Chapter 27 Francois
Francois
My heart beat for the woman in my arms. So much more than my true mate. Soulmate. The word echoed around and around in my mind. The keeper of my soul. That was what I’d been searching for all this time. I’d hurt so many people and done so much damage. But I was finally here.
Maeve was in my arms.
There was no one else. I wouldn’t want someone else anyway. There never had been anyone else.
There was irony in a hunter as my mate. I’d always been the hunter, the predator, and I’d hunted so many. They’d been my prey. They never stood a chance.
Only now everything was equal in a way. The woman I loved held the power to kill me. She could hunt me. I was her prey.
I almost laughed. After everything, it was exactly what I deserved. And yet I knew I was perfectly safe with her.
“Calm down, Maeve. Everything is all right.” I could feel her mind racing like a buzz of activity inside me. Something frenetic and panicked. “I’m not going to leave you. I’m by your side. We’re in this together.”
Nicolas sighed and sat on the sofa.
I almost laughed again. I’d never seen him look so defeated. Not when battling the Ancients. Not even when battling me.
But one tiny human woman, my mate, and he looked as though his world was ending.
When he raised his gaze to me, it was tired. Conflicted. “Do you trust her?” he asked. “Do you trust your mate?” He didn’t look at Maeve as he spoke, as though these weren’t easy words to say.
Maeve had lived among us for weeks. We’d rescued her, protected her. I’d loved her. Now Nicolas doubted her. He was going against his instincts whichever way he jumped. Vampire mates were always above reproach.
Perhaps until they were also vampire hunters. Had there ever been such a pairing before?
I met Nicolas’s eyes. “With everything that I am.” My trust in Maeve was unwavering. This news didn’t affect that. In fact, knowing what she was and the power she held and that she’d still chosen me as her soulmate… That filled me with a new sense of worth.
I was worthy. A vampire hunter had deemed me so important that she wanted to keep me with her for all time, going against centuries of instinct of her own.
She moved in closer to me as if seeking shelter. Like she didn’t realize she was potentially the most powerful being in this room now.
The apex predator, where before she’d probably feared all of us.
“Maeve?” Kayla addressed my mate, but she got all of our attention. “What if we use your blood?”
“My blood? What for?” Genuine confusion laced Maeve’s tone. But a lot had happened since we’d come to find the others, and even I wasn’t quite following Kayla’s train of thought.
“I think…” Kayla bit her lip as she paused like she was pondering her next greatest plan. “I think I could modify the spell against the Ancients so we don’t need their blood anymore. You’re a vampire hunter.”
“But my blood heals vampires. You just said so yourself.” Maeve started to shake her head.
“But what if it didn’t?” Kayla’s smile began as mischievous but took on something with a touch of evil. “Maybe my modification would reverse that.”
She was talking about the darkest of magic. The kind that would have left a black stain on her soul—if she’d still had one.
“I think—” Kayla looked at Maeve appraisingly, a new consideration of my mate in her eyes now that she knew what she truly was.
But there was no fear there. Probably someone with as much command over magic as Kayla seemed to have developed since she’d turned would have little to fear in any situation.
“I think I could create the ultimate weapon to stop the Ancients. With the right spell and your blood, we should be able to strip their powers even faster. Maybe more.” She finished with another flash of that predatory grin.
I opened my mouth to speak. It still sounded dangerous. I didn’t want Maeve anywhere near the Ancients. Regardless of anything else, she was still human.
“It could mean the difference between life and death, Maeve.” Kayla’s tone turned wheedling.
“And not just for us.” She looked around the room, including everyone in her statement.
“But for many humans as well. We don’t know what the Ancients have planned.
We don’t know what they’re going to do. What about the people you know?
The people you grew up with? What about them? You could save them all.”
“Potentially,” I said. “You’re talking in possibilities.
We don’t know that this will work any more than the last plan didn’t.
” I emphasized the last word. If that plan had succeeded, we wouldn’t even have been discussing this now.
“And Maeve was also front and center of that attempt, if I recall correctly, oui?”
“Francois.” Maeve spoke quietly as she rested her hand on my arm then stepped around me. “I’ll do it. I’ll do anything I can to keep all of you safe.”
Kyle laughed, but it was sudden and out of character. He so rarely spoke, and when he did, it was only the most efficient of commands. His mating was possibly even more perplexing than mine because his mate seemed to adore him. Yet he was the very personification of a charmless man.
“Keep us all safe? You do realize that we’re the very creatures you’re destined to kill?” He rubbed a hand over that ugly, ridged scar that ran over his scalp. “And I have no idea who you are.”
Sam swatted at him. “Quiet, Kyle. Maeve isn’t a killer.
She helped us out last time and she was still the same Maeve.
Nothing has changed except we’ve all found out.
” She reached toward Maeve again as she spoke.
“We know you, Maeve. You didn’t sign up for any of this, and you must be even more confused than the rest of us.
First you knew about the supernatural world, then you were abducted into it, and now you’re one of the biggest puzzles within it.
” Her gaze softened. “Don’t worry about the things Kyle just said.
It’s just biology. You’re still our friend. ”
My affection for Sam grew as she defended Maeve, her eyes blazing with conviction.
Kyle stepped back, retreating as his mate spoke, and triumph flooded me at the chastened man.
At least some of the people here had Maeve’s back, and if Sam was one of those people, then she had powerful allies.
Sam was a true fighter after everything she’d been through.
“Okay.” Kayla picked the book up again. “Come with me and we’ll see about getting this spell together.
I don’t think we have any time to waste.
” She turned and started to walk to her spell room.
She looked over her shoulder, not even breaking her stride.
“Maeve and Francois, you’re with me. The rest of you can do whatever gossiping you’re dying to do. ”
“Research,” Sebastian called after her retreating form, and she laughed.
I took Maeve’s hand again, and we followed behind Kayla as she took the familiar hallway to her witchy workspace.
“I’ll try to make this quick,” she said.
Maeve squeezed my hand, her anxiety on display, but it only increased my admiration for her. She was scared and she was willing to do this anyway.
Inside her room, Kayla led us to the far side and she started opening cupboards and reaching onto shelves. She pulled out a metal bowl decorated with scrolling script I couldn’t read.
The words almost seemed to move as the light shone on them. Then Kayla produced a blade and set it onto her workspace next to the bowl.
Maeve sucked in a breath.
“It’s okay,” I whispered against her hair. “I’m right here.” But as I looked at the blade, I wasn’t sure it was as okay as I said.
Kayla ignored us, busying herself by reaching for various sprigs of dried herbs and chopping them into small pieces.
Their sharp aromas drifted into the air, filling the space with the smell of vitality and life.
A jar Kayla had taken from a cupboard seemed to contain things that looked like wizened dried fingers, but I didn’t look too closely.
She removed two of them and chopped them with a huge cleaver, each strike almost an act of violence as bone glistened white under shriveled flesh. I tore my gaze away until the hacking sound stopped.
She emptied the small pieces into the bowl with the herbs before smashing the contents with a heavy-looking pestle. The mixture turned a dull gray, and I looked away again as my stomach revolted—which was ridiculous.
I wasn’t squeamish.
Kayla looked at Maeve. “Hand,” she held out her own hand ready to take Maeve’s.
Maeve glanced at me, and I would have done anything to take away the fear in her eyes.
“I signed up for this,” she said like she was reminding herself rather than telling me.
“But you can change your mind.” I didn’t look at Kayla—she probably felt differently. But I didn’t want my mate forced into anything.
Maeve placed her hand in Kayla’s, and she closed her eyes for just a moment before looking at me. The fear in her gaze was gone, replaced by determination, and I nodded. There was the strength I knew she had. Pride swelled inside me. Maeve was so much more than I ever could have hoped for.
Kayla held Maeve’s hand palm up and murmured some words as she grasped the handle of the knife and held it above the pad of Maeve’s thumb. Without warning, she plunged downward and made a clean slice across her palm to the base of her pinky.
Maeve didn’t even flinch, but her face whitened as Kayla squeezed her hand and blood welled all along the new split in her skin.
Kayla spoke some words in a different language as the blood pooled in Maeve’s palm before she gave a sharp twist and emptied the blood into the bowl below, not spilling even a drop.
The contents of the bowl fizzled and steamed as the blood hit the ingredients Kayla had already added. Then the mixture smoked as it turned color from the red of the blood to a vivid purple. The scent in the air changed, too, becoming cloying and sweet, like decaying honeysuckle.
I watched as the potion bubbled and Kayla continued to squeeze Maeve’s hand to encourage more blood to fall. Then she wrapped Maeve’s hand with a white bandage and spoke a few words before pushing Maeve in my direction.
“Stand back,” she said.
She drew herself up to her full height, her back ramrod straight, looking every inch a dark witch as her face filled with shadows and contrast. The atmosphere in the room changed, becoming dark and oppressive, and Kayla’s voice was a low growl as she cupped the bowl in her hands and swilled the contents around.
When she started chanting, the sound was barely audible, but it quickly built to a deafening roar, and even from where we’d moved to, it was obvious the consistency of the mixture was changing, becoming crystalline and forming shapes.
When she finally fell silent, six arrowheads lay in the bowl, and she parted her lips to speak before collapsing over her work bench, her face pale.
“Oh, no!” Maeve ran forward. “Kayla! What happened?”
“Don’t touch her,” I bellowed. “There could be residual dark magic inside her.”
“But why has she fainted?”
“She’s used too many of her reserves. She just needs rest.” I’d seen it before but not often. Witches didn’t usually give so much of themselves to their spells because a reaction like this left them vulnerable. It was a good thing Kayla was somewhere safe, with those she trusted.
“I’m going to get Sebastian to come for his mate. Are you happy to stay with her?”
She nodded. “Of course.” She hovered near Kayla, not touching her, merely turning her attention between the witch and the arrowheads that had been created.
“Touch nothing,” I reminded her.
“I won’t.”
I already knew she wouldn’t, but it helped to hear it. Then I left the workroom and hurried down the hallway. Nicolas’s office was in one of these rooms. I headed toward the sound of male voices. They always sounded so serious.
I knocked on the door but didn’t wait for a reply before I entered the room. They all sat motionless, watching me.
“This is the part where you all yell surprise, non?” I sat in the only remaining seat.
“Non.” Nicolas stood and walked to perch on the edge of his desk. “This isn’t a party, Francois. How did the spell go?”
I frowned. “Always so serious.” Then I sat forward and looked at each vampire.
“I think Kayla has created something very special.” The amount of energy she must have poured into that bowl to deplete herself completely told me that much.
“She needs Sebastian, but Maeve is watching over her. The spell was a very powerful one and she’s fainted. ”
“Fuck me,” Sebastian murmured as he headed for the door. “Why didn’t you start with that?” His footsteps sped to a jog as he disappeared through the door and I looked at the others.
“She’s created arrowheads. Six of them.”
Nicolas nodded. “One for each Ancient. That means we’ll only have one shot per vampire. If the arrowheads do what Kayla has spelled them to do, they should melt away their magic and leave them vulnerable to the usual methods of final death.”
I nodded, unusually excited about this part. Bloodlust usually ran strong in my veins, and the mere thought of battle would send me out to create fledglings to act in my army.
But this wasn’t a show of force. This was almost a battle of wits. And one of expertise if each arrow needed to strike true.
We wouldn’t win by my usual brute force methods, and apparently I needed to place my trust in Nicolas again.
Only it wasn’t so easy this time. I wasn’t worried about myself. I’d survived years with madness running through my veins. But I wasn’t sure I could survive without Maeve, and if the Ancients got wind of what she could do or what we were using her to do, she was in danger.