“So touching,” Tim said quietly to another of the revenants. “Just like a chick flick.”
“That it is,” the revenant named Jack agreed. “Romantic.”
“Romantic, my arse. I’m sitting here starving to death, and all you can do is yammer on about this drivel? Someone give me a bite to eat!” William’s remains demanded.
Damian stood, picked up William’s discarded leg, and walloped the half-a-revenant over the head with it.
You don’t believe me? Sebastian asked.
Yes, I believe you. I couldn’t disbelieve him—the regret he felt was so strong I didn’t need to merge with him to feel it.
“Noelle?” Her stormy green eyes turned to me. “I have known you your entire life. Your mother gave you into my care when you became a Guardian, but I think we’ve become more than just roommates—you are my friend, and I love you. I would never hurt you. I know you and Sebastian had a less than amicable parting, but what I want to know now—what I need to know is what your feelings are for him. Are you…are you in love with him?”
“Well, it doesn’t matter now what I feel, does it? You’ve gone and Joined with him. There’s nothing left for me,” she snapped, the words hurting me almost as much as the anger in her eyes.
“Noelle—”
“Zut. Elle est tres pissed,” Sally said in a clearly audible undertone.
“Very,” Tim said, nodding.
“I’m leaving now,” Noelle said with icy dignity, gathering her bag of tools. She marched to the door, ruthlessly pulling down the barricade the revenants were building from bits of the door and part of the couch. “I am bound by the laws governing the Guardian’s Guild to answer any summons you may make for help with a demon, but I would advise you to think twice before you call. I fear I would be quite, quite delayed in answering.”
“Noelle, please, we can talk about this—”
She ignored my outstretched hand and marched out of the house, her back rigid.
I dropped my hand, pained by her actions but aware that I had hurt her deeply.
“She will understand in time,” Sebastian told me, his fingers whispering across my cheek. “Do not feel guilty, Belle. You are innocent of any wrongdoing.”
“Où are the imps?” Sally asked, peering out into the darkness as the revenants rebuilt their barricade.
“They probably went back to Abaddon.” With reluctance, I took a step back from Sebastian. I needed time to think things out, and I couldn’t do that with him touching me, stirring feelings that had lain dormant for so long.
“That should hold it,” Tim said as the men moved the last bit of hall furniture across the doorway. “We should be safe from those little yellow devils now.”
“I could eat them, you know,” the remains of William answered. “I’d be happy to do it. That would solve a big part of the problem, wouldn’t it? I could probably put away a couple dozen braces of imps with no difficulty.”
Sally frowned, looking up and down the street before coming back into the hall. “Non. Les imps don’t just disappear, hein? They must be banished properly by le Guardian. They must be somewhere else.”
I frowned at her words, glancing through the part of the doorway visible around edges of the barricades. “They don’t go off on their own? Then where did they go?”
A muffled crashing noise drifted up from beneath the floor. We all looked down.
“You checked the windows?” I asked Sally. “They were all warded?”
“Well…oui. So far as I know. Je ne quite sure what a ward looks like…”
Sebastian swore.
“What’s down in the basement?” I looked at Damian.
“It matters not. Beloved, we must leave now.” Sebastian grabbed my hand and tried to haul me toward the door.
“Nothing is down there,” Damian answered, shrugging. “A few broken crates, the furnace, a wine rack with no wine in it, and one of those big old-fashioned radios that Papa says everyone used to listen to.”
Sebastian’s gaze met mine. “Furnace?” I asked him.
“Pilot light,” he answered, and without another word, snatched the back of Damian’s shirt with one hand and my arm with another, kicking aside the barricade before shoving us both through the doorway. “Run!” he ordered.
I grabbed Damian and ran down the steps to the street below, heartened to see the revenants and Sally spilling out of the house after us. Sebastian brought up the rear.
“Here, what about me?” wailed a voice from within the house.
“Oooh, we’ve left Will,” Jack the revenant said, but the rest of his sentence was drowned out by a loud explosion. Sebastian hurled himself at me, knocking both Damian and me to the ground, covering us when a fireball exploded from the house, consuming everything in its path.
Chapter Six
“Damn the imps,” Tim muttered, as behind us, the door to the hotel room closed. Ah, sanctuary.
I collapsed into the nearest chair, heedless of the soot that no doubt came off my charred clothing. “Amen to that.”
“Mmrfm wbrbl mnplm.” Damian, on his way to investigate the video-game equipment in the entertainment center also housing a flat-screen television, paused long enough to pull a faintly smoking object out of a plastic carrier bag. He set the remains of William’s remains—now just a blackened head—on the coffee table, propping it up next to a bowl of seashells.
“Ta, lad,” William’s head said politely. “I’m a bit peckish…anyone not using all their fingers or toes?”
“Did we have to bring that?” Sebastian asked, glaring at William’s head. William grinned back and blew a kiss.
“Tim felt it would be wrong to leave a sentient body…er…part of a body behind,” I explained wearily. “I suppose I can see his point. Once a revenant, always a revenant, until the entire body is destroyed.”
“That’s right, and I’ve still got me old noggin,” William said, nodding. Unfortunately, the act sent the head rolling across the table until it was lying upside down.
Damian shoved it aside to perch on the coffee table, a game controller in his hand.
“Ooh, Xbox car racing!” William said. “Give us a turn, will you? I love this one.”
Sebastian’s look become more pointed as Damian set a controller before William’s head and positioned it so it could be manipulated by the revenant’s mouth.
“I admit it’s stretching the precepts set down by the Society a bit far, but his head is still sentient.”
“Vroom!” William said. Sebastian pursed his lips.
“Okay, just barely, but it still seemed wrong to leave him behind just because the imps blew up the rest of his body.”
“I’m done. Next!” Jack said as he emerged from the suite’s guest bathroom. Although we’d survived Damian’s house exploding, we were all a bit singed about the edges and covered in soot and dirt.
“Ysabelle?” Tim asked.
I waved an exhausted hand. “I’ll wait. You all go ahead.”
“You may clean up in my bathroom while I have a word with you,” Sebastian said, hauling me to my feet again. “The bedroom is through here.”
“Dibs on le couch,” said Sally as Tim kindly let her out of another carrier bag. “Oooh! Très bon hotel room, Sebastian! I like it. Is there service du food en la room? Je suis starved.”
“I have a few things I’d like to say to you, as well, but I’m not going into your bedroom,” I told Sebastian, sitting down again.
He stood in front of me, his hands on his hips. Why not?
Because you’ll just try to seduce me, and quite frankly, I’m not sure I could resist.
The rotter had the nerve to smile. It lit his eyes, sending little tremors of excitement through me. We are Joined. We will be together until the end of our days. Your body belongs to me, and mine to you. There is nothing wrong with me seducing you now.
“I’m sure that’s what you think, but I still have a billion or so issues to work through over this whole B
eloved thing,” I said blandly, and refused to let him pull me out of the chair again.
“Est ce le bedroom? Oooh! Huge bed!” Sally drifted into the bedroom.
“Anything you have to say you can say to me here,” I told Sebastian as he continued to glare and send me thoughts that just about steamed my blood. “There’s nothing you can’t say in front of my friends.”
“That’s right,” Tim said, emerging from the bathroom with a damp shirt but a clean face. “I feel we owe a lot to Ysabelle. Clearly you two are having some sort of relationship crisis, and we all want you to know that we’re here to help you work it out.”
The other revenants nodded. Sebastian said rude things in French under his breath.
“That’s very sweet of you. I greatly appreciate the support, although I’m a bit concerned about your safety.” I glanced at Sebastian. “How long do you think we have before the demon tracks me down again?”
Before I could brace myself, he grabbed my wrists and pulled me into his arms. You are the single most irritatingly stubborn woman I have ever met.
I kissed the tip of his nose. “Oddly enough, I was just about to say the same about you. How long do we have, do you think?”
He sighed, his hands stroking gently down my back. My body—against my better intentions—melted against him. “I would say an hour or less, depending on the resources the demon is able to utilize. If it searches for you on its own, longer. If it rallies an army, perhaps twenty minutes at best. I must find it before it does either.”
“Find it? Why find it? It’s going to be here soon enough,” I pointed out.
“I must destroy it before it can find you again,” he answered, striding to a desk upon which sat a black attaché case. He rifled through it and extracted a small burgundy notebook. I couldn’t help watching him move, admiring the lines of his impressive body, the strength and controlled power that he seemed to bear so easily. His every movement was filled with an almost feline grace that warned of a ruthless, potent being behind the sophisticated exterior.
“How do you destroy a demon?” Tim asked, holding out a chair for Sally. She beamed at him.
I raised an eyebrow at Sebastian, waiting for his answer. He didn’t look at me. “A Guardian can destroy demons.”
Tim glanced at me. “That’s the only way?”
“Not the only way, no. Talismans created for that purpose can also be used, but unfortunately, the one I was trying to locate has no doubt been destroyed in the fire that claimed the Betrayer’s house.”
“A talisman?”
The color in Sebastian’s eyes faded. “Yes. A ring of power, actually. It was thin, rimmed with gold, made of horn.”
“Oh, you’re talking about that ring you mentioned when you staggered into the house. I don’t know where it is.”
“It was in the possession of the Betrayer. In the right hands, it was capable of the destruction of the demon lord and his minions.” His hands tightened on the notebook. “But now it is destroyed.”
“It’s broken, but not destroyed,” a voice piped up over the muted sound of electronic cars racing down virtual country roads.
We all turned to look at Damian.
“You’ve seen the ring?” I asked him.
He shrugged, his eyes still on the TV. Beside him, William’s head grunted as it manipulated the controller with his mouth. “Yes. It broke when Nell saved Papa. He gave me the pieces, saying it was a souvenir.”
The last hour and a half spent talking to fire officials made it clear that there was not going to be anything salvageable from the house. “Damian, I’m sorry—I thought you heard when the fire captain said that the fire destroyed everything in the house. Not even a magical ring could survive it.”
“The ring isn’t in the house,” he said, his shoulders twitching as he manipulated his virtual car through a hairpin turn.
Sebastian all but pounced on the boy, grabbing him by both arms. “Where is the ring now, boy?”
“You’re hurting me,” Damian said, frowning.
Sebastian loosened his grip. We all watched breathlessly as Damian reached into his pocket and pulled out an assortment of grubby items. He picked carefully through bits of string, a couple of shiny rocks, a key, hard sweets, and assorted fluff to pluck out three items. He handed them to me. Everyone but Damian and William’s head crowded around me to see the three thin bits of curved metal that lay across my palm. They looked more like a broken hoop earring than a ring. I touched one of the pieces. “This is a ring of power?”
Sebastian slumped down onto the love seat, his eyes closed for a moment. “It was.”
“Hmm.” The pieces of the ring lay cool on my hand. I touched them, pushing them into a rough circle, looking closely at the edges of the breaks. “This isn’t gold. It’s carmot.”
“Carmot? What’s that?” Jack the revenant asked, peering at the ring so closely his nose almost touched my hand.
“Have you ever heard of a man named Edward Kelley?” I asked Sebastian.
He frowned for a moment. “No.”
“Really? Erm…how old are you?”
“Two hundred and seventeen,” he said, looking a bit startled.
“Ah. That would explain it. Edward Kelley was a bit before your time—he was an alchemist during the reign of Elizabeth the First.”
Sebastian’s eyes narrowed on my hand. “That ring was reputed to have been created in the mid-sixteenth century.”
I nodded. “Edward Kelley claimed to have found the tomb of a bishop in Wales that contained not only the basis for his tinctures, which would transmute base metals into gold, but also of a manuscript that explained the secrets of the manufacture of the tinctures. He was a fraud, of course, since the tinctures were not as he claimed, but he did contribute one true finding to science—carmot, the basis for which philosophers’ stones were made, and, when treated properly, a yellow metal a thousand times more rare than mere gold. This ring was made of horn and carmot, not gold.”
“Why do I suspect there is more to this than a rare substance?” Sebastian asked, his gaze steady on me.
I smiled, my fingers closing over the broken bits of ring. “Because you’re a smart man. One of the reasons carmot was used for items of great importance like this ring is because of its restorative property.”
“Restorative in what manner?”
My smile deepened as I whispered three words: magis plana conligatio.
Before I could open my hand, Sebastian was on his feet, his expression startled. I stood as well, turning over my hand as I opened my fingers. The pieces burned a bright reddish gold for a moment before subsiding into a more mundane horn ring edged in a gold-colored metal.
“You remade it,” Sebastian said, touching the ring with the tip of his finger, as if he were worried it would break again. “But…how?”
“Anyone who knows about carmot knows how to restore it to its manufactured form,” I said, and pressed the ring into his hand. My fingers touched the pulse of his wrist. “I am giving this to you now because I know you will use it wisely.”
His gaze flickered to Damian, now thoroughly engrossed in the video game. “I made a vow to you, Beloved. I am a man of my word.”
I touched his cheek, the anguish inside him so great it leeched into me. I know you are. I could not have bound myself to you if you were anything but an honorable man. I’m just sorry that I couldn’t give you back your soul.
Do not worry, Beloved. I can exist without a soul—so long as I have you.
I didn’t know what to say to that. Sebastian seemed to have no difficulty sharing his thoughts and feelings with me, blithely accepting his emotions rather than questioning how such a strong relationship could develop almost instantly. I couldn’t deny that some pretty strong emotions were building within me on what seemed to be a minute-by-minute basis, but I was not yet ready to either confront or accept them. There were other issues to deal with first.
“That’s amazing,” Tim said, peeking
over Sebastian’s shoulder to see the ring. “You just pressed it together?”
“Elle est la daughter of an alchemist,” Sally said, sashaying forward to look at the ring.
I frowned at her.
“You are? I didn’t know they still had such things,” Tim said.
“They don’t. If the loo is free, I’ll go clean up.”
“Who exactly was Edward Kelley?” Sebastian asked, following me into the bathroom.
The revenants had left me a clean towel. I scrubbed my face and neck, wishing I had a change of clothes. “He was a liar and a thief, a man whose ears were cut off early in his career as a laywer because of fraud. He later turned his talent for prevarication to alchemy.”
“But it wasn’t all false, was it?” Sebastian fingered the ring. “This carmot seems legitimate enough.”
“It is. Carmot is the one thing in Kelley’s life that was real, only he didn’t understand that until the end of his life.”
“What happened to him?”
I rinsed out the now-soiled towel. “The common belief is that he died during an attempt to break out of a Bohemian prison.”
“The common belief? What’s the truth?”
“Mind if I use your brush? Thanks.” I toweled my hair quickly to get any soot out of it, then applied Sebastian’s brush to the unruly mess, studying myself in the mirror. What could Sebastian see in my face? My eyes? Did he see the truth, or had some inner sense prompted him to press the subject? “He lost a leg during the prison break attempt, but he survived. He lived in seclusion for several years more, a broken man who could never recapture the fleeting fame he acquired in his earlier years.”
“I assume he had a family?” Sebastian’s eyes were watchful. Damn him, he knew.
“That would be a reasonable assumption.” I set down the brush and turned to face him. “He had two children by a Gypsy woman: a son and a daughter. One was captured and burned at the stake for his sins. The other escaped and was not heard of or seen again.”
“Fascinating,” he said, but I could tell what was coming next, and I dreaded it. Offense was my only option.