Mark of Betrayal (46 page)

“
Which is exactly why he’d hate me so much if he realised that I'm not.”

“
By loving another?” Arthur frowned. “You think you’re impure because your heart wanted his brother?”

“
Yes.”

“
Did you
have
his brother? Did you cheat on David?”

“
No. I mean, I don't really know. I held hands with Jason and I know I kissed him, but—”

“
But this was in your dreams.”

“
Mind-links.”

“
Or maybe they were merely dreams, Amara. You don't actually know, do you?”

I shook my head slowly. “I guess not.”

“
And, if Jason were here right now, alive, would you be with him?”

“
Um, no. Not if David were alive as well.”

“
Why?”

“
Because I love David. I'd never want to hurt him like that.”

“
Precisely.”

“
So, what are you saying? What's your point?”

“
My point is…David would hate you for doing the wrong thing, Ara. He would likely be immensely angered to learn you had feelings for Jason, but unless you acted on those, I doubt he could ever bring himself to hate you.”

I shook my head. “Even then, it doesn't make having feelings for Jason right.”

“
No, but you are not declaring that you didn't love David by facing the truth that you love Jason.”

“
Yeah, I guess not.” I laughed, moving my toes to make patterns in the sand under them. “But…I still lose sleep over it.”

“
Well, if ever you find yourself unable to sleep, come to my chamber,” Arthur said. “I have some herbal remedies that assist with relaxing the mind of a vampire.”

“
Do you have one that makes the heart stop feeling
anything
?”

“
No. And you do not need such things.”

“
Hmpf!”

“
Amara—” He turned my face to look at him. “You're a young girl, nineteen, to be exact. You are still learning the inner workings of your heart. Most girls your age have had many boys in their life at this point to learn from, but you, my dear, have had one.”

“
No, two,” I corrected.

“
Ah, of course.” He drew a breath through his teeth. “Mike. But, Amara, falling for, having feelings for, and even acting on those feelings for boys, does not mean you are bad or promiscuous—it simply means you are young.”

“
So, are you saying I shouldn’t have gotten married—that I can never be monogamous in my heart because I'm young?”

“
No.” He tilted his head. “Simply that if your heart wants, don't hate yourself for it. A wise young girl once told me that the heart lives by its own set of rules.”

He smiled; I smiled back.

“
Unfortunately,” he continued, “the world has created its own rules about how love should be, too. That doesn’t mean it’s natural. Queen Lilith, for example, had four husbands—”

“
But I thought she was promised to marry Peter?”

“
She was. He would have been her fifth.”

“
Then why do we see
him
in the dome, and not the other husbands?”

“
Because he was the catalyst that saw her demise.”

“
What did he do?”

“
He gave Drake information on how to kill her, since it was he who discovered that if a pure-blood is beheaded, they will remain in a state, like death, until reassembled. We didn’t know that. We figured she was indestructible like her father and brother—aside from the fact that her venom was deathly to vampires.” Arthur smiled, tapping his tooth. “And
that
fact was the only thing that rendered Drake compliant when Vampirie stripped him of his title as king.”

“
Why did Vampirie do that?”

Arthur cleared his throat, sniffing once. “Drake’s love for his new wife Anandene turned to obsession; he became reckless, nonchalant in his duties as king. Vampires were out of control again and wreaking havoc on the world. It was more than the Set leaders and the World Council, combined, could control.”

“
So, what, Vampirie just came in and kicked Drake out?”

“
Yes. Then rounded up a number of vampires—any who had committed offences in the past—and handed them over to Lilith. She kept these vampires as food for the next few years—ridding the world, once again, of around three quarters of the population of vampires.”

“
Wow, and…where did Drake go?”

“
He and Anandene disappeared for a while.”

“
And then what? How did he come to kill Lilith?”

“
Some years later, Drake returned to Loslilian and reunited with his sister. The family feud had healed and all was well, for a while. But Anandene was a well-known, very powerful witch, and when she learned of the Stone’s powers, sought to use it to cast a great spell.”

“
What kind of spell?”

“
I don't know. I only know that Lilith warned her this spell would bring a curse down on the lands.”

“
Why?”

“
Because it was black magic—used for personal gain, not for good.”

“
And the Stone doesn’t condone that?”

“
No.” He laughed. “It doesn't.”

“
So, what happened then?”

Arthur looked at his watch. “Anandene went behind Lilith’s back. She used the Stone and, sure enough, a plague hit. Many people died. In a desperate attempt to right the wrong, Lilith went to her father. He told her the life that cast the curse must be given back to the Stone.”

“
Anandene?”

“
Yes.”

“
Lilith had to kill her?”

“
On the Stone. Yes.”

“
Did she?”

Arthur hesitated. “This story, my dear, is not the one you will read in books—nor is it the one you will be told, should you ask Morgaine. And I do hope this will stay between us.”

I nodded. “But, why doesn't anyone know this story?”

“
They know what Drake wanted them to know. All this I have learned over the centuries by doing some digging—drawing conclusions. I may have some of the story wrong. But it has been kept a secret, for reasons unknown to me, and I intend to do the same—until I piece everything together.”

“
Okay. I won't tell anyone.”

“
Be sure you don't.”

“
So…did she do it? Did Lilith kill Drake’s wife?”

“
To begin with, Drake actually offered his life in place of Anandene.”

“
And Lilith agreed?”

Arthur nodded. “But when he went to the forest to die, Lilith had him captured—locked away under hold of Created Lilithian venom. When he woke from a nightmare, hearing his beloved scream, he was released to a healed world—the curse lifted, Anandene cold in the ground.”

I covered my mouth. “So, he wanted Lilith dead because she killed Anandene?”

“
Yes.”

I let out the breath I’d kept inside for too long. “Wow, well, that’s a different spin on the story to what Morg gave me.”

“
I know. Try not to listen too closely to what she says. She…Drake gives titbits of information he
wants
you to have for some greater purpose of his own. She believes he let slip the story about the coming of a Pure Blood and a prophecy, but I don't believe he is that careless.”

“
So, you think he wanted her to set up a knighthood—set up hope for the Lilithians?”

“
I cannot even begin to understand his strategy, and I have exhausted myself trying. All I can do now, Princess, is try to stop him.”

I laughed inside that he called me Princess. “So, did the other Set leaders know about Anandene?”

“
For some reason, no. When I approached even the World Council leaders, they knew nothing of her death.”

“
How can that be? Weren’t you all some kind of brotherhood?”

“
Yes.”

“
So, how can you know, but they didn't?”

“
These proceedings occurred here in the United States, and the world was a much bigger place then, Amara, gossip did not travel the way it does today. Our only method of communication was via letters.”

“
So, they just never got on the grapevine?”

“
Grapevine?”

I laughed. “It’s my dad’s term—for being in the loop.”

His eyes narrowed. “Hm.”

“
What?”

“
Nothing.”

I sat back a bit then and rubbed open palms over my cold thighs. “I don't understand how Drake kept it a secret all this time—to the point were Miss Nosey herself doesn't even know.”

“
Miss nosey?”

“
Morgaine.”

Arthur laughed. “Well, there was no one left to tell the story. Morgaine lived in Paris at that time and, within a month of Anandene’s death, any who knew she passed were dead.”

“
Vampires too?”

“
Yes.”

“
How? If Drake killed Lilith, how did he kill the vampires without her venom?”

“
He used the only remaining stores we had.”

“
Oh.” I looked down at my sandy feet. “So, he obviously went to great lengths to keep this a secret?”

“
Yes.”

“
So, Morgaine doesn't know any of this—at all—not even one bit?”

“
No. Even Lilith kept what Anandene did and what she did to Anandene a secret from the greater population in the weeks before Drake came for her.”

“
And, what about Walter? And Margret. They were on Lilith’s Council then? Do they know?”

“
No. That is why they’re still alive. They were living human lives at the time and hadn’t seen Lilith for some years.”

“
Hang on. So that’s why Drake stormed Loslilian and killed everyone—because they all knew Lilith killed Anandene?”

Arthur sat back a little. “For the most part, I believe so.”

I sat back too, feeling a bit more alert, a bit more awake now. “Wow. Devious little bugger, isn't he?”

“
My dear, there is so much deception going on around here, I'm beginning to think
myself
an illusion.”

I laughed. “Maybe you are.”

“
Well, one cannot be an illusion
and
a traitor,” he said mockingly.

“
You’re not a traitor.” I bumped him softly with my shoulder. “But I think you have some grand plan—some reason you’re here that you’re not telling me.”

“
Perhaps. But until I figure out what everyone else’s plans are—and where, in the midst of it all, you sit, I will keep those plans to myself.”

“
I'm queen. I sit on the top,” I said proudly, and Arthur smiled.

“
Amara, the queen very rarely sits on top. You have all the power, but you will come to find that, essentially, you make very few of the decisions.”

“
So I'm a puppet?”

He cupped my hand in both of his. “But you are not alone. I will not see them control you.”

“
I didn't realise they were.” I frowned at the distant cliffs.

“
I know. And this is why I watch from the sidelines, rather than to step in and make my point known. Very few people notice a pawn while the Bishops are rallying around the queen.”

“
And very few ever worry about the king, either, do they?”

“
No. And I imagine, if David were here right now, he would be operating things from behind the scenes somewhere—unnoticed.”

“
You think?”

“
I know.” Arthur nodded. “He always knew how to play a hand, make you think you’d won until he blew you out of the water. He was under Drake’s rule long enough to pick up some clever strategies.”

I smiled. “Yeah. When he died, I found myself waiting for him to come back—hoping it was just some kind of ploy, you know, that maybe he found out about immunity before I did and was just faking his death.”

Arthur gently rubbed his hand against his heart. “When I first discovered immunity, I had hoped the same thing.”

“
Did you ever go back?” I asked delicately. “To the chamber. Did you ever go see his remains?”

He shook his head. “I wanted to. I wanted to sweep them from the fireplace and set them free on the wind, but I couldn’t bring myself to open that door.” His eyes pooled with the agony of that memory. “That was once a room of gathering where, when I was a child, my father and mother would invite our guests to dine and dance. To reach that door and find myself unable to enter was the final straw for me. I left the castle and haven’t returned.”

“
I'm so sorry, Arthur.”

His mouth moved as if he was going to say something, but he didn't.

“
Hey, maybe when we get rid of Drake, you can refurbish it and make it grand again,” I suggested.

“
It will not change the fact that I've seen so many die there—many of those being people I loved.”

I couldn’t help but to smile then, thinking about what Arthur said before. “You must have known him pretty well—like, better than he knew himself.”