The Last Guardian Rises (The Last Keeper's Daughter) (22 page)

“Sire.” The steward knelt in the aisle.

“Go.” Lucien indicated for him to rise. “Sit with the captain. We won’t need you the rest of the flight.”

“Lily.” Krieger moved past Lucien to stand next to Lily’s seat. She got up on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek.

It must be love, Hunter thought, to kiss him when he looked like that. The king was in far better shape than when Hunter had seen him below, but nothing like his normal self. They exchanged a few words, heated words from the way Lily shook her head, until Krieger took her hand and led her to the back of the plane where they were all grouped.

“There are things that should be spoken before we reach Stoke.” Krieger made eye contact with each of them before continuing. “I am now the King of North and South America and all the land in between.” He paused to let that sink in. “King Carlos was murdered by the Brotherhood.”

Really?

“The king tried to save Carlos but it was too late,” Lucien explained. “He gave a description that’s close to the man Hunter and Meirta found in Australia.” Lucien’s eyes rested on Lily. “Whatever he may be, it would seem he is moving west toward—”

“Me,” Lily spoke up. “You think he’s moving towards me, but I don’t feel anything. Shouldn’t I feel something? Some connection? I don’t. I feel nothing.”

Hunter remembered how she’d felt something when trying to connect to the tablets. Could it have been him?

“We know so little as yet.” Krieger kissed the top of her head.

Hunter caught the rare expression of emotion on Lucien’s usually impassive face. Was it anger, or jealousy, or a vampire emotion he could not feel?

“You said King Carlos was a part of the Brotherhood,” Hunter said.

“Carlos was the last of the Hapsburg bloodline. He was of the opinion that his royal blood was superior to ours.” Krieger’s smile oozed disdain. “I would think the Brotherhood used his weakness against him.”

“How did he die?” he asked.

“Screaming,” Krieger replied. “There was a priest with him.” He lifted his eyebrows, which had grown back in. “He gave me the description of the man you call Anson.”

Hunter interpreted that to mean that he’d tranced and then killed the priest.

“His mind had been tranced by another, but I did learn a few things of importance. He wore the brotherhood tattoo on his forearm, and others in the priesthood carry the same marking.”

“Why would the church want to out the Others?” Hunter asked.

Meirta stood and slapped her magazine on the seat cushion. “This isn’t about the church,” she clarified. “There’s only a few that know about us, some of them think we’re demons, spawns of the devil, or something in between.”

A mental alarm rang in Hunter’s head. “You said someone tranced the priest.”

“Yes,” Krieger answered.

“What about Nina? She had no memories, nothing.” The glare Lily gave him wasn’t charitable. He could have been more tactful – Nina was Lily’s friend.

“Yes, detective, that thought has crossed my mind.” Krieger spoke to Lily more than anyone else now. “Merlin has taken the drastic step of placing Nina in a hibernation state.”

“He tried to kill Cherie,” Lily protested. “He can’t be trusted.”

If Lily hadn’t spoken up Hunter would have, but he didn’t think the king would have taken his words as well.

“I understand your concern, but Merlin has assured me he is in full control of his mental faculties. Whatever was impeding his judgment has also been put to rest as Nina has.”

“She can’t stay like that forever.” Lily pushed away from Krieger and his words. “It’s not right. Why is Nina being punished for what Merlin has done?”

Lucien went to her side. “It’s a precaution until we sort out what is happening.”

“It could be me.” Lily’s hands were shaking and the ends of her hair beginning to lift. “I could be causing all this. Why not put me to sleep or kill me?”

“Enough!” Krieger shouted and yanked her closer to him. “We all must keep our wits about us. Carlos’ involvement with the Brotherhood must remain a secret. Are we clear?”

Crystal clear.

Hunter had run headlong into the world of the Others and did not regret his decision. But what he’d thought was a world hidden from the humans had become much bigger. A world of kings and queens with grand ambitions, and Krieger had just – though he hadn’t said it – killed another sovereign and claimed his lands. The Brotherhood was more powerful than any of them had previously thought, and Hunter realized they were at war. 

Lily

Lily held the necklace up to the light and felt a pang of guilt at taking it from Dr. Toolley. The devil sitting on her shoulder said he wouldn’t even notice. True, her angel countered, because Lucien tranced the poor man. The devil argued that the pendant was meant to be hers, to be worn, not stashed away on some musty shelf.

When she’d reached in and freed the necklace from the box of bones an electric charge had run up her arm. Throughout the long plane ride, the tedious greetings, and even the visit to Nina – who was as still and beautiful as sleeping beauty – all she’d wanted was to get back to the archives.

She reached out to them.
Don’t lie to me. Tell me about the symbol
.

They rumbled in protest and a few texts clattered about on the shelves like loose luggage.

Show me
.

One, then another, and another text fell to the floor.

 
I coddled you before, that’s why you told me nothing. No more of that.

She opened the largest text, the pages resistant to being turned, hardened and yellowed over the ages. The symbols were Sumerian, but the images were painted much later. As with many of the items inside the archive, the book had been repurposed. She remembered the recent discovery of Roman statues used as foundations for sixteenth century construction. Why should books be any different?

Halfway through she saw the symbol she’d been looking for. “Who are you?”

A woman serenely looked back at her from the page as she lay across a large flat rock, an altar on which she offered up her body to the night sky hung with a full moon. The symbol, a large circle with two lines moving through it from either side, graced the corners of the image. She skimmed through the pages before and after but there was nothing she could decipher.

It was the last book that gave her the most information, the one she’d almost not opened because it was modern, and the pages machine bound. There was no author, no copyright page, nothing to identify who had owned it. All it contained were sketches of sites, maybe Egypt, she wasn’t sure. The next to the last page caught her eye. There in bold letters, created by a pen tracing over and over again the same curves, was the word
amatorius.
Latin for love, or lovers, she wasn’t sure which. Underneath was the same symbol.

Does this mean love?
Lily absently rubbed the locket, feeling the etched design against her thumb as she turned the page and found the woman again. She’d seen this multiple times before, a woman, her skin porcelain white, her hair, also white, long and framing her face as she lay under a moonlit sky. But this time a man knelt beside her, a vampire, the tips of his fangs clearly visible along his lower lip. Below in very neat script was written the caption: Lynea Takes a Lover.

“Lynea.” The word made her smile. It had a musical quality to it, and she repeated it several times.

“Does the moon symbol mean Lynea?” she asked the archives, but was met with only silence.

 Before she could press them further the doors opened enough for Liam to walk inside. “Miss,” he said. “It’s good to have you back.”

“I missed you.” She closed the books and stacked them neatly on the table. “I spoke with Jo.”

“Oh.” He avoided her eyes. “I meant to tell you about that.”

“I think you might be the best thing that could happen to her.” At first, she’d been worried about Liam dating Jo. But for every argument she had against the match, she always had a counterargument that far outweighed his being a vantor. Hadn’t Liam always been kind, and generous, and protective to Lily? Had he ever been anything but loyal? Was he a good man, a decent man, who cared for his pack and did what he could for those around him? Did Lily have any doubt that he would care for Jo equally well, if not better, since it was clear as day that he loved her? 

“Really?” he asked. “I haven’t told her about… what I am.”

“Don’t wait too long. I want to invite Martha and Jo here. I need them to know about the Others, vampires, you, me, everything.”

“It’s not easy.” He opened the door. “Knowing what to say. How to explain it.”

She nodded with understanding.

“The king wants to see you now. I’m to take you to his chambers.”

“I don’t need an escort.” She nudged him playfully. “Don’t you have a date?”

“I do, Miss, but my orders are to see you to the king’s chambers.”

There was no use trying to dissuade Liam. She followed along, absently putting on the necklace and rubbing the pendant between her fingers. To keep from focusing on how much she wanted to see Krieger, she thought about her recent discovery. The necklace must have belonged to the woman who looked exactly like her, the mother of the boy. The image she’d seen in the archives had nagged at her. Why would anyone entomb them inside a cage of iron? Was her name Lynea? Was the name a type of Other?

“I’ll leave you now.” Liam bowed.

“I’ve known Jo most my life. You don’t have to be afraid…to tell her what you are. She’ll probably think it’s really cool.”

His forehead creased. “I hope so.”

She hesitated, not wanting to go in, and desperately wanting to, all at the same time.

“Come,” Krieger’s voice traveled through the doors.

A royal guard reached over and pushed the door open enough for her to slip into the room. Three tentative steps inside, she heard the latch softly click into place when he closed it behind her and felt weak for wishing Liam had escorted her in. This was her first visit to Krieger’s private chambers. She’d been to his underground quarters with the vault sized door, but not up here on the private level, where her own suite of rooms waited for her on the opposite side of Stoke Castle. His rooms were decorated with objects from various time periods. A small statue on the side table, Roman, she thought. Candle holders and oil lamps next to electric lamps. A collection of swords hung in orderly rows on the far wall. Bookshelves and rich wood paneling lined the walls and deep, plush carpets cushioned her feet, and, of course, a blaze burned in the fireplace.

“I thought it was time you stopped avoiding me.”

Lily inhaled and straightened her shoulders, following the sound of his voice past the fireplace and the massive bed to the back of the room, where a hallway took her to a large office. The space was dominated by a wooden desk which Krieger leaned against.

“I haven’t been avoiding you.” She reached for the locket, warm from lying between her breasts. “You’ve been gone.”

Krieger’s eyes drifted down the length of the pendant’s chain.

Curious for his reaction, she turned it outward so he could see the marks upon it. “A souvenir from our visit with Dr. Toolley,” she explained.

He turned his back to her and stared out the floor to ceiling windows along the back wall. It was early morning outside, the sun skimming along the ridgeline of the trees.

“The detective filled me in on your little expedition.”

She waited, thinking he’d say more, but he did not; instead he turned without looking at her and pointed towards the desk. “I have a communique from King Beline. Eva gave birth to a boy.”

“Is she alright?” Lily’s mother had died giving birth to her. She pushed the thought aside and went to the desk. The announcement was easy to spy on top of a pile of papers.

“Yes.”

“Is he—”

“Human?” Krieger replied. “No, an Other.”

The announcement was formal and not like the pastel colored, stork laden birth announcements she was used to. Embossed across the top was Beline’s crest of two stags with horns locked in battle. Would they have a shower? Probably not. Quickly she skimmed through and read his name. “Marcus. Should we send a gift?”

“If you’d like.”

“Has this happened before? I mean a vampire and a woman.” Lily knew what she meant but not exactly how to say it.

“What has happened before does not hold the sway it once did in the new world we find ourselves.”

She worried her lip between her teeth, thinking on his words. “Martha always says there is a lid for every pot, but...”

“I agree, the two seem an irregular match.”

Why was his back still turned to her? “He won’t, you know, drink from the baby, will he?”

His shoulders slumped. “He’s not a monster.” Finally, he turned. “I’d like to speak of Nina—”

“Did she wake up?”

“She has not.”

Had something happened to her? “She’s not…”

“She’s as before, alive and sleeping.” His gaze went from her eyes to the pendant and back again. “You two were friends.”

“Are friends.”

“You communicated with her.”

“As best we could,” she answered. Nina’s tongue had been savagely cut from her mouth by the Brotherhood. 

“Did she seem curious about the archives? Or any other texts?”

“What? What does that have to do with Merlin putting her to sleep?” She moved into his personal space. “Or choking Cherie, or doing whatever he did to Glenda?”

He stepped away from her. “Merlin is paying the price for his sins, whether he deserves it or not. Cherie is fine and Glenda has been released from the spell. Now answer my question.”

“You know I’m not a child to—”

“Enough!” He grabbed her by the arms and lightly shook her. “Just answer my question.”

She didn’t fear that he’d hurt her, but the intensity in his blue-gray eyes froze her to the bone. “Nina isn’t allowed in the archives,” she mumbled. “She was always reading, but I didn’t pay attention to what.” She wiggled out of his hold and thought back. “The Ancient liked to tell us stories.”

His eyes drifted down to study the pendant. “More pieces to the puzzle.”