Entwined With the Dark (17 page)

"Did Michel tell you to cook this, Kathleen?" I asked as I slipped into a chair at the table beside Matthew. Nataliya perched on a stool in the corner and just watched.

Kathleen humphed in reply and then turned and gave me one of her motherly smiles. "He came storming in here with a bee in his bonnet, but didn't say a word when he saw what was on offer for dinner tonight. I'm thinking I may have just slipped in without a telling off. Would that be correct?"

I laughed at her expression. Kathleen had borne the brunt of Michel's temper many times in the past, she knew exactly how he could behave. She also considered herself his servant, which didn't sit well with me, but I was enormously relieved to hear her comment right now. Michel was
the master
as far as she was concerned, but she also didn't take any of his crap.

The dinner was fantastic, as I was sure it would be. Kathleen cooked as well as, if not better, than my own mother. Which was saying something, my mum is a farmer's wife, it's just what they do. At the time of finishing up my second serving, albeit a small one, Michel glided into the room. Matthew and Kathleen stood immediately upon his entry, reminding me again of their place in his line. He waved them back down and came to sit beside me.

Taking a look at my cleaned plate and the satisfied full expression on my face he smiled, but I noticed a tightness around the edges of his lips, which in turn wrapped a tightness around my heart. I slumped in my chair, already well aware that the night's adventures were about to begin and I wasn't sure if I had an answer yet to
Celamentum Contractus
. His eyes met mine and he sighed.

"I have been called away," he said softly. I wondered if his reticence to say things too loudly was due to his fear of my response.

Another
day or two
, he had said. I had assumed he was exaggerating slightly and at the very least we'd get more than 48 hours together before the Champion called. We hadn't even had 24. My anger replaced the tightness in my chest.

"It is a tactical move," he added, bringing my attention back to him and away from my tumbling thoughts. "She wants me out of the picture, when she summons you."

"Which means she'll be summoning me soon," I said quietly as Sergei entered the room, M&M at his back. The kitchen was just big enough for all of us to be here.

"Yes," Michel answered taking my hand in his and starting up his usual calming motion of thumb across the back. "I cannot refuse to go. To refuse a direct command would be to challenge her. I am not strong enough to challenge the Champion."

I wondered again how strong she actually was. She was older, much older, than Michel, but Michel was incredibly strong for his age as well.

Michel sighed. "The position she holds allows her access to the combined Nosferatu and Nosferatin power held by the
Iunctio
. In a battle, any council member can call on part of that power. The Champion can call on
all
of it."

"That doesn't sound like a good idea. What if the Champion uses it for evil, not good?" I asked.

Michel let out a short huff of a laugh. "She is the Champion,
ma douce
, she can do whatever she likes. Often it is Dark."

Once again I wondered how the
Iunctio
could be brought back to heel. I glanced up at Nataliya, catching her eye. If there were vampires out there opposed to the path the
Iunctio
had chosen to tread, they really stood no chance of overcoming them. It would be futile to come against
her
. Why had Nut placed a connection between us that did not allow me to kill her? Not that I go around killing people who piss me off at the drop of a hat, but the Champion was becoming Darker and the danger the
Iunctio
posed to our lives was increasing. Eventually she would win. How could my Goddess support that? And now the Champion was using Dark magic to control Michel, to interfere in our lives. The anger morphed to rage and a heavy weight descended inside.

I took a deep breath in and looked up at the concerned and pained eyes of my husband. He'd heard my thoughts, of course, but could offer no comforting words to allay them. I was vaguely aware that he now knew what I had been researching, what I suspected was keeping him from confiding in me. I brushed that knowledge aside and doggedly held onto my fury.

"When do you leave?" I asked in a clipped tone.

I thought I was prepared for his reply. I wasn't. "Now."

Tears immediately filled my eyes, my throat closed over and my breath left me in a huff of surprise. I couldn't hold them in. The anger, the rage, the fury all melding together with my heartache, being eclipsed by my desolate pain. The tears spilled over my cheeks and dropped onto my lap. Light began to glow around us.

"Oh no,
ma douce
, no. Please do not cry."

He pulled me from my seat and lifted me onto his lap, his arms wrapping around me; stroking, comforting, soothing. The vampires left the kitchen, leaving only Sergei at the door, and Kathleen and Matthew disappeared. It always amazed me how quickly I could clear a room when I had a little melt down. Was I that bad a sight that they all went running?

Michel chuckled against me, his face now resting in the curve of my neck. "You are adorable, and no more so than when you show your softer side." He pulled back and tenderly kissed each cheek, wiping away my tears with his thumbs afterwards. I reached up, barely aware that my Light had started pulsating throughout the room, and cupped his face with my hands.

I couldn't tell if I was still angry, if what I was feeling was due to that rage. Or if my Light had consumed it and replaced my emotions with determination. Michel was mine. The Champion had no right to keep my mate from me.

Michel's eyes widened in surprise. Perhaps he hadn't been completely aware of where my thoughts had gone to. He seemed momentarily shocked, then quickly alarmed and as my Light left me, racing down my arms and sparking through my fingertips to his face, he looked proud. His eyes shone magenta back at me, he held my gaze, both of us locked in the moment by the other, by my Light and by the fact that we were simply along for the ride.

There have been times when my Light has acted on its own, not controlled by me. I didn't feel this moment was exactly like that. I'd had a clear intention all along, but the Light had responded to my fervent emotional reaction right now and was doing my bidding outside of my control. I had wanted this, but been unsure how to effect it. My Light was quite capable of filling in the blanks.

It was also capable of levelling an entire city block flat within seconds, so breaking an unbreakable blood bond was a walk in the park. I knew the instant the
Celamentum Contractus
was broken, because it bound itself to me.

My Light began to dim, both Michel and I not breathing, not moving, just sitting entirely too still. Looking at each other. Magenta blocking all other colours in his eyes. Goddess knows what he saw in mine. I was panicked, more than a little scared at his reaction. I had broken the contract with the Champion, only to bind him to me. Fuck! What would the Champion do when she found out? Her spy was no longer able to communicate what transpired on these
missions
to her. But he could tell me.

My mouth fell open at the ramifications. Surprisingly Michel's twisted into a small smile.

"You never cease to amaze, Lucinda." I didn't like that he was calling me by my given name. No nick-name, no endearment, all business.

"This isn't good, is it?" I said, my voice wavering slightly at the end.

Michel reached up and brushed my hair back off my face, a movement that allows him time to formulate his reply, whilst placating me. I'd got good at analysing his actions. I knew Michel pretty damn well by now. His mouth quirked further and a small huff of laughter escaped his lips.

"We can work with this,
ma douce,
" he said with a shrug of his shoulders.
Ma douce.
I let a little breath out I'd been holding. "You are the contract holder now, you can command me to divulge information to another party if so desired. The Champion had ensured that proviso was part of the original agreement." His smile broadened. "I'm sure she never envisaged it being used in this way though."

I pulled back from his embrace, suddenly our intimate positions felt wrong. I couldn't
command
him to do anything. It went against everything I believed in.

"Lucinda," Michel said, letting me stand, but refusing to relinquish his hold on my hand. "You have freed me from a contract that was harmful to us. I have no qualms at all, being tied to
you
." The words were dripping in innuendo. Even discussing something as deplorable as controlling another, he managed to turn it into something desirable instead.

I shook my head at him, but conceded he was right. "I hated that she was controlling you," I said in a soft voice and watched as he stood up before me and then wrapped me in his embrace. "
Ma petite belle
lumière
, you are my miracle, my life. Knowing you fight for
me
just as I fight for you, brings me such contentment and joy." He leaned down and kissed my forehead, then took a step back and smiled. "I have to go, but I will keep my mind open to you, you can contact me at any time." He winked as he said that. He really was enjoying this whole being able to communicate thing, wasn't he? And then it hit me, he'd wanted to tell me all along, to confide in me, to share the burden. He wanted this, just as much as I had wanted it. I suddenly didn't think the
command
issue was a deal breaker at all. I could live with this.

"Will that compromise you?" I asked, praying I wasn't placing him in danger with my need to stay in touch.

He shook his head. "It will mean you may become aware of some of what I do though." He looked mortified and scared as hell as he spoke those words. My heart clenched at seeing his expressions so raw. "But it will not place me in danger." He laughed a little mirthlessly. "Well, at least, not in danger from whom I hunt." I looked at him puzzled, unable to understand what he meant. He ran a finger over the frown lines on my forehead, trying to smooth them out. "I may be in danger of losing your love."

"Because of what I see?" I asked, a little incredulously.

He nodded, pain creasing his eyes. I reached up and cupped his face, leaned in and kissed his forehead, each eyelid, cheek and finally his mouth. He may have wanted open communication between us, but that didn't mean he wasn't scared of what I would see. "Michel Durand, I
know
you. I
know
who you are. And nothing you are asked to do for that woman will change that."

"It may be changing me already," he said in a small voice I had never heard him use before.

I wasn't sure how to reassure him. I didn't want to belittle what he went through that made him believe that he could be changing because of these
missions
she sent him on. It wasn't something I could simply shrug off with casual words to appease. This was monumental. This was character changing. And for a moment I felt like there was nothing I could do.

"Then we'll change together," I said, unsure where the words came from, just knowing they had passed through my heart to my mouth. "And when the time comes, we will both come back to the Light. Together. No matter what."

"I cannot ask you to walk this path with me. It is wrong. You are so full of Light. I have no right to pull you into the Dark." He sounded so very lost and it was at that moment I decided I
would
kill the Champion, to hell with Nut's connection. I would find a way. Michel didn't need to pull me towards the Dark, I was already well and truly entwined with it.

"I am strong enough," I said with conviction. "If need be, I am strong enough for us both." The irony wasn't lost on me. Yesterday I felt weak. Today, when faced with my true kindred's demise, I
was stronger. The strongest I had ever been in my life. I wasn't abandoning the Light, not permanently, but I was prepared to embrace the Dark, if need be. I sent a silent prayer up to Nut and asked for her forgiveness.
You cannot give me this man and not expect me to fight for him
.

Light and Dark are intertwined, never to be parted. Dark will call to our kind, Light has already started.
Nut's soft, angelic voice in my head caused both Michel and I to gasp. She had never conversed like this with me before. Often I could tell when she was present, a sense of her Light within. But the only conversations I had ever had with my Goddess, were when I visited her in
Elysium
.

This was new, but the Prophesy she repeated was not. I had first read it in Arthur's ancient Fey book. He believed it was an indication of the Fey breaching our world. Being called forth by my Light and then succumbing to the Dark. I couldn't understand how Nut would use a Fey Prophesy when communicating with me about my possible path towards the Dark. It made no sense at all.

"Perhaps," Michel said contemplatively, "like the Nosferatin Prophesy you are part of it is not linked to the Fey at all. Your Prophesy was also in that book, was it not?"