Darkness Bred (23 page)

R
ather than noon, Sean and Elin walked into Niles and Leigh’s house at eleven o’clock. And still all of the icy atmosphere wasn’t left outside.

Sean hardly dared to look at Elin. He had to keep a steady head if he was going to argue his points with Niles, but when he met Elin’s eyes, he couldn’t make himself care as much about what happened beyond their private world.

“Gabriel is with Saul?” Niles said.

The preliminaries were brief. Niles’s narrowed eyes moved between Sean and Elin and probably saw everything, including the strength of their bond.

Good. So be it.

Squinting against a cold sun through the windows by the water, Sean set his jaw and his resolve. “I already told you he is. Saul will make sure Gabriel comes through this okay.”

“But you don’t know where Sally or Cassie and her brother are?”

“You know I don’t.”

“Aw, hell.” Niles threw himself onto a couch beside Leigh and closed his eyes. “This is an unholy mess and it doesn’t end here.”

“No,” Sean said, keeping his voice level. “It doesn’t end here. But you asked me to be responsible for the Team until you feel you can be fully back in control and I agreed. Having you back where you belong can’t come soon enough, but if I’m running things, let me run them, Niles. We can’t have two leaders making so-called final decisions.”

Niles watched him steadily.

“I would always try to involve you in any major calls—if there was time,” Sean added. “But you have to trust me to make good calls. You’ve got to be behind me.” He threw up his hands. “If you can’t, I’m through.”

His alpha shook his head slowly.

“Niles?” Sean said.

“Okay,” Niles said, “Okay, okay, you’re right. When I’m ready, I’ll take over. Until then, I’m damn lucky to have you to step in for me.” He nodded repeatedly.

“I have to know you would join me if things go badly,” Sean said.

Niles put an arm around Leigh. “We’ll work it out. I’ll be there if I have to be. But this woman doesn’t just hold my heart, she holds our future in her body.” He smiled at Elin. “But she may not be the only one for long?”

He winced when his mate elbowed him in the ribs but Elin turned very pink.

“Give us time,” Sean said.

“It didn’t take us much time,” Niles pointed out.

Sean rolled his eyes. “Okay. You’re right. We’ll let you know about that.”

“We have to look for Sally,” Elin said.

“If we don’t stop Quitus, it won’t matter whether or not we find Sally,” Sean told her. He concentrated on Niles. “Do I have everyone with me? I’d like to have the guys who prefer their own territory with us, too. Piers, Renny, and Simon only need the word and they’ll be here.”

“Will it be enough?” Niles said.

“I hope so. It probably depends on how the pack reacts to what happened in the night. Do you think they’ll lose wolves now?”

“Yeah,” Niles said. “But we can’t count on it. The real wild cards are the vamps. They’re very self-pr
otectiv
e. They won’t open themselves up to this
Sangue Debolezza
. Just knowing it’s in the area must have them retreating and regrouping.”

“We can hope,” Sean said. “I plan to hunt them down, whoever is with Quitus, and I expect to find him, then surround, and attack.”

Niles gave no argument.

“Innes and Campion are already out scouting. They have their orders.”

He avoided meeting Elin’s stare as long as he could. Finally he had to look at her but he couldn’t answer the questions on her mind. She wanted to know what the plans were. He shook his head slightly, smiling at her, but she averted her face.

“Where is Phoebe Harris?” Niles said.

In other words, were all the known Deseran safe? “Saul will watch over her,” Elin said. “He regards her as a close friend and she trusts him.”

Niles snorted. “She should choose her friends more carefully, but I suppose if anyone can look after her, he can.”

Letting out a frustrated breath, Sean said,
“Niles.”

“Yeah,” Niles said. “Right. A vampire saint. I forgot for a moment. Oh, come on, I’m sorry. He’s the first one to talk about old habits being tough to get rid of.”

“Leigh and Elin will stay with you,” Sean said, letting the subject of Saul pass. “But we need a backup in case I have to send for you.”

“I’m going with you,” Elin said. She stepped backward away from him and toward the door. “Where you go, I go.”

“Where I go, you’ll be with me,” Sean said. He couldn’t even identify all of his feelings. “You’ll be here, but with me, do you understand?”

She didn’t answer.

“If you were physically there, I couldn’t do what I’ve got to do,” Sean told her and her mouth trembled.

“Bear with him,” Niles said. “You won’t like it, Elin, but it could be we need to pull in Tarhazian. Quitus double-crossed her. She has to want his blood now—and for what it’s worth, I believe she loves you.”

Elin covered her face, muffling her voice. “In her own way she does, but she loves herself a lot more.”

W
hen Sean had left, Elin felt as if her life were going with him. She couldn’t beg him to stay, but she wanted to.

“Hush,” Leigh said, putting an arm around her waist. “They have to be the ones who feel strong and in charge. They are the strong ones, but are they in charge?”

Elin saw Leigh’s arched right brow and had to smile. “Just don’t let either of them know what we think,” she said. But the ache she felt was deep and mixed with horrible fear—for Sean, and because she couldn’t face Niles’s suggestion that they might have to go to Tarhazian.

She patted Leigh’s back. “How do you feel?”

“I’ll be okay,” Leigh said. “It’s just a bug. It was violent but I’ve come out of it fast and the baby seems just fine. Come into the kitchen. It’s Niles’s least favorite place.”

Understanding the message, Elin followed to the kitchen at the back of the house. Niles seemed to have moved into his own world and she was fairly certain he was connecting with the Team.

Leigh closed the kitchen door behind them. “Notice there’s no window and no external door in here,” she said. “The only way in is through that door and that would mean coming through Niles or Ethan. Ethan’s at the back entrance until he’s called to join the others. Then we’ll have to be where Niles can see us all the time.”

“Yes,” Elin said but she didn’t feel better. “I don’t want to go to Tarhazian. How can anyone understand how I feel? I care about her in a way, but she used me and she had no right to me in the first place. We could never be on equal terms and I wouldn’t accept anything else—even if I didn’t know how devious she is.”

“I do understand,” Leigh said. “But Niles won’t contact her unless he doesn’t have a choice and then he’ll come up with a way to make sure she doesn’t betray us.”

Elin wished she could accept Leigh’s assurance.

“You’re really in love with Sean, aren’t you?” Leigh said, smiling and rubbing Elin’s arm.

She pressed her eyes. “You know how I feel. I can see it in you with Niles. We are so lucky, Leigh. How did we get this lucky?”

Leigh hugged her. “You and I have a special bond. We’re the same kind. I still don’t know about my sister, Jan, but she’s my twin. I keep expecting her to contact me and say something, but…” She let the sentence trail off. “And there’s Phoebe. We know so little about ourselves.”

“Like how many of us there are,” Elin said. “And all the other questions you and I already have. Sean knows I have to go back to New Orleans.” She told Leigh what had happened on her odd journey. “Dora wants me to take you with me.”

“How do we cope with it all?” Leigh sat down hard on a kitchen chair. “For so many years I had no idea there was anything different about me. I will always thank Sally for helping me find Niles.”

When Elin didn’t respond, Leigh said, “What is it?”

“Sean doesn’t seem to trust Sally anymore. Maybe he doesn’t trust any of the fae.”

“Not even one of them?” Leigh said. She frowned and shook her head. “Of course, all that’s changed.”

“Yes, he knows I’m not fae now,” Elin told her. “I don’t know how much damage I did by keeping that from him, but he’s decided the fae shouldn’t be trusted, none of them. He hates Tarhazian.”

“Do you?”

“Most of the time. But she hasn’t always been the way she is with me now.”

“Not when she could make sure you did what she wanted?” Leigh said.

“I guess.” Elin bit her lip. “But I haven’t always been unhappy. She wouldn’t let me grow up—or she didn’t want me to grow up. I don’t know which is really true.”

Leigh looked thoughtful. “If she had a decision to make that could change your future, in a way that might break your heart, what do you think she’d do?”

“I don’t know,” Elin said promptly, but the thought lingered that perhaps she did.

“Just a minute,” Leigh said. Her expression became distant.

She had to be communicating with Niles. Sean said they were really good at it and Elin wished he would say something to her now. If she tried to contact him, he would only worry more.

“Oh, boy,” Leigh said. She stood up. “We’ve got company. Cliff Ames from Gabriel’s. He’s looking for Gabriel and Sally.”

Elin sighed. “I hope I’ll know the right things to say.”

In the living room, Cliff sat on the edge of a chair but looked as if he could take flight at any moment. He wore a heavy gray wool coat that hung open over his batter-smeared apron and white pants.

“Leigh,” he said when he saw her and jumped to his feet. His relief showed. “How’re you doing? I wouldn’t come only there’s nowhere else. I closed up when I left—figured you and me could open again if we go back together. The twins are there, but that’s all. The four of us can hold things together.”

When Niles kept his eyes down instead of interrupting, Elin figured Leigh didn’t like him talking for her.

“Sean said he couldn’t come when Gabriel was taking it so bad about Molly,” Cliff said, looking at Elin. “I called him. I thought he would come and help when he could.”

Elin didn’t know what to say.

“Let’s go over this,” Leigh said. “Sit down again, Cliff. Do you want anything? Coffee?”

“All I want is to find Gabriel and Sally,” Cliff said, but he did resume his place at the edge of the chair. “I think it was the night before last when I called Sean. Gabriel was…he wasn’t making any sense, just yelling and out of his mind about Molly being missing. I couldn’t get hold of Sally so I tried Sean.”

Elin found her voice. “When did Gabriel leave his place? Didn’t he tell you where he was going?”

Shaking his head, no, Cliff laced his thick fingers tightly together.

Without a word, or making a sound in his bare feet, Niles got up and went to stare out of the window. He only made Elin edgier and Cliff jumped visibly when he saw the other man move.

Leigh said, “When did you last talk to Sally?”

“When she was leaving Gabriel’s the day before yesterday. Her shop in Langley hasn’t opened as far as anyone knows. There’s no sign of her.”

Shifting restlessly, Niles said, “We’ll find her.”

Cliff’s hands unclenched on his thighs. “I knew you’d figure things out. I forgot, Phoebe said she’d come in and do what she can to help. She knows the cash register. Maybe Elin—”

“No,” Niles broke in. “Either you stay closed or find another way.”

Cliff hung his head. “We’re still on the edge with the money,” he said. “Leigh knows that. It’s better since she came but it’s still uphill. We can’t afford to be closed.”

“I’ll be in,” Leigh said, looking mutinous. “If Phoebe comes, Saul will be there. We’ll be well looked after.”

Niles muttered under his breath.

“Not in my kitchen,” Cliff said. “No one would eat the food if they saw the vamp in there.”

Leigh and Elin laughed. “Your prejudice is hanging out,” Elin said.

Eventually she had to look at Niles and her stomach turned. There was no man like Sean, but Niles was a knockout, and with the light in his black hair and his electric blue eyes narrowed to slits, he made some picture.

He was furious.

“Give us a little time,” Leigh said to Cliff and with a challenging stare at Niles. “Go back and whip up some goodies in that kitchen of yours. We’ll be along when Niles can bring us.”

H
ours seemed to have gone by since Sean, Innes, and Campion started their careful combing of the island, looking for Brande’s pack and always keeping watch for signs of vampires.

Halfway across the island, still clinging to the cover of trees, they were joined by Renny, who lived on a small island by himself. Then came Piers from his retreat to the north and finally Simon, the quietest of the bunch but perhaps the one Sean considered the steadiest.

“Gather on the beach at Slater Inlet,”
he told them all.
“Our wolf friends aren’t fond of the open air. Stay under the bank.”
He didn’t need to tell them how imperative it was not to be seen or heard. He couldn’t see any of the others from where he was. Each of them had spread out to reduce the chance of too much movement in one place being noticed.

Dusk approached by the time he reached the inlet. They would probably need darkness to do what must be done, but Sean wished they had seen some sign of the enemy.

Nothing.

Renny, dark-haired with dark eyes and the muscular body of a weight-lifting athlete, was already there with slender Piers, a pianist who preferred to remain alone with his music than congregate with his brothers. But Piers never failed to come when needed. Gradually the others slid in and they closed into a circle, the better to hear each other without shouting.

“I’ve seen them.” Simon arrived last. “They’re dug in a couple of miles south of the abandoned water tower.”

“Dug in?” Sean asked.

“I almost missed them. Seven pushed up a slab of grassy earth as if it was a trap door. I watched and saw one after the other come and go. There’s an area above ground that’s completely covered with brush. Looks like a mound. But they go in there, too.”

“Brande’s lodge, you think?” Sean said.

“No, Brande came from underground. There were two other…I’m not sure what they are. Short, bald, grayish creatures. Large ears. They scurry as if they’re terrified.”

“Austrian Verbols,” Sean murmured, remembering what Saul had told them when they were inside Quitus’s mountain. “They’re creatures of the middle earth. No wonder they scurry in the daylight.” He could only hope Quitus was with the Verbols—and that his assumptions about what would kill the living vampire sorcerer, as long as he was as weakened as he was supposed to be, held good.

“They seem to belong to the mound.” Simon crossed his arms and fell silent. He’d finished what he had to say.

“How hard will it be for us to get there without being seen?” Innes asked.

“After dark, not hard.”

Sean watched Simon’s expression carefully. He tended to leave a lot unsaid. “Not easy, either?” he ventured.

“There’s open ground before we get to the trees where their clearing is. We couldn’t risk daylight. We could easily be seen.”

“Darkness then,” Sean said. “And we go as men.”

A murmur broke out. “Are you serious?” Campion said. “Then they’ll know the truth about us.”

“That we’re stronger in human form?” Sean nodded. “We’ll need all the strength we have tonight, and the cunning. You all have your knives?”

A murmur of assent went up. Piers said, “There is a way to extract the short-term memory from a werewolf’s mind. But only the fae know it and probably very few of them.”

“We could make the wolves forget us,” Sean said, smiling. “Great, only I don’t have any fae friends, do you?”

“What about Elin?” Innes said, smiling from ear to ear. “Did you forget her?”

Sean’s back teeth ground together. “Elin is Deseran, like Leigh.” He looked from man to man, and they had to see he didn’t intend to say more.

“Sally, then?” Campion said, looking away.

“Possibly,” Sean said. Keeping your own counsel could be a good thing and he was not certain about Sally yet.

Little more than another hour passed before the light faded enough for them to start their journey. With the aid of a chart drawn in the sand, Sean had designed their approach and attack. They had traded ideas about how long to observe the wolves before closing in and how to prepare for any enemy fighters who turned up late to the event.

“We’re ready then,” Sean said. “Remember, the Verbols don’t tolerate air inside their bodies.”

“Which may make knives even more valuable,” Renny said tonelessly.

The moon was high when Sean finally saw a break in the forest ahead.
“Water tower due north, forest to the south, and I already think I see where a clearing could be,”
he reported to the group, none of whom he could actually see.
“Do not attack until I give the word. Take them out as the opportunity presents. Surprise is on our side, twice over. They aren’t expecting us, and they would never expect us as fully human. If Quitus is there, you’ll know who he is. Leave him to me.”

He landed in the crown of a fir at the edge of the clearing and didn’t have to check to know the others would be similarly placed but carefully hidden.

“I see the mound but no movement,”
he said.

“Ditto.”
It was Simon who answered and silence from the others meant they concurred.

The silence continued, but werehounds were patient.

A breeze picked up, rocking the limbs around the one where Sean had settled.

And time clicked by—and by.

“Dead center,”
Innes hissed.
“Damn, it’s just Verbols.”

“Don’t take them lightly,”
Sean said.
“Saul said they’re vicious, and they shift. And you don’t know what they’re shifting into next. I’m waiting for Brande and his bunch.”

Two Verbols crawled from underground and went to the mound, where they disappeared through an opening that instantly closed.

“How about a decoy?”
Innes said.
“I shift, land, draw ’em out or not. If they don’t come for me, they aren’t there. But you can all start down to get closer.”

Sean didn’t like it.
“Two Verbols might be able to take you before we could do anything. We can’t be sure of their capabilities. We could land on your bloodied bones, brother.

“Good idea, though. Stay with the others this time. I’ve been close to these Verbols before. The rest of you, do as Innes suggests. Start down and watch. Blink for too long and that could make the difference. If something bad happens to me, ask Niles for orders.”

There were no arguments, and if there had been, Sean wasn’t waiting for them. The only alteration he made in Innes’s decoy plan was to remain purely a man.

He landed softly. From this angle he could see where the turf was flattened around an oblong area. The Verbols had come from beneath this. How many of them there were, he didn’t know. Fleet, adrenalin pumping, he sprinted to the grassy trapdoor and threw it open.

Before he could see the entire rough hollow beneath, his knife was free of its sheath.
“I think I know how this is going to go,”
he told the rest of them.
“Brande’s bunch can be relied on to duck out when the going gets too hairy for them. But keep coming. We still have the Verbols to deal with.”

To his other leg he had strapped a smooth, strong piece of wood he had sharpened at one end. Sean lifted his shirt and shoved the stake through his belt.

Without pausing, he approached the mound and stopped a few feet from the disguised entrance.
“I need you with me,”
he said shortly, feeling the other minds open to his.

There was no need to check that the Team was getting into position.

He felt around gently until he found the edge of the flap and threw it back.

Boldly, Sean walked in, surprised by how light it was inside the semicircular structure.

He counted quickly, accounting for the way the Verbols tried to hide, one behind the other. Only four of them. Their voices were squeaky and whatever they said made no sense.

“I thought you’d come.” Cross-legged on the bare earth, his back against a wall, sat Quitus. Tonight his robes were not a flamboyant color. Light gray, shiny, and voluminous, they hung from thin shoulders. Predictably he wore a hood and it hid his face.

“What do you want?” Quitus said. “Are you tired of your miserable little life? How would you like me to put an end to all of your friends? You, I intend to keep, and if you will do as I ask, I may save the others.”

“You’re foolish,” Sean said, looking into every shadowy corner.

Quitus gave an unpleasant chuckle. “Come out, my friends.”

Sean held his ground but he reached out to the rest of the Team.
“Get close to the entrance. All of you. One shout from me and you rush this place.”

Three more Verbols emerged from beneath a table draped with a long, white cloth and covered with bottles and jars, burners, crucibles, pestles and mortars. It was a small but complete-looking laboratory. One flaming burner kept the contents of a vessel bubbling and Sean decided the acrid scents that reached him came from this. There was no doubt that those contents were a familiar dark red.

One of the creatures went close to Quitus and launched into a stream of noises, waving his big hands between pointing at Sean.

“Where is the pack?” Sean said. “Brande and his pack?”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” Quitus said. He returned his attention to the Verbol. “This is a werehound. Like our werewolf friends, he is human when he wishes to be and we can assume he comes in peace since he chooses to be a weakling in front of us.”

“Like your werewolf friends—the ones you know nothing about?” Sean sighed. “I repeat, where are the wolves?” He edged closer to the robed figure but stopped when all seven Verbols fell silent and watched him with their colorless eyes. They closed in around Quitus.

“Brande and I decided I am very capable of looking after myself. He took his pack elsewhere.”

“You mean they had enough of a fright when they came for me at the cottage to make them run away when they discovered I was after them again,” Sean said, curling his lip. “I’m hoping you and I can talk alone, Quitus. Perhaps we can help one another.”

The stake was hard-edged against his belly. He still found it hard to believe the wolves had made a run for it, and he couldn’t afford to believe it until he was sure.

A harsh ripping sound from behind him had to be the entrance to the mound being torn away. Sean kept his eyes on Quitus and the Verbols. Quitus remained in his hunched position but the Verbols edged apart, stretching open their wide mouths to reveal what must be the filter that excluded air.

He hadn’t shouted for the rest and wanted to look behind him. But his turning around could be the opportunity they hoped for. If it was the wolves who came, or more Verbols, he was finished anyway, but he didn’t believe the wolves could get past his Team.

The Verbols spread out in a semicircle. They hopped rapidly from foot to foot and raised their arms, revealing claws that curved from the ends of formless bunches of sinew.

“We’re with you.” It was Campion to his right and Innes had appeared on his left.

The Verbols set up a hollering shriek and began to spit. The thin moisture hit Innes’s forearm and he sucked in a breath. “Their saliva burns,” he said. “Be careful.”

But the Team had no choice but to advance.

Sean felt his band fall in around him, knives drawn.

“Watch their weapons,” Quitus cried. “Do not allow them to pierce you.”

But pierce them they did, and with the first sinking of a knife into one of the Verbols’ throats, there was a loud rattle, like a snake, and the creature folded over. He fell lifeless and the rest of his kind drew back, babbling to one another.

The fight seemed too easy. Quitus didn’t move from his position on the floor but watched the scene with a smile.

Wherever one of the Verbols landed a stream of spittle, or a claw, burns spread over the werehounds’ skin, but each man kept advancing and ignored the painful welts.

Three of the Verbols fell.

“Let’s finish this,” Sean shouted.

Before any of the werehounds could attack again, the remaining Verbols fled into crevices at the back of the cave and disappeared.

Sean stood in front of Quitus and worked the stake free of his belt. “Your time has come,” he said. “You’ve already done more than enough harm.” Using both of his hands, he raised the stake above his head and started to bring it down with all the force in his strong arms.

Laughter rang out. It rose and Quitus rolled forward over his knees, wracked with mirth. “This is too good,” he managed to get out between gusts of chuckles. “Don’t you see who has joined your band of warriors.”

Frowning, Sean paused and glanced quickly around him. The Team was just as he was used to seeing them.

“The gang’s all here,” Quitus spat out and laughed some more. “Welcome, Niles and Ethan. Good of you to leave the lovely Deseran ladies alone.”

“Niles?” Sean said, noticing him and Ethan for the first time. “You left Elin…and Leigh?”

“You called for us,” Niles said, his feet braced and the curved knife cocked and ready to slice off the living vampire’s head.

“No,” Sean said. “No, I didn’t.”

“Just a detail,” Quitus chortled. “Someone called for them and they came. They left the women at that place, what is it? Gabriel’s. But only I have the power to stop them all from dying. So drive in your stake, cut off my head, burn my bones, but be prepared to bury the lifeless bodies of the ones you so-called
love.
Pathetic.”

“My God,”
Niles said, moving into mindspeak.
“The message was clear. We didn’t question it. We have to keep this thing alive in case we need him.”

Quitus shrieked with laughter. “I’ve won,” he said. “I’ll have everything I want.”

He threw back his hood, revealing a bald skull from which sparse tufts of white hair sprouted. His eyes were so shrunken they showed only as pinpoints of light. The flesh on his face, yellowed and creviced, clung to protruding bone.

He bounced up and down but quickly grew short of breath. He panted. “I need to eat. We must go to that Gabriel’s Place at once.”