19. CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 19
Grayson
I gripped Julien’s arm; he was trembling. “I apologize for the violation,” he said. “This is your house.”
“It’s hers, too. She can give permission.”
“I realized it was secret, sacred to you. But safest for her, being here.” His gravity had me glancing at Noa’s pale face. “Ago can track her through venom left in her damaged runes.”
“Ago’s dead,” I said between my teeth. “How are you injured?”
“Poisoned silver mixed with a witch’s brew.”
I moved his shirt aside to examine the wound. “When did you last feed?”
“Your lady was most attentive.” When I rocked back, a bristling, possessive male, Julien smirked. “She wanted to tell you of our affair months ago, but… alas…” His laugh turned into a cough. “You managed to sway her heart, turn her away from me.”
“Asshole.” I lowered his shirt as I spoke through our mental connection. Bedisa…
I’m sorry.
She rubbed at her wrist, where the faint fang marks were visible. She’d given of herself to save him.
No, I snarled through the bond. Don’t ever be sorry. You did what you had to do and I’m deeply grateful.
She hovered, her weight shifting. I wanted to pull her into my arms. Instead, I spoke loud enough for Julien to hear. He would understand the instructions I gave her.
“A burner phone is on the desk in the old house. Find the listing for client 4155 in contacts. When a woman answers, tell her you need an emergency withdrawal. Cash only. Delivered in person. They can track the location of the phone.”
When Noa disappeared into the house, I asked Julien, “Is there any reason Set shouldn’t be here?”
“Noa might want to vet her,” he said. “She’s not happy with Set.”
“Tell me later. Can you stand?”
Julien struggled upright, kept with me as we walked back to the house of memories, where Noa paced the kitchen, the burner phone clenched in her hand. Worry creased her features, tightened the skin around her eyes, but she’d never looked as beautiful as she did in the slanting afternoon light, pouring in through the old window and dancing over the silver in her hair. The stoic posture that said, don’t fuck with me.
I helped Julien lower his weight onto a wooden kitchen chair.
Noa glared as I straightened. “That was a vampire on the phone.”
“It was a banker,” I assured her.
“I recognized the hiss.”
“Where did you get the bow and arrows?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Don’t change the subject, Grayson.”
She was bristling like a wet cat—gods, I loved this woman.
“Would you really shoot me?” I was genuinely curious.
Her beautiful mouth curved. “Right in your jackassery alpha ass.”
“I was coming to save you.”
“I saved myself.”
“You love me. And I killed Ago for you.”
She snorted. “From all the blood, I’d say your wolf killed Ago. Good damn riddance. Why aren’t you healing Julien right now instead of arguing with me?”
“We’re waiting on Set.”
“I don’t trust her.”
“Can you tell me why?”
She tipped her head back, stared at the ceiling. “They were friends. Set and Amal. That makes her suspect number one.”
“Julien is her progeny,” I pointed out evenly. “And we need her.”
“Why?”
“Because a sire can heal her progeny if she gets to him in time. And she can heal you.”
“Heal me?” A dish sitting on the counter bumped and wobbled when Noa’s fingers flicked. “She’s not touching me.”
I smiled. “Julien says you have venom in your runes.”
“Tracker shit that Ago was using.” Her fingers clenched. “But he’s dead.”
“Barend isn’t.”
Her glare sparkled with white fire. I stepped close and tugged her against my chest. The tension in her edged too close to breaking, and I ran my hands up and down her spine while she trembled.
She’d come out of her faille burnout stronger and far more volatile. Glorious in her rage and indignation. The protective she-wolf for those she cared about. I wanted to sweep her up, carry her far away, splay her out on a bed and make love to her until every inch of her body quivered.
I sent those images through our mental bond, my arms tightening when she squirmed. A whimper broke from her lips. A tiny gasp that had me rock hard—although all erotic thoughts disintegrated with the first heavy thud against the ceiling. Additional thuds pounded above our heads with a threatening frequency, sending dust motes tumbling down.
Vampires were landing on the roof. More appeared in the muddy, snowy yard. I’d guessed Set wouldn’t come alone. Not after the message Noa sent through a secure connection, activated only in emergencies. Code words, a phone that was untraceable without the specialized equipment on the banker’s end. Something Julien set up a year ago when strange things began happening in the Selkirks.
Noa whipped up her weapon and was out the door with the arrow aimed. “Set,” she snarled, braced on the porch. Never mind that she faced vampires—after vampires had kidnapped her, held her in a dungeon at High Citadel. Bargained the lives of her friends in order to turn her into a weapon. One of them .
But after the way she’d destroyed their little get-together and nearly syphoned Ago into oblivion, then collapsed their tunnels filled with magic, I doubted many vampires were eager to get close. That I stood at her side was close to window dressing.
Julien’s sire stood at the bottom of the steps. She could not—would not—come closer without an invitation. She wore black, and I heard the flow of sarcasm running through Noa’s head… such a cliché with all the fucking black…
“Red smoke,” Set said. “I saw red smoke in the forest near to here.”
“Ago,” Noa said, while I remained silent at her side. She needed to do this.
“Black smoke.” Julien’s sire held steady.
Noa understood exactly what she meant. “Do you value Julien?”
“I’m his sire.” Vampire arrogance, the cold ice of Cleopatra’s handmaiden, of an entity who was centuries old and would continue down that immortal path for centuries more.
Noa said, “Being a sire guarantees nothing.”
“You are quite right.” An ancient, arctic power radiated from Set that Noa brushed aside as if it was nothing. “But I see he has a champion in you.”
“He was researching for you.”
“One of his many talents.”
“Someone close to you betrayed him.”
The vampire nodded. I scanned the vampires who settled into ranks behind Set and guessed dozens more crouched on the roof.
“Silver and spells coated the spear that struck Julien.”
“Much like the arrow you have aimed at me,” Set pointed out with a slight smile.
Noa tipped her head to the side. “Should I send it toward your heart?”
The vampire shimmered. “Would it give you satisfaction? Dissolve your guilt?”
“Nothing could do that.”
“Guilt is the stone’s weight, pressing on the heart,” Julien’s sire murmured. Her gaze flicked away, then back to Noa. I gave her points for giving my mate the courtesy in this conversation, instead of turning to me for answers. “Why did you order me here? Why the urgent code?”
“Send them away and I’ll tell you.”
“I think not.”
The threat in Set’s smile had me stepping forward. My shoulder brushed against Noa, letting her know I was there, standing with her.
“How close of a friend were you to Amal?” my mate asked.
The question clanged like a bell.
“Enough to side with her?” Noa’s fingers tightened. The bowstring creaked. The arrow tip wavered, held steady. “Did you betray Julien when he learned what he shouldn’t have? Is that why you went to such lengths to give me the journal? See if I’d discover the same information? The secret? Use it to justify destroying me?”
Set turned, made eye contact with the vampire standing behind her, a towering brute I wouldn’t enjoy having to face in battle. But I would. Made sure he had no doubt.
One by one, the vampires left the field until only Set remained.
I stepped into the snowy yard—the vampires left their perches on the roof in the same order. Those in front left first, trailing black mist catching in the sunlight.
“Answer the questions, Set,” I said smoothly as I re-climbed the porch steps.
“You must forgive me, Alpha, but I’m not used to interrogations.” She tilted her face toward the clouded sky as if she noticed the distant rumble of thunder. Then she lowered her chin and sent me a shrewd look. “Why should I be patient when my progeny hides inside?”
“Answer the question, Set.” An order this time. She shrugged.
“I befriended Amal. Tried to help her. And in the end, I despised what she had become.” The vampire’s attention was back on Noa. “Do not pity Amal. It is the most pitiful among us who do the most damage and call it justified. There is evil in her. There will always be evil in her.”
“I’m satisfied,” Julien said, as he stepped into the doorway. “Let her in.”
Set held his gaze, her eyes glittering. “You doubt your own sire?”
“Do you resent me for it?”
“I resent her for having the fierceness of a lion, protecting you.”
“You resent her being a faille cursed with a queen’s sins and aligned with a dread lord,” Julien clarified, his voice weakening. “Come inside. I… need you.”