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“Well, don’t all talk at once.” I let out a snort. “Nothing’s really that different.”
“Oh, really?” Camille turned. “You’ve bound yourself to him, you know? You were free of Dredge, and now you take on a sire that you didn’t have to.” She looked angry, but I could hear the edge of fear beneath her words.
“I had to do it—for your sake, for Morio’s sake, and for mine.” I turned to Morio. “Truthfully, tell me, do you feel pulled to me now?”
He shrugged. “No, and the difference was apparent the minute you walked in. It’s a relief, actually. There was this pressure…I couldn’t be around you and not keep noticing you. You were a distraction.”
Camille lowered her eyes. “You know that I understood.”
“He does, and so did I, but eventually things would come to a head. Morio, Roman said that having vampire blood injected into you like that will bring out your feral nature more. You’ve probably already experienced that.”
“Yes, I have, but it’s not so bad that I can’t control it.”
“Well, then…I did the right thing. And meeting Blood Wyne and finding out the origin of the vampires was interesting, to say the least. And informative.” Roman’s mother still freaked me out, but I had a feeling she and I would be interacting more as the years wore on.
“There’s nothing to be done about it now,” Smoky said. “She’s made the choice and been through the ritual and there’s no going back. But Menolly, next time, you might think about informing us before you decide to do something so drastic.”
Iris wouldn’t speak to me—she looked mad as hell, and I had the feeling that, as I had with contacting Ivana Krask, I’d royally pissed her off. She silently helped Hanna finish up the dishes and said her good nights, and she and Bruce went out to their trailer. The guys had worked up an alarm system so that if anything bothered them, we’d hear it loud and clear. Hanna began putting away the last of the dishes and making our evening tea.
I turned to the others. “Maybe you should turn in early. Get sleep. You’ll need rest tomorrow night.” I leaned against the counter.
“Yeah, you’re right.” Delilah gave me a quick kiss on the cheek, and then she and Shade took off upstairs, taking their tea with them. Camille and her men sprawled out around the table but stared quietly at their cups.>“My sire…” Catching myself, I realized that I’d acted without thinking. And then I remembered the same look on Erin’s face when I came into the room.
“Crap.”
Roman laughed. “Different, isn’t it? But it will fade to a distant thunder, my dear, especially since I didn’t sire you the usual way. It will dissipate faster than you think, though probably not as quickly as you’d desire.” He paused, then added, “But the bond between you and Morio is now broken.”
I gazed at him, feeling something stir in my heart. Not love, but a sense of devotion. Something I’d never felt for Dredge.
I glanced at the clock. “Roman, I have to go…”
He nodded. “I know. We’re done. There shouldn’t be any other aftereffects that I can think of.” Taking my hand, he helped me to my feet. “I wish you a good evening. And I’m sorry about your friend, Andrees. I have a couple of my men looking into this.”
As I headed out of the room, my mind was racing. The evening had been one huge unexpected whirlwind, but really, walking out of the mansion, nothing had visibly changed. But inside…oh, yes. The bond with Morio was broken. But what kind of a bond had I taken on instead?
By the time I got home, it was going on eleven P.M. Everybody was in the kitchen, waiting for Smoky and Shade to return from checking out the caves.
Camille, Delilah, and Iris were playing a rare game of quarsong—an Otherworld board game. Trillian and Roz were playing chess. Nerissa rifled through a flower catalog, looking at bridal arrangements, with Hanna peeking over her shoulder. Vanzir was playing his Sony PSP. Morio pored over maps of the Snoqualmie area. Bruce was tickling Maggie on the floor. And they all looked up as I came in.
Morio did a double take, shaking his head as he stared at me. “What happened to you?”
Camille stared at me. “I can feel it, too. Are you all right?”
“I’m fine…actually better than fine,” I said. “Go on with what you were doing.” I’d tell them about what happened later. Right now, I needed to process my thoughts.
Downtime in our world was rare. We needed to make the most of it. I joined Bruce on the floor. He was playing horsey with Maggie, who was hanging on to his back as he lumbered across the floor, neighing every few steps. I laughed and pretended to be a monster trying to stop them. Bruce valiantly turned into a knight in denim armor, saving the fair Lady Maggie, who giggled and danced around happily, if a bit clumsily, her wings knocking against the cupboard doors.
Camille tossed the dice and counted out her moves, then drew a card. “Five…six…seven. Tangleweed catches you in the marsh. Lose a turn. Hell.” She shrugged. “I’ll refill the cookie plate while you take your turns.”
As she stood, plate in hand, Morio pushed back the maps and sauntered over to help her. He glanced back at me, looking confused, but then he turned and wrapped his arm around her waist and kissed her cheek. She leaned against him briefly, and for a moment, I felt a slight twinge, but it faded and I realized that, while he was cute, he really didn’t appeal to me. Which meant the ritual had worked.
With a silent thanks to Roman, I went back to Bruce and Maggie. She held her arms up and I lifted her, resting her against my chest.
Bruce stretched, then headed over to the table to watch the quarsong game. Camille returned to the table in time for her next turn, and Morio joined her. She picked up the dice as I carried Maggie over to the rocking chair and sat down, holding her to my shoulder, crooning a lullaby.
Trillian had just checkmated Roz, and Vanzir was winning whatever he was playing—that much was obvious by his shouts of “Die, sucker! Eat it!” when Smoky and Shade shimmered in from the Ionyc Seas.
As we all turned, the quiet peace broken by our anticipation, I gently laid the now-sleeping gargoyle into Hanna’s arms and she carried her off to bed.
