by Bella Klaus
Tabby and Gabby, the twins, twerked at his left and right, while Bibi and Gigi clung to his thighs and rapped the lyrics of the hymn.
“Can he see us coming?” I asked.
Captain Caria shook her head. “The bus is warded, but we’re approaching the palace from the back just in case he’s particularly sensitive to magic.”
I nodded. If Kresnik had access to my phoenix, then he might be able to use my ability to detect different types of power.
We parked within one of the courtyards in the complex of buildings and waited for our opportunity to strike.
By the time we sat through Naughty But Nice and You Like it Rude and Crude, followed by a rendition of Amazing Grace, I was ready to ditch the Supernatural Secrecy Act and burn all five of them with my flames.
“Thank you, Bibi, Gigi, Gabby, and Tabby,” Kresnik purred into the microphone. “Let’s have an encore of Rude and Crude before Annie guides us all through an intensive session of meditation and prayer.”
I tilted my head to the side. The last time we saw Annie Chong, she had been in the studio.
“We have twenty minutes to find where Kresnik will take those girls. Thirty if he’s taught himself to last longer.” Hades extracted a curved dagger from his sword belt.
Valentine spread his arms wide. “What makes you think he’s—”
“That last song will give his high priestesses five minutes to prepare themselves to cover for him before he leaves to fuck those wretched sisters.” Hades walked across the bus and waved a hand at the doors, making them hiss open, flooding the bus with the booming bass of You Like it Rude and Crude.
“Are you sure about that?” I asked.
“Trust me.” He rocked forward on his heels and winked. “This is how horny charlatans schedule alone time with their nubile acolytes.”
“You ought to know, Your Majesty,” Captain Caria muttered under her breath as she walked toward the demons at the windows.
Hades shot his daughter a filthy glare, but she was too busy gathering her team to notice.
Valentine and I stepped down into the dimly lit courtyard surrounded by pillared walkways. Our feet sank into a foot of pristine snow, indicating that nobody had been in this space for at least a day.
The vampires and mercenaries streamed out of the exit, each clutching their weapons, followed by Hades’ demon enforcers. I stood at Valentine’s side, and Captain Caria stood by the Demon King as over a hundred warriors gathered around us.
“We can’t assume that we captured every fire user last month, so you must be vigilant,” Valentine said over Gigi’s rap solo. “Kresnik is resourceful and is capable of attracting supporters to his cause.”
“Especially now that he has so many humans under his control that he can offer in payment,” Hades added.
I pulled up the hood of my cloak and exhaled a large gust of condensation-laden air. We had to put an end to this monster tonight before he caused Great Britain any more mayhem.
Valentine cleared his throat. “Exercise extreme caution and assume that every human you encounter has come into contact with fire magic. If they die, they will rise and fight for Kresnik with preternatural strength.”
The warriors exchanged glances. Until Hades had mentioned the ophanim gobbling up the humans who had fallen at the wards, that little fact had also escaped my mind.
“Hemera Griffin,” roared an accented voice from the rooftops.
My heart sank. Who on earth could recognize me in my reaper cloak? The answer was obvious. I glanced around the building for signs of Kresnik, wondering how he’d noticed my arrival when he was supposed to be busy with the Rude Girls.
“Over there.” Valentine pointed at the highest tower.
A dark figure stood with his arms outstretched, backlit against the stage lights from the other side of the building and the moon filtering down through the snow clouds.
I gulped. Even though the grand appearance had Phantom of the Opera-levels of cheesiness, I still hated the thought of being singled out from a crowd.
“You left me for dead.” His voice shook with a roaring fury. “My insides were ash and char, but Our Lord offered me a second chance at life.”
“No,” I whispered.
“Who the fuck is this twit?” asked Hades.
My caped accuser pulled off his cloak, revealing a paler version of a loathsome face I had hoped never to forget.
“Nonaginta-Novem.” He swept down into an elaborate bow. “But you may call me November.”
“A preternatural?” asked Valentine.
“Yes, cousin,” he hissed from up high. “Thanks to your fiery whore, I will spend an eternity out of the sun, reviled by my royal family, and unable to return to New Mesopotamia.”
My throat dried, and I swallowed several times in quick succession. Kresnik must have infiltrated Koffiek the moment he’d discovered that the vampires turned by Valentine’s blood had crumbled to ash.
Everything had happened so quickly the night I resurrected Valentine. November kept threatening to scatter his ashes if I didn’t submit to his demands, which made me sloppy and desperate.
I should have stayed behind to make sure he had burned to ash. I should have separated November’s remains to make sure he never rose. But when I returned to where I’d left Valentine, he was gone.
“There’s only one upside to my new status.” November made what he probably thought was a dramatic pause, but I was too busy wallowing in my mistakes to feel anything but wretched.
“Right.” Hades clapped his hands together. “That was a tedious waste of five minutes. Demons, with me.”
He winked out of existence, leaving Valentine and me alone with the vampires and mercenaries.
November held up his clenched fists and roared. “What I was about to say before I was rudely interrupted was that I will never be alone.” He raised his arms and curled his fingers in a beckoning motion. “With my newfound power, I can create an infinite number of brides. Each of them powerful, nubile, and wholly devoted to their master!”
Dozens of smaller figures in cloaks floated down from the rooftops and settled around the double-decker bus. November drifted down, landing in a ninja crouch.
The preternatural vampire stared up at me and grinned, revealing gleaming white fangs. “Hemera Griffin, prepare to die.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
I pushed my magic into my hands and raised my flaming fists in warning at November’s preternatural brides. Valentine, the mercenaries, the volunteers from Lamia, and I outnumbered the preternaturals, but if they were anything like Valentine had been, none of that would matter.
A thunderstorm of doubt struck through my insides, and my breaths turned shallow. I didn’t have the speed or strength of a supernatural vampire, let alone one of the undead monsters staring at us through crimson eyes. My only hope was that November had turned them from humans and not any of his ancient siblings.
As though through silent communication, the mercenaries and Valentine’s subjects formed a circle around us.
“Cousin.” Valentine’s voice was as sharp as a stake. “Step aside, and nobody will get hurt.”
November hissed. “Lies. If My Lord dies, so do all of us.”
One of November’s so-called brides sucked in a deep breath. I got the impression that this was the first time she’d contemplated her complete and utter dependence on the survival of her sire.
Cold wind swirled around the courtyard, blowing down snow that had gathered on the palace’s rooftops. It was too late to save any of them. In this realm, over a month had passed. Each of the souls would have moved on to their final resting places. Even if I burned them to ashes and resurrected them, they’d rise as mindless as Brother David.
I swallowed hard, wanting to tug at Valentine’s arm and tell him to order everyone to attack. There was no reasoning with a power-hungry idiot like November, who was bent on retaliating against my attempt at self-defense.
Valentine growled. “
I will kill you and all of your companions before I let you get close to my mate.”
November sneered. “You were always overly fond of waifs and strays. Now this one will get you killed. Again.”
“Die!” A large woman flew out of formation, her hands curled into claws.
In the blink of an eye, her head was severed from her shoulders and landed against the side of the double-decker with a hollow thump.
Before I could even flinch, her body fell into the snow.
Some of the vampire brides backed toward the pillars that lined the palace’s external walkways.
“I order you cowardly wenches to fight for your master,” November snarled with a command that he backed up with suffocating magic.
As November swept out an arm and made Valentine stagger back a few steps, someone grabbed me around the neck. I pushed my magic out to my skin, and my eardrums rang with a bloodcurdling scream. The hand released me, and another head landed against the side of the bus, followed by the muffled thud of a body hitting the snow.
“I am a fire user,” I said from between clenched teeth. “If any of you so much as touch me, I will reduce you to ash.”
“She’s bluffing,” said November. “Hemera Griffin hides behind my cousin because she has no magic of her own. Our Lord has the power to resurrect us over and over, making us anew with greater power and strength.”
It took every ounce of effort not to roll my eyes. His brides heard the part of his speech where I burned him, and they’d also seen me hurt the sister wife who had gotten herself killed trying to attack me.
With a greater surge of power, I shifted into an ifrit, and my leather armor retracted into a collar around my neck. One of the preternatural brides whimpered and disappeared from sight.
November raised himself several feet off the ground and snarled down at us with his fangs bared. “I always knew you were an abomination.”
“Just like your so-called Lord.”
“Vampires, form groups and give the victims of my cousin quick and painless beheadings,” Valentine said, his voice toneless.
“Hypocrite,” November snapped. “Less than a month ago, you were just as preternatural as us.”
Valentine raised a hand, indicating for his subjects to wait, and handed Caiman the trident. “Did you remove their hearts and preserve them with magic before they turned?”
November reared back. “Who would take heed of that old wives’ tale?”
“Then they must die,” Valentine said in a voice as heavy as stone.
The vampires rushed toward the preternatural brides in a blur of power and movement that shifted the air and made my head spin. Some of November’s vampires rose into the air, dodging flying missiles.
November’s outraged roar made the snow rise several feet off the ground. He flew through the air, charging at Valentine with his hands outstretched, but Valentine made a jab that had the preternatural somersaulting backward.
“Get on the bus,” Valentine said.
I shook my head. “They can’t hurt me.”
“Perhaps not, but you need to preserve your magic for the real fight.” A dark figure rose from beneath the snow and grabbed Valentine by the neck. They both flew through the air in a rapid spin.
Swallowing hard, I jogged to the bus. My presence here was a distraction.
In the blink of an eye, November appeared in front of me with his arms outstretched. “Where are you going?”
I clenched my teeth and lunged at him with my flaming hands. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
He swept out an arm, raising my feet off the ground and flinging me into the air with his magic. I tumbled several feet across the courtyard, my stomach shriveling with dread.
“Mera!” Valentine’s strong arms wrapped around my middle, and he set me on my feet.
“Don’t touch me.” I pulled my flames back into my body and whirled around, my heart aching at the damage he must have sustained from touching me.
Red burns glowed on his beautiful features, made even more vivid in the double-decker’s headlights. In seconds, they faded around the edges and receded. The panic in Valentine’s eyes vanished, and he held on to my shoulders with his gloved hands.
“Transform.” His fingers tightened around me. “Nobody can truly hurt you as a being of fire.”
“Promise you won’t touch me again when I’m like this,” I said. “Not even with protective armor.”
He gave me a sharp nod and backed away. “Do it now.”
I focused on my wings, my beak, my talons, and pushed out my magic once more. When I shifted, I raised my wings, only to find that I once again had arms.
Valentine nodded and surged into the sky, leaving me in the middle of the courtyard with the soothing voice of Annie Chong reciting a butchered version of the Lord’s Prayer through the speakers.
The flames around my throat stiffened. That was the second time I’d turned into an ifrit without meaning to. Had Kresnik completely stolen my phoenix, or was my body reverting to this form because it was closer to my regular body and easier to attain?
The battle continued around me, with streams of wind and magic slicing through the air as the preternatural vampires fought their supernatural counterparts. Snow melted underfoot, evaporating into clouds of steam with my every step. This time, when I reached the double-decker’s doors, nobody blocked my path.
I turned to the sky, where Valentine and November fought with swords at a speed I could barely follow with my eyes.
“My Lady?” Caiman said from behind. “His Majesty wishes you aboard the bus and safe.”
“Right.”
The butler rapped on the window, and the door folded open with a hiss.
“After you.” He swept out an arm.
I trudged up the steps, not melting or warping anything, and stared out at the battles taking place through the window. The mercenaries Valentine had hired now fought back-to-back in teams of three against black-clad figures.
“More preternaturals?” I murmured.
“I’m afraid so, My Lady,” replied the butler. “At the last count, there were eighty-four, with new arrivals each passing minute.”
The doors of the bus hissed closed, and I arranged the reaper cloak over my body and pulled back my flames. Leather seeped from my collar and wrapped around my form like the caresses of several large hands. I swallowed hard, trying to fight back a flush, and focused on the battle taking place outside the window.
Nobody stayed in place for long enough to see who was winning. Vampires darted about with inhuman speed, and demon mercenaries winked in and out of sight, pausing only to land blows.
Dread wrapped around my insides like a cobra. At this rate, we would miss our opportunity to confront Kresnik. Something the size and weight of a severed head landed against the other side of the bus with a clunk, but there was no telling if it belonged to a preternatural or a supernatural.
I turned to meet Caiman’s kind eyes, my shoulders sagging. “In the month I was away, November could have created thousands.”
“It’s doubtful, My Lady.”
I tore my gaze away from the fight. “Why?”
“Enforcers have always scoured the human media for reports of exsanguinated corpses. I wager that Nonaginta-Novem limited his inner circle to a select few brides and created more upon Kresnik’s request.”
Some of the tension around my chest eased, letting me exhale a long breath. If November had recently created them from humans, then they wouldn’t have amassed the skills needed to best trained fighters.
I turned my attention to the enforcers standing around the computer. “The Demon King said the bus was protected against preternaturals,” I said to a woman whose forehead was bumpy with inch-long protrusions. “What did he mean?”
“His Majesty had us install daylight bulbs,” she said.
My jaw dropped, and I reeled forward. “You’re telling me that you have a weapon that could wipe out every preternatural in
the courtyard, and you haven’t used it?”
Her gaze darted to the side. “No one gave me orders.”
“Turn on the daylight bulbs,” I said through clenched teeth.
“You don’t have the authority.”
Caiman cleared his throat. “As the butler of His Majesty King Valentine, I am authorized to give orders at his behest.”
The enforcer gulped.
“Now.” His gaze dropped to the embroidered name tag on her shoulder. “Corporal Drukor, please employ the daylight bulbs and any other method at your disposal for countering the power of preternatural vampires.”
“Yes, sir,” she whispered.
“Now.” Caiman accompanied his request with a flare of power that felt like a noose.
My flames shuddered. I was so glad the butler approved of me as Valentine’s mate. Having the disapproval of someone so powerful would make my life more than uncomfortable.
Corporal Drukor turned to her monitor and tapped out a few commands. Blue light streamed from the bus’s exterior and filled the air with high-pitched screeches.
I curled my hands into fists. “Yes!”
Caiman placed a hand over his chest and exhaled a long breath. “Your quick thinking saved us time and casualties, My Lady.”
“Thanks.” I turned to the window, where several of Valentine’s vampires were brushing dust off their armor.
The doors hissed open, and the strains of Annie Chong’s prayer music entered the bus. I was about to step out into the courtyard when Valentine appeared at the foot of the stairs.
“Excellent work with the daylight simulation,” he said.
“Did it get November?” I asked.
Valentine nodded. “And nearly a hundred others, but we can’t assume Nonaginta-Novem is Kresnik’s only master vampire.”
Dread rolled in my belly at the thought of there being multiple turned vampires out there, creating more and more preternaturals until the situation got out of control. I placed an arm around my middle and tried to focus on the upcoming battle with Kresnik.