Crimson Death
Page 209

   “Because he is mine!” She screamed it, the glow fading from her eyes.
   “If all you wanted was your lover back, you could have sent a letter,” I said.
   She moved away from Roarke and Damian, and I expected his eyes to go back to being blank, but they didn’t. Something about the interchange between us all was helping him fight it. If I could only figure out what had helped and keep doing it.
   “A letter would not have brought me you, Anita, and that is what I wanted. That you brought Damian back to me is a wonderful gift, and I will never give him up again.”
   “Why did you give him up to Jean-Claude in the first place?” I asked; more information could only help, right?
   “Your lord and master wrote to me, said that he had dreamed of Damian’s pale flesh for centuries and that he would force Damian to be his catamite. It was something that our crimson-haired vampire had a near . . . mortal terror of,” and she laughed at her own wordplay. Most of the people in the room who belonged to her laughed. Rodina and Hamish were the exceptions. Maybe their white bitch of a queen wasn’t all she was cracked up to be for them.
   “You had men here,” I said. “You didn’t have to send Damian all the way to America for a little sodomy.”
   She made an unhappy face. “What good to me is a man who prefers men? I do not collect such men. I gave him up to be tormented by Belle Morte’s prize pupil, only to find that when Damian returns home, he has a taste for men now. Jean-Claude must possess some witchery that I did not envision.”
   I fought to keep my face blank, because I knew it wasn’t Jean-Claude’s witchery, at all. Nathaniel was two for two, being the only male lover of two heterosexual men. I was pretty sure Jean-Claude and Asher had more to their credit, but no one that I knew.
   She tried to walk all the way around Nathaniel and the two Roane, but Rodina was in the way of her skirts. “Oh for Goddess’ sake, girl, rise and go stand with Hamish.”
   Rodina didn’t make Moroven order twice, just got to her feet and moved over to stand with her fellow Harlequin. They might not like each other a lot, but neither of them liked Moroven at all. I wasn’t sure how I was so positive of that, but I was, and somehow I knew I was right.
   “Jean-Claude is one of the most beautiful men on the planet,” I said. “I mean, I may be prejudiced in his favor, but he is the king of seduction.”
   “I know how seductive he can be, Anita, or did he neglect to mention that he was my lover?”
   “He told me that Belle Morte and you traded Damian and him for a while.”
   “I tried to keep him, but Belle would not give up one of her favorite poppets.”
   “I heard that, too,” I said.
   “Did they tell you what one of my passions is, Anita?”
   “I’m not sure,” I said because I wasn’t.
   “Ruined beauty,” she said.
   “No,” Damian said loud and clear. He actually stepped forward with Roarke still gripping his arm.
   She turned and looked at him. “How are you fighting free without her power to bolster you?”
   “I am here. I’ll stay with you. Just let Anita and Nathaniel go unharmed.”
   “Tempting but I did not create a near army of vampires in Dublin for fun and frolic, Damian. I was beginning to wonder what horrors I would have to unleash on Dublin before the great vampire expert would finally come to Ireland.” She looked at me and smiled.
   “Are you saying that you did all that just to get me here?”
   “The only power you possess that is more attractive to the Mother of All Darkness is your necromancy. It is also what allows you to control vampires, so I lured you to the only country in the world where your personal magic will not work. Now, when I kill you and take the rest of the Mother’s power into myself, it won’t linger over your necromancy. The magic will simply come to me, as it was destined to.”
   “If you kill Anita, I may die with her,” Damian said.
   Moroven looked back at him. “I do hope not, but even the joy of tormenting you with your new face is not enough to make me forgo collecting all the power that is due me.” She came to stand in front of me again. “How ever did you change his face? I thought only Belle Morte could do that.”
   I tried for the truth. “I’m not really sure.”
   “Come now, Anita, eventually you will tell me all your truths, so do not bother lying.”
   I glanced at Hamish and Rodina, because any wereanimal or vampire powerful enough should have been able to tell that I’d just told the truth. Hamish gave a blank face, but Rodina smirked just a little. They knew that their new queen couldn’t tell if someone was lying. The only other master vampires that I’d ever met that couldn’t act like undead lie detectors had been ones that were so self-delusional that it compromised their ability to tell what was real.
   “Since I didn’t know that it was possible to make a vampire servant out of anyone, it was all a little accidental.”
   “Lies, but I know how to get the truth.” She motioned for the men with Nathaniel to move over in front of me.
   Keegan went just behind the opening to the stairs, but on the opposite side that people seemed to walk down. I saw his arms move, as if he pressed or pulled something in the walls, and a thick chain snaked down from the ceiling. It wasn’t a pair of them like the ones on my wrists, but just a single thick line of chain with a large hook on the end of it.
   “No!” Damian said. He started to push past Roarke, and then I saw the Roane’s eyes glow like black diamonds. Damian’s eyes unfocused and he stopped moving forward.
   I looked into Nathaniel’s eyes just feet in front of me. He was starting to struggle as much as the chains would allow, which wasn’t much. Whatever the men were going to do, they didn’t want him moving around. My heart was in my throat. I pulled on the chains at my wrists and knew doing so was useless.
   “Damian, wake up!”
   He startled awake, shoved Roarke, and then hit him solid in the face. Roarke fell to the ground. Rodina and Hamish moved in a blur of speed to catch Damian’s arms. Rodina put a blade to his throat.
   “This is why we had to gag your Mr. Graison. If you call out to him again, Anita, I will gag you, and I’ll cut out your lover’s tongue.” Rodina’s eyes blazed blue as if spring skies could burn. I believed she meant everything she said.
   The chain was directly in front of me so that I’d have a good view of whatever the men were planning to do to Nathaniel. Or hell, maybe he’d have a good view for what they were going to do to me. Whichever way the pain went, they meant for us to watch each other endure it. Sadist much?