"Dad," Genie groaned. "Seriously?"
The walk back across the Crumbling Isle from Uncle Hugo's had been quiet. Jenny had left Genie to her thoughts. It was obvious she knew Genie was struggling with what her uncle had told her, and what she now guessed, about her mother. After all that, Genie really didn't feel up to walking in on her dad making out with some intern.
Why had she even decided to go into the library, she wondered, and why does everyone sneak in here to have sex anyway? There are bedrooms in this house, people.
"Ah, Genie, I… this isn’t…" Rohan Elderberry stammered.
"Is she at least older than I am?" Genie muttered. "Wait, are you… bleeding? Is she…?"
"Oh my God!" Jenny gasped. "That’s… you’re Betty Bow!" At Genie’s blank look of shocked confusion she added, "Betty Bow! The original It Girl… like ‘she’s got It’ … that's what they called sex appeal before people were like allowed to say sex appeal in public. She was a huge silent film star back in the 1930’s and… oh my God, Betty Bow's a vampire?!"
Genie's breath caught in her throat as the woman disentangled herself from Genie's father. She moved with languid, casual grace that dripped sex appeal. The smile on her crimson lips was a sensual promise made terrifying as some of that wet crimson dripped down her corpse-pale chin.
"I like her," Betty Bow smiled, revealing her fangs as she licked Rohan Elderberry’s blood from her lips.
"God, dad, what is this?" Genie groaned. She recognized that she was hiding her fear and horror behind years of being embarrassed and disappointed by her father. She decided she was OK with that. "You’re a Dark Court agent? Wait, are the aliens working with the Court?"
"How do you know about all that?" Rohan demanded, clearly trying to sound confident while pulling together the remains of his dignity. Genie would have told him not to bother, that he'd lost all his dignity in her eyes years ago, but she was distracted by the vampire.
"I told you she knows more than you give her credit for," Betty Bow said with her sensual smile. Turning to Genie, her red eyes flashed as she added firmly, "We are not Dark Court agents."
"But… you’re a vampire," Jenny said, confused.
"Not all vampires serve the Court," Betty snarled, her eyes burning brighter with her anger. "Fah, the Dark Court. A bunch of moldering Elders and self-important old men who reminisce fondly about the Dark Ages… they're vile creatures, every last one of them."
"But mom is a Dark Court agent," Genie pressed. That's what Baron Charm had said, wasn't it? A Dark Court agent, named Villareal. "I mean, she has to be. She works with vampires. She hates witches."
"Your mother isn’t a Dark Court agent," Rohan said firmly, "and she doesn’t hate witches."
"Then explain this to me," Genie demanded. "What is going on? Why is she doing this? Why are you doing this? It has something to do with my grandmother, Genevieve, doesn't it? With her death?"
"How..." Rohan began to ask again.
"I told you," Betty Bow repeated in a throaty purr.
"Alright," Rohan said patiently. "First, Genie, you have to understand there is a shadow war between the Witches’ Council and the vampire Dark Court, that has been going on centuries."
"Yeah, dad, I know all about that," Genie said, wishing he would just get on with it.
"Well, that war took from your mother the two people she loved most in the whole world," Rohan continued. "Your grandmother and Gwen Silveroak..."
----------------
"She’s not coming, Gwen," Luna said bitterly. Her words were a knife to Rohan's heart, and he knew they all felt the same. "Cassie’s not coming. She’s gone to another frat party. She’s probably drunk, or high, or both. Hell, by now she’s probably spreading her legs for some soccer player!"
It was their last year at university. It was the year that everything had gone wrong.
"She’s hurting," Gwen said softly. "After what happened to her… after what he did to her… she’s hurting. I can’t give up on her. I need her."
"You need her?" Luna scoffed. "You need her! You mean you need another witch to rebuild the Guardians! That's it, isn't it?! You’re not choosing her. You’re choosing the damn shadow war!"
"Luna, I…" Gwen began.
"You don’t have to let their war rule your life, Gwen," Luna pleaded. "Not after it’s taken so much from us. It took your mother from you, just like it took mine from me. But we can choose. We can choose to say – no more. We can walk away. Turn our backs on it, together. We can choose each other... and to hell with the witches and the vampires and their war."
"It’s not that simple," Gwen said.
"Yes, it is!" Luna cried. "It’s exactly that simple. You can choose me!"
"I’m sorry, Luna." Gwen shook her head. "I… I can’t."
"Fine!" Luna shouted. "You know what… fine. Leave then. Go chase your whore witch. Rebuild your damn coven. Fight your damn war! Leave!"
Gwen closed her eyes, so Luna didn't see the tears shining in them. All she saw, Rohan was sure, was the fair-haired woman, beautiful and terrible as an elf-witch out of some story, standing and walking away.
"Leave!" Luna shouted again, leaping to her feet. Rohan heard her heart break. He saw the tears in Luna's eyes. Tears that didn't fall. That would never fall again.
Without a word, or a backward glace, Gwen drifted gracefully across the room.
"Leave me," Luna whispered at the departing back of the love of her life. "Just like everyone always leaves me."
"I’ll never leave you," Rohan said softly, gathering the sobbing young woman into his arms.
----------------
"… and I never have," Rohan sighed. "I never will. I love your mother, Genie. I know you may not think so, but I do. Everything important I’ve ever done in my life has been for her."
"She murdered Augustus Charm, didn’t she?" Genie asked quietly.
Rohan rocked back on his feet, clearly more shocked by that question than by anything else Genie had said tonight. Of all the things he'd never imagined she knew, she thought, he'd probably wished that remained secret most of all.
"He murdered her mother," Betty Bow said caustically.
"Why?" Genie whispered, unsure anyone could hear.
"For the same reason a chess master removes an opponent’s pawn, and with as just as much feeling," Betty replied, her red eyes burning. "Your grandfather was one of Count Straud’s most trusted and valued human companions. In those days, Straud was making allies, gathering his strength... and young Jacques, and his organization, was a key part of that. We could all see he was planning something big. By murdering Jacques' wife, I'm sure ol' Augustus hoped to provoke him and force Straud into a reaction that would have disrupted his schemes. It didn’t work. Jacques didn’t take the bait, and Straud wasn't stopped. Two years later Straud and his allies all but destroyed House Silveroak, the Guardians of Glimmerbrook."
"Gwen's family," Jenny breathed.
"A few years later, when ol' Augustus had probably forgotten all about poor Genevieve, he finally got a reaction to her murder. Just not the one he'd expected," Betty continued with a vicious smile. "I doubt he ever considered pretty little Luna to be a threat... until she poisoned his drink."
"This whole thing is just about revenge, isn’t it?" Genie groaned. "Mom killed Augustus because Augustus killed Genevieve... because the vampires attacked the witches, and the witches attacked the vampires. Back and forth, over and over again, for centuries. All the way back to Dark Ages! She's right," she snapped, gesturing at Betty Bow. "It’s become a game to them! A giant game of chess, where the pieces are real people who end up dead!"
"Why didn’t Baron Charm… the new Baron Charm I mean, Darrel Charm… try to kill Luna?" Jenny asked. "I mean, if it’s all about revenge…"
"Jacques let everyone believe he had killed Augustus," Rohan said.
"And Straud paid the weregild, the blood price… a kind of fine for killing Augustus… to prevent the feud from continuing," Betty added. "By wiping out the Guardians, Straud had destroyed a powerful coven. The Witches’ Council was on the defensive and eager to keep the war from escalating further. They forced Darrel Charm to accept the settlement."
"Until mom killed Shannon," Genie sighed. "Why? It never ends, does it? It’s always just more revenge, more death."
"No," Rohan insisted. "Genie, I know you think we’re the villains here, but we’re not. This isn’t about keeping the feuds going. This is about ending the war, once and for all! About making the world a better place."
"How does killing Shannon Charm make the world a better place, dad?” Genie demanded. “How does a crooked land deal, using gangsters to force people out of their homes, make the world a better place? How does helping the svartalves ... aliens or Settlers or whatever the hell they're called... buy up the Moonwood make the world a better place? How does planning to kill people in Moonwood Mill… to kill children… make the world a better place?"
"Wars have casualties, Genie,” Rohan said in that politician's voice of his that somehow convinced people to vote against their own interests while blaming other people... poor people, or LGBTQIA+ people, or just anyone different... for their problems. “The Settlers need that land to complete Crossing, and we need the Settlers.
"After Augustus Charm’s death, your mother understood she couldn’t do this by herself," he continued. "So, she took her time. She made connections, and she helped me start my political career. Eventually, we found the Settlers… another secret faction, one that has the potential to match the Council and the Court. One that wants to end the war just as much as we do. Once Crossing is completed, we’ll be able to do just that."
"Well, it sucks to be you, dad," Genie snapped. She was sick of him, sick of his excuses and of his detached 'it's just politics' cruelty. "Crossing is never going to be finished. I’ve already given all the evidence to people in the Agency. We’ve got a witness who will testify about your crooked project, and the people in Moonwood Mill will be ready for the svartalves' attack... and when that's all done, I'm going to expose you. I'll expose the whole thing. You’ve lost!"
"Aren’t you just precious, dear?" Betty smiled cruelly. "Unfortunately, we already knew all that. Your brave spies, your treacherous witness, even your little friends in Evergreen Harbor won’t be able to stop us. In fact, by now, they’re probably all already dead."
No comments:
Post a Comment