Blood Rights (45 page)

‘You didn’t kill me because killing me would have made you anathema too.’ Still he didn’t move. Didn’t raise his voice.

‘I should have killed you. I’m sure the council would have forgiven me. But leaving you alive kept my hands clean. Besides, letting you live with your demons seemed a great punishment for what you did to Sofia.’

‘I saved her from this nightmare.’

Madness invaded Tatiana’s eyes and she jerked. ‘You killed my child.’

A strong, spicy metallic scent drifted past Chrysabelle. Blood. Tatiana’s sword had bitten through to Mal’s flesh. He’d not reacted one bit. She studied the skin visible above his jacket collar. The first tendrils of black script unfurled like deadly ribbons. She almost shuddered, remembering the last time the names had possessed him. Did Tatiana have any idea what she’d done to Mal when she and Mikkel had cursed him? Any idea of the beast she’d created? Chrysabelle guessed not.

Wouldn’t Tatiana be surprised? Chrysabelle snorted a soft puff of air through her nostrils, unwittingly attracting Tatiana’s attention.

The vampire studied Chrysabelle, disdain clear in her eyes. She turned back to Mal. ‘I might spare your life again for bringing the blood whore to me. You could be useful for my future plans, but her I’m just going to kill. I already have the sacrifice I need, and justice must be met for her patron’s death.’

‘Death,’ Mal muttered, but the word sounded like it had been spoken by a ravening crowd. The beast was coming awake.

The doors burst open behind them and a cadre of fringe guards spilled into the room.

Tatiana’s smug face spoke volumes. She backed away, tearing the sword free and slicing through Mal’s jacket. ‘Seize these—’

With a clang, the ring hit the wood floor and bounced once, spinning to a stop with a soft whirr.

‘Aha!’ Tatiana snatched the ring up triumphantly, lifting it above her head with an unsettling smile.

‘No,’ Chrysabelle whispered. The sword must have cut his pocket open.

‘Yes,’ Tatiana crowed. ‘Hold them,’ she directed the guards as she retreated toward Maris. ‘I want them to watch while I usher in the new age of vampires.’

Hands grabbed at Chrysabelle, only to be yanked away at the sting of her body armor. One foolish guard tried to take her sacre. His hand burst into flames. They resorted to simply surrounding her and Mal with a ring of swords and crossbows. Doc was hauled off Mikkel and put into shackles.

Chrysabelle trembled with rage. ‘I know what you mean to do, Tatiana. You won’t succeed.’

‘Won’t I?’ She shook salt out from a clay pot on the table and into a circle around herself and Maris.

‘Nothing you do matters,’ Mal growled with the cadence of a thousand voices speaking together. The seams of his jacket split
as the beast took over his body, his face contorting into something out of a nightmare.

Tatiana faltered, dropping the soil she was adding to the salt circle. ‘What the—’

The inky names spread like a stain until blackness covered him entirely. The beast laughed with its chorus of voices. ‘This is what you made me.’

‘Stay back.’ She shook her head, looking unsure for the first time. ‘I have work to do, and I will not be stopped.’

‘Please, Mal, do something,’ Chrysabelle begged.

The beast looked at her, his eyes two deep pits of unrelenting black. ‘We will not kill her. She brought about our curse, she may be the key to its undoing.’

‘
I
am the key to its undoing.’ Maybe Chrysabelle was, maybe she wasn’t. But she needed him – them – to be on her side, not Tatiana’s.

The beast scowled, baring wicked fangs. ‘You are the key to our demise.’

So much for that. She had no idea why his voices thought she was such a threat, but she was about to press her sacre’s silver blade against Mal’s skin to see if she could shock him back into control. A hissing sound stopped her.

A shadow spun up behind Tatiana. Smoky wisps of darkness spiraled out of the ground and converged into a weak shape.

True terror suffused Chrysabelle for the first time since they’d entered the estate. The mass crystallized, revealing an unholy evil she’d never dreamed she’d come face to face with. One of the ancients. A Castus. The drawings didn’t come close to the horror of the creature in person. Nothing in her years of training had prepared her for this. Mal – or rather, the beast he’d become – seemed unfazed.

The Castus laughed as it became solid, a horrid, grating sound that scratched at Chrysabelle’s ears. Fortunately, its attention was devoted solely to Tatiana. ‘Proceed, my child.’

‘The light and the dark shall collide.’ Tatiana grabbed a handful of Maris’s hair and notched her head to one side.

The words sounded familiar. Like one of the old comarré prophets or—

‘Sorrow shall bind the darkness.’ Tatiana slipped the ring onto her finger. She gasped as blood welled up over the gold band. The scale-like prongs inside must have dug into her skin.

‘Continue, child,’ the Castus demanded.

‘It shall devour the light.’ With a guttural cry, Tatiana fell upon the unconscious woman before her, stabbing her fangs into Maris’s gilded neck.

Chrysabelle cried out as Maris’s eyes shot open. She jerked against the ropes binding her until she saw Chrysabelle. Sadness and regret welled in her gaze. She mouthed the words, ‘I’m sorry’ as her eyes started to roll back in her head.

‘No,’ Chrysabelle screamed. She surged forward, using her armored forearms to deflect the guards’ swords and shove them away. Her hands slammed into an invisible wall. She pounded, meeting nothing but air.

Mikkel snickered, his hands outstretched toward her.

Helpless to do anything but watch, Chrysabelle’s heart broke at the sight of her dear aunt and Tatiana’s cruel use of her. Tatiana drank until Maris was pale and still. At last, Tatiana raised her head, not bothering to wipe away the blood drenching her mouth and chin. ‘And the covenant shall be broken.’

She rubbed her fingers across her face, letting the blood drip down her fingers to mingle with the blood spilled by the ring.
‘Now shall the darkness arise reborn. So be it written, so be it done.’

The Castus howled with pleasure.

Trumpets blared and a brilliant light flooded the room. Every vampire cowered, clapping hands over their ears, save Mal’s beast who just seemed stunned. Fi bolted upright. Inside the light, another shape began to develop. Wings of pulsing white fire spread out behind the being.

‘Michael,’ the Castus spat. ‘So good of you to come,
brother
.’

‘We have not been brothers since you were cast out, Samael.’ The creature leaned on an enormous glowing sword and shook his head. ‘How far you are fallen from heaven. How dim the Morning Star has become.’

Holy mother.
She bowed her head. Only one kind of being was powerful enough to call the Castus by his names without retribution. Her hands trembled at the presence of the archangel, glad his blazing radiance prevented her from seeing his face. There was little doubt in her mind such a sight would overwhelm her. Or blind her. Still, his presence brought comfort. As though he were there to protect her.

‘Who breaks this covenant created between the Sons of God and the Daughters of Man?’ Michael asked in a tone ripe with power and peace.

Chrysabelle shivered. The covenant had been put in place after the Great Flood, to protect the dwindling numbers of Castus against the rising swell of human population in exchange for the othernaturals leaving humans in peace.

‘I do,’ Tatiana spoke through bloodstained lips. She raised her hand to show the ring she wore. ‘I am bound by sorrow. I have devoured the light. Now I break this covenant and will arise reborn with the power inherent in the ring of sorrows.’

‘You must abide by the rules of the covenant, brother,’ the Castus taunted.

‘And so I shall.’

The shadows shrank back and his radiant countenance shifted toward Tatiana. ‘The covenant protects mortals as well as your kind. Do you understand this?’

She lifted her chin. ‘The noble houses don’t need protection.’

He tipped his head at Maris. ‘Mortal, you consent to this, fully understanding what the breaking of the covenant means?’

Tatiana shook Maris, rousing her. Maris nodded weakly, her eyes shifting toward Chrysabelle.
Forgive me
, she mouthed before her eyes fluttered shut again.

‘So be it. You must live with the consequences.’ Michael spoke to Samael. ‘The blood ritual for breaking the covenant is accomplished, but not the ritual for the power of the ring of sorrows to be granted. That cannot yet be fulfilled. Not in the one you have chosen.’ He pointed the holy blade at Tatiana. ‘This one is not the darkest of her kind.’ His aim shifted to Maris. ‘And this one is no longer the light.’

‘What?’ Tatiana’s face dissolved into disbelief. She pounded a fist against her chest. ‘I defy you to find another darker than—’

Michael laughed. ‘You are as blind as your master.’

A squalling sound erupted from the Castus. Shadows leaped from the corners of the room toward the archangel. ‘How dare you deny—’

‘I deny nothing. The covenant is broken.’ And with a second great flash of light and a peal of thunder, the archangel was gone.

An immense ripple of power burst through the room like a shock wave. The Castus disappeared, the guards fell, and Tatiana slammed into the table behind her. Mikkel’s invisible wall vanished, rocking Chrysabelle forward. She caught herself, then
hurdled Dominic, and rushed to Maris’s side. Chrysabelle slit the ropes binding Maris and pulled her limp body into her arms, scattering the circle of salt and earth.

‘Come on, Maris, hold on.’ Chrysabelle pressed her palm against Maris’s neck to staunch the trickle of blood. A weak pulse still beat in her veins. ‘Stay with me, Maris, please.’

Mal, free of the beast, flew past them toward Tatiana.

Maris’s eyes fluttered open and she smiled weakly. ‘Too late, my darling child. I’m sorry it’s come to this. I made Tatiana promise to leave you alone if I helped her break the covenant.’

‘Shh. We’ll have time to talk when we’re on Dominic’s plane back to Paradise City.’ Tears burned Chrysabelle’s eyes. Maris could not die. She could not.

‘No, let me. I have much to say and no time to say it.’ Her cold hand rested on Chrysabelle’s wrist. ‘You are not my niece—’

‘That’s never stopped me from loving—’

‘You are my daughter.’

Shock stilled Chrysabelle. ‘What? How can you know that?’ Comarré births were shrouded in secret. Mothers didn’t even know the sex of the children they birthed. A hundred questions bounced through Chrysabelle’s head, blocking out the clash of weapons and words erupting around them.

‘Ask Velimai for my journals.’

‘If you knew, why did you leave?’ Chrysabelle held Maris tighter, willing life into her, praying some miracle would keep her alive.
Holy mother, let her live. Please. I need her. She’s my mother. My mother.

Tears spilled from Maris’s lids. ‘I wanted a better life for you. A life outside this world, but … ’ Her voice faded, her breath coming in shallow gasps. ‘I made a mistake. I didn’t know it would turn out the way it did.’

‘What would turn out the way it did?’ Silent tears trailed down Chrysabelle’s cheeks. Her heart ached. Her mother. All these years of not knowing—

‘Algernon.’ Her hand slipped from Chrysabelle’s wrist. ‘Forgive me.’

‘There’s nothing to forgive.’ Maris had nothing to do with Algernon becoming Chrysabelle’s patron, but if talking kept her from dying, Chrysabelle would talk for as long as it took to get help. ‘Algernon was a good patron. Kind, considerate—’

‘The Century Ball. I was there … to bring you home.’ Maris’s eyes slipped shut. ‘He refused your freedom.’

‘Don’t,’ Chrysabelle pleaded. The word snagged in her throat.

‘So I killed him,’ she breathed. Her head lolled back, her voice a dying whisper. ‘To free you when he wouldn’t.’

The pulse beneath Chrysabelle’s fingers disappeared.

T
he burst of power locked Mal’s voices down hard and fast, shoving their ever-present hum into the recesses of his mind and locking the beast back in its dark cage. He shook his head, blinking to clear the black haze clouding his vision.