Ashes to Ashes-Blood Ties 3 (42 page)

involuntarily replaying images of the night we'd both barely escaped this room with our lives. The night Nathan's son, Ziggy, had died at the hands of his sire. I dropped to my knees and scrambled toward the mess of papers. Letters, a sequence of them, made out to Julia.

The second I touched one, it disappeared. I had to read them silently where they lay, transmitting their contents through the blood tie.

Julia,

I hope this letter finds you well. I have arranged a transport for you and the werewolf for the week of the seventh. This will ensure it is well past the time of the full moon.

I noticed, along with the fact his notorious charisma did not translate to paper, that beside the scattered letters were a handful of envelopes. All were addressed, simply, to "Oracle." There were no addresses.

Father uses personal couriers
. Cyrus's contempt echoed through my head.
You won't find
the address there. But he will have it. Look in my bedroom
.
His bedroom
, I snapped back.
I'll go when I can move
. The Soul Eater grabbed Dahlia by the hair and hauled her to her feet. At least, sort of to her feet. She tripped and her legs tangled, leaving her to twist by the handful of red curls he grasped. "Do you know how many there are like you? Who will do as I say and not make ridiculous demands? Witches are not hard to find. It's an obedient one I've yet to come across!"

He released her hair and grabbed her throat with his clawed hand. "You will not speak to me of this again! Do we have an understanding?"

A tear escaped the corner of her eye, forced out by the pressure of suffocation. She gasped and scratched at his hand, squeaking out a pained "yes" before he threw her backward. She knocked over a table as she fell.

I sprinted for the door, thinking to escape when I wouldn't be heard over the ruckus Dahlia's weeping and falling caused.

"And you! Don't move another inch!"

I froze.

Chapter Twenty-Three: Back from the Dead

"Yes, I know you're there." The Soul Eater moved closer to me, as though he could see me despite my invisibility. He sniffed the air, a smile twitching the corners of his mouth.

"Do you think I can't smell my fledgling's blood in you?" I clutched the stone tighter.
Run! Just get the hell out of there
! Nathan screamed in my head. I tensed, ready to follow his advice.

The Soul Eater laughed. "Oh, Nolen. He was always so dramatic. You have nothing to

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fear from me."

Carrie, don't listen to him
! Cyrus's thoughts set up a panicked buzz in my mind. I clapped my hands to my head, trying desperately to keep my wits under the onslaught of my sire's and my fledgling's frantic urging.

"Be calm," the Soul Eater advised. His tone was patient and reasonable, cutting through the pandemonium in my head. "You know how to quiet them." Block the blood tie? In my confusion and pain I dimly remembered telling Cyrus and Nathan that I wouldn't, that they could stay in contact with me and know everything was all right It was so tempting to follow the Soul Eater's directive. So I did.

"There," Jacob said, stepping toward me. "Now, show yourself. I won't hurt you." For some horrible reason I couldn't fathom, I believed him. I let the stone tumble to the floor.

His eyes lit up with cold fire in recognition. A smile bent his lips, lips that were so like Cyrus's. "Oh, this is a pleasant surprise."

"You remember me?" Why did that make me feel special, somehow?

Dahlia staggered to her feet, her face cut and bleeding. "You!"

"You may leave now, Dahlia. I am quite finished with you." He didn't look at her, until she opened her mouth to protest. Then he fixed her with a piercing glare. "Unless there is something else you wish to offer me?"

She backed to the door, her eyes wide with fear, and left us alone in the study. As if he hadn't just threatened to steal a person's soul right there in front of me, he beckoned me closer. "Come here, let me get a look at you." I went to him, drawn by some invisible cord that seemed to bind us. Nothing like the blood tie. It was pure charisma.

"Of course I remember you. You were my son's… well, plaything seems so crude."

"Because it is." But I don't know why it didn't offend me.

"Pity, what had to occur between you. But you weren't suited to each other." He reached out, gripped my wrist.

"You re much too strong for him."

"Is that a compliment?" It was hard to tell It was hard to think at all. His hand burned where it touched my skin.

"It's an… observation." He lifted my wrist to his lips. I didn't resist him, even though it seemed certain he would bite. Instead, he pressed a kiss there, and I shuddered. "When you killed him, that created much trouble for me."

"Did it?" I pulled my hand back slowly, actually reluctant to break contact. "I won't apologize."

The Soul Eater chuckled. "I wouldn't expect you to."

"Because you know me so well?" I heard the sarcasm in my voice, but I didn't feel the conviction that bolstered my words.

He laughed again. "I can see why my son enjoyed your company. Please, sit. Talk with me. After five centuries, the days grow tedious, especially with such… pointless companions."

"And you two seemed to get along so well." I sat on the couch, where he instructed. He righted the chair and turned it to face me before sitting. "She has her uses. I must admit, I found her enjoyable for a time. But I grow tired of people so quickly. It's a

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character flaw on my part, and I accept it. So, tell me. What have you come for?"

"I want to know where the Oracle is." There was no point in hiding it from him. I doubted I would survive to make it out of the place. If I could get the information, maybe I could relay it to Cyrus or Nathan. "The Oracle has my friends. Tell me where they are." He laughed. "Now you underestimate me, Carrie."

"You won't let me live to get out of here. Might as well tell me. Satiating my curiosity could be… fulfilling my last wish." Even as I said it, I knew he wasn't stupid enough to fall for it. He didn't have a pathological need to gloat over his impending victory. He stood and paced leisurely behind his chair, then to the fire. There was a cut-crystal decanter of amber liquid on the mantel. He poured a glass and offered it to me. I declined with a motion of my head. "I need to stay dry. I hear you can be dangerous."

"In more ways than you know." He moved toward me and pressed the glass into my palm.

"Drink it."

I took the glass. "Is it poisoned? Spiked with holy water?"

"I wouldn't do such a nasty thing to you." He poured himself a drink, as a show of good faith, probably, and sank into his chair. "I do remember you. I remember when you knelt beside my coffin and put your devious hands on it. And I remember how wounded you were when I did not fall into the same trap that my son did. How naive you were, how refreshingly stupid."

"I can't say Cyrus was much better." I couldn't help glancing at the floor. We sat in the very room where I'd first encountered Soul Eater, The room in which I'd killed his son.

"No, Simon was always too headstrong. From the time he killed his brother, I knew it. He could never accept that he wasn't my first choice as fledgling. He would never see the larger scope of my actions, only how they affected him." The Soul Eater shook his head ruefully.

"Talk about not seeing the broader scope! You killed his wives, you didn't care when the only maternal figure in his life burned to death, your goons killed the girl in the desert—"

"What girl in the desert?" Jacob leaned forward, clearly intrigued and… amused? "I hadn't heard about any girl."

"I won't be the one to tell you." The fact I'd even mentioned it disgusted me. "But you can't blame him for becoming blinded to betrayal. After living with you for so long, it probably felt natural."

"Very good, my dear." The Soul Eater laughed, a deep, seductive sound that didn't have the callow edge of his son's. "Well, I did kill a few of his companions. But his first two wives, they killed themselves. And his stepmother, what a useless woman. I suppose he told you his suspicions of me." I glared at him. "Never. When I knew him, he was blinded by his loyalty to you. He acted like the sun shines out of your ass."

"Do you have to be so crude?" Jacob clucked his tongue. "I must say, I'm proud he never spoke ill of me to you. It showed he had at least some sense."

"It shows less sense that he stayed under your thumb for so long." I let the comment hang in the air for a moment. "Tell me what you did to his mother."

"
Step
mother," the Soul Eater corrected. He propped his steepled fingers in front of his mouth, cold blue eyes glinting in the firelight. "She was useless. Perpetually pregnant and useless. I had two daughters by her. Neither of them lived past infancy, thank the Lord for small mercies. But the experience of bearing a child and watching it die… well, it ruined

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her. Chores were neglected, my children ran wild. All except Cyrus, foolish brat that he was. He doted on her as if anything he could do would break her from her selfpitying spell.

"The day she burned, I'd had enough. I came in from the field—I was a simple farmer then, with no land of my own, toiling day after interminable day for another man's gain. I came into my house, and the fire had died. It wasn't a cold day, mind, but with no fire came no supper, and my bones fairly ached with hunger. I thought of my sons, scattered to the winds, doing God alone knew what while their stepmother wallowed in her sniveling sorrow, and I'd had enough. I went for kindling, built up the fire and when it was large enough, I pushed her into it."

Cyrus's tortured memories flashed through my mind. The loving mother figure, enrobed in flames. His only friend and ally in the cruel world of his childhood, burning to death before his eyes. And Mouse, left to burn away in the desert as he watched. The Soul Eater made a disgusted noise. "Well, in any case, he's dead now." So, he didn't know the truth then. How could he? Dahlia had obviously meant to kill Cyrus, and probably reported the deed finished when she'd told the Soul Eater.

"You're a monster," I rasped, still trying to swallow my shock.

"And you're a simpering fool!" His hand shot out to grab me by the throat. Rage lit his eyes and hard lines bracketed his mouth. Still, he wasn't the Soul Eater I'd feared meeting tonight. I hoped that creature didn't show his face white I was around. He took a deep breath and released me, smiling tightly. "I'm sorry. Forgive me. I have no wish to harm you."

I find that hard to believe
, I thought, but said nothing.

"You intrigue me, Carrie." He regarded me with an intensity that burned. "You may have been too strong for my son, and certainly too strong for my fledgling, but you're no match for me, A challenge, certainly. It would take us a long time, I think, to tire of each other."

"Well, I'm already getting tired of you," I retorted. But it wasn't true. When Cyrus had been my sire, I'd been drawn to the danger in him. In him I'd seen reflected all my basest desires. He'd offered me a life of indulgence and hedonism, and I'd been able to turn away in disgust. But the Soul Eater… Everything about Jacob Seymour seemed
right
. As if he could do no wrong simply because he believed nothing was wrong. It made him powerful, and power remained my weakness.

I begged myself to remember what had happened before, how unhappy I knew I would have been if I'd stayed unquestioningly at Cyrus's side. The Soul Eater didn't
need
me. I'd wanted that so much, someone to need me. Now, it seemed the furthest thing from my mind. I wanted to need someone else, and the best possible person to need would be one who could provide.

I was falling under his hypnotic spell again.