Love in the Fortress (6 page)

Uncertain her knees would hold her up, Sandra availed herself of the ottoman.

Margetta was preparing herself for her midnight meal, the one time of night she enjoyed a formal dinner with her husband, Gustave. “But remember, once you’re Invictus, you won’t care about the comforts of fortress life, or the wraith’s proclivities for bondage sex. You’ll be content to be assigned tent quarters with your mate. And you’ll finally get to have lots of sex on a regular basis. And you need it, honey, if you don’t mind my saying.”

Sandra had thoroughly enjoyed her marriage bed, but so much of the pleasure of sex for her was about being well-loved in all ways by a man she trusted. An ambitious, rough, male wraith? She felt sick to her stomach.

“Stop pouting. It will all work out. You’ll see.”

The Ancient Fae was a beautiful woman, with large violet eyes, well-shaped brows that Sandra plucked every other day, an elegant, straight nose and a softly pointed, fae chin. Her long blond hair hung in curls to her waist, also Sandra’s work with the help of a super-heated curling iron.

She wore a floor-length gown of maroon velvet, matching heels, and a sapphire pendant. Sandra had just tucked a diamond-studded comb into the woman’s hair, just off to the side, when the Ancient Fae had delivered her news.

Sandra had often marveled that what Margetta possessed abundantly in her physical beauty, she lacked to a corresponding degree in her soul. The woman was empty, completely devoid of decent realm feelings and compassion. If anything, she delighted in causing pain as she was now.

Uncertain what to do, Sandra swallowed hard. She was a slave and had to do her mistress’s bidding or Margetta would have her killed. But to become Invictus? No, that wasn’t acceptable on any level. She’d prefer death to a wraith-bond.

She schooled her features, however, since she didn’t want the Ancient Fae to know her deepest feelings.

Margetta turned toward her, swiveling in her vanity table chair. “You look different somehow.” She lifted her nose. “You smell sharper in your scent tonight as well. What’s going on with you?”

Sandra knew better than to rise to the fly. The woman was fishing and the last thing Sandra wanted was to confess she’d taken Griffin into her bed. Margetta would demand all the details. Sharing with the Ancient Fae what Sandra had come to feel was one of the most significant and beautiful experiences of her life, was so not going to happen.

Sandra shrugged. “I’ve switched soaps. Maybe that’s it. One of the undermaids gave me a bar with sage in it. Not sure if I like it.” She wrinkled her nose for effect.

“Well that must be it. Now, what do you think of my news?” The Ancient Fae smiled. “You’re to become part of my Invictus army at last and I think we’ll have the ceremony just before dawn. How does that sound? In fact, I intend to preside over it myself.”

“I don’t know what to say.” She really didn’t. She wanted to tell the bitch to go to hell, but she also wanted to stay alive.

“Well, you mustn’t think I have no feelings for you, Sandra. I do understand you’d rather not become a fighter, but we all must make sacrifices for the greater good. Wouldn’t you agree?”

“Yes, Mistress.”

“Your future bond-mate is a talented vigorous leader and together you’ll accomplish much. You’ll see. Now, I think a few of these curls need reworking.” She turned back to face the mirror.

Sandra rose to her feet and moved to heat up the curling iron once more.

As she picked up the Ancient Fae’s brush and began to perfect the two long errant curls that now fell from the diamond crusted comb, her thoughts turned to the Ruby Fae and to Griffin.

She had to come up with a new plan, because the last thing she’d ever do is join Margetta’s army.

She’d die first. It was as simple as that.

~ ~ ~

At one in the morning, Griffin sat on the ground. Sweat streamed off his body from a couple of hours of intense sparring. He ate his middle-of-the night meal made up of a tin plate of beans, sopping it up with a thick slice of bread. He had a mug of beer on the ground between his knees, protecting it. Rations in the camp were on the small side.

Margetta liked keeping her army hungry and sometimes a starving fighter would go searching for food to steal from a less powerful comrade.

It didn’t happen often, because full-scale brawls often ensued and once again Margetta came down hard on the instigators, death always following. He had to give her credit for knowing how to keep her army in line. It also helped not having a conscience; she killed anyone she pleased, when and how she wanted.

As he took a swig of the beer, his thoughts turned once more to Sandra. With no pain in his gut, Griffin knew and understood the truth about her. The lovely fae woman was a blood rose, a powerful phenomenon making the rounds through the Nine Realms, a subject often discussed among the fortress slaves.

The latest news had been a really strange pairing between an outcast shifter named Olivia and Mastyr Zane of Swanicott Realm. Because they’d bonded, they’d been able to defeat Margetta’s hidden army in Swanicott, which had happened a month ago.

He set his beer down unable to believe the impossible had happened because when Sandra had fed him, her enriched blood had ended his chronic blood starvation. He no longer had pain of any kind in his stomach and he’d lived with that pain since he’d become a mastyr eighty years ago.

He shuddered, however, thinking what would happen if by chance she encountered any of the camp’s mastyr vampires. Gossip had it that the blood rose drive to feed a mastyr in need would be extended to all mastyrs until a bond was forged.

His gaze once more shifted to the fortress. He was only fifty feet away. He could get to her quickly if he needed to.

He knew her schedule extremely well. At this hour, she’d be sitting down to a meal for the household staff, though she’d likely have a nice soup with her bread, instead of a slopped out ladle of beans.

Griffin pictured Sandra moving around the kitchens, helping the housekeeper, laughing at some joke or other. He hadn’t planned on taking her to bed, but it had happened. Goddess, he wanted to be with her again.

Fulton stood nearby, glaring at Griffin. The vampire’s instincts had to be shaken up. He might not know exactly why he should be unsettled by Griffin, but he was right to be worried.

Yet in the same way Fulton was uneasy, Griffin kept his eye on Fulton. If the mastyr indicated in the smallest way he was going into the fortress, Griffin would be on his ass. The moment Fulton got near Sandra, he’d be all over her. He’d heard the gossip, but that wasn’t how he knew what would happen. He could feel it in every bone of his body, the blood rose call on him, to get back to her, to be with her. And every mastyr would feel this way once they’d gotten close to Sandra.

As Griffin used his bread to clean up the last of the beans, he leaned his head back to stare up at the night sky. As he did, he began to see something he’d never noticed before, a strange mist high in the air hung over the entire camp.

Without having to be told, he knew he was seeing the actual physical structure of Margetta’s spell, the one that had disguised the Ancient Fae’s army from anyone passing nearby. He’d never seen the mist before. But he knew his ability to do so was another indication his recent engagement with Sandra had changed something in him forever.

Because he hadn’t been paying attention to Fulton, the kick came out of nowhere, stunning him. Fulton made it a good one too, knocking Griffin’s tin plate from his hands as his heavy boot landed on Griffin’s jaw. He flew back several feet.

Griffin levitated swiftly in response and knew Fulton was winding up his battle energy. He felt his own rise in response. It hummed to the surface and flowed in waves down his arms, more powerful than Griffin had ever known before. Without a shred of doubt, Griffin knew he could kill Fulton right now if he wanted to.

But if he did, he jeopardized his own life as well as Sandra’s. It was well known she’d fed him and his sudden increase in power would be talked about everywhere.

However, he couldn’t keep taking Fulton’s beatings, especially not tonight. He needed to be in top form.

As soon as Fulton released his battle energy from the palms of his hands, Griffin met that energy. His blue Guardsman power crashed into Fulton’s red power, the color a sign that Fulton had given himself to Margetta and would soon have a wraith-mate.

A crowd gathered and wraiths flew above the battle, shrieking loudly. The shouting started, an Invictus roar that brought more and more of the wraith-pairs close to watch the fight.

But the moment he felt Fulton’s power begin to thin, Griffin dialed his own down, matching him. He had to do his feigning act again, powering down in stages and acting like he was dead on his feet.

Once Fulton had drawn in his battling power, he came at Griffin with his fists. He let loose with a powerful right. Griffin took it hard on the chin, his head bobbing back. But he answered with a right hook then a low punch to Fulton’s stomach.

Fulton doubled over. Griffin chopped the back of his neck and shoulders and Fulton fell to the grass. Griffin could have followed up with a series of painful kicks to his ribs, but instead knew he needed to pretend he was in a lot of pain from the blows Fulton had already delivered. He bent over at the waist and held a hand to his face. He sent healing energy to his jaw and his cheek.

Fulton was on his feet and leaped on Griffin’s back, punching him in the side of the head. Griffin started spinning fast and threw Fulton onto several wraith-pairs. The crowd was hopped up, so they simply threw Fulton back in Griffin’s direction.

Fulton levitated, catching his forward momentum and dropping down once more in front of Griffin.

The air however began to crackle, as a new entity arrived, one with more power than both vampires combined.

“What’s the meaning of this?” Margetta’s voice rolled over the crowd. Turning, Griffin saw that the Ancient Fae had arrived, looking dressed for a ball.

Silence fell hard and fast, along with a heavy dose of fear, and the crowd began to dissipate quickly. Margetta would be happy to punish the bystanders as well as those brawling.

With only Fulton and Griffin left, Margetta waved her hand back and forth between them. “What are you two doing? You’re supposed to be training my army.”

Fulton snorted. “Something’s off with Griffin. He’s not himself and I don’t trust it.”

Griffin had to play this smart. If Margetta figured it out, she’d make it impossible for him to get back to Sandra. Hell, she’d probably give Sandra to Fulton. A mastyr bonded to a blood rose, and under Margetta’s control, would be a huge boon to her army, even more than if the mastyr was Invictus bound to a wraith.

Margetta drew near Griffin. He forced himself to stay calm, though he nearly lost it when she sniffed his skin. “You smell familiar to me. Like … ” Her expression softened. “Well, well, well, you smell like sage, like a certain kind of soap one of the house slave uses.”

He knew she was referring to Sandra. Sweet Goddess, the woman’s scent was all over him.

Margetta smiled. “She told me she has a new soap. So what I’d like to know is how you happen to have her soap on you?”

The images of having made love to Sandra, and catching what he now knew to be her blood rose scent of rosemary and sage, rolled through his mind.

Would Margetta figure it out?

Goddess help Sandra if she did.

He decided to tell her a partial truth. “I fucked the woman, okay? I was in the fortress and it happened. She said she’d feed me after Fulton here gutted me earlier in the evening, and I took advantage of her. I wouldn’t call it rape, exactly. But we were in her bedroom and I used her shower after the fact. She has a soap in there. Maybe that’s what you’re smelling.”

At that, Margetta chortled. “Finally, the woman got laid. I knew she seemed different. I’ve been telling her for years to take a lover. Guess she was waiting for you. Of course you snuck one in under the wire; Sandra’s going to be wraith-bonded just before dawn. I’m planning a special ceremony because she was always a favorite.”

She turned toward Fulton. “And no more attacks on Griffin. I’ll be getting you both bonded off to wraiths in the next couple of nights.”

Because Griffin needed Margetta to leave, he spoke at the same time as Fulton. “Yes, Mistress.”

Margetta levitated swiftly up to a balcony on the third floor where she had her private quarters with Gustave.

When she disappeared inside, Fulton grabbed Griffin by the throat. “This isn’t finished. Margetta may have bought your bullshit, but I don’t. Sandra doesn’t sleep with anyone and if she did, she wouldn’t choose your pansy-ass.”

Fulton had been after her for a long time.

Griffin stared back at Fulton. If he had to, he’d kill Fulton. Right now, he let the mastyr huff and puff until he finally released Griffin and strolled back to the sparring lines.

Griffin stayed stuck in one place for a few more seconds. As his gaze again slid to the fortress, he knew one thing: He had to find a way to escape from the fortress with Sandra and he had to do it before Margetta forced an Invictus bond on Sandra.

~ ~ ~

The news that Margetta was planning a bonding ceremony within the next few hours, worked in Sandra’s mind like a virus. Each minute that passed filled her head with more and more of the Invictus horror. She knew what the pairs became, how changed the Realm-folk were once they’d entered the terrible bond. Each embraced battling with a maniacal fervor.

She didn’t want to become that kind of woman.

She had few calm moments as she went about her post-midnight duties. Mostly, she stayed in the kitchen doing whatever Yvonne needed her to do. But her movements were agitated and more than once she dropped a pot or pan and finally shattered a glass bowl on the stone floor.

The housekeeper stopped her mid-stride and grabbed both her arms. She then yelled at her dish-scrubbers to get out.

Once she was alone with Sandra, she held her gaze and spoke quietly. “What’s wrong? What’s happened? Tell me, because I’ve never seen you like this before.”