Immortal Confessions (13 page)

“Not really,” Levi said, shrugging. “He
employed a few humans, but only at parties. When there was trouble,
he always holed up here and hid out until it passed.”

Coward. “Anyone I shouldn’t trust?”

“The vampires? They are all equally
untrustworthy, most out for themselves. None are really unique or
interesting, either for good or bad.”

“Then why the hunters? Something caused
this.”

“It’s always the same. A human is killed by a
vampire, a bat, or a were, or sometimes just by accident, and the
hunters think they have a rogue vampire. Doesn’t matter this city
hasn’t seen a rogue in ten years; they go on the warpath. Then they
kill who they think is responsible. Often, they are stupid or
unskilled, and they find the werebats instead of us.”

“Then we need to have some people monitoring
murders, and other violent deaths,” I said, after a moment. “I want
to know if someone gets out of line before the hunters do. It is my
job as Vampire Lord to punish vampires who step out of line, not
incapable humans. The bats I’ll leave to Uther to control and
reprimand. The humans who cause problems, I’ll leave to the
hunters.”

“What about the other weres?”

“I’ve heard there was a family of
werevultures within the city limits, but not of any other groups
besides the bats.”

“For the most part, that’s true. But some
pass through, especially at holidays.”

“Then the comings and goings of all creatures
not human need to be watched, too. And reported on.”

“You’ll need at least twenty more men, to do
all that,” Levi said after a moment. “Right now, you just have
me.”

That was true, but I had a plan. “We’ll sort
that out tomorrow night. I have to go.”

“Wait!” he called after me. “What symbol, on
the choker?”

I turned back. “Symbol?”

“The choker must have the vampire’s symbol on
it, so the owner is readily identifiable,” Levi explained. “Guy’s,
as you can see, was a hyena.”

Fitting. As I stared at the choker in his
hands, it came to me at once.

“A bear,” I said, turning away. “One with its
fangs bared, ruby eyes, and a paw raised, as if to strike.”

I journeyed home, but found another surprise
when I returned to my small house. Anna was not alone. There was a
second heartbeat, strong and steady, in there with her.

I barged in snarling, to find Anna sitting
with Marcus at the table, having coffee.

“Devlin!” she exclaimed. “What is the
matter?”

I glared at Marcus, and shut the door behind
me, cursing inwardly that the lock was now broken.

“Why don’t you go on to bed, Anna?” Marcus
said quietly, getting to his feet. “We have been up all night. And
I must speak to Mr. Dalcon alone.”

“It was good to see you,” she said, standing
and hugging him. “Thank you, for telling me of my family. Good
night.”

She left, after giving me a single worried
look. I remained standing by the door, waiting for Marcus to play
his hand.

Just when my patience was ready to snap,
Marcus again sat at the table. He motioned for me to sit.

I joined him reluctantly. “Say what you wish,
and then get out.”

“I am surprised to find you still with her,”
he said sarcastically.

I resisted the urge to bare my fangs at him.
“I love her.”

“Be that as it may,” he said seriously. “Her
father signed this contract.” He held up what had to be Anna’s
betrothal contract.

Would-be thief. I let out a growl. “You think
to lay claim to her?”

“She’ll have a good life with me,” Marcus
said earnestly. “I will make an honest woman of her, Dalcon. You do
not have to worry that she’ll be unhappy—”

This asshole had a lot of plans, did he? I
ground my upper fangs. “She is not unhappy, Marcus. We are
together, and that is what matters to her.”

“For how long?” Marcus said penetratingly. “I
know of your reputation, Devlin. You have left a string of lovers
behind you in this department of France alone that would be enough
to sew an entire mainsail. Anna deserves a better man. I am
he.”

“She never wanted you,” I said, grinning
widely. “She wanted me. She left you at the altar, so that she
might feel joy in my arms and lay by my side.”

Marcus clenched his fists, and then relaxed
them. “She wanted you then, Bard. But no doubt the thrill of your
love has diminished. After all, you have not married her after five
months.” He took on a knowing tone. “Because you balk at marriage,
not wanting to commit to one woman. You are incapable of real love,
and the commitment that comes with it. Anna sees that. She has seen
by my coming here that I am the one that truly loves her. She’ll
agree that a life as my wife is preferable to being your
live-in-whore.”

“We were meant to be, Marcus. Leave now, or
I’ll kill you.” I was going to kill him anyway, I just didn’t want
to do it in the kitchen; the blood might upset Anna.

“I will leave,” Marcus sneered, going to the
door. “But I’ll return shortly with the magistrate, and some men.
Don’t try to thwart me. The law is on my side, Bard.”

He was right, the bastard. And he’d do it
too, come back in daylight with policemen to take Anna from me. I
would lose her, unless I fled with her from Fontainebleau, leaving
everything I’d gained tonight and my people, such as they were, to
be slaughtered.

I was not losing my newfound command, not
after all my preparation and hard work, not again. It was time to
act.

I grabbed him smoothly, and broke his neck
with a sharp crack. He went limp in my arms, and I carried him into
the cellar. I propped him in a dirty corner, and sat on the stairs,
thinking of what to do.

We couldn’t leave for our new home; daylight
would be here in mere minutes. When she woke, Anna was going to
have questions about Marcus, as she’d seen him. Marcus had to
disappear somehow.

I looked over at him. He still looked
surprised, though his eyes were clouding over. It was a shame, a
waste of good blood. But there hadn’t been another option.

The first thing to do was to take care of the
marriage contract. After tearing it in two, I stuffed the remains
in his pocket. I left him there, making sure I had no cellar dirt
on my clothes, and went in search of Anna. I found her in our bed,
perusing a little poetry.

When she saw me, she put the book hurriedly
aside. “Must I leave with him?” she said with fear. “I know my
father took his betrothal money, and signed the contract. He talked
of little else all evening—”

“No, Love,” I said soothingly. “I have bribed
him, and he is leaving tonight. In fact, he has already left.”

Anna went limp in my arms as all the tension
went out of her. “You’re certain? He will not press the issue?”

Not from the grave, he wouldn’t. “I am
certain. Rest. I will be back very soon.”

Anna nodded. “I know, you need to feed.
Please wake me, when you return.”

“As always.” I gave her a kiss, and then went
downstairs.

I tied back my hair, grabbed my coat, and
went out, throwing Marcus’s floppy body over my shoulders. He
already stank of piss and shit, so some of this was going to be
easy.

I stole a bottle of some cheap wine from a
drunk sitting in an alley, and splashed some on Marcus. Taking the
empty bottle in my hand, I let his body fall until his feet touched
the ground. He was already stiffening by the time we got near a
local bar.

I began singing loudly off key, and
pretending to drink. Marcus appeared to be holding onto me for
support. Thank God for rigor mortis.

We journeyed into the roughest section of the
city, me still pretending to be drunk. Soon enough, we had one of
the local highwaymen following us.

I had to speed this up; the sky was steadily
lightening. I staggered, going to one knee and laughing drunkenly
as mud spattered my face.

The thief made his move. “Give me your
purses!” The thin skinning knife gleamed in his hand from the
fading gaslight.

“Now, why you doin’ that?” I slurred. “We’re
just tryin’ to have a good time—”

The man stabbed at me, swearing, as I deftly
maneuvered Marcus’s body into the way. The knife went in to the
hilt, and I let out a loud scream.

The robber grabbed his purse, and stabbed
again into Marcus. I let out a gurgle. Then the footpad was off,
and a lawman was running to me, club at the ready.

“Please,” I said, still slurring. “That man,
he tried to rob us! He killed my friend!”

The lawman ran after the footpad, telling me
to wait there. As soon as he was gone, I let Marcus’s body slide to
the ground in a heap.

There. Problem solved.

I thought briefly of waiting for the
policeman to come back, so I could drain him. I was famished by
now. But then there would be a manhunt for the thief who dared kill
a policeman. I didn’t need that in my city. I had enough to deal
with already.

Instead, I dropped my coat and walked off
silently, already hearing the shuffling behind me as other vermin
of the streets came toward the body.

Marcus would be lucky to be wearing a stitch
of clothing by the time the detective returned. They’d probably
take his hair, too, to sell to a wigmaker. So many people wanted to
be blondes in those days, it was almost a given.

Such a pity.

* * * *

I returned home. After washing up, I went to
Anna. She was asleep in our bed, her book lying open on her chest,
the candle near her guttering in a mound of spent wax.

I put the book aside, and blew out the
candle. Then I cuddled next to her, loving the warmth of her, and
how good her body felt against mine. Yet I didn’t sleep. Dark
thoughts consumed me, as I stirred restlessly in anger over what
Marcus had said.

It wasn’t true, that I didn’t know was love
was. I did. I loved Anna, and I’d been faithful to her since
meeting her, despite being tempted more than once. I was going to
take care of her as I’d promised, now that I was this city’s
Vampire Lord. And as soon as Levi brought me the finished choker, I
would have her take an oath to me, too.

* * * *

The next evening, when I woke, I nudged Anna
awake.

“Must you go out tonight?” she said
softly.

Her eyes were teary again. Sigh. “What is it,
Love?”

“My father and mother are dead,” she said
sadly. “You knew that. But I found out from Marcus that my other
family is dead, too. There was a battle that night we left,
Napoleon won, and my family’s home was burned, and most of the
aristocracy was killed—”

“Shh.” I’d heard of this, but not told her of
it, knowing that she would be upset. It had aided our escape,
otherwise we’d surely have had men on our tail looking for her and
me, blizzard or no blizzard.

“If you hadn’t taken me out of there, I’d be
dead, too,” she said brokenly. “Marcus only escaped as he found out
we’d left together, and came after us. But he followed the gypsies
instead of us. By the time he caught them and saw we weren’t with
them, the snow had wiped out all traces of our trail.”

So the foiled plan had actually been a
Godsend. Another show of God’s favor that Anna and I were together.
I said a quick prayer of thanks under my breath.

“He said the gypsies gave him back most of
the money,” Anna said hesitantly. “But my dress wasn’t there,
Devlin. He said he was sorry, but he thought it likely had been
sold at some peasant’s home for a few loaves of bread. But none of
the peasants whom he talked to would admit to trading for it.”

I hugged her tight. “Listen, Love. I have
much to tell you. Let me begin by saying that tomorrow we will go
to a dressmaker, the best in the city, and get him to make you a
wedding dress.”

“Can it be white?” she said eagerly.

“Whatever you want,” I said, wondering why
she didn’t want one of blue, as that seemed to be her favorite
color. But maybe her mother’s wedding dress had been white? “The
seamstress will make it to your design. Order whatever you
want.”

“Can we afford that?” she said hesitantly.
“Did you get another raise?”

“Technically, yes,” I said, thinking of
Quentin’s abrupt departure with the rest of the vampire herd. “In
truth, I have obtained something better.” I paused for effect. “You
are looking at the new Vampire Lord of this City.”

Anna looked at me in astonishment, and then
her eyes got big. “You killed Guy?”

“Yes,” I said, nodding. “It was that, or let
many of my kind be killed. The werebats attacked. I made a truce
with them. Killing Guy was part of it. I must go tonight to
solidify our alliance.”

“I knew you were planning something,” Anna
said, smiling. “What can I do to help?”

“Be my lady,” I said gallantly. I tried to
kiss her, but she pushed me away.

“Only if we are going to be married,” she
said firmly. “A dress is wonderful, but I want to hear you say
that, Devlin. Marcus was right, you do have a way with words that
leads you to say much and still avoid the topic completely.”

Uh oh. Well, she was right; it was time to
fulfill my vows to her.

I gritted my teeth, and took her hand.
“Love,” I said gently. “Vampires to my knowledge don’t marry. But
there is a custom called Oathing. That seems to be almost the same.
That is what I propose to you for us.”

Anna gave me skeptical eyes. “Who says
this?”

“My head guard, Levi,” I said, getting up and
beginning to dress. “I do not know all the particulars. You and I
will find them out together, tonight.” I looked up at her,
buttoning my shirt. “You are right, it past time you joined me in
my world, Love, as Lady to my Lord. Be assured, no matter what the
custom says, I’ll give you the same promises a husband gives a
wife, if you give me your oath to do the same.”