Cora's Secret: A Vampire Ménage Urban Fantasy Romance (8 page)

Aithan was studying her closely. She scowled at him. “
What
?”

“You’re very beautiful.”

Cora rolled her eyes. “Of course you would have to say that.” Sometime during the night, when she hadn’t been thinking of him at all—or the damn kiss—the part of her brain that went on figuring things out in the background had supplied her with the answer. She knew what he was.

“I don’t have to say anything at all,” he replied. “But I wanted to.”

“Why does he have to?” Rhys demanded.

Cora grimaced. “He’s an incubus.” She looked at Rhys. “I’m surprised he didn’t try to hit on you, if you were in his company for more than a minute or two.”

Rhys’ jaw dropped. “An
incubus?
You mean, demons and stuff?”

“That’s what the vampire means,” Aithan said dryly.

Horror spilled through her and Cora took a step toward him. “You
dare
speak that aloud. Who gave you the right?”

Aithan turned to face her, his arms dropping.

Rhys was suddenly there between them, pushing them both back with his hands. “Calm down.” His voice was flat and hard with authority. “Both of you back off. Right now.”

Cora didn’t move. Fury was making her bones ache. She glared at Aithan and he stared back calmly. He had the sort of eyes that, if she wasn’t so angry, she would find almost mesmerizing.

“I
mean
it,” Rhys added. “Move away. There are too many questions to be answered before you two can go at each other freely. Something has been hunting folk in my city and I think we just met them in person, out there at the fire tower. So I want you to be civil until I get my answers.”

Cora made herself move back even though she really wanted to grab Aithan by the neck and maybe tear his throat out.

Aithan didn’t seem to feel threatened at all. He took a step back to match hers, so there was four feet of carpet between them.

Rhys pushed a hand through his unruly hair. “Thank you,” he said flatly. “Now, Aithan…you’re really an incubus?”

Cora stared at him. Rhys asked the question like he might ask a human if they were really Caucasian, or really left-handed. There wasn’t any of the usual incredulity or flat refusal to believe that she had encountered in other humans.

Aithan let out a deep breath. “Does it matter?”

“Yes, he’s an incubus,” Cora said. “He seduces humans. That’s how he feeds. He has to have sex or he dies.”

Aithan’s gaze met hers. “You have to have blood, or you die. Which of us is the more evil? You tear people’s necks open.”

Cora felt another little jump of shock at someone speaking so baldly and so openly about her nature. She couldn’t help glancing at Rhys to see how he was taking it.

He gave a tiny shrug. “I already knew,” he said quietly.

Cora’s jaw unhinged. “You
knew
?” Of all the surprises she had been handed in the last hour, this was the largest. The hardest to accept. The thick weight was back in her chest and her guts swirled in a vaguely nauseas way. “But…you never said anything, you never even gave a hint.”

Again, the tiny shrug. “I figured it was your secret. One day, I thought you might trust me enough to tell me. So I waited.”

Aithan smiled. “The sacrifices of true love.”

Rhys’ gaze dropped away from her suddenly. He glanced at Aithan. “If you use sex for food, then I’d say you’re the last one who gets to judge human relationships.”

“You don’t think three hundred years of relating to humans in the most intimate way possible doesn’t make me an expert?”

“He’s a philosopher, too,” Cora said dryly.

“Harvard and Cambridge,” Aithan said. “And a third doctorate from Stanford, but most philosophers don’t think that counts.”

“You’re shitting me,” Rhys said, staring at him.

Cora realized she was staring, too. She had been joking, but Aithan’s response was startling. Then her time sense nudged her. “We should move out of the way.” The ten minutes the blond man—Luke—had said he would be gone were just about up. “Leave room in the middle of the floor.”

They all backed up. Rhys sat on the arm of the wingchair next to the lamp and Aithan put his back against the counter once more.

“How much longer?” Rhys asked her.

Luke appeared in the middle of the floor where they had been standing. He had his arms around a woman with spectacular red hair that hung past her waist and emerald green eyes that sized up everyone quickly. She stepped away from Luke and glanced at him.

“Cora, Aithan and Rhys,” Luke said, pointing them out to her. “Everyone, this is Seaveth, the leader of the war against the Grimoré. Seaveth will be able to answer every question you could possibly think of.”

There was a little glitter of gold above his head, then a small breeze pushed at his hair over one shoulder. A tiny face peered out from around the edge of his ear.

“And this is Ferr,” Lindal added.

Seaveth was an amazing woman for a human, Cora decided. The redhead sat in the kitchen chair with her legs crossed, her hands in her lap and answered every question as promised, while everyone else ate Cora’s fresh bread, honey and preserves, gulping it down like they hadn’t eaten in months.

Because Cora was aligned with the Blackarcher vampire clan that operated out of Toronto, she was aware that the New York clan—the Earthwing Clan—were leading the war against the Grimoré, trying to fulfill the Seaveth prophecies and defeat the Grimoré with their trinities. But it was news to Cora that the trinities didn’t stop at just three.

Aithan knew of the war, too. Demons were known allies of the Grimoré, but when Lindal pointed that out, Aithan gave him a small smile. “The entire race did not sign up. We choose for ourselves. Tell me there have never been any corrupt or rebellious Elves.”

Lindal stared at him, a fine line between his brows.

“Yes, of course,” Aithan said, as if he had answered. “You were a rebel yourself.” He gave a small smile and went back to leaning against the counter, his arms crossed. Of everyone in the room, he seemed to be the calmest.

Rhys seem to be having a hard time accepting anything they said. He was gripping the glass that Cora had given him, his knuckles white. “Yes, but how do you know that we three are the next trinity?” he demanded of Seaveth.

Luke—
Lindal
, Cora mentally corrected herself—answered for Seaveth. “You already know you are. Consider the strange things that have happened lately. The vampeen. Ferr.”

The little pixie, who was standing on the gleaming wood surface of the dining table, gave a little chirrup and a bow.

But Lindal didn’t smile. He was watching Rhys. “You read my mind last night. At the diner.”

Rhys lift his head to look at Lindal. His expression was wounded, like Luke had betrayed him by speaking of such things.

“There’s more,” Seaveth added. “All of you will discover changes. You might be faster. Stronger. Your senses more acute. Aithan, Cora, you might find you develop human characteristics.”

Cora swallowed and looked down at her hands. She was sitting at the other end of the table from where Seaveth sat and Lindal stood, with his hand on the back of Seaveth’s chair. Sometimes Lindal’s hand rested on her shoulder. Cora guessed he wasn’t aware that he was constantly touching her. It had to be an Elvish thing. Or perhaps it was a result of their bonding.

Rhys stood up. “I don’t like this,” he said flatly.

Hear, hear
, Cora added silently.

“You’re asking us to take your word for it that we’re…what? Predestined to…to be together,” Rhys added.

“To be a trinity,” Seaveth. “I’m curious, Rhys. Most humans have a hard time accepting the idea of supernaturals like vampires and elves—”

Ferr trilled.

“And pixies,” Seaveth added, “but you took all that in your stride and have moved on to objections about the trinity itself.”

Rhys scrubbed at his hair awkwardly. “I knew Coralee was a vampire, a long time ago.”

“It didn’t seem to bother you even then. You kept the fact to yourself,” Seaveth pointed out.

He gave a shrug. “My mother was fae and she said my grandmother was, too. I know she wasn’t delusional. I
saw
things. I watched her whistle up a storm one day because she felt the weather was too dry for the gardens.” He glanced at Cora and she thought she could see something resembling apology in his glance. “So when I figured out Cora was a vampire, it wasn’t such a long step for me.”

“How did you work out what I am?” Cora asked.

“You don’t sleep. You don’t eat. You don’t change, not even the length of your hair.” He seemed to be even more embarrassed. “I saw your fangs, once. You hid them and a normal guy might have missed it but by then I was already starting to wonder if you were exactly human. That proved to me you weren’t.”

“They’re incisors.” Cora could feel her cheeks heating with real, genuine embarrassment, something she hadn’t felt in a very long time.

“He’s been watching you,” Aithan said. “Closely.”

Cora looked down at her hands again, uncomfortable.

“You three will have to work many things out between you,” Seaveth said, her voice firm. “Rhys, I’m sorry, but the trinity isn’t something you can ignore. The trinities are real and they are powerful. They don’t give you any choice—you’re right about that. But whatever force it is that arranges these things often seems to be benign, even thoughtful. You will find that the bond provides compensations you can’t anticipate or even understand right now.”

“And if I don’t want to do this?” Rhys asked.

“You can try to walk away,” Seaveth replied. “The last trinity to form before yours tried it. They separated for three days, determined to end the trinity. They failed.”

“The compulsion is so strong,” Lindal added. “The bond itself influences your feelings, your emotions, your thoughts…even love itself. We don’t know what would happen if you chose to ignore it for a long time.”

“I imagine you’d go mad,” Aithan said. His tone was dry.

“That is our theory, yes,” Seaveth said.

The room was silent while Rhys mulled that over and Aithan watched him. Cora gripped her hands together, staying silent, waiting for Rhys to protest once more.

Instead, he sighed. “As you say, we have some things to figure out.”

“Of course you do,” Seaveth said, getting to her feet. “This is life-changing. I won’t pretend it is anything less.” She gave them all a lovely smile. “And now I must warn you that on top of everything else you’re about to deal with, the Grimoré will try to stop your trinity from forming. They have become creative in the last two years in their efforts to halt the trinities.” She glanced at Lindal. “Would you mind?”

Lindal lifted his shirt with both hands, exposing his chest and abdomen. The flesh was a patchwork of scars, still pink and fresh.

Cora winced.

“Vampeen?” Rhys asked, his voice low.

“Even after your trinity forms,” Seaveth said, “they will still try to destroy you. You have already become a target for them.”

“Oh. Joy,”Aithan said.

“My advice is to avoid moving about in the open as much as possible. You’re vulnerable until the bond is formed and your full abilities develop.” Seaveth gave a small smile. “Don’t feel that you are being singled out. The trinities are not their only target. The Grimoré are recruiting allies among supernaturals. Gargoyles, furies, demons…we suspect they may even have a genie among their ranks now.”

Aithan’s brows came together, the first time he had shown any emotion at all since Seaveth had begun speaking. “Not
all
demons,” he said quietly.

“No, not all,” Seaveth agreed. “Like many of the supernaturals, demons are facing a civil war among their number, as individuals chose sides. The Grimoré are holding, watching species annihilate themselves with no effort required by them.” She looked at Rhys. “Your missing people were taken by the vampeen. I’m sure you’ve made that connection already.”

Rhys nodded.

“It’s possible there is a clan of gargoyles in the area, too. One of our hunters tracked a gargoyle just a mile north of the Canadian border, a few weeks ago. Humans are food for them, too.”

Rhys swallowed.

“It’s a lot to take in,” Seaveth said, “but your instincts to protect the people in your county will help you make the adjustment. We’re doing what you have been doing, only on a bigger scale.”

Then she glanced up at Lindal. Her smile turned warm and her expression changed to a soft, intimate one. Lindal put his arm around her waist. It was a private moment, a glimpse at the bond between them.

“I’ll take Seaveth back to New York,” Lindal said, “then I’ll be in my room at Ginny’s house. You know how to contact me. How to contact any of us, especially Seaveth.”

Seaveth glanced at Cora.
You alone can reach me this way.

Cora blinked, absorbing this new fact.
I can talk to you?

Yes
. Warm regard touched her, making her feel young for a moment, a sensation that was novel.