Chapter 18 Brother
brOTHER
SAERIS
LORRETH’S LEATHERS CREAKED as he shifted, staring at the vampire. “I never thought I’d see you again.”
I watched the two males, waiting for the first fist to fly.
The way they were looking at each other certainly promised violence.
Leaning back against a pillar, Lorreth folded his arms casually in front of his chest. He’d unwound the silver chain that I’d used to restrain the other male, and I hadn’t done anything to stop him.
If Lorreth deemed it safe to release him, who was I to say otherwise?
Foley—this stranger with blue-black hair; pale soulful cat eyes; and gold that flashed in his mouth every time he spoke—glowered up at my friend from under drawn brows.
“I didn’t think I’d ever see you here, Lorreth.
Walking around in the open like you’re on a godscursed vacation.
” He spoke the words without emotion, but there was an anger behind them that ran deep.
It charged the air, making the hairs on the back of my neck prickle.
Lorreth huffed down his nose, looking down at his boots. “It’s not like I want to be here, brother,” he said.
“If you two aren’t going to draw blood, then I have a cat to find,” Algat sniped.
The look she sent me could have killed a dead man twice.
“Here. The book that was promised.” She held up the tome with the faded black cloth cover that she had stabbed at me earlier.
“I can’t guarantee you’ll find what you’re looking for inside it, but then again, what do I care?
I’m here from an hour after dusk until an hour before sunrise.
Do not return during those hours. You may peruse the shelves, but do not remove any other books from the library without written consent. ”
She held out the book across the reading table. I went to take it, but she snatched it back at the last second. “Do you understand?” She squinted at me through narrowed eyes.
“Do I understand that I’m only permitted to enter the library for an hour in the evening and an hour before dawn? In my own court? Yes, I understand perfectly.”
“Good.” Algat shoved the book at me and left.
As soon as the stooped Lord of Midnight was gone, Foley rose from his seat.
“She’s a vampire, Lorreth. She’s wearing Fisher’s dagger like she didn’t have to pry it from his cold, dead hands.
And the way you’re angling your body right now tells me you’d stand against me if I went for her throat again. ”
Lorreth looked over his shoulder at me, raising both eyebrows in query. “He went for your throat?” he asked.
I shrugged, nodding.
“And you don’t have a mark on you? Impressive.”
Foley made a sound of annoyance. “That really isn’t the point.”
“You must be getting rusty in your old age, Foley. Or perhaps you’re just out of practice because you’ve hidden yourself away in a fucking library of all places.”
The vampire’s hands curled into fists, tension drawing his shoulders up around his ears. “No one comes here,” he said. “No one apart from that old witch. This is the only place I can be without causing friction.”
I held up a hand, laughing quietly. “Uh, I’d say you just caused plenty of friction.”
Foley rounded on me, features drawn into a sneer. “I wasn’t talking to you.”
It happened fast. The chair behind Foley flew into the air and then crashed down onto the reading table.
The vampire was lifted off his feet and flung backward.
A banner of black streamed across the library, and then Lorreth was holding the vampire out of the hole I had created in the library wall by the front of his shirt.
“You’d be wise to adjust that attitude,” he said.
In a flash, I was at his side. “Lorreth, it’s okay. Pull him back in.”
But Lorreth didn’t obey. “She is a vampire. Half vampire. But she’s also half Fae. And she did not pry that blade from Fisher’s cold dead hand.” He laughed, shaking his head, as if he couldn’t even believe what he was saying himself. “He gave it to her.”
“Bullshit. He would never do that.” The male was angry, yes, but otherwise appeared unconcerned that he was being dangled precariously over the side of the building. “The only reason he would do that was if she was . . .”
Lorreth dipped his head, eyebrows up again. He made a ‘go on. You’re almost there. Finish the thought,’ kind of motion with his free hand.
Foley’s eyes darted to me, going wide. “No.” He shook his head. “That’s not true.”
“Isn’t it?” Lorreth scoffed. “Are you telling me you can’t smell him on her from here? It’s been two days since he was here last, and I can still—”
“Excuse me, but I’d prefer it if you didn’t finish that thought. While I’m fairly immune to the judgment of others, I don’t think I can handle my friend gossiping about the fact that I reek of sex right in front of me.”
“So, she’s tricked him, then,” Foley said uncertainly. “She’s found a way to control him. But that doesn’t explain why you’re protecting her like this. She’s the enemy, Lorreth.”
The dark-haired warrior glanced back at me again, a crooked smile taking over his handsome face. “She’s my drinking partner. And since you’re the one who left that spot wide open, you don’t get to complain about someone else filling the role.”
“She’s their queen,” he hissed.
“And apparently, you’re a vampire now, too. But you don’t see me trying to kill you.”
“Really? You’re holding me over a hundred-foot drop!” he cried.
“Ahh. Right.” The warrior snorted sheepishly, pulling in the other male and setting him back down onto his feet. “I’ll rectify that. But don’t think for a second that I won’t launch you back out of that hole if you try to pull anything,” he said.
Foley gave me a wary sidelong glance as he stepped back onto the library’s rug. Clearly, I still wasn’t to be trusted.
Well, the feeling was fucking mutual.
If Lorreth called this male brother, then he was closer than close.
Somehow, he was family. But nothing about him made sense.
For starters, he was a vampire who hated vampires.
I had too many questions to count, and I wanted answers.
“You look at me like I’m a monster, but I smell blood on you too, Foley. You’re just like me.”
His eyes glittered with malice as he stalked around the table. “Not so,” he whispered.
“No? Explain yourself, then. How do you know my mate? How is it that you live within this court and yet are not a part of it and not bound by its rules?”
Foley looked to Lorreth, a question on his face. “You’re telling me she is Fisher’s mate, and she doesn’t even know who I am?”
Apparently, Lorreth had decided that the danger had passed and his friend no longer posed a threat.
He sat down heavily in a seat at the head of the reading table, holding out a hand and gesturing to me to hand over the book Algat had given to me.
I gave it to him. “A lot’s been going on lately,” he said, cracking it open.
Frowning down at the pages, he scanned the text on the front page and then began leafing through the book’s subsequent pages.
“And I hate to break it to you, brother, but you’ve been gone a long time.
We’ve written to you. Sent messengers. Tried to visit.
And our attempts to make contact have been rebuffed at every turn.
So, no. You haven’t been at the forefront of conversation lately. ”
Foley stood at the end of the table, resting his splayed fingertips against its surface.
He pondered his words for a long time before he spoke.
Not to Lorreth, but to me. The ice had vanished from his tone, but it hadn’t been replaced by anything that resembled warmth.
“I didn’t volunteer to become this. My death was taken from me.
I’ve since tried to return the ‘gift’ that was given to me a number of times, though I have yet to be successful.
I came to Ammontraíeth when I transitioned because there are no living creatures here for me to endanger.
Or rather, far fewer warm-blooded folk who might tempt me to give in to my lesser instincts.
In answer to your first question, I know your mate”—he heaped emphasis onto the word, as if he still didn’t quite trust that the information Lorreth had given him was true—“because I once considered him family. He trained me to fight. He saved my life more times than I can count.”
“You saved his life once, too. Remember?” Lorreth interjected.
Foley bowed his head, waving the memory away as if it didn’t matter.
“In answer to your second question, I’m not bound by the rules of this court because, as Lorreth said, I’m not a part of it.
I’m permitted to exist here at Taladaius’s discretion, but I do not align myself with Sanasroth.
If I had my way, I’d kill each and every one of the monsters housed in this black city and watch them turn to ash. ”
“I’m honestly surprised that you haven’t done that,” Lorreth mused. He was still buried in the book, his eyes skipping over the text within. “But I’m also surprised that you still feel that way.” Gently, he closed the book and set it down, looking up at his friend. “You’ve been living among them—”
“I’ve been living here, among these books,” he said.
“Not among them. I made a promise when I joined the Lupo Proelia. I swore to defend the living against these wretches. I might not have been able to uphold that oath of late. . . .” His cat eyes glowed unnaturally. “But I certainly haven’t broken it.”
Lorreth’s face was unreadable. He met Foley’s gaze, and a lot seemed to pass in the silence between them.
It felt like a personal moment. The two males hadn’t seen each other in an age.
They had plenty to catch up on, and I wasn’t particularly enjoying the way the vampire’s quick, odd eyes kept flitting to me, as if he were making sure to track my movements.