Conclave (Vampire Conclave: Book 3), page 22
“Nothing,” Sophie says simply.
“Come now, Sophie,” Filip says knowingly. “You must want something in exchange for the child or you wouldn’t have taken her.”
“We honestly don’t want anything. We intend to keep her,” she replies as if their true intentions should have been obvious to us all along. “Therefore, no, I don’t actually want anything except to see Mira shrivel up into a dry husk while she remains dormant and powerless. We’ll keep you alive through your companion’s sire line, but we’ll never let you feed off of one of them again.”
“Why are you doing this to her?” Julian demands.
“We’re finally giving Mira her just due,” Sophie replies vehemently. “She’s the one who urged us all to testify against Bathory. If it wasn’t for her, none of us would have done the things we’ve done. Even though we’re all equal as vampires, she still acts as though she’s the one in charge of us all. Enough is enough, Julian. It’s time for Janus and I to rule, not her.”
Mira lets go of Thomas. Surprisingly, he turns around to face her and pleads in a hoarse voice, “Kill me … please …”
“I guess you do have a voice,” Mira says contemptuously, looking at him with eyes red from crying. “You could have saved her then. You could have told us what was going to happen and helped me save Constance. You don’t deserve my mercy, and I hope you die a slow and miserable death, you coward.”
Sophie uses the length of chain still attached to her bracelet like a golden whip and lashes Thomas across the face with it, instantly drawing blood.
“Shut up, dog!” she orders. “No one asked you to speak.”
The hope for death fades from Thomas’s eyes as he bows his head and returns to Sophie’s side like an obedient animal.
I look at Constance’s mutilated body and have to ask, “Why didn’t we hear her scream?”
“She must have eaten the cupcake,” Sophie states.
A vision of Madeline handing the cupcake to Constance when I walked into the living room earlier flashes through my mind. I look over at Filip’s companion and see the shock on her face. She immediately meets my gaze and begins shaking her head in denial.
“I swear,” she says to me, “I didn’t know. Daisy handed me the cupcake and told me to give it to Constance. I never suspected something was wrong with it.”
“The frosting was laced with a sleeping sedative,” Sophie reveals as she looks over at Mira. “If it’s any consolation, she didn’t feel any pain when Janus killed her. She simply went to sleep.”
What have I done? I was the one who encouraged Constance to at least eat the frosting off of the cupcake, but how was I supposed to know it would lead to her death? Then I remember hearing Daisy also urging her to eat it before I left the living room to come outside. I look over at Madeline, realizing we’re in the same boat. We’re both unwitting accomplices to murder.
“Why didn’t any of Mira’s guards see Janus leave the veranda and raise an alarm?” I ask, attempting to find all the answers.
“I suppose that’s the risk you run when you hire human guards,” Sophie says disparagingly. “Janus simply compelled them to ignore his presence. You really should have considered that before you arranged this conclave, Mira, and shored up your guards with un-compellable creatures.”
“I’ve always had human guards,” she says in her own defense. “That way I can compel them to not tell anyone what they see in my home after they leave my service.”
“Whatever. Your mistakes and your need to be in control over every little thing is of no concern to me anymore. Besides, I really need to leave now. I have other matters I need to attend to at the moment,” Sophie announces, acting as if she’s superior to the rest of us. “I would advise everyone to stay here until after I’m gone. If Janus doesn’t hear from me soon, he’ll kill the baby and end Mira’s miserable life.”
Sophie grabs Thomas by the sleeve of his shirt and walks him off the veranda and into the house.
A dejected looking Mira goes to stand in front of Julian.
“Give her to me,” she says, holding her arms out to take Constance from her brother.
After Julian gently places Constance in her arms, Mira leans her head down and kisses her companion’s forehead. I know she thought of Constance as her child, and I can feel her heartbreak like it’s my own. Warm tears begin to trickle down my cheeks uncontrollably because Mira’s grief is so overwhelming. I know I should erect a wall so I don’t have to feel her anguish, but in a way, I feel as though I’m finally seeing the real Mira in this terrible moment.
“I promise you,” she whispers to Constance as if the other woman’s soul can still hear her words, “I will move heaven and earth to find your daughter. I won’t allow those monsters to keep her, no matter what.”
Even I can see that Mira isn’t in any shape to fight both Sophie and Janus head on to get Constance’s baby back. She’s going to need the support of others.
“The rest of us will help you,” Evie bravely declares, stepping up to the task.
“Yes, we’ll all help,” Filip vows.
“Janus won’t keep the baby with him,” Mira says as she tries to think like Janus and figure out his next moves. “He knows we can track him down wherever he is in the city through our connection to one another. No, he’ll give her to someone he trusts that we can’t track as easily.” Mira looks over at Damien’s and Audrey’s unconscious bodies. “He’ll give her to someone in Damien’s pack.”
“They’ll be unconscious for at least two hours,” Nadia tells her. “Even if you gave them a dose of adrenaline, it wouldn’t wake them up. The jolt from the battle staffs are magically enhanced to linger in their systems and override any stimulants.”
“Then I suppose I’ll have to wait until they awaken so I can torture the information I need out of them,” Mira says, sounding eager to perform the grisly task. She looks down at Constance’s broken body. “You deserved so much better than this. I promise you that I’ll make them pay one day.”
Julian walks up to his sister. “We should prepare her for burial, Mira.”
“No, I don’t want to bury her. I want her with me in my crypt,” Mira says. “When I enter my coma state, I don’t want to be alone.”
“We’ll find a way to prevent that from happening to you,” Julian begins to argue.
Mira simply shakes her head. “No. Sophie was right about one thing. I can’t feed off the child while she’s still so young. I won’t risk killing Constance’s daughter.” Mira looks over at me and says, “After we find the baby, would you be willing to take her to Alfheim? It’s the only place I know where she will be safe from Janus and Sophie.”
I nod. “Yes, I can take her there for the two of you,” I promise, recognizing the irony of the situation considering Constance’s wish for her child to be raised on Alfheim. I don’t see any reason to tell Mira this though, not now. It would only taint her memories of Constance, and I refuse to do that to her.
“Thank you,” Mira says to me as she turns to walk inside her home to lay her friend and companion to rest.
I begin to cry harder over the whole situation. I feel a great sense of guilt, even though I know I didn’t play an active role in Constance’s death. Yet if we hadn’t arranged for an early conclave and simply waited until after Constance had her baby, could that simple delay of a few days saved her life?
My only consolation is that Sophie said they had planned to take control of New Orleans anyway. I can only assume they would have killed Constance and kidnapped the baby regardless of the conclave’s timing.
Julian must feel my distress. He walks over to me and takes me into his arms.
“We’ll find the baby,” he reassures me. “It’s only a matter of time, and then, we can take her to safety for the both of them.”
I allow Julian to comfort me as I attempt to rid my soul of its guilt, but I have a feeling it will take a very long time for that miracle to happen.
We stay at Mira’s for the next hour and a half to help her prepare Constance’s body to be placed in the crypt and waiting for the werewolves to awaken. I’m sort of surprised, and sort of not, to discover that Mira has a torture chamber in her basement. The vampires strap the wolves to the cement walls with thick iron chains in order to keep them immobile after they regain consciousness. I don’t intend to watch Mira’s interrogation of them. I’m sure she intends to take her grief out on the werewolves, which is why I ask Julian if we can leave before Damien and Audrey wake up.
Julian tells me that Mira will release the two leaders of the New Orleans pack after they tell her where to find Constance’s baby. Keeping them as her prisoners would only cause more chaos and possibly escalate a war within the supernatural community.
“Why do you think Janus and Sophie left the wolves here in the first place?” I ask. “Didn’t they assume Mira would try to get the location of the child from them?”
“It’s possible that they’re setting a trap for her rescuers,” Julian replies. “It’s hard to tell what motivates the two of them sometimes, but that would be my guess. As long as that danger is understood, there shouldn’t be any surprises.”
While Mira extracts her pound of flesh from the werewolves in the basement, the other vampires come together and decide that after she gains the information they need concerning the baby’s whereabouts, they’ll all go after the child. Even Fred, Roman, and Jiro volunteer to help in the endeavor.
“Anyone who would rip a child from its mother’s womb deserves no mercy,” Jiro states heatedly.
“I agree,” Roman says. “There’s nothing worse than a person who kidnaps a baby.”
“We get baby back,” Fred replies firmly. “Baby precious.”
I hear Winifred sniff beside me. I look over and see tears streaming down her wrinkled face.
“That poor girl,” she says, wiping at her tears with the tips of her fingers. “She didn’t deserve to die like that. No one does.”
I place a comforting arm around her shoulders, trying to bring her what solace I can.
“We’ll do right by Constance,” I promise. “We’ll get her baby back, and I’ll take the child to Alfheim where she’ll be safe from all this madness.”
“I can’t believe Mira isn’t going to be around anymore,” Daniel says, looking as shocked as he sounds.
“I feel so horrible about my part in all of this,” Madeline laments, her face drawn with guilt. “If I hadn’t given that cupcake to Constance, maybe she would still be alive.”
“I don’t think so,” I tell her, having had some time to think through everything that led up to Constance’s murder. “Considering what Sophie told us, she and Janus have had this planned out for quite a while. He probably would have done the same thing to her if she had still been awake, and none of us would have been able to reach them in time to stop him. All we can do now is save Constance’s baby and make sure she has a better life than the one she’ll have if she remains with Janus and Sophie.”
One of my greatest worries is that they will warp the child’s mind just like they’ve twisted Daisy’s. I refuse to allow that to happen and silently vow that I’ll do whatever I can to stop them. As princess of House Moonshade, I have an army I can call upon if it comes down to that, but considering the determined looks on the faces of the people around me, I don’t think I’ll have to use them.
“I won’t stop until I have that baby securely in my arms,” Evie pledges fiercely. “I don’t care what it takes.”
“We get baby back,” Fred states for a second time just to punctuate Evie’s declaration.
“Sarah,” Nadia whispers to me, “we’ll need to return to Alfheim soon. I’m not sure we’ll have time to help with the rescue.”
I had almost forgotten about the engagement party.
“She’s right,” I say to Julian. “We have to be in Alfheim tonight.”
“What’s happening there that’s so important?” Evie asks.
“It’s a political matter that Sarah is involved in,” Julian answers for us, not wanting to delve any deeper into the particulars of my temporary engagement to Jhann Nysas. “It’s something that we can’t miss.”
“Go do what you need to,” Petru says. “We can handle this, Julian.”
“If you’re able to rescue the baby tonight,” I tell them all, “bring her to the alfar mansion here in town. We’ll tell Helen about the situation and have her there to meet whomever brings the child. She’ll be able to get word to us on Alfheim right away. Once I’m contacted, I’ll return to Earth immediately to get the baby and take her to the alfar home world.”
Filip nods his head. “We’ll do that. Hopefully we can have all of this resolved by tonight.”
“Adrian,” Julian says to our oddly mute vampire, “you need to take care of Mira. She has maybe a week left before she goes into stasis. You’ll need to make the proper preparation for it.”
Adrian nods that he understands what Julian just said, but his expression is definitely downcast. Perhaps he truly did care for Mira in his own peculiar way. Either that or he’s not sure what his place in the hierarchy of the vampires is anymore now that he doesn’t see himself as second in command to Mira. He appears lost, and I hate the fact that I feel sorry for him.
As Julian, my alfar detail, and I make our way back to Moonstone Manor in separate vehicles, I begin to wonder if I should ask Shael to call off the engagement party.
“Maybe I can have them postpone the party tonight,” I suggest. “Finding the baby is a lot more important than going to a pretend engagement party with a bunch of people I don’t know.”
“It would end up raising questions that we don’t need people asking,” Julian says. “If I didn’t think the others could handle things here, then I would agree with your suggestion, but I know we can trust them. They’ll find the child and bring her to us. I don’t have any doubts about that and neither should you.”
“I’m probably just looking for any excuse not to go back there tonight. I don’t like lying to people, and I hate giving the alfar false hope that I’m going to unite two of their royal houses.”
“I know this is hard for you,” Julian sympathizes. “It’s not going to be easy for me either, if that’s any consolation. I don’t like the idea of you being pranced around on another man’s arm as his future wife.”
“You’ll be one of the few people present who knows it’s all just for show,” I say. “Just remember that I love you, Julian. Nothing will ever change that.”
“I know, Sarah, and I love you too. More than anyone else in this world.”
I wait a few seconds before asking Julian about something else that’s been bothering me.
“Is there anything we can do to help Nadia?” I ask him. “What exactly will happen to her if she does become a werewolf?”
“Besides the obvious physical transformation that she’ll go through, there’s one other thing that we’ll need to watch out for,” he says, sounding worried. “She’ll have an almost uncontrollable desire to be with her pack.”
“Her pack?” I ask, quickly thinking through what that implies. “Do you mean Damien’s pack?”
“Since he’s the one who bit her, yes. And …” Julian pauses as if he doesn’t want to say what else he’s thinking.
“Go on,” I encourage him. “Even if you think it will upset me, I need to hear the rest.”
“Did you notice how Damien and Audrey switched places during the fight so Damien would be the one to go up against Nadia?”
“Yes,” I say. “I did notice that. At the time, I just thought he wanted to fight a Valengard, but then we figured out that the bite was a planned distraction so Janus could steal Mira’s next companion. Do you think Damien decided to bite her, instead of letting Audrey do it, for a particular reason?”
“I think so.”
“Why? What did he hope to gain from doing it himself?”
“It could be that he wants her to become devoted to him and his pack instead of the alfar. From what I understand, the hierarchy of wolves is very strict. Nadia may begin to feel more loyal to Damien than she does to you, and that’s something we’ll need to watch out for, Sarah. If that happens, she could become a danger to us all.”
“And washing out her wound … do you actually think that worked, or should I prepare myself for the worst-case scenario?”
“You should prepare yourself for the worst,” Julian advises. “There’s only one chance in a million that washing the wound out made any difference.”
“Is there a cure?” I ask, holding out hope for my friend. “There has to be something we can do to help her.”
“I’m sorry, Sarah. I’ve never heard of anyone being cured. From what I understand, the bite of a werewolf completely alters the victim’s DNA. She’ll never get rid of it, and if she has any children, it will be passed down to them as well.”
“Oh, Julian, what have we done to her?” I ask in dismay, fully realizing the ramifications of Nadia’s condition.
“We didn’t do anything,” he stresses. “This was all Janus and Sophie’s doing.”
“Is it wrong of me to want both of them dead?” I ask, feeling true hatred for them.
“I hope it’s not wrong because I want the same thing,” Julian replies. “They don’t deserve to live. I knew they were animals, but I never imagined they could be this vicious and selfish. They’re like rabid dogs that need to finally be put down.”
“Do you think the others will kill them?”
“If they get a chance to, they will. Janus and Sophie broke one of the most sacred oaths we made to each other when we first became vampires. One was that we would never turn against one another, and the second was that we would never kill another vampire’s companion. Now that they’ve murdered Constance, we don’t owe them our allegiance anymore. The only reason I didn’t kill Sophie back at Mira’s is because Janus would have killed the baby as retribution.”
“But what about the ten-year-old boy she talked about?” I ask. “He’s an innocent in all of this. If we kill her, won’t he die as well?”
