Iron Kin: A Novel of the Half-Light City (17 page)

I stared at my brother, fascinated. I’d never quite understood until just now how deep his healer instincts ran. Hells, it was still hard to reconcile either of the naughty, hell-raising big brothers I’d grown up with with the Master Healer and the Templar knight who stood here, both looking tired and resolute. It didn’t seem that long ago that it had been the five of us playing croquet in the gardens of our house, happy and carefree.

Now we were only four and I didn’t know if even Hannah could be called completely carefree.

Perhaps, that is why Simon and Guy have difficulty seeing you as a metalmage
, a guilty little voice in my head said. I chased it away. I was allowed nostalgia if I didn’t let it color my actions now. My brothers were just being stubborn and pigheaded in their desire to keep me hidden away.

“So what happened next?” Fen asked. “Healing him is one thing”—he stopped, gestured at the doors—“but you wouldn’t need all this if you had just healed him.”

Simon nodded agreement. “I thought it safest to keep him hidden until I knew his story. I told Bryony and she agreed we should keep his presence a secret. For his safety and for the safety of everyone else at St. Giles. Over time, I slowly got to know him. He had to trust me—I supplied his food and everything else and he told me a little of his life in the Court. It took time for me to see that perhaps not all the Blood were the same. Atherton—that’s his name, Atherton Carstairs—told me that he’d been in the retinue of a Blood lord who had opposed Lucius’ ways. He’s quite young, as the Blood count such things. Anyway, Lucius killed his mentor and tortured all those who followed him, to set an example. Atherton’s Trusted somehow got to him and set him free. She didn’t survive to escape with him, though.”

Simon rubbed his hands along his thighs, fingers stretching. “As I was saying. We talked. Became friends of a sort, and one day I happened to say something about a cure for blood-locking.”

“A cure?” Fen took a step toward Guy and Reggie, hope flaring on his face. “There isn’t a cure.”

“No,” Simon said. “Not quite. Not even the hint of one back then. I hadn’t expected Atherton to help me. But he said that perhaps we should look for one. He thought that the one way to loosen Lucius’ grip on power would be to break the Blood’s hold over the blood-locked. Stem the tide of humans falling to the Night World.”

“Damn fool idea,” Guy said.

“You don’t approve?” I was surprised. I would have thought that anything that spiked the Night World’s guns would be manna from heaven to Guy.

“Let’s just say that Simon and I disagree on the consequences of his cure, should he find it,” Guy said.

“You’re looking for a cure?” Fen asked. His face twisted as he looked down at Reggie. “That’s madness.”

“Why?” I said, puzzled.

“A cure just gives those who choose the Night World less reason to be afraid of the Blood, doesn’t it?” Fen said, with a flick of one long-fingered hand. Across from him, Guy made an approving noise. “If they don’t have to fear being blood-locked, why should they stay away?”

“I disagree,” Simon said. “A cure will help so many people. It’s vital if we’re going to survive.”

A cure. My head throbbed. All I could think was that it was too late for Edwina. My throat was tight with sorrow. Too late for my sister. But maybe not too late for Regina. “This is all academic unless you’ve actually found a cure,” I said. “Have you?”

“We can talk about that inside. I just wanted to prepare you first.” Simon looked from Fen to me.

Prepare us to meet a vampire, he meant. Not that it would be Fen’s first time. I’d seen Blood before, of course. They attended the opera at the Gilt and other amusements in the border boroughs, but I’d largely avoided contact with them. Vampires only reminded me of Edwina.

Who’d died blood-locked and estranged from us. And now Simon thought he could find a cure?

I tried not to think of Edwina but it was impossible. The hurt was always there. And, part of me whispered, maybe it was that same hurt that drove Simon now. Could he really find a cure or was he just trying to right a very old wrong? One that could never be mended.

Our family would never be whole again. All of this ran through my head like a litany as Simon opened the next door.

“Give me a moment.” He slipped through the door.

Preparing the vampire, no doubt.

Sainted earth.

Guy stood closest to the door, shifting his stance slightly as he waited for Simon’s return.

“I can take her,” Fen said to him.

Guy shook his head. “She isn’t heavy.” He glanced down at Reggie and then back at Fen, his jaw tightening, lips settling into a grim line, and for a moment I saw a glimpse of the warrior Guy usually hid around us. Saw that his rage went deep as well.

Just what we needed.

I hoped Simon’s vampire—no, Atherton—I could at least extend the courtesy of using his name, was good at being circumspect. I didn’t think it would take much to set either Fen or Guy off tonight and a vampire would make a tempting target for their anger.

Simon’s reappearance was a welcome break to the tension brewing in our little group. We followed him through the door into a moderately sized room. It was dimly lit, only a few of the gaslights on the wall burning. It was also mostly empty. A few tables set against the wall to our left held a clutter of notebooks and various medical-looking devices, and a somewhat neater desk and chair stood closest to the very ordinary-looking wooden door in the wall opposite us.

As Holly pulled the iron door shut behind us, the wooden door opened and a vampire stepped through, his posture wary, tensed, head swiveling slowly from side to side as though he was scanning the room.

Which he couldn’t do. Where his eyes should have been was a mass of scarred flesh and ruin. Burns. I knew the look of burns—they were somewhat of an occupational hazard for metalmages—and these were definitely burn scars. Horrifying, scorching burns.

The room swam around me for a moment. Blighted earth. I swallowed and took a deep breath.

“This is Atherton Carstairs,” Simon said, moving to the vampire’s side. “Atherton, do you know who is here?”

“Hello, Lily,” Atherton said. “Lady Bryony. Guy. Miss Holly. I do not know the other three. But I gather we have a new patient?” He turned to face Guy, the surety of the movement uncanny. The Blood have senses far beyond those of humans—their hearing and smell and sight are all honed to the acuteness of the predator—but seeing Atherton’s casual display of just how good they were was alarming.

“The patient is Holly’s friend, Regina,” Simon said.

“The one who was missing?” Atherton’s mouth turned down. “I am sorry, Holly.” The vampire turned back to Simon. “How did you retrieve her?”

“Lily and Fen—you’ve heard Holly talk about Fen—went after her. They were able to get her out of the warrens.”

“Can we do the niceties later?” Guy asked, shifting his stance carefully. “Where do you want Reggie?”

“Bring her inside. There’s a bed readied.” Atherton turned and opened the door he’d come through, then walked into the room beyond. Guy carried Reggie through and the rest of us followed.

I was first through the door after Simon and almost stopped short again when I found myself in a much larger room that resembled a hospital ward.

That’s because it
is
a hospital ward, idiot
, I chided myself. Simon had said that he’d taken Atherton to an old disused ward. What he’d neglected to mention was that it was no longer disused.

No, now it was full. There were at least eight rows of beds, each occupied by a sleeping person. Guy put Reggie down on the empty bed Atherton indicated, settling her gently. Atherton bent and pulled the covers around her. I saw Guy stiffen as the vampire reached to move one of Reggie’s arms, but he didn’t interfere.

“Are they all blood-locked?” Fen’s voice came sharply from behind me.

“Yes,” Bryony said calmly. “More or less.”

“What does that mean?” Fen asked. His voice rang loud in the hushed room. None of the patients stirred, though, which meant either that their sleep was charmed or that they weren’t capable of responding.

“We’re getting closer to a cure,” Simon said. “But—” He stopped, turned to Lily with a raised eyebrow.

Lily shrugged. “I said you should tell them. That means telling all of it.”

“All right.” Simon rubbed his thigh again, then gestured at the various chairs that stood beside some of the beds. “Sit. Let me go back to the beginning. Bryony, will you see to Reggie?”

Bryony nodded and went to help Atherton. The rest of us carried chairs closer to Simon and then settled ourselves.

Simon looked tired as he began to speak. “All right. The beginning. Fen, you know a little of this, I think, from Holly.”

Fen, on his chair, was tense, his brows drawn together in a thick black slash over his eyes. “Perhaps. Do you mean Saskia doesn’t?”

“No.”

Oh good, more secrets. I held my tongue.

Simon drew in a breath, let it out heavily. “A few months ago, Lucius sent Lily to try and kill me.”

“What?” I’d never known exactly how Simon and Lily had crossed paths, what had driven her defection from the Night World, apart from falling madly in love with my brother. I turned to face Lily. “You did what?” Around my neck, I felt my chain begin to heat.

“Easy, Sass,” Simon said. “You don’t understand.”

“She tried to kill you!” I said indignantly.

Lily’s eyes lit with amusement for a moment before her expression returned to its neutral gaze.

“Well, she failed,” Simon pointed out. “Besides, she didn’t want to do it. Lucius—” He stopped, looked again at Lily. She nodded. “Lucius had a secret. Lily’s secret. He’d addicted her to his blood.”

“
You
were locked?” Fen said, looking shocked.

Lily shook her head. “Not exactly. I’m a wraith. Vampire blood doesn’t work in the same way for my kind, apparently. I had the need, but it didn’t damage me like it does a human. I kept my senses and I could control my hunger, to a degree.”

“That may be debatable,” Guy said with a snort. “After all, you fell for Simon.”

“True.” She looked at Simon affectionately. “It’s that DuCaine charm, I guess.”

“Simon cured your addiction?” I asked.

“No. Lucius’ death cured my addiction.”

“And they killed Lucius,” Fen added.

I gaped at him. “I don’t understand.”

Fen shrugged, his chain clinking softly. “Your brother and Lily. They’re the ones who killed Lucius.”

Sainted earth
. I dug my fingers into the back of my neck, the pounding in my head stronger than ever. My chain warmed again. Too many secrets. All this time and they’d never told me. “You killed him so you’d be cured?” I asked Lily.

“Because he needed killing,” Lily said. “He was a danger to everyone.”

“But it cured you. Killing the vampire who addicted you cured you?”

“It did. In my case.”

“What about others?” I turned to Simon. “Have you tried this on others?”

Simon rolled his shoulders. “We can’t just go around slaughtering vampires to test out the theory.”

“More’s the pity,” Guy said with a grumble.

“The problem is that by the time we get our hands on anyone who’s blood-locked, they’re too far gone to tell us who locked them anyway.”

“
But you have tried?” I prompted.

“Yes,” Simon admitted.

“On who?” Fen said suddenly.

“Patients brought to St. Giles,” Simon said.

Fen’s brows lifted. “Then how has this been kept a secret? If people’s families bring them here for treatment . . .”

Simon looked away. My stomach curled uneasily, the pain in my temples intensifying. “Simon?”

He took a deep breath, sighed it out. “The families don’t know.”

“What?” Fen and I spoke in unison.

“They don’t know,” Simon repeated.

“So what do they think has happened to these people?”

“They think they’re dead,” Lily said.

Fen made a half-choked sound of outrage. “That’s horrible!”

Lily shrugged. “The locked were already lost to their families. Offering false hope would be crueler. So Simon chose not to.”

“Is it false, though?” I asked.

Fen ignored me, still focused on Lily and Simon, his green eyes very dark, body tensed. “What gives you the right to make that decision? Those people brought their daughters and sons and parents to you and you . . . what, lied to them? Told them they died? How can you do that?”

“I admit, I struggled with it,” Simon said. “But Lily is right. It didn’t seem fair to offer false hope, to prolong their pain. Bryony and I agreed this was kinder.”

“Either that or you just didn’t want anyone to find out about what you were doing. Because you knew people would try to stop you,” Fen said, his voice dangerously close to a growl again.

“That was obviously a factor.”

“Is it even legal?” Fen asked. “If the Blood have a right to the locked under treaty law, is it even legal to try and take that away from them?”

“Everything under the treaty is negotiable, Fen,” Holly said.

“Which is part of why it’s a flawed system,” he replied.

“You don’t believe in the treaty?” Guy asked.

“I don’t . . .” Fen stopped, shrugged. “I think it leaves a lot of people to fall between the cracks.” He looked at Simon again.

“Then why join our delegation?”

“Sometimes you have to pick from several bad choices,” Fen said.

I winced as Guy’s expression darkened. “I’m sure Fen means—”

“Let him speak for himself,” Guy said. Beside him, Holly put a hand on his arm and he shook her off. Definitely not good.

“Do you really care?” Fen said. “You got what you wanted.”

Guy leaned forward. “Did we?”

“What are you implying?”

“That we don’t need someone whose loyalty is questionable.”

“I gave you my word.” Fen’s jaw clenched. I held my breath, not daring to speak as Guy and Fen locked gazes.

“But you don’t believe in the treaty.”

“I said it was flawed.”

“Isn’t that the same thing?”

“Not necessarily. Not the way I see it.”