Long Live the Queen (The Immortal Empire) (10 page)

I wish I could say that his tone was condescending, but it wasn’t. It was nothing more than a shopping list of facts. A gentle nudge into the land of common sense.

Sighing, I turned to Val. “If I tell you where she is, do you promise you won’t harm her?”

My brother scowled. “
If
you tell me where she is? Do you think I’m deficient? I already know you’ve got her in the den.”

My head whipped around so I could shoot an accusatory gaze at William. “Did you tell him?”

Even though his face was furred, I saw him lift a haughty brow. Before he could speak, Val stepped in, “Of course he didn’t. Fang me, Xandy, it doesn’t take a genius to figure that one out. It’s the safest place to put her for all involved.”

I was such a prat. I turned to William. “Apologies, my friend. I should have known you’d never betray me.”

“Betraying his lady or his plague is not what your prince intends. If the lady-creature is a danger to our people, I will end her.”

I had no doubt that he would do just that, whether I liked it or not. I had to respect him for it. And I had to admit that perhaps people I loved had got hurt in the past because I always tried to do everything on my own. Maybe it was time for me to stop keeping secrets.

“What do you want to do with her?” I asked Val.

“Take her in, charge her with murder and lock her up.” He said this as though I was slow.

“Can the cells at the Yard contain a goblin?” I asked.

My brother shrugged. “I don’t know. They’re supposed to, but we’ve never had one in custody.”

“She’s strong, Val. If you can’t contain a goblin, you won’t be able to contain her. She can’t be on the streets. No one will be safe if she’s allowed to run loose. She’s like a child, and has difficulty determining wrong from right. If she feels threatened
or backed into a corner, she will fight, and she will kill you. I can’t lose you too.”

That got him – at least temporarily. It was a shoddy remark, but it was true. I couldn’t bear it if I lost him so soon after Dede. When he’d been kidnapped, I was frantic. I would have done anything to find him and bring him home.

I was not going to put him in harm’s way. I’d rather go to Newgate for obstructing the commission of an investigation than be responsible for Val getting hurt.

“You’re not going to lose me,” he insisted, “but there’s a fine line between confidence and hubris. And there’s an even finer line between protecting someone and harbouring a known criminal.”

And it wouldn’t look good for him if anyone found out I was hiding Ali.

I looked around the table. If my sisters, Avery and Fee, had been there, around this table would be everyone I trusted most in this world. I did not want to let any of them down.

“I promised to protect her.”

“I don’t want to hurt her,” my brother assured me. “But I have a job to do. This isn’t something you can sweep under the rug and hope no one notices. It’s already been on the box that she killed someone. The Human League is calling for justice and her head.”

News travelled fast in London, especially when it was the nightmarishly bad sort. “Her head, or mine?” I asked. “Do people think it’s me? Is that why you want me to give her up?”

My brother leaned his weight over the forearm he had braced on the table. “Did you take a blow to the skull? You’re thick, but not normally this thick. Of course there are people who think it was you. She
looks
just like you. It can’t appear
as though I’m protecting you, Xandy, and it sure as hell cannot appear as though you are protecting her – not unless you want a full on riot on your hands.”

No, I didn’t want that. “She didn’t ask for this. I don’t want her to suffer because of what she is.”

Vex turned to me. Hell, so did Val and William. I realised then just what I’d said. Could I be any more transparent? Was I so desperate to not be the only super-freak in London that I’d tuck my wing about a creature that had tried to kill the man I loved? Even I couldn’t be that hatters.

My brother was sympathetic, but unrelenting. “You don’t want anyone else to suffer because of what she is either.”

He was right, of course. There was no point arguing. The three of them had staged this little intervention to make me feel as though I was in control and calling the shots, but I wasn’t. They’d already decided what had to be done. It stung a bit, but I wasn’t so enamoured of myself that I couldn’t see the truth. In a way, it was a relief not having to make the hard decisions.

I turned to Val. “I’m coming along wherever you take her. I won’t let her think I betrayed her.”

But I was going to betray her, because Vex, Val and William were more important to me. I felt for Ali – she’d never asked to be a monster, just as I had never asked – but it was completely knobbed up to endanger those I loved because I felt responsible for her.

And if I were honest, I had to admit that she scared me a little. More than a little.

I took a deep breath, and told my conscience I was doing the right thing. “Right, let’s—” The ring of my house phone cut me off. The four of us shared a glance before I jumped out of my
chair. The house phone had been installed for one purpose only – because my rotary reception was spotty in the tunnels.

Only the goblins had my number – and Vex, of course.

I grabbed the handset. “Hello?”

“My lady?” It was George. “We need your help.” His voice was high, and “help” sounded like a yip. My heart hit hard against my ribs.

“On my way.” I dropped the phone and ran for the door, yelling at the others, “Trouble in the den!”

There was the screech of chair legs on hardwood, and the clatter of footsteps chasing after me. Then, a subtle shift in the air, a sound like the brush of velvet or the tearing of thick paper, and suddenly a huge wolf bolted past me, with William behind it on all fours.

Show-offs.

I picked up the pace, Val bringing up the rear. At least he had a weapon to protect himself with. I should have known better than to take Ali to the den. Bloody stupid saviour complex.

Please don’t let her have hurt anyone.

We made no pretence of stealth as we frantically worked our way deeper and deeper under Down Street. When we finally burst into the goblin great hall, we found the plague gathered. The number of them always surprised me; there seemed to be more than I thought there ought to be. Humans would be terrified if they knew how many.

The goblins stood in a ring, growling, hackles raised. The hair on the back of my neck rose, and my skin stretched over my bones as my goblin tried to come to the surface to join its pack. At the centre of the ring stood Ali. She looked feral and gaunt – like her skin had shrunk since I put her to bed.

She had baby Alexandra in her arms.

My namesake was a couple of months old now – the size of a human toddler, with the energy of a large, clumsy puppy. I loved her to bits, and seeing her struggle against my laboratory offspring’s hold made me realise that I did
not
love Ali – at least not as much.

There was one too many bitches named after me in this den.

“Put her down,” I commanded.

Ali’s head whipped around. She sniffed at the air and stared at me with wild eyes – eyes that were mismatched. One was bright green and the other blue, and her ears weren’t pointed any more. She didn’t look so much like me as she had done…

“
Duncan
.” Vex’s hoarse whisper sent a shiver down my spine. This was too hatters to be real, but there she was with my hair and build and a face that looked like a more feminine version of the young man I’d seen photographs of.

“Where am I?” she demanded. Gone was the girlish voice she’d first spoken to me with. She had a bit of a brogue, and her tone was lower. Had her naïve demeanour from earlier been an act?

“You’re in goblin territory,” I told her. “Put the child down.”

Ali glanced at the fur ball in her arms – Alexandra had reverted to an almost completely canine form in her fear. As she got older, it would become increasingly difficult for her to make such drastic shifts without expending a huge amount of energy. I watched as Ali bared her fangs, the teeth growing larger and longer as saliva beaded on the sharp point of each.

Alexandra’s mother made a sound of distress. The tension amongst the goblins grew, but no one moved. No one was willing to endanger the pup any more than they had to. Ali lifted the child closer to her mouth.

A growl tore from my throat – the kind that drew attention. Seriously, I’d never made a noise like it before, and I hoped I never did again, brilliant as it was.

Long, clawed fingers dropped Alexandra to the dirt floor. The pup wasn’t stupid; she clambered to her feet and tore off towards her mother, leaping into the safety of her arms and reverting to her normal form.

I faced the monster that, not even an hour ago, had called me her mother. She looked grotesque. Her hair was a mix of red and purple. Her eyes were still different colours, but her nose was like mine and her mouth like Vex’s, only both were exaggerated. Her shoulders were broad, her breasts non-existent. Her waist was small, her hips lean, and her legs bulged with muscle. By the time I’d acknowledged these changes, she had shifted again.

“I know you.” Her – though she hardly looked feminine – voice was a shredded snarl. “You’re the one the mad bitch is in love with. The one she thinks can save us.”

Us?
Oh, fang me. This couldn’t really be happening, could it? Was it possible that the newest freak in town had multiple personalities? When she said “the mad bitch”, did she mean herself?

“That’s me,” I replied, playing the hunch around teeth that were a tad too big for my mouth. “Why don’t you toddle off so she and I can talk?”

She laughed. “Yeah, that’s not going to happen.” She swiped an obscenely long tongue over her lips. “I think I’ll just eat you.”

Were I not keenly aware that this was real, I might have thought I’d stumbled on to the set of an American horror film. I felt almost obliged to come up with a cheesy comeback.

I crooked my finger at her. “Come and get it, bitch.”

I hadn’t expected her to actually do it, but she did. She launched herself through the air like a trained ballet dancer. It would have been beautiful if she hadn’t been snarling like a feral cat.

Most people would have ducked, or got out of the way. I wasn’t most people – not that I’m so terribly brave; I’m not. I am, however, like a rat – when attacked, I attack back.

I let my goblin come, as much as it ever did – fangs lengthened, claws sprouted. I met her in mid-air and we fell to the dirt like an East End bar fight.

Christ, she was strong – too strong. I could barely fend her off. In fact, I couldn’t do much more than try to defend myself. She clawed at my face, fangs nipping at my throat. I just managed to shove my forearm between her jaws before she could rip out my jugular. Her teeth closed on bone. I screamed, and sank my own fangs into her shoulder. Her jaw slackened as she roared.

And then she was gone. A great and terrible noise rose from the crowd. I pushed myself up in time to see both William and Vex charge her. Vex wasn’t fully healed, and had no business getting in her way again. She kicked William in the head, knocking him back, and then she turned on my wolf.

A shot rang out. Ali’s inhuman form jerked back with a screech of pain that threatened to make my ears bleed. Val had shot her with a silver-tipped tetracycline-filled bullet. She’d probably never experienced either before if her howls were any indication.

Another shot. My brother wasn’t shooting to subdue; he was shooting to kill if he could. This one grazed her cheek as she jerked to the side. Clutching her shoulder, she bolted for the exit.

Suddenly, I was mobbed. Goblins clustered around me, yipping and whining. Vex and Val came forward wanting to know if I was okay. I cradled my forearm to my chest. “Never mind me, go the fuck after her!”

Val and William and a few goblins gave chase, but Vex stayed with me. He had turned back to his man form and was gloriously naked. The goblins didn’t seem to mind, but one of them managed to produce a long black skirt, of all things. It had elastic in the waist so he was able to slip it over his hips. I had to make him put it on. It made me want to snarl when all the goblin females stared at his arse.

Elsbeth, one of the elder females, cleaned and bandaged my arm. Vex wanted to do it, but goblin blood is nasty to those who don’t have it running through their veins. It can act as a poison, and Vex wasn’t going to be back to one hundred per cent until he got a good day’s sleep.

Day… shit.

I wasn’t surprised to see Val and the goblins return – goblins first. Dawn was breaking, and they had a hard enough time in the city at night; there was no way they could risk the day.

Val swore like a fishwife. “I tracked her west for two blocks, and then she disappeared.”

That he knew how much ground he’d covered when he was in the catacombs impressed me. “There are a lot of places to hide down here.”

My brother laughed – humourlessly, of course. “She didn’t stay down here. She went up.”

Up? At dawn? Brilliant. Just one more advantage she had over other aristos. And of course, she inherited it from me. I could go out into the daylight without it burning my sensitive
skin or blinding me, and I didn’t have to feed right beforehand to do it.

So she was gone, then. Not my problem any more – unless she came back. Time to set up better security, perhaps. I glanced down at the bandage on my arm. The scratches on my face were beginning to heal, and some blood would help them along. I was going to need more than a bag of blood if Ali crossed my path again. I was going to need to brush-up on my fighting skills, and a gun. Something that packed a punch and fired bullets that could take down a goblin the size of an elephant.

“All right,” I said, my gaze skimming over Val and Vex and the assembled goblins. William stood with Elsbeth, who fussed over him even though Ali’s kick hadn’t hurt him. The pup Alexandra was in her mother’s embrace, seemingly unfazed by what had transpired, but the sight of her in Ali’s arms would haunt me for a long time. “I owe you all an apology for bringing her here. I’m supposed to protect you, not put you in danger, and for that I am sorry.”