Crimson Dawn (37 page)

"Let me guess. You planted all this lovely foliage that we're ass deep in."

Irulan poked her tongue out at me as she reached down and thrust her hand into the mess of vines. "You guessed right."

"So, what are you trying to keep safe?"

I felt the unmistakable shimmer of magic and Irulan straightened up with a smile on her face. The carpet of vines slowly receded into the earth revealing an old wooden door laid into the ground.

"My back door into the royal mound.” Irulan released a small burst of energy and the door evaporated. I watched as she slowly descended into the earth before stopping to look back at me.

"Well, are you coming, or what?"

I dismounted from Blaze and followed Irulan into the ground. As I descended a set of earthen stairs, I was surprised at what I found. Instead of the cold dampness that I was expecting, I found myself in a wide stone hallway. There were torches of green fire lining walls covered in mosaics.

I walked over to a wall and ran a hand across the intricate pattern of a man's bearded face. "These are amazing, Irulan. I've never seen anything quite like it."

Irulan reached past me and laid her hand over mine, pressing it into the wall. "Hi, Daddy," she said. "It's me. I know it's been awhile since I talked to you but I haven't been in the tunnels in decades. I want you to meet Valeria. She's someone special, and I'm sure you'd love her. She's my wife, Daddy."

She pulled away and moved farther down the corridor before I could question her. I spared one look back at Jesob's likeness before I followed her. She talked about her father even less than she did her mother, but the tone she used when she talked to his picture was void of the venom she reserved for Fredonia.

As much as I wanted to question her, I left it alone. It was a conversation for another time and place. "How far do we have to go before we reach the throne room?"

"That's a hard question to answer," Irulan said. "Remember when I said the door to Faerie changes according to need? Well, it's the same thing here in the mound. It anticipates and changes accordingly."

"Well that seems easy enough. Why don't we just stand still and wish for a door?"

Irulan frowned and took my hand as she stood up straighter and dropped her glamour. "It's not quite that easy, Valeria," she said in a rushed whisper. "Stand directly by my side and don't say a word."

I didn't have time to ask her what was going on. The wall beside us began to groan as the stone parted. When the opening was big enough, a single Tuatha male came through and cut off our path.

In spite of the nervousness, I felt coming off her, Irulan smiled. She let my hand go to hurry to his side. The intruding male frowned at me before turning his attention to her. The moment he laid his eyes on her, they lit up with familiarity and a broad smile erupted on his face.

"Fazion!" Irulan cried as she flung herself into his outstretched arms.

"Sister," he laughed, as he spun her around in a circle. He eased her to the ground and pulled her to his side. "It's been too long since I laid eyes on you, Irulan."

Irulan looked slightly embarrassed. "It's been less than ten months since I was here, Fazion."

"I don't care," he said in a voice that sounded straight out of the Tudors. "I'll never become accustomed to you living in Tir Nam Beo. I miss not seeing you every day. I have no one to chase girls with me, and Francesca's head is so far up her husband’s ass that she barely gets to spend more than two hours a day with me."

Irulan poked him in the side and laughed. "You are a grown man and the King of the Tuatha De Danann. One would think you could survive without us by now."

The family reunion was touching, and I hated to be rude, but I had places to go and people to see. Over five minutes had passed before I cleared my throat hoping to gain their attention. Caught up in their conversation, Irulan didn't hear me, but Fazion did, loud and clear.

I'll be damned if the obnoxious jerk didn't angle his body, so that both he and Irulan's backs were turned to me. To top it off, he looked back at me and curled his lip as if he was knee deep in cow manure and the smell was about to make him heave. I closed the distance between us, grabbed him by the shoulder, and spun him around. "Hold up, asshole!"

Irulan's face lit up with shock and anger. Good, she was about to let her tool of a cousin have it. To my utter amazement, she tightened her arm around Fazion's waist and scowled at me.

"Val, what in the hell is wrong with you? Do you not realize you just broke about fifteen rules of etiquette? Fazion's guards could lock you up for what you just did."

I couldn't believe my ears. This S.O.B was egging me on, and I'm the one chewed out for it? "Are you serious?" I demanded as I pointed an accusing finger in his direction. "He deliberately turned you away from me, so you couldn't see I was trying to get your attention, and then he looked at me as if I were a leper or something worse. He had it coming."

Through the years, I never had any reason to doubt Irulan's willingness to stand up for me, until now. She looked between her cousin and me and didn't say a single word in my defense. I was angry, but most of all, I was hurt.

Fazion looked down his nose at me and sneered. "You need to remember your place, Fomori dog.” He turned around and began leading Irulan down the hall away from me. "Honestly, Irulan," he said. "I would have thought you would have learned your lesson by now. You need to find different stock to pick your chambermaids from."

This jerk actually thought I was the hired help. Fazion's statement swept the hurt of Irulan's silence away. She might not be willing to stand up to him for us, but I was damn sure going to stand up for myself.

I felt something inside of me snap as I strode forward and gripped Fazion's arm. This time when I spun him around, his eyes widened in disbelief. For the briefest of moments, I saw my reflection in his eyes. My face had shifted, but that wasn't news to me. What did catch me off guard was the glowing tiara that sat atop my head. The blue of my eyes had also bled out and entirely filled my eyes again, but this time they swirled with thunderstorm-like clouds.

I growled as I pulled him out of Irulan's arm and hoisted him into the air by his throat.

"I don't give a damn who you are. You have no idea who you're dealing with. I will kick your ass up one side of Faerie and down the other. Then I'll let my brothers come and kick your ass, then my father, and then both of my grandfathers. I'm sure they'd love an excuse to bring their guards and beat down your door."

I shook him once more for good measure before tossing him to the ground. This time I looked down my nose at him. "And furthermore, not only am I a member of the Fourth and Fifth great Vampire houses, I'm a Princess. I will not be spoken to with disrespect!"

Irulan reached to take my hand, but I batted it away from her. "Don't! You should have taken my hand five minutes ago. It's too late now. Just show me where I need to go so I can end this, and then, I will be more than happy to go home. I've had enough of this god-awful place to last me a lifetime."

I took off down the hall without waiting for her. In the back of my head, I heard Kether admonishing Irulan, but I was too riled up to pay them any attention. The need to get away from her was winning over the need to find Tristan. At this moment, I couldn't have cared less.

I kept going, ignoring Irulan's pleas for me to stop and Fazion's incessant drivel about her not following after something so beneath her. I didn't even notice the fact that Kether had come to sit on my shoulder until I heard his shrill scream for me to stop.

"They're coming, Princess, do you hear me? You've got to stop NOW!!” He was hovering in front of me waving his arms back and forth when I looked up.

I stopped, refusing to look back at Irulan for even a second. "Who, Kether? Who's coming? Tristan?"

I felt my hands shift, and the door inside me keeping in check my newfound powers opened wide. I heard Fazion gasp behind me, but I continued to ignore him and Irulan.

"No, Princess, don't show your hand yet," barked Kether. "You have to control yourself. The King's Manticores are coming to intercept you.” He looked back at Irulan and shook his head with disappointment.

"I understand your fears, Highness," he said to her. "But your continued silence is not recommended. The Manticores will alert the Abomination to Valeria's presence, and she can't have that. She needs the element of surprise."

I saw the pain of internal conflict mar every inch of Irulan's face, but for the life of me, I couldn't bring myself to sympathize with her. As I struggled to gain control of my emotions, I dropped my shields enough to let Irulan feel the hurt that was coursing through me.

She flinched as my emotions bombarded her. I know I shouldn't have done it. Irulan was so new at being able to tap into another person's thoughts that it had to hurt, but part of me wanted her to hurt just as much as my heart did.

Kether looked towards the empty hall before us and buzzed over to her face. "You must make a decision, Nightingale, before it is made for you."

No sooner had Irulan taken a step in my direction than Fazion jerked her back behind him. "I will not see you cower to vermin!” He yelled right before the air around me became too thick to breathe. My hands flew to my throat as I dropped to my knees struggling to draw air into my lungs. OK, lack of oxygen was one way to take me out quickly. You can't fight if you can’t breathe.

I felt my features shift to normal as I became lightheaded from the lack of oxygen. Irulan shrieked and tried to come to me, but Fazion refused to let her go. "NO! You will let this happen! It is not a request, but an order from your King!"

A part of me heard Kether's cries, but I couldn't make out what he was saying. I was well on my way to la-la land if something didn't give. I was just about to slide into oblivion when a rush of air filled my chest.

I fell forward onto my arms, my chest rapidly heaving in and out trying to make up for the moments of suffocation.

"Stop the Manticores, Fazion," Irulan said as she gripped my shoulders and pulled me to my feet. I looked down and saw Fazion sprawled across the ground. About damn time. I was too dizzy to be mad at her. I just stood there and listened as Fazion balked.

"I don't believe this. You would turn against your family for that thing?"

"No," said Irulan, "I'm not turning against my family. I'm protecting one member of it from another."

"What in the goddess are you talking about?” Fazion asked as he picked himself up off the floor.

Irulan answered his question by reaching down and threading her fingers through mine. When she held our hands up, the blowing ribbons of the bonding were dancing around our hands.

"What have you done?" Fazion whispered as he backed away from us.

"What does it look like? Aren't you going to congratulate me, cousin? I'm married now.” Irulan took a small step in Fazion’s direction and pulled me with her.

Fazion looked completely mortified. "You can't, this is not possible. You're next in line for the throne."

"I can and I did, Fazion."

"Well, bonds were made to be broken," he countered. "You live in Tir Nam Beo, aren't they quite fond of divorce there? You have to fix this before your mother finds out."

Irulan scowled. "One, I couldn't care less what my mother thinks. Two, you can't undo a Vampire mating."

She drew her lips back and showed Fazion her small fangs. His face became blank and unreadable as he stared at her.

"I should have done this from the start, but I was too much of a coward.” She turned to me and cupped my chin in her hand. "Please forgive me, Valeria. I am sorry, very sorry. It's as if my brain froze for a minute."

"It did more than freeze," I said. "I understand your fear of losing your family, but you can't shut down on me like that again. Not here, when so much is at stake."

Kether flitted over, waving his hand and pointing behind us. "The King's guards are almost here. You can't be seen, Princess."

Irulan walked over to Fazion and took his hand. "I know how you were raised to feel about the Dark Court, but Uncle Kent was wrong. Valeria is my wife, and nothing you can do will change that. An attack against her will bring war to the courts. I'm asking you, as your cousin, as your sister. Please call off the Manticores."