Daizlei Academy Omnibus Collection

by Kel Carpenter

  “I know,” she said, her eyes scanning the balconies and the vendors as she wove through the crowd without paying it much mind. Like the rest of us, her blonde hair had been tucked away from watching eyes. “But I don’t like it,” she continued. “We’re too out in the open and after the last few times we left the residence . . .”

  She let her voice trail off, but she didn’t need to say more for me to get the gist and agree with her. Every time we left the residence people died. This time we didn’t even have Alec to disguise us. Given that his presence did nothing but aggravate Blair’s demon more, and the connection with Anastasia as her ex-right hand, everyone thought it best to leave him home with Scarlett and Liam. While his arm was on the mend, he still wasn’t in any real shape to fight just yet. Then there was the matter of Lucas’s record at attempted escapes, so someone had to be left in charge. Scarlett’s ability to hold a grudge made her the best one for the job since Johanna and I were needed for this.

  Still . . . them not being here left us all at a disadvantage.

  A cloud passed overhead, giving sweet relief from the burning heat. I wiped the sweat from my brow and took a passing glance over the crowd. A prickle up the back of my neck told me to be vigilant. This was a surprise mission, but that didn’t mean our enemies weren’t here watching.

  Wind whipped through the street and my head scarf blew back, slipping from my shoulders into the open air. It soared twenty feet high, the dark blue material twisting and twining.

  Then it happened.

  One moment I was staring at the floating blue fabric and the next a sense of dread curdled in my stomach. It came out of nowhere and filled me so fully.

  In the past, I’d felt it and bad things followed. But now I knew what it was.

  “Something is coming,” Valda said softly. My demon bristled, going on the defense to protect us. I looked every which way, sensing eyes but not seeing faces.

  The crowd thickened. The scent of overripe fruit filled the air, sickly and rotten. My stomach churned because I knew. Something wasn’t coming.

  The undead were already here.

  I reached out and grabbed Blair’s hand, my fingers tightening in an unshakable grip.

  Blair took one look at my face and her eyes turned black.

  “Stay with me,” I commanded her demon.

  “What’s going on?” Tori asked loudly, attempting to weave her way through the crowd. A hush settled over the bazaar for a suspended moment in time. My heart thundered in my chest.

  “They’re here,” Blair’s demon hissed.

  Up ahead of us a commotion broke out in the street, and with the shifting of the wind, all hell broke loose.

  Cloaked figures dropped from the balconies into the street with an unnatural grace. With so many people around us I had no way of knowing how many were dead or alive, and if this escalated it wasn’t going to matter.

  With three demons in play, any one of us could level the market and ignite a war.

  “Stay together!” Xellos called out. I clung to Blair and hoped that everyone else had the good sense to do the same. Her demon took one look at me, silently seething but not struggling.

  “If we are attacked you do not stop me,” she said, making her only demand clear.

  I nodded once, and she gripped my hand in turn, her demonic strength almost equal to that of mine. I let my own demon come forward, and we ran.

  The wind picked up as the screaming started.

  Men and women and children ducked and scattered like roaches. There were no explosions. No gunfire. No sounds that would cause mass panic to ensue, but the bloodsucking monsters that ripped through the crowd didn’t need noise to make their entrance known.

  Blood ran in the streets and it was all red.

  I swallowed hard, ignoring the crimson tide that soaked the compact dirt beneath my boots. The scent of copper filled the air, and my stomach turned as Lily’s own thoughts describing it as sweet wine flitted through.

  Was she here now? With them?

  I didn’t think so, but I wondered.

  Panic wrapped around my chest and squeezed, making my heartbeat race. Adrenaline filled me and the air thickened with power.

  “This way!” Xellos yelled as he turned down an alley with Oliver in tow. A shield surrounded them that kept any Vampires or humans at bay if they passed too close, clearing the way for the rest of us.

  I shot forward to clear the gap in the crowd and stopped just as quickly. Pain flared in my shoulder where my arm connected to the rest of me. I turned, following my hand back to Blair who stood still as could be.

  I quickly looked her up and down, but she hadn’t been attacked or harmed. Neither was she trying to escape my grip.

  My eyes slid past her to Johanna and Alexandra who were each dispatching several Made. Tori was handling her own fight one-on-one beside them. I frowned. Where was . . .

  My heart dropped into my stomach as a hundred yards back a swarm of persons was closing in. While I couldn’t see any of their faces, I could see their backs.

  “Where’s Amber?” Tori yelled, stabbing the bloodsucker in the heart. “Amber? Aaron? Where are—” She turned, and even beneath the splatter of black blood on her face, her tan skin visibly paled at the horde that had closed in around Amber and Ash.

  A roar filled the marketplace as sheer energy shot down the bond. The embers of rage in my chest grew out of proportion as an inferno ignited.

  “Get to Xellos, Tori,” I said.

  “But I can teleport into—”

  “No,” Blair’s demon said coldly, cutting her off. “There’s too many.”

  “But-but—” Tori spluttered. “We can’t leave them.”

  “No one said anything about leaving them,” I answered. My fingers slipped from Blair’s, and her demon took one look at me. My eyes slid from the crowd to her.

  “They will die if we do not do something,” the demon said.

  “No one is dying today,” I whispered back.

  Power flooded my system as my demon came forward. The world flashed between black and white as the valve on my ability opened. I took three steps toward them and lifted my hands.

  Less than a month ago, I told my sister when I lifted my hands people died.

  I told her that I was destruction.

  And then I hid from it.

  All my life I shied away from my power because of its might. I shied away from my demon because of her savageness. I shied away from myself, becoming a husk of the girl I was meant to be.

  But power does not make you evil.

  It’s what you choose to do with it that does.

  I lifted my hands, and I let go.

  Morocco trembled.

  Chapter 152

  Magic lanced through the air.

  Tendrils of black and purple took form as my raw strength rose up and I did not stifle it. I didn’t hide from it. I did not shy away.

  I channeled it.

  “Last time I gave you a message.” The words came from my mouth in a cold, calloused voice. I didn’t scream or shout. There was no need. “Your master didn’t heed my warning then, but he will now.”

  There was a flare of panic that shot through the bond in my chest, but it didn’t matter. My demon had already made her mind up, and I agreed.

  It was time to send them a different kind of message.

  I would not explode their heads in a shower of blood and bone. I would not leave bodies to find.

  Victor wanted to know if I’d finally become a matter manipulator. I planned to send him an answer.

  And in the blink of an eye the horde crumbled.

  It started as black cracks in their skin that would not heal.

  Then the fear set in. The frenzy.

  They turned from Ash and Amber, but with each step toward me the cracks spread. Their skin grew hard. Brittle. Breakable.

  The red of their eyes was the last thing I saw before they disintegrated. Blackened dust plumed in a cloud that drif
ted through the bazaar. Where they’d been standing, only the scent of sickly-sweet rot remained.

  My demon took in the scene before us, and knowing the job was done—she retreated.

  I held my hands out, calling the power back to me, and it came readily. It slipped beneath my skin and settled inside me, lighting me up from within. Shadows of violet and obsidian danced under my skin as I contained it once more, slowly closing the valve on my power as it drained away.

  Bone-deep exhaustion overtook me, but I remained upright. It wasn’t unleashing the power that caused me to break out in a cold sweat, nor was using my ability. It was confining it and bringing it to heel that sapped my strength like nothing else. I stifled a yawn as my eyelids weighed heavy on me.

  The bazaar was silent as the grave I’d made it.

  Dust and death surrounded me.

  Became me.

  And as the weight of what I’d done settled over me, it was Ash’s face that held me here. He didn‘t look at me like a monster. He didn’t stare on with pity. He kept me grounded because he understood me. Why I did it and why I would again.

  Slowly he rose to his feet, Amber by his side.

  Her expression was shuttered, as if she couldn’t believe what she’d seen. I didn’t have to look to know that the others behind me likely shared her awe . . . and her fear. They’d known for a while now that I was a matter manipulator. They’d seen the levels of devastation I could create. But they didn‘t know how pure or how powerful my ability truly was.

  I could make something from nothing.

  Or turn something into nothing.

  It was a terrible power to behold, but it was a burden that I bore so that when the world was remade, I could do it. I could be whatever I needed to be—and with Ash, I wouldn’t lose myself along the way.

  “It is done.” I whispered those words over the market, and I could have sworn that somewhere out there, a presence was watching. Not one that was of this earth, but something older, something . . . god-like. It was almost as if the board had been set for a thousand years and the final piece put into motion.

  The world would change because of it.

  “We need to get out of here,” Alexandra said from behind me, her voice firm. “Who knows what else could be lurking . . .” I didn’t disagree.

  Amber shook her head, as if clearing away the image she just saw. Still, her eyes lingered on the dust at her feet. Her lips pinched together as she and Ash strode forward.

  They started past me and then paused. Warm fingers grazed my cheek as Ash put a knuckle under my chin to turn my head. His lips pressed against my temple, filling me with heat. It wasn’t combustible as a firework, but comforting like candlelight. One of these exploded and fizzled in seconds. The other burned through the night, steady and sure as the sun did rise. His warmth spread through my limbs and pulled me from my own disoriented state.

  “You did what you had to do. Thank you.”

  He didn’t need to say it, but his words helped me all the same. I turned away from the market and toward my friends. My family.

  Blair’s demon stared on, her expression unfathomable as she repeated his words to me in a cold, chilling tone.

  “You did what you had to do.”

  And then Alexandra said it.

  Johanna said it.

  Tori said it.

  Oliver said it.

  Amber said it.

  With their words, something solidified in me. The pieces that were so slowly beginning to break, reformed—harder than ever. I nodded once to them and continued forward without a single look back at the mess I’d left behind.

  There were going to be consequences for this.

  I was ready for them. We all were.

  The market was silent apart from the sound of racing hearts and windy streets. We grouped together, closer than before as we traversed the decrepit alleyways and came to a stop before a three-story red-walled building. If you could even really call it that. The outside was covered in clay, and there were no windows or doors. Only holes that opened up to the outside, covered by swatches of fabric that had been tied together.

  Xellos swept an arm out and motioned for us to enter.

  It was cramped inside, but clean, relatively speaking. Bits of sand had blown past the ragtag door and window covers, but given the only thing in the room was a group of circular pillows and a bowl of rocks, it wasn’t exactly an issue.

  “What do we do now?” Tori asked.

  “We wait,” Xellos said. “Take a seat. It’s going to be a hot afternoon.” If I hadn’t been so exhausted, I might have argued or asked why we were waiting. As it was, I bent my knees and tilted back, letting gravity drag me down. I landed in a cloud of sand and dirt, but at least the cushion was soft.

  Slowly, everyone took a seat. Everyone but Blair; she stood by the door. One eye on our group, the other on the market.

  “We don’t know that the danger has passed,” her demon said, shifting restlessly.

  “No one is going to attack us again, at least not today,” I said with a heavy sigh. A slight frown graced her lips, and I continued. “Not after what I just did.”

  It wasn’t completely true. There was one person that might.

  I kept that to myself.

  “She’s right,” Johanna said. “When it is not even a real fight, the bloodsuckers will scuttle back to their masters and report what they’ve seen.” She flicked her long braid over her shoulder, leaning into Oliver, who was very pointedly not looking at me. “What you have done is a blessing and a curse.”

  “And why is that?” I asked. I’d known for years that my power was two-sided. That you could not hold such brutal strength without paying the cost of it. I wasn’t sure which way she would have interpreted it, and my curiosity was piqued.

  “You have shown the world what you are, and that you can handle the war that’s coming.” Her eyes brightened for a moment, the golden hue becoming as otherworldly as that presence I felt in the market. “But your mere existence breaks the balance. You hold the mother’s presence and cling to your own neutrality, but you are not as we are. They will see that.”

  “Who?” I asked.

  “The Witches,” Johanna said.

  I looked away, licking my chapped lips once. What’s done is done. I couldn’t afford to harbor on whether what I did was the right or wrong decision. People were going to die. My signasti was going to die. Someone had to make a decision, and I did.

  “What’s done is done,” Xellos said, as if reading my thoughts. “We can’t predict what the Witches will do. For now you should sleep while you still can.”

  Johanna’s words unsettled me more than I let on as I settled back. Despite my exhaustion, sleep didn’t come easy. The adrenaline rush left me drained of awareness, but the buzzing pain in my temple kept me alert.

  Darkness never closed in.

  The world never faded.

  I blinked, and it was not the red-clay ceiling I saw.

  It was blood.

  And it was everywhere.

  Chapter 153

  I ripped his heart out and tossed it aside. Blood ran down my arm and dripped from my fingertips. Lifting a hand, I licked up the smooth surface of my skin and then smiled cruelly. Five undead bodies. Five dead Vampires.

  They were all Made, and while someone might have come after me for it before—no one would even look my way now.

  Victor had made me all but untouchable. Invincible. Free.

  Almost.

  A dark energy hummed in my veins. I was close, so close to breaking the barrier. Just a few more . . .

  “Flower?” a curious, inquisitive voice asked. There were no footsteps, but I knew when he stood behind me regardless. “I sent for you in my suite ten minutes ago.”

  I wanted to roll my eyes at the man that commanded me like a dog on a leash. Perhaps I was, for now. That ancient essence inside of me stroked the darkness. Soothed it. Soon . . .

  Without bodily tells to give me
away, Victor was never smarter than any of these other fools in the fief. In many ways, his infatuation made him even more blind.

  More pliant.

  I turned my back on the already decaying bodies to give him my full attention. He liked that. It made him feel important. Like my entire world revolved around him. In a way, it did, just not the way he thought.

  “I would give my apologies, but regardless of reason, tardiness is unacceptable,” I said by force of habit. “I accept whatever punishment you wish me to have.” Never mind that I’d laid this trap, knowing he would come looking. Knowing what he would find.

  “Lily . . .” he whispered softly. Dark silver eyes swept over my form, checking the spots where blood soaked my clothes thoroughly. “I am not angry with you. I want to know why these Made are dead. What crimes did they commit?”

  I would have smiled could I have gotten away with it. He assumed that they did something to bring out my viciousness. There were any number of things I could have said that would have caused him to dismiss their deaths and my appearance without another thought.

  Any number of reasons I could give that end with me being led back to his suite and some other nameless, faceless Made left to clean up my mess.

  I was so close, though . . . I just needed more blood. More power.

  And I had just the way to get it.

  “They attacked me.” I looked down at my ripped shirt and the lacy white bra that was stained black and was on full display. A trickle of blood ran down my cleavage, what little of it I had. “It seems that some Born do not like that I am your mistress. They think it gives other Made . . . ideas.”

  A flash of fury crossed his features before he masked it. Cold fingers grasped my hip, pulling me forward and covering my exposed front from anyone that might wander down the wrong hall. “They touched you,” he said softly, a madness creeping into his voice.

  I reached up with one bloodied hand and cupped his cheek. “I didn’t let them,” I said softly. “The only thing that I allowed to touch me was their blood. No one disrespects you like that.”

  He stared at me intently for a full minute before reaching his other hand up to grasp my wrist. He turned his cheek and kissed my palm. “So perfect . . .” he murmured. Victor’s upper lip pulled back just enough that his fangs could graze my skin.