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.”
In the next breath, Lena was gone, moving from the room with such speed that it made a mockery of their efforts to threaten her earlier. Had Lena wanted to kill either of them, she would have done so.
Beyond the room, the howls came again, and then snarls and the gnashing of teeth. When her mother had died, it was Lena who had filled that role, Lena that she placed her trust in. Hearing her die cut through Poppy’s soul. Poppy cried out and turned toward Win. His arms came around her tight and strong. He was shaking, his flesh cold where she pressed her face against his neck. But he held her, leaning heavily against the wall. The sounds of wolves fighting grew louder. It was his nightmare, she knew. Just as she knew that he fought now to govern that terror.
“Win.” She clung more tightly.
They clutched each other, cheeks pressed together, breathing the same deep breaths as the sounds of violence ran their course.
Win’s hand upon her head was a grounding weight. His smoky voice whispered at her ear. “I would take your pain into me if I could.”
Her lips brushed the lobe of his ear as she answered. “I know.”
The pain would only grow worse, for she now had to decide if she would give up her innocent brother to save her child. And she would have to tell her sisters. Everything.
Chapter Thirty-four
Poppy and Winston stayed inside of Hell until the sounds of fighting had died down and Ian walked into the room. Bathed in sweat and blood, he’d wrapped a kilt about his lean frame but wore nothing else. Proof that he’d fully turned to face Lena. He was the only lycan with the skill, and it gave him a tremendous advantage.