Morrigan's Cross - Circle Trilogy 1 Part 40

"I know what you thought. Why shouldn't you?"

"Because I should have trusted you. I've said we aren't a unit, but I didn't understand I'm as much to blame for that as any. I didn't trust you. I thought you'd kill me, but you chose to save me."

"You're wrong. I chose to save him."

"Cian." She stepped toward him. "I caused this. I can't-"

"You didn't, no. You didn't kill him, you didn't change him. Lilith did. And sent him here to die once more. He was new, and not yet used to his skin. Injured as well. He couldn't have taken all of us, and she knew it."

"She knew what you would do." Hoyt moved to his brother's side, laid a hand on his shoulder. "And what it would cost you."

"In her way, she couldn't lose. So she'd think. I don't kill him, he takes at least one of you-maybe the lot if I turn. If I go the other way, destroy him, it costs me... oh quite a bit, quite a lot indeed."

"The death of a friend," Larkin began, "is a hard death. We all feel it."

"I believe you do." He looked down to where Moira still knelt on the floor. "But it comes to me first because he was mine first. She did this to him not because of you," he said to Glenna. "But because of me. I could've blamed you, and did, if she'd just killed him. Clean. But for this, it's not yours. It's hers and it's mine."

He walked over to pick up the stake he used, studied the killing point. "And when it comes time, when we face her, she's mine. If any of you step up to do the killing blow, I'll stop you. So you see, she miscalculated. I owe her for this, and I'll give her death for it."

Now, he picked up the sword. "We train tonight."

She trained, going one-on-one with Larkin, sword to sword. Cian had paired Moira with Hoyt, and stood back, or moved around them as steel clashed. He called out insults, which Glenna a.s.sumed was his style of motivation.

Her arm ached, and her still tender ribs throbbed. While sweat dribbled down her back, into her eyes, she continued to push. The pain, the effort, helped block out the image of King in the kitchen, moving toward her with fangs ready.

"Keep your arm up," Cian shouted at her.

"If you can't hold a s.h.a.gging sword properly you won't last five minutes. And stop dancing with her, for Christ's sake, Larkin. This isn't a b.l.o.o.d.y nightclub."

"She isn't fully healed," Larkin snapped back. "And what the h.e.l.l's a nightclub?"

"I need to stop." Moira lowered her sword, wiped her sweaty brow with the back of her free hand. "Rest for a moment."

"You don't." Cian spun toward her. "Do you think you're doing her a favor, asking to rest? Do you think they'll be agreeable to a b.l.o.o.d.y time out just because your pal here needs to catch her breath?"

"I'm fine. There's no need to snap at her."

Glenna struggled to catch her breath, to will some strength back into her legs. "I'm fine. Stop holding back," she told Larkin. "I don't need to be coddled."

"She needs to be looked at." Hoyt gestured Larkin back. "It's too soon for her to train like this."

"That isn't for you to say," Cian pointed out. "I am saying it. She's exhausted, and she's in pain. And that's enough."

"I said I'm fine, and can speak for myself.

Which, though he enjoys being a b.a.s.t.a.r.d, is what your brother pointed out. I don't need or want you to speak for me."

"Then you'll have to grow accustomed to it, because so I will when you need it."

"I know what I need and when I need it."

"Maybe the two of you will just talk the enemy to death," Cian said dryly.

Out of patience, Glenna thrust at Cian with her sword. "Come on. Come on then, you and me. You won't hold back."

"No." He tapped his blade to hers. "I won't."

"I said enough." Hoyt slashed his sword between them, and his fury sent a ripple of fire down the steel.

"Which one of us would you like to take on?" Now Cian's tone was like silk. And his eyes darkened with a dangerous pleasure when Hoyt pivoted toward him.

"Should be interesting," Larkin said, but his cousin stepped in. "Wait," she said. "Just wait. We're upset, all of us. Tired out, and overheated like horses at too long a gallop on top of it. It serves no purpose to hurt each other. If we won't rest, then at least, let's have the doors open. Have some air."

"You want the doors open?" Everything about him suddenly genial, Cian c.o.c.ked his head. "A bit of air's what you're wanting? Sure we'll have ourselves some fresh air."

He strode to the terrace doors, threw them open. Then in a move fast as a fingersnap, reached out into the dark. "Come in, won't you?" he said and yanked a pair of vampires through the doorway.

"Plenty to eat here." He wandered to the table as both of them leaped up, drew swords.

With the tip of his own he speared an apple from the bowl. Then leaned back against the wall, plucking it off to have a bite.

"Let's see what you can do with them," he suggested. "It's two against one, after all. You may just have a shot at surviving."

Hoyt pivoted, instinctively putting Glenna behind him. Larkin was already moving in, flashing his sword. His opponent blocked the slash easily, punched out with its free hand and sent Larkin flying halfway across the room.

It turned, rushed Moira. The first strike hit her sword, and the force knocked her down, sent her skidding over the floor. She groped desperately for her stake as it flew-seemed to fly-through the air toward her.

Glenna buried her terror, dug out her fury.

She shot her power out-the first learned, the last lost-and brought the fire. The vampire burst into flames midair.

"Nicely done, Red," Cian commented, and watched his brother battle for his life.

"Help him. Help me."

"Why don't you?"

"They're too close to risk the fire."

"Try this." He tossed her a stake, took another bite of apple.

She didn't think, couldn't think, as she ran forward. As she plunged the stake into the back of the vampire who'd beaten Hoyt to his knees.

And missed the heart.

It howled, but there seemed to be more pleasure than pain in it. It turned, lifted its sword high. Both Moira and Larkin charged, but Glenna saw her death. They were too far away, and she had nothing left.

Then Hoyt sliced his sword through its neck. Blood splattered her face before there was dust. "Fairly pitiful, but effective enough all in all." Cian wiped his hands. "Now pair off.

Playtime's over."

"You knew they were out there." Moira's hand, still holding the stake, trembled. "You knew."

"Well, of course, I knew they were out there. If you'd use your brains, or at least some of your senses, you'd have known it as well."

"You'd have let them kill us."

"More to the point, you nearly let them kill you. You." He gestured at Moira. "Stood there, letting the fear soak you, scent you. You."

And now Larkin. "You charged in without using your head, and nearly lost it for the trouble. As for you," he said to Hoyt. "Protecting the womenfolk may be chivalrous, but you'll both die-with your honor intact, of course. While Red, at least, used her head initially-and the power your b.l.o.o.d.y G.o.ds gave her-she then fell apart, and stood meekly waiting to be dead."

He stepped forward. "So, we'll work on your weaknesses. Which are legion."

"I've had enough." Glenna's voice was hardly more than a whisper. "Enough of blood and death, enough for one night. Enough." She dropped the stake and walked out.

"Leave her be." Cian waved a hand when Hoyt turned to follow. "For Christ's sake, an ounce of brain would tell you she wants only her own company-and a strong, dramatic exit like that deserves to stand. Let her have it."

"He's right." Moira spoke quickly. "As much as it pains me to say it. She needs the quiet." She walked over to pick up the sword that had been knocked out of her hand.

"Weaknesses." She nodded her head, faced Cian. "Very well then. Show me."

Chapter 18

Hoyt expected to find her in bed when he came in. He'd hoped she'd be sleeping, so that he could put her under more deeply and work on her injuries.

But she was standing by the window in the dark.

"Don't turn on the light," she said with her back to him. "Cian was right, there are more outside still. If you pay attention, you can sense them. They move like shadows, but there's movement-more a sense of movement. They'll go soon, I think. To whatever hole they burrow in during the day."

"You should rest."

"I know you say that because you're concerned, and I'm calm enough now not to take your head off for it. I know I behaved poorly upstairs. I don't really care."

"You're tired, as I am. I want to wash, and I want to sleep."

"You have your own room. And that was uncalled for," she continued before he could speak. Now she turned. Her face seemed very pale in the dark, pale against the dark robe she wore. "I'm not as calm as I thought. You had no right, no right, to stand in front of me up there."

"Every right. Love gives me the right.

And even without that, if a man doesn't shield a woman from harm-"

"Stop right there." She held up a hand, palm out, as if to block his words. "This isn't about men and women. It's about humans. The seconds you took to think of me, to worry for me could have cost you your life. We can't spare it, neither of us. Any of us. If you don't trust that I can defend myself-that all of us can, we're nowhere."

That her words made sense didn't matter a whit as far as he was concerned. He could still see the way that monster had leaped on her.

"And where would you be if I hadn't destroyed that thing?"

"Different. A different matter." She moved closer now so that he could scent her, the lotions she used on her skin. So utterly female.

"This is foolishness, and a waste of time."

"It's not foolish to me, so listen up.

Fighting with and protecting fellow soldiers is one thing, a vital thing. We all have to be able to count on each other. But to brush me back from battle is another. You have to understand and accept the difference." "How can I, when it's you, Glenna? If I lost you-"

"Hoyt." She gripped his arms, a kind of impatient comfort. "Any or all of us might die in this. I'm fighting to understand and accept that.

But if you die, I won't live with the responsibility of knowing it was for me. I won't do it."

She sat on the side of the bed. "I killed tonight. I know how it feels to end something.

To use my power to do that, something I never thought I'd do, need to do." She held out her hands to study them. "I did it to save another human being, and still it weighs on me. I know that if I'd done it with stake or sword I'd accept it more easily. But I used magic to destroy."

She lifted her face to his, and the sorrow was deep in her eyes. "This gift was always so bright, and now there's a darkness in it. I have to understand and accept that, too. And you have to let me."

"I accept your power, Glenna, and what you can and will do with it. I think all of us would be better served by it if you worked solely on the magicks."

"And left the b.l.o.o.d.y work to you? Off the front line, out of harm's way, stirring my cauldron?"

"Twice this night I nearly lost you. So you'll do as I say." It took a moment to find her voice. "Well, in a pig's eye. Twice this night I faced death, and I survived."

"We'll discuss this further tomorrow."

"Oh no, oh no, we won't." She flicked out a hand, slammed the door to the bathroom inches before he reached it.

He whirled back, a man obviously at the end of his tether. "Don't slap your power out at me."

"Don't slap your manhood out at me. And that didn't come out the way I meant it."

Because there was laughter tickling the back of her throat right along with the temper, she took a breath. "I won't snap to, Hoyt, when you order it, any more than I expect you will for me. You were frightened for me, and oh boy, do I understand that, because I was frightened for me. And for you, for all of us. But we have to get past it."

"How?" he demanded. "How is that done?

This love is new for me, this need and this terror that goes with it. When we were called for this, I thought it would be the hardest thing I'd ever done. But I was wrong. Loving you is harder, loving you and knowing I could lose you."

All of her life, she thought, she'd waited to be loved like this. What human didn't? "I never knew I could feel so completely for anyone. This is new for me, too, hard and scary and new. And I wish I could say you won't lose me. I wish I could. But I know the stronger I am, the better chance I have of staying alive. The stronger each one of us is, the better chance we have of surviving this. Of winning."