Cin Craven - Wages of Sin Part 6

"Here, here," Devlin answered and raised his gla.s.s.

Justine took a sip, wrinkled her nose and settled back into the cushions of the chaise like some reclining empress. Her gaze lingered on the portraits of Charlotte Craven and Rainy Macgregor which hung on the opposite wall. She seemed to get very still and thoughtful as she stared at them and I wondered what she found so fascinating.

I downed my whiskey in one shot and turned back to the men.

"I didn't realize vampires ate or drank anything but... blood," I said.

"We can eat some foods and we can drink liquids other than blood," Michael allowed, "sparingly, mind you, but it doesn't give us sustenance. Still," he said, holding the gla.s.s under his nose and inhaling deeply, "a Scot would have to be dead a lot longer than I not to appreciate a good single malt."

I smiled at that and he winked at me in a brazen fashion.

"Now that we have answered your questions, little witch, perhaps you would be so good as to tell me why you summoned us from a very comfortable hotel to race hours through the night over what appears to be the bite of a newly-made vampire?" Justine asked, smoothing a hand over the curve of her hip.

I didn't particularly like the way she called me "little witch" though I could detect no intent to insult on her part and, like it or not, I was hardly in a position to quibble over semantics.

"How did you know he is newly-made?" I asked.

Devlin gestured absently with his gla.s.s. "Even with the help of a master vampire, an ancient, it still takes time for the body to complete all the changes that come with being one of the undead. The one who bit you cannot be more than two weeks dead or the wound would have closed within an hour of the bite and left no mark on your skin. He is young and has very little power. You, I think, have a great deal. What worries you so about him?"

"He calls to me," I said softly.

Michael and Devlin leaned forward in their seats and even Justine looked at me with new interest.

"What do you mean?" Michael asked intently.

"In my head, he calls to me. He wants me to come to him. I think he intended to kill me two nights ago when he bit me but I surprised him, the extent of my power surprised him, and I got away. He cannot come into the house so he calls me out instead. It took all my strength and both my housekeeper and her daughter to keep me from going to him. Tonight two friends of mine, apothecaries from London, have come to stay with me. If you cannot help me then Mr. Pendergra.s.s means to drug me because if I'm unconscious I can't hear Sebastian's call."

"You know this vampire?" Michael asked.

"Yes. Sebastian, Lord Montford. He was a suitor of mine, an unwelcome suitor, but a suitor all the same."

"Are you sure he's newly-made?"

"Unless vampires can now walk in the sun then yes, he was human as little as three weeks ago. He took me for a carriage ride through Hyde Park the day before he left London to go to Yorkshire on business. He returned a week ago. Why do you ask?"

Devlin answered. "He should not be able to call you to him. He cannot call you to him, not a vampire that young. Since we know for a fact that he is less than three weeks old, it means that the vampire who made him, an ancient, is working through him. It may be Montford's voice that calls to you but he is only able to do so because his master wills it." Devlin paused and frowned down at his whiskey. "The question is, why?"

"Are you daft, man?" Michael said. "Look at her."

A low laugh sounded from the doorway. I turned to see Mr.

Pendergra.s.s shuffle into the room, leaning heavily on his cane. Archie hovered behind him, a dark scowl on his face as he surveyed the occupants of the room. Blast the men, could they not stay where they were told?

"While I applaud your taste, young man," Mr. Pendergra.s.s said as he kissed Justine's outstretched hand, muttering "lovely, lovely"

under his breath and then settled himself on the sofa next to Michael, "I think the answer to that question is a little more complicated."

"Mr. Pendergra.s.s," I scolded, "you were supposed to stay upstairs."

"Yes, well, one of the benefits of reaching my advanced age is that I don't have to take orders anymore," he teased.

Archie stood protectively next to my chair, one hand resting on the back. Michael glared at him. Archie glared back. Michael growled low in his throat and Archie quickly removed his hand. Justine had a smile on her face as if she were watching some fascinating play unfold.

"You're a Scot, are you not, my boy?" Mr. Pendergra.s.s asked, gently tapping Michael on the leg with his cane. Michael raised one brow and looked at me as if silently asking me if the old man didn't realize that he was addressing a man who had been on this earth, either living or undead, for a century.

I smiled, shook my head and shrugged.

"Yes sir," he said respectfully, a hint of amus.e.m.e.nt in his voice. Mr. Pendergra.s.s didn't seem to notice.

"You know of the Macgregor witches then?"

Michael's gaze jerked sharply to me. "They're nothing more than highland myths," he replied. Mr. Pendergra.s.s chuckled. "Like vampires? Allow me to introduce you to Dulcinea Macgregor Craven, a direct descendant of Rainy Macgregor and a woman who will have more power than even Rainy herself ever thought to possess."

"How do you know that?" Devlin asked.

"My lord, I'm a wizard myself and I've been supplying pract.i.tioners of The Craft for nearly as long as this one," he gestured again to Michael with his staff, "has been a vampire. I know witches and I know power when I see it. She hasn't learned to control what she possesses yet but she will and when she harnesses her power... well," he looked meaningfully at Devlin.

"So," Justine said, "this Montford, he doesn't want her as a woman, his master wants her power."

"Oh Montford wants her all right," Mr. Pendergra.s.s said, "and my guess is that's why the master chose him."

"If the master wants me so badly why doesn't he come for me himself?" I asked. "Why involve Sebastian at all?"

Devlin got up and paced the room. "To be able to control a vampire you've created requires great power, power that only comes with age. I am four hundred sixty-two years old and nowhere close to being able to do that. The vampire we seek is well over a thousand. It could be that he is simply enjoying the drama."

"So Sebastian died because some crusty old vampire is bored?" I asked, incredulously. Sebastian and I had been friends as children but he'd changed after he went off to Eton. I didn't care much for him as a person after that but I'd never wished him harm either.

Mr. Pendergra.s.s waved his cane. "Montford is irrelevant. This master vampire, if he managed to turn her, would he be able to control her like he does Montford? To harness her power?"

"Perhaps control was the wrong word," Devlin said. "To my knowledge even an ancient cannot control another vampire. We have free will. He could merge with her, get inside her head and use her power but only if she allowed it. No, my guess is that the master doesn't want to turn her, he wants her alive."

I brightened some at that. "He doesn't want to make me a vampire?"

Devlin shook his head. "I have never heard of a human witch being turned. I'm not even certain that you would retain your magic or if it would die with your human body. I doubt the master is certain either. No, he would keep you alive so that he could be sure of your power and his control over you. Trust me though when I say that death would be preferable to living like that. If you followed Montford's call and they took you, they could feed on you night after night, never killing you but keeping you in thrall to them. You would be like an opium addict, a sh.e.l.l of yourself and completely in their control. As a human you are weak but as a vampire you would be strong and immune to any compulsion the master could create. They would be fools to turn you."

"Will you help me then?" I asked softly.

Devlin looked at Justine and then at Michael.

"You cannot even think to leave her, Devlin," Michael said.

"You've never fought a vampire this old, Michael," he said. "It won't be pretty."

Michael threw him a look of contempt.

Devlin turned to Justine. I didn't recognize the look she gave him but apparently he did. He sighed. "So be it."

He leaned down and kissed one of her silk clad shoulders. "Go and change, my sweet. We hunt tonight."

The entire company stood as she rose."Mon amie," she said to me, "perhaps you would be so good as to lend me a change of clothing? This dress, it is pretty but not much good to fight in."

"Of course," I replied, "if you gentlemen will excuse us?"

Devlin rose. "We have a carriage out front. May we use your stable for the horses?"

"Certainly," I said. "Oh, no. You can't go in there. Mr. Pendergra.s.s laid a protection spell on the stable."

Devlin arched a brow at me.

"I love my horse, my lord. Sebastian knows me well enough to know that."

"I'll go with him," Archie said, "if he promises to keep his teeth to himself."

Devlin laughed. "My solemn oath."

The two departed. Justine stood waiting for me. I wasn't sure about leaving Mr. Pendergra.s.s alone with Michael. It occurred to me that the vampires had just effectively split us all up. Was it a trap? I supposed that there wasn't much I could do but trust them and hope it didn't cost us all our lives. It made my head pound just to think of all the ways this could go wrong.

As I walked across the foyer with Justine I asked her what she would require in the way of clothing.

She laughed. "I need only a man's shirt, if you have one to spare." She stopped at the bottom of the stairs, placing one foot on the second step and raising the hem of the deep purple silk skirt. Underneath the skirt and one petticoat she wore boots and breeches similar to Michael's. "So sensible and yet Devlin will not allow me to wear them in public, only when we hunt."

I had to agree with Devlin. The thought of the riot that Justine would create walking around London in breeches and thigh-high boots was mind boggling.

"Justine," I said as we climbed the stairs, "Devlin said something in there about vampire powers, about 'compulsion'. Do all vampires have these powers?"

I was thinking of Michael and the way I reacted to him, the way my body felt when he was near. Surely it was some kind of spell.

I'd met many handsome men in my life, well maybe none quite as handsome as the vampire in my drawing room, but I had never reacted to any of them like this. Yes, it was definitely some kind of vampiric power.

"Older vampires, not one as young as this Montford, can bespell you with their eyes. We can make you dazed, almost comatose so that we can feed and you won't remember it later. Only the true ancients acquire more varied powers, like calling to a human after they have fed from them as this one calls to you."

"But Michael, he's younger than you are. He doesn't have any other kinds of powers?"

She stopped on the landing.

"What is it you are asking, mon amie?"

I blushed and looked away. "It's just that he makes me feel... things and I don't even know him and he's a vampire and yet all I can think about is..." I left it there before I said anything more embarra.s.sing. "I thought maybe it was some kind of spell or some part of a vampire's power."

She leaned against the wall and laughed.

I threw my hands in the air. "Forget it," I muttered and turned away. The throbbing in my head was getting worse by the second. It now felt as if needles were piercing my skull.She grabbed my arm and it was like a steel band shackling my wrist.

"Non, forgive me. It has been so long since I was young and innocent, if I ever was innocent, that I had forgotten," she made some vague motion with her hand. "Our Michael, he is handsome, no?" With her French accent Michael came out more like Meesh.e.l.l.

Surely by now my face was as red as my hair. She shrugged in a completely French way.

"It is to be expected. Vampires are generally a race of beautiful creatures," she said, "physically at least. You see, when you create another vampire it is usually for companionship and you would not want to look at an ugly lover for eternity, n'est-ce pas? Michael, his beauty was sheer luck. Devlin made him because he admired Michael's skill with the sword, not because of his skill in bed. But to answer your question, no, Michael has no power over you except that of a handsome man. What you feel is not vampire power or a spell," she said with a sly smile, "it is sheer human l.u.s.t."

Perfect.

I could count only two men in my life I had been physically attracted to. There was the footman when I was sixteen and when I was eighteen there was Lord Beecham. Lord Beecham was a horrible womanizer. I remember my mother actually laughed in my face when I asked her if she thought he could be reformed. Now here was Michael and he wasn't even alive! My taste in men just kept getting better and better.

I sighed. Well, there you have it. Obviously I am defective in some way.

Come to me. Dulcie... come come come...

"No," I said, pressing my hands to my head.

"Mon amie, it is nothing to be ashamed of," Justine said, confused.

"No, no, no." I dropped to my knees and reached out to her.

"It is him, no? Montford?" she said, grasping me by the shoulders. "Michael! Quickly! Vite!"

Come to me, come to me, come to me, he called.

And I screamed.

Chapter Ten

The next thing I knew I was laying on the landing with Michael leaning over me, concern etched on his face. And then all h.e.l.l broke loose.

"Get away from her!" I heard and craned my neck to see Mrs. Mackenzie on the stairs, the bottle of Holy Water in her hand, her arm drawn back as if to fling it on the vampires. Fiona stood behind her with a rather large, ornately wrought gold cross. I had no idea where that had come from. I groaned in frustration. Did none of these people know how to stay put?

"La.s.sie," Michael said slowly, "tell her we aren't hurting you."

"Oh no," Mrs. Mac said, stepping one step closer, "No mind tricks, vampire. I told her this was a foolish idea."

Mr. Pendergra.s.s thumped his staff on the bottom step. "Mrs. Mackenzie, he's not harming her, I a.s.sure you."

She looked skeptically at me. "Then why was she screaming?"

"Sebastian," I said. "He's back. They're only trying to help, Mrs. Mac. Please."

"Oh, baby," she said, thrusting the Holy Water at Fiona and kneeling down beside me. "Is it the same as last time?"

"Yes," I said, "he's close. Oh G.o.ds! Devlin and Archie, they're out there at the stable all alone. What if he comes?"

Justine snorted. "He would be a fool to tangle with Devlin but I will go warn them just the same. Mon ami, take care of her."