Read Mark of the Rose: The Tudor Vampire Chronicles Online

Authors: Kate Pearce

Tags: #Romance, #Paranormal, #Fiction

Mark of the Rose: The Tudor Vampire Chronicles (37 page)

BOOK: Mark of the Rose: The Tudor Vampire Chronicles

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“Why didn’t I recognize him sooner? He sounded so different in my head.”

Rhys poured water from her jug into the bowl and brought it over to her, along with a damp cloth to wipe her face and hands. “It’s been a long while since you’ve seen him, and he was probably being careful not to reveal himself too clearly.”

Verity shivered. “Oh God, Rhys, it was horrible—as if I was walking through my worst nightmare.”

He put down the bowl and went to embrace her, but she pulled away again. She washed her hands and her face, yet she couldn’t erase the taste and smell of death from her skin. Rhys sat next to her on the bed and watched her, his expression concerned.

“Are you injured, my lady?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“Well, that is good.” Rhys took the bowl from her and emptied the water out the window into the courtyard below.

“I feel . . .” Verity wrapped her arms around herself. “I feel as if I need to scrub my skin raw to be rid of him. But I will never be rid of him, will I? He’s my husband.”

“Verity, Gareth
died
ten years ago. He is no longer alive.”

Verity ignored Rhys’s quiet interruption. “All that I thought I had found with you? What does it mean now that I am an adulterer?”

Rhys grabbed her hand. “Gareth is
dead
. That . . .
thing
you saw today, that wasn’t him. That was a Vampire. You are no more tied to him than I am to Elias or Olivia!”

Verity couldn’t even look at him. “Then why does it feel as if I am?” she whispered.

Rhys got down on his knees in front of her and took her hands. “Gareth is dead. We just made sure of that, didn’t we? You and I are very much alive. I love you and I will not allow you to forget everything between us.”

Verity stared into his beautiful hazel eyes. “You don’t understand,” she whispered. “We didn’t kill him. He’s still out there. I can sense him in my head.”

Chapter 23

“V
erity says the Vampire is still alive.” Rhys paced the floorboards in the anteroom of Elias’s chambers. He’d left a stricken Verity and sought the counsel of Elias. Elias had emerged from his bedchamber wearing only his open-necked shirt and hose and he looked as if he had been trying without success to rest.

“Well, she should know.”

Rhys glanced sharply at his unsmiling companion. “Did you know about her connection to the Vampire?”

“Only when I saw them together tonight. I realized then that the blood connection was between them.” Elias paused. “I assume that the man is her husband?”

“
Was
her husband. That man was turned ten years ago.”

Elias’s eyebrows rose at Rhys’s terse tone. “Does Lady Verity still consider herself married, then?”

“She . . .” Rhys shut his mouth and took another turn around the small room. “How is Olivia?”

Elias gestured toward his bedchamber. “She is very weak, but recovering slowly. I intend to keep her safe until she is able to hunt for herself again.”

“That is good of you.”

Elias shrugged. “She took a lot of my blood. I am responsible for her now.”

Rhys managed a small smile. “She won’t like that at all.”

“I know, but I’m sure we will be able to come to some amicable arrangement.”

Rhys could only look skeptical as he contemplated Olivia’s reaction to the news that she owed her existence to Elias. He almost wished he could be present, but there were deadlier matters afoot.

“The queen is unharmed as well?”

“Yes. I alerted the king as to the need to move the queen into complete seclusion and he was more than happy to agree.”

“But she won’t live through this, will she?” Rhys met Elias’s gaze.

“I fear not, Sir Rhys. She has been too badly weakened. But I have high hopes for the child.”

“At least that is something.” Rhys sighed and shoved a hand through his already disordered hair. “Will you come and speak to Verity with me?”

“About what?”

“About the fact that she is not married to that abomination,” Rhys said grimly.

“I would be delighted to set her fears to rest.” Elias bowed. “Let me just ascertain that Olivia is still sleeping and I’ll put on my doublet.”

Verity didn’t even blink when Elias and Rhys appeared in her bedchamber. Rhys had already woken her from her half daze and sent her a warning of their coming in her mind. She’d wrapped a shawl around herself against the constant shivering and sat on the bed.

“Lady Verity.” Elias bowed. “You believe Janus is still in existence?”

Verity nodded. “I can sense him. He is faint, but he is there.”

Elias said nothing for a long moment and she felt the gentle pressure of his mind moving with hers. “Yes, I can feel him too. I wonder whether the spell will continue to work without us.” His mouth turned down. “I dislike the idea of all our efforts being for naught.”

“Lady Alys will know. Mayhap I should go to the stone circle and ask her advice,” Rhys said, his expression pensive.

“I should come with you.” Verity pushed back the covers, but Rhys pulled them up again.

“You should stay here. Janus might be out there somewhere.”

“I will be safe in the stone circle.”

Rhys met her gaze. “I’m no longer certain of that, since Janus is not only a Druid but linked to you by blood on the Beltane altar.”

Verity pushed his hand away and swung her legs over the side of the bed. “He could just as easily find me here, Rhys. I’d feel safer coming with you and Elias.” Despite her fear, she refused to let herself cower beneath the sheets like a child. “I have to stop running away from things. Just let me get dressed.”

She pulled out her boy’s clothing from the carved wooden chest and laid the garments on the bed. “What are we going to do about Lord Thomas Seymour and Lady Elizabeth?”

Rhys shifted his weight against the door. “I’m not sure what we should do. I’m certainly reluctant to inform the king that his daughter is a Vampire.”

“I’m not sure that she is,” Elias said cautiously. “I suspect she is in a similar position to Lord Christopher Ellis, being neither wholly Vampire nor completely human.”

“That would explain why her scent was so muted,” Verity said in agreement. “I don’t think we should say anything. I fear the king would kill her.”

Elias sighed. “I’ll have to tell the Vampire Council something.”

“And what about Lord Thomas?” Rhys asked. “I hear he has taken to his bed. Will he be affected by the loss of his master?”

Verity bit her lip. “His master is not dead yet.”

Rhys met her gaze. “But his powers are considerably diminished.”

“Whether Lord Thomas recovers depends on how deep his bond with the Vampire went,” Elias said. “He could simply die, or it is possible that he might never even remember he was once in the Vampire’s thrall.”

Rhys pushed away from the wall, his hand on the hilt of his sword. “So we let him go free as well?”

“I don’t see what else we can do, Sir Rhys,” Elias replied. “It is my duty to tell the Vampire Council about both of them. It is up to you and Lady Verity as to what you want to tell the king.”

“Then let us leave the fates of Lord Thomas and the princess to others and concentrate our efforts on finding and killing Janus.”

Elias and Rhys turned their backs and, despite her trembling fingers, Verity forced herself to change clothes and braid her hair. She found it hard to believe that despite everything she had brought down on them, Rhys and Elias were still willing to help her.

“I’m ready.” Verity said.

Elias took her hand and then Rhys’s, and they were transported through the night sky to the outskirts of the stone circle. A small fire burned in the center of the circle and they made their way to it.

Lady Alys was feeding dried herbs to the fire, her eyes closed, her mouth moving in ritual prayer. Eventually she looked up, her expression concerned.

“The Vampire?”

Rhys knelt and glanced at the others. “He vanished while we were chanting and he is not completely dead. Will the spell continue to work on him now that he has escaped us?”

“I’m not sure, Sir Rhys.” Lady Alys sighed. “It has been so long since we have used such magic that we are unsure of the outcome.”

“Then Janus needs to be pursued and killed,” Rhys stated flatly.

“He will be hard to catch,” Elias said. “I understand that he has many friends among the Vampire communities in France and beyond.”

“I doubt they will be quite as pleased to see him in his present diminished state, and with the knowledge that the Vampire Council is hunting him as well.”

Elias nodded. “The Council would prefer his death—I am sure of it.”

“He is weak enough for you to kill him now, but if he survives another month or two, he will start to grow stronger again—unless you can stop him.”

Rhys heard Verity’s indrawn breath and cursed her need to accompany them on this quest for information. “We’ll stop him, Lady Alys. I swear it.”

He reached for Verity’s hand. “Please, madam, can you tell my lady that she is not married to that Vampire?”

“My child, Gareth no longer exists as you knew him. Janus is a creature with no soul and no mercy. He is not the man you married, and you are no longer bound to him.”

“Are you sure?” Verity asked.

“As a Druid, yes. I do not know what your Christian God would say, but I assume that once the immortal soul has been taken from the body, then the body is considered dead.”

“That is what I have always believed, my lady,” Rhys said.

Lady Alys glanced at him and then at Verity. “She has become important to you, then, Vampire slayer?”

“I love her, Lady Alys.”

Verity tried to pull out of his grasp, but he tightened his grip. “When Elias and I have disposed of this Vampire for good, I shall return to court and marry Lady Verity.”

“You will not!” Verity whispered. “I have brought you nothing but trouble.”

He looked down at her. “Aye, I will. It might take me years to persuade you, but I will succeed in the end. I know it in my soul.”

Lady Alys laughed, the sound surprisingly light in the midst of all the darkness. “It sounds as if you need some good fortune, Sir Rhys. Kill this Vampire and I will assist you in any way I can to achieve your dreams.”

“Thank you, my lady.” Rhys bowed to the Elder, who stepped aside to talk to Elias. He stared at Verity’s lowered head.

“We will marry, Verity. I love you.”

“And I love you too.” She touched his cheek. “But it doesn’t make any difference, does it?”

“What do you mean?”

“There is still Gareth.”

“He is dead.”

“I saw him, Rhys. He knew me. How can he be dead?”

Rhys set his jaw. “I will find him and kill him for you.”

“But I don’t want you to do that.”

“Why not?”

“Because I do not want you to have to live with that stain on your conscience.”

“You think I will feel guilty for killing him?”

“If you benefit from his death, yes.”

Rhys took her face between his hands. “Verity, love, listen to me. I’ll kill him because he is a Vampire. That’s the whole of it. I do not believe he is your husband.”

“Are you sure?”

Rhys made her look into his eyes. “I am. You have to have faith in me, my lady. You have to forget your own fears and allow me to do my job as efficiently as I can.”

She swallowed hard. “This is so difficult for me, Rhys. Can’t you understand that?”

“I understand, but I need to know that you believe in me and support me—just as I am willing to die for you if necessary.”

BOOK: Mark of the Rose: The Tudor Vampire Chronicles

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