"You're killing her," Cormel said, and I wondered if I should have left when I had the chance. "Ivy is right in teaching Nina control. Let Nina live her time."
Felix took a huge breath. "I need her!" he shouted, and the hum of Jenks's wings increased in pitch. "Who are you to say no to me! You are a pup!" He strode back and forth, never getting any closer, never any farther. "A squalid, puking whelp snuffing along the edges of the birthing box, unable to see the depth of pain beyond it!"
"Perhaps." Cormel inclined his head, standing very, very still. "But I, sir, know not to look. I believe the lie, and so I survive another day. You can't have Nina anymore. I will not give you justification on Ivy or Rachel. The darkness will warm again if you turn your back on the sun. Sir. Please. It's not too late."
Felix spun into an ugly hunch, the hem of his beautifully tailored suit quivering in his anger. "It is my right," he hissed, his gaze starting to dip back into madness. "I hunger because of her; she alone satisfies me . . ."
Frightened for Ivy, I moved, Cormel's back-flung hand stopping me.
"You may not claim justice on Ivy," he said firmly. Something had shifted. His voice was still respectful, but the subtle subtext of subordinate vampire was utterly gone. And by Felix's reddening face, I think he recognized it as well. It was too late for him. He couldn't let go; he couldn't become what he had once been. There was only the task of seeing it to the end now.
"Your favored child is stealing from me. I demand compensation!"
I exchanged a look with Jenks, seeing he had seen the shift as well. Felix was no longer a functioning undead vampire, but one who was ailing, one to be humored and lied to. He was old, forgetful, lacking control. He had done it to himself, and I pitied him, remembering seeing the controlled, confident vampire through Nina's eyes not three days ago. He had known what would happen, and he had done it anyway, all for the chance to see the sun.
"I'll give you compensation, but you will not have Ivy or Rachel," Cormel said, and I pitied Felix as he all but whined.
"Ivy could satisfy me," he wheedled, looking ugly as he tried to hide his emotions, but he was broken and couldn't be fixed.
Cormel shook his head. "Rachel is going to find our souls with her, and Ivy needs to remain untouched. She will find our souls so that the sun may find us again and end this lie we live. Will you wait with me for that day?"
Felix's ugly gaze slid to me, and I held my breath. "That's fallacy," the younger-looking, aging, sun-addicted undead vampire said.
"Still, you will leave me to my fantasy and shun Ivy and Rachel as I ask." Cormel shifted to open a way for him to go, incidentally placing himself even more firmly between me and Felix. "My car is out front. The driver will take you wherever you wish. It would be my pleasure to show you my children if you will wait but a little."
Felix straightened at that, almost finding his old bearing. "I am so hungry," he whispered. "The blood doesn't help anymore. There's never enough."
Cormel's head bowed. "I'm sorry. Give me a moment with Rachel? I'll join you soon. My children will slake your thirst. I will stand beside you and be sure of it."
My God, it was enough to turn my stomach, but it was what they were down to. I stiffened as Felix shuffled out past me, a slight tilting of his head the only indication that he knew I was there, and I shivered when a black eye watched me from under his shifting bangs. Jenks followed him out, staying just below the ceiling as a quiet guard.
"I am not yours," I said hotly to Cormel before the back door clicked shut.
In a wash of incense, Cormel moved swiftly to the archway, leaning to look down it into holy ground. His lips were pressed in anger, and I marveled at how alive he appeared. Practice, practice, practice. "You are. I just saved your life."
"I could have taken him," I shot back, and Cormel's irate gaze finally came to me. His eyebrows went high in a mocking question. "I just didn't want to hurt him."
"No doubt. I think you killing him was his plan. And then what? You would be accused of murder as no one but you saw him ailing. You could flee to the ever-after, but we all know how you feel about that-Rachel."
He was right, and it irked me. "You make me sick," I said instead, pushing around him to get out of my corner. "The two of you going off to a blood orgy together, offering your children to him like they're candy. There's no love there, no caring. Ivy was right. Why should I help you find your souls?"
Cormel stooped to pick up his hat and dust it off. "Because I am here saving your life." I huffed in disbelief, and he turned to give me his full attention. "I'm joining Felix in his bloodletting so he doesn't kill my children in his grief for the sun. I am there so he won't take too much or be too brutal for their desires to withstand. I doubt very much I'll enjoy watching an old man gum his food." His gaze became distant. "There will be no finesse, no beauty there. I had hoped that he was still recoverable, but it won't be long now." His eyes met mine. "They failed to tell me that caring for the old as well as the young would be my responsibility when I took this job."
It was as I had thought, then. Felix had faltered and was failing fast, dragging Nina down with him. This was so ugly. "Ivy is trying to save both their lives," I said softly, and Cormel's bad mood seemed to hesitate as he saw my own soften. "Doesn't that count for something?"
"She still broke the rules. He is mad, Rachel. He is mad, and no amount of blood can save either of them, but Ivy broke the rules by interfering. Ohem is already lost but for his final walk into the sun and leaving Nina to lose control." Cormel leaned to look down the hall, his thoughts already in the car and the remainder of his night. "They'll have to shoot her down like a dog to stop her once she starts to look for solace. As it was, he would have only taken himself and one other, but your Ivy wants to love again, and so we all suffer so that you might save her soul, save all of ours."
Jenks arrowed into the kitchen, bringing with him the scent of ash from the fireplace. He looked agitated that Cormel was still here, and the undead vampire raised a tired hand to tell him that he was on his way. "My children will suffer indignities and pain tonight because of you," he said, and my gut tightened in guilt. "All my children are paying the cost for Nina's possible survival. All to keep one vampire happy." Cormel put his hat back on and buttoned his coat. "I pay it willingly. But you will give me what I want, Morgan. And soon."
My chin lifted, and Jenks's dust turned a glittering gold. "That sounds like a threat."
He smiled from under the brim of his hat. It was the smile that had saved the world, and it was ending mine. "It was supposed to." Cormel stepped into the hall, then paused. "I know you're occupied with repairing the lines, so I'm willing to wait, but Rachel, I will not end up like Ohem." His expression darkened, his pupils going wide and his eyes black. "I will not be a shell of myself, pitied and grasping for the sun when I know my soul is lost to hell. If Ivy leaves Cincinnati again, I will kill her myself. Tell her that for me."
Cold, I wrapped my arms around myself.
"I want my soul back. Find it."
Between one breath and the next, he was gone, the door squeaking shut the only sound marking his passage. Shaking, I sat down in Ivy's chair.
If Ivy leaves Cincinnati again, I will kill her myself, he had said.
Don't think so.