in complete control.
“We would not all be given the gift, however. She was to choose the most worthy.” He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “She settled on Archer and me. We became her lovers.”
A soft blush stole up Lady Archer’s cheeks but she remained silent. Nor could Leland blame her for blushing. Even now he could see Victoria, her nubile body writhing beneath his. Pert breasts. Nipples translucent as glass yet succulent, they drove him mad. Take me, Maurus. The heat of her body. The light pulsing through him as he bedded her. He’d felt invincible. And later, when she had wanted more.
“I desire you and Archer in my bed. Together. Come to me, my heathen men.”
By God, he had been willing. So shameful. But there it was. The hold she had on him was madness. And Archer’s wrathful expression. His dark brows scowling. He had stormed out, shoving past her bed in disgust, even as Leland had been crawling into it, all but tearing his clothes from his body in his lust-filled haste. Her sick laughter filled his ears even now.
“It was a test,” he said to a stone-faced Lady Archer, realizing that he’d said the whole shameful tale aloud. “Archer was stronger. Possessed the willfulness that she desired. I was merely a secondary diversion.”
“You resented him for it,” Lady Archer said softly.
“Yes.”
Her sculpted face remained impassive. “All of you did, because Archer was the favorite.”
“I cannot deny it,” he said wearily. “Not one of us realized how lucky we were not to be favored. Until that night. There was a ceremony at Cavern Hall, a place she told us held great power. All of us drank from a silver chalice, filled with a silver liquid. One sip only for the rest of the members. A taste to keep them enthralled and do her bidding. But Archer and I… we would drink a cupful. The liquid took time to work. We were to drink and then she would bestow her kiss. The Kiss of Light. Victoria would push her energy into us, thus completing the transformation. We would then fall into a deep sleep for one day and one night. When dawn broke on the next morning, we would be full-fledged Angels of Light in body and in soul.
“On the night of the ceremony, Rossberry came to us. He was frantic. He’d found an ancient text. We would not become Angels of Light, benevolent beings who lived forever off the light of the sun, but demons who drew their power from the light of souls. And in doing so, we would lose our own souls.”
He took a steadying drink. “We were fools. Too blinded by her thrall to believe. Or at least I was. Archer had doubts, but the moment was all but upon us.
“Every vein in his body stood out silver against his skin when he drank that brew,” he whispered. “Then his eyes. Viscous silver ran over them before he blinked it away, and the gray irises turned to mercury. Victoria simply laughed. Time to pay the piper, she said.
“Archer regained his strength, and with it he ran, not into her arms as she had expected. But away from her. Out of the hellish cavern. Victoria had merely smiled.”
“She wasn’t angry?”
Leland glanced at Lady Archer. “Irritated, perhaps. She thought he would come back. He was her true mate, she declared. I knew then that she was in love with him. I was nothing. So I ran too. One sip was all I tasted.”
“It did not affect you?”
Leland smiled wryly. “I am ninety-two years old, my dear. An age most men do not reach. And should they do so, are usually quite useless. Yet I can ride a horse, read my books, walk to my club and back. I am not immortal, but my life has been altered from its human course. I age slowly.”
“When I met you, I thought your age closer to sixty.”
“Precisely.” His lip trembled. “I’ve outlived one wife, three children, and one grandchild.” The coals in the grate settled with a hiss as he stared into his glass, watching the honeyed liquid swirl. “That is why I’ve avoided Archer all these years. Guilt. All of us got what we truly wanted that night, a chance to live beyond our years, without fear of sickness or sudden death. All of us save Archer. And Rossberry.”
“What happened to Rossberry?”
“Victoria. She found out what he had told Archer and set him on fire. Left him to die.