Page 47 of Wedlock (Vampire Bachelor Games #3)

“But, Yin, whose baby is this?” I gasp.

“Do you really want to know?” She meets my gaze steadily as I raise my eyes from the baby in her arms, so like my own, to hers.

“Yes.”

“It’s Sophie’s.”

I stand stock-still and digest this information. For the infant to be exactly the same age as my own, more or less, and the spitting image of his father, as was my son, Falcon would have had to have slept with us both around the same time.

Imagining them together in bed makes me sick with jealousy and rage.

“And where is Sophie?” I hiss, my eyes once more falling to the boy in Yin’s arms.

“Dead.”

I frown and flick my eyes up to hers. If she hadn’t introduced herself earlier I would have had no idea just who the old, grey-haired, dumpy woman was that now stood before me. Her disguises really are next level. It makes her next statement sound almost comical, given her current persona.

“I didn’t do it,” she shrugs. “My guess is Spider did — or he ordered her to do it herself. All I know is that I went with The Free Men to his estate to find Viper after a tip-off about where he had his meals delivered. The plan was to take out Viper and Spider. The Free Men are still pissed that he killed Isabel and her parents, and they’d been planning this raid for a while, so everything fitted in well. ”

I nod for her to go on, hoping she tells me Spider’s dead too, but doubting that’s going to be the case.

“We successfully killed all Spider’s guards, but Viper was already dead by the time I found him.

When I got back to the castle to help look for Spider I found Sophie impaled against the castle walls, barely alive.

The others wanted me to leave her, and I agreed, but she begged me to take her baby to Falcon.

It was lying on the stone at her feet, covered in blood and unmoving.

To tell you the truth I thought he was dead, but when I picked him up I felt a faint pulse — I guess vampire babies are harder to kill than human babies. ”

I shake my head, now feeling contrite at my earlier thoughts of retribution against the woman.

“It seems strange that someone of Spider’s reputation would leave the baby alive, I mean, assuming he realised it wasn’t his and that’s why he killed her.”

“Like I said,” she frowns, “I thought he was dead. I don’t think Spider handled him gently. I took him to Marianna and she spent the better part of two days and nights saving his life. He was covered in bruises and had a big dent on one side of his head.”

“But he looks about the same age as my boy, Yin. Why wait until now to kill Sophie?”

“I have no idea. But whatever prompted it, my guess is that Spider swung him against the wall with the intention of dashing his brains out, but didn’t finish the job because The Free Men arrived at the same time.”

“Oh my fucking god,” I lean closer to study his face, pushing back his little cap to run my hands through his thick hair. “No dent now.”

“No,” she says quietly. “Which is a good thing for what we have planned. Did you get rid of the wetnurse and nanny?”

“Yes,” I nod. “I fired them and got new ones. They start tonight.”

“Loose ends,” she shakes her head, frowning.

“They weren’t eggs, Yin,” I scowl at her, “and if we go around killing innocent people we’re no better than the vampires I’m trying to run from. You must have thought the same to save this poor baby’s life.”

“I thought only of you,” she says quietly.

“But, what am I to do with him?” I ask, exasperation leaching into my tone. “I need to escape. I can’t be carrying around two infants. And,” I shake my head, “call me a bad person, but I don’t really want to raise Sophie’s baby.”

I don’t add that my daughter is also out there somewhere, and that one day I hope to be reunited with her too. I can’t think about that now, just in case it never happens.

“Of course not,” she shakes her head and gives me a ‘don’t be an idiot’ look.

“I brought him here to swap him with your son. You and your baby will come with me today. This baby will stay behind as the Dragonspur heir. For all intents and purposes, Falcon will think you ran and left the child. Hopefully he’ll let you go, but at the very least he won’t have to search for you in order to keep his title, so there might not be such urgency in his pursuit. ”

“Oh my God, Yin, you’re a literal genius,” I grin.

“I know,” she smiles broadly, “but we need to leave now. Take this baby and give it to your new nanny. I’ll take yours to the car.”

Unwrapping the child in her arms she hands him to me in just his little romper suit and wraps my baby in the thick, black blanket she’d come in with. Being daylight, my boy couldn’t have any skin exposed when outside.

I nod and leave the kitchen. I have so many questions, but no time to ask them right now. As I hurry along the corridors I feel guilty that I’m happy Sophie’s dead, while simultaneously sad that this baby will never know a mother.

“But you’ll have your father,” I whisper. “He knows you’re his now, so he’ll look after you. You’re his heir, Tiger .”

As I say this, I smile. This boy can bear that name; my own will be the Talon I’ve always called him privately.

Reaching my room, I ring the bell for the nanny and frown as the phone in my pocket buzzes.

When Jag had given me his mobile he’d assured me it was a silent number that no one but he knew.

I hold my breath and briefly consider not answering, but I know this isn’t an option.

I’d hoped that the next time I spoke to him I’d be long, long gone.

“Angie?”

“Jag. I didn’t expect you to call so soon,” I squeak, clearing my voice before continuing. “Ah, you said it would take a week to find a secure place for me and organise my extraction.”

“I’ve found somewhere, but I’ve called because there’s something you need to know.”

I stay silent, waiting for whatever dire news he has while knowing it won’t make a lick of difference to my plan.

I feel bad for running without him, for tricking him into believing I’d let him take me away somewhere while leaving my baby behind as Falcon’s heir.

But if there was one thing I’d learned from my time in this castle, it’s that everyone keeps secrets, and no one can ever really be trusted. Me included.

“Falcon’s been arrested for the murder of Countess Sophie Dartlore. The punishment is execution.”

“What? Did he do it?”

“Do you think he did it?” He murmurs.

I ponder for a long second. Falcon’s a cold-blooded killer, no doubt about it.

But from all I’d seen and heard about his relationship with Sophie, I couldn’t believe he’d kill her.

After all, he’d once wanted to marry her.

He’d saved her from Spider, and the evidence lies in my arms right now to indicate he must have still had feelings for her to have continued to share her bed despite everything she’d done. ”

“No,” I sigh, “he wouldn’t have done that.”

“I know,” he says quietly, “and he’s going to need every friend he can find to help prove that’s the case.”

I say nothing, my thoughts spinning as I try to process what he’s saying, what he’s asking.

“Angie?”

“Yeah, I’m still here.”

“I’m not asking you to do, or say, anything. I’ll take you away from all this and Falcon’s fate can be left in the hands of the gods.”

“You don’t need to ask,” I whisper, “you already know what I’m going to do.”

“Yes,” he murmurs, “I already know.”

“Tell me everything,” I sigh, handing the baby over to the nanny as she enters the room and heading down the hall, almost on autopilot, to where Yin waits in our getaway car.

I listen carefully as I traverse the halls and staircases, and Jag fills me in on everything he knows.

The whole entrapment and arrest seems like it has Spider’s sticky fingers all over it, and Jag agrees.

The problem is that no one really knows anything about the relationship Falcon had with Sophie.

No one, that is, except Spider, me, Eleanor, and Jag.

And as it stood, Falcon had banished his mother, and he wouldn’t have anything to do with his former best friend.

When I reach Yin she takes one look at my face and shakes her head.

“Yin,” I murmur, my eyes searching behind her to where my son lies strapped in a baby carrier.

I have no choice. I’d known it the moment Jag’s words reached my ears and his previous unanswered question flew straight from my heart to my brain. I do still love my husband. I need to save him.

“Look after my babies.”

“Angie, don’t do this. Whatever it is, don’t do it.”

“I can’t leave him. Not yet.”