“Time for what?” I asked again.
Emily pouted, her grey eyes full of disappointment. “You haven’t even figured that part out yet. Well, I am disappointed.”
“Cut the games,” Alex interjected. “We’ve had about enough of them to last us all several lifetimes.”
Emily folded her arms over her chest and shot Alex an appraising look. “I’m going to enjoy reading your entrails,” she said with the same ease as ‘let’s have tea.’ Or, ‘thanks for the book.’
Alex snorted his derision, but the woman standing in the centre aisle continued with her inscrutable gaze.
“What are we missing?” Direct seemed like the best approach, especially for someone who seemed to be utterly void of all human feeling.
“Carmine wants you to attend the ball tomorrow night,” she said, seeming to ignore my question entirely. “You’re to be the guest of honour.” Her phone dinged and Emily glanced down at the screen again.
“Why not tonight?” I interrupted.
Emily tutted before letting her hands drop to her sides with a long-suffering sigh. “I told you, it’s not time.” Her phone dinged once more and again her attention was drawn back to the screen.
“I’ve had enough of this…”
I reached out to stop Alex but he was already gone from my side, leaving me to grab nothing but air. Making a mental note to ask him just how the hell he could pull off his disappearing act, I watched Emily jerk her head up and knit her eyebrows in consternation.
“Where is he—?”
Alex wrapped his thick arm around her neck, pushing against the back of her head in a kind of choke-hold, pinning her against his body.
“Just know this wasn’t my idea,” I said, instantly reminding myself that Grey had spoken those exact same words when he and Alex had come looking for me in Ireland.
It hadn’t gone well for Alex then, but brute force seemed to be his default mode and he clearly hadn’t learned his lesson from me on the matter.
Emily continued to struggle in Alex’s grip, her cell phone dropping to the floor. With her hands now free, she twisted one of the rings on her left hand and grabbed Alex’s arm, a fruitless attempt to pull him off her. Her face was red as she slapped at him and wriggled in his arms. Just a few more seconds and she would be out like a light.
And then something changed.
Alex’s expression shifted, the concentration that had been in his eyes just moments before disappeared. He staggered, his arms sliding away from Emily’s throat as he took a couple of steps backwards away from her.
Panic galvanised me to action and I cleared the stage in a single jump.
“I feel weird,” Alex said, his words slurred. His feet tangled in one another as his knees buckled, legs suddenly dumping him on the floor. “Jenna, I feel s-s-strange…”
I crossed the room toward him, reaching his side as he flopped back onto the sticky carpeted aisle.
Emily scooped up her phone and grimaced. “You made me crack the screen,” she said, her voice choked with emotion. “Do you know how expensive these iPhones are?”
“What did you do to him?”
Emily giggled again, her hand once more delicately covering her mouth.
“I didn’t know if it would work,” she said, “but it does. Mistress will be so glad to hear it.”
“What have you done to him?” I asked, gritting the words out from between my teeth as I slid my hand under Alex’s neck, cradling his head.
“Jen—” he stuttered, his eyes rolling in their sockets so that all I could see were the whites peering back up at me. His body went limp, head lolling uselessly in my arms. He wasn’t dead, his chest still rose and fell with the steady rhythm of his breathing but it was definitely growing slower.
“Only an immortal can kill an immortal,” Emily said cryptically. “You should know that, Jenna.” For just a split second there was an echo of Carmine’s voice in her words and part of me understood that I wasn’t just talking to the vampire’s representative but directly to Carmine.
“Midnight at the abbey, Jenna,” Emily spoke softly, the pity in her voice unmistakable. “Carmine requests your presence. Come alone, or the druid will die before the sun chases the moon from the sky.”
Before she could get another word out, I charged her, drawing my karambit from my belt as I moved, I prepared for her to defend herself. What I wasn’t prepared for was for her to flick her wrist in my direction. Energy slammed into me with all the power of a runaway freight train and I felt my feet lift off the ground. I tried to prepare my body for the impact of landing but I didn’t have enough time and I slammed into the maroon coloured theatre seats, my spine cracking painfully as my head snapped to the side and I bounced. Darkness ate at the corners of my vision and I struggled to stay conscious despite hitting my head off an errant arm rest as I rolled backwards over the top of the row of seats and down into the foot well. I narrowly avoided impaling myself on my own blade, choosing to let it drop from my grip rather than feel its sharp tip embed itself in my thigh.
Pain tore through me, even breathing hurt as I fought to pull myself out of the darkened gap I’d landed in. Something sticky stuck to the palm of my hand making me cringe as I dragged myself into an upright position and peered over the top of the seats.
Emily had already turned away from me, clearly watching me learn how to fly held no interest for her. My stomach rolled painfully as I tilted my head, agony sending ripples of warning cascading through my brain.
I focused in on Emily once more as she stalked toward the stage. “Come along, Jackie boy,” she said, crooking her finger in Jack’s direction. “Mistress wants a word in your shell.”
“I want to stay with Lily,” he said, “you promised I could stay with her.”
“Don’t make me ask a second time,” Emily warned.
“You’re not going anywhere,” I said, scrambling to my feet once more. Clearly, going after her a second time had to make me some kind of masochist, but I couldn’t just let her walk out of here. There was too much going on that I didn’t understand, not to mention Alex who still lay on the floor. Was his breathing more shallow than before?
“You’re going to tell me what the hell you’ve done to Alex and how I can fix him,” I said, clambering out over the seats. I strode down the aisle toward Emily and she looked over her shoulder at me, her expression fixed with a mixture of utter contempt and complete boredom.
“She said you were dull-witted,” Emily said before she directed the next bit to Jack. “Get on your feet or so help me…”
“You promised I could be with my Lily.” There was a note of defiance in Jack’s voice that sent the feeling of dread gathering in my stomach into overdrive. Picking up my pace, I started to run but my head was screaming with pain and something warm and wet dripped into my eyes. I swiped it away angrily. I was so close I could practically touch Emily, and as soon as I did, she was a dead woman.
“Suit yourself, Jackie boy,” she whispered, maintaining eye contact with me. “Carmine sends her best.” With the click of her fingers, the bundle of stick’s in Jack’s arms burst into flames.
My forward progress faltered and some distant part of my brain noted the way Jack seemed to cling to the bundle of twigs that he believed was his dead wife but was now on fire. Or was it the other way around? It seemed absurd to think a bunch of kindling could climb to someone, but as I stared at him, I honestly couldn’t be certain.
Jack screamed, the sound reverberating throughout the auditorium, the acoustics creating an echo that sent a chill snaking down my spine.
“Stop this now!” I shouted, my voice barely carrying over the crackle of flames as they engulfed Jack completely, almost as though Emily had poured accelerant over his head, dousing both him and the bundle in gasoline. He screamed again and staggered to his feet, and this time I was certain the bundle was clinging to him and not the other way around. The flames turned from an angry orange to a vibrant green, growing in intensity as he mo
ved about and fanned his arms.
From where I stood, he looked like some kind of human candle, a living breathing being that was writhing in agony, the flames causing macabre shadows to dance around the stage and flutter against the painted backdrop.
I surged onto the stage, grabbing one of the dust filled curtains from the wings. Flipping it over the top of Jack, I pushed him to the ground, forcing him to roll across the space as I beat against his curtain covered body with my hands. His screams, muffled now but no less pain stricken, tore at my eardrums. Smoke poured up my nose and stung my eyes, bringing with it the unmistakable stench of charring flesh.
“I’m going to kill—” I cut off my own words as I realised Emily was gone and I was alone.
Jack stopped fighting beneath the curtain and my stomach churned with anxiety. It wasn’t just his movements that had ceased, his screams had quietened, too. Pulling back the edge of the curtain, I stared down into his red and blistered face, the flesh charred in places. Less than a minute had passed and yet he barely looked human. This had been no ordinary fire.
He groaned, the sound barely audible through his cracked lips. It took me a moment to realise just what he was trying to say.
“Lily.”
Hearing it was enough to turn the blood in my veins to ice. Looking up along the aisle, I saw Alex, laying in the middle of the floor, his body still. I held my breath and waited until his chest stirred after what felt like an eternity.
Sliding the cell phone from my pocket, I swore then and there that I would kill Carmine. No matter what Adrian had said, she needed to die and I was just the gorgon to do it.
Chapter 35
The sun had risen hours previously as I paced back and forth in Division 6’s infirmary. I’d been forced to call in the cavalry who now sat opposite me in the form of Sofia Joubert.
Her grey slacks only emphasised her slender legs, giving her all the appearances of a baby gazelle. I half expected them to snap at the knees if she stood and put the full weight of her body on them.
“And you let this”—she glanced down at her notes—“Emily Roberts just walk out of there?” She cocked an incredulous eyebrow in my direction.
“I didn’t just let her walk out of there,” I said, my exasperation getting the better of me. We’d been running over the same scenario for the better part of an hour and I was beyond done with her questioning my actions. “Should I have left Jack to burn and…” I trailed off thinking of Alex in the room next door.
Sofia studied me, her eyes searing into mine as though she could see beneath to what was going on inside my very soul.
“No, I don’t think you should have left them to die,” she said gently, her eyes flickering toward Alex’s room.
He hadn’t woken up and the doctors treating him had no idea what was keeping him under. Everything they’d tried so far had failed and they were rapidly running out of solutions.
“You should have called sooner,” Sofia said, all gentleness of her tone replaced with the business-like manner I’d come to associate with her. “Ignoring protocol to go after those responsible for taking Mr. Cooper was beyond reckless. If you were all compromised, what would I tell the Commissioner?”
“I don’t care,” I said, dropping down into the chair opposite her. “I didn’t agree to come back to Division 6 to follow protocol at the expense of those I care about.”
“And just look where that attitude has gotten you. One officer missing, another with third degree burns over eighty percent of his body. And a third poisoned and in a coma that no one can wake him up from.” She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose just above her glasses between her index and thumb. “Everything you touch doesn’t just turn to stone, Jenna, it turns to shit.”
Her words shocked me into silence and I sat opposite her, mouth slightly agape as I stared at her. How could she know what I was? I’d been so careful to keep it hidden. Historically, gorgons just didn’t do very well, what with the nasty habit of losing their heads and all. And I was determined not to meet the same fate as my grandmother, or mother for that matter…
“Surprised I know the truth?”
I opened my mouth to answer but nothing seemed right. In the end, I shrugged. “It doesn’t matter, you can’t prove it.”
She snorted, an utterly unladylike sound for someone who liked to pretend that’s what they were, but I had a feeling that what lurked beneath the glamour Sofia kept locked tightly in place was something utterly inhuman.
“I don’t need to prove it, I’m a respected member of the Division. If I were to say anything, those in charge would believe me, no matter how unlikely it sounded.”
Cold terror spread through my stomach but I shoved it down, burying it until I couldn’t even feel the tendrils that sought to wrap around my heart. I was done being afraid. I’d lived enough of my life in fear, always looking over my shoulder, waiting for something or someone to jump out and drag me to the hell I’d once suffered through. I knew what Division 6 thought of creatures like me, dangerous and unpredictable were just some of the nicer words they liked to throw around. I knew what they did to creatures deemed a problem. Kypherous had taken great pleasure in letting me know that the organisation I had once thought was there to help preternaturals keep the peace with the humans liked to play judge, jury, and more often than not, executioner to the beings it decided should be removed from society, whether they were guilty of a crime or not.
“I don’t care anymore.” I folded my arms across my chest, a defensive gesture that undermined the strength of my words. “You’ve had a problem with me ever since this case started, so if you’re going to out me to your superiors, just do it already. I’m done running. But know this,” I leaned forward in my seat, “if you come for me, I won’t go easily. I’ll take you, and whoever else you bring, down with me.” Power prickled beneath the surface of my skin called forth by the anger building in my chest.
Sofia laughed, the sound breaking the tension in the corridor apart.
“What’s so funny?”
“Why you, of course.”
“You think I couldn’t take you?”
She shrugged, a delicate rolling of her bony shoulders. “I honestly don’t know,” she said, “but I don’t doubt that you’d try and I’m of an age where the days of tousling with the young supernats who think they have something to prove is long over.”
“Then why do you hate me?”
She tilted her head to the side, an oddly birdlike gesture. “I don’t hate you,” she said before screwing up her face as though she’d smelled something particularly nasty. “I don’t like you but hate is a strong word and I don’t care enough to hate.”
She sighed and leaned back in the plastic back chair, crossing her spindly legs in front of her body as she did so. “But you are a problem, your presence brings with it instability and that’s not something I accept lightly.”
“Then why did Division 6 want me back?” I asked. “If I’m such a destabilising force, why force me to return?”
“For someone with your experiences,” she said, “you’re surprisingly naive. They wanted you back because at its core, the Division has always desired power. They know you have it and so”—she spread her hands wide—“they intend to use you to attain it.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
Sofia grinned, an unpleasant expression that made my skin crawl because it was too much like looking straight into the cold dead expression of a pure psychopath.
“Because I can,” she said. “Watching them always win bores me.”
“That’s a lie.”
“So what if it is? I owe you nothing.”
She had a point. She held all the cards and there was nothing I could do about it.
“What do you want from me?”
“Well, to start with, I want you to bring me Carmine’s heart, but in failing that, I’ll settle for knowing that the creature she’s trying to awaken stays slumbering.”
I sa
t up a little straighter in my chair. “What do you mean, what creature?”
Sofia rolled her eyes. “You see, this is the problem with the youth of today, always running so far ahead they can’t see the woods from the trees.” Noting the irritation in my expression, she nodded. “Fine. Your little friend Carmine has been a busy little bee ever since her previous benefactor kicked her to the curb.”
I couldn’t bring myself to say his name but I nodded. “Yeah, she found a new one,” I said. “Dracula.”
“Well, they have this crazy little idea to summon an elder God in order to channel its power for their own gain.”
I heard the words leave her mouth but no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t get them to make sense.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said finally. “How do they plan to do that?”
Sofia’s gaze darted off to the side and her body stiffened almost imperceptibly.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
“It’s a very particular ritual.” She hesitated over her words, painstakingly trying to choose the correct ones. “It requires a lock and a key of sorts.”
“And let me guess, Carmine has both?” I cocked an eyebrow at Sofia.
“She has the lock,” she said. “The lock isn’t yet under her control, but that is only a matter of time.”
“It seems pretty simple as far as I’m concerned.” I pushed onto my feet, catching sight of the doctor that had been treating Alex as he hurried down the corridor towards us. “We just won’t let her get her hands on the key, presto, no more Elder Gods breaking into this realm.”
“Jenna—” Sofia was interrupted by the arrival of the doctor, the concern on his face sealing whatever she’d been about to say inside her throat.
“Ms. Joubert,” he said, “nice to see you again.” She inclined her head, a small smile hovering around the corners of her mouth. It made her look almost girlish.
His acknowledgement of Sofia in an almost familiar manner made me wonder how they knew each other outside the hospital setting we found ourselves in.
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