Lover Unbound(148)

Never would have assumed she had it in her.

She spoke first. "Of course I love my birds. They are my solace when I am troubled, my greater joy when I am of cheer. The sweet chime of their songs lifts me as nothing else does." She looked over her shoulder. "That human surgeon, is it?"

"Yeah," he said, bracing himself.

Fuck. She was so quiet. He'd expected her anger. Girded himself for a battle. Instead? Nothing but calm.

Which was right before the storm, wasn't it.

The Scribe Virgin blew on the bird, and it responded by crooning and spreading its little wings to bask. "May I assume that if I deny the substitution you will not carry through with the ceremony?"

It killed him to speak. Killed him. "I gave my word. So I will."

"Indeed? You surprise me."

The Scribe Virgin put the bird back, whistling a call as she did. He imagined that if the sound could be translated it would be something along the lines of, I love you. The bird returned it in kind.

"These birds," his mother said in an odd, distant voice, "are truly mine only delight. Do you know why?"

"No."

"They ask nothing of me and give much."

She turned to him and in her deep voice said, "This is the day of your birth, Vishous, son of the Bloodletter. Your timing is well calculated."

Um, not really. Jesus, he'd forgotten what day it was.

"And as this day three hundred and three years ago I bore you into the world, I find myself in the mood to grant you the favor you inquire over, as well as the one that has been thus far unspoken, though evident as the risen moon in a vacant sky."

V's eyes flared. Hope, a dangerous emotion in the best of times, flared in his chest with a little spark of warmth. In the background the birds chirped and sang merrily, as if anticipating his happiness.#p#分页标题#e#

"Vishous, son of the Bloodletter, I shall grant you the two things you want most. I shall allow the substitution of your brother, Phury, in the ceremony. He shall be a fine Primale, gentle and kind to the Chosen while proffering a good bloodline unto the species."

V closed his eyes, relief washing over him in such a great wave that he weaved on his feet. "Thank you…" he whispered, aware that he was addressing more his destiny's change of course than her, even though she was the driver.

"Your gratitude is appropriate." His mother's voice was utterly level. "And also curious to me. But then, gifts are like beauty, are they not. It is in the eye of the recipient that they find their seat, not in the hand of the giver. I have learned this now."

V looked over at her, trying not to lose it. "He will want to fight. My brother—he will want to fight and to live on the far side." Because no way would Phury be able to handle not seeing Bella again.

"And I shall allow this. At least until the Brotherhood's ranks grow in number."

The Scribe Virgin lifted glowing hands to the hood of her robe and covered her face with it. Then, soundlessly, she floated over the marble to a small white door that he'd always assumed was the entrance to her private quarters.

"If it would not offend," he called out. "The second favor?"

She paused at the little portal. Without facing him, she said, "I renounce you as my son. You are free of me and I of you. Live well, warrior."

She went through the door and closed him out, the panel shutting firmly, then locking. In her wake the birds fell silent, as if her presence was what charmed them into song.

V stood in the courtyard and listened to the fountain's quiet, chiming waterfall.

He'd had a mother for all of six days.

He couldn't say he missed her. Or that he was grateful to her for giving him his life back. After all, she was the one who'd tried to take everything away from him.

As he dematerialized back to the mansion to report in, it dawned on him that even if his mother had said no, he still would have picked Jane over the Scribe Virgin. No matter what it cost him.

And the Scribe Virgin had known that all along, hadn't she. Which was why she'd forsaken him.

Whatever. All he really cared about was getting to Jane. Things were looking up, but he was so not out of the woods yet. She could, after all, still say no. She could very well choose the life she knew over a dangerous half existence with a vampire.

Damn it, though, he wanted her to pick him.

V was taking shape in his bedroom and thinking of the way it had been with Jane the night before… when it dawned on him he'd done an unforgivable: He'd finished inside of her. Goddamn it. He'd been so in his head, the forgotten that he'd left some of himself behind. She must be going mad by now.

He was such a bastard. A thoughtless, selfish bastard.