Free The Devil & Lillian Holmes by Ciar Cullen Page B

with Kitty. Now, speaking of angry women, I have to gather up mine and sweep her off to New York. If I don’t come back, you’ll know it didn’t go well with Sullivan.”
    “You were always well-liked, Phillip,” George had promised. “He’ll hear you out at least. I know he’d slam the door in my face. Seems that everyone feels that way these days.”
    “Oh, blazes, George. You’re picking a sorry time for one of your fits of self-pity. Let it go, and visit Lillian in the morning. You forget what it is to be newborn, to wrestle with all those annoying deep thoughts that inevitably arise. And buy her something pretty. Women like pretty things in my experience.”
    “Buy her something? She lacks for nothing.”
    “Oh, if we get through this horrid adventure you’ll need a long talk with my Kitty. Your courtship manners are sorely lacking.”
    “I’m not courting her,” George had snapped. “I’m her maker.”
    “That may be the problem. Take it from another of your children. Now leave me to my packing.”
    “Release her?” George had guessed at his brother’s meaning. “Release her from our bond? She’s not ready! She wasn’t even making sense today. Phillip, I think she may be taking her medicines again. I pray not, but…”
    Phillip looked up. “When will she be ready? When is anyone? Is she the one who is not ready, or do you wish to hold her close no matter the consequences? You have power over an obstinate, eccentric woman that a normal man wouldn’t. Surely you see that. The sooner you can release that bond, the better.”
    She is not ready, George knew. But Phillip was. How many times had he come close to releasing his brother’s bond only to pull back in fear that they’d never speak again? How many tests would Phillip have to pass before being granted the dignity he so assuredly deserved?
    He does not even fight me over it, George thought. He thinks me afraid. How could his brother be so generous? How could George himself be such a coward?
    Sitting on Lillian’s roof, George wondered what pretty thing she might like and tried to put his brother out of his mind. Buy her something? A new pistol? Another book on poisons? She needs new goggles. But Phillip had said something pretty, and he had no idea what that meant to Lillian.
    He’d done his best nonetheless. He already had something to give to her.
    “Feckless idiot,” he murmured aloud in the tone his mother had so often used to say the same. Then he quieted when he heard a rustling in the yard.
    He crept to the back edge of the property to see his Lil, dressed like a boy, mounting a contraption and walking it toward the street. He knew he should call out to her, be honest with her about his presence, but curiosity won. Did she go to meet another? Is that what the driver had been about, arranging a tryst? His blood boiled at the thought. And she was putting herself at risk, going out alone at night!
    Stupid George, she’s a vampire. Only another vampire can harm her. And if it’s Marie de Bourbon, what will you do but join Lil and die?
    She was probably just hungry. But she liked flying so very much and was so much better at it than him. Why would she ride that motorcycle?
    George wondered what else he didn’t know about Lillian—a million things, probably—as he trailed her from above. He wanted to know all those things, but would he ever get the chance to learn? How arrogant it had been to take her for granted, how perfectly like him. He’d made her, and in truth owned her. That’s how he thought. But this was not a woman to be owned, cajoled, guided, or bribed. Everyone in her life had robbed her of power, and he had been doing the same. No wonder her resentment built.
    Lillian rode north, away from the harbor, at a dizzying speed. What was so urgent? And why hadn’t she confided in him? He leapt from building to building until rooftops became so sparse that he was forced into the true flights he could maintain for only