Win’s hand touched her elbow. “I enter first.” The look in his eye gave little room for argument.
She didn’t. She knew Lena would not hurt them. Not yet. Poppy’s hands clenched her skirts as she strode forward.
Just as she remembered it, the little parlor where Lena held court was cozy, the furniture comfortable and worn, and a fire crackled in the grate. Lena sat in her favored place by the hearth. Her pale hands rested upon the arms of a black leather chair, and her legs were tucked up upon the seat. The position was almost feline. And like a cat, she affected a lazy but alert repose. So very alert.
“Mother.” Lena inclined her head. “Inspector.”
Poppy took a seat in the armchair facing Lena. “Was it necessary to burn your place down?”
“I do not expect to be here much longer,” Lena answered as Winston moved to stand next to Poppy.
As she stared at Lena, Poppy’s anger swelled within her breast. “Bloody hell, you sent the undead after us!”
“Having trained you,” said Lena smoothly, “I knew you could dispatch them. The intent was to slow you down and hopefully take Lane out of the game.” Her dark gaze flicked to Winston. “Apologies, Lane, but you have been a bit of a bastard to Poppy these past months, which rather dampened any feelings of sentimentality toward you.”
Win’s expression was bland as he stared her down. “I’d say your current actions outshine any of mine.”
Lena glared at him, then gave a dismissive shrug.
Poppy, however, was not about to be shrugged off. “Why?”
Lena’s dark hair swung forward as she reached for the silver cup resting on the table at her side. She took a deep drink. “You were not to know about Moira Darling.”
Poppy’s back teeth met. “Who is she?”
Lena’s pale finger ran along the rim of her cup. “I have sworn not to tell you.”
“Even though it threatens Poppy’s child?” Win snapped. Shadows danced over his features, and his eyes flashed with bright anger.
The corners of Lena’s eyes tightened. A flinch for her. “It is an uncomfortable situation.”
Poppy leaned in, the chair creaking beneath her. “And was it worth it?” she hissed. “To torture Jack Talent?” Bitterness coated her tongue, and she swallowed against it.
Lena looked away, into the fire. “I was most displeased with my acolytes.” The delicate curve of her jaw bunched as she lifted her eyes to Poppy. “They were to use his blood, not get… carried away.”
Win’s hand curled into a fist. “ ‘Carried away?’ That is what you would call it?” He sneered. “Your control over your staff is severely lacking, madam.”
“They have been destroyed,” she said. “Painfully.”
“Not good enough,” Poppy said. “He would not have been under their control had you not ordered it.”
Obsidian eyes bore into her. “I know. Which is why I have waited for you to mete out a punishment.”
Poppy shot to her feet. “I don’t want to mete out a bloody punishment! I want you to tell me who the hell Moira Darling is and why you feel the need to protect her.”
Lena’s head tilted back. “I made a vow. You know all about those, Poppy Ann.”
Poppy’s body jerked as if struck. “You would have Isley take my child?” She leaned over Lena then. “My child, Lena.”
Neither of them spoke as they held each other’s gaze. Lena’s red mouth quivered once, but then went still. “I will tell you if you promise not to give Isley what he wants from her.”
A red haze washed over Poppy’s sight. Behind her, she could almost feel Win quivering with rage as well. Poppy looked down at her lieutenant. “I could make you talk. You know we have ways that would leave you begging.”
Lena merely blinked. “You would not get your answers, and you know it.” She sighed then, and her voice grew uncharacteristically soft. “You will want to agree, Poppy. Trust me on this one last thing.”
Poppy’s throat worked as she looked at her old friend. Lena had to be at least one hundred years old, and though she could have done anything she wanted with her life, she’d chosen to stay with the SOS, training others and keeping their secrets safe.
A sense of dull foreboding crept up Poppy’s back. Lena was loyal. To a fault. Why had she betrayed Poppy? Poppy’s heart pounded against her ribs. The unease grew until it was all she could do not to turn and run from the room. But the heaviness within her womb and the feel of Win at her back made her stay. “Fine,” she said. “I will not give it to him.”
“Poppy!”
She turned at Win’s protest. “She’s right. We won’t know any other way.”
Win appeared mutinous. His lean body vibrated with fury, but he did not protest. Poppy stepped back a pace, not wanting to be close to Lena. “Tell me,” she said. “Who is Moira Darling?”
As if gathering herself, Lena sat straighter. “She was Isley’s lover. It was doomed from the beginning.”
Poppy sank back into her seat. “She was SOS.”
“Yes,” said Lena. “Isley was… You only know to hate him. You have no idea how charismatic he could be. How passionate.” Her gaze turned inward, and she stared off into the fire. “She loved him, you see. Without meaning to, she did.”
“How long did it go on?” Poppy asked softly, not wanting to break the spell.
“Years.”
Poppy’s breath caught, and Lena looked back with a wry smile. “Many years. I think… I think he loved her too.” She leaned her head back against the chair. “But he detested that immortals hid from weak humans as if they ought to be ashamed. It was he who started the Nex, you know.”
Poppy gave a short nod. She knew that much.
Lena continued. “She pled with Isley to understand that for humans to know the truth would bring about pain and chaos. It was a long-standing argument.” Lena’s chest lifted and fell on a soft sigh. “He kept playing his tricks, and she kept ignoring them, because she could not let him go. He was like a disease within her. And then the inevitable happened.”
Lena sat up and rested an elbow on her crossed leg. “She ended it. For you see, she finally realized that passion without trust, without compromise, was a useless thing that only served to burn her out.”
“Isley did not take it well?” Win asked, his voice as soft and rough as Poppy’s had been.
“No. There were… complications.” Lena’s black gaze flicked to Poppy. “She was with child.”
The air in the room vanished. On stiff limbs, Poppy rose and paced away. “A child.” Her tone was brittle, disbelieving. But she did believe, and it made her ill. His child for hers. She braced a hand upon the back of the chair she’d vacated.
Lena did not move. “He promised not to interfere with her children,” she whispered. “But he wanted this one. Because this one turned out to be male. He believed the boy would inherit his legacy, be made into what he was.”
“Children?” An ocean roared in Poppy’s ears. Somehow she made her numb lips move. “I thought…”
Lena rose with subtle grace. “No, not me.”
Poppy swallowed hard. Dimly she felt Win’s hand slipping into her ice cold one. “Moira Darling?”
“A nickname for Mary,” Lena said. “His Mary Margaret darling.”
Poppy broke free from Win’s grasp. “Oh Jesus.”
Win looked wildly between the two of them. “Mary as in Mary Margaret Ellis?” He paled.
“Yes,” said Lena. “As in Poppy’s mother.”
Poppy sucked in a breath and then another. “Is he… Is he my father?”
The distaste and regret in Lena’s expression spoke before she did. “Yes.”
“My sisters.” Fear for their safety had her surging toward the door.
“He cannot get to them. Nor the boy.” Lena’s fists pressed against her thighs as she looked up at Poppy. “It was a bargain Isley and Mary Margaret made from the beginning. A safeguard laid down by your mother. Isley cannot know his children unless someone presents them to him.”
“What do you mean ‘cannot know’?”
“Just that. He literally cannot see his own children, even if they are right in front of him. The agreement won’t allow it. Unless another person presents his children to him, they are invisible to his eyes. She did so with you.” Lena’s gaze slid away. “He lost interest after that. Until he knew he was to have a son. They fought over it. And he killed her. I think it was an accident, for his rage knew no bounds afterward.”
Poppy paced again, ending up at the wall and slumping against it. “A brother.”
Lena did not blink. “When the baby was born, Margaret told everyone that he had died. I took a blood oath to hide the babe away where Isley could not get him and to do everything in my power to keep the babe’s existence secret.”
Poppy uttered a vicious inward curse. To a sanguis demon, nothing was as sacred as a blood vow. Its bond was stronger than friendship or kin. To break it would fracture a sanguis’s soul. And Poppy’s mother knew this well.
As if reading Poppy’s mind, Lena gave a slow nod. “When I heard of the bargain Isley had made with the Inspector, I knew I would ultimately fail. But I had to try.”
Lena had made her vow, but Poppy could not condone the actions she took to keep it. “Where is my brother?”
Lena’s lips flattened.
“Where, Lena?” She pushed off the wall and stalked closer. “He is my brother! My sisters’ brother too.”
“He is more his father’s child than his mother’s. If you expose him to Isley, he may turn for ill. You cannot taint him with this life.”
“Do not… I will not keep another one of my mother’s secrets in the name of protection! No more.”
“Then I will not tell you where he is.”
Poppy did not think. The back of her hand met Lena’s cheek with a blow that made her bones burn and sent Lena’s head snapping to the side. Momentum still carried her arm forward when Lena reared, her fangs out, her nails extended. She could take Poppy’s head with one swipe. But a blur of movement and a looming dark form came between them.
A loud thud sounded on the wall as Win slammed Lena into it, setting the crystals in the sconces tinkling. In a blink, he had her pinned, the long stake in his hand jammed up under her chin with enough force to tilt Lena’s head back. Freezing, she eyed the stake and then Win.
His face, twisted with rage, was an inch from Lena’s white fangs. “Tell me, have I the way of it?” He tightened his grip on the stake, and Lena sucked in a breath. A trickle of garnet blood ran down her neck. “I wouldn’t want to get it wrong now.”
“That should do,” she said through her teeth. Her dark gaze slid to Poppy. “You owed me that hit. I should not have tried to strike back. Now call your dog to heel.”
Win bared his teeth. “You do not give orders to her.” Slashed of face and murder in his eyes, he appeared the monster in the room. But it was simply his strength unfettered by civilization. He’d been torn apart and reformed into something more. Strange as it was, Poppy could not shake the feeling that part of him had been found rather than lost. That Winston Lane had finally become wholly what he was meant to be.
Beyond the crackle of fire in the grate and the sound of the mantel clock ticking came an unmistakable cry, a long, almost mournful sound that ended on a sharp, rising note that spoke of rage. Win paled, but his concentration did not ebb. Lena too paled. As if answering the first howl, another, and another cry rang out. The call of wolves.
“They call for you, Lena.” Poppy took a step toward her, speaking as if her heart was not broken. “Jack Talent is Ian Ranulf’s kin. He thinks of him as a son. He calls for blood.”
Lena’s eyes narrowed. “I do not fear The Ranulf.”
Poppy glanced at Win. “Let her go.” When Win tensed, she said, “Ian has the greater claim. Let him have it.”
Another howl broke out. Stronger. It was The Ranulf’s call.
“For what we were,” Poppy said, “I will delay them, give you a head start.” Sadness filled her breast and made it throb. It would enrage Ian, but despite what Lena had done, she would do this small thing for her.
Win stepped back, a swift move that gave him space to defend himself should Lena retaliate. But she did not. With dignity, she straightened her gown and smoothed her hair. “I will not run from him.”
“Go then,” Poppy said to Lena. “Face your fate, and maybe you shall come out alive.”
Cool and implacable as always, Lena nodded sharply. Standing next to Win, she appeared little more than a girl just out of the schoolroom. An illusion if ever there was one. “I trust you to make the proper decision, Poppy Ann Ellis Lane.” Her dark eyes drifted over Poppy’s face, and her tone softened. “You are a better leader than your mother was. Stronger of heart.”
Later Poppy would feel this. Later. She held her breath as she nodded back.
Lena blinked once. “He’s with Cornelius Evernight in County Clare, being raised as an Evernight. Margaret named him St. John.”
Poppy’s throat convulsed. She could not speak.
“Be careful, child.” Her black eyes stared, unblinking. “The Nex infiltrated my brood and turned them against me. Even now, most of the Onus are converting to their side, lured by promises of greater power and free rein to prey on humans. Dark times lie ahead, I fear.”