Fire Kin (17 page)

“Some would say they're children who would grow up to be our enemies.”

Her mouth flattened. “And you? What would you say?”

“I don't kill children,” I said. “Do you think I would?”

“I don't know. I don't know you anymore.”

“Yes, you do. I'm the one who was inside you last night.”

“Sex isn't knowledge.”

“Maybe. But that wasn't just sex.”

She paled and I cursed myself beneath my breath. I'd only come after her to make sure she was all right, and here I was, making things worse.

I held up my hands. “Look, forget I said that. But I swear, you know me. I'm still me. Still the one you used to . . . care for.”

Her eyes glimmered for a moment with something that, in anybody else, I would've said were unshed tears. But Bryony didn't cry. “Maybe you haven't changed. But I have.”

She turned and I couldn't help it, I caught her wrist before I thought. “Don't go.”

“Why not?”

“Because you're upset and I want to help.”

“Why?”

“Because I haven't changed.”

“That's what scares me.” The words came too quietly. And while I was still trying to work out what she meant, she slipped her hand free, turned, and vanished.

BRYONY

Maybe
it was childish, using an invisibility charm. And maybe it was futile and Ash would follow me anyway, tracing my path by the feel of my magic, the same way I would be able to trace him.

But I couldn't face him anymore.

I couldn't afford to believe that his words were truth and that he still cared for me. That this time perhaps we had a chance. Because I wanted too much for those words to be true and I feared too much that they weren't.

And, after so short a time, both of those things scared me.

I walked cautiously at first, turning to see if he followed. But he hadn't moved. He was looking in the direction I was taking, but I couldn't tell whether he could sense my direction or whether he was just guessing my path. But by the time I reached the gate in the wall that stood between the Brother House and the hospital grounds, he still stood there, just watching, his face troubled.

I lingered for a moment, there at the junction between his world and mine, watching him too.

He was rumpled, dressed in his brown leathers and shirt, dirt on his breeches and on his long boots. The bloodstains had faded to brown too now. All those browns echoed the shades of his hair and made his skin look even more tanned than usual. Long fingers drummed on the hilt of his sword hanging on his hip.

Fingers bare of his ring.

I remembered the feel of those fingers against me last night and I almost gave in and went back. The urge to take him by the hand and see if I could drive that troubled look away and if he could ease the regret in my heart for what I had just done burned fiercely.

But I didn't. I just took a few more seconds, drinking in the sight of him, part of me still not convinced, it seemed, that he really was back and needing the proof of sight. And touch. But no. Last night was done and it was a new day. I had to be strong.

Ash could've been killed last night by one of those Beasts. He could be killed any moment. And if he survived it all, then most likely he would ride back out the City gates and disappear from my life for a second time.

Last night I had been weak. It had been pleasurable, yes. Beyond pleasurable, but that was exactly why I couldn't let it happen again.

Right now I had just enough strength to resist him. If I let him snare me in that web of pleasure that he wove so easily, then those threads of strength would snap one by one until the last of them gave way and I fell into a place that there would be no returning from.

Once I passed through the gate, I sped up, almost running. Across the grounds, through the nearest door. Down the stairs, into the tunnels, and down the familiar twists and turns of the way to the hidden ward. Normally I didn't seek the place out. I visited daily to see how Simon and Atherton were progressing, but the iron doors that guarded the ward made it uncomfortable to be in for any serious length of time.

I had a high tolerance to iron, but so much in one place, so close, was past my limit.

As I approached the door, my stomach started to roll in protest and I wondered if I'd made a mistake.

But then, maybe Simon would be able to do something to ease my nausea. It might have been caused by the mental stress of what I'd done, but that didn't mean he couldn't remove the physical symptoms at least. My mind, I would have to deal with myself.

And I would.

I stopped before the door, to reach into the well-warded niche where I kept a stash of leather gloves, and pulled a pair on. They let me press my hand against the doors to work the wards, even though the iron made them ache down to the bone, as though I'd drenched them in freezing acid.

But the sensation was only temporary, or so I reminded myself every time I did this.

I closed the second door behind me gratefully and stepped into the outer room of the ward.

Atherton wasn't at his desk. No doubt I'd find him inside, tending to his patients.

Sure enough, I heard voices from the room beyond. Atherton's tenor voice and Simon's slightly lower rumble. Female voices too. Three of them. Holly and Lily, I thought. And maybe Adeline, given that I couldn't feel any hint of Saskia's magic.

We'd sworn Adeline to secrecy when we showed her this place, making it a condition of her and her group of refugee Blood being granted Haven here at St. Giles. Along with her agreement to help Simon and Atherton with their quest for a cure.

So far she'd seemed to have kept her promise.

I opened the door to let myself through into the inner room. The hidden ward had six rows of beds, most of them occupied. Almost fifty patients. Once upon a time, before Lucius had died, all the occupants had been silent and unmoving, comatose for all practical purposes, blood-locked and senseless. Now some of them were awake, though they still need encouragement to talk and walk and do anything near normal activity. It was progress, but it was, in some ways, harder to take than their former state had been. Like being able to see the light at the end of a tunnel but having the path to that light blocked by an impassable barrier.

Nothing we'd tried so far had enabled us to progress past rousing them to this point. Right now returning them to their families would just mean a life sentence of having to be cared for day and night. A stopgap, not a cure.

When Simon and the others saw me, the conversation died. Not the effect I wanted to have on people right at this moment, but I understood. They wanted to know what news I brought. What new twist to our situation might have occurred.

Lily spoke first. There were shadows under her clear gray eyes, something I'd rarely seen. She had been pushing herself too. Maybe we all needed to give one another a talking-to and convince ourselves that sleeping occasionally was acceptable.

“What happened?” she asked.

She was involved in what had happened last night, I knew. She'd found the Beasts for the Templars. Which explained the exhaustion on her face and the worry on Simon's.

“Yes, do tell,” Adeline added. Her voice was light, as it often was, but she too looked nervous, though in a vampire, it can be hard to distinguish. Her pale hair was impeccably dressed as always and her skin was the clear white of moonlight or milk, gleaming against the startling red slash of paint on her lips. Her stark black dress set it all off. Of the six of us, she was the only one who didn't look as though she'd been awake for days and possibly sleeping in her clothes before that.

“One of the Beasts they captured talked,” I said shortly. “He confirmed that Ignatius was trying our defenses. He mentioned the tunnels as a target.”

That hardly lightened the mood. It wasn't as though anyone here could have been expecting anything other than Ignatius being curious about what was down here. Adeline had been unable to tell us if he had any inkling of what Simon was up to. Lord Lucius had suspected, but Simon and Lily had killed him. And he wasn't exactly the type to share information with his underlings until he had to. Back then Ignatius had only been on the fringes of Lucius' inner circle. But we couldn't discount the fact that he might know something.

Even if he didn't know about Simon, he knew that Adeline and her party were hiding in St. Giles. Had probably heard that we were housing them underground in some of the disused wards. That on its own was a big enough draw.

If Ignatius could kill Adeline, then he would have killed the last of the Blood who openly stood against him.

Plus, getting to her down here in the heart of the humans' stronghold would send a fairly clear message of his degree of power.

Which was why we couldn't let that happen.

“Did he say anything more specific?” Simon asked eventually after they had all taken a moment's silence to digest the information.

“No. Sorry. From what he claims, he's a lower-ranking
guerrier
in the Theissen pack. Not privy to any high-level plans. One of the three is Krueger, though, so Martin was involved. And they all said it was Pierre calling the shots.” Pierre Rousselline was the alpha who had been closest to Lucius and he'd worked hard to keep that position throughout the Blood Court's power struggles. Whatever he was doing, the orders were coming straight from Ignatius; of that much we could be certain.

“I see,” Simon said.

“What about Fen?” Holly asked. “Did he see anything?” Of all of us, she looked the most tired. Almost as pale as Adeline and she'd lost weight again. I made a note to spend a little time with her as soon as possible. She had taken Reggie's death very hard, and though she seemed to be improving, I didn't like the strain I still sensed in her.

“They'd taken moon's blood. Not making much sense. They need time for it to clear their systems. So he's going to wait until later to try to see more.”

“Fen could see even if they were unconscious, couldn't he?” Lily said, frowning.

“He wanted to wait.” I didn't want to explain that he'd seemed to be the worst affected by what I had done. Almost as though he could sense the mental trauma I was inflicting with the pain.

He'd left almost as soon as the last of the three Beasts were locked in the cell, looking almost as ill as I felt.

“So nothing has changed, really,” Adeline said.

“No. But afterward, Captain Pellar was asking about the tunnels. About what's down here.”

“Did you put him off?” Simon asked.

“For now. But he's right to ask. If he's to help defend the city, then he needs to know what he's defending.”

“Do you think we should tell him?” Holly asked.

“Yes.” If only to stop him driving me insane whilst trying to find out on his own what was down here.

“Do you trust him?” Atherton said suddenly.

I hesitated. I didn't want to answer too quickly. That would reveal too much about the feelings I was trying to deny. “Yes,” I said. “I've never known him not to keep his word when he's given it.”

“People change,” Atherton said.

“Guy trusts him too,” Simon said. “We need to trust Guy and Bryony's judgment.”

Holly nodded, her expression frustrated. It was hard on her these days. Before Ignatius had drawn his battle lines, she had been able to find information for us. But now she was cut off from her networks and the opportunities afforded in the border boroughs' taverns and theater halls for the gathering of intelligence. Now she had to wait, unable to go roaming freely through the night like Lily. And Holly wasn't the sort of woman who took waiting on the sidelines well.

“So, do we agree? That Bryony should tell the captain what's going on down here?” Lily asked.

Adeline pursed her lips. “I think we should take care. You may trust Captain Pellar, but he's not just one man. He brings an entire army with him.”

“An army loyal to him,” I said. And how had I worked myself into the position of now defending Ash to them? “An army who are mostly human and have no reason whatsoever to want to help the Blood. Some of them might even be from here.” I realized I had little idea about Ash's men. I'd been too busy with my own issues to take the time to ask him about them yet. Or ask him anything much about his time away from the City. Did I truly not want to know? Or was asking admitting to myself that I was curious?

“A mercenary,” Adeline said. When I shot her a look she twisted a hand in an elegant palm-up gesture. “I am merely pointing out the reality. I have nothing against your Captain Pellar.”

“Not my Captain Pellar,” I said automatically. Adeline merely smiled at that. Whereas Holly and Lily looked too interested, sharing a curious look at our exchange. Damn. Did they know about last night? Had someone seen Ash come to my rooms? Or seen him leave? I didn't remember passing anyone as we'd arrived there, but I hadn't been with him when he left so precipitously.

Anyone could have seen him. And put two and two together. As Holly and Lily were apparently beginning to do. I wondered if they would come right out and ask me. Lily might. She didn't care much for social niceties.

“I doubt any man would remain long under his command if he wasn't loyal,” Simon said. “That's a quick way for a mercenary troop to implode.”

And Ash wasn't the sort to take disregard to his authority lightly. He acted casual and free-spirited when it suited him, but underneath the frivolity he'd always taken any responsibilities he accepted seriously. It was that damned attitude that had led to him taking part in the duel in the first place. He had decided that he needed to face Stellan's challenge, and there was no way he would back down from that decision once he'd made it.

I was sure that he ran his army with suitable discipline and would weed out any true malcontents. From what I'd seen of his men so far, they were well presented and competent. Plus, they hadn't caused any trouble in the City—none of them had turned up at St. Giles after a drunken brawl or such—which spoke well of their training.

“So we will show him the tunnels and this ward. When?” I asked. Part of me rankled at the thought. Ash would take this as a sign that he had been right all along.