Night Huntress 07 - This Side of the Grave (17 page)

I cleared my throat in the sudden uneasy silence. “So… how ’bout them Saints, huh?”

Marie’s sharp gaze didn’t leave mine. “The last time I saw you, you were still a half-breed. Tell me, Cat, how do you find being a full vampire?”

“It’s great,” I said, knowing she had something up her sleeve with this, but pretending it was a casual question. “I haven’t missed getting my period even
once
, and hey, no more counting calories. What’s not to love, right?”

She smiled at me, revealing pretty white teeth that contrasted nicely with her matte red lipstick. “You forgot to mention your ability to kill your first husband with a fireball.”

My answering smile froze on my face. I’d expected us to talk about
Apollyon
, not
Gregor
. He’d been the vampire whose blood was combined with a ghoul’s heart to raise Marie from the dead almost a hundred and fifty years ago, but Marie had wanted him dead, too, so I didn’t anticipate recriminations from her for killing him.

Marie’s a valuable ally, don’t lose your temper and give her an excuse to side with
Apollyon
, I reminded myself.
Look at Bones. He almost seems bored even though he’s got to be as ticked as you over Marie bringing up
Gregor
.

“Because he cheated in his duel with Bones, the Guardian Council of Vampires cleared me of any wrongdoing,” I said, proud that my voice was very calm.

Marie leaned back in her chair, idly stroking the fabric. Part of me wondered where the secret door was in this room. That chair wasn’t a permanent fixture or it would be mildewed from the damp air, not to mention I didn’t believe Marie would leave herself without an alternate means of escape.

“Cheating, that doesn’t surprise me,” she commented. “
Gregor’s
arrogance always was his Achilles’ heel.
Like bringing you to Paris when you were sixteen.
I told him to come here instead. That his hometown would be the first place anyone would look for him, should his actions be discovered, but he didn’t listen.”

Everything in me froze. I didn’t dare glance at Bones again. The flash of rage that skipped across my subconscious before he
recloaked
his emotions told me he was
this close
to losing it at this revelation.

“So.”
I couldn’t keep the edge from my tone if my life depended on it. “
Gregor
told you about his kidnapping plans for me back then?”

She continued to stroke her armrest, as though the tension in the room hadn’t become thick enough to cut. “
Gregor
told me many things. He trusted my loyalty to him as my only living sire. I don’t betray those I’ve sworn loyalty to. This shouldn’t surprise you. I told you last year that if
Gregor’s
claims of marriage to you were proved, I’d back his side.”

“You also told me a neat story about how you murdered your husband when he pushed you too far,” I replied sharply. “Well, I’d say tricking me into marrying him as a teenager, murdering my friend, forcibly changing my mother into a vampire, and trying to murder Bones by cheating in their duel all fell under the ‘too far’ category for me. Too bad for
Gregor
the vision he had of me when I was sixteen didn’t show the part about me using all those neat powers he wanted to control to kill him.”

“Underestimating you was
Gregor’s
mistake.” Marie didn’t move a muscle, but all of a sudden, I felt like a mouse staring at a hungry owl. “It won’t be mine. But”—a shrug—“no one can hide from death forever.
No one
, not even our kind.
Death travels the world and passes through even the thickest walls we protect ourselves with. You should remember that.”

Was that a threat? “Not to be rude, Majestic, but it sounds like you’re telling me to watch my back with you.”

Marie grunted. “When you truly understand what it means, you’ll know how to defeat
Apollyon
.”

At last, we were getting on topic. I’d already figured out that I’d need to kill the ghoul to stop him, but if Marie wanted to feel like she was being all cool and cryptic with the advice, I’d play along.

“Okay. I’ll remember that.”

She
smiled,
genial and somehow terrifying at the same time. “You should. If you don’t, he’ll win.”

“You could always just spell it out and save us all some time,” I said, unable to keep all the exasperation out of my voice. Did being dead for
over a century turn
everyone into riddle masters instead of people who could just
say
what they meant?

“I won’t join your cause against
Apollyon
. Last year, my sire could have ordered me to, but with
Gregor
dead, my loyalty is to my people alone.”

Anger rose in me. “Even at the expense of countless thousands dying over reasons as stupid as who has fangs versus flat teeth?” I gave her café-latte skin a pointed look. “I would think you’d be smarter than to side with a senseless bigot.”

“It has nothing to do with bigotry,” she replied sharply. “But
Apollyon’s
reach has grown. If I openly oppose him, I will be seen as a betrayer of my race. Even ghouls who disagree with
Apollyon
may side with him out of species loyalty. It will be civil war. During this, am I to believe the vampire nation will not swoop in to crush us while we are weak from infighting?” Marie gave me a thin smile. “I am not so trusting.”

“Oh come on,” I huffed. “Vampires have no dreams of subjugating ghouls. You know that’s just a smoke screen
Apollyon’s
using.”

“There are some among your race who would take advantage of ghouls just as ruthlessly as
Apollyon
is seeking to do with vampires. If you’re not smart enough to heed my words and outwit him on your own, then you deserve to lose,” she replied with brutal bluntness before leaning forward and reaching behind her chair.

Everything in me tensed, ready to spring for the knives in my boots, but all she did
was
pull out an empty wineglass. That previous tension began to ebb. Jacques had served us drinks last time I was here, even though for the life of me I didn’t know how he’d managed to procure a cold gin and tonic in this dank underground area. But instead of calling out to him, Marie set the glass on the armrest of her chair without a word. Then she flicked open a ring on her finger, revealing that it hid a tiny sharp point, and sliced it across her wrist before holding the wineglass underneath the cut.

Oh fuck no
, I thought, keeping myself from bolting out of my chair with every last bit of willpower in me.

Her gaze drilled into mine as dark purplish liquid began to fill the glass.

“Reaper,” she said coolly. “Won’t you have something to drink?”

Once more, I couldn’t even risk glanc
ing at Bones to see if he looked as appalled as I felt.
Play it cool, she could be bluffing
, I chanted to myself, managing not to flinch when she held out that half-full glass to me.

“What an unusual offer, but you know I prefer gin and tonic,” I said, praying my heart didn’t start beating out of sheer panic.
If she did know about my twisted feeding habits, who would have told her?
And did that person somehow screw it up and report back that I drank
ghoul
blood for nourishment instead of vampire?

“Over a dozen years ago,
Gregor
told me of his vision about a young half-breed who would one day wield the power of pyrokinesis,” Marie said. “After his sire,
Tenoch
, perished, only one other vampire existed who could manifest fire and bend it to his will, and as you know, Vlad
Tepesh
was no ally of
Gregor’s
.
Gregor
assumed you’d come into this power about a century after you’d been changed into a vampire, and he intended to have you under his control long before that. Yet you killed him using fire within a month of your turning.”

I didn’t move, afraid that my slightest gesture would betray me. “Everyone knows that,” I said as calmly as I could.
“Beginner’s luck.”

A sharp laugh came from her. “Then, curiously, you weren’t reported to use fire again, even when you were in dire circumstances. You
were
reported to have used telekinesis against a group of vampires in Monaco a few months ago. So that’s two incredible powers, all manifested less than a year after your changing. More
beginner’s
luck?”

“I’m a lucky girl,” I said, thinking if I were still part human, I’d be puking from stress right now.

Marie glanced at the glass of blood in her hand before meeting my gaze. “Let’s find out,” she said, her Southern accent changing until it sounded like hundreds of voices suddenly spoke through her, and none of them friendly.

Bones moved at the same time I did, but an icy blast of power knocked me back into my seat hard enough to topple me over. I came up with knives in both hands, only to have them ripped from my grasp by what felt like razor-sharp claws. In disbelief I saw Bones suspended in midair, shadows swirling around him, his mouth open in a roar that still didn’t drown out the horrible keening noises that filled the room.

Marie hadn’t moved from her position, that glass of blood still resting on the side of her chair. I started toward her again, only to be met by a wall of ghosts that shot up from the ground, their features indistinct due to their sheer numbers. When I tried to push past them, it felt like they slashed my body with thousands of razors, but worse than that, my energy drained away as abruptly as it had at dawn when I was first changed. Pain radiated in me from my boots to my eyebrows. I looked down, expecting to be covered in blood, but only a faint smudge of dirt marred my front even though I felt like I’d pass out.

“Stop,” I gasped to Marie.

She shrugged. “Make me. Call forth fire, or knock this drink from my hand with your mind, and I will.”

Bitch! Rage filled me as Bones was flung against the wall by those malevolent shadows. He wasn’t shouting anymore. He looked, frighteningly, like he was trying to speak but couldn’t. His features twisted as he struggled, more searing pain flashing through me, but not mine this time. How could these ghosts be able to inflict so much damage? Fabian couldn’t even poltergeist up a limp version of a handshake!

My gaze narrowed as I looked at Marie. It had to be her power enabling the ghosts to do this, what with how her voice sounded like a microphone to the grave and the icy, vibrating waves pouring off her. Even though I hadn’t manifested as much as a spark recently, I still tried to turn my anger into flames, picturing Marie, that fluffy chair, and even the package of chicken by her feet bursting into a fiery inferno.
Burn.
Burn.

Nothing.
Not even a hint of smoke leaked out of my hands, let alone any fire. I tried focusing on the wineglass next, picturing it shattering and splashing her blood all over her. More hard thwacks came from my left, audible even above that awful high-pitched moaning the ghosts made. A glance revealed they had
Bones’s
arms and legs extended straight out, those shadows appearing and then disappearing from his flesh. Fragments of agony sliced across my consciousness, made more intense by the brief periods of blankness between them. Dammit, Bones was trying to shield me from his pain, even in the midst of being pureed from the inside out by those spectral freaks.

I looked away, tears spilling out my eyes, to concentrate back on that blood-filled glass. It hadn’t been too many months since I’d drank Mencheres’s blood.
Some
of his power still had to be left in me!
Break, glass, break!
Or just fall from her hand, at least.

More of those lightning-quick flashes of pain flitted across my emotions, the periods between them growing shorter. I couldn’t stop myself from glancing at Bones again. His back was arched, eyes closed, muscles contorting every time one of those shadows dove into him. The agony leaking through to me from him was nothing compared to the searing pain that ripped through my heart seeing him that way.

I tore my gaze away and glared at the glass with enough loathing that it should have exploded into sand. It didn’t. Not even a shiver of movement disturbed it. Maybe it was because I hadn’t drunk nearly as much of Mencheres’s blood as I did with Vlad that one time. Maybe because I’d stopped drinking
Bones’s
blood, I was now weaker and less able to summon any residual telekinesis power left in me. Ultimately, the reason didn’t matter. All I knew was that the man I loved was being tormented, and even though I was in the
same fucking room
, I couldn’t help him.

I wasn’t surprised when a dull thrum slowly began to sound in my chest. Marie’s eyebrows rose, but she looked more curious than startled. Hatred surged through me at how calmly she sat there, directing all this mayhem as though it were a puppet show. I’d whipped out two knives from my boots and flung them at her before even planning the action, only to let out a scream of frustration when they were batted away by the wall of ghosts without even grazing her.

I threw myself against that spectral barrier next, determined to make her pay, but no matter how many times I bashed against that writhing wall of otherworldly bodyguards, I couldn’t force my way past them. Worse, it seemed to weaken me, replacing my rage with the same dizzying lethargy I’d only felt the day Bones drained all my blood to change me. After what seemed like hours but was probably only minutes, I couldn’t even stand. Despair choked me as my legs gave out. The unearthly keening in the room seemed to grow louder in triumph.