The Glittering Halo

by Liddie Cain

  “It’s real,” I whispered.

  “Yes it is,” Hanna responded.

  “I have no idea how to use it.”

  “Looks like you will need to join us for some training along with Felix,” Azrael told me. I looked at him and smiled.

  “Yeah, I guess so. First lesson is how to put it away again.”

  “It will probably be an obstacle for the vampires back home if you can’t keep it tucked away,” Conall’s voice came from behind me. We all turned to look at him. His eyes remained on the halo as he closed the distance between us. “It is lovely to see though.”

  “Unseelie King,” a voice called from the waves, taking us by surprise. Two men and a woman sat in the swells of the water, their bodies hidden from the waist down. The woman had spoken. She wore no clothing, but her bare breasts were mostly concealed by the thick black hair that fell across her chest and disappeared into the water. The men were slightly behind and on either side of her, both bare chested. They were both blond, but you couldn’t see how long their hair was because it was all secured in three braids that were then woven together in a circle around their head.

  Conall seemed as if he was stunned beyond words for a moment, which was very unlike him. He almost always was able to keep a straight face and appear unfazed by whatever happened around him. He visibly gathered himself and said, “Dana. I had heard that the Merrows had arrived, I just didn’t realize—” He shook his head and smiled at her. “It’s good to see you, Dana.”

  “Good to see you, Conall. The angels caught our attention.”

  It made him realize I stood beside him again and gestured toward me, “Dana, allow me to introduce my consort Rozalyn. Roz, this is Dana, the Merrow Queen.”

  Kenna had already let me know that Merrow basically meant mermaid, so then I realized why they remained in the waves. “Nice to meet you, Dana.” I spoke up a little since they stayed back behind where the waves started breaking onto the shore.

  “And you, little angel.”

  It reminded me that the halo still hovered above my head. Azrael knew what I was thinking and touched my shoulder. “Swallow that power back down as you would any power that you brought to your hands before that you didn’t use.”

  I thought of the feeling of letting power fall away from my hands, I just redirected that upward instead of outward. I could feel the shape of power around the halo and relaxed the part I knew I could control. The sparkling light shone brighter for an instant before I felt it fall away and draw back into me. That faint glittering glow had disappeared and Azrael, Hanna and Eziel nodded at me proudly. I looked back out at the mermaids, still curious about Conall’s reaction to them. Dana gave me a quick nod.

  “We are some of the few creatures of Fairy that can easily transition between parallel realms, including the lower realm. Devina grows suspicious of Meredith’s lack of communication. She spoke of it by the sea and those whispers came to me because of my connection to Conall.”

  “Thank you for bringing us this news,” Conall said.

  “Keep this new Court protected, it is a safe place for my people.”

  Azrael’s four wings flashed out in an instant behind him. “No citizen of Hell will spoil the peace here.”

  Dana nodded, satisfied. “Unseelie King, speak my name over these waves should you need me.”

  “I will, my Merrow Queen.”

  The three of them disappeared under the water, only the very tips of their tails breaking the surface briefly as they swam away from us. I drew in a breath and looked at Conall’s profile. “Our time is running out, I’m afraid.”

  He nodded. “Yes. Devina will think to check on Felix soon.” He stepped over and touched my cheek. “We better get you back home.”

  “Yeah, it might make the Imperium more suspicious if they don’t see me soon.”

  After a giving out hugs and kisses to the angels on the beach, Conall escorted me by the arm back up the pathway that led into the main hall, where Felix was waiting for us. He frowned as Conall told him what Dana had said.

  “Well. I better get to training and you better get back home to act like nothing is wrong,” Felix told me, but his hands cupped my face as he looked at me seriously. “I saw the halo.”

  “Why don’t you look happy about it?”

  “Because so far, Devina thinks we don’t know that you were an angel before. When she finds out that you are a Nephilim she will know everyone knows her secrets.”

  “So keep this one to myself for now?”

  “Yes and lie low. I’m afraid you won’t have total control over it yet.”

  “I’ll be careful.”

  He brushed a kiss across my lips before heading down to the beach to join Eziel and Azrael while they trained. Drest walked forward and took my hands in his, lifting both of them up so he could kiss the backs of my fingers. “Stay safe and return as soon as you can,” he whispered.

  “I’ll see you soon,” I replied, going up on tiptoe to brush a kiss on his lips.

  Me and Conall walked down to the library and stepped into the smoke of the roving candle a moment later. I hated leaving my little paradise behind, but people I loved needed me elsewhere.

  The roving candle smoke cleared to reveal Mac’s office and Jason standing in front of us. I stepped into his arms and welcomed the kiss that he laid against my lips. When he pulled back, I stroked my hand down the side of his neck. “How did the night go?”

  “No sign of Emma yet. The police are here this morning doing interviews.”

  “Have they interviewed you yet?”

  “Yes. They started with me and Mac, but we were on a conference call with the transfer office at the Imperium at the time that the abduction happened, so they have already cleared us,” he replied.

  “That’s good, I guess.”

  Jason shrugged because he didn’t know either. Conall stepped up beside me and dropped a quick kiss on my lips. “I must get back to Maeve and Meredith. I’ll speak to you later.”

  “Okay,” I replied, knowing my expression was a little wistful after our night together.

  Conall smiled at me and shook Jason’s hand before he left the office.

  “You hooked up with Conall, didn’t you?” Jason asked with his wide grin.

  “Shut up,” I laughed, leaning into him, “but yeah. And Drest.”

  “I haven’t met Drest yet.”

  I frowned and replied, “You know, I’m not sure you ever will. I doubt he has ever left Fairy.”

  “Well, maybe after all this is over me and Mac can go see your Gloaming Court.”

  “I hope so,” I said. “What is Mac doing?”

  “Just being with everyone as they wait to be interviewed. Want to go in there?”

  “Yeah, I should.”

  He nodded and slung his arm over my shoulders, guiding me out of the office and back out to the covered pool area. There were detectives in suits and ties with their badges on their belts, as well as offices in uniform out there with all of our resident vampires. Joletta was sitting on one of the outdoor loungers beside Hugh as we walked out. Hugh was slightly shorter than Joletta, average looking with a bit of a belly. He wore glasses as a human and looked as if he still should even as a vampire, since he had not completely grown out of the habit of squinting when he was trying to see something far away. The relationship with Joletta had improved his wardrobe. When I first met him, he often wore dated jeans and simple button-down shirts. Now he sat there in tailored black pants and a collared dressed shirt that suited his frame.

  Sylvia was standing on the other side of the pool with one of the detectives. She looked lovely standing there in the sunlight with her short twist out hair style and her light cocoa skin. A pale blue sun dress showed off her slender waist. Rose was also standing with a detective on the opposite end of the pool. The sunlight washed out her already pale skin and blond hair, but her face was young and sweet looking with her hair pulled back in a pony tail. Part of the sweet look was becaus
e she was only around five foot three and she often wore shirts that were too large for her. I could see Lear’s cascade of soft red curls inside the living room of the guest house since the doors were open. A uniformed officer was taking his fingerprints with one of the digital readers.

  Mac made eye contact with me where he was speaking with a man that gave a strong impression of being the lead detective on the case. He sent me a quick smile, but he didn’t break away from his conversation. Ryan walked out from the kitchen area of the guest house and made me realize that Song was sitting at the bar area as he walked by her. She saw me look her way and lifted one hand in greeting. I nodded back, still unsure what to think about her.

  Jason dropped his arm off of my shoulders but threaded his fingers through mine. One of the best things about him was how small touches like that meant so much. It made me value it a lot more because I saw how much it meant to him. I tightened my grip on his hand and watched him smile at me, like I knew he would. That kind of thing would never get old.

  “She’s still missing, Roz.” Joletta said. I looked at her more closely. Her face was puffy like she had been crying and she hadn’t done her usual expertly applied makeup. In fact, it looked like she had just slept in the makeup she had put on last night. Her hair was swept up in a quick up-do like she hadn’t cared enough to fix it this morning. I let go of Jason’s hand so I could walk over and kneel in front of her, clasping her hands and wishing that I could make her feel better.

  “We will find her.”

  “Hugh said if they wanted to kill her, they wouldn’t have taken her.”

  “That’s probably true,” I replied, glancing at Hugh. He shook his head and rubbed his hand on Joletta’s back. It didn’t appear as if he had much hope for a positive outcome for this abduction.

  Mac walked up and joined us with the detective following. I stood up and hugged Mac before he motioned to the man beside him. “This is Detective Stevens. He will be in charge of the investigation.”

  Now that he was up close I recognized him as Kurt Stevens, whose wife, Rebecca, was one of the clients at my spa. I smiled and held out my hand to shake his. “Hello, nice to see you again.”

  He took my hand and stared at me for a moment before realization swept over his face and he smiled at me. “Oh yeah! You are the owner of the Rejuvenate Shop.”

  “That’s right,” I replied warmly.

  “Well, we already have spoken with Ms. Joletta and know that you were at the school with her helping her get the pageant going so I won’t need you for any questions. But if you think of anything that might help the investigation, just give me a call.” He slid a card out of a holder on the case of his phone and handed it to me.

  “I will. Thank you,” I said as I put the card in my back pocket.

  “I think we are about done here so we should be getting out your way shortly.”

  He walked back into the house and Joletta immediately followed him. I wrapped my arms around Mac’s waist and laid my head on his chest, wishing there was something else I could do. Mac stiffened underneath me. I swept out around us with my heightened senses and found new vampire signatures I didn’t recognize in the house. This had to be the group from Meredith’s original Vegas district. I stepped back and looked up at Mac’s face.

  “I need to go talk to them and borrow Jason. Can you stay out here with Sylvia?”

  “Sure.”

  I watched them disappear into the house before I walked around the pool to where Sylvia had joined Song at the bar. Sylvia gave me a weak smile. We were quiet as the rest of the police were finishing up their notes and grabbing their equipment. Once the last one had finally left, Sylvia touched my arm and said, “They seem pretty determined that it would be a vampire from our group.”

  “That’s ridiculous.”

  “I know,” she said with a sigh. “But I have a bad feeling.”

  “Yeah, like they aren’t going to look very hard in other directions,” Song said.

  I frowned. It was true that our vampires would be the only ones that would have been around Emma or her family with any sort of regularity, but Mac would never allow his district members to feed outside of the donation program. We also just had vampires that didn’t typically cause trouble. Felix and Mac had chosen very carefully for picking the ones that would come to live here.

  Rose walked up and seemed irritated. “They asked me about everyone’s feeding habits,” she said.

  “Me too,” Sylvia replied.

  “So basically, it is going to be up to Mac to figure out who did this,” I said.

  “Yep,” Song agreed.

  “Well. What do we know about the new vampires from Vegas?” I asked.

  “Not much,” Sylvia responded.

  “Guess we need to do some digging,” I said, looking between her and Rose.

  “I’ll see what I can find out,” Sylvia said.

  Song hopped down off of the barstool she had been sitting on. “And that’s my cue to go. Let me know what you guys find out.” She gave us a nod before walking off and leaving through the side door that led around the outside of the house from the pool yard.

  “She’s an odd one,” I said after I was sure she was far enough away.

  “Song? Oh yeah,” Sylvia said with a laugh, “but she makes her district behave like Mac does. It’s why Felix keeps her around.”

  Rose had left us to go talk to Lear, leaving me and Sylvia with a moment alone. I didn’t want to pry, but I also didn’t want to be the friend who didn’t check on her, so I asked, “You doing okay Sylvia?”

  Her expression grew more solemn. A small breath crept past her lips before she gave a small nod. “I am. Breakups hurt feelings. There isn’t any way to avoid that. But I had an idea it wasn’t going to last, so I think I was kind of prepared.”

  “You can always talk to me,” I said, but Sylvia shook her head.

  “Not about this, Roz. I love you, I honestly do. But I’m just your friend, and Darby is basically your sister-in-law. You’re too close to it to be unbiased.”

  I grimaced, knowing she was right. She reached out and placed her hands on my shoulders, giving them a little squeeze before saying, “I know you love me. I know you care if I’m hurting. That helps so much, I promise.”

  “It doesn’t feel like enough.”

  She tsked and brought me close for a hug. “I loved Darby, still do. But it wasn’t that kind of love that will shatter you yet. Does that make sense? We hadn’t got that far yet.”

  “I know what you mean,” I replied, hugging her back. Both of us sensed Mac at the same time and froze in that hug. He was gathering a sharp wave of power. It was an angry, rolling type of magic that washed through the air. Sylvia let go of me and blurred out of sight, going into the house where Mac was. I hurried to follow at a more mortal pace.

  I found them all in the large living room. Jason and Mac stood beside each other with Sylvia behind them. They were facing four vampires who had their fangs extended. One was a woman with short brown hair that looked like she had been in her forties when she was changed. She was a little on the heavier side and looked like she should be a librarian rather than an angry vampire. The other three were men. The one standing beside the vampire librarian looked like he was also closer to fifty when he was changed with his silver laced dark hair. The other two were younger in appearance and resembled each other strongly like they were siblings. One of them was standing a little ahead of the other three, and he did not break his furious gaze from Mac’s face.

  “I demand to see her,” he was saying.

  “I am not keeping Meredith from answering you. Like I said, she has been spending all her time with a woman named Maeve. Even I cannot reach her at times.”

  “Meredith has never ignored her duties for a piece of tail.”

  Mac only shrugged. The other vampire growled out, “You’re lying.” He moved faster than I could see and knocked into Mac. They fought violently, slinging each other around the room.
Sylvia was knocked back and only Jason’s quick thinking kept me from being hurt as he moved in a blur to scoop me up and move me across the room. As soon as we stopped, the other three vampires were surrounding us.

  “You must be the blood medium Meredith was bragging about,” the librarian taunted. Jason stepped in front of me and pushed us back until he had me pinned back against the wall with his body. I gasped as he slammed me against it a little harder than he was probably intending.

  “Do you not share your human toys here?” The older male vampire asked Jason with a dark grin.

  “We mainstream completely here,” Jason answered tightly.

  “How boring,” the librarian drawled out. “Get him out of the way, Alexander.”

  The younger vampire snarled and replied, “Gladly.” Then he was suddenly fighting with Jason. He managed to break Jason away from me, both of them trading punches and tumbling across the room. Mac was still fighting the vampire that I assumed was Alexander’s brother. Both of their faces were streaked with blood and Mac’s shirt was ripped down the back.

  The librarian looked like she was about to make a move, but Sylvia took Jason’s place, taking a wide stance in front of me. Even slightly crouched, her long legs left her towering over the other two vampires. She held long, wicked looking blades in both hands and she hissed at them with her fangs showing. “You will not touch this human.”

  “Roz. Stay calm. You cannot reveal your powers.” Mac spoke in my mind, making me frown because I had just formed the thought that I could call my on my newly gained halo to solve this problem. But if he could take a moment to express that to me, it meant that he wasn’t struggling too badly with the vampire he was fighting. It was as if he and Jason decided they were done playing games at the same time because in one moment they were still fighting and in the next they had both of their opponents pinned on the ground beside each other.

  That was the instant that the Imperium officers walked in the room.