A Vampire's Claim (58 page)

As Thomas had joined them with a lantern, Dev quickly shifted his focus to Danny. She’d backed away from the fallen body, and was peering through the darkness. She was looking for him. Her clothes and face were splattered with blood, her midriff soaked.

With an oath, he was moving toward her, heedless of any other threat now. When the sword dropped from her hand and she fell to one knee, holding her abdomen, he was there, holding it with her. Blood oozed around their tangled fingers.

“Bloody hell, that hurts,” she said.

25

R
AIN at last came, as if it had only been waiting to lash the courtyard and the fallen body, the gruesome staring head. Despite the fleeting feeling of amusement Dev felt from his lady, he insisted on carrying her, and wasn’t sure he was wrong about it. She was weak again, and he didn’t believe it was all from the stomach wound. With a savage wave of fury that made him want to kick the head across the courtyard for extra measure, he realized whatever Ruskin had done to her in the hours before their duel was going to take some time to rejuvenate her fully. His blood and Lyssa’s had carried her through this, though. Just.

He took her to a couch in the nearest room, which appeared to be a study. He heard Lyssa ordering the servants to bring them some wine while Alistair instructed the four vampires on the disposal of Ruskin, and other matters.

“Until the Council rules one way or another, that woman is your acting Region Master,” he heard the vampire lord’s warning. “So I’d pay particular attention to the things she wants, or it’s likely to be your head rolling around that courtyard.”

Danny made a noise of protest as Dev lifted the shirt. The stomach wound would have eviscerated a human. The kind of wound he’d seen men die of, in agony. Her free hand shifted, laid on his.

It’s fine, Dev. We just need to bind it up to hold everything in.
“I hate to ask”—she gave a weak smile—“but if I can get some more blood, it should knit up, good as new.”

“You don’t ask a servant for blood. You take it,” Lyssa said shortly, materializing at his elbow like a malevolent dark witch, her hair brushing Dev’s arm. “Here. The household staff provided us bandages. Apparently they have frequent need of them.”

“Don’t be angry,” Danny said. “And don’t take it out on him.”

“You would be wise to say as little as possible to me,” Lyssa said, pinning the younger vampire with a dangerous look. “Until I decide not to kill you myself.”

“She’s right, though,” Dev said, cupping Danny’s face, drawing her attention. “It’s past time for asking.”

Danny closed her eyes. “Bandage the wound first.”

It wasn’t easy, for it did hurt her terribly. He had to steel himself to her gasps, her death grip on Lyssa’s hand, vampire bones the only ones resilient enough to take her grip as he and Thomas worked as quickly as possible. Nina proved a competent nurse as they wrapped the gaping wound tightly so the skin could mend without her insides dropping out, something that would disconcert him greatly, whatever Danny herself felt about it.

As they cleaned her up, though, Dev noted bruising, gashes that were half healed. Teeth marks.
What the hell . . .
“These are older.” His fingers passed over them. “Why aren’t they healed?”

“When I take blood, I can divert the energy from healing to physical strength, when I need it.” She lifted a shoulder. “Given the situation, I thought it might be best to augment my strength for the fight.”

“They will take longer to heal, as a result.” Lyssa bent to take a closer look herself. “But still within a few days. How did he do this?”

Alistair came in then, and regardless of the sense it made, Dev shifted her shirt to cover the lace-covered breasts. The male vampire drew Nina close to his side to slip an arm around her, offer a tender squeeze of reassurance before he nodded her toward a chair.

“Danny,” Lyssa repeated with far less patience.

Dev thought it odd to see Danny hesitate the way she did now, waiting for Nina to get seated. Then he saw the shadows gathering in her eyes and understood. She wasn’t trying to avoid Lyssa’s question. She just couldn’t bear to say the words, because of how she’d had to deal with it.

“The children. He put you in with the children during the day, when you should have slept.” He felt a renewed surge of rage, and his hand clenched into a fist on her leg. “That bloody bastard.”

Danny’s gaze flickered, locked on his to say the words. “I killed another handful.”

“You had to do it. You know you did.”

She made a half shrug, looked down at her hands, then back up. “I’m thinking . . . Well, I’m having a daft thought, Dev.”

She spoke to him, as if no one else was in the room. It was a unique feeling, since he’d already noted that when there was more than one vampire about, servants were treated as children—best seen, not heard.

“How many are left?”

“About eight.”

They held gazes a long moment. “You think they can be tamed down.”

“I know I should kill them. It would be the most merciful thing. They’ll never grow up, never have adult bodies. But they’ve had nothing but cruelty and abandonment. I can’t do it.” She turned her attention to Lyssa. “It’s one of the things I brought to the Council, but Ruskin convinced them I’d been misinformed. They’ve been dealing with the territory war in Germany, and that was taking precedence. Ruskin changes orphans and aborigine children, uses them like a pack of hounds for his sport.”

“If you don’t kill them now, it will be much harder later on,” Lyssa said impassively as Alistair muttered an oath.

“We all have the option of walking into the sun, when we’re in sound mind to make that decision,” Danny responded slowly. “I’d like to give them more of a life than what they’ve had, let them make that decision for themselves. Will you give me that right?”

Lyssa exchanged a long glance with Alistair. “Well,” the vampire queen said at last. “As we know, I am merely a powerless figurehead. Who am I to make such a call?”

Danny smiled as Alistair snorted. “You are Region Master of the Northwest Territory now,” he said to Danny. “Or will be, if Lady Lyssa and I have anything to say about it. As such, it is your call.”

Dev felt some of the tension leave her body. Her fingers twined with his, drawing his attention back to her tired face. “I’m thinking Elisa and Willis might help us care for them. If we get the children’s bloodlust under control, then the two of them can help take care of them, until they mature enough to need individual servants.” A glimmer of something that might have been humor, if it hadn’t been clouded by shadows of the past day, passed through her blue eyes. “Your job managing my sheep will include an additional herd, I’m afraid. A far more unpredictable one.”

“We can negotiate better wages later. I expected the job to be a bit different than most.”

“They’ll never grow up. Never sexually mature,” she repeated.

“Maybe that’s a good thing. A man’s pecker can make him do a lot of daft things. Like fall in with a sharp-toothed sheila.”

She gave him a narrow look. “Here I was thinking it was your overdeveloped sense of honor that gets you in such trouble.”

“Pot calling the kettle black, love. Let me give you more blood.” He was worried that she seemed to be getting noticeably paler.

“Not quite yet.” Drawing a deep breath, Danny moved her attention back to Lyssa’s dark eyes, the rim of green iris a faint glow of emerald fire in the candlelight. “I have a feeling my lady Lyssa has other things to say to me, and that she might be kinder about them if she feels I’m not up to full strength.”

“You ascribe qualities of mercy to me I may not have, Lady D,” Lyssa remarked. She glanced at Alistair. “My lord, will you please go check on these children? I want another set of eyes to confirm Ruskin’s actions, to help with our report to the Council, which will include what I expect was an unsanctioned making of these four vampires. You will need to accompany me and Lady Danny to Berlin, when she accounts for this matter. I will watch after Nina while you’re checking the grounds,” she added, glancing toward the woman.

Alistair nodded and withdrew. Then Lyssa looked toward Dev. Anticipating, he shook his head. “Danny needs blood,” he said stubbornly.

Dev.

“And your lady
Daniela
will have it. But you will obey my direction. Go stand there.” Lyssa pointed to the other side of the door where Thomas had slipped in and taken up a silent post. When she looked in his direction, he spoke.

“Aapti was in the upper chamber, my lady. She died in her bed, it appears.”

It jolted Dev, the reminder that the death of a vampire meant the loss of more than one life, though he was more concerned about the additional pain that crossed his lady’s face. Surely she’d weighed the consequences of her actions. But it didn’t make it easier, he knew.

“Go to the door, Devlin,” Lyssa said, and that cold note was in her voice. “You may stay in this room, not because you’ve done anything to deserve it, but because I want you to hear what I say to your Mistress. Perhaps between the two of you, you will have enough sense to survive another decade or so.”

Go, Dev. Do as she says. I’m all right.

Though he had his doubts about that, Dev rose. As he did, a hint of sharp fang appeared beneath Lyssa’s curled lip. “Given the evening’s circumstances, I will let your defiance pass. But never again refuse a vampire that outranks your Mistress, unless it is at her direction you do so. You may deprive her of a servant in as little time as it takes to rip a man’s heart out of his chest.” Her eyes held his so intently Dev felt pinned by the hypnotic gaze of a serpent. “And believe me, it takes
very
little time.”

“Lyssa.” Danny struggled up to her elbows. Dev wanted to help her, but before he could step forward, Thomas’s hand was on his arm, drawing him back.

“Don’t be an idiot,” he muttered. “In this mood, my lady is apt to put you through a wall. And your head could cause these walls serious damage.”

He saw then that Lyssa had moved in, helped Danny to rise. With some pride in his sheila, however, he saw she shook her head at further assistance, putting her feet to the floor and bracing herself in the upright position, though it looked as if a feather could knock her down.

Despite that, and the fact her torn and bloody shirt was still open, she sat straight and tall, unconcerned about her appearance. “I am at your disposal, my lady Lyssa,” she said.

“You are at the end of my last nerve, is what you are. You came here, by yourself, thinking that you could outwit a five-hundred-year-old vampire into playing a game by your rules.”

“Yes, my lady.”

“Do I need you to confirm the obvious? Don’t speak until I give you leave to do so. The problem with born vampires is they’re often overly spoiled by their parents, leading them to overconfidence in their abilities.”

Dev noted, with some relief, that while Danny’s eyes flashed, she pressed her lips together and remained silent. Even Thomas seemed tense and alert, not a good sign. She’d held her own, though, damn it. Lyssa had to give her that.

As if she heard him, the vampiress continued. “You have great potential, Danny. I know your desires are simple ones. But my hope is that you have now learned we only have any peace and enjoyment in our lives if the remaining ninety percent of our time we remain vigilant. You have finally grown up enough to take a servant.” She glanced toward Dev. “He seems to have the mettle, and perhaps a stable core that will help balance your flightier moments.”

“With all due respect, my lady, I thought my actions through thoroughly.”

“Did you now?” Lyssa eyed her with a cringe-worthy disdain. “So you told the Council your complaints about Ruskin. When they did not respond the way you wished, your backup plan was to come back here and launch a one-woman vigilante strike against him. Oh, and as a side matter, dispatch your mother’s lover. It succeeded, only because of your servant’s loyalty to you, as well as my regard and Alistair’s, and that was all luck. If we had arrived an hour later, you would have been defeated, and you would have been Lord Charles’s to punish for however many decades he felt it necessary to underscore his authority in this territory.”

Lyssa rose then, paced across the room. Dev didn’t need any help from Thomas this time to know it would be wise to try to blend with the wall as much as possible. When the ancient vampire turned back, Danny was staring at the wall, but there was a misery to her face.

“I am sorry to have disappointed you, Lady Lyssa. I . . . I never wished to take advantage of our friendship. I hold it a great honor.

Dev shouldn’t have—”

“Dev did exactly what he should have done. It is you who failed in this instance. You could have tried again with the Council,”

Lyssa said curtly. “Visited Region Masters such as Alistair. Brought them here as unexpected guests during this upcoming gathering Ruskin was planning. Let them see the children, then bring them to speak before the Council with you. I was visiting, and had I seen them, I would have lent my voice to your appeal. Patience is an important virtue for vampires, Danny.”

“They didn’t have that kind of time, my lady. He was taking more children to replace those he lost during his hunts.”

“You are noble, but a dead noble idiot serves no one. Intolerable suffering occurs every moment, Lady D. Stopping any instance of it, effectively, permanently, often requires planning. Time.
Patience.
”

Dev had changed his mind. He didn’t like Lyssa’s ability to bring the temperature of a room down to arctic levels at all.

“Through our help, you are now Region Master, able to assist in a far more potent way.” She sighed, made another lap around the room and stared out the window. “But if you insist on acting in this impetuous manner, it will be taken from you in no time. So I am faced with the interesting question of whether you are ready for the position you’ve just taken by force. Or if I should recommend to the Council that you be chastened for your rash act and relegated to a territory in Europe where we can keep a closer eye on you.”