Aegis rubbed his hands through his hair and cleared his throat. “All right. What I know about Rachel is she’s stronger than most vampires. She’s also smart.”
“Not feeling so positive about this,” I said, touching up my lip gloss. “We’re looking for weaknesses, not reasons to fear her. We’ve got enough of those.”
He laughed, but it was a broken laugh. “Well, I can tell you she’s so vain that she’s susceptible to flattery. She actually tripped up once before because she believed a couple who were praising her strength when she was threatening them. They almost manage to stake her before she realized that they weren’t all that impressed with her beauty and wit. That threw her for a loop, but I don’t think she learned a lesson from it.”
Sandy frowned. “Is that all you have?”
“Well, there’s one other thing. If it were anybody else, I’d hate to use this against her, but…”
“Tell us. We need every ounce of weaponry we can get.” I turned, ready to go.
“Rachel had a child once, before she was turned. She suffers an incredible amount of guilt that she channels into rage because when she was turned, she killed her daughter. It was horrible, I gather. She went home after rising. Before she realized what she was doing, she drained her daughter dry. The girl’s name was Rebecca, and she was only six years old.” He rubbed his chin. “You can see what that might do to someone.”
I stared at him. “Yeah, I do. It could push you a couple of ways. She chose to go all hell-on-heels. I understand how things like that can threaten to destroy you.” I paused, trying to dial back my judgment. Maybe she hadn’t had a Cassandra or a Fata Morgana to force her to look in the mirror. Maybe she had no one except a voice in her head reminding her over and over of what she had done. “I suppose I see how she could become what she is. But that doesn’t change what we need to do.”
“I know, but maybe it helps explain why she’s the way she is.” Aegis shrugged. “We all have our hair shirts.” He glanced at the clock. “Are you sure you have to go tonight? I’d feel safer if you weren’t out there on the road. I know what she’s capable of, Maddy. I don’t want you to pay for my mistakes.” He wrapped his arms around me, kissing the top of my head. He smelled like leather and musk and all things hot and sexy. “I couldn’t bear it if something happened to you.”
I nuzzled into his arms. “Be safe yourself, love. You know she’s out to hurt you. I’ll be careful but yes, I have to go. We have to talk to Linda tonight and there’s magic that must be done.” Carefully disentangling from his embrace, I pulled back and sucked in a long breath. “I’ll call you when we get there safe. And I’ll call you when I leave the temple.”
“Please do. Or I’ll be over there hunting you down.” He glanced out the doors. “At least she can’t get in here.”
“M-row?” Bubba rubbed around my legs, leaving a trail of orange and white fur on my cloak. Par for the course.
I leaned down and petted him. “I’m sorry but yes, we all have to go out. You should be safe here, though. Rachel can’t get in, and Ralph’s in jail. You know how to hide if you need to, Bub.” He licked my hand, then rubbed the side of his cheek against it. “Yes, I belong to you. Be good, Bubba. I’ll be home as soon as I can.”
As we all headed out, I glanced back at the mansion. At the beginning, I had bought it to spite Craig and for something different to do. Now, I loved the place, and I wanted to feel safe here. I wanted to create a long-term home that nobody could ever take away from me.
THE SKY HAD cleared and the night was icy cold. Our breath came in puffs as we headed toward our cars. At least, Sandy’s and mine did. Aegis didn’t breathe. He waited until we were safe in my car and pulling out of the drive before getting into his. As we headed toward the Blue Jinn, where we had left Sandy’s car, I thought about what Aegis had said.
“That must have been horrible, what Rachel went through.” I kept my eyes on the road, watching for ice.
“True, but it doesn’t follow that she had to turn into a monster. We all have losses, some far worse than hers, and not everybody turns into a vicious killer because of it. You remember what Aegis said about her.”
“Oh, I know she’s deadly, but now I feel a little sorry for her. At least she didn’t turn her daughter as well as kill her. That much, you have to credit her with.” I pressed my lips shut. I didn’t like feeling sorry for someone who was out to get me, but I did.
“Maddy, you did what you had to do. They were vicious killers and you saved countless people burning down that village.” Sandy let out a soft breath.
“There were children in that village.” I swerved to miss a dog that was crossing the road. “I was so angry, so furious. I burned them like the witch hunters burned our own kind.”
“Those children were ruthless hunters. Vampires, Maddy. All of them. I was there. Your memory is tinged with guilt. But I was there. The flames were necessary. And Fata and I, we’re just as responsible. But we knew what we were doing was right—what you led us to do was the right thing. We saved innocent lives.”
I eased into the Blue Jinn’s parking lot and turned off the engine. “I suppose so.”
Sandy glanced at me. “You know so.”
I bit my lip. “I think the Erris excommunicated me from the coven because of what I did. She didn’t think I was right.”
“The Erris was out of touch. She didn’t see the victims. She didn’t see the fear in the streets when the vampires were starting to rise. Besides, you grew so popular that she was afraid you were going to take her spot. That’s why she excommunicated you. The other Elders didn’t agree with her, but her word was law in the coven.”
“What? She turned me out, named me pariah because she thought I was going to steal her thunder? Why didn’t you tell me this before? All this time, I thought that the entire council censured me, when it was her own hunger for power? She’s been dead for a century. You could have told me any time during the past hundred years. What the fuck were you thinking?”
Relief swept over me. I hadn’t actually been cast out for what I had done, so much as for how much people had both feared and cheered me. I gripped the steering wheel.
“Maddy?”
“I don’t think I can talk now. I’ll see you at the temple.” I stared straight ahead, waiting for her to get out of the car. Part of me wanted to scream for her to get the hell out, the other part was frantically trying to calm myself down.
“I’m sorry, Maddy. I should have told you sooner.” Sandy fell silent. Then, with tears streaming down her cheeks, she silently got out of the car. As soon as she was safely in her own, I pulled out of the parking lot and headed toward the temple.
THE TEMPLE ARIANRHOD where the Moonrise Coven met sat on five acres. With a private grove where we held rituals on the High Holy days, and our Esbats during the summer and early autumn, the temple itself was dedicated to the goddess Arianrhod, the Lady of the Silver Wheel. I had been brought up in a family dedicated to her, so it made sense for me to enter a coven that was pledged to work with her.
For a temple, it looked a lot like an old brick schoolhouse—probably because that’s what it had originally been: a small schoolhouse that had housed students of a particularly magical system that no longer existed in Bedlam.
Three families had practiced the tradition, but it was obscure and esoteric, and when the last of the children left the island, the trad died out. The coven had bought the building from the city thirty years before we had decked it out to our needs, transforming the land it sat on into a lush grove, complete with fire pit, ritual circle, and celebratory meadow for community events.