Bring Out Your Dead (10 page)

His eyes glittered, pale.
I felt his curiousity, but all he asked was,
Why?

The air left my lungs, making it diffcult
for me to breathe. I rubbed my arms, reminding myself where I was,
that there was no threat to me in this hotel room. Despite that, my
flesh crawled. Black dots appeared before my eyes. I couldn’t
breathe, I couldn’t think. I was trapped, immobile, a prisoner of
my own mind. Panic mingled with dread, flooding me with its inky,
blistering presence, consuming every bit of me until nothing was
left but a charred shell.

Chapter Seven

Sebastian reached me before I hit the floor,
shouldering aside the revenants and Sally as they asked questions
about what was happening.

“
I will see to her,”
Sebastian said to Sally as she ignored the closed door and followed
us into his bedroom.

“
She is my charge,” Sally
started to say, but Sebastian cut her off, waving her out of the
room.

“
She is mine now. I will
let no harm befall her.”

To my great surprise, Sally just looked at
him for a few seconds, nodded, then left without even glancing
toward me. I felt oddly bereft…for the space of time it took for
Sebastian to lay me on the bed.

“
Why did you not tell me,
Beloved?” he asked, his fingers gently brushing a strand of hair
back from my cheek.

I turned my face so I wouldn’t have to see
the pity in his eyes. He didn’t like that, gently but irresolutely
forcing me to meet his gaze.

“
It was not your brother
who was burned at the stake for his father’s sins, was
it?”

“
No,” I said, choking on
the word, desperately pushing back the memories.

Sebastian slid behind me, cradling me
against his chest. I fought the temptation for a moment, but he
offered too much of a sanctuary to resist.

“
I have not asked you how
you became a
tattu
because I felt you would tell me when you trusted me,” he
said. I turned in his arms, holding him tight as I buried my head
in his neck. Tears, hot and thick, squeezed out of my tightly shut
eyes. Desperate to escape my own torturous mind, I merged with him,
falling into the blackness that filled him. “Do you wish now to
tell me how that came about?”

Images flashed through my mind—a gray-haired
man bent over a flame, muttering obscure alchemical spells as he
poured one liquid into another; another gray-haired man, flinching
as the first swore eternal vengeance for his betrayal; the flash
and pomp of Elizabeth’s court; the snow and sleet of endless icy
winters in Prague; the smell of smoke as it curled up around me,
stealing from me not only my breath, but my very life.

“
Your father threatened
another?” Sebastian’s voice was soft and caressing, his presence
calming the panic within me. I didn’t want to answer his questions,
didn’t want to think back on that part of my life, but I knew I
would have to sometime soon if I wanted him to understand
me.

“
Edward Kelley befriended
a scholar named John Dee early in his life. Dee helped him with
much of the alchemical work he later used to parlay favors and
money from various monarchs and patrons. But Dee realized that
Kelley was little more than a con artist and broke off relations
with him. Kelley had some success with carmot, but never fully
understood its properties, and soon Dee’s fame eclipsed his. He
swore vengeance, claiming Dee stole his ideas and his alchemical
formulas, going so far as to invoke a curse on Dee.”

Sebastian’s hands stroked my back. I
shuddered back the anguish that welled up inside me at the
memories, taking a small shred of comfort that the soulless,
tortured Sebastian was one of the few people walking the earth who
shared with me the ability to survive such profound torment. It was
a bond of sorts, a wordless bond, but one I felt to my very bones
as he offered me acceptance and understanding.

“
He went to Prague to gain
help from a sympathetic Emperor Rudolph in bringing Dee’s downfall,
but things soured, as they always did for him. When he was
imprisoned in Prague by Emperor Rudolph, I was arrested as his
assistant. My younger brother had been smuggled out of the country
by my deceased mother’s relatives, but I was beyond their reach. I
was tried and sentenced as being in league with the devil. They
burned me at the stake for the mere fact that Edward Kelley was my
father.”

Pain at the memory choked me. Sebastian said
nothing, but continued to stroke my back. I burrowed deeper against
him, allowing his comfort to slowly dissipate the agony within.

“
Why were you brought back
as a
tattu?
” he
asked softly.

I let go of the breath I hadn’t been aware I
was holding. “My mother’s mother was a powerful woman in her
family. She had Egyptian blood and was viewed as being a noble in a
society that did not commonly have such distinctions. She
petitioned a lower-order member in the Court of Divine Blood,
pointing out that as I retained my soul, I could not have been
involved in my father’s sin of bartering with a demon lord for the
curse on Dee. It took time, but eventually the petition worked its
way to a sympathetic Power, and later to one of the mares, the
three women who are second only to the Sovereign. Two lifetimes
after my grandmother submitted the petition for intervention, I was
declared innocent by the Sovereign, and granted another life to
replace the one that had been wrongly taken from me.”

“
And when you were reborn,
you were given another soul.”

“
Yes.” I sighed. “That was
a clerical oversight, actually. A new clerk only skimmed the
resurrection order. He evidently saw the words ‘demon lord’ and
‘curse,’ and assumed I was being pardoned for a crime, and granted
me another during rebirth.”

“
A small repayment for
your suffering,” he murmured, his mouth close to my ear. I squirmed
a little. Baring my history to him hadn’t been nearly as painful as
I had imagined it would be, leaving me more than a little aware of
just how tightly our bodies were entwined.

“
I cannot pleasure you
now, my Beloved,” his voice rumbled in my ear, sending breathly
little shivers of excitement down my arms. “I must destroy the
threats to your safety first.”

I pushed myself away from
him, glaring with every morsel of indigation I could rally. “Have
you heard
nothing
I’ve said?”

“
I have heard all you have
spoken and read the words on your heart, as well.” He caressed my
lip with his finger. I jerked my head away.

“
You stupid, arrogant,
revenge-minded man!” I snarled, trying to escape his grip. “I will
not go through this again. I will not suffer for yet another
pigheaded male whose precious ego is more important than those he
is bound to!”

“
I do not do this for
vengeance, Belle—”

“
Like hell you don’t!”
Although my insides felt as fragile as cracked glass, I scrambled
off him, furious that I was beginning to have feelings for someone
who could be so indifferent to my concerns. I stormed to the door,
fully intending to grab Damian and Sally and leave him
forever.

Before I could so much as blink, Sebastian
was in front of me, not only blocking the door, but holding me in a
steely grip that was just this side of painful.

“
You will listen to me,
Beloved!”

“
I’ve listened, and you’re
not saying anything different—”

He clamped me tight to his chest, holding me
against him with arms that felt made of titanium or some other
horribly unyielding metal. My face was squished into his shoulder,
making it difficult to breathe.

“
I am not doing this for
revenge, Belle. You are my Beloved—I must protect you. If we do not
wish to constantly look over our shoulders, waiting for Asmodeus to
destroy one or both of us, then I must strike now, before he has
had time to rally his forces.”

“
But—”

“
No, it must be now.
Salvaticus and Vexamen are times of unbalance in Abaddon—the demon
lords are watching each other suspiciously to see who will emerge
as premier prince. Their attention is divided, and it is one of the
few times when they are vulnerable to attack. We have no choice. We
must strike quickly.”

What he said made sense to my brain, but my
heart, oh, my poor heart flinched in horror at the thought of
someone dear to me allowing revenge to rule him.

It does not rule me, Beloved. You do.

I gave a watery chuckle at
that thought, unable to keep my body from melting into his.
You would do anything I told you to do,
then?

Anything so long as it would not put you in
danger, yes.

I thought long and hard then. I listened to
the slow beating of Sebastian’s heart, drinking in the sight and
feel and scent of him, holding them close to my heart as I
considered the idea that was slowly taking form in my mind.

“
Can you destroy this
demon easily?”

“
Using the ring you have
reformed, yes.”

“
Do you think it has told
Asmodeus about me?”

“
Probably, but I doubt if
he has had time to act on the information yet.” Sebastian was
curious about where my questions were leading, but held that in
check while I worked my way through my concerns, issues, and the
burgeoning idea.

“
If you destroy the demon,
but not Asmodeus, what will happen?”

“
Asmodeus will eventually
track you down, and either trick you into his power, or use me to
force you to surrender your extra soul.”

I thought about that for a bit, and came to
a decision. “Very well, I’ve thought about it, and I’ve decided
that you can destroy the demon if you like.”

Laughter was rich in his voice. “How very
gracious of you.”

I pushed back against now gentle arms, and
gave him a glare. “However, I don’t want you to make an attempt on
Asmodeus until I talk to the Society.”

The laughter in his face and eyes faded.
“Belle, I have explained to you why it is important that I strike
now—”

I bit his chin. “Yes, you have, but I think
we have another option. However, I must first consult one of the
directors at the Revenant Society to make sure what I have in mind
can be done.”

Softly, his mind touched
mine, his curiosity so great it made me smile. Not one for mind
games, I’d normally satisfy his desire to know what I was thinking,
but this was a situation I wasn’t even sure was possible.
I’ll tell you about it the minute I know if it’s
feasible
, I told him.

A war broke out within him, a desire to show
confidence in me fighting with the need to protect and safeguard.
The fact that he struggled so strongly touched my heart.

“
I think I could very
easily fall in love with you,” I told him, pressing a quick kiss to
his delectable lips.

His eyes darkened. “Was that meant to be a
kiss? Or did you mistake me for your grandmother?”

“
Hey now!” I frowned,
searching his eyes. “I’ll have you know that none of my husbands,
not one single one of them, ever complained about my kissing
skills.”

“
They do not matter,” he
said, his voice a low growl that turned my bones to jelly. I sagged
against him as his mouth descended upon mine. “
I
do. Either you kiss me as I
deserve, or you will not kiss me at all.”

I opened my mouth to tell him what he could
do with such an arrogant demand, but fell victim to my own folly
when his lips took charge. His kiss was hard, hot, and absolutely
unyielding. His body moved against me, his hands touching and
stroking whatever he could reach, his hips urging mine into a
rhythm of desire. But oh Lord, it was his mouth I couldn’t resist,
his lips and tongue demanding a response that I couldn’t deny. By
the time he broke the kiss, I was breathless, gasping for air, my
mind filled with the taste and feel of him.

He looked down at me with a smug
satisfaction that was wholly male. I tried to rally a morsel of
dignity, a tiny shred of indignation over such a chauvinistic
attitude, but my mind refused to cooperate.

“
You are not to leave the
suite. I will return as soon as I have destroyed the
demon.”

He kissed me once more, sending the few wits
I desperately tried to gather flying. It wasn’t until he left,
tossing commands to the revenants over his shoulder, that I could
put myself together enough to protest his order.

“
You look like you’ve been
pulled backward through
le
hedge
du
prickly,” Sally said, drifting over to where I
clutched the door frame to the living area. “
Vive Monsieur le
Sexy Pants,
eh?”

“
And how,” I answered,
touching my lips. They were hot and tingling, the spicy-sweet taste
of Sebastian still burning on them. It matched the burn he’d
started deep in me, embers of an emotion too fragile to face yet. I
shook my head, wondering how he had become so much a part of me so
quickly.

Sally watched me for a
moment before softly asking, “
Vous
love him?”

I pushed myself away from the door and went
to the phone, glancing at the open notebook Sebastian had left. The
name and number of a London Guardian was written in a bold hand. I
flipped through the book, feeling both pleased and guilty that
Noelle’s name didn’t appear. How could I take such pleasure in a
man when it gave pain to my friend?