Embrace the Mystery [03] Blood Rose Series (25 page)

Margetta appeared surrounded by a much smaller entourage than before. She hadn’t brought along her regular force of Invictus wraith-pairs, just the two powerful couples who each radiated a strong desire to slay the enemy.

She scooted closer to Quinlan and he slid an arm around her, holding her against him.

“Now isn’t that sweet. Lovers to the end.” Margetta hovered just a few feet away. She lifted her gaze toward the east, in the direction of the snowfields and Ferrenden Peace. “I can’t see beyond the mist barrier. I can’t move beyond it either. But I know my daughter is there as well as that damn woman who calls herself a queen.”

Margetta shifted her gaze back to Quinlan. “So tell me, has she finally taken a man into her bed? The Great Mastyr and I call her the virgin queen.” She laughed, a brittle sound that shattered the silence of the cool mountain air. “She’s my nemesis, but one day there will be a reckoning. One day.” She blinked several times then turned her attention back to her trap.

She still bore a golden glow, which Batya thought must be a shield of some kind.

“So, Mastyr Quinlan, here you are, exactly where I want you. There’s nothing either of you can do to break the spell I have over the net. You’re trapped and both of you will die here. I could send a single fire ball in your direction right now and consume you both, but that’s not good enough for what you’ve cost me, and all because you couldn’t resist a little fae tail.”

Batya’s turn to blink. Was it possible Margetta didn’t know that she was a blood rose?

“What is your intention?” Batya asked. “If you don’t intend to fry us, then what?”

Margetta’s gaze settled on Batya and she felt the ancient fae’s power in a painful vibration over her skin. “That you both endure horrific deaths, of course. Mastyr Quinlan’s will be brief but excruciating and will occur within the first hour after dawn.”

“No,” Batya whispered.

“Oh, yes. But yours, my dear, for having saved him and for having helped get Lorelei to Ferrenden, will be far worse. I’ve left instructions to have a shelter built for you around the net. You’ll be stuck in this cage with your lover’s rotting corpse. You’ll die slowly and painfully from starvation with only the bones of your beloved for company.”

She smiled, glancing from one to the other again. “I believe my work here is done.”

As she turned away from them, Batya couldn’t restrain herself. “Go to hell.”

The ancient fae whirled and within a heartbeat hovered above the netting. Her beautiful features twisted into an expression of fury as she began to shriek, sounding more wraith than fae. Louder her shrieking sounded until Batya’s ears thrummed with pain. Batya’s back arched and as the decibels rose, her vision faded until finally she blacked out.

* * * * * * * * *

Quinlan awoke slowly, first to the smell of meat cooking over an outdoor flame and then to the fact that his right arm had fallen asleep. He was very weak and had a hard time pulling his arm out from under Batya who was still unconscious.

Margetta had caused them both to pass out.

But how much time had passed?

Thirty feet away, one of the mastyr vampire wraith-pairs lay on furs in the mountain grasses, naked and coupling, grunting like animals. The other talked in quiet tones, tending the fire and roasting what must have been a mountain goat over the flame. The woman turned a spit, then reached in a bucket and poured something savory over the flesh. A strangely homey and erotic scene combined.

He slowly flexed his arm, not wanting to draw attention to the vampires. Sometime during his unconsciousness, they’d erected a day-shelter with a sun-blocking canvas. Clearly, Margetta had left them here to guard the prisoners until they both perished.

Batya stirred beside him and moaned, the sound loud enough to draw the attention of the mastyr supervising the goat. He rose from his camp chair and made his way over to the net and dropped down on his haunches near Batya.

“She’s pretty.” He reached through and fondled Batya’s breasts. “And built. Nice. Too bad you won’t be around to enjoy her, but once you’re gone, maybe I’ll release her for a few hours just for fun.”

At his touch, Batya awoke completely, and pushed his hands away, scooting closer to Quinlan.

The last of Quinlan’s confusion left as rage flooded his body. He launched across Batya to reach the bastard, but the mastyr just stepped back as the net did its work. Fire burned over his skin and he fell to the ground next to Batya.

He lay trembling, old feelings returning of the powerlessness he’d felt as a child, watching his father, in his drunken rages, pounding on his mother, beating her senseless.

“Mastyr Quinlan, let me give you a taste of what your woman will get when you die. I’ll take her out of this net for extended periods and fuck her till she screams, but it won’t be a gentle scream, because I like to use knives when I work a woman. So eat that, you fucking bastard.”

The vampire walked away laughing.

Quinlan turned his back to the fire and stared at Batya. She lay shivering, so he drew her into his arms, the only real comfort he could give her. When dawn arrived in two or three hours, she’d be left alive to endure torture for who knew how long.

He would die soon, but he’d be leaving Batya behind to endure the whims of a sadist who intended to carve her up while he raped her.

His whole life, all these centuries, he’d been battling evil, but what good was that if he couldn’t save the ones closest to him, the ones he loved?

And there it was, his deepest truth, the one he’d shunned the entire time he’d pursued Batya, that he loved her, that he’d fallen hard maybe from the first time he’d caught that tropical flower scent of hers.

As she shivered again and he pulled her closer still, he thought about all that had happened over the past several weeks and he drew one conclusion. He didn’t care what had brought them together, only that he held her in his arms and he loved her.

He loved her.

She’d gone against the grain, risking realm-censure and disapproval, but she’d lived her own life, gone her own course, and performed an admirable service at the same time. He knew from his own experience that realm-folk needed compassion, something he gave freely in his duties as Mastyr of Grochaire.

But so did Batya. In that way, they matched each other point-by-point.

And he loved her.

He loved her.

But just as this revelation washed over him in a sublime wave of sensation, he glanced at the net that held them captive. How the hell could they escape this prison? The sun would rise in a few hours and he’d fry.

* * * * * * * * *

Batya trembled, but not from cold as she was sure Quinlan thought, but from a rage so pure she could hardly think.

How dare that piece of shit vampire fondle her breasts.

Yes, rage ruled her right now, but not a new rage, something very old that had lived in her for most of her life, from the day she’d seen that Invictus pair kill a whole family of elves.

Those images had burned in her soul all her long-lived life, eventually driving her to live outside of Grochaire, to create a better life in Tennessee.

Yet here she was, drawn back into the fray by the strange ability she possessed to serve a mastyr vampire with her blood. Even now, even with death on her heels, her heart labored because she sensed Quinlan’s need.

She wished so much that she wasn’t a blood rose, but she couldn’t help that.

Another chill swept through her that had nothing to do with how cold it was in this mountain forest meadow. Rage, yes, but something more.

She focused within herself and recognized that her battle frequency had come alive, the one that Quinlan had tapped into, giving him enough power to escape Lebanon with a woman under each arm.

Quinlan. He’d surprised her at every turn. She’d thought so little of him, that except for his dedication to serving Grochaire, he was little more than eye-candy.

Now, as he held her and rubbed her back, all his actions of the past several days had served her or Lorelei or his brigade. He was one of the most generous men she’d ever known.

Her chest constricted and tears rushed to her eyes. She didn’t want her time with Quinlan to end. She’d worked so hard to separate herself from Grochaire, yet in the end, she had fallen in love with the ruler himself.

She blinked, aware that she’d just used the ‘L’ word.

Sweet Goddess, she loved Quinlan, with her whole heart, with every inch of her body and every tremor of her soul.

She loved him.

Sliding her arms around him, she hated the thought that in a few hours the sun would rise and she’d lose him forever.

She couldn’t let this happen. He couldn’t die now. They’d barely gotten to know each other. “I love you, Quin. I just didn’t know it, but I think maybe I fell hard when you walked in wearing that red-sequined Mardis Gras shirt.”

He chuckled, his hand still massaging her back. “I love you, too. I never thought this would happen for me. I didn’t deserve it.”

She drew back and looked into his eyes, caressing his face. “You idiot, no man deserves love
more
than you. I’ve seen the truth of who you are, that every action of yours is built on serving your people. I just didn’t get it until you took care of both Lorelei and myself. You could have left us anywhere along the way.”

He looked shocked. “No, I couldn’t have. Don’t even think it.”

Her heart melted. “There, you see? You’ve just made my point.” She kissed him and set up an enthrallment shield. The last thing she’d let those fucking wraith-pairs see was the affection she felt for Quinlan.

* * * * * * * * *

Quinlan pulled her close and once again that powerful sensation filled his chest, but this time he recognized the source—his love for Batya had taken him over.

He loved her. He let this truth flow through him, swell his chest, his heart, his mind until his mating vibration came alive and reached for her.

She opened her frequency in return and he let his love flow into her. She moaned softly, rolling on top of him, and kissing him.
Your vibration isn’t like before.

I want you to feel my love, Batya, that this isn’t a small thing for me.

You fill me up, Quin. I’ve never been so happy, even caught in this net, I’ve never known such joy.

She drew back and looked down at him, her lovely hazel eyes tear-drenched, yet she smiled. “I love you so much.”

He nodded and wiped the tears from her cheeks.

A new force rose inside him. He let go of the past, of his feelings of unworthiness, barely recognized in his own life, and he opened himself to this woman, to love, to believing himself worthy of this kind of happiness.

One thought rose above all else, that Batya couldn’t die. He couldn’t let her perish in this super-charged net. She had to live.

Loving her had become the biggest surprise of his life, but now that he’d acknowledged this tremendous truth, he couldn’t just lie here waiting for the sun to claim him and he definitely couldn’t let either of those bastards use her body.

But the more familiar ways of battling wouldn’t work. He needed new thoughts in this situation, a new approach.

“Quinlan, what is it?”

“I’m trying to think outside the box, get outside my head. There has to be something we can do.”

“I don’t want you to die, Quin. You need to live, for the sake of the Nine Realms.”

A profound sensation of love swept through him once more and he knew what he wanted to do, what needed to be done.

“Bond with me, Batya, right now. There’s a reason, as strange and bizarre as this whole journey has been, why we’ve come together. Bond with me. Now.”

She smiled. “I want to more than anything, but how do we do this? I thought it required time.”

“The last time I spoke with Vojalie, she did say time would create the bond, but a decision between us could do it as well. And even Gerrod and Abigail bonded by sharing blood. Our land is in a constant state of flux, including the magical elements. And right now, I’m thinking well outside my usual grid of action and I believe we can do it.” He put a hand to his chest. “That’s what I feel here, right now.”

Her eyes searched his. “You think we have a chance, don’t you?”

He smiled. “If we work together, just as Rosamunde said.”

She nodded. “I’m in.”

He opened up to her, letting every one of his frequencies reach for her, his mating frequency, his battling vibrations, and that place where he kept what he treasured most, the soft waves of his devotion to Grochaire and now his love for Batya. All flowed.

She arched, taking it in. In response, he found a waiting nest inside her of all that she was in her faeness and power.

Her vibrations returned to him, throbbing waves of desire, and of her love for the ex-pat community in Lebanon, of her artistry, and even her newly discovered battling frequency. All swirled inside him.

Look at me.

She opened her eyes.
You’re so beautiful inside me, Quin.

He nodded.
And you’re like a banquet I could feast on for centuries.

I join myself to you, Quinlan, now and forever.
He felt her decision as though she’d just opened a door and walked through.

He followed after her.
And I bind myself to you, Batya of Lebanon, the woman I love with all my heart, who I give myself to without reservation. All that I am, now belongs to you.

Staring into her eyes, he felt a great miracle happen.

“Do you feel that? Our vibrations are swirling around each other, over and over.”

“Growing closer and tighter.”

She nodded. “ I can feel the bond forming.”

“Like ropes braiding together to become even stronger.”

“Yes, exactly like that.”

The moment the bond solidified, a flash of light exploded outward, a surge of power that felt like a bomb going off.

Batya reached out her hand. “Would you look at what we’ve done? We blew the net apart.”

Quinlan glanced in the direction of the roaring fire. “But they can’t see it because of the enthrallment shield.”