Chapter 10
SHARA
Isent Leonie inside to get cleaned up and dressed, assuming her clothing was undisturbed by the Dauphine.
My Blood dragged an armchair outside and placed it beneath the oak tree for me so I could sit down.
I didn’t need to rest, or so I thought. But it was a relief to lean back against the cushioned frame and have Rik’s hands steady on my shoulders.
Sekh stood at my right hand, Guillaume on my left, while Itztli, Xin, and Lew brought the captured thrall to stand before me. They’d tied him up with thick ropes and gagged him with a torn scrap of clothing after one of my Blood had shifted.
Still in his dragon form, Leviathan curled around my chair. He huffed out a plume of smoke. :My underwear.:
:I hope you left shit streaks,: Sekh said.
Leviathan grumbled, not quite willing to be offended, though he was far too fastidious to even joke about staining his underwear.
Before we unbound him, I studied the former Blood, looking for Jeanne’s power inside him.
He didn’t carry a leech like Leonie’s Blood, so there wasn’t anything for me to kill to free him from the Dauphine’s command.
He was a true master thrall—a former Blood who turned to slaughtering humans after he lost his queen.
But would he alone have had the forethought to hide beneath Leonie’s body, lying in wait for anyone who came to free her?
Or had that been a command given to him by the Dauphine before she departed for Galveston, pretending to be Basilia Gorgos, the Skolos Triune queen?
:Even if he tells you anything, you can’t trust it’s the truth,: Guillaume said.
Like Greyson telling me that Leviathan was my father before I destroyed Mom’s former Blood with fire in Kansas City.
Though thanks to Thierry, I now knew there was so much more to Greyson’s story.
He’d been tainted by the Dauphine too. Locked in a tree in the middle of the swamp while her magic warped and contaminated him, he’d been released and set on my trail like a prized hunting dog. Filled with lies she wanted told to me.
:His lies will tell me what she wanted me to believe, or at least think about.:
:Very true, my queen,: G replied with an approving nod in the bond. :Spoken as a Triune queen.:
I gave a subtle nod to Lew, and he jerked the cloth out of the thrall’s mouth.
The thrall snarled. “I won’t tell you anything.”
“That’s fine.” I kept my voice light and unaffected. “Do you know who I am?”
He gnashed his teeth, tearing his own lips to shreds. “You’re the fucking bitch who murdered my queen.”
I allowed my lips to curve ever so slightly but I didn’t confirm nor deny his accusation. “Who was your queen?”
It shouldn’t have been a difficult answer for him. I honestly expected it to be a throwaway question, just to get him talking in the right direction. But the thrall snarled and jerked, shaking his head. “You’ll only ever be a poor imitation of her. You’re nothing like her.”
That’s a fucking relief. Though it made me wonder if her own Blood didn’t know exactly who his queen was. Or if he simply didn’t have the mental capacity remaining to keep the tangled weave of lies straight in his head any longer.
Dressed in a long, flowing black maxi dress, Leonie slipped in between Rik and Guillaume to sit on the arm of the chair, leaning against me. As if she needed the constant assurance of my physical touch. I didn’t mind—but I wasn’t sure how this would play out long term.
The thrall jerked backward, reeling and stumbling into my other Blood. Red eyes flashing. “No. Not possible. You were dead. Ressusciter!”
Guillaume translated the French for us. :Resurrect.:
The last word came out in a shrill wail. Though why would he be upset about Leonie being alive…?
Unless the Dauphine had worn her face for so long that he couldn’t remember what Jeanne actually looked like. He’d been hiding underneath Leonie’s body in the pit—but perhaps he had no idea who she was.
:Play along,: I told Leonie. :It’s possible he thinks you’re the Dauphine, still wearing your face, or even resurrected.:
“Who said I was dead?” Leonie asked.
“I felt you die. We all did.”
“That’s very interesting,” she drawled, twirling a coil of hair around her finger coyly. “Because here I am, alive and well.”
“But she…” He looked back at me, his thin, pasty lips twisting into a grimace of pure hatred. “She killed you. We felt your pain. We saw her face. So we’d know where to deliver retribution.”
Leonie laughed, shaking her head. “Don’t be ridiculous. She saved me. I’m only here because of her.”
“Arrêt,” he mumbled, his head jerking uncontrollably. “Arrêt d’urgence.”
:Urgent stop,: Guillaume said. :Or kill switch.:
“Yes,” Leonie drawled. “Repeat the arrêt d’urgence steps as I instructed you.”
“Fourchette,” the thrall said.
:Fork,: Guillaume translated. :Like a fork in the road. Perhaps she gave separate groups of her Blood different instructions.:
Like Esetta, when she’d sent each of her Blood to different Houses to lie in wait for me to find them.
“Chasser. Tuer. Mutiler. Ressusciter.”
:Hunt. Kill. Mutilate. Resurrect.:
“Ressusciter,” Leonie repeated. “Who? Me?”
“Tendre un piège. Elle est ressuscitée.”
:Set the trap,: Guillaume said. :She is resurrected.:
Cold dread made me shiver, and Leonie leaned harder against me. :Jeanne can’t be resurrected. Can she? We destroyed her body.:
:You could have resurrected her before Despoina stripped that gift,: Guillaume said. :Any body would do for a queen like her.:
:Not helping,: I grumbled to him.
:Do any other queens have the power of resurrection?: Rik asked.
:I don’t know,: Guillaume admitted. :General? Have you Seen any other queens with such power?:
:It’s not a common gift, but if a queen could resurrect, I’m not sure that I would have Seen such magic,: Sekh replied. :Most likely, it would’ve been done inside her blood circle.:
“Who?” Leonie asked. “Who is resurrected?”
“Elle est ressuscitée,” he repeated.
:Ask him how many Blood you have,: I told Leonie.
“How many Blood do I have?”
“Légion.”
Great. I didn’t need G to translate that word.
The thrall leered at me. “They’re coming. For you. All of them. You will resurrect her to save them.”
Oh, the irony. The Dauphine’s own goddess had fouled her plan to force me to resurrect her. Though that wouldn’t protect any of my family from her thralls’ attacks.
My grove was already alert and braced for attack.
My human family was as safe as I could make them without being physically present.
Frank’s security team was well armed with flamethrowers and high-powered rifles.
My trees were on high alert. Nightwing Starlight’s murder were on patrol in the woods around the house, along with Penelope and her growing brood.
A light touch on Mayte’s bond confirmed she was safe in her Zaniyah nest. Oblivious to the near constant danger of the outside world, Xochitl played tea party with her dolls and stuffed animals beneath the massive tree Itztli and I had grown inside their nest. Mayte had called two more Blood as well.
Combined with Tepeyollotl, her jaguar god, Xochitl was as safe as any young vampire princess could be.
:I’m going to see if I can discover anything new through the Dauphine’s power,: I warned through my bonds before drawing my blood.
Lew and Itztli both tightened their grips on the thrall. As his wolf, Xin crouched between my chair and the thrall, ready to rip his throat out if he somehow managed to escape. To the casual observer, Leviathan might appear to be asleep, but the tip of his tail twitched with heightened awareness.
With a light press of my nail to my wrist, I drew my blood, though I didn’t allow it to escape my body. Still, a frisson quivered through each of my Blood. Nostrils flaring. Eyes darkening. Muscles braced.
The thrall was no different. He smelled blood, queen’s blood, and gnashed his teeth. I focused my power on him, looking for anything that might be a clue or a threat for which we hadn’t already prepared.
Human blood tainted him, spreading like cancer through his body. It'd barely been a full day since I killed his queen, but his Aima cells died, unsustained and contaminated by human blood. There was something odd about him. A blankness. An absence, even when I looked at him through my power.
When Thierry had approached me in Kansas City, I’d sensed a wrongness nearby, even though Rik hadn’t been able to detect anything amiss. I hadn’t expected the Dauphine’s former Blood to feel the same since they didn’t carry the tainted leeches.
I asked Sekh, :Do all thralls appear as blank spaces to you?:
I didn’t turn my head to look at him, but I felt him looking through time and space as the All Seeing, Never Sleeping sphinx. :No. Only hers. I can’t see their faces at all, even now. This one, I could blame the mud, but her supposed legion are still invisible.:
He hesitated, not holding anything back from me, but something troubled him. :What?:
:He doesn’t carry any of her blood. So how could he have been hers?:
He would know. He disposed of the Dauphine’s poison-ravaged body for me. If he couldn’t detect even one drop of her blood in her own former Blood…
Surprised, I scanned the thrall again with my power, seeking even a single drop of the Dauphine’s blood.
Some echo of her lingering in him. But there was nothing.
No leech. No blood. No lingering magic. Yet he could recite her kill switch orders.
He’d lain in wait beneath Leonie, using her as bait.
He recognized me as the queen who’d killed Jeanne.
So there had to be something. Somewhere. If not magical… perhaps a physical clue?
“I need a bucket of water.”
Immediately, Tlacel trotted toward the house.
Unease flickered over the thrall’s face. He stared at Leonie with narrowed eyes for a few moments, then glanced back at me. Hatred twisted his features. Then he stared back at Leonie. Recognition. Confusion.
“You’re dead,” he whispered, shaking his head. Then he glared at me. “You can’t compel me against my queen. You have no power here.”
I simply stared back evenly, letting my power build, simmering in the air like a thunderstorm on the horizon. Boiling clouds. Oppressive energy. The threat of crashing thunder that never came. Lightning that never sheared the sky. No relief from the coming storm.
His words couldn’t be further from the truth.
I held all the power here.
This might have been Leonie’s nest initially, and then the Dauphine’s, but now, it was mine.
Leonie’s blood was mine. I could feel the exact outline of her circle.
The vibrant crape myrtles and hibiscus she’d planted with her own hand.
This mighty oak, where she’d enjoyed taking her morning coffee for decades in the early morning.
Watching the sunrise before the heat of the day. Her laughter. Her smile.
She and her mother had lived in this house for more than a century. They’d run a successful voodoo shop in the French Quarter before the Dauphine stole everything. What was it that Rik had said about New Orleans?
:Vampires are good for business.:
:So is voodoo, at least in New Orleans,: Leonie said. :Our own special blend of Vodou and magic.:
Tlacel returned with a large metal bucket brimming with water. “My queen.”
Deliberately, I used our bonds so the thrall wouldn’t know my command. :Throw the water in his face.:
Without hesitation, Tlacel dumped the bucket over the thrall’s head. Spluttering and spitting curses, the thrall shook like a dog. Then he laughed. “Maybe if it’d been holy water that might have had some effect on me.”
Mud still streaked his face. :I hate for anyone to touch him, but I need his face cleaned off completely.:
Tlacel tore his T-shirt down the middle and used it as a rag to wipe the thrall clean, ignoring his snapping teeth. He moved gracefully, his hair gliding down his back, swishing almost like his sinuous feathered serpent. The tattoos across his chest glittered even in the fading daylight.
:Way to figure out how to take your fucking shirt off in front of our queen,: Ezra muttered.
I suppressed a smile, even when Tlacel winked at me over his shoulder.
With the thrall’s face clean, I laid my right hand on Sekh’s arm. :This nest is mine now. This circle is mine. I command my All Seeing General to See when he arrived and what he did inside before we came.:
:Absolutely.: He let out a rumbling lion purr. :It’s a pleasure to serve, my queen.: