The Mark of the Vampire Queen (38 page)

“Kill her…” Belizar's command. Seconded by another Council member. And another. She'd known vampires were like this, had accepted it as a weakness even as she appreciated their strengths. What was remarkable was how humans tolerated it enough to become their servants, this superiority that, when challenged, proved itself to be no less self-serving and motivated by fear than any other form of prejudice, human, vampire or otherwise. She was weary of it all. She was hungry for blood. Anyone's blood would do at this point. If they didn't stop their cacophony, she would impose silence in a way that would most satisfy the ache inside her.

She dropped low, readying herself. Mason was at her side, his body still, waiting. His eyes had narrowed, his lip curling back. He pulled the sword hidden in the cane he'd brought with him to the chamber and gripped the wooden shaft in his opposite hand.

Only on Belizar's face did she see complete resolve. The others were uncertain, angry and confused. Some were perhaps willing to follow Belizar's lead, but not with the odds so decisively stacked in her and Mason's favor. But just like a scene from
Gone with the Wind
, where the Southern gentlemen were so certain that all that was needed to win the war was their honor, so her Council still clung to the naivety that their “purity” made them invincible. If they charged, she knew without a doubt she and Mason would kill them all. And the vampires would be once again lawless, leaderless…She struggled to care, but all she felt was the weight of loss and fury.

“Take her now,” Belizar thundered.

His voice was swallowed by a muted roar outside the chamber. The walls shuddered as if the structure of the west wing had been shaken on its foundation. Distant screams speared through the walls, under the door. The smell of smoke reached their heightened senses.

Several vampires had thrown themselves forward, but now came up short in confusion. Lyssa cared not for what was happening outside of this room. The second they moved, she lunged into the air. Her wide wingspan cut sharply through the air, talons reaching with deadly chaotic and unpredictable intent. Her barbed tail lashed out like a whip as she hovered over Jacob where none could get to him. Mason went to a half kneel, weapons at the ready, ducking under the movement of her wings as if he'd fought next to a Fey warrior all his life.

“Earthquake? What—”

“No,” Lord Mortimer said. He stood at the wall, still uncommitted to Belizar's suit. “Explosion.”

Belizar's eyes were focused inward. “Malachi says we are under attack by…vampire hunters,” he said tersely, affront in his tone at the very idea. “A significant force in numbers, if not capability. They somehow planted explosives on the verandah and have swarmed into the castle.”

Lady Helga cried out, doubling over. Lord Welles caught her by the waist, steadying her. No one in the room asked what had happened. They all knew the signs of losing a servant abruptly with no time to brace the body against the loss. Hadn't they just seen an example of it moments before? “Tristan,” she whispered.

Jacob's loss was like a fire roaring through Lyssa's blood, squeezing her vital organs. She was going to go mad.

Hold, lady.
Mason's voice.
Be our queen.

“Malachi says the explosion wounded perhaps sixty, killed a dozen servants at least. They targeted the upper levels and are taking advantage of the surprise to advance. We will go to their aid,” Belizar said shortly.

His gaze rose, met Lyssa's. “You have your head start, Lady Lyssa. If you do not want this Council to hunt you down and bring you to justice for your deception, then you should make certain we never see you again. We will purge the memory of your hybrid existence from our ranks.”

“If you have so little value for your life,” she responded, red eyes glittering, “come and find me, for I will never hide from the likes of you. It is not so difficult to defeat a mind that refuses to change.”

Belizar's eyes flashed, but abruptly his expression suffused with shock. “The vampire hunters have breached the inner walls, but there is…another group.” His attention snapped back up to Lyssa. “Vampires. There is a group of vampires apparently part of this, using the humans to attempt an overthrow of the Council. They are on their way here, led by—”

He stiffened. Though he managed his reaction better than Helga, his face still went rigid with pain. “Malachi.”

“Who?” Mason stepped forward, his eyes narrowed.

“He did not…” Belizar shook his head, struggling to overcome the effects of the severed link. “He couldn't show me before they took his life. They must have seen him. He exposed himself to be sure of what he saw.”

“We know who it is,” Lyssa said flatly. “It is Carnal and his carrion eaters.”

Lord Stewart snarled. “We should have known. He has been increasingly defiant.”

“Joining with humans to attack us?” Mortimer scoffed. “Carnal, who despises humans far more than anyone else?”

“Perhaps Carnal was able to overcome his prejudices to use their strengths. He has a bit more adaptability than this Council. Unfortunately, he's also a sociopath,” Mason observed contemptuously.

“Carnal has been traveling a great deal these days,” Lyssa said. She didn't want to be involved in this, didn't want to care, but she was speaking despite herself. “Recruiting for this, I suspect, and he was wise enough to choose those who were in his camp, no chance of the secret slipping out.”

“You foresaw this—” Belizar accused.

“Oh, good Christ. You all foresaw this. You fools just assumed he would use the Council floor to try to initiate his coup. In all your civility, you've forgotten that the root of a vampire's nature is violence, particularly when the end he seeks is total domination,” Mason snapped. “You did nothing. You should have staked him out years ago.”

So in the end, it is your cynicism that is our ultimate truth. You were right. I was the biggest fool of all.

Mason glanced at her.
No, my lady. To try to make your world a better place and fail is far nobler than to never have the faith to try.

He turned his attention back to the Council. “If we are to stop this we need to get out there. Now.”

“Where we cannot tell friend from foe?” Belizar shook his head.

Lyssa snarled. Even during this, the most horrible moment of her entire life, she refused to let someone like Carnal take control of what she'd worked so hard to build. She felt the horrid stillness of Jacob's body beneath her, remembered Carnal striking his face, remembered how close Jacob had come to staking him. If he'd been alive, she knew what he would be saying.

What are you waiting for, my lady? Go finish what I started. Kick his goddamn ass.

She registered the fleeting feral grin on Mason's face as he caught the thought and reminded herself to break his jaw later, just on general principle. It would heal, after all.

“Your opponents will be Carnal and the territory leaders who have been seeking pre-Council ways.”

Where vampires could rampage unchecked in the human world, which would spell vampire extinction. She played for just a blink with the idea of letting it happen, and then let that go. All she had to do was remember Danny, Devlin, Mason…Thomas. Jacob.

Even more appealing, she'd have the immediate opportunity to kill someone. Many someones, and that was what she wanted more than anything. At least of the things that were within her power.

“That means he will likely have twenty percent of the overlords with him. They'll have armed their servants,” Uthe spoke. “There's no time for subterfuge. Either we go out now and respond with aggression or they corner us here. Mason, it's your home. Malachi said they destroyed the verandah. What way are they likely to take to get here?”

“The west corridors are the quickest route. They might divide their forces though, bring someone around the east side to cut off escape.”

“We have allies out there.” Lyssa found it easier to concentrate on the problem at hand instead of the terrible reality of the still body on the table. “Any of you who have a blood link to a vampire here you trust, let them know what is happening. That was the point of Carnal's alliance with the hunters, or however he accomplished their presence here. Those loyal to Council are out there fighting human hunters. By the time they understand the real enemy is Carnal and his group, they'll have us cornered and slaughtered.”

“Do it,” Uthe said, since Belizar seemed at a loss for words at the moment.

Lyssa nodded, gazed into space for a moment, mirrored by other Council members. She looked for Danny. Blinking several times, she started at the click of the link, like the blast of a television turned on at high volume. Through Danny's eyes, she saw carnage. Smoke, fire, the rubble of the verandah. Bodies flung and sprawled. Limbs amputated. The chaos and noise of battle.

She and Devlin were fighting back-to-back, fending off a quartet of hunters. Praying she would not distract her to adverse effect, Lyssa fed her the information.

She heard Danny swear colorfully in acknowledgment. As she tore the head off a hunter, Lyssa appreciated not only the viciousness but the creative suggestion related to Carnal's origins. Danny kicked the body out of her way and went after another. Slamming him to his back on the ground, she ducked as Devlin launched a pike and took a man in the chest who was coming to the aid of her current victim with a crossbow.

“It's done. But how long it will be before she can act on it, I don't know. She's under siege.”

The other vampires reported similar results. Mason's eyes narrowed.

“An unexpected aerial attack will slow Carnal down, confuse the hunters. It will give those we've contacted time and space to muster the other vampires. And give us cover to get out there.”

Lyssa shook her head. “I won't leave Jacob here alone.”

“He won't be. I'll stay here,” Mason responded.

“You are as powerful as she is,” Helga pointed out. “We need you to fight.”

Brian stepped forward. “I will stay by him, Lady Lyssa. As I live, he will suffer no desecration, not even from me.”

She pinned him with a gaze, and he bowed. “I may not be everything you want me to be, my lady, but I do not lie.”

Lyssa glanced down, slid her talon along the side of Jacob's brow. She couldn't bear the dead expression of his face, but she couldn't close his eyes, not with her hands like this. She tried to make the claws retract, something that was typically easy for her, but there seemed to be no link to her human form she could trigger, the familiar path back to herself.

Debra stepped forward. Brian reached out a hand to hold her back, a protective gesture that brought her to a halt.

“Please, my lady,” she said softly. “Let me help.”

“There's no time for this,” Uthe said. He was always sensible, logical. He didn't have Belizar's ambition, just the desire to see the world as she'd envisioned it. Nevertheless, at the moment Lyssa still wanted to destroy him with all the others.

Lyssa inclined her head. Brian did not release Debra's arm. “My lady…”

“I will not harm her. I may not be everything you want me to be”—she tossed his words back to him, indicating her altered form—“but I do not lie.”

His jaw tightened. Nodding, he allowed his servant to move forward into the shadow of Lyssa's tensely poised body. Debra gently closed Jacob's lids. Removing her earrings, flat silver circles ironically bearing the Celtic knot symbols for love, she took out the hooks and laid the disks on his eyes. When she lifted her head, Lyssa saw no revulsion, only a sorrow that wrenched her own up several notches. It was easier to handle her grief when she knew it wasn't shared by anyone in the room. The tears in Debra's eyes could undo her.

“Jacob had more honor than any man I've ever met, Lady Lyssa. We will make sure your wishes are respected or die trying.”

“How do we know she won't get out there and join them against us?”

Anger flushed Mason's expression. “Damn you, Belizar. She's given more to this Council and our way of life than anyone in this room. You—”

“Because Carnal was responsible for my husband's death. He drove Rex to complete madness, such that I had to kill him.” Lyssa spoke flatly, ignoring the gasps. “I want him dead. I can assure you I would not stand with Carnal for any reason, even if it meant the destruction of this Council, or the end of the universe for that matter.” There was one stuttering flame in her heart, trying to stay alight for God knew what reason. Was the desire to see Carnal dead the only thing she'd have left after this night? “However, if you do not swear to me that you and the Council will leave Jacob alone, then I will sit back and watch what happens to you.”

“After all your years of dedication, you would abandon us now over this dead human,” Belizar sneered, but there was desperation in his face as more screams came under the door.

My lady…
Mason, his voice urgent.

“After all my years of dedication to this Council, you shunned me in less than a blink. Turned your back on me because my blood is not as pure as yours.”

Belizar's jaw clenched. A long, tense moment commanded the chamber as they felt the rumble of further explosions, possibly grenades, bullet fire snapping. Roars of rage. Sounds of death. Getting closer.

“Done.” Belizar nodded his head. A quick jerk. “He will not be touched by any in this room or anyone under our command.”

Lunging aloft, she burst through the arched design of glass above the double doors, her wings pinned back like a Stealth fighter.

F
UELED
by visions of darkness and blood, Lyssa twisted and spun out of the arched walkway along the castle wall, spearing up over the east side of the castle to get a view of the ocean and garden side where most of the explosions had occurred. On the way, she saw hunters traveling close to the castle walls on the outside levels, moving in three-man teams to flush out smaller groups of vampires and servants who'd not been in the ballroom area. They were not her concern. The hunters no longer had the advantage of surprise. It was a fair fight at this juncture, and would soon swing to the vampires' favor, if it had not already.

The blast charges had turned the sweeping verandah into rubble, as Malachi had reported. They had blown out the ocean-facing walls of the ballroom, scattering glass and chunks of stone across the gardens. Bodies lay in the wreckage. More vampires than she would have expected, but she could tell they'd not been killed by the explosion, but by the hunters who'd rushed upon them before the dust cleared and took advantage of their dazed state to stake or decapitate them.

Among the ruins, the servants and vampires still standing waged battle with the hunters. Danny had spread the message, for Lyssa noted that a main force of vampires was engaging the hunters, slowly closing together to form a wall behind which a select group of Council allies could retreat into the castle, seeking to intercept Carnal and his group and come to the Council's aid.

Though she saw approximately three hundred hunters, she still wondered at the absolute foolhardiness of an attack on two hundred vampire overlords and Region Masters at night. But as she hovered at her vantage point, she saw the open verandah and ballroom area were the most vulnerable points to detonation. Tonight was the one night they were all gathered in the same place, at the same time, for the Ball and Court meeting. And somehow Carnal had fed them that information, was part of this, of why the hunters were here.

The Council's unexpected and timely departure had likely made him froth at the mouth. That alone gave her black satisfaction. He could not count on the hunters' assistance to assassinate the Council. Successful hunters were those who struck quickly and retreated. Even those three-man teams were not making incursions into the castle's interior. They were working their way along the walls and likely would disappear back into the rain forest cover once they reached the end of their assigned area.

She noted dispassionately that they were purposeful, calm, determined. As she plunged and took the turn around to the west wall, she could tell these were mostly hardened veterans, not zealous youths.

There was a leaden weight in her chest where her heart should be. She used it now to tip her into a circle, bring her into a tight, silent glide.

Carnal was moving along the walkway on the second level toward the Council chambers. He was in the lead of a cluster of vampires, almost fifty of them. So young and stupid. So vicious. Carnal bore a silver ax and a look of deadly confidence.

Enjoy your five minutes of power and fame, you bastard.

Because of the communication she and the Council had made with Danny and others like her, it was now impossible for them to slaughter the Council, claim it was the hunters and then take power by opening up a blood war on the human race. But if they did take out the Council, they would have chaos, civil war. Wholesale attacks on humans would result in the widespread realization that vampires did in fact exist. Mortals would turn all their technological resources toward wiping out vampires entirely. And since the hunters already knew about the Delilah virus, they'd simply inject it in any human willing to carry the inert virus as a deterrent against vampire bites, drying up the only food source vampires had.

That was everything that could happen in the future. For her, there was only this moment. The wind sheared over her skin and her fangs pierced her lips, goading her lust for blood with the pain. She swooped down toward Carnal. Apparently she drew the attention of the group of hunters in the courtyard below him, for an arrow struck her leg a glancing blow, creating fire in her blood. She turned her head, hissed a warning and kept on in a straight line toward her prey.

But as was the way with all creatures of pure evil, Carnal had a second sense when it came to self-preservation. At the last moment, he looked up.

His eyes widened, and he bolted. Narrowly missing him with the grip of her talons, she plunged into the wall behind him instead. As it crumbled, slabs of concrete showered around her to create a cloak of dust. She was aware of the startled group of vampires, some holding their ground, some retreating. Several were brave enough to throw themselves forward, thinking to attack her. She didn't see Carnal. Screaming in rage, she flipped backward and shot through their ranks. Saliva pooled in her mouth as she caught hold of one of them, tore him into two pieces and showered the rest with blood, sending them scattering. The predator in her rejoiced.
More.

Run, for there shall be nowhere you can hide.

Out of the peripheral vision of her widely spaced eyes, she saw Mason and the other Council members materialize, striding down the open walkway. Mason's coat flapped around his torso, giving the impression of a hawk's dark feathers as the Council members ranged out across the expanse of the walkway just behind him in three staggered rows of six, ready to charge. Nearly five millennia of experience, and there was no fear in any of their faces, whereas Carnal's vampires were still reeling from her attack such that they'd not yet presented a real threat to her.

But the Council was still outnumbered.

She did a somersault and dropped like a stone, intending to feed the panic and her own bloodlust with another couple of corpses.

Just before she reached them, a rumble gave her warning. The upper walkway exploded, erupting in the expanse of space remaining between the Council and their adversaries, taking several of them down in the blast. Lyssa flipped back from the concussion and bounced off the castle wall, screaming in fury as hot bits of debris showered her skin. She launched herself into the smoke, out into the open courtyard.

Angry shouts came through the obscuring clouds. She heard Mason's battle roar and knew he'd recovered quickly enough to take advantage of the moment.

It gave them an unexpected advantage. The fact the walkway had blown where it could endanger Carnal and his followers told her that he hadn't been working as closely with the hunters as she'd supposed. He'd perhaps fed them information through a human plant serving him. But he hadn't gotten all the details of their attack.

Such was his arrogance, he assumed he would murder the Council and deal with the “disturbance” the humans caused afterward. He'd never considered them capable of interrupting the execution of his own plot. Based on their pattern with the previous explosions, the location of this detonation meant the hunters below were preparing to charge this level.

She needed to disrupt the hunters to give the Council time to regain control. They couldn't afford the distraction the humans would cause. The fortunate thing was they'd managed to slow the forward progress of Carnal's challengers. She had a moment or two.

Don't be greedy, Mason. Save Carnal for me. I'll be back.

His voice was a savage snarl in her mind, telling her he was engaged in combat.
I'll do my best to honor my lady's wishes. Though I'd prefer she not sully her fangs with his filth.

She hoped when she got back, Carnal would still be on his feet. She wanted him to see her coming.

 

“Jesus Christ, Gideon. There it is again. How did it survive that blast?”

Gideon paused on the second level, staying close to the wall for cover, his eyes everywhere. The flying creature that looked like a cross between a gargoyle and a harpy swooped over the courtyard, seeking them, he assumed, since it winged in close to a pack of the rear guard behind them, sending them retreating into the shadows of the lower-level defiles for cover. The vampires just ahead of them on this level were snarling, sounding almost as if they were…fighting. The glimpses he was catching of them through the dust showed them grappling, a few weapons flashing. But there were no other hunters up here, just his team of a dozen, hanging back fifty feet, waiting for the go order to charge forward into the fray.

They'd managed to get up here in less than eight minutes from the original blast, but he knew every moment would swing the tide further against them. He wanted to give the command to charge in, to take those disoriented vampires out before they could rally their defenses, but the sounds of battle were throwing him. Besides which, he couldn't move forward out into the open on the remains of the walkway without dispatching that winged threat. First things first. He notched an arrow to his crossbow and took aim. “Let's hope it's some type of vampire, or something even more destructible.”

This setup stank. His gut told him they'd gotten in too easy. When two of their members had disappeared almost immediately upon reaching the inner gates, he was certain they'd been sold out. But they'd forged ahead. Too much planning, too much invested. Already they'd taken out more vamps in thirty minutes than they'd managed all year. Three dozen, though of course they'd lost a third of their own people. They were supposed to be in and out in fifteen minutes. Guerrilla warfare, not toe-to-toe combat. The loss of the human servants was regrettable, but hell, who knew they'd fight so fucking viciously for the bloodsucking fiends who had enslaved them, brainwashed them into thinking being a servant was something they wanted?

Your brother went willingly.

He shoved that away. So far, everything was going as planned. Better than planned. Perhaps that was what was making him uneasy. Things never went as planned. Why did he feel as if a trap was closing around them, the deeper they forged into the resort?

Fuck it. He raised the crossbow, steadied as the creature poised in midflight, wings stretched out full, head cocked, looking. Then it turned in the air and saw him.

Gideon. No.

It reverberated through his head, locked his trigger hand, overwhelming him like he'd been caught in the electric field of a thundercloud. He fought it, even as he saw the beast dive, coming toward him with death in its eye. Oh, shit. He couldn't get his damn arms to move. Let…go…of…me.
You son of a bitch.

He closed his eyes at the last moment, the pain of the final, unforgivable betrayal so sharp he almost welcomed his own death. The creature's heat encompassed him like the sharp burn of sulfur.

Tobias screamed.

Gideon's eyes snapped open, and he spun to find Toby sprawled on the ground. The creature had one set of talons on his torn throat, the other clamped on Gideon's crossbow, holding it toward the ground though he hadn't released his grasp on it.

Its head was turned to gaze directly into his face. At this level, he realized only the wings were big. Though sleekly muscular, she was definitely female. The mounds of her slim breasts were obvious, as were the folds of her bare sex. Her body was small and fine boned.

“There is a faction of vampires seeking to overthrow the Council right now, Gideon.” Her voice in this form was a harsh rasp, close to a growl. “Up on that walkway. They infiltrated your ranks, used your attack. They've set up patrols all around the perimeter of the compound so when they succeed they'll have all of your hunters who survive trapped. They probably plan to torture and dine on your friends in grand celebration of the new order.”

Looking down, she nudged Tobias with a toe. For the first time, he noticed the man had been taken down with a knife clutched in his hand. “This was apparently one of the spies,” she said in that serpentlike hiss. “Chosen to take you out as one of the leaders, I assume. He stinks of Carnal's blood, and he was getting ready to put this between your shoulder blades.”

He knew her eyes and that mocking tone, despite the mutation of her vocal cords. Gideon took a deep breath. “You.”

She gave a faint smile, a disquieting gesture with her fangs longer than his fingers, and blood staining them. She glanced up at the portion of the sky from which she'd struck. “Help cometh from Heaven, no? Rally your people. If you go down to the third level belowground, accessible through the kitchens, you'll find a dungeon. It's been made into a sexual playground. Behind the iron maiden there's a loose stone. It guards a passageway underground that will take you a half mile down the road, into the jungle. You'll take no more lives today, but you'll keep your own.” Her green eyes, round and spaced widely, narrowed in pure malevolence that sent a chill through his body. “Don't expect that passage to be there again. I'm not stupid, nor is the vampire who owns this place. Did you have a plan to spare your brother, or did you even care to check that he was here?”

Gideon's jaw flexed. “We both made our choices.”

Lyssa stared at him. Something changed in her expression that made him wish she didn't have him trapped against a wall with no ability to lift the crossbow in defense. “I should have let him stab you in the back,” she hissed.

“Why did you even come down here?” he snapped. “Jacob held me back with no effort. Why not just disarm Toby the same way? And when did you teach Jacob how to do your mind tricks? Servants can't do that kind of shit. You finally figure out how to exploit his psychic power for your own benefit?”

Lyssa blinked. “No one controlled your mind. I can't…I move too swiftly to be hit with one of your arrows. He's…dead. They…”

His stomach dropped at the words. With his free hand, he reached out to clamp onto her arm, demand what she meant. But she was aloft, headed back toward the second level as though she'd been launched from a cannon.

“Jesus, she's like something out of a children's nightmare.”