Chapter 6
Duty
It was his mother’s face and his mother’s body and his mother’s clothes, but it wasn’t her. It was almost like it had been with the Mirryr who had pretended to be Ryder. The face was right. Even the movements were sort of right. But the person behind the eyes was not right.
“Who are you?” Grayson growled even as Fiona teleported behind the woman and Ryder and Charlie approached her from either side.
He felt Ryder’s desire to protect him yet he knew that Ryder was worried that this was his mother. That protecting him might mean hurting her and that was a no-win situation.
“She’s not a Mirryr,” Charlie said. “I can tell. That’s a real body.”
“She’s not altogether human either though,” Ryder added. “The smell… I almost know it.”
Almost? Does that mean he’s met this person–this thing–before?
“Who I am is not the question,” she said in his mother’s voice, but not with her inflections. Even after so long, he could remember them. And her face, though older and more lined with worry and fears, bore none of her personality. “The real question is who are you?”
Grayson’s heart lurched in his chest. He felt exposed. He’d assumed whoever had come here and done this was trying to get to Ryder through him, but maybe he was wrong about that. Maybe they were here because of him alone.
“I’m Grayson Duke. You know that. It’s why you’re here, isn’t it?” Grayson asked.
“No, I’m here because I couldn’t understand how a human could continue to thwart us from the moment we encountered you first in a shop then in a church then at the Mirryr party then on the beach, and there were a few more instances besides that,” she laughed bitterly.
“You escaped us each and every time. But no one is that lucky.”
“I had a lot of help,” Grayson said, which was true, but not the whole truth.
Grayson felt dread beginning to build in him.
The flame of his power in his chest was small.
A little larger than it had been in the Ever Dark since now that he was here it wasn’t trying to siphon parts of his power to his palace.
Yet he was still weak. Weaker than he’d been when he’d worked in the shop.
Weaker than at the church. Much weaker than when he’d slammed his stepfather against the wall.
He had a ridiculous urge to go see the wall.
His mother had preserved everything else, he could well imagine that she’d kept the bashed in wall and bloodstains.
“The Sect is just a bunch of people with no future,” Ryder pointed out, cracking the knuckles of his big hands. “Not the best and the brightest. Just the dregs of the War. Like you.”
“I wouldn’t do that,” she said just as Fiona was just about to lunge and grab her.
“Why not?” Fiona asked, her silver eyes glowing. She was literally an inch from the woman’s back. Her hands traveled millimeters from the woman’s skin. “I don’t even have to touch you to take you.”
“Indeed not, Wyvern. But if you take me anywhere I don’t want to go then this woman’s soul will be lost to you forever,” she answered.
Grayson gasped. “Kaly.”
Of course! That was what was wrong! The body was right. The face was right. The voice was semi-right. The movements were passable. But the soul–the soul that could be seen in the eyes–was wrong.
What has he done to my mother’s soul?
A cruel smile lifted the woman’s lips. “Not quite. Roan. I prefer that name because it is me and I am it. Like I said though, who I am is really not the question here.”
“You put a slice of your soul in a human body? A mortal one?” Charlie looked at Roan as if she were something unpleasant he’d stepped in.
“What does it matter?” Roan cocked her head to the side. “That it is easier to break this body, I suppose you mean. But so what?” She lifted her right hand as she shrugged. “Every body–Vampire, human or Immortal–is breakable. It’s just the amount of force that has to be used.”
“But the soul is eternal,” Grayson muttered.
A nod. “Yes. You understand. Death is not the end. Not even an end.”
“Why are you here?” Grayson asked. “Why have you done this? She’s nothing to you. She’s nothing to anyone important in the Vampire world.”
“But she’s someone to you,” Roan qualified.
Grayson could argue that she wasn’t. But he was here so that played against any argument he could make.
Actions spoke louder than oceans of words.
But there were multiple meanings that could be taken from his actions.
They weren’t clear as glass. So he could lie–or tell the truth–that even if his mother mattered to him, he could not put her above his duty to his king.
Yet his father was here. Listening. He would be devastated to know that Grayson could just give her up to an enemy like that.
I can’t allow what he’ll think of me to alter what I do. My duty compels me.
His hands shook and he suddenly swallowed acidic bile that filled his throat.
“And what does that matter?” Grayson deflected. “I’m just a student–”
“No, you are not!” Roan cut in and her eyes narrowed in barely suppressed rage.
“Is it because of me that you’re here?” Ryder’s voice was low, dangerous.
In the distance, Grayson thought he heard a howl as if nearby wolves knew their master was here.
“You?” Roan sniffed. “You were Legion’s obsession. Not mine.”
“You trapped me in a soul gem. I owe you for that,” Ryder growled.
“You slaughtered so many of your brothers and sisters, I’m sure that they owe you for that,” Roan said dismissively. “Besides, what can you do to me? Kill this body? Kill Grayson’s mother?”
“Caemorn could bring her back,” Grayson said simply.
But Roan shook her head. “The Harrows are special and had a very special reason to come back as they once were. Julian didn’t spring to life from out of nowhere and his need for them was quite extraordinary.”
“You made dozens of Roans like there was a copy-machine out there. You think Caemorn couldn’t make one woman? You’re wrong,” Grayson said.
Roan shrugged. “I know you think that, but I am telling you the truth. Your mother has more of a call to death than to life.”
Grayson thought of his father’s spirit. Could Roan see him? Of course, he could.
“Like I was saying, I couldn’t figure out how you were doing it.
How you were escaping, eluding every trap, managing to best everyone and everything I sent at you,” Roan said.
“It wasn’t luck and it wasn’t these fools either.
” She gestured at the others in the room.
“No, it was you. Something about you. So I had to truly figure out who you are and who would better know you than your mother?”
Roan let out a soft, almost tittering laugh. It caused the hair on the back of Grayson’s neck to stand up. She was crazy. Deeply, deeply crazy. But smart as well and ruthless. He recognized someone in Roan that would not be an easy enemy to overcome.
“I can assure you that my mother knows nothing about me. I left home long ago,” Grayson said.
And I’m not the person she thought I was.
Roan nodded and stroked her chin. “Yes, but it was why you left that finally made things make sense.” She lifted her eyes to him and, for a moment, he swore that they glowed silver.
“With all of the Immortals coming back, I wondered if there would be anything to differentiate you as humans. Balthazar had strokes of luck, you see. At cards especially. No one could bluff him. And if someone was lying in any circumstance, he always knew it. And then, he seemed to also always know just what to say and do to get what he wanted.”
“Is that why you chose to turn him?” Grayson asked.
“Yes, he was clearly special. Marked by the gods.” Roan grinned, showing too many white teeth and pink gums. It wasn’t his mother’s smile at all. “I just had no idea that I was bringing back one of my oldest enemies. Foolish me.”
“It’s actually good that you’re not completely dead, Roan,” Fiona said almost sweetly. “Because it gives Balthazar a chance to kill you all over again. Elgar got his shot in. Maybe I’ll get one too. What do you think?”
“I think that you’re the fool this time, Wyvern,” Roan said over her shoulder. “You are hanging about with him.” She jerked her head towards Ryder. “He ripped your wings right off you before. You couldn’t teleport away. And then he took your head. Drank your blood too.”
Ryder’s jaw clenched and his eyes narrowed. But he said nothing. Grayson feared that meant it was true. But he’d been out of his mind. Still, what would Fiona think?
“It was no less than what I would have done to him back then,” Fiona said with a soft, sad laugh. “If you come for me, you can’t come at me with half measures. All of it or none. And he came with all.”
“But you’re still on his side?” Roan asked.
“We all got our hands dirty, Roan, in the War. You most of all,” she said. “You want me to judge Weryn, but not Kaly? Not you? Only Ashyr and Daemon had nothing to do with the War.”
“Ah, yes, Ashyr!” Roan grinned again. It was a death’s head grin and Grayson feared what having Roan’s soul in his mother’s body was doing to it.
Would it even be usable after this? Caemorn would be able to fix it.
If they could get him here. Was Balthazar listening to their minds?
To this conversation? Roan wagged a finger at Grayson.
“Using your mind to slam an over 200-pound man against a wall and cracking his skull like an egg, Grayson? Well, that’s not normal.
I will say! Like Balthazar, you are special.
And then I thought: could you be an Immortal, too? And, if so, which one?”
Grayson made his face appear like a blank slate.
“Come now! Charlie, you’re the only one who doesn’t know! Guess! Which Immortal could Grayson be?” Roan asked the Mirryr Vampire.
Charlie’s silver eyes slid to him and then away. “I’m not someone who gives away other people’s secret identities. I mean how gauche can you be!”
Roan’s eyes narrowed. “Do you know why there are so many Mirryrs left after the War, Charlie?”