Immortal Confessions (11 page)

I also finally saw action of my own that last
day of August 1814. A man attacked Quentin with a knife as he
emerged from his favorite coffeehouse. Quentin yelled, and I shoved
him aside, knocking the man backward into a nearby alley, the same
one he had likely been hiding in. I stabbed him, but he laughed at
me, even as his flesh knitted together.

“Kill him!” Quentin hissed, nursing a broken
but healing wrist. “He’s werebat!”

I sank my fangs into the bat, which let out a
shriek of terror and pain. But the human blood I now drank
exclusively had made me much more powerful that I had been before.
Despite the werebat’s strength, I held him easily until I had
drained him.

I let his body fall after slicing the throat
to make it look like a robbery-murder. Predictably enough, the
werebat’s regenerative powers ceased the moment he died, and the
wound stayed open.

“What did he taste like?” Quentin asked
squeamishly.

“Good to the last drop,” I said
sarcastically. The bat had tasted odd, but it was not unpleasant to
taste something different other than human blood day after day.
Humorous as I found it, maybe I’d even be able to turn into a bat
now, though I thought it unlikely.

“I thought it would kill you,” he whispered.
“It’s said that drinking from werecreatures is like a poison—”

“Who says this?”

“Other vampires.”

Idiots. Didn’t any of them have any spine?
“That is an obvious fallacy. And if you had only some courage of
your own, you would likely have discovered that yourself.”

“I’ll give you a bonus,” Quentin said
hurriedly. “I appreciate what you’ve done. This is exactly the kind
of situation I hired you for. You did such an excellent job
dispatching him. You’re the epitome of a man and a vampire—”

I let him blather on, while I thought to
myself that it was time to make my move. Guy’s crown was ripe for
the taking. Yet even as I contemplated my ascension, my thoughts
turned back to Anna.

We were very happy together. My work for
Quentin kept me out all night, but she kept my waking hours now,
for the most part. Every dawn when I’d get home, she was awake, and
ready to hear about my work night, such as it was. My wages from
Quentin were enough to make the small house we had very cozy,
though it was true she was still not able to have the kind of
furnishings she had had back at her father’s castle. Anna herself
made no mention of that, though her wedding dress was clearly still
on her mind. She mostly sewed clothes for herself, and read books
of poetry that I bought for her, but I am not sure what else she
did in her days. It was enough she was happy with me, and that she
never once told me she was not in the mood.

Taking Guy’s place would endanger Anna. I
needed to determine if there was not some way to protect her
first.

* * * *

Chance had it that Quentin and I attended a
ball that Guy was throwing the next week. As usual, he was afraid
that a werebat would get him. In his defense, he did have cause to
be worried; he was a prime target. He was directly employed by Guy
as Fontainebleau’s treasurer, responsible not only for ensuring the
means to finance Guy’s plans and rules for the city, but—more
important to Guy—lavish and garish parties. And when I say
treasurer, I mean real treasure, not just cash.

Guy apparently had treasure, mounds of it,
stored away in his coffers. Quentin alone knew where it all was
located, though he never once admitted that to me even in the face
of deliberate questioning. He just smiled uneasily and said I was
better off not knowing. I let it go, because it was plain to see he
was afraid of me now, like he hadn’t been at the beginning of our
arrangement.

You might think that I didn’t push out of
respect for our friendship, that we had formed some sort of
companion-like bond. Let me assure you that was not the case. I
simply didn’t want to upset the lucrative arrangement I had as his
bodyguard until I secured something better. Besides, a little fear
was useful to my plans.

I remember dressing that night for the ball
in my most elegant clothes. They were of fine cloth, the finest I’d
worn in many years. Anna was helping me get ready.

“Do I have to worry for you tonight?” she
said finally, stepping back.

“You have never asked this before,” I
replied, taking her in my arms. “What makes you ask it
tonight?”

“This is the first ball you’ve attended in
Quentin’s service,” she replied, brushing off my jacket sleeves.
“It makes sense that those werebats might attack, if the vampires
are gathered in one place.”

“Which is why Quentin asked me to attend and
paid for these clothes. Don’t worry; you have nothing to fear. I’ll
be careful.”

“Will you?” she said sharply.

I stepped back from her, then took her hand
and kissed it. “You are asking if I’ve another interest at the
party. Let me assure you, Love, the only women I’ll touch there
will be my food.”

She gazed at me, her face resolute, and then
sagged slightly, hugging me.

“Why are you upset?” I said, cradling her in
my arms. “Nothing has changed. I love you as much today as I ever
did.”

“Because nothing has changed,” she whispered
brokenly. “It has been the better part of a year, Devlin. We are
still unmarried.”

“It has been closer to five months,” I said
irritably.

“I know you are working hard,” she said
carefully. “I am not asking for more possessions or trinkets. I
just want to be able to hold my head up when I buy in the market,
or visit the church. I am tired of lying.”

I held her at arm’s length. “Do you want to
be married now like this, without a proper dress, or niceties? I
don’t delay in making us wed because of laziness, but because of my
own pride. You are not the only one who wants to be able to hold
their head up.”

Anna didn’t answer.

I continued in a kinder tone. “I took you
from all you knew. Your dowry was lost because of me, along with
your dress. I will not take your wedding day from you as well. We
are going to have a proper wedding with witnesses and trimmings,
not just an official to preside and a signed document.”

Anna took a deep breath and swallowed. Then
her brown eyes met my gold ones and held them. “You’re right. What
you describe is worth waiting for. But I need to know right
now—when will it be? No more vagueness.”

I held her gaze. “Do you trust me?”

“Yes.”

“Then know I’m faithful to you, always,” I
said lovingly. “In my heart I am already wed, Anna. I give you my
word, I am doing my best to make the life I want for us a reality.
I’m sorry, but that must be enough for you for now.”

She kissed me once, and nodded. “I believe
you. I’m just...um, anxious.”

If I’d been human, I’d have suspected at once
that she was pregnant. Knowing that could not be the case, I was
utterly flummoxed. “Anxious about what?”

“We are sinning in the eyes of the church,”
she admitted reluctantly. “I told the priest we are married, and he
believed me. So I’m both a liar and a fornicator.”

I held my laugh in. As much as I found her
logic amusing, her distraught manner upset me. I was both angry at
the church for their unbending ways and at fate for the events that
had conspired against us financially since we’d met.

However, I had only sympathy for her. “God
understands our circumstances,” I whispered, kissing her quickly,
and then embracing her once again. “He did not bring us together in
vain, and He does not judge us, Anna, even if others who proclaim
themselves Christians do.”

Anna tried to smile, and failed. “I am
beginning to think we are cursed.”

“We are not cursed,” I said firmly. “While I
am gone tonight, do something for me.”

“What?”

“Pray for opportunity,” I said, tilting her
chin up for a last kiss. “Pray for a sign.”

“I’ll pray for your safe return to me.”

“I shall return,” I said, fixing her with my
eyes. “Do not waste prayers on that. Pray instead that He gives me
the power to give you all you ask for.”

Anna bit her lip, and then nodded once.

I walked off into the night, quickly trying
to shake off my feelings of worry and fear. I would meet Quentin in
a few moments, and I did not want him to pick up on my turmoil
tonight of all nights. There was too much at stake.

Guy’s party was being held at some
high-ranking vampire’s home. I met Quentin near his small home, and
escorted him there.

“A grand place,” he sniffed as we arrived. “I
know for a fact that the vampire who owns this went deep into debt
to secure this mansion. What a fool.”

“Why do they bother?” I asked, pausing to
survey the throng near the door, posturing to one another as they
entered the mansion.

“The normal reasons, chiefly influence with
Guy. This one or that one is always trying to curry favor with him,
not that it ever works. Our leader does have that one good
attribute: incorruptibility by his peers.”

“Is that uncommon?”

Quentin nodded. “In Vampire Lords, it
is.”

“Why would Guy care about money anyway?” I
asked. “He has his own fortune.”

Quentin smiled nervously. “Hurry up, Devlin.
We’re going to be late. We can continue this conversation
inside.”

* * * *

I stood near him later that night, listening
to Guy give a speech about how the political climate and the
trouble with the werebats had both calmed now, another
“reassurance” speech as I called them. As I listened with half an
ear, my eyes wandered the crowd. They widened in surprised to see a
human woman behind Guy, one I had never noticed before. She was
beaming at him, enraptured, and on her neck, I noticed a silver
choker.

“Who is that?” I asked, discreetly
pointing.

“Evalynne,” Quentin answered, just as
discreetly. “Guy’s Oathed One.”

“Oathed One? What is that?”

“Mistress,” he murmured back. “You could say
The Mistress, as he has more than one. But he has an oath from her,
so that makes her the most important one.”

I made my voice merely curious, quelling the
urgency rising within me. “Explain.”

Quentin rolled his eyes at me. “How did you
live even fifty years and not get an education in etiquette?” He
cleared his throat. “Oathed Ones are beings that have promised
themselves to a vampire forever. In return, they are given a
collar, or choker, as some prefer to call it. They are kind of like
a pet and lover rolled into one.”

Anna would not like being referred to this
way, and part of me balked at even asking my next question. “Do
they not have rights?”

“Sure, if the vampire agrees to give them
rights when the oath is given. But Evalynne has no rights.” He
sneered. “Her love blinded her.”

The band started then, and Guy began to dance
with Evalynne. She seemed enraptured. To my surprise, he did,
too.

“Then why’d she take it?” I whispered back.
“He’s no prize, save for his being rich.”

“That might be enough,” Quentin said,
grinning. “It is for many a woman these days. I’d wager that she’s
treated well, Devlin, if you’re concerned. This wasn’t a case of a
man wanting to own a plaything. It’s easy to see they oathed mostly
because they loved each other. It was the safest way to keep any
other vampire from ever bothering her.”

My heart stopped, I think. I definitely held
my breath.

Quentin noticed and clutched my arm. “What is
it?” he said quickly. “Do you scent werebat?”

“No,” I said, letting out my breath. “I was
just thinking.”

“So you going to tell me who she is?” he said
knowingly.

I turned to him with a growl, and before I
knew it, I’d grabbed the front of his neck, and pushed him up
against the wall. “What do you know?”

“Nothing!” he squeaked. “But you never lie
with the women you feed on, though you clearly want to. And every
evening when we meet, you are relaxed, so you’ve been with someone.
It has to be a woman, one that means something to you.”

I released him. “Do not speak of this,
Quentin, not if you value your life.”

“I do,” he said uneasily. “I’ll give you a
raise, and never mention it again.”

I nodded, and turned away from him.

“Just so you know, there is a jeweler on
Fairlane who makes chokers,” he said slowly, not meeting my eyes.
“They take about a week to finish, at the earliest.”

“Thanks,” I said, pointedly not looking at
him.

He changed the subject. “Do you want
refreshment? There are women and men at the table in the back.”

“Not this early, we just—” I began.

Abruptly the glass windows shattered.

Vampires screamed, and ducked for cover,
running chaotically in every direction. Through the windows flew
massive furry forms. They dove at the vampires, letting out
unnatural cries that sounded like monstrous mice caught in traps.
Vampires began dying, as their heads were ripped off their bodies
or their hearts ripped out by hands that had black claws an inch
long.

“Stop!” Guy called ineffectually from the
floor. “Stop this! We are not to blame!”

“You are,” a hateful voice rasped. It
belonged to a huge man, who for his size still managed to look
graceful. He was rough featured, heavily muscled, and thoroughly
pissed. “You are the reason we are hunted! You and your
bloodsucking kind!”

“Please!” Guy said, still cowering. “Please
don’t kill us!”

“Ten of yours for every one of mine that was
killed,” the werebat leader said, bearing fangs at least double the
length of my own. “We are only up to twenty-eight, Guy. But we’ll
end this feud tonight!” He turned to his men. “Kill them, starting
with the men. And keep count.”

If I was ever going to act, this was the
time. I said a prayer for Anna, and then got to my feet, and
started toward the werebat leader. “Like hell you will.”