Mark of the Rose: The Tudor Vampire Chronicles (23 page)

Read Mark of the Rose: The Tudor Vampire Chronicles Online

Authors: Kate Pearce

Tags: #Romance, #Paranormal, #Fiction

BOOK: Mark of the Rose: The Tudor Vampire Chronicles
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She smiled up at him. She did not wish to get into an argument. “Then perhaps you might fetch
me
something to eat. I declare, I am famished after that ride.”
He blinked and came away from the tree. “Of course, my lady. Is there anything in particular you wish to partake of?”
“Oh, nothing in particular. Why don’t you surprise me?”
He disappeared with an alacrity that alarmed her and almost made her call him back. She resisted the impulse and found a place to sit in the shade on one of the piles of cushions. To her right, in the larger tent, the king had joined the queen. He was sharing a golden platter of food with her, encouraging her to eat the tenderest morsels.
Glumly Verity wondered what it would be like to have a man attend to her like that. A shadow fell over her and she shaded her eyes to look up. Rhys was back, balancing a filled platter in one hand and two goblets and a jug of ale in the other. She took the ale from him and set it on the ground and then reached for the platter.
“Thank you—that looks delightful. Will you join me?”
He hesitated for a moment and then eased himself down beside her, supporting his weight on his right side. She placed the platter of food between them and used her dagger to spear a tasty slice of beef. She picked up another piece and held it out to him.
“This is excellent—will you try it?”
He opened his mouth as if to refuse, but she leaned into him and popped the succulent morsel between his lips. She was so close to him now that their noses almost touched and she could smell his particularly evocative scent. She inhaled again more slowly and picked up something else. The scent of the Vampire.
“Would you like some more, Sir Rhys?”
His eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Why are you being so charming to me?”
“I am simply being polite.”
“I thought we were at odds again.”
She opened her eyes wide at him. “Because I refused to take you back to the palace and bed you?”
He winced. “I should not have said those things.”
She held his gaze. “No, you should not. It was unlike you.”
He looked away from her. “By all that is holy, I’m not sure what I am like anymore.”
“What do you mean?” Verity asked slowly.
“Since getting this bite, I am behaving like a wounded bear.”
His quick dismissive smile didn’t reassure her. “Have you noticed other changes since that day?” she asked with concern.
“All men are irritable when they are wounded,” Rhys said, looking away. “We are more difficult to nurse than children, or so Mistress Hopkins keeps telling me.” He reached for his tankard of ale and swallowed it all down.
“Has the infection gotten worse?”
“Not worse. It remains the same.” He glared at her. “If you had continued to accompany me to the healer’s you would know this.”
“I assumed you wouldn’t wish me to hang on your sleeve like a mother hen.”
His mouth twisted. “You assume a lot about me, don’t you?”
Revolt stirred in her stomach and she put down the platter with a thump. “This from a man who thinks I swive every Druid I meet at every festival!” She glared at him.
He didn’t say anything and she got to her feet and marched away from him, down toward the stream and the horses. She was not going to cry in front of him. She was
not
. She rested her hand against one of the oak trees and stared out over the stream. She heard him come up behind her and tensed.
“If it is not your custom to enjoy the rituals, then why did you choose to bed me?”
She refused to look at him. “Because I wanted you.”
“That is hardly a fair answer.”
“Am I not allowed to enjoy the festival or want a man?” She swallowed hard. “Perhaps I did not satisfy you. Did you find me lacking in some way?”
“Verity . . .” His fingers curved around her shoulder. “You know you satisfied me.” He paused. “I wondered if perhaps it was the other way around, and that I hadn’t pleased you.”
A tremor shook her as she remembered him moving over her, filling her, loving her. “I told you, you were everything I hoped for.”
“Then why don’t you want me anymore?”
She leaned her forehead against the rough bark of the tree and closed her eyes against the hurt in his voice. If she told him that she wanted him forever, what would he do? Probably run as fast as he could back to worshipping Rosalind and the safety of loving someone from afar. She knew how that was; after all, she’d loved him her whole life. Now she thought it would’ve been better to have kept him as a dream, for having tasted the reality she’d found him even better than she had anticipated. It was proving harder than she had imagined to keep her vow and push him away.
“Verity?”
She took a deep steadying breath. “Let us not have this conversation. We are in the middle of a fight to save the queen and you are injured. I would’ve thought that you would prefer me to keep my mind on saving the queen rather than on you.”
Silence greeted her remarks and by the time she dared to look around, he had already walked away.
 
Rhys kept walking until he reached the edge of the glade and beyond and realized that he was still furious. Verity was right, damn her; this was not the time to be delving into their feelings for each other. But he sensed there was some other reason she refused to discuss their relationship.
What was she afraid of? He pulled out his gloves and slapped them against his thigh. That he’d swive her for as long as their Vampire hunt lasted and then forget her? That she would always be second best to Rosalind? He paused. That was the crux of the matter—he was sure of it. He’d long since stopped comparing them. Verity was so different from Rosalind and so much more attuned to him that his past affection for Rosalind now seemed a pale thing in comparison.
But how was he going to persuade Verity that he no longer wanted Rosalind? Especially when she herself felt inferior to her cousin? God help him if he waded into those treacherous waters.
“Ah, we meet again, Sir Rhys.”
Rhys looked up to see Lord Thomas Seymour blocking the path back toward the festivities. He inclined his head. “My lord.”
“Are you enjoying the hunt?” Lord Thomas strolled toward Rhys, one hand resting on the hilt of his ornate sword. He was dressed in dark brown with subdued gold jewelry.
“Indeed I am.”
Lord Thomas laughed. “Even with that wounded shoulder of yours?”
Rhys straightened and made sure his dagger was in his hand. “I’m quite well enough to fight.”
“That’s not what I’ve heard.” Lord Thomas circled him, his narrowed gaze fixed on Rhys’s left shoulder. “I’ve heard your wound weeps blood like stigmata.”
“Perhaps I have received a mark from God.”
“I doubt it.” Lord Thomas inhaled. “I can smell his blood in you.”
“Whose blood?” Rhys made the mistake of meeting Lord Thomas’s eyes and saw that they were gleaming red.
“My master’s.” Lord Thomas went still and then smiled. “Shall I prove it to you?”
Before Rhys could move, pain gripped his left shoulder and he instinctively grabbed his arm. It felt as if his blood were boiling and trying to punch its way out of the wounds. He choked back a curse as he fell to his knees fighting the terrible pain. He forced himself to look up at Lord Thomas.
“Do you enjoy being the slave of a soulless Vampire?”
Lord Thomas’s eyes flashed and the pain doubled, making Rhys want to claw at his own skin to release the swirling agony. Bile rose in his throat and he struggled to breathe normally.
“I could still kill you, Vampire slayer. This is just so much more satisfying.”
“Satisfying for a coward. Fight me like a man, blade to blade.”
“But my master wishes you to suffer.” Lord Thomas’s mocking voice was echoed in Rhys’s head as his Vampire master joined in. “You are trespassing on his property.”
“Let him go.”
Verity’s calm voice cut through the haze in Rhys’s mind. He wanted to scream at her to run, but he no longer had the ability to speak. It was all he could do to raise his eyes to look. Verity had a crossbow aimed at Lord Thomas’s heart.
 
 
“Ah, Lady Verity. Have you come to the rescue of your fellow slayer?”
Verity met his amused gaze. “Get away from him, my lord, or I will shoot you. The arrows are tipped with silver, just in case.”
“You wouldn’t shoot me, my dear.” Lord Thomas actually had the audacity to laugh. “We all know that you’re highly unsuited to the role you’ve been forced to assume.”
“You are wrong. I am quite prepared to kill you.” She raised her weapon and sighted on his chest. “Rhys, are Vampire servants immortal?”
Something flickered in Lord Thomas’s eyes and Verity smiled. She was so tired of being belittled. “I’ll wager they are not.”
She released the arrow and had the satisfaction of seeing it bury itself in his upper arm exactly where she had intended. His roar of anger echoed through the trees and several birds exploded from the treetops.
She quickly reloaded. “This one will go through your black heart.”
She blinked as a ghostly figure appeared behind Lord Thomas and then both were gone. She ran to Rhys, who was still kneeling on the ground, one hand clasped to his injured shoulder, and crouched down next to him.
“Are you all right?”
His skin was bleached as white as bone and his breathing was labored. “Aye.” He wiped a shaking hand over his mouth and retrieved his dagger. “You did well.”
“I had no choice. I could not let him harm you.” She continued to study him, looking for a wound. “What did he do to you?”
“He proved that his master controls my blood.” He paused, then went on quietly. “And there was nothing I could do to stop him.
Nothing
.”
She wanted to take him in her arms and hold him tight but settled for touching his right shoulder. “That’s why we work together, isn’t it? Sometimes you will save me and other times I will save you.”
She got to her feet and offered him her hand. He took it and slowly stood up. “I’m not capable of saving a fly at the moment.”
She hated the defeated sound in his voice and put her hand on his still-ashen cheek. “Please don’t give up, Rhys. I need you.”
He didn’t answer her, and after a moment she took her hand away and busied herself with her crossbow.
“Who taught you how to shoot one of those?” Rhys asked and she looked up at him.
“Olivia. She said it was the quickest way to protect myself.”
Rhys nodded. “She taught you well. I should have thought of it myself.” He turned back toward the hunting party, his expression bleak, his hand pressed to his left shoulder. “Mayhap you were right. You don’t need me anymore.”
Despite her first instinct, Verity didn’t follow him. She suspected that nothing she could say would salve his hurt pride. She could only hope common sense would reassert itself and make him see that she needed him.
With a sigh, she pushed her feelings for him away and stared at the flattened grass where Lord Thomas Seymour had been standing. It had not been pleasant to see the arrow enter his arm, but she would do it again in a heartbeat.
“Verity.”
She stilled as the Vampire’s unwelcome insidious whisper slid into her mind.
“I let him live, just for you . . .”
The mocking laughter faded and she struggled to breathe through the horrible sweet stench of decay. She knew the Vampire’s taunts were meant to frighten her, but this time they had the opposite effect. She glared at the deserted clearing. She would kill this Janus or she would die trying.
Chapter 15
 
W
ith the surreptitious aid of Elias, Rhys managed to mount his horse and face the lonely ride back to the palace. He hadn’t told Elias what had happened to him, but he was quite certain Verity would. He settled his weight deeper into the saddle and shortened his reins. A wave of what even he recognized as self-pity washed over him. They didn’t need him. Verity was turning into a competent slayer, and Elias and Olivia had proved more than capable of guarding the queen.

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