Immortal Confessions (31 page)

“Haven,” I corrected.

“Hayden sounds better,” she said with a
smile. “After that night, I couldn’t see further, no matter what I
tried. But I did what I could to minimize the effects of what I did
see, so you and Anna didn’t end up dead, you or any of your
friends.”

“I thank you for that,” I said gently,
kissing her again.

She pushed me back. “I’m not finished! When
my visions ended, I asked you what you wanted most and tried to
give it to you. Then everything fell apart.” She paused, and then
she tentatively reached up to caress my face. “But I can see now,
Devlin. I can see it all, right to the end.”

“You see my death?” I said, relieved. “Tell
me how long that cat’s going to live, please. I can’t stand another
twenty years.”

“You are going to live easily ten times
that,” Rene said, hugging me tightly. “And there will be friends,
good friends. Some will come in surprising forms. But there will be
terrible enemies, too.”

I was dismayed, but maybe she was just trying
to make me feel better. “And is there a woman?” I said, stroking
her hair.

“Many,” she said, grinning widely. “But only
one besides Anna you’ll love.”

I felt irritated, as she probably was trying
to make a reference to herself. “Not likely—”

“You’ll know her, Dev,” she whispered gently.
“When the time comes, you will know it’s her, if you remember my
words.”

It sounded as if she was talking of some
other woman far in my future. That made me nervous. “Enough talk,
Rene. Let us not waste any more of this day with words.”

I expected her to protest, to tell me I was
being an ass. Instead, she kissed me passionately, and then began
to work me in her hand.

No one had touched me like that in years, and
I stiffened immediately. Rene straddled me, even as I strained to
get deeper inside her, wanting to lose myself in her. A few moments
later, we were again spent, and gasping.

“Are you so fast usually?” she said, giving
me an amused look.

“Are you?” I retorted.

“I have not been with a man since first
meeting you,” she said with a fulfilled sigh. “So yes, I am out of
practice.”

I smiled a little at her, and held her warm
body to mine.

“Lie still,” she said gently. “Don’t
move.”

She began to kiss me. Then she worked her way
lower, until I felt her lips touch my manhood. I tensed up from the
shock of it, and she laughed seductively.

“Shh,” she said tenderly. “I’ll not hurt
you.”

I felt her slip her lips over me, and then
her sucking gently, as she stroked me with her tongue.

There are no words to describe it physically,
if you aren’t a man. It is like being worshipped, to feel a woman
touch you lovingly so intimately, to trust her that much, to let
her hold all that makes you man in her hand and choose to make love
to you, instead of hurting you. It is the only way a powerful man
can feel truly vulnerable, can allow himself to lose control. I
have never understood some women’s disgust at the act, or their
reluctance to perform it. I can only say thank God that not all
women feel that way.

I had not felt a woman touch me like that
since I was mortal. I went crazy, moaning and crying out, tearing
the rug beneath me as she loved me. She felt my orgasm was near,
and she slid down, taking all of me into her mouth. I tried to
stop, reaching down to dislodge her. I was larger than the average
man, and besides that, I was a powerful vampire. I could hurt her
easily if I came in her, and I might not have loved her, but I sure
as hell didn’t want to cause her pain.

Rene took my hands and pushed them away,
still licking and sucking me. I decided with a groan that she was
old enough to know what she was doing and gave into my orgasm. It
hit me like a freight train and I buried myself in her throat,
shouting out my pleasure in her as she swallowed me down like
water. I was panting hard as she gently suckled me, and then let me
slip from her mouth.

She looked down at me, her eyes devouring me.
“Long time?”

“More than two hundred years,” I said
shakily. “So yes.”

“Do you want more?” she said huskily. “I’m
not tired, Dev. And I enjoy this act.”

“Please,” I said, tears clouding my eyes.
“But come here first and let me kiss you.”

Rene said nothing; she just came into my
arms. We made love the rest of the day, there before her fire.

I woke up at dusk, feeling like I’d been
staked. Then I remembered everything that had happened, and choked
back a sob. I looked down to see Rene nestled close to me, her arms
around me as mine were around her.

Was this fair to her? She apparently believed
we were soul mates of some kind, while I’d bedded her solely to
escape my overwhelming grief. I was not over Anna, just because
Rene and I had spent the past day making love. If I lived another
two hundred years, I likely still wouldn’t be.

But Rene wasn’t a girl; she was at least
fifty, according to what Uther had said he knew of her. She clearly
had known men before me also, maybe even been married to one and
lost him, in that twenty years she had given up on finding me.

I looked down at her, and stroked her cheek.
She sighed softly, nuzzling closer.

To Hell with it. She cared about me, and she
had moved heaven and hell to help me. I’d enjoyed last night as
much as she had, if not more. If being with me like this pleased
her, then we’d be like this, until I went into the sun.

An hour later, Rene let loose a deep sigh and
opened her eyes.

“Do you regret being with me as we were?” she
said hesitantly.

I tried to come up with any answer that
didn’t sound insulting that was still true. “I enjoyed being with
you very much.”

“That’s not what I asked,” she said gently.
“I need to know if we are going to be lovers from now on, or if you
want not to be.”

“I want to be, if you want that,” I said,
moving my head in to kiss her neck gently.

“I do want that,” she said, relieved. Then
she kissed me chastely and got up. “Come, we’ve much to do.”

“What must we do?” I said, as I watched her
put her shift back on.

“Uther killed Cavedweller and his men, though
he lost twenty of his own people. But Titus knows Anna is dead, and
he will have no choice but to report that to Joshua in a few days
time. Then Joshua will send his men here to take you back to him
for punishment.”

I looked at her incredulously. “I’ve lost my
only love, and you’re telling me I’m to be punished for it?”

Rene slipped her cloak over her head, and
then nodded. “Joshua is a vindictive man, and evil one. He has only
been ruling this country for a decade or so. He is close to your
age, Devlin, and worried that older vampires are going to immigrate
to this new world and overthrow him. His fear is a reason for his
evil.”

I began pulling the remnants of on my
clothes. “I still don’t understand why he would want to punish
me.”

“There was something unusual about Anna, or
about you,” Rene said seriously. “Though I am betting the former.
Joshua will want to experiment with you, to see if you can get
another woman pregnant. It won’t matter if you want to or not: you
will be made to. And that is something like punishment.”

Anger built in me that was white hot, and
almost overpowering. “You said you saw what would happen, Rene.
What do I do now?”

She faced me, her blue-green eyes worried and
anxious. “We must attack Joshua as soon as we can, before he comes
here for you. We must kill him, and you must become Ruler of this
country.”

“You mean Lord,” I corrected.

“You should not be a Lord,” she said crossly.
“Vampires do not need an aristocrat above them, issuing orders from
on high, or one fearful enough to kill any that bite a willing
human. They need someone to manage them, to rule them with a firm
hand that guides them to work with other non-human creatures, as
you did in France. But should any step out of line—any supernatural
creature that is—they should be made to pay dearly for it.” She
sighed. “It is better to kill a few very brutally for good cause,
than to have to kill many for very little reason.”

She had wisdom. “How do we accomplish this?
Uther has men left, but only fifty, at most. I am strong from all I
drank last night in France, but am I powerful enough to face Joshua
and win? I’ve not had any goblin blood for some time.”

“We will not just be facing him,” Rene said
wearily. “We will be facing Titus as well.”

I sat down heavily in a chair. “How can we
win?”

“Ravel and I will go with you,” Rene said
emotionlessly. “We will hit Titus together. I have a plan. If you
act fast, you will be able to kill Joshua before Titus attacks
you.”

“And his bearmen?”

“His bears can be dealt with,” Rene said. “I
have a plan for that, too. But he has one of those ranked assassins
himself. And Henry is not fifth, but third. He is the one we must
be careful of.”

“We cannot win,” I said in an old voice. “No
with so few fighters. Not against this amount of experience.”

“There will be deaths,” she said sadly. “I’m
not saying there will not be. But this is what must be.”

I looked up at her. “Can we not change this
future you saw? Is there somewhere we could go? I could pretend to
be Quentin—”

“It is not in you to run,” Rene said, without
looking up. “So don’t waste time talking about it, Dev.”

I shut up, as she was right. “Tell me what to
do.”

“Gather your courage,” she said darkly. “And
get all the money together that you can. For we need to summon a
demon darker than any you have seen. You will need to not only
bribe him, but also bind him to yourself as his master.”

* * * *

An hour later, Rene cast a circle, Uther,
Ravel, and myself standing nervously by. She summoned a demon that
was almost biblical in his appearance: horned, hooved, and wearing
a loincloth of human skin.

He fought us coming out. Even when we had him
out of hell, his skin sending up curls of smoke as he lay on his
side before us, he looked up at us with hate.

“I will not serve you, witch!” he rumbled in
a deep voice. “Set me free, or I will kill you!”

“You will serve us,” Rene spat at him. “Get
to your feet, Shaker. Come forth and take the proffered blood from
your master-to-be.”

Shaker got to his feet, and came toward me.
But he would not take my blood.

“I know you want me to go against Titus,” he
rumbled. “I will not, Rene. He is my brother. You cannot pay me
enough to make me do it. As it is, Rip is back in Hell now. Titus
could not keep him from you, and also keep him out of Hell, as his
current master forbade him letting Rip go.” He bared his rows of
teeth at her. “I do not like listening to him screaming in the hot
blackness of the pit.”

“Do not tell me what I’ve already guessed,”
Rene said sharply. “Let us make a pact. We do not want you to go
after Titus. We want you to kill Henry, the werebear guarding
Joshua.”

“And Joshua will be next, and then Titus will
be back in Hell with Rip,” Shaker said angrily. “I will not do that
to him.”

“Not even to get out of Hell?”

“No,” he replied to her. “I will not betray
him.”

Would that Danial had been so loyal me as
this demon was to his kin. I felt a pang.

“I will sweeten the deal,” Rene said softly.
“You may take my soul, if you do this. That will buy you some time
out of Hell.”

Shaker looked at her thoughtfully. “You know
I’ll not take the blood bond. I do not want to be down in Hell for
backing the wrong vampire.”

“Agreed. But Lucifer and I will hear your
agreement to the words I’ve spoken, before I free you. He will hold
you to it, even if I don’t have the power to.”

Shaker studied her. “Agreed.”

“Come out of the circle,” Rene said with a
gesture. “You are free, Shaker.”

I half expected him to try to kill her, as he
threatened to. I wondered if I could fight him off if he did. To my
surprise, he just nodded and came to stand beside us.

“What is the plan, Rene?”

“Teleport with us to Joshua’s domain. Kill
everything that stands in our way, and help us break though Titus’s
magical barriers.”

“I will not fight him.”

“You will not have to. Just do as we
asked.”

“Okay,” Shaker said. “When are we
leaving?”

“Tomorrow at dusk,” Rene said. “Be here
then.”

Shaker nodded, and disappeared.

I relaxed, feeling all that demon evil
dissipate in the room.

Ravel immediately turned on Rene. “Sister, do
not do this! You will burn in Hell!”

“I must do this, Ravel,” she said in a voice
of iron.

Ravel faced me, and narrowed his eyes. “This
is your fault, vampire. She’s going to damn herself for you! I was
wrong to think you were a nobleman, to let a woman burn in Hell in
your stead!”

He strode to the door, and went out, slamming
it behind him.

Uther turned to Rene and I. “I do not doubt
your abilities, Rene,” he rasped. “But if we lose, my people will
be in harm’s way. Before I commit to this, I want you to teleport
all of my women and children to safety, along with some of the
men.”

“We need your men,” Rene said wearily.
“Please, Uther.”

“I have given enough blood of my people,”
Uther rasped a little angrily. “I joined Devlin to stop the
killing. More of my people have been killed in his service than
were ever killed mistakenly as vampires!”

“That is true,” I said remorsefully. “Please
do as he asks, Rene. Our battle tomorrow will not be won or lost
because we had a few less men.”

Rene gritted her teeth, but she nodded. “It
will be done.”

Uther nodded to me, and then he left.