Stay the Night (33 page)

Alex still felt the tug of the bond that had formed between them in Ireland. She hadn't understood it then, and it had come close to wrecking her life after she'd returned to America and Michael. But she also knew that Korvel had fallen in love with her, and the crazy things that she had done because of her own love for Michael made her feel a twinge of sympathy.

She took his hand and let him kiss the back of hers. “Look, if I could work things out with Michael, I know you can get over this thing for me.”

Korvel straightened and looked into her eyes. “Are you certain that is what you wish, Alexandra?”

She felt it then—his talent, the ability to make any woman desire him, was legendary among the Kyn—and tried not to let it affect her. “You're a gorgeous guy, and you can have any woman you want. Literally. You don't need me.”

The scent of larkspur turned hot as he touched the dark curls next to her cheek. “We always want what we cannot have, my lady.” His hand fell to her throat. “Have you not yet learned that from me?”

The images hit her with slightly less force than a hard slap: Korvel, naked, poised over her. His tongue lapping at her nipple. His fingers between her legs. The plum-size dome of his penis searching against her—

“You conniving son of a bitch.” Alex shoved his hand away. “You still think you can mess with my head? Do you have any idea what I can do to you? I'll get a scalpel, come back here, and cut your fucking heart out. You'll be dead before you crack an eyelid.”

Korvel glanced at Richard before he shook his head. “I cannot help myself, Alexandra. There is no one else for me.”

As Alex tried to regain control of her temper, she noticed how carefully Richard was watching her. It surprised her that Korvel would pull a stunt like this in front of his master. When he wasn't trying to get in her pants, the captain was one of the most reserved, controlled warriors who served Richard.

Something Nick had said about Korvel pounded in Alex's head: . . .
he does whatever the Vampire King tells him, no matter how nasty it is
. . .

“Jesus Christ.” She turned to the high lord. “You made him do this, didn't you? What was the plan? To see if his talent worked on me better than yours does?”

“Evidently it does not.” Richard's eyes glinted from the shadows of his hood. “You would do well to remember that you are not immune to everything, Doctor.”

“Incredible. You know, just when I think I can do this, that I can be a part of this, you try to slap a leash on me again.” Alex turned her head. “And you, you walking hard-on, you're supposed to be in love with me. Hearts and flowers, the whole nine yards. So, what, you go and pimp your power for him? How fucking romantic.”

Korvel's face darkened. “I do love—”

Alex whipped up her hand. “Oh, you don't get to talk to me anymore. And you.” She turned to Richard. “You tell me what the hell you want from me now, straight out, or I'm out of here, and I'm taking Michael with me.”

“Leave us,” Richard said to Korvel.

The captain didn't move. “Alexandra, this was not my doing—”

Richard's voice became a lash. “Get out.”

“Do what he says.” Alex kept her eyes on the high lord. She waited until Korvel left them before she rubbed her hot, damp face on her sleeve. “You're a jerk, but I never thought you were a sadistic jerk. No wonder you fell in love with that psychotic bitch.”

Richard turned his back on her. “We will not discuss my wife.”

“Fine, let's talk about Korvel. He's the best soldier you've got in your little fang army. The guy would throw himself on a copper sword to protect you. He's probably the only reason I didn't kill you in Ireland. But, Richard, you still use him like he's a disposable razor.” She went around him to face him. “Korvel wouldn't have this problem if you hadn't kidnapped me. This is your fault. Trying to use him to manipulate me now is disgusting and pathetic.”

“The other seigneurs have petitioned me to remove Michael from rule over the American
jardins
.”

“I don't give a flying—What?”

“Michael opposes war with the Brethren,” Richard said. “My other six seigneurs do not, and they feel he may become a liability in the days ahead. They have petitioned me to remove him and appoint a new seigneur.”

“Really.” She planted her hands on her hips. “Who did you have in mind? Phil? He won't do it. Neither will any of the suzerains in America. You already know how loyal they are to Michael. No one will take his place.”

“My captain will.”

Alex digested this, and then she began to laugh. “I was wrong. You're a cold-blooded, sadistic jerk.” She went over and sat on the end of Korvel's bed, still laughing.

“The decision is mine, of course.” Richard made a casual gesture. “I can instead send Korvel to protect Nicola and Gabriel, and leave Michael to his rule over America. But war is imminent, Doctor, and time has sorely depleted my armies. If we are to prevail over the Brethren, I shall need something from you.”

Alex abruptly sobered. “Like what?”

“You will tell me exactly how you and the other women were able to make the change from human to Kyn.”

Alex blanked her expression. “I can't tell you what I don't know.”

Richard sighed. “Must I bring out all of the reports sent to me from America? Photographs of the Brethren breeding centers you have visited, copies of the medical files you retrieved from them? Perhaps you wish to review the tests you have conducted on your own blood and the blood of every female changed to Kyn in the last five years.”

“I thought
I
was scum for talking Nick into hunting for you.” Alex stared down at her white-knuckled hands. “You've got me beat.”

“Look at me, Alexandra.” When she did, Richard pulled back his hood. “You transformed me from changeling to Kyn. You cannot pretend you do not know how you were changed.”

“I don't,” she insisted. “Even if I did, I wouldn't tell you. I'm not going to let you do this to anyone else.”

“If you wish Michael to remain in power, and Nicola to have her peace of mind,” Richard said, “you will.” He pulled his hood back over his face. “I shall give you a day to think on it. Tomorrow night you will tell me how it is done, or you and your lover may pledge your loyalty to Korvel when I appoint him as the new American seigneur.”

 

Chris fought Nottingham all the way from the car to the airport in Rome, until he told her he would knock her out and carry her over his shoulder if she didn't cooperate.

“What about Robin?” she said as the dark lord gripped her arm and propelled her toward the gate. “One of the contessa's thugs might come back to the palazzo to check on things. If they find him, they'll kill him.”

His mouth curled. “That will save me the trouble.”

Nottingham made her sit next to him on the empty plane. He had the same power to control humans as Robin did, apparently, for the crew did everything he said but completely ignored everything she said to them.

The flight from Venice to London took two hours, and for most of it Chris sat in silence and tried not to worry about Robin. She knew Nottingham had taken her from him as payback for Marian, and that when the drug wore off Robin would follow. But would Robin come after them then because he loved her, or because he wanted to even the score?

“You are being very quiet,” Nottingham said.

“I'm worried about Robin.” She eyed him. “You shouldn't have left him there like that.”

“I used but a small amount of the drug,” Nottingham told her. “He will have awoken by the time our plane left Rome.”

“Why didn't you kill him while you had the chance?” He didn't reply, and she studied his face. “You don't want him dead, do you?”

“My cousin is not afraid of dying,” he said. “He courts death. He has been that way since he came back from the Holy Wars.”

“When he found out Marian was gone.” That explained quite a few things about Robin. “I'm confused. If you don't want to kill him, why go through all this?”

“I want to see him suffer as I suffered,” Nottingham said, his voice grating over the words. “Ten years I spent in a dungeon because of him. If the contessa had kept her promises to me, I would have left him to rot in that cage forever.”

“After making him watch you rape me,” she added helpfully.

He looked away. “He should never have brought you with him.”

“I see. It's his fault. Again.” She tilted her head. “It's funny how he's always the bad guy, and you're nothing but the victim. But I can see why you wouldn't want to kill him. If he were gone, you wouldn't have anyone left to blame for your problems.”

Nottingham gave her a filthy look. “You know nothing. Your mortal life has lasted a handful of years. I have endured centuries alone on this earth.”

“Why not kill yourself then?” she asked. “What have you done with your life besides hating Robin, blaming Robin, or planning to get even with Robin? How could you waste all that time on something stupid like revenge over a woman who never wanted either of you?”

Nottingham slapped her hard enough to bring tears to her eyes. “You will not speak of her.”

Chris swallowed a sob and turned away from him, moving as far as she could to the other side of the seat. She sat there for a long time before she felt a brush of leather against her hand, and jerked around.

“I am sorry I hit you,” he said, his voice gruff as he pressed a handkerchief into her hands. “You have a talent for provoking me. Stop weeping.”

She sniffed and dried her face. “Don't you be nice to me.”

“I dislike seeing females in tears.”

She took the handkerchief he offered her and wiped her eyes. “At least mine aren't toxic.” She took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “What did the other Kyn say when you told them about the contessa and this vial of her sister's tears?”

“I did not call London.”

“You're kidding.” She crumpled the handkerchief in her fist. “Oh, my God. You're not.”

“There was no need to call ahead,” he told her. “Salva is traveling by land. We will reach England before she does.”

Chris tried to work that out. “Why wouldn't she fly there?”

“Kyn despise air travel,” he said. “She flew to Rome only because she could not spare the time to make the crossing by boat and train.”

“You don't seem to have a problem with it,” she pointed out. “Neither does Robin.”

“My cousin is a reckless fool,” Nottingham said. “I fear nothing.”

“You seemed pretty terrified of that vial.” She saw his hand contract into a fist against the armrest. “How poisonous are her sister's tears?”

“We Kyn each have our own talent,” he said slowly. “As you have seen, the contessa can persuade a human to do anything she wishes. Your lover charms them. I command the cold and ice. But there are those with far more powerful talents. One of our kind can shatter flesh and bone with a touch. Our high lord can inflict great suffering on humans and Kyn with his voice.”

If he had told her that two days ago, Chris would never have believed him. Now it made her stomach turn.

“Beatrice's talent was the most lethal of all,” he continued. “Her blood was poison, and anything it touched—Kyn, mortals, animals, plants, anything alive—died instantly. For a short time her family concealed her talent by hiding her from the rest of us, but she escaped them to run away with a mortal who had fallen in love with her. She did not think about the blood of her virginity. He died in her arms.”

Nottingham told her how, weeping with grief, Beatrice had thrown herself into a river.

“She did not drown—we cannot be killed that way—but'tis said that she wept tears of blood into the water. Every mortal who drank it sickened overnight,” he said. “Their bodies swelled with black boils, and they went out of their heads with fever. Anyone who touched them also became ill. So the sickness spread through villages and towns and cities. It traveled on ships from one country to another.”

What he was describing sounded like the Black Death. Chris couldn't quite believe that a vampirelike immortal could have caused a plague with her tears, but she'd seen so many strange things already that she was prepared to take it on faith. “How many people died?”

“Too many to be counted.” His mouth tightened. “In Florence, where I lived, every mortal who served me died of it. So did half the city. It took us months to collect the bodies of the dead and burn them.”

“What happened to Beatrice?”

“She went back to her family and begged them to hide her. They put her into a convent, but she could not overcome her grief. Her tears first killed all of the sisters, and then their livestock and gardens. She poisoned the wells with them, and when the rains came the wells overflowed and plague began to sweep throughout the land again.”

“What if it was coincidence?” she asked. “Historians say that rats spread the plague through the fleas they carried.”

“I cannot say. Among the Kyn, it was said that Beatrice was the angel of death, sent by God to bring about Armageddon.” The corner of Nottingham's mouth curled. “True or not, that belief spread like the sickness, and eventually reached our high lord. He assembled his seigneurs and came to Venice for her.”

Chris almost felt sorry for the contessa. “Didn't they test her tears to see if it was true, or give her a chance to defend herself?”