Chapter 14
CHAPTER 14
“ I ’m sorry she had to go through this, bro.” Griff shook his head at Cass. He took a sip of his beer as they both leaned on the banister of the back deck at their brother Ren’s cabin in Briac Falls. “Must have been scary for her last night.”
The river running at a distance below babbled musically as Cass inhaled the crisp fall air of the mountains, the dark night around them lit only by a faint moonlight above and the glowing firepit at their feet.
He watched Tilly in the living room on the other side of the glass patio doors. She was in deep conversation with Rosalie, Ren’s wife and local acting physician—the female alpha wearing jeans and a small T-shirt advertising Alcide’s Tavern, her dad’s business. Tilly looked lovely with her loose black hair cascading down over a simple white maternity top she’d found from a bag of clothes left at Chateau Briac for her by Rosalie earlier.
“She seems more at ease here,” Cass told Griff. “Away from the city.”
He was starting to question the idea of having her and the child living in Montreal. Away from the drama of the last forty- eight hours, he realized now how he hadn’t truly asked her where she wanted to raise their kid.
“She prefers small town?” Griff raised a brow at him.
“Nature, I think. Her home is right by the beach in Cape Cod.”
“Ah.”
“It’s not safe for her to stay over there, Griff,” Cass explained. “Her house got broken into. Tags painted on the door.”
“Doesn’t sound good.” Griff straightened his brown utility canvas coat over his wide shoulders.
“No. It’s not.”
“It’s not safe in Montreal, either.” Cass was still jolted by the fact that she’d been kidnapped from under his nose. “Could there be more than one group after her?”
“Could be.” Griff drew his brows together. “Word travels fast. Those sigils could be totally unrelated to the attack.”
“ Baptême . I wish Justin was here.” His grip tightened on his beer bottle, and he regarded his family inside the homey cabin.
His brothers Ren and Mag were setting the table while Emme, Justin’s wife, barked direction with a throaty laugh. The newlywed female vampire had just returned from London ahead of her husband and looked a little more polished than usual with her blond hair cut in a sassy shoulder-length style and wearing her typical leather pants with a crop top so small it left very little to the imagination.
Nyssa, in designer jeans and fitted black sweater, was in the galley kitchen checking on the catered meal she had brought over from town, insisting that Rosalie was much too busy to cook for them.
“Justin will know more about the specifics of who might be after her,” Cass added. His brother had spent his immortal life buried in books and had more degrees than was mortally possible. “I called him earlier.”
“Did you ask Father Grégoire?” Griff wondered.
“I was hoping he’d be here tonight, but Mag said he had to watch over a new crew of his cursed vamps.”
Father Grégoire had the full responsibility of the Sanctuaire des Truants now that Val was spending most of his time in New England where his wife was the High Priestess of the White Holly Coven. The sanctuary was where recently turned vampires—young street kids, usually—were rehabilitated before they could hurt anyone. That was how Raphael had become Mag’s bodyguard.
Cass nodded in Emme’s direction. “She really started something there.”
Emme had been the first. Turned in the late seventeenth century through a spell that was meant to make her immortal but had gone terribly wrong. Unable to adjust to the unprecedented outcome at the time, she had become a rogue creating the first cursed vampires who had in turn made more. These were completely different than Cass and his brothers, being sensitive to daylight, hungering for human blood, and dying in their early twenties when the shell of their bodies had become tapped out. Maisie had been able to keep them alive with daylight and immortal rings but only for those like Raphael and Emme who showed complete remission and could feed solely on synth blood.
“She’s not the only one to have sired vamps,” Griff informed him. “There’s more in London, and not of Emme lineage. Justin said the Dunsmuirs and Callans in the UK are doing their best to rehabilitate them.”
“Before the LeGall hunters kill them all?” Cass shuddered to remember how a LeGall hunter from that psycho European family who liked to track and kill supernaturals had been sent to Briac Falls with a mission to end Emme.
“Exactly.” Griff’s mouth took on a grim twist as he lifted his gaze at the sliver of moon above. “It’s just a few weeks before our yearly feeding. Does Tilly know about our Ritual du Sang ? If your child is an immortal, he or she will need to find a disciple.”
The brothers each had their own Nostredame disciple, a mortal whose responsibility was to feed them their blood once a year on December twelfth. Mag, Val, and Ren had female partners now and no longer needed the humans who had pledged to help them. Justin relied on Father Grégoire, head of the order in Montreal since Emme as a vampire couldn’t fulfill this need. Cass had Karim.
“I’ll talk to Father Gregoire,” Cass mused, wondering how many more responsibilities he now had for his future child. “He’ll need to assign a disciple to serve my child.”
He stared at his wayward brother for a moment. “How did you manage on the road like that for so many centuries?”
“When I took off to explore the west coast, I had Charles-Henri, remember him?”
“Oh right, your best bud, yeah.” Cass recalled how close Griffon had been to his first disciple when they were boys and how the pair had left the Montreal settlement—then called Ville-Marie—to explore undiscovered lands out west.
“Later, I would find the closest abbey to seek out monks faithful to the old Nostredame order,” he explained. The Disciples of Nostredame had been founded by French astrologer and seer Nostradamus himself in the sixteenth century to protect immortals like the St-Amands. “They are everywhere. You know, Cass, there are more immortals than just us.”
“I know.” Cass’s birth father had apparently engendered more than just the six St-Amand brothers.
“You never asked me this before.” Griff seemed surprised by Cass’s unexpected interest in their place in the world.
“It’s my sudden fatherhood. Right now, all I can think about are responsibilities.”
Griff laughed. “You’ve never been responsible a day in your life.”
“I wouldn’t say that.” Tilly had heard the comment as she’d opened the patio door to join the siblings.
“Really? You know Cass. Sex, drugs, and rock and roll!” Griff shot Tilly a bantering grin.
“Isn’t that right, Cass?” Mag had stepped outside with them, followed by the usually aloof Ren.
“No offense, guys.” Tilly held her head high and planted both hands on her hips as she stared in turn at Cass’s three brothers. “But Cass is not into drugs.”
“Or womanizing,” Cass griped.
“Only music.” Tilly smiled at him, and his heart was flooded with warmth to see her unwavering support. His brothers might find it harder to tease him with her around.
“He likes the limelight, that’s for sure,” Ren offered.
“Maybe because he deserves it?” she said, taking a step by his side, a gleam of pride in her eyes.
“You think?” Mag asked, surprised by the rebuttal at what used to be their constant taunts.
“Absolutely.” She was adamant, her posture tall despite the heavy belly.
Cass was so overwhelmed by her taking a stand for him that he wanted to wrap her in his arms and kiss her. He settled for resting a hand gently on her shoulder.
“And you’re in the music business, too, right, Tilly?” Griff asked.
“I am.”
“She has produced some of the best people.” Cass couldn’t help but boast about Tilly’s own successes. “Heard of that new kid, Jay Carpenter?”
“You produced his tracks?” Mag nodded with appreciation. “Wow, they do love his latest single at my club.”
“I think Cass is one of my best artists.” With her chin up, she dared anyone to contradict her.
“Is that so?” Mag shot Cass a genuine look of respect. “Well, good for you, bro.”
“Yeah, nice.” Ren raised an amused brow at him.
“It takes someone outside our family to convince you I have talent.” Cass shook his head as he spoke, half joking and half serious. “My fans and sold-out shows are not enough?”
“We’re your brothers, man,” Griff said with a grin. “Someone needs to keep you grounded.”
“Yeah, right.”
“Mom always thought you had talent,” Ren reminded them.
“From the very beginning, when you would torture that poor harpsichord Mom had shipped from the Old World for you,” Mag snorted.
Cass fingered the cross at his neck with guilt. His mom had been so proud when the instrument had arrived. He’d been so excited. It had taken just a few months to see his dreams crushed by that pretentious music teacher saying that he had no talent.
He’d come home wailing—an enthusiastic child of seven of age who had dreamed of learning how to make those notes carry a pretty sound—now being told he never would. He moped around after being dismissed from the lessons and thought his life was over.
That’s when Mom had gifted him her pendant. She’d explained that the Celtic cross was thousands of years old and was given to her by her coven priestess Morag the First Witch after Cass’s mother had experienced her first reincarnation from the ancient witch Lilith into the newer Ice Witch Charlotte Callan. The cross was meant to be a token to always believe in your worth. It would remind Cass that he could do whatever he put his mind to, no matter what other people thought of him.
He had never taken it off since that day.
“Time for dinner,” Rosalie called from the dining area.
Cass slid his hand down to Tilly’s elbow to guide her inside.
“Wow, that looks amazing, Rose.” Ren held his wife by the small of her back and Cass felt a ping of longing. He, too, would love to have this kind of intimacy.
He turned to Tilly at his side. Could they possibly have the same type of relationship? They did for a weekend. And he’d asked her to marry him just two nights ago.
He sighed silently. She hadn’t said anything to that yet.
Had he asked because of the pregnancy? Or because he truly wanted her for life. Did it matter?
“Oh, I didn’t cook anything,” Rosalie was answering her husband. “It’s all Nyssa.”
“My girl is good that way,” Mag grinned at his fiancée and dropped a kiss on the top of her hair. “Everything’s always perfect.”
“Please,” Nyssa said with a humble shrug, “I just have a good caterer.”
“I put Tilly between Emme and Nyssa, Cass. It’s okay, right?” Rosalie was now asking. “She needs some girl company for the night.”
“As long as she’s fine with it.” Cass eyed his formidable female vampire sister-in-law and the equally impressive real estate magnate that Mag was about to marry.
He shifted his gaze to Tilly who was resting her hands on her lower back. She did look fragile, but if the legends were true, one scream from her and they all would be flattened in an instant. Perhaps not dead but certainly unconscious.
“Emme, be nice,” he warned the fierce blonde undead with a look. “You know Tilly’s best friend is Death, right?”
“Is that right, fille ?” Emme grinned as she looped her arm under Tilly’s. “That’s brilliant! Let me tell you all about that evil witch who used me to turn my friend Maisie immortal.”
Tilly shot Cass a pleading expression as she sat by Emme.
“Maisie is Valerian’s wife.” Nyssa patted Tilly’s forearm as she took her seat next to her.
“And sacrament , Emme,” Mag added. “Madame Ioshta is not evil. She did help us that day with crazy Dr. Collins.”
“I still find her creepy.” Emme flipped her short hair back over her bare shoulder.
“Don’t overwhelm Tilly with old stories, Emme,” Cass said seriously. “This is all a lot to take in. And her condition…”
“She looks fine to me, don’t you, ma chère ?” Emme said.
“I’m totally fine.” Tilly smiled at her casually before settling her gaze on the spread of meat stews, harvest vegetables, and fresh winter salads as Griff snapped his fingers to magically light the row of candles set along the tables. “This is all really lovely, Nyssa.”
It seemed Cass was worried for nothing. Emme was behaving herself and Tilly appeared comfortable with his brothers’ partners.
“Rosalie?” he asked as he sat across the table, hoping the acting physician would back him in making sure Tilly didn’t get overwhelmed.
“Don’t let this crowd intimidate you,” Rosalie told Tilly. “They can be too much, but they all mean well.”
“I’m good,” Tilly reassured her. “I never truly knew family, but I recently discovered I have three opinionated godmothers and they’re a handful.”
“The Davenports,” Griff nodded knowingly.
“You know them?” Tilly asked.
“I do, yes. They used to live near you in Rhode Island. But the whole clan had to move out west when the family fortune disappeared.”
“They want to come here for the baby,” Cass said.
“I don’t know where to put them,” Tilly wondered. “We can’t impose at the chateau. Are there any inns in the area? They would love it here.”
“There’s always Mrs. Beaulieu’s B&B,” Rosalie offered.
“And why not Chateau Briac?” Ren asked. “That place is huge. It won’t be a burden. You don’t plan to stay there, right Emme?”
“But it’s your home, Emme,” Tilly said.
“Don’t worry about it,” Emme waved Tilly’s concerns with a shake of her hand. “Justin and I prefer the city, anyway, these days. We barely use the chateau anymore . We always stay at our flat in the Plateau Mont-Royal.”
“She likes clubbing.” Mag winked at Tilly.
“Is that right?” Tilly asked with a gleam in her eye.
“I do and, merde , there’s nothing wrong with that.” Emme shot Mag a defiant look. “Without people like us, you’d be broke, mon beau .”
“He does have me,” Nyssa interjected as she passed the appetizers around.
“Would you support me, honey? If my club closed down.”
Mag sounded so seductive as he addressed Nyssa, that Cass had no doubt his brother’s desire for his future wife hadn’t faded since she’d come into his life.
“You could be a house husband,” she jested, with a half-smile indicating the level of their intimacy. “Take care of Cat.”
“Cat can take care of herself.” Mag’s tone had turned somber as he mentioned the teenager who was like a daughter to him. They all knew what Cat had survived.
“After what she went through, she sure can,” Emme chimed in. “That kid is mighty.”
“Oh right. I forgot that you also went against that daemon prince that had her kidnapped, Emme,” Cass said before catching Tilly’s gaze. “It’s a long story, I’ll explain later.”
“Yep,” Emme added. “That bastard Norwell knocked me right out before going for Mag.”
“Glad that fucker is gone back to where he comes from,” Mag groused.
They’d had to call on their mother to summon the daemon’s sister to take him back to their world before he could traffic more kids for a special private club.
“Where is Cat?” Cass asked, surprised not to see her at this family event.
“She’s with friends in the city.” Nyssa laughed with indulgence. “Turns out sixteen-year-olds no longer like family events in the countryside. They went to a movie tonight.”
“She promised to text often.” Mag checked his phone, now the concerned parental figure to the teenager.
Cass couldn’t help but be grateful to have his brothers, here with their loving partners and ready to welcome his own child into the world.
They were all eating and retelling various family stories, when Cass recalled that Tilly had wanted to tell him something before the doctor had walked in to share Tilly’s test results.
Experiencing the familiar sensation of being a little left out of his overbearing family, he felt the need to connect with her.
“Hey Tilly,” he asked softly from across the table, “what was it you wanted to tell me at the hospital?”
The way she drew her brows together told him that maybe he shouldn’t have asked. But she put her fork down. And looked around the table with unease.
“I was trying to find the right time to tell you this but…” She nodded to herself and swallowed, sweeping her gaze to each of his family members. “I guess this is it… I suppose you all need to know.”
Everyone quieted at her somber tone. All eyes were on her and the only sounds he could hear were the wind rattling the cabin windows and the trees creaking in the forest surrounding them.
“What is it?” Maybe he didn’t want to know.
“I saw Ambrus.” She finally gulped. “Your father.”
“Huh?” He shot a confused look at his brothers.
“Yes,” she said, her expression absolutely serious. “He came to me at Park Westmount.”
Too many emotions assaulted him at once. Rage, fear, confusion, shock, all jockeying to take over.
“What the hell!” Mag barked and harshly set his wine glass down.
A ping echoed as Griff snapped his own glass in his fist in a snap of broken shards, which fell all over the table, his blood dripping on the linen tablecloth.
Ren grunted with a shake of his head. “ Calvaire. ”
“I don’t know how he subdued the bodyguards, especially Raphael.” Her gaze shifted back to Cass, and he shook to try imagining the encounter. “But he did. Like they were in a trance. And he just sat down and talked to me.”
Emme had remained speechless, well aware of the history behind their birth father.
“Ambrus the Exiled?” Cass asked as calmly as he could, his nails digging into his palm as his brain tried to wrestle with the implication.
“That’s who he said he was,” she explained. “Ambrus El Berith, he told me. He came to me when I was taking a break from visiting a house with Marjo. Older gentleman. Looked like he came straight out of a period piece. Carried a strange-looking cane.”
“With a raven’s skull,” Griff managed to croak.
“Yes, a silver one,” she concurred.
Everyone was now hanging on her every word, Nyssa with a worried look on her face while Rosalie silently tended to Griff’s bloody hand, the white linen napkin covering his cut stained a deep red from his seeping blood.
“Whoever it was, he was powerful,” Tilly explained. “I couldn’t move and had to listen to him.”
Cass’s pulse pounded madly in his veins. Unable to remain calm, he finally exploded. “If he touched one hair?—”
“He didn’t,” she cut him off. “He claimed he just wanted to see his grandchild.”
“His grandchild,” Mag sneered out loud. “When has he ever cared about his own children?”
Tilly pursed her lips. “Death said he could potentially use me and the baby to cross back to his hell demon world.”
“Hell?” Ren didn’t follow.
Griff’s expression remained totally blank, uncaring for the injury at his hand which Rosalie was currently patching up with the first-aid kit Emme had fetched from the kitchen.
“Yes, man,” Cass answered Ren. “Apparently, our birth father is an honest-to-god hell demon.”
“Shit,” Mag spat.
Griff finally stood, ignoring Rosalie’s attempt to keep him seated. “I’ll go summon Mom.”
“Oh hell, no,” Cass shouted. “She will not want to see him.”
There was no way their mother would want to see the man who had seduced then abandoned her the next day. None of them should impose this on her.
They all looked at him.
“Are you sure that’s how she truly feels?”
“Yes.” Cass swallowed. “She shared more details about him with me right before she left us all.”
She had disappeared from their life pretty much the minute after their adopted father had died from rabies three hundred years ago after being bitten during a hunting trip.
“Is that so?” Mag snickered, unconvinced that Mom would share anything personal. Mag had been devastated when she left them, then filled with anger. They had only mended their complex relationship in the last year.
“Well, Cass was always close to her,” Ren commented.
But Griff was always with her, Cass noted to himself. Learning her magic.
Griff stared at him without comment. Waiting for Cass to elaborate.
“She always hated Ambrus,” Cass started. “You all know this. But not because he assaulted her. She was willing. But he did leave her behind. That bastard promised her forever love, but left her the next day.”
“Cass is right,” Griff said. “Mom was mad at herself for falling for him. And it was even worse when she found herself pregnant during the crossing to New France.”
Cass couldn’t help but notice the similarity between his mom’s story and his own with Tilly. He, too, had left a pregnant woman after a stint of passion.
“Why didn’t you two tell us?” Mag asked him. “Ren, did you know?”
Ren shook his head no.
“He’s still a lowlife,” Mag griped. “It doesn’t matter that she was willing. He left her. She shouldn’t know he’s here.”
“At least until we find him and see what he wants with Tilly,” Cass agreed with him. Mom didn’t need to know right away.
“ Merde, Cass. What if he does want your child, to go back to hell?” Emme, along with Nyssa, had been silent during this whole exchange between the brothers. The female vampire grasped Tilly’s arm in a firm grip. “I will guard you with my life, fille . Don’t you worry.”
“The kidnapping though, that’s not like him,” Griff pondered.
“How do you know?” Mag sounded accusatory.
“Doesn’t sound like he’s the type to have minions to do his bidding,” Cass offered.
“No, he’s not.” Griff’s expression turned even darker. “He helped me fight a group of LeGall hunters, once, remember? He was right in the fray. That cane has power. Not Mom’s power but something different.”
“Hell magic,” Emme suggested. She had been learning a lot since she married his studious brother.
“Possible,” Griff considered.
“So, what do we do?” Nyssa asked, cutting through the chitchat with her practicality as she wrapped an arm around Tilly’s shoulder. “We need a plan to protect Tilly.”
“He didn’t hurt me,” Tilly disclosed.
“He could be biding his time,” Rosalie pointed out, “wait until the child is born.”
“We can’t take any chances if he’s after Tilly,” Emme said.
“Tilly, you’re safe here in Briac Falls,” Rosalie vowed. “I can vouch for my pack. They will protect you. They’ll be on alert for strangers in the area.”
“I will hunt Ambrus down,” Griff growled.
“Sorry bro,” Cass said, matter-of-factly, “but you’ve tried for centuries.”
“I swear to you, brother,” Griff said with a quickening breath. “I will get him this time.”
“Nyssa and I will send feelers out to the underground in Montreal,” Mag told them. “Check in with Vince and Se?ora Moreno. And Captain Akande. The van was stolen, by the way, Cass.”
“ Baptême ,” Cass muttered. Would they ever find whoever was behind the attack on Tilly?
“I’ll go see what Madame Ioshta has to say,” Emme offered grudgingly as they all looked at her with surprise. The Mohawk elder, owner of the eclectic Sortilège magic shop in the old part of Montreal, had never been Emme’s favorite since she’d performed the spell that had turned Maisie, Cass’s sister-in-law and Emme’s best friend, momentarily insane.
Emme shrugged it off. “She knows everything supernatural going on in the area. Plus, the old bat owes me.”
“Meanwhile we’ll hunker down at Chateau Briac,” Cass said, glad to see Tilly nodding in agreement with him. “Mom warded it. So, it should be safe.”
“Against a hell demon? LeGall was able to come in despite the wards and he was not even a sorcerer,” Emme griped. The supernatural hunter Jér?me LeGall had been after her and she’d suffered indescribable torture at his hands until she and Justin had finally been able to overcome him.
“Mrs. Mercier had left a water tap open because of the winter storm,” Ren said. “Mom and Maisie fixed that loophole the last time they were here. They expanded the barrier all the way to the property gate.”
“I’ll ask my friend Caro and her grand-maman to go double-check and fix any possible breaches,” Rosalie offered. “They’re both healers and quite versed in magic.”
“Thank you, Rosalie,” Cass said. “And Emme, no need to have Mrs. Mercier come in. It’ll be safer to keep our stay at Chateau Briac between ourselves.”
“So, no Mom?” Mag asked.
“No!” Both Griff and Cass said at the same time.
“Maybe later,” Griff added. “When we know more.”
“Right,” Cass agreed. He didn’t need more complications.
His birth father was about to enter their life. A sinking feeling dug into his stomach.
Conflicted, he couldn’t tell if it was relief that Ambrus had finally decided to get to know his sons. Or horror that his hell demon birth father could take it all—woman and child—away from him.