Celestial Ashes: The Celestial Marked Series: Book Three

by Adams, Emma L.

  “It took a significant amount of work to disguise the demonglass, not to mention arrange it in such a way that it’s harmless to the people around it.”

  “You did that while they were picking up the bodies of their dead soldiers?” I might hate the inspector, but there were decent people trapped under his control who’d died that day.

  He gave me a withering look. “You wanted to spy on the inspector. Don’t deny it. Now you have an easy way.”

  “You sent in Rachel.” And she hadn’t told me. Bloody warlocks. “It’ll serve you right if they did the same to you. You do know normal people use security cameras, right? Demonglass? Seriously?”

  “Tiny particles of it,” he said. “Harmless, and contained.”

  “I’ll give you harmless,” I muttered. Despite myself, I reached for the magic I’d absorbed into my demon mark, and my body flickered out of existence again. Beyond the glass was the inspector’s office. He wasn’t there, but his desk lay directly in front of me. And on top of a pile of documents lay a mobile phone. Gav’s mobile phone.

  I stared in total confusion. The phone in question had once been in the possession of Damian Greenwood, and I’d thought he still had it when he’d died. But maybe he’d left it behind when he’d blown up the west tower. The evidence which had once been stored on that phone was obsolete, since the demonglass had been taken in by the warlocks after the portal in the warehouse had exploded. But why was it in the office in the first place?

  Curiosity gripped me, and before I’d quite thought my plan through, I pressed my hand to the glass.

  The world spun around me, and I tumbled onto the office floor, my head ringing. I sat up dizzily, then climbed to my feet to get a closer look at the desk. Gav’s phone lay on top of a piece of paper which contained a list of names. Is it the vampires? Or the celestials who got bitten?

  I scanned for a familiar name, and my blood chilled. Javos’s name was on the list. Warlocks. And beside his name… a list of weaknesses.

  The inspector was compiling a list of every warlock’s weak spot.

  I have to do something. I darted to the door and peered through the glass. Novices talked in hushed whispers, sticking together in close groups. There were very few Grade Threes in the city, since they were out on missions, and Grade Twos and novices couldn’t fight most of the demons alone. Nor the warlocks. So why the list of names?

  I pulled back from the door, returning to the desk. I’d learnt to forge handwriting to get myself out of detention, and the inspector’s was no exception. Leaning over the papers, I ‘corrected’ every warlock’s weakness, switching some of them around. I lifted the page to see the one underneath—and froze.

  The document was titled: VAMPIRE CURE.

  What?

  My hand flickered and appeared again, holding the page. Oh crap. My store of magic was low.

  Panicking, I grabbed another document at random and copied the title onto it. Then, paper clutched in my hand, I ran back to the pile of demonglass fragments.

  My right hand barely brushed it before the glass sucked me through, and I tumbled into a heap on the storeroom floor.

  “Ow.” I lifted my head to glare at Javos. “It’s bad. They were assembling lists of the weaknesses of the city’s warlocks. Don’t worry, I ‘fixed’ it for them.”

  Javos’s aura surged into being, a burning orange shield like looking directly into the sun. “That’s tantamount to a declaration of war. I’ll see to it that the warlocks will not lie down and accept this treason.”

  “Javos, hang on.” I held up the paper—which disintegrated in my hand, turning to ashes. “Did you just—?”

  No. He hadn’t used magic. The paper had fallen apart on its own. A defence mechanism, maybe. Dammit.

  Another aura appeared on the edge of my vision. Nikolas appeared in the doorway, shadows radiating from his body. “Calm, Javos. The vampire queen has requested to speak to Devi immediately.”

  “What?” I said. “Why?”

  “The words on pain of death were involved.”

  Because it was apparently that sort of day.

  Chapter 9

  “What did I do to piss her off?” I asked Nikolas, ignoring Javos’s warning look and joining him in the corridor. “I’ve already screwed with the celestials, Babylon’s warlocks, and the invisible man.”

  “The what?” asked Nikolas.

  “Javos sent me through the glass to tangle with a were-warlock with a stabby paintbrush.”

  “He did?” Nikolas scowled over his shoulder at the storeroom, but I shook my head and walked to the lab. I’d rather talk where Javos couldn’t listen in. Rachel wasn’t in here, so I assumed Javos had sent her on some pointless errand, too. One would think he didn’t give a shit whether I found a cure for the virus or not.

  “He had good reason, supposedly,” I said. “So I could borrow his power to sneak into the celestial guild.”

  Nikolas closed the door behind us. “I hate to say this, Devi, but that’s only a taste of what working for Javos is like. He does it to the rest of us, too. Luckily, whenever he threw me into undesirable situations, I used my shadow magic to escape. He stopped trying after that.”

  “Unfortunately, he has total control over where I use the demonglass power, so that option’s out,” I said. “Unless—can I borrow your shadow power? I’ve never tried, but I’d have thought it’d happen automatically.”

  “I suspect not. The nature of my ability to move between realms isn’t the same as my other powers. It’s woven into the fabric of the realm itself. What did you see at the guild?”

  “They have—I think they have a cure for the venom. I had the paper in my hand and the damn thing fell to pieces.” Damn it all. The guild was ten steps ahead of us—but they shouldn’t have been able to move so quickly, especially after the recent attacks. They should be subdued. Devastated. The inspector… I’d underestimated him, all right.

  Nikolas’s gaze slid over me, and I wondered if he was thinking the same. “We’ll discuss the guild later. Are you ready to go and see Madame White?”

  “Everyone wants a piece of me today, don’t they? It’s not even noon yet.”

  My weapons had survived the ordeal intact, so I went with Nikolas to the car, after picking up my anti-warlock trap. It’d work on vampires, infected or not, but wouldn’t endear me to their queen. Don’t tell me she found out about our guests sleeping upstairs. What a mess. I hadn’t even been able to start looking for the cure.

  “Fair warning,” I said, climbing into the front seat. “I’ve had a day and a half of it already, and if this vampire lady wants to dismember me, then I can’t say I won’t ‘accidentally’ activate the blister spell on her. And to top it off, it was Rachel who put the demonglass in the inspector’s office in the first place. If you didn’t know that.”

  “I didn’t,” he said. “I would guess that Javos volunteered her for the job.”

  “Right.” I rolled my eyes. “I’m trying to give people the benefit of the doubt, but I can count the number of people who haven’t screwed me over lately on one hand. Meaning, Fiona. And I’ve screwed her over by not helping with the cure, and losing that document. If the celestials get the solution before we do, I doubt they’ll distribute it willingly. They want those vampires dead.”

  “True,” he acknowledged, “but if they find a way to stop the venom, they won’t need to punish the vampires.”

  “Inspector Deacon still seems to be expecting a war with Javos.” My throat closed up. “He knew—the document had all your weaknesses listed. I switched them around and tampered with the list.”

  “My weaknesses?”

  I shook my head. “You weren’t listed. But they definitely know about your powers at the very least. They knew Javos’s weakness. And others.”

  “Then they must have broken into our archives,” he growled. “Unlike the celestials, we don’t store things like that electronically. It’s too easy to hack.”

  “The cel
estials aren’t exactly tech-savvy,” I said. “Not the older generation, anyway. So I don’t know how they got that information. Unless there’s an insider—”

  “There isn’t,” he said.

  “They had a spy from the vampires amongst them,” I said. “From the demons’ side, anyway. I didn’t see enough to be certain. I hope I slowed them down at least, but if they’re compiling that data, they must expect to use it.”

  “Precisely,” he said tightly. “As for the vampires…”

  “What does she want? I can’t think what I’ve done this time. Except take in Alec and the other vamps, and I thought she didn’t care about them.”

  “She doesn’t.” A worried note tinged his voice. “Or so I thought. She wouldn’t say why she needed you.”

  “I have too many employers already. She’ll have to get in line behind the invisible man.”

  Nikolas parked the car across the road from the manor house that was home to the city’s elite vampires. Music drifted over the rooftops, a promising sign that things were normal with the vampires. Which was more than I could say for the celestials.

  The gates had been left open, the path up the gravel drive clear. Hedges lined the path, while a male human waited on the doorstep, holding open the oak door. Human blood slave. I was surprised they’d stuck around, considering. Of course, the blood slaves here were a lot happier and cleaner-looking than the ones I’d seen in vampire night clubs.

  “Not him,” he said to Nikolas. “She wishes to see the girl only.”

  Oh, does she? I gave Nikolas a nod to say I’ll handle this, and went through the door alone.

  In the dark hallway, the only source of light came from dim candles, presumably lit by the human blood slaves. Considering vamps could see in the dark, it couldn’t be much fun to live here as a human, luxurious though the conditions might be.

  Inside the hall, I found the queen waiting… alone. No other vampires surrounded her as they had before. Not even a single human blood slave. The queen sat alone on her cushioned chair. Her pale skin was underscored by a glowing undercurrent that made her skin look like diamonds shone beneath the surface. She wore the same black-and-white-and-crimson shades as before, and a waterfall of dark hair cascaded over her shoulders.

  “Madame White,” I said, in my politest voice.

  “Devina Lawson,” she said. “I’m told you’re hiding some illegal vampires.”

  So it was about them. Should have guessed. Maybe she was finally taking the virus threat seriously. Hell, maybe that was why she was alone. She’d kicked out of all the other vamps in case they infected her. It seemed the sort of callous thing she’d do. But it didn’t explain why she wanted to speak to me alone. The rumours about my abilities must have reached her by now.

  “Last time I came here, you said you weren’t responsible for every vampire, and refused an alliance to help stop the virus,” I said. “There’s no rule saying I can’t help those who are left behind.”

  “Actually, as of today, there is,” she said. “We’re compiling a register of anyone infected by the virus so as to prevent it from corrupting my people further. Anyone not listed within the next forty-eight hours is liable to be put to death.”

  “What do you mean by ‘we’?”

  Crap. Why would she hand in her own people? Reject them, sure. But willingly hand them over to the celestials? No way.

  A dark-haired, pale guy stepped up behind her. Damian Greenwood.

  I’d always thought he looked more like a vampire than a celestial. Under the candle lights, he bared vampire-sharp teeth in a smile. He was dressed in dark clothes, not unlike the long dark coat his boss on Pandemonium had worn. And his eyes were dark as any infected vampire’s.

  “You have got to be joking,” I said. “He’s—you do realise he’s the one who set up the portal to summon those demons in the middle of town?”

  He was also supposed to be dead. I’d pushed him into the fire… into the portal. Had he survived? It seemed impossible, and yet I’d seen more impossible things in the past twenty-four hours than I’d ever expected.

  Like the vampire queen working with the celestials. No—with a traitor to the celestials who wanted to burn the world down.

  “Damian here assisted with compiling the register,” said Madame White. “He brought me the names of many vampires who are infected, out of concern for my people. It seems the issue is on a scale greater than I anticipated. Luckily, the celestials are working on developing a cure, and will be sharing their findings with me.”

  Was there truth in that document after all? More to the point… nothing explained why the inspector appeared to be working with someone who’d tried to kill him. With Damian. It’s impossible. Unless…

  “I’m the emissary,” Damian said, with a smile. “Hoping to reach an agreement between Madame White and Inspector Deacon. We’d rather settle our differences without the celestials acting against the vampires, and I’m happy to say the negotiations so far have been successful.”

  I blinked. My mind had helpfully decided to wipe itself clean of any suitable responses. Did that demonglass scramble things up and spit me out into the wrong dimension entirely? If I hadn’t known there were no dimensions even close to this one, I’d have suspected it. The level of what the fuck had flown up to the ceiling.

  “But—you’re on their side,” I said. “The demons. Technically, you’re the enemy of both the vamps and the celestials. Doesn’t the inspector know you tried to kill him?”

  What the hell was he playing at? And Madame White? Surely she didn’t seriously believe his crap. He wanted the demon virus to infect everyone.

  He held up his left hand, bearing the arrowhead mark. “My loyalty is to my Divinity. Unlike yours, apparently.”

  “You’re so full of shit,” I said quietly. “There’s no cure. The whole thing was a lie. You’re screwing with people on purpose. You can’t seriously expect me to believe the inspector accepted your story. You worked with the guy he tried to bump off to bring down the guild from the inside.”

  “If I may interject,” Madame White said coldly, “whatever history the two of you have doesn’t interest me in the slightest.”

  “I thought you were level-headed,” I said. “I thought you were smart enough not to be fooled by an obvious traitor. For crying out loud, have you not even talked to the guild? His reports say it all. He killed people, blew up their tower, and was responsible for the portal. Not to mention the virus itself.”

  “Are you done?” she asked. “Mr Greenwood here has offered to help form an agreement between us and the celestials so that the town doesn’t suffer further bloodshed.”

  “He wants worse than that,” I said. “He wants war.”

  She’d never met him, but she didn’t strike me as the sort of person who’d accept the word of anyone without question, let alone someone whose people had been threatening genocide against her people. No… he must have shown her proof, however false it might have been.

  When she didn’t respond, I said, “So he’s the one who told you to make a register? How many centuries have you lived through that told you that’s ever been a good idea?”

  “How many people have died as a result of that virus?” she said, her nostrils flaring. “My people and I will survive, make no mistake. But we will not let our blood be tainted by traitors. And if you hide enemies from us, then your blood will stain our floors.”

  “Wow.” I raised an eyebrow. “Now we’ve got the death threats out the way, let’s assume I don’t give a shit if you threaten me. What else have you got?”

  “We have the cure,” said Damian. “The real one.”

  My heart gave a sickening lurch. Even knowing Damian was a devious bastard, the possibility gripped me. After all, Madame White was clearly fooled. What if he’d developed something that seemed to be a cure in the pretence of helping her—but then planned to infect her people? Without bloodstones, it was the obvious conclusion. I had to get through to her b
efore that happened.

  “Why trust him?” I asked her. “Why take his word for it?”

  “Why?” She laughed. “Because he took the cure himself. Damian is a vampire-celestial, the first of his kind.”

  More like demon-celestial. Seven hells. Damian had been through the full transformation and survived it without turning to madness. A celestial vampire who hadn’t died yet. And now he held the cure as a beacon above all vampires, all the celestials… and me.

  “Bullshit,” I said. “There is no cure, and if there was, you sure as hell wouldn’t be the one in charge of it. Quit screwing with the vampires and we’ll finish what we started.”

  “I did take the cure,” he said. “What’s so difficult to believe about it? The celestial guild and the vampires might have had our differences, but cooperation is essential to survival. Thanks to Madame White, the guild’s been able to develop a solution which will enable us to wipe out the virus in any humans who’ve been bitten. Of course, it’s too late for the vampires, but they’re not innocents. They did this to themselves.”

  “You did it to yourself, you lying piece of shit.” I looked at her. “He’s hiding it, but he got bitten forever ago, before this even started. He’s the perpetrator—a spy in the guild for the demon realms.”

  “What absolute nonsense,” she said. “Tell the guild your grievances, not me. I only care for my people, and if you continue to harbour dangerous fugitives, your life will be forfeit.”

  “It’s not worth it, Devi,” Damian put in. “Cooperate. We can achieve the peace you want so badly.”

  “Nice speech,” I said. Turning to Madame White, I added, “Have you ever heard of Inspector Angler? He’s the one this guy used to work for. He tried to take over the demon realms using the same venom his little friend here is claiming to be able to cure. If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck…”

  “Cease your human babbling,” she said. “I’ve also spoken to Inspector Deacon in person. I retain the hope that we, at least, will resolve our issues without bloodshed. You, on the other hand… if you don’t hand over those vampires, we’ll see it as a declaration of war on behalf of the warlocks.”