Immortal Confessions (26 page)

Fire was everywhere, consuming all of our
furniture. The curtains were waving in the heat, even as they
glowed orange and turned to ashes. My hair was on fire now, and I
could feel my skin burning. I had to get out, or I’d die. But I had
to find Anna! I couldn’t leave her here to die!

“Devlin!” a voice shouted.

Eva’s voice. I turned to see her
silhouette.

“Come quickly!” she called, choking. “Anna is
safe!”

I stumbled to her. She propped me up and
together, we made it outside as the building collapsed behind me
with a roar. She pushed me roughly in the snow, trying to put out
the fires on my body. I dropped the smoking bearskin, and a
terrified L’Amour ran out into the darkness. Eva rolled me back and
forth until the flames were out, and then she dragged me into a
sitting position.

“You are badly injured,” she said, offering
her wrist. “Take some of my blood.”

I took her wrist, and drank greedily. Her
blood was wereblood, potent, and it healed my burns, even as I
savored the taste. When I finished, she took her wrist back.

“Where is Anna?”

“With Uther,” she said, getting to her feet
and helping me up. “Many vampires came, with a wereman in charge.
They set fire to the house. Anna grabbed what she could, and Rip
teleported her to safety. Levi fought the wereman, but he
lost.”

Her voice faltered. I looked up at her,
hoping to God what she said wasn’t true.

“He’s dead, yes,” she said in a cracked
voice. “The wereman killed him easily.”

I grabbed hold of her. “Then why are you not
dead?” I hissed at her. “How is it you were left here,
untouched?”

She glared defiantly back at me, her eyes red
with anguish. “By my marks I’m oathed to you. They did nothing to
me, save remove me from the house before they burned it, tying me
to a tree. The wereman said he was honoring the law.”

What she was saying sank into me like poison,
because it was apparent who had done this.

“It was Anthony,” she sniffled. “He said his
name was Anthony, and to tell you that the next time he saw me,
he’d have me on my back in the next minute, because I’d be fair
game, you being dead.”

Anthony. Louis’s man, the fifth ranked.

There was a roar as the mansion’s roof fell
in. Then I heard the first scream of bells, and the trampling from
the horse-drawn wagons of the fire brigade. They would be here in a
minute or less.

“Come,” I said, taking her hand. “We must not
been seen.”

“Hold on,” she called, and ran into the
darkness. She was back a second later holding a frantic
L’Amour.

I grabbed the bearskin and her hand. Together
we melted into the darkness.

* * * *

When I got to Uther’s caves just before dawn,
Anna almost tackled me, she was so happy to see me, and L’Amour.
Quentin was also relieved, and effusive.

Uther was not. “What did you do in Brittany?”
he rasped angrily. “This is payback for something, Devlin.”

“I killed some people, and set fire to a few
buildings,” I said dejectedly. “I have brought this upon us.”

“It would have been something, sooner or
later,” Quentin said bitterly. “Louis was not going to leave us
alone, no matter what Samuel may have said. What we did hurt his
pride. We are going to have to flee the country.”

“For where?” I said bitingly. “Wherever I go,
there will be another vampire who does not want me there, and I’ll
have to fight again! Better to fight now, and get it over
with—”

“You fight Louis man to man, and you might
win,” Uther rasped loudly. “You’ve had enough goblin blood recently
to overpower him. But he knows that, and he’ll not make the mistake
of coming himself. He’ll send that tigerman Anthony to do his
fighting for him. You might be old and powerful, Dev, but you are
no fighter.”

I debated mentioning the goblin battle two
nights ago, but I hadn’t fared that well, in retrospect. “Could I
not hire someone to fight in my stead?” I offered. “Where is Rip?
Could he not fight for me?”

“With what?” Quentin said, throwing some
paper at me. “You do not have enough money now to pay a ranked
assassin. Even if you somehow kill Anthony, you are not going to be
able to take on all of Louis’s men. He will not fight you one on
one, he’s too smart for that.”

“Rip was taken by his brother Titus,” Uther
rasped. “He put a hold of some kind on him, and took him. He is
still your demon, Devlin, but he no longer answers to you. He will
be of no help to us.”

I was furious by now, that so much had gone
wrong so fast. “What should I do? Cower, and grovel at Louis’s
feet? Go back to the rural areas, and hide a few more centuries?
Tell me!”

“Your duty is to Anna, vampire,” Eva growled,
and to have her speak as if she was our equal at our own table of
war was enough to get everyone’s attention. “She is your Oathed
One, as am I, even if I am in name only. You owe it to us to
protect us. Stop thinking of your damned pride!”

“It is Dev’s decision,” Anna said softly. “It
is not his fault, but mine. It was my weakness, my actions that
caused him to wreak havoc in Brittany.”

“Be that as it may,” Uther rasped gently.
“What’s done is done. Quentin is right; we cannot fight Louis and
Anthony. Our only choice is to flee.”

I was aghast. “Leave? After all we’ve worked
for? Everything we built is here.”

Uther narrowed his eyes, and curled his lip
at me. “What is left, vampire? Your grand house is ashes. Your
bodyguard is dead. The batmen that you had hired are all dead,
their mates widows. The vampires who praised you these last five
years will not lift a finger to save you from Louis. And Anthony
will come here tomorrow at dawn, to cleanse my caves of my people
with fire and guns.”

Every word hit me like a bullet. I sank down
on my haunches under the weight of his words. “Then what should we
do?” I said, pulling Anna into my arms. “What can we do?”

“We must go to Rene,” Uther said, rubbing his
eyes. “We must go to her, and ask her what to do.”

Quentin looked at him with raised brows. “She
going to look into her crystal and see our future, Bat?”

“She has gifts,” Uther said respectfully.
“She found Devlin’s brother.”

“Yes, and that turned out great,” Quentin
snarled back. “We do not need any more assistance from her that
leads to burned homes and dead men!”

“What else is there to try?” I said wearily,
getting to my feet. “Lead on, Uther.”

* * * *

Rene was waiting for us in her cloak, as she
had been every time I’d ever been to see her. But this time, she
let Uther and me into her cottage and began putting bags into our
hands.

“We must go tonight,” she said, piling books
and bags in our arms. “Uther, your men must fly us there.”

“What?” he rasped in shock. “You are coming
with us?”

“Yes,” she said, not pausing in her piling.
“I have foreseen it. Much has to be done if we are to make it out
of France alive. Go now, Uther, and send back two more of your men.
Your people must be ready to leave within the hour.”

Uther flew back with her supplies, and an
hour later, his son Ember arrived with another werebat to transport
Rene and me. By the time I returned, half of Uther’s people were
packed.

“The rest will join other colonies nearby,”
Uther said sadly. “But it’s their right, not to want to leave the
land they were born in. If all my family is gone, Louis won’t care
enough to punish others of my band.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, putting my hand on his
shoulder. “I’ve brought this upon you.”

“You did,” he said, and then sighed. “I knew
it might come to this when I joined you, Dev. My eyes have always
been open. My people had a few years where they weren’t persecuted
or staked as vampires.”

“Come,” Rene said, interrupting. “We must
leave tonight. Anthony will be here at first dark tomorrow with
enough vampires to kill us all.”

“We cannot bring all that we need to, not and
bring the vampires and the women too,” one of the werebats said
irritably.

“Bring only yourselves, and your things,”
Rene replied. “I will teleport the vampires.”

“You can’t, you are not demon,” Eva said,
scenting the air. “And what about Anna and me?”

“That is my job,” a man’s clear voice said. A
cloaked man walked into the light. “I am Ravel, Rene’s brother. I
am going as well.”

“Now wait, this is too much!” Quentin said
hysterically. “Why should we trust you? We’ve never met you, or
even heard of you! Why would you help us?”

“Rene has foreseen the future,” Ravel
intoned. “She tells me my future lies in America, with Devlin.”

Now everyone was talking and loudly. This
time, it was I who shouted them down. “Shut up, everyone!”

To my satisfaction, everyone did.

I turned to Rene. “Rene, show us yourself.
You want me to trust you, show me your face, so that I can look you
in the eyes and know you are telling the truth.”

“I cannot,” she replied evenly. “Ravel may,
if he likes.”

Ravel pushed back his hood. He nodded to me,
and then to the rest in turn.

He looked like a normal human to me, fairly
young, with dark eyes and brown hair that was long, so long it was
in a ponytail.

“You are faerie, like your sister,” Uther
rasped out finally. “Your scent reveals you—”

“Yes,” Ravel said, nodding. “But that is not
important. We must leave, and now. Is everyone ready?”

We all nodded.

Ravel turned to Rene. “What is the plan?”

“Devlin, you and Anna go with Ravel. Take a
ship out of Loire-Inferieure, one leaves tomorrow evening. Quentin,
you and Eva will go with me, and we’ll take a ship out of Morbihan.
Uther, take your people and fly down the coast. Do what you can to
make it seem as if the vampires are still with you, or will be on
the ships you are going to take. Split up, if you sense any eyes on
you. We will meet in Plymouth, on the Massachusetts coast. Anyone
who gets there first is to wait there until the others arrive.”

“What about blood?” Quentin asked.

“Eva will be with you for that,” Rene
replied. “Both you and Dalcon should be careful to take as little
as possible. Invoke no suspicion, as sailors are a suspicious
bunch. Be seen every night in the company of the woman with you,
and make sure they are seen in the daytime.”

Quentin and I nodded. Anna and Eva also
nodded.

“Any more questions?”

There were none.

“Good. Let’s go.”

We bid each other farewell, and a half hour
later, I was renting a room in Nantes, Anna at my side. Ravel had
gone to make arrangements with the ship we would take tomorrow
night.

Once we were in our room, Anna and I sat
clinging to one another, L’Amour purring in between us.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered again and
again.

I told her to hush a few times, and then gave
up. She was clearly overwrought, and it was again time for holding
and not talking. I would not add to her fears with false words, to
tell her that all would be well when I had no guarantee it would
be. I hoped she would take comfort from my nearness, as I took
comfort from holding her close.

Ravel returned before dawn, and sat down in a
chair before our fire, wrapping his cloak around him.

“Sleep,” he said, not looking at us. “I will
stay awake, and guard you.”

“Why are you doing this?” Anna asked, as she
discreetly took off her elaborative satin and lace dress, and put
on a plain cotton nightdress.

“Rene told me I must.”

“Do you always do what your sister tells
you?” I said, a little mockingly.

“Most times,” he said, shooting me a grin.
“Or she gets bitchy, and zaps me with a little lightning.”

I looked at him in shock, and then I laughed.
And soon, we were all laughing, even though his comment hadn’t been
that funny.

* * * *

Sunset saw us checking out of our rooms. We
no sooner walked out of the hotel then we ran into Louis, who stood
in the street, ten vampires at his back.

“Did you think to slink away, after setting
fire to my city?” he hissed at me, advancing.

Anna let out a cry, and I pushed her behind
me.

“Kill him,” Louis said with a grin. “But do
not harm the woman. I want her alive.”

He took a step, and a moment later he was hit
by a lightning bolt that arced down from the sky, knocking him off
his feet. Anna shrieked, and I turned to see Ravel advancing.

“Run to the ship!” he shouted. “Run!”

I picked up Anna and ran. Cries of pain
sounded from behind me, along with the crackling of lightning.
Several of the vampires followed me, and I ran through the streets,
hoping to lose them. For an hour I ducked, hid, and ran. We made it
to the ship just as they were pulling anchor.

Anna sobbed, as we’d left behind L’Amour, and
she was heartbroken. I comforted her as best I could, but my heart
was broken too. We’d treated the little cat as our child, and to
lose it now after all we’d gone through was agony.

An hour later, Ravel appeared out of thin
air.

“I killed most of the vampires,” he said,
exhausted. “Louis is outraged, but he’s hurt enough he won’t
follow, at least for a while.”

“Thank you,” I said gratefully. “You saved
us.”

“That I did,” he said with a grin. “And
that’s not all.” He took from his cloak a small cage, and handed it
to Anna. Inside was a distraught and wailing L’Amour.

Anna gave a sob, opened the cage, and
clutched the little cat so tightly it let out a hiss of
irritation.

“Thank you,” she said through her tears.
“Thank you, Ravel.”

“You’re welcome, Ma’am,” he said seriously.
“May I speak to you, Dalcon?”

I nodded, and followed him outside. “What is
it?”