Bloodline (Whyborne & Griffin Book 5) (13 page)

“All of which occurred in just two years?” Fiona laughed.
“Face it, cousin—this town is a bloody nightmare. I propose we relocate
here and help you scour the place clean.”

Did I want that? Their company, certainly. Having other
sorcerers about to learn from, to discuss things with, had lightened the last
few dark days since Guinevere’s death. And certainly Widdershins did have its
share of troublesome inhabitants, some of whom were surely behind the high
incidence of grave-robbing and missing persons. Until now, I’d only reacted
whenever their evil boiled over in such a way as to become unavoidable.

But I could do better. I’d sworn to use my sorcery to
protect those I loved—wouldn’t my oath be better served by taking action?
By hunting down threats before they got out of control, as the Endicotts did?

“It would be a great deal to ask,” I said slowly. “But I
won’t lie. I’d be grateful for your assistance, now and in the future.”

“Splendid.” Fiona linked arms with Theo and me. “It’s
getting dark, and we can barely see the map anymore. Let’s leave off work and
celebrate our decision to move to the colonies!”

“I’m not sure I can. Griffin is expecting me home, and…” I
trailed off.

Theo laughed. “And you’re not sure he would want to
celebrate having us become long-term residents?”

“Send him a note,” Fiona suggested. “Tell him you’re busy at
the museum. Then the three of us can enjoy ourselves without him glowering from
across the table.”

“Surely our time would be better spent doing research, or…or
something,” I said uncertainly.

Theo came around my other side and slung his arm across my
shoulders. “Life is for living, old chap. In our line of work, we could die any
day. If we never take even one evening to enjoy ourselves, then what’s the
point?”

How different we were! I’d never been one for the usual
entertainments…but perhaps it was simply because I’d never had companions such
as them.

“Please,” Fiona wheedled. “We’ll be ever so bored without
you.”

“Well…all right, then.”

“Brilliant!” She hauled on my arm, pulling me toward the
nearest cab. “This is going to be fun.”

We dined at Le Calmar, even though I wasn’t dressed for such
an expensive restaurant. But I’d sent Griffin a note claiming I worked late
with Christine on the matter of the Hallowe’en tours, so I could hardly go home
and change first. Still, Theo lent me a nicer tie and cufflinks, although the
coat I tried on at his urging was hopelessly too short in the arms.

The twins’ appearances and my name made up for my simple
attire, however, and we were soon seated and served. The champagne flowed
freely, as did the conversation. The twins had a wealth of stories from their
exploits back home in the British Isles.

“…so we entered the cave,” Theo said, as we finished up our
desert of pumpkin pie, “and see this
hag
—and I mean that
literally.”

“She had blue skin,” Fiona put in, signaling the waiter for
more champagne. “Blue! Why would anyone want to turn themselves into something that
looks like a walking bruise?”

“I doubt she was as concerned about fashion as
some
people,” Theo said. “At any rate, Uncle Ned, the great ox, charges in with his
ridiculous ax.”

“He cuts her head clean off.” Fiona made a gleeful chopping
motion with her hand. “But of course it doesn’t do any good. You’d think the
man had never seen a hag before.”

“You’re having a joke at my expense,” I protested. Some of
the champagne’s bubbles seemed to have made it into my head, leaving me light
and relaxed.

“Not at all. One has to cut out their
hearts,”
Theo
said. “Decapitation only makes them angry.”

Fiona leaned over the table. “So the body is strangling
Uncle Ned, and meanwhile the village children the hag hasn’t gotten around to
eating yet start attacking
us,
the rotten little blighters.”

“They were ensorcelled,” Theo pointed out.

“Meanwhile, the head is screaming at the top of its lungs.”

“Not to suggest it had any lungs attached at the moment.”

“And I’ve got a bloody headache, so I just grabbed the thing
and chucked it right out of the cave.”

Theo grinned. “I look up, and here goes the head, flying off
into the valley below, still screeching away. Well, it made things easier,
since the hag couldn’t see us anymore, so directing its body to attack didn’t
work half so well. We got the job done, but I still have a scar where one of
the blasted children bit me.”

I shook my head in amazement. “You’ve had such interesting
lives. And not just the terrifying bits, but the rest of it. Boating, horseback
riding, fencing.”

“Well, we’re not having an interesting time right now,”
Fiona said, finishing off her champagne. “I’m bored. Let’s go find a proper pub
where we can have a bit of fun. Some of the places near the docks looked
likely.”

“Oh, no, they aren’t,” I said hastily. “They aren’t at all
respectable.”

Theo winked at me. “Exactly.”

A short time later, we stood on the sidewalk outside the restaurant.
“I’m not certain you’ve both thought this course through,” I said as Fiona
surveyed the street for a cab. “Your reputation, Fiona—”

Theo put a hand to my shoulder. “Percival. If we’re to live
here for a time, the sooner the inhabitants learn not to play such games with
us, the better.”

“We aren’t high society,” Fiona explained. “We’re
above
society. Now do stop fretting.”

“I’m not sure our Percival knows how to stop fretting.” Theo
smiled to take the sting from the words. “You need to have balance in your life,
old chap. Tell us what you ordinarily do for fun.”

“Cryptography. Reading—usually philological journals,
of course. Um, bird watching.”

“So ‘nothing,’ then,” Fiona said with a grin of her own.

“Hush, Fi. What about when you were a child?” Theo asked.

No one had asked me such personal questions since I’d first
met Griffin. At the time, I’d thought him impertinent. “Er…the same,” I
admitted.

The twins glanced at each other, and their grins grew. “When
you were a boy, you never, say, hung onto the back of a coach and laughed when
the driver tried to dislodge you from getting a free ride?” Theo asked.

“Certainly not!”

Before I could even think to protest, they each took one of
my arms and broke into a run, hauling me with them. To my horror, they made for
the back of a moving omnibus. “No, stop!”

“Get ready to grab hold, cousin!” Fiona shouted.

If I didn’t leap with them, I’d drag us all down into the
street and probably end up run over by one of the cabs racing back and forth.
With a strangled cry, I jumped when they did. My hands closed on the rail, and
my shoes found purchase on the step.

The wind rushed into our faces, and the other passengers
stared in shock, probably wondering what three grown adults in evening dress
were doing clinging to the rail like schoolboys. Fiona grabbed her hat to keep
it on her head, laughing and holding on to the rail with only one hand. “You’re
both mad!” I exclaimed, but I couldn’t help but laugh as well.

“Indeed we are.” Theo agreed. “Uh oh, looks like our ride is
at an end!”

Indeed, the conductor stormed toward us with a murderous
look. Fiona dropped easily off, and Theo and I followed a moment later. My ears
ached from the cold wind, and my blood surged in my veins. “I never thought I’d
dare do such a thing!”

Theo put a friendly hand on my arm. “Dare, Percival. We face
horrors for the sake of humankind, but during the times between, in the
ordinary world, we live without fear.”

“Live without fear,” I repeated. I nearly couldn’t imagine
it…and yet in their laughter and joy in life, I felt I could almost see it,
spreading out before me, filled with endless possibility. To do whatever I
wished, whenever I wished…to not care what the director, or the museum
president, or Father, or society thought of me…

“Come.” Fiona grasped my hand and tugged impatiently at me.
“Let’s hail a cab and find a pub. The first round is on me.”

~ * ~

An hour later, I sat at one of the tables in the Barndoor
Skate saloon, combining several smaller piles of money into a larger one.

Theo shook his head. “Warn a chap next time, won’t you? I
wouldn’t have sat down to play if I’d known you were a master hand.”

I smiled smugly. Although Griffin and I sometimes played at
cards, it was mainly to keep his skills sharp should he have to visit a
gambling hall in the course of his investigations. Christine didn’t enjoy cards
at all, which meant my only opposition came during my infrequent visits home.

“Mother taught me,” I explained.

“Thank you for managing to make my utter defeat even more
humiliating,” Theo said. “I’ve been trounced by a man whose invalid mother
taught him to play poker.”

A bit to my surprise, I’d actually enjoyed the evening. Some
of it might have been from the card game, and some from the whiskey currently
warming my blood. The other two men playing cards with us didn’t look as if
they were having a very good time, but I didn’t care. I doubted Theo did
either.

We’d compromised by coming to a saloon I knew to be
respectable enough we wouldn’t have to worry about our safety while inside.
Fiona had immediately hopped up onto a seat at the bar and challenged the man
beside her to buy her a drink. And it had indeed been delivered as a challenge
rather than an invitation. The poor fellow had no idea what to do, confronted
by a well-dressed Englishwoman demanding whiskey in a saloon, so he’d wisely
complied.

Now a burst of laughter and song came from the end of the
bar. Theo shook his head in mock despair. “She’ll be at it all night if we let
her. Best you gather your winnings and we go, before I’m reducing to wagering
articles of clothing.”

Like an idiot, I blushed, and hoped no one else noticed. “We
can’t have that,” I agreed, and began to pocket my winnings. “Gentlemen, thank
you for your time.”

One of the men grabbed my wrist. I stilled, the whiskey
turning sour in my belly. “You can’t leave,” he said, and his previously
friendly voice now took on a threatening air. “You’ve got to give us a chance
to win some back.”

“Those weren’t the rules,” Theo said. “My friend has to get
home soon, or else his excuse of working late will strain credulity.”

Thankfully, the man let go of me. His companion leaned over
and whispered something in his ear as we made our way to the bar. I hoped it
had nothing to do with us.

“Come along, sister mine,” Theo said, catching Fiona by the
arm.

She hopped off the bar stool with no signs of impairment.
“Good night, gentlemen!” she called gaily. One or two began to protest, but she
ignored them, and we made our way outside.

“Now wasn’t the evening much more interesting?” Theo asked.
“And you came out a richer man.”

We turned down an alleyway, which would take us back to
River Street. “Yes,” I said, and was surprised to find it true. “It was. Thank
you.”

A dark shape stepped out and blocked our path.

~ * ~

I came to a sharp halt. The sound of footsteps echoed back
the way we’d come, and we turned to see a crowd of men making their way toward
us. The other two card players were among them, along with some of those who
had been flirting with Fiona. The lone man at the other end of the alley must
have run out the back of the saloon, to give the others time to come after us.

I swallowed, my gut tightening on the whiskey I’d drunk.
“Stay back,” I ordered, and hoped I sounded more authoritative than I felt.

The dim light leaking from either end of the alley fell
across the bared blade of a knife. “Give us your money and the woman, and maybe
we’ll let you walk out of here with both your legs in one piece.”

“Oh, this will be enjoyable!” Fiona exclaimed in apparent
delight. “I want this one, and the cheeky fellow behind him, who tried to get a
hand up my skirts in the bar. Which do you want, Percival?”

Before I could even think how to respond, the first man
started forward. “That’s enough out of your mouth, you filthy whore—”

She spoke a string of words in Aklo.

Frost raced over his skin, and he let out a cry of pain. At
the same moment, footsteps sounded behind us. I turned to face the lone man at the
end of the alley. Only he wasn’t alone any more.

“Sorcery, Percival!” Theo shouted encouragement although,
from the sound of it, he had his own enemies to contend with.

I took a deep breath, and the world seemed to slow around
me. I felt the whisper of the ocean breeze against my face, sensed a rain
barrel filled with water beneath a nearby downspout, tasted the ash of a newly doused
fire.

The scars along my arm flared with heat, and a sudden gust
knocked the men’s hats off and staggered them. I caught a glimpse of a cigar
sticking out of one of their pockets, and set fire to it with a word. A moment
later, he leapt and shouted, beating at his breast as the heat scorched through
to his skin.

I laughed.

Power filled me, thrummed through my veins along with the
alcohol I’d drunk. These men had
dared
come against us? I’d saved this
wretched town, their worthless lives, twice over. They ought to be thanking me,
not attacking me in an alley and threatening my cousin.

The water in the rain barrel responded to my will, bursting
out the top like the jet of a fire hose. The stream smashed into the second
man, hurling him into the wall.

I turned, just in time to see the cobblestones ripple at
Fiona’s command, tripping one of our attackers and sending him sprawling. She
casually kicked his knife aside and put her foot on his neck, shoving him
against the ground.

The other men fled, shouting and crying. “What’s your name?”
Fiona asked the man under her heel. He started to answer, but she pressed down
harder. “I’ve changed my mind. Your name is now ‘messenger boy.’ Do you know
why?”

He stared up at us as Theo and I closed in. My heart
pounded, and I could hear the ocean in the distance, its roar echoing in my
blood.

“Please, mistress,” the man whimpered.

“Ooh, very good, messenger boy. You’re a fast learner.” She
grinned at him. “Now, you’re going to tell all of your little friends things
are going to change here in Widdershins. The Endicotts are in town now. Be nice
to us, and we can be nice back. Make yourselves our enemies, and…well. It will
be the last thing you’ll do.” She glanced over her shoulder at me. “Am I not right,
Percival?”

I could still smell the smoke from charred wool, the water
from the rain barrel. The world waited for my command; I could speak and the
universe itself would obey.

Why had I ever been afraid of men like this? Or even of the
more mannerly serpents among the upper classes, who wielded words in place of
knives? All the stupid little rules, all the stupid little fears, and I’d
let
myself be bound by them.

Well. No more.

“Absolutely right, cousin,” I agreed. “Absolutely right
indeed.”

~ * ~

I flung open the door to our house.

“Whyborne? Are you home? I’m in the parlor,” Griffin called.

Instead of answering, I locked the door, then went to the
parlor, shedding my hat, overcoat, and suit coat onto the floor as I went.
Griffin sat at his desk, bent over his account books. When I entered, he looked
up, and a puzzled smile crossed his lips. “My dear?”

I seized his shoulders and kissed him. My blood pounded in
my veins, and my cock ached from the long journey back from the alleyway. I
shoved his chair back and climbed into his lap, never breaking the kiss.

When our lips finally parted, he let out a little,
breathless laugh. “You must truly enjoy cataloging cursed objects. Have you
been drinking?”

“Christine keeps a bottle of whiskey in her desk,” I lied.
“Now less talking.”

His emerald eyes glittered. “Less talking? But whatever else
shall I do with my mouth?”