“Am I up to this, Elizabeth? I mean, can I change this for these people? I am not some gypsy claiming vampiric powers in order to swindle good people out of their money. I came here to save my family, but now the blood of more than twenty families is my responsibility.”

She stroked his chin with the back of her hand. “You cannot, my love, take such thoughts into this battle, or failure will be assured. Instead, do this for me, for Georgiana, and for yourself. Everyone else will benefit from your triumph.”

Damon tapped on the door. “Everything is in place,” he informed them when Darcy bid his cousin to enter. “This will be the last night these people live in fear.”

“I sincerely hope so.” Darcy’s doubts still played havoc with his resolve. “Damon, would you stay with Elizabeth for a few minutes? I wish to speak to the innkeeper.This hurt his business, and I want to assure him we will make restitution.” He handed off his wife to the colonel. Darcy noted how they both stiffened with the gesture, but he made no comment.

Judiciously, Elizabeth moved back to the window to watch the road and the countryside. She hugged herself, looking for comfort. “How much longer before dawn?”

“Less than an hour.” Damon moved behind her and rested his hands on her shoulders.

She forced herself to relax into his touch. The colonel was a gentleman, and even without Darcy as an impediment, he would treat her appropriately—with respect.They would come out of this trying situation as good friends.“Are we doing the right thing?”

“We are fighting for your husband’s life.”

Elizabeth simply nodded.“He is a good man.”

“The very best.”

She turned to face him.“Will we prevail?”

The colonel tilted his head as he pondered her question.“I have been in situations with less preparation and fewer options for victory. Maybe I underestimate our opponents, but we have the means to hold sway.”

“Then Fitzwilliam and I will put our trust in you, Sir.”

“They dare to defy me!”Wickham shouted in the empty hall. His emulators had returned to their graves, and he remained alone to face his own demons. Furious with how Darcy’s family had tricked him, Wickham steamed before exploding. A tornado unleashed itself within the hall, as Wickham stood dead center in the room and let the wind carry the tapestries and the furniture in a crazy swirl of color and power and deafening noise. His hair whipped about his face, but Wickham was lost in the impregnability of the display, allowing the blast to steadily increase in strength, rebuilding his confidence with the sheer brute force of it. “Aaaah!” he yelled at the top of his lungs before letting his arms lower and the whirlwind subside. “They will rue the day they dared to question my order!”

Rushing up the stairs, he hit the door to his private room with a blast of air, tearing it from its hinges.Then he stilled himself, reverently entering his shrine. Here he might find serenity. Everything he loved—except Ellender D’Arcy—could be found in this room. The sun, the moon, and the stars—three turning gold circles—hung overhead, directly above the moss-covered coffin. A misty cauldron, whispering of time and night and blood, sat in the corner, while an ivy-covered crown of antlers stood in the center of the altar. Candles lighted in veneration highlighted a torque of gold, a symbol of his sacred pledge, while five serpents, embodying the five rivers, slithered among his treasures. “Welcome home,” he whispered to the room. The open coffin spoke of longing, and Wickham moved to it. Stepping within, he laid back against the satin-covered interior. Within moments, he slept deeply—chest Tonight, Darcy.”

“Will this work, Colonel?” Gordy unloaded bundles of white thorn and ash staves. It was high noon, and the Darcys prepared for the evening.

“A dhampir knows how to drive a vampire away, and this is one of the steps.”The colonel placed a stave horizontally across each of the marked and unmarked graves.

Gordy followed Damon’s pattern.“What will them staves do?” he asked, bending over to place the wood carefully on the mounded dirt.

“The soul cannot leave the grave if the stave lies across it.”

“All them creatures be stuck in the ground?”

Damon responded,“Until we decide to let them out.”

“That be somethin’ to see, Colonel.” He picked up another bundle and moved to the other side of the cemetery.

Damon watched as Elizabeth struggled with the large bags of salt and millet. “Gordy, leave those if you would, and go and help the lady. She will explain what she needs for you to do.”

Damon’s newest recruit did what he was told.“Let me be helpin’ ye, Ma’am.” Gordy took the heavy bag from Elizabeth’s arms.

“Oh, bless you, Gordy.” She wiped perspiration from her forehead with her handkerchief.

“Ye jist be tellin’ Gordy what to do, and I be doin’ it. Colonel there tell me to he’p ye.”

Elizabeth looked up to see Damon continuing to place the staves.“I will thank him later. Now, Gordy, if you will follow me, we want to place a stream of salt all around the inside of the graveyard.”

“Seem like a mighty big waste of salt, Ma’am, but I be doin’ what ye ask.” Using a knife, he cut a small hole in the bottom of the bag and walked slowly around the perimeter of the site.

“Make at least two rounds, Gordy. The spirits cannot cross the salt

“Yes, Ma’am.” He continued his slow trek, meticulously filling in the uneven flow.

Darcy came up behind her. “Where shall we place the millet, Elizabeth?”

“Have Peter use a ladle to scoop millet onto both the head and the foot of each grave and in front of the gate of each crypt.”

Darcy smiled at her, squeezing her hand. “Yes, my love.”

They brought in wooden stakes and several bags of coins to hide in a church alcove until they needed them. “Everything is set!” the colonel called out to the group.“Gordy and Peter, you two stay here.We will send food and drink.You are to make sure that no one else enters the cemetery. The three of us will return long before it is time for the confrontation.”

“Yes, Colonel.”

“Gordy,” Darcy asked, “do the villagers understand that they must rebury those we release tonight?”

“I be tellin” em all.We be not understandin’ how ye be doin’ all this, but they come on the morrow. I’se sees to it.”

Darcy, Damon, and Elizabeth returned to the inn. Not wishing to talk about what the night might bring, they took their meal in Darcy’s room, away from curious travelers.They ate in near silence, each one consumed with his or her own thoughts.

Finally, the colonel could take no more.“I believe I shall take to my bed for a few hours. It is likely to be the last rest I will have for some time. If you two will excuse me.” He left with a half bow.

Yet still they remained silent. Finally, Darcy spoke his thoughts. “I wish I had not agreed to this. How can a man place his wife in such danger and still call himself a man?”

“I am not a weak woman, my Husband.You, in fact, taught me to use a sword and to ride,” she protested.

Darcy looked contrite. “I should not have encouraged your behavior.”

“Mr. Darcy, you fell in love with me because I was different, not ton. Did we not settle this earlier?”

Darcy moved to kneel in front of her.“God help me, Elizabeth, I truly do love you, and although I know you to be more capable than many men with whom I am acquainted, I cannot bear to place you in danger.”

“If you worry, remember, Damon will protect me, Sir.”

Darcy felt a pang of jealousy at hearing her refer to his cousin on such intimate terms, but he tried to push it aside. “It is my province to protect my wife.”

“We keep coming back to this sticking point. Damon Fitzwilliam recognizes that I am more than what you see. Maybe it is his experience on the battlefield that allows him to see a person’s true worth; even though you profess to know my worth also, you cling to antiquated ideas. I gave you my heart months ago. May I remind you, my Husband, it is my love for you that brought me here!”

Darcy closed his eyes in submission.“Is there nothing I may say to change your mind?”

Elizabeth gently touched his face in a soft caress. “No, Sir.Your cousin will go tonight, with or without me. I cannot let him do this alone.You must concentrate your efforts on Wickham. Damon deserves some consideration for all he has done for us.” Elizabeth brushed her lips across his. “Now, I will follow your cousin’s example. I intend to take to my bed.Would you join me, my Husband?”

Darcy emitted a deep sigh of resignation. He was not sure he could ever be the type of man Elizabeth needed, but he was sure he could not let her out of his life, so he would try to emulate his cousin’s approach.“Holding you is exquisite, my love. How could I refuse?” Darcy scooped Elizabeth into his arms and carried her to his bed. He reverently lowered her to the pillows, following her down.“Remind me why I should stop the curse,” he murmured as he trailed a line of kisses down Elizabeth’s neck. He hovered over that one spot, which possessed him, sucking gently with his lips and then expelling his breath over it to make her shiver with desire. Her breathing became shallow, and she let her head fall back to give him easier access.Then boldly she slid her hand down his back, and

Darcy and Elizabeth arrived at the church a few hours before midnight. They planned to run through every possible scenario they could anticipate with the colonel.They sent the others away, not wishing to involve innocents in what could potentially be indiscriminate slaughter. It would be difficult enough for the villagers who had already mourned the loss of their loved ones to do so again. Those defeated tonight must be staked and reburied tomorrow.

The colonel looked up from the pew upon which he reclined when the Darcys made an entrance. He had returned several hours earlier to check the security around the church and the gravesites.

Elizabeth’s appearance brought a smile to his face. “Mrs. Darcy, you look fetching,” he teased.

Elizabeth donned the breeches, shirt, and waistcoat Darcy had given her to facilitate their fencing lessons, along with a loose-fitting coat, probably belonging to one of the stable hands. She turned in place and made a deep curtsy, as if dressed for a ball. “Thank you, Colonel, for noticing.”

A bit possessively, Darcy caught her around the waist and pulled her to him.“I was thinking, Cousin, all women should dress as such.”

“Heaven forbid, Darcy! Could you imagine Lady Anne or my mother dressed so? Besides, if we accepted women wearing breeches like a man, what else might we have to accept?”

His good-natured taunt did not offend Elizabeth, as she added her own thoughts.“The right to vote? Control of our own money? An honorable occupation besides being a wife?”

Damon laughed out loud at her disputation. “This is sacrilege, Madam!” he said, feigning ridicule.

Darcy relaxed into the repartee, watching his cousin’s attentions

Suddenly, reality returned. In a short time, they would face the possibility of death.

“Is everything in place, Damon?” Darcy’s arms encircled Elizabeth, needing to feel her closeness for what could be the last time.

“Elizabeth and I will open graves until we defeat each of Wickham’s followers.The salt and the millet will affect their assaults.We have crucifixes and holy water strategically placed throughout the headstones. We will work together to do this. Wickham will have no reinforcements tonight; it will be just the two of you.We have contained the others to this earth. By the way, the priest left you several vials of holy water by the back door of the church. He said you asked for them.”

Darcy signaled an acknowledgment of what his cousin told him.“Have we forgotten anything?” Darcy now thought out loud.

Elizabeth moved away from Darcy’s embrace, placing importance on what she said. “Fitzwilliam, you must use your wits.Wickham hides something in that house. You must find his grave and destroy it, the same way that Damon and I will vanquish those within the cemetery. Without his grave—his coffin—Wickham cannot survive.”

“I understand, Elizabeth.” Darcy seriously listened to her instructions. Damon trusted her knowledge enough to place his life on the line, so Darcy would also.

“Might we share a prayer?”The colonel moved to the front of the church.

“I believe it appropriate.”

The three of them joined hands and bowed their heads. The colonel lowered his voice in worship. “Dear Lord, protect us and guide us in this endeavor. As your humble servants, we pray to release these souls once more into your hands. Allow us to prevail and lead us to do the honorable thing. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.Amen.”

“Amen.” Darcy’s and Elizabeth’s voices echoed in the silence.

They remained locked in a circle of love for several minutes, each resolving to do their best by the other two.

When Darcy raised his head, he turned to embrace his cousin. Privately, he whispered, “Damon, I know I need not say this, for you will understand even without my words, but I charge you to protect Elizabeth and Georgiana if something goes awry.”

“Of course, Darcy.”

“Now, if you will excuse us a moment, I need to speak to Elizabeth.”

The colonel simply saluted cordially and walked away. “I will check the weapons one more time,” he called as he went towards the back of the church.

In semiprivacy, Darcy took Elizabeth in his arms. “You are to be careful, Elizabeth; I cannot live without you. Defeating Wickham would be a sour victory without you by my side.” He brushed Elizabeth’s hair away from her face.“I love you, Elizabeth Bennet Darcy.”

“Then I charge you, Sir, to protect yourself. My happiness depends upon your being my husband.You are not to leave me at twenty years to find my way in this world alone.”

“Are those orders, my love?” he said as he smiled down at her.

Elizabeth traced his lips with her fingertips. “They are, Mr. Darcy, and you need to address your bride’s wishes.”

“Might my bride wish to kiss me?” His voice sounded suddenly less sure.

“Wish to kiss you?” She shook her head.“Need to kiss you.” She went up on her tiptoes as Darcy lowered his head. It was a kiss that bound them to each other—not ravenous—but tender and giving, and, above all, loving. “Godspeed,” she whispered as they parted.

Almost instantly, the colonel returned. “It is time.” He handed Elizabeth a sword as Darcy took up one of his own. “Come, Elizabeth.” The colonel took her hand. “We will see you on the other side, Darcy,” he called as he led her away. Darcy prayed his cousin’s words had no double meaning.

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