Chapter 20
Ariane was nervous the next morning, but she was also determined. So, after breakfast, when Cam imperiously summoned her to his office and Ross was about to leave for his surgery hours, she took Colin's hand in hers and said, "I will come for questioning, as I promised. But today I want the rest of you present, at least at the start."
Cam's eyes narrowed. "There's no need for Ross, who has better things to do. And we've already agreed that your boyfriend isn't allowed to help you in this."
"I don't need help." She looked from one brother to the next. "All I need is the truth. I am being honest with you. Now it's time for you to be honest with me." She stared hard at Cam. "And for that I require witnesses."
"Talked me into it," Colin said, standing.
Ross and Cam exchanged a look. Then Ross stood also. "It is a reasonable request," he decreed.
Cam scowled, but Ariane sensed that he had no idea of the trap she intended to spring on him. Either that, or he just didn't care.
"Will you come, too, Kate?" Ariane asked. "And will you bring that book you showed me the other day. The one in the language you couldn't make out?"
Kate's eyes met her levelly. She might not be a shape shifter or a Traveler or any sort of magical creature, but Kate had insight and she was clever. There was a gleam in her eyes as she said, "I'll dash upstairs and get it. Well. Perhaps I won't dash exactly," she added, patting her full belly, "but I'll be quick about it."
"Let me get it, whatever it is," said her husband.
"No, I need the exercise. I'll be right back."
"Don't you dare run on the stairs," he called after her.
"Don't be silly; of course I won't," Kate's merry voice called back.
A couple of minutes later, they all trooped to the room that Cam was using as his interrogation chamber. Instead of sitting in the straight back chair where he usually made her sit, Ariane placed herself behind it. "You, sir," she looked at Cam. "Please sit here."
"Why?"
"I have a question to ask you before we proceed."
"You're not the interrogator here."
She glanced at Colin and Ross. "Gentlemen. Please make your brother sit."
Ross looked amused. Colin looked a tiny bit vicious. They both took one of Cam's shoulders and slammed him down into the seat.
"Very good," said Ariane. She grabbed the iron and silver collar that was sitting on the top of his table. It was for this reason that she had insisted they come to this room. Before anyone could make a comment, she snapped the heavy thing on Cameron's neck. She grinned at her success. Travelers were trained to be rapid in their movements.
"What the fuck are you doing?"
"This will prevent you from shape shifting, am I correct?"
"So? We all know I can shape shift. I'm a Malloch. We put it on you because we did not know whether you could."
"And you wanted to restrain me in case I did, correct? A wise idea, I'm sure, especially if you don't know what creature you are dealing with. How powerful he might be. Or how evil."
Cam was looking decidedly uncomfortable now. As was Ross, she noted. Colin still looked vicious...she liked that look on him; it was hot. And Kate was clearly puzzled, but amused. Ariane got the feeling that she wouldn't mind seeing her husband's twin get his comeuppance.
"I am told that you shift into a wolf, like everyone else in your family. True?"
"True. So what?"
"I don't think everyone knows what else you shift to?"
"A crow," Cam said coolly. "I fly high and my eyesight is remarkable."
Colin said, "I didn't know that. Did you know that, Ross?"
"I didn't," said Kate. "Does that account for all the cawing I hear around the castle whenever you're in residence?"
Ross no longer looked amused. "What is the point of this inquiry, Ariane?"
"You're a rather large crow, aren't you? Quite a wingspan. And you have an unquenchable taste for blood?"
Cam bounded out of the chair. Or at least he tried to. Both his brothers seized him and held him there. When he ripped at the magical collar, Colin jammed his hand around his brother's throat to prevent him from removing it.
"I saw him last night. He didn't know I saw. I have exceptional eyesight too. He was leaving the keep in the dead of night. Going to hunt, I surmise." She met Colin's eyes. "Your brother shifts to a darkling. What you call a vampire. He may even have been the same one who attacked me and Rin and drove us through the Rift."
"Fuck," muttered Ross.
"Is this true?" Colin asked in an icy tone, tightening his grip on Cam's throat.
"Is that even possible?" Kate asked in a small voice. "I thought vampires and shifters were mortal enemies?"
"It is true. What's more, I think maybe it has always been true. That book, Kate, the one I asked for. You couldn't read the language it's written in because that language is not of your world. You said it looks like something in...what...Turkish?"
"Ottoman Turkish, yes. That's what I thought. Or maybe Persian."
"It is Saric. Ancient Saric, which is why it took me a while to translate it. I speak modern Saric pretty well, though. I did my apprenticeship at the Traveler's Tower in Binariye, the capital city of Sariye."
Cam's face had turned red and he was having some trouble breathing. "That's enough, Colin," said Ross. "This might be a shock to the rest of you, but not to me. Let him go."
"You might have thought to tell me that your twin brother is a vampire," said Kate, placing a protective hand on her pregnant belly.
Colin had released Cam's throat, although he looked none too pleased about it. Cam coughed a few times, and then managed to say, "I'm not dangerous. At least, not to any of you." He looked up at Ariane. "It wasn't me who attacked you in the other world. I doubt it was a shifter. It was probably a true darkling. A vampire."
"So you're admitting it!" Colin looked as if he might grab him again.
"Yeah, I'm fucking admitting it. I'm surprised you never noticed. Ross has known for years."
"What does the book say about this?" Kate asked. Ariane had noticed before that she often interjected a few words when things got hot among the brothers. It must be quite something, living among so many alpha males.
Kate handed her the book and Ariane opened to the relevant section. "It's about the two gods of an ancient religion. They were twins, one the god of light, the other the god of darkness. That's not unusual—I'm sure you can find parallels in many religious traditions both in your world and in mine. But when I read this part, I thought it was interesting because it reminded me of what Colin had just told me about the Zrakon's curse. I'll translate, shall I?
She didn't wait for their response, but began translating at once:
"And lo, it came to pass that there was a great conflict, a war among the tribes of man. And the magnificent god of light let loose his dragons on the world and they did burn and slaughter all the wicked. And yea, they burned the good and innocent as well, even to the babes at their mother's breasts. For all creatures had fallen so deep into hatred and envy that it was no longer possible to tell the wicked from the good.
"And then the god of darkness was jealous of his brother's ferocious power. He swept over the fields and the orchards, the rivers and the streams, the oceans and the skies. He rained ice and snow down upon the fires, extinguishing them. And then he sucked the blood from any who were yet alive. So all died, good and wicked, either by fire or by blood.
"But the Mother Creator was not pleased, for she had given life to all that they might prosper and multiply. With all her creatures dead, she had to labor and toil to recreate the spark of life and spread it across the worlds. Her anger was such that she condemned the twin gods to suffer for their harshness and their arrogance.
"The creatures of the god of light who rules the skies she plunged into the sea to extinguish their fires for all eternity. The creatures of the god of darkness she doomed to crave the blood of the living even when there was no life to be found. Forever must they hunt and never quench their thirst. And thus was her curse perpetuated throughout all the generations of man and beast."
She looked up from the book. "Sound familiar?"
They were all staring at her, with varying expressions.
"You say the Mallochs give birth to twins every few generations, right? And one is a sea dragon shifter. Is the other a darkling? Er, vampire?"
It was Cam who answered her. "There is some evidence of that, yeah."
"So is this the Zrakon's curse?" asked Kate. "Fire dragons doomed to the sea and vampires doomed to crave blood?"
"All for causing a mass extinction event," Colin said. "I guess that's as good a reason for a curse as any."
"It's just a story," Cam said. "A metaphor."
"It's a bit of a stretch to say that the Malloch twins represent the ancient twin gods," said Ross. "I mean, being a quaint old Highland laird is one thing, but a god? Ta very much, but no. I reject the honor."
"I don't have a twin, and I'm a sea dragon," Colin noted.
"You probably strangled your twin in the womb," snarled Cam. "Maybe you should seek your inner vamp the way you sought your inner sea dragon and leave me the fuck alone." He tugged on the collar. "Are we through? Take this damn thing off me."
Smiling, Ariane did.
* * *
"I don't think I'm ever going to forget the look on Cam's face when you exposed him," Colin said that night when she and he tucked themselves into bed together.
"I doubt he'll ever forgive me."
"Well, it is rather awkward for the head of the Council of Protectors—that's a shifter organization—to turn out to be a shifter vampire. I didn't even know there were shifter vampires."
"Ross wasn't surprised."
"Yeah, I know. That was kind of a relief to me. If he knew about it and didn't worry about having Cam in the same house with his wife and about-to-be born baby, I guess we can trust that Cam isn't going to sneak up on any of us in the middle of the night and drain our blood."
"Kate was looking a little worried, though."
"Poor Kate. Good thing she's sensible. She's an ordinary girl who has married into one helluva freaky family. Good thing you're a bit of a freak yourself, huh?"
"Why? Are you asking me to marry you?"
"Shit, lassie, we've only been shagging for a few days! Now you wanna get married?"
She laughed. "I'm not the one who declared us to be eternal mates."
"Yeah, well," He took her palm and held it to his. The sparks fizzled between them, creating a small brilliance in the dark room. "We'll have to have a hand fasting first. That's Scots for betrothal. Some folks consider it a rightful marriage, especially among us shifters."
"I don't care about marriage, but I do love you, Colin Malloch Sea Dragon."
"And I love you, Ariane Traveler."