She didn’t want time to consider whether or not she’d just made the greatest mistake of her life.
“You know, Laylah, if you intend to keep the child then you should really consider giving it a name,” the gargoyle gently chastised her.
Tane flashed Levet an annoyed glare. “What does it matter?”
Levet sniffed. “Because a mother who cares about her child gives him a name.”
If Laylah hadn’t been looking directly at the gargoyle she would have missed the pain that flared through the gray eyes.
Her heart wrenched.
Oh, dear God. Levet was intimately familiar with a mother who didn’t bother to name him. Perhaps she had even abandoned him.
Demons could be even more brutal than humans when it came to dealing with deformities.
“Yes,” she breathed, reaching to run a comforting hand down his wing. “You’re right.”
A wistful smile touched his ugly face. “Then why have you hesitated?”
“Because I’ve always known there was the possibility that the child belonged to someone else. And that one day they would come for him,” she tried to explain. “It wouldn’t be fair if I had already named him.”
“And less painful for you to give him away?” Levet asked softly.
She grimaced, knowing she must sound like an idiot. “That was the thought.” “And now?” Levet prompted.
“Now I’ll kill anyone who tries to take him from me.” Tane sent her a knowing smile. “Spoken like a true mother.”
Marika prowled along the wrought iron fence that framed the elegant estate.
Out of necessity she’d swapped her Valentino gown for black silk pants and matching top that snuggly outlined her perfect figure and allowed her to blend into the shadows. She’d also tugged her hair into a simple knot at her nape to keep it from being caught on the nasty trees and bushes that cluttered the godforsaken country.
Her lips pinched.
At least Sergei had managed to cast a Spell of Finding on Laylah before Victor and his henchmen had forced her from her lair. The interfering bastards. It meant that it was only a matter of time before she had her hands on her niece and they could return to civilization.
And in the meantime she intended to keep a very detailed tally on every indignity she was forced to suffer. She was going to take payment out of Laylah’s flesh.
Tapping a manicured nail against her chin, she considered the distant house, her impatience to track down her niece briefly overshadowed by the waves of power that filled the air.
“You are certain she is no longer inside?” she demanded.
Sergei nodded. Like her, he had changed from his designer clothing into a pair of casual chinos and a loose black silk shirt. His hair was pulled into a tail at his nape.
“I can sense her heading south.”
“Is she alone?”
“It’s impossible to say.” The mage sent her a warning frown. “The spell I cast on her is fading. We should hurry before I lose all connection to her.” He muttered a curse as Marika stepped toward the fence, her head tilted back as she tested the air. “What are you doing?”
“Do you know what this place is?”
Sergei shrugged. “A vampire’s lair.”
“Much more than that.” A humorless smile curved her lips. “My niece moves in elevated company.”
The mage shifted uneasily, sensing something was wrong but unable to detect the power that choked the air.
“A clan chief?”
“The King of all Vampires.”
“The Anasso?” Stark disbelief was laced through Sergei’s voice. “I thought he was a myth.”
“You are welcome to ring the doorbell and discover the truth for yourself.”
“No, thank you.” There was a tense pause before the mage moved to stand at her side, his expression suspicious. “You are remarkably indifferent to the fact that the Anasso is now aware that you defied demon law to create a Jinn half-breed for the sole purpose of returning the Dark Lord to this world and crowning yourself queen.”
Marika waved aside his words. Why should she care that her plans had been revealed to the Anasso? There was no point in being superior to those who claimed positions of power if no one appreciated her brilliance.
“It was bound to be revealed eventually.”
The pale blue eyes glittered with annoyance. “Not until we had the Jinn and babe in our possession. A task that now will be considerably more difficult if we are being hunted by your brethren.”
“I do not fear the fools,” she said, scorn dripping from her words. “But there is something else.”
“Something worse than the Anasso?”
“Yes.”
“Lovely.” The mage reached to grasp the crystal hung about his neck. Marika sneered at the instinctive reaction. His human magic would be worthless against the demon inside the mansion. “What is it?”
“An Oracle.”
Sergei backed away from the fence with a string of Russian curses.
“Then this is the end.” He halted at the edge of the tree line, perhaps stupid enough to believe the shadows could hide him from the danger. “If the Commission knows of the female then they’ll kill her.”
Marika turned, taking a malicious pleasure in her companion’s fear.
“That would have been my assumption and yet you claim Laylah escaped.”
He scowled. “She did, unless they have managed to lay a false trail.”
It was the same thought that had crossed her mind.
Rumor was that Styx wasn’t the Anasso simply because he was the strongest vampire. He was just as infamous for his cunning.
“A trail leading to a trap,” she murmured. “It is something to be considered.”
“Something to be considered?” Sergei shook his head in incredulity. “Nyet. The only thing to be considered is the fastest means to return to London.”
“We are not leaving without Laylah and the child.”
“You might consider the glorious return of the Dark Lord worthy of a few thousand years of torture in the hands of the Commission, but I do not.”
Marika flowed forward, grabbing him by the hair and bending him backward.
She could forgive his treachery.
But never his cowardice.
“I have not come this far to have your lack of guts ruin this for me.”
His eyes bulged in pain. “Marika.”
She leaned close to whisper directly in his ear. “If you have no use for your spine I can snap it in two.”
“No …” he panted. “Please. You have made your point. Release me.”
Marika pursed her lips.
The desire to break Sergei in half was nearly overwhelming.
She had sated her hunger for blood before leaving London, but it had been too long since she’d indulged her lust for pain.
For a moment she reveled in his pulsing agony, then recalling she needed the cretin to track Laylah, she loosened her grip. He fell heavily to the ground. With a smile, she bent over his sprawled body.
“Don’t test my patience again, Sergei.” The words were a deadly whisper. “You won’t like the consequences.”
“I am, as always, your humble servant,” he choked out, waiting until she stepped back before he cautiously rose to his feet. “What do you desire of me?”
She turned back toward the mansion, dismissing her brief distraction. Instead she coldly calculated their options.
“There’s no means to discover why the Oracle allowed Laylah to escape,” she finally decided. “We have no choice but to follow the trail.”
“Even if it leads us into a trap?”
“I am not so easily caught.” Marika waved a distant hand toward the woods where her tiny army was hidden. “And I do have my new allies.”
Sergei shuddered. He wasn’t nearly so fond of her servants.
“Do not remind me.”
“They have proved quite useful,” she reminded the mage. “We could never have followed Laylah so swiftly without their skill with portals. And they are exquisitely beautiful.” Without warning she was hit by a wave of dizziness, the image of her sister dancing before her eyes. “Damn.”
Sergei stepped forward. “What’s wrong?”
“Kata.” She furiously pressed a hand to her forehead. Why would the bitch not leave her in peace? “She is … troubled.”
“Is she awakening?”
Reluctantly, Marika forced herself to concentrate on her bond with Kata. She could sense a strange fluttering, as if her sister was being disturbed by an outside force, but the fog of unconsciousness was intact.
“No.” She tried to shake off the tug of awareness. “You are certain no one can find her?”
“Even if they could locate her there is no way that they could penetrate the layers of protection I’ve set around the tomb.”
Her icy power swirled through the air. “Pray you are right, mage.”
Chapter 15
They arrived at the hidden copse of trees south of Hannibal only a few hours after they left the outskirts of Chicago.
The benefit of Tane’s indifference to the laws of traffic. And occasionally those of physics.
Climbing out of the vehicle, Laylah breathed a sigh of relief. Jeez. Those people who mocked women drivers had never ridden with a vampire in a hurry.
Talk about a freaking death wish.
Steadying her weak knees, she headed toward the narrow path that led into the trees. Over the past hour she’d been plagued by a deepening sense of urgency to get her hands on the child.
As if it was calling out to her.
Nearly reaching the outer fringe of oak trees, Laylah was brought to an abrupt halt when Tane grabbed her upper arm.
“Wood sprites?” he muttered, his tension filling the air with a frigid bite. “You trusted them with a child?”
She didn’t blame him for his skepticism. Sprites were as unpredictable as they were beautiful.
“They owe me.”
He blinked in surprised. “A wish?”
“No, I…” She instinctively cut off her words.