Unchained

Chapter 18

Miru-kai stared at the little girl, delight in his heart. A human child! Who would have thought such a prize would come to him here, in the dismal Castle?

She stared back, terrified but struggling not to cry. With the aid of Shadewing and the goblin guards, it had been a matter of moments to snatch her away from the vampires. As a feat of arms, it was barely a challenge. Miru-kai was a commander of armies and every bit Belenos’s equal in battle. After that, Miru- kai’s knowledge of the Castle had made it child’s play to lose them in the maze of corridors.

The vampire’s outraged howl had been a delight. Proud Belenos hadn’t anticipated anything but fawning admiration. From a prince of the fey! Idiot.

Just to add insult to injury, Miru-kai had sent Shadewing to tip off the Castle guards that there were unwelcome visitors afoot. An excellent way to win points with Mac and send Belenos on a merry chase. All in one fell swoop. Priceless.

Now Miru-kai was alone with the girl. Terrified, she sat curled into a ball, knees drawn up to her chin, eyes watching his every move. He’d sent the goblins away, hoping that would calm her. He was the first to admit their appearance took some getting used to.

It had worked. Now, for a very frightened child, she was remarkably loquacious.

“What’s your name?” she asked.

A fey prince had many names and titles, so he offered something a child could remember. “Kai.”

“Kai.”

“Yes.” Hearing the name tugged at something deep inside him. Only the closest of friends had ever used that name. Friends like Simeon.

The emotion doubled his desire to keep this human as his charge, safe and sound. No vampires would steal her from under his nose. The fey took better care of children than that.

She gave him a serious look from large, dark eyes. “You sort of look human, but you’re not, are you?” Her tone was all accusation.

“My grandfather was human,” Miru- kai replied, keeping his voice gentle. “But the rest of my ancestors were kings and queens of the fey.”

She narrowed her eyes. “What’s a prince doing in here?”

He allowed himself a slight smile. “My arrival was an inconvenient accident. I’ll be leaving shortly.”

“Uncle Mac is going to let you go?” She looked even more suspicious. Not a stupid girl, this one.

“Of course,” he said smoothly. Now that Miru- kai had the gem, Uncle Mac had little choice in the matter. “It’s time to join the modern era.”

But it wasn’t just himself he was thinking of. All of his people wanted freedom as much as he did, but whether the new human world and the dark fey were ready for each other was another story. How he approached integrating dark fairies into the twenty-first century would depend on what he discovered beyond the Castle door. He had heard the hellhounds hadn’t found the outside world particularly welcoming, and they were as human-friendly as monsters got.

He had his work cut out for him.

“Captain Reynard and Mom will come get me, you know.”

The girl’s statement snapped Miru-kai’s mind back to the here and now. “How do you know the good captain?”

“He likes my mother.” The girl looked down, frowning at her hands.

Oh-ho, what have we here? “Does he?”

She tucked a curl behind her ear. “They kill things together. He’s okay.”

Reynard’s been gone how many days? The old fox works quickly!

She gave him another narrow look. “Are you one of those creepy guys who touches little kids?”

The prince shook his head. “I give you my word; I simply enjoy your company. No harm will come to you while you are with me.”

“Are you sure?” Her chin stuck out stubbornly. “The first bunch put a bag over my head when they stuffed me in their car. I think it was a potato sack. I smell like dirt.”

“I am not personally responsible for the sack. Those were vampires and their servants. Nasty things. And you do not smell like dirt. You smell like human.”

She looked faintly embarrassed. “What does that mean? Do I need a bath?”

He laughed, something he hadn’t expected to do ever again. Not after Simeon. “It’s hard to put into words. Humans smell like their houses. Warm. Like food. Yours has a scent of magic. And you’ve been near a baby.”

Eden made a face. “Yeah, Robin stinks. She can’t help it.”

The girl looked away. Her cheeks held the bloom of health and sunshine, despite the circles of fatigue under her eyes. What is her story?

“My mom will get those vampires.”

“Your mother is a Carver witch?” Miru- kai already knew the answer. Belenos was after a witch who could mate with a vampire. There was only one such case in recent memory.

“Yeah, but she’s lost her magic.”

Miru-kai sucked in a breath, putting scraps of information together. Not the one who already has a vampire husband, but the monster-slaying sister. He’d heard tales about that one.

“Then your mother is Ashe, the elder daughter of Marian Carver.”

“How did you know that?”

“I try to know everything.”

“Even the first name of my grandma?”

“People still talk about your grandparents.”

“Why?”

“Because your mother killed them with a spell, of course.”

The child started where she sat, as if he’d pinched her. Her eyes flooded with dismay, then tears. “That’s a lie!”

Oh. Miru-kai cursed under his breath.

He’d blurted out the wrong thing. He was used to dealing with monsters, not the nursery. Wanting to comfort, he rested a hand on her thin shoulder, but she shrugged him off.

“I want to go home now,” she said in a small voice. “Leave me alone.”

Miru-kai straightened, folding his arms and contemplating the small, huddled form at his feet. Simeon would know what to do.

But Simeon was dead. Miru-kai was on his own with this weeping child. He tugged the ends of his mustaches, at a loss.

He might be a slippery, conniving thief, a warlord, a sorcerer, and an all-around bad sort of fellow, but he had softer instincts. He could well protect this child, at least until he was able to unravel the magic of the gem and make his escape. He might even keep her after that. He so wanted to have a human at his side again. . . .

There was much to ponder.

Ashe was heading back to the house, her cheeks stiff with dried tears. The crying came on and off, uncontrollable. Her nerves crackled as if she’d downed an oil tanker of coffee. Though her mind was clear, her body was manifesting all the fear she couldn’t acknowledge and stay sane. Breaking down wouldn’t help her daughter, but nobody’d told her shaking hands.

But she had found nothing.

No one had.

So far, there was no ransom, no demand. Whatever game the vampire was playing, she couldn’t figure it out. She really hoped Reynard had a clue what to do next, because her exhausted brain was full of nothing but panic.

Ashe stopped dead in her tracks. Holly was running out of the house with Robin in her arms, calling for help. Ashe sprinted across the street to join her, along with a crowd of other volunteers.

Alessandro, Holly’s vampire mate, reached her first. He was tall, with long, wheat blond curls and amber eyes. “What’s going on now?”

“I should have zapped his ass!” Tears streaked Holly’s face. Robin woke and started to fuss, making tiny, frustrated cries. Holly hushed her as they gathered around.

“Who are you zapping?” Ashe demanded. “And why?”

“Captain Broody, that’s who!” Holly hiccuped.

“Reynard?”

Alessandro put his arm around Holly, a gentle, affectionate gesture. “Hey, come on. Calm down.” Then he put his other arm around Ashe.

Ashe clutched her arms, feeling the night chill more than she should have. She was low on fuel. She hadn’t eaten. She couldn’t.

“Reynard thinks he knows where Eden is,” Holly blurted. “He went to the Castle to get her back.”

“Is she there?” Ashe made a confused sound. “Do you think he’s right?”

“He said something about dark fey working with Belenos.”

“Oh, Reynard,” Ashe choked out, her face growing cold with dread. “He’s going to fade if he goes in there. Why is he doing this?” But of course she knew why. Because of Eden. Because Reynard was who he was. Gratitude and anger collided. I can’t lose either of them!

“He said there was no time. He was afraid of what the fey would do.”

“Son of a . . .” Alessandro started swearing in a language she didn’t know.

Ashe vibrated with desperation, her stomach so knotted it hurt. “Goddess! I have to get there. I’m going to kill whoever has Eden! I’ve got to get him out of there!”

Alessandro Caravelli’s red T-bird was parked at the curb. Ashe took off, bolting across the lawn toward it. Alessandro beat her to it by seconds.

They got into the T-bird and took off with a scream of tires.

Once inside the Castle, Reynard followed the crystal’s direction. His boots echoed on the stone floor, every scuff rustling in the dark recesses of the corridors.

So far, he felt well enough to carry on with his mission—which wasn’t saying much. Like so many others from his time, he had marched under the scorching sun of India while dressed in a wool uniform suited to Britannia’s fog and rain. He was used to soldiering on through discomfort.

Still, he could tell the urn was far away—a different dimension counted more than miles. Strong as he was, there was a limit to his energy. It was draining like sand in an hourglass, each minute depleting a little piece of him.

He had anticipated this, so he paid attention to those occasions when the crystal took him near one of the patrolled areas. He meant to find a guardsman and send for help.

Unfortunately, no one was at their usual post. Had something happened to call them all away? His plan counted on reinforcements; if he couldn’t finish the search for Eden, someone else had to.

He walked on, his pace brisk. The corridors crisscrossed with mindless regularity, pools of torchlight just bright enough to give the shadows shape. The stone walls exhaled a clammy chill.

At the next post he reached, he called out. The echoes of his voice faded into the dark, drifting like dust. The dark halls were empty. No one was there to help.

Reynard paused for the barest fraction of a second and then pushed on, calculating the distance to the next post and how far he could go before he ran out of strength to generate a portal to safety.

And if no one was at the next post, either?

He had chosen this risk. He would see it through. Am I being an idiot?

Ah, well, he had dueled while drunk more than once. He had gambled and lost fortunes. He had bedded women who were as adept with poisons as pleasure, full well knowing that night’s death might be of the literal rather than the poetic kind. He was an idiot. Or at least he had been, before he came to the Castle. He didn’t take unnecessary chances anymore.

Now he knew the real face of danger. He had lost everything, all his choices.

Except this one. He chose to save the little girl who had given him hope. For her, he would gamble with the last scraps of his life.

For Ashe, who had given him back a taste of joy.

Reynard froze, listening. There was a scuffle of footsteps, soft soles on cold stone. Almost too soft to hear. Moving very, very fast.

Before he could draw into the shadows, a group of five vampires rounded the corner, moving smoothly as a school of sharp-toothed fish. Their pale faces floated in the dim light, eyes seeming lit from within. They came to an abrupt halt, staring at Reynard.

A tall red-haired male stood in the center of the group. The others surrounded him like an honor guard. All were armed and disheveled, as if they’d been in a fight. One had a gash in his temple, already scabbed over, a trickle of dried blood trailing down his cheek.

Well, that answered the question about who had drawn the guards away from their posts. They were forming search parties, looking for this group of intruders.

“Stand aside,” growled the red- haired one in the middle.

Belenos, I’ll wager. A cold smile spread over Reynard’s features.

Eden was silent as she walked with Miru-kai through the Castle’s grottoes and torchlit halls. Deep in thought, she barely seemed to notice her surroundings. Or perhaps she was too afraid to be curious about the dark, stony prison. She was probably thinking about her grandparents.

Sadly, fey magic didn’t include taking back words he had no business speaking. The prince cursed himself.

It wasn’t like a fey to wonder about a human’s thoughts, but Miru- kai had human blood. It made him ponder things no other fey would worry about. For instance, every child taken by the fey changed the future. Their threads dropped from the weave of human history. Deeds would be left undone, future children never born—the effect as absolute as if they had lost their lives. Did the fey have the right to cause such changes in the pattern?

Right now he wished he were fey enough to simply grab the girl and count his blessings. Instead, his rudimentary conscience—a very human attribute—was forcing him to think hard about what he was going to do next. What futures might he alter by interfering with her destiny?

He could feel her unhappiness. Empathy was something Simeon had tried to teach Miru-kai, and now he couldn’t shut it off. The very air around the child screamed with how much she wanted to go home.

How did humans get on in life with everyone else’s feelings to worry about? It was exhausting. On the other hand, he couldn’t indulge in emotion all the time. He had to keep several thousand monsters in line. That called for a cool head.

“Sometimes,” he said, “it is difficult to be a prince.”

“Why?” Eden responded, startling him.

He hadn’t realized he’d spoken out loud. He looked down at her, and then decided to finish his thought. Listening and advising. That was what human companions were good at. That was what Simeon had done for him.

“I was a pirate once. That was much more fun. Gratuitous amounts of robbery and liquor.”

“So, why’d you change jobs?”

Miru-kai sighed. “The fey were weak. They needed a leader, and I was a prince. Then others came along—changelings, goblins, the unwanted and ugly species no one would take in.”

“Why do you want to rule them, if no one else seems to?”

“I understand what they need.”

Miru-kai stopped. They had reached a vast space ringed with balconies. In the center was a dark pool rimmed by white marble, the carved lip of the stone fluted and curving outward. The overall shape of the pool was squares overlapping squares in a geometric pattern. Rather than torches, fires burned in the four corners of the space.

The hall had seen better days. Tiers of stone benches rose up a sloped balcony, but many had been broken during the last battle inside the Castle. The curious fact was that some kind of night-blooming plant had begun to grow there, twining around the ruins and breaking them down to rubble. And yet, there was neither sun nor water. The sweet-scented vine had to be a freak of the Castle’s errant magic.

Eden reached out to touch one of the red- veined trumpet flowers, but the prince caught her hand. “I wouldn’t touch that. I’m not sure if it’s safe.”

Her face turned to him, and his heart grew still. There was gratitude in her eyes, and a glimmering of trust. The look made his chest hurt. Few people ever looked at him that way.

Eden put her hands back in her pockets and sat down on a stump of stone pillar. She looked sleepy. Dimly, he remembered that children needed rest.

“There used to be a dragon here,” he said, nodding toward the pool. “But they had to put it back downstairs, where it was warmer.”

“A dragon?” she asked. “My mom and Uncle Alessandro fought a dragon once. I wonder if it was the same one.”

“I think it was.”

She seemed to ponder a moment. “I thought dark fey were bad.” Eden made a face. “Sorry, but you seem nice. Not at all like what I’ve been told.”

Miru-kai blinked. That was the thing with children. They were blunt. “The dark fey are tricksters, but we’re part of nature’s cycle. Sometimes we’re the necessary chaos that breaks down old, dead patterns. Sometimes we give people what they deserve and they call it bad luck. That’s why they’re afraid of us. We’re not evil. We’re just uncomfortable.”

“And light fey?”

“They dress better, but they’re not that different. They don’t like to be around humans as much.”

“Why not?”

“It’s complicated. The last light fey I talked to still referred to humans as an upstart ruffian species that deserved to be exterminated like an unwanted invasion of ants.”

“Whatever.” She yawned. “Bring ’em on. Ants bite back.”

He tilted his head, amused. “I wonder how like your mother you are, and if Reynard knows what he’s getting himself into.”

Her mood, which he had so carefully eased, flattened. She began picking at her fingers, head bowed. “Why do you say my mom killed my grandparents?”

“It’s just something I heard,” he said lightly. “It’s probably not true.”

She gave him a withering look. “You said it had something to do with a spell?”

“So it was rumored.”

Eden pursed her lips, looking out over the dark pool of water. “I’ve asked and asked, but no one’s ever told me how they died. My grandparents weren’t sick or anything, were they?”

“No.”

“And no one suspected it was something magic?”

“Very few people had any idea there was anything out of the ordinary.”

“So it wasn’t like a mugging or something?”

“No.”

She fell silent.

“What are you thinking?” the prince asked uneasily.

“About something Mom said once. About how a selfish spell broke her powers.”

“What was the spell?” As soon as he asked the question, the prince felt a sudden need to change the topic. Talking about this was only going to make the child unhappier. “Have you noticed how sweet these blossoms smell?”

“It was to give Grandma and Grandpa car trouble so they wouldn’t come home and find out that Mom snuck out to a concert instead of babysitting Auntie Holly.”

“Ah,” said Miru- kai. “Would you like to visit the gargoyles? The hatchlings are really rather comical.”

“I don’t want gargoyles or flowers!” Eden snapped, then lowered her voice. “I just want to know the truth.”

Miru-kai considered long and hard. “A spell like what you describe is meant for two people. If your mother tried to perform it on her own, it would have been difficult to control.”

“Is that what did it? A car crash?”

Miru-kai looked down at his hands. “According to what I heard, your grandfather’s car went out of control.” He didn’t say the vehicle had fallen down a cliff, crashed to the beach, and burned mere feet from the ocean. In his experience, truth had to be adjusted to suit those who heard it.

Tears welled in Eden’s eyes. “I hate my mother.”

“Don’t be so hard on her,” Miru-kai said gently.

“She killed my grandparents. She cast a selfish spell that went wrong and they died.”

He winced. “And she’s had to live with that every day since. If she did not tell you before, it’s because she was afraid of losing your love.”

Eden looked at him from under dark lashes. “How do you know that?”

Miru-kai didn’t answer at once, but stared across the ruined amphitheater with its strange, fragrant vines. Images of the white blooms shivered in the dark pond, the water stirred by a breeze too faint to feel upon his skin.

“Because I’m very old, and I’ve made a lot of mistakes. Many were for selfish reasons. As I said, I was a pirate. A thief. Then I became a warlord. Those are occupations where mistakes are catastrophic. I don’t imagine being a young witch is any simpler, with powerful magic and the wildness of youth in one’s veins.”

“What she did was wrong.”

“Of course it was. But how does your anger fix anything at all? Does it make her a wiser person? Does it bring your grandparents back to life?”

“She should have told me.”

“She probably thought you were too young to understand. Perhaps she has not forgiven herself, and so finds it hard to ask forgiveness.”

“Why?”

“That’s something, sadly, you will learn in time. Think about it. If you were in your mother’s place, what would you think of yourself?”

Eden hugged herself, looking small and frail amidst the ruins of the hall. “No wonder she always seems so sad.”

“She’s a prisoner of those memories. Perhaps telling her you forgive her will set her free.”

Reynard drew his Smith & Wesson and fired all in one motion. A vampire head exploded. Two of the other vamps fired their weapons. Reynard dropped to the ground, tucking into a roll that took him backward. With four on one, room to move was essential.

He came out of the roll and into a crouch, bringing up his weapon again. Blam!

The corridor rang with the noise, hell on vampire ears. He missed, but they flinched. Blam! Another head exploded.

Three on one now. Reynard ducked into another roll and scrambled to take cover where this corridor crossed another. A bullet chinged on the stone near his ear, sending prickles of alarm in waves down his neck. Reynard jerked back from the corner, gripping his gun and pulling in a breath of stale air and cordite.

A small blue fey zigzagged down the corridor, wings humming. One of the vampires fired at it, sending sparks flying off the stone wall.

Silence, then a hum of magic. Reynard felt it crawl over his skin, vibrating in his back teeth. Carefully, he peered around the corner.

Just in time to see a portal close behind Belenos and his last two henchmen.

Damn and blast.

He had heard from Mac that Belenos had a key. Unlike the guardsmen, who could open a portal at will, a vampire would have to activate the key’s magic—chant a spell or do a dance or however the blazes the keys worked. Reynard had never needed to use one, so he didn’t know the specifics.

But that answered why the King of the East and his minions were in this deserted corridor. Belenos had probably been looking for a quiet place to make a door and get away—a bit of a challenge with the Castle guard in pursuit, but he’d just managed it. Damnation!

Reynard clicked the safety on his gun and slipped it back into the holster beneath his jacket, reciting a litany of curses compiled over several centuries.

The skirmish had been over in less than two minutes.

As he would after any of his daily battles in the Castle, Reynard checked for injuries—bruises, but nothing noteworthy—and carried on. He would report the fight to Mac as soon as Eden was safe.

Unfortunately, the skirmish had cost energy. As he pulled out Holly’s crystal and resumed his search, Reynard’s feet felt heavy, and an odd ache beneath his breastbone began pulsing with every heartbeat. He pushed himself, hurrying as fast as he could manage. He was running out of time.

The trail led him to a familiar room, one nearly destroyed by a cataclysmic battle last autumn. To one side, his silk garments an exotic splash against the stone, sat Miru-kai. Across from him, Eden perched on a lump of rock, looking hunched and tired. Reynard’s heart bounded at the sight of the girl.

Silently, Reynard pocketed the crystal, sending a prayer of thanks for Holly’s magic. Then he pulled the Smith & Wesson again.

“Miru-kai.”

The prince looked up, his face tightening as he saw who had interrupted his conversation. “Well, old fox, it seems you’ve sniffed us out.”

Eden’s head whipped around. “Captain Reynard!”

She leaped up and streaked across the room, thumping into him in an ecstatic hug. The force of it nearly made him stumble. “You’ve come to take me home!”

Reynard put a hand on the dark curls, the child’s warmth so vibrant against the cold, dead air of the prison. His strength was ebbing fast. His knees were shaking with fatigue. It felt odd, for one immortal. He’d forgotten what illness was like.

That memory was coming back with a vengeance.

But he’d meant it when he said Eden came first. He hugged the girl and pushed her behind him, putting his body between her and Miru-kai. She grabbed the back of his shirt, as if she was afraid he’d vanish. Then one hand slipped into his.

He kept the gun trained on the prince.

He didn’t mind the anchor of Eden’s grip. His head was clear, but his gut was a solid knot of apprehension. In a weakened state there were too many things that could go wrong. “I’m taking Eden back to her mother.”

“Are you sure?” said the prince, his eyes a mix of anger and amusement. “You look like you’re about to fall over. What did you do, wrestle every troll between here and the Castle door?”

“I ran into a group of Undead. We’d no sooner become acquainted than one of your fey buzzed past. A little blue fellow. Are the fey in league with the Eastern vampires now?”

The amusement vanished. “No. For one thing, we had a falling-out over the girl.”

“The fey never give up their prizes,” said Reynard, his tone pure acid. “Not once you’ve won the game.”

The prince gave him a sharp look. “It’s not in our nature.”

“And you always play by the rules.”

“Precisely, when they’re rules we like. However, young Eden was in Belenos’s tender care. He didn’t seem to be daddy material, whatever his delusions, so I liberated her.”

That was interesting. But was anything Miru-kai said ever true?

“And now I liberate her from you.” Reynard meant to simply turn and go, but his vision narrowed, darkness eating away at the edges of the world. Cold sweat stuck his shirt to his skin.

Miru-kai flashed a brilliant but cold grin. “And you are a more able caretaker? I am a fey prince, and you are one guardsman looking a bit tattered around the edges. You offend me, Reynard.”

Then, without warning, Reynard’s legs gave way. He fell to his knees, sprawling forward. The gun clattered on the stone, slipping from sweat-slicked fingers.

“Captain Reynard!” Eden grabbed his sleeve. “Captain Reynard, are you all right?”

Miru-kai rose from his seat in a whisper of heavy silk robes. “Reynard?”

He didn’t respond, instead shaking his head to clear it. He thought he could hear guardsmen in the corridors, calling orders and running. He thought he heard Ashe’s voice calling him, and his heart raced with terror and love. His own existence had gone so very wrong, and this was the one thing he could do to make Ashe’s better. Except he wasn’t quite finished. He really had to get up and take care of loose ends.

Where was he?

What had he just been doing? Memory was flickering in and out of focus.

Oh, yes. He started to climb to his hands and knees, but melted to the right, losing track of his hands and feet.

There was a terrible, terrible pain in his chest.

“Captain Reynard!” Eden shook him with all her strength as the world went black.

Ashe strode in Mac’s wake, Alessandro swift and silent behind them. They had found Mac easily enough. He’d been firing questions at a little blue fey no larger than one of Eden’s fashion dolls. The thing was trying to explain something about vampires and kidnapping and children. When Ashe showed up, argument stopped and they were on the move again.

The demon stormed into a huge, dark cavern. Angry heat blasted from him in waves. As soon as she could, Ashe stepped sideways, finding cooler air. The minute they reached open ground, she broke into a run.

Reynard sprawled in the middle of the cavern, Eden clinging to his hand.

“Baby!”

Eden gave a wordless cry and bolted across the stone floor. Ashe wrapped her child in both arms, holding her tight. An agony of relief ripped through her as she breathed in the smell of her child and felt soft skin against her own.

“Captain Reynard’s sick!” Eden sobbed. “And the prince disappeared when he heard you coming!”

Reynard! Behind the relief came cold anger, then panic. Alessandro and Mac were already beside Reynard, who was having trouble getting to his feet.

“Get him out of here,” ordered Mac. Other guardsmen were trickling in through the doorway, drawn by the emergency. “Make a portal. Get him back on the other side of the door. Get him to Holly. Maybe she can do something.”

Alessandro picked up Reynard, slinging one arm over his shoulder. Vampire strength made light work of the full-grown man. “Lead on.”

The fey prince had to be guilty. Why else would he vanish the moment the authorities arrived? Ashe released Eden and stood, pulling a foot-long knife from her boot. “Goddess! Where is that bastard fairy?” It came out as a rasp. Frantic bursts of fear and relief and horror came one after the other, tearing her to shreds.

Mac rose, running to the entrance to the cavern, flames surrounding him in a white- hot corona. He filled his lungs and roared to the darkness, “Guardsmen, find the fairy bastard!”

The walls shook with the noise, as if the Castle itself cringed before his anger. Wherever the guards were, they heard.

“But he didn’t do anything wrong!” Eden insisted. “He was nice to me!”

But no one listened to a child. No one ever did.