Part 27 (1/2)
”I didn't know that. They just... felt different. Like things that needed to be guarded. I only wanted the Madonna. If I don't find her, my parents will never be at peace.” She sagged against him, exhausted, drained of everything but sorrow.
Gabriel lifted her into his arms. ”You have more courage and honor in your heart than any woman I have known. I will help you find the Madonna; I promise.”
Nick looked up at him. ”What about you and the Kyn?”
”Croft told me many things,” he said, ”I must go to Ireland and speak with the high lord. I must settle matters regarding my sister.”
”I was thinking of moving to Scotland for the winter,” Nick said. ”Maybe we could go see this lord guy on the way, tell him about all the stuff I have here. I really don't want it. What do you think?”
”Tomorrow.” Gabriel turned and carried her back to the house.
Chapter 18.
”The doctor injected you with this new serum she has created,” Korvel told Richard. ”It has counteracted what the feline blood did. I am told that Lady Elizabeth made the switch.”
”I will deal with my wife later.” Richard noticed the weapons missing from his collection. ”You must go and find Orson Leary.
Quickly.”
Korvel hesitated. ”I do not wish to leave you to face Cyprien alone.”
”If he can get in, I will remind him that I have what he wants. Michael will not jeopardize her safety to take personal revenge.”
Richard gestured impatiently. ”Go. I will collect our hostages.”
Richard did not find Alexandra in the lab, but nearly ran into her as their paths collided at the entrance to the dungeons. She was carrying an unconscious eliane over her shoulder. Richard saw the dagger left in his tresora's back-his dagger-and his claws extended.
”Who did this?”
”Some crazy-looking man.” Alex carried her burden downstairs to the lab.
Richard received a second shock when he saw Phillipe waiting at the lab entrance.
”Has someone killed all of my guards?” he asked no one in particular.
”I don't have time for one of your tantrums, Richard. Shut up or get out.” Alex kicked open the door to the lab. ”I'll need help with eliane, Phillipe.”
”Do you mean to leave me?” Richard asked.
”I mean to stop this woman from bleeding to death.” Alex put the unconscious Frenchwoman on the exam table, facedown, and used a scalpel to cut through the back of her jacket and blouse. ”He missed the spinal cord. Thank you, Jesus, thank you.
Phillipe, get me a suture kit out of the supply cabinet.”
”What does it look like?” the seneschal asked as he walked over to the supply cabinet.
”A plastic package that says 'suture kit' on the front.” One slim hand reached up to train the overhead light on the dagger hilt protruding from eliane's left upper back. ”Blondie, you are so freaking lucky, I can't believe this.” She grabbed some gauze pads and piled them around the wound before jerking out the dagger. Crimson blood spilled out from under the gauze. ”Hurry up, Phil.”
As Richard watched the emergency surgery, Alex began to talk. ”Your wife is the crazy one around here. She switched feline blood for the human blood I needed. It was as if she knew it would make you lose control.”
”I regret what happened,” he told her. ”I cannot remember it.”
”Like you can't remember killing half your servants, and all the zombies the other day.” Alex put on a face mask and gloves and began to work on eliane's back. ”It's awfully convenient how your blackouts coincide with killings that you can't remember committing, don't you think?”
”What are you trying to say, Doctor?”
”I think your wife killed them and made it look as if you did it. The blackouts she could have controlled by making sure you got some Kyn tranquilizer mixed in with pure feline blood right before they happened.” She discarded a bloodied instrument. ”She might even be using her talent on humans that you've already bespelled. Korvel told me she always sees every human before they are presented to you. Stefan is her favorite guard, too.”
”How would that affect the humans?”
”One talent is enough for any human. Being subjected to the pressure of two or more, on the other hand, might just be enough to turn them catatonic.”
Richard brooded over what she had said until Alex finished dressing the newly sutured wound and pulled down her mask.
”That's it. She's out of danger.”
Korvel came down to the lab to report that Leary was nowhere to be found, and Richard ordered him to send guards out of the castle bearing the white flag to invite Michael inside.”Before you negotiate things with my love,” Alex said, coming over with a syringe, ”take another hit of the serum.”
Richard studied the needle, the contents of which looked like blood but might be anything. ”Do you not trust me to control myself?”
”No, I don't,” she said, uncapping the needle. ”Sleeve up. Now.”
The injection did not kill Richard, but made him feel calmer and more collected than he had in months. He left Korvel to guard the women and returned to his library to prepare to receive Cyprien. Perhaps it meant nothing, but for the first time in nearly a century he felt some hope.
eliane had left several handwritten messages on his desk, which he would have ignored had he not spotted the name. Gabriel Seran, one of the best men Richard had ever known, who had died under Brethren torture and interrogation.
Richard felt the loss of Gabriel most keenly. He had been a superb hunter, an intelligent soldier, and possibly the best tracker among the Kyn. Seran had also been one of the gentlest of the immortal souls in Richard's charge. He had sent Lucan to Dublin specifically to free Gabriel Seran, but by that time the Brethren had killed him. They sent several sickening photographs of Gabriel's severed head and mutilated body.
He picked up the message and read it. The paper drifted out of his distorted hand and rocked through the air until it landed noiselessly beside the desk.
”My lord,” Stefan said as he escorted Michael in. His protege stood dressed in full black body armor and carried two sheathed swords. ”Seigneur Cyprien.”
Richard rose and inclined his head. Michael did not bow in return. ”Leave us, Stefan.”
As soon as the guard departed, Michael drew both swords and held them crossed in front of him with the blades down. ”I challenge you.”
”I refuse. I abdicate to you.” Richard sat back down.
Michael said nothing for a full minute. ”You think to jest with me, my lord?”
”I think to hand my people over to the one man I know who can rule them.” The injection Alexandra had given him had begun to make him feel sluggish, and the news about Gabriel-that he lived-drove twin spikes of amazement and dread through his chest. ”I am in the end throes of this thing. Your sygkenis, who is a remarkable woman, has done her best. It has not worked, and I believe that I am too far gone to be retrieved. Your last task as my seigneur will be to take my head.”
”I did not come here to execute you.”
”Now who is jesting?” Richard covered a cough. ”You have always been my only choice for my successor. I doubt you will have an easy time of it, but your head was always cooler than mine, even before-”
”I came here for my woman.”