Chapter 18
Ophelia sat in the armchair across from Thaddeus, her legs pulled up, watching him warily from behind her knees.
She picked at a bit of lint, wishing Jena hadn’t left her alone with the vampire to disappear into the newer portion of the building and look for Ms. Pao.
The old witch was boring as hell, but Ophelia couldn’t blame Jena for bailing on her.
She would’ve done the same given the chance.
It was tense in the study, and the atmosphere had thickened to a nail pairing shy of claustrophobic after the witch had left.
The way Thaddeus was staring at Ophelia did not help.
“So…you, um, wanted to talk?” Ophelia asked, fighting the urge to bolt from the room. Then again, she supposed she could just dive into the nearest shadow if things got any weirder. She scowled. Damn it, she couldn’t leave, she needed answers.
Thaddeus gave a slow blink and sat back. “I did.”
Okay then. Time to be bold, Ophelia. “Good. I did too. You wanna tell me what the hell drinking Havers’s blood is doing to me? Jena said something about it erasing tribal affiliations? What does that even mean?”
Thaddeus smiled. “Come now, child. I’m sure you have some idea, considering you just shadow walked into my study.”
Ophelia gritted her teeth. Yeah, she had some idea all right, but that wasn’t the frickin’ point. “I wanna hear you say it.”
He chuckled, and the small hairs on her nape rose.
“As I said to your swain, I’m not certain of the mechanics behind it, but the fact remains that when one of our kind drinks the blood of a Havers’s resident, the virus mutates.
” He ran his long fingers down the side of his gaunt face, indicating his tatuaj.
“At first, the lines darken, then they become blurred. Once that occurs, it allows one to incrementally access the other tribes’ abilities.
Shadow walking, for instance, then perhaps exploding into a mischief of rats or the ability to compel.
I’ve only gained access to them all within the last hundred years, but then, I prefer madness to the taste of blood.
I can only imagine it would have happened somewhat quicker had I been a connoisseur. ”
Ophelia shivered, knowing far too many at the Citadel who were. No wonder Vesper was so pissed about the lawsuit falling through. If every member of the Crimson Guard had access to all the tribes’ abilities, they’d be unstoppable.
Not that they were anything to sneeze at now.
Thaddeus chuckled again. “I see you’ve grasped the gravity of the situation.
My ability to utilize the totality of the tribes’ powers has allowed me to keep the vampire queen and her minions from Havers quite effectively.
But, as you can imagine, that’s only whetted her appetite, and it’s no secret that my mental faculties can be…
erratic. After you’d pledged to the node, it was my hope that you would reap similar benefits by imbibing and be able to ‘share the load,’ as it were.
However, the complete disappearance of your tatuaj is fascinating.
Humor me, my dear, have you noted any other changes? ”
How the hell could he be so nonchalant? And um, hello, what about consent? She glowered at him. She wasn’t his goddamned of lab rat or anyone else’s. “Why wouldn’t you tell me about this?”
“To what purpose?” He shrugged. “The mutation was going to happen regardless. You’re bound to the node, and it isn’t like you’d be able to airdrop in a steady supply of blood from elsewhere.”
Ophelia frowned. Actually, she was pretty sure she could’ve. “Goddamn you, Thaddeus.”
He flinched and then a wondrous smile broke over his face. “Well now, that’s new. You’ve broken free of Him.” Ophelia shrugged, trying to blow off the abrupt sheen of sweat stippling her brow. The vampire templed his fingers. “Ah…what to do, what to do…”
Fear tripped up her spine at his tone. “What do you mean, ‘what to do?’”
“Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it? Here I’ve been preventing Vesper from attaining the one thing that could possibly bring her back to me. This could be a cure, a true cure, for vampirism,” he mused.
“No.” Ophelia shook her head, vehemently disagreeing. “If that was the case, I’d be dead and wouldn’t have these,” she said, baring her fangs. “And even if it did cure vampirism, Vesper would still be a psycho.” Along with every other vampire, as far as Ophelia was concerned.
“Mmm. Well, there is that. Do you know why she wants to kill you, child?” He smiled gruesomely at her silence.
“You and the rest of the Dam? are all the little queen bees the virus has spawned to fly far, far away and perpetuate our kind. Granted, in this day and age, that’s somewhat flawed when modern medical advances such as the VA vaccine are taken into account, but regardless, nature continues to do as it originally intended. ”
“Then why doesn’t she just kill us?” Ophelia asked, trying to keep him on track.
His brows furrowed and his eyes slowly refocused on her.
“Hmm? Oh. Killing the Dam? is an exercise in futility. More are just created in their place, and no one knows exactly when and where that will happen.” He shook his head.
“No, much better to gather them close beneath her watchful eye and grind their wills to dust. Clip their wings before they can fly, hey? How surprised she must’ve been when you challenged her rule after a decade beneath her boot. ”
Surprised wasn’t what Ophelia would call it, and technically she’d only wanted to kill Kremlyn, but she wasn’t going to argue about it. “You know they’re coming, Kremlyn and Vesper, tonight. They want to kill you, too.”
“Oh, yes. I am aware. ‘They have proclaim’d their malefactions; for murder, though it have no tongue, will speak with most miraculous organ.’ Act two Scene two, Hamlet.
” Thaddeus gave a pained sigh. “But what they want and what they’ll get remains to be seen.
Knowing that it’s possible to feel the creator’s light upon my face again gives me a certain…
incentive to thwart their desires.” He looked thoughtful for a moment.
“And you, my child, need to be kept out of it. Vesper can’t know what’s possible. She can’t see what you’ve become.”
“What is that?” Ophelia asked plaintively.
“Hope, Ophelia. You are hope.” Thaddeus stood, looking to the far end of his study. “Take good care of her, Gideon Sperry née Spallou. I fear if left to chance, the fates will not be kind.” The ancient vampire inclined his head, stepped into a shadow, and vanished.
Ophelia sat in shock as Gideon’s heavy footsteps approached from behind her. His hand fell upon her shoulder.
“Did you hear all of that?” she rasped.
“Enough. Are you all right?”
She shook her head, chewing her lips. “No.” And she wasn’t sure if she would be ever again. What had she become?
He sighed and held a hand out to her. “Come. Let’s get you someplace safe. Chase seems to think that short of the standing stones at the node, that’s the Witchery, and, as sad as it is to say, it’s far more comfortable there.”
She nodded, and he helped her rise, drawing her into his arms. Ophelia buried her face against his broad chest, the implications of what Thaddeus had said clattering through her mind.
Did she really have access to all the tribe’s abilities?
She didn’t even know what half of them were, and the ones she did…
She shook her head. It was too much. Too monstrous.
And Thaddeus was right. Vesper could never find out.
Gideon kissed the top of her head and led her out of the library. She blinked at the bright sunlight and paused for a moment to get her bearings. He turned to look at her, his long coat sweeping to the side.
She snickered. “What the hell are you wearing?”
“Hmm? This?” he asked, running a hand down the buttons of a worn flannel shirt with blue and green moose printed all over it. It was tucked into a pair of ill-fitting jeans that had seen way better days. “Why, it’s nothing but the very finest in redneck chic.”
Ophelia laughed. “Tell me someone took a picture.”
“Not if they value their life.” He frowned, taking her hand again. “I’ve arranged for delivery of our belongings from my storage unit, but transport will take several days. Thankfully, the contents of my apartment in Klineville should arrive tomorrow. I left it in a bit of a disarray.”
Ophelia swallowed a smile, translating. That really meant that he’d lost his temper and trashed the place. “Aww. And here I was thinking you’re kind of cute as a lumberjack.”
He snorted. “Then I’d suggest you enjoy it while you can.”
Wait a minute. Her steps slowed. Their apartment had been over three thousand square feet, and they’d been planning on moving somewhere larger after the wedding.
No way would a room at that crappy little bed and breakfast have enough space to fit half of what had been in his closet, never mind hers. “Where are we going to put everything?”
“Ah. I’ve procured alternate lodgings, and actually…” He craned his neck. “There. You see that stone building at the top of the hill?”
Ophelia popped up on her tip-toes to look where he was pointing. “The church?”
“No, that. There, the vicarage beside it. I made an offer yesterday, and the acceptance came through late last night.”
“You bought a house?” She stared at him in shock, hoping her new ability to speak all things divine carried over to stepping onto hallowed ground.
Not that he’d know that. It wasn’t something Vampires advertised, but no matter how cute the house looked, the potential of bursting into flames was gonna be a deal-breaker.
“I did.” His eyebrows knit and he put his hands on her shoulders. “If you don’t like it, we can look for something else, but in the meantime, my preference is not a bare mattress in a library basement or someplace stinking of fish.”