The King's Vampire (12 page)

That thought had already crossed her mind, yet his putting doubts in her mind infuriated her. “Get out, Julian.” She threw her silver mirror in his direction. Without being aware of how it happened, she was flung on the floor and the weight of the demon pressed down on her chest. She felt him trying to suck the energy from her body, but she focused on her own white energy and raised her arms, pressing against his skeletal chest until he shot away from her.

He reared back. “Your strength is increasing. Are you learning from your demon slayer? I give you a word of fair warning. Never dare use force against me again. If you do, I’ll make you sorry.

She leapt up and grabbed a decorative dagger from an ebony statue of a warrior that stood in the corner. She leaned forward and made a slicing motion through one of his wings.

He roared in pain. When she started to rip into him again, he formed into a gel-like substance and disappeared through the wall.

Coward, she thought, staring at the wall where he’d disappeared. She dropped the dagger to the floor and collapsed onto her bed, wondering why her powers were growing stronger. Nervous exhaustion wouldn’t let her sleep, so her mind drifted back into the past.

She remembered a time when she’d just turned sixteen. Her mother had entered her bedchamber with an apologetic look on her face. “Your father has given your hand in marriage to Sir Michael Horbury.”

Elizabeth had been sitting at her dressing table, trying to tame her wildly curling hair. She set the brush down. “Why, Mother? Why must I marry him?”

“Being the second-born daughter, your father was so very afraid . . .”

She’d never forget the way her mother looked away, as though ashamed. Then she looked in the mirror and saw what her mother must see, a thin, young woman not much taller than a child with wild russet hair and strange purple eyes.

“He doesn’t think I’m good enough to find a husband of my own.”

Her mother’s eyes had darkened and she looked down, as though frightened no one would want to marry her daughter. Elizabeth decided to agree to the marriage and make everyone else happy. She forced those unhappy memories from her mind and came back to the present.

She changed from her dressing gown into a lilac dress with a scooped neckline and ribbons laced through the bodice. She put on white stockings and stuck her feet into a pair of square-toed shoes. While she dressed, her mind raced. Would Darius lie to her for his own selfish purposes? He must know she’d never make Charles an immortal vampire. But how could she doubt him after the way he’d made love to her? She shook her head. It was Julian who had placed these doubts in her mind. She trusted Darius completely. Why shouldn’t she?

Chapter 10

When darkness came, Elizabeth wandered down a little alley where many buildings hadn’t been rebuilt from the fire, with scaffolding everywhere. The stone buildings glistened from the misting rain, and she shivered when the bone-chilling wind blew down the alleyway. She heard her own footsteps echo on the cobblestones. Since there were fewer establishments completely rebuilt here, fewer people were around to take any notice of her.

A great thirst and hunger threatened to overwhelm her. She passed by a human couple and bowed her head. The scent of their sweetly savory skin made her teeth elongate slightly. This was wrong. This was evil. She’d sworn never to take the blood of a human being, so why had this passion arisen? Had she let down her barriers when she’d made love with Darius? Had her wanton behavior led her to becoming a creature of her animal desires? Was she growing closer to the darkness?

Damn Darius! She should never have allowed him to become a part of her the way she’d done. With such distraction, how would she ever regain her soul? Beyond her mindless craving, a raging loneliness swept over her she’d never experienced before, and it had nothing to do with a lust for blood. She felt a sense of emptiness at the thought of living alone like this forever.

A pitiful whine brought her back to the present. She looked beneath the scaffolding of a burnt-out alehouse, and two black eyes peered out at her and a little black nose sniffed at her skirts. A floppy-eared dog with wiry, grayish-black hair stood up on two legs and whined again.

“Oh do go away, you little mongrel. I’m starving right now, and I don’t wish to feed on you because you really are quite pathetic looking.” He was the oddest looking little dog she’d ever seen. His long hair was black and gray, but he had a reddish beard beneath his chin. He was long, yet stocky, and had short stubby legs. He was quite comical looking, with a feathery black and gray tail that wagged eagerly.

He gave a yip and dropped back on all fours, but he wouldn’t leave. “All right you mangy beast, you asked for it.” She lifted him up, and her teeth elongated again. She brought him up to her lips and bit down on his neck. He yelped and gave a little shudder when his warm blood poured down her throat.

After she felt satiated, she set the dog down on the cobblestones, but her mouth dropped open and she swore when he staggered a bit before going back up on his hind legs, as though begging for a bone. “You little wretch, you didn’t die. Please don’t tell me I’ve made a vampire dog.”

The dog looked at her with his knowing black eyes, and he barked once more. Shrugging, she scooped him up in her cloak. “I suppose I’ll just have to take you with me, you little devil.” Seeming to seal the deal, the dog licked her face.

On Fleet Street, she noticed a crowd heading into the George and Dragon. She stopped and peered inside the window. She spotted Darius at the front of the group who were seated around the wooden table. It must be another meeting of the vampires and it looked like an important one.

She slipped in with her hood up and her mask on, hoping she might hear what they were saying without being recognized. The little ferret-faced vampire with the cruel eyes stood. “We’ve noticed you’ve acquired a bit of color, eh, Lord Mayor. What’s going on?”

“Godfrey, that’s why I’ve called this meeting,” Darius said. “I want to explain that I’ve become a demon slayer. This will give us far more advantage in defeating the psychic vampire demons.”

“Your Lordship, meaning no disrespect, but why should we follow you when you’re not even one of us anymore?” After Godfrey spoke, the rest of the vampires chimed in with their own opinions.

The tall, exceedingly thin vampire with jet-black hair rose. “Godfrey is right. We see no point in depriving ourselves of human blood any longer, since it’s apparent you’re no longer an immortal vampire.”

Darius lifted one large hand, palm faced outward. “Gentlemen, and ladies,” he said, bowing to the handful of female vampires in the room. “I understand you might not want me as Lord Mayor of the vampires any longer because of my unexpected form change. That is why I wish to suggest that John Ashley, the Duke of Denham, become Lord Mayor.” He nodded in his friend’s direction, and the Duke gave an elegant bow of his head.

Godfrey stomped up to the front of the room, standing beside Darius. “No, thanks anyway, Lord Mayor. We’ll have no more of it. We’re sick and tired of the Cavaliers running our business. We want a commoner to lead us, and we want to act like a vampire is supposed to act. Am I making myself clear to you fine gentlemen?”

The lanky, dark-haired vampire jumped up. “We’ll have Godfrey as our new Lord Mayor. We can’t get much more common than that.”

A burst of laughter broke out around the tables, and then all the vampires were on their feet, chanting, “Godfrey is our Lord Mayor. Godfrey is our Lord Mayor.”

Godfrey snatched the gavel that Darius held in his left hand. “I’ll thank you to give me that, Your Lordship.” He pounded the gavel on the table. “I say vampires no longer have to drink only the blood of animals. If you see a human you fancy, enjoy him is what I say.”

Darius snatched the gavel back. As he hammered on the table for order, Elizabeth watched him. His anger was apparent from the stiffness of his back and the clenching of his square jaw, but he remained reasonable. “Will you listen,” he ordered. “Without rules, we’ll have nothing but chaos and be at the mercy of psychic vampire demons. As a demon slayer, I have the power to control them, but I need the cooperation of the immortal vampires.”

“Maybe we’ll make friends with them demons, and then we won’t need the likes of you to help us anymore,” Godfrey said. “All you’ve tried to do is make us out to be humans when none of us have been human for hundreds of years. You’ve gone too soft on them.” A deadly silence filled the room, and the silence suggested the others agreed with the words just spoken.

At that inopportune moment, the little dog Elizabeth had tucked underneath her cape gave a howl of protest and sprang from her arms. The entire group turned in her direction. She pushed back her hood, dropping her mask onto her lap, while she snatched up the dog and patted him to silence.

“Look here. It’s the fine lady what’s going to charm the king into protecting us immortals. Darius is no longer a vampire, and this one is ashamed to claim her vampire heritage. This fine countess is the one Darius expects us to count on. That’s not bloody likely to happen, is it?”

The noise from the crowd rose to a menacing buzz. Darius said, “Let’s not be so hasty. I’ve heard enough out of you, Godfrey. We’ll meet here at the George and Dragon in a fortnight and see how you all feel then. I’m asking you not to act rashly and leave the humans alone for the time being. Give me time to develop a plan on how to handle the demons. Remember, these are creatures of hell we’re dealing with, and no one should make deals with the devil’s own.”

The crowd broke up, and Darius rushed over to Elizabeth, grasping her by the hand, and then staring down at the mongrelized dog in her lap.

“What?” she asked.

“Where on earth did you get this strange little dog?”

“I don’t think he’s so peculiar.” The dog licked her wrist.

Darius changed the subject. “What did you think about the meeting?”

She clutched her dog as they walked out of the tavern, and Darius whistled for his carriage. It rattled up the street and stopped. The footman jumped down, helping them inside. Elizabeth tucked her skirts around her, and set the dog on the velvet-padded cushion. “The vampires are angry. I don’t think they intend to follow you anymore.”

“I know they aren’t going to listen. They’ve made that apparent. I have an impossible job to do and they’re making it harder. The psychic demon vampires must be defeated before they’ve completely infiltrated the royal court. I can’t fail this time.” He smacked one fist into the palm of his hand.

“I thought you wanted my help.” She watched the lines around his mouth tighten. She touched his arm. “You’re not alone in this.”

He gazed down at her with a vacant expression. “I do . . . I know. But the responsibility is on my shoulders, not yours.”

“I see.” She looked down at the dog and stroked him behind the ears.

“What are you going to do with him?”

“I’m going to keep him. I think I may have accidentally made him a vampire.”

“How can you have done such a thing? There’s never been an animal that’s become a vampire. It is true vampires can sometimes shape-shift into animals, but never the reverse. I don’t know what this means.”

She pulled the dog up close to her face. “You’re not responsible for everything that happens in the vampire world. Why don’t you let me worry about him? I can take care of it.”

Upstairs, Darius looked at her questioningly when they reached the antechamber to her apartments. “I think I should sleep alone,” she said. “We shouldn’t be together in that way again.”

He reached out a hand to her. “Elizabeth you can’t mean—”

“So long as I’m one of the unholy ones, we can’t be together. It’s wrong. It’s against nature. We never should have made love before. We must pretend it never happened.”

Darius put his hands around her waist and pulled her close. The kiss he gave her was long and hard, full of passionate memory of their previous lovemaking. She knew he was giving her notice he wasn’t going to forget, and he had no intention of letting her forget either. Abruptly, he dropped his hands to his side. He nodded and walked toward his own rooms.

She pressed her fingertips to her bruised lips, watching him walk down the hallway. What had she done? Darius was the only one in the world she could trust and she’d turned him away like an unruly servant.

At least she thought she could trust him. Why had she allowed that devil Buckingham to instill suspicion in her mind? Darius wanted her to protect Charles from becoming a vampire. He was a demon slayer now and his duty was to destroy the psychic vampire demons. He had no other quest for power.

She got ready for bed, placing the little dog on a feather pillow next to her bed. But this didn’t suit him, and he managed to leap onto her high bed. He snuggled up to her chin, licking the tears rolling down her cheeks. She hadn’t cried in so long, she’d thought she’d forgotten how. She pulled the dog close and whispered, “I’ll call you Charlie.” He gave a whimper, seeming pleased with his new royal name.

“Of course I trust Darius,” she said, planting a solid kiss on top of the little dog’s head. “I have no one else to trust.” The dog whined his agreement.

Chapter 11

Darius arrived at Elizabeth’s apartments unannounced the next evening. When he scowled at her, she faced him with her hands on her hips, tossing him a challenging look. “Well, I thought this is what you wanted. I don’t know why you look so grim.” He’d interrupted her in the middle of packing her things and preparing for the move to Whitehall. “Aren’t I supposed to protect the king from Buckingham?”

Confused by his own feelings, he hardly knew what to say. Of course the plan had been to have Elizabeth keep watch over Charles, but that had been before he had fallen so much in love with her. It was before he’d felt the satiny smoothness of her skin in the palms of his hands, before her heated passion had made him forget all other women he’d ever known when he was human. He couldn’t insult her by suggesting he didn’t trust her with the king. Besides, it wasn’t her he didn’t trust. It was well known throughout England there had never been a woman Charles couldn’t seduce.