“And if you’re worried about lingering personal feelings? Don’t be. I’ve seen you and Vlad together. Believe me, I wanted to hate the guy. I really did. If I do in any way, it’s because I can’t find a reason to hate him. He’s a good man. And I’ve seen how you two are together. It may have started as a publicity stunt, but no one can deny it’s well beyond that now.”
I knew it was true but couldn’t help the slow blush that pinkened my cheeks. “Really? How can you tell?”
Yes, even pseudo-undead girls need reassurance that their relationship is solid.
Carter rolled his eyes at the question. “As if you have to ask? The two of you orbit around each other, drawing strength from one another in this, like, effortless current. And, if that isn’t proof enough…” Pantomiming sucking air through his teeth, his cocked his head. “These walls? They are shockingly thin. I’ve heard things. We’ve all heard things. These things paint a very vivid picture.”
If I wasn’t pale as the dead before, I certainly was now. “Oh… no.”
Turning into the spin that there were no longer any secrets between us, Carter gunned the gas and went for it. “Yeah, why do you make the father of vampirism call you ambassador? I don’t really get that.”
“It’s… ahem, bass master. Not ambassador.”
Carter’s eyes narrowed. “That makes even less sense. Bass master? Bass? Like the fish? Is that your kink?”
If Dorian Gray wanted to open a portal and suck me into a demonic dimension, I would have welcomed it right about then. “Not the fish. Like the song; all about that bass, ’bout that bass.”
“Aw, bless your heart!” Carter’s shoulders shook as he blatantly laughed at my expense. “It’s not bass pronounced like gas. It’s bass, like a bass guitar. That hard A changes everything.”
Face folding into a cringe, I shook my head. “And the entire manor heard my sorry excuse for dirty talk. Remind me again while they’re following me?”
“You know exactly why.” Carter gave my shoulder a playful shove. “Plus, this only furthers my point that you and Vlad really are right for each other. He didn’t know it was wrong, or what the hell it meant. All he knew was his lady was into it, so he went for it. Do I wish things could have been different for you and I? Yes, I do. But I will never try to come between you and Vlad. Nor will I ever let you live it down that you misquote song lyrics during sexy time.”
I tried to shove him back only for him to catch my hand and hold it tight in his. Dropping to one knee, he clamped his opposite fist over his heart. “I’ve sworn fealty to you before as a magi driven by duty to the Queen of the Nosferatu. Now, I’m doing it of my own freewill, swearing myself to you, Vincenza, The Dragon Queen. Whatever happens from here, wherever this battle leads us, I’ll be by your side… until the very end of days.”
“I’m holding you to that,” I managed in a gruff rasp. Tugging him to his feet, I closed my arms around him in a tight bear hug. “I love you, Carter Westerly. I need you to know that. Whether our hearts are beating or not, you and Mics are my people. Now and forever. Husbands, and exes who slaughter our families aside—”
“It’s not aside if you keep bringing it up.”
“Shh, the ambassador is talking. All those relationships are volatile and unpredictable. What our little trio has? That’s the kind of bond that lasts forever.” Pulling away, I kept my arms around him as I peered up into his face. “Thank you for having my back, even when I get pissed about it.”
“You’d do it for me,” he stated without a sliver of doubt.
“Damn right I would.” Taking a step back, I released him. The distance inserted between us couldn’t lessen the warmth in my heart. “Now, get downstairs. The magi are waiting, and Elodie will be in a full-blown snit.”
Carter started out but paused at the door to lob a mischievous grin my way. “One more thing. So the Nicki Minaj song, ‘Super Bass,’ did you think it was about some sort of amazing fish? Follow-up question, did you think it had a cape?”
“Get the hell out.”
Chapter Fifteen
Carter
Checking the barrel of my gun, I locked the chamber back into place. “The weapons you’re holding are filled with UV bullets. Any strike you land is going to have explosive results. That means kill shots aren’t mandatory… but they’re a hell of a good idea. These are sulfur-dosed vamps. They have no qualms over killing you.”
“That was us days ago. We know what we’re up against.” Jax, a monstrous dude with skin black as night and forearms the size of my head, tucked his Glock into the waistband of his jeans. “I didn’t get my life back just to lose it to some doped up superfang. If it’s me or them, it’s going to be them.”
A few of the other newly restored humans grunted their agreement.
Masked to look like Vincenza, thanks to Vlad’s impressively effective incantation, Elodie pulled a samurai sword from the sheath strapped across her back. “It would have been fantastic if I got to try out Madame Draculesti’s abilities along with her face.” A flip of a switch on the hilt, and a beam of UV light curved down the length of the blade. Holding it up, she turned it over in inspection. “But this is a hell of a consolation prize.”
Thomas leaned as far from her as possible on the bench-style seat. “You want to turn that thing off? At least until we get out of the van?”
Cruising for the Hartford police station, twelve of us filled the back of a black, unmarked van. We were one of four teams currently moving in on key areas blocked off by the vampire mobs. Our goal was a simple one: blast our way in and free the officers trapped inside. If we succeeded, and our numbers grew, we could tip the balance of Dorian’s stronghold.
Driving down the road, we watched a world thrust into chaos blur past. Dorian had been true to his word. Panic reigned. Stores boarded up their doors and windows. Glass was shattered, businesses ransacked. People fought in the streets over loaves of bread and rolls of toilet paper. Somewhere in the distance shots rang out. I dreaded to think of who the unfortunate victim might be. As much as I wanted to jump out of the van and police the streets myself, I knew what we were doing would be far more beneficial in the end. As long as we all didn’t die.
“I really wish Vlad picked a more contemporary style of dress before making me look like him.” Hooking one finger into the top of the breast plate of his armor, Thomas pulled it away from his neck. “It’s going to be hard to pass as him when I’m walking like the Tin Man.”
Chin to her shoulder, Elodie pursed her lips in a very non-Vinx way. “You’re wearing his face. As impressions go, that’s a pretty stellar one. Plus, I’m more concerned about that.” She nodded toward Thomas’s other arm.
Early in our mixing with Dorian’s cronies Thomas had his hand blasted off by a UV bullet. Seeing as Vlad had two working hands, the spell wouldn’t allow him to be down an appendage.
Raising his stump, Thomas considered the ghostly hand that now stretched from it. “You wish you had Vinx’s power? I wish I could wiggle my fingers. This version of Vlad is going to be sprinting into battle with one hand tied behind his back.”
“Whatever you have to do, just stay alive.” Feeling the slowing tires crunch over gravel, I glanced out the front window to the hive of vampires encircling the small station. Dropping fang, I adjusted my grip on my weapon. “This is it, kids. Remember the blueprint we found of the building. The side door is our play. It’s closest to the armory. The second these van doors open, we are on the attack. Stay together in a tight huddle and keep moving.”
“We got this, mon capitaine.” Bree, a badass chick with a plethora of sass and tattoos, flicked a lock of magenta hair from her eyes. Shaved around the sides, and long on the top, #backthefang was inked above her ear. Her volunteering despite recently being gifted with a pulse was no real surprise.
As the van slowed to a stop, magi Wrath and Pride glanced back from over t
he front seat.
“We move on your order, Westerly,” Wrath called from behind the wheel.
When I entered the ranks as a magi, I didn’t get one of their standard nicknames based off an earthly sin. Probably because the vampire queen ripped my throat out while all of them watched. I’m sure there was some sort of telepathic conference where they deemed it adding salt to a wound. Maybe, if we survived, I could ask for one. Something that summed up my willingness to throw myself into situations of peril without the slightest consideration of my own well-being. Like… Dumbass.
Focusing my attention, I reached out to Vinx—the real Vinx—as she requested. “We’re here. We’re moving in.”
Praying the message was received, my hand closed around the van’s door handle. “On the count of three… unleash holy hell.”
Chapter Sixteen
Vinx
“Did anyone else find it oddly erotic? I mean… kudos, Vlad, on a job well done with that incantation. Seriously impressive stuff. But, that line of Vlads and Vinxes?” Staring off in the distance, Finn bit his lower lip and groaned his appreciation. “That was… really something.”
Opening and closing my hand, I kept my arm outstretched while Micah fed yet another syringe of sulfur into my veins. It burned its way through, scorching me from the inside out.
“You’re doing great.” Mics pulled out the needle and replaced it with a cotton ball. “How are you feeling?”
My mouth opened, but before I could respond, Finn launched into a fresh chapter of his new fantasy realized. “I mean, I couldn’t be the only one who noticed. Do you think all of them are identical? Like… everywhere?”
Top lip curling into a snarl, a growl rumbled from my chest. “I’m feeling like I want to tear his head off his shoulders and shove it up his ass if he utters one more word.”
Adjusting the goldenrod drapery flung over the full-length mirror we moved to the foyer, Rau paused with his hand hovering over the fabric. “I think it’s safe to say it’s working.”
Positioned at my elbow with his arms folded over his chest, Vlad glared murderous daggers in Finn’s direction. “Not necessarily. If the lad mentions any version of my wife again with lust in his voice, I will hold him steady while she rips him apart.”
“It was meant to be a compliment to both of you!” Finn argued, throwing his hands up. “That wall of Vlads? I was feeling very open-minded, if you know what I’m saying. Natalie, back me up here.”
Our ever-present reporter glanced up from trying to figure out the 1990’s camcorder Rau found in storage. With all phones and Wi-Fi down, her latest broadcasts were going old school. “I can see how I would be your best bet, but I’m actually with them on this. You’ve been talking about it nonstop for an hour. If she unleashes the Dragon on your ass, you totally have it coming.”
Normally, my lungs worked at a sluggish pace that made it impossible to detect I was breathing. Now, I could feel them laboring. Inhaling through my nose, I exhaled through pursed lips and tried to see past the haze of red pooling before my eyes. “The Dragon isn’t going to be unleassssssssshhhhhhed. I’m in complete control.”
My words echoed through the room, filling the space with foreboding tremors.
Micah blinked up at me, evaluating my progress with narrowed eyes. “At that, I do believe one more dose should do it.” Snapping the cap off her second-to-last preloaded syringe, she pushed out any remaining air bubbles.
My neck rolled to the side, tongue flicking out over my teeth. “I don’t know what you mean, I’m a pillar of ssssssstability.”
“Yep, you’re the poster child of absolute control.” Micah jerked her chin Vlad’s way. “Hold her for me. Vinx, as soon as you feel this dose enter your bloodstream I want you to go full rolling cloud of terror and soar straight for that mirror. Rau, uncover the glass. Nat, fire up your camera. Those of you making the jump with her, get ready to slap a hand on her. If my figures are right, that should be all it takes.” Ripping the top off of an alcohol swap, Micah glanced up at me from under her lashes as she rubbed it over the inside of my elbow. “I’m going to be right here to help you back through when you’re ready. And, Vincenza… you’ve got this.”
Swallowing hard, Rau tugged the fabric down.
The camera buzzed as Natalie clicked it to life.
“Just stab me with the fucking needle already.”
Vlad caught my upper arm and held me in offering to my mad scientist best friend. “That was her way of saying thank you for all you’ve done.”
“If this doesn’t work, I’ll feast on your corpse.”
“She appreciates and loves you,” Vlad translated as the needle pierced my skin.
Sucking air through my tightly clenched teeth, I lunged. Had Vlad not been holding me back, I would have taken a chunk out of Micah’s face. Instead, my fangs snapped mere millimeters from her nose ring.
“I don’t need a second hole, thanks.” Not bothering to glance up, she applied steady pressure to the plunger. “Get ready, gang. It’s go time.”
“I think I’d rather it be time for me to—” Even I don’t know where I was going with that threat, but I never got to finish it. With my pulse pounding a deafening chorus in my temples, I exploded in a swirling frenzy of inky tendrils and bat-like wisps. Clinging to the only rational thought I could still muster, I swarmed straight for the mirror. I held no doubt I could pass through. I was everything and nothing all at the same time. The air crackled. Energy shifted. The roar in my head was quieted by an ominous pop.
What followed was the most deafening silence imaginable.
I was utterly alone and boxed in by mirrors. Everywhere I looked I faced another version of myself.
Long, blonde hair. An easy smile. No pain or darkness lingered behind her eyes. Not yet.
No, she wasn’t me. Not anymore.
Accepting that, I turned to the next image.
A girl left in a pool of her own blood. The victim, who stared back at me with unseeing eyes. Her throat was ripped open. Gore painted the front of her and crusted in her hair.
No. That girl died. She didn’t exist. Not anymore.
Again, I moved to the next.
The science experiment. Fangs she wasn’t comfortable with. Overwhelmed by her own basic senses. Angry. Alone. Broken.
No, sweet girl. You were laid to rest on a grassy knoll.
One final turn and I came face-to-face with… the Dragon Queen. The bones of her face angled out in sharp, inhuman points. A mouthful of fangs filled her mouth. An armor of fiery red scales protected any weak spots left in her mortal coil. Within the depths of her irises burned the fires of hell. My chin raised as I met her gaze head-on.
She was a monster of strength, beauty, and power. I didn’t shy away from that truth but puffed with pride that I had survived all that molded me into her. The instant I accepted that, the mirrors vanished. While I was grateful the tumbling walls allowed me to see the others I traveled there with, beyond them there was nothing but darkness.
Thumbs looped in the back pockets of his jeans, Finn’s mouth sank into a downward C. “Huh, I expected that to take longer. But the coming out covered in scales is a fun twist. Not that you asked, but it works on you.”
My hands fluttered to my face, brushing the ridges protruding from my cheekbones. Finding them the same jutting points I saw in the mirror, I flicked my tongue over my teeth. Sure enough, jagged rows of bone-crushing fangs filled my mouth. “Accept a version of yourself and that becomes your truth, is that what the challenge here is?”
One of Finn’s shoulders rose and fell in a dismissive shrug. “I guess. Mine were all me. It wasn’t much of a dilemma. I guess even here it’s hard to mess with this level of perfection. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for your boys.” He redirected my attention with a nod of his chin.
Vlad was planted in one spot,
his head spastically flicking in one direction then the other. With each twitch, his persona shifted.
Frightened young boy.
Haunted soldier.
Vampiric God.
Mummified corpse.
Through the loop, then back to the beginning as Vlad fought to come to terms with the past.
It was tragic that he held such animosity for the journey that made him into the man he was. Still, my nose crinkled. “Is that what it looked like when I did it? That shit is downright disturbing.”
Before Finn could answer the question, Vlad stumbled free from his mirrored prison. To my erotic delight, the persona he accepted was the animalistic Nosferatu I hunted alongside with in Transylvania.
Flowing hair.
Impressively long and thick fangs.
Oh, yes. Mommy liked.
While I was openly ogling my husband, he took one look at me and recoiled. “Vincenza, my Queen, are you okay?”
Dragging my tongue over my jagged teeth, I hitched one brow in Finn’s direction. “Hard not to take that personally.”
“In his defense, you look like the love child of a vampire and an armadillo.”
“This is why people don’t like you,” I deadpanned.
Ignoring our banter, Vlad spun in search of his son. “Rau? Where is Rau?”
The shadows of the realm were pulling him farther away while Rau wrestled with a past he had never been able to escape. He didn’t hop from one version of himself to the next but was locked in boyhood. The time in his life when acceptance and inclusion was denied to him. Appearing no more than a nine-year-old, Rau beat his tiny fists against a reflection none of us could see. Tears zigzagged across his cheeks, streaming from his chin in torrents. It was easy to read the word papa forming on his lips, yet the sound was drowned out by his prison of self-doubt.
Racing to his aid, Vlad succeeded only in slamming into an invisible field that kept him from his son. Out of options, the dark lord screamed his voice raw and pounded his fists against that impenetrable wall with all his might. “Rau! I’m here, boy! I’m right here!”
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