Chapter 201: Trial By Dumont
The room was growing crowded. First a whole slew of coven members arrived, ours and theirs, faces I'd never seen before mixed with the most familiar. Quaid mentioned Odette brought family with her. I wondered where she'd been keeping them.
Celeste and James arrived shortly after Erica and the Vegas. Martin and Louisa looked longingly at Quaid from time to time. They sweet couple I'd always adored had taken the ungrateful wretch in and treated him as their own after the Moromonds abandoned him. And do you think Quaid, Mr. High and Mighty Dumont had even a glance for either of them?
One more item of punishment to add to his growing list. He'd pay someday.
Oh, he'd pay big.
In the meantime, I had Uncle Frank to worry about. Odette wouldn't let us near him, her family magic encircling him. And there was still no sign of Gram. But there were vampires. Boy, were there ever. The Dumonts only allowed Sunny and Anastasia inside. The rest of the blood clan gathered, the weight of their presence almost comforting, their power pressing in on us.
He could just run. I sent that to Mom in as tight a beam as I could.
He refuses, she sent back. He insists he's done nothing wrong.
Of course she'd thought of that. Being innocent won't save him without proof, Mom. So do we fight, then? Is this it?
Mom met my eyes, hers full of misery.
He won't let me.
She'd thought of that, too. Naturally. I stood there, staring at my uncle, picturing my little sister Meira in his place. It was almost enough to break me.
Stop, Syd. Sunny. Don't do that to yourself. Frank wouldn't want you to suffer for him.
I sent her love even as I reached for Uncle Frank, meeting Odette's shields for the millionth time.
Where the hell was Gram?
I could feel the morning coming, sense it through my tie to Mom and Sunny. We'd sat vigil with Uncle Frank all night. I wasn't even tired, too wired up for that. I noticed Kristophe nodding off and wished I could jab him awake again.
Just to hear him shriek like a girl.
"It's time." Anastasia gripped Sunny's arm. "We have to go."
Sunny shook her head, eyes locked on Uncle Frank where he remained, crouched and chained in magic at Odette's feet. "I can't leave him."
Anastasia nodded once, quickly. "I'll tell the others." Her eyes met Mom's. "You'll guard her today." It wasn't a question.
"With my life," Mom said.
The tall blonde nodded and left us there.
Uncle Frank struggled against the magic again, his own surging as though he'd been saving his strength. Odette's eyes narrowed, but he won free enough to turn and stand, facing Sunny. She reached for him even as the old woman cruelly tightened her grasp again, the power between them keeping them apart.
"I love you." Mouthed by him, heard in her voice as they spoke as one. Sunny wept then, great, hot tears, refusing to look away as Uncle Frank turned and stared at Mom. Wordless between them, just a simple wave. His eyes met mine and there was no way I could let him die. No way! But he managed to smile at me and I cried instead of raging as I wanted to.
No hope. No respite. He went rigid as dawn neared, eyes fluttering closed.
Sunny remained, her age giving her longer, before she too became a flawless statue. Mom whispered a spell, wrapping the blonde vampire in a cloak of darkness Erica quickly took charge of, spiriting her body from the room.
"It's time." Odette rose while her family yawned around her. Andre kicked Kristophe's foot, jerking the teen awake. They looked bored, tired and ready to have done with it.
How dare they.
Mom had to act! She had to. And yet I saw it in her face, felt it in her magic. She was going to let her brother die. And I knew why. She didn't have a choice. It was Uncle Frank or the coven.
Clever Odette. I'd underestimated her after all.
"Bring him." Odette strode from the room and those in her way parted to allow her to pass. I followed, fury rising as three werewolves lifted Uncle Frank's stiff form as if he were a sack of ordinary garbage.
"You'll treat him with respect." My demon emerged, surging forward.
They handled him more gently after that.
Like it mattered. The sky was deep red and orange in the east as the sun woke for the day. It would be only a moment or two before the first rays crested the edge of the world and Uncle Frank burned to death. I'd witnessed something like this before, when the Moromonds tried to murder him by putting him in the sun, and again when Cesard was left to die. But the first time Mom and I managed to rescue my uncle and the second was a monster who had no other way out. This was far different.
This was losing my Uncle Frank.
My heart fluttered, beat against my ribcage. Inside me my soul panicked, begged for some turn of events to make this all go away. But my body wouldn't react, held as firmly as his it seemed, locking me in place and not allowing me to do anything at all.
And what could I do? One show of defiance could start a war none of us would win. A war that could very well end with my mother's death. My father's. Meira's.
My own.
I stared at the horizon, begged the sun to stay for once, not to rise. The seconds crept by, the world growing more and more visible around me. A huge sob built in my chest, the pain of it squeezing the life out of me. This couldn't be happening.
It just couldn't.
And then she was there, stunning in her fury, more powerful than I'd ever seen her. Ethpeal Hayle, former leader of the coven, every inch the witch she was and much, much more, she strode forward from the tree line and up to stand toe-to-toe with Odette.
I wanted to cheer.
"You will let my son go, you bitch," Gram snarled, "or I will rip your heart out and feed it to your dogs."
It should have worked. Odette was cowed, clearly, almost terrified.
It should have worked.
But for Ameline. "Your son is a menace," she said in her calm, cool voice. "And he must be punished."
My eyes snapped to her the moment Gram's did. A horrible feeling rose in me, a knowing, an understanding. I spun, spotted Page still limp and out of it between the brothers. I didn't ask permission. I just dove in.
Alone. Without Mom. But more importantly, without Ameline.
No wonder we didn't feel the alteration of her memory. We'd assumed Odette did it. But no, not the Dumont leader at all. Ameline herself. Having her with us disguised the feel of her magic.
There was no hiding it now.
Gram nodded at me. She'd known. But why the wait? Why this torture? I threw the truth outward, felt Gram catch it, spread it to everyone there. Mom gasped, spun on Ameline, just as the sun lifted over the horizon and touched Uncle Frank.
Slow, so slow. No simple matter of dragging him down a flight of stairs this time. He was still cocooned in the bubble of magic, but it let in the light, didn't it? Mom reached for him, tried to mask him, but Odette was still in control.
Locked in that power struggle, neither let go until Uncle Frank began to scream.
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