Darkness Embraced (25 page)

“Renata,” I said.

Her hand touched my wrist and I crawled onto her lap, burying my face in the bend of her neck. She snaked her arms around my waist, holding me close.

“What if what Severiano said had some merit to it?” I said.

“What do you mean, Epiphany?”

“What if I summoned the Dracule and asked her to point out the vampire that summoned her?”

I felt Renata tense.

“I could not do it.” I turned to find Iliaria standing in the middle of the room, in the more human of her forms. The glossy cloak of her hair tumbled down the front of her body to her knees. Black leathery wings arched from her back. I was surprised to see that she was fully clothed; surprised because dressing a body with the equivalent of large bat wings didn’t seem an easy task.

She moved, bringing my attention to the full-length coat she wore. The coat had been altered so that her wings could fit through wide-stitched openings. The black panne velvet jacket was accented by highlights of gold silk, a reflection of her gold eyes with their veins of black lightning. The sleeves of the coat widened at the wrists. The coat was fastened between her neck and waist, and where it draped open there was a slit of shadowy gold silk underneath. Beneath the clothes, I did not see her tail.

Renata cleared her throat, making me aware that I was staring. Dressed so exquisitely, the Dracule was worth a stare or two…or three.

“Why could you not tell us who summoned you?” Renata asked, breaking the silence that followed my obvious appreciation of Iliaria’s presentation.

Iliaria raised her chin. “The vampire who summoned me kept his face shrouded. I could tell you his height, his build, would it help any.”

“That may help some,” Vasco said, looking Iliaria curiously up and down, “as it is more than what we presently know.”

Iliaria moved gracefully and predatorily between the two couches, taking a seat on the smaller one.

“I would put his height at about five-seven,” she said. “He was of slim build, not muscular.”

“Could you smell him?” Renata asked.

“No,” Iliaria said, “he used sage to mask his true smell.” What she meant was that, like us, she could smell things mortals could not. We could smell one another’s scent. The vampire had used sage to overpower his own scent, so that all she could smell was the sage. He had kept his face shrouded and disguised his scent, obviously not wanting Iliaria to be able to recognize him by it.

“I am fairly certain that whoever he is, he is working with one of my kind.”

“We suspected as much,” Renata said. “Would you know if he had been marked by one of your kind?”

“If I tried, I would have known,” she said. “I did not consider the possibility that he was working with another Dracule until long after I had been summoned. He was very persuasive. He convinced me that the entirety of your clan had turned against us. He played on my dislike of you. I was a fool.”

It sounded like the closest thing to an apology we would get from one of the Great Sirens.

“You did not know,” I said.

She shook her head lightly. “I was a fool. I came so close to believing what the others have said about your kind, Epiphany. If it were not for you, I would most likely still believe many of those lies. I see now how such fallacy has been used as a means to turn us against you.”

“What fallacy?” Vasco sat back, crossing his long legs.

She tilted her head. “That all of the vampires are ungrateful, have turned against us, and think us the demons and monsters from biblical stories. Some go so far as to say that the vampires will eventually become greater in number than we the Dracule.”

“They’re afraid,” I said, remembering Rosabella’s reaction when she had found out that I wore Iliaria’s mark. “It is easy to fear that which you do not understand.”

She met my gaze. “Indeed, but you as well, little one, feared me when first you saw me. If you feared me, why did you accept my bargain?”

She was right. I had feared her. I’d even thought her a demon, though I’d hesitated to believe it and say it.

“You are correct. I feared you. I feared because I did not know what you were. I feared because I did not understand.”

“Yet still, you took me to your bed. You accepted my offer. Why? Was it only to keep your people safe? Am I mistaken that there was some sincere interest on your behalf, Epiphany?”

“You are not mistaken,” I said, carefully perceiving the vulnerability behind her words. How did I explain to her that I was different than most? How did I explain that a little fear was like a heady wine to me? I finally settled for, “A little fear, for me, can be somewhat of an aphrodisiac.”

She gave me a long and deep look, but there was something distant in her gaze, as if she were looking through me. Finally, a smile played at the corner of her mouth.

“Only somewhat?”

A little more than that
, Cuinn added.

Renata’s hand played up my back. It was a comforting gesture, but it caught Iliaria’s attention. The look Iliaria gave Renata wasn’t necessarily malicious, but it wasn’t exactly friendly either. I think it bothered her that I wore her mark, yet, I sat in Renata’s lap, with her hand tracing the line of my spine over the lightweight tunic.

I wanted to go to Iliaria. At least, a part of me did. I wanted to go to her and erase that unfriendly look from her eyes.

As if Renata had heard my thoughts, she stopped stroking my back.

Go to her
.

I slipped to my feet and began moving toward the Dracule.

Iliaria watched me, her features drawn. “Do not come to me only because your Queen thinks it a good idea. I do not enjoy being toyed with.”

“I’m not toying with you, Iliaria, and I’m not coming to you because Renata bid me do so.”

“Then why?” she asked, searching my face.

“Because I want to,” I said. “Because I know the unfriendly look you gave Renata is only a mask to hide the pain and longing that you feel.”

“Then you come to me out of pity.”

I bit back a sound of frustration. “This is a delicate dance,” I said, “trying to please you as well as my Queen. You are only making this more difficult for me. Iliaria, I love Renata. I’ve been in love with her for two hundred years. You can’t make that go away. It’s not going to go away. A mark does not erase it. But just because I love her does not mean that I will overlook you. It does not mean that I do not care about how you feel.”

She directed her attention to some vague point in the room. I went to her, touching her cheek with the tips of my fingers.

“Will you one day love me as you do your Queen?” she asked.

“I do not know,” I said, for it was true. Who can say who we will love and who we will not love when love itself is often not a conscious decision? “If I told you I would, it would be a lie, for I cannot know, nor can I foresee the future. But I can tell you that I care and I will always try to be considerate.”

“And how many others do you care for?” she asked.

“I care for those sitting in this room.”

“Epiphany is not casual with her affection,” Vasco said, “if that’s what you’re trying to understand.”

Iliaria looked past me to him. What she thought, I could not say. Her eyes flicked back to me. “I would not have you come to my lap like a pet dog.”

I was about to reply when Renata’s laughter spilled like slow honey into the room.

“If you think I leash her and parade her about the Sotto, you are mistaken,” she said, and I did not have to turn to look at her to know the humor in her voice made her eyes lighter. “She came to me willingly, as willingly as she stands before you, Dracule.”

“I do not understand that,” Iliaria said.

“Epiphany is an empathic vampire,” Vasco said. “When she sees pain in another she feels it and tries to soothe it.”

“She uses her attention and her love as a balm, Dracule,” Renata said. “It is her nature.”

“Is this true?” she asked me. I thought about what Vasco and Renata had said and realized that they had spoken truth. I had never seen myself in such a way, but once voiced aloud, the realization slid rightly into place.

“It is.”

“Still,” she said, “I would not have you come to me in such a way. If you wish to show me you care, stand at my side. I do not ask you to kneel at it.”

I moved to sit next to her and she caught my wrist, stopping me and sending the tingling sensation in the mark to buzzing.

“Not now,” she said. “If you offer comfort now I will not be able to turn it away and I will forget the very reason I came.”

I nodded, stepping back when she let me go.

“What reason is that?” I asked.

She stood. “I came to give you this,” she said, reaching into her long coat and retrieving a small scarlet satchel. She took my wrist again, the one with her mark on it, and placed the velvet bag in my hand. She folded my fingers around it. “It is for you and you alone. I cannot take back my misdeed”—her eyes dropped to her hand still cradling mine—“but I can do this. I can offer you my aid in catching the vampire that tried to destroy your kin.”

“What is it?” I asked.

“Open and see,” she said, letting go of my hand. Her fingers slid across my knuckles and I fought not to shudder at the sweet brush of her skin. She sat back on the couch, watching me.

I opened the bag and guided the contents gently into my open palm. A ring dropped out. It was elegant and appeared to be made of white gold. I raised the ring between my thumb and index finger, examining the smoky black teardrop that caught the light. At its center was a tiny dot of crimson.

“A ring?” I asked.

It was Vasco who spoke, as he moved to the far edge of the couch to see. “That is not just any ring, colombina.
That
is a Stone of Shadows.”

I stared at the slender ring. It wasn’t large or even impressive in size. On the contrary, it was rather dainty.

I didn’t know what to say. If I said it didn’t look like something powerful enough to keep a vampire alive during the day, I would’ve only succeeded in insulting Iliaria’s kind gift.

Vasco stood, peering over my right shoulder. “Do you see the spot of red in the center?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“That is her blood.”

I searched her blank expression. “You didn’t have to do this.”

“If we are to find your traitor, then yes, I did.”

“Thank you.”

She tilted her head and dipped it forward ever so slightly.

“You sound like one who knows my kind personally,” she said.

He gave her a charming smile that belied the pain I knew he felt. “Knew,” he said, “I knew one of your kind very well.”

“Who was she?” Iliaria asked.

“He,” Vasco said. “His name was Pantaleone.”

“The name does not sound familiar,” she said.

“It was a long time ago.”

“Dare I ask more?”

“Another time, perhaps.”

I looked down at the ring. “How does it work?”

“You wear it,” Iliaria said. “That is how.”

“Just like that?”

“Yes, just like that.”

“Does it matter which finger?” Iliaria shook her head.

I slid the ring onto the middle finger of my left hand. I expected to feel some spark of magic, to feel some charge of power, and was taken aback when I felt nothing.

“I don’t feel anything,” I said.

“A Stone of Shadows does not work that way, Epiphany,” Renata spoke from her seat. “You will sense the magic at work once the sun rises. As it is, it lies dormant until you need it.”

“You have used one of the stones before?” Iliaria asked.

“No,” Renata said, “I merely know of them.”

I held up my hand. “Why give me this, Iliaria? How will this help us catch the traitor that summoned you?”

Renata answered before Iliaria could. “She means you to use the stone to stay awake and catch the traitor. No doubt, he will try again?”

 “I think so, yes,” Iliaria said, “and I plan on staying with Epiphany.”

“You said you offered your aid,” Renata said.

“Couldn’t Cuinn keep me awake?” I asked.

I cannot keep ye awake
, he said,
I can only wake ye if there be danger. ’Tis not the same type of magic that the Stone bestows upon its wearer.

Distantly, I heard Iliaria ask who Cuinn was and Renata’s smooth reply explaining that Cuinn was the spirit in the fox blade.

I blinked finally, coming back to myself.

“What did he say?” Vasco propped his chin on his fist. I didn’t doubt that he’d known I’d been listening to Cuinn’s voice inside my head. I still wasn’t used to it and would need to work on controlling my facial expressions.

“He can only wake me if there’s danger. It’s not the same thing as the ring, apparently.”

“Of course it isn’t,” Iliaria said. “Why am I under the impression that you don’t want my gift?”