Entwined With the Dark (18 page)

Yeah, it had been. On the exact same page in fact. As well as Lutin's Prophesy.
His Light, to her Light. Mixed together in ancient rite. Will create longed-for life.
Lutin believed that was about him and me. Arthur believed it was about the Fey. What the hell did it really mean?

Despite all the questions swirling about inside my head, just the fact that Nut was aware of the path I was prepared to take made me feel better. I didn't have clear cut answers. In fact I had more questions now than before. But if Nut was aware, I could hope,
believe
, that all would not be lost. I only prayed that Michel could believe it too.

He brushed a few strands of my hair off my face again and nuzzled his nose in amongst them, inhaling deeply. "I have to go,
ma belle
." He paused, before he went on, as though organising his thoughts. Then with a deep breath, making me think he had come to a decision, he said, "We will trust your Goddess,
non
? And I will trust you." Trust me with his secrets, I think that's what he meant. Trust me to bear witness to what it is he has to do. And I hoped, trust me to walk this path with him and be able to pull us both back towards the Light.

I nodded and kissed him deeply, letting him feel the depth of my love and conviction in
us
. He moaned against my lips and then pulled back reluctantly, kissed my nose, rested his forehead against mine briefly. And then he was gone. From the room, but not from my mind. I cannot read his thoughts, without him throwing them. Or in this case, opening up his mind and letting me in. He had done this before, when he had been in the
Palais
, but only briefly. And I had been doing nothing else at the time, my full attention on him. Now, I realised, I'd have to function whilst the connection remained open. It was harder to do than it sounds. Distracting. Headache inducing. A little weird.

Block it out, ma douce,
Michel said softly in my mind.
Just call on it when you need to and the connection will be there.

Won't it tire you, keeping it open?
I asked in my head.

Only a little, I have more than enough Sanguis Vitam
to spare.

I wasn't so sure, but I had to trust him too. I worked on blocking the connection out for five minutes. Then when I succeeded, I practised opening up to it again and again. After twenty minutes I had it sussed. Just. It still required a little effort to block, not so much to reconnect again. And I really did have an awful headache afterwards. But downing a couple of paracetamol tablets and a big glass of cool, refreshing water and I felt marginally better. I was sure it would get easier with time.

The shutters whirred up announcing the start of the night and making me realise Michel had left under the setting sun. Not an impossibility, but it would make him weaker and to do so meant his orders had been cruel. Not only did she want him separated from me, but the Champion also wanted him weakened. I felt my shoulders slump at the task I had set myself. She was not an easy opponent and I had absolutely no friggin' idea how to combat her strength and underhand ways.

She was the epitome of vampyre. She was everything I hated and admired about the race.

My vampires came back in the room and sat around the table. Right, one hurdle down, fifty to go. Time to get on with our next current predicament. I pulled my cellphone from my pocket and thumbed through my contacts until I found Avery.

Hitting send, I settled in for an unpleasant ride.

The call was picked up on the second ring.

"You took your time, Ms. Monk," came Avery's sarcastic voice down the line.

I didn't rise to the bait. "There's no fixing it," I said simply. Sometimes I like to
not
beat about the bush too.

"Fuck!" Avery screamed at me. I pulled the cellphone away from my ear and frowned. After several more seconds of expletives in at least three different languages, he finally calmed down enough for me to return the phone to my ear.

"So what now?" he demanded.

I sighed. "I guess we get ready to be summoned. Michel has been sent away. The Enforcer has been recalled."

"Oh shit!" he said, but it sounded more defeatist now. "Well this is fine pickle you have got us into, Ms. Monk."

"Oh, don't blame this on me, vampire!" I spat. I was sick and tired of copping the blame. "
You
were the one who forced me into a joining. If you hadn't been a greedy son-of-a-bitch, we wouldn't be here!"

"If Michel hadn't got himself unjoined, we wouldn't be here. Do you really believe she would have allowed you to join again with him? Together you two were the most feared couple in our world. Even
she
feared you. But now, look who quakes in fear."

It was useless arguing with him, he would never see the error of his ways.

"Well, it is what it is," I said and he interrupted before I could go on.

"Oh, how poetic of you! It is what it
fucking
is! You do realise she will have us killed, don't you?"

"She can't," I replied, somehow maintaining my calm.

"Of course she can! And don't think any connection to you will stop her. She is not stupid, Ms. Monk. Unlike some here!"

"Oh, just push your luck a little further, vampire and I'll test a theory of mine that Light can travel through phones!" I shot back.

"I'm quaking in my boots, little girl," he ground out. Then after a pause, "Fuck!"

I waited for his next tirade, I didn't have to wait long.

"I rue the day I ever met you." His voice was surprisingly calmer and all the more threatening because of it. "If I wasn't joined to you, I'd kill you myself."

"You're wearing the
taufr
, Avery. Why not give it your best shot."

I really was unsure if that was a good thing to suggest. The
taufr
would mean he could cheat death, but I was hoping the idea of ending up in
Álfheimr
was a big enough discouragement. With Avery though, you never knew.

"It has crossed my mind, Ms. Monk," he said casually. "I may just call on the talisman's power to rid me of this problem you have created in my life. At least in
Álfheimr
the Champion cannot reach me." His fear of the leader of the
Iunctio
was alarming. Avery Rousseau was either a coward or knew more than even me.

I was going with coward.

"Right, then. Good luck," I said in a clipped tone. "I've got things to do before I pack for Paris."

He snorted down the line. "See you there,
kindred,
" and rang off.

I whistled a long sound as I placed the phone on the table.

"He is a fucking arsehole!" Sergei exclaimed and Nataliya grunted in agreement. I just felt exhausted.

And before I knew what I was doing I sought out Michel.

Well handled, ma douce
, he whispered softly in my mind.
You would do well in the cut-throat arena of politics.
I was unsure of that, all I'd managed was a verbal sparring match with Avery. Although, at least, I hadn't let him walk all over me.

I have no desire to become a politician,
I replied instead, feeling relaxed that he was still there. Available. Communicating.

We'll see
, he offered cryptically. And then blew me a mental kiss.

I closed the connection and concentrated on Sergei and Nataliya's conversation. Marcus and Matthias had returned and were participating too. I had missed some of what had been said, whilst conversing with Michel. But it was easy to pick up what they had been discussing.

"Chop off an arm or a leg. It would hurt like fuck, but it wouldn't kill him," Sergei was saying.

"Acid works well," Marcus added and I wondered where all this chemical based warfare was coming from. Marcus had never been this hung-up on substances before.

"Skin him alive, slowly. Extremely painful, but wouldn't kill him," Matthias offered and Nataliya snorted her agreement.

"I saw a vampire skinned once. By a shifter," she said with a faraway look in her eyes.

"Oookaay," I said. "Let's not get too carried away."

All eyes turned to me, various looks of amusement on their faces at my obvious queasiness from the topic under way.

"Do we have any idea where Lutin is?" I asked and the entire room suddenly pinged with unbridled
Sanguis Vitam
.

"Why do you ask, mistress?" Sergei said in a steady voice.

"Because wherever he is, I won't be?" I said with a snort. They all relaxed.

Jeez. Did they think I'd seek him out and try to get the joining reversed or something.

Yes
, came Michel's dry reply in my mind.

I'm not that stupid!
I shot back.

But really, if I was honest with myself, I
had
been contemplating it. Michel said nothing in my head at that. He had probably been contemplating it too, since I last mentioned it in his presence.

"I need to see Arthur," I announced to the room, it was time to face up to my responsibilities and give him a heads-up. The vampires all responded with various forms of activity. Coming alive at the mention of a task that was relatively safe to perform.

I wasn't sure how long it would take for the Champion to get in touch, or who she would send with the summons. There was no point sitting around waiting for the inevitable, I needed to get on with my life and maybe there was something Arthur could do to help. I couldn't think what, but he was Nosferatin, he was on my side no matter what our relationship difficulties entailed. I trusted him to have my back, should I ask.

We couldn't take the Mini, four vampires and a vampire hunter just were
not
going to fit. But Marcus and Matthias had a second Range Rover, so we piled into that instead. I sat squashed between Nataliya and Marcus in the back seat, Matthias drove. He always drove.

Half an hour later we were in Notting Hill. I let my senses out trying to determine the number of vampires in the vicinity. Trying to see where the
Iunctio's
spy was hidden. There were none other than those with me. Even Arthur didn't have a wayward vamp in his house. The street was quiet, from your average Norm to a Dark rogue, none to be seen. A shiver ran down my spine. Too quiet.

We piled out of the vehicle, the vampires fanning out and offering guard. I headed toward Arthur's ramshackle front door, the guards moving as one with me. I'd made it as far as the front gate when he appeared, the smell of peaches on the air preceding him. He simply walked out of the space before us and stood several feet away.

The first thing he said was, "I mean you no harm." The second was, "Shit!" as Nataliya's knife dug deep into his thigh, having been launched from several feet away with force.

Lutin glared at my vampire, but just grunted as he removed the knife and threw it to the ground. My guards closed in immediately, surrounding me and starting to pull me back towards the car.

"Wait,
elska
!" he said, his hand outstretched beseeching me not to run. I ignored him and let my guards pull me back towards the relative safety of the car.

I had thought I
would
take the opportunity to ask him. To see if he could reverse the joining for me. But words failed me, when faced with his familiar façade. His short spiky blond hair and vivid green eyes reminding me of all that he had done and how dangerous he was. A pretty package that meant me harm. I would not give him the chance to do so again, even if that meant I'd remain joined to Avery Rousseau.

The door was opened behind me and I was roughly shoved inside. Nataliya already on the other side of the car, entering to protect my flank.

"Lucinda, please!" Lutin pleaded. "Just tell me the baby is all right."

I almost stopped and turned back to him, but Nataliya caught my eye. "No, mistress. You owe him no explanation."

I nodded briefly and continued to get in the car.

In the next instant several things happened at once. Arthur and Marie emerged from the house with knives out, and in the case of Arthur, also a very old, very heavy looking sword. Lutin spun to greet his new attackers, Arthur muttered a couple of incoherent and foreign sounding words under his breath. And the fairy fell backwards as though stunned and simply disappeared. We watched it all unfold with open mouths. A rip appearing in the fabric of space behind the Imp Prince, and his body falling through it and vanishing from sight.

There was no sound to accompany it, no flash of light - or Light - just there one minute gone the next.

I scrambled out of the car to the protest of Marcus who was trying to get in and took a good look around. He was gone and somehow Arthur had done it.

"You've got some explaining to do," I said, hands on hips.

"Oh, no, Nosferatin," he replied, sheathing his knife and sword. "It would appear you do."

Then he turned on his heel and headed through the door to his house. Marie looked up at me and smiled embarrassingly, then spun and followed Arthur. The door was left open, a clear invitation to follow.

I didn't move. Natalyia was back at my side, as were the others.

"Mistress," Sergei started, "you do not need to go after them. We can just leave."

"Leaving would be a good idea," Matthias added. "That fairy fucker could return again."

I wasn't so sure. "Arthur wouldn't have disappeared inside if he thought Lutin could return."

"Are you so sure of this Nosferatin, mistress?" Nataliya asked in a soft voice and I turned my head to look at her and frowned.

"He's a Nosferatin, Nataliya. Of course I am sure."

"He gave you an ultimatum. Threatened to expel you from this city. He does not have that power. He is not the Master here," she said simply. All valid points.

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. I agreed with her, and the part of me that had rebelled so recently wanted to do so again. But Arthur was a knowledgeable and powerful ally. I couldn't walk away from the help that he may potentially provide. I laughed a little a that. Maybe I was becoming more of a politician than I realised. Maybe Michel was right after all.

"Come on," I said. "You're just going to have to trust me."

"We trust
you,
mistress," Marcus muttered under his breath. "It's the vampire hunter with an iron sword we don't like."

We all walked into the house with heavy steps. No matter what I told myself, this was not going to be fun. I wouldn't grovel. I'm not that kind of girl. But, I'd try to be the Nosferatin I knew I should be. I wasn't treading on that Dark path just yet.

Arthur was sitting in his large overstuffed armchair when we made it to his lounge. Marie was perched behind him on a stool. Their positioning was intentional. Him on his
throne
, his dedicated and loyal
subject
at his back showing support. I walked several feet into the cluttered room, allowing my vampires to spread out behind me. OK, so maybe my positioning was intentional too.

"You gonna make 'em wait outside?" Arthur asked with a nod towards my guards.

"No," I said simply. "Where I go they go. It's got a little dangerous lately, I can't afford to be without my guards."

"Even in my home?" he said evenly, his eyes boring into mine in a challenge.

"Even in
my
home," I replied and he relaxed marginally in response.

He let a long sigh out. "Okay, Luce. What's this I 'ear about you being pregnant."

"A lie," I answered and purposely didn't look at Marie.

"A lie? The fairy believes it. The
Nathair-Sgiathach
believe it. Am I meant to believe you or them?"

The dragon-shifters believe it? How? Why? My confusion must have shown on my face, but the reason for it not.

"It's simple really, if you can't be honest with me, then I 'ave no need for you in my team." There's that word again. "I can't trust you, Lucinda. You're a damn fine Nosferatin, but you're not for London Town." Oh, I couldn't argue with him there.

But still... "You can't kick me out, Arthur." He bristled and I raised a hand requesting he hear me out. "I know you're in charge and I respect that. And I
am
prepared to play as part of your team. But you need to make some allowances too."