Page 46 of Fated In Blood (Nocturne Vampire Clan #1)
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“ I ’m sorry.” Evangaline shook her head. “The spell is keyed to Silverwood blood. Only I can wield the Harpe, because only I can activate the magic inside. In your hands…it’s just a knife. You could do some damage, I suppose, but if Tyrell’s as powerful as you say, this weapon wouldn’t kill him, it would barely scratch his skin.”
“Fuck.” Riordan shot to his feet. “There’s no way you’ll ever get in the same room as Tyrell, much less close enough to stab him.”
The sense of relief I felt at that statement nearly took me out at the knees. Good . I didn’t want Evie anywhere near Tyrell.
“All I know about the dagger is theory. I’ve never wielded it, never tried to access the magic.” She reached up and rubbed her back, where the tracking mark had been branded into her skin. “Given what happened when I accessed the Vault, I don’t hold out a lot of hope I’d be successful, anyway.”
“We need a new plan,” Rohr hissed. “And we don’t have time to come up with anything complicated.”
I rubbed my chest, where that dull aching knot of pain throbbed and throbbed, a kernel of realization growing sharper as I pondered the possibility…Riordan was right.
But I was supposed to be the strategist here.
I was supposed to stay ten steps ahead of Malachi and Tyrell.
I was supposed to keep Riordan alive so he could rebuild the kingdom his sire had let crumble.
And I was failing miserably at everything.
“You’re sure only you can wield the blade? You’re sure?” I asked, trying to get my head back in the game. We’d pinned all our hopes on that weapon, ever since we’d heard it was a foolproof means of delivering true death to even the oldest vampire.
The rumors had seemed too good to be true, and they were. Here the blade was, right in front of us. And we couldn’t touch the goddamned thing.
“We need a new plan,” Riordan decided quickly. “But you’re not getting anywhere close to that monster.”
“I can hold my own,” she said stiffly.
“I’ve seen you fight, little slayer. We’re not worried about your skills.” I flashed her a tight smile as my insides went weak at the idea of her getting anywhere near Tyrell. “He can control you too easily because you’re part of his bloodline. You’d never get within twenty feet of him.”
“But I’ve trained for years,” she said quietly. “What if I just…”
“Five hundred years ago, Dominic Graves was Tyrell’s favorite progeny.” Maybe I shouldn’t be telling her this, but it was important history.
“When they came to America and settled in New York, he made Dominic king of the Nocturne Clan, leaving Laurent free to pursue his…darker pursuits. All you need to know is Rohr and I both are direct descendants of Tyrell.”
“I knew that already.”
“Blood hierarchy forces obedience amongst our kind. None of us can override our instincts.” I held her gaze steadily. “We can compel you, but Tyrell is eight times older than I am, eight times stronger, eight times crueler. I might get a three-second opening to incapacitate him and another two seconds to take his head before he gets me under his control. Once he does, I’m finished. You would have even less time.”
“Malachi isn’t Tyrell’s progeny; he has no connection to our bloodline,” Rohr explained. “That’s why I chose him to wield the dagger.”
I laid my hand on her shoulder, “We only get one chance, Evie. Only one, and we’ve been planning this for ten years. Draven’s already in place.”
“What do you mean…in place?”
Riordan leaned forward, his mind was already working, moving the chess pieces around, adjusting for this new information. “Malachi’s charming his way into Tyrell’s confidence. If our original plan won’t work, there’s still ways to leverage Malachi’s position. If Tyrell's not dead by the end of this, Malachi will break that blood oath, sell us out, and not lose a minute of sleep.”
“Rohr and I could go in alone.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “Since we can’t wield this weapon, we’d have to use conventional blades. Time our attack down to the second. Malachi takes out Bosch and Valaine. If we move fast enough, there’s a chance we could take Tyrell’s head before he neutralizes us.”
“Too many things can go wrong in that scenario.” Rohr gave the dagger one more long look, then pushed to his feet. “We go back to our original plan. Sow chaos and then a direct attack. Evangeline. You’ll provide the distraction. Blake and I will coordinate the attack on Tyrell.”
“But I could?—”
“No, Evangeline.” I had to stand by and watch Rohr cup her chin with a stern expression. “You are the distraction. You will buy us time and nothing more. I can’t risk Tyrell getting his hands on that dagger when he puts you under his control, which he will.”
“But my sister…”
“I hate to say this, I really do, but if your sister really is truly mated to Tyrell, she’s safer with him right now than with you.” She opened her mouth, indignant, but I held up a hand. “Your family is hunting you because of that brand on your back. What do you think your father would do to Angelique after what he did to you?”
She blanched. “I don’t want Silas anywhere near Angel.”
“And we don’t want Tyrell anywhere near you.” I flexed my hands. “We have two days before Malachi breaks the blood oath, but if we don’t get that mark removed from your back, we’ll spend the next forty-eight hours looking over our shoulders.”
She went quiet, her throat bobbing before she swiped her sleeve across her eyes. “Can I ask you a question?”
She surveyed Rohr’s face for a moment, then looked over at me, biting her lip. “Why risk your lives to save a clan that doesn’t deserve to be saved?” She shrugged. “What I saw the night of the auction were a pack of depraved, soulless monsters. You both could walk away from this and never look back. Why don’t you?”
I paused, searching for the right words, but it was Riordan who answered.
“Because they aren’t all like that, and somebody has to fight for what’s right. My sire was as evil as Tyrell. But Blake showed me I could be strong and good, and not be weak. He showed me a real leader could make life better for his people, so while I watched my father and Tyrell carry on with their depravities, we made plans to rebuild this clan into what it should have been all along.”
I couldn’t help the surge of pride and the exhilarating rush of warmth in my chest at Riordan’s praise. Even though his speech was for Evie’s benefit, the words still meant something.
“And then your father died?”
Rohr stiffened; we traded a fraught, split-second glance before he answered. “He did. Because of some antiquated rules, I took the throne, Tyrell was left on the outside, and Blake and I began making changes. But change takes time, and Tyrell fights us, but still…things are better than they were ten years ago.”
“And with Tyrell gone, they’ll improve even faster, right?”
I nodded. “Once he’s gone, we’ll clean up the entire kingdom. Make life safer for everyone. Get rid of Tyrell’s loyalists, then start cleaning house, starting with Vincent.”
She rolled her eyes, “that, I’d love to see with my own eyes.”
“Would it surprise you to know Vincent Valentine is over four hundred years old?”
Her mouth dropped open. “That’s impossible.”
“He’s Tyrell’s thrall. Like the rest of his servants, Tyrell gives him a few drops of blood to keep him young and loyal, while Vincent feeds him intel and girls and fuck knows what else. Vincent arrived in the Hudson River Valley in 1610. Tyrell convinced him to stay by offering him immortality and riches beyond his wildest dreams. In return, Vincent built a tavern, the town of Thorndale was established, and before long, Vincent was providing a constant food supply for Tyrell.”
“That’s…barbaric. And gross.”
“That’s the tip of the iceberg. Tyrell’s claws are in everything, not only in this town but throughout the entire state of New York. His corruption and influence stretches further than we know, given how long he’s been in America.”
“And you’re going to stop him.”
“We’re stopping him. When I’m finished with Laurent Tyrell, his legacy will be wiped from the records of our clan, and in a hundred years, no one will remember him.” Rohr’s voice was filled with that calm, quiet certitude that had captured my imagination when he was still young and I’d seen my first glimpse of the king he would grow to be.
The opposite of his sire.
The king who could lead this clan into the future and give us all something to hope for.
A shiver of pride went through me.
Whether we succeeded or not…whether we died in the process, we would have fought as hard as we could, because this clan was worth saving.