Darkest Knight (12 page)

“Maria,” she said, as if tasting the word. She moved slowly over to the love seat and sat down. I marveled that her insubstantial body didn’t fade right through it. “I haven’t spoken her name in centuries.”

“We believe she’s still alive,” I said.

She stared at me then, her forehead wrinkling. “That’s absurd. It would make her over nine hundred years old.”

I sat back down in the chair. “My grandmother said that as a child she heard rumors about Maria still being alive.”

Geraldine pressed her lips together in a bitter line. “Dark fairy tales. Cruel stories about a motherless child who didn’t know how to deal with whatever powers she was born with.”

The chair felt suddenly too hard and I shifted forward to the edge of the seat. “It’s possible she found a way to survive all these years.”

“How?”

“By feeding off the blood of the Fallen,” Quin said.

Geraldine gasped and her ghostly fingers fanned out against her throat. “My baby, my Maria.”

“If she’s who we think she is, Maria’s not a baby anymore,” I said. “She may be the one responsible for murdering the knights.”

Geraldine shook her head slowly. “A Hatchet knight would never knowingly kill her own sisters, especially not without cause.”

“She’s not a knight,” I told her, and Geraldine snapped her head around to stare at me. “I mean, she was never admitted into the knighthood. She’s never been trained or mentored by her guardian.”

She blinked. “When Maria disappeared after my death, I assumed she had died and her soul taken to hell because of who her father is.”

“We think her father is the one who took her, and she might be living with him now.” I watched as Geraldine stared off into the distance, possibly replaying ancient memories inside her head. “What we don’t understand is why she waited until now to begin her killing spree.”

“I wouldn’t know,” Geraldine said softly. “I never thought a child of mine would be capable of such cruelty.”

“I’ve seen her,” I said.

“You have?” she asked. “When?”

“When she tried to kill me.” I licked my lips and scooted so far forward on the chair that my butt balanced on the edge. “I couldn’t see her face because it was hidden under the hood of her cloak. She stole the breath from my lungs and I almost suffocated.”

“Dear God.” Geraldine leaned back on the cushions, grabbing a pillow to hold close to her chest. I saw through her arms to the patchwork fabric underneath. “Her father could steal breath. It’s how he vanquished his enemies.”

I was fairly certain that confirmed the identity of our killer, but now came the question of where, and how, to find her.

thirteen

“WE NEED TO FIND MARIA’S FATHER,”
I SAID.
“What’s his name?”

Geraldine sucked in her lips as
if trying to stop herself from talking. Names were powerful magic and saying
someone’s name could potentially give them power over you. I guessed that’s
why she hesitated.

“The Arelim will protect you,” I
told her. “Tell me his name and I promise not to speak it aloud unless I
have to.”

She seemed to summon her courage
by closing her eyes, but they flashed open with the whispered name
“Pharzuph.”

The sound of it fluttered
through my ears and shuddered down my spine. It made me feel dirty. “His
name sounds wicked.”

She nodded. “Pharzuph is the
fallen angel of fornication and lust.”

I didn’t consider sex bad, but
associating it with this creature made it seem filthy. My heart went out to
Maria for having been raised by this fiend. I knew what it was like to be
kidnapped by a sociopath, so it wasn’t a stretch to imagine her having to
live with a sex maniac all her life. I’d managed to escape my kidnapper with
limited damage. Maria, on the other hand, had been adversely affected.
Something had driven her to murder and she enjoyed killing.

“Where do you think he is?” I
asked Geraldine.

“He’s probably where all fallen
angels go. Beyond the black veil.”

According to Barachiel, the
black veil didn’t appeal to all Fallen. He wanted nothing to do with
it.

“How do I get there?”

Quin took a step closer to me.
“You don’t want to go there, Chalice. I doubt you could even if you wanted
to.”

“We know very little about the
Fallen’s domain,” Geraldine added.

I’d thought the Arelim would
glean all the intel they could about their enemy, though come to think of
it, no one ever said they were enemies. Estranged brothers with opposing
interests, yes, but one had never directly threatened the other. They each
kept to their own side of the fence. I had a strong feeling that whatever
was going on with Maria was about to tip a precarious balance.

I remembered the black feather
that had sent Natalie’s mind down a dark and dangerous rabbit hole. I
slipped it out of my coat pocket. “Maybe this will help me.”

Quin stepped in front of
Geraldine as if to protect her. “Put that away.”

“Why?” I asked. “It’s only a
feather.”

“It could be more than just a
feather,” he said. “What if it’s enchanted? It might even be like one of
those bugs you see on the telly.”

“You mean for tracking?” I
asked.

“You never know. The last thing
I want is for the Fallen to come after Geraldine.”

Geraldine stood. “Quin, even if
they did, I’m not actually here anyway. This form is only a projection of my
physical self and not the real me.” She tried to rub his back but her hand
passed straight through him.

The thought of a creature like
Pharzuph tainting these hallowed halls made my skin crawl. I put the feather
away. “If the feather is a conduit of some sort, maybe it can be used like a
homing device. It could lead me to wherever Maria is hiding.”

“That’s a really bad idea,” Quin
said. “Your grandmother would have a fit if she knew.”

“My grandmother doesn’t have to
know.” I gave him a pointed look and raised an eyebrow. “Right?”

He narrowed his eyes at me.
“Right.”

I yawned and checked my watch.
It would be light soon, which meant bedtime for me. My brain would be as
useful as oatmeal if I didn’t get some sleep.

“I can take a hint,” he told me,
and turned to face Geraldine. They shared a meaningful look. Oh, yes, those
two had something going on. The look of longing in Quin’s eyes made me think
of Aydin. At least now Aydin and I could be together without having to sneak
around. Elmo would welcome Aydin, in any shape or form, into his
home.

“Geraldine, did you know Gavin’s
soul-stain is inside the church?” I asked.

Her eyes flashed alarm and she
blinked. “What?”

“I’m sure it’s nothing, but
Chalice is the only one able to see it,” Quin said. “The Arelim should be
able to easily get rid of it.”

Geraldine scowled. “That
shouldn’t have happened. The church was thoroughly cleansed.”

Quin shrugged. “It’s harmless.
It’s like a painting on the wall.”

A painting that induces
nightmares. Sharp tingles pierced the back of my neck to remind me of
Gavin’s bony-fingered grip. Quin had forgotten the extent of Gavin’s cruelty
because he didn’t know the half of it. The fact that the man’s soul-stain
existed here did not bode well at all. I wasn’t the only one who thought so.
Geraldine felt it, too.

* * *

The mattress I lay on
in Elmo’s third bedroom was so soft it felt like lying on a pile of
marshmallows, and just as lumpy. The old elf had bought this house, along
with all his possessions, in the late thirties and never saw the point in
upgrading because he was rarely home. He spent the majority of his time
either in his basement coffee shop or with friends beyond the green veil.
His house and everything in it was as preserved as a museum.

I liked the nostalgic mood here.
It made me feel as if I’d been transported to a different time, before my
mother’s death and my hellish life of bondage to a gargoyle, and before the
murders of my sister knights. It offered me a sense of being outside of
things for a change, like a barrier of time that insulated me from what
troubles lay ahead.

The heavy drapes were closed
against the day’s sunlight, but I still had trouble falling asleep. Elmo was
already asleep by the time Quin and I arrived so I never got a chance to say
hello. I’d been tossing and turning for nearly two hours, despite being only
half conscious when I fell into bed. Turns out I was overtired. My brain
refused to stop its troubled musing.

Xenia. Damn. Where the hell was
that girl? I hoped not literally in hell, because I’d feel responsible if
so. If I hadn’t introduced her to the pen charm, she would never have run
away. On second thought, she was so good at disappearing in full view that
she might have pulled it off anyway. The question of why she’d leave the
security of the order still nagged at me. She was bitter about her past and
felt like an outcast, but she hadn’t given the knighthood a chance. She
hadn’t given
me
a chance. I should have tried harder to break
through her armor of false bravado. At least she had removed her war paint.
That had to be a good sign, right?

Then there were Natalie and
Rusty. Rusty hated me, and reparations on my part were desperately needed to
get her powers back. Natalie had been imprisoned in mental limbo because I
had given her the fallen angel feather that sent her there. I should have
followed my instincts. I craved my sisters’ acceptance so much that I had
made some bad choices. Natalie was hopefully on the road to recovery. Rusty?
Her recovery wouldn’t be so easy.

Rafe. I shouldn’t even be
thinking about him or he might appear right in front of me. I couldn’t dwell
too long on thoughts about him, but he at least deserved some pondering.
Poor angel. He was so enamored with humans and their ways that he sometimes
forgot who and what he was. He clung to my now-human grandfather like his
new best friend, and the longer Rafe remained in the realm of humans, the
more he seemed to take after them. He was possessive and judgmental and
moody. I’d been under the impression angels were above petty human flaws,
but what did I know? I was half angel and certainly didn’t act any better
myself.

I drowsed in a state of near
sleep, drifting in and out of consciousness. A fuzzy sort of warmth
enveloped me and I became suddenly aware that I wasn’t the only one in the
bed. A man lay beside me and he looked exactly like Aydin.

“Aydin?” I whispered, his image
fading in and out of sight. Just a dream, but I felt the heat of his skin,
heard his soft breathing, his heartbeat… No, not a human heartbeat. It was
the rapid bass drum beat of a gargoyle.

He rolled over to face me. “I
never want you to forget what I used to look like.”

“I never will.” I cupped the
side of his face and smoothed my thumb over his cheekbone. His eyes gazed
into mine and I saw his desire reflected there. The smoldering look he gave
me sent a missile of heat down my body, over my breasts, across my stomach
and between my legs. I gasped.

His hand covered mine. He gently
pulled my fingers from his face to plant a slow, hot kiss in the center of
my palm. “I’ve missed you.”

When Aydin was human, most of
our time together had been spent following Gavin’s orders and doing our best
not to let the curse we shared change us into monsters. The lingering
attraction between us grew and our desire intensified when the tattoos on
our necks throbbed with need for our gargoyles. I regretted that we had
never given in to our carnal hunger.

Aydin’s gargoyle form was the
only thing keeping us physically apart. I wanted
him,
the flesh-and-blood man I’d
fallen for, but I’d settle for the mental equivalent if that was all I
had.

His body appeared hazy, like a
blurred rendition of his former self. Yet I could sense every part of him,
smell his skin, taste his lips when he kissed me. I pressed against him and
felt the hardness of his body as sensations thrilled my every cell. Dream or
not, my body was consumed by passion that melted into me like hot
lava.

Aydin filled my mind, which
enabled me to get inside his. I found love there, and concern, and
hesitation. His need overwhelmed me, yet knowing his feelings were as strong
as mine put me at peace.

His arms held me close, his chin
pressed against my neck as we lay spooned on the bed. I snuggled against his
naked chest and his hold on me tightened as he gently nibbled my
ear.

“I wish this was real,” I told
him.

He kissed my hair. “It
is
real.”

I smiled. “I know, but I mean
physically real.”

“Felt pretty real to me.” He
rolled me over onto my back and ran a finger from the hollow of my throat
down to my navel.

I held his hand to keep it
still. “I need to get some sleep.”

“You
are
asleep.”

I sighed. “You know what I mean.
Dream sex is confusing.”

“But you enjoyed it.”

I reached up to pull his head
down close so I could kiss him. “Yes, I did. Very much.”

He grinned. His features turned
fuzzy before sharpening into a more sober expression. “I do want to be a man
again. For you. For myself.”

I kissed him long and deep. “I
know you do.”

“I should have taken Shojin’s
heart when I had the chance.”

I agreed. Now it was gone and
who knew when, or if, we’d get it back. I cringed at my mental admission of
doubt.

“It’s okay, Chalice,” he said.
“I have my doubts, too.”

I turned onto my side to face
him. The dream lost its surreal edge and my focus sharpened. This is how I
wanted him all the time, even if I had to knock myself out to have it.

A knock sounded at the door and
the room instantly popped into crystal clarity. Aydin vanished.

A few more knocks and then
“Chalice? Better get up.”

I blinked the sleep from my
eyes. “Quin? Is that you?”

He opened the door a crack and
said, “It’s about Xenia. She’s been spotted.”

* * *

“She sold it to who?” I
asked Elmo, as he placed a cup of espresso in front of me. I blew away the
steam and touched my lips to the brim. Too hot to sip.

“One of the sewer rats.” Elmo
set a teacup on the table by Quin, sloshing some over the sides.

Quin flinched when a drop of tea
splashed out of the cup to land by his hand. “Hey!”

“Pardon me, your royal sir,”
Elmo said, his mouth set in a crooked grin. “Can I get you a crumpet to go
with your tea?”

“You don’t serve crumpets.” Quin
mopped at the spill with his napkin. “I prefer tea to coffee. Get used to
it.”

“Tea.” Elmo harrumphed and
waddled his short legs back to the coffee bar.

I chuckled to myself. It was fun
seeing Elmo rib the proper Quin. I knew he missed Aydin, who’d been Elmo’s
best friend, but Aydin had to be careful while in the city. His visit with
me today could have been dangerous if the Vyantara were still looking for
him. Both Rafe and Quin had said the nefarious group had left town, but I
didn’t think all of them were gone. After seeing Gavin’s soul-stain inside
the church I felt doubly sure that a member or two had stayed
behind.

There was a good crowd at Elmo’s
tonight. The green veil had rippled open three times since Quin and I got
here, and a variety of fae had emerged. Faeries, elves, and a handful of my
personal favorites, chimeras.

I looked at Quin and made a
gimme gesture with my hand. “So what’s a sewer rat?”