Black Spring (11 page)

J.B. scooted closer to whisper in my ear. “Your buddy did go and see that individual we discussed.”

“Yeah,” I said, thinking of the expression on Zaniel’s face. “Any chance you know what they talked about?”

J.B. shook his head. “The room was sealed with magic so no one could eavesdrop.”

“So I know he was there but I still don’t know why or who sent him,” I said. “Maybe I can beat it out of him later.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

“Sort of,” I said. “It gets very tiresome sometimes, trying to stay on the side of the right and the good when the bad guys get to do whatever they want.”

“That’s why they’re
bad
guys,” J.B. said.

“Speaking of bad guys . . . did you by any chance hear about what happened to Chloe?” I said, sneaking a half glance at Samiel to make sure he wasn’t looking at me.

“I did,” he said, his green eyes very grave. “The paperwork for her soul retrieval came across my desk, and Lizzie called me. I’m assuming there’s something you want to tell me about that.”

“Yes,” I said, and turned a little so Samiel couldn’t see me talking as I described what happened. I felt guilty talking about it in his presence, anyway, although he wasn’t paying attention to me in the slightest.

Jude and Samiel had seemed like they were on alert ever since we entered the room, both of them constantly shifting and scanning the area. Now that alert appeared to be heightened. “What’s up with you two?”

“It’s not safe here,” Jude growled.

Samiel nodded.
Can’t you feel it?

Now that they mentioned it, it did seem there was an air of barely suppressed tension, a sense that something might snap at any moment. And it had started as soon as Puck entered the room.

I looked over to the corner where Lucifer and Puck were playing hail-fellow-well-met with each other.

“They’re going to kill each other before the night is out,” I predicted.

“Look on the bright side. If they kill each other, you’ll only have to deal with Alerian,” Beezle said.

“Yeah, I don’t really see that as a bright side,” I said. “I kind of half expected that he would be here, since Lucifer is all into gathering his family around his bosom.”

As if my words were a summoning, the double doors at the far end of the room opened again and Alerian entered. He had no collection of hangers-on following him. He was not announced. But the power emanating from him was so palpable that a hush fell over the room.

Even Lucifer and Puck ceased their antics as Alerian strode toward them. His green hair was tied back at the nape of his neck. His face looked like it was carved from marble. Like Puck and Lucifer, he wore an expensive tailored suit. He walked so lightly that his heels did not make a sound on the floor.

The crowd cleared the way for him. No one whispered and gossiped. No one wondered who he was. But they understood power, and how to get out of its way.

I glanced over at Lucifer and Puck. Lucifer was frowning. Puck was trying to act like Alerian’s display didn’t bother him by talking to his underlings.

Because my group was apparently the first stop on the tour, my great-uncle paused before me, his face impassive.

“Disappointed to find me still alive?” I asked.

There was a long pause. “Very.”

“Don’t think about trying anything here,” I said. “For some reason Lucifer likes me.”

“I would not dream of violating my brother’s hospitality,” Alerian said.

“But once I leave it’s a different story, right?”

There was a flicker in his sea-colored eyes; then he moved away without saying a word.

“I think you should take that as a yes,” J.B. said.

“I didn’t need to hear him say it,” I said, watching him approach Puck and Lucifer. “He’s a lot like Amarantha, or Titania. He’s decided I’ve given him insult and there is nothing short of complete and total humiliating subservience that will make him happy.”

“You never even respected my authority when I was your boss,” J.B. said.

“Exactly,” I said.

“Exactly,” Beezle said.

Alerian greeted Lucifer and Puck, and then Evangeline. My many-greats-grandmother was resplendent in a red floor-length gown with long sleeves. One sleeve was pinned up to the shoulder because there was no arm there to fill it. A silk scarf was tied around her head to cover the empty holes where her eye sockets used to be. She was hugely pregnant, like she was about to give birth any second.

“I thought maybe Lucifer would have found some way to fix up Evangeline,” I said quietly to Beezle.

My gargoyle shook his head. “She lost her eyes and limb as a result of the price paid for defying the magic of death. There is no fixing that.”

Now that the three brothers were gathered together, all the air seemed to have gone out of the room. The crowd had resumed speaking, but conversations were low and furtive. No one seemed to want to attract the attention of the big three, which was unusual at a wedding. Normally people tried to monopolize the engaged couple. I put one hand on J.B.’s shoulder. My face was hot and my lungs were tight.

“What’s the matter?” he asked. “Are you going to be sick?”

“No,” I said, fanning my face with my hand. “I feel like I can’t breathe. Where the hell is Nathaniel?”

J.B. scanned the crowd, looking for my escort. “I can’t see him. I wonder where he got off to?”

I felt a moment of illogical panic. What if Lucifer had instructed his underlings to grab Nathaniel as soon as he was separated from me? But a moment later he was at my shoulder, holding a large glass of ice water. I grabbed it from him and guzzled it down quickly.

“More,” I said.

Nathaniel stared at me. “If I had realized you were so thirsty, I would have brought a pitcher. I had to go to the kitchens to get this. There are only cocktails on the trays.”

I put my hands over my throat, which felt parched. “I just feel so thirsty. And hot.”

Nathaniel put his hand on my forehead. “You’re burning up with fever. What happened while I was away?”

J.B. looked startled. “Alerian stopped here for a second. That was it.”

Beezle flew off his perch to peer at me more closely from the front. “Someone is trying to hurt her,” he announced. “Someone in this room has got a spell going to make you sick. I can see the traces of magic on you.”

“Can you trace it back to its owner?” I asked, my breath coming in short bursts.

He flew around me, looking for a trail to follow, and returned to my shoulder with a shake of his head. “No,” he said. “It’s like the shifter. The trail sort of peters out when you look at it.”

“That means the shifter is in this room,” Nathaniel said.

I slumped against his shoulder, barely able to stand on my feet. Jude, J.B. and Samiel huddled closer, the four men forming a protective knot around me. “But he’s not trying to kill me right this second. He’s trying to weaken me, make me sick.”

It was working, too. All I wanted to do was lie down and close my eyes.

“I thought the gargoyle was here to identify the creature when it is in disguise,” Jude growled. “Do your duty.”

“There are a million people in this room,” Beezle said. “If I fly around looking for the shifter, it could walk right up to Maddy while I was somewhere else and you would never know.”

“Beezle’s right. He needs to stay here,” I said. “And I don’t want to make a big fuss and attract everyone’s attention.”

“You’ve already attracted attention,” Beezle pointed out. “People are looking at us, wondering what’s wrong with you. In a second Lucifer will hear something’s going on and come over here.”

“That’s exactly what I don’t want,” I said. “I’d like to try to keep Lucifer out of this.”

“It is Lucifer’s home. I doubt you will be able to do so,” Nathaniel said.

Nathaniel’s arm was around my shoulder to help keep me upright as I swayed back and forth. I needed to focus, to push off the shifter as I had done before. But he was smart. A direct attack would have brought a full show of force on my part.

Instead the creature had chosen a subtle magic. That magic wormed its way inside, weakening me before I even realized it was there. If not for Beezle, I might not have known it was a spell at all. It felt exactly like a sudden illness.

“I do not like standing here while this monster does as he likes,” Jude said. “It is infuriating that we can do nothing when we know it is so close.”

“We could chase around and make a scene,” I said through the haze of fever. “But it would just drop the spell and we wouldn’t be any closer to finding it.”

“In the meantime you’re getting sicker by the minute,” J.B. said. “Let’s make a scene if that’s what makes it stop.”

It was getting hard to think straight. “No, I want to try to trace it back.”

“How?” Nathaniel said.

“Beezle, you can see the effects of the shifter’s magic.”

“But the spell fades away when I look at it,” he said.

“Right,” I said. “But if I push back against the spell, push against the source, you’ll be able to follow my magic back to him.”

Beezle gave me an admiring look. “That’s pretty good thinking, Maddy. I didn’t think you had it in you.”

Nathaniel shook his head. “I do not like it. The shifter will be able to continue to harm you. We should do what is necessary to break the spell now.”

“Just trust me,” I said, and my voice sounded little and breathless. “Jude, you get ready to follow Beezle wherever he says you should go.”

I knew the wolf had personal reasons for wanting to capture the shifter himself. I also knew that if I didn’t give Jude something to do soon, he might start rampaging around just to burn off his excess energy.

Should I stay with you?
Samiel signed.

“No, Beezle should go with you and Jude,” I said. “J.B. and Nathaniel can stay here with me.”

Beezle fluttered over to Samiel. His little face was concerned as he watched me struggle against the fever.

“Maybe Nathaniel’s right. You don’t look so good,” Beezle said.

“This is our chance,” I said. “He’s here in Lucifer’s mansion. I don’t want to look over my shoulder for him anymore. Now be quiet.”

I turned my focus inward, searching for the thread of the spell that was sickening me. My baby turned over and over in my belly. He could feel the magic, too. He could feel what it was doing to me. But it wasn’t hurting him, and that was some consolation at least. The magic was so small and subtle that it didn’t have the power to go after my child as well.

In fact, the subtlety was so great that it was hard to catch hold of the magic. It moved not like a river, as most magic did, but more like a fine mist. Now I could see the reason why I didn’t notice the intrusive spell immediately. The difficulty was in pushing it away. I couldn’t shove the magic back out by force when it was spreading in every direction. I collected the disparate pieces of the spell into a kind of arrowhead, and then blocked them with my own power.

I hoped that once the invading magic was drawn to that point, I would be able to bulldoze the spell out of me. Otherwise I would be using up a lot of energy when I was already in a weakened state. Then the shifter would be able to finish me off, and no one would be able to find the culprit.

As before, the shifter seemed to sense my resistance and redoubled its efforts. This actually worked to my advantage, for strengthening the spell gave it a more solid and consistent form.

Which meant it was a lot easier for me to push back, once I could clearly see what I was pushing.

A few moments later I felt significantly better as the shifter’s power cleared my body.

“I see it,” Beezle said. He directed Samiel and Jude in the direction of the spell I had sent in pursuit of the shifter’s power.

The shifter seemed to realize that the magic was no longer affecting me. It strained back toward me, tried to take advantage of my physical weakness. The few minutes of illness had left me feeling drained, and it was extremely difficult to fight back without drawing on the darkness inside me. If I called upon that power in Lucifer’s presence, he would surely be able to sense it.

The tug of magic back and forth between the shifter and me was almost like a rope, a long rope that joined the two of us. I was slightly shocked that in a roomful of magical creatures no one else seemed to be aware of what was going on. Then I realized that any little pulses of magic that came from me or the creature would be easily drowned out by the show of power coming from Lucifer and Evangeline’s corner. The shifter had timed his attack perfectly.

Even though Alerian, Puck and Lucifer were pretending to get along, each was clearly trying to outmuscle the other in presence. The guests were fascinated by the display while trying not to notice it, because gawking openly might draw the attention of one of these big, bad immortals.

In the meantime the shifter was able to attack me under everyone’s nose.

Beezle, Jude and Samiel disappeared into the crowd as I continued my battle with the shifter. I wanted to make sure to keep its attention long enough for Beezle to track my magical signature back to the creature.

There was a sudden surge of power, like the creature was pouring everything it had into one shot. I staggered back, my grip on my magic tenuous for a moment. That was when the darkness inside me, waiting so patiently, seized its chance.

I might not want to use that power, but dark magic has a life of its own. If I had not been weakened by the shifter’s spell, there was a chance I could have suppressed the darkness. But it sensed a threat, and I wasn’t strong enough to hold it.

The darkness surged forward in a great explosion of power, which was immediately noticed by everyone in the room. Unfortunately, the shifter sensed the change in me and abandoned its efforts almost immediately. Its desire to remain anonymous was obviously greater than its need to defeat me, at least for the moment. I hoped that Beezle had been able to find the creature before it dropped the spell.

Nathaniel had pulled me into his embrace when I staggered, and I knew the darkness inside him answered the call of my own. His eyes changed color for a moment, burning midnight-dark.

“None of that, now,” J.B. said briskly, and he scooped his arm around my waist and pulled me away from Nathaniel, breaking the connection.

The surge of dark power was also broken, like water had been thrown over me. I gave J.B. a grateful glance as he settled me back on my feet.

“Thanks,” I said.

“No problem,” he replied softly. “I just didn’t want a repeat of what happened in the basement of my building. I didn’t think you’d appreciate it if everyone in the room was watching you and Nathaniel.”

The whole room was quiet, and I could feel the curious glances of the guests. I also felt the pleasure that Lucifer had experienced when he witnessed my little display. Pleasure, and curiosity. He was surely wondering what had caused me to lose control.

I kept my eyes steady on J.B. “Everyone is watching me, aren’t they?”

“Oh, yeah,” he said. “But if we’re lucky, something more interesting will happen in a minute and they’ll go back to their business.”

“I’m not usually that lucky,” I said.

As it turned out, I was. A servant entered the room from side doors and announced that dinner was to be served. The guests immediately queued up at the door to the dining room. I guess that free dinner trumps all things, even if you’re a supernatural.

Nathaniel, J.B. and I waited while everyone else flowed around us. A moment later we were rejoined by Beezle, Jude and Samiel. I could tell by the irritated look on Beezle’s face that they had been unable to finish the tracking.

“You couldn’t have held on to your control for one more minute?” Beezle said. “I almost had him. I think.”

“Did you see anyone familiar in the area where the spell was going?” I asked.

Beezle shrugged. “It was going in the direction of Focalor’s party. But let’s not make any assumptions.”

“Yeah, let’s not make any assumptions just because Focalor has tried to kill me a few times before,” I said.

“Sure, but he could also be fooled by the shifter pretending to be a member of his group. Jude said that the wolves didn’t even suspect the shifter was among them,” Beezle said.

“The gargoyle is correct,” Jude said. “While Focalor may be involved, it’s best not to assume he is. We don’t want to miss the real culprit because of past prejudice.”

“How about you give Focalor’s table a good hard stare anyway?” I said to Beezle as we joined the rear of the throng making its way toward the dining room.

“Oh, don’t worry. I will,” Beezle said. “Even if he isn’t the shifter’s master, he’s probably up to no good. He can’t seem to help himself.”

We were among the last to enter the dining room, which was already arranged for the reception the next day. There was a long table at the front of the room for Lucifer and Evangeline and Puck and Alerian. Other groups were seated at small round tables scattered throughout the room. I looked for Michael, since his status as Lucifer’s only friend would seem to indicate that he be seated at the upper table. But he was elsewhere, with a small knot of angels who all appeared to have come from the same place as Michael. No fallen there, so they must have been Michael’s entourage.

“So, do we just sit anywhere, then?” I asked. I was still feeling a little woozy and wanted to get in a seat as soon as possible.

A servant materialized at my left elbow. “Ms. Black, you and your guests are to come with me. King Jonquil is to join his party at table thirty-one.”

It took me a moment to realize who King Jonquil was. J.B. frowned.

“I will take care of her,” Nathaniel said quietly.

“I know you will,” J.B. said. “I just don’t want to go back to my own people.”

I patted J.B. on the shoulder. “Don’t worry. I’m sure you’ll be able to ditch them at the reception tomorrow.”

“Don’t be so certain,” J.B said. “I’m probably going to have to dance with every female in the group just so no one is offended.”

He walked away toward the faerie table as we followed the beckoning servant.

There was an empty round table just underneath the raised front table where Lucifer, his brothers and his bride-to-be were on display in front of the whole room. The servant indicated that Samiel and Jude should sit. I started to pull out a chair, but the servant shook his head.

“Ms. Black, you are to join your grandfather at the main table, as is your escort,” he said, indicating Nathaniel.

I gave the servant a dirty look. “No way.”

He seemed taken aback at my vehemence. “But Lord Lucifer wishes . . .”

“I’m not sitting up there like a monkey on display,” I said.

The servant hesitated, uncertain how to handle an intractable grandchild of his master. Suddenly Lucifer himself was there, speaking quietly to the servant, then guiding me toward the upper table. Nathaniel followed behind.

“There is no need to, as you would put it, shoot the messenger,” Lucifer said. I thought he would remark on my inappropriate attire, but he said nothing about it. “The servant was simply doing as I asked.”

“I don’t want to sit where everyone can gawp at me,” I said.

“But I do want you to sit where everyone can see you, especially after that little display,” Lucifer said, and his voice was filled with deep satisfaction. “Everyone in this room has now felt what my granddaughter is capable of.”

He steered me to the chair to his immediate left and seated Nathaniel beside me. There was a small plate in between our chairs for Beezle, who hopped down and rubbed his hands together.

“When’s the first course? I didn’t get any of those appetizers that were circling the room with the cocktails,” Beezle said.

Servants were moving around the room spooning soup into bowls, so Beezle didn’t have long to wait. I averted my eyes once he started eating. Soup and Beezle are not a good combination, especially since Beezle won’t wear a bib.

Evangeline was on Lucifer’s right with Alerian and Puck beside her. There was an empty chair next to Nathaniel’s. Lucifer saw me looking at it.

“That is for Daharan. I am frankly surprised he did not arrive with you,” Lucifer said.

“I haven’t seen him for three days,” I said. “He walked out of the house and never came back. I thought you might have something to do with his disappearing act, actually. You or Alerian.”

“Not Puck?” Lucifer asked with a raised eyebrow as he sat down.

“My impression was that he liked to keep his distance from Daharan,” I said.

Lucifer laughed, and Evangeline glared in my direction. That is, she glared as much as an eyeless person can. My many-greats-grandmother has no particular love for me. She does not like anyone who distracts Lucifer’s attention from her. I really wanted to tell her she could have him and all the baggage that came with him.

I studiously looked down at my plate as dinner was served. I was more than a little irritated that Lucifer had managed to turn the attempt on my life into an advantage for himself. Especially since he’d expressed no interest in the reason why I was using magic in the first place.

Unless he knows why,
I thought.
Unless he knows who the shifter’s master is. Unless he IS the shifter’s master.

I paused, my soup spoon halfway to my lips. It was possible. It was just possible that Lucifer, like Puck before him, was manipulating me. Lucifer wanted me to come to the dark side. What better way to get me over there than to threaten my life again and again, make me lose my control of my power?

It would even fit in with Daharan’s warning to Jude to look to his past for the reason why his pack was being targeted by an unknown enemy. Lucifer and Judas had a long and storied relationship, and Lucifer seemed to enjoy messing with Jude’s head for petty reasons of his own.

I glanced at Lucifer from the corner of my eye, wondering. My grandfather was feeding Evangeline morsels from his own plate. Their overly affectionate display made me shudder. Beezle looked up from his intense concentration on his meal.

“What’s the matter?” he asked.

“Nothing,” I said, and went back to eating. It was some kind of squash soup, and it tasted pretty good.

After a bit, the soup plates were cleared away and out came a salad. Beezle moved the greens around his plate in distaste.

“Rabbit food,” he pronounced.

“Not everything can be deep-fried,” I said.

“Even lettuce could be improved by the liberal application of beer batter and frying oil,” he said. “And maybe cheese sauce.”

The resulting image was so unappetizing that I pushed my salad fork away. “I don’t want to talk to you anymore during dinner. Somehow I always end up losing my appetite.”

Nathaniel opened his mouth, doubtless to inform me that I needed to eat to keep the baby healthy, but Lucifer beat him to it.

“You must eat, Madeline,” Lucifer said. “My grandson needs plenty of nourishment. He is growing quickly.”

“As is our own child,” Evangeline cut in, possessively rubbing the bulge of her belly.

“Of course,” Lucifer said. “But I do not have to fret over you eating enough. You are staying here under my watchful eye, which Madeline refuses to do.”

“I am certain Madeline is old enough to take care of herself,” Evangeline said dismissively. “I don’t see that it is necessary for her to house with us.”

Lucifer clearly did not care for Evangeline’s attitude. “Madeline has been involved in many dangerous incidents since becoming pregnant. And every child of my line is important to me.”

He said this with a finality that made it clear he would not tolerate any disparaging remarks about me or my offspring.

“Of course, darling,” Evangeline cooed, but her face was wrinkled in distaste.

It was no secret that Evangeline wanted Lucifer to prioritize her child over all his others—his many, many others. Lucifer certainly had not been faithful to Evangeline’s memory in the years since she had been taken from him. But Evangeline had a special hatred for me, because I would not allow myself to be used as her tool of revenge against Ariell and Ramuell.

The funny thing was that the reason Lucifer held me in such high esteem was because I was the last direct link to the children he’d had with Evangeline so many centuries before. Evangeline didn’t share his nostalgic feelings. She saw me as an obstacle to her goal—the complete and total monopolization of Lucifer’s affection. She didn’t just want to be queen of his kingdom. She wanted to be queen of his heart, and she would do anything to get that.

I had noticed that Zaniel was not seated at the main table, even though he was Lucifer’s son. He was at a table with several other angelic-looking creatures, who were quite possibly his half siblings. I wondered why Lucifer had put his other children at another table when he was so interested in a show of family strength. Was it because those children had not shown themselves to be exceptional? Or was it Evangeline’s influence? If she had her way, she would probably eliminate every child of Lucifer’s bloodline, excepting her own and starting with me.

There were already plenty of people present who would be happy to see me dead. Focalor. Alerian. Oberon. Nameless members of the faerie court who hated me for killing Amarantha and Titania. In fact, when I glanced around at the tables full of guests talking and laughing, I did not see a convivial party. I saw a nest of vipers waiting to strike. I pushed the plate of salad away from me to indicate that it could be cleared.

“See, you don’t want the rabbit food, either,” Beezle said.

“I just don’t have much appetite right now,” I said quietly, hoping Lucifer would not overhear. He was engaged in conversation with Evangeline and Puck, any previous signs of strife forgotten. “For some reason I keep thinking about all the people in this room who want to kill me.”

“Yes, I keep thinking of that as well,” Nathaniel said.

He had been so quiet that I’d nearly forgotten his presence. Now I realized he was on high alert, like Samiel and Jude. Waves of tension radiated off him.

“Gargoyle, can you not see the shapeshifter in this room?” Nathaniel said. “His presence should be easy to discern with all of the guests before you.”

Beezle shook his head. Despite his protestations of “rabbit food,” I noticed he was gnawing on a piece of carrot. “He must have slipped out another door when everyone exited the main hall.”

“So he’s probably not disguised as one of the guests,” I said. “The people who arrived with him would notice him missing, especially during dinner.”

Beezle nodded. “It would be easier to impersonate a servant. You would have an excuse to come and go, then.”

“Or to get close to your target,” Nathaniel said as the main course was carried out on large trays. “I hope you are watching everyone who approaches Madeline closely, gargoyle.”

“Don’t tell me how to do my job, half-blood,” Beezle said. “I’ve been a home guardian longer than you’ve had wings.”

“Don’t bicker,” I said. “It’s bad enough that we’ve got enemies all around us. I don’t want us to fight among ourselves, too.”

“You must be feeling bad if you don’t want us to bicker,” Beezle said. “You’ve perfected arguing to an art form.”

“Says the gargoyle who taught me everything I know,” I said.

The salad plates were taken away and replaced with a filet of beef stacked on top of root vegetables and artfully drizzled with some kind of sauce. Pink juice oozed from the steak and my gorge rose. There was no way I could stomach eating meat right now, especially since the effects of the shifter’s spell were lingering. Beezle, naturally, dove into his plate like he had not eaten in a hundred years.