have missed the significance of a note in an otherwise-empty kitchen, but what did it say that whoever packed up Odette hadn’t been willing to leave even a magnet behind?
“The handwriting is hers.” Amelie let that bomb detonate before dropping another. “It was a note to her realtor about a leak in the master bathroom in need of repair before the property was shown.”
The roaring in my ears reminded me of the first time Odette held a conch shell to my ear to hear the ocean.
“It’s a fake.” I yanked on the seat belt, unable to breathe. “A forgery.” Lethe tried to help, but I got us both so worked up she sliced through the strap with a clawed fingertip. “Tell him to have it tested.”
“They did,” she said in a small voice. “That’s why he waited to tell me. They just got conclusive results.”
“No.”
“Grier—”
A brutal mash of the end button silenced her voice in my ear. “You heard?”
“Hard not to in close quarters.” Lethe shifted on her seat. “We can’t help it. Sorry.”
“I need to visit the Grande Dame.” A bitter taste flooded my mouth. “Take me to the Lyceum.”
Visiting the Lyceum, and its mistress, ranked up there with other such enjoyable pursuits as root canals, fillings, braces, having braces tightened, using rubber hands on said braces—basically anything orthodontist related—and having your foot flattened by a steamroller.
This visit might earn a spot in the history books for it being the first time I asked to go and the first time I went in alone.
“Wait for me in the van,” I told the gwyllgi. “This won’t take long.”
Lethe ignored me, no real surprise there, and trailed me right up to the front door. “I’ll wait here.”
Glad for the backup, even if she was about to be too far away to be any help, I pushed into the lobby.
Until the vampire-assassin incident, I hadn’t possessed a key to access the secret panel that allowed the elevator to go all the way down to the Lyceum. I should have. I was Dame Woolworth now. Maud had most likely stashed her key in her office, but I didn’t want it bad enough to search her personal effects for it.
And anyway, Linus corrected that oversight after the ball. Once we learned the Lyceum was no longer secure, he gave me his key and requested another from his mother. He had armed me with every weapon at his disposal, even when it meant him doing without, even when the lack put him in danger.
But he had never valued his own life. Learning what he had done to Maud, for me, made perfect sense if you knew him as well as I was coming to understand him.
Oh, Linus.
Using his key, I coaxed the elevator into the bowels of city hall. The doors opened, and I stepped out onto marble the color of wet blood. I wasn’t squeamish, I couldn’t afford to be in my line of work, but there was something about the coagulated swirl of richer crimsons that had me tasting bile.
; Eyes downcast to avoid taking in the scenery, I made my way to the Grande Dame’s private office.
“Grier.”
“Oh.” I rocked back on my heels, surprised to find her stepping out of an office a few doors down from hers. I wasn’t aware she made the rounds instead of making the rounds come to her. “Hi.”
“This is unexpected.” The Grande Dame peered around me, noticed the lack of Linus, and frowned. “You’re alone?”
“The Kinases are waiting for me upstairs.”
Her arched brow prompted further explanation, but I stood there, as fragile as if my bones were spun sugar, afraid any wrong move from her might cause a deluge that washed away my resolve.
After a hushed word to her colleague, the Grande Dame escorted me into her office and shut the door behind us.
“I spoke to Linus not ten minutes ago.” She rounded the desk and sat in her high-backed chair. “He sounded…odd.”
“I remembered something about the night Maud died.” That wasn’t what I came here to say, but it was too late to call back the confession once given. “I remembered he was there.”
“I see.” Her glistening crimson nails drew her attention, and she studied them. “Are you implying he had a hand in my sister’s death?”
“No.” I linked my fingers in my lap. “I remember him comforting me after I…” found her body, “…and he tried to intervene with the Elite. That’s it. That’s all.”
“The Elite were forced to sedate him after you were taken away.” As her hand dropped, so did her pretense. “Linus almost killed three men before they restrained him long enough to paint a sigil on his throat to slow his pulse. He was kept in a private cell until you were sentenced. I released him myself, explained you were bound for Atramentous, that he couldn’t save you. He walked out of the Lyceum that night, drove to Atlanta, and never looked back.”
Without leveling the accusation, I understood she blamed me for the loss of her son. She was right. It was my fault. Just not for the reasons she imagined.
Atlanta had become his haven, his mantle as potentate armor to protect his secret, and the distance from Savannah guaranteed to keep his mother at arm’s length.
“I’ve wondered if bringing him back, calling him home, to you, was the right thing to do.” A brittle quality entered her voice. “I couldn’t see another way to heal you, to prepare you, but it costs him. He’s paid a little more each time I see him, Grier, and he’s not wealthy. Not in that way. You could bankrupt him if you set your mind to it. Bleed him dry. Leave him holding a cardboard box filled with memories of you.”
Heal me. Prepare me. She made it sound like…like…she cared about me. Enough to risk Linus’s feelings.
“Linus has one of the biggest hearts of anyone I’ve ever known.”
“I know that,” she whispered, “but I’m surprised you do.”
“I deserve that,” I admitted. “I didn’t see him before.”
A glimmer veiled her gaze, but she would never let those tears fall. “You do now?”
“Enough I want to see the rest.”
She closed her eyes, collected herself, and when she raised her head, her voice was strong. “What can I do for you? I assume you didn’t pop in just to discuss my son.”
Back on track, I pushed Linus out of my thoughts. “Odette Lecomte is missing.”
“Missing.”
“Yes.”
Leaning back in her chair, she leveled her stare on me. “How do you know?”
Outing Amelie meant outing Boaz. Neither were great options. She was in enough trouble, and he was a lucrative informational source I wanted kept available in case this plea for assistance dead-ended.
As an Elite, he could petition his fellows for help without involving the Grande Dame. That must be nice. Given her line of questioning, it sounded like he might have chosen that route, not that I would blame him. Sadly, she was my only remaining avenue for aid, so I had to handle this with care.
“Odette called to tell me she was heading out of town to visit a client.” The best lies were laced with truth, and I was going to have to do some tight stitching for this to hold water. “Amelie is taking online classes, but she could use some face time with a live person.”
“You don’t feel you’re equal to the task.”
“Amelie and I are not what I would call friendly at the moment, no.”
Lips pursed, she appeared thoughtful. “You’re allowing her brother access to her, correct?”
“I am.”
That was hardly a newsflash considering his “higher-ups” had assigned him to shadow me.
While the Grande Dame was as high up as it got, the Elite operated outside the laws of the Society. She might have been responsible for his appointment, but I doubted it. She wanted us kept apart, not thrown together. A more plausible scenario, in my mind, was she caught wind of his new duties and turned him into a special project. Still, even with him tucked under her wing, she wouldn’t be privy to all the details of his assignments.
As easy as she made it to vilify her, I fell into the trap of underestimating her all too often.
As I got to know her son better, I was learning about her too. Not through direct conversation, but small tells when Linus talked about her, interacted with her, gave away more than either of them realized.
“What makes you believe foul play is involved?”
A chill swept down my spine. “I didn’t say I did.”
“Why else would you be here?” Her smile was red as blood. “You must be desperate to come to me.”
“I saw her house on Tybee. It’s empty. And whoever made it that way left behind bronze powder.”
“To incapacitate your guards.”
“And prevent them from picking up the scent of the person responsible.”
“Odette Lecomte is a seer of some renown,” she allowed, though she downplayed Odette’s fame to suit her pride. “There are several members of the High Society who depend on her services. I doubt anyone would complain if I launched an inquiry under the circumstances.”
“I would appreciate any help you can offer.”
Nodding that, of course, I should be thankful, she asked, “How are the gwyllgi?”
“Hood required medical intervention.” Hanging around me was bad for his health. “He’s fully recovered.” I flexed my hands in my lap. “Thanks for asking.”
“Lethe Kinase is the firstborn daughter of the Atlanta alpha. We can’t afford an incident with her, her unborn child, or her mate.”
The edge of her concern being political shouldn’t have surprised me. “I’ll do my best to keep them in one piece.”
“They’re your friends. I can tell by the bite in your voice. That means you’ll do better than keep them in one piece. You’re loyal to a fault.” She made it sound like a bad thing. “They couldn’t be in safer hands.”
The backhanded compliment didn’t bother me half as much as the knowledge of how well she read me.
“Oh, don’t look so surprised.” Laughter quirked her mouth. “I’ve known you since you were a child. I’ve witnessed your stubborn streak rear its ugly head more times than I can count. Maud may not have given birth to you, but you are her daughter in all other ways.”
A lump tightened my throat, and I almost hated her for giving me the opening I couldn’t resist walking through in light of recent events. “You told me you knew how she died.”
“I do.” She lost focus, and her voice went soft as a whisper. “She was stabbed in the heart with a slender blade, likely an athame, perhaps one of her own. The killer carved open her chest and removed the organ.” A fragility overlaid her usually sharp features. “That’s how my sister died.” She tried for a laugh, attempted to rebuild her façade, but its cracks gaped too wide. “The lie was close to the truth, you see. An attack on her heart did kill her.”
Heat rolled in wet tracks down my cheeks, and she watched the tears fall, her own eyes dry.
Mouth a brittle line, she th
inned her lips. “Have you opened the box?”
“No.” The thought had never crossed my mind.
Nodding as though she expected my answer, she said, “I recommend you leave it sealed.”
“Why would I—?”
“I’m tired,” she said, rising. “You should go.”
“All right.” I let her usher me out into the hall then leaned against the door after she shut it.
A grim certainty hollowed out my stomach, and I rubbed the knot until I made it worse.
The gold box she had given me, the one holding Maud’s heart… It was empty. It had to be.
Until this moment, I hadn’t realized I was holding on to the hope that the Grande Dame had exerted her influence to locate the missing organ. I had wanted to believe I still had a piece of Maud with me, almost as much as I wanted to pretend the box and its gruesome contents didn’t exist.
The Grande Dame had given me the box, I assumed, to punish me. But had she meant for it to give me closure instead?
While I doubted she had spent the days of my incarceration pacing the floors of her home and weeping at the injustice of it all—that wasn’t how one became the Grande Dame—it did appear more and more that she had seized the first real opportunity to have me released without it blowing back on her.
She dethroned Balewa and reopened my case. She exposed her own—albeit fictional—ailment to the entire Society to have her evidence of a heart attack accepted as fact. And foisted Linus on me as a tutor and guardian since his status as potentate guaranteed his ability to protect me.
The uncomfortable possibility that Linus’s difficulty in putting his feelings into words had been learned at her knee occurred to me in a flash of insight that made disliking her harder than it had been before I walked through her door.
I didn’t trust her. I would never do that. I had known her too long and understood, the same as Linus, that she hungered for power more than she craved affection.
But maybe, just maybe, she wasn’t the monster I wanted to imagine her.
Mulling that over, I hit the elevator, crossed the lobby, and nodded at Lethe.
How to Live an Undead Lie (The Beginner's Guide to Necromancy Book 5) Page 13