The Book of Life

  There must be another witch in the library. I opened my eyes to see who it was.

  It was a vampire.

  Ysabeau stood before Benjamin, one hand wrapped around his throat and the other pushing Phoebe in my direction.

  "Ysabeau." Benjamin looked at her sourly.

  "Expecting someone else? Matthew, perhaps?" Blood welled from a small puncture wound on him that was filled with Ysabeau's finger. That pressure was enough to keep Benjamin where he was. Nausea swept over me in a wave. "He is otherwise engaged. Phoebe, dearest, you must take Diana down to Gallowglass and Fernando. At once." Without looking away from her prey, Ysabeau pointed in my direction with her free hand.

  "Let's go," Phoebe murmured, pulling at my arm.

  Ysabeau removed her finger from Benjamin's neck with an audible pop. His hand clamped over the spot.

  "We're not finished, Ysabeau. Tell Matthew I'll be in touch. Soon."

  "Oh, I will." Ysabeau gave him a terrifyingly toothy smile. She took two steps backward, took my other elbow, and jerked me around to face the exit.

  "Diana?" Benjamin called.

  I stopped but didn't turn around.

  "I hope your children are both girls."

  *

  "Nobody speaks until we're in the car." Gallowglass let out a piercing whistle. "Disguising spell, Auntie."

  I could feel that it had slipped out of shape but couldn't muster the energy to do much about it. The nausea I'd felt upstairs was getting worse.

  Leonard squealed up to the gates of Hertford College.

  "I hesitated. Just like with Juliette." Then it had almost cost Matthew his life. Today it was Phoebe who had paid for my fear.

  "Mind your head," Gallowglass said, inserting me into the passenger seat.

  "Thank God we used Matthew's bloody great car," Leonard muttered to Fernando as he slid in the front. "Back home?"

  "Yes," I said.

  "No," Ysabeau said at the same moment, appearing on the other side of the car. "To the airport. We are going to Sept-Tours. Call Baldwin, Gallowglass."

  "I am not going to Sept-Tours," I said. Live under Baldwin's thumb? Never.

  "What about Sarah?" Fernando asked from the front seat.

  "Tell Amira to drive Sarah to London and meet us there." Ysabeau tapped Leonard on the shoulder. "If you do not put your foot on the gas pedal immediately, I cannot be held accountable for my actions."

  "We're all in. Go!" Gallowglass closed the door of the cargo space just as Leonard squealed into reverse, narrowly missing a distinguished don on a bicycle.

  "Bloody hell. I've not got the temperament for crime," Gallowglass said, huffing slightly. "Show us the book, Auntie."

  "Diana does not have the book." Ysabeau's words caused Fernando to stop mid-conversation and look back at us.

  "Then what is the rush?" Gallowglass demanded.

  "We met Matthew's son." Phoebe sat forward and began to speak loudly in the direction of Fernando's cell phone. "Benjamin knows that Diana is pregnant, Sarah. You are not safe, nor is Amira. Leave. At once."

  "Benjamin?" Sarah's voice was unmistakably horrified.

  A large hand jerked Phoebe back. It twisted her head to the side.

  "He bit you." Gallowglass's face whitened. He grabbed me and inspected every inch of my face and neck. "Christ. Why didn't you call for help?"

  Thanks to Leonard's complete disregard for traffic restrictions or speed limits, we were nearly to the M40.

  "He had Phoebe." I shrank into the seat, trying to stabilize my roiling stomach by clamping both arms over the twins.

  "Where was Granny?" Gallowglass asked.

  "Granny was listening to a horrible woman in a magenta blouse tell me about the library's building works while sixty children screamed in the quadrangle." Ysabeau glared at Gallowglass. "Where were you?"

  "Both of you stop it. We were all exactly where we planned to be." As usual, Phoebe's voice was the only reasonable one. "And we all got out alive. Let's not lose sight of the big picture."

  Leonard sped onto the M40, headed for Heathrow.

  I held a cold hand to my forehead. "I'm so sorry, Phoebe." I pressed my lips together as the car swayed. "I couldn't think."

  "Perfectly understandable," Phoebe said briskly. "May I please speak to Miriam?"

  "Miriam?" Fernando asked.

  "Yes. I know that I am not infected with blood rage, because I didn't ingest any of Benjamin's blood. But he did bite me, and she may wish to have a sample of my blood to see if his saliva has affected me."

  We all stared at her, openmouthed.

  "Later," Gallowglass said curtly. "We'll worry about science and that godforsaken manuscript later."

  The countryside rushed by in a blur. I rested my forehead against the glass and wished with all my heart that Matthew was with me, that the day had ended differently, that Benjamin didn't know I was pregnant with twins.

  His final words--and the prospect of the future they painted--taunted me as we drew closer to the airport.

  I hope your children are both girls.

  *

  "Diana!" Ysabeau's voice interrupted my troubled sleep. "Matthew or Baldwin. Choose." Her tone was fierce. "One of them has to be told."

  "Not Matthew." I winced and sat straighter. That damned arrow was still jabbing my shoulder. "He'll come running, and there's no reason for it. Phoebe is right. We're all alive."

  Ysabeau swore like a sailor and pulled out her red phone. Before anyone could stop her, she was speaking to Baldwin in rapid French. I caught only half of it, but based on her awed response, Phoebe obviously understood more.

  "Oh, Christ." Gallowglass shook his shaggy head.

  "Baldwin wishes to speak with you." Ysabeau extended the phone in my direction.

  "I understand you've seen Benjamin." Baldwin was as cool and composed as Phoebe.

  "I did."

  "He threatened the twins?"

  "He did."

  "I'm your brother, Diana, not your enemy," Baldwin said. "Ysabeau was right to call me."

  "If you say so," I said. "Sieur."

  "Do you know where Matthew is?" he demanded.

  "No." I didn't know--not exactly. "Do you?"

  "I presume he is off somewhere burying Jack Blackfriars."

  The silence that followed Baldwin's words was lengthy.

  "You are an utter bastard, Baldwin de Clermont." My voice shook.

  "Jack was a necessary casualty of a dangerous and deadly war--one that you started, by the way." Baldwin sighed. "Come home, sister. That's an order. Lick your wounds and wait for him. It's what we've all learned to do when Matthew goes off to assuage his guilty conscience."

  He hung up on me before I could manage a reply.

  "I. Hate. Him." I spit out each word.

  "So do I," Ysabeau said, taking back her phone.

  "Baldwin is jealous of Matthew, that's all," Phoebe said. This time her reasonableness was irritating, and I felt the power rush through my body.

  "I don't feel right." My anxiety spiked. "Is something wrong? Is someone following us?"

  Gallowglass forced my head around. "You look hectic. How far are we from London?"

  "London?" Leonard exclaimed. "You said Heathrow." He wrenched the wheel to head in a different direction off the roundabout.

  My stomach proceeded on our previous route. I retched, trying to hold down the vomit. But it wasn't possible.

  "Diana?" Ysabeau said, holding back my hair and wiping at my mouth with her silk scarf. "What is it?"

  "I must have eaten something that didn't agree with me," I said, suppressing another urge to vomit. "I've felt funny for the last few days."

  "Funny how?" Gallowglass's voice was urgent. "Do you have a headache, Diana? Are you having trouble breathing? Does your shoulder pain you?"

  I nodded, the bile rising.

  "You said she was anxious, Phoebe?"

  "Of course Diana was anxious," Ysabeau retorted. She dumped the contents of her purse onto th
e seat and held it under my chin. I couldn't imagine throwing up into a Chanel bag, but at this point anything was possible. "She was preparing to do battle with Benjamin!"

  "Anxiety is a symptom of some condition I can't pronounce. Diana had leaflets about it in New Haven. You hold on, Auntie!" Gallowglass sounded frantic.

  I wondered dimly why he sounded so alarmed before I vomited again, right into Ysabeau's purse.

  "Hamish? We need a doctor. A vampire doctor. Something's wrong with Diana."

  Sol in Scorpio

  When the sun is in the signe of Scorpio, expect death, feare, and poison. During this dangerous time, beware of serpents and all other venomous creatures. Scorpio rules over conception and childbirth, and children born under this sign are blessed with many gifts.

  --Anonymous English Commonplace Book, c. 1590,

  Goncalves MS 4890, f. 9r

  Where is Matthew? He should be here," Fernando murmured, turning away from the view of Diana sitting in the small, sunny room where she spent most of her time since being put on a strict regime of bed rest.

  Diana was still brooding over what happened in the Bodleian. She had not forgiven herself for allowing Benjamin to threaten Phoebe or for letting the opportunity to kill Matthew's son slip through her fingers. But Fernando feared that this would not be the last time her nerves would fail in the face of the enemy.

  "Diana's fine." Gallowglass was propped up against the wall in the hallway opposite the door, his arms crossed. "The doctor said so this morning. Besides, Matthew can't return until he gets his new family sorted out."

  Gallowglass had been their only link to Matthew for weeks. Fernando swore. He pounced, pressing his mouth tightly against Gallowglass's ear and his hand against his windpipe.

  "You haven't told Matthew," Fernando said, lowering his voice so that no one else in the house could hear. "He has a right to know what's happened here, Gallowglass: the magic, finding that page from the Book of Life, Benjamin's appearance, Diana's condition--all of it."

  "If Matthew wanted to know what was happening to his wife, he would be here and not bringing a pack of recalcitrant children to heel," Gallowglass choked out, grasping Fernando's wrist.

  "And you believe this because you would have stayed?" Fernando released him. "You are more lost than the moon in winter. It does not matter where Matthew is. Diana belongs to him. She will never be yours."

  "I know that." Gallowglass's blue eyes did not waver.

  "Matthew may kill you for this." There was not a touch of histrionics in Fernando's pronouncement.

  "There are worse things than my being killed," Gallowglass said evenly. "The doctor said no stress or the babes could die. So could Diana. Not even Matthew will harm them while I have breath in my body. That's my job--and I do it well."

  "When I next see Philippe de Clermont--and he is no doubt toasting his feet before the devil's fire--he will answer to me for asking this of you." Fernando knew that Philippe enjoyed making other people's decisions. He should have made a different one in this case.

  "I would have done it regardless." Gallowglass stepped away. "I don't seem to have a choice."

  "You always have a choice. And you deserve a chance to be happy." There had to be a woman out there for Gallowglass, Fernando thought--one who would make him forget Diana Bishop.

  "Do I?" Gallowglass's expression turned wistful.

  "Yes. Diana has a right to be happy, too." Fernando's words were deliberately blunt. "They've been apart long enough. It's time Matthew came home."

  "Not unless his blood rage is under control. Being away from Diana so long will have made him unstable enough. If Matthew finds out the pregnancy is putting her life in peril, God only knows what he'll do." Gallowglass matched blunt with blunt. "Baldwin is right. The greatest danger we face is not Benjamin, and it isn't the Congregation--it's Matthew. Better fifty enemies outside the door than one within it."

  "So Matthew is your enemy now?" Fernando spoke in a whisper. "And you think he's the one who has lost his senses?"

  Gallowglass made no reply.

  "If you know what is good for you, Gallowglass, you will walk out of this house the minute Matthew returns. Wherever you go--and the ends of the earth may not be far enough to keep you from his wrath--I advise you to spend time on your knees begging God for His protection."

  *

  The Domino Club on Royal Street hadn't changed much since Matthew had first walked through its doors almost two centuries ago. The three-story facade, gray walls, and crisp black-and-white-painted trim was the same, the height of the arched windows at street level suggesting an openness to the outside world that was belied by the closing of their heavy shutters. When the shutters were flung wide at five o'clock, the general public would be welcomed to a beautiful polished bar and to enjoy music provided by a variety of local performers.

  But Matthew was not interested in tonight's entertainment. His eyes were fixed on an ornate iron railing wrapped around the second-floor balcony that provided a sheltering overhang for the pedestrians below. That floor and the one above were restricted to members. A significant portion of the Domino Club's membership roster had signed up when it was founded in 1839--two years before the Boston Club, officially the oldest gentlemen's club in New Orleans, opened its doors. The rest had been carefully selected according to their looks, breeding, and ability to lose large sums of money at the gambling tables.

  Ransome Fayrweather, Marcus's eldest son and the club's owner, would be on the second floor in his office overlooking the corner. Matthew pushed open the black door and entered the cool, dark bar. The place smelled of bourbon and pheromones, the most familiar cocktail in the city. The heels of his shoes made a soft snick against the checkered marble floor.

  It was four o'clock, and only Ransome and his staff were on the premises.

  "Mr. Clairmont?" The vampire behind the bar looked as though he'd seen a ghost and took a step toward the cash register. One glance from Matthew and he froze.

  "I'm here to see Ransome." Matthew stalked toward the stairs. No one stopped him.

  Ransome's door was closed, and Matthew opened it without knocking.

  A man sat with his back to the door and his feet propped up on the windowsill. He was wearing a black suit, and his hair was the same rich brown as the wood of the mahogany chair in which he sat.

  "Well, well. Grandpa's home," Ransome said in a treacle-dipped drawl. He didn't turn to look at his visitor, and a worn ebony-and-ivory domino kept moving between his pale fingers. "What brings you to Royal Street?"

  "I understand you wish to settle accounts." Matthew took a seat opposite, leaving the heavy desk between him and his grandson.

  Ransome slowly turned. The man's eyes were cold chips of green glass in an otherwise handsome and relaxed face. Then his heavy lids dropped, hiding all that sharpness and suggesting a sensual somnolence that Matthew knew was nothing more than a front.

  "As you're aware, I'm here to bring you to heel. Your brothers and sister have all agreed to support me and the new scion." Matthew sat back in his chair. "You're the last holdout, Ransome."

  All of Marcus's other children had submitted quickly. When Matthew told them they carried the genetic marker for blood rage, they had been first stunned and then furious. After that had come fear. They were schooled enough in vampire law to know that their bloodline made them vulnerable, that if any other vampire found out about their condition, they could face immediate death. Marcus's children needed Matthew as much as he needed them. Without him, they would not survive.

  "I have a better memory than they do," Ransome said. He opened his desk drawer and pulled out an old ledger.

  With every day away from Diana, Matthew's temper shortened and his propensity for violence increased. It was vital to have Ransome on his side. And yet, at this moment, he wanted to throttle this grandson. The whole business of confessing and seeking atonement had taken much longer than he'd anticipated--and it was keeping him far from where he shoul
d be.

  "I had no choice but to kill them, Ransome." It took an effort for Matthew to keep his voice even. "Even now Baldwin would rather I kill Jack than risk having him expose our secret. But Marcus convinced me I had other options."

  "Marcus told you that last time. Yet you still culled us, one by one. What's changed?" Ransome asked.

  "I have."

  "Never try to con a con, Matthew," Ransome said in the same lazy drawl. "You've still got that look in your eye that warns creatures not to cross you. Had you lost it, your corpse would be laid out in my foyer. The barkeep was told to shoot you on sight."

  "To give him credit, he did reach for the shotgun by the register." Matthew's attention never drifted from Ransome's face. "Tell him to pull the knife from his belt next time."

  "I'll be sure to pass on that tip." Ransome's domino paused momentarily, caught between his middle and ring fingers. "What happened to Juliette Durand?"

  The muscle in Matthew's jaw ticked. The last time he came to town, Juliette Durand had been with him. When the two left New Orleans, Marcus's boisterous family was significantly smaller. Juliette was Gerbert's creature and had been eager to prove her usefulness at a time when Matthew was growing tired of being the de Clermont family's problem solver. She had disposed of more vampires in New Orleans than Matthew had.

  "My wife killed her." Matthew didn't elaborate.

  "Sounds like you found yourself a good woman," Ransome said, snapping open the ledger before him. He took the cap off a nearby pen, the tip of which looked as if it had been chewed by a wild animal. "Care to play a game of chance with me, Matthew?"

  Matthew's cool eyes met Ransome's brighter green gaze. Matthew's pupils were growing larger by the second. Ransome's lip curled in a scornful smile.

  "Afraid?" Ransome asked. "Of me? I'm flattered."

  "Whether I play the game or not depends on the stakes."

  "My sworn allegiance if you win," Ransome replied, his smile foxy.

  "And if I lose?" Matthew's drawl was not treacle-coated but was just as disarming.

  "That's where the chance comes in." Ransome sent the domino spinning into the air.

  Matthew caught it. "I'll take your wager."

  "You don't know what the game is yet," Ransome said.

  Matthew stared at him impassively.

  Ransome's lips tipped up at the corners. "If you weren't such a bastard, I might grow to like you," he observed.