Blue Voodoo: A Romantic Retelling of Bluebeard (The Hidden Kingdom Series Book 2) (30 page)

Dominique bowed her head, but did not take her eyes off Saamal. “You have honored us with your offer.”

The sound of the drums faded, reason coming back to him, chasing away the shadows. His next breath came easier, was free of the scent of blood.

“We will accept your invitation,” Julien added, hooking his thumbs in the belt at his waist.

Saamal refocused on Julien like a man struggling to wake from a dream. The image of the lightning bird was gone, the pirate fully human again. He was no longer sweating, no longer vibrating with the desperate energy he’d arrived with, though his body still held the tension of an animal unsure of its safety. Saamal half expected him to draw his dagger.

Half hoped he would draw his dagger.

A muffled cracking sound tickled Saamal’s ears. He tilted his head to see Etienne standing even closer now, craning his head in either direction so the ligaments in his neck popped. Golden lupine eyes stared at Saamal from the werewolf’s face, the steadiness of his stare a warning.

“We’re all friends here,” Adonis said loudly.

The demon had moved to the center of the room and Saamal realized that he’d placed himself between Saamal and Patricio. The angel was no longer leaning against the wall. He was now standing with his sword halfway out of its sheath, eyes shining pools of brilliant blue light. Adonis held a hand out on either side of him as if he would physically keep them apart. He met Saamal’s eyes, an uncharacteristic seriousness etched into the lines of his face.

“We’re all friends here,” he repeated. “Right, Saamal?”

“Yes.” Saamal’s voice sounded far away to his own ears, echoing down a long tunnel. He cleared his throat. “Yes,” he repeated. He turned to Julien, an apology ready on his tongue. The pirate grinned at him and Saamal’s eyebrows rose. “It calms you to see what you expected to see, even if what you expected to see was…unpleasant.”

Julien shrugged. “I’m a man who likes to know what I’m dealing with.”

Dominique smiled, but the expression was brittle and didn’t nearly reach her eyes. One hand had slid into her pocket, a gesture that would have seemed innocent to Saamal before he’d spent so much time around Kirill. Now he was reasonably certain that Dominique was preparing a weapon of some kind. The tightness around her eyes suggested she did not share her husband’s appreciation for Saamal’s…revelation. “He means ‘who’ he’s dealing with, of course.”

“Of course.” Saamal bowed again, attempting to recapture the civility he’d destroyed with his slip. The power that had risen so hungrily inside him was loathe to settle so soon, and without being fed. Suddenly his clothes were too tight, too constricting. He wanted to leave them behind, to run through the wilderness of his lands, nothing between him and the earth and air…

“Would you like an escort home?” Adonis spoke up. “I would be happy to see you back to your lands. Or you could walk with Etienne since he’s going back to Sanguennay anyway?”

Neither Julien nor Dominique took their eyes off Saamal.

“Or you could stay for drinks?” Adonis suggested.

The demon’s attempts to lighten the mood fell flat, a defeat that was completely foreign to the charismatic incubus. Saamal straightened, drawing his attention inward. An old chant echoed in his mind, a meditation he’d taught to the shamans of his land long ago. He let the ancient words swirl in his thoughts, beat like a steady drum against his consciousness. Like a narrow stream flowing from a mountain lake, the tension drained from his muscles, slowly but steadily. Moments later, his power was once again settled like a cat before a fireplace. Resting. Waiting. Sleeping. For now.

“I will send Tenoch to you tomorrow with the details, if that is satisfactory to you both?” He met Dominique’s eyes, forced himself to stand with his arms at his sides, his chin up—holding himself open for her perusal.

“That would be fine.” Dominique inclined her head. Then she opened a bag at her side, a wide brown leather sack that had been half hidden by her skirt. “I’d like to leave this with you as a small gift, a token of our gratitude for being honored with this invitation.”

“Bourbon.” Saamal accepted the bottle, admiring the rich amber liquid visible behind the brown glass. “Your family’s recipe?”

“Of course.”

A cacophony of clinking glass erupted in the room, followed by the unmistakable sound of a tumbler breaking against the floor.

“Oops.” Adonis appeared at Saamal’s side, his arms full of six glasses—formerly seven, Saamal guessed.

“I’m afraid we can’t stay.” Julien banded an arm around Dominique. “I’ve promised my wife a honeymoon at sea and we have a great deal of packing to do.”

“We leave tomorrow afternoon, so if you send Tenoch in the morning, we should still be there to meet him,” Dominique clarified.

“Excellent.” Saamal twitched in surprise as the bottle of bourbon was liberated from his grasp by an eager demon. He watched with amusement as Adonis juggled empty glasses as he tried wrangle the bottle open with his teeth. “Do try not to spill it, Adonis. There is no bourbon finer than what Madame Laveau has to offer.”

“Madame Marcon,” Julien corrected him. He wrapped an arm around Dominique’s waist. She smiled at him, eyes glittering with what looked suspiciously like mischief.

“Who’s he fooling?” Adonis murmured under his breath, quiet enough that only Saamal could hear. “He’s Monsieur Laveau now.”

Saamal hid his smile behind his hand, rubbing at his jaw to mask the gesture. “Until tomorrow then.”

“Until tomorrow,” Julien agreed, as he reached for the doorknob.

Dominique was still smiling as they left the room and it wasn’t until the door closed behind them that Saamal could make out the faint tone of her voice. Adonis’ assertion echoed in his mind and he wondered if the demon had been right about the last name…

“What in the name of Fenris was that?” Etienne demanded.

Saamal plucked the bottle of bourbon from Adonis’ tenuous grasp and helped the demon pour the alcohol. “What was what?”

“You made Etienne’s fur stick straight up,” Adonis quipped, greedy eyes twinkling as he watched the rich liquid flow into his waiting glass. “And he wasn’t even in wolf form.”

“You weren’t thinking of killing him.” Patricio had settled back against the wall, but seemed lured in their direction by the bouquet of the bourbon. His wings rustled as he shifted, reaching for the glass Adonis offered him. “I would have felt that.”

“I was merely offering him a glimpse of the deity he had expected to see.” Saamal offered a glass to Etienne, but the werewolf made no move to accept it. Saamal stifled a sigh. “Julien came here fearing that his debt had been purchased by a bloodthirsty god who would want to…” He trailed off, searching for the right words.

“Tear out his heart?” Adonis offered.

Saamal’s jaw twitched, a brief flicker of fury heating his blood. He didn’t look at Adonis, didn’t want to meet the demon’s oddly penetrating gaze. “The matter is settled. They have agreed to join the kingdom. Let us leave it at that.”

“You were losing control.” Etienne’s voice did not hold the growl of his beast anymore, but there was a deeper echo to his tone all the same. And he hadn’t moved away from Saamal, still remaining close enough to…what?

I could kill you with so little effort, Etienne. If only you knew how futile your efforts to restrain me would be.

“Patricio, is Saamal thinking of murder now?” Adonis took another sip of his bourbon and licked his lips appreciatively.

Saamal twitched, glancing up at Patricio without meaning to. The angel was watching him over the rim of his glass, blue eyes serious, considering.

“No,” Patricio answered. He tilted his head. “Then again, I would only know if he were considering a sin. Saamal’s violence is not sinful, it is a part of his culture, the heritage of his land.” He took a sip of the bourbon, studying Saamal. “I’m not sure I would know.”

“I meant him no harm—of any kind, of any nature.” Saamal met the eyes of each of his companions in turn, letting them study him as they would. As he’d expected, Kirill was boring holes through him, icy blue eyes lit with the interest that always seemed to consume him when he studied Saamal. The vampire was a fastidious planner, and Saamal knew it nagged at Kirill that he couldn’t fully quantify Saamal’s power.

“You have something to say, Kirill?”

“It has not been so long ago now that you were returned to your full power.” The vampire stepped forward, accepting a glass from Adonis and holding it out while the demon poured the bourbon. He kept his eyes on Saamal, the gears in his head almost visible as they turned. “It was my understanding that your…subdued nature was a result of missing half of your power. The stories about you from before Aiyana’s curse, before you gave up half your power to keep her alive…they were quite a contrast to the Saamal we all met that first night at the World Tree.”

“Ah.” Slowly, Saamal turned and paced back to his seat by the fire, keeping his movement slow and unthreatening. He settled himself in the chair, cradling his glass of bourbon in his hands as he met Kirill’s stare once again. “You want to know if I’ve changed then. If what you saw here tonight was indicative of further changes.”

“It seems a prudent question.”

A quick answer would be seen as a lie, as any question of such magnitude should always be given careful consideration. In accordance with that belief, Saamal forced himself to sit quietly, thinking, considering Kirill’s concern. It was true that he was more powerful now than he had been in a very long time. And it was true that he was not the same being he had once been. The question was, then, did the return of his power mean a return to the being he was? Or would he become something new entirely?

The answer came to him all of a sudden, so obvious that he felt foolish for not thinking of it to begin with. He smiled.

“The return of my power came with my marriage and bond to Aiyana. Whatever this increase in power makes of me, my wife will see to it that the end result is more man than monster.” He raised a glass to Kirill. “Not unlike the effect your wife has had on you.”

The mention of Irina had an immediate and startling effect on the vampire. Warmth lit his eyes, turning the icy blue to the shade of a robin’s egg. His face softened, the love he felt for his wife evident in every shifting line of his body.

“That being said, I agree that my reaction to Julien should not be dismissed.” Saamal tapped the arm of his chair. “It would seem I did not consider the possible side effects of accepting Julien’s debt. He has become one of my people, in a way, and facing him as myself, calling my power as the god of my people…” He stared into space, seeing his kingdom, the land built on the flesh and blood of a monster. “He will need to make a sacrifice to Cipactli.”

Adonis shivered at the mention of the primordial crocodilian monster that the Kingdom of Mu had been built upon—literally. “Don’t remind me, please. I still see those pits in my nightmares, the giant mouth at the bottom with the gnashing teeth…”

“What kind of sacrifice?” Patricio shifted on his feet, blue eyes lighting with interest.

Saamal gave a small smile. “A drop of blood will suffice. Just enough to let the land recognize him, to show respect.”

Etienne snorted, finally abandoning his self-imposed post as Saamal’s guard and accepting a glass of bourbon from Adonis. He threw it back in one gulp, drawing disapproving stares from the rest of the room. “And who will tell him of this requirement?”

“Tell his wife and let her tell him,” Adonis advised. He held his glass of bourbon up in front of Etienne and made a show of sipping it slowly, savoring the flavor. Etienne rolled his eyes.

“Let’s move on, shall we?” Saamal suggested. He lifted his glass to Kirill. “Kirill, do you have a new name for us?”

“Actually,” Adonis interrupted. “I have one.” He beamed, eyes glittering with specks of hot cinnamon, sharp teeth splitting his smile. “And you’re all going to love him…eventually.”

THE END

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Preview of
BEFORE MIDNIGHT
, book one in the Blood Prince series

Prologue

“The werewolf, the vampire, the demon, the angel, and the god. Oh, Blessed Goddess, I have my work cut out for me.”

Cocooned within the World Tree, Eurydice peered through the knothole that provided a portal into all the worlds the tree passed through. Heavens and underworlds, hidden sidhe gardens and dark goblin kingdoms, all were pierced by the eternal trunk of the World Tree, each one visible to Eurydice as she peered out the knotholes. But tonight, the hamadryad was interested in only one world—or rather, one space. It had taken some working and the help of a powerful witch, but Eurydice had managed to create a space where the five kingdoms would overlap. She could now summon the ones who would help her finally reach her goal. The Blood Princes.