Something Secret This Way Comes: Secret McQueen, Book 1 (26 page)

“Ew,” I said, and the room spun, making me wonder how everyone managed to stay standing. I tried to raise my hand to cover my throat but found none of my limbs would do what I wanted them to. Paralyzed by blood loss, all I could do was lay there and watch the theater of the absurd unfold around me.

Someone new came to stand over me. She had gold-toned skin and thick, straw-blonde hair, with eyes so green I thought she was part cat. The eyes were what gave her away, too even and calm to be genuinely human. Ingrid. Sig’s daytime human servant.

She gave me an appraising look, appeared to be satisfied with my place among the living for the time being and turned to whoever else she had with her. Snapping her fingers twice, she indicated the bewildered vampire on top of me.

“Alexandre Peyton, you are to be requisitioned by the vampire Tribunal and held for investigation and punishment based on the charge of abandoning the laws of the council and attempting to expose the secrets of vampire society to the general public. Do you acknowledge and accept this decision?”

He snarled at her. I’d never seen a human address a vampire in such a cavalier and condescending manner. Ingrid obviously believed she had no reason to fear Alexandre Peyton and was making sure he knew it.

“I take your lack of response as acceptance. There will be hell to pay should the Tribunal’s pet not survive. Sig is especially fond of the half-breed. He won’t like it if she dies.” She cocked her head to the side. The expression on her face was that of a Harvard scholar speaking to an insolent puppy who had just peed on her rug.

From behind her a collection of vampire wardens descended on us. They jostled me against the hard concrete floor as they grabbed Peyton and pulled him off me. He began to thrash like a hooked fish when he realized Ingrid wasn’t just speaking out her ass.

“Take him to the Tribunal,” she said, her voice monotone and bored. When they had removed him from the room, she looked at me again, then cast her gaze to the three werewolves and the remaining warden, Holden.

“Someone may want to give her some blood. She’s not looking well. I suspect she wouldn’t be too picky, given her situation.” What she meant was that any healthy vampire would have rejected werewolf blood outright. As smart as Ingrid was she didn’t know anything about me other than what the council did, that I was half-vampire. Her dismissive title of
half-breed
was more accurate than even she was aware.

“Warden,” she said to Holden, “you will come with me.”

“No.”

The room shifted and I felt my whole body getting heavier. Everything was quieter and people’s voices were taking on the slow, drowsy quality of a broken tape recorder.

“She’s my responsibility. I won’t leave her. She’s my responsibility.” He was kneeling by my head, stroking my blood-soaked hair.

“This won’t escape the Tribunal’s notice.”

“They made this decision for me.”

She snorted and left without another word.

“Someone needs to help her,” Holden said, presumably to the wolves, though his eyes never left mine.

“
How
?” This from Desmond.

“She needs blood.” Lucas sat next to me, clamping a hand over my shredded neck. It took several seconds before I noticed his touch.

“Like an IV?” Dominick was still hovering nearby.

“No.” Holden shook his head. “No, she needs to
drink
blood.”

“Why?” Dominick asked. He was the only one unwilling to accept the obvious answer.

“Vampire.” It was my last word before everything went dark.

Chapter Thirty-Six

When I woke up it wasn’t from any kind of prophetic dream or restful self-indulgence. I came to in the back of a moving car, only somewhat aware of my head being in someone’s lap and that same someone stroking my hair.

“Where…?” I began to ask, but my throat felt as if I’d been swallowing broken glass and I couldn’t say anything more.

“Shhh,” was the response.

I looked up and saw a bandaged wrist, and beyond that the drawn, tired smile of the wolf king.

“Lu…”

“Shh,” he said again, more insistent. “The vamp—” He stopped himself, grimacing. “Holden told us we need to take you somewhere. Desmond says you can see the Oracle, so we’re taking you there.”

After a tentative pause I touched the bandage on his wrist, relieved I was able to move my hand well enough to do so. I knew what it meant, what Lucas had done for me. He’d given me his blood so I could live. But it also meant he knew the truth now, or at least a variation of the truth as he chose to understand it.

“Sorry.” I made the word a complete sentence and gazed at him with heavy sadness. How could he look at me the same again? I was sure I would lose him and Desmond both when this was all over. It made my chest feel tight at the thought of going back to the lonely life I’d had before their romantic complications mucked everything up.

“It’s okay.” He brushed my hair back from my face. “I’m keeping my promise.”

I didn’t know what he meant, but I wondered if he must be referring to the dream I’d had when I was dying, which made me wonder how much truth there was to my daytime reveries. If Lucas and I really had shared a dream and that’s how he’d found me, there was more to this soul-bond…

My head swam, overwhelmed by too many thoughts happening at once.

I smiled and he returned it, but neither of our expressions was happy. I drifted out again and when I awoke he was gone.

This time I was in a bed not my own, and the golden light of morning draped across the comforter. On instinct I recoiled from the light, but it didn’t take long to realize it wasn’t burning me.

It took even less time to realize every single bone in my body, every inch of skin, every joint and muscle was awake and screaming with pain. I had been in fights before, and I had been left in bad shape, but never in my life had I knocked on death’s door twice in one evening only to have him send me away both times.

I’d be overjoyed by the knowledge I was alive if I wasn’t so painfully aware of it.

“You’re up!”

The cheeriness of this voice was almost as bright as the artificial daylight and hurt nearly as much. I winced in the direction of a chair next to the bed.

“Brigit?”

“Hi!”

The blonde vampire was perched next to my bed, radiant in a cobalt blue sundress, her hair long and straight, held back by a sapphire-colored headband. Even as a vampire she looked like she should be spending the day on a beach in California. It pleased me to see her looking so happy, but I couldn’t focus on it for long. My body hurt too much.

“Calliope?”

“Yes.” Brigit understood the unspoken question, confirming I was at Calliope’s mansion. “Holden brought you in. He was with the wolves. The cute one you were with when I came here and another one. He was cute too.” She grinned, flashing her pageant-queen teeth at me. “They couldn’t come in, you know the rules.”

“No wolves.”

“Right. It’s really too bad. I mean, I like Calliope and all, but you’d think in a place that can adjust to the needs and wants of those who live here, there might be a cute serving boy or two.” She flipped her long hair over her shoulder.

“Brigit, why are you here?” I closed my eyes against a new wave of pain.

“Oh. Oh! Yeah, I guess last time you saw me it was that whole awkward trying-to-kill-you thing.” Brigit rolled her eyes, as if to say
what can you do
. “Calliope set me right. She introduced me to the council and they said I’m okay, but I need a liaison until I’ve proven myself in the real world, you know?”

“Liaison?” My heart sank.

“And that blond guy, Stick?”

“Sig.”

“Sure, him. He said you were my liaison. And I had to stay with you until you got better.”

This bolted me up, which I regretted when a wave of nausea threatened to pull me back down. I moaned and sank deep into the thick down duvet, shutting my eyes tight enough to block out the light, hoping Brigit and my pain would be gone when I looked again. Instead, when I reemerged from the blankets, Brigit had been joined by Calliope.

The immortal looked downright casual, dressed in jeans and a rose-pink cashmere sweater, with her dark hair in a high ponytail. She was smiling at me in the manner of a concerned mother. A real mother, not the one who had tried to rip my face off. Reminded of what Mercy had done, my hand flew to my cheek, grazing the skin for any trace of open wounds.

Calliope shook her head. “All healed. Everything on the outside is healed.”

“Still hurts.”

“It will for awhile. You almost died.”

“Twice.”

“Yes. And getting shot certainly didn’t help you deal with the open neck wound. You’re very lucky the wolf king was willing to feed you.”

“He’s a king?” Brigit interjected. “Cool!”

Calliope gave Brigit a frustrated but patient look. The young vampire sat back in her chair and stayed quiet. The Oracle was on the end of the bed, her hand gently resting on my foot.

“I’m sorry he couldn’t be here with you. He wanted to be. He and his lieutenant both. They’ve been waiting all day in the coffeehouse for you, ever since you arrived. I send Brigit there every so often to tell them you’re okay, but I don’t think they’ll believe it until you’re with them again.” She lowered her eyes. “You know the rules, though. It could be very—”

“I know. It’s dangerous.”

“But someone is here to see you.”

I pressed my unharmed cheek into the pillow and smiled in spite of myself. “Holden.”

Calliope frowned, patting my leg with maternal comfort. “No. Someone else.”

If it couldn’t be my wolves and it wasn’t Holden, I was out of guesses for who could be waiting to see me. I didn’t think Keaty could come to Calliope, seeing as he wasn’t afflicted by any sort of supernatural ailment.

“Send them in?”

She reached out for my hand, giving it a firm squeeze. “You have to go to him. I won’t invite him in.”

It was night in the courtyard. Time could exist in parallel ways in this realm. The sun and the moon could share one sky, and it could be daytime in one room and night in another. The sound of cicadas filled the air and stars sparkled overhead in constellations that had never been seen from the New York skyline.

Calliope led me to an overstuffed loveseat and eased me back into a more comfortable position, me wincing every inch of the way. Calliope claimed I was healed, but I’d never felt less whole in my life. I felt like I was one sneeze away from breaking into pieces.

“Where
is
Holden anyway, if he’s not here?”

“He brought you here and left shortly after that. He didn’t tell me where he was going or if he’d be back.” She stood close to me, hand resting on the top of my head.

“Then who came?”

“I did.”

The voice was soft and even, coming from the darkened edge of the courtyard. Calliope and I both looked in that direction, and she took a few steps away from me. A figure emerged from the shadows, and Sig walked with long paces towards where I sat.

It was rare for me to see Sig outside of the Tribunal, and to find him in Calliope’s realm was an extra shock. Overdressed in comparison to how I’d last seen him, he now wore black dress pants and a black T-shirt tailored so perfectly it looked like it was painted on. He was still barefoot, though, and I wondered how he managed it living in a city like New York.

He stopped in front of Calliope, ignoring my presence for the time being.

“Oracle.”

The corner of his mouth twitched with a smirk that vanished so fast I might have imagined it. Calliope’s face was stony.

“Good evening, Sigvard,” she replied with cold detachment, crossing her arms over her chest.

It was my turn to suppress a grin.
Sigvard
?

“Thank you for bringing her to me. Are you sure we cannot have this discussion inside?” This time the laughter in his tone was unmistakable.

Calliope rolled her eyes. “Don’t make me regret this, Sigvard. She is important. Too important to play these games with. You need to protect her better. Especially considering…” She cast a glance towards me and then back to the Tribunal leader.

I didn’t like being talked about when I was sitting right here. I may have been hurt, but my ears worked just fine.

“Don’t keep her long,” the Oracle threatened, and turned back towards the house.

Sig watched the immortal go, not bothering to hide his smile now, looking quite pleased with himself for how irritated he’d made her. “She hasn’t changed.”

“Why won’t she invite you in?”

“She’s a little mad at me still.”

“Still?”

“I said something to her during the Italian Renaissance, and I gather she’s still annoyed about it.”

“What could you possibly have said to make her mad for more than four hundred years?”

He sat next to me, leaning back in the chair and looking up at the sky. “Who knows? To an immortal four hundred years isn’t that long. Calliope is much older than I am, but she’s still a woman, and even immortal women are capable of holding irrational grudges.”

“What did you say?”

He smiled at me. “I told her I didn’t love her.”

I stared at him, trying to process the meaning, but I couldn’t grasp the enormity of the two oldest, most powerful beings I’d ever met having once been a couple. “Oh,” was all I said. “Why did you tell Brigit I was going to be her liaison with the council? You have to be a warden to be a liaison to baby vamps.”

“You were promoted.”

“I’m not a vampire.”

“You are many things, Secret.”

We stared at each other. He’d combed his blond hair back so I could see nothing but his glacier-blue eyes.

“You know.”

“Yes,” he replied. “I know everything.”

“And the others?”

“Daria and Juan Carlos cannot know the truth. Not ever.”

I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. “Thank you.”

“I’ve given you this position because the rest of the council cares very little about the daily lives of wardens. When you just worked for us, you were constantly drawing attention to yourself.” He sighed. “If you are
one
of us, you will stop being considered an outsider, and it will be less likely for you to fall under serious scrutiny.”