“I just rescued Ophelia from the house of a vampire—” Harry broke off and his cheeks went red. “My apologies, Lady Brookshire, I meant a vampire who is not part of the Royal Society. He is a dangerous predator. It turns out that my fiancée did not lose her brother in battle. He was turned by Queen Jade.”
“This sounds complicated.” Lady Brookshire came down the stairs and approached Ophelia. She clasped Ophelia’s hand. “I believe I see a robe underneath your cloak, and I suspect you have run away from somewhere in your nightclothes.”
“Well . . .” Her cheeks heated as swiftly as her brother’s. “That is sort of what happened. I don’t have any clothes.”
“I have to rescue my fiancée,” Harry declared. “Will you allow Ophelia to stay here, where she will be safe? There are men of the Royal Society who have tried to hurt her.”
“What is this?” Brookshire demanded. “Men of the Royal Society?”
“I don’t have time to explain, Brookshire. I have to get to Frederica. Queen Jade has taken Ravenhunt’s sister prisoner. They are threatening to kill her.”
“This is an attack on you?” Brookshire demanded of Harry.
“No,” Ophelia cried. “It is all because of me. I had a power—a wretched power that kills people—and others want it. A vampire queen wants it. Someone hired Mr. Ravenhunt to kidnap me to take my power for them. I don’t know who, but I think it was men of your Royal Society. But now the queen has taken Ravenhunt’s sister as a hostage to ensure she gets the power.”
She looked at them all. They must think her mad. “There’s so much to explain, but there isn’t time. I need to dress. Ravenhunt is going to sacrifice himself for his sister. He wants to do it, but I don’t want to let him. I want to save him, but I need to have clothes. I need to go with you, Harry, to the vampire queens.”
“Which queen is it?” the second blond man asked.
“That is my husband’s brother, Mr. Sebastian de Wynter,” Lady Brookshire explained. “Now we must move quickly. You come with me, Lady Ophelia, and I will find you clothing. The men can determine which queen this is and how to carry out a rescue.”
Lady Brookshire spoke soothingly, and she put her hand on Ophelia’s back and guided her toward the stairs. But Ophelia balked. There was one logical reason they were leaving the men to discuss things—to arrange for her to be left behind.
“I must go, too,” Ophelia cried. “No one else would try to save Ravenhunt.” And Ravenhunt would be the least likely to try to save himself.
“Of course, you will go.” Lady Brookshire looked up and locked gazes with her husband.
“It’s too dangerous,” Harry insisted.
“It would be wiser for her to stay here,” Brookshire began.
“You know what women are like, my dear husband,” her ladyship said softly. “We will go, so there is no point trying to sneak away. You will all be in grave danger if you do.”
“From Jade?” Harry asked, frowning.
“No, from your sister and me. You men will need weapons, and you will need to plan. That will take several minutes. In that time, Ophelia, you can dress. Let us not waste more time.”
A few minutes. Ophelia did not know how long she had. Raven had left with the vampire queen just before her brother had found her. It had taken them less than half an hour to reach Brookshire’s house.
But what if she was already too late?
His sister was so lovely, so innocent, and she had fainted dead away the moment she saw him.
Raven paced in his cell, in the basement of the house used by Queen Jade. Rats scampered through the dark. He hissed at them, baring his fangs to scare them away.
He had let Jade lock him in here. He had followed Jade docilely down the stairs with his hands tied behind his back, though both knew he could have broken the bonds easily. With Frederica’s life in danger, he could not disobey. He could not try to escape.
Until he rid himself of the power, he couldn’t even touch Frederica.
Raven gripped the iron bars that fronted his cage. He had demanded of Jade one small favor—he had wanted to give up the power and rescue his sister, but he had not wanted his sister to see him after. Frederica was to be taken home, and he would ensure she never set eyes on him again. After all, once he turned the power over to Jade, he would be destroyed.
It was like a punch in the gut to be so close to his sister, and to know he had to turn his back on her forever. But she had been shocked so badly to discover he was alive. He could not break her heart completely to let her discover he was a vampire.
This was for her sake.
Jade was to tell his sister that she had imagined seeing him. That it had been a hallucination, brought on by fear, or by opium, or whatever lie Jade could concoct. Frederica was to be left to believe he was dead.
It would bring her peace. And he would be—finally—actually dead.
“You are troubled, my beautiful one.”
The sultry voice belonged to Jade. Deep in thought, he had not sensed her approach. The basement was pitch dark, but he saw her, of course. Jade wore a loose black gown made entirely of lace. She moved as if she heard an imaginary waltz, like a feather floating upon a breeze. When she wanted, she could make her every step sexually arousing. Using the walk Raven remembered, she approached his cell.
He wasn’t aroused. He hated this woman who had turned him.
When he’d been bleeding to death in the dirt in Ceylon, she had come to him. “You are too beautiful to die,” she’d said. As he lay there, feeling damned cold, and wondering why he’d ever thought hunting for battles was a solution, she’d drained his blood, taking him to the point of unconsciousness. Then she’d ripped a gash in her wrist and put it to his mouth.
The blood had slicked over his lips. He’d thought he wanted death. If he’d died then, he would have died honorably, and his soul would have gone to heaven.
But when Jade had told him he could live if he took her blood, he’d drunk it. He’d grasped at life. The joke was that he wasn’t alive, he was undead.
“What is wrong, Ravenhunt?” Jade demanded. “Don’t ignore me. Answer me.”
“Take this damned power now, so my sister can go free.”
“When I do that, you will die, my love.”
“I am not your love. I’m ready for destruction. I’m finally willing to do what I should have done years ago—die for someone I love.”
Jade ran her long-fingered hand suggestively up and down the bar of his cell. “It would be a shame to let you die. I could fall in love with you, but that would not spare you. Alas, it has to be her. Lady Ophelia, the frightened virgin.”
“She was anything but that,” he growled. “Ophelia has remarkable strength and courage. She was a virgin, but she is a sensual, beautiful, desirable woman.”
“You are in love with her. I spared your life and you never loved me. You were my lover, but I never touched your heart once. Yet this inexperienced girl has captivated you.”
“She is worthy of love. She’s also worthy of someone better than me.”
Jade smirked. “If she declares her love for you, you could be spared.”
“She won’t, so there’s no point in waiting.”
“Why won’t she? You have been making love to her for days now. Surely a handsome and virile gentleman such as you could capture her heart.”
“She doesn’t know the entire truth. I discovered it. You had me assassinate her older brother.”
Jade leaned closer to the bars. “Yes,” she purred. “Why do you think she has this power? The eldest brother and Ophelia were not children of the woman they believed was their mother. Their father, the earl, was in the thrall of a dangerous demon. He was obsessed with her, utterly in her power. This demon had him impregnate her, then she used her powers to transfer the babies to his wife, who bore them not knowing they were a demon’s children. Lady Ophelia’s brother was a demon who was developing the powers of a warlock. Soon, he turned to the dark arts. He had to be killed.”
“You had him killed because he was a threat to you?”
Jade inclined her head, her black hair rippling like water. “Of course. But he was also a threat to them. Had he been allowed to live, he would have destroyed his entire family. Evil was rich in his heart. He had attacked his younger brother once. Young Harold was spared only because the older brother’s powers were not strong then. He would have killed your beloved, Ophelia, but her power protected her. It was not just that he could not touch her. His magic could not work on her. Lady Ophelia should not hate you for what you had to do.”
“She will anyway,” Raven snarled. “She’s been alone for so long and has longed for love and family. I refuse to let her ever know that her eldest brother was evil. I don’t want her to know any of this. I want her to have happiness.”
“You think she will if you are dead?”
“She will,” he said. “She will fall in love with someone else. I’m ready, my queen.” Raven spat that out with sarcasm. “Take the power from me. It’s time I pay the price for my sins.”
16
The Throne Room
“H
ow will we find Jade?” Ophelia turned to Lady Brookshire. Three maids were also in the elegant dressing room off Lady Brookshire’s bedchamber, waiting to help Ophelia hurriedly into clothing. The gown she was to borrow was simple and beautiful, but still, she protested, “Why do we not wear trousers and shirts and boots? It would make everything much easier.”
Lady Brookshire tapped her chin. “An excellent idea. Much better for an attack on a dangerous vampire queen.” Her ladyship commanded gently to the two young maids, “Raid the wardrobes of my husband and Mr. de Wynter and bring us some of their clothes.” To her lady’s maid, she said, “Robbins, you will stay and will undress me.”
Ophelia felt a spurt of panic. “My lady, I was just joking. We shouldn’t—”
“It will not take me long.” Indeed, Lady Brookshire had her dress undone and removed in moments. The other maids bustled in with trousers and white shirts draped over their arms.
Ophelia hated every moment it took to dress, but at least it was quick to pull on a shirt and trousers. At first she tried to wear her shift for modesty, then abandoned the idea, and pulled off her muslin underclothes. Her breasts were free beneath the shirt, jiggling as she moved, and there was nothing between her trousers and her privates.
But she felt ready for adventure. Even her feminine clothes, she realized, had felt like a prison.
Lady Brookshire opened the door. “Good, you are ready. We must go.”
“Where are we going to go?” Ravenhunt told her nothing, probably to ensure she couldn’t stop him. There was so much pain in him. Did he want to be destroyed to escape that pain?
“I know where the queens reside,” Lady Brookshire said. “The places they go and the houses they use. As do my husbands—I mean, as does my
husband.
Sebastian knows these things, too. He is my brother by marriage.”
Lady Brookshire appeared flustered, but she took a composing breath and said more clearly, “We know about the vampire queens. There are three houses used by Queen Jade. We will find Ravenhunt and his sister at one of them.”
She hugged Ophelia. “Don’t worry. We will save him. I have gone up against the vampire queens before. There is always a way to give them what they want, while you get what you want.”
It was good to be embraced, but Ophelia couldn’t take much comfort from it. “I do not see how, my lady. Ravenhunt assured me I would despise him for what he did and that our love would never survive it. I want to believe it would. My love is the only thing that can save him. What if there truly is something so awful in his past that I can no longer love him?”
“We will cope with that when it happens.” Lady Brookshire faced her. “When the time comes, I will be able to help you.”
“How? How could you help me love Ravenhunt?”
“I have learned how love is the most precious thing. I think I could help you learn that, too.”
“I know it is precious,” Ophelia protested. “But it is not easy to love someone.”
“No.” A soft smile. “It definitely is not. But you understand that, and that is most of the battle.”
Ophelia did not argue. She had no time to dispute or debate love. What she must do was believe in it, believe in Ravenhunt, and save him.
Lady Brookshire strode to a wardrobe in the corner. “To go, we will need weapons. This could be a mission of combat, after all.” She swung open the doors.
Ophelia gaped at the contents. Crossbows. Stakes. Lethal daggers. Swords in scabbards. “These are yours?”
“For times when discussion will not work. They usually work better on gentlemen than on ladies. Men are much more enthralled by a woman carrying a weapon.”
“Enthralled? Not frightened? It sounded as if you mean men find it . . . arousing.”
“Exactly. Now, let us go.”
Ophelia was amazed at how comfortable the countess appeared in her husband’s clothing. As they walked down the stairs, Lady Brookshire explained, “Queen Jade is the queen of a smaller clan. We have learned that the very ancient vampires divided themselves into houses at one time, and a queen ran each house. As time went on, after many betrayals, murders, and slayings, the houses dissolved. Vampires became more independent in many ways. But the queens still have great power, and they wield it. Queen Jade is originally from the Himalayan Mountains, north of China. She has lived in England for hundreds of years.”
Ophelia nodded, drinking in every detail.
“She is queen of a lesser house,” Lady Brookshire continued. “If she demanded your power, it is probably because she wants to be stronger.”
“I can’t let her get it from Ravenhunt. The woman is ruthless—” She hesitated. “If vampire slayers know about the queens and their power, why do you not destroy them?”
“There is a long history of vampire slayers making deals with the queens.”
“Isn’t that wrong?”