Part 18 (2/2)
Kate could see Elyta sorting through the possibilities.
Elyta put a finger to her lips. ”I wonder-would you dare to lie when proving the a.s.sertion is easy and lying would be so deadly?”
”Give me one of the stones.” Kate held out her hand.
Elyta fished in her own reticule, and came out with the silver box. She handed it to Kate. Her eyes were steely hard, but they glittered with avarice.
Kate opened the box and took out the great emerald. She walked over to the candelabrum Sergei held and raised the stone to the light. Immediately the rolling coils appeared in the depths of the stone, glittering with scales. The scales grew larger, flashed into pictures, each a scene, flipping ever more rapidly as the serpent within coiled itself. And then they flickered more slowly and finally resolved themselves into a stream of pictures. She watched Elyta, standing in a desert, triumph writ large upon her face.
Kate wanted to see what was happening more than anything else in the world. But she couldn't lose focus now.
She ripped her eyes away and managed a smile. ”Uncomfortable. But the futures do resolve themselves after a moment.” And then another possibility occurred to her. She fingered the jewel. It wouldn't work. But she had to try.
Kate lunged at Elyta with the stone. But fast as she was, the vampires beside Elyta were faster. They moved in a blur. One grabbed Kate's wrist. She screamed and struggled. The creature banged her hand against his knee. The stone clattered to the marble floor.Elyta drew herself up, breathing hard. One of the vampires scooped up the stone with the edge of his coat and deposited it in the silver box.
”You'll be punished for that.” Elyta grew thoughtful. ”But not killed. You will have your uses.”
Kate knelt, panting, and looked at Gian. He was straining against his shackles. She'd failed. The only sliver of hope was that Elyta intended to keep her alive. Of course, neither she nor Gian had told Elyta that she could not control when the visions came or what she saw. That disappointment could come later.
”Doesn't mean she can't serve two purposes.” Illya pouted.
”Yes it does,” Gian said. His voice had grown rather stronger. Now that she looked at him more carefully, some of his wounds had closed a little. His healing was slow but not gone. ”Haven't you heard that only virgins can peer beneath the veil of time?”
Elyta raised her brows and chuckled. ”And you're telling me she's a virgin?”
”Look at her.” Gian's voice was flat.
Kate swallowed and flushed to the roots of her hair. She knew they would believe the lie, humiliating as that fact was.
”Do you want to take the chance, just to serve these three a night of fun?”
”The day progresses.” The room had indeed lightened. Elyta turned to Gian and Kate. ”We'll just lock you in here with your friend today while we rest.”
”Locks don't seem to hinder her,” Sergei muttered.
”She can't pick a padlock on the outside of the door from the inside.” Elyta examined Kate and held out her hand. ”Still we want Gian locked in place right where he is today. Hairpins please.” Kate pulled the pins from her hair. ”Really, Gian, how could you even a.s.sociate with one straight from the gutter? Picking locks.” She snorted in derision.
Kate tossed the pins to the floor. Elyta frowned and motioned Illya to pick them up. While they were distracted, Kate slipped the one pin still in her hand down the back of her collar and shook out her hair over it.
”Your reticule and your cloak?”
Kate slipped it off her wrist and whirled her cloak off her back. Elyta took them both. Her tarot deck was now lost. Her former ident.i.ty was slipping away.
Sergei picked up the candelabrum and the blanket. Frederico, swathed in his cloak, braved the sunlight to lock the door from the outside. Blackness whirled around Elyta and the other two. ”Stay away from him. He's dangerous to you today;” Elyta warned.
And they were gone.
What did Elyta mean, dangerous?
Chapter Fifteen.
Kate turned to Gian, blinking as she thought about what to do next.
”I'm sorry you came.” His voice was barely a whisper, his eyes sad. All the strength he had mustered to face Elyta was gone.
”I am too.” She was now she knew he had made love to Elyta, even though she was torturing him. Was he that besotted? That was twisted in ways that shocked her, hardened as she was. And what he and Kate had done together meant nothing to him.
She took a breath. ”But I promised myself I'd get you out. That is, if you are sure you want to leave her.”
He looked incredulous before realization hit him. ”You don't think I... I... serviced her of my own free will, do you?”
”Men can't be coerced into s.e.x.”
He swallowed. ”Look, there is a quality about vampires... it's called... compulsion.”
”I know about that. Like hypnotism. You tried it on me once, and so did Elyta. I actually let her and the others compel me, so they would believe me about your destination.”
”Well, it... works on... arousal as well. Now that I'm weak, she can compel me to do anything.” He paused and looked away.
”Even have s.e.x.” The words were a hoa.r.s.e whisper.
”That's rape.” The true horror of his experience over these days began to sink in.
”Yes.” His tone was flat. It covered pain.
All right. She accepted that vampires could compel. Then she could accept that he'd been raped by a female vampire.
”We must find some way for you to escape.” He squinted around without much hope.
”Don't look so glum. We're not beaten yet.” The room was growing brighter still.
”I'm too weak to translocate.” He meant that whirling darkness, and he was ashamed.
She raised her brows. ”And who said I was depending on you to get us out of this?” Bravery she didn't feel. She turned and peered up at the small round window. ”Won't the light make you uncomfortable?”
He chuffed a weak laugh that turned to choking. ”Yes,” he gasped. ”And from about two to three in the afternoon, it won't be a pretty sight.”
”Well, you're not a very pretty sight now anyway.” She could release him from the shackles to avoid being in direct sunlight, but still there would be plenty of light in the room as the day wore on. If only they hadn't taken the blanket and her cloak. She glanced around. A fur on the floor, no doubt designed for Elyta's comfort. It wasn't big enough to shelter him, even if he crouched. Still... She studied the window. It was small. Too small for her shoulders? No time like the present to find out. How good that she had worn these little slippers with the suede soles. She grabbed her skirts and knotted them around her knees.
”What... what are you about?” he asked.
She untied the fabric belt at the waist of her dress and knotted it around the fur. The stone of the walls was old, the mortar worn away. The deep grooves it left between the stones would give her good purchase. She reached for a stone above her head and pulled herself up. A perfect handhold. She placed her right foot on another protruding stone. Almost easy. Like a spider she climbed the wall until she reached the little window and peered out. Eighteen inches, twenty at the most. Enough, perhaps, though she was no longer nine. Clinging with one hand, she shoved the fur into the wide curved bottom of the window created by the thick walls and balled it up. Not perfect, but better.
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