Chapter Twelve

 

Charlotte looked ready for murder. Chances were she just needed someone to take out her nervous energy on. I was shocked she hadn’t killed him already, to be totally honest about it. As she glared down at him he continued to smile at me, sweet face as creepy as ever, especially knowing what madness lurked behind his gentle eyes.

“Forgive me,” he said, shuffling forward on his hands and knees to bend over and press his forehead to the top of my foot. “I told you the truth when we last met, I swear it.” He looked up, a wide smile showing his perfect, even, white teeth, the scar marring his right cheek barely visible now he was human again and not in the demon form he’d been forced into. “You have an ally in Batsheva’s clan.”

“You let them drug me again.” I stepped away from him, not wanting him to touch me. Charlotte took my disgust as permission to reach for him and jerk him to his feet, almost suspended from her hand as she hoisted him away from me.

“I had no choice.” His words squeaked out past her grip on his throat. Probably not the best handle. I waved at her and, with a look of absolute disappointment, she let him go. He coughed a few times, still smiling. “But I knew you were stronger this time, gave them a weaker dose so some of your magic would remain.”

Grumble, mumble. “What is it?” I shuddered inside at the emptiness he reminded me of.

“Powdered crystal,” he said with a broad wink. “My own recipe. Gets into every cell, blocks off what it can’t siphon.” He hugged himself, rocking back and forth in clear delight. “Works very well, yes?”

Still crazy. Cracked to the core. “You’re not seriously asking me to admire your handiwork?”

Demetrius dropped his arms, the hurt on his face making him look vulnerable.

“It only reached your surface magicks,” he said. “They thought it would take care of you completely. But I was careful.”

Well, at least I had the vampire. She grunted agreement. So maybe I should cut him a little slack.

“I’d say thanks,” I said, “but I’m still in this mess. No offense.”

He reached for me before Charlotte could get another chokehold on him, but he just stroked my bare arm before backing off, smile returning.

“It’s good, it’s very good.” He did a little hopping dance. “It’s all you need to do the deed.”

“What deed?” Crackpot had a plan?

“Why kill the old witch, of course, of course.” He laughed out loud, insanity showing behind the veneer of kindness in his vivid, child-like eyes. “You must kill Batsheva.”

Hmm. Good plan. And already on the menu.

“You can’t.” Charlotte’s voice growled with the undercurrent of her wolf.

“She must.” Dominic hissed back, baring his teeth as if he were the feral one.

She ignored him, faced me. “If you kill Batsheva, one of two things will happen.” She held up one hand, ticking off a raised finger. “Doing so with any of your magicks, even your vampire power, in an unprovoked attack means a death sentence.”

Not on the roster now I knew dying was a possibility again. “And two?”

“Even if you convince her to strike first, you’ll have to use your vampire magic to make the battle valid. Which means draining her of power.” She paused. “And blood.”

Ickle to the power of infinity.

“I guess I can do that,” I said. “If it’s my only option.” Syrupy blood, hot from the kill—

Gag.

“You don’t understand,” Charlotte said. “Doing so means you will be the new Queen.”

Oh. Not so good an option.

“So, you’re telling me, it’s basically a no-win here.” I turned away from both of them as Charlotte’s shoulders slumped. There had to be other choices.

Had to be.

“How did Batsheva defeat Yvette?” I turned as Charlotte spoke to find her shaking Demetrius by a strangle hold. Only his arm, this time. Even she knew holding him by the throat meant no answers to her questions, no matter how angry she felt. Especially because of how angry she felt.

Demetrius tried to free himself, whining like a puppy until she released him. He scrambled back from her, rubbing his arm.

“She has her ways,” I said even as Charlotte chewed her bottom lip.

“I can’t believe it,” she said. “No one crossed Yvette Wilhelm. Even Odette was afraid of her.” The vampire Queen would have to have been very powerful to shake someone as arrogant as Odette Dumont.

“And you know this how?” My wereguard shrugged, eyes flickering from wolf and back again.

“Let’s just say my pack had run-ins with both vampire clans,” Charlotte said. “I was born and raised in Ukraine, but we had many dealings with covens and blood clans all over Europe thanks to Odette and her meddling with politics on the continent.”

Why wasn’t I surprised a crafty old witch like the deceased Dumont sister didn’t cut her ties to the homeland when she brought her coven to the U.S.?

“How did Batsheva beat Yvette if Charlotte is right?” I returned my focus to Demetrius in time to catch him sticking his tongue out at my bodywere before he answered.

“She won the same way she does everything,” he said. “Cheater.”

“How?” I put myself between them, knowing Charlotte would just demand when it seemed Demetrius required my trust.

He bobbed his head, smile back. “She saved me,” he said. “Because she needed me.” From the trial. He would most likely have been put to death for his involvement in the High Council takeover and subsequent law-shattering behavior Batsheva implemented to destroy my mother and my family. “Took me here with her, when she begged the Queen to turn her. Offered her your essence.” A way in. Just like Batsheva to worm herself into a place of power. As horrible as she was, she had a knack for getting what she wanted.

“The young one came too,” he went on. “And horse-face.”

Celeste I knew about. But the young one? “Ameline?” Of course. She had to have been part of it. How else would she have had access to Piotr and Yvette’s vampires?

He hissed, but not at me. “Her,” he said. “Both of them, offering the Queen a different plan for you. But neither was going to give you up, oh no.” He cackled, wrung his hands. “Ameline lost, Batsheva won, Queen Yvette turned her personally.” Demetrius stressed the word like it was very important. “The moment she did, Batsheva went to work. Celeste first. Then undermining, undercutting, talking and bribing on and on.”

Again, typical Batsheva. “And Ameline?” If I could somehow manage to get my hands on her too, a big number of my dangling issues could be wiped out forever.

Leaving room for all the others. Shrug.

“Gone,” he moaned, dashing my hopes. “Thick as two could be, yes, until Yvette chose and then the girl was no longer welcome.”

Damn. Oh well.

“Then Batsheva, she was ready, had enough support,” Demetrius said. “But not real support, bought, connived, stolen.”

“Stolen?” I found myself frowning at the word. “What do you mean?”

“She had help.” He pressed one finger to the side of his nose and winked, a demented fallen angel with a secret to share. “Big help, but the Queen, she didn’t know it. No one knew it. Only me. Me. Because I brought the help to her so long ago.”

He leaned close, looked at Charlotte like she wasn’t worthy of knowing what he was about to tell me before his glistening blue eyes met mine again.

“I was the one who introduced her to the Brotherhood,” he said.

 

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