Page 116 of Disillusioned
“Good.” Once Lilac had loosened her corset and clutched the dress to her body, Piper faced her again. “We must scrub that stench off of you.”
“I know.” Lilac grimaced. “Sorry. If I smell like corpses, it’s because I was in a room of them.”
“Corpses? All I smell is—isGarin.” Piper tossed an arm her way, nose wrinkling. “You?—”
“Reek of him?” Lilac lifted her arm and inhaled, gagging on the aroma of her own sweat, blood, and flesh. “I think Garin smells like bluebells and a crackling hearth. Trust me, there is none of that here.”
Piper’s laugh was sharp. “Just before he killed me, he stunk of pond water and death.”
They’d been sloshing in the Argent River with the Morgen before reaching the Sanguine Mine, where Bastion had egged Garin on enough to make him snap Piper’s neck in a decision of pity. He’d slipped Piper some of his blood off his thumb just before—and that, according to Garin, was what had facilitated her transformation.
“And do I smell of pond water and death to you now?” Lilac asked.
The vampire made a face, contemplating, nostrils flaring. She opened her mouth and inhaled, as if tasting the air.
“Stop that,” she said, unsettled.
“It is no single aroma,” Piper replied decidedly. “His blood and yours—as you are no doubt covered in it—but there is something more. An aura. His. The scent is pure possession, and I know—I just do—that it is him.” Her voice shook, tapering off at the last of her words. She gazed at the fire, reluctance and hatred burning through the moisture in her eyes. “He is my… my?—”
“Garin is your sire,” Lilac offered softly.
“Yes. That. And in that way, I will always be connected to him. In my worst moments, when I was lost and afraid to go to the town, I thought of finding him. Not for council or his help, but because I knew I’d likely find you there. I refrained, afraid I’d meet his unruly brother if I didn’t stay hidden. My urge to seek you has been far greater, so I came here.”
Lilac absorbed Piper’s fury and was met with deep guilt; Piper had been a vampire for less than a month, but she’d been wandering the wilderness with no one to guide her. It must’ve felt like forever. She’d confirmed what Casmir had said, and if he could tell Lilac was somehow tied to Garinbefore she’d entered that room, Piper could definitely sense it now. She couldn’t have known what a thrall was.
“Well, Your Majesty?” Piper was sliding both sides of the curtains further open, poking her head outside the balcony doors and inhaling into the night. “If you’ve nothing to say and if he’s not here, then where is Garin?”
Lilac slipped down her loosened corset and kirtle, wincing as she peeled off the parts where the material clung to her skin. “He’s at a Daemon tavern in Brocéliande, less than an hour east. That’s where he lives.”
“A tavern? He hasn’t moved into that underground prison he’s now in charge of?”
“No.” Lilac stuck a toe into the tub, testing the water before stepping all the way in. “He may oversee the coven at the Sanguine Mine, but he’s still residing and working at the tavern. The Fenfoss Inn. Witch-owned,” she added, at Piper’s glare.
“Fine. Not that it matters.” The vampire strode to the middle of the room, cradling her face with her hands and gazing at the floor.
“Piper,” Lilac said, suddenly grateful for the water she’d splashed on her face as she used a small cloth to scrub the blood off. The tub water quickly turned the color of rust, smelling strongly of iron, and her stomach churned. She forced herself to look up. “Why don’t you remove your shoes?”
“They’re yours.” Piper’s face was instantly tearful. “I’ve stolen them.”
“You haven’t. They’re yours,” Lilac said sternly, blinking back the moisture in her eyes. “Do remove them, though, and make yourself at home. You make me anxious with your pacing. Take them off, and stay a while. Unless you plan on escaping into Brocéliande anytime soon.”
Piper made a noise of contempt. “I prefer to be anywhere Garin is not. With you, I’m not sure that can be helped, though.”
Lilac chose her words carefully. Honestly. “It cannot. But he’s far away from us tonight. Either way, you will speak, think, act candidly. You are under my protection.”
“Whether he’s at the Sanguine Mine or not, I’m not going back.” Piper slid one shoe off, then the other, and pressed her heels into the edge of the fox fur rug beneath her.
“You won’t. I promise.”
Piper’s eyes narrowed at her consolation. “How do I know that when you’ve been with him?” Lilac’s chest constricted as her friend’s mouth opened, framing two long fangs on her upper row of teeth. Everything she must’ve been holding back at the Grand Hall flowed out. “How could you? How could you leave me behind? Leavewithhim?Bewith someone like him, and h-his brother, who had imprisoned all of us for years?”
“They had no choice. Feeding ethically was even a risk that would get them hunted. And Garin was trying to help you.” Lilac looked down, her face on fire as she gripped the tub. The words had slipped out without thought.
Piper angled her chin at Lilac, her gaze glassy.
What was wrong with her?How easily this strange protectiveness had crept up on Lilac, as if it were her second nature to jump to not only Garin’s defense, but his entire coven—even when Lilac in factagreedwith Piper’s fury.
Lilac pried her fingers off the lip of the tub. Chips of wood plinked to the floor and into the water, not unlike the night in the Trevelyan farmhouse, when Garin had gripped the back of the chair and demolished it. She hadn’t exactly pulverized the rim but small pieces still came away, the wood planks cracked down to the center.
