The others lined up in front of me. “What?” I asked, wary. I thought that meant the ritual, the one they kept talking about, that Zora was obviously preparing to lead. But they weren’t making any motions toward the ritual chamber. So what else did they want? Did I dare ask?
“You join your blood with ours,” Kumarbis said.
Typical ritual stuff. Blood oath, I slice my hand, then what? My mouth was sticky, and instead of the snarky question I was thinking, I simply blurted, “How?”
They didn’t say anything, but Sakhmet gave me the cue. Her brow furrowed and she winced as if embarrassed as she glanced at me, then at the vampire. Vampire, blood … he had to be getting it from somewhere. Shit. We take turns, Enkidu had said.
Finally Zora turned back to us, and she had transformed herself. The floor-length tunic shone in the candlelight. Her blond hair was loose, hanging almost to her waist, and held back from her face by a gold-colored metallic band. She wore a New Age shop’s worth of amulets around her neck, arms, and waist. I had to admire her theatricality, but if she was trying to impress me, she failed. I’d seen Cormac work spells with bits of string he’d pulled from the pockets of his leather jacket. No more theatricality than changing a lightbulb. I knew which one of them I trusted more.
But this wasn’t a spell, was it? It was a ritual. It was a lifestyle.
I wasn’t one of them, I wasn’t with them, the taking turns didn’t apply to me, did it? But I had come back into the mine, I’d returned to help them … I was already shaking my head. “I only feed my friends, and only when they need it.”
“We are your friends,” Kumarbis said.
“I’m thinking we may have different definitions of the word.”
“Then we are allies,” he said.
Was he wrong? I didn’t know. I was cornered again, surrounded, with them making demands. My resolve was fading, after all that talk of martyrdom. I’d fed vampires before, wasn’t a big deal, and arguing was so tiring. But in my gut, Wolf was howling. This is too much to give …
I lunged before I realized I was doing it, hands out, curled, open mouth aimed for Kumarbis’s throat. It wouldn’t taste good, but it sure would be satisfying …
Enkidu and Sakhmet both rushed forward, grabbed my arms, yanked me up short, and held me fast while I thrashed, snarling.
“Stop it, stop it! You’ll ruin everything!” Zora cried, hands pressed to her head.
Sakhmet’s voice was next to my ear. “Calm, be calm, please. We need you for this. Please.” Her voice was soothing, like a purr. She and her partner had braced and weren’t going to budge. I could wrench my arms out of my sockets, and they’d keep hold of me. But she kept whispering, and Wolf settled, retreating back to her cage.
I trusted Sakhmet. I listened to her.
“We’re out of time,” Zora continued, pleading with Kumarbis now. “We need to do this now, or we’ll miss the proper phase and have to wait until the next full moon.”
Sagging in the lycanthropes’ arms, I stopped struggling and stared ahead like the caged wolf I was. “I am not staying here for another month. We’ll do this now.”
Zora stomped over to me, brave now that I was restrained. She brought herself close enough that I could have bit her nose off with a well-timed snap. I just grinned at her.
She said, “If you want to learn about Dux Bellorum, if you want to see him destroyed, then you must be initiated of your own free will. If you want to see our true purpose, then this is the only door into that realm.”
You must bring an offering of blood, if you wish to ask questions …
I had to remember why I was here. I relaxed, straightened. Tentatively, Enkidu and Sakhmet loosened their grips. I had to focus. Refocus. I didn’t bolt.
“I want to know about Gaius Albinus,” I said.
Kumarbis said, “He is a force of evil, with plans for domination—”
“I know that!” I glared. Kumarbis blinked, taken aback. He’d probably never had anyone interrupt him before. At least not for a bunch of centuries. “Tell me about the man. You turned him. You knew him when he was mortal. I want to know how you met. How you decided to make him a vampire. Can you tell me that?”
Now he was in the same place I was—cornered, resisting. Having to give to get what he wanted. Good. Let him see how it feels.
He licked his lips, drew breath in order to speak. “How—how do you know? Who told you that?”
“I guessed,” I said, before Enkidu could fall on that sword and get himself in trouble by admitting he’d told. “You have his coin. You’re old. Very old. You haven’t had an easy time of it, have you?”
I must have been just vague enough to make sense, because he nodded. His face sagged into a long expression of sadness as his gaze turned inward, to his own long, uneasy history. Then he gave his head a deep bow, a show of respect. “You have the insight of Regina Luporum. You truly are her avatar.”
I did not roll my eyes. Guy could rationalize anything he wanted to. “Can you tell me about Gaius Albinus? I want to know what happened when you met him.”