Darkness Embraced (14 page)

I saw the green field frozen, frozen beneath layers of crystalline ice.

I looked for the source of that pink-orange hand, and fear lodged in my chest.

Sunlight, coming to burn me alive. It was rising and when it rose…I ran, blades of iced grass cutting my feet. I slipped and fell, scrambled back up again, running with sheer terror, encouraged by centuries of instinct.

You cannot run!

I looked back to see Cuinn’s sleek form running toward me. His long body seemed to cut through the air, his paws never making a sound.

Cuinn was suddenly next to me. I buried my hands in his fiery fur, shielding my face in his scruff.

Cuinn,
I thought, terrified,
Cuinn, what do I do if I cannot run?

Ye break the Dream Master’s hold.

Cuinn faced the sun and his muscles rippled in anticipation beneath my hand. He gave a fierce warning yip that seemed to echo out over the land. The light seemed to hesitate, rays wavering. He took a step forward and a growl unlike any I’d ever heard from a fox slipped past his blackened lips. Again, the sun’s power hesitated, as if unsure whether or not it wanted to face the fox spirit’s power.

I opened myself and felt Cuinn’s courage. I filled myself with the fox’s courage until it felt I would burst with it. I turned to face the light. Cuinn’s tall head bumped my hand, and when I took a step forward, he followed.

With each step the sun began to sink back. I focused on the cold, on drawing it inside myself. The crescent of something darker and larger than the sun began to rise.

“Now!”
Cuinn yipped with happy delight and we were running, running full out toward the sun and the moon our power had conjured.

*

I came to myself and found my attire soaked. The throne room spun wildly in my vision, and I had to close my eyes to keep from wavering on my knees.

Sognare’s voice came. “She has broken my hold,” he said and his voice was empty, but his eyes held something I couldn’t read and wasn’t sure I trusted. “She has passed my test.”

I wondered if he knew that I had passed his test with Cuinn’s aid.

Cuinn’s voice filled my mind.
I remain unseen when I wish.

When I stood, a chorus of small glass shattered to the ground at my feet.

There was blood on my hands. I realized the tiny shards on the floor were not glass, but icicles. “You could have killed me.”

Sognare, leaning heavily on his cane, inclined his head. I saw Vasco retrace his steps, taking the circle of protection down.

A rock of fear dropped to the pit of my stomach. I had not known that his visions were powerful enough that he could inflict harm with them.

Yet again, it seemed Cuinn had saved my life.

Nay,
he whispered,
I merely give ye the tools.

Vasco touched my shoulder and I flinched, coming back to myself with a flurry of thoughts.

“The Queen is addressing you, Epiphany.”

I turned to Renata. “Yes, my lady?”

There was a look on her face that I couldn’t quite fathom. Her eyes searched my gaze, but what she said was, “You are excused, Epiphany.”

I bowed my head. “Thank you, my lady.”

Vasco gave me his arm and I took it.

We were almost to the doors when Renata’s voice stopped us in our tracks.

“I did not give you permission to leave, Vasco.”

Vasco sank gracefully to his knees, bowing his entire body forward. “Forgive me, Padrona. I sought only to escort the lady to her chamber.”

The fact that he hadn’t called me by name meant that he was as worried about being stopped as I was. Why had she stopped us? Was she reasserting her control, reinforcing her position as Queen in front of the Elders?

“Then ask if you may leave, Vasco. Do not assume when I have not granted you permission.”

He sank a little lower into his bow. “Sì, my lady. I apologize. Might I escort the Lady Epiphany to her room?”

“No.”

Vasco looked up then. I tried not to let the surprise show on my face. Would she seriously forbid Vasco to see me to my room? It was a gesture he had done for so many years.

Vasco didn’t bother with trying to keep the question from his face. He gave Renata that wide-eyed stare and told her with his eyes that he could not believe she would be so petty. Before he could open his mouth to argue, Renata’s lips parted.

“No,” she said. “Escort the lady to my private chambers.”

Vasco bowed again. I think, this time trying to hide his expression. Though he hid his expression from the Rosso Lussuria clan, I felt the emotions unfurl inside him—astonishment, shock, and then a deep-seated worry. His emotional reaction overshadowed my own until I wasn’t quite sure what I felt.

Lucrezia made a displeased noise low in her throat. “So she is indeed your little pet bitch again.”

Renata turned on her like the raging sea. “Many of you seem to have forgotten that I am your Queen.”

“I have not forgotten, my lady,” Lucrezia said in a voice gone flat.

Renata’s voice held power like a crashing wave. “Hold your tongue, Lucrezia,” she said, splendid and frightening. “I did not ask you to speak. Be careful that the madness you do so enjoy inspiring in others is not a madness which spills from your lips and to my ears again, for the next time you speak out of turn, I will cut your tongue out myself.”

If I had thought Vasco the fastest of us, I had sorely underestimated Renata.

Lucrezia’s mouth opened and Renata never gave her the chance to speak. She sent her flying down the steps as if she weighed nothing, and I might’ve believed Lucrezia weighed nothing, if she did not fall with such a messy and heavy thud.

Renata stepped down, meeting Lucrezia’s wild-eyed look. Lucrezia didn’t move. She remained on her side, propping herself up on her hands and looking up at Renata.

The look in her eyes was venomous.

“Dominique, Dante,” Renata said and her voice still contained power like the sharp edge of a blade.

Lucrezia’s eyes were slits of challenge.

Dominique and Dante moved quietly toward Lucrezia.

“No,” she commanded coolly. Her red lips curved into a cruel smile that was directed at Lucrezia. “Fetch Gaspare. It is time to remind the Rosso Lussuria of what their Queen is capable of. Vasco,” she said, eyes never flicking from Lucrezia’s, “escort your lady.”

Vasco gave a quick bow of his head. “My Queen, if it is no trouble, I would very much like to remain at your side this night.”

“Escort Epiphany,” she said. “Then, if it is your will, return to my side.”

“It is, my lady.”

“Go.”

Vasco caught my arm. He tried to turn me toward the double doors that Dominique and Dante held open, but I dug in my heels. Renata noticed my reluctance.

Go. What I will do here tonight is not something I wish you to play witness to,
her voice whispered through my mind like a breeze tickling dry leaves.

I turned with Vasco and did as I was told.

I paced the length of Renata’s chamber. Vasco reclined on the bed with his legs crossed at the ankles. His longs arms were tucked back behind his head. I was aware that he was watching me, aware of the flickering sense of curiosity that emitted from him. It seemed that my powers were growing, for me to be able to sense such a small thing as curiosity. As he said he would, Vasco had escorted me to Renata’s bedroom and then had left to stand at her side. An hour and half later, he returned with a smile tugging at the edges of his mouth. I hadn’t understood his look of pride and satisfaction.

“Colombina,” he said.

I paused. “Hmm?”

“You are pacing like an impatient cat,” he said. “Why?”

“What is she doing, Vasco? Why order me to her chambers in front of the Elders? Why is she placing both of us, all of us, at risk? I felt your fear. I sensed your dread, your worry.”

“Did you sense anything from the others?” he asked and the tone of his voice was almost casual.

I shook my head. “No, but I wasn’t trying to sense anything from them either.”

“What about Lucrezia? You heard her words. What did you sense behind them, colombina?”

I gave a bitter laugh. “Lucrezia is filled with anger, hatred, and envy. She always has been. It’s hard to sense anything beyond that.”

“Why?” he asked.

“Why?” I blinked, giving him an uncomprehending look.

“Sì,” he said. “What motivates those feelings?”

I pursed my lips in thought. “I don’t know. Where are you going with this, Vasco?”

He smiled wide enough to flash the length of his canines. “Know thy enemy.”

I started pacing again. “Power and envy,” I said. “She craves power. I’ve watched her try to take it from others for years. She’s envious of Renata’s power, of anyone that has more power than she does.”

“Sì,” he said. “It is hard for you to have the perspective the rest of us have, as we have been together far longer.”

His words made me stop in my tracks. “By human definitions, I am not so young, Vasco, not as young as some of you treat me.”

“I know,” he said giving me a look of silent understanding. “But you were not there when Lucrezia came to the Rosso Lussuria, seeking sanctuary from her maestà. Her mind was a fragile thing. We did not think she would survive, and if it had not been for her own blossoming power she would not have.”

“What do you mean?” I sat on the edge of the bed.

“Lucrezia and her master shared a similar gift,” he said, “both carry the Kiss of Madness.”

“The Kiss of Madness?”

“She can break a person’s mind with a single kiss, mortal or immortal. Her king tried to use the kiss against her, to punish her when she sexually abused one of his lovers.”

I had known that Lucrezia liked her sex spiced with pain. For decades with Renata, our lovemaking was often the intermingling of pleasure and pain, her dominant will eliciting my total surrender. Yet, I hesitated to compare Renata’s desires with Lucrezia’s. In a sense, Lucrezia’s idea of sex wasn’t sex at all. Torture and rape seem more appropriate terms in regard to Lucrezia’s style.

I fought the shudder that started at the base of my spine. The memory of Lucrezia’s hands was one I longed to forget.

“Renata refused to allow Lucrezia to take a lover among the Rosso Lussuria, didn’t she?”

Vasco’s brows went up a fraction. “Sì,” he said and I realized he was impressed that I’d come to the conclusion all on my own. In a way, so was I. “Renata banned Lucrezia from ever taking a lover as a result of her…bedroom manners.”

“Or lack thereof,” I added dryly. “Why did Renata agree to allow Lucrezia to join the clan in the first place?” It was incredibly rare for a clan to accept a vampire that had been sired by another, most especially one that had never originally belonged or been sired among the clan. “Why was Lucrezia not declared Il Deboli?”

“I would say that our Queen took pity on her but fear that would be a lie,” he said. “It was not pity that motivated the Queen.”

“It was a political move,” I said, “another vampire to add to her ranks?”

“Sì, Lucrezia was another powerful vampire to bind to the clan.”

“I would’ve sent her back the way she came,” I said. “I would have declared her Il Deboli.”

“Truly?” he asked, searching my face. Declaring Lucrezia Il Deboli was a death sentence. Contrary to popular belief, vampires did not thrive well in cities. We preferred to keep to ourselves and lived our lives separate from that of the humans. The only time vampires ventured out into the city was when they were hunting prey or when they were the prey.

“Yes, truly. Lucrezia’s as mad as a hatter. I would not invite that into my clan unless I was absolutely confident I could control it.”

Vasco’s face erupted in a grin. “Your mind is getting better at court politics, bellezza. You just answered your own question. Once Lucrezia began to surface out of her madness, she agreed to swear blood oath to Renata. We agreed to spare her life thinking that her power would discourage any that threatened the security of our clan. We thought we could control her.”

“I would have had her executed. That’s what happens when you live so long, Vasco. A few centuries of immortality and the arrogance starts going to your head.”

“I never thought I would see the night when you would be both ruthless and practical. I think it is more than just our Queen who has underestimated you.”

“I don’t think it is ruthless, Vasco. I think it’s practical, yes. If a thing proves to be dangerous one night I will not wake the next expecting that its nature has completely changed.” I fixed him with a hard stare. “If Lucrezia was mad when she showed up on the Queen’s doorstep, why risk it?”

“Because power is an important thing to our kind. Surely you know that by now. Lucrezia narrowly averted slipping into the madness inspired by her master’s kiss. When she showed up, she should have been completely taken by it. As it was, she only had bouts of it, and until her mind was healed, Renata kept her under lock and key.”