The Queen Is Dead (The Immortal Empire) (17 page)

He grabbed my chin in his hand, forcing me to meet his intense gaze. “Promise me.”

I stilled. This wasn’t about control or protecting me. This was fear. Dread. Whatever it was, it had my wolf agitated–and that was never good.

“I promise,” I whispered. “Vex, you’re freaking me out. What’s going to happen in Cavendish Square on the twenty-second?”

He released my face and took my hand in his. He looked so damned sad.

“A horror show.”

When Dede disappeared and we were told she was dead, I didn’t believe it. I refused to. But when Vex told me that the message Val heard had to do with a horror show, all my certainty that my brother was alive evaporated.

My first memory of him was of a quiet boy who would help me up when I took a tumble. He seemed to always be picking me up. I cried when he went off to Wellington Academy before me.

He used to get teased for his name–Valentine. He despised 14 February, even though he was inundated with cards and chocolates. It became his day, and he loathed it. Then he turned sixteen, grew a foot over the summer and filled out, and suddenly girls weren’t giggling any more. Or rather, they giggled for entirely different reasons.

My brother was smart and honourable, and when I started
dating Ryecroft Winter, a halvie of were descent, Val warned him not to break my heart. It was Val’s shou falk< />

Avery and I had just lost our sister. We couldn’t lose our brother as well. It wasn’t fair. But then, I knew that fair didn’t mean shit.

A horror show. It was a barbaric thing. They’d been popular years ago, and apparently still attracted substantial audiences in other parts of Europe. Basically it was a public execution, in which a halvie or human was drunk to death by aristos. They used to be held for sport, then for vengeance after the Insurrection. They’d been banned decades ago, but there were those who got off on them, and so they continued. You could even buy films of them in certain back-street establishments.

I asked Vex how he knew about horror show protocol, and he responded that an unfortunate side effect of living to his age meant that he had learned a plethora of things he wished he didn’t know.

“Before they became illegal, they were only taboo and happened more often than I like to admit,” he explained. “I never went to one–not because of a great sense of honour, but because I don’t like to feed in front of an audience–or watch anyone else do it. Back then humans used to sell themselves, or their family members, to a show.”

I made a face. “Really?”

He gave me a look that made me feel horribly young and naïve. “Poverty breeds desperation.” Normally hearing him roll that many “r”s would have made me smile. Tonight, nothing.

“So does a missing sibling,” I remarked. “Vex, what if—”

“Don’t.” He put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me close. “Don’t think like that until you have to. It’s no good.”

The fact that he was speaking from experience made it impossible for me to think of a suitable response other than a nod.

“Too bad you didn’t find out immediately that Val had been taken; you might have tracked him–or got one of your goblins to do it.”

Goblins did have an incredible sense of smell. Unfor tunately, there were a lot of odours around Freak Show, and trying to pick out just one that was days old would be difficult, especially without knowing which direction to take.

“I could try,” I thought out loud.

Vex stood and pulled me to my feet. “Not tonight. It will be dawn soon and you need to rest. You’re no good to your brother if you’re worn out.”

I let him drag me off to bed. Oddly enough, I was asleep soon after my head hit the pillow. Dreams came sometime after that. I dreamed that I was standing on the street outside my house in the bright afternoon sun, feeling it burn my skin as Churchill nailed Val to my door. “This is your entire fault,” he told me. “You destroy everyone who loves you.”

“No,” I argued. “That’s not true.”

I felt a hand on my arm. I turned my head to see Dede standing beside me, looking as she had the night she died, except that her hair was its proper copper and not the awful black she had dyed it. She was very pale, tinged with blue, and dried blood clung to her lips and face. “Goblins can’t walk in the sun, Xandy.”

As she spoke, intense pain started in my feet and ran up my legs. I looked down to see my lower half engulfed in flames.
The fire ate through my clothes and skin, boiled my blood. Then Dede started laughing.

I woke with a start. Vex wrapped a strong, warm arm around me and karoood. pulled me against his chest. I snuggled there, dry-eyed, heart hammering. But it was a long time before I could close my eyes without seeing Dede’s laughing face framed by flames.

I woke up just before four o’clock that afternoon. I got a pint of blood out of the fridge in my room for Vex so he could face the sun without too much discomfort. Being a were made him less sensitive to ultraviolet light, but it bothered him all the same. Summer was hell on aristos, with the long days and short nights.

I didn’t like cold blood, but I downed a pint myself, grimacing as it slid thickly down my throat. If this was what I had to do to keep control of myself, then I’d do it. Didn’t mean I had to ruddy like it, though.

When I went downstairs to make breakfast–a pint of the red stuff wasn’t going to completely satisfy me–I found Penny at the table, having a cup of coffee and reading the day’s rag.

“Morning, sunshine.” I forced a bright tone. I was not going to tell her about the horror show lead if I could help it. And I wasn’t going to tell her about Avery. If she didn’t know she couldn’t mistakenly tell someone, and she’d be more natural thinking Avery was just there for the hell of it. She’d probably get suspicious eventually, but it was only going to be for a bit.

I had three days to find my brother and pray they didn’t
decide to kill him before that. Although I had the awful feeling that they were saving him for the horror show, if my suspicion about our family being unique didn’t apply.

And that was the extent to which I was prepared to think of it. I’d go to the horror show and save his arse. Any other outcome was unacceptable.

“You made the cover,” Penny informed me, closing the tabloid so I could see my own face in grainy colour. How had the vultures even got close enough to me last night to take a photo without me knowing?

“It’s a good picture,” I commented. The headline screamed:
GOBLIN QUEEN BOTCHES KIDNAPPING–KILLS HUMAN.

At least there was no mention of me terrorising tourists. That would probably come tomorrow, after those who’d witnessed it saw this photo and connected the dots.

“It doesn’t say how you killed him.” Penny took a sip of coffee. “And it does say that the coroner verified he would have been dead within a day or two regardless.”

I went to pour myself some coffee. “Does it mention you or Ophelia?”

“Not by name. I’m merely ‘the victim’. Wankers. Good news is that they talk you up as a hero.”

I poured cream into my cup. “And the bad news?”

“There’s nothing about the fact that my attempted kidnapping wasn’t the first. Nothing about Val or the others. It’s like no one thought to mention it, or it wasn’t important enough.” She glanced up as I sat down. “It’s like they don’t matter.”

I patted her hand. “But if they had mentioned it, then there’d be little chance of the betties returning, and we need to catch them.”

“I suppose. I just feel so helpless.”

“I know.”

“Yeah, I reckon it’s harder for someone like you who’s used to kicking arse and taking names.”

My brow tightened, then lifted. k thr s “Is that how you see me?”

She leaned back in her chair. She looked so young and… boyish without any make-up on. “Honey, those betties could have cut your lips off and the vultures wouldn’t have called you a
victim
. There’s nothing weak about you.”

It was a compliment, but it didn’t feel like one.

I drank a little more coffee and then got up to make breakfast for myself and Vex. Penny had already eaten, and once she finished her coffee, she left to go and shower. Vex eventually appeared, gave me a kiss, and took care of the eggs while I made toast. It was very domestic.

While we ate, I went through the post. There was a letter from Buckingham Palace.

“What the hell is this?”

Vex looked up, his gaze landing on the envelope in my hand. “That’s a reminder about the faction head meeting on the twenty-seventh.”

I wrinkled my nose–a flattering expression, I bet. “Do I have to go? I’m not sure—”

His fork clattered to his plate. I think he might have actually barked in frustration. “Enough. I adore you like mad, but woman, make up your fucking mind. You’re a goblin, and no amount of whining and wishing it were different can change that. Do you think Victoria wanted to rule the Kingdom when she was but eighteen years old? The goblins want you as their queen–a position with decidedly more clout and power than the one you currently hold. I know you don’t want to be a
monster, but sweetheart, you don’t need a crown to be a monster. You already are one. We’re all monsters. Not many, however, get asked to be the ruler of the most feared and fucking loyal creatures on the planet.”

I stared at him. Every word he said was true, but only three echoed in my empty skull. “You adore me?” It wasn’t love, but I’d take it.

For a moment he looked as though he didn’t know whether to throttle me or kiss me. “Is that the only part you heard?”

“No, I heard it all. That’s just the part I liked best.”

Vex smiled. “Eat your breakfast.”

“Aren’t you going to ask if I adore you?”

A shake of his head sent a lock of hair falling over his forehead. “I already know the answer,” he informed me with a smile.

I grinned back. The man was infuriating. “Then I don’t need to say anything at all.”

“Not a word.”

I turned in my chair so that I could lean over and kiss him soundly. He tasted like butter. “I adore you,” I murmured. I think we both knew I meant more than adore. We both meant more, but this little confession would be enough for now.

What followed was a significant pause in breakfast while we celebrated our mutual affection in the tiny pantry–we didn’t want to scar Penny for life if she came downstairs.

Afterwards, I put my bacon and eggs between two slices of bread and stuck the sandwich in the radiarange to heat it up. It was so good I made another one and ate it before going upstairs to shower. For a little while I didn’t worry about my brother.

It occurred to me as Vex shampooed my hair that if it weren’t for the people I loved, I wouldn’t worry about much at all. I mean, I wasn’t even all that concerned about Scotland Yard, even though I had just killed a man and didn’t feel the least bit sorry for it. Probably be k. P even alcause I didn’t feel responsible for his death at all; it was all him.

The sun was slowly sinking by the time I was dressed in a dark red corseted waistcoat and snug black trousers that looked like bloomers. They were lightweight and had a ruffle hem that hit mid-calf. I hauled on a pair of high leather boots with an hourglass heel and was ready to go. I even put on a bit of a face. It wasn’t as elaborate as what Penny did every night, but I looked good enough.

Vex was on his rotary to someone about the bombing, so I left him with a kiss on the cheek and the whispered promise to bring home something to eat.

I have no idea how Penny managed to perch on the back of the Butler dressed as she was. All I know was that she had to hike her frothy skirts way up and tuck them around her legs so they wouldn’t get caught in the motorrad’s moving bits. She had a scarf tied beneath her chin to keep her wig from flying off and a tiny hat that was a scale reproduction of a British frigate from the Napoleonic War in her handbag.

“You sure you want to do this?” I asked before pulling out of the drive.

She nodded. “They’re not going to make me hide.”

I felt better knowing Avery would be there to watch over her just in case. I doubted very much that the betties would make another appearance tonight.