Chosen by Blood (31 page)

Closing his eyes, he asked, “How—how is she?”

For a moment, he wasn’t sure she understood that he was asking about Bianca, or whether she was going to answer.

“The same as she was the last time you asked,” she finally said. “We’re with the children right now and that makes her happy.”

He breathed in a slow, deep breath, picturing Bianca with her cheeks flushed and her magnificent eyes sparkling with vitality. The image, however, didn’t last long, and was quickly replaced by a woman with pale skin and dull, vacant eyes. “Please tell her I send my regards,” he choked out.

Felicia hung up the phone without responding.

Slowly, so slowly he felt a decade older, Mahone replaced the phone in its cradle. He felt the shameful sting of tears in his eyes just before he heard movement to his right. He jerked around in his chair, stunned to see the male in front of him.

Lafleur.

“Hello, Kyle.” Lafleur smiled. “Shouldn’t you be preparing for Knox’s arrival?”

 

 

“Please tell her I send my regards,” Mahone said.

Felicia glanced at Bianca, who was currently reading Joelle and Thomas a story. The vampire Queen had ventured outside with them today, and it amazed Felicia that even while clearly ailing, she managed to recline under the shade of a large oak tree looking every inch like royalty. The Queen’s eyes met hers and flashed silver before returning to the pages of the book in her lap.

Without answering him, Felicia closed the special transmitter that enabled vamps to receive calls from outside the Dome. She pocketed the small device, forcing a smile when Joelle called her over.

“ Aunt Felicia, come quickly. We’re getting to the good part.”

She jogged over and sank to the ground, cherishing the feel of Joelle’s small, sturdy body as she immediately climbed into her lap.

“Is this the good part, or the really good part?” she asked teasingly.

“It’s the best part,” Joelle whispered.

“ ‘. . . and the human clutched the vampire’s hand,’” Bianca continued reading, “‘including her in the circle of his friends. The vampire looked at the others suspiciously, aching to read their minds and see if their smiles were genuine. But she remembered what her parents and Queen had always taught her— that the power to read minds was a gift and a responsibility not to be wielded lightly or selfishly.’”

“I’m always reminding Thomas of that, but he says as soon as he can read minds, he’s going to find out if Uncle Zeph really does have a removable thumb,” Joelle whispered, making Bianca smile. “As if there’s any question.”

Thomas lunged for his sister, but Serena, his tutor, easily pulled him back. “None of that. Let’s listen to the rest of the story.”

“Yes, read on, Grandmother,” Joelle drawled, eyeing her brother evilly. “I love this part.”

“That’s because you’re a baby and still believe in nonsense,” Thomas growled, reminding Felicia so much of Knox when he was annoyed that she had to bite her lip from laughing out loud.

Bianca looked up from the book. “Thomas,” she said sharply. “ Are you telling me you don’t believe what I’m reading?”

Thomas shrugged sullenly. “Uncle Zeph says anyone who trusts humans is a fool.”

“Shut up, you little toad,” Joelle hissed, hugging Felicia tighter. Felicia sighed when she saw how Bianca’s face had paled and her features pinched up.

Felicia patted Joelle’s arm as she watched Thomas’s expression shift from spiteful to stricken.

“I didn’t mean you, Aunt Felicia. Honest. You’re different.” The boy blinked rapidly as he looked between Felicia and his grandmother, clearly trying to fight back tears.

“Of course I am, darling.” She lifted one arm, and Thomas bolted from Serena’s lap into her own, hugging her fiercely. She stroked his hair. “It’s all right. I didn’t take offense. Your Uncle Zeph is right, to a degree”—she continued to talk over Bianca’s gasp—“but only because one must be cautious of anyone he or she doesn’t know well, be it a human, a vamp, a werewolf, or any other living, or even once-living, thing. We all feel fear, but uncontrolled fear is what makes people do things that can hurt others.”

Thomas looked up with wide eyes and sniffed. “You mean like the Vamp Council did to Grandfather? Because they feared he’d betrayed us?”

“Thomas . . . ” Serena began, sounding horrified.

“Let him speak,” Bianca commanded. “I won’t have my grandson’s questions censored for the comfort of others. Not in my presence, at least.”

Serena bowed her head. “Yes, my Queen.”

Bianca waved at Thomas. “Go on, Thomas.”

“Cousin Bernard said Grandfather told the humans about us, including how to kill us. And that because of him, hundreds of our people were killed.”

“And what do you believe?”

“I—I know you don’t believe that,” Thomas said to his grandmother, “but I also know you loved him.”

“And do you think that would make me blind to someone’s actions? That my love for one person would take precedence over my love for my entire clan? Is that what love is about?”

At Bianca’s words, Felicia tensed. When she looked up, the Queen was staring not at Thomas, but at her.

“That’s not fair,” Felicia whispered. “He might have shared you, but you never had to share him. And you never doubted that you were the one woman he loved above all.”

“One had nothing to do with the other. If I’d had to do the first, it wouldn’t have changed the second.”

“Then you’re saying I’m a fool?”

Bianca shook her head sadly. “No. I’m saying you’re human, and even if you weren’t, I suspect you’d still be who you are, and who you are is exactly who Knox loves.” She turned back to Thomas, who was looking miserable. “Well, Thomas. Have you thought about my question?”

“I know you love me,” Thomas ventured.

Bianca nodded. “Of course.”

“And I know that when I put toads in the Council’s chambers, you said you still loved me, but you punished me anyway.” The scowl on Thomas’s face indicated he still wasn’t completely happy with that fact, which was only going to prove Bianca’s point, she supposed.

“That’s right. And when your father did the same thing almost three hundred years ago, I punished him as well.” To Felicia, whose brows had lifted into her hairline, Bianca murmured, “There are several on the Council who can’t abide toads.”

Felicia nodded even as Thomas and Joelle gaped. “Father did it, too?” Thomas gasped, the expression on his face clearly indicating he was proud to have followed in his father’s footsteps, even if it had resulted in punishment.

“He did,” Bianca confirmed. “But I punished him, just as I did you. Just like I punish Joelle when she talks back to Serena, or Zeph when he talks back to me.”

“Will you . . . ” Thomas looked down at the ground, jerking several strands of grass that Knox had had laid over three years ago. “Will you punish Uncle Zeph if he—if he causes harm to humans?”

Felicia barely contained her gasp.

“Well, I don’t know,” Bianca said slowly with a tense glance at Felicia. “It depends.”

Kissing Joelle’s forehead, Felicia shifted the girl off her lap, then turned fully toward Thomas. She tilted his chin up, forcing him to look at her. “Thomas, why would you ask that? Do you know some reason Uncle Zeph would try and harm a human?”

“Not you, Aunt Felicia. He’d never—”

Felicia nodded and shushed him. “It’s all right. I know Zeph would never hurt me.” Something inside her rebelled at the words, identifying them as a lie. “But if he’s planning on hurting another human, I need to know about it.”

Thomas’s expression was pained, as if he knew he should give over what he knew, but was loath to betray the uncle he adored. His hesitation just made Felicia’s anxiety grow even more. “Thomas, please—”

“Thomas,” Bianca said in the cool, commanding voice of the Queen she was. “You will tell me what you know immediately or you will be punished, beginning with you and Joelle spending Felicia’s entire visit in the nursery.”

Joelle’s eyes widened and she pinned her brother with a pleading look. “Tell them, Thomas. Whatever it is, tell them.”

Looking back and forth between all of them, Thomas’s chin wobbled. “I—I overheard Uncle Zeph talking to Lesander and Niles.” He looked at Felicia, who nodded. She recognized the names of two of Zeph’s cousins, the sons of Bianca’s younger brother, Lucias. “They were—they were saying how Father was a fool to sign the Treaty and that—and that the only reason he did so was because—was because . . .”

Thomas began crying uncontrollably. Knowing how Thomas loathed letting others see him cry told them all how upset he was.

“Continue,” Bianca said softly, even as she stroked a hand over Thomas’s hair.

“It was because he had a human’s weakness in him, the same kind of weakness that—that Grandfather used to infect your insides, Grandmother, only they didn’t use the word ‘insides.’”

Bianca’s features hardened, but she urged, “Go on.”

“They said Father didn’t deserve to rule the clan, not when he would stand by and let the humans do what they’d done to us. They wanted revenge for what had been done to Uncle Zeph, to Lesander and Niles, to you. They said the way to do that was to go after humans, and when the humans retaliated and Father failed to act, they—they—they could step in and take over.”

Thomas threw himself in Bianca’s arms, hugging her tightly.

“They said they wouldn’t hurt you, but they wouldn’t let you stop them, either, Grandmother.”

“Did they say how they would hurt the humans, though?”

“All they said was that the cure was going to make them stronger. I thought they meant a cure for what’s made you and Uncle Zeph so sick, but later, when I asked Uncle Zeph if he thought someone could come up with the cure, he said the only thing that could cure what he had was to suck a human dry and kill it.”

“
F
unny,” Wraith said from her position in the middle of the team as they trudged through snow and what was beginning to seem like miles and miles of dense vegetation. “Whenever I thought of Korea, I always thought of tropical heat and mosquitoes the size of my fist.”

“And how many times have you thought of Korea in your lifetime?” O’Flare asked flatly. “I mean, in the ten or so years you’ve been on Earth that you can remember, that is.”

With a weary sigh, Knox looked over his shoulder, already knowing what was coming next.

Wraith came to an abrupt stop, almost causing Lucy to plow into her. Although she didn’t turn, Wraith glanced over her shoulder at O’Flare, who took up the rear in their single-file formation. “How about you remember that when I’m speaking, I’m specifically excluding you from the conversation?”

“You can’t—”

“How about you both stop bickering like adolescents,” Knox commanded, still walking in front of Hunt. “We’re getting closer and we all need to focus on what we’re doing here or you just may end up dying in each other’s arms.”

“He’ll only be in my arms if I’m the one that ends up killing him.”

“Listen, Wraith—” This time Hunt was the one to interrupt O’Flare. Because Hunt stopped walking, so did Knox. Leaving Wraith and O’Flare to bicker was one thing; leaving Hunt and O’Flare alone wouldn’t result in hurt feelings and a few cuts and bruises, but body parts and body bags.

“Look, I don’t care if we have to take five for you two to go off and fuck to get it out of your systems, but if you end up giving away our location with your goddamn yammering, I can absolutely fucking guarantee that I will rip out your throats before an enemy even thinks to pull a trigger. Do you got me?”

O’Flare scowled at Hunt, but nodded tersely.

“Fucking is the last thing—” Wraith began.

With a snarl, Hunt lunged for her. She crouched, preparing herself for the attack, but O’Flare stepped in front of her, shoving his face close to Hunt’s. “Remember how this ended the last time,” he warned the were.

The two males stared at each other for several tense seconds before Hunt stepped back and shrugged. “Just trying to do you a favor, Romeo.”

O’Flare snorted. “Right.” With that, he got back into position, not once looking at Wraith. Knox happened to be looking at her, however, when he saw shivers rack her body. Beneath her hood and scarf, her skin looked bluer than usual.

Knox cursed and walked up to her. “Pull back your scarf.”

Wraith narrowed her eyes and stepped back. “Why?”

“Just how cold are you, Wraith?” he asked in response.

“I’m cold,” she answered crossly. “Colder than usual. And being cold makes me grumpy.”

“Pull back your scarf before I have O’Flare and Hunt pin you down and I take it off for you. That’s an order, Wraith.”

She stared at him mutinously, then lifted one hand—a hand that was shaking—to push her scarf aside.

Knox sucked in a sharp breath. “Fuck. Why didn’t you say something?”

Her brows furrowed even as her teeth chattered together. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Knox glanced at O’Flare, who’d come back alongside them. His expression was grim as he stared at the red swelling and beginnings of blisters on her face. “It’s moving into second-degree frostbite, probably accelerated because her body temp started so low anyway.”

“So what?” Wraith sneered. “It’s not like it’s going to kill me or anything.”

O’Flare continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “She’s not going to be able to make it to the compound.”

Wraith turned on him furiously. “I can make it. You’re sure as shit not going to leave me here.”

“We’re not leaving anyone anywhere.” Knox turned to the mage. “Can you do anything?”

Lucy’s eyes widened beneath her ski mask, her gaze bouncing back and forth between them. “Like what? My powers are telekinesis and enchantment. How can I—”

“There’s no reason Wraith’s body should be responding the way it is,” O’Flare said, clearly running with Knox’s suggestion. “She’s dead, for God’s sake. No pulse, so no blood circulating through her body, so no reason the cold should be resulting in frostbite. Maybe it’s psychological.”