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I nodded. The dreamwalker made a lot of sense.
“We need to get moving. Geoffrey will have us by the neck if we’re late.” Leo shuffled, glancing at the door as if it might burst open to reveal the Regent.
I shook my head. “If he’s so all fired up to talk to me, why the hell has he kept me waiting this long?”
“Calm down, Cicely.” Chatter’s voice whispered softly from behind me. I whirled to see the Fae leaning against the arch leading into the dining room and kitchen. “You cannot help Grieve if you lose the support of the vampires. Myst cannot be defeated without them and you know it.”
“I know. Trust me, I know. I can’t get away from them no matter how much I might want to. They own me for the rest of my life. How can I ever forget that?” With a snort, I added, “Let’s get this show on the road.”
Leo, Rhiannon, and I headed out, leaving Chatter and Kaylin to watch over the house. As we stepped into the icy night, a lazy shower of snow drifted down. Myst had brought with her a long winter to blanket the town, a cold and chill premonition of what life under her rule would be like.
The Queen of Winter, a tainted Fae Queen whom the vampires had once tried to turn as if she were human, Myst had risen from her deathbed before she could die, fully alive and far more dangerous than the vampires ever dreamed possible, and from her descended the Vampiric Fae. They could breed, and they were ruthless killing machines who lived to feed and spread across the land.
And now she had traced down her maker and looked to wipe out Geoffrey and his people. She aspired to take over the land, one town at a time.
I climbed into the driver’s seat of Favonis, my Pontiac GTO, and, making sure our doors were locked, we headed over to Geoffrey’s to plan out a war.
Geoffrey’s mansion sat on two acres, and it was truly a manor, three stories high. Who knew how far it extended underground? As it glittered white with gold trim, a dizzying array of lights sparkled from inside the building and armed guards—all vampires since we were into the night—wandered the grounds.
Last time I’d been here, I’d unwittingly signed away my freedom, but there was nothing I could do about it, so I decided to let it go and move on. We drove up to the valet, who took one look at Leo and nodded us toward the entrance.
At the door, a tall, broad-shouldered guard stopped us. Like all of the true vampires, his eyes were jet-black, gleaming like obsidian with no patches of white or other color marring their surface. That alone spooked me about the Vein Lords: How could they see through those inky orbs?
He searched all of us, including Leo, and then opened the door. A maid—a bloodwhore by the look of her outfit and the fact that she wasn’t a vampire—motioned for us to follow her.
I’d thought we might be heading into Geoffrey’s office, but instead she led us to a room to the right of the grand staircase and opened the door, all without a word. Peering in, I saw Geoffrey—he motioned for us to enter, and the maid closed the door behind us.
A glance around the room told me that the parlor was really a royal hall in disguise. The room was geared for an audience, and the chair in which Geoffrey sat might as well be a throne, with its crimson velvet and placement.
The Vein Lord wasn’t very tall, but the power he wielded hit me over the head like a brick. He reeked of authority. He wore his long black hair smoothed back in a French braid; a royal purple jacket with ruffled sleeves, open to show his bare chest; and leather pants.
As he leaned back in his chair, crossing his legs, a faint smile flickered across his lips. One thing I had to say about Geoffrey: Of all the vampires we’d met, he was the most polite and deliberate of action. Sure, he could rip your head off in a second, but he’d think it through first and say “Pardon me” afterward.
“Please, sit and be comfortable.” He motioned to the semicircle of chairs, all facing his own. “Welcome. Our other guests should be here shortly.”>“We have to,” Kaylin said. “We have to learn to weather the battles because there will be far more to come before things get back to normal. If there even is such a thing as ‘normal’ anymore.”
I nodded and looked at Rhiannon. “You saved the day.” The thank you was implied.
She slipped her arm around my waist and leaned down to kiss my forehead. “I just got home and saw the commotion from the car. Leo’s still in town and I don’t know where Chatter is.”
“In the basement, working with the charms.”
“Ah. Good. We’ll need them.”
“I guess we’d better get back on our land, before anything else comes out of the woods. We need to tend to our wounds and make sure they don’t get infected.” I wearily turned back to the house.
As we crossed the demarcation line that magically divided the Golden Wood from the Veil House, I couldn’t help but shudder. Like it or not, we were pawns in a war between two powerful enemies—Geoffrey and Myst—and we were doing our best just to stay alive.
Chapter 2
“Cicely? Are you ready? It’s time.” Leo’s voice echoed up the stairs. My cousin’s fiancé, and a day-runner for the vampires, he’d gotten home shortly after our encounter with the goblin.
After a long shower to wash away my aches and pains, I’d dressed in a cobalt sweater and black jeans, making sure I was neat and tidy. Geoffrey and Regina owned my services—quite literally—and they demanded that their employees appear before them nicely dressed.
My wolf growled as I ran my hand over the tattoo of the beautiful silverish beast that spread across my body, over my stomach.
“Sshh . . . ” I whispered. “Hush. I know, I know you’re out there hurting, but I can’t do anything about it right now.”
The wolf growled again and I pressed my lips tight, my heart sore. The memory of Grieve’s face, of his hands on my body, his needle-sharp teeth nipping at my skin, swept over me and I dashed my hand across my eyes, careful not to mar the mascara and liner I’d put on. Grieve was lost to the enemy. Myst had claimed him for her own. I was determined to win him back, but in the depths of my heart I was afraid that none of us would come out of this alive.
