Chrysabelle raised her sacre between them. “And if that vow proves worthless, I will pay you one final visit. Do I make myself clear?” Nadira nodded. Chrysabelle pointed the weapon at Rennata. “You do anything to tip Tatiana or Lilith to this plan and so help me, holy mother, I’ll strip the gold from your body the way you did mine. Every. Single. Signum.”
Then she sheathed her weapon, spun on her heels, and left them to stare after her as she walked away.
Tatiana sighed. Hades, Mal could be difficult. “What is wrong with you? Was the taste of the comarré that unpleasant?”
Mal cleared his throat and leaned back in his chair. “It was fine.”
Not very convincing, but perhaps he didn’t like drinking from a secondhand comarré. “Then stop swallowing.”
Mal swallowed again, probably just to annoy her. “Can we get back to the subject at hand? I don’t believe she killed one of the ancients. It’s not possible.”
Tatiana twisted her hands in her lap, the metal one reflecting light like a mirror. “I saw the skin around her shoulders with my own eyes. I swear to you, it was real. I’ve seen them often enough to know what their flesh looks like.” She forced herself to sit still. “I told you she was dangerous, but even I had no idea just how much. However…” She leaned forward and dropped her voice. “They told me what to do.”
“They.” Mal raised a brow. “As in the ancients.”
She nodded. “Proof of how worried they are about her, don’t you think?”
For an instant, he looked skeptical. “Absolutely. What did they tell you?”
“We must take her to the Garden of Eden and get her to eat from the Tree of Life.”
He stared dumbstruck, then laughed. “And how do we get there? By unicorn? The Garden of Eden is a myth. They’re lying to you. Probably trying to see how much you’ll fall for.”
“It’s not a myth.” She reached down between her body and the side of the chair and pulled out the scroll Samael had given her. Carefully, she spread it open, revealing the hand-drawn map with the ornately illustrated tree at its center. “They gave me this.”
He studied it, nodding once or twice, then leaned in. “Let’s say this really is a map to the Garden and we go there. How do we get in? Isn’t it guarded?”
Her nerves settled with the realization that despite his skepticism, he was with her in this. “The ancient one assured me we would be able to enter.”
He sat back again, stretching one arm along the back of the sofa. “Then that’s the plan. Their word is good enough for me.”
She rolled the scroll up and stuck it back down in the cushions. “Are you ready to meet her?”
His body language stayed loose and relaxed. “Yes.”
He’d better be. There was no turning back after this. She stood and lifted her hands. “Lilith, my darling girl, come to me.”
Darkness clouded the room as if someone had dimmed the lights, and then that darkness converged into a human form. From that, a woman-child emerged, shedding the darkness like a butterfly leaving its cocoon. Or a parasite leaving its host. She tipped her head and looked at Tatiana. “Hello, Mother.”
“My darling.” Tatiana fought to keep her smile in place against a new onslaught of nerves. This had to go well. “I’d like you to meet Malkolm Bourreau, the vampire I was telling you about.”
Her attention shifted to Mal. He stood, but kept his distance. He nodded at her. “So you’re Lilith?”
She walked toward him. “And you are one of the most fearsome vampires to walk the earth.”
The whites of his eyes began to turn black. Tatiana recognized that as a sign of him loosening his hold on the beast inside him. He was showing Lilith who he was. Good. “I’ve heard that said about me.”
Unfortunately, his show of power didn’t seem to affect her. Maybe she just didn’t realize what it meant. “That’s what Mother says.” Lilith looked over her shoulder. “Don’t you, Mother?”
“Yes,” Tatiana answered. “He is the perfect vampire to join our family.”
Lilith stuck out her bottom lip. “Why? What makes him better than any other vampire?”
“I didn’t say he was better. I said he was perfect for our family.” Tatiana wanted to slap her, but refrained out of respect for her own life. “He was my human husband and the father of my mortal child. He knows how to be a father—”
Mal put his hand up. “I’ll handle this.” He rolled his shirt sleeve back and held his black-inked forearm out. “See those names, Lilith? I am covered with them.” He pulled up his shirt, revealing a taut stomach covered with more black script.
Lilith sighed like a bored teenager. “So.”
Mal picked his shirt up a little higher, showing off more ink. “Each name represents one of my kills.”
Tatiana watched as Lilith’s eyes widened and a tiny smile lifted the corner of her mouth. This child she’d once held in her arms was a bloodthirsty savage, something she might have approved of if that savagery wasn’t so capricious.
Lilith reached for his skin. “So many…”
He tucked his shirt back in before she could touch him. “That’s not all. I have the ability to transform myself into a beast owned by darkness. A beast that has taken on and destroyed hordes of Nothos.”
Lilith clapped her hands. “Show me.”