The Parasol Protectorate Boxed Set (95 page)

“Ah, my little cherry blossom, we were all playing blind. This is
not
your fault.”

“Do you really find me cursed and disgusting now?” Biffy's voice was very small.

Driven beyond his instincts, the vampire pulled the newly made werewolf against him—one predator consoling another, as unnatural
as a snake attempting to comfort a house cat.

Biffy rested his dark head on Lord Akeldama's shoulder. The vampire twisted his perfect lips together and looked up at the
ceiling, blinked, and then looked away. Through the fall of the vampire's blond hair, Professor Lyall caught a glimpse of
his face.

Ah, oh dear, he really did love him.
The Beta pressed two fingers against his own eyes as though he might stopper up the tears in theirs.
Curses.

Love, of all eccentricities among the supernatural set, was the most embarrassing and the least talked about or expected.
But Lord Akeldama's face, for all its icy beauty, was drawn with genuine loss into a kind of carved marble agony.

Professor Lyall was an immortal; he knew what it was to lose a loved one. He could not leave the room, not with so many important
BUR documents scattered about, but he did turn away and put on a show of busily organizing stacks of paperwork, attempting
to provide the two men some modicum of privacy.

He heard a rustle—Lord Akeldama sitting down upon the couch next to his former drone.

“My dearest boy,
of course
I do not find you disgusting—although, we must really have a serious discussion about this beard of yours. That was only
a little turn of phrase, perhaps a bit of an exaggeration. You see, I did so look forward to the possibility of having you
by my side as one of us. Joined to the old fang-and-swill club and all that.”

A sniff from Biffy.

“If anything, this is
my
fault. I should have kept a better watch. I should not have fallen for his tricks or sent you in against him. I should not
have allowed your disappearance to cause me to panic and swarm. I ought to have recognized the signs of a game in play against
me and mine. But who would have believed my own kind—another vampire, another
rove
—would steal from me?
Me
! My
sweet
citron, I did not see the pattern. I did not
see how desperate he was. I forgot that sometimes the information I carry in my own head is more valuable than the daily wonders
you
lovely
boys unearth for me.”

At which point, when Professor Lyall really felt things couldn't possibly get any worse, a bang came on the office door, which
then opened without his bidding.

“What—?”

It was Professor Lyall's turn to look up at the ceiling in an excess of emotion.

“Her most Royal Majesty, Queen Victoria, to see Lord Maccon.”

Queen Victoria marched through the door and spoke to Professor Lyall without breaking stride. “He is not here, is he? Wretched
man.”

“Your Majesty!” Professor Lyall hurried from behind his desk and performed his lowest and best bow.

The Queen of England, a deceptively squat and brown personage, swept the room with an autocratic eye as though Lord Maccon,
sizable specimen that he was, might manage to hide in a corner somewhere or under the rug. What her eye rested upon was the
tableau of a tear-stained Biffy, clearly naked under his blanket, caught up in the arms of a peer of the realm.

“What is this?
Sentiment!
Who is that there? Lord Akeldama? Really, this will not do at all. Compose yourself this instant.”

Lord Akeldama lifted his head from where it rested, cheek pressed against Biffy's, and narrowed his eyes at the queen. He
gently let his former drone go, stood, and bowed, exactly as deeply as he ought and not one jot more.

Biffy, for his part, was at a loss. He could not get up
without exposing some part of himself, and he could not perform the appropriate obedience from a supine position. He looked
with desperate eyes at the queen.

Professor Lyall came to his rescue. “You will have to forgive, uh,” he floundered, for he had never learned Biffy's real name,
“our young friend here. He has had a bit of a trying night.”

“So we have been given to understand. Is this, then, the drone in question?” The queen raised a quizzing glass and examined
Biffy through it. “The dewan has said you were kidnapped, young man, and by our very own potentate. These are grave charges,
indeed. Are they true?”

Biffy, mouth slightly open in awe, managed only a mute nod.

The queen's face expressed both relief and chagrin in equal measure. “Well, at least Lord Maccon hasn't bungled that.” She
turned her sharp eye on Lord Akeldama.

The vampire, with a studied, casual air, fixed the cuffs of his shirtsleeves so they lay perfectly underneath his jacket.
He did not meet her gaze.

“Would you say, Lord Akeldama, that death was an appropriate punishment for the theft of another vampire's drone?” she inquired
casually.

“I would say it is a bit extreme, Your Majesty, but in the heat of the moment, I am given to understand, accidents will happen.
It was not intentional.”

Professor Lyall couldn't believe his ears. Was Lord Akeldama
defending
Lord Maccon?

“Very well. No charges will be brought against the earl.”

Lord Akeldama started. “I did not say… that is, he also metamorphosed Biffy.”

“Yes, yes. Excellent, another werewolf is always welcome.” The queen bestowed a beneficent smile on the still-bemused Biffy.

“But he is
mine
!”

The queen frowned at the vampire's tone. “We hardly see the need for such fuss, Lord Akeldama. You have plenty more just like
him, do you not?”

Lord Akeldama stood for a moment, stunned, just long enough for the queen to continue on with her conversation, entirely ignoring
his bemusement.

“We must suppose Lord Maccon has gone in pursuit of his wife?” A nod from Professor Lyall. “Good, good. We are reinstating
her as muhjah, of course, in absentia. We were acting under the potentate's advice when we dismissed her, and now we see he
must have been furthering his own hidden agenda. For centuries, Walsingham has advised the Crown unerringly. What could have
driven such a man to such lengths?”

All around her, silence descended.

“That, gentlemen, was
not
a rhetorical question.”

Professor Lyall cleared his throat. “I believe it may have to do with Lady Maccon's forthcoming child.”

“Yes?”

Professor Lyall turned and looked pointedly at Lord Akeldama.

Following his lead, the Queen of England did the same.

No one would ever accuse Lord Akeldama of fidgeting, but under such direct scrutiny, he did appear slightly flustered.

“Well, Lord Akeldama? You do know, don't you? Otherwise none of this would have happened.”

“You must understand, Your Majesty, that vampire records go back to Roman times, and there is mention of only one similar
child.”

“Go on.”

“And, of course, in this case she was the child of a soul-sucker and a vampire—not a werewolf.”

Professor Lyall chewed his lip. How could the howlers not have known of this? They were the keepers of history; they were
supposed to know about everything.

“Go
on
!”

“The kindest word we had for that creature was soul-stealer.”

               

A
lexia fought hard. It took some substantial negotiating to convince the German scientist, but in the end all she needed was
the right kind of logic.

“I am bored.”

“This does not trouble me, Female Specimen.”

“This is my heritage we are dealing with, you realize?”

“Ya, so?”

“I believe it may be possible for me to uncover something you and the Templars have missed.”

No response.

“I can read Latin.”

He pressed down on her stomach.

“Can you? My, my, you
are
well educated.”

“For a female?”

“For a soulless. Templar records hold that the devil spawn are not men of philosophy.”

“You see, I am different. I might spot something.”

The little German pulled out an ear tube from his case and listened to her belly attentively.

“I am telling you, I have excellent research skills.”

“Will it keep you quiet?”

Alexia nodded enthusiastically.

“I shall see what I can do, ya?”

Later that day, two nervous young Templars came in carrying some ancient-looking scrolls and a bucket of lead tablets. They
must have been under orders to oversee the security of these items, for instead of leaving, they locked the cell door and
then sat—on the floor, much to Alexia's shock—crossed their legs, and proceeded to embroider red crosses onto handkerchiefs
while she read. Alexia wondered if this were some kind of punishment, or if embroidery was what the Templars did for fun.
It would explain the general prevalence of embroidered red crosses everywhere. Lord Akeldama, of course, had warned her. Silly
to realize it now that it was far too late.

She bypassed the scrolls in favor of the more intriguing lead squares. They had Latin incised into them and were, she believed,
curse tablets. Her Latin was rather rusty, and she could have used a vocabulary reference book of some kind, but she managed
to decipher the first tablet after some time and the others came much easier after that. Most of them concerned ghosts and
were designed to either curse someone into suffering after death as a ghost or exorcize a poltergeist that was already haunting
a house. Alexia surmised that the tablets, in either case, would be entirely ineffective, but there certainly were a large
number of them.

She looked up when Mr. Lange-Wilsdorf entered her cell with a new battery of tests. “Ah,” she said, “Good
afternoon. Thank you for arranging for me to look at this remarkable collection. I did not realize curse tablets were so focused
on the supernatural. I had read that they called upon the wrath of imaginary daemons and gods, but not the
real
supernatural. Very interesting, indeed.”

“Anything useful, Female Specimen?”

“Ow!” He poked at her arm with a syringe. “So far, they all have to do with hauntings. Very concerned with ghosts, the Romans.”

“Mmm. Ya. I had read of this in my own research.”

Alexia went back to translating the next tablet.

Having collected a sample of her blood, the German abandoned her once more to the tender mercies of the embroidering Templars.

The moment she started reading the next tablet, Alexia knew she wasn't going to tell Mr. Lange-Wilsdorf about it. It was a
small one, and the boxy Latin letters were exceptionally tiny and painfully neat, covering both sides. Where all the previous
tablets had been dedicated to daemons or to the spirits of the netherworld, this one was markedly different.

“I call upon you, Stalker of Skins and Stealer of Souls, child of a Breaker of Curses, whoever you are, and ask that from
this hour, from this night, from this moment, you steal from and weaken the vampire Primulus of Carisius. I hand over to you,
if you have any power, this Sucker of Blood, for only you may take what he values most. Stealer of Souls, I consecrate to
you his complexion, his strength, his healing, his speed, his breath, his fangs, his grip, his power, his soul. Stealer of
Souls, if I see him mortal, sleeping when he should wake, wasting away in his human skin, I swear I will offer a sacrifice
to you every year.”

Alexia surmised that the term “Breaker of Curses” must correlate to the werewolf moniker for a preternatural, “curse-breaker,”
which meant that the curse tablet was calling upon the child of a preternatural for aid. It was the first mention she had
yet run across, however minor, of either soulless or a child of a soulless. She placed a hand upon her stomach and looked
down at it. “Well, hello there, little Stalker of Skins.” She felt a brief fluttering inside her womb. “Ah, would we prefer
Stealer of Souls?” The fluttering stilled. “I see, more dignified, is it?”

She went back to the tablet, reading it over again, wishing it might give her more of a clue as to what such a creature could
do and how it came into existence. She supposed it was possible that this being was just as nonexistent as the gods of the
netherworld that the other tablets called upon. Then again, it could be as real as the ghosts or vampires they were asked
to fight against. It must have been such an odd age to have lived in, so full of superstition and mythology, to be ruled by
the Caesar's empire hives and a bickering line of incestuous vampires.

Alexia glanced under her eyelashes at the two embroidering men and, in a not-very-subtle movement, tucked the tablet down
the front of her dress. Luckily for her, the Templars seemed to find their embroidery most absorbing.

She went on, scanning for the two key Latin phrases “Stalker of Skins” and “Stealer of Souls,” but there seemed to be no further
mention of either. She weighed her options, wondering if she should mention the phrase to Mr. Lange-Wilsdorf. As it turned
out, the preceptor brought her meal that evening, so she figured she might as well go straight to the source.

She took her time working around to the subject. First she asked him politely about his day and listened to the recitation
of his routine—really, who would want to attend matins six times?—as she ate her pasta in its obligatory bright green sauce.
The preceptor had called the long skinny pasta “spa-giggle-tee” or some such silliness. Alexia didn't rightly care, so long
as there was pesto on top of it.

Finally, she said, “I found an interesting tidbit in your records today.”

“Oh, yes? I had heard Mr. Lange-Wilsdorf brought them to you. Which one?”

She gestured airily. “Oh, you know, one of the scrolls. It said something about a soul-stealer.”

That
got a reaction. The preceptor stood so fast that he knocked over the little stool he had been sitting on.

“What did you say?”

“I believe the other term used in the document was ‘skin-stalker.' I see you have heard of these creatures before. Perhaps
you would care to tell me where?”

Clearly in shock, the preceptor spoke as though his mouth were moving while his mind still coped with the revelation. “Soul-stealers
are known to us only as legendary creatures, more dangerous than you soulless. They are greatly feared by the supernatural
for their ability to be both mortal and immortal at the same time. The brotherhood has been warned to watch for them, although
we have not yet encountered one in our recorded history. You believe that is what your child is?”

“What would you do with one if you caught it?”

“That would depend on whether or not we could control it. They cannot be allowed to roam free, not with that kind of power.”

“What kind of power?” Alexia tried to sound innocent as she inched her free hand down the side of her small stool, preparing
to grab it out from under her to use as a weapon if need be.

“I only know what is written into our Amended Rule.”

“Oh, yes?”

He began to quote, “‘Above all this, whosoever would be a brother, you and your profession and faith must deal out death in
the name of holy justice against those creatures that stand against God and lead a man unto hellfire, the vampire and the
werewolf. For those that walk not under the sun and those that crawl under the moon have sold their souls for the taste of
blood and flesh. Moreover, let no brother relax in his holy duty of pure watchfulness and firm perseverance against those
unfortunates born to sin and damnation, the devil spawn in soulless state. And finally, the brothers are hereby commanded
to fraternize only with the untainted and hunt down the sickness of spirit within those that can both walk and crawl, and
who ride the soul as a knight will ride his steed.'”

As he spoke, the preceptor backed away from Alexia and toward the prison door. She was taken by his expression, almost hypnotized
by it. As had happened during the battle in the carriage, his eyes were no longer dead.

Alexia Tarabotti, Lady Maccon, had engendered many emotions in people over the years—mostly, she admitted ruefully to herself,
exasperation—but never before had she been the cause of such abject revulsion. She looked down, embarrassed.
Guess it is not such a good thing, infant, to be a soul-stealer. Well, never you mind. Templars don't seem to like anyone.

As she glanced away, her eye was caught by a flash of red coming along the passageway toward her cell—low to the ground. The
two young Templars seemed to have noticed whatever it was as well and were looking in fascination at the object trundling
toward them.

Then she heard the ticking noise and the tinny sound of multiple tiny metal legs on stone.

“What is going on?” demanded the preceptor, turning away from Alexia.

Alexia seized the opportunity, stood up, and in one smooth movement, yanked the stool out from under herself and struck the
back of the preceptor's head with it.

There was a dreadful crunching noise and Alexia grimaced.

“I do beg your pardon,” she said perfunctorily, leaping over his fallen form. “Needs must and all that.”

The two embroidering guards leapt to their feet, but before they had a chance to lock the door to Alexia's cell, a large shiny
bug, lacquered red with black spots, scuttled directly at them.

Alexia, still brandishing the stool, charged out into the hall.

Queen Victoria had been neither as impressed nor as shocked as she should have been upon hearing the term “soul-stealer” spoken
in Lord Akeldama's most salubrious tones. “Oh, is that all?” seemed to be her reaction. Her solution fit the standards of
all monarchs everywhere. She made up her mind and then made it someone else's problem. In this case, however, Professor Lyall
was pleased to find she had not made it his problem.

No, instead, the queen had pursed her lips and delivered
an unsavory verbal package into the elegant alabaster hands of Lord Akeldama. “A soul-stealer you say, Lord Akeldama? That
sounds most unpleasant. Not to say inconvenient, considering Lady Maccon will be returned to active service as my muhjah as
soon as she can be fetched home. We expect Lord Maccon to have that particular task well under way. It goes without saying,
the Crown simply will not tolerate vampires trying to kill its muhjah, however pregnant she may be and whatever she may be
pregnant with. You must put a stop to it.”

“I, Your Majesty?” Lord Akeldama was clearly flustered by this direct instruction.

“Of course, we require a new potentate. You are hereby granted the position. You possess the necessary qualifications, for
you are a vampire and you are a rove.”

“I beg to differ, Your Majesty. It must be put to the hive vote, any new candidate to the potentate position.”

“You think they will not approve your appointment?”

“I have many enemies, Your Majesty, even among my own kind.”

“Then you will be in good company, potentate: so does Lady Maccon and so did Walsingham. We shall expect you at Thursday's
meeting of the Shadow Council.”

With that, Queen Victoria sailed out of the room, adrift on a sea of self-righteousness.

Lord Akeldama raised himself out of his bow, looking flabbergasted.

“Congratulations, my lord,” said Biffy timidly, attempting to stand shakily from the couch and approach his former master.

Professor Lyall hurried over to him. “Not yet, pup. You won't have your legs back for a while longer.” He spoke
the truth for, despite the fact that Biffy obviously wanted to walk on two legs, his brain seemed set on four, and he pitched
forward with a surprised little cry.

Lyall caught him up and deposited him back on the couch. “It will take some time for your mind to catch up to your metamorphosis.”

“Ah.” Biffy's voice caught in his throat. “How silly of me not to realize.”

Lord Akeldama came over as well, watching with hooded eyes as Lyall smoothed the blanket over the young man. “
She
has placed me in a most insufferable position.”

“Now you know how I feel most of the time,” said Professor Lyall under his breath.

“You are more than equal to the task, my lord.” Biffy's eyes were shining and full of faith as they looked upon his former
master.

Wonderful,
thought Lyall,
a newly made werewolf in love with a vampire, and more apt to do his bidding than the pack's.
Would even Lord Maccon be able to break such a connection?

“I rather think the queen is getting the better end of the deal,” added Professor Lyall, intimating, but not actually mentioning,
Lord Akeldama's fashionable yet efficient espionage regime.

Poor Lord Akeldama was not having a good night. He had lost his lover and his comparative anonymity in one fell swoop. “The
pathetic reality is, my
darlings,
I am not even convinced the child of a preternatural and a werewolf will
be
a soul-stealer. And if it is, will it be the same kind of soul-stealer as it was when the sire was a vampire?”