As Shadows Fade (27 page)

Sebastian had a sudden mental image of how that body would appear naked, and he swallowed hard. He hoped to God Pesaro had never been faced with such a sight. But, he realized, it was an unlikely hope. Dear God.

“As I said, it would benefit both of us.”

“And so you expect I might simply give you the rings, and allow you to rush out and save the world?”

“It would save you from losing more of your followers—at least to the demons. After all,” Pesaro added with a lift of his chin, “we dispatched quite a few of them in Prague only last week. Your numbers are growing fewer.”

Lilith paced, her gown swirling, her gaze continuing to return to Max, and then skittering quickly over to Sebastian and Michalas. The very touch of her attention on Sebastian sent a disgusting chill over his body, and he wondered again how Max had become so inured to her.

“And what of
Summa
Gardella?”

Pesaro remained silent.

Sebastian felt Lilith's rising frustration, and he glanced at Pesaro. Max had made it clear to him and Michalas they were to allow things to unfold as they would without interfering.

Lilith walked toward Pesaro again, reaching for his arm. This time, she seemed prepared for him to react, and he moved easily to block her reach. They faced each other for a moment, ironically, like lovers whose embrace had been thwarted, and then Lilith stepped back.

“I'll give you the rings…but I want something in exchange.”

“The safety of your race will be your prize. We'll take the risks, fight the battle. You need do nothing but watch.”

Lilith laughed, a low, knowing one. “Very nice try, Maximilian. You know what I want.”

A beat of silence. Sebastian felt tension lift in the room.

“And if I refuse?” Max said quietly.

“Then you must find another way to free the orb from the enchanted pool. And while you search, and that fairy-headed angel studies book after book, writ after writ…and while you try new ways to breach the glass of that pool…more and more demons will slip free…and well, now, Maximilian, we both know what would happen then. Your lovely
Summa
Gardella will fight and fight, but the demons will simply keep coming until she dies. Oh, yes, and many others of your race will perish as well. We cannot forget that.”

Sebastian couldn't remember ever feeling such loathing, such deep disgust. She was playing them, of course. He looked around the room again, in vain, for something that could be used as a weapon against her. Nothing but the cross around his neck—which would hold Lilith off for perhaps a minute or two—and two small vials of holy water inside the hem of his trousers.

Damn Pesaro and his blasted leadership and negotiation. They weren't going to get what they wanted, and the three of them had little means to fight against Lilith and her guards. Even if somehow they succeeded, then they'd have to actually find the rings.

Not the best odds.

“So what will it be, Maximilian my pet?”

“Yet another impossible choice you offer me.”

“Come now, my dear. It won't be so terrible.”

“I do believe it would, in fact.”

Lilith laughed. “Again, how you delight me. That lovely mix of pleasure and pain, arrogance and sensuality. How I've missed it.” Then she sobered, that cunning look slanting her eyes again. “And if you refuse, and you leave here…Of course, I'll let you leave, my dear. I find the hunt a good part of the fun, you know. And now that I know you're truly worth hunting again…”

She turned and paced back to her chaise, settling on it once again like a princess who was about to receive a great gift. “If you leave without the means to close the portal, you know what awaits the world. Your race. You won't be able to beat them back, of course. And…don't forget your
Summa
Gardella. She'd be in the very middle of it all, wouldn't she?”

“You'd part with the rings, then.”

“You know I would. As you say, it would be to my benefit. In several ways. You, my pet, for eternity…in exchange for the rings.”

Pesaro nodded then, a sharp acquiescence, and it was at that moment Sebastian realized this had been his plan all along. He'd known he'd never leave, but that he'd need to bargain himself for the two rings.

Sebastian opened his mouth to protest, but Max seemed to know, and he turned to silence him.

“As you wish,” said Lilith with distorted kindness. “One moment while I retrieve them for you.” She stood with another dramatic sweep of silk and beckoned to a pair of guards, standing in the dark corner. She then moved over to what appeared to be a plain stone wall. But she spoke in an ancient tongue and moved her hand over it. A small door appeared, through which she stepped.

Moments later, she returned, closing the door, which again melded so well into the designs on the wall Sebastian wasn't certain he'd be able to find it again, even though he'd just seen it open. They would never have recovered the rings by themselves.

But now that they had them, surely Pesaro intended for them to fight their way out?

As Lilith approached Sebastian, offering the two copper rings, he saw the pair of Guardian vampires move toward Pesaro. As Sebastian took the rings from Lilith, he heard the dull clank of metal. Turning, he saw the heavy bands as they were fastened about Max's wrists.

He realized belatedly there was no way to fight out of the room. They were outnumbered by four Guardians, plus Lilith. They had no weapons, nothing to use for them. And if they tried and failed, the rings would stay…and so would they. Either as corpses or guests of the vampire queen.

Neither of which appealed to Sebastian.

As if reading his mind, Pesaro looked at him as the two Guardians pulled him by the chains. “Take the rings. Go. Close the portal. There is no other way.”

+ Seventeen +

In Which Sebastian Exercises Unusual Prudence

Victoria couldn't breathe.

“Where's Max?” she asked again. She tried to keep her voice calm. She was sure she succeeded. It was a simple question. It should have a simple answer.
He's coming. He's just around the bend. He'll be along in a moment.

Sebastian took her arm, turning her to face him, away from the road on which he and Michalas had just ridden in. “Victoria,” he said, his voice sharp, “he obtained the rings for us. We have the last two rings. He stayed.” He spoke clearly, slowly, and she wondered vaguely how many times she'd already asked, and how many times he'd replied.

He stayed.

Victoria closed her eyes and crossed her arms tightly across her churning belly.
No. Nononononooo.

“We have the rings,” Michalas said in a gentler voice. “Lilith gave them up.”

But she
kept Max.

“We—I—have to go after him,” she said, her head suddenly clearing. The cobwebs slipped off; the nausea filtered away. Confidence settled over her, and purpose.

This she could do. This was her duty, her task, her calling. She'd come face-to-face with Lilith before. Max must know she'd come after him. He'd planned it this way.

Though her fingers trembled, she drew herself up regally and looked at each of the men in turn. “Michalas, you know the way to her lair now. You can lead me there, and I'll find a way in.” She turned to Sebastian, who'd opened his mouth to argue. “I know we have the five rings. You and Brim can go and retrieve the orb while I free Max.”

“We have guests,” Sebastian said, his thick blond hair riffled by a breeze. He'd not stopped looking at her, a mixture of pity and understanding in his gaze. “Lilith sent some of her own to assist.”

Victoria turned and saw three heavily cloaked figures standing in the shadow of the small inn where she and Brim had rested. That explained the chill at the back of her neck, the sensation she'd barely acknowledged when she realized Max was not with Michalas and Sebastian. Every other thought had fallen away when she realized he wasn't there.

Now she accepted the presence of vampires, well covered to protect themselves from the lowering sun.

“They're to return the rings to her when we've finished with them,” Sebastian told her.

A sizzle of relief tickled her. “And Lilith will release Max then? She's holding him only as a hostage?”

He shook his head. “That wasn't part of the arrangement.”

Her stomach pitched again. “Then it will be as I said. Michalas and I will go to free Max, and you'll go to the enchanted pool.”

Sebastian drew in his breath to speak, but Victoria turned away and approached the vampires. They stood in a tight cluster, careful not to allow any part of their flesh to be exposed to the sun. Under their heavy black hoods, two of them looked at her with red-violet eyes, and the third with ruby-pink irises. She saw the gleam of a sword falling from the invisible hand of one of the purple-eyed ones. Two Imperials and a Guardian.

Victoria felt a little chill up her spine. “I am Victoria Gardella,” she told them.

“We know who you are,” replied the tallest of the three, who happened to be a female Imperial. The sword she held, the Imperial weapon of choice, shifted menacingly against the side of her cloak. “I am called Mercy because I show none. Lilith sends a message to you.”

Victoria inclined her head to accept the message.

“We three are to take you to the enchanted pool, and then to lead you to the Midiverse Portal. We're to return unharmed immediately after with the rings. If we don't return within a week's time, Maximilian will suffer.”

“She'll release him when you return?”

The Imperial laughed. “No…Lilith merely promises not to torture him before she turns him undead.”

“Simply being in her presence is torture,” Victoria said, forcing the words from her dry mouth. “That is no guarantee. Nothing to keep me from turning you to dust at this moment.”

The Imperial shrugged, her sword brushing against the cloak of her companion. “So be it. If we three do not return with the rings in a week's time, you can be assured that she'll keep her word.”

Victoria firmed her lips and turned away. She had to get to him. The others could retrieve the orb. They could go to the Midiverse Portal. They didn't need her.

She couldn't leave Max here.

She had to go after him.

Without another word, Victoria turned and went inside the inn. Once in the small chamber she'd used to sleep in, she dug through the long leather bag in which she stored her weapons. She'd go in well armed and fight her way to Max.

She could have Michalas show her the entrance to the lair, and then he could go with the others. They would need the three of them, certainly, to fight the demons escaping from the portal, but they could do it.

She knew they could. They were Venators.

Max.

Victoria brushed angry, sharp tears from her eyes. How could he have done this? He had to have known what would happen.

How could he have left me?

They should have gone together.

A noise behind her drew her upright, and she dashed her hand across her eyes again before turning. Sebastian stood there, blocking the doorway.

“Victoria.”

“You can't stop me,” she said flatly. “Don't try. I have to go after him. He'd go after me.”

Sebastian nodded. “Of course he would want to. But you know Max, and how damn insufferable he is about doing the right thing. He'd rather suffer than be happy.”

“I don't know what you're trying to do, but you're not going to change my mind.”

He shook his head. “I'm not here to change your mind. He knew you'd go after him. He
knows
it. And of course you should, Victoria. I'd come after you. Always.”

Another blasted tear stung her eyes. Why now, why after two years of angst and fear and anger did she have to act like a watering pot every time something happened? Aunt Eustacia had never shed a tear.

“But I wanted to tell you what it was like in there,” Sebastian continued, walking into the room. “He was brilliant. I bloody well thought I'd never admit it aloud, but the man was brilliant. And strong. So damn strong. He was ahead of her every step of the way; he knew what she was going to say—and do—before she did it. He'd planned it all.”

“Why in God's name didn't you just kill her and get the rings and go?” Victoria burst out. “Why did he have to trade himself? Didn't he know what that would do to me?” She clamped her mouth shut, but her voice had already risen in a high-pitched wail.

“I wondered the same thing, but then I understood,” Sebastian said, almost gently. His amber eyes focused on her, a depth of seriousness she hadn't often seen within them. “There was no way to get the rings after she was dead. They were hidden in a little chamber. She touched the wall with her hand, and the door appeared as if from nowhere—some kind of magic, I think. We would never have found the chamber or the rings, and it would have all been for naught.”

“But after you got them,” she said desperately, “you could have attacked her and left with the rings. You didn't have to leave him
there
!”Now the tears exploded, to her great chagrin and shame, and she knuckled them furiously away.

He opened his mouth to speak, then seemed to think better of it and instead drew her into his arms. She allowed him to embrace her, to settle her head on his shoulder and to feel the familiar comfort of his body, the faint scent of cloves and tobacco. How many times had he done this for her? And this time…this time she knew he had no ulterior motive.

He meant only to give comfort. Dear Sebastian.

“Victoria,” he said, his voice rumbling in his chest against her ear, “he knew the risk. He was fully aware of the sacrifice he made.”

Sacrifice.

Damn Max. Why did he have to be so bloody noble?

“We had no weapons. There was no way to leave unless she allowed it. He knew that. He's been there before. He knew what he was doing, the risk. The sacrifice. There was no other way.”