Read Much Ado About Vampires Online
Authors: Katie MacAlister
Much Ado About Vampires (19 page)
Chapter Ten
Guilt pricked Alec. He didn’t like the sensation. “Dammit, Kris, she didn’t tell me. I thought the marking was due to the amount of blood she’d fed me. I almost drained her dry when she brought me back. I didn’t know.... She didn’t tell me.”
“You’ve been around long enough to know how women are,” his friend answered, standing next to him as they both stared out into the shadowed garden. What Kristoff saw, Alec had no idea—all he could see was the look on Cora’s face when she made the verbal slip, and realized she would have to tell him the truth. “There are times when I give up trying to understand Pia. I just accept that some things are important to her that don’t mean a damn to me, and let it go at that. What matters to me is that she’s happy. I find it interesting, however, that your first concern is for Cora, not Eleanor.”
“Eleanor . . .” Alec rubbed his nose as he thought about what to do with the extra Beloved. “She’s . . . not needed.”
Kristoff gave him a rueful look. “I’m sorry we brought her back. We thought it was the only way that the council would sanction your removal from the Akasha. We should have just let matters lie.”
“And left me there? I’d much rather be facing the problem of one too many Beloveds than that. It wasn’t at all pleasant.”
“No, but I imagine you’re none too happy right now, either, faced with both your original Beloved and her reincarnation. What are you going to do about Eleanor ? ”
“I have no idea,” he said, his shoulders slumping. “I assume since I never even fed from her that she’ll be fine picking up a new life as a lich. Our bond, such as it is, is tenuous, and she shouldn’t be affected by it being severed. It’s Cora who concerns me. She has an aversion to Dark Ones. She saw me kill the reaper.” Alec cast his mind back to that horrible day. Odd, though, that the memory now carried with it no pain. After centuries of it causing him the utmost agony, emotion had been drained from the memory, just as if Cora’s admission had wiped it all clean. “Sorry, she saw me kill your wife.”
Kristoff made a half-shrugging gesture. “Ruth was a reaper. She just didn’t mean to run down and decapitate Eleanor.”
“No.” He knew that now. He hadn’t for centuries, but after the last time he tried to kill Kristoff, they had finally worked out what had really happened, and moved past it. “Did I ever apologize for killing her?”
“No, but I never apologized on her behalf for killing your Beloved.”
“I never apologized for turning you, either,” Alec said moodily, feeling that so long as he was going to lash himself with guilt, he might as well get all of it out at the same time.
“If you hadn’t, I wouldn’t have found Pia, and she was worth all those centuries I had to wait for her,” Kristoff allowed. “I could have done without you planning on destroying her, but since you couldn’t see it through, it’s all a moot point.”
Alec couldn’t help but smile at that. “She smote me with that damned reaper light of hers. That was no fun, I can tell you. My chest hair hasn’t been the same since.”
Kristoff laughed and punched him in the arm. “You had it coming. If Eleanor goes off without giving you any grief, what will you do about Corazon?”
He sighed. “She’s my Beloved. What do you think I’m going to do with her? Bind myself to her and spend the rest of our lives convincing her I’m not a murdering bloodsucker. Assuming, that is, no one gets to her first.”
Kristoff slid him a curious look. “Gets to her how?”
“I’d tell you, but I believe we’re about to have company, and it’s probably easier to explain it once rather than twice.”
“Have you gentlemen worked through Alec’s issues ?” Pia asked, appearing in the doorway, her gaze drawn, as ever, to Kristoff. He held out his hand for her, and she moved immediately to his side, snuggling against him with a private smile meant only for him.
Alec watched them, wondering if Cora would ever cleave to him the way Pia did with Kristoff. “I have no issues. I was just . . . surprised.” And hurt, but it wouldn’t do to admit that.
I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.
He turned to find Cora in the door, her eyes wary.
Eavesdropping,
querida
?
Eavesdropping,
querida
?
No,
she said, startled, and he realized she hadn’t picked up his thoughts.
I just . . . I figured I must have hurt you when you left like that, and then didn’t want to talk to me. You’ve been put in a bad place, and part of that was due to the fact that I hadn’t told you the truth about me. I wanted to tell you about it. I think I probably would have, but then Eleanor was there, and she was your real Beloved, and I figured you’d want her.
she said, startled, and he realized she hadn’t picked up his thoughts.
I just . . . I figured I must have hurt you when you left like that, and then didn’t want to talk to me. You’ve been put in a bad place, and part of that was due to the fact that I hadn’t told you the truth about me. I wanted to tell you about it. I think I probably would have, but then Eleanor was there, and she was your real Beloved, and I figured you’d want her.
I don’t.
No, I gathered that. But it didn’t seem fair to you to have to choose. I thought I might just make it easier on you by letting Eleanor serve her purpose.
He studied her face for a few seconds, then decided to see what path his life would take. He held out his hand for her, just as Kristoff had done with Pia.
Cora looked at his hand, hesitating. His heart contracted with the pain that accompanied the knowledge that she didn’t want him, truly did not want to be his Beloved. He was a convenient end to a means, that was all.
Her hand was warm in his as she moved next to him, one delicious hip pressing against him. Hope flared deep in the empty space where his soul was meant to be, the hope that, after more than five hundred years, he might not be alone any longer.
Pia murmured something about getting some refreshments before they got caught up on all the news, taking Kristoff with her as she left the room. Alec barely noticed them leave, so caught was he in the beauty of Cora’s eyes.
“Mi corazón,”
he said, rubbing his thumb down her silky cheek to that lush lower lip that begged to be tasted. “My heart.”
“Mi corazón,”
he said, rubbing his thumb down her silky cheek to that lush lower lip that begged to be tasted. “My heart.”
“Alec, we need to talk. Eleanor—”
“We will talk to her. I do not want her hurt any more than you do, but she must come to the realization that you are my Beloved, not her.”
“I don’t know. It seems so heartless, somehow.”
“Is your hesitation due to the situation with Eleanor, or that which is between us?” he asked, suddenly worried again. Was he misreading her emotions? She felt guilt with regard to him—that he knew—but whether it was about hiding the fact that she was his Beloved, or for the fact that Eleanor had been upset, was beyond his understanding.
“It’s . . . it might be both. I feel like I stole you from Eleanor somehow, even though I know I really didn’t. She’s me, for heaven’s sake. Or a past version of me. So I couldn’t steal from myself, could I? And yet it feels like I did, and, Alec, I’ve never been the ‘steal someone else’s man’ sort of person.”
“You didn’t steal me, love,” he said, amused despite the fact that she was obviously distressed. He wanted to kiss the worry right out of her mind, but knew she had to work things out for herself, or she would never be content to bind herself to him. “We were meant to be together. There’s no other explanation for the fact that you saved me in the Akasha.”
“You were
supposed
to help me get out,” she said with a dark look. “That’s the only reason why I saved you.”
supposed
to help me get out,” she said with a dark look. “That’s the only reason why I saved you.”
“There were others you could have approached for help. That you didn’t abandon me after you knew who and what I was tells me that deep down you know we are meant to be, as well.”
She sighed, and leaned her head against his shoulder. “Do you have any idea how annoying it is to have your inner devil saying, ‘I told you so’? It’s almost more than I can bear.”
“Inner devil?”
She smiled into his neck. “It’s what I call my conscience. She seems more of a little troublemaker than an angelic bit of righteousness meant to keep me on the straight and narrow. She liked you from the start, for one.”
He laughed, delighted with the sudden quirky turn of her mind. “Then she has my full approval. Do not distress yourself, Cora. I won’t ask anything more from you than what you want to give me.”
Her gaze dropped. “What if I don’t want to give you anything?”
“Then I will continue on as I have.” Only he wouldn’t. Thinking over the past few days, he realized they were one short step away from Joining. Although it was physically possible for him to still feed from others, he knew he wouldn’t. Somehow, without his being aware of it, this woman had found her way into his heart and bound him to her. But he wouldn’t let Cora know that; despite her protests and rather odd ideas about Dark Ones, she had a large heart, and he knew with absolute conviction that she would allow guilt to sway her into Joining rather than a true desire to do so.
“I . . . do I have to make a decision right now?” She wrung her hands.
He smiled, and gave her a quick kiss just because he couldn’t resist that delectable mouth, and then gave her a second one because there was no way one was going to be enough. “No. We have all the time in the—”
The door opened. Pia stuck her head in, her face tight with concern. “We have company, and they’re looking for you. Kristoff has them in the sitting room, but we need to hide you. Can you find your way to the cellar? There’s a hidden door behind some casks of wine. I have to run upstairs and warn Eleanor to keep mum about you, so I don’t have time to show you where it is.”
Alec nodded. “I know where the hidden room is. I helped Kris clean it out.”
“Good. We’ll give you the all clear when Julian and his buddy are gone.”
“Julian? The messenger?”
“Yes.” She said nothing more, leaving them silently.
“Who’s the messenger?” Cora asked, prodding him when he opened the door enough to peer out of it.
“He’s part of the Moravian Council. Which means they know I’m out, and either know or suspect I’ve come to Kris for help. Quickly, they’ve gone into the other room, but I doubt if they’ll stay there for long.”
He hustled her through the sunlight, ignoring the pain as they headed through the kitchen to a small door, down a rickety flight of stairs, and through a series of musty, dark, close rooms that smelled greatly of the earth. He pulled out a small penlight, flicking it around the rooms to avoid the stacks of old furniture, barrels of wine the previous owner had left, and the usual detritus found in a house a few centuries old.
Cora said nothing as he counted down a line of oak wine casks, handing her the penlight as he gripped a cask with both hands, throwing all his weight against it, willing it to move. It shuddered and groaned for a few seconds before giving way, sliding to the side, revealing a cobwebbed entrance cut low into the stone wall.
“In,” he said, kicking the remains of a wooden crate out to cover the marks on the ground where the cask had moved.
“Are there mice? I have a thing about mice,” Cora said, her fear palpable.
“If there are, I won’t let them near you,” he promised.
She gave him a long look. “Do I have to go in there with you? Would the Julian guy know who I am? With regards to you, that is?”
Pain laced him at her words, although he understood her reticence. If it weren’t for her, he’d say to hell with the council and face down the messenger. But he no longer had only his own future to consider. “No, he wouldn’t. You don’t have to go with me if you don’t want to. Pia will claim you as a visiting friend, I’m sure.”
She looked at him for the count of five before she nodded and ducked down to enter the room.
He smiled at her ass. He couldn’t help himself—she was just so contrary at times, it was all he could do to keep from pouncing on her and claiming her right then and there.
The hidden room was more a hole scraped out of the side of the mountain than anything else, the smell in it particularly earthy when he pulled the door closed behind them. Cora scooted to his side, clutching the back of his shirt and peering around suspiciously as he shone the narrow light around the tiny room. There was no sign of rodent life, but his nose told him otherwise.
“Do you see anything?” Cora asked, pressing herself into him.
No. Surely you cannot be scared of a tiny little animal.
“You’re kidding, right? Because if there is anything more frightening than little mousy feet and tails and those twitching noses, I don’t know what it is. Well, OK, rats are icky, too, but I count them in the mouse category.”
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