Page 71 of Wedlock (Vampire Bachelor Games #3)

I sit in the bedchamber upon the bed I’d slept in when I’d first come to the castle after my marriage, and stare into space.

The absolute bombshell that had hit us earlier tonight when I’d asked who the wetnurse was, and the subsequent revelation upon Falcon’s guards searching her quarters and investigating the issue, was so appalling, so shocking, that I feel like I’m still suffering from its aftermath.

It’s only now that I’m alone that I’m able to process it.

By firing the original wetnurse, I’d sealed her fate. She would have been killed when she returned to the court, as would the nanny. And what had become of the wetnurse and nanny I’d subsequently hired? No doubt murdered in order to have them replaced by the imposters who were poisoning the child.

‘Yin needn’t worry about loose ends. What had she said?

You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs.

Well, I’d certainly made more than an omelette; I’d broken enough eggs to bake a whole goddamned quiche.

I murdered them all just as surely as if I’d done it with my own hands.

My God! I’m as bad as Falcon, murdering all his staff routinely and getting fresh ones.

It’s this world, their world, it makes you lose your humanity. It makes you become one of them.’

And as for seeing my husband again…I shake my head to try and stop myself, but I can’t help relive the feelings that had washed over me when I met his eyes.

I’m drawn to him like a moth to a flame, even now.

On the flight over I’d been alternating between excitement and nervousness at seeing him again, but I hadn’t anticipated also feeling the need to comfort him.

He was as handsome as ever, but he didn’t have the arrogant edge I’d remembered.

He was more subdued, more so than I’ve ever seen him.

I have to suppose his son’s illness is the cause, although when he looked at me I had the feeling it was much more than that.

A knock on my door startles me, and I wipe my eyes on my sleeve and walk to open it.

“Eleanor.”

She sweeps into the room imperiously and spins to me, her eyes dark.

“To what do I owe the pleasure?” I ask, my voice leaching sarcasm.

“Don’t play games with me, Angie,” she says quietly, “we both know you’re not practised enough to win.”

“Try me.”

“I didn’t come here to bandy words; I came to issue a warning. I know the child was switched with another.”

I still, not saying anything.

“But I also know he is a Dragonspur,” she adds, “a Dragonspur bastard.”

“Some bizarre claims, Eleanor. What makes you think this?” I try to bluff my way out of the situation. “After all, Tiger has, by your own admission, been very sick. I hardly recognised him myself.”

“I know he’s not yours, Angelina. I know you have my other grandson, my true grandson, hidden elsewhere. Had this child died you, along with Falcon’s true heir, would have been forced to return. I also believe my true grandson has a gift, a special gift, that you are hiding. One this seat needs.”

“I think the stress of Tiger’s illness has affected you, Eleanor,” I say gently, my heart racing. “I can’t think of any other reason why you might say something so very strange.”

“A little bird told me,” she says quietly.

I take a deep breath. Jag told me Eleanor had links to The Free Men, and that organisation had been present when Yin took Sophie’s baby.

The old saying that ‘the truth will always out’ comes to mind.

But as to her suggestion there’s another baby, a special baby, I’m hoping she’s just throwing around theories like spaghetti against a wall and watching to see which one sticks.

I’m too practised at not reacting to allow that to happen.

“A little free bird?” I ask quietly. “I wonder how the powers that be would respond if they found out that you had links to a particular organisation that was working to destroy all vampires, Eleanor?”

“Baseless accusations,” she shrugs.

“Yes,” I nod. “Baseless accusations.”

I leave my words hanging in the air between us, knowing she’ll understand my meaning. I’ll neither confirm nor deny anything. And either way, I won’t tell if she doesn’t.

She stares at me, and I blandly return her stare.

‘Checkmate, bitch.’

After a long, long minute, she nods and sweeps from the room.

The moment she’s gone I sag onto the bed. These mind games were taxing, and I’ve never been really good at all the subterfuge and hinted threats these royals seem to excel at.

“Shit. Shit. Shit.”

Yin warned me of this. She’d begged me not to come today. Begged, threatened, sworn, cajoled, but I’d been adamant that attending would cement the lie that the child I’d left behind was indeed mine.

What a fucking idiot I’ve been.

‘I need to get out of here quick-smart.’

Rising, I open the bedside cabinet. I’d requested this cold wing of the castle because I wanted to remind myself of what my time here had really been like, rather than see it through rose-coloured glasses as I was sometimes prone to do when I dreamt of the vampire lord who lives here. And I had another reason.

Slowly, I withdraw from the cabinet the slim golden chain with the platinum filigree encased sapphire that Falcon had given to me on The Games.

I want it back because it’s beautiful, I don’t own much jewellery, and it’s valuable.

I tell myself that the fact it also represents a time when I’d believed Falcon and I had a future is beside the point, although I know I’m lying to myself.

When Viper had put me under a thrall I’d been careful to hide the necklace, and I hadn’t done it because it was worth money.

Still, these past three years I’ve been living off Yin, which, despite her assurance was no hardship because she was uber-rich, just doesn’t sit well with me.

The necklace is insurance. If I ever need to sell it and get funds of my own, I can.

And if anything ever happens and Yin needs money quickly, we have portable wealth.

Slipping the chain over my head, I head for the door, my brain doing somersaults over my conversation with Eleanor and the ramifications, short and long term.

I’d planned to rest until my flight home and check in on Tiger one more time, but I’ve changed my mind.

Half expecting the door to be locked, I pull it open violently, trying not to let any emotion cross my face as I virtually crash into Falcon’s broad chest.

“Oh.”

“Angie.”

“Falcon,” I nod, stepping back to allow him to enter, “I thought you’d be out rampaging and murdering for a while yet.”

He meets my eyes, the corner of his mouth quirking slightly.

“Yes, I imagine you would think that. My guards are taking over investigations; we’ll get to the bottom of it soon enough.”

“But the upshot was that the wetnurse, under thrall, was poisoning Tiger,” I shrug, turning and taking a few steps into the room, expecting him to follow me.

He doesn’t.

“We believe so. Liquid silver every few days, here and there. It weakened him to the point of death.”

“But he’s not at risk of dying now?” I turn back and cock my head at him, confused as to why he’s still standing, almost apprehensively, in the doorway.

“No,” he shakes his head, “you saved his life, Angie. We know how to rid his system of the silver. He’ll regain his strength by and by.

And when I find out which Queen ordered this, my own or the Danish mother of a certain princess we’re both acquainted with, there will be rampaging and murder, I assure you. ”

“He looks like you,” I murmur, walking away from him to the bed to retrieve my jacket, which I’d discarded earlier and almost forgotten in my haste to leave.

“Do they both?” He asks quietly.

My heart stops momentarily, but I keep my back to him as I lean down to pick up my jacket.

‘Oh Jesus. How? How? Had Eleanor shared her theories with him that there was another baby and I’d switched children? Is he, too, trying to find out if this is true? Brazen it out. I have to brazen it out, just as I had with her.”

“What?”

“Does my other son resemble me?”

My blood literally runs cold as I straighten up and slowly turn to face him, but I keep my face expressionless.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You have nothing to fear, Angie. Jag told me about the other child on the condition I don’t molest you or him, or try to get you to return against your will.”

I stare at him. There’s no point in continuing to deny it. He knows.

“That mother-fucking son of a bitch gobdaw bastard,” I whisper.

“I’d defend him,” Falcon shrugs, “but I have no wish to.”

“He said he’d keep my secret,” I shake my head, my eyes tearing up against my will in pure rage, not sorrow, “and I believed him.”

“If it helps,” he says quietly, “no one else knows, not even Mother. Jag told me your secret in order to help me understand how you could have run and left your child.”

“What difference does that make?” I hiss. “You’ve considered me a spy, a whore, a liar and god knows what else for so long. What fucking difference does it make if you think I’m a bad mother?”

He shifts in the doorway and looks up at the ceiling, and I see I’ve pissed him off, but somehow he reins in his infamous temper.

“I just needed to know that I hadn’t been wrong about your nature,” he says slowly, as though sifting through his thoughts and making sense of them, “that I knew you, in some regard, at least.”

“Like I thought I knew you?” I roll my eyes. “We don’t know each other at all, Falcon.”

“That’s becoming patently clear,” he mutters.

“So, what now? You kidnap me and my other child and force me to stay in this dungeon my whole life? Because that’s what you’ll need to do to stop me from running. And I’ll run, Falcon, the first chance I get, I’ll fucking run.”

“No,” he frowns, stepping back slightly into the hallway as though shocked by my vehemence. “When I heard about the other boy, I just wondered.”

“Well don’t,” I snap, “he’s mine. You have your heir, for Christ’s sake.”

“I know,” he shakes his head, frowning.

I don’t want to wait around to find out what diabolical thing he’s planning or plotting. I need to end this conversation now.

“You’ve taken everything from me, Falcon. My freedom, my family, my friends, my child, almost my fucking life so many times I can’t count, not to mention my sanity. Leave me. Please , leave me alone to live as I can now with my little boy.”

“I never meant to do all those things, Angie.”

Shaking my head, I walk out the door, brushing past him.

I can’t spend a day under this roof. I need to get out now.

I’d done what I came here for, more than what I came here for.

I thought it would have been difficult pretending I felt something for the child in the bed, but seeing him, seeing how much he looked like my Talon, and like Falcon, my heart bled for him.

I’d wanted to gather him into my arms and murmur a lullaby as I did with my own sweet darlings.

To give him some of the warmth only a mother could give, even knowing he wasn’t mine.

But discovering the poisoning, seeing Falcon’s concern and fear for the boy, dodging Eleanor’s penetrative stare and pointed questions…

I know I need to go. I need to get out of here before I’m drawn into any more vampire intrigue.

‘Before I can’t go.’

He doesn’t move as I brush past him, and I don’t look up at him. I can’t trust myself to look into those eyes; they’ve always been my downfall.

His warm breath stirs the hair at the back of my neck as I walk by. I smell his cologne, and I shake my head to clear it of his wonderful, familiar smell, as I continue down the hallway.

He doesn’t try to stop me, but I hear what he whispers.

I’ve always had exceptional hearing.

“I miss you.”