Shadow of Night (All Souls Trilogy, #2)

by Deborah Harkness

“It’s different because I can smell every single person you’ve been in contact with today. It’s bad enough that you always carry the scent of Annie and Jack. Gallowglass and Pierre try not to touch you, but they can’t help it—they’re around you too much. Then we add the scents of the Maharal, and Herr Maisel, and at least two other men. The only scent I can bear to have mixed with yours is my own, but I cannot keep you in a cage, and so I endure it the best I can.”

“What I am feeling now—this terrible gnawing sense of loss and rage because I cannot get a clear impression of you in the chaos of our life—is beyond my control.”

Our lovemaking, no matter how intense, had not satisfied whatever was driving Matthew to keep pursuing me in spite of the fact that I was indisputably his. I was beginning to worry that nothing could.

“Every day of my life is a battle for control. I fight my anger and the sickness that follows in its wake. I struggle with hunger and thirst, because I don’t believe it is right for me to take blood from other creatures—not even the animals, though I can bear that better than taking it from someone I might see again on the street.” His eyes rose to mine. “And I am at war with myself over this unspeakable urge to possess you body and soul in ways that no warmblood can fathom.”

“Take it. I don’t care. I just want you back.” I bit back a sob.

“Vampires only bite strangers and subordinates on the neck. Not lovers. Certainly not mates.”

“Vampires bite their mates here,” Matthew said, “near the heart.” His lips pressed against the bare flesh above the edge of my smock. It was where he had kissed me on our wedding night, when his emotions had overwhelmed him.

“To drink from your lover is to know that nothing is hidden.” Matthew stared down at my breast, touched the vein again with his fingertip. “We call this the heart vein. The blood tastes sweeter here. There is a sense of complete possession and belonging—but it requires complete control, too, not to be swept up in the strong emotions that result.” His voice was sad.

“Take my blood. Take my secrets. Do what your instincts are screaming for you to do. There are no hoods or jesses here. In my arms you should be free, even if nowhere else.”

soon the skin went numb from the pressure of Matthew’s mouth on my flesh. His hands cradled me as he angled me back toward the surface of the bed. I hung in midair waiting for him to be satisfied that there was nothing between us but love.

“I’m inside you, Diana, giving you life.”

“The most terrifying monsters always look just like ordinary men.”

“Gallowglass said he would take care of it.” “No wonder Pierre followed on his heels, then.” “What is Pierre going to do?” “Make sure Pistorius gets out of here alive,” Matthew said cheerfully. “Left to his own devices, Gallowglass would strangle the man and throw him into the Stag’s Moat for the lions’ midnight snack. My nephew is almost as protective of you as I am.”

“Of course,” Matthew murmured, imitating his mother’s tone perfectly.

“After all my searching, I discover that I am who I always was: Matthew de Clermont. Husband. Father. Vampire. And I am here for only one reason: To make a difference.”

“All men are fools, Your Majesty,”

“You are indeed Philippe’s daughter. I accept your family’s terms.”

Matthew ran his hand nervously over his cropped hair, then stuck it out to my father. “I’m Matthew.” My father eyed the offered hand. “No last name? Are you some sort of celebrity, like Halston or Cher?”

“You’ve married the creature equivalent of Charles Darwin.

“You two might want to think about that while I go to the Cardinal’s Hat. Someone named Gallowglass introduced himself in the courtyard. He says he’s Matthew’s relative and promised to help me meet Shakespeare, since my own daughter refused.”

“Your mother will think I’ve taken up with an orange seller if I don’t show up soon.”

“Wow. Nice recovery, Diana.” My father turned to Matthew. “She bounces back fast.” “Tell me about it,” was my husband’s equally dry reply.

“I’m glad I got to know you, Matthew—despite that scary look you get when you think I’m bossing Diana around,” my father said with a laugh.

Apparently he was on a first-name basis with half the town.

“Don’t tell me you’re the kind of academics who can’t tell the difference between their life and their job.” He flung up his hands as if warding off the plague. “I refuse to believe that my daughter could be one of them.”

And I’m ordering you to have fun.” He ushered us toward the door. “How?” I asked, utterly mystified. “That is not a question a daughter should ask her father. It’s Midsummer Eve. Go out and ask the first person you meet what you should do.

P.S. Every time you read “something is rotten in the state of Denmark” in Hamlet, think of me.

“He loves you. Forever. So do I.”

At the court of Elizabeth, fortune is fleeting, but disgrace endures forever.”

“But I will tell you a secret. A dream is a nightmare in reverse. If you dream of someone you love, that person will seem closer, even if far away.”

“Every day of my life, I yearn for Philippe. The sun rises and my heart cries out for him. I listen for his voice, but there is silence. I crave his touch. When the sun sets, I retire in the knowledge that my mate is gone from this world and I will never see his face again.”

How long would it take to stop bracing myself for the rush of motion and bellow of sound that heralded Philippe’s arrival in a room? My heart hurt at the thought of my father-in-law. This harshly lit, fast-paced modern world had no place for heroes such as he.

Our silent rituals of a vampire’s blood-taking and a witch’s kiss had strengthened our ability to gauge each other’s thoughts.

He would be in the shadows of every room, every stone in the walls.

I felt the loss of our friends, even here in the midst of our family.

Black is the badge of true love lost. The hue of daemons, And the Shadow of Night.

What a crew, Shakespeare thought. Traitors, atheists, and criminals, the lot of them.

Black is the badge of hell The hue of dungeons and the school of night.