He could tell by the flicker in her eyes and the tightening of her mouth that she hadn’t liked the sarcasm in that. But she chose to answer him honestly. “I’m pretty much as you might expect. My people are being decimated, so I’m enraged and worried.” She hesitated. “Would you consent to letting my doctors draw some of your blood? We need to find out everything we can about the contagion in order to stop it.”
He didn’t like that, and his knee-jerk reaction was to refuse the request. You could learn a lot by studying someone’s blood, and it was never a good idea to give anybody information about himself.
As she watched his face, she urged quietly, “Please, Dragos. You’re the only person we have so far who might provide clues about how to build a resistance against the contagion. Everyone else has succumbed in less than half an hour.”
Goddammit. He rubbed his forehead, struggling with conflicting impulses. Finally, he said, “The only way I’ll let you have samples of my blood is if we get a doctor that I trust into your labs to monitor what you do with it. And I want the samples destroyed afterward.”
“Damn it, Dragos, this isn’t the time—” she began.
Impatiently, he interrupted her, “I mean it, Tatiana. Like the guns you have trained on me right now—my decision isn’t personal. But you know as well as I do that Powerful spells can be built on someone’s blood. I’m not letting go of something that could be that valuable and dangerous to me without putting some guarantees and protections in place beforehand.”
Biting her lip, she nodded after a moment. “Okay, you have a point. It’s a deal. But what I was going to say is, the problem is how long it might take for you to get one of your doctors here. We need your blood samples now, not tomorrow. We actually needed them yesterday.”
He had already squandered the trip he had bargained for from Soren, so he told her. “That isn’t my problem. That’s yours. You’re resourceful. I know you can make it happen, if you put your mind to it.”
Her expression darkened. They both knew that in order to make it happen, she herself would have to strike a bargain with a Djinn. But damned if he would incur a Djinn debt just so that he could safely give her some of his blood.
As her silence grew prolonged, he remarked, “You know, I would much rather prefer to have my own doctors study my blood and give any synthesized results or antidote to the Light Fae, anyway. If you would prefer.”
“Fine,” she snapped. “Which doctor do you want present?”
The two doctors he trusted the most were Dr. Shaw and Dr. Medina. Both were privy to sensitive information. Dr. Shaw was the sentinels’ surgeon, and she had also consulted with him over his head injury, so she would keep any findings confidential.
But Dr. Medina was Pia’s doctor, and there was no better time or opportunity to send for her than this. She could be close at hand, if they needed to prolong Pia’s next injection. This could work to their advantage.
He glanced over to the verandah, where Pia and Bailey talked as they looked over the maps. He told Tatiana, “Collect Dr. Medina, along with my sentinel Grym. Grym can watch over Medina and your doctors, to make sure the lab stays secure. He’ll also see that the samples are destroyed when they should be. I’ll call them now to make sure they’re ready.”
Tatiana gestured an abrupt assent and strode back to her house, while Dragos quickly called Dr. Medina and Grym to tell them to prepare for an unexpected trip and assignment. The sentinel picked up on the second ring.
He told Grym, “A Djinn will be arriving momentarily to pick you and Dr. Medina up and bring you to the Light Fae demesne. When you get here, be sure to talk to Pia and Eva to get fully briefed on what’s happening.”
“What about you?” Grym asked.
“I’m not available for private conversations at the moment.”
“Okay. You got it.”
He hung up and punched Dr. Medina’s number.
“How’s Pia doing?” the doctor asked, when he spoke to her.
He glanced at the nearby Light Fae on the verandah. “I’m not able to talk freely right now. You’ll find out when you get here.”
“Okay.” The doctor sounded uneasy. “Just tell me this much. Do I need to bring an extra dose of the protocol?”
“No,” he said, and hung up.
Curious about which Djinn Tatiana would call to bargain with, he watched as a tornado of Power whirled into the yard and coalesced into a tall, feminine form. The Djinn had vaguely familiar, regal features, white skin, bloodred hair that fell past her shoulders, and the signature starlike Djinn eyes.
After the Light Fae Queen and the Djinn had a brief, private conversation in silence, the woman whirled away to return a few moments later with Grym and Dr. Medina. Both of them looked around as they got their bearings and stared at Dragos, chained to the Hummers. They converged upon Pia. Eva joined them, and the four Wyr engaged in an intense, silent conversation, glancing in Dragos’s direction often.
He composed himself to patience by closing his eyes and pretending to lie in wait in the warm sunshine during a hunt. He could wait for hours or even days for the right moment to strike at a particular prey, and had done so before, many times.
He was perfectly aware when Grym and Medina approached, but even so, Medina cleared her throat when they drew near. As he opened his eyes again, they both sucked in a breath. Medina looked frightened, while Grym looked … well, grim.
“We need to collect vials of your blood,” Medina told him. She carried two bags, a medical bag and another white one with a biohazard sign on the side, which she set on the ground in front of her. “None of the Light Fae want to come close enough to do it.”
“Bastards,” he said without heat. His bandaged arm itched, and he rubbed at it.
Wait. His attention snapped to high alert.
His bandaged arm itched. It had gone numb before.
He wore off the bandage to stare at the wound. The dark streaks were still present, and so was the bite mark itself, but … he compared the dark streaks to the size of the bandage.
The streaks were smaller. They were definitely smaller.
He raised his voice. “Pia!”
From the verandah, her head snapped up and she bounded toward him, moving across the lawn like a bright shooting star, with Eva in fast pursuit.
Pia skidded to a halt beside the others, followed a scant moment later by Eva. Pia’s gaze had gone wide with dread. “What happened?”
“My arm itched,” he told her. “Look—the wound is still there, but the streaks have shrunk.”
Fierce joy flashed across her face, and eagerly she reached out to hug him.
Eva grabbed Pia’s arm, and he jerked back. He said, “No, not yet. The punctures haven’t closed over. It’s still an open wound.”
“Sorry,” Pia muttered, looking crestfallen. “I forgot again.”
“Hold still,” Dr. Medina told him, as she opened up the medical bag at her feet, snapped on a pair of surgical gloves and prepared a needle along with several empty vials. She drew six vials of blood, stacking them carefully in the biohazard bag. “Okay, we’re done.”
“Don’t let those vials out of your sight,” he told Medina and Grym. They both nodded and hurried back toward the waiting Light Fae.
As he started to smooth the bandage back into place, Pia told him, “Keep that arm out. We’re not quite done. Another hour’s gone by, or near enough to it that it doesn’t matter.”
He watched her dig out the pocketknife, glance around and nick her finger quickly. He muttered, “You’re getting a little too blasé about doing that while we’re under such high scrutiny.”
“Not blasé,” she whispered. “I’ve made my choice about the risk, and now it’s time to live with it.”
In some ways, she could be as ruthless as any predator. Eva shadowed her actions, keeping a wary eye on the others as Pia let a few drops of her blood fall on the bite mark. As they waited, nothing appeared to happen.
Finally,
Pia whispered, “We just don’t know if it’s working or not. It could be working very slowly, or you might be fighting off the contagion all on your own.”
He smoothed the bandage back into place. “Let’s agree on something right now. As long as I’m doing better, you’re going to take the protocol this evening.”
She scowled at him. “Dragos, we don’t know why you’re doing better. What if you appear to be healing, but you’re not, and you get worse again? If I take that injection, my system will be suppressed for another two weeks. There’s no way around that. Meanwhile, you could worsen and turn, and there wouldn’t be a damn thing I could do to stop it.”
She was right, but that didn’t mean he had to like it. Frowning fiercely, he snapped, “Pia, we’re going to have to take some steps on our best information at the time.”
“I know we are!” She hunched her shoulders. “I’m just not ready to roll those dice yet. Anyway, it’s not yet evening—”
“What on earth are you two arguing about?” Tatiana asked.
Dragos’s head came up. Pia snapped the knife shut and jammed it into the pocket of her dress, while chagrin flared on Eva’s face as she whipped around. The three of them had been so engrossed in what they were doing, they forgot to watch for anyone approaching.
They had too many dangerous secrets, but of all the secrets they carried, there was one they could throw out to appease the nosy Queen’s curiosity. Without a second’s hesitation, Dragos sacrificed it as a deflecting tactic.
He told Tatiana bluntly, “Pia’s pregnant. We haven’t decided when we’re going to go public about that yet—all we knew was that we were going to wait until sometime after she got back from this trip.”
Tatiana’s eyes widened. Her expression, as she glanced at Pia, was filled with both wonder and compassion. “Congratulations,” she said. “That’s amazing news. You must be thrilled.”
“Mostly, yes. We are.” Pia rubbed her face. “Except now this has happened.”
“You mustn’t give up hope,” Tatiana told her. “Dragos has made it this far without turning. That’s not just significant. It’s unique. If we can figure out how and replicate it, it could save a lot of people’s lives.”
“Yes.” Pia’s gaze met his. She smiled. “I have a lot of hope.”
“Come into the house with me,” Tatiana said. “It’s been hours since you last ate something. And it’s been just as long, if not longer since Dragos ate something.” She told him directly, “You may not feel hungry, but you should try to eat anyway. I’ll have someone bring out a tray for you.”
He blew out a sharp sigh. “Fine. Thank you.” Then, as Pia lingered, he told her, “Go. I’ll feel better if you eat something.”
She gave him a look that said she knew very well he was managing her, but when Tatiana put a hand on her shoulder, she acquiesced.
He watched until the three women stepped into the house.
Just for shits and giggles, he tried to reach out telepathically to Aryal. How is the search for the Hounds going?
No response. But then he hadn’t really expected one. While he might be healing, he wasn’t healed yet.
Sometimes when Wyr were injured, they healed faster when they were able to shapeshift, so he reached as hard as he could for his Wyr form. He knew it was there, like he knew his own shadow, but no matter how he strained, he couldn’t quite reach it.
Not yet, at any rate, but he would keep trying. The receding streaks on his arm were all the incentive he needed.
He settled back against the Hummer, closed his eyes and reached for more patience. It came more easily as he thought of Morgan of the Fae, and the predator in him realized, it might not be time for him personally to hunt, but it would be again, someday soon.
Chapter Nine
The interior of the house was noticeably cooler than outside, where the heat of the afternoon had taken over. Pia lifted the bodice of her dress up to let the cooler air lick against her overheated skin.
“Is there anything in particular that you would like to eat?” Tatiana asked. “Or is there anything special that you need?”
Suddenly, she was ravenous again. “I feel like I could plant my face in a plate full of carbohydrates.”
“Certainly.” She flagged down an attendant and ordered food for them, and more for Dragos. Then she led Pia into a large, comfortable family room, where French doors looked out over the backyard.
When Eva hesitated at the door, Pia said to her, “Please wait here.”
Eva nodded and eased the doors shut behind them, giving Pia and Tatiana some privacy.
Now that Pia could see Dragos again, she was able to relax.
Tatiana looked out at Dragos too, with a dubious expression. “Is he all right out there in the sun? I can have guards put up a pavilion for him.”
“He’s quite comfortable. Unlike me, he could bask all day in the sun.” Pia chose a comfortable armchair where she could easily keep Dragos in sight and settled into it. She was too unsettled and distracted to search for the small, subtle shadow deep inside, but that didn’t stop her from resting her hand protectively against the flat of her stomach.
Evening was still a few hours away. They were still within their safe zone, and she had at least three more times, maybe four, when she could try without risk to heal Dragos.
Time to take a breath. Time to try to relax. She had been in several tense situations before where a safety margin of four hours would have felt miraculous.
How would Liam and the Stinkpot get along? The thought almost made her smile.
As Tatiana settled on the nearby couch, Pia said, “I can’t imagine how you must feel, knowing your sister might be trying to kill you.”
In the softer interior light, the Queen’s composed expression seemed to sag. “There is no ‘might’ to it,” Tatiana said softly. “Isabeau has already tried many times in the past.”
Pia bit her lip, pressing her fingers harder against her abdomen. Please gods, both her children would love each other. “She’s your twin, isn’t she? Did you ever get along?”
“We had a more cordial relationship once, long ago when we were children,” the other woman replied. She pinched the bridge of her nose. “Although we always had something of an edge that lay between us, and we were prone to quarreling. She was jealous of privileges that I got. I’m younger than her by just a few minutes, you see, but those few minutes dictated the course of our lives. She was the heir, and I was not. I had more freedoms, and she did not. She has an aptitude for magic, and while I have force of will, I have very little else.”
The space of a few years between siblings was not quite a few minutes. Already Liam seemed so much older than little Stinkpot, but that gap would close rapidly after Stinkpot was born. The gap in their ages would certainly seem negligible in forty or fifty years, very like a few minutes.
Make note to self, Pia thought. Don’t play favorites with privileges.
Tatiana continued, “As we grew older, both our parents were killed in a fire. Isabeau became Queen of the Seelie Court, and that’s when her jealous side took over. Eventually she changed so much, she acted like she hated me. Court became a place I avoided as much as possible, but since I was then the heir, I couldn’t avoid it entirely. I never really felt threatened, though, until we both fell in love with the same man.”
“Uh-oh,” Pia whispered, completely drawn into the recounting of the other woman’s memories. “What happened?”
“He chose me.” Tatiana gave her a wry, bittersweet smile. “We tried to keep it secret for a while, but ultimately that didn’t work out very well for us. I became pregnant with Bailey and Melisande, and I reached that inevitable place where I was having difficulty hiding the pregnancy. Dain—that was his name, Dain—and I had started to discuss whether or not we should leave the Court, but we hadn’t made any final decision, when he was killed.”
Pia sucked in a breath. She had known that, clearly, something had happened to Tatiana’s love
r, either a quarrel or a tragedy, because to her knowledge, the Light Fae Queen had never been married. Hearing the details seemed to bring the long-ago tragedy much closer.
She murmured, “He died when you were pregnant.”
The wry, distant expression in Tatiana’s gaze iced over. “Dain was murdered while I was pregnant,” she corrected. “He was struck by an arrow while out hunting with his men. At the time, I was very much younger and a lot more foolish. And of course, I was also heartbroken and beside myself. I remember feeling like I had somehow left my body. I confronted Isabeau, and I didn’t wait to do it until we were alone. I confronted her in front of others. It was a foolhardy thing to do, but ultimately, that probably ended up saving my life. That was the first time—at least I think it was the first time—that Isabeau tried to kill me.”
“How horrible,” Pia whispered.
A soft tap came at the door, and a servant poked his head into the room. “Ma’am, your meal is ready to be served,” he told her.
“We’ll take it in here, Evan,” Tatiana replied. “It’s quiet and private in here.” She said to Pia, “I assume that is all right with you?”
Outside, a Light Fae guard carried a laden tray to Dragos. She turned her attention away from the window, nodding quickly. “Yes, thank you.”
Tatiana didn’t resume her story again until their food had been set on the tables near their seats. The Queen had a simple sandwich, while Pia had a fragrant bowl of pasta with spinach and what smelled like pieces of vegan sausage in a creamy coconut milk base. A cocktail of sparkling water and fresh juice accompanied the meal. She fell on the food like she hadn’t eaten in a week.
Tatiana watched her eat with a small smile. “As long ago as my own pregnancy has been, I still remember those days of being utterly ravenous.”
“Sometimes my stomach feels so empty, I feel like it’s fused to my backbone,” Pia muttered. She sipped at the delicious cocktail. It tasted of apricots, oranges and mint. “Please, do go on.”
With a shrug, the other woman picked at her sandwich, shredding bits of lettuce around the edges. “There isn’t too much more to tell, I’m afraid. The scene was like something out of a Greek tragedy, or a modern soap opera. There was even a dramatic thunderstorm that evening. Isabeau completely lost it. We screamed terrible things at each other. She accused me of stealing away her man, which was frankly delusional, because Dain was completely faithful to me. She accused me of other things as well, trying to steal her throne, and her people, and she said traitors who acted against her deserved to be killed. By being with me, Dain had sealed his own fate.”