“Here.” His attention was pulled from the window when Abbott arrived again and handed out a tin of black shoe polish.
“This is going to make a mess,” he said as he took it from him. “Thank you.”
Abbott stepped away from him as Tempest reappeared in the doorway with two white cloaks draped over her arm. “Can you get me a towel?” he asked Abbott.
“Yeah.” Abbott walked out of the room as William unscrewed the top of the shoe polish. He dipped his fingers inside and dabbed some of the black polish on them before turning his attention to Tempest. “Put the cloaks on the couch for now.”
Tempest tossed the cloaks over the back of the couch and stepped toward him. He began to rub the shoe polish onto her hair, careful not to use too much, so he didn’t get it everywhere. Her silvery hair had become a deep brown color by the time he stepped away from her. The sable color emphasized her pale complexion and made her eyes seem nearly black, but there was no concealing her subtle beauty.
Sighing, he wiped his hands on the towel Abbott handed him. He gently ran it over her hair to wipe away any excess polish that would stain the hood of her cloak. The color had lightened by the time he was done, but it was still a chestnut color, and he was satisfied no more would come off her hair. Done, he handed the tin over for her to use on him.
“Not too much,” he told her as she dipped her fingers in and smeared it into his hair.
When she was done, she toweled his hair off and stepped away. “There’s no red left,” she sounded saddened by this as she put the top back on the polish and gave it to Abbott.
“Good.”
She stared at him before turning to Pallas and Abbott. “If they come back before us, open the curtains to let us know it isn’t safe to come inside,” she told them.
“We will,” Abbott promised and slipped the tin into his pocket.
“Is that woman still staying in the hotel?” William asked.
“Yes,” Pallas replied.
William lifted the cloak and draped it over his shoulders before pinning it at his throat. Tempest swung hers onto her shoulders; her fingers shook on her brooch. He took hold of her hands at her throat and slipped the pin from her shaking fingers. Her eyes searched his while he locked the pin into place.
“We may not be able to make it back here tonight,” he said to Abbott and Pallas. “Don’t worry if we don’t and continue on as if nothing has changed. We’ll return here as soon as we can.”
“We will,” Pallas assured him.
William tugged Tempest’s hood into place, then checked to make sure none of the shoe polish rubbed off on it. “You’re to stay beside me, no matter what,” he told her.
“I will,” she promised.
“I mean it Tempest; if you don’t stay by my side, I’ll drag you back here.”
“That attention probably wouldn’t be for the best.” Her tone was teasing, but a muscle near his eye jumped to life; his hands curled around the edge of her hood as he held her close. He’d said yes to this, but the last thing he wanted was for her to step outside and into whatever was going on out there. Her hands encircled his; she squeezed them reassuringly. “I’ll stay by your side.”
He took a deep breath and forced himself to let go of her hood. Taking a step away, he fought the impulse to seize hold of her hand and drag her from this town. He never should have brought her back here, he realized. He should have taken her to Aria and Braith, and all of their troops who could have stood guard over her.
He never could have taken her to them without coming here first, he realized in the next instant. He’d give up his life for her, but there were thousands upon thousands of other lives that depended on the king and queen too. Tempest was immeasurably important to him, but the peace they’d all helped to establish was immeasurably important to thousands. He couldn’t have taken her to Aria and Braith without knowing at least something of what they might be facing.
He now understood how Braith and Aria had felt when they’d had to choose the greater good over each other. He didn’t like it one bit, but it had to be done.
Tempest turned away from him, she embraced her friends before following him out the backdoor.
- CHAPTER 22 -
William kept his head up as they made their way down the snow-covered street. Vampires moved around them, going about their business with no idea that he and Tempest lurked within their midst. These vampires were confident no one would uncover what they were up to, at least not until they were able to inflict the maximum amount of damage. They’d probably assumed Tempest had been lost in the storm or killed by the monsters they’d set loose in the mountains. They were overconfident enough to have become careless.
That was one thing on their side, he decided.
He kept his ears attuned to the conversations surrounding them, but most of them were rather mundane comments about the steel gray sky and the possibility of more snow. He hadn’t expected them to be openly talking about their plans, but he’d hoped for some explanation as to what was going on in this small town.
“The blood bank is down the road on our left. Pallas and I shared a home on that road,” Tempest said.
William continuously searched the vampires surrounding them. He didn’t plan to go after Kane, not with her at his side, but he wanted to see the piece of garbage again. “Take me past the blood bank.” She made a left and headed down a different street. “Do you see anyone you recognize?”
She lifted her head and glanced over the vampires before ducking her head again. “I’ve seen a few I recognize from town, but most I don’t know.”
They walked to the end of the road where she made a right and led the way down another street. The road wrapped around the back of the hotel, revealing the back of the large, red brick building. It was one of only a few buildings made from brick in the town. William’s eyes ran over the back of the building. All of the curtains were drawn over the windows, but he could see the flicker of candles through the drapes. At least a hundred cloaked vampires stood in the backyard, their shoulders thrown back, their chins raised and their right hands clasping a spear like the good soldiers they were.
Turning a corner, they walked down the road running along the side of the building. There were at least another hundred soldiers lined up on the side of it. These men and women were definitely determined to protect whoever resided within there.
“Keep moving,” he urged Tempest when she started to slow.
There had to be a way to see who was in that building, but he had no idea how to go about doing it. He pondered this as they walked past the orphanage. The curtains were still drawn over the front window, the home remained quiet in the fading sun filtering down the street.
Under normal circumstances, he imagined this town had once been quaint and beautiful, now it felt as cold and desolate as a tomb. His gaze slid over the hundreds of vampires in the streets before he surveyed the mountains and peaks again. The vampires there weren’t patrolling the tops of the mountains; they were lined midway up the cliff face and walking around the ledges etched into the surface. His gaze came back down to the homes nestled so closely together within the valley.
Possibilities of a way to introduce himself to the vampire calling herself the queen began to dance through his head. There was only one way he could think of that would work. The idea forming in his head was crazy, and may get him killed, but he had no idea how else to get close to her.
He glanced at Tempest’s bent head. He had to keep her protected, but she wouldn’t leave this town without the children, and he didn’t know how to sneak them all out of here safely, unless his plan worked. If his plan worked, the invading vampires would be so distracted they would never see a small group fleeing across the open snow toward the mountains.
The crowd parted and across the way, he spotted a familiar ugly face amongst the vampires. His step faltered as everything around him faded away and his gaze became pinpointed upon Kane. Everything he’d been preparing for o
ver the past five months was within his grasp. He could have Kane staked through the back and squirming on the ground like the snake he was before the vampires knew he was there.
His fangs pierced the inside of his lip. He barely tasted the blood that trickled into his mouth. Tempest’s hand wrapped around his bicep as she pressed against his side. The world crashed back around him; the vampires and buildings that had faded away at the sight of Kane burst back into view again. The noise he’d tuned out once more pounded against his eardrums.
Warm blood trickled across his palms when he unfolded them; he hadn’t realized he’d torn open the flesh of his hands until now. Careful not to get any blood on his cloak, he knelt in the street and wiped away the red drops from his already healing wounds.
“William,” she whispered tremulously, her hand still on his arm.
He rested his hand briefly on her elbow and jerked his head to the right. He could feel the heat of her flesh beneath his touch; her brown eyes were troubled and searching when they briefly met his. “Let’s go back,” he said.
Her eyes closed. “Yes,” she breathed.
His fingers itched with the urge to stroke her cheek in order to reassure her further, but he couldn’t take the risk of drawing any unnecessary attention to themselves. When they were safely hidden away again, he’d do plenty of reassuring.
She followed him around to the back of the orphanage and inside once more. Abbot and Pallas were standing in the dining room doorway. Abbott twisted his hands before him, while Pallas shifted from foot to foot.
“They’ll probably be back soon,” Pallas whispered.
Keeping his hand on Tempest’s elbow, William hurried her toward the basement door. “Wait, the attic might be better,” Tempest told him. “If Kane went into the basement this morning, he may go down there again.”
“Is the attic over where they’re staying?” he asked.
“It is, but they shouldn’t be able to smell us or hear us in there. The attic was where we would sometimes hide as children.”
“No one ever found us up there,” Pallas confirmed.
He glanced at the basement door before looking at the stairs leading toward the second floor. “Are there windows and another way out from up there?”
“Yes,” Tempest said.
“Can we get past the children without them seeing us?”
“I’ll make sure they’re in one of the rooms, and they stay there,” Pallas replied.
Kane hadn’t noticed them in the basement this morning, there had been plenty of places to hide, but he was used to moving and changing his locations. His instincts screamed at him to not be in the same place two nights in a row. “We’ll get our supplies and move into the attic.”
“I’ll get the children out of the way,” Pallas said.
He watched her hurry up the stairs. “Stay here,” he said to Tempest and dashed down the stairs. He couldn’t shake the thought that their time was running out; he could practically feel Kane and his cohorts closing in on them. He grabbed his saddlebags and some blankets from where they’d spent last night and ran up the stairs again. Tempest waited for him at the bottom of the stairs to the second floor when he emerged.
She took hold of his hand and led him swiftly up the stairs, past the rows of closed doors to the one Pallas and Abbott stood outside. “Let us know when it’s safe to come out tomorrow,” William told them. “I have a plan to get us out of here. The sooner we get it done, the sooner we can get out of this town.”
Pallas bit on her lip and nodded enthusiastically. “We have to go soon.”
“We will,” he promised.
“What about the children?” Tempest asked. “They have to come with us.”
“We’ll get them out of here too.”
He took hold of her elbow again and led her up the rickety stairs to the attic above. Below them, the door closed, the dim light it had provided faded away but faint slivers of illumination could be seen shining underneath the door. At the top of the stairs, Tempest opened another door. He stepped through it and into the massive attic.
Boxes were stacked from floor to ceiling in the corners of the room, cobwebs dangled from the thick wood beams running across the ceiling. The layer of dust coating everything would have made him sneeze if he’d still been human. Now it tickled his nose and filtered up around him when his footsteps fell onto the thick wood covering the floor. The dust sparkled in the fading sunlight filtering through the round windows at each side of the house.
He placed the blankets on the floor before walking over to one of the windows. There was no latch to open the windows; he’d have to bust the glass out if escape became necessary. He gazed down at the small alley between the orphanage and the building beside it. The twenty-five foot fall into the snow would be nothing for a vampire.
Satisfied they would have warning if someone was coming, and they’d have a chance of escape, he turned to Tempest. She stood in the middle of the attic, her fingers near her mouth as she bit at her nails. Pulling her hand away, she scowled at her fingers before shoving them down to her side. He hated the shoe polish in her pale hair and the uneasiness in her warm brown eyes, but he drank in the sight of her.
“What is this plan of yours?” she inquired in a low voice.
“Later,” he said as he approached her. “I simply need to be with you right now.”
Her mouth parted at his words; her eyes followed his every step until he stood before her. Resting his palms against her slender face, he cradled her cheeks in his hands as he bent to place a kiss against her luscious mouth. A sigh of pleasure escaped him, when her lips parted to the invasion of his tongue.
He’d never tasted or experienced anyone like her. The bond between them had been growing, but now he could almost feel it simmering between them, just as he could sometimes feel it between Braith and Aria, and Jack and Hannah. He didn’t know what it meant, but he found he didn’t care as her hands slipped beneath his shirt. He could figure it out later, now was for the two of them.
The minty taste of her filled his mouth; she was sweeter and more intoxicating than the finest wine. His hands slid into her hair. He pulled her closer and pressed her firmly against his chest. The heated pressure of her flesh against his was nearly his undoing. He couldn’t wait to rid her of the cumbersome clothes blocking him from being able to touch her as he lowered her carefully to the floor.
Later, when they’d finally separated themselves from each other and dressed again to make a speedy escape, he told her his plan. Silence filled the house beneath them; he didn’t hear anyone moving about as he spoke. Her fingers dug into the flesh of his chest; her head lifted so she could look at him.
“William, that’s insane,” she whispered.
“It will work,” he assured her as he brushed the hair back from her face. “At the very least it will provide a cover for you and the children to escape.”
“Not without you.”
“With or without me, you’re going to have to get out of this town, Tempest. My sister turned me, she can find me, and she will come here looking for me, or send others for me if I don’t get word back to her soon. They can’t walk into this insanity unprepared. They won’t kill me.”
At least he hoped they wouldn’t kill him, but he believed it would be far more likely they would try to use him as leverage against Aria and Braith. He couldn’t think about that possibility, not when Tempest was staring down at him with fear-filled eyes. Lifting his finger, he traced it over her full bottom lip. The smell of her blood pricked his appetite and caused his fangs to tingle. His mouth watered; his finger stilled on her lips as he relished the scent of her.
“You can’t guarantee they won’t kill you,” she murmured.
“They’ll know who I am. They’ll want me alive.”
Drawing her head down to him, he lightly ran his tongue over her bottom lip. “You can’t know that,” she replied against his lips, refusing to be drawn into his kiss. “I don’t like this at al
l.”
“It will work,” he assured her.
“What about the other vampires of this town? The ones who haven’t been drawn in or are still locked away? What will become of them?”
“This will give them more of a chance to escape than they have now. There was never much of a chance for them, even if we had gone to Aria and Braith. We never would have gotten back here in time to save any of them. This is the only opportunity they could have.”
Tears brimmed in her eyes; with the pads of his thumbs, he wiped away the ones sliding free. “Are you doing this because of Kane?”
“No,” he answered honestly. “If I get to take him out it would be an added bonus, but if I don’t, then I don’t. I will take whatever chance I can to get free. I promise you that, Tempest. You are far more important to me now than he is.”
Her eyes widened at his words. Before she could speak, he pulled her down for another kiss. She looked dazed; her lips were enticingly swollen when he broke the kiss again and smiled up at her. If she’d been about to argue more with him, or perhaps somehow deny what he’d told her, she’d completely forgotten about it now.
He gave her a lazy smile of satisfaction as he played with a strand of her hair. “Come on, lay down, you’re tired.”
She settled in against him, but her hand on his chest trembled. The supple curves of her lithe body fit perfectly against the hardness of his. He brushed the hair away from her neck as he fought the hunger tearing through him. He hadn’t been feeding as well as he normally did, but he’d never felt this burning clamoring for blood before. She smelled of winter, but her blood lit his body on fire.
Holding her close to him, he turned his nose into her hair and inhaled her scent. “I’ll be fine,” he promised when he felt the wetness of her tears against his neck.
Her lashes tickled his skin when she blinked back her tears. “You have to be,” she whispered. “You’re important to me, too.”
He dragged her so forcefully against him that it had to have left a bruise, but she didn’t make a sound of protest, and she didn’t try to break free from his hold. Instead, her grip on him became crushing in its intensity. He didn’t protest either.