Shadows Claim Read online

Page 10

 

  Her episodes seemed to be getting worse. And last nights break-in had been a serious blow to her recovery. Despite a warding spell, the vampire had entered her room "with ease. "

  "You should talk to someone about it," Salem suggested. "Get it off your chest. "

  She rubbed her pounding temples. "Are you offering to be a sounding board for me?"

  "Only if you want to hear your mirror snore. From what Ive been able to piece together, Id be bored silly. "

  She glared, unable to tell if he was joking. "Then why are you still here?"

  "I found out a lot about our mysterious assassin. Did a little digging, calling in favors from some very old phantoms. No one knows secrets like phantoms. "

  "Tell me," she quickly said, beyond curious about the vampire Daciano.

  "Its rumored that his people live inside the hollowed-out mountains of an entire range. No one in the Lore can prove they exist, not even the most skilled phantom spies. Caspion could very well be the only outsider at large who has seen Dacia and lived. Theyll remedy that soon enough. "

  Bettinas hands fluttered to her throat. Why wouldnt Caspion agree to enter the tournament? Hed prefer death by assassin over her? Was he so averse to exploring even the possibility that she was his?

  Salem continued, "Their species is proud, powerful, but they never engage wiv the outside. If a Dacian is seen outside of the realm by an otherlander-thats what they call us-then hes mystically forbidden to return. Except for in your case. According to my sources, the Bride of a Dacian is a Dacian, to their way of thinking. So he could go home. But not after he comes for you tonight, before all and sundry. "

  "Hes not interested in me. Remember? He flat-out told me he had no plans to return for me, and he cant lie. "

  Naturally Bettina was delighted by the idea of his never returning-if that meant Cas was safe. Yet a tiny part of her also had to wonder why males found it so easy to pass her over. Shed never heard of a vampire ditching his Bride. Ever.

  "You cant see, but Im shrugging. " In a contemplative tone, he said, "Can you picture living in Dacia? Learning all about the Realm of Blood and Mist? Id give me right invisible arm for a chance at that. "

  "Living underground, inside a mountain? With no forest? Never to feel the sun on ones face?" Nice place to visit, but . . . "Lets just say Im glad I dont have to worry about Daciano returning. "

  "Im telling you, hell be back. And if you ever go to Dacia, Im tagging along," Salem assured her. "Oh, and by the way, your patroness contacted us, wants a new piece. Something seductively lethal. "

  Another commission? Bettina experienced a thrill. Though shed been selling jewelry for years now, itd never been about the compensation; her parents had left her plenty of wealth, which Raum continued to grow for her.

  If Bettinas first goal in life was to feel safe, her second was to walk down a busy street and see someone wearing her creations. Shed daydreamed about it, wondering how shed react.

  After the incident, shed changed her focus, designing adornments with a dual purpose-jewelry pieces that doubled as weapons.

  She hand-fashioned old standbys-like rings with poison reservoirs-as well as body jewelry: mesh tops that could ward off a sword blow, armor-piercing brooches, collars with embedded blades.

  Sorceri coveted such accessories, but high-quality pieces were often hard to come by.

  Bettina liked to call her work "lethal luxe" or "blood bling. " Salem laughingly deemed them "slaughter chic," avowing that "Deadly is the new black. "

  Whenever anxiety threatened or she was dwelling on her tragedy in the mortal realm, she adjourned to her workshop and created in a frenzy.

  When Salem had first seen her like this, hed sneered, "Look at the Keebler elf, wiv her wittle tools!" Then hed grown intrigued with her creations, securing her first patron-for a hefty finders fee, of course.

  "Heres the downside," Salem said now. "Patroness wants it in two weeks time. "

  "So quickly?" Bettina hastened into her workroom, scanning her jewelers benches. She was as proud of her workshop as she was of the pieces produced there.

  She had collected a masters set of cutters, polishers, burs, and drills. On one bench, old-fashioned swage blocks and mandrels sat beside state-of-the-art, propane-fueled solder guns and hot-air pencils.

  On another bench, she had design sketches and a backboard filled with spools of gold chain. Dress dummies stood at intervals throughout the space.

  To cheer her after the incident, Salem had occasionally made them dance.

  "Two weeks? What am I going to do?"

  Salem answered, "Give her the field-tested armlet, if you can clean the vampire funk off it. Still cant believe you got the spring mechanism to work. "

  Bettina had told him how it had successfully pierced Dacianos hand. "I want to keep that one. " Though Patroness was a style setter-and a fearsome female-Bettina couldnt part with the armlet. It symbolized a little victory, her first since the attack.

  "Your call, but if I were you, Id almost be more afraid of disappointing your Patroness than your godmother. Speaking of which . . . "

  "I sense her too. "

  "Ill let you and the womenfolk get yourself all tarted up. " With a "Laters, dove," Salem disappeared, abandoning Bettina.

  She hastened from the workshop just as the front doors to her spire whooshed open.

  The only thing greater than the pull of Trehans home was his curiosity about his Bride. Yes, hed decided to return to Rune, but only to fact-find.

  Or so he kept telling himself. Yet I packed a bag?

  As Trehan ran his fingers down the spines of treasured books, he wondered if his mind was playing tricks on him, misremembering how good itd been with Bettina.

  Those moments of pleasure couldnt possibly have been as sublime as he thought them. Her clever weapon and drawings couldnt have been as fascinating.

  However, hed prepared for any eventuality, packing clothing and other essentials. Inside his coat, he carried an ancient silk standard of red and gray, symbolic of blood and mist-of the kingdom he loved more than anything.

  Yet again he surveyed his apartments. If he chose Bettina, hed be leaving behind a millenniums worth of accumulation-a fortune in gold, his extensive arms collection, artwork, about two hundred thousand books.

  Hed be leaving behind his history, his very identity.

  After a sleepless span, Trehan still wavered. Of one thing he was certain. Id kill for another feel of her in my arms.

  Instinct rode him hard, an uncomfortable position for a logical Dacian to be in-because instinct was rarely logical.

  Yes, his father had told him to be an example. Trehan seriously doubted his father had meant an example of what not to do.

  "Uncle Trehan?" a soft voice called.

  He traced to the sound, finding his "niece" Kosmina standing by his bag, a troubled look on her face.

  She and her brother Mirceo were the last of the House of Castellan, the castle guard. The heart of the kingdom.

  Kosmina was such a contradiction. She was completely innocent in matters of love and painfully bashful. Her clothing was always demure-today she wore a traditional gown, floor-length with the collar nearly reaching her chin. Yet at the same time she was a mistress of arms-and a merciless killer.

  Trehan had helped train her with weapons. He suspected that each of the cousins had secretly had a hand in raising her. I have so much more to teach her. Yet after today he may never see her again; whereas the male cousins traveled outside Dacia, Kosmina had never been beyond its stone borders.

  "Uncle Viktor said you were leaving. " She shyly glanced up at him from under blond bangs.

  "Rest easy. I might be returning directly. I only go to observe, just as I often do. " He frowned. "Mirceo doesnt suspect youve come here?" Dacianos didnt usually meet in private-unless a fight was imminent. The last thing he needed was Mirceo appearing, sword in hand, to defend his sisters life.


  Chapter 11

  As if Id ever hurt her. Trehan pinched the bridge of his nose. Distrust and dread marked their family, just like a curse.

  If only it were so easy as that. Curses can be broken.

  "I keep telling him that you wont harm me," Kosmina said. "Stelians the only royal youd truly kill. "

  "Is that so?" Trehan asked with a hint of amusement at her conviction.

  She outlined a pattern of the rug with the toe of one boot. "You found your Bride?"

  "I did. "

  "Will you have offspring now? Id like to be an auntie. "

  He exhaled a gust of breath. Offspring. When hed been younger, hed longed for his Bride, for a family of his own. As ages whispered past, hed lost hope.

  Now he could mate another female and beget young. But children with Bettina . . .

  Would never see Dacia. Would never grow the House of Shadow.

  "I dont know, Kosmina. My Bride doesnt care for me at present. "

  She glanced up, brows drawn. "Then she doesnt know you. "

  "I appreciate your confidence. " He still couldnt believe that his Bride and his niece were about the same age.

  If some lecherous, centuries-old male lusted for Kosmina, Trehan would gut him so slowly.

  And still I go to Rune?

  "Ill keep your home and your collection as you left them, Uncle, just in case. But I hope you make a life out there. " Her light blue eyes went dreamy. "Every day, I imagine leaving this place. "

  She was forbidden to leave the kingdom. In this, he agreed with his cousins; it was too dangerous.

  "I imagine it will be like waking up, like rising from a coffin and coming to life. "

  "Coffin, Niece?" She described herself as if she were dead. "Come now, its not so bad. Life is good here. Youre safe from the plague. " Afflicting only the females of their species, the sickness was deadly even to immortal vampires. Deadly-or worse.

  "Good here?" she queried softly. She pointed to his favorite seat. "Then imagine sitting there, reading the same books. For another thousand years. "

  The idea made him feel vaguely nauseated, her point delivered. For one so childlike in many ways, she was uncommonly observant.

  He managed an even tone as he said, "Imagine the alternative: never seeing my home again, allowing my house to perish when so many have died for it. " Years wasted, waiting for something that would never be? Years spent fighting, only to abandon those vendettas?

  Those vendettas defined him. His duty defined him.

  Without those things . . . I will not be who I was.

  "Were all slowly moldering down here," Kosmina said, "as good as dead, just waiting for a deathblow. At least youll be free now. "

  "As good as dead?" he scoffed. She exaggerated.

  "Mirceo said all of the royals-except for him-were in stasis. "

  Trehan pulled the invitation from his coat pocket. Have I been "in stasis"? If so, nothing could upend his entire existence quite like this tournament.

  A marriage ceremony. Death matches in a stadium. The crown of the Abaddonae.

  Me, a demon king?

  When he gazed back at Kosmina, he found her eyes watering. "There now, Niece. " He chucked her under the chin. "Ill probably return anon. "

  As if he hadnt spoken, she said, "I will miss you. "

  He picked up his bag, then gazed around for another look. A last look?

  "Uncle Trehan?"

  "Yes?"

  "Do you want to hear something sad?" He raised his brows. "Your leaving is the most exciting thing thats ever happened in my life. . . . "

  Morgana stood at the doorway in all her furious majesty.

  "You are not yet dressed, and I am unamused," she snapped as she swept her gaze over Bettina, still clad in her robe. Three slaves-powerless Sorceri known as Inferi-trailed in the sorceresss wake, weighed down with cases of cosmetics and accessories. "Ah, youve been working on your trinkets, havent you? What an . . . adorable hobby. "

  "Theyre not trinkets. " Bettinas shoulders went back. "Theyre art; Im an artist. And its not a hobby-I sell more than I can make. "

  "Of course you do, dearest freakling. " Then she frowned. "Wheres your phantom? The notorious Salem? I dont sense him. "

  "He stepped out to let me get ready. "

  When her godmother made a moue of disappointment, her Inferi as well, Bettina asked, "What exactly is Salem notorious for?"

  "Why dont you ask him?" Morganas attention was already on Bettinas wardrobe. "Now, we have scant time! Raum, curse his demonic soul, will be here at sunset to escort you. " She waved her hand, and several outfits flew out of Bettinas wardrobe, landing on a divan. Then she turned to Bettina. "Lets see what we have to work with. " Morgana shoved her in front of a full-length mirror, stepping behind her.

  The difference between the two women was striking. Voluptuous Morgana wore a gauzy scarlet skirt, an intricately wrought gold top that concealed her breasts-barely-and a connecting jeweled collar. Claw-tipped gauntlets covered her hands and forearms.

  Her pale blond hair was interwoven throughout her gold headdress. The piece was substantial, fanning out behind her like a barbed sunset, so wide it had narrowly cleared Bettinas doorway.

  Her mask was black with inlaid onyx, highlighting her lustrous eyes, her nearly black irises.

  Morgana was resplendent; Bettina was . . . Bettina.

  On almost every day of her life, she was reminded of her own ordinariness. The male she loved considered her nothing more than a plucky-sisterly-tagalong. Her godmother, a renowned beauty, considered her the awkward spawn of Bettinas late mother.

  Strangely, the Dacian had gazed at Bettina as if she were the most beautiful creature in the world. Of all the females the vampire had ever met, she had been the only one who could bring him back to life.

  And the things hed told her! For him, Bettinas eyes hadnt been promising good things, or even seductive things, but irresistible ones. He hadnt merely found pleasure with her, hed savored her "treats" because shed "delivered. " He hadnt simply enjoyed her taste; it had maddened him.