Page 33 of Queen of Darkness
“I told you that wasn’t it,” Fenrir said, shaking his head at Drakul. “He didn’t come here for that.”
Drakul said something in the other language. Fenrir fired back a reply.
“Enough bickering,” Aaron said before they dissolved into a full-blown argument. “I will take it, thank you. It wasn’t what I came for, you’re right, but perhaps it will come in use.”
Drakul turned his eyes to Fenrir, and I thought I saw a victorious glow twinkle through them.
“Yeah, yeah,” Fenrir muttered, his lips twitching.
I looked back and forth between them, surprised at the ease with which they got along.
Turning back to us, Drakul focused first on Aaron, then on me. “Why you return?” he asked.
“For her,” Aaron said, indicating me. “She plans to kill Elenia. You want to help?”
Drakul was still for a moment, the only movement his eyes as they darted back and forth between us. Then, quite possibly the creepiest thing happened. He smiled.
“Finally,” he rumbled. “You go against her again.”
Again? Had I heard that right?
“Yes,” Aaron said.
“Good,” Drakul ground out in his deep voice. “Heart is healed. At last. This good.”
I could no longer keep my mouth shut. “What’s he talking about, Aaron? Going up against Elenia again? Your heart healed?”
Drakul’s eyes darted to me. “You not tell? Bad.”
Then, he began to chuckle.
“I really hate you sometimes,” Aaron said as the old vampire crossed his arms, preparing to wait and hear what Aaron had to say to me.
“That’s fine,” I told him. “But he has a point.”
Aaron looked troubled, avoiding my eyes as he stared across the room into nothingness. “I suppose he does. On many levels.”
“What happened between you and Elenia?” I pressed. This was important. I knew it was. It had to be.
“We were in love,” he said bluntly. “That’s what happened. We fell in love, and I—I helped her.”
Reaching out, I laid a hand on top of his, sensing his pain. “Whatever it is, it’s clearly in the past. But you need to tell me. To talk about it.”
“It’s not easy,” he said in a raspy voice. “It’s all my fault, you see.”
“What is?”
“Everything. All of it. Even your situation.”
“But I thought Fenrir was the one who turned my mother?”
“I was,” the old vampire-wolf said. “But I don’t think that’s what he’s referring to.”
“No,” Aaron said, heaving a giant sigh and sitting back into his chair. “It all began about twelve years after I arrived in Madrigal. That’s when Elenia and I met. We clicked instantly. Both of us young and power-hungry, eager to ascend the ranks in Madrigal. Out to prove ourselves to our elders.”
I nodded. This was partly what I’d expected. That there was a deeper history between the two of them. The remnants of the room Drakul had shown me were not the result of a full-blown knock-down fight. It had the trappings of a lovers’ quarrel.
“And so that’s what we did,” Aaron continued. “We plotted and schemed and ascended the very ranks of power together. Until about four hundred years later.”
