Summoning Shadows: A Rosso Lussuria Vampire Novel (26 page)

“You are welcome, lady.”

“You’re in Romania, by the way,” Vasco said. “Some part of it, anyway.”

“Some part of it?”

“There’s a spell surrounding the castle,” Emilio said. “Have you not noticed that the sun does not rise here?”

“I noticed, but I wasn’t certain if I was sane or not.”

“Have you seen her?” Emilio asked.

“Seen who?”

Emilio came closer to the bed.

“The White Lady.”

“So,” I said, falling back and startling the poor bat. I placed my hand near it. It shambled into my open palm and I raised it to my chest. “She’s real after all?”

“Oh yes,” Emilio said. “She’s the one who told me how to save you.”

“Piph,” Renata said, “do you feel any different?”

“Aye,” I said. “But why do you ask?”

Renata leaned forward and touched my neck. She pulled out a necklace and held it in front of me. At the end of the chain dangled an amber gem.

“What have you done, Emilio?” I asked, my chest tight with fear and dread. “Where is Cuinn?”

Emilio licked his lips, as if he was nervous. “It was the only way,” he said. “Your Dracule tried to bind you as the other Dracule had, but she started dying with you. We were losing all three of you in the triquetra of power. It was the only way I could save you.”

My throat felt like it was closing and tears pricked my eyes. “Not Cuinn,” I murmured. “Not him!”

“Well, consider me touched,” a familiar lilting voice said. A figure moved at the foot of the bed and rounded the large wooden post.

Cuinn sat back on his haunches offering a fox’s version of a ludicrous grin. “So, ye’d come to care for me after all, aye? Enough to miss me if I were gone?” He canted his head slightly, a wily look in his gaze. He raised his large and fluffy tail and said, “What do ye think, lass? Care for another pet?”

I slid my gaze to Renata, who smiled mysteriously. “He’s real too.”

“Bugger!” Cuinn exclaimed, leaping onto the bed and forcing it to dip under his weight. “Why’d ye have to go and tell her that, Queen?”

Renata shook her head at him.

Cuinn came to me. He tilted his head downward, his large ears flopping forward. “I’m not sharing a bed with that thing.”

I reached out to snatch hold of his ears with my free hand. “Oh, Cuinn,” I said, tugging his head to me and placing a kiss on the top of it. “Shut up.”

Cuinn snickered. It should’ve sounded odd coming from a fox, but it didn’t. Coming from Cuinn, it sounded just right.

“You’re larger than any fox I’ve seen,” I said to him, scratching his ears affectionately.

Cuinn flopped over on his back to offer his furry belly. His head lolled back and his tongue dangled out of his mouth when I scratched his tummy.

“I’ve been waiting a long time to feel again,” he said. “Lugh’s balls, that’s the spot!”

“How?” I asked Emilio.

“The Fatas are immortal,” he said. “Truly immortal. There is not a thing in this world that can kill them. The Dracule can be killed. Vampires can be killed. Even we witches have our bane, and some of us grow old with time, but the Fatas are a wild magic and cannot be destroyed.”

I stopped stroking Cuinn’s stomach. “If recollection serves me well, you tried to tell me that if I died, you would as well, Cuinn.”

“It was just a wee little white lie,” Cuinn said with a smile.

I pinched him and he yelped. “That’s for lying to me.”

Cuinn frantically licked the part of his stomach that I had pinched. He looked up at me with narrowed eyes. “I’d do it again if it’d keep you from giving up.”

“I know.”

I clutched the necklace and Cuinn’s amber gem. “If you’re here now, what about this?”

“He’s still partially bound to the stone,” Emilio said. “We’ve just pulled him from it and bound him in this realm.”

“That makes so much sense,” I said, letting him know with my tone that it didn’t make any sense at all.

“There are still traces of my magic in the stone, make more sense?” Cuinn asked.

“As much as it needs to make, I guess.”

“We have much more to discuss,” Renata said, letting me know with a glance that she was sorry for interrupting. “For the time being, we will stay here. I will make the appropriate arrangements for you to bathe and change your attire. Then we will meet with Helamina and Augusten downstairs and discuss the rest of our matters.”

As far as a plan went, it sounded like a good one to me.

Renata did as she had said she would. I rose and put the bat in its gilded cage. Cuinn was at my heels, keeping me company while the others left to set about whatever duties Renata saw fit for them.

“So how does this work?” I asked him. “How are you here in the flesh?”

“The witches bound us together as the Dracule are bound to you,” Cuinn said, following me like a dog back to the bed. “When they bound us, it pulled me to this side of the world.”

I remembered Andrella’s words about Cuinn being able to move through the worlds. “Can you still move between the worlds?” I asked him.

“Aye and nay,” he said. “I can still use my powers here, but I’ll never be able to go back to the place where I was. I was bound there, remember? Vasco’s witchy son broke that binding.”

Cuinn curled up against me and I draped an arm around him. “That’s a good thing, though, right?”

“A very good thing,” he said. “I didn’t mind it with you, Piph. You were the only one that made existence there tolerable.”

I smiled. “I’m sorry I can’t say the same for you in my head, Cuinn.”

He snapped at me and I laughed, shoving him to the floor.

True to her word, Renata managed to procure a bath and water for me to bathe. The tub was brought up to my room and filled before the fireplace. Cuinn curled up at the foot of the bed, and neither Renata nor I bothered to usher him out of the room. Fata or no, he had been in my head. A little nudity didn’t seem as intimate as that.

A change of clothes was brought for me, and I was grateful to see that they were mine, though I imagined Renata had asked one of the Dracule to take the risk of returning to the Sotto to get them, I was grateful.

I sank into the tepid water and rested the back of my neck against the tub. I couldn’t remember the last time I had fed, but strangely, I wasn’t hungry and the pain that had nearly driven me mad had gone completely.

“How is everything at the Sotto?” I asked. “Was our clan attacked when Damokles attacked Bull Shoals and Ravenden?”

“Oddly not,” Renata said, coming to kneel beside my bath. The clear water was familiarly scented with rose.

Renata touched my shoulder and I dipped my head to fully saturate my hair. When I sat up, she set about scouring my hair with a thick liquid soap that smelled of milk and honey.

“Where’d they get that?” I asked as the unfamiliar scent tickled my nostrils.

“Queen Helamina,” she said, “there are those in her clan that venture more deeply into the human world than we do.”

“It seems all our clans function very differently.”

“It depends on the abilities within the clan.” Renata rinsed my hair with a small pitcher. “There are a few among the Rosso that have the ability to pass unseen, but if one vampire is able to leave the Sotto, the others would want the same freedom to do so. There are those in Queen Helamina’s realm that shroud themselves from the humans exceptionally well.”

“How is Augusten after the attack?” I asked.

“He’s here,” Renata said. “You’re welcome to ask him yourself later.”

“So Queen Helamina and King Augusten are both here?”

Renata offered a brief smile. “Yes, and we’ve sent word to as many clans as we can reach. Iliaria and Anatharic have managed to sway some of the Dracule into joining us.”

I traced Iliaria’s sigil at my wrist, which now branched, as Morina’s did, up to my elbow.

“She cares about you a lot, you know,” Renata said.

I gazed at my wrist and arm, finally allowing myself to take in the binding Iliaria had placed on me. Her mark appeared very similar to Morina’s now. Both had the same vine-like appearance and traveled up to my elbows, but there was one major difference and that was the sigil of their names tangled up in the base of the mark.

Iliaria had bound me to her as deeply as Morina had in an attempt to save my life. I knew she wouldn’t have done so if she didn’t care a great deal for me.

“I know,” I said, feeling quite moved in that moment.

Renata toyed with a wet curl of my hair, appearing most thoughtful. “Do you love her?” she asked. I couldn’t sense any jealousy in her.

I placed my hand over hers. “Being away from the both of you has given me a considerable amount of time to think. Yes,” I said. “Yes, in a way, I do.”

I wasn’t sure how she would take my words, but I couldn’t find it in my heart to lie to her. Besides, she would see beyond any lie I told her.

“You knew that though, didn’t you?” I asked.

“Yes.”

Renata rose and offered me a fresh linen sheet. I wrapped it around myself and stepped out of the bath. I twisted my hair over the bath to wring out the excess water before getting dressed.

The clothes that had been brought for me were simple and comfortable, a pair of knee-high flat boots, black leggings, and a loose-fitting aubergine tunic.

“What happened to the sword?” I asked Cuinn while I slid on my boots.

He yawned widely before grumbling. “It’s still yours when you need it.”

That seemed answer enough.

When I was done, I followed Renata downstairs. On the way out of my chambers, I noticed Anatharic and Vasco just outside the room across from mine.

I didn’t need to ask what they were about. They were obviously on guard duty. I was fairly certain I knew who they guarded.

“There’s a balcony in that room, my lady,” I told Renata.

“Aye,” Cuinn said beside me, “that’s why Emilio’s bound her to the room.” He grinned. “Karma’s a bitch, isn’t she?”

Karma or no, I didn’t feel particularly sorry for Morina.

King Augusten rose from his seat on the sofa when we entered. The woman I guessed to be Queen Helamina remained seated, though she examined me with some scrutiny. The scrutiny in her gaze didn’t seem to match the rest of her. The words
lovely
and
cat-like
came to mind, but her hair was long and blond and fell to frame a body that was slender and petite and a face that was only slightly angular with a tapered chin. Her chartreuse gaze was mesmerizingly feline-like.

“Lady Epiphany,” Augusten said, bowing slightly. “We are glad to know that you’re well.”

“Thank you, King Augusten.” Cuinn’s weight settled against my leg, but I turned my attention to Queen Helamina.

Renata made our introduction. “Queen Helamina, this is my Inamorata, Epiphany.”

Helamina rose. When she was close enough to reach out and touch me, Cuinn gave a warning growl, sounding more like a perturbed dog than a fox.

“And this, I presume, is your Fata, the one who saved your life?”

“Yes, my lady.” I placed a hand lightly on Cuinn’s head and he inclined at my touch. “This is Cuinn.”

“He’s mighty large,” Helamina said.

“Have ye ever seen a fairy fox?” Cuinn asked.

“No. Until now.”

“Ah well, we’re a big lot. Best left unprovoked, too.”

Queen Helamina seemed more amused by his threat than anything else. “I’ll take your word for it, Lord Fox,” Helamina replied smoothly, managing not to sound as if she were teasing him with the title.

Cuinn’s ears pricked forward pleasantly.

“Careful, Queen Helamina. You think he’s big,” I said, “his head’s bigger than the rest of him.”

Helamina smiled and it was friendly and pleasant. I wasn’t sure what I had expected, but pleasantness from another vampire queen certainly hadn’t been it.

Cuinn put his ears back in delayed reaction as my words sank in and turned a glare on me that was supposed to be intimidating. I ruffled his head affectionately and whispered, “It’s true, and you know it.”

“We have matters to discuss,” Renata said, taking a seat on another sofa that had been brought into the room. I sat beside her and Cuinn hopped up to sit with me.

Of course, I didn’t really expect him to curl up on the floor, especially not in a room full of vampire royalty. Cuinn considered himself an equal, and none of us argued or attempted to burst his bubble of confidence.

Discuss, they did. Mostly, they talked about strategy. Queen Helamina spoke of her visions and informed us that she knew Damokles would strike again.

If we waited long enough, she was sure he and the Dracule helping him would attack us here, at the castle. I wasn’t sure I wanted to stay much longer, but I had little reason for protesting or disagreeing with the decisions of those who outranked me.

“We have word from the clans of Phoenix, Malvern, Jardin Dieux, and New Orleans. They will fight with us when the time comes.”