Immortals After Dark 10 - Demon From the Dark

four centuries of expecting and receiving duplicity--without breaking her heart first?
    When he woke, she would tell him that things were going to be different. She wouldn't tolerate him saying cruel things to her--or about himself. He was her husband, and she'd be damned if she let anyone call him those things, not even Malkom himself.
    Going forward, she would show him that he was more than his past. Did Carrow believe that the love of a good woman would heal all his wounds? Counteract years of abuse?
    No. But the love of a good woman and a new daughter, the respect and gratitude of a witch coven, the eventual welcome into a community of immortals--well, these things couldn't hurt.
    She intended to fight his doubt, calling on all her available resources to kick its ass to the curb. If he thought his past was stronger than their future, then he'd never seen a witch hell-bent on saving her demonically proclaimed marriage.
    Heartened by her decision, she rubbed her thumb over her ring.
    Am I not more than my past as well? She was ready to fight his doubt, but not her own?
    Though the ring wasn't as loose as it'd been, she realized it no longer fit her. She removed it, clasping it in her palm as she detoured to the beach.
    Standing before the roaring surf, she peered down at it.
    Carrow was done.
    She'd made this resolution before, but invariably, as time went by, she would try to contact her parents. Always she'd held on to this damned ring, held on to unfounded hope.
    Done. She threw the ring into the waves.
    At once, she gasped, tempted to dash into the water and find it. But she stopped herself. Tears welling, she raised her face to the mist. Good-bye.
    Turning on her heel, she headed back to the cabin. With every step she took away from her past, she felt lighter, as if a crushing weight on her chest were dissolving. The longing, the bafflement, the desperation --all ... ebbing.
    She sighed, feeling as if she could finally breathe after so long.
    In the bedroom, she tugged Ruby's blanket higher, leaning down to brush a kiss over her forehead. I'm going to take care of you, Ruby. I always will.
    Satisfaction coursed through Carrow, a flare of power surging within her. Though doused by her torque, it had arisen...
    From within me?
    With a bewildered laugh, she climbed into the other bed. All her life, she'd been waiting for this answer. Carrow had always known she could feed her powers from anyone's happiness. She'd just never figured it could be her own--because she'd never been truly happy.
    Not until she'd let go of her past and welcomed a new future.
    She stared at the peeling ceiling, which looked so different from when she'd left it. Because I'm different now.
    Then she smiled, was still smiling when she gradually drifted to sleep.
    But not long after, she bolted upright in bed, just as Ruby did.
    "Did you feel that, Crow?" the girl murmured. "Something bad's coming."

Chapter 44

    "What do you want with me, Mariketa?" Conrad Wroth said as he traced with his wife into Andoain's great hall.
    As soon as Mari had been able to locate them--a feat in itself--she'd asked them here to meet with her and Bowen. "I need a favor," she said, beholding the towering, red-eyed vampire. The key.
    Conrad was an immortal male, filled with evil--in the form of a vampire's blood-borne memories--and he was obsessed with Neomi, his phantom Bride. Who was asintangible as smoke.
    Fortunately, Conrad owed Mari big-time. The ballerina Neomi, now one of Mari's friends, was alive only because of her.
    "Name it, then," Conrad said, his Estonian accent pronounced.
    "Well, it's like this," Mari began, "you know how Loreans have been abducted by this weird order of mortals? My best friend Carrow was among them. But I've located where they're all being kept."
    Though Mari had been able to sense a cataclysmic Lore disturbance, she could get no second opinion or reading from other witches. She couldn't find Nix anywhere, so no backup from her.
    In the eyes of the Lore, Mari's mystical waypoint was only a baseless hunch.
    She felt like the plucky seismologist who'd seen a blip of untold strength but couldn't get anyone to believe the big one was coming.
    "What does this have to do with me?" Conrad asked.
    Bowen said, "We need someone to teleport me to Carrow."
    "Us," Mari corrected. "Teleport us to Carrow."
    Clasping her upper arm, Bowen said, "Damn it, lass! We have talked about this."
    They'd been going round and round. Her wolf was nothing if