Chapter Ten
Guilt pricked Alec.
He didn’t like the sensation. “Dammit, Kris, she didn’t tell me. I
thought the marking was due to the amount of blood she’d fed me. I
almost drained her dry when she brought me back. I didn’t know....
She didn’t tell me.”
“You’ve been around
long enough to know how women are,” his friend answered, standing
next to him as they both stared out into the shadowed garden. What
Kristoff saw, Alec had no idea—all he could see was the look on
Cora’s face when she made the verbal slip, and realized she would
have to tell him the truth. “There are times when I give up trying
to understand Pia. I just accept that some things are important to
her that don’t mean a damn to me, and let it go at that. What
matters to me is that she’s happy. I find it interesting, however,
that your first concern is for Cora, not Eleanor.”
“Eleanor . . .” Alec
rubbed his nose as he thought about what to do with the extra
Beloved. “She’s . . . not needed.”
Kristoff gave him a
rueful look. “I’m sorry we brought her back. We thought it was the
only way that the council would sanction your removal from the
Akasha. We should have just let matters lie.”
“And left me there?
I’d much rather be facing the problem of one too many Beloveds than
that. It wasn’t at all pleasant.”
“No, but I imagine
you’re none too happy right now, either, faced with both your
original Beloved and her reincarnation. What are you going to do
about Eleanor ? ”
“I have no idea,” he
said, his shoulders slumping. “I assume since I never even fed from
her that she’ll be fine picking up a new life as a lich. Our bond,
such as it is, is tenuous, and she shouldn’t be affected by it
being severed. It’s Cora who concerns me. She has an aversion to
Dark Ones. She saw me kill the reaper.” Alec cast his mind back to
that horrible day. Odd, though, that the memory now carried with it
no pain. After centuries of it causing him the utmost agony,
emotion had been drained from the memory, just as if Cora’s
admission had wiped it all clean. “Sorry, she saw me kill your
wife.”
Kristoff made a
half-shrugging gesture. “Ruth was a reaper. She just didn’t mean to
run down and decapitate Eleanor.”
“No.” He knew that
now. He hadn’t for centuries, but after the last time he tried to
kill Kristoff, they had finally worked out what had really
happened, and moved past it. “Did I ever apologize for killing
her?”
“No, but I never
apologized on her behalf for killing your Beloved.”
“I never apologized
for turning you, either,” Alec said moodily, feeling that so long
as he was going to lash himself with guilt, he might as well get
all of it out at the same time.
“If you hadn’t, I
wouldn’t have found Pia, and she was worth all those centuries I
had to wait for her,” Kristoff allowed. “I could have done without
you planning on destroying her, but since you couldn’t see it
through, it’s all a moot point.”
Alec couldn’t help
but smile at that. “She smote me with that damned reaper light of
hers. That was no fun, I can tell you. My chest hair hasn’t been
the same since.”
Kristoff laughed and
punched him in the arm. “You had it coming. If Eleanor goes off
without giving you any grief, what will you do about
Corazon?”
He sighed. “She’s my
Beloved. What do you think I’m going to do with her? Bind myself to
her and spend the rest of our lives convincing her I’m not a
murdering bloodsucker. Assuming, that is, no one gets to her
first.”
Kristoff slid him a
curious look. “Gets to her how?”
“I’d tell you, but I
believe we’re about to have company, and it’s probably easier to
explain it once rather than twice.”
“Have you gentlemen
worked through Alec’s issues ?” Pia asked, appearing in the
doorway, her gaze drawn, as ever, to Kristoff. He held out his hand
for her, and she moved immediately to his side, snuggling against
him with a private smile meant only for him.
Alec watched them,
wondering if Cora would ever cleave to him the way Pia did with
Kristoff. “I have no issues. I was just . . . surprised.” And hurt,
but it wouldn’t do to admit that.
I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.
He turned to find
Cora in the door, her eyes wary. Eavesdropping, querida?
No, she said, startled, and he realized she hadn’t
picked up his thoughts. I just . . . I figured
I must have hurt you when you left like that, and then didn’t want
to talk to me. You’ve been put in a bad place, and part of that was
due to the fact that I hadn’t told you the truth about me. I wanted
to tell you about it. I think I probably would have, but then
Eleanor was there, and she was your real Beloved, and I figured
you’d want her.
I don’t.
No, I gathered that. But it didn’t seem fair to you to
have to choose. I thought I might just make it easier on you by
letting Eleanor serve her purpose.
He studied her face
for a few seconds, then decided to see what path his life would
take. He held out his hand for her, just as Kristoff had done with
Pia.
Cora looked at his
hand, hesitating. His heart contracted with the pain that
accompanied the knowledge that she didn’t want him, truly did not
want to be his Beloved. He was a convenient end to a means, that
was all.
Her hand was warm in
his as she moved next to him, one delicious hip pressing against
him. Hope flared deep in the empty space where his soul was meant
to be, the hope that, after more than five hundred years, he might
not be alone any longer.
Pia murmured
something about getting some refreshments before they got caught up
on all the news, taking Kristoff with her as she left the room.
Alec barely noticed them leave, so caught was he in the beauty of
Cora’s eyes. “Mi corazón,” he said,
rubbing his thumb down her silky cheek to that lush lower lip that
begged to be tasted. “My heart.”
“Alec, we need to
talk. Eleanor—”
“We will talk to her.
I do not want her hurt any more than you do, but she must come to
the realization that you are my Beloved, not her.”
“I don’t know. It
seems so heartless, somehow.”
“Is your hesitation
due to the situation with Eleanor, or that which is between us?” he
asked, suddenly worried again. Was he misreading her emotions? She
felt guilt with regard to him—that he knew—but whether it was about
hiding the fact that she was his Beloved, or for the fact that
Eleanor had been upset, was beyond his understanding.
“It’s . . . it might
be both. I feel like I stole you from Eleanor somehow, even though
I know I really didn’t. She’s me, for heaven’s sake. Or a past
version of me. So I couldn’t steal from myself, could I? And yet it
feels like I did, and, Alec, I’ve never been the ‘steal someone
else’s man’ sort of person.”
“You didn’t steal me,
love,” he said, amused despite the fact that she was obviously
distressed. He wanted to kiss the worry right out of her mind, but
knew she had to work things out for herself, or she would never be
content to bind herself to him. “We were meant to be together.
There’s no other explanation for the fact that you saved me in the
Akasha.”
“You were
supposed to help me get out,” she said
with a dark look. “That’s the only reason why I saved
you.”
“There were others
you could have approached for help. That you didn’t abandon me
after you knew who and what I was tells me that deep down you know
we are meant to be, as well.”
She sighed, and
leaned her head against his shoulder. “Do you have any idea how
annoying it is to have your inner devil saying, ‘I told you so’?
It’s almost more than I can bear.”
“Inner
devil?”
She smiled into his
neck. “It’s what I call my conscience. She seems more of a little
troublemaker than an angelic bit of righteousness meant to keep me
on the straight and narrow. She liked you from the start, for
one.”
He laughed, delighted
with the sudden quirky turn of her mind. “Then she has my full
approval. Do not distress yourself, Cora. I won’t ask anything more
from you than what you want to give me.”
Her gaze dropped.
“What if I don’t want to give you anything?”
“Then I will continue
on as I have.” Only he wouldn’t. Thinking over the past few days,
he realized they were one short step away from Joining. Although it
was physically possible for him to still feed from others, he knew
he wouldn’t. Somehow, without his being aware of it, this woman had
found her way into his heart and bound him to her. But he wouldn’t
let Cora know that; despite her protests and rather odd ideas about
Dark Ones, she had a large heart, and he knew with absolute
conviction that she would allow guilt to sway her into Joining
rather than a true desire to do so.
“I . . . do I have to
make a decision right now?” She wrung her hands.
He smiled, and gave
her a quick kiss just because he couldn’t resist that delectable
mouth, and then gave her a second one because there was no way one
was going to be enough. “No. We have all the time in
the—”
The door opened. Pia
stuck her head in, her face tight with concern. “We have company,
and they’re looking for you. Kristoff has them in the sitting room,
but we need to hide you. Can you find your way to the cellar?
There’s a hidden door behind some casks of wine. I have to run
upstairs and warn Eleanor to keep mum about you, so I don’t have
time to show you where it is.”
Alec nodded. “I know
where the hidden room is. I helped Kris clean it out.”
“Good. We’ll give you
the all clear when Julian and his buddy are gone.”
“Julian? The
messenger?”
“Yes.” She said
nothing more, leaving them silently.
“Who’s the
messenger?” Cora asked, prodding him when he opened the door enough
to peer out of it.
“He’s part of the
Moravian Council. Which means they know I’m out, and either know or
suspect I’ve come to Kris for help. Quickly, they’ve gone into the
other room, but I doubt if they’ll stay there for
long.”
He hustled her
through the sunlight, ignoring the pain as they headed through the
kitchen to a small door, down a rickety flight of stairs, and
through a series of musty, dark, close rooms that smelled greatly
of the earth. He pulled out a small penlight, flicking it around
the rooms to avoid the stacks of old furniture, barrels of wine the
previous owner had left, and the usual detritus found in a house a
few centuries old.
Cora said nothing as
he counted down a line of oak wine casks, handing her the penlight
as he gripped a cask with both hands, throwing all his weight
against it, willing it to move. It shuddered and groaned for a few
seconds before giving way, sliding to the side, revealing a
cobwebbed entrance cut low into the stone wall.
“In,” he said,
kicking the remains of a wooden crate out to cover the marks on the
ground where the cask had moved.
“Are there mice? I
have a thing about mice,” Cora said, her fear
palpable.
“If there are, I
won’t let them near you,” he promised.
She gave him a long
look. “Do I have to go in there with you? Would the Julian guy know
who I am? With regards to you, that is?”
Pain laced him at her
words, although he understood her reticence. If it weren’t for her,
he’d say to hell with the council and face down the messenger. But
he no longer had only his own future to consider. “No, he wouldn’t.
You don’t have to go with me if you don’t want to. Pia will claim
you as a visiting friend, I’m sure.”
She looked at him for
the count of five before she nodded and ducked down to enter the
room.
He smiled at her ass.
He couldn’t help himself—she was just so contrary at times, it was
all he could do to keep from pouncing on her and claiming her right
then and there.
The hidden room was
more a hole scraped out of the side of the mountain than anything
else, the smell in it particularly earthy when he pulled the door
closed behind them. Cora scooted to his side, clutching the back of
his shirt and peering around suspiciously as he shone the narrow
light around the tiny room. There was no sign of rodent life, but
his nose told him otherwise.
“Do you see
anything?” Cora asked, pressing herself into him.
No. Surely you cannot be scared of a tiny little
animal.
“You’re kidding,
right? Because if there is anything more frightening than little
mousy feet and tails and those twitching noses, I don’t know what
it is. Well, OK, rats are icky, too, but I count them in the mouse
category.”
“I see nothing,” he
lied, meeting the beady-eyed, but mildly curious, gaze of a large
brown rat that scampered onto a broken chair across the small
room.
“OK, but if you do,
I’m out of here. It’s no reflection on HOLY JESUS!”
Cora screamed and
pointed in a direction forty-five degrees from the rat, and
proceeded to climb him like he was a ladder.
“You know,” he said
conversationally, her heaving breasts pressed against his face as
she struggled to climb even higher up his body, her heels digging
into his hips, “that mouse is probably far more terrified of great
big you than you are of it, mousy feet and twitching nose
aside.”
“Don’t let it get
near me!” she shrieked.
If you keep doing that, love, Julian will hear
you.
Sorry. MOUSE! Can we leave yet?
Please?
I don’t know, he said, rubbing his cheeks against
the thin linen shirt, the scent of her and the feel of her breasts
waking his appetite . . . both appetites. I’m
rather enjoying this. Except the way your heels are poking into my
flesh. Could you . . . thank you.
Sorry. It’s just that I really do not like
mice.
I’ve ascertained that fact for myself. Much as I
appreciate having my face buried in your breasts, at some point,
I’m going to need oxygen.
She pulled back
slightly, just enough for him to get some air into his lungs.
“Sorry,” she repeated softly. “Can you see the mouse?”
He glanced over to
the rat. It was cleaning its face, one eye on them. “No, I don’t
see a mouse. It probably ran when you screamed, and went back into
its home.”
“You think so? ” She
shifted, obviously trying to peer into the darkness. “Maybe. Why
are you hiding something from me? I’ve admitted I’m your
Beloved—aren’t you supposed to let me have a lifetime membership
pass into your brain?”
He leaned back
against the wall, his hands on her wonderful ass as she tightened
her legs around his hips. “Are you giving me complete access to
your thoughts and feelings, as well?”
That stopped her. He
could feel how disgruntled she was over the thought that he could
keep things from her, but knew she couldn’t demand he allow her
into his mind willy-nilly unless she honored those same
terms.
He frowned at that
thought. Just what, exactly, did she have to hide from him? “A
Beloved should never keep things from her Dark One,” he said
primly.
“I’ll be sure to pass
that along to the next Beloved I see. Is your back getting
tired?”
“No, although if you
slid down a bit, I could at least kiss you. Unless you wish to take
off your shirt so I can kiss your bare breasts?”
He felt her thinking
that over, but she sighed, instead and cautiously unlocked her legs
from their death grip on his hips, slowly lowering herself to the
ground.
“Do you mind?” she
asked, squeezing between him and the door.
“Not at all. The rat
doesn’t live who will make it past me to you,” he
said.
She froze. “RAT? You
think there are rats in here?”
Cielito, you’re going to pass out if you hyperventilate, and then
I’ll have to stop guarding you to resuscitate you, and that will
leave the path open to the mouse to touch you with its
feet.
She screamed into his
mind at that thought, but made an effort to breathe. He couldn’t
help but smile into the darkness at the fact that she thought
nothing about facing down one of Bael’s wrath demons, but was
almost prostrate with terror at the thought of a few
rodents.
“Distract me,” she
ordered his back.
He started to turn,
intending on taking her into his arms.
“No, not that way!
You have to stand guard. Distract me while you watch for attacking
beasts. I suppose we should talk about Eleanor.”
“I’d prefer not
to.”
“I hate to say it,
but I’d rather not, as well. What a chicken I am. Tell me . . .
tell me about your past. Jas told me that vampires are either born
that way or made. Which were you?”
“My father was an
unredeemed Dark One; thus I was born that way, as well. What do you
want to know about my past?”
“Well . . . how old
are you? You look like you’re my age, but I have a feeling you’re
older than you look.”
“I was born in 1336
in what is now Dachau, Germany.”
“The place where the
concentration camp was?”
“Yes. It is a lovely
area, despite that blot on its history. I have a summer home there
that I think you’ll like.”
“Do you have any
brothers or sisters?”
“None left living. My
mother had several children before my father seduced
her.”
“Sounds like Daddy
had some issues.”
“Several, not the
least of which was an inability to remain with any woman longer
than a few weeks. He died in a fire in the eighteenth
century.”
“Really? I didn’t
think you guys could die.”
“We can be killed,
yes. We don’t die of natural causes, however, and it’s not easy to
end our lives, but in my father’s case, the building he was in
collapsed on him, trapping him in the fire. Even a Dark One cannot
stand up to that sort of thing.”
“I’m sorry,” she
said, and he knew she honestly was sorry about the loss of his
father.
“Thank you. I was not
close to him, but he was my only living family member. I felt his
loss.” He didn’t say more, but she read it in his mind
nonetheless.
Her arms went around
him, her cheek pressed against his back. After
you’d already lost your Beloved. I’m sorry, Alec. Sorry that I
wasn’t around for you when I should have been.
It wasn’t your fault, querida.
It was just one of those cruel accidents that fate deals us
sometimes. He wanted to add that it would be worth it if he
knew he had found his Beloved at last, but he kept his thoughts to
himself, wanting her to make the decision for herself and not be
swayed by his need.
“What’s a
lichmaster?”
“Hmm?” Cora’s
question interrupted his contemplation of how much time they had,
and whether he could convince her that the room was mouse-free
enough to make love to her. “It’s someone who controls
liches.”
“Like
Ulfur?”
“Yes. In fact, it’s
Ulfur that Kris and Pia are trying to save.”
“Ah, is that how you
knew who he was?” she asked, snuggling up against his
back.
He might be hungry,
object to being hidden like he was a criminal, and dislike the
closed-in feeling of the small room, but he’d happily stand there
to the end of his days to protect Cora, if she continued to rub
herself against his back that way. She was so obviously his
Beloved, the one woman put on the earth to be with him, he was
surprised he hadn’t recognized her from the first. “Yes. He was in
Pia’s charge before de Marco stole his soul and used it to have him
resurrected as a lich bound to him.”
“Poor guy. Do you
think that monk can summon Diamond, too?”
“From the Akasha? No.
That would take a Guardian, and unless he has one on call, he
wouldn’t be able to organize a rescue for your
friend.”
“Well, I’m going to
have to do something about her soon, Alec. She’s been in there for
some time now, and if nothing else, my ex-husband will be worried
about her.”
“Time passes
differently in the Akasha than here,” he said, not liking the
feeling of obligation she felt toward the other woman, but aware
that it was now his problem, as well. “We will contact the Guardian
who summoned us to have her do the same for Diamond.”
She pressed her face
against the back of his neck, her breath warm on his flesh, sending
little rivulets of fire into his veins. “That’s got to be
expensive.”
“It is.”
“You’d do that for
me?” Her hands slid around his sides, her fingers spreading wide on
his belly.
“Of course. You’re
my—” He stopped, but she knew what he was going to
say.
“That’s still nice of
you. Alec, do you think we could go to a mouse-free room? You’re
driving me wild with all those thoughts of licking me, and tasting
me, and biting me, and oh my god, yes, I really like that one! Can
we do that? Right now?”
He laughed, turning
to face her, about to say that he would be happy to indulge her
every fantasy, but at that moment, the door behind her started to
move with a low grating sound.
“It’s just me,”
Kristoff said, heaving the door aside before waving them out.
“Julian’s gone. You can come out.”
“Oh, thank god.
There’s a mouse in there!” Cora said, giving a visible shudder
before hurrying out of the room.
Kristoff looked past
Alec to the shadows, where the rat stopped cleaning itself to
consider them. “Indeed,” was all he said before Alec helped him
push the door back into place.
“I assume, since
you’re not escorting me out in handcuffs, that the messenger didn’t
convince you to turn me over to them?” Alec asked as they trooped
back upstairs.
“Did you think I
would?” Kris asked, a smile on his lips.
“It would have been
sweet revenge.”
“We don’t want
revenge,” Pia said as they entered the same sitting room they had
been in earlier. She held out a cup to Cora, plying her with food
as the two women sat opposite each other. “We never have. That’s
why we had Eleanor’s remains found and brought back to life. Even
before that, we didn’t want it. Kristoff spoke on your behalf after
the council had you banished, but those new vampires who took
Rowan’s and Andreas’s places on the council are bastards. Well, and
that Sebastian guy, who I have never liked.”
“He’s had a hard time
of it. He’s still recovering from being tortured by a demon lord,”
Alec said with a little smile at Cora as he sat next to her on the
couch. She ate three ginger cookies rapidly. I’m sorry, love, I didn’t know you were hungry, or I would
have asked Pia to feed you.
It just kind of hit me when I saw all the goodies. Is that
lemon pound cake? It is! I love lemon pound
cake!
Alec pushed the plate
of cake closer to Cora, who murmured something to Pia before taking
two slices.
“Oh, Kristoff told me
why Sebastian’s such a big pain in the butt, but that doesn’t make
him any easier to take. Cora, if you like the pound cake, you have
to try the cream cheese pinwheels. I get them from a little bakery
in town, and they are to die for. I’ve always said that if you’re
going to eat for two, you might as well eat what you like. And by
‘eat for two’ I don’t mean I’m having a baby, so you can just put
your eyeballs back in, Alec. I meant being responsible for feeding
a vamp gives you a bit more license to indulge.”
“My eyeballs were in
no danger of popping out, thank you,” he said drily, leaning back,
one arm draped over Cora’s shoulders as she and Pia consumed just
about every last bit of food. “Where is Eleanor?”
“Still pouting in her
bedroom. She had some not very nice things to say about you, which
I’m afraid I encouraged.”
Cora looked
surprised. “Why did you encourage that? ”
Pia smiled at them
both. “Because she didn’t know that Alec wasn’t down here, so she
was more than happy to stay upstairs and nurse her grudge in
private. Which meant she didn’t see the messenger.”
“What did Julian
say?” Alec asked, needing to know the worst. He had to protect Cora
from whatever penalty the council would mete out on
him.
“The council knows
you’re out, of course,” Kristoff answered, sitting next to Pia on
the love seat. “They assume you’ll come here. I told them I would
tell them if I saw you.”
Alec’s eyebrows rose.
“You lied?”
“Of course. But
that’s not going to fool them for long, Alec. Julian didn’t
outright accuse me of having you hidden away, but he did notice
your car, and he’s not stupid. He’ll be back. And when he does . .
.” Kristoff’s gaze shifted to Cora.
“Why do I have a
feeling that what you’re not saying is something I’m really going
to dislike? ” she asked him.
Alec tangled his
fingers in her hair, idly stroking her neck as he mulled over the
possibilities. “I will have to leave.”
“Yes, but that’s not
the answer,” Kristoff said, meeting his gaze with one that spoke
volumes. “They’ll simply follow you.”
“Do they have some
sort of special vampire tracking ability?” Cora asked, worry
uppermost in her mind. “Will they be able to find you quickly, I
mean?”
“Not if I don’t wish
to be found, no. But Kristoff is correct that they won’t give
up—they’ll continue to track me until they find me and return me to
the Akasha.”
“Well, don’t let
them,” she said, sounding indignant at the thought. “I went to a
lot of trouble to have that Guardian pull you out of there. Maybe
if you talked to them—”
Pia and Kristoff were
shaking their heads right along with him. “We tried that,” Pia
said, wiping her fingers on a linen napkin before sitting back. “We
talked ourselves blue in the face, but they absolutely would not
listen. They maintain that Alec’s actions have indirectly caused
the deaths of Dark Ones, and that he should pay for that. That’s
why we resurrected Eleanor.”
Cora’s shoulders
dropped as she leaned into him, delighting his senses with her
warm, feminine feel and scent. “Maybe you could hide, then,
somewhere that they won’t find you.”
“It’s possible,” he
said, wondering if she’d consent to shut herself away with
him.
“Possible, but not
reasonable,” Kristoff said, frowning. “They’ll find you,
Alec.”
“There is one
solution,” Pia said, her hand on Kristoff’s leg. She glanced at him
before continuing.
“What’s that?” Cora
asked, and in a flash she knew what Pia would say.
Pia took a deep
breath and pinned Cora back with an intense look. “Someone has to
Join with Alec. I know you said you didn’t want to, but there’s
really no other way to save him from the Akasha. I’m afraid you’re
going to have to make a decision, Cora; it’s either you or Eleanor.
One of you is Alec’s only salvation.”