Chapter 629: Freed
I let the shield drop completely as the vampires around me either collapsed or stood stunned, looking around at each other, blinking, waking as though from a terrible dream. Uncle Frank came forward, hugged me, tall, strong body shaking.
"Love you," he whispered into my hair before turning to Gram and hugging her, too.
Sunny just stared at me with horror growing in her eyes, both hands clutching at her skirt, giant fistfuls of satin crushed under her grip. I stepped into her space, slid my arms around her and squeezed her, let her feel my love for her even as the gem with the taint pulsed softly in my fist.
She hugged me back, but it took some time, hands finally releasing their death grip on her skirt, rising to press against my back, cold cheek on mine.
"Thank you," she whispered.
"Sunny," I leaned back. "What happened?"
She shook her head, frown creasing her flawless face as she sank to the step behind her, head in her hands. "I don't know," she said. Uncle Frank joined her, the vampires of her court falling back, some whimpering, others crying softly as they held each other. Only Piotr glared at me still, though he embraced himself as though unwilling to look to others for comfort. "We returned after the wedding. And everything is fuzzy from there."
"Exactly," Uncle Frank said, one arm going around her shoulders. "I remember thinking how gray life seemed and then... nothing." He shook his head, blonde hair, grown almost to his shoulders, swinging. His blue eyes brimmed with anxiety. "So you tell us, Syd. What happened?"
"I'm sorry," I said. "This is my fault. I knew something was wrong, and you weren't talking to me, but I didn't come to find out why."
Sunny leaned against Uncle Frank. "Don't you dare apologize," she said. "I can tell by the look on your face you've had more things to worry about than us." She met her husband's eyes. "And we should have been able to take care of our own."
I wasn't the only one beating myself up, I guess.
"Enough stabbing yourselves with guilt," Gram snapped. Jabbed me in the ribs with one finger. "Tell them."
I did. Everything, knowing how little time I had, that dawn was coming. But they needed to know. From the wedding on. How Ameline tried to take over the Node on Demonicon, my adventures there, my trip to the Sidhe realm the first time around and almost losing Shaylee. Capturing Ameline. The loss of the Dumont magic thanks to the Brotherhood and subsequent return. And now, the Sidhe again, Sebastian's displacement. Ameline. And, the worst, Mom and her battle with the Council magic. I sank down to sit with them, feeling Sunny's fingers run through my hair, the comforting gesture I remembered from being a girl when they used to live with us, in cupboards in the basement. They, along with Sassafras, had been my constants when my life seemed so wrong.
How could I let them down like this?
"So you think the Brotherhood did this." Sunny let her fingers linger on my cheek. "To control us."
"And take your power eventually," I said. "I'm worried about Pannera."
Sunny nodded absently, eyes locked on the distance as a chill wind blew through the gaping hole in the back wall where the window used to be. She waved at it, off hand, a glowing white shield blocking the rising air current. "Considering their track record, I can only assume you're correct." She stood, taking my hand, pulling me to my feet, facing her people. "I've been compromised," she said, no nonsense, taking it all on herself. "And through me, all of you." They shuddered, exchanged worried looks. "And now, I fear, our sister clan, the Sthols, are also at risk." First time I heard the other clan in those terms. Was Sunny making headway to peace with Pannera before it all went to hell?
"My queen." Piotr's snarling voice cut through the fear and worry compressing the air in the room. "You've failed us."
The rest of the gathering gasped, but Sunny didn't hesitate. She flew past me, flashing around behind him. One hand gripped Piotr's throat, claws digging into his flesh as she hovered, teeth at his jugular.
"My queen," he choked, "what is your will?"
She let him go, shoved him so hard he fell, and though the others looked immediately more confident, I worried for her. Piotr's attitude wouldn't be stilled so easily.
I shouldn't have doubted her. Sunny's magic burst from her in a wash of white light, slicing through every vampire in the room, making them cry out in pain and fear.
"Go to your blood clans," she said, as cold and imperious as she had been when I first arrived. "Cleanse them if you must. Report back immediately. And Piotr." She turned to him. "Go to Castle Sthol. I would speak with Queen Pannera."
He gaped at her as though she just asked him to cut off his own leg. "My queen, dawn is coming." Gasped from between his lips, full of fear. I watched him wince, face crumbling under the pain of her order as he collapsed to his knees, clutching at his head. I knew that pain, felt it when Batsheva had control over me and a fraction of it earlier before I'd broken free of Sunny's command.
"Now," Sunny said, ever so softly.
With a cry of agony, Piotr, face a desperate mask, flickered into shadow and vanished.
I had no idea what Pannera would do to him if he wasn't welcome.
Frankly, didn't much care.
Besides, I was much too busy to worry about Piotr, especially when the air around me burst with blue magic and Margaret Applegate, surrounded by Enforcers, appeared in a flare of power.
Her glare told me I may have dodged one bullet, but she had me firmly in her sights for another barrage.
"Coven Leader Hayle," she said in her crisp British accent. "What are you doing in my territory?"
I didn't get to answer. Good thing, too. I probably would have been burned at the stake then and there for saying some rather rude things to a foreign Council Leader. Instead, Sunny pushed her way past me, glaring up at the floating witch.
"Council Leader Applegate," Sunny said, mimicking the woman's tone exactly, "what are you doing in my territory?
Best. Comeback. Ever.
Snort.
Margaret grumbled and Margaret glared but, under Sunny's furious cold gaze, Margaret finally relented. She pointed one finger at me, still bobbing in the air, ridiculously comfortable looking shoes swaying beneath her.
"This isn't over." And then, with a wave at her posse, the air flared blue again and she left.
I was in total crapola so deep I'd never shovel my way free when I got home. But I didn't care.
"Syd." Sunny turned me toward her. "We must talk to Miriam."
"Mom can't do anything." Uncle Frank looked so sad and so grim I wanted to hug him again. Okay, I wanted him to hug me and make me feel better. Wasn't going to happen. "We're on our own."
"The only way Pannera would allow Celeste to take over Sebastian's blood clan is if she was under the same influence we were." Sunny shook with the anger on her face. "We have to free her before something terrible happens."
"Why didn't the Brotherhood use us, since they had us so deeply in thrall?" Uncle Frank's voice vibrated with emotion.
"I don't know," I said. "Unless they were holding you in some kind of reserve. Or you weren't completely under control yet."
True, my vampire sent. If the taint had been allowed to progress further, we would never have been able to free the Wilhelms.
"I know you're already in trouble," Sunny said, "but if you can free Pannera... Syd, we have to try."
This close to morning? Sunny was pushing it. I could feel the coming of dawn through my vampire, though she didn't keep me from moving around in daylight. But could we afford to wait?
No, Sunny was right. And I hated the idea of it. The Sthol Queen and I weren't exactly buddies. She'd claimed to want to help me when I was here last time, but I knew she'd throw me under the first bus to dead she could if it meant getting ahead.
And if someone who loved me could turn on me like Sunny did, what kind of reaction would I get from Pannera? Then again, it couldn't get much worse.
Could it?
I used the veil this time, despite Demetrius's offer to guide us. Instead, I let Sunny's memory guide me, taking her hand as she and I, Charlotte with us, stepped up to the slash in the barrier.
I turned to see Uncle Frank, one arm around Gram, nod to us as my grandmother hugged her son. Comical, the tall, handsome vampire and his scrawny, white-haired mother. But so much power surrounded the both of them, I wasn't worried.
"I'll be right back," I said.
Little did I know how prophetic my statement would turn out to be.
The gem of taint tucked into my front pocket for safe keeping, I stepped into the veil with Sunny and Charlotte.
Emerged on a windy mountain road at the gates of another castle, the night still deep, but softening in the east. To find a row of vampires waiting, scowling. And Margaret Applegate smiling grimly down on me from where she floated over head with her Enforcer bullies.
"Our queen does not wish to see you." I didn't know the vampire who spoke, a dark-haired young woman in appearance, though she stank of the taint now I knew what to feel for. "You are not welcome here."
Maybe if Margaret hadn't been there, we would have pushed the issue. She didn't give us the chance.
"That's it," she snapped. "You heard her. And, now that you're outside the realm of the Wilhelms and in my territory," she looked too satisfied for my liking, making me suspect the Brotherhood really did have a hold on her again, "I'm ordering you to leave." She hovered closer, lip curling into a sneer. "Not asking."
Fury did me no good. It just burned a hole inside me as I ripped open the veil again and retreated.
I hated losing.
***
