“What’s your point?”
“When we finally managed to open the vault, we found the Scaig Box alongside a host of artifacts. Ones belonging to both vampires and wizards. It appears your grandfather used the Pact to steal them. I care not for the wizards’ grievances—that is for them to sort out. But he stole from me. Did you know the earliest vampires were shadow fiends? Only a precious handful remain, and your grandfather took one for himself, the thief.”
From the darkness above, the shadow fiend smacked its lips.
“So yes, Mr. Croft,” Arnaud said, swooping in close, “my point is that your grandfather violated the Pact first, effectively dissolving it.”
I kept moving, trying not to allow Arnaud’s words to challenge my concentration. But the things he was saying … The vampire had no reason to deceive me now, unless it was to incite confusion and dismay, to fill the vault with more of my stress hormones. But I had felt Grandpa’s magic on the Scaig Box. And if Grandpa was as powerful as he seemed, he could easily have cast a projection spell to make it seem as though he were at the bar, drinking for hours, while, in fact, he was down inside the vault, checking on the artifacts.
But why?
“I’m not my grandfather,” I said defiantly.
“Of course not, Mr. Croft,” Arnaud agreed. “If you were even a tenth of the man, you would not be in this precarious position. But that’s neither here nor there. The penalty for violating the Pact is death, and since your grandfather is no longer among us, that penalty defaults to his descendants. Or descendant in this case. Be grateful you didn’t sire children.”
I was at the back of the vault now, moving past the altar.
Almost ready…
“One final thing,” Arnaud said, his voice tightening. “You called me a liar, but remember this. Every mistruth, every furtive act, was in accordance with seeing justice through.”
“How noble,” I scoffed. “You just left out the part about using me to take over the city.”
“I merely saw an opportunity. And opportunities are my livelihood.”
I nodded to myself. Everything was in place.
“Cerrare,” I called.
Across the vault, the door rang with the power of the Word. The glow it cast outlined Arnaud and the fiend in a wavering blue light. Arnaud snapped his head toward the door and back to me. His blood-masked face remained placid, but I sensed surprise beyond his eyes.
“Perhaps you’re more resourceful than I’ve given you credit for.” His voice, though cutting, was slightly off. “You’ve tapped into some reserve of power, I see. But why seal yourself inside?”
I felt his talons plunge deeper into my thoughts. Or rather, what he believed to be my thoughts. In addition to restoring my magic, Caroline had cast a mental glamour: a mirage of my thoughts—in this case random jags of confusion and terror where none existed.
“The locking spell?” I replied evenly. “Oh, that’s to keep anyone from coming to help you.”
He stopped digging, eyes narrowing in on mine.
I grinned and shouted, “Balaur!”
Blue light crackled around the coin pendant over my chest and shot a bright beam at Arnaud. The power of the Pact was not only present in the pendant, but just as potent. With an ear-splitting scream, the fiend sliced in front of Arnaud, absorbing the beam into the shadow of its body. The fiend staggered to the floor, smoke rising from its twisting wings.
“That bit about not giving you enough credit…” Arnaud said from behind me.
I wheeled, but he had already pulled the necklace over my head.
“…I take it back.”
I lunged for the coin pendant. Arnaud smashed me in the jaw with a backhand. The vault whorled and dove as the sting of copper filled my mouth.
“Were you really trying to bait me into that clumsy trap?” he asked. “I don’t know whether to feel flattered or insulted.”
Another fist smashed me in the right temple, dropping me to my knees.
I pawed toward Arnaud, but the recovered fiend grasped me from behind. Though a shadow, the fiend was far from immaterial. The talons of one hand gripped my gut while the other hand clamped my mouth so I couldn’t cast. As its foul, bristling wings wrapped me around, I felt the jagged fangs of its underbite nestle into the shelf at the base of my skull.
“A moment,” Arnaud said, pacing to the center of the vault where he could face me.
I stared back at him, eyes pleading.
“I was prepared to make your death quick, Mr. Croft. A reward for your service, naively given, though it was.” He twirled the necklace around a finger. “But since you insist on being a petulant little bastard, I am going to allow the fiend to savor you while I watch. Perhaps it will help resolve some of the anger I’ve accrued toward your grandfather these past years.”
He wasn’t a thief, I thought so Arnaud could hear.
“No?” he answered. “The evidence suggests otherwise.”
The fiend ran its sharp tongue against the back of my head, leaving a burning trail of saliva. I grunted in pain but held still for fear that the slightest stimulus would send the fangs into my skull.
You don’t know what my grandfather’s intentions were, I thought. No one does.
“And never will, Mr. Croft. This closes the case as far as I’m concerned.” Arnaud raised his eyes to the fiend.
He helped you, goddammit!
“And deceived me. I do not suffer betrayal lightly.”
He gave the necklace another twirl and caught the coin pendant in his hand. As he stroked the symbol with a finger, I remembered the night Grandpa had appeared the necklace from his sleeve.
The necklace is an heirloom, he’d said. It is meant to protect.
Thank you, I’d replied. But protect against what?
Instead of answering, Grandpa had taken the necklace by the chain and placed it around my neck, the heavy coin settling over my sternum, where I could feel its deep, tidal energy.
Wear it in the city, he’d said, under your shirt.
“Oh, does this have sentimental value for you, Mr. Croft?” Arnaud asked in a teasing voice.
I raised my eyes to his. You don’t deserve to be in the same room with it, much less touching it.
The vampire cocked an eyebrow and placed the necklace around his armored neck. “I don’t know, Mr. Croft. I think it rather suits me.” He turned from side to side, the coin sliding over metal plating. “Perhaps it will become my sentimental piece, something to remember the end of the Croft line.”
He watched my eyes for my reaction.
I’d been keeping a silent countdown in my head. Things had moved more quickly than I’d planned, but through a series of challenges and subtle suggestions, I’d gotten Arnaud to don the necklace. Underneath the shadow fiend’s hand, my mashed lips twisted into a smile.
Checkmate, you arrogant son of a bitch.
Arnaud’s mouth straightened. “How dare you—”
The shield I’d built around the coin fractured. Amassed energy detonated in a nova of blinding white light, swallowing Arnaud. The explosion cannoned the fiend and me backwards. As we smashed through the wooden altar, I felt the fiend’s fangs clench, only to break into smoke.
Where Arnaud had been stood an afterimage, a formidable vampire one moment, a decimation of atoms the next. Blown apart by the power of the Pact. The vampire’s scream rang around the vault for several seconds, a shrill, fading echo. Beneath the pain, I heard raw rage. The wrath of a creature who had won centuries’ worth of battles only to lose the final war—and in the time it took to understand he’d been outwitted by a mortal.
Pushing myself to my feet, I coughed out a weak laugh. “Not bad for a petulant little bastard.”
In the center of the vault, Grandpa’s coin pendant rattled to a rest.
33
“So let’s see if we can break this down for everyone,” Courtney said. “You were acting as a double double agent?”
“Well, it’s sor
t of complicated,” I stammered.
I had sworn off press conferences, but Mayor Lowder argued this wouldn’t be a press conference, but a relaxed interview. “You want your life back, don’t you?” he’d asked. He had me there. After the NYPD had extracted me from the ruins of downtown, I had spent the next two weeks in hiding until City Hall could leak the “actual” account of my involvement. “Anyway,” Budge said, “I gave Courtney over at TV 20 first rights to your story.” I wondered if that had anything to do with Budge being a bachelor again and Courtney being gorgeous.
“‘Complicated’ is an understatement,” the blond anchor said with a small laugh. “You had everyone fooled.”
A tide of assenting murmurs went up. I glanced around. While the interview was relaxed in the sense I was wearing jeans, Budge failed to mention it would be held in front of a packed auditorium at City Hall.
I swallowed. “Yeah, I guess so.”
“The simple answer is this,” Budge cut in. “I knew the vampires were planning something, but I didn’t know what. So I had Everson here infiltrate their ranks. And when the vampires attacked, guess who was on the inside?” Budge slapped my knee. “My good old secret weapon.”
“Five vampires destroyed, including Arnaud Thorne,” Courtney cited. “Two captured…”
Leaderless, and their blood slaves decimated, two of the remaining vampires had fled while two others surrendered to the NYPD. At my suggestion, the vampires were bolted inside steel coffins and their slaves imprisoned in a reinforced shipping container until the city could figure out what to do with them. A short ethics debate followed. In the end, the vampires were executed by cremation in order to restore their blood slaves to mortality. Those young enough to survive the transformation went into immediate counseling.
“All thanks to Everson’s fine job,” Budge said.
“So, the Central Park campaign…?” Courtney asked.
“Mistakes were made,” Budge cut in, “but the buck stops with me and no one else. Especially not Everson here, who risked his life trying to get the other officers out of the park that night.”
Courtney smiled and tilted her head in approval.
“And we learned from that experience,” Budge went on. “The fight was better waged from the air, which is what we did. The city’s had to deal with a lot of smoke these past several days—and I do apologize for that—but Central Park is officially clear now. The monsters that once terrorized the woods and meadows are now the ashes from which a new, improved park will rise.”
“And to that end, I understand you’ll be announcing a jobs program soon?”
Budge’s embarrassed laugh sounded like part of a script he and Courtney had worked out beforehand. “You’re preempting me a little here, but yeah. With Central Park and the downtown in need of rebuilding, we’re allotting a portion of the federal package to put New Yorkers back to work. There are going to be a ton of new jobs.” He turned toward the crowd. “That is, if you would do me the honor this fall of allowing me to serve a second term.”
“That seems in little doubt now,” Courtney said above the whoops and applause.
Budge waved his hand modestly, but Courtney was right. The death of Budge’s wife coupled with his victory over the vampires had vaulted him to a twelve-point lead in the latest poll. The jobs program would only build on that. I had to hand it to him and Caroline. They had conducted a near-flawless campaign, he for the mayorship, she for the fae portal.
Courtney returned to me. “And will you have a role in the second administration?”
“I’m planning a little time off, actually,” I said. “There are some things I need to take care of.”
“I hear you’ll have a new title at Midtown College when you return.”
“That’s true.” I couldn’t help but smile. “Tenured professor. I received the news this week.”
“Well, congratulations,” Courtney said as more applause rose up.
I nodded and gave the same modest wave as the mayor. I wasn’t there when Chairman Cowper announced my tenure to the rest of the faculty, but I was told Professor Snodgrass went into a convulsion that locked his entire body. He was carried out on a stretcher, one of his heeled shoes protruding from his mouth to prevent him from biting through his tongue.
I had his secretary retrieve my cane from his office.
“And the honorariums don’t end there,” Courtney said with a sly smile. “Mayor?”
I turned toward Budge with more than a stab of dread. Okay, what’s going on?
“As mayor of New York,” he proclaimed reaching inside his jacket and withdrawing an oblong black case, “I hereby present Everson Croft with our city’s highest honor.” When he opened the case, a ceremonial key to the city glittered for everyone to see. “May you remain a trusted friend.”
A fresh storm of applause rolled in as cameras flashed and audience members stood from their seats. Budge signaled for me to stand as well. He seized my right hand and held the open case between us.
“You’re one lucky bastard,” he said through his enormous smile. “City was ready to rip you to shreds. Press had practically written your obituary.”
“No shit,” I replied through my own fixed smile. “Thanks for bringing me back to life.”
“Thank Caroline. Hell of a body count you left down there.”
“Wasn’t all me,” I said. “But I am sorry about the wolves.”
“Ehh, I never much cared for them. Wife excluded, of course.”
“About that…” I started to say, but he gave my hand a harder squeeze.
Following the photo op, the interview turned into a campaign platform for Budge, which was fine by me. Among other things, he announced a wave of hirings in government security—the werewolves’ former domain—trimming New York’s unemployment rate by a half point. I sat back and studied the key, wondering how long the good will would last. New York had a short attention span and an even shorter memory.
When the interview concluded, Courtney, Budge, and I stood and shook hands. While the audience filed out and the camera crew packed it in, Budge pulled me aside.
“Listen,” he said in a lowered voice, “you don’t need to apologize about my wife. I was there last spring. I saw what happened. Heat of battle, and all that.” He snuffed out a laugh. “She was a helluva fighter, though, huh? I wanted her to pull through, I did, but … The damned thing of it is, if she’d lived to know you finished off Arnaud, she’d have forgiven you everything.”
“Really?”
“Hey, I know my Penny.” He smiled sadly before changing the subject. “Do you know how long you’re gonna be away?”
“I don’t,” I said, thinking about the Order, blood magic, my mother…
“Well, be sure to check in when you get back. I could use you around here for my second term.”
As he gave my hand a final solid shake, it struck me that from our meeting in the warehouse until now, a few attempts at coercion aside, Budge had shot pretty straight with me.
“Will do,” I said.
I watched him walk to the wing of the stage, where Angelus and Caroline were waiting for him. Caroline glanced past his shoulder. When our gazes met, her face showed recognition but nothing deeper. Per her arrangement, her feelings for me had vanished. Poof.
I raised a hand anyway. She responded with a nod before turning and disappearing with her husband and the mayor.
I stared after her for several seconds.
You didn’t have a choice, I reminded myself. Neither of you did.
And the truth was she was becoming more and more fae by the day. Her sacrifice to help me had only sped her departure from my world. I thought about our final moments in Columbus Park, her awesome power riffling through the conduit that connected Ed back to me, restoring my mind, my magic. I would have had to let her go eventually. The knowledge didn’t make it hurt any less, though. I blinked and rubbed the heels of my palms across my eyes.
“There he is.”
/> I gave myself another moment before turning. I spotted Vega limping up the steps to the stage, her son clinging to her trailing hand. She flashed a smile when she saw me walking over.
“Somebody’s been dying to meet you,” she said to me.
When my brow wrinkled in question she cocked her head down at her son.
“Oh, yeah?” I lowered myself to a knee and extended a hand. “Tony, right?”
The one time I’d seen him had been after Arnaud’s slaves had returned him to Vega. He’d probably been too shocked to remember me then, and I was frankly surprised Vega was introducing him to me now. I guess blowing up the vampire responsible for his kidnapping had boosted my stock in Vega’s portfolio. I smiled when the six-year-old boy edged further behind her braced leg.
“Go on,” Vega said to him. “Shake the man’s hand.”
Eyes fixed on Grandpa’s ring, which I’d recovered from a vault in Arnaud’s office, Tony stretched an arm forward and clasped my fingers.
“He’s been talking about you ever since the story broke,” Vega said. “Thinks you’re a superhero.”
I shook his warm hand and stood again. “What, and you don’t?”
“Well, you’ve got more lives than anyone I’ve ever met. I’ll give you that.”
“You’re partly to blame this time,” I pointed out.
“And you managed to make me not regret it.”
We both smiled and looked over at Tony, who had picked up my cane from the chair I’d been sitting in for the interview.
“It’s all right,” I said before she could tell her son to leave it alone. “It’s safe. He won’t be able to open it.” For several seconds, we watched him cane-fight an imaginary foe.
“So what’s this about you taking time off?” she asked.
I reflected on the past several weeks. In one form or another, I’d been involved with clearing the ghouls from the subway lines, the goblins from Central Park, not to mention decimating the city’s werewolf and vampire populations. And that was on top of learning about the dark mage. “I haven’t earned it?” I teased Vega. “Nah, it’s just some personal time.”
The Prof Croft Series: Books 0-4 (Prof Croft Box Sets Book 1) Page 75