Darkness Embraced (28 page)

I knew her well enough to know that she had told me telepathically and had been evasive because she was Renata. She was the Queen and once again my lover, but being Renata, she did not want anyone to know until she chose the right moment. She told me because I had asked.

It was a great risk for her and not one I expected her to take.

It is a risk I am willing to take, but you must understand, Piph, that it does not solely put me at risk. It will put you at risk as well.

“I understand,” I said. “It is a risk I too am willing to take.”

“Good. That pleases me.” Her tranquil expression turned quizzically amused as I moved down her body. “Epiphany,” she said, imbuing my name with a thread of amusement, “what are you doing?”

My fingers brushed the hem of her dress. I turned my head, hiding behind my hair.

“You were not satisfied earlier.”

“What do you propose to do?”

I bowed my head even more, still hiding. It was a demure gesture and a subservient one that I knew would please her.

 “I endeavor to please you, my lady.”

She touched my chin with cool fingers, turning my face to hers. “If you would please me,” she mused, rising and catching the edge of my knee-length tunic in her hands, “take off your clothes.”

I undressed quickly, but she did not remove her own attire. Renata merely raised the black velvet of her skirt and allowed me to draw the undergarments hidden beneath the heavy material from her porcelain skin. I situated myself between her legs, kissing her thighs with half-parted lips.

We did not have long until the sun rose. But what time we had left, I would use wisely.

It would not be a quick and passionate outburst. There would be no bloodlust to fan the fire or exquisite force to bend the will. If there had been more time, I would have requested that she disrobe. I would have taken great pleasure in running my lips over every inch of her body. As it was, there was not the time for such languid lovemaking. I kissed her thighs, tracing an invisible path with my lips to the hollow near her groin. The smell of her arousal hung in the air like something sweet and honeyed. With closed eyes, I stroked her cleft with the tip of my tongue, teasing her open.

I kissed her, burying my mouth between her legs. Renata moaned, hips rising to meet my face. I licked her, once, twice, a sensuous glide of tongue, searching and exploring her inner folds.

“Epiphany,” she said, voice caught somewhere between a whisper and a moan.

I stopped my prolonged investigation and rose, taking her clit into my mouth with lips and tongue. I sucked her gently, tracing her with lazy circles.

Her hips jerked and she ground herself against my face. I felt her frustration but did not lose my deliberately leisurely pace.

“Epiphany,” she said again, and this time there was enough command in her tone that a shiver of excitement prickled down my spine.

She slid from between my lips as I drew back, watching the shudder tremble through her limbs.

“Yes, my lady?”

Her look hardened in a way that promised penalty.

Steady desire like quiet waves murmured through me.

I bowed my head. “As you will.”

I took her between my lips, licking and sucking, ceding my mouth to her pleasure without restraint. I drowned in her. The taste of her filled my mouth like honeyed wine, subtle yet no less intoxicating.

She moaned, muscles going rigid as she spent herself against my lips.

I did not resign until I felt her hand stroke down the back of my head. Then I licked her, catching the last of her honey upon my tongue.

“Come here,” she said, offering her hand.

Taking it, I let her lead me to her.

She reached between my legs, fingers gliding through the sea she called from my body.

“We don’t have time,” I breathed the words. Need and want of her made my stomach clench tight.

She slid her fingers inside me, forcing my body to shudder in eternal pleasure. “I say we do.”

My hips danced against her coaxing hand.

“Yes,” I said.

“Good girl,” she said, picking up her rhythm and forcing my hips to move faster to echo the song her fingers played. “Now come for me, Epiphany.”

*

There was a light knock on the door behind the curtained tapestry.

Renata called out, “Enter,” and the door opened as Iliaria stepped into the room.

“Vasco has died.”

Renata closed her eyes, whispering, “Soon.” When she opened them she looked at me. “Go and wake him, Epiphany.”

I did not feel any different. In fact, I had not even known the sun had risen, which is something I should have sensed like a great weight pressing against my mind and skin.

The sun had risen and Vasco had died. Soon, Renata would die as the sun made its ascent, spreading its golden fingers out over the land and the world above.

I wondered if the ring gave the wearer the capability of walking in sunlight, but it was not the time for those kinds of questions.

“I will stay here until I can use the sword to wake you, then I will wake Vasco.” I turned to Iliaria. “Will you stay with him until I am done here?”

“Yes,” she said, nodding, “I will stay and keep watch.”

“Did Dominique and Dante make it to the room before the sun rose?” Renata asked.

If Dominique had gone to the sitting room he must’ve taken the long way to get there, as he had not come through the room. The long way involved navigating a labyrinth of hallways to get to the back hallway and secret corridor.

“They did,” she said.

This time, it was Renata who nodded.

The Dracule left, leaving the purple tapestry swinging.

“You waste time, Epiphany.”

“Not to me, I don’t,” I said.

She looked at me through a slit of her dark lashes. “You are being stubborn.”

“About this?” I asked. “Yes, but only because I want to make sure you are safe.”

“Epifania,” she said and I felt her light touch on my arm and turned to her.

Renata’s chest rose as she drew a sharp breath, and when her eyes closed I knew that dawn’s curse had taken her.

I stood, picking up the fox blade and pressing the tip of my finger against it until a drop of blood welled at the tip. I crawled over Renata’s still form and used my other hand to pry her jaw open. I slipped my finger between her teeth and held my other hand above her mouth, squeezing to encourage the blood to flow before the cut healed.

The drop fell, hitting the back of her mouth. The sword in my hand felt warm.

I slid from the bed and stood.

Renata gasped, turning to look at me. Her eyes were swallowed by the black night skies of her pupils. “Go. Wake Vasco now.”

I went and as I entered the sitting room Iliaria stood from the small couch. Vasco lay across the other. I went wide around Dante and Dominique, who were both sprawled on the floor. As I had with Renata, I woke Vasco, feeling the pommel of the sword grow warm like a small flame between my hands.

Renata had entered the room when I was waking Vasco and had woken Dominique. She closed her eyes where she knelt above Dante, tracing the line above his brows with her fingers. I felt her power unfurl like a cool wind, tickling my arms and tangling in strands of my hair. Dante jerked upright, waking violently. She put a hand on his shoulder and her energy changed, from a haunting wind to the still peace of a reflective pool.

Dominique reached behind his back, checking his weapons. Dante opened his coat and withdrew two large blades that were nearly longer than my forearms.

I took the hand Vasco offered and stood, going to the doorway.

Dominique moved past us, checking the way as the guards were supposed to do. He gazed back into the bedroom and said, “It’s clear.”

Renata inclined her head and we went, walking silently through the halls and to the Elders’ Quarters to wake the others.

Nirena’s pale violet eyes flew open and a look of startled curiosity swam to the surface.

“What passes?” she asked, taking in Vasco and Renata standing at the side of her bed.

“You offered your aid, Nirena,” Renata said.

“We’re holding you to that offer,” I said, sitting back on my heels where I knelt beside her.

She sat up slowly.

“What would you have of me?”

Renata turned to me and said, “Go with Iliaria and wake Vittoria and Vito. I will be there in a moment.”

I nodded.

“Dante,” she said, “take Epiphany to their quarters.”

“Yes, my lady.”

I followed him to a door next to Vasco’s room. Dante used a different key on the ring at his waist to open the door and let me in. Iliaria was close behind as I approached the large canopy. Drawing aside the white gauzy material, I crawled into the bed, setting the tip of my finger against the sword. Iliaria opened Vittoria’s mouth for me.

When the blood dripped past her lips, she woke, catching my wrist and wrenching my arm painfully behind my back.

Iliaria was a blur of onyx hair. She grabbed a handful of Vittoria’s dark locks and jerked her head back at an awkward angle, as if she would snap her neck.

In a blink, Vittoria had gone for my throat. If Iliaria had not been there to stop her she probably would’ve ripped it out. I would have healed, but that didn’t take away the pain factor or having to feed again to regain the blood I’d have lost.

The blackness of Vittoria’s pupils fluctuated. I should have taken better care waking her, for she and her brother were both trained in the art of battle.

“Epiphany?” she asked in a voice that was at once fierce and uncertain. “What are you doing?” I didn’t have to sense her accusation and distrust. It was a tangible thing.

“I told her to wake you,” Renata said, entering the room.

“We’re being recruited,” Nirena said. “Get up. Don your armor. I’ll explain while they wake your brother.”

Vittoria nodded toward a corner of the room that was veiled off by a sea of black hanging material.

“Vito is in his coffin.”

I hadn’t understood until then that the two shared a room. And from what I knew, there were very few vampires within the Rosso Lussuria that slept in coffins. She drew back the veils of netted material and approached the coffin that was on a slightly raised dais. She hefted the oblong wooden lid. His hands were clasped loosely over his stomach.

“I’ll need to be here when you wake him.”

“That is fine,” I said. “You can hold his mouth open.”

She went to the head of the coffin, out of my way but close enough to participate and interfere if need be. She opened Vito’s mouth with delicate tapered fingers.

I raised the sword and reopened the wound on my stained finger.

Vito tried to bolt upright and Vittoria placed her hands on his shoulders keeping him from reaching me, even though I’d thought to step back as soon as the blood fell.

“My brother,” she said. “My brother, do you hear me?”

The bloodlust and panic receded as recognition began to fill him. He looked at me and there was a flicker of fear, a fear that I had betrayed him. Vito’s attention slid from me to that of the Queen and the fear ebbed back into the ocean from whence it had sprung.

“I do not understand,” he said. “The sun is high. Why?”

 “The Queen calls us, my brother,” Vittoria said.

He turned the question to Renata.

“Why, my Queen?”

“You said I had your aid, Vito…unless you wish to revoke your word?”

“I do not,” Vito said, looking a little more stubborn.

When Vittoria said nothing, Nirena stepped forward and started to explain in a quiet voice what was going on.

I went to Iliaria and said, “Thank you.”

She gracefully inclined her head.

“Do you remember where you were summoned?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Will you take us there?”

“Returning to the same place in which I was summoned may not be the safest option, Epiphany, and the vampire that summoned me will more than likely have changed location to avoid being found.”

It made sense.

“Then how will we know when another Dracule has been summoned?”

“I will know,” she said.

I sat on the edge of the bed.

I will also know
, Cuinn said in a soft tone.

I shook my head. “But there is no guarantee the vampire who summoned you will try again.”

“He will,” Iliaria said. “He’ll keep trying until he succeeds.”

And so, we waited.

Vasco sat next to me. “Patience, sorella.”

The only response I gave was a slight nod.

Renata pulled a chair from a dressing table into the center of the room and sat.