Lilah (39 page)

It was true. I had sent an assassin who had failed
to return.

‘But I returned the favour by telling the
Brodnici; sending your location to their dreams.’

‘Gabriel,’ I said breathlessly and then in a
whisper ‘should have killed you a long time ago.’

‘I daresay you asked him to.’

‘You were never going to be one of us. Gabriel is
weak when it comes to the female kind. That is the only reason you are still
here.’

‘Hmm, and not just partial to one particular kind.
I hear he has been on an extended trip.’

‘His journey is of no importance to me right now.
I want my daughter.’

‘I thought you should like to know that I spent
several days in Venice at
Carnevale
, spying on them. Would you like to
know what your wife has been doing?’

I did not say anything, hating the very mention of
Lilah from her lips.

‘You do look droll lying there strangely with your
mouth open and your eyes wide.’ Arianne threw back her head and screeched with
laughter. Although paralysed I felt every bit of her hate.

‘Do you not love her enough to be curious about
her journey perhaps?’

‘If you have harmed her…’

‘What will you do?’ she mocked. ‘No. Don’t worry
she is in safe hands. In fact, so safe he can’t keep them off her.’

I shut my eyes to try and block out her talk.

‘She has a new lover, Lewis, and a very handsome
one at that – someone you trusted with her care.’

I waited then for her to finish for my life at
that moment rested solely with my abductor.

My clouded mind slowly pieced her words together
creating an unwelcome image, which I then tried desperately to remove. Her lies
were to hurt me. This quarrel must only be about Oleander’s safety.

‘You think that I am to be messed with,’ she
tested.

‘What do you want?’

‘You know why I am here. I want a new body and I
want you to do the transfer.’

‘But that’s not the full story is it?’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘I know that you left Gabriel before your
affliction was exposed, fearing that he might try and destroy you or worse,
abandon you before you had the chance to leave him first. Before he saw how
advanced your madness was becoming with the voices.’

She did not cover her surprise that I knew this
then paused slightly to touch her temple. ‘They began in the months before I
left London,’ she said reflectively.

‘You are one possessed,’ he said. ‘It does not
always work.’

‘You knew this would happen, yet you still
performed the rite.’ She circled me and I could not turn my head to see her.

‘I have seen it happen before and sometimes the
sounds lie dormant for years.’

‘You could have stopped me.’

‘You begged for this. Don’t whine and come to me
now you mad bitch. I had to cure Gabriel of his infatuation.’

She kicked me hard in the jaw with the tip of her
boot.

‘You lie. You did not tell me that there are
voices above me that torment me when I try to sleep and they grow worse by the
day. Only killing relieves it.’

‘Sometimes when you leave your body you can bring
back the spirits from hell with you. You were lucky. You may not have come back
at all.’

‘Lucky! I am the living dead!’

‘I warned you that rarely has such a ritual
worked.’

‘It has worked for Claude and Laszlo. They are not
tormented.’

‘Witches can be converted without issue. It takes
witch blood to become what we are. As for Claude, perhaps only those with a
strong mind and pure thoughts do not attract malice. Malice attracts
malevolence; and those of weaker character like you are better candidates to
carry demons back from hell. Time will show that Laszlo has carried those
also.’

‘I am happy to admit that I enjoy killing
indiscriminately and that I crave only the finer niceties of life. I will even
admit to not caring about anyone but myself,’ she said her voice slowly rising
with anger.  ‘But you need to cure the constant noises in my head.’

‘I can end that for you.’

‘How?’

‘By killing you.’

She shrieked. ‘You would create then kill. No, you
must reverse this. You must try again!’

‘There is no spell that has worked. If I try you
will most likely end in strigoi darkness, a fate worse than human hell. The
best way is to burn alive; the only way to destroy your strigoi soul.’

‘I will bring a new body to you and you can change
me over. It might remove the voices.’

‘It won’t work. The spirits will follow you
whether you change bodies or not. They have attached to your soul.’

‘Then you will never see your daughter again
unless you find a way to undo what you have done.’

She grabbed at her hair trying to free herself
from something I could not see, and fled then before I had a chance to respond.
I knew I would have to hunt her down and kill her. I sent my plea for help to
all those still loyal to me.

Gabriel

We neared the castle shortly before daybreak.

After Venice, we stayed at various inns and
Lilah’s warmth and companionship was above any I had ever known. But with every
step closer to the castle, she grew distant. During the last few days of our
journey we slowed down our pace, both of us knowing that this might be our last
time together. Lilah’s plan to escape was not spoken about, though she did
comment once that things would change forever. I wanted to tell her that
everything would be alright but I did not know for certain, and she would see
through the lie.

Several nights earlier we had spoken of returning
to Venice with Oleander, and to purchase a house there. I told her how we could
acquire one of the abandoned houses on the canal and I would patch up every
hole in the walls and install new glass to replace the wooden ramshackle
shutters. Lilah said that she would start her own coven there, a safe house for
witches to come and learn their craft so that they may go out into the world
and heal and watch over all those in need of a better life.

But with every step towards the castle I felt that
dream slipping further away. Lilah once said that her only hope of leaving the
castle was that I am left in charge. I had already asked Lewis not to leave me
with such a burden. Yet without my governing, my fear was that with someone
else in charge there would be no-one to keep a watchful eye on her. The future
for us seemed futile and my heart was despondent with reality.

At the edge of a stream we stopped to refresh. It
had been a long journey for her and Lilah looked drawn and worried. I put my
arm around her suddenly afraid for her. I had known Lewis for two hundred
years. I had seen the very worst that he could do and was suddenly faced with
the guilt for what I had done. Would he look upon us and know of our deed? How
would we be able to hide what we feel? We had not talked about this. Our former
home seemed ominous now. Whatever our fortunes I knew that I could no longer
live there. Perhaps I thought I would tell Lewis the truth. I only knew that we
had to be together. How naive I was.

The last part of the journey was on foot. We
released the horses and walked hand in hand between the trees. Our thoughts
were suddenly interrupted by the sounds of other strigoi from the coven getting
closer, and their thoughts were hostile.

Lilah looked frightened for she had felt my
tightened grip.

‘What is it?’

‘They are coming?’

‘Who?’ she said but they had already arrived
before I had time to answer.

Georgio stood in front of us. Beside him were
several reborn: Lucretia, Claude,
Nokëg
, and several
others. They did not speak, their faces paler than normal, their heavy hearts
worn in their expression, and what put me on guard was also a sense of
wantonness and treachery. These strigoi before me were no longer my friends. It
was a repellant air around them that told me that our relationship had changed.

‘Giorgio? Claude?’ Lilah stepped forward but I
held her tighter to prevent her from getting too close.

‘What is it?’ I asked. ‘What have you done?’

‘It is over for us in the coven. We are no longer
part of it.’

There was an accusation in the look he gave Lilah
and I knew then that our troubles were greater than I had imagined.

‘We are leaving,’ he said. ‘We have bargained with
Laszlo to be a part of his royal court to help make decisions concerning the
government of this land. To come out of hiding and be who we should be. To rule
as kings like we did centuries ago.’

‘Then you are a fool. Laszlo is untrustworthy.’

Giorgio did not say anything and I suspected it
was not the first time he had heard this.

‘Please don’t go Giorgio,’ pleaded Lilah.

‘I do not want to hear you speak. If it wasn’t for
you and your band of witches we would not have left. But you have brought us
instability. It is only a matter of time before we are attacked by other covens
once they learn that we have armed ourselves with weakling witches.’

Lilah was confused. ‘But I thought we were
friends.’

‘We were never friends. I humoured you to look
after myself, to disguise my feelings towards Lewis’s rule, nothing more. You
have brought division among us and fed Lewis your ideas. He stopped listening
to any of our concerns after your arrival.’

Georgio ran past us then and disappeared into the
night with the others, except for Claude who turned back to approach Lilah, but
when she reached for him he drew back. ‘I’m sorry. We did not mean for your
daughter to be taken.’ And he quickly departed to follow the others.

‘What is happening?’ She had begun to panic.
‘Something has happened to Oleander.’

I felt a jolt go through my body. Lewis! He was
calling me.

‘Come! We must hurry now,’ I urged. She ran after
me and I had to slow regretting suddenly that we had let go of the horses. I
carried her for the remainder of the way as fast as the wind.

I could sense that Lewis was in the dungeon. I
cautiously stepped through the entrance. What frightened me most was the
absence of other strigoi.

We went first to Oleander’s bedroom. Her bed was
unmade as if she had left in a hurry and her window was open, the curtain
billowing in. I looked below us to the ground far below and thought that only a
strigoi could jump from such height.

Lilah grabbed my arm. ‘Where is she?’

We ran through the maze of hallways and beneath
the ground floor to reach the dungeon.

Lewis lay on the floor unmoving. His eyes were
wild with rage, his face filled with burst blood vessels, and the vein at his
neck protruded from the effort he was making to speak: ‘She has Oleander.’

‘Who?’ interrupted Lilah who bent down to touch her
husband on the shoulder and listen to his speech. ‘What has happened to you?’
Her concern was genuine.

‘Leave me,’ he barked. He did not look at his
wife. ‘It is Arianne,’ he said to me. ‘She has taken my child and she has plans
to harm her. It has something to do with their bargain with King Laszlo.’ Lilah
cried out before covering her mouth.

‘You must hunt her down and find my daughter. Then
you must kill her.’ He stressed the word
my
and with his rejection of
his wife I wondered how much he knew of our betrayal.

Arianne would never set me free. I should have
sensed that her dangerous state was worsening. I would always be held
accountable in some way.

‘How are you injured?’ I had never seen Lewis this
way.

‘It is flower magic.’

‘And you,’ he turned to Lilah. ‘This is what you
get when you abandon your daughter.’

‘No,’ cried out Lilah. ‘She was safe. You
promised.’

‘Go!’ he commanded and even incapacitated on the
floor he was still commanding. ‘The longer you are here the closer I am to
losing her?’

Arianne

The child sleeps on my lap. She is the image of her
mother. Such a pretty jewel. I had taken her from her room, jumped through the
sky like a bird. I could make myself invisible. That was my skill. That no-one
seems to sense I am there until it all too late. It is unusual, Gabriel
commented one day, for a strigoi to have no scent to another. It is a bad sign,
said Gabriel. It is the mark of the devil says the histories.

I am insatiable
for hunger and I smell her blood. It would be so easy. She would not feel a
thing but then something stops me. Lilah! I must wait to see how everything
plays out. I must not throw away my cards too early. I wish to learn if Lewis
will consider what I have asked: to stop the voices.

The whispering in
my head gets steadily louder. It is like a constant gaggle of hens and the
banging of blacksmiths. Only feeding releases me for a time but then the sounds
quickly return.