Chapter 76 Red Room
❀ Maeve ❀
Under the unblinking stares of two vampires, I rose from the settee to stand off to the side.
Their gazes tracked me like hounds on a wild hare.
I allowed myself a steady, long exhale, smoothing my bloody white dress down my now-healed thighs.
“I don’t know what’s going on here, but you’re both obviously touchy in the head.” To Nikolai, I said, “I have a mother, whom you’ve met.”
I glanced at Drusilla. “You may have to review the rules of this… blood thing, but I can’t be your relative. You’re evil. I’m good.”
Nikolai stood, an arm reaching for me.
“Don’t touch me, unless you’re finally taking me from here.” My voice broke. “Please. The harder I fight, the worse I’m ensnared in this kingdom, and now you’re backing such wild claims?”
Taking a step back, eyes flitting around the room, I scouted for any chance of escape.
But how could one run from teleporting predators atop an immense mountain?
My stomach churned.
Lyssa’s daughter? Might as well tell me I was secretly a man.
“You’re confused, I know,” Nikolai began, “but think about it. You can’t contract blood rage or hunger just from a fog. The catalyst for change is death. You’re exhibiting the traits of a vampire.”
Drusilla had somehow refilled another glass with blood. She lifted it to red lips, her other arm crossed over her chest.
“M-maybe I was bitten…”
Nikolai advanced slowly. “You never died. The only explanation is being born of one.”
Skin misting with sweat, I put more distance between us.
What to do? How to escape?
Jumping off the balcony could kill me, if it didn’t, I’d be too injured to run.
A vampire? But I was a wolf!
Wait… hadn’t we encountered feral hybrids during the hunt for Graves? Wolves drained and turned.
Something I’d heard when awakening from the vision came back to me. Drusilla had said this would change everything. She’d meant my identity.
I swallowed, jumping when I felt Nikolai’s arm wrap around me.
He peered down, worry etched into his face, lips thin.
If I really were Lyssa’s daughter, and the crimson stone had chosen her, did that mean I stood in the way of Drusilla’s claim?
What if the regent had hunted Graves to destroy Lyssa’s blood, when a real, living heir—
When I met her eyes, I shivered.
I’d bet she was mulling the exact same thing.
I forced a laugh. “This is crazy. I’m not a vampire. These urges only started when I inhaled that fog the first time, and the next.”
Nikolai drew me closer.
“And wasn’t Queen Lyssa unmated or something? She had no partner. How could she have given birth?”
Ignoring me, Drusilla finished her blood elegantly, treating it to the same fate as the last.
She turned to us, fangs gleaming in a thin-lipped smile. “There is another way to confirm or refute this claim, of course.”
This news neither relieved nor worried me. I felt blank and confused all at once.
Mother hadn’t exactly been forthcoming throughout my life, and she’d abandoned me when I needed her most.
But I’d existed under the sun, lived on organic food, and survived without blood.
My eyes widened at the last two points. Vampires could eat, they just preferred not to. And I hadn’t exactly not had blood. I’d had it boiled. Bloodmeal.
I banished the doubts as quickly as they came.
I was a wolf. Sickly and suffering a midlife crisis at twenty, but a wolf nonetheless.
The sooner I let the regent see her own foolishness, the sooner I’d be allowed to go home.
My shoulders sagged even as the thought withered.
I hadn’t figured out a way to loosen Nikolai’s clutch.
One thing at a time.
“Fine,” I told her. “What test is it going to be? The sun? It doesn’t bother me, because I’m not a vampire. A poison? What?”
“The Wardens,” she drawled. “The keepers of the crimson stone. They, and the relic, will tell you everything you need to know.”
Noting her certainty, I folded my arms. “You sound awfully sure of your claim. Will these Wardens at least have a way to cure me of this curse?”
“Not a curse,” Drusilla insisted, stalking toward me.
I moved to retreat, but Nikolai was already beside me, holding me like he’d never let me go.
This wasn’t the time to trap me, mate.
Good. I would ask these ‘Wardens’ whether I was truly his bride.
I deserved a semblance of certainty.
Too many pillars of my life and identity were being attacked by the ramblings of a regent, the undead blood of her sister, and my secretive, avoidant mother.
Drusilla stopped directly in front of me and held out a perfectly manicured hand, too perfect to be real.
How many throats had she slit with those claws?
I looked from her face to her outstretched hand. I didn’t take it.
“I’ll walk,” I told her.
Who knew what a spurned elder sister and regent would do while believing I was a threat to her reign?
I was surprised she hadn’t struck me down the moment suspicion bloomed.
The daughter of a dead vampire queen who’d been unmated? Utter wash.
Drusilla’s eyes hardened. “The stone is the bedrock of our civilization. It rests in the heart of the castle, in the lowest level, beneath even the crypts. We’ll trace. The vampire way.”
Her tone invited no argument.
I pressed subtly closer to Nikolai. He’d defied her once for me, he’d better do it again. I wasn’t following her anywhere.
With a squeeze at my waist, he leaned into my side. “We have to get to the bottom of this, milaya. I will protect you—”
“Just she and I. You’re dismissed,” Drusilla cut in.
Well. That was it. This was where we died, because there was no way in hell I was taking the hand of a fanatic into gods-knew-where.
“You betrayed my trust,” Nikolai said, tone flat. “You struck my soul half. I will not leave her side again.”
The regent went statue-still. Menace thrummed from her like a living thing.
The tension could cut glass. Only a soft wind dared ruffle fabric and hair in the stand-off.
My claws extended, instincts sharpening for a fight.
But then, without a word, she vanished in a gust of air.
My head swung around, expecting an attack from behind—but she was gone.
I sagged, clutching Nikolai’s shirt like a lifeline.
Tears burned for a myriad of reasons.
“Why won’t you trust me enough to let me go?” I whispered.
“I’m not curious enough to go down there, Nikolai.” I turned pleading eyes on him. “This is our chance. Let’s just leave. You know she’s overreaching. This place is driving me crazy.”
“I can’t just leave,” he rasped. “I’m bound to her by the very fiber of my existence. She’d hunt us. We’d never have peace.”
“Do you believe her, that I could be… a vampire?” The words nearly choked me.
“The evidence strongly points to it.”
He must have seen the devastation on my face. His jaw clenched. “Would it truly be that bad?”
“Of course it would!” I snapped. Tears spilled, burning tracks down my cheeks. “Bastian hates vampires!”
I gasped, but the words were already out.
Nikolai glowered. Then his expression shuttered into something cooler.
“Then you might want to dispel all doubt,” he said. “Find a cure. You can’t return to the kennel with bloodlust and a propensity for rage.”
The word kennel stung. The coldness in his tone unsettled me, but he’d hinted at letting me go.
So, despite my aching heart, I nodded.
I’d do this one thing. Then they’d let me go once they saw I wasn’t one of them.
Once free, I’d find a way to summon Nikolai without risking his life. Then we’d find a way around us.
I wrapped my arms around his cold, tense body, eyes squeezed shut.
The air shifted, thick with power.
Immediately, Nikolai’s hold loosened. I knew we were there.
Fists clenched, spine steeled, I opened my eyes.
There were no torches or lamps, just a rhythmic, ruby glow that synchronized with the thud of my own frantic heart.
Dark, gossamer fabrics hung from the ceiling the walls like wraiths, unmoving in the stuffy room.
On the far wall, three understated coffins rested on the floor.
Drusilla sat to our left on a deep scarlet cushion, inspecting her nails. In the crimson glow, her pale skin was near translucent. Eyes blazing, she looked lethal, like a coiled serpent ready to strike.
I jumped when wood creaked, my claws digging into Nikolai’s arm. He didn’t move.
My gaze snapped back to the coffins.
All three were opening.
My heart thundered.
Had I been tricked? Was this a plot to forcibly turn me?
“Calm yourself, fledgling,” Drusilla said. “It’s only the Wardens.”
With a hollow sound, the lids fell open, striking stone.
Three women rose from within, upper bodies moving like automatons.
Then their heads turned toward us.
A scream clawed up my throat, but I slapped a hand over my mouth in time.
The three elderly women. draped in gold and pearls, eyes glowing an angry, inhuman red—
Were the IronWolf Matrons.