Incarnation (25 page)

“Damn it, don’t just lie there! Wake up!”

“Marco . . .”

“What happened to you?” he demanded. “Where did all this salt come from?”

I sat up, leaning on my elbows, and endeavored to collect yourself. “Your mother . . .”

I was on my feet by the simple expediency of Marco hoisting me up. Still holding me, he looked down at the circle. Rather incredibly given the circumstances, he laughed.

“Salt, seriously? That’s an old wife’s tale, no one really believes it. The dolomite in the walls is enough to keep you safe.”

I could have been sitting in comfort in a nice chair with a snifter of something good and a book to pass the time, not standing like a fool in the dark. Cornelia had made her point. I was a very unwelcomed intruder into her life and the life of her son. Yet I had to thank her all the same.

“It does more than that. I reached Mordred again. Wherever he is, he can hear humans screaming.”

Marco frowned. “Not very reassuring but it might help.”

“I hope so. I have to tell you—” As quickly and succinctly as I could, I related what had happened at the Bagatelle. The
horror I felt at what I had witnessed was equaled only by my shame that those with whom I was associated, however unwillingly, had committed such a heinous crime. Most of all, I feared that Marco would see me in the same light and turn away in disgust.

Instead, he took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and said, “It is as well that you got away. Vampires are out hunting throughout the city. The wolves are after them but we will have to go carefully.”

“Go where?” I asked.

“Where we must,” he said and took my arm.

CHAPTER 19

B
ut first there was Cornelia again. She was the very picture of courtesy as she descended to the basement, waylaying us with tea. Earl Grey for Marco, some combination of bergamot, anise, and fennel for me. The brew was vile but I sipped it all the same.

“It will help with your . . . cravings,” she said delicately as she hovered over me, pouring from a porcelain teapot. No doubt she was far more accustomed to silver. I appreciated her restraint even as I struggled to keep down the tea.

We were seated in a chamber in the inn’s basement, surrounded by tall bookcases that held tomes devoted to all manner of subjects related to the occult. At a glance, I noted treatises on astrology, divination, demonology, and the like. Aware as I was of Marco’s involvement with the Golden Dawn, I wondered if the books were his, but when I suggested as much, I was corrected.

“This is Nicolas’ library,” Cornelia said. “That is everything except the part of it pertaining to the law. Those books are in his office above.” She grimaced. “I cannot understand why he insists on living in such a place.”

“He likes it here,” Marco said. “The inn is close to the
courts. All sorts of information flows with the ale. And his . . . eccentricities are respected.”

“Is he here now?” I asked. I was curious as to the other di Orsini brother’s whereabouts, but my attention was still diverted by the books. Looking more closely, I also saw Mr. Darwin’s work along with titles by Sebastian de Vere, not the same ones that I had noticed in the library at the Bagatelle but others with such titles as
Speciation Among Hominids
and
Devolution: A Morphological Perspective.

Mother and son exchanged a glance. Marco said, “Nicolas will be here shortly.” To Cornelia, he added, “It will be dawn soon. Lucy and I must leave then.”

She set her cup down with care, yet the china clattered slightly all the same. Sitting so erectly that her spine did not touch the back of the chair, she said, “You are still determined to associate yourself with the enemy?”

Marco winced slightly. “Lucy is not our enemy, but even if she were, I have no choice. Without Mordred’s return, war is inevitable. And without her, I cannot find him.”

As though I were not present, Cornelia replied, “You know what she is?”

He nodded. His dark eyes moved to me. “I had trouble believing it at first, but nothing else fits. We have always suspected that a halfling could come only from the Slayer’s line. Now we know that is true.”

“Is that why you . . . took an interest in me when I was still human?” It was as close as I could come to mentioning the relationship that had existed between us, especially in front of his mother.

As it was, Cornelia clearly disapproved of the subject. Abruptly, she stood and said, “I will be upstairs. When you
can tear yourself away, Marco, I would like a private word with you.”

Refusing to be baited, he responded mildly. “As you wish, Mother. I will be with you shortly.”

When she was gone, leaving a trail of ice behind her, he sighed. “She means well.”

Not where I was concerned, but I could hardly expect otherwise. “She is very worried about you.” As was I. “This Council of Protectors you were called before . . . how much of a problem are they?”

“If we fail, none at all. They will be too busy trying to defend humans in the war that will follow. On the other hand, if we succeed and war is averted, I will be held to account. But there is no point worrying about that now.”

Standing, he clasped his hands behind his back and paced a short distance in one direction, then another. Finally, he said, “You asked what drew me to you . . . before.”

Already I regretted my ill-timed words but I could hardly take them back. “I did, yes.”

He nodded, as though having come to terms with the necessity of providing me with an explanation. “Last year,” he began, “the Council of Protectors charged me with discovering whether a secret cabal operating within the government, known as the Star Committee, had authorized the development of a weapon of such power that it could be used against vampires. You will understand that we wanted to determine if any such weapon existed because if it did and vampires learned of it, the inevitable result would be more attacks on humans.”

I noted that he did not say that the Protectors opposed the creation of any such weapon, merely that they wanted warning of its existence. But I said only, “Surely the members of
this Star Committee would realize the risk to humans, too, wouldn’t they?”

“No doubt, but that doesn’t mean that they were deterred by it. I made enough progress to suspect that the rumors had some substance but I couldn’t get to the bottom of them. Finally, it occurred to me that no one would be more interested in discovering the existence of such a weapon than would Mordred himself. Without any other options, I decided to watch him, thinking that he might lead me to members of the cabal. To my surprise, I discovered that far from investigating the matter, he seemed entirely occupied in watching you.”

The notion that I had been under the surveillance of the vampire king for some time before the events at Whitby was unsettling in the extreme. “You had no idea why he would do such a thing?”

“Not at the time, but I did know that it was out of character for him to take an interest in a seemingly ordinary young woman.”

I raised a brow in mocking reprimand. Half mocking, at any rate. “Ordinary?”

He had the good grace to look abashed. “Forgive me, I didn’t know you then. When we did become acquainted, I was even more puzzled. You were . . . a surprise.”

“How so?”

He hesitated long enough for me to wonder if he would answer at all. Finally, without taking his eyes from me, he said, “A Protector’s life tends to be solitary. When we do form relationships, they are within the bounds of our clan. I would never have set out to draw a young, innocent woman into an existence that of necessity encompasses considerable darkness and danger. But there I was suddenly drawn into yours and you
were . . .” His smile was real for all that held a note of sadness. “You saw the world in all its amazing beauty and possibilities, and you embraced it. I couldn’t help but be affected by your enthusiasm and your genuineness.”

“But you still didn’t believe there could be a future for us,” I reminded him.

“I knew that there shouldn’t be for your sake. But I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t very tempted. For the first time, I began to question what I had simply accepted before.” He gestured at the red pendant above his heart. “I was entrusted with this on my twentieth birthday. I had worked, trained, and studied since early childhood for the moment that I would fulfill my destiny and become a Protector. Never had it occurred to me that I might want something else.”

Whereas I had challenged from the beginning the path laid out before me. Was that part of what had drawn Marco and me together . . . and then torn us apart?

“Is that why you let me go back to Whitby? Because I made you question what you thought you should not?”

The flash of pain that crossed his face caught me by surprise. Until that moment, I had not realized how deeply he regretted all that had happened.

“Mordred seemed to have lost interest in you and the rumors of the cabal’s activities were growing stronger. I told myself that my duty lay in London.” He spread his hands in a plea for my understanding. “I believed that you would be safer away from me.”

I could not cry, at least I did not think I could do so, but just then I came very close. Rising, I went to him and took both his hands in mine. The warmth of his skin threatened to melt the coldness that encased me. I felt his strength and will
honed from childhood to stand between humanity and the evolutionary rival whose natural superiority could condemn all humans to being little more than cattle kept to be fed upon. Felt, too, the harsh discipline of duty that had taken him so far from any semblance of normal life. Almost as far as Mordred had taken me.

“It wasn’t your fault,” I said. “You couldn’t have known what he intended.”

His eyes were filled with sadness. “You absolve me too readily. Instead of just accepting that you were an enchanting young woman, I should have looked more closely. Had I understood the importance of your mother’s bloodline . . .”

“What would you have done then, tried to stop Mordred?” Deliberately, I stared at the red pendant. “With that?”

His fingers brushed the heavy gold chain but did not touch the stone itself. “Do you know what this is?”

“It looks like a ruby, but surely it is too large.”

“Indeed. It is something far rarer and vastly more precious. The heart of a vampire, found centuries ago in a cave on Crete and brought to Britain by one of the first Protectors.”

I heard him clearly enough yet my mind could not grasp what he was telling me. “That isn’t possible . . . it is beautiful.”

Gently, he asked, “What do you think your heart looks like now, Lucy? Do you imagine that it is some poor shriveled thing?”

“How could it be otherwise? It no longer beats.”

“It doesn’t have to. We are only just beginning to understand the cellular changes that come with incarnation, but we do know that they are profound. A heart that does not beat but generates seemingly unlimited energy is only the beginning.”

I stared more closely at the pendant, trying to understand its purpose. “What are you saying? That this energy still exists when the vampire no longer does?”

He nodded. “In the hands of a human who has been trained to use it, a vampire heart is a weapon. The energy in it can be directed to overload the cellular processes that enable vampires to exist. Essential functions are disrupted and the integrity of the body quickly disintegrates.”

That something so beautiful and powerful could also be so destructive filled me with horror. I could barely comprehend it. “What are you saying . . . we just fall apart?”

He looked uncomfortable. “It’s more like a shower of stars.”

So evocative a description made me wonder how many times he had witnessed it for himself. Rather than think of that, I asked, “Are all the Protectors armed as you are?”

“The fighters among us are.”

“All with vampire hearts? You have found so many?”

He did not flinch but met my gaze directly. “Mine is the oldest; it was found. The others were taken.”

I did not have to ask how—the answer was starkly obvious. Armed with the first heart, the Protectors had hunted vampires to acquire as many more hearts as they needed. Their strength was limited only by however many fighters they could breed.