The Kingmakers(46)

“I had little choice,” he offered. “She wanted me to kill you.”

Adele practiced a thrust, imagining she was skewering Flay. “That is tiresome of her. I suppose we could announce Simon had died, and hold a funeral.”

Greyfriar cleared his throat.

“Yes?” she asked, brandishing the cutlass. “Was there more to the bargain?”

“I have to bring a piece of him to her.”

“A piece of him? A piece of my brother? How large a piece will satisfy Flay?”

“I imagine a hand will do.”

“How fortunate he has two.” The empress came en garde in fifth position, prompting Greyfriar to raise his weapon. She struck suddenly with three moves planned. She swung high, bringing Greyfriar's blade up for a parry, intent on overpowering his lighter sword. Metal clashed. The rapier flew off her cutlass. She dropped low for a sweep across the midsection. His sword was there fast, as she knew it would be, so she surged forward with the cutlass drawn tight against her, sharp edge toward Greyfriar, pressing his long sword flat against his chest and pushing the razor edge of the cutlass across his throat. If the cutlass had actually been sharpened, he would have suffered a vicious deep cut, likely debilitating.

As it was, Greyfriar exclaimed, “Amazing. The perfect moves. As long as you have a cutlass and your enemy is a human carrying a rapier.”

Adele smirked with one eyebrow arching. “Well, you may have noticed that I do have a cutlass and my opponent is carrying a rapier.”

“You're right.” Greyfriar saluted with his sword. “I would have been dead if I was human.”

“Even so,” Adele countered, with an attempt at levity. “Such a wound could bleed out a vampire as well as a human. Just admit that I was prepared for you.”

Greyfriar settled into his ready stance and waited. Adele didn't appreciate the challenge in his action. She had done what she needed to defeat him, which he recognized, but then added some pointless technicalities to lessen her accomplishment. The last person she expected nitpicking from was Greyfriar.

Adele came at him again with a precision strike. He parried and was gone, flipping over her head, putting one hand on her shoulder, and landing behind her. She was already spinning, expecting a blow to her head from the basket hilt of his sword, but he grabbed her hair and pulled her down. Her feet left the ground and his strength bore her to the hard rooftop. One of his knees pressed onto her chest and the other pinned her sword hand. Greyfriar ripped the cloth from his face and Adele saw his fangs bared. His mouth yawned open wide and his head surged toward her. There was a gentle rake of hard teeth and then soft lips against her neck.

In her ear, he whispered, “I pray you don't ever forget what my kind can do.”

“I thought this was only a friendly sparring match,” Adele chided.

Gareth shifted his weight off her and fingered the tendrils of her hair that had escaped the braid. Adele felt her irritation slipping away as she stared at his unmasked face and watched his gaze playing over her hair. His eyes were tight with sadness. And, he was right in his lesson. In reality, a vampire would not have a rapier and her victory against Greyfriar was only because she knew he wouldn't use his natural weapons against her. She had used that knowledge and crowed about it. There were times her overconfidence annoyed even her. Touché, she thought.

Adele heard a strange noise. Gareth looked around for the source. He pointed toward the sea, where a naval airship was passing off the coast, within easy sight of the palace. The crew lined the rail cheering at the empress and her consort on the roof. Adele rose to her feet with a hand from Gareth. She raised her cutlass to the ship in salute. The roar grew even louder. Gareth replaced the cloth over his face.

With a laugh she said, “You realize they thought they had caught us in an intimate moment? They only saw me reclined, and you bent over me tenderly. The stories will begin to circulate of the empress's romantic trysts on the roof of the palace. They don't know you had just pummeled me and threatened to drink my blood.”

“I'm sorry,” Greyfriar replied. “It was ridiculously stupid of me. I too can never forget what I am, or where I am.”

She took his arm. “You can take the vampire out of the north, but you can't take the north out of the vampire. And I would have killed you with my first attack, right?”

The lines around his shrouded eyes wrinkled with a smile. “You would have incapacitated me. And you could have dispatched me with your typical bloody efficiency before I recovered.”

“That's all a young woman wants to hear.” Adele kissed him through the cloth. She took his rapier and tested it. “I like your sword. The balance is perfect. But why do you prefer a rapier? With your strength, a crushing weapon would make more sense.”