I could say with confidence that it wasn’t Dominic or Ewan that was working with the bloodsuckers. Ewan’s lungs had resembled only so much pulp when I’d seen him last. And Dominic was committed enough to his mission that he was willing to shoot through me to get rid of Geoffrey. Not that it had worked, but at the very least it was enough to remove him from my list of suspects. I didn’t think that Dominic would have knowingly delivered me to this fate, no matter how much he hated me. There were some things you just didn’t do, even to your enemies.
If I’d been a betting woman–or had anything to my name to bet–I’d have said it was one of Cat’s political enemies within the Trust that had seen fit to collude with the vampires. The question was, which one, and why?
Cat had been pushing for radical change. A complete overhaul of our agreements with the demi-humans. That alone had earned her the ire of most of the Trust’s old guard. But it had been the team-up with Sienna Vogel and Findlay to actually go to war with House Grieves in order to stop the slaughter of the endangered races that had raised hackles. In most mages’ opinion, no demi-humans survival was worth the shedding of any magical blood.
Of course, it would have been easier to piece together who might have been involved with the conspiracy if I weren’t waist deep in weeds and surrounded on all sides by vampires wielding machetes. And it would have been made much, much easier if Geoffrey wasn’t literally pulling me by a leash.
“I’m not a damn dog,” I snapped.
He glanced back over his shoulder, machete still raised to hack away the next swath of foliage. Despite my many years of training, the sight of him with the overlarge blade made me edgy. If I’d still had a pulse, I would have tasted it in my mouth. Geoffrey was an elite killer amongst a race that killed to live. He’d already watched me die once. If he decided he wanted to take a more personal role in my death the second time around, he could. This creature that Lamonia had shoved into me was going to keep me alive for however long they needed me. If he got slash-happy, no one but Algerone would be pissed at him for it.
“You are a dog, Iron Heart. A dangerous animal that would be better off dead. But the fact is you’re one of the few who can carry out our mission. So as long as you are pointed at our enemies, we’ll allow to you live. Cross us again and I’ve been given leave to put you down.”
“Why not just shove me onto the shore of Wolf Isle and be done with it?”
“It was debated. But the girl must still be dealt with. She’s an anomaly. Little more than a pawn in the grand scheme of things, but still a danger we will not abide. And the Tempest proved a bit more formidable than we’d originally anticipated.”
I rolled my eyes skyward. It didn’t offer much of a change of scenery, unfortunately. The place was absolutely covered in trees and a canopy of them obscured the skies above. We were wading in thick muck up to our calves and I hadn’t been offered the thick rubber boots the rest of them sported. Mud filled my sneakers to the brim and I was squelching with every step. So much for stealth.
Not that I’d need it anymore. If I’d come here intending to kill Dominic and the girl, I was confident that I could have. The magic within me was as hot and unpredictable as the magma that moved beneath the earth. I had a feeling I could raze the world to ash and reshape it to my liking given enough time. And no one would be able to stop me.
“Why do you use those ridiculous names for us? It makes him sound like some sort of carnival attraction.”
“Names have power, Iron Heart. Almost as much power as blood. You’ll see.”
It seemed like we walked for hours. But strangely, my muscles didn’t ache. The longer I was awake, the stronger I felt. I was keyed up and ready to move. Adrenaline on a constant drip, fed to me by a demon who’s base desire was to destroy. That would pose a threat to my health. If he stayed in me for too long I’d eventually die from the adrenal fatigue. But not before the vampires had gotten what they wanted.
The cabin was situated on an island. A small dock had been constructed and an airboat had been secured to one of its posts.
I swallowed convulsively. We had no boat, which meant the only way to cross would be to swim through the water. I’d never even liked pond water. Call me a control freak, but I preferred to see what lurked inside before I dipped a toe in.
Geoffrey doffed his coat and tied the loose end of my harness to the belt strapped around my waist.
“Wouldn’t want you getting caught in a tree root,” he explained with a smirk. “If you die again, it will be at my hand. I won’t have you drown and ruin all the fun.”
“Thanks so much,” I drawled. “Your concern really warms the heart, you know?”
Geoffrey shoved the machete between his teeth, not seeming to care when the rest of the blade drew a line of blood across his cheek. Ten of my guards followed suit, tucking their blades away or clutching them in their mouths to make crossing easier. Six of them stayed behind as sentries.
My weapons were stashed in the monkey pouch on my front. It was supposedly waterproof, to keep my guns functional. I still didn’t like my chances if an alligator rolled me beneath the water.
I drew in a deep, unnecessary breath and then dove into the water after the vampires. It was tepid. Not cold or overly warm. I jumped every time something slid across my skin. There was a lot of plant life in the water and once I could have sworn I felt something hard and scaly brush my ankle. But nothing leaped out at the water toward me.
Geoffrey was a few feet from shore when the door to the cabin banged open and a man stepped out. I was expecting Dominic, Uzi in hand, ready to loose a hail of bullets on the undead front. Instead, I saw something worse.
The man was small and not overtly threatening. His small, dark eyes fixed on us, and a flicker of hate crossed his face.
“Oh God,” I breathed. “Geoffrey, we have to get out of–”
But that was as far as I got before Findlay raised a hand and muttered a word. A sensation like wind rushed over me and the water began to roil all around is. Huge, scaly heads popped out of the water around us. My throat constricted in terror as a huge bull rose out of the water inches away from me.
It opened its jaws wide and lunged for my face.
chapter
19
I WOULD NEVER KNOW WHAT insanity pushed me to punch a six-hundred-pound bull alligator in the nose, but I did it. In the split-second I had to process what I’d done, the punch landed and sent the alligator sprawling backwards.
Its enraged bellow shook the air around me and I stared at my fist in surprise. How the hell had that just happened? I wasn’t a weakling by any stretch of the imagination. I could deadlift my own bodyweight. But this…this was unnatural. The alligator had flipped backwards before splashing into the water. Not even the vampires, fighting all around me were launching the huge reptiles that far away.
In fact, most of them seemed to be faring badly. Three of them were missing limbs. A fourth was clamped tightly in the jaws of a massive gator. He was dunked beneath the brackish water a second later as the gator began its death roll, trying to thrash the vampire to death or drown him.
Teeth clamped down hard on my calf and I was dragged beneath the surface of the water. For a befuddled second, I couldn’t tell which way was up. I kicked out wildly, the tip of my sneaker impacting the roof of the gator’s mouth with more force than I’d intended. It sent me spinning upside down, streams of bubbles escaping my mouth as I huffed with effort. The gator that had my ankle released me in surprise, and went thrashing backwards.
It was official. I had super strength. Sweet.
I didn’t have long to celebrate the newfound ability though, because more gators were coming. I surfaced with a gasp and had to blink the muck from my eyes. All around me it was chaos. More bits of vampire floated in the drink. Geoffrey was looking worse for wear. He’d managed to construct a little island of his own, using the corpses of the fallen reptiles to give him level footing.
He swung savagely at the nearest gator, taking its head off with the machete in one move. It sailed a few feet away and landed with a splash. His shirt was plastered to his chest by blood and the green scum that clung to the top of the water.
Screams from the shore drew my attention to the guard that Geoffrey had left on the land. They were supposed to be a last resort, meant to catch anyone that we missed. No one had counted on Findlay. I suspected that he’d been monitoring the surrounding woods through the eyes of the local fauna. More gators were spilling from the surrounding woods, attacking the vampires from the rear.
There were only a few of the vampires left. If killed the rest, there would be no one to report back to Algerone. It would seem like we’d failed yet again. Of course, I’d die in three day’s time. The demon would dig another gouge into my soul and anchor itself more firmly to me before I came back. But it was a risk I would have to take. If I could explain the circumstances to Dom, he’d have to listen to me.
Alright, demon, I thought dryly, squeezing my eyes shut. Let’s heat things up a little, shall we?
Furious rage swelled like a tide within me and this time I didn’t try to keep a lid on it. I stoked it, throwing all my worries, my fear, my betrayals onto the emotional pyre. But rather than let it spill through me, the way it had in Chateau Lamonia, I released it. The water all around the island began to steam. Findlay’s control over the gators was good, but not enough to make them stay in water that was quickly heating to the boiling point. They scrambled toward the shore, leaving dazed and injured vampires treading water in the muck. They shrieked as the water cooked their skin. One burst like a ripe melon and sank into the water, nothing but goop.
“I will kill you for this, Iron Heart,” Geoffrey shouted. “Your sister is as good as dead.”
“Not if I kill you first,” I hissed back, readying another volley of fiery rage. We’d see how murderous he felt with a hole burned into his guts.
Then a floodlight flicked on, bathing the pond in light. I jerked my head and found the shape I’d expected to see standing near an outbuilding, gun clutched tightly in his hand and a look of steely determination on his face.
The remaining vampires screamed as the UV light washed over them. Those who could, ran off into the woods. Those who were too injured, fried like they’d been exposed to daylight. Artificial sun was never quite as effective as the real thing, but as an emergency security measure, it was a damned good one.
“Shoot her, Finch,” Findlay ordered coolly. “You know what they’ve made her. Don’t let the appearance fool you. She’s just a soulless husk now.””
Dominic’s face was tight with strain. His eyes were red and bloodshot like he hadn’t gotten much sleep in the last few days. He nestled the stock of the weapon into his shoulder, keeping it trained on me, but made no move to fire.
“If she’s a vampire, why isn’t she melting Findlay?”
“I’m not a vampire. I swear it.”
Dominic snorted a laugh. “Yeah. Like I’m going to take you at your word after what you’ve done.”
“I deserve that.”
“Damn right.”
I held up my hands in surrender. “Shoot me if you want, but I’m telling you it’s not going to do any good. I’ll just come back again. And by that time they’ll have killed Cat. For real this time, no backsies. She’s conscious, Findlay, I saw her. The vampires were behind everything. But they’ve taken her hostage, to make sure I finish the job this time. We need to track down Geoffrey before he can report this vampire soup to Algerone.”
Findlay let out the human approximation of a growl and the gators that lined the shore stirred in response to his magic. The water was still too warm for him to force them into action but I could tell that he wanted to.
“You bitch,” he muttered. “You horrid, spiteful little bitch. Catalina is as good as dead. And it’s all your fault. Why couldn’t you have just stayed out of it? Things were under control.”
I waded toward shore, expecting Dom to shoot me. He did tense and follow me with the muzzle of his weapon, but made no move to fire. I spat in Findlay’s direction as soon as I was near enough.
“You’ve been trying to unplug her from day one, you rat-faced bastard. She’s alive now, for real, no thanks to you. And the vampires have her. So if you want a chance to see her ever again, you need to shut the hell up and play nice. I think we have a real shot at saving her. But it all hinges on bringing that vampire down.”
I jabbed my finger toward the woods with a snarl. “If you hadn’t noticed, he went that way. Send something after him at the very least.”
It seemed difficult for Findlay to peel his dark, watery eyes off me. His gaze finally flicked toward Dominic, who stood stock still on the shore, staring at me.
“Finch?”
Dominic was still for a full minute and then nodded curtly. “Go after him.”
Findlay shot me a baleful look before he stepped lightly into the airboat. It hummed to life and a minute later, he was gone.
I stepped onto the shore and glanced around. The cabin was small, squat and overgrown with moss. The steam billowed in the air all around us, further obscuring this little island from view.
I stared at Dominic. He stared back at me, face inscrutable.
“You shot me,” I accused. “How the hell could you shoot me?”
“It wasn’t easy.”
A snort escaped me. “Oh yeah? Seemed fairly effortless at the time. You barely even hesitated.” I cocked one hip and glared at him. “Are you going to do it again?”
“Maybe. If you’ve come here to kill Elle.”
“I came because I wanted to save your ass, you dolt.”
“It didn’t need saving. We would have finished them off with or without your help.”
“Without me, Geoffrey would have killed Findlay to stop the gator attacks. And then you would have been facing sixteen vampires alone with no backup.”
“Geoffrey, huh? Exactly how personal are you with that bloodsucker, Nat?”
Despite the heat and the dire circumstance, the rasp of jealousy in his tone made me shiver.
“I’m not a vampire, Dom,” I said, stepping closer. “I didn’t melt in sunlight.”
He shrugged one shoulder. “Could be the result of experimentation. It doesn’t prove much.”
“Let me in and I’ll explain everything.”
“Prove you’re not one of them and I’ll think about it.”
I stretched my hand toward him. “Touch me. You’ll see.”
He sauntered forward cautiously until the muzzle of the gun was pressed into my chest. Then he laid a hand over my chest.
He rocked back like he’d been slapped, eyes flying wide.
“What the hell is that, Valdez? What did they do to you?”
“I’ll tell you all about it. Inside, please. And I’d like a shower.”
Dominic considered me for another, too-long moment before nodding.
“Okay, Nat. But I reserve the right to shoot if you try anything funny.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything less.”
chapter
20
I CLUTCHED A CUP OF hot chocolate between my hands, huddling over the steaming surface like I could find the answers to all my problems at the bottom.
“Do you like it?” Elle asked hopefully, peeking up from me from behind her glasses. Christ. How could I have ever thought this girl was a killer? She didn’t have a malicious bone in her body. She’d made me cocoa and offered me cookies, even though I tried to kill her.
“It’s great, thank you.”
Truthfully, I wasn’t tasting much. I wasn’t sure if it was stress stealing my appetite or a byproduct of what had been done to me. I could taste the sweetness, but barely. I took another sip, just to encourage the girl. She glanced over at Dominic. “How’d this happen, Mr. Finch? I saw…”
She trailed off, shuddering onc
e. She’d seen me die. I couldn’t imagine it was the worst thing she’d ever seen, given that she’d worked with the vampires for years. But it had been pretty damn terrible to go through it. It couldn’t have been pleasant to watch either.
“I’m wondering that myself.” Dominic raised his glass and speared me with a look. “You said you’d explain. Talk, Valdez. What’s going on here? And why do you have fangs?”
I grimaced, looking anywhere but at the pair of them seated across from me. There was plenty to look at in the cabin. The table that sat in the middle of the drawing room was piled high with more of Elle’s equipment and stacks of notes.
“House Lamonia orchestrated Cat’s incident to set off a chain of events. They needed her to host the demon Valerius, and remove her from the Trust so they could push their own policies. As a happy bonus, it also got me kicked out of the Five and banned from magic, which put an end to my vampire killing spree.”
“I don’t follow. Forgive me if I’m being slow, but I’m not familiar with your personal history. Clearly you two had something together,” her voice twisted a little and I could hear the disappointment ringing in every syllable. I felt bad in spite of myself. The girl’s dejection was hard to witness. “But it doesn’t explain the rest of it. Who’s Cat? And why did Natalia get kicked out?”
“Catalina is Nat’s sister. She was an influential member of the Trust. An advocate for change in our dealings with demi-humans. You would have liked her. She was attacked and used in a brutal ritual. Nat was found at the scene and convicted of black magic. Catalina was left comatose after the incident and never recovered.”
“Not anymore she isn’t,” I muttered. “This thing inside of me? It was the thing they tried to put in her. She’s alive, and she’s conscious. For now.”
Elle’s glasses magnified her eyes so that they appeared huge in her face. She went pale. “That’s awful. And now they have her? They’re using her against you?”
I nodded. “After this, they were going to ship me to Wolf Isle. Apparently once Valerius completely takes root in my body, I won’t be able to control him. He’s basically a ticking time bomb of demonic power. He will incinerate the whole island. All the wolves will die. The vampires will blame it on a natural cataclysm. You, the virus, my sister – it was all a setup.”
Agent of Magic Box Set Page 17