Part 25 (1/2)
If Nick stayed with him, she would risk leading the holy freaks to him. She'd rather never see him again than know she had helped put him back in some bricked-up room to die.
She didn't owe Gabriel anything, either. On the contrary.
Nick felt a little better as she climbed onto the bike. She'd done right by him; no one could say that she hadn't. She'd taken care of him, gotten him to his friend, and now she could take off and know he'd be all right. Being blind, he couldn't help her find the Golden Madonna. He'd only slow her down. He belonged with better people, people like Croft. All she'd do was get him arrested. The holy freaks knew how to use the cops to get what they wanted; they were experts at it.
Gabriel deserved better. He'd get back together with the Kyn, and she could go on with her life. She'd pack up her stuff at the farm and move north. She liked Scotland; maybe she'd try spending the winter in the Highlands. Once the cops lost interest she'd make some other changes and start fresh on her search for the Madonna in the spring.
She got as far as Hyde Park before she had to pull into a parking s.p.a.ce and jump off the bike. Her chest heaved with the pain of breathing in cold, damp English air. This was going to kill her, leaving him like this, without knowing, without a word. Would he ever forgive her?
The Kyn had abandoned him, his sister had betrayed him, and now she was dumping him. He'd been lost for so long, just like her. How would he feel when he realized she wasn't coming back for him?
He'll hate you forever.
Oh, G.o.d. What was she doing?
”I'll go back.” She checked her watch and saw she still had ten minutes before he would expect her to return. ”I'll ride by one time and look in the window and make sure he's okay. But after that I have to head out of town and forget about him.”
Well, she'd head out of town, anyway.
Nick turned around and drove back toward Croft's shop. She couldn't ride by, she realized; Gabriel would hear the bike. She'd have to find a spot by the corner and take a look from there.
One look and that's all. Nick knew that if she did any more than look, she'd never be able to leave him.
The south corner of the intersection nearest Croft's shop had a phone box that gave her some cover while allowing her to see the front of the shop. Croft had rolled up the blinds in the big front window, probably so he could watch for her.
But she wasn't going back.
Nick eyed the telephone. Maybe she would call and tell Croft she was taking off and leaving Gabriel with him. Just so he knew and didn't wait there for her for hours or think something had happened to her. Croft wouldn't hate her for it. Not if she told him how much she loved Gabriel, and how dangerous she was to him.
This is why you don't get involved with anyone, she told herself viciously. Because you don't know how to walk away.
A book hit the inside of the shop window and slid down it to knock over Croft's artful front display. Nick frowned and reached into her jacket, taking out her binoculars. Through them she clearly saw three strange men standing inside the front of the shop.
Two of them were holding Croft by the arms. The third had Gabriel by the front of his s.h.i.+rt.The Kyn couldn't have gotten there that fast.
As she watched, the man holding Gabriel punched him in the face.
Rage exploded inside her. ”Oh, f.u.c.k this.”
Nick pulled down her visor, grabbed her bat from the back of the bike, and rounded the corner, cutting off a Jag and darting between a delivery van and a cab. She jumped the curb, scattering shoppers as she sped toward the front of the bookshop. At the last moment she locked up the brakes and let the bike skid sideways, slamming the rear tire into the display window.
Gla.s.s smashed and rained down on her as she put the bike in park and jumped off, using the bat to knock out the last jagged section of gla.s.s before climbing into the shop.
”Hey, a.s.shole.”
The man who had punched Gabriel stared at her in shock. He had a gun tucked in his belt.
”Yeah, you.” She swung the bat at his head, and knocked him back into a collection of Victorian poetry. ”Home run.”
The other two rushed at her, guns in their hands, but she shoved the bat into the belly of one and clipped the other in the jaw with the grip. Both tottered backward, but not far enough to miss her third and fourth swings.
She saw that Croft was braced against his desk but unhurt. ”Sorry about the window.”
”My dear girl,” he breathed. ”Do not apologize.” He hurried over and collected the guns the two men had dropped and the one still tucked in the belt of the third. ”Guns are illegal in this country,” he told the groaning men. ”So is pummeling innocent vampires.”
Nick went to Gabriel. ”Let's get out of here.” She took his arm and dragged him through the window.
A small group of startled Londoners had begun gathering, but they backed away as she helped Gabriel onto the bike and swung onto the seat.
”We'll get you, Seran,” a man shouted, and Nick saw that one of the men inside the shop had gotten to his feet. ”Every Brethren in England are hunting you and your thief b.i.t.c.h now. You can't hide forever-”
Croft stepped up behind him and slammed a large volume on the back of his head. The man collapsed in a heap.
”My apologies, dear boy,” he called out to them. ”It seems I've been compromised. If you need to reach me, you'll have to contact Geoff. So sorry you couldn't stay for tea, my dear.”
”Next time.” Nick looked down to see Gabriel's hands on her waist, and took off.
Michael left Phillipe and Leary with the van and took a horse from a nearby stable to ride along the boundaries of Dundellan.
Riding around Richard's stronghold should have calmed Michael, for it had been months since he had indulged his love of horseback riding and solitude. But Marcella's predictions had come true. Over the last days his temper had worn down his will, and not an hour pa.s.sed that he did not feel as if his skin would crawl off his body. Often now he thought if he spent another day without her, he would go mad. In his head Michael understood it was the bond he shared with Alexandra, and the price of it, but in his heart all that mattered was to be with her again.
We are here. I will take back what is mine.Michael led the horse out of the shadows, risking being spotted by the castle guard, but unable to resist looking up at the light s.h.i.+ning from one of the narrow windows in the east stone tower. He had no way to know if Alexandra was being kept in that room or, as Leary suggested, had been locked away deep in the bowels of Dundellan.
A measure of calmness came to him as he focused his thoughts on her, the memory of her face, the smell of her skin. Soon, mon amour. I will be with you again, very soon.
Once Michael finished scouting the property, he put together the signs that all was not well at Dundellan. Richard had twice the usual amount of men patrolling, but they kept to the castle itself and did not stray out onto the surrounding acres. The neglected condition of the land indicated his household staff had possibly been locked in, dismissed, or perhaps killed. He suspected that as the high lord's mind deteriorated, his Kyn guards might begin quietly abandoning him. Perhaps, hearing of Lucan's attempt to a.s.sa.s.sinate him, they already had.
Michael met Phillipe back at the van. Inside, Leary sat watching the castle while the addicts they had taken from Dublin, made docile by Phillipe's compulsion over them, looked at nothing at all.
”The patrols are riding no more than two hundred yards out from the castle,” he told his seneschal. ”Six Kyn guard the delivery entrances at the west and north sides. The windows have been secured but the fences are falling apart. Nothing stands in our way.”
”I called Marcella from the mobile,” Phillipe said. ”She has been monitoring the patrols, and says that Richard's men are carrying standard weapons as well as copper.”
Armed to kill both humans and Kyn. ”He's expecting someone other than us.”
Phillipe brought a small case out of the back, which he placed on the hood of the van. He opened it and produced what appeared to be a Young Fine Gael campaign b.u.t.ton and put it on his lapel.
”This is a radio transceiver,” he told Cyprien. ”It will pick up and transmit my voice and any others within twenty feet of me.”
Cyprien fitted the earpiece. ”When you are inside, find Alexandra and help her out through one of the second-floor windows, there,” Michael told him, pointing to the least guarded area of the castle. ”Whatever happens, do not engage Richard.”
His seneschal nodded. ”You will wait here for us.”
”No.” Michael stripped off his jacket, revealing the body armor and weapons beneath it. ”I am challenging Richard.”
”As a diversion?” Phillipe touched his arm. ”Master, there is surely another way.”
Michael shook his head. ”To defeat him, I must kill him and take his throne.”
Leary rolled down the pa.s.senger window. ”It's time to go in now,” he said, looking anxious. ”They're waiting for us.”