Darkness Bred (24 page)

An abrupt swelling of his head and body shocked the hounds into taking a step backward. All except Sean, who stood his ground and watched Aldo take shape, his dark hair clipped into its usual helmet shape, his lipless mouth stretched wide, showing pointed teeth. “First you and I must share an interlude,” he said, pointing at Sean. “We can’t take long. This one who has absorbed me weighs me down. The faster we get what he needs, the better. Niles is to remain but the others should go into the clearing. If they make a move to attack, all of you are finished. Most particularly, your women are history. They are being watched. One word from me and…Need I tell you more?”

“Niles, I don’t even know what it is he wants from me. Could be to bite me again. But I think we can use the weakness of the other one—Quitus—to put that off.”

“By taking him to Gabriel’s? He intends to start ripping organs out of someone.”

“I know, we have to buy time but this will be dangerous. Let me talk this through,”
Sean said.
“Shall we send Innes and Campion ahead to Gabriel’s? At least they could give Leigh and Elin some hope.”

“I’m hoping Saul keeps his word,”
Niles said.
“He has told me he will keep watch, but in his own way—not that I ever know what that means. I don’t feel confident about it. Go ahead and send Innes and Campion.”

Sean hoped he looked as relaxed as he intended. “We know when we don’t have the upper hand. What happens if Quitus dies on you, Aldo? Trust us enough to tell us what we should expect. Will whatever is left of him slow us down? Will he affect your mind? Will you die with him?”

The pause that followed was more than Sean could have hoped for. Aldo shuddered and bowed his head for a moment. “We will do this my way,” he said, bravado dripping from every word. “I’ve decided to feed Quitus before you and I deal with our business.”

E
lin and Leigh tried to behave as if they didn’t suspect anything was seriously wrong. They had been assured by one of the twins—as soon as they were left alone by Niles—that they were being watched, and if they tried to leave, or contact anyone, it would be disastrous—for all of them.

Gabriel’s Place was closed. No fire burned in the fireplace. Slumped in a chair in a dark corner, Gabriel himself had been a surprise when Elin noticed him. He had remained there, his eyes closed, and had yet to say a word.

When the twins had let Elin and Leigh in, they said Cliff was in the kitchen and Saul was on his way with Phoebe. Niles and Ethan were relieved and took off immediately.

Cliff wasn’t there and Saul didn’t come.

The twins, visibly shaken, had refused to answer any questions. They had gone to the kitchens and closed the door, apparently following orders. Whose orders, the women didn’t know. They had both attempted, unsuccessfully, to communicate with their mates.

Pokey and Jazzy set about a methodical sniffing of every inch of the place and they kept at it. Neither Leigh nor Elin made any comment about the behavior.

“I should see what I can get done in the office,” Leigh said, her face strained. “I hope Cliff and Sally get here before opening time.”

In other words, Leigh was sure they were overheard by someone they couldn’t see. The sniffing animals suggested the same thing.

“You should sit down and have a glass of juice or something,” Elin said. She didn’t want to be left alone or to have Leigh alone somewhere, either.

Leigh got the message. “I’ll have apple juice,” she said. “I should probably wake Gabriel up from his nap, too. It isn’t like him to allow the fire to go out.”

“He’s had such a hard time worrying about Molly.” Elin wanted to sound normal but she was frightened. “I’m worried about him. I’ll get the fire going first.”

She piled up kindling and set it alight before putting a couple of logs on top. And with every passing second she longed to hear Sean’s voice. She kept her mind as open as she knew how in hopes that he would contact her that way.

Even the sight of flames curling up the chimney didn’t make her feel better. She pulled a chair close and waved Leigh to sit down. Jazzy promptly jumped on her lap but she didn’t settle down.

Hotter than was comfortable, Elin dragged off her parka, then her sweater. Her hands went to her waist.

“What is it?” Leigh said.

“I’m surprised to feel warm,” she said, avoiding Leigh’s real question. Sally’s scarf with the wand and green inside was still at the cottage. Not that they were likely to be of much help if everything went sideways here and Elin didn’t feel good about the atmosphere.

But she did feel warm, even as she moved away from the fire. Or she felt normal, for her. She couldn’t dwell on whether Tarhazian had relented on at least that element of her punishment or if the Queen’s power over her was fading.

Every few moments Elin glanced at Gabriel, willing him to wake up and help dispel the growing sense of doom. Something awful was coming.

She knelt beside Leigh and could hardly hold back tears. “Will Sean and Niles be all right?” she whispered. “They didn’t know it was like this here. I don’t understand it. What if we left?”

Leigh put an arm around her. “Hang on. If we try to go, we may start an attack on us. What we can’t see, we can’t fight, but I have faith in our men. Don’t forget we’re probably being watched.”

Pokey crawled up Elin’s back and settled on her shoulder. She made bleating sounds as if sympathizing.

“Okay. Juice coming up, then I’ll see what I can do for Gabriel.”

Elin went behind the bar with Pokey still clinging to her neck.

Scuffling came from the corridor to the office and the new extension to the building.

Leigh shot to her feet. “Come here,” she cried to Elin. “Stay with me.”

Before Elin could move, Cassie and her brother, David, all but fell into sight.

They were both disheveled and drawn, their dark hair matted, as it had been the last time Elin saw either of them. She smiled. “Thank goodness you’re okay. Who took you? We didn’t know what had happened to you—or Sally.”

The pair stood, back-to-back, keeping Elin and Leigh in sight.

Elin frowned. “What is it?”

Staring at her, Cassie’s throat worked but she didn’t say anything.

“There’s a man over there,” David cried, indicating Gabriel, still collapsed in his chair. “Who is he?”

“Hush,” his sister said. “I think he’s already dead.”

Elin didn’t like the
already dead
comment. She didn’t think Gabriel was other than comatose at the most, but Cassie sounded as if she was expecting some sudden deaths.

The front doors swung wide. Freezing air, fir needles that crackled dry along the floor, and swirls of grit blew into the big room, accompanied by Innes and Campion.

Elin almost fainted with relief. “We don’t know what’s going on,” she said.

  Rather than offer comforting words, Innes and Campion smiled tightly but remained silent while Leigh ran to Elin and the two women huddled together.

The two werehounds searched the room visually. Both of them were obviously surprised to see Gabriel. They made no comment about him, or about Cassie and David.

“Can we leave?” Leigh asked.

Innes smiled at her again and said, “Be patient.”

“I can’t do this,” Cassie said suddenly. “These people thought they were saving us and they took us off The Island for our sake, or so they thought. They didn’t do it for themselves.”

“Quiet, Cassie,” David begged. “We can’t fight Quitus and Aldo.”

Elin felt the weight of hopelessness settle on her. They were all betrayed.

“What do you think they’re going to do with us?” Cassie said.

“They’ll send us back to the Embran just to make points,” David said.

Elin could scarcely catch her breath. Who did they mean were controlling them? Jude had mentioned the Embran and how the Verbols were related to them. “Why would they send you to the Embran?”

“Because that’s where we escaped from,” Cassie said. “We were Embran slaves and we hated everything they stood for. We wanted to live on Earth again and leave the other world behind us. But Aldo captured us and he knew he could use us to get things he wanted from the Embran. They will always want to get us back and punish us.”

David hung his head but nodded from time to time.

“I want to sit down,” Leigh said quietly to Elin. “If they stop me, they stop me, but I’m going over there.”

With Elin holding tightly to her arm, Leigh made for a chair not far from Cassie and David. They didn’t attempt to stop the two women and Leigh sat down. Elin pulled another chair beside Leigh and joined her.

She tried to reach Sean’s mind again but met another wall of silence.

“We’re going to take Leigh and Elin out of here,” Innes said. “I don’t see anyone who can try to stop us.”

At the same moment as Elin started to hope, that hope was crushed.

Quitus, the hateful creature she had seen in the mountain cave, came through the door of Gabriel’s. Tonight he was covered from head to foot in gray.

Elin hadn’t forgotten the Verbols in Quitus’s mountain. One of them stood at the left hand of the man in gray. Niles and Sean stood on his other side. She wanted to run to Sean but knew better.

“Sean?”
She tried to reach him with her mind and figured Leigh would be doing the same with Niles.

“I hear you,”
Sean said.
“We’re in uncharted waters but we’re ready. Watch and wait and do nothing unless we tell you.”

Quitus pointed at Cassie. “You’re doing well. You may yet live to return to your Embran roots.”

Cassie behaved as if she hadn’t heard Quitus. David seemed frozen with fear.

“Bring that one here,” Quitus said, indicating Elin. “I need to use her. Make sure she doesn’t struggle.”

Sean sprang in front of Quitus. “You fool, do you think I’ll allow you to hurt Elin?”

Elin felt safer until Cliff, with Sally by an arm behind her back, edged into the bar. Sally showed no emotion but Cliff’s face was creased with triumph. He held a hand aloft, brandishing a small cylindrical object. “I am the keeper of The Bloodstone for Quitus,” he cried. “If you hounds and your people had stayed out of the way, my partners would not have had to confront you. But you had to interfere. Don’t move until I tell you what to do.”

He sneered around for the benefit of his audience. “Worms always turn. Didn’t anyone tell you that? Did you think I would be happy as the invisible cook forever? Rose learned better, and Molly—and others who have died without you knowing anything about them.”

Elin stared at Cliff. She had never seen any sign that the man was other than human. If that was true, he didn’t have the advantage he believed he did.

Quitus gave a high shriek of pleasure. He looked sick and triumphant at the same time.

Still in her yellow silk outfit, Sally didn’t struggle, even when Cliff shoved her head to one side and held The Bloodstone inches from her neck.

“Don’t.” Cassie threw herself toward Cliff. “Stop it now. We’ll help you to get out of this, but stop what you’re doing now.”

Cliff tripped Cassie, and her brother after her, so they fell beside Sally. “You will all get your decorations, too,” he said, his voice singsong and unhinged sounding.

The body of Quitus shuddered and faded, replaced by Aldo, who shook with rage. “That’s enough. No more resistance from any of you. You are all dead and I am the leader here.”

Elin held Leigh’s hand and kept her eyes on Sean.

Quitus took Aldo’s place again, even paler and more sunken this time.

“You never can trust a vampire,” a familiar gravelly voice said, the instant Gabriel catapulted from his chair and took Cliff down with the kind of tackle he had probably used a thousand times on the football field. “You can’t get me with that blood thing twice. Saul knows that. Elin saved me the first time.” He held Cliff’s hand and his deadly cylinder above his head. “It won’t work on you either, Cassie.”

“But Quitus made me his proxy,” Cliff screamed. “The only way any of you will survive is if you do what I tell you. You’re all going to grovel to me.”

Sean and Niles moved as one and took hold of Quitus’s arms. They held him down. “We’re going to send you home,” Sean said. “Wherever that is.”

“Give her to me,” Quitus gasped. “The dark-haired one. She can save me. I have to eat and I need the fae.”

His face an expressionless mask, Sean took Quitus’s scrawny neck in one hand and snapped it. Hauling the creature onto his back, Sean drove the stake into Quitus’s heart.

“Leave the rest to me,” Niles said. He dragged the corpse outside and slammed the doors behind him.

Pulling Leigh with her, Elin flew at Sean, who embraced them both but put them quickly aside. “We aren’t done yet,” he said, nodding toward the still writhing Cliff.

“Surely you’ll allow me some little part in this,” a silvery voice said, echoing across the room. “After all, I…well, I’m not at all to blame, of course, but I want to feel the love again.”

If she hadn’t been so shaken, Elin would have laughed at the sight of Tarhazian materializing, an almost repentant cast to her features.

“Sally,” the Queen said. “Your friends miss you. I would like to take you back. I forgive you.”

“Thanks a bunch,” Sally said. “I don’t want to leave my friends here, either.”

Tarhazian sucked in her lips. She scarcely took her eyes from Elin. “I understand,” she said with a lot of pained effort. “In that case, I give you my permission to pass back and forth between the worlds.”

Sally’s mouth fell open but she had the sense not to say anything else.

“I’m going to take you and Elin back with me now. It’s time for you to be with your own people, both of you.”

“Elin is with her people,” Sean said. He hugged his mate to him. “But we may let you visit…if you behave yourself.”

Tarhazian’s eyes narrowed, but a grudging smile transformed her beautiful face. “We shall see,” she said. “We shall see.”

Taking an open space in the bar, she spread her arms and uttered words no mere mortal, or part mortal, understood.

Floating, Aldo appeared above them, dressed once more in the scarlet robes of mountain fame. He hovered, soundless.

“A gift,” Tarhazian cried. “For those Embran who wait for justice in their world. These are the ones you’re waiting for. They stole slaves who are no longer of use to you. You will decide how Aldo and his servant are to be dealt with.”

Aldo’s mouth opened and closed. Horror filmed his eyes, but they grew startled as Cliff was sucked from the ground and thrown into his arms.

They fragmented and dissolved from sight.

Cassie and David sat down suddenly, as if relief had left them weak.

Tarhazian grew farther away, smiling all the time, until she was gone. She left Sally behind.

“You are loved, Elin.” The Queen’s voice floated back but Elin decided she was the only one who heard it.