“It’s quite simple. I want you to tell me the next time your master visits the queen at night.”
“I don’t always know when that will be. I scarcely have time myself to—”
“You will have time to warn me.”
Elias’s hand shot out and he jerked Lady Rochford toward him. Rhys caught a glimpse of Elias’s fangs just before he plunged them into Lady Rochford’s unprotected throat and sucked vigorously. After a moment Lady Rochford crumpled to the ground and Rhys found that he could breathe again. He swallowed against the sudden taste of polluted blood in his mouth.
“You will tell me, Lady Rochford. I have your blood now. If you do not summon me and betray your master, I will expose you as the traitor you are to the king
and
to the Vampire Council. I wonder who will get to you first and how painful your death will be?”
Elias strode away from the whimpering Vampire. After a moment Rhys followed Elias out into the courtyard and caught up with him beneath the archway where they had first encountered each other.
Elias glanced at him as he licked the blood from the tips of his fangs. “You look shaken, Sir Rhys. Had you forgotten that I am one of the monsters you swore to destroy?”
Rhys held his gaze. “I know what you are.”
“Then I suggest you remember it. The Vampire realm is only for the strong. When my position is threatened, I must and will be more ruthless than my opponent. I refuse to be destroyed by this . . . abomination.” Elias licked his lips and then spat. “Lady Rochford tastes of that accursed Vampire. He disgusts me.”
“I understand the need to display your dominance,” Rhys said. “It is just that I had never experienced the effects of it quite so intimately.”
“You felt my power?”
Rhys grimaced. “All too clearly. If I were Lady Rochford, I would fear you.”
“That is good to know.” Elias smiled. “I think Lady Rochford will tell us if Janus attempts to take blood from the queen.”
“And if he does? What will we do to stop him?”
Elias rubbed his hand over his chin and stared out into the gathering darkness. “That, my good sir, is the question. How can we defeat a Vampire who seems to be invincible?”
“We have done it before.”
Elias started walking again, and Rhys followed him. They passed a group of the king’s personal guards and three giggling maidservants who giggled even more when they saw the two men. Rhys ignored the coy stares, but Elias smiled and nodded. For a moment Rhys wondered why Elias bothered and then he remembered that to the Vampire human females were food.
“When we mingled our blood, Elias, I dreamed we were engaged in combat. Did you dream the same thing?”
“Aye.” Elias cast him a sideways glance. “Although I believed I was fighting the Vampire inside you rather than trying to kill you personally.”
“I’m relieved to hear that,” Rhys said. “But then, why were you fighting Lady Verity?”
“I was not.”
“You did not dream of her?” Rhys frowned. “She dreamed of you.”
“Did she?”
Something in Elias’s flat tone made Rhys look sharply at the Vampire. He tried to remember exactly what Verity had told him about her dream of Elias and realized she hadn’t directly answered him.
“It is of no matter,” Rhys said quickly. “I will make sure to tell Lady Verity of your success with Lady Rochford. I’ll also tell her to be on her guard. I wouldn’t put it past that woman to attempt to harm Verity if she could.”
“That is true. She might attempt to use the lady as a pawn against me.” Elias bowed. “Good night, Sir Rhys.”
After the Vampire’s abrupt departure, Rhys remained staring up at the redbrick walls of the palace and the towering chimneys beyond. Despite the diminished size and state of the court, lights shone in the courtyards and at many of the windows. There was less a sense of exuberance than usual and more an air of waiting, as if the whole building held its breath while the days and hours ticked down toward the birth of the king’s most anticipated child.
Rhys sighed and turned back toward the gentlemen’s lodgings. What if the child was another girl? Would the queen survive for long if she disappointed the king? The thought disturbed him. But then, he wasn’t as callous as the king or in such need of an heir.
A stifled sound attracted his attention to the dead end where the building met the outer wall and he drew his dagger. The hiss of a curse and the familiar clang of metal on metal made his heart race as he ran to join the fight. A single Druid slayer was fighting a lone young Vampire. As the Vampire went down and the slayer moved in for the kill, Rhys recognized Dafydd and his intended victim.
“Dafydd, no!”
With a speed he didn’t know he possessed, Rhys threw himself in front of Dafydd and blocked his killing blow. He felt the vibration of it shudder all the way through his arm. Dafydd snarled and tried another attack, but Rhys blocked that one too.
“Let it be, man,” Rhys commanded.
“Sir Rhys?” Dafydd’s shocked expression as he sheathed his sword made Rhys feel like a traitor.
He took Dafydd by the shoulder, turned him away from Olivia, and walked him down the passageway. “Dafydd, I have not run mad or been turned. That Vampire is working with us to save the queen.”
“That youth?” Dafydd said, disbelief ringing through the words.
“That
youth
is one of Queen Jane’s ladies. She reports to me.”
“Verily? Then why did she attack
me
?” Dafydd stared hard at Rhys, who held his gaze.
“I swear it. Please try not to kill her until we at least sort out this problem with the queen.”
“All right.” Dafydd sighed. “I’ll send the word out to my men, but you must tell her not to taunt us.”
“She challenged you?”
“Not exactly.” Dafydd almost smiled. “We were fighting another band of Vampires and she started throwing fruit at us. I told the others to leave her to me and chased her here. She’s a feisty little thing.”
“I’ll make sure she understands that she should not go anywhere near you or your men.”
Dafydd inclined his head. “
Diolch.
Thank you, Sir Rhys. I’ll leave her to your tender mercies.”
“I appreciate it.” Rhys watched the Druid leave and then made his way back to Olivia. He stood over her as she lounged petulantly against the wall.
“That was a very stupid thing to do. You could’ve been killed.”
She raised her head and looked up at him. He was struck again by the beauty and honesty of her startling blue eyes.
“That lumbering fool would not have killed me. I was planning on vanishing and letting him ram his head into the wall.”
“Dafydd Morgan is no fool, Olivia. He is one of the most promising Vampire slayers I’ve ever met. “
She stood up and he noticed she was cradling her right hand against her chest. The seductive smell of her blood reached him and drew him toward her as if he were a Vampire. He cursed Elias’s blood all over again—or was it just Elias’s blood? Was Janus now influencing him in other ways?
“You are injured. Let me see.”
She tried to walk past him, but he took her shoulder in a gentle grip and she went still.
“It is nothing, Sir Rhys.”
“Then let me see it.”
Reluctantly she surrendered her hand and he was able to examine the gash on the back of it. Before he could stop himself, he bent his head and licked the wound, then watched in shock as it sealed itself shut.
Olivia pulled out of his grip, her eyes wide. “What are you doing?”
“I’m—I don’t know,” Rhys stammered in confusion. His senses were reacting far too favorably to the uniqueness of her taste and he felt as though he were someone else. “I obviously have too much Vampire blood in me. Damn Elias.” He tried to tamp down the pleasure he was feeling and changed the subject. “You must not taunt the slayers.”
“Why not?”
“Because one day you
will
be captured or killed.”
“I will not.”
“Olivia, if you are old enough to guard the queen, you are old enough to take orders. Leave the Druid slayers alone.”
She stiffened. “I certainly do not take my orders from you.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Do you wish me to find Elias and have him explain it to you? Because he might not care how he enforces your obedience or whether you lose your life over nothing.”
“Are you saying that you care?”
Rhys gathered his patience. “You are Rosalind’s sister by marriage. I consider it my duty to care for you.”
“Your duty.”
“Aye.”
She made a small, hopeless gesture that tore at his heart. “That’s all I’ll ever be to you, isn’t it? An annoying child who needs to be protected.”
“Olivia—”
She swung away from him. “You’ve changed your opinion of Lady Verity—why not of me?”
“Mayhap because Lady Verity doesn’t go chasing after her enemies on a whim.”
“You love her, don’t you?”
Rhys held her anguished gaze. “Aye, I do. I’m sorry, Olivia.”
Pain flared in her eyes and he wanted to fold her into his arms and hold her tight until the ache went away. He’d been where she was now and he knew how much it hurt.
She slowly raised her chin and glared at him. “There is no need to feel sorry for me.”
“I’m glad to hear that, because one day you will meet a male who will be able to give you his whole heart, and you will be happier than you could ever imagine.”
“Perhaps I already have.”
“Then I am glad for you,” he said gently.
Her eyes filled with tears. “Don’t patronize me. I don’t need your approval for anything!”
She disappeared, leaving him standing alone in the cool breeze, his heart aching and the taste of her blood still lingering in his senses. He realized now how hard it must have been for Rosalind to tell him about Christopher. In her own way, Rosalind had loved him and didn’t want to hurt him, but she’d realized there was no other way but to tell the truth.
And he cared for Olivia. There was something special about her that just drew him in. She reminded him of everything he had lost in his single-minded pursuit of Rosalind and the Vampires. Rhys sent up a heartfelt prayer to all the gods that they would be kind to Olivia. Vampire or no, she deserved to be loved.
Chapter 20
“I
s there something wrong with Olivia?” Verity frowned as Olivia stalked by with her nose in the air. They were sitting in one of the more public rooms of the queen’s apartments, a room to which most of the court had been relegated. Elias glanced up from his book and raised his eyebrows.
“I thought Olivia was supposed to ignore you when Lady Rochford was nearby.”
“So are you,” Verity answered.
“But I’m not afraid of Lady Rochford.”
“Why ever not?”
“Because I have persuaded her that it is in her best interests to cooperate with me.”
Verity shot a quick glance at Lady Rochford, who looked her usual unpleasant self. She had noticed, however, that the Vampire was very keen to avoid Elias’s gaze. “And how exactly did you do that?”
Elias shut his book. “I reminded her that I knew of her association with the Boleyn plot to turn the king into a Vampire. I suggested that she might not like it if I gave that information to the king or the Vampire Council.”
“And she believed you would betray her?”
“To safeguard my own life I would betray anyone.”
“Even me?”
Elias considered her. “It would be difficult, but yes.”
“Has there ever been anyone you would sacrifice yourself for?”
His enigmatic silver eyes met hers. “You shared my memories. You know that there was once someone I loved.”
Verity felt her cheeks heat as she remembered their passionate dreamlike embrace. “What happened to her?”
His faint smile died. “I killed her.” He brought her hand to his lips. “Do not look so appalled. It was a very long time ago. I had almost forgotten all about it.”
“I’m sorry,” Verity murmured.
“There is nothing to be sorry about. It taught me a valuable lesson. My kind is not meant to love too deeply.”
“Why not?”
He held her gaze and she almost recoiled from the echoing emptiness in his silver eyes. “Because who can sustain love for all eternity?”
Elias released her hand and said, “Now, as to your question about Lady Olivia. I believe she is suffering the pangs of unrequited love.”
“She has been suffering those ever since I’ve known her,” Verity remarked wryly.
“Ah, but perhaps Sir Rhys has finally told her the truth.”