Dance of the Gods Read online

  “You should be furious with me.”

  “How could I be, at such a time? We’ve centuries together, my love, the good and the bad. Can I say you were foolish? Of course, but I might have done the same. What good is the kill without the flourish?” She lowered the bodice of her robes to reveal the pentagram scar between her breast. “Don’t I carry this because I toyed too long with a mortal once?”

  “Hoyt.” Lora spat out the name. “You battled a sorcerer. There was no magic in that bitch who scarred me.”

  “When Mama kills the sorcerer, I can lap up his blood like a puppy does milk.”

  Lilith laughed, ruffled Davey’s hair. “That’s my boy. And don’t be sure that demon hunter is without magic.” She reached for Davey, setting him on her lap. “I don’t believe she could have hurt you so without it.”

  “She was hurt, at least. Perhaps mortally.”

  “There, you see, always a bright side.” Lilith kissed Davey. “It’s Midir who must do better. Didn’t night slip through his fingers? Didn’t the white magic defeat his?”

  Lilith had to take a moment to calm herself over the outrage of her wizard’s incompetence. “I’d be rid of him if we had another nearly as powerful. But I promise you this, I swear this to you. They will pay. You’ll bathe in her blood come Samhain, my darling girl. We’ll all drink, long and deep. And when I rule, you’ll be by my side.”

  Comforted, Lora reached out. “Will you stay awhile longer? Will you stay while I sleep?”

  “Of course. We’re family, after all.”

  Blair woke in stages. Her mind stirred first, circling slowly around where she was, what had happened. Her head began to ache in a low, steady drumming, then her eyes throbbed with it. She became aware of other pain—shoulder, ribs, belly, legs. As she lay quiet, taking stock, she realized there wasn’t a spot on her that didn’t hurt.

  But it was manageable rather than the breath stealing pain that had flattened her. The aftertaste of the potion Glenna had poured down her coated her throat. Not horribly unpleasant, she decided. Just sort of smoky and thick, so that she wished for a gallon or two of water to clear it away.

  Cautiously, she let her eyes open. Candlelight, firelight. So it was still shy of dawn, she decided. Good. She felt reasonably good, all in all.

  In fact, she felt good enough to be hungry, which had to be a positive sign. She worked at sitting up just as she spotted Larkin crossing back toward the bed from the far window.

  “Hey, go get some sleep.”

  He stopped, just stared for a moment. “You’re awake.”

  “Yeah, and before you ask, my name’s Blair Murphy, I’m in Geall, and I got my ass whooped by a bunch of vampires. Do you think I could get something to eat?”

  “You’re hungry.” He all but sang the words as he rushed to the bed.

  “Yeah. Maybe just a little midnight snack—or whatever time it is.”

  “You’re having pain.”

  “The grandmother of all headaches,” she admitted. “And some other twinges. Mostly, I feel sort of groggy and dopey. Also,” she added with a quick wince, “I have an amazing need to pee. So, you know, shoo for a minute.”

  Instead, he picked her up, carried her to the chamber pot behind the painted screen.

  “I can’t do this with you in here. I just can’t. Go outside the room and count to thirty.” She squirmed as her bladder strained. “Make that forty. Come on, give a girl a private moment.”

  He rolled his eyes, but did as she asked. In exactly forty seconds he was back in the room where she was taking a few hesitant steps. He was at her side, taking her arm in an instant.

  “Glenna said you might be dizzy.”

  “Little bit. Little dizzy, little wobbly, and it hurts pretty much everywhere. But it could be a whole lot worse, in that I could be dead or craving a nice slug of blood at this moment. I want to take a look.”

  With his help, she limped to the mirror. Her left cheek was scraped from nose to temple, and she was sporting two black eyes. Glenna had fashioned a kind of butterfly bandage to close the gash on her forehead. She turned, noted that while her shoulder was a mass of bruises, they were already going the sickly yellow-green of healing.

  “Yeah, could’ve been worse.” She ran a hand down her own ribs. “Pretty tender yet, but nothing got busted. There’s a plus.”

  “I’ve never been so frightened in all my life.”

  “Me, either.” She met his eyes in the glass. “I don’t know if I thanked you or dreamed I did on one of my trips to La-La Land, but you saved me. I’ll never forget watching you whip through those three vamps like they were nothing.”

  “If I’d been sooner—”

  “Isn’t this a lot about destiny, this whole business? If you were meant to be there sooner, you would’ve been. You were there in time, and that’s what counts.”

  “Blair.” He lowered his head to her good shoulder. He spoke in a quiet murmur, and in Gaelic.

  “What was all that?”

  “For later.” He straightened. “But for now, I’ll get you some food.”

  “I could use it. Feel like I haven’t eaten in days. I’m not getting back in bed. I’ll sit.”

  He helped her to the chair by the fire, then brought over a blanket for her legs. “Do you want the drapes open?”

  “Yeah, sure. Listen, after you get someone to throw some food together, you should go, catch some sleep for the rest of the night—oh!”

  She blinked, threw up a hand to block the glare of the sun through the glass.

  “I slept a bit,” he told her with a quick grin.

  “Yeah, well, apparently so did I. What time is it?”

  “I’d say well past midday.”

  “Mid—” She blew out a breath. “Guess my advanced healing powers have been getting a hell of a workout.”

  “I’ll go see about some food if you promise to stay where I’ve put you.”

  Gingerly, she rubbed her aching knee. “I’m not going anywhere.”

  Obviously, he didn’t take her at her word as Glenna came in moments later.

  “You look better.”

  “Then I must’ve looked like the wrath of God.”

  “You did.” Glenna set her case on a table, opened it.

  And Blair gave it a long, meaningful frown. “I really don’t need any more of that magic tree bark.”

  “We’ll switch to something else. Double vision?”

  “Down to the regular kind. Head aches like a mother.”

  “I can help with that.” Glenna came over, laid her fingers on Blair’s temples. “How’s the shoulder?”

  “Achy, worse than the ribs, but they’re not too bad. Must’ve cracked my knee pretty good, too. It’s a little wobbly.”

  “Considering it was about twice its normal size when Larkin got you here, a little wobbly’s good. You know, this is the first time he’s left this room since he brought you back.”

  “But he said he slept some.”

  “I convinced him to lie down next to you for a while.”

  “He blames himself. It’s stupid.”

  “It’s stupid, I agree. But that’s only part of it. He’s watched over you all night because he’s desperately in love with you. How’s the head now?”

  “The what? Oh…Better,” she realized. “A lot better. Thanks. Oh God, what am I going to do?”

  “You’ll figure it out. They’ll be sending up some tea—one of my infusions. We’ll add a little of this and that to it. You’ll drink it all. Let’s see what I can do about that shoulder.”

  “If I stayed here in Geall, I’d be turning my back on what I was born for. On what brought me to him in the first place. Glenna, I can’t. Whatever I feel, whatever I want, I can’t not be what I am.”

  “Duty and love. They can make their own nasty little wars, can’t they? Relax now. Try some yoga breathing. You’re a strong woman, Blair. Mind, body, heart. A lot of people don’t understand how difficult it can be to be a stro
ng woman. If I were taking bets, I’d say Larkin’s a man who does.”

  Later, when she’d eaten and felt steadier, she convinced Larkin she needed to walk. She sensed he was waiting to scoop her up at the first sign of weakness. She did feel weak, but in heart rather than body. She had to tell him, he deserved to be told, that she couldn’t make promises to him. When what they’d been charged to do had been done, she would have to leave him.

  She knew what it was to be rejected, and wished with everything inside her things could be different. That she could be.

  They walked to the courtyard with the fountain she could see from her window, where the sun was strong and the air cool with the first brush of autumn.

  “Only a month left,” he said, and sat with her on a bench of deep blue marble.

  “We’ll be ready.”

  “Aye, we will. In a few days, Moira will take her sword.”

  “What if it’s not her? What if it’s you?”

  “It isn’t.” He lifted his shoulder. “I’ve searched myself on that, and I’d know if it was. I’d have always known, as in some part of her, Moira knows. And thank God.”

  “But your family. This place. You’re tied to it, by birth. By blood.”

  “True enough.” He took her hand, idly toying with her fingers. “It’s the place of my birth, and I’ll always miss it.”

  “You’ll…what? Miss it? Why? We’re going to win. Just because I got slapped around doesn’t mean they’re going to beat us.”

  “No, it doesn’t, and they won’t.” He looked up from her fingers, into her eyes. And his were like gold steel. “Because we’ll fight to the last man. To the last drop.”

  “So why—”

  “Let me ask you a question, one none of us have voiced as yet. Have all the vampires from your world come here to follow Lilith?”

  “No, of course not.”

  “Then when this battle’s won, the fight goes on. You’ll have to hunt, as you’ve always hunted. Here, if some survive, they’ll be an army always to fight them. The people of Geall know what they are, as the people of your world don’t.”

  “Yes.” So he did understand. “I wish—I’m sorry. Going back, it’s not a choice for me. If it were…But it’s not.”

  “No, it can’t be a choice for you. But it can be for me. So I’ll be going back with you, to fight beside you.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “A stór. Did you think I’d let you get away from me?”

  “You can’t leave here.”

  “Why? It’s Moira who will rule, and my father will advise her as need be. There’s my brother and my sister’s husband to work the land, and tend the horses.”

  She thought of his mother, his sister, brother. Of his father, and the look on Riddock’s face when he’d embraced Larkin after his return. “You can’t leave your family.”

  “It’s hard, yes, to leave loved ones. It should be hard, I think, and should only be done when it needs to be done. It isn’t, could never be, the way it was when your father left you, Blair.”

  “The result’s the same.”

  “It’s not, no. Not when the leaving is with love, all around. And it’s true enough that a man often moves away from his parents. It’s the way of things, a natural order.”

  “They move to the next town, or across the country. Not to another world.”

  “Trying to talk me out of it’s a waste of breath. My mind’s been made up to it for a while now. Moira knows it, though we haven’t spoken of it right out. As does my mother.”

  He looked straight into her eyes. “Do you think I would fight, risk everything, then step aside from the one that matters most in this world, in any world to me? I’d give my life for this if that’s what’s needed. But if I live, you’ll belong to me. And that’s the end of it.”

  “The end of it?”

  “I’m thinking, as you have no close family at home, we could be married here. We can do the whole business again in your Chicago if you like.”

  “Married? I didn’t say I would marry you. Anybody.”

  “Of course you’ll marry me, don’t be foolish.” He gave her a friendly pat on her good knee. “You love me. And I love you,” he said before she could speak. “I nearly told you that first night we were together. But a man shouldn’t say such words when he’s inside a woman, I think. How would she know, for certain, he was speaking with his heart and not, well, not with his…”

  “Oh boy.”

  “I thought to tell you at other times, but told myself it should wait. I realize I nearly waited too long. You asked what I said to you, inside after you woke. I’ll tell you now. So look at me when I do.”

  He laid his fingers on her cheeks. “I said you’re my breath, and my pulse, my heart, my voice. I said, I’ll love you even when all of them stop. I’ll love you, and only you, until all the worlds are ended. So you’ll marry me, Blair. And I’ll go where you go, and fight beside you. We’ll live together, and love together, and make a family.”

  “I have to…I have to stand up a minute.” She got to her feet, shaky now, and walked to the fountain. Just to breathe, she thought, to let the cool spray of water wash her face.

  “No one’s ever loved me like this. I don’t know, not for certain, that anyone’s ever loved me at all until you. No one’s ever offered me what you’re offering me.” She turned back to him. “I’d be a fool to push it away. I’m not a fool. I thought I loved someone once, but that was so pale compared to what I feel for you. I thought I’d have to be strong enough to leave you behind. I didn’t know you could be strong enough to come with me. I should have.”

  She came back to him, offering her hand when he rose. “I’d marry you anywhere. I’d be so proud to marry you.”

  He kissed her hands, then drew her gently into his arms to meet her lips.

  “Get a good grip, will you?” she murmured. “I’m a demon hunter. I’m not fragile.”

  He laughed, and swung her right off her feet.

  “Have a care with her! Have you lost your mind?”

  As Moira sprinted toward them, Larkin only grinned, and spun Blair again. “A bit. We’re betrothed.”

  “Oh.” Moira stopped, her hands fluttering up to her heart. “Oh, well, that’s wonderful. Blessings on you both. I’m so pleased for you.”

  She stepped up, kissed Blair’s cheek, then Larkin’s. “We need a celebration. I’ll go back, tell the others. Cian had a notion…but it can wait.”

  “What notion?” Blair demanded.

  “A way…how did he put it? To thumb our noses at Lilith. But—”

  “I’m for that.” Blair patted Larkin’s arm. “Why don’t you go in. I’ll be right behind you. I just want a second with Moira.”

  “All right. But don’t stay on your feet too long.”

  “Listen to him, after he’s tossing you around in the air. I do wish you happy, Blair.”

  “I want you to know I’m going to try, every day of my life, to make him happy. I want you to know that.”

  “You do make him happy.” Moira angled her head. “We’re friends, aren’t we, you and I?”

  “You, Glenna, Hoyt, Cian. Best friends I ever had in my life.”

  “I feel the same, so I’m going to be honest with you. It will hurt when he goes. It will hurt my heart, and when he’s out of sight I’ll weep until my heart’s dry of tears. Then I’ll be light, and I’ll be happy. Because I know he’ll have what he needs, what he wants, what he deserves.”

  “If there’s a way we can come back, to spend some time, to visit, you, his family, we’ll find it.”

  “That’s a nice thought to hold on to. And I will. Come now. He’s right, you should be off your feet.”

  “I think I feel better than I ever have in my life.”

  “That’s love for you, but still, you’ll need your strength for what Cian has in mind.”

  It was nose-thumbing, Blair thought. And chest-beating. And it was perfect.

  “Are you sur
e you’re up for this?” Glenna asked her.

  “I am so up for this. It’s so in-your-face.” Blair grinned at Cian. “Good thinking.”

  He looked up at the sky, watched the stars wink to life. “Good clear night for it. It’s not what you’d call battle strategy, but—”

  “Damn straight it is. Demoralizing the enemy is always good strategy.” Blair turned the swords she held. “So I’m set?” she asked Glenna.

  “You’re set.”

  “Okay, handsome. Make like a dragon.”

  “In a moment. First, I have something for you, and I want to give it to you here, in front of our circle. One of the symbols of Geall is the dragon. One of our symbols as well, you and I. So I want you to wear this, for our betrothal.”

  He drew out a ring of bright gold shaped like a dragon.

  “Glenna drew a picture of it when I told her what I’d like. And the goldsmith used it to make the ring.”

  “It’s perfect,” she murmured when he slipped it on her finger.

  “And to seal it.” He framed her face, kissed her warmly. And shot her a grin when he eased back. “Now let’s go thumb our noses at this bitch.”

  He flashed into the dragon. Leaping onto his back, Blair lifted both swords high.

  “They rose into the sky,” the old man said. “Across the moon and stars and the dark behind them. And over the world of Geall, those swords flashed flame for all to see. With them, the demon hunter carved these words into that sky.

  “Bright blessings on Geall and all humankind. We,” she wrote in fire, “are the future.”

  The old man lifted the wine that sat beside him. “It was said that the queen of the vampires stood below, cursing, shaking her fists as those words shone bright as the sun.”

  He sipped the wine, held up a hand when the children spread around him protested that couldn’t be the end of the tale.

  “Oh, there’s more to tell. More indeed. But not tonight. Go on now, for I was told there’d be gingercakes in the kitchen for a treat before bedtime. I’ve a fondness for gingercake.”

  When he was alone, and the room quiet again, he sipped his wine. He nodded off with the fire warming his bones, and his mind drifting to the last of the story.

  To the time of knowing.

  Glossary of Irish Words,

  Characters and Places

  a chroi (ah-REE), Gaelic term of endearment meaning “my heart,” “my heart’s beloved,” “my darling”

  a ghrá (ah-GHRA), Gaelic term of endearment meaning “my love,” “dear”

  a stór (ah-STOR), Gaelic term of endearment meaning “my darling”