Page 26 of Blood Tribute

“Nora?” Dav called. “Are you all right?”

He sensed her aura darting toward him.

The figure of Sir Virtus loomed between them. “Did you think you could bring a Hesperine into the shrine without my knowing? Did you think removing those relics would fool me? My amulet warned me the moment that creature approached.”

Nora let out an angry cry. “This is Andragathian Incense! The smoke will reveal y—”

“Silence!” Sir Virtus barked, and Nora gasped. Her pain flared in Dav’s senses.

Dav Willed open the door of the shrine. Air swept in from the corridor, and the incense thinned. He saw Nora in Sir Virtus’s grip, his sword at her throat.

“How could you betray me like this?” Sir Virtus lamented. “After everything I did to teach you goodness.”

Dav calculated options in his mind. If he stepped to Sir Virtus, would the man have time to slit Nora’s throat before Dav could stop him?

Sir Virtus dragged Nora toward a pedestal, where an orb of magefire burned in a golden chalice. “You will pay for this, Hesperine. I will drive you from this sacred place with holy fire.”

When Nora’s hand moved in the folds of her skirts, Dav realized. Sir Virtus had been so preoccupied with the Hesperine threat that he had made his greatest mistake of all.

He had underestimated Nora.

She raised Sancti and slashed the Blade of Purification across Sir Virtus’s arm. The man drew a hollow gasp.

It was all the diversion Dav needed. He stepped to Nora’s side, ancient muscle memory returning to him. He dealt Sir Virtus blow after blow that he had learned in the Imperial army. When the man was disarmed and on his knees, Dav seized him by the throat and hurled him against the Shield of Andragathos. He held the gaping mortal there and let the man struggle against his immortal strength.

Dav smiled, putting his fangs on display. “You’re the coward who threw a dagger at a fleeing Hesperine. He was my brother.”

The scent of the man’s fear filled the shrine.

Nora searched his surcoat, depriving him of his belt pouch of incense, his amulet, and a hidden prayer book that emanated magic. She tossed the incense into a bowl of healing water and dropped the other two artifacts into the cup of magefire. Nora watched his face while his relics burned.

Sir Virtus moaned. “I can still save you, child.”

She laughed loudly. Tearing the veil from her hair, she let her red mane free. “You failed, ‘Uncle’ Virtus.”

“Turn away from this creature! We can defeat him together.”

Nora held Sancti’s tip to Sir Virtus’s throat. “It’s too late. He’s bitten me. I gave him my blood over and over again. Then I welcomed him into my bed. And I enjoyed it.”

Sir Virtus spat prayers and curses at them.

“Don’t shout about holiness to me,” Nora shot back. “You killed my parents.”

Specters of guilt haunted Sir Virtus’s aura. “This Hesperine has addled your mind! Lies!”

“I remember everything,” she said.

Bitterness welled out of the man, a bile so potent, it must have been festering in him for years. “I was always a better knight. A better man. I gave the Order my all. I even resisted my lust for your mother. Only for your father to take her to wife instead. And what thanks did I get from the Order for my self denial? They celebrated him. They entrusted all the greatest relics to him.”

“When he was given Arceo,” Nora said, “that was the final blow, wasn’t it? You were planning to take both daggers for yourself.”

“I was their rightful wielder! He couldn’t even discipline his own daughter properly! He was too fastidious to use Sancti on you. Why do you think he asked me to do it every time? I was a better father to you than he ever was. Your mother understood what was necessary. She prayed for your soul whenever she bandaged your wounds.”

Dav’s thoughts reeled. But his own shock was not mirrored in Nora’s aura. This was a memory she had never lost.

Dav searched her face. “Your parentsknew?”

Nora took a step back. “I was always a disappointment.”

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