Holly dropped into the nearest chair, covering her face with her hands for a moment. He knelt in front of her, sorry that he’d snapped, and captured her hands, one by one, and drew them from her cheeks.
Her eyes were moist, catching the lamplight like stars. “She’s my sister. How could you do that?”
Oh, no. He’d made her cry. It was the first time. A heavy, bleak feeling threatened to crush him to the carpet. “I’m so sorry.”
He could have torn out his own heart then and there. How could I be so stupid? Vampire logic isn’t human logic.
“I don’t know what you should’ve done,” Holly said, her voice thick with tears. “I don’t blame you. You had to do something, and I don’t have any answers. I could kill her myself.”
Confusion washed over him. How could he fix this? “I can go look for her. Bring her home. Right now.”
“No!” She squeezed his hands. “If she doesn’t get you, the guardsmen will!”
Alessandro blinked, his male pride flattened to road kill. “I can look after myself,” he said gently. “I was the queen’s champion swordsman. I’m still pretty good with a blade.”
“Of course you are.”
“I’m in and out of there all the time.” Long enough to toss someone in, at least.
“I know.” Holly closed her eyes, and fell silent.
The house was silent but for the ticking clock. A car whooshed by outside. From the kitchen, the cat was crunching kibble. They were home sounds. Sounds Alessandro had begun to treasure.
Holly swallowed. “I can’t bear to risk you right now.”
“But Ashe ...”
She shook her head. “I don’t know what to do about her. She’s not the same person I remember, the one I want her to be so badly. It’s like I keep trying to fix her in my mind, fit the old Ashe over the new one, but it doesn’t work.”
“Do you think the sister you remember is inside her somewhere?”
“Goddess knows. I think an awful lot has happened to her over the years, and I know she blames herself for our parents’ deaths.”
“I think she’s angry,” he offered. Was the stake the first clue?
“Whatever. I don’t want her back in this house. Who knows what she’d do next.” Holly let go of his hands and wiped her face dry with her fingers, clearly exhausted. “But we can’t leave her there. Sweet Hecate, I can’t believe my family is fighting like this.”
Alessandro put his hand to her cheek. As always, she felt warm to him, hot and vital. “I’m part of your family?”
She looked at him, her brows drawn together. “Absolutely. The most important part.”
“Thank you.” Then are you really afraid to introduce me at the reunion? Does it bother you that I can’t give you children? Will you still love me when you realize the cost of living with a man who is so different? Who has no family of his own?
He knew some of his doubts were Ashe’s poison at work. Alessandro forced himself to let them go. “What do you want me to do?”
“Just—let Mac deal with it.”
“Mac?” That was the last thing he expected her to say. “What can he do that I can’t?”
Holly shrugged, trying to look casual and missing by a mile. “Finding a missing person is kind of, y’know, cop stuff. He’s trained to talk to crazy people, and Lore said Mac’s going into the Castle, anyway. Plus, Mac owes me.”
“And he’s expendable if Ashe decides to take him out?”
“Of course not!”
“Then why is it okay to risk him?”
“Have you talked to Lore today?”
“No.” He intended to tear the alpha a new one about the hounds’ poor guard duty performance. He had a feeling the hound, like any smart dog with a mess to its name, was making himself scarce.
Holly seemed to slump even more. “Mac’s ... well, from the sound of it, the demon caught up with him in this other weird way.”
Alessandro’s eyes narrowed. “How weird? In what way?”
“Physically.” Holly told him what Lore had told her.
Unable to sit still any longer, Alessandro got to his feet and started to pace. “I was just beginning to trust Mac. It seems I was wrong.”
“I’m not sure about that. He didn’t sound, y’know, evil.”
For how long? If the demon taint was on a roll, who knew what else might change? “I should have asked this before. Is there any way you can reverse what’s happening to him? Your magic made him half human before.”
Holly shook her head. “That was a complete accident. The only thing I know how to do with demons is fry them to cinders. Pure blunt force. I’d kill him.”
“Then is he powerful enough to deal with your sister? She’s a good fighter.”
“Sounds like he is.”
Alessandro wasn’t sure he liked that answer. He took a few more steps, then stopped. “It isn’t that I want Ashe dead. I hoped putting her in the Castle would teach her a lesson. Show her there are worse things than a vampire trying to keep the town safe. That we’re not...” He trailed off, unable to find the right words.
Holly’s expression was sad. “You’re not all evil.”
“Not as long as I have options.”
Alessandro reached down, rubbing away a stray tear from her chin. He was so grateful for her. She made him, if not human, much less of a monster. “You’re sure you don’t want me to handle your sister?”
“No, I’m sure Mac will help, and Ashe doesn’t have a beef with him. It’ll be easier this way.”
“But...”
“I’m right about this.”
Alessandro wasn’t so sure. On the positive side, if Ashe and Mac kill each other, that’s two of my problems solved. But he didn’t mean it.
He should have been happy to wash his hands of an annoying situation. He should have liked the blade-clean logic of two dangerous individuals annihilating each other. He didn’t.
He wanted it all to work out, for everyone’s sake. Bloodshed wasn’t the answer.
Novel thought, for a vampire.
Maybe Mac isn’t the only one changing.
Mac ran through the corridors of the Castle at an easy, gliding pace, sword drawn. Dusting through the maze was faster, but that only worked if he knew where he was going. Connie had given him some useful information, but to conduct a search he needed solid contact with his surroundings.
He’d left Connie asleep. After she’d told him what she knew about the guardsmen’s lair, they’d made love again. Twice.
It had sated them both and exhausted her, sending her into a deep, comalike slumber. He’d held Connie for a long time, studying the soft curves of her face and body. There was no inch of her skin that he hadn’t touched that night, and he knew without doubt he would touch, taste, and claim it again.
His inner caveman beat his chest and roared with jubilation. Today it was good to be Mac the Barbarian.
He stopped at a crossing of corridors. The wavering torchlight showed one hallway curved away to the right. To the left, the stonework had crumbled like a giant fist had punched through the wall. A vast cavern loomed beyond.
Connie had mentioned this place. He hopped up the rubble, using the fallen stones as a stairway to the gaping hole a dozen feet above. The section of missing wall was more than man-height, the thickness of the stones uneven and treacherous. He balanced there, looking into the darkness. A hot, sour wind seemed to rise from below, flowing up the chimneylike cavern. His hair floated away from his face, caught by the breeze. There were fires far, far below, flickering like the stars of an upside-down sky. They called to him, blinking like mysterious eyes. No one, Connie’d said, had ever ventured into those depths.